85 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
85 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
From: mmm@cup.portal.com
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Subject: The RISKS of Posting to the Net
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Date: Thu, 23 May 91 11:58:07 PDT
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Newsgroups: comp.risks
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I just had an interesting visit from the FBI. It seems that a posting I made
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to sci.space several months ago had filtered through channels, caused the FBI
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to open (or re-open) a file on me, and an agent wanted to interview me, which I
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did voluntarily.
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My posting concerned destruct systems for missiles. I had had a chance to look
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at the manual on the destruct system used on the Poseidon and Polaris A3
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missiles, and was shocked at the vulnerability of the system which triggers the
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system. In my posting, I commented that the system seemed less secure than
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many garage-door openers. It uses a set of three tones, in which two tones are
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presented, then one tone is taken away and the third tone is applied. The only
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classified parts of the system are the frequencies of the second and third
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tones.
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On the net, I asked whether tone control systems like this are still used for
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missile destruct systems. By e-mail, I received an answer from a person who
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was currently designing a destruct system, and he indeed confirmed that not
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only are tone-control destruct systems still used, they are a requirement of
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some test ranges. (However, he thought it would be difficult to send a bogus
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destruct command because of the need to blot out one of the tones which is
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transmitted continuously from ground control; it would be far easier to insert
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a bogus flight control command and send the missile toward a city.)
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A few months later, I received a message from my sysop asking me to call a
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person at Patrick Air Force Base who wanted to get in touch with me. This guy
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was real concerned that I had revealed "sensitive" information. He said he
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kept his copy of my posting in his safe! I guess he didn't know that it had
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already been distributed throughout the industrialized world. He didn't want
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to say anything about the subject over the phone. He asked whether I would be
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willing to be interviewed by an investigator. I agreed, and he said I would be
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contacted within 24 hours by someone locally. That was the last I heard of
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him. I suppose he talked to someone who knew more about destruct systems, and
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was reassured that it isn't possible because it hasn't happened yet.
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Two days ago, more than half a year after my original posting, I got a message
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that someone from the Palo Alto office of the FBI wanted to talk to me. I
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called him, and we agreed to meet this morning. He didn't seem too concerned
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with the technical aspects of my posting -- I guess he also had his own experts
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to consult. He mostly seemed to be checking me out to see if I was plotting to
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blow up a missile. He was also very interested in how the net works. I told
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him all about the net. He wanted to know if there was any sort of censorship
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or control over what goes on the net, and I explained it was mostly
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after-the-fact control, for example if you post a commercial advertisement the
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management of your site will get a ton of e-mail asking that your account be
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cancelled.
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He asked whether someone could post an offer for $10,000 for blueprints of a
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missile or something, and I said there isn't any sort of censorship that would
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prevent that sort of thing. But the closest thing to a request for information
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on performing a crime that I knew of was a couple years ago when someone asked
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in the chemistry newsgroup about methods for electrically igniting a chemical.
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I told him about the controversy that caused, though I omitted my role in
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answering the original poster's question :-)
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I also told him about newsgroups like alt.drugs, rec.pyrotech, etc. He took
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copious notes. He asked about the equipment needed to access the net. I told
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him about computers and modems and Portal. I should contact Portal management
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to see if I get a bonus if he signs up as a customer :-)
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The only surprise came at the end of the interview. He asked if I had any
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questions. I said I was curious how my posting ended up in his hands. Before
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he could answer, I said I suppose you were contacted by that guy at Patrick Air
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Force Base. This surprised him, and he said he knew of no involvement by
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anyone at Patrick Air Force Base. I asked how he _did_ know about my posting,
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and he said he couldn't answer that. I then went on to tell him about the
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controversy over Uunet, and their role in supplying archives of Usenet traffic
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on tape to the FBI, and he seemed surprised by that also.
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So what's the RISK here? None to me, because I was a perfectly innocent party.
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I suppose some people would be really concerned to learn that their postings to
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the net are being monitored for possible illegal activity. But I would be far
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more concerned if they weren't. The fact that two independent investigations
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were started is reassuring to me, because it shows that the government is not
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totally brain-dead with regard to possible threats to their big projects.
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Certainly if _I_ were FBI director, I would consider Usenet to be a great
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resource. I'd learn all about computer crime, recreational drugs that aren't
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illegal yet, low-tech ways of building bombs, how to contact Earth First!,
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etc., etc.
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