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List:       isn
Subject:    [ISN] Detectives in the Digital Age
From:       cult hero <jericho () dimensional ! com>
Date:       1999-04-19 19:48:57
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From: William Knowles <erehwon@kizmiaz.dis.org>

http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/19191.html

Detectives in the Digital Age
3:00 a.m.  19.Apr.99.PDT

A computer virus writer with the stolen America Online user name "Sky
Roket"  turns up on a computer bulletin board in Norway and is arrested in
New Jersey. A North Carolina computer engineer using an anonymous Web site
service is linked to a stock hoax in California. 

Cybersleuths are catching perpetrators of hoaxes and malicious acts on the
Internet more quickly, helped by growing cooperation between the online
industry and law enforcement agents. 

"We're getting past the age of denial," said Richard Powers of Computer
Security Institute in San Francisco. "People are realizing there's a
problem and that we have to work on it together." 

But even after a string of high-profile takedowns of alleged Web
criminals, the security experts championed as the Sam Spades of the
digital age are warning about the future. 

Computer crime is growing, and smart criminals are avoiding prosecution,
they say. Computer Security Institute surveys show that over the past
year, "online intrusions" doubled as a percentage of computer crime. 

The reason it's happening, say the computer experts, is "that's where the
money is." 

"Now that e-commerce is coming online and getting bigger and bigger, the
fraud and criminal activity that used to be committed with fax and phone
is moving onto the Internet," said George Vinson, a former FBI cybercrime
unit member who is now with Deloitte & Touche's computer security
practice. 

The experts say their search for perpetrators has gotten a boost from some
less-than-clever methods used by hackers and hoaxters. 

For example, David Smith, the 30-year-old New Jersey man charged with
creating Melissa "actually signed his name to some of the online documents
he created," noted Richard Smith, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based
cybersleuth who was credited with the key breaks in cracking the Melissa
case. 

The Melissa virus disrupted and crashed some e-mail and computer networks
at thousands of companies and government agencies by overloading their
systems.  Smith, who was charged last week with violating an array of New
Jersey computer laws, faces up to US$480,000 in fines if convicted. 

Cyberleuth Smith, who works for software company Phar Lap, found clues
when he tracked the online postings linked to the suspect. 

"David Smith was a very good macro virus writer, but not a terribly good
hacker," said security expert Michael Zboray of Gartner Group. "He could
have done a much better job of covering his path. The next time this
happens it might not be so easy." 

Perpetrators of cybercrimes have felt safe in the anonymity of cyberspace. 
But Internet service providers are growing more eager to hand over user
logs in criminal investigations. And investigators are becoming better at
searching the scenes of virtual crimes for clues to a perpetrator's
identity. 

[snip...]


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