Computer underground Digest Wed 17 Mar, 1999 Volume 11 : Issue 18
ISSN 1004-042X
Editor: Jim Thomas (cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu)
News Editor: Gordon Meyer (gmeyer@sun.soci.niu.edu)
Archivist: Brendan Kehoe
Copy Erritor: Etaion Shrdlu, Mssr.
Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth
Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala
Ian Dickinson
Cu Digest Homepage: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest
CONTENTS, #11.18 (Wed, 17 Mar, 1999)
File 1--Re: Unsubscribing From CuD
File 2--Privacy Hack on Pentium III (Telecom Digest Reprint)
File 3--Illinois Tightens Internet Laws
File 4--ICQ pirating rival's blocked-site list
File 5--ACLU Launches New Web Site: Defend Your Data
File 6--REMINDER - CFP99 Early Registration Deadline: Mar 15
File 7--Islands in the Clickstream. Distortions. March 13, 1999
File 8--Teens Accused of on-line Gang Recruiting
File 9--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 10 Jan, 1999)
CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION APPEARS IN
THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 14:16:15 -0600 (CST)
From: Scott A. Davis
Subject: File 1--Re: Unsubscribing From CuD
((CuD Moderators' Note: Scott Davis's comment gives us the
opportunity to again remind readers that CuD DOES NOT run the
mailing list. It's run as a courtesy to Netizens by a long-time
CuD reader. It's automated, so readers must sub and unsub
themselves. Readers who threaten us with law suits, criminal
action, or "ISP consequences" on their first contact with us
generally don't receive a polite response (if they receive on at
all). Instructions for subbing, unsubbing, and changing addresses
are given at the conclusion of each CuD)).
I was not surprised to read the comments in CuD 11.16 about CuD
moderators receiving messages from people wishing to be removed
immediately, "or else!" This just backs up my theory that people
are too stupid to pay attention, too shiftless to take care of
problems on their own, and have nothing better to do than to
bother someone who has nothing to do with their concern in the
first place.
After being the moderator of several mailing lists myself, I have
derived many thoughts regarding the exact topic of which you
speak in CuD 11.16. First of all, people subscribe to mailing
lists on their own. They take responsibility for managing the
subscription. When they want to discontinue the subscription,
they make it look like rocket science, and suggest that one needs
a Ph.D. in order to comply with some elementary instructions.
The outlines of my thoughts are as follows:
- If you give people a reason to complain, they will do so. When
you make life easy for them, they will complain even louder, and
even resort to employing asinine, idle threats.
- Too stupid to pay attention: Any good mailing list or
subscription to other online material will send people a message
when they subscribe that contains *SPECIFIC* instructions on how
to unsubscribe from the list, how to post to the list, and
general rules governing the list. In every mailing list that I
have moderated, I have included a colossal header on the welcome
message transmitted back to subscribers that says, "DO NOT DELETE
THIS MESSAGE - IMPORTANT SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION". Yet there is
always someone who wastes my time with questions regarding the
process for removing their name from the distribution. Why?
Because they are too stupid to pay attention.
- Too shiftless to take care of problems on their own: You know,
with a publication and distribution list as immense as CuD,
anyone who can rub two matchsticks together can safely assume
that CuD has a web page. And in the time that it takes to rub
the matchsticks together, they can apply some common sense as to
where one might find information on how to remove oneself from
the distribution list. The two most likely sources being the WEB
PAGE, and a copy of CuD itself. CuD didn't commence publishing
yesterday. There is more than one issue to be had from whatever
source you opt for. In those issues, any and all information you
would ever want or need about CuD can be retrieved, including
subscription, unsubscription, editors, archivist, and web page
information. (Insert roadmap: on line 10 or 11 of most issues,
for those who can't find it).
With a publication that is so clearly outlined, why do people
have to harass the editors of online publications with threats of
"unsubscribe me, or else!" Or else WHAT? You shortsighted
moronic imbecile. Or else you will sit back and pick your nose
with a fillet knife? Or else you will lock yourself up in the
garage, start your car, and run a rubber hose from the exhaust
pipe to the oversized nostrils hanging from your skull like a
thousand-year old piece of stalactite? Read the instructions!
Try to refrain from badgering people with something you can take
care of on your own, provided you have two cents of motivation.
And what makes this whole topic ten times worse than it actually
appears to be is when half-witted people make idle threats, using
phrases like "or else". The phrase "or else" never scares me.
When used by people in situations like I am describing here by
people that are too unarticulated to find out how to unsubscribe
from a mailing list, they are definitely too daft to carry out
the "or else" part.
Anyone who would threaten the editors of CuD like that are more
than likely much too simple to enjoy and understand CuD to begin
with. So, unless you have a legit complaint about the
subscription and unsubscription process being BROKEN, do the
world a favor and don't inconvenience people with your tiresome,
idle threats generated because you can't read / think / follow
instructions.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 15:46:07 -0500 (EST)
From: editor@TELECOM-DIGEST.ORG
Subject: File 2--Privacy Hack on Pentium III (Telecom Digest Reprint)
Source: TELECOM Digest Wed, 24 Feb 99 Volume 19 : Issue 20
((MODERATORS' NOTE: For those not familiar with Pat Townson's
TELECOM DIGEST, it's an exceptional resource. From the header
of TcD:
"TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but
not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is
circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various
telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and
networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also
gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to
qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell
us how you qualify:
* ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * ======" ))
==================
Date--Tue, 23 Feb 1999 23:41:12 -0500
From--Monty Solomon
Subject--Privacy Hack on Pentium III
http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/18078.html
by Leander Kahney
12:00 p.m. 23.Feb.99.PST
A German computer magazine claims to have found a way to hack the
controversial serial number in the forthcoming Pentium III chip.
Computer Technology, or c't, says that contrary to Intel's claims, the
identifying Processor serial number in the Pentium III can be secretly
turned on and off without the user's knowledge by a small software
program.
Intel included the number in the chip to provide a secure identifier for
e-commerce and help system administrators keep track of large networks.
But an outcry from privacy activists, who said the ID number would make
it impossible to remain anonymous on the Internet, forced Intel to
recommend that computer manufacturers ship systems with the identifying
number turned off.
Intel claims this is secure because once turned off, the number cannot
be turned on again without a hardware reset, typically when the computer
is shut down and rebooted -- a feature Intel said was designed to make
it near-impossible for the serial number to be reset without the users'
knowledge. Pentium III machines will come with a special software
utility to let users turn the number on and off.
"We have proven that this is wrong," said Christian Persson, editor in
chief of c't, a bi-weekly magazine based in Hannover. "We must ask if
there is any use for the serial number any more."
According to Persson, the magazine's on/off hack exploits the Pentium
III's deep sleep mode, a form of hardware reset that doesn't actually
turn the system completely off. The serial number is reset when the chip
is woken up.
Persson says the reset can be done over the Internet, via a Direct X
control, or better, implemented as a Trojan horse in a software
installer. "To do it in a good way, you have to hide it from the user,"
Persson says. "It's best to do it during installation of software, as a
Trojan horse. Then you can read the number, store it anywhere on the
computer, and send it at any time."
Persson said the flaw was discovered by Andreas Stiller, a hardware
editor and the magazine's resident chip expert. Persson said Stiller
worked out the hack from published plans of the chip and system
architecture.
"It was only a question of time before crackers used this procedure
because it is not based on secret information." Persson said.
Persson said Intel in Germany confirmed that the chip's serial number
can indeed be reset this way and now recommends computer manufacturers
put a special on-off switch in the system BIOS -- a layer of control
inaccessible to most users -- to prevent the serial number being
switched on by software.
However, Intel in the US stood by its claims that the serial number can
only be re-enabled after a hardware reset and that it has recommended
all along that manufacturers put another switch in BIOS for extra
security.
"The way we designed it was to make it difficult for someone hacking or
sending a virus over the Internet to reset the serial number without
your knowledge," said spokesman Tom Waldrop from Intel's Santa Clara,
California, headquarters. "It is conceivable that a control utility can
be hacked or a serial number read but it's very difficult. And you have
to ask what would be done with the number after it was read? What good
is it to anyone anyway?"
Waldrop said that the deep sleep mode is only a feature of chips for
mobile systems, which will not be available immediately. Further,
Waldrop says Intel's on/off utility polls the CPU every 15 seconds to
make sure the chip's status corresponds to the utility's default
setting. If the default setting is off but the serial number has been
secretly turned on, the utility will reset the serial number after 15
seconds. The chip does not have to be hardware reset to turn the serial
number off, Waldrop noted.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center, which helps organize the
BigBrotherInside boycott campaign, called for a recall of the chip.
"It looks like a pretty serious flaw," said Dave Banisar, EPIC's policy
director. "It's been one disaster after another for Intel. It was
inevitable that someone would discover how to do something like this.
All of Intel's claims that people's privacy was going to be protected
was built on a house of sand."
However, Persson says that while he understands the importance of
privacy issues, he doesn't think the Pentium III serial number is a
serious invasion of privacy. Persson pointed out that there are unique
serial numbers on a lot of hardware, especially hard disks, that could
also be used for ID purposes if anyone cared to.
"Really this is not such a big issue," he says. "I must say, I do not
understand all the fuss. I think people do not like Intel so much and
use this to kick their ass."
Copyright ) 1994-99 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved.
=========================
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: He raises a good point in mentioning
that there are all sorts of serial numbers on the hardware installed
in a typical computer, and that most of these are easily accessible
by someone simply asking the computer what they are. This of course
assumes the user knows *which locations in the computer's memory* to
query. And what about every fresh installation of Windows which asks
the user to enter his name, etc? What about cell phones which always
transmit their (presumably unchangeable) ESN on every transmission?
Just as people learned how to fix things so the ESN could be changed
on cell phones, I am sure before long ways to change the serial number
on the Intel chip will be known, and those people who have serious
concerns about privacy will learn how to do it. One would think also
that modems have serial numbers or other unique identifiers they could
pass along on the sneak when requested, etc. Of coruse you can change
modems for your computer easier that you change change other internal
parts, but still ... PAT]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 99 22:05 CST
From: Cu Digest
Subject: File 3--Illinois Tightens Internet Laws
Two proposed pieces of legislation in Illinois would impose more
severe penlites for pedophiles and expand the definition of
obscenity. While well-intended, the proposed legislation seems
ill-considered, restrictive, and using the wrong means to fight
legitimate problems:
BILL TARGETS INTERNET PEDOPHILES IN ILLINOIS
SOLICITATING A MINOR WOULD BECOME FELONY
Chicago Tribune, March 3, 1999
By Michelle Brutlag, Tribune Staff Writer.
A bill that would make it a felony to post messages
soliciting sex with a minor on the Internet passed a Senate
subcommittee Tuesday.
In testimony before the panel, Will County State's Atty.
James Glasgow said the legislation he wrote--which would
increase penalties for such Internet crimes--would be part
of a "revolutionary process."
Currently, someone soliciting sex from a person under 18
over the Internet can only be charged with a misdemeanor
offense, punishable by court supervision for a first
offender.
But under the measure, sponsored by Sen. Debbie
Halvorson (D-Crete), offenders could face up to 3 years.
=========================
OBSCENITY DEFINITION UNDER FIRE
Chicago Tribune, March 8, 1999
By Christi Parsons, Tribune Staff Writer.
SPRINGFIELD
A band of smut-fighting parents and prosecutors are
battling it out with librarians in the Capitol again as,
for the third time in four years, lawmakers wrestle with a
bill aimed at wiping out obscenity.
Though they have lost in the past, proponents of the law
are trying again in hopes of persuading new members of the
legislature to tip the scales their way.
At issue is a provision in state law that tells juries
that, when trying to decide whether a particular work is
obscene, they must figure out whether it would be
considered so statewide.
If the anti-smut measure were to prevail, though, the
juries instead would answer a different question: Does the
piece seem obscene to you and to your neighbors in the
county where you live?
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 12:42:01 -0600
From: bennett@peacefire.org
Subject: File 4--ICQ pirating rival's blocked-site list
Peacefire recently found out that ICQ Inc., which recently introduced a
"word filter" into the beta version of their ICQ99 chat software, obtained
their word list from a company that illegally took the bad-word list from
CYBERsitter blocking software without their permission.
As a result, ICQ's word filter is now blocking discussion of the National
Organization for Women, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation,
the Village Voice, Carnegie Mellon University, any mention of "gay rights"
or "safe sex", and thousands of other sites and phrases that CYBERsitter
blocks.
See
"ICQ filter ensnared in free speech debate"
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,33783,00.html?st.ne.fd.gif.d
It started out when a Peacefire member e-mailed us saying that the word
"peacefire" was blocked by the new ICQ word filter. We downloaded ICQ99
beta, turned on the word filter, and looked at the list of "offensive"
words and phrases. Among them, we found that ICQ was blocking the words:
peacefire
bennett haselton
peacefire.org
spectacle.org
dontbuycybersitter
Background: In December 1996, CYBERsitter began blocking the words
"peacefire" and "bennett haselton" as offensive phrases, after Peacefire
published a Web page criticizing their company. They also blocked
spectacle.org after that site published a similarly critical report.
(CYBERsitter even blocked Time Magazine once because Time criticized their
company -- see
http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/digital/daily/0,2822,12392,00.html . Most
other blocking software companies have distanced themselves from
CYBERsitter's actions, and a Cyber Patrol company official said CYBERsitter
sounded like "having Jerry Falwell sitting on your shoulder".) CYBERsitter
also blocks the phrase "don't buy cybersitter" as "offensive text".
Since there was no logical reason for ICQ to be blocking the phrase "don't
buy cybersitter", we concluded that the ICQ word list had probably been
taken from CYBERsitter without their permission.
Most blocking software companies encrypt the list of sites that are blocked
by their programs, partly so that critics can't easily examine their lists
and point out embarrassing mistakes. (Peacefire has published some of the
most egregious blocking errors made by blocking software companies, but
these have to be discovered by trial and error, by installing and testing
the software.) It turns out, though, that the list of sites blocked by
CYBERsitter has been available since April 1997, when we published a
codebreaking tool on Peacefire.org that could read, decrypt, and print out
the CYBERsitter blocked site list. See
"Teen exposes software filter", April 1997
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,9964,00.html?st.ne.ni.rel
Since the ICQ "bad word" list is identical to the list of words and sites
blocked by CYBERsitter, we think that they probably obtained CYBERsitter's
list either by downloading CYBERsitter and running our codebreaking tool,
or by downloading the CYBERsitter blocked-site list from the Internet.
(Since the publication of our codebreaking tool, several researchers have
decrypted the CYBERsitter list and posted it on their web pages, e.g.
http://huizen.dds.nl/~klaver/cybersitter.html .)
If you would like more information (or needs help installing ICQ99 beta to
test this out) I'll be at (615) 421 5432 or bennett@peacefire.org for most
of the rest of the day.
-Bennett
bennett@peacefire.org (615) 421 5432 http://www.peacefire.org
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 15:39:50 -0500
From: Jessica Botta
Subject: File 5--ACLU Launches New Web Site: Defend Your Data
What They Do Know Can Hurt You!
ACLU Launches Special Web Collection On Privacy and Data Protection
Urging netizens everywhere to defend their data, the American Civil
Liberties Union this week launched a special web site to focus public
attention on the threat to personal privacy through the collection
and widespread distribution of personal data.
The new web collection -- which can be found at
--
features several interactive elements, including:
-- A complaint form where individuals can spell out their privacy horror
stories.
-- A tool that shows individuals just what can be learned about them on the
web.
-- A survey and postcard utility.
-- Faxable letters to Congress.
-- A discussion forum.
The web collection marks the ACLU's increasing efforts to protect
individual privacy in America. "We clearly have our work cut out
for us to derail what has been an endless stream of proposals that
attack our privacy rights," said ACLU Executive Director Ira Glasser.
"And although many believe widespread dissemination of our data
is harmless, the ACLU believes that what they do know, can hurt us."
Glasser pointed out that 200 years ago nearly every bit of personal
information about an individual was kept at home, on paper, and
stored as a personal effect. "To protect privacy of this information,"
he said, "early Americans insisted on the Fourth Amendment,
which established the home as a person's 'castle,' inviolate against
government searches except when warranted by a court for very
specific and particular criminal investigations."
The Fourth Amendment still protects the privacy of our homes, but
personal information isn't exclusively stored there anymore, Glasser
said. Now, a wide array of personal information about each of us is
kept electronically by others -- by medical insurers, employers,
credit card companies, banks, phone companies and a wide range
of government and private agencies.
"Some of these entities exist solely to sell our personal information,
no matter how private," Glasser said. "And new technologies keep
arising to develop, collect, store and disseminate the most private
information about each of us, with few if any legal protections."
A leading privacy advocate, the ACLU is a nationwide, non-partisan
organization dedicated to defending and preserving the Bill of Rights
for all individuals through litigation, legislation and public education.
Headquartered in New York City, the ACLU has 53 staffed affiliates
in major cities, more than 300 chapters nationwide, and a legislative
office in Washington. The bulk of its $35 million annual budget is
raised by contributions from members -- 275,000 strong -- and gifts
and grants from other individuals and foundations. The ACLU does
not accept government funds.
The new web collection can be found at:
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 13 Mar 1999 17:26:39 -0500
From: EPIC-News List
Subject: File 6--REMINDER - CFP99 Early Registration Deadline: Mar 15
Early Registration Deadline - March 15, 1999
--------------------------------------------
Register now for the cyber event of the year:
C COMPUTERS, FREEDOM, AND PRIVACY
F THE GLOBAL INTERNET
P
9 WASHINGTON, DC
9 Omni Shoreham Hotel
. April 6-8, 1999
O
R
G
For almost a decade, the conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy
has shaped the public debate on the future of privacy and freedom in
the online world. Register now for the number one Internet policy
conference. Join a diverse audience from government, industry,
academics, the non-profit sector, the hacker community and the media.
Enjoy the U.S. Capital in the spring at one of Washington's premier
hotels.
* Keynote speakers include Tim Berners-Lee (Director, World Wide
Web Consortium), Vint Cerf (President, Internet Society),
Congressman Ed Markey (sponsor of "The Electronic Bill of
Rights Act"), Congressman Ron Paul (sponsor of the Freedom and
Privacy Restoration Act), Henrikas Yushkiavitshus (Associate
Director, UNESCO), and Commissioner Mozelle Thompson, Federal
Trade Commission
* Lively and thought-provoking panels on -- "the Creation of a
Global Surveillance Network," "Access and Equity on the Global
Internet," "Anonymity and Identity in Cyberspace," "Free
Speech and Cyber Censorship," "Is Escrow Dead? And what is
Wassenaar?", "Self-Regulation Reconsidered" and more.
* Tutorials -- "The Electronic Communications Privacy Act" (Mark
Eckenwiler); "Cryptography: Basic Overview & Nontraditional
Uses" (Matt Blaze and Phil Zimmermann), "Free Speech, The
Constitution and Privacy in Cyberspace" (Mike Godwin),
"Techniques for Circumventing Internet Censorship" (Bennett
Haselton and Brian Ristuccia).
* Other Events -- Privacy International's Big Brother Awards to
the worst privacy violators in the US, EFF's Pioneer Awards
to those who have done the most to promote the net.
Register on-line at http://www.regmaster.com/cfp99.html or call +1 407
628 3602. Registration inquiries may also be sent to
mann@regmaster.com.
For more information about CFP99, visit http://www.cfp99.org/ or call
+1 410 628 3186
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 14:47:06 -0600
From: Richard Thieme
Subject: File 7--Islands in the Clickstream. Distortions. March 13, 1999
Islands in the Clickstream:
Distortions
"We all know the same truth. Our lives consist of how we choose to distort
it."
-- Woody Allen
A couple of weeks ago, it was reported by Reuters News Agency that hackers
had taken control of a British military satellite and demonstrated control
of the "bird" by changing its orbit. The report said the hackers were
blackmailing the British government, and unless they received a ransom,
they would take action. The demonstration was frightening for those who
were just waiting for a blatant act of cyber-terror.
A few days later, the Hacker News Network (http://www.hackernews.com/), an
underground alternative to CNN, reported that the hijacking was bogus.
The Hacker News Network got it right while Reuters got it wrong.
Just as business managers increasingly supervise IT workers who know more
about networks than they do, traditional news sources often cover subjects
they don't understand, and they often get it wrong.
A few weeks ago, I wrote an article for Forbes Digital
(http://www.forbes.com/tool/html/99/Feb/0208/) on the unique culture of the
professional Services Division of Secure Computing, where a number of
former hackers help government agencies and large financial institutions
secure their networks. Many articles have appeared recently about former
hackers who have swapped underground lives for stock options, but that
wasn't what my article was about. It was about the mindset that hackers
bring to their work, a map or model of reality that is becoming the norm in
a borderless world, where intelligence operatives are migrating into
competitive intelligence in growing numbers. It's a mindset characterized,
said one, by "paranoia appropriate to the real risks of open networks and a
global economy."
Businesses used to decide on a course of action, then inform IT people so
they could implement the plan. Now our thinking must move through the
network that shapes it, not around it. The network itself - how it enables
us to think, how it defines the questions that can be asked - determines
the forms of possible strategies. So those who implement strategy must
participate in setting strategy, not be added on after the fact, just as
information security must be intrinsic to the architecture of an
organizational structure, not added on as an afterthought.
The mind that designs the network designs the possibilities for human
thinking and therefore for action.
Every single node in a network is a center from which both attack and
defense can originate. The gray world in which hackers live has spilled
over the edges which used to look more black and white. The skies of the
digital world grow grayer day by day.
In that world, we are real birds fluttering about in digital cages. Images
- icons, text, sound - define the "space" in which we move. If the cages
are large enough, we have the illusion we are free and flying, when in fact
we are moved in groups by the cages.
Example: to prevent insurrection during times of extreme civil unrest,
government agencies created groups whose members were potentially
dangerous, building a database of people they intended to collect if things
fell apart. These days, many digital communities serve this purpose.
Example: Last week an FDIC spokesperson provided data on the readiness of
American banks for Y2K. Tom Brokaw of NBC had recently announced, he said,
that 33% of the banks weren't ready, but in fact, 96% of the banks are on
schedule, 3 % are lagging a little, and only 1% are seriously behind. The
biggest threat to the monetary system is a stampeding herd, spooked by the
digital image of a talking head giving bogus information.
The digital world is a hall of mirrors, and the social construction of
reality is big business, fueled by the explosion of the Internet, a
marketplace where the buyer of ideas - as well as items at auction - had
better beware.
This is not just about the distortion of facts by mainstream (or
alternative) news media, nor the exploitation of fear because we know that
fear sells. More and more, we are seeking and finding alternative sources
of information from sources we believe we can trust. Believable truth must
be linked to believable sources, or else we will make it up, pasting fears
and hopes onto a blank screen or onto images built like bookshelves to
receive our projections. Because we like to live on islands of agreement,
receiving information that supports our current thinking, we live in
thought worlds threaded on digital information that isolates and divides
us. But the network is also the means of a larger communion and the
discovery of a more unified, more comprehensive truth.
We live on the edge of a digital blade, and the blade cuts both ways.
"We all know the same truth," said Woody Allen. "Our lives consist of how
we choose to distort it."
Except Woody Allen didn't say it. Rather, he said it through the mouth of a
character in "Deconstructing Harry" named Harry Block. Except Harry Block
didn't say it either. He said it through the mouth of a character he
created in the movie.
Hacking is a kind of deconstruction of the combinations and permutations
available in a network. Deconstruction is essential in a digital world. The
skills of critical thinking, the ability to integrate fragments and know
how to build a Big Picture are more important than ever. Those skills are
critical to hacking and securing networks and critical to understanding who
is really who in a world in which people are not always what they seem.
Plato feared the emerging world of writing because anybody could say
anything without accountability, but he did not foresee the emergence of
tools to document and evaluate what was written. Our world may seem for the
moment to be a-historical, fragmentary, multi-modal in relationship to the
world of printed text, but something new is evolving - a matrix of
understanding, a set of skills, a mindset that lets us sift through
disinformation and use the same technology that lulls us to sleep to wake
ourselves up.
**********************************************************************
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
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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, 1999. All rights reserved.
ThiemeWorks on the Web: http://www.thiemeworks.com
ThiemeWorks P. O. Box 17737 Milwaukee WI 53217-0737 414.351.2321
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 15:03:43 -0600 (CST)
From: Computer underground Digest
Subject: File 8--Teens Accused of on-line Gang Recruiting
Virtual 'Gang' Face Criminal Charge
ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 13, 1999
FAYETEVILLE, Ga. (AP) -- Law officers have accused a group of
teen-agers of recruiting gang members based on a Web site created by
the group.
Fayette County sheriff's deputies obtained warrants to arrest five
teen-agers on charges of violating the Georgia Street Gang and
Terrorism Act.
If convicted of encouraging others to join the "Rollin 5 Crackaz," the
teen-agers could be sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Debbie Seagraves, director of the Georgia chapter of the American
Civil Liberties Union, said the sheriff's office has violated the
boys' First Amendment rights.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 22:51:01 CST
From: CuD Moderators
Subject: File 9--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 10 Jan, 1999)
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