178 lines
7.7 KiB
Plaintext
178 lines
7.7 KiB
Plaintext
Article reprinted from STATES NEWS SERVICE, August 5, 1990
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Author: Brooks Boliek
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Showdown over computer 'crime'
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Some of the nation's computer pioneers see the digital world in
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which they toil as a cybernetic rangeland with its own kind of
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frontier justice. And some of them have set out to change the
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system.
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Their rallying cry is Operation Sun Devil and other government
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probes into malfeasance by so-called computer "hackers." These
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investigations, they assert, smack of hang-em-high justice and
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all to often become examples of government heavy-handedness.
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"Some of the government's actions clearly weren't
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constitutional," said Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development
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Corp. and a new software firm ON Technology in Cambridge, Mass.
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Kapor, along with a small group of fellow computer pioneers,
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recently announced the formation of the Electronic Frontier
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Foundation, a group dedicated to protecting the rights of
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computer users. Its ultimate goal is to extend the same First
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Amendment protection that the print and broadcast media enjoy to
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digital communications.
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"Our idea is to get people to understand the issues and not to
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try and make decisions in a controversial and confrontational
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atmosphere," Kapor said.
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Secret Service and U.S. Justice Department spokesmen in
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Washington declined to comment on Operation Sun Devil or other
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computer investigations. But they stressed that the federal
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agencies are mindful of the need to protect civil rights.
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"We are not just some renegade agency breaking into peoples's
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computer systems,"said Secret Service Agent Rich Adams. "We
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would not be investigating if we were not mandated by Congress.
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That's why we're involved."
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The foundation is pushing its goals by providing legal assistance
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to computer users who become victims of what they see as overly
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zealous law enforcement officials. It also is awarding grants to
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civil liberties organizations such as the Computer Professionals
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for Social Responsibility in Palo Alto.
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Kapor stresses that the foundation is not a defense fund for
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"hackers" and does not support breaking into computer systems or
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pirating software.
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The foundation has already had an impact. It recently located
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defense witnesses in the government's case against computer
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bulletin board operator and newsletter publisher Craig Neidorf.
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On July 27, in the middle of the trial, the government abruptly
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dropped its case against Neidorf.
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Neidorf was accused of interstate transportation of a stolen
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BellSouth Corp. document describing its emergency 911 system, a
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charge which stems from the government's investigation into a
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group of hackers called the Legion of Doom.
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Prosecutors dropped Neidorf's case when Sheldon Zenner, Neidorf's
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attorney, showed that the information which BellSouth alleged was
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proprietary could be purchased by calling an 800 number and
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paying $13.
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'Private police force'
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Terry Gross, an attorney that aided Neidorf's defense team,
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accused the government of serving as a private police force for
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large corporations.
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"I think it is a very serious concern that we should all have of
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the government being used as a private police force for private
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corporations," Gross said. "Especially when BellSouth made a
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claim that the government accepted."
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The foundation contends that prosecutors, policemen and judges
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must think of computer communications in the same way they think
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of printed and broadcast communications.
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In the eyes of foundation leaders, their main opponent is the
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federal government. Operation Sun Devil, a two-year
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investigation, has so far resulted in seven arrests and some 40
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computers and 23,000 disks of data.
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Kapor's group draws a parallel between the Pentagon Papers case,
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which involved classified government papers documenting the
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history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, and Neidorf's. If
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Neidorf had published the document in a newspaper, as The New
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York Times and The Washington Post published the Pentagon Papers,
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he would have been protected.
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"The example they use is a good one," said Ken Wasch, executive
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director of the Software Publishers Association. If someone
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printed a document on how to get into a federal facility there
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would be no restrictions on publication, he explained. "But if
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you put it on a (computer) bulletin board there would be."
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Complex issues
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Kapor said the Secret Service, the lead investigating agency for
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computer crimes, as well as the FBI and prosecutors often fail to
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understand the complex issues that arise with computer crimes.
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He said law enforcement officers are like most people when it
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comes to computers: uninformed.
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Kapor believes that people are afraid of computers because they
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don't understand them. To minimize the misunderstanding, the
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foundation wants to educate law enforcement officers, judicial
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officers and the public about digital communications.
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"There is a hugh gap between where most of us regular folk are
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today and where the technology is," Kapor said.
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Feds claim expertise
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Secret Service agent Adams disputed the notion that federal
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officials lack computer expertise. The service has been
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investigating computer crimes since 1984, he said.
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"I think it's just the opposite is true," Adams said. "We are
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very effective in our investigations and if we didn't have the
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expertise we wouldn't be as effective."
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Adams acknowledged that a lack of manpower means his agency must
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pick and choose what to investigate.
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"They (the EFF) would lead you to believe that we are out there
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cracking everyone's computer system and looking into every
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bulletin board," he said. "We simply do not have the manpower to
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do that. We pinpoint the large dollar losses and those are the
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ones we investigate."
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At least one member of Congress has expressed some concern over
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the government's crackdown on computer crime. Sen. Patrick
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Leahy, D-Vt., wants to change the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of
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1986 to prevent the government from going too far. Neidorf was
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indicted under the law.
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"As far as I can tell all he did was republish a document in
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Phrack (his newsletter)," Leahy said during a hearing on the
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issue. "That's not a heck of a lot different than someone
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walking down the street who picks up a document and writes a
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letter to the editor."
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The Neidorf case has disturbed Leahy, who said he is face with
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the nettlesome problem of balancing the need for computer
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security with individual rights.
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"We know people work very hard to create products with their
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computers," he said. "They ought to be able to protect those.
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At the same time, I don't want to see the mass resources of the
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United States Justice Department turned loose on things that
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don't make that much difference."
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