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List:       isn
Subject:    [ISN] Hacking Posse (Mostly) Leaves Web in Peace
From:       jericho () dimensional ! com
Date:       1998-03-30 23:37:22
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[Moderator: This whole topic/thread has become somewhat interesting in the
 past few days. A few things to consider: One of the widely spread
 articles was a press release from Ian Murphy and his company. In it he
 called his company the "number one leading company for information
 security" or something of the sort. William Knowles pointed that out in a
 post to dc-stuff, where he quoted the URL to this article. James Glave
 jumped on William's case about misquoting and various other 'wrongs'.
 Should be interesting to see the outcome of all this. I still question
 why Ian Murphy would get involved for any other reason than media 
 attention.]

Forwarded From: Jason Terwilliger <jlt8903@osfmail.isc.rit.edu>

	             by James Glave 
	             From Wired News

                     7:00pm 27.Mar.98.PST
                     A group of hackers and crackers who counted
                     among their members two of the three teens
                     implicated in recent attacks on US military Web
                     servers have stated that their days of defacing
                     Web sites are over - sort of. 

                     "We, the Enforcers, have decided that it would be
                     in the best interests of the hacking community
                     and the security community at large to cease and
                     desist all Web site hacking of external
                     businesses," an Enforcers statement read. But an
                     Enforcers member who goes by the name
                     "paralyse" told Wired News that the declaration
                     came with a catch. 

                     The truce applies only to "external" sites, which
                     paralyse defined as "sites external to the goals of
                     the group." Their self-professed mission has been
                     the elimination of online child pornography and
                     racism, but critics have suggested that claim is a
                     false front. 

                     Enforcers also stopped short of calling an end to
                     denial of service attacks. Those attacks, which
                     clog up servers, denying network access to
                     legitimate users, are far more destructive than
                     what otherwise has amounted to graffiti scrawled
                     on random Web sites. 

                     When asked if the declaration also extended to
                     denial-of-service attacks, paralyse said, "I can't
                     comment on that." 

                     The Enforcers are a close-knit hacking group of
                     about 25 to 30 people, of varying ages, from
                     around the world. Group members have claimed
                     that some of their ranks have defaced numerous
                     Web sites, and also have allegedly launched
                     denial-of-service attacks against Internet Service
                     Providers (ISPs) and Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
                     channels. 

                     "Most warez people [software pirates] tend to say
                     they are against child porn also, but warez doesn't
                     help or justify anything, nor does it prevent child
                     porn," said an IRC operator who goes by the name
                     "play." 

                     "Same goes for hacking, what relevance does it
                     have?" asked play. IRC operators are the overlords
                     of the global text-based chat network called the
                     Undernet, the meeting place for Enforcers and
                     many other hacking groups. 

                     Another IRC operator named "danie," agreed that
                     the Enforcers declaration was meaningless. 

                     "I don't think they'll stop harassing the small
                     powerless individuals," danie said. "Perhaps
                     commercial sites will have some reprieve ... but
                     it's their [enforcers'] drug. They have to do
                     something, their threats are a dead end and they
                     perhaps realize it but I don't think they will hold
                     to it ... no," he said. 

                     Another IRC operator said that Analyzer, the youth
                     arrested in Israel for allegedly breaking into more
                     than 400 US government Web servers, had
                     attacked ISPs with denial-of-service attacks. 

                     "The ISP I work for has been attacked by Analyzer
                     at least once," said the operator, who goes by the
                     name "OmniDynmc." 

                     On Friday, Infowar, an online resource dedicated
                     to fighting threats to network infrastructure, put
	             out a news release stating that Ian A. Murphy, CEO of
                     IAM/Secure Data Systems, had been negotiating
                     with the Enforcers and come to an agreement. 

                     But Enforcers recently had a falling out with
                     Murphy, and paralyse said Murphy's press
                     release, which went out over PR Newswire, is not
                     an entirely accurate account of their position. 

                     "I want two things from [the Enforcers
                     declaration]," paralyse told Wired News. "1) less
                     government and corporation scrutiny and 2) less
                     press hype - so that should hopefully have an
                     effect," he said. 

                     Neither representatives for Infowar, nor Ian A.
                     Murphy, could be reached for comment. 






                     Copyright  1993-97 Wired Ventures Inc. and affiliated
                     companies.
                     All rights reserved. 

-o-
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