Break-in called no brilliant feat TECHNOLOGY: H
acking experts say cracking NASA computer defenses is an indication of weak institutional safeguards.
September 22, 2000
By CHRIS FARNSWORTH
and DAWN CHMIELEWSKI
The Orange County Register
Despite the stereotypes about hackers, it doesn't take a genius to pull off the computer crimes that Jason Allen Diekman allegedly committed, experts said.
Diekman, 20, was taken into federal custody Thursday on charges of breaking into computer networks at Stanford University and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
Diekman used the computers to launch attacks on other networks and to intercept communications, authorities said.
That's not much of a trick, local hackers and a security expert agreed.
The defenses of government and university computers are easy to breach, said Stephen Cobb, director of research for Spectria, an information security firm.
"You probably wouldn't get there on your first try, but I don't think you could characterize that kind of penetration as superhacker," Cobb said. "The defenses are very weak in these situations. The implementation of security measures
is still seriously behind the threat."
The Internet provides all the tools necessary to break into unguarded networks, Cobb added.
Anyone with above-average computer skills can use Betty Crocker-simple recipes for software gleaned from an estimated 440 hacker bulletin boards, 1,900 Web sites and 30 hacker publications such as "Phrack."
Breaking into NASA's computers is considered a rite of passage in the hacking community. Also Thursday, a Miami teen-ager was sentenced in federal court to six months in jail after pleading guilty to hacking NASA computers.
"Everybody think it takes some special skill to break in, when really it takes a lack of knowledge on the part of the people who leave their systems unprotected," said Ira Winkler, author of "Corporate Espionage," a book about hacking.
4;If you leave something on your front lawn, and someone steals it, are they a master criminal?"
