93 lines
5.5 KiB
Plaintext
93 lines
5.5 KiB
Plaintext
|
|
AMATEUR HACKERS TRIPPED UP
|
|
By Danna Dykstra Coy
|
|
|
|
This article appeared in the Telegram-Tribune Newspaper, San Luis Obispo, CA.
|
|
March 23, 1991. Permission to electronically reproduce this article was given
|
|
by the newspaper's senior editor.
|
|
|
|
*****
|
|
|
|
San Luis Obispo police have cracked a case of computer hacking. Now they've
|
|
got to work out the bugs. Officers were still interviewing suspects late
|
|
Friday linked to a rare case of computer tampering that involved at least four
|
|
people, two of them computer science majors from Cal Poly.
|
|
|
|
The hackers were obvious amateurs, according to police. They were caught
|
|
unknowingly tapping into the computer system in the office of two local
|
|
dermatologists. The only information they would have obtained, had they
|
|
cracked the system's entry code, was patient billing records.
|
|
|
|
Police declined to name names because the investigation is on-going. They
|
|
don't expect any arrests, though technically, they say a crime has been
|
|
committed. Police believe the tampering was all in fun, though at the expense
|
|
of the skin doctors who spent money and time fixing glitches caused by the
|
|
electronic intrusion.
|
|
|
|
"Maybe it was a game for the suspects, but you have to look at the bigger
|
|
picture," said the officer assigned to the case, Gary Nemeth. "The fact they
|
|
were knowingly attempting to access a computer system without permission is a
|
|
crime." Because the case is rare in this county, police are learning as they
|
|
go along. "We will definitely file complaints with the District Attorney's
|
|
Office," said Nemeth. "They can decide whether we've got enough of a case to
|
|
go to trial."
|
|
|
|
Earlier this month San Luis dermatologists James Longabaugh and Jeffrey Herten
|
|
told police they suspected somebody was trying to access the computer in the
|
|
office they share at 15 Santa Rosa St. The system, which contains patient
|
|
records and billing information, continually shut down. The doctors were
|
|
unable to access their patients' records, said Nemeth, and paid a computer
|
|
technician at least $1,500 to re-program their modem.
|
|
|
|
The modem is a device that allows computers to communicate through telephone
|
|
lines. It can only be accessed when an operator "dials" its designated number
|
|
by punching the numbers on a computer keyboard. The "calling" computer then
|
|
asks the operator to punch in a password to enter the system. If the operator
|
|
fails to type in the correct password, the system may ask the caller to try
|
|
again or simply hang up. Because the doctors' modem has a built-in security
|
|
system, several failed attempts causes the system to shut down completely.
|
|
|
|
The technician who suspected the problems were more than mechanical, advised
|
|
the doctors to call the police. "We ordered a telephone tap on the line, which
|
|
showed in one day alone 200 calls were made to that number," said Nemeth. "It
|
|
was obvious someone was making a game of trying to crack the code to enter the
|
|
system." The tap showed four residences that placed more than three calls a
|
|
day to the doctors' computer number. Three of the callers were from San Luis
|
|
Obispo and one was from Santa Margarita. From there police went to work.
|
|
|
|
"A lot of times I think police just tell somebody in a situation like that to
|
|
get a new phone number," said Nemeth, "and their problem is resolved. But
|
|
these doctors were really worried. They were afraid someone really wanted to
|
|
know what they had in their files. They wondered if it was happening to them,
|
|
maybe it was happening to others. I was intrigued."
|
|
|
|
Nemeth, whose training is in police work and not computer crimes, was soon
|
|
breaking new ground for the department. "Here we had the addresses, but no
|
|
proper search warrant. We didn't know what to name in a search warrant for a
|
|
computer tampering case." A security investigator for Pacific Bell gave Nemeth
|
|
the information he needed: disks, computer equipment, stereos and telephones,
|
|
anything that could be used in a computer crime.
|
|
|
|
Search warrants were served at the San Luis Obispo houses Thursday and Friday.
|
|
Residents at the Santa Margarita house have yet to be served. But police are
|
|
certain they've already cracked the case. At all three residences that were
|
|
searched police found a disk that incorrectly gave the doctors' phone number as
|
|
the key to a program called "Cygnus XI". "It was a fluke," said Nemeth.
|
|
"These people didn't know each other, and yet they all had this same program".
|
|
Apparently when the suspects failed to gain access, they made a game of trying
|
|
to crack the password, he said. "They didn't know whose computer was hooked up
|
|
to the phone number the program gave them," said Nemeth. "So they tried to
|
|
find out."
|
|
|
|
Police confiscated hundreds of disks containing illegally obtained copies of
|
|
software at a residence where two Cal Poly students lived, which will be turned
|
|
over to a federal law enforcement agency, said Nemeth.
|
|
|
|
Police Chief Jim Gardner said he doesn't expect this type of case to be the
|
|
department's last, given modern technology. "What got to be a little strange
|
|
is when I heard my officers talk in briefings this week. It was like `I need
|
|
more information for the database'." "To think 20 years ago when cops sat
|
|
around and talked all you heard about was `211' cases and dope dealers."
|
|
|
|
###
|