Computer underground Digest Sun Oct 25, 1998 Volume 10 : Issue 52


Computer underground Digest    Sun  Oct 25, 1998   Volume 10 : Issue 52
                           ISSN  1004-042X

       Editor: Jim Thomas (cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu)
       News Editor: Gordon Meyer (gmeyer@sun.soci.niu.edu)
       Archivist: Brendan Kehoe
       Shadow Master: Stanton McCandlish
       Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth
                          Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala
                          Ian Dickinson
       Field Agent Extraordinaire:   David Smith
       Cu Digest Homepage: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest

CONTENTS, #10.52 (Sun, Oct 25, 1998)

File 1--Fwd: Internet Pioneer Postel Dies
File 2--Jon Postel Tribute
File 3--Islands in the Clickstream. Who Cares? September 12, 1998
File 4--SANS News: First  Salary Survey Results
File 5--Is Your Kid a Hacker?  (ZDnet excerpt)
File 6--Cyber Patrol (and others) hacked
File 7--Wal-Mart Sues Amazon.com  (AP Excerpt)
File 8--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 25 Apr, 1998)

CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION ApPEARS IN
THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 11:54:59 EDT
From: Cudigest@aol.com
Subject: File 1--Fwd: Internet Pioneer Postel Dies

Source -  AOLNews@aol.com

Internet Pioneer Postel Dies

.c The Associated Press

 By TED BRIDIS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jon Postel, the Internet pioneer who wielded
enormous influence managing technical details of the global
computer network, has died of complications from heart surgery in
Los Angeles, friends in Washington said Saturday. He was 55.

Postel, considered by the Clinton administration to be a crucial
player in the future of the Internet, died Friday night while
recovering from surgery to replace a leaking heart valve, said
Vint Cerf, a senior vice president for MCI Worldcom Inc. who
worked closely with Postel.

The death also was announced Saturday at an Internet conference in
Barcelona, said Bill Semich, the president of .nu domain, another
Internet company.

Postel's death comes at a critical juncture for the Internet, with
the federal government in the midst of largely turning over
management of the worldwide network to a non-profit group that
Postel helped organize.

Though Postel worked behind the scenes and was hardly known
outside high-tech circles, his role as director of the Internet
Assigned Numbers Authority allowed the Internet to match unique
numerical addresses for computers on the global network with its
millions of Web addresses, such as www.ap.org.

So powerful was Postel that ``The Economist'' once dubbed him
``god'' of the Internet.

 

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 16:57:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: Pallas Anonymous Remailer 
Subject: File 2--Jon Postel Tribute

Who runs DNS?
Fat, bearded computer geek
Send no more email

Those numbers to names
Connect computers worldwide
Used to download porn

Internet machines
What a crazed numbering scheme!
They will still run fine

Sitting at a desk
Cerebral life unbalanced
Move only fingers

Nerd in chair still eats
Body responds with belly
Arteries clog fast

Convulsions of stroke
Brutal seizure of organs
The body dumps core

Life lived on the net
Life in virtuality
Death does not reboot

His lover alone
No more big hugs to be had
Email is cold death

Each day on the net
Disconnected from real life
Brings us emptiness

Type email with pride
Impotence of modern age
It is all bullshit

Click the damned icon
A life gone by sans meaning
Geeks all die lonely

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998 17:41:34 -0500
From: Richard Thieme 
Subject: File 3--Islands in the Clickstream. Who Cares? September 12, 1998

Islands in the Clickstream:
Who Cares?


"Because they have so little," observed Eleanor Roosevelt, "children rely
on imagination rather than experience."

Which is why childhood is such a magical time, during which - even among
the worst deprivations - children can weave a luminous web around their
daily lives, filling the landscape with lively fantastic shapes.

Just like adults.

This week an extraordinary event gave the digital world its seal of
approval. Lively fantastic shapes humped and bumped their way across our
monitors, a magic lantern show for the wickedly leering.

Those of us who remember Watergate recall a judicial process that proceeded
at a deliberate pace. Congressional hearings spelled out how the President
of the United States had undermined the law by directing criminal
activities from the Oval Office. The intelligence community was widely used
to destroy enemies, distort the truth, subvert the constitution.

A generation later, the independent prosecutor's report of the Clinton
affair is shot-gunned onto the Net so debate can slosh back and forth
across the body politic and members of congress, fingers to the wind, can
sail toward impeachment, or not.

We all frame the world according to our experience. As the Viet Nam War and
Watergate unfolded, it became clear that our leaders, Democrats and
Republicans alike, were lying through their teeth. Our denial eroded, and
the voice of the people grew until it was amplified by those hearings,
saving the constitution for another generation.

Where is that "voice of the people" now, crying out for the deeper truth?
Is it locked in the closet with our comic books, faded tales of Superman,
an idealized father who couldn't protect us? Whose heroic belief in "truth
and justice" made us feel better when we were children afraid of the night,
as Auden said, lost in a haunted wood?

The digital world, with its altered or manufactured images, is a haunted
wood, a prison of the imagination. But when we use digital images to tell
as much truth as can be told, the prison walls become transparent and we
see real trees in the digital forest.

We need to see more than the rubble and dust of falling-down public lives.
There is so much more going on out there than presidential peccadilloes. We
need a transcendent vision that begins with the simple truth but moves
toward larger possibilities.

A former computer hacker who occupies a sensitive position in corporate
America and works frequently with the intelligence establishment described
a chilling moment. He found himself involved with something so much bigger,
deeper, more evil than he had imagined that he felt that chill running down
his spine that tells us our world view has shifted forever. My friend had
stumbled into the heart of darkness.

Once we know, we can't not know what we know.

Hackers are often portrayed as criminals, but - like many hackers - my
friend was really an innocent. The hacker ethic of integrity, a passion for
truth and knowledge, an obsessive desire to put together the Big Picture -
that's closer to the superhero credo of "truth, justice, and the American
way" than a criminal code.

The History Channel just ran a series on the Kennedy assassination. The
series raised legitimate questions - again - about a conspiracy.  All we
can know now about the assassination is filtered through text, the
television screen, the digital interface  and sometimes, the words of a
friend. A prominent local physician remembers when his mentor at Medical
School was called away to examine Kennedy's body. When he returned, he
tried to work as if nothing had changed, but he kept looking away and
muttering to himself, "It's the damndest thing."

Then he said:  "One day - one day it'll all come out."

Just another "conspiracy theory."  Like Gary Webb's.

This month's Esquire has a story about Webb. He wrote articles for the San
Jose Mercury News about the connections between cocaine distribution, the
CIA, and the Contras. His story was well-documented but it didn't take long
for the guardians of consensus reality to whack him. The truth is, he
described the tip of the iceberg, but that's all he had to do to find
himself surrounded, isolated, neutralized. The deep involvement of members
of our government in narcotic trafficking is well documented, but when Webb
tried to tell the truth, it was as if he had screamed himself awake from a
nightmare and rushed to the window, only to find it nailed shut and people
on the walk below who would not look up.

Besides  guns, Contras, cocaine   who really cares?

I have explored the fun-house mirrors of the world of UFOs for years. When
you brush away the cobwebs of disinformation, snake oil,  mistakes, and
reports of remarkable flying machines that we make ourselves, we are left
with credible people telling us what they saw. Fighter pilots, intelligence
agents, commercial airline pilots have told me what they or their friends
encountered, that the hardware is real and flew rings around them, leaving
them in the dust.

We're a small planet on the edge of a vast spiral of stars, the center of
nothing but our own perspective. All we have is our small voice. Digital
media can amplify that voice or drown it out.

"The movie "Conspiracy Theory," said my hacker friend, "doesn't even come
close."

As Jane Wagner said, I get more and more cynical all the time and still
can't keep up. Yet we humans are meant for a deeper truth, more truth than
a thousand pages of a president lying to keep a sexual affair secret.
Perspective, as Alan Kay said, is worth fifty points of IQ. Sex on the Net
is a sideshow, keeping our eyes on the dancing bears.

So step right up! The circus is just beginning! Elephants are on parade,
clowns pour out of a tiny auto, a calliope pipes and - in the distance - we
think we can hear a voice, a contrarian voice, a still small voice  but
it's only our imaginations. Isn't it?

Anyway   who cares?

**********************************************************************

Islands in the Clickstream is a weekly column written by
Richard Thieme exploring social and cultural dimensions
of computer technology. Comments are welcome.

Feel free to pass along columns for personal use, retaining this
signature file. If interested in (1) publishing columns
online or in print, (2) giving a free subscription as a gift, or
(3) distributing Islands to employees or over a network,
email for details.

To subscribe to Islands in the Clickstream, send email to
rthieme@thiemeworks.com with the words "subscribe islands" in the
body of the message. To unsubscribe, email with "unsubscribe
islands" in the body of the message.

Richard Thieme is a professional speaker, consultant, and writer
focused on the impact of computer technology on individuals and
organizations.

Islands in the Clickstream (c) Richard Thieme, 1998. All rights reserved.

ThiemeWorks on the Web: http://www.thiemeworks.com

ThiemeWorks  P. O. Box 17737  Milwaukee WI 53217-0737  414.351.2321

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 20:12:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: sans@clark.net
Subject: File 4--SANS News: First  Salary Survey Results

((MODERATORS' NOTE: Thanks to SANS for allowing reprint of their
salary survey results.  SANS News is an excellent source of
security and other news, and an invaluable resource. It's a low
cost subscription and well worth it. Contact them at:
sans@clark.net
or visit the homepage at:
   http://www.sans.org
 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

FIRST SALARY SURVEY RESULTS

  The average annual salary for the 7209 valid respondents was
  US$61,072/year.  All numbers below are annual salaries converted to
  US Dollars.

  How do the salaries break down?  What about the gender gap?

    Salary range       M+F     %     Males/%   Females/%
   Under 20,000        105   1.5%     103/ 1.6%     2/ 0.3%
   20,000-29,999       245   3.4%     220/ 3.4%    25/ 3.4%
   30,000-39,999       659   9.2%     574/ 8.9%    85/11.5%
   40,000-49,999      1226  17.1%    1078/16.8%   148/20.1%
   50,000-59,999      1415  19.7%    1258/19.5%   157/21.3%
   60,000-69,999      1338  18.7%    1204/18.7%   134/18.2%
   70,000-79,999       880  12.3%     799/12.4%    81/11.0%
   80,000-89,999       532   7.4%     472/ 7.3%    60/ 8.2%
   90,000-99,999       272   3.8%     250/ 3.9%    22/ 3.0%
   100,000 & up        499   7.0%     477/ 7.4%    22/ 3.0%

  Other than at the highest salaries (for which the female sample size is
  a bit small for great conclusions), there does not appear to be a major
  gender gap in salary.

  What about salaries for the different kinds of administrators?

                             --- Administrator Type ---
     Sal Range        System     Network       Security
   Under 20,000      63  1.7%    31  1.4%    11  1.0%
   20,000-29,999    136  3.6%    78  3.5%    30  2.7%
   30,000-39,999    322  8.4%   270 12.0%    64  5.8%
   40,000-49,999    692 18.1%   431 19.2%   109  9.8%
   50,000-59,999    773 20.3%   455 20.3%   188 17.0%
   60,000-69,999    729 19.1%   391 17.4%   217 19.6%
   70,000-79,999    454 11.9%   241 10.7%   190 17.2%
   80,000-89,999    273  7.2%   135  6.0%   119 10.7%
   90,000-99,999    135  3.5%    80  3.6%    55  5.0%
   100,000 & up     240  6.3%   131  5.8%   124 11.2%
   Average            60394       58455       68261

  Security administrators seem to make significantly more money than
  their counterparts in System and Network administration.

  How did salaries increase from year to year?  Is there a gender gap?

     Sal Range            Male           Memale
   Under 20,000      18.32% [  92]   26.65% [   2]
   20,000-29,999     10.16% [ 187]   14.32% [  23]
   30,000-39,999     10.46% [ 513]    7.65% [  66]
   40,000-49,999     11.12% [ 974]    8.08% [ 137]
   50,000-59,999     11.57% [1182]    9.73% [ 149]
   60,000-69,999     11.72% [1155]   10.34% [ 123]
   70,000-79,999     11.95% [ 762]   10.60% [  79]
   90,000-99,999     12.79% [ 241]    9.48% [  21]
   80,000-89,999     13.55% [ 453]   11.61% [  60]
   100,000 & up      16.86% [ 437]   24.83% [  20]

		5996 Male respondents
	 	 680 Female respondents

  Except on the very highest and lowest end, male salaries seem to be
  rising faster than their female counterparts.

  NOTE: People totals on some charts are fewer than 7,209 because some
        people omitted certain pieces of information (e.g., gender).

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 22:48:18 -0500
From: jthomas@SUN.SOCI.NIU.EDU(Jim Thomas)
Subject: File 5--Is Your Kid a Hacker?  (ZDnet excerpt)

Source -
 http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/zdnu98101802/www.zdnet.com/familypc/
content/9810/columns/parental.html

        November, 1998

                             IS YOUR KID A HACKER?

   By Kevin Poulsen

If you suspect your kid is a computer hacker, here's some advice
from a convicted hacker on how to handle it

It starts with a knock on the door. A dozen men in suits and
shoulder holsters are outside, their Buicks and Broncos crammed
into your driveway and parked along the street. Over their
shoulders you can see your bathrobe-clad neighbors watching the
spectacle from their lawns.  It might be the FBI, it may be the
Secret Service, but whoever it is, the humorless agents hand
you a piece of paper and head toward your son or daughter's
room. You wonder, perhaps for the first time, what your kid has
been doing in there with the computer.

If you're a parent, you probably regard the Internet as a font
of both promise and peril for your children. It can be an
invaluable learning tool and a way to encourage your kids to
develop the basic computer skills they'll eventually need. But
what if they take to it a little too eagerly and
enthusiastically and begin using it to get into places where
they don't belong? In that case, normal youthful rebellion, or
simple inquisitiveness, if it's expressed over the Internet,
could turn your family upside down.

It happened last February in Cloverdale, California, when
surprised parents found out their teenage son was suspected in
a series of Pentagon intrusions. It happened again in
Massachusetts a week later, when the Justice Department won its
first juvenile conviction under the Federal Computer Fraud and
Abuse Act.

It happened to my family 15 years ago, in one of the first
hacker raids in the country. At that time, I was the teenage
miscreant who was illegally accessing federal computers. Now,
in my early thirties, I've begun to wonder how I would protect
a kid of my own from becoming a poster child for computer
crime. I believe the best approach is to stay informed and to
communicate with your potential cyberpunks.
Open Communications Channels

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 14:11:05 -0500
From: Bennett Haselton 
Subject: File 6--Cyber Patrol (and others) hacked

We've posted a program on Peacefire.org that will display the
Cyber Patrol administrator password on any computer where it is
run.

Cyber Patrol has just found out about it, and they are not
pleased.  They have about 9 million users and the dam is about to
burst.

We also have instructions for disabling all the other blocking
programs --CYBERsitter, SurfWatch, BESS, I-Gear, etc.  We're
protesting the imminent likely passage of "CDA II" and legislation
that is likely to make it mandatory for schools and libraries to
use blocking software.

All programs and instructions are at:
	http://www.peacefire.org/

	-Bennett

bennett@peacefire.org     (615) 421 5432     http://www.peacefire.org

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 16:47:19 -0500
From: jthomas3@SUN.SOCI.NIU.EDU(Jim Thomas)
Subject: File 7--Wal-Mart Sues Amazon.com  (AP Excerpt)

Wal-Mart Sues Amazon.com

.c The Associated Press

 By RACHEL BECK

NEW YORK (AP) -- In a battle of booksellers, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
has sued Amazon.com and claimed the Internet company that wants to
be the discount superstore of cyberspace is stealing trade
secrets.

In a lawsuit filed in Chancery Court in Benton County, Ark.,
Wal-Mart asked for an injunction against Amazon.com to prevent the
Seattle-based company from allegedly trying to duplicate
proprietary technology.

The order also would apply to Amazon.com affiliates Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers and Drugstore.com.

The Bentonville, Ark.-based company claims Amazon.com recruited
its former associates and targeted its vendors to learn more about
Wal-Mart's information database, which analysts say is second in
size only to the U.S. government. It includes data on sales,
inventory and consumer buying habits.

 

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1998 22:51:01 CST
From: CuD Moderators 
Subject: File 8--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 25 Apr, 1998)

Cu-Digest is a weekly electronic journal/newsletter. Subscriptions are
available at no cost electronically.

CuD is available as a Usenet newsgroup: comp.society.cu-digest

Or, to subscribe, send post with this in the "Subject:: line:

     SUBSCRIBE CU-DIGEST
Send the message to:   cu-digest-request@weber.ucsd.edu

DO NOT SEND SUBSCRIPTIONS TO THE MODERATORS.

The editors may be contacted by voice (815-753-6436), fax (815-753-6302)
or U.S. mail at:  Jim Thomas, Department of Sociology, NIU, DeKalb, IL
60115, USA.

To UNSUB, send a one-line message:   UNSUB CU-DIGEST
Send it to  CU-DIGEST-REQUEST@WEBER.UCSD.EDU
(NOTE: The address you unsub must correspond to your From: line)

CuD is readily accessible from the Net:
  UNITED STATES: ftp.etext.org (206.252.8.100) in /pub/CuD/CuD
    Web-accessible from: http://www.etext.org/CuD/CuD/
                  ftp.eff.org (192.88.144.4) in /pub/Publications/CuD/
                  aql.gatech.edu (128.61.10.53) in /pub/eff/cud/
                  world.std.com in /src/wuarchive/doc/EFF/Publications/CuD/
                  wuarchive.wustl.edu in /doc/EFF/Publications/CuD/
  EUROPE:         nic.funet.fi in pub/doc/CuD/CuD/ (Finland)
                  ftp.warwick.ac.uk in pub/cud/ (United Kingdom)


The most recent issues of CuD can be obtained from the
Cu Digest WWW site at:
  URL: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest/

COMPUTER UNDERGROUND DIGEST is an open forum dedicated to sharing
information among computerists and to the presentation and debate of
diverse views.  CuD material may  be reprinted for non-profit as long
as the source is cited. Authors hold a presumptive copyright, and
they should be contacted for reprint permission.  It is assumed that
non-personal mail to the moderators may be reprinted unless otherwise
specified.  Readers are encouraged to submit reasoned articles
relating to computer culture and communication.  Articles are
preferred to short responses.  Please avoid quoting previous posts
unless absolutely necessary.

DISCLAIMER: The views represented herein do not necessarily represent
            the views of the moderators. Digest contributors assume all
            responsibility for ensuring that articles submitted do not
            violate copyright protections.

------------------------------

End of Computer Underground Digest #10.52
******************************

Computing-Related Links

Any questions, drop me a note. at: cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu