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Future of Net cracked, flawed
Computers and Security, Vol. 16, No. 6
weaken federal limits on the export of encryption software was itself dramatically weakened, as a US House committee voted conclusively to back Clinton’s ability to prevent such exports. The Boston Globe reports that back in February, Virginia Republican Representative Bob Goodlatte introduced a bill that would have allowed software companies to sell their strongest encryption programs across the world, without the need for special Government licences. Goodlatte’s Security and Freedom Through Encryption Act, known as the SAFE Bill, was cosponsored by 249 other members of Congress. However, the House Committee on National Security voted 45-l to add an amendment that would preserve the Government’s ability to limit such exports. The amendment is described as a compromise that would make it easier to export encryption products below a certain level of sophistication, while blocking the export of the best products, which are essentially uncrackable.The president would be given the power to set a level of encryption that can safely be exported. Any product deemed to have stronger encryption technology could not be sold abroad.This acceptable level of encryption technology would have to be reviewed afresh each year. A spokesperson for Goodlatte said that the amendment maintains the current policy, which makes it extremely difficult for American firms to export their strongest encryption software. Boston Globe, September 10, 2997. Future of Net cracked, flawed, Philip Lee. Here the author writes in a new book about an extraordinary hacker. Infomaster, also known as Phantom Dialer, went on a computer cracking spree in the days before his arrest. He penetrated hundreds of computer systems around the world. To the horror of the FBI and security experts tracking his progress, he was moving easily through computer systems at universities, corporations and military institutions. Alarmingly, he had obtained a number of account names and passwords that led him into the ATM networks. Infomaster was first discovered in March 1991, cracking the Portland State University computer system. He quickly gained root and ran a Crack program that guesses passwords. Phantom then jumped from Portland State to MIT, where he read faculty E-mail and collected passwords. He moved on to networks in Italy and Switzerland.
He entered the National Aeronautics and Space Administration system. He wandered through the extensive NASA network, creating accounts for himself and copying passwords. In December 1992, almost two years after he was first discovered cracking computer systems, the FBI finally moved in and stopped the Infomaster who turned out to be a slightly deranged young man working tirelessly in a cluttered, filthy upstairs room in his father’s home. In his ultimate hack, the Infomaster installed sniffers on the ‘backbone’ of the Internet. These sniffers collected hundreds of thousands of passwords and account names from military networks, governments and commercial enterprises. The Ottawa Citizen, August 13, 1997. Hacker tools can give IS a boost, Sharon Machlis. An increasing number of security specialists say that if you want to keep intruders out of your network, see what happens when popular hacking software probes your network for vulnerabilities. SATAN is Unix software that looks for common network security problems, such as tile transfer protocol setups that allow users across the Internet to change files in the home directory. By using SATAN, information systems managers can shut down easy-to-find security holes before a hacker exploits them. Other hacker weapons also can help managers harden their network.The Crack password guessing shareware program runs through a password file, comparing with dictionary entries and other likely possibilities. Crack will generate reports of all the accounts where it is successfully guessed the login. The brute-force telephone dialler ToneLoc can help administrators find extensions where employees have hooked up authorized modems to their PCS, offering potentially unguarded entry points into their workplace systems. Computerworld,July 21, 1997, p. 6. E-signatures for the security conscious, Mark Grossman. Electronic signatures are a neat blend of tradition and technology, but up to now they have been a security problem. Once you put your digitized signature on a document, anyone can alter it. ApproveIt 3.0 for Microsoft Office is an alternative to Pretty Good Privacy and other dual-key encryption packages that solve this security problem. After installing the product you create your electronic signature using a
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weaken federal limits on the export of encryption software was itself dramatically weakened, as a US House committee voted conclusively to back Clinton’s ability to prevent such exports. The Boston Globe reports that back in February, Virginia Republican Representative Bob Goodlatte introduced a bill that would have allowed software companies to sell their strongest encryption programs across the world, without the need for special Government licences. Goodlatte’s Security and Freedom Through Encryption Act, known as the SAFE Bill, was cosponsored by 249 other members of Congress. However, the House Committee on National Security voted 45-l to add an amendment that would preserve the Government’s ability to limit such exports. The amendment is described as a compromise that would make it easier to export encryption products below a certain level of sophistication, while blocking the export of the best products, which are essentially uncrackable.The president would be given the power to set a level of encryption that can safely be exported. Any product deemed to have stronger encryption technology could not be sold abroad.This acceptable level of encryption technology would have to be reviewed afresh each year. A spokesperson for Goodlatte said that the amendment maintains the current policy, which makes it extremely difficult for American firms to export their strongest encryption software. Boston Globe, September 10, 2997. Future of Net cracked, flawed, Philip Lee. Here the author writes in a new book about an extraordinary hacker. Infomaster, also known as Phantom Dialer, went on a computer cracking spree in the days before his arrest. He penetrated hundreds of computer systems around the world. To the horror of the FBI and security experts tracking his progress, he was moving easily through computer systems at universities, corporations and military institutions. Alarmingly, he had obtained a number of account names and passwords that led him into the ATM networks. Infomaster was first discovered in March 1991, cracking the Portland State University computer system. He quickly gained root and ran a Crack program that guesses passwords. Phantom then jumped from Portland State to MIT, where he read faculty E-mail and collected passwords. He moved on to networks in Italy and Switzerland.
He entered the National Aeronautics and Space Administration system. He wandered through the extensive NASA network, creating accounts for himself and copying passwords. In December 1992, almost two years after he was first discovered cracking computer systems, the FBI finally moved in and stopped the Infomaster who turned out to be a slightly deranged young man working tirelessly in a cluttered, filthy upstairs room in his father’s home. In his ultimate hack, the Infomaster installed sniffers on the ‘backbone’ of the Internet. These sniffers collected hundreds of thousands of passwords and account names from military networks, governments and commercial enterprises. The Ottawa Citizen, August 13, 1997. Hacker tools can give IS a boost, Sharon Machlis. An increasing number of security specialists say that if you want to keep intruders out of your network, see what happens when popular hacking software probes your network for vulnerabilities. SATAN is Unix software that looks for common network security problems, such as tile transfer protocol setups that allow users across the Internet to change files in the home directory. By using SATAN, information systems managers can shut down easy-to-find security holes before a hacker exploits them. Other hacker weapons also can help managers harden their network.The Crack password guessing shareware program runs through a password file, comparing with dictionary entries and other likely possibilities. Crack will generate reports of all the accounts where it is successfully guessed the login. The brute-force telephone dialler ToneLoc can help administrators find extensions where employees have hooked up authorized modems to their PCS, offering potentially unguarded entry points into their workplace systems. Computerworld,July 21, 1997, p. 6. E-signatures for the security conscious, Mark Grossman. Electronic signatures are a neat blend of tradition and technology, but up to now they have been a security problem. Once you put your digitized signature on a document, anyone can alter it. ApproveIt 3.0 for Microsoft Office is an alternative to Pretty Good Privacy and other dual-key encryption packages that solve this security problem. After installing the product you create your electronic signature using a
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