File: ch10web.htm

package info (click to toggle)
cfi 3.0-12
links: PTS, VCS
area: main
in suites: forky, sid
size: 8,060 kB
sloc: makefile: 10; sh: 5
file content (1085 lines) | stat: -rw-r--r-- 87,714 bytes
parent folder | download | duplicates (9)
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>CDNE Chapter 10 - Computer Crime</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#c9e1fc" BACKGROUND="background.gif" LINK="#666666" ALINK="#ff0000" VLINK="#999999" LEFTMARGIN=24 TOPMARGIN=18>
<P ALIGN=CENTER><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><a href="ch9web.htm"><img src="arrowleft.gif" width="45" height="54" align="absmiddle" name="ch1web.htm" border="0"></a><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+1" color="#999999"> 
  <a href="mainindex.htm">INDEX</a> </font><a href="ch11web.htm"><img src="arrowright.gif" width="45" height="54" align="absmiddle" border="0"></a></font><font color=BLUE><b></b></font><font color=BLUE><b></b></font><FONT COLOR=BLUE><B></b></FONT></P>
<p align="center"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman"><B></B></FONT> <FONT SIZE=3 FACE="Times New Roman"><B></B></FONT> 
  <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman"><B></B></FONT> <FONT SIZE=3 FACE="Times New Roman"><B><font size="+2">Chapter 
  10<br>
  COMPUTER CRIME: TERMINAL SLAVES,<br>
  CREDIT CARD FRAUD, AND CENSORSHIP</font></B></FONT> </p>
<table width="620" border="0" align="center">
  <tr> 
    <td> 
      <p><font face="Times New Roman"><b>What really constitutes</b> a computer 
        crime? Where is the line between harmless exploration of a computer system 
        and real crimes?</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">In the eyes of the law, computer crime is 
        any type of crime involving a computer in some way. If I hit somebody 
        over the head with a computer, it could theoretically be viewed as a computer 
        crime. A more specific definition would be that computer crime is the 
        act of transferring or damaging information in cyberspace without permission. 
        This definition is accurate in most cases. In Sweden, the authorities 
        mostly concerned with computer crime are: </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>the 
        Police, the National Security Police (S&#196;PO), Military Intelligence 
        and Counter-espionage, the Crime Prevention Council (BR&#197;), the Department 
        of the Interior, and Datainspektionen</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        (see the previous chapter for details on this authority).</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Additionally, other involved parties include 
        the </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>security departments of the 
        large corporations, </i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">a few </font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><i>non-profit organizations</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">, 
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>informal networks, </i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">and (naturally) </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>criminal 
        organizations</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">. It is not surprising 
        that all these people view the problem in totally different ways. </font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">The National Police Board classify computer 
        crimes under the following categories:</font></p>
      <blockquote> 
        <blockquote> 
          <p><font face="Times New Roman"><br>
            </font> <font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>
            </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>1. Computers or software used 
            in the commission of a crime<br>
            </b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>2. Computers or software 
            subjected to criminal tampering<br>
            </b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>3. Software that has been 
            illegally copied or modified<br>
            </b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>4. Illegal entry into, 
            or use of, computers or computer networks</b></font> </p>
        </blockquote>
      </blockquote>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman"><br>
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman">Most computer crimes committed have 
        nothing to do with hackers. Mostly, it involves people at banks, the Postal 
        Service, governmental insurance agencies, or private corporations in charge 
        of billing and payments. Many succumb to temptation after seeing how </font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><i>easy</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        it is to transfer money back and forth between accounts, grant themselves 
        financial aid or welfare payments, falsifying invoices, etc. It is really 
        only an &quot;improvement&quot; (exacerbation?) in the old ways of economic 
        crime. An example is a Swedish social worker who gave himself 400,000 
        Swedish crowns (about $50,000) in welfare payments, and then went to Venezuela 
        to bail out a friend that had been jailed for political activities. He 
        was able to do this because he knew about some weakness in the disbursement 
        system: welfare payments were only reported every fortnight. This is typical 
        of the most extensive form of computer crime. Compared to this type of 
        crime, hacking and phreaking are a drop in the ocean. The worst computer 
        crimes are perpetrated by people in respectable positions, and are almost</font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><i> never</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        exposed. But of course, you already knew this.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">The reason that these crimes do not receive 
        as much publicity as the hackers' pranks is that the former relates to 
        a very sensitive relationship: integrity and loyalty within the company 
        or the governmental institution is very important for protection against 
        external threats. It is, however, much more difficult to ensure that one's 
        employees are satisfied and loyal than blaming hackers working from the 
        outside. This principle has been used by entire countries to avoid having 
        to deal with internal problems. By shifting the blame to, for example, 
        Jews, communists, or Muslims, they can create a clear picture of the threat 
        and a target for aggression, while keeping attention away from one's own 
        problems.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">The average age of the average computer 
        criminal is between 30 and 40 years. Half of the criminals have worked 
        for more than 10 years within the company. </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>45% 
        are women</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">. Hackers? I don't think 
        so. (Source: N&#228;tv&#228;rlden #8, 1994, p. 36 [a Swedish computer 
        networking magazine]).</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">So much for internal computer crime.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">A more &quot;hacker-like&quot; crime is 
        defrauding ATMs (cash machines) or credit card companies. During the early 
        period of ATMs in Sweden (1960's), when the withdrawals were still logged 
        on punchcards inside the machines, someone went around and withdrew around 
        900,000 crowns (about $120,000) over Easter holiday, using fake ATM cards. 
        This is not as easy to do today. Perhaps. Many Swedish hackers have access 
        to the machines used to read and imprint the magnetic strips on the cards. 
        They have also ferreted out </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>a 
        lot</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> of knowledge about the nature 
        of the information stored on these strips, mostly of general interest 
        to the system. It is, however, difficult to enter an ATM using a &quot;back 
        door&quot;. The banks have developed their own telecommunications network 
        which is inaccessible by regular telephones, and it is through this system 
        that ATM transactions take place.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">As for myself, I am constantly fascinated 
        by people's trust in magnetic cards. All cards with a magnetic strip, 
        like ATM or credit cards, are standardized, and can be copied using appropriate 
        equipment. A friend of mine amused himself by withdrawing money using 
        his old credit card. He had simply copied the information from his ATM 
        card to the credit card. I was also not in the least surprised to learn 
        (in April 1995) that some youths in Helsingborg (a city in southern Sweden) 
        had reproduced local public transit cards and sold them at half price. 
        (Courtesy of the hacker named </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Wolf</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">, mentioned in chapter 4). The telephone 
        company's own phone cards are frightfully insecure; this is also true 
        of the cards used for cellular phones and satellite decoders. Often, it 
        is the case of a totally unprotected standard format.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Apropos cards: </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Credit 
        cards</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> are, unfortunately, very 
        popular among hackers. Let us take a look at some statistics from 1989, 
        when there was about six to seven million credit cards in Sweden. In this 
        year, revenues from credit card transactions reached a total of around 
        20-30 billion crowns (about $300 million), divided into about 50 million 
        transactions averaging about 400 crowns ($50) each. 18,000 fraud cases 
        were reported that year, in which each report would cover about 50 instances 
        of fraudulent use (i. e., somebody used someone else's card about 50 times 
        before it was reported). The police would rather not investigate any cases 
        involving less than 50,000 crowns ($6,000). I can't even begin to speculate 
        about today's figures. It is, however, unlikely that those 18,000 crimes 
        were committed solely by hackers.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">It is often ridiculously simple to call 
        for free or shop using someone else's credit card. Previously, before 
        stricter verification measures, many hackers </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>&quot;carded&quot;</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> merchandise from abroad. Especially computer 
        and other electronic equipment, of course. I have already discussed how 
        card numbers are obtained through social engineering, dumpster diving, 
        and other techniques.&nbsp;If a phreaker cleans out your credit card, 
        you will most likely never find out. The credit card companies do not 
        give out this information to their customers. The most common explanation 
        is </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>&quot;a technical error&quot;.</i></font> 
      </p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">With the exception of stealing credit card 
        numbers and their associated codes, hackers do not consider themselves 
        to be in the business of computer crime. A hacker considers computer crime 
        to be one in which computers are used for the purpose of acquiring anything 
        besides information. A criminal using hacker methods is therefore not 
        a hacker, but a computer criminal. Traditional hacking is about curiosity, 
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>not</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        greed.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Sabotage</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman">Computer sabotage is a rare but venerable 
        form of computer crime. The word </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>sabotage</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> is derived from the French word </font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><i>sabot</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">, 
        which means &quot;wooden shoe&quot;. It originally refers to the time 
        when French textile workers threw wooden shoes into automatic weaving 
        machines, because they were upset that machines had stolen their jobs. 
        An mechanized loom is in many ways similar to a computer, so you could 
        say that sabotage originally was computer sabotage. This type of activity 
        has been around since the English instigator </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Ned 
        Ludd</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> (and his </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>luddists</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">) destroyed looms and Spinning Jennys in 
        the mid-18th century.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Swedish anarchists have often threatened 
        to sabotage computer centers. (Especially through the underground magazine 
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Brand</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        [&quot;Fire&quot;].) Like most anarchist threats, it's all talk. Swedish 
        anarchists seem to have a hard time finding and accessing computer centers, 
        so they stick to destroying Shell gas stations and other easily identified 
        targets. The IRA, however, has bombed some computers in Northern Ireland. 
        In the U.S., as early as 1969, a group of peace activists known as </font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Beaver 55</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        entered a computer system in Michigan, erasing around 1,000 data tapes 
        that supposedly contained blueprints for chemical weapons. This was carried 
        out with the help of ordinary magnets.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">There was also a French activist group called 
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>CLODO</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        (Comit&#233; de Liberation ou de Detournement des Ordinateurs). Between 
        1979 and 1983, these activists destroyed a number of computers in the 
        Toulouse region. They wanted to protest against a computer society in 
        which (in their opinion) computers were used to control people - direct 
        descendants of the original </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>saboteurs</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">, in good French tradition. Groups like this 
        make up the militant branch of the civil rights movements to which EFF 
        and Chaos Computer Club also belong.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">The most frightening example of this type 
        of activity is perhaps the </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Unabomber</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> (Theodore Kaczynski), who carried out 16 
        bombings which, altogether, killed three people and injured 23. On Wednesday, 
        August 2, 1995, the </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Washington 
        Post</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> and </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>The 
        New York Times</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> published excerpts 
        of a manifesto written by Kaczynski, and which turned out to be a well-written 
        argument against the explosive growth of technology in modern society.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">It is not only the hardware that can be 
        subject to sabotage. Obviously, programs and other information that is 
        stored on a computer can be tampered with. An editor at the </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Encyclopedia 
        Brittanica</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">, in Chicago, became 
        so angry over being fired that he changed a great number of words in the 
        encyclopedia. Among others, he changed </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Jesus 
        </i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">to </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Allah</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">. There are innumerable examples of employees 
        exacting revenge on their employers in a similar manner. Another sabotage 
        took place in Israel. By accessing an Israeli newspaper's computers, a 
        19-year-old hacker managed to publish a false article about his computer 
        instructor being arrested and charged with drug-related crimes in the 
        U.S. (A rather amusing </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>hack</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">, in my opinion, but still rather serious 
        considering the importance of mass media in our society. Compare this 
        to </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Captain Midnight</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">, in chapter 4.)</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Nazis</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman">Distributing (like the phreakers 
        did) stolen credit card numbers and codes, passwords for computer systems, 
        and similar information, is - obviously - illegal. Some BBSs, like </font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Ausgebombt</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">, 
        run classifieds for weapons, steroids, and items that might well be &quot;hot&quot;. 
        They can also contain hard-core child or violent pornography, or racist 
        propaganda. Swedish nazis discovered technology at an early stage, and 
        frequently communicate electronically. At least one organization that 
        I know of, with ties to VAM (</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Translator's 
        Note: </b></font> <font face="Times New Roman">VAM = Vitt Ariskt Motst&#229;nd 
        - &quot;White Aryan Resistance&quot;, a Swedish white supremacist group, 
        and a bunch of freaking psychos. I just noticed that the English initials 
        for the organization would be &quot;WAR&quot;), have had guest speakers 
        on computer-related topics.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">To be a racist, however, is not illegal. 
        However, incitement to violence and ethnic persecution are very illegal. 
        I personally don't find this relevant to a discussion about hackers. Most 
        hackers are not racists, nor in the least interested in steroids, stolen 
        firearms, or child pornography. When it comes to BBSs, you should follow 
        the same rules that apply to the rest of society: if you see something 
        suspicious on a Swedish BBS, which could constitute a prosecutable offense 
        - call the police. Also keep in mind that those heavily involved in a 
        political movement like neo-nazism usually don't waste time and effort 
        starting and running BBSs without good reason. Before letting your thoughts 
        and actions be guided by hate and disgust, you should consider that these 
        people have often thought long and hard about what they are doing. Have 
        you?</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Incitements to criminal action or spreading 
        racist messages is equally illegal whether it is carried out through computers, 
        magazines, or leaflets. On the Internet, most system administrators have 
        enough of a sense of responsibility to remove such garbage when they come 
        across it. If you find something suspicious on the Internet, it is usually 
        simplest to find out who is responsible for the computer on which the 
        information is stored, and inform them. Calling the Swedish police is 
        usually pointless, since most of the Internet exists abroad (primarily 
        in the U.S.). In some countries, it isn't even criminal to distribute 
        racist information or similar stuff. In those cases, the Swedish government 
        is virtually powerless.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">The only methods for an authority to contain 
        information stored in another country - with more lenient laws - are to 
        either cut off the nation's computer systems<sup><a href="#FTNT1">(1)</a></sup></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> (which is neither easy nor desirable), or 
        through international legislation by the UN. But there is another way! 
        The Internet is built by people, for people, and functions through people. 
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>You can give your honest opinion 
        to those responsible for distributing the information. </i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">In 
        the worst cases, you can convince the person responsible for the computer 
        on which the information is stored to remove it. Before resorting to such 
        measures, however, you should think twice. Many view the Internet as a 
        gigantic library, and if you come up with ideas about &quot;censoring&quot; 
        this library, you should consider the fact that you are attacking free 
        speech, and be prepared to take responsibility for that. In such a case, 
        your actions are comparable to going into the nearest library, picking 
        some books out of the shelves, taking them out on the street and burning 
        them.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Information technology has thus brought 
        global problems to your desk at home. How ironic. Now it is no longer 
        possible to shut out world problems; you have to </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>get 
        involved</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">. Dear God. Personally, 
        I think this type of discussion is so useful to ordinary Swedish society 
        that it outweighs any threat posed by this &quot;dangerous&quot; information. 
        The problems of Sri Lanka and the Ivory Coast are suddenly our problems 
        as well. As long as child porn is permitted somewhere in the world<sup><a href="#FTNT2">(2)</a></sup></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">, there will also be such material on our 
        own Internet. Such matters are </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>everyone</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">'s problem, like environmental problems. 
        The problem should be solved in its home court: the World. The UN, perhaps.<sup><a href="#FTNT3">(3)</a></sup></font> 
      </p>
      <p> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>The Police</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman">The Swedish police - through the 
        National police Board - have a computer crime expert, superintendent </font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Hans Wranghult</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        in Malm&#246;. He took his studies, as did most European experts in this 
        field, in California. His most prominent work is a report called </font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Datorkriminalitet - Hackers, insiders, 
        och datorst&#246;dd brottslighet </i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">(&quot;Computer 
        Crime - Hackers, Insiders, and Computer-Assisted Crime&quot;), which seems 
        to be an edited version of his class notes from the States, slightly adjusted 
        to Swedish conditions. (I am holding my breath in anticipation of his 
        future creations.) Despite this report being a very detailed treatment 
        of computer crime and various perspectives relating to it, it relays a 
        very simplified picture of hackers. Apparently, Hans has listened mostly 
        to his teachers, and never asked any amateurs what they thought of hackers. 
        His section on hackers begins as follows:</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman"><i>&quot;Originally, the word hacker was 
        a label for the person who was responsible for testing computer systems 
        within the organization for which he worked. The method used was to subject 
        the system to all kinds of attacks, in order to spot errors or weaknesses 
        in the software or the security systems.&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp;</i></font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">This statement is not true, since the first 
        hackers were students in charge of </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>developing</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> computer systems, and the statement is indicative 
        of a basic view of hackers as always being busy testing or cracking security 
        systems. If you have read this book from the beginning, you know that 
        this is a fairly small aspect of hacking culture. Another possibility 
        is that Wranghult is simplifying intentionally, in order to motivate his 
        men. The police base their work on a dichotomous &quot;us-against-them&quot; 
        style of thinking, and if he had started talking about good hackers as 
        well as bad ones, the limits of the law's thinking (with regards to hackers) 
        would perhaps have become a little fuzzy.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">He is especially critical of the image of 
        the hacker as a hero, which is blasphemy in his opinion. If he had known 
        how journalists employ hackers, as when Chaos Computer Club hacked into 
        information about the West German nuclear power program, or when the anonymous 
        hacker exposed the </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Ausgebombt</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> BBS, he would have been forced to reconsider 
        his vilification of hacker activities. Apparently the police have thought 
        twice about this, because in June of 1995, they announced that they would 
        be happy to enlist the help of hackers to combat computer crime.</font></p>
      <p> <font face="Times New Roman">In regards to S</font> <font face="Times New Roman">&#196;</font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">PO's interest in hackers and computer culture, 
        there is not a lot of available information. This is not unusual, since 
        it's how things work. </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Bengt Angerfelt</b></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> and </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Roland 
        Frenzell</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> are in charge of computer 
        security issues at S&#196;PO, and their work probably consists mostly 
        of gathering information and knowledge about computer crimes, so that 
        someone will know what to do if there is a threat to national security. 
        Hopefully, they know more about computer security than anyone else in 
        Sweden. Considering the fiasco with the encryption system, they should 
        have improved their expertise by now.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Military intelligence is also interested 
        (naturally) in computer security issues. I know even less about this - 
        but the only thing I know for sure is well-known among hackers: military 
        intelligence collects as much information as they can about system and 
        data security. This information is then used to, among other things, improve 
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>their own</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        security. No military person would ever have the urge to bring this knowledge 
        to the state or the business world. There are some obvious reasons for 
        this.&nbsp;Business in general, and especially the computer companies, 
        are concerned with the security of their equipment. For example, if the 
        American NSA (National Security Agency) informed a company that manufactured 
        a certain operating system of their system's security gaps, these would 
        immediately be fixed. </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Why is this 
        not in the interest of military intelligence?</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        Very simple, really: since the software systems are exported, the military 
        can use the security weaknesses to attack foreign computer systems in 
        case of war. The military (at least in the U.S.) has its own hackers and 
        virus creators. I mean, why not? These weapons are hardly controversial, 
        and not limited by international agreements. Of course, they're armed 
        to the teeth with tools for electronic warfare. By being aware of security 
        glitches, one can protect oneself and attack others. For the same reason, 
        Swedish intelligence would never advise Ericsson about faults in the AXE 
        systems.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">A number of Sweden's best hackers have been 
        hired as security experts by S&#196;PO as well as military intelligence 
        and counter-espionage agencies.<sup><a href="#FTNT4">(4)</a></sup></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> Probably, this expertise is used in &quot;bugging&quot; 
        electronic communications (which is not illegal, in contrast to telephone 
        surveillance).</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Big Brother Wants to See You</b></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman">But what about the distribution of 
        information that may be &quot;dangerous to the public&quot;? It is not 
        as intuitive to propose that information such as </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>The 
        Terrorist's Handbook, drug recipes, bomb blueprints, </i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">or 
        perhaps </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>technical information 
        about telephone cards</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> should 
        be illegal. A popular term for this is - strangely - </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>sociopathic 
        information</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">. To be a sociopath 
        means to exhibit aggressively antisocial behavior, and belonging to a 
        group that does not accept current social norms</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Therefore, hackers, ravers, anarchists, 
        Freemasons, and other subgroups can be viewed as sociopathic. So can Rotary. 
        Sociopathic information, therefore, is information that is written by 
        socially maladjusted people. For example, spreading liberal ideas in a 
        totalitarian communist country would have to be considered very sociopathic.&nbsp;It 
        is not against the law to be socially maladjusted. It isn't even prohibited 
        to distribute sociopathic information. However, there are a few authoritarian 
        elements in our society that would like this to be so. During my research 
        for this book, I have fortunately only found one example of this Big Brother 
        attitude:</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">In a funky report from </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Institutet 
        f&#246;r R&#228;ttsinformatik</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        (&quot;The Institute for Legal Information&quot;), attorney </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Anders 
        Wallin</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> tells us how </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>he</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> thinks the law views sociopathic information. 
        In around 50 pages, he manages the feat of repeatedly condemning so-called 
        sociopathic information, while failing to mention even once that this 
        information is actually not illegal. Rather, he leans on a legal paradigm 
        that views anything that threatens society as it is today as dangerous, 
        by definition. Imposed on ideology, this would be called conservatism.&nbsp;Wallin 
        mentions, among other things, that he hasn't been able to find the sociopathic 
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>The Anarchist's Cookbook</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> in any Swedish library, and goes on to lament 
        the fact that similar information </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>is</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> available on several Swedish databases. 
        What he doesn't mention, however, is that this book has been </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>cleared</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> for publication. If you want to read a really 
        sociopathic book, go find </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Jerry 
        Rubin's</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Do It!</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">, 
        which is available at many Swedish libraries. It also happens to be published 
        by the respectable publisher Pan/Nordstedts. The list can be made longer.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Apparently, sociopathic information is a 
        term applied to books that normal people shouldn't read, because if they 
        do, they will become corrupt. Alternatively: books that youth shouldn't 
        read, or they will become corrupt. Or: books that not everyone should 
        read, for their judgment cannot be trusted (as for myself, I am rather 
        childishly fond of the freedom of the press). At the same time, I have 
        to say that I don't think that everything in Wallin's report is bad. What 
        I find erroneous is the implicit call for censorship that exists between 
        the lines of this report. Wallin thinks it's horrible that young boys 
        should be able to read hacker books and terrorism manuals. And I understand 
        him - there are those who have managed to cause great damage using knowledge 
        found in such material. Apparently, someone in the U.S. managed to blow 
        up their little sister. I am not blind to such things. But Wallin has 
        obviously </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>read this material himself...</i></font> 
      </p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">This drives cyberpunks up the wall, and 
        is regarded - justifiably - as authoritarianism. The final responsibility 
        for prohibiting teenagers from building bombs at home should be with the 
        parents. And if the kids are old enough to have left the nest, I would 
        consider them worthy of our trust. Actually, I believe they can handle 
        reading these books, if they find it amusing. I happen to consider a person 
        that manufactures a bomb at home to have more than one loose screw, and 
        not at all a reason to abrogate the rights of normal people to free speech 
        and press. I willingly confess: I own oogles of sociopathic information. 
        Yep, it's true. I have, among other things, used them for research of 
        this book. Almost all of the information I possess is in a digital form, 
        and because I like to, I distribute it with abandon, which I consider 
        not at all irresponsible.</font></p>
      <p> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Making Computer Viruses Illegal??</b></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman">Prohibiting the manufacture of computer 
        viruses is also questionable. Especially since there aren't any plans 
        to criminalize </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>possession</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> of computer viruses - only their creation. 
        Can I not produce a computer virus and infect my own computer if I feel 
        like it? This seems strange, in my opinion. A relevant fact is that you 
        could make a computer virus with paper and pencil, if you wanted to. It 
        is not until it is fed into a computer and distributed that it can cause 
        damage.<sup><a href="#FTNT5">(5)</a></sup></font> </p>
      <p> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Big Brother:</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>What 
        do you want to make viruses for? There's no good in that. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Don't 
        do it. Don't do it, I tell you. Why are you writing poems? Where's the 
        good &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;in that? Don't. Go to the factory instead, 
        and do some work. Be of use, I tell you.</i></font> </p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">On the other hand, I agree that the intentional 
        distribution of computer viruses should be criminal. The debate has been 
        going on in the U.S., where, for example, the well-known virus fighter 
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Alan Solomon </b></font> <font face="Times New Roman">(known 
        as </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Dr Solomon</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman">) 
        has clearly stated that he would consider a ban on virus manufacturing 
        as violating the rights and freedoms of the individual. Furthermore, a 
        virus can not be accurately compared to a bomb, since an isolated computer 
        with a virus on it poses no public threat. Especially if the user know 
        what he or she is doing, which is usually the case when it comes to virus 
        makers. Additionally, a virus does not consist of something tangible (like 
        chemicals or metal), but only of pure information. A computer virus </font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><i>can</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        be constructed through a series of commands written on a piece of paper; 
        it is simply a case of the same information in different forms. Thus, 
        a virus on paper would be legal since we have freedom of the press, while 
        a virus in machine-readable form would be illegal since we do not have 
        freedom of information? Aren't they the same thing?</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Our modern Trojan horse, in the form of 
        a computer virus, will most likely meet the same end as </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Karl 
        Gerhard</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman">'s play </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Den 
        &#246;k&#228;nda h&#228;sten fr&#229;n Troja</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        (&quot;The Notorious Trojan Horse), which was quickly and definitively 
        banned as it criticized the Nazi infiltration of Sweden in the 1940's. 
        Unwanted art should not be exhibited (in the interest of the State), and 
        you do not at all know best what to do with your computer (sarcasm ;-).</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman"><br>
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>&quot;Datainspektionen&quot; and 
        Integrity</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman">The vanguard of the computer crime-fighting 
        forces in Sweden consists of </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Datainspektionen</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">. This governmental agency's primary purpose 
        is ensuring that state institutions and corporations follow </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Datalagen</b></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> (the Swedish Data Code), which has been 
        constructed specifically to protect the individual from a totalitarian 
        information society. Datainspektionen was born in 1973 as a product of 
        an international public debate with its origins in San Francisco. In connection 
        with the Census of 1970, when for the first time all data was electronically 
        registered, many had begun drawing parallels to </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>George 
        Orwell's </b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>1984</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">, 
        and this gave birth to a debate about data integrity. The insinuation 
        was that government, to a certain extent, was collecting information that 
        they had no legitimate use for, and which could be used to control citizens 
        in every aspect.<sup><a href="#FTNT6">(6)</a></sup></font> </p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">The former director of Datainspektionen, 
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Jan Freese</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman">, 
        who still seems to exert considerable influence on the agency, is an important 
        philosopher in the field. In practice, it seems that much of what Jan 
        writes or speaks is adopted by Datainspektionen without further discussion. 
        This is not so bad, since the guy mostly displays common sense. He has 
        made several sound propositions for information legislation, and prepared 
        Swedish society for the information revolution to a great degree. Especially 
        good is his proposition of a </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>general 
        integrity law</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">, covering databases 
        containing information on individuals and privacy violations, whether 
        or not computers and electronics are involved. This law should, according 
        to Freese, regulate (quoted from </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Datateknik</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> #8/1995):<br>
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>* 
        Access to and searches of private property<br>
        </i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* 
        Physical searches of persons, medical check-ups, and psychological tests<br>
        </i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* 
        Surveillance/espionage<br>
        </i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* 
        Illegal photography/recordings<br>
        </i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* 
        Electronic surveillance (&quot;bugging&quot;)<br>
        </i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* 
        Distribution of privileged information<br>
        </i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* 
        Use of third parties' names, images, and similar information<br>
        </i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* 
        Abuse of third parties' communications</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman">And this is also basically the kind 
        of record-keeping that the EFF, cypherpunks, and others are working against. 
        The difference, in the case of cypherpunks, is that they are of the opinion 
        that the regime (in the US) has totally failed to protect the integrity 
        of the individual. They even suggest that the government cannot handle 
        these matters without becoming totalitarian. </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Thus</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">, the individual should protect him- or herself 
        through cryptography, anonymity measures, etc. The libertarian heritage 
        is apparent, based on the American pioneers, who had to protect their 
        farms and land with their own arms since the legal system was not fully 
        established. That time is so far back in Swedish history that it's become 
        foreign to us. We are used to government taking care of everything.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;The reason that more and more people 
        arm themselves with encryption is that the electronic parallel universe, 
        cyberspace, is barbaric and uncivilized, and that even government employees 
        appear to act instinctively and arbitrarily with regards to computers. 
        If an integrity protection law like the one proposed by Freese had existed 
        at an earlier stage, the problem would be absent.</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>However, 
        note the following:</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> Datainspektionen 
        is subordinate to the executive branch of the Swedish Congress. If the 
        government gets the urge to register all political dissidents, Datainspektionen 
        cannot do anything about it, despite it being written into law that the 
        executive should consult Datainspektionen before creating any database 
        on its own initiative. Datainspektionen is </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>in 
        no way</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> a safeguard against a 
        totalitarian society! Only those who blindly trust institutions and governments 
        would dare to rely on Datainspektionen for this purpose.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman"><b>From hacking to computer crime</b><br>
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman">Can hacking lead to crime? The answer 
        is a clear YES. Hacker groups, like any other, have their share of psychopaths 
        and deviant followers. Social engineering in itself must be considered 
        a giant step away from social norms. It </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>is</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> dishonest to deceive other people, and viewing 
        the person at the other end of the phone line as an object is frighteningly 
        cold-blooded. Some phreakers have constructed blue boxes that they've 
        sold for around $1500, and this activity is clearly not rooted in ideology.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Phreakers defend their criminal activity 
        in the classical manner: first of all, only large corporations are victimized. 
        Losses from credit card fraud against private individuals are usually 
        absorbed by the issuing banks. At the same time, they nonchalantly ignore 
        the fact that they create a hell of a hassle for the individuals who have 
        to prove to the credit card companies that they didn't use their cards 
        themselves. The elitist attitude often becomes an excuse to do whatever 
        one feels like. At the same time, it should be noted that media as well 
        as credit card companies exaggerate the consequences of being subject 
        to credit card fraud. Even credit card company investigators can think, 
        and generally understand that a well-educated father of two doesn't make 
        repeated conference calls across half the world just for the hell of it. 
        Many investigations are dismissed at an early stage.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Second, hackers often point to the fact 
        that they don't derive any </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>material 
        gain</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> from hacking. Hackers are 
        known for breaking into phone companies and stealing </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>only</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> manuals. This, of course, confuses prosecutors. 
        A hacker does not fit tour stereotype of a criminal who absconds with 
        other people's property for their own gain. For an hacker hungry for information, 
        the crime </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>itself</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        is the reward, which may seem a little odd.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Manufacturing a computer virus, or spraying 
        graffiti on a concrete wall, does not offer much in the way of profit. 
        Possibly it could be sabotage or vandalism, but it is not a matter of 
        organized crime. Perhaps virus manufacturing is, like graffiti, best viewed 
        as an unpopular form of art; a product of our time, in which everything 
        artistic must be sanctioned, planned, and spontaneity virtually extinguished.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Hacking a network is more a matter of </font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><i>exploring </i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">the 
        system than </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>stealing</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> system time. In some countries, like Canada, 
        it is permitted to walk into another persons house, look around, and leave, 
        as long as nothing is stolen or damaged. From an ethical perspective, 
        it is a tricky problem. In the Netherlands it was, until 1987, completely 
        legal to enter a computer as long as nothing was destroyed or modified.<sup><a href="#FTNT7">(7)</a></sup></font> 
      </p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Third, they defend their acts on ideological 
        grounds - by which society is described as generally corrupt, and the 
        real crooks are the large corporations and currency traders, who manipulate 
        all of humanity to run their errands through their speculation. The opposite 
        is the beauty of established society, as </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Oscar 
        Wilde</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> once expressed it:</font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><i>It is better to live unjustly, than without 
        justice.</i></font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">In this view, it is permissible to speak 
        and theorize about making society more just, while direct action must 
        be regarded as illegal, from a social perspective. It is the same principle 
        that covers all undemocratic actions - whether it concerns those of hackers, 
        environmentalists, or peace activists. If you break the law, you commit 
        a crime. Period.&nbsp;Personally, I think that any activists who break 
        the law, be it hackers or cyberpunks as well as tree-huggers, peace activists, 
        or anti-abortionists who blow up abortion clinics, </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>should</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> be sentenced and jailed if society deems 
        it necessary. It is not the responsibility of society to decide which 
        values serve to justify illegal acts. My opinion, on the other hand, is 
        due to the fact that I firmly believe in humankind's ability to achieve 
        results in a representative democracy.<sup><a href="#FTNT8">(8)</a></sup></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> Anarchists, on the other hand, conclude 
        that there should be no laws at all. (Which </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>I</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> can't really agree with). It's a question 
        of values, and in our present society, un-legitimized actions are considered 
        criminal. If those actions victimize individuals, they're misdirected.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">It's been submitted that hackers could form 
        entire underground syndicates and cooperate with the Mafia. This is, so 
        far, mere speculation. In my opinion, the hacker mentality is not really 
        fit for organized crime. The hacker immediately retreats when he/she feels 
        physically threatened, and removed from his/her protected existence behind 
        the screen. This doesn't mean that he or she is </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>chicken</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">, but rather that the whole thing is &quot;for 
        fun&quot;.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Many hackers receive strange requests like 
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>&quot;you who are so technically 
        skilled, couldn't you build a pirate decoder... &quot;, &quot;couldn't 
        you (whatever)&quot;</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">, The fact 
        is that even though the hackers definitely </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>can</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> do this, they very seldom do. Hackers are 
        anti-authoritarian and detest being bossed around. </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>&quot;Figure 
        it out on your own!&quot;</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> is 
        the most frequent answer. The hacker doesn't want some subordinate role 
        as technical genius in some criminal organization. Why should he? He could 
        make a lot more money in a </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>low-paid</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> computer job than any criminal organization 
        could offer, with the possible exception of the Mafia or foreign intelligence 
        agencies. However, they are often willing to give advice, tips, and ideas:</font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><i> &quot;Are you stuck?&quot;, &quot;Have 
        you found anything interesting?&quot;</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        - but as far as economic motivation (not curiosity) is concerned - forget 
        it.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">I would go so far as to say that we should 
        be grateful that the little annoying hackers discovered security glitches 
        in the computer systems, rather than the </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>big 
        fish</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">.</font> <font face="Times New Roman">During 
        the golden age of phreakers (in the 70s), several large gambling syndicates 
        used blue boxes, which they manufactured on a near-industrial scale and 
        sold at usurious rates. You can hold any opinion you want about this, 
        but no one can deny that the hackers' activities have been </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>important</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> to industry, if not always </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>beneficial</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">. (Otherwise they wouldn't have become such 
        a popular topic).&nbsp;When Bob in Springfield makes his own phone cards 
        and sells them for $20-$100, this is hardly to be considered industrial-scale 
        production or even production for his own gain. Considering the simple 
        equipment used in the process, and the time spent on constructing it, 
        it would more closely resemble a total loss. It would, therefore, seem 
        to exist an ideological reason for constructing the phone cards. Freedom 
        of information? Anarchy?</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Personally, I would have to say that the 
        &quot;hardware viruses&quot; in the form of an electronic device called 
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Big Red</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">, 
        found in some American and Australian banking computers, are much more 
        frightening than anything </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>any 
        </i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">hacker has </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>ever</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> invented. This thing copies, encrypts, and 
        hides important information on a computer's hard drive so that some informed 
        people can easily access it. Big Red could very well be constructed by 
        the Mafia or some international intelligence agency. These must have been 
        deliberately installed from the </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>inside</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> of an organization, as opposed to the hacker's 
        curiosity-driven exploits.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">As of July 1995, an unusually sophisticated 
        computer theft ring was still operating in Sweden. They entered offices 
        and only stole computers, not monitors or keyboards (these were cut off). 
        From some older models, only memory chips and hard drives were taken. 
        In order to work undisturbed, the gang cut the telephone company's alarm 
        cables by gong through access boxes on the street, in the way the hackers 
        of the film </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Sneakers</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> did it. The gang communicated via radio, 
        and the police even succeeded in taping their communications. Still, they 
        weren't caught.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">There's no doubt as to the origin of these 
        thieves. Some of them are definitely some type of hacker, others are more 
        hardened techno-criminals. The similarity to Gibson's characters is striking: 
        the only loot is information technology, memory is worth its weight in 
        gold, and the criminals possess fantastic technical skills. I will not 
        for one second deny that these offenders have learned many of their skills 
        used in their ventures through different hacker magazines: Rolig Teknik, 
        Phrack, any number of books from small, obscure publishers. (And certainly, 
        from common textbooks). But this is actually not the problem.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">The problem is </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>us.</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> The problem is that we watch movies like 
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Sneakers, The Saint, Why Me?</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> etc., in which we can identify with the 
        romantic or comical criminal, despite the fact that we objectively judge 
        such a person to be the enemy of society and scum deserving of all that 
        is coming to them. We need the criminal, or in this case, the </font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><i>technologically advanced criminal</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">, to know that it's still possible to circumvent 
        all electronic security systems. Because - if we can't escape technological 
        supervision, well, then we </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>can't</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> become lawless, and then being lawful is 
        no longer a free choice. There is no longer any anti-career that we can 
        look down upon in our eternal quest to jet upwards through the social 
        hierarchy. There is no honor to preserve, because if no one can be dishonorable, 
        one cannot know what it means to be honorable. Crime exists in the form 
        of an engine that drives us to act straight, warns us if we approach the 
        edge of propriety, and makes us feel content with our successful lives. 
        We, of course, do not run around at night, cutting cables, and stealing 
        computers, do we? We work during the days and </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>sleep</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> at night. Each day needs its night. Every 
        society's glowing, law-abiding segment needs its photophobic underground 
        movement. </font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">We award our geniuses two types of careers. 
        Either they go through twelve years of high school and four years of college 
        to become engineers and continue their careers upwards or sideways in 
        the chase for </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>more </i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">status, </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>more 
        </i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">money, and </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>more</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> exciting work projects. (Imagine, I could 
        be CEO one day... I'll have to read up on some finance too... make the 
        right contacts, hold the right opinions...).&nbsp;But what if you don't 
        like school? What if the awfully long education bores you, but your interest 
        is still burning for electronic devices and computers? No problem. Society 
        has something for you too: </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>vocational</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> education, </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>no</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> status,</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i> 
        no </i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">money, and </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>no</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> exciting work projects like PLEX programming 
        or control system construction. You will never go to the right schools, 
        know the right people, or read the right books. You won't have the correct 
        social heritage. </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>This is despite 
        the fact that you are perhaps intelligent and capable and would be more 
        suitable for Ericsson's training programs than anyone else!</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> The hiring practices at high-tech companies 
        are tastefully oriented towards turning non-degreed applicants back to 
        the slums they came from.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Remaining option: anti-career. Use your 
        knowledge to break down society's security systems so that the poor citizens 
        will know it's not invulnerable. Give them something to fight and live 
        for. Give them an external threat so that they won't have to take a look 
        in the mirror. Be an outlaw to set the parameters for the lawful. Don't 
        think that crime doesn't pay - sometimes it does. Just as long as a few 
        get caught now and then so that the good people will have something to 
        abhor. </font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Your criminals are the devils that let you 
        see the angels within yourselves. I'll be damned if they're any worse 
        than you!<sup><a href="#FTNT9">(9)</a></sup></font> </p>
      <p> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Corporate Security Forces</b></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman">One of the most unpleasant computer 
        crimes I know of was committed (and perhaps is still being committed) 
        by </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Telia</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman">. 
        In April 1995, the electronic magazine </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Z 
        Central</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> (a subsidiary of Z-mag@zine) 
        made public that Telia possessed its own net surveillance unit, which 
        had as its mission to gather information about subscribers suspected of 
        being phreakers or hackers. Using phone-switch computers, they could easily 
        record who made what calls and where. It seems that Telia systematically 
        traced and surveilled some hackers, which really is something that only 
        the cops have a right to do. This information was further distributed 
        to other companies which Telia suspected of having been infiltrated by 
        these hackers.&nbsp;These procedures are illegal, according to the fourth 
        section of the Data Code, which prohibits registering information concerning 
        possible criminality without the prior permission of Datainspektionen. 
        Permission is almost never granted - in order to prevent totalitarian 
        social control.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">It should be added that this discussion 
        about Telia's phone usage registration is not a new one. As early as 1981, 
        Telia had an electronic surveillance machine named </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>TAL-T 
        M80</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman">, which permitted the logging 
        of all usage on a particular line, and could send the log to a central 
        computer for storage. Since then, Telia has introduced this type of surveillance 
        to virtually any phone in Sweden, since this function is built into every 
        AXE switch. In reality, anything you do using a phone is recorded by the 
        AXE switch. If you pick up the phone and then dial </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>one</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> digit before hanging up, this action is 
        registered as a time and a button-press in a computer. Telia is then able 
        to retrieve a complete listing of all calls and non-calls performed - 
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>anything</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        that has taken place on the line. The information, according to Telia, 
        is used to assess and improve existing systems, and to resolve disputes 
        with subscribers. The info is stored on computer tape for about six months.<sup><a href="#FTNT10">(10)</a></sup></font> 
      </p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Anyone that has worked for a large corporation 
        will understand why Telia can't resist registering and analyzing its business. 
        However, distributing such information is against telecommunications as 
        well as privacy laws. Telia, of course, acted in &quot;good faith&quot; 
        in its attempt to &quot;help&quot; the victimized companies, but that 
        doesn't excuse the breach of privacy involved. I've even seen indications 
        that Telia use their databases for various purposes within the company. 
        The information is ruthlessly consulted by Telia's security departments 
        when they suspect hacker activity, in order to extract information from 
        hackers about their possible transgressions. (In many cases, Telia's own 
        computers suffer from inadequate security.<sup><a href="#FTNT11">(11)</a></sup></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">) This takes place despite the fact that 
        this information is not even supposed to be available to the police...</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">To facilitate computer crime-fighting, they've 
        begun to investigate the possibility of constructing a so-called </font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><i>expert system</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">, 
        an artificially intelligent agent instructed to analyze the bands in which 
        all Swedish phone calls are registered, in the search for </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>behavior 
        patterns</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> that seem suspect. This 
        involves checking out people that make long and frequent calls without 
        interruptions, call a lot of toll-free numbers, etc., in order to compile 
        a database of &quot;suspicious&quot; subscribers. Hopefully, Telia does 
        not intend to use the system, since this would imply a completely illegal 
        data-handling procedure. But what price is too high to maintain security?</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Telia serves as an example for large corporations' 
        views on computer crime. Of those crimes committed against Telia's technological 
        installations, 87% consist of theft and vandalism, while computer intrusion 
        and technical manipulation makes up about 10%. The latter category includes 
        hackers' and phreakers' activities, but also a great deal of other activity 
        that has nothing to do with those underground groups. (</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>But, 
        </i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">since hackers have a definable 
        culture and system of ethics, they're easier to point out and condemn).&nbsp;In 
        addition, Telia is a company that suffers from an almost paranoid fear 
        that someone will understand how their systems work. All communications 
        companies feel this way. Since the technological safeguards at Telia's 
        switches are inadequate, they rely on a </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>psychological</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> form of protection, which simply means that 
        information is kept secret so that a possible attacker cannot know how 
        the systems work. In the same manner, it protects its own organization, 
        its own internal phone numbers, etc. Even </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>within</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> the organization, safeguards are in place. 
        They are diligent about not giving any more information than necessary 
        to operators. There is no comprehensive understanding of Telia's systems 
        except among CEOs, high-level engineers, and system developers. The only 
        road to those positions lies in internal advancement. Knowledge in regards 
        to Telia's systems is therefore only supposed to exist within the organization, 
        and no one outside Telia should know anything about how the switches really 
        work. </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Hands-off</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">, 
        as opposed to &quot;hands-on&quot;, that is. Just use the system. Don't 
        ever try to figure out how it works, even if you're interested. Do not 
        examine, do not rummage among the cables, just </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>call, 
        pay,</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> and </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>be 
        happy!</i></font> </p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">The reason that Telia has its own security 
        organization is that the police has neither the time nor the funding to 
        investigate Telia's problems. (As I mentioned earlier, they are reluctant 
        to investigate fraud amounting to less than $8000 or so). Telia has officially 
        said that the company needs about 30 security managers plus about 10 or 
        so specialists within the areas of physical security, system security, 
        data processing, secrecy, and information security. The last category 
        is the one that is supposed to make sure that I, among others, should 
        not know the information contained in the previous sentence. (These figures, 
        however, originate in the time when Telia was still called Televerket, 
        and had to release information because of the freedom of information laws). 
        Presumably, the information security officials now have a structured organization 
        which ensures that potentially dangerous information does not leave the 
        company or end up in public records.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Another thing, which should be completely 
        made clear, is that large corporations like Telia cannot afford morals. 
        Once they have discovered fraud affecting the company, they first have 
        to decide whether it pays off to go after the criminals and improve security 
        before taking any action. If improving security poses too much of an inconvenience 
        for legitimate users, resulting in loss of customers, it is more cost-effective 
        to let the hackers be. This has led to many hackers raising their eyebrows 
        and wondering whether the communications companies are laid back, stupid, 
        or just plain moronic. In reality, their only concern is money. That's 
        why it's still so easy to call using fake credit card numbers - it is 
        simply too expensive to effectively address the problem.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">At this point, allow me to make a connection. 
        When I spoke of cyberpunk, I mentioned that William Gibson et. al. chronicle 
        a future in which all finance and development is handled by large corporations, 
        with a strictly hierarchical organization and a ridiculously strenuous 
        work ethic. In the R&amp;D labs, new technological innovations are pushed 
        out by bored engineers with their fingers constantly on the fast-forward 
        button. Everything in the organization of these companies is designed 
        to make the people inside the hierarchy feel as important as possible, 
        so that they will work as effectively as possible and push their underlings 
        to work even harder. The result is a frighteningly effective but psychopathic 
        organization, which can push social development beyond any imaginable 
        limits.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Those hackers that have been forced to enter 
        Telia's regional offices in the capacity of informers, have - with awe 
        - described the rigorous security procedures. They have passed many doors, 
        all with flashing diodes and demanding access cards to prevent the wrong 
        person from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. At the very top 
        of the building, there are the offices of the highest executives, after 
        a total of perhaps five doors that all require pass codes. The hierarchy 
        demands that the offices gain size as they gain altitude. At the top, 
        they are posh. This is the final goal of all the residents of the building. 
        The denizens of the lower levels of this tower of power are not allowed 
        to pass through as much as half the doors leading to the top level. In 
        this manner, the eternal desire to climb to the top is preserved.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">The hacker is called to this place. The 
        man on the other side of the desk is not evil. He is not inhuman, psychopathic, 
        or simply cruel. He is diligent. He believes in the ten stories of concrete 
        through which the hacker has just been transported. He has been, for his 
        entire life since leaving the university, a part of this hierarchy. Since 
        he is a CEO, he has been among those displaying the greatest loyalty and 
        faithfulness to the company and the entire social system which has enabled 
        it to exist. He can not, for the life of him, imagine that any of this 
        could be based on an incorrect assumption - that there could be anything 
        wrong with the market economy system, a giant wheel in which he himself 
        is but a tiny, tiny cog. Somewhere deep inside, he retains a small illusion 
        of freedom and independence which he nurtures tenderly.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">He has a lot of respect for the hacker. 
        The 20-year-old on the other side of the table managed, after all, to 
        breach all the walls he has built. And the hacker didn't accomplish this 
        through violence, but through intelligence. He manipulated Telia's computers. 
        He was one step ahead of Telia's own security teams. The boss is impressed. 
        But at the same time he knows, based on his fundamental appreciation of 
        the society which lets him live in a plush two-story house with a housewife, 
        two kids, and two cars, that this kid is wrong. The boy is a criminal, 
        and should be treated like one. He knows that he is dealing with a dangerous 
        individual. He has completely swallowed the myth of the hacker as a cold-blooded, 
        anarchistic antagonist. It his </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>him</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman">, the Chief of Security, who is right. The 
        concrete, the desk, the condo, the market, the school system... all of 
        these back him up. Of course he's right. How else are things supposed 
        to work?</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Of course, he has to know how the kid did 
        it. Since he knows that he's right, he feels entitled to use any means 
        available. In the concrete chambers in G&#246;teborg, Farsta, and Kalmar, 
        his devoted servants stand at attention - </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>IBM 
        3081 d, AS/9000, Sperry 1100/92 - </b></font> <font face="Times New Roman">computers 
        that obey his every command. Even before the hacker was brought to the 
        office, he had lists printed of all the calls that this individual had 
        made during the last six months. An exhaustive list, with dates and times 
        down to the second. </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>So he called 
        his girlfriend in the middle of the night after a two-hour call to a toll-free 
        number in the States? Why? Is she involved as well?</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        It'll be a long interrogation. The hacker on the other side of the desk 
        doesn't know that the list that is about to be put in front of his nose 
        by Telia's security chief is totally useless from a legal point of view. 
        Nothing is witnessed or signed; only five calls have been traced. These 
        calls constitute the only binding evidence.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">The hacker, with his boring middle-class 
        background, looks across the table and straight into the eyes of the impressive 
        boss. He locks gazes with Gibson's psychopathic Tessier-Ashpool concern. 
        He sees the enormous company's pulsating brain sitting in front of him, 
        dressed in Lacoste pants and a white shirt. The question is whether he 
        understands this.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The BBS that Vanished</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
        </font> <font face="Times New Roman">Let's imagine that a group of cyberpunks, 
        in the near future, create a BBS named </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Pheliks</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> to spread information using a powerful personal 
        computer with several telecommunications lines. Stored on this BBS is 
        pirated software, drug recipes, anarchist pamphlets, in-depth descriptions 
        of Telia's AXE switches, documentation for smart credit cards, and much 
        more. The software industry, spearheaded by Microsoft, are pissed. The 
        credit card companies, spearheaded by Visa and Mastercard, are pissed. 
        The police, wishing to maintain order, knows that this is against the 
        law and feels compelled to act. Unfortunately, the cyberpunks are aware 
        of the possible countermeasures of the police and other authorities, and 
        have implemented their own counter-countermeasures. When the authorities 
        call up the BBS they are greeted by the following message:</font></p>
      <blockquote> 
        <p><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Pheliks BBS - open 24 hours at 28.800 
          bps.</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Times New Roman"><b>NOTE: Pheliks BBS is open to amateurs. 
          Police, journalists, researchers, or other persons in an official capacity, 
          as well as business persons or representatives of non-profit organizations, 
          are NOT WELCOME. If you belong to any of these categories, we humbly 
          but firmly ask you to terminate your connection to Pheliks BBS. Press 
          ENTER to confirm that you do not belong to any of the above categories. 
          Press +++ath0 to terminate the connection.</b></font> </p>
      </blockquote>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">Through this messages, paragraph 21 of the 
        data code is invoked, with the result that anyone not complying with the 
        request is guilty of a computer crime. In this way, every form of electronic 
        search is made impossible, and the BBS is not threatened by governmental 
        agencies or research institutes, which are bound to stay within the law.&nbsp;</font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Journalists</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"> 
        could in this case appeal to their moral right, as a third power of the 
        State, to breach the data code in the public interest. The software companies, 
        in the form of Business Software Alliance, would also (most likely) not 
        give a shit about the data code and proceed despite the message. After 
        a scoop in the papers, combined with repeated anonymous tips (read: lobbying) 
        from the BSA, and combined with some sort of surveillance indicating that 
        there might even be illegal drugs in the same location as the BBS, the 
        police could raid the BBS after all.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">However, the cyberpunks have predicted this 
        scenario as well. When the cops bring the BBS computer to the station, 
        they find that the part of the hard drive containing the BBS's information 
        has been encrypted with the </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Securedrive</i></font> 
        <font face="Times New Roman"> program. This software uses 128-bit DES 
        encryption, known to be uncrackable. To encrypt your hard drive is perfectly 
        legal - businesses do it to protect confidential information from theft, 
        and as opposed to everyday locks, encryption cannot be opened by force. 
        At the same time the police turned the computer off, it became useless 
        as evidence. For investigative reasons, of course, the cops could keep 
        the computer for a century or so, and in this manner prevent the suspicious 
        activity from recurring. Unfortunately, computers are not that expensive. 
        Even before the investigation has begun, the well-organized cyberpunks 
        have gotten a new computer and restored the entire BBS from tape backups 
        stored in a totally separate location. Companies use the same method to 
        protect valuable information from theft, fire, or hardware malfunction. 
        </font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">The police can then, given reasonable cause, 
        install surveillance equipment and record the traffic to and from the 
        BBS, record cyberpunks keystrokes, etc., in order to make a successful 
        bust. But this is very expensive, and there has to be a good reason for 
        such measures. It is also probably that the software companies resort 
        to illegitimate measures. Perhaps they retain a samurai hacker, like the 
        computer cowboy Case in Gibson's novels, to enter the BBS and crash it 
        on the orders of the company. Perhaps some company manages to convince 
        Telia to shut down the BBS's phone lines. In this way, established society 
        can protect itself against the cyberpunks, and maintain the ideals that 
        have been threatened.</font></p>
      <p><font face="Times New Roman">The real danger occurs when too many groups 
        like that appear, hiding from governments and companies, or form an organized, 
        nationwide base. The worst thing that can happen is that the BBS moves 
        to an unknown address on the Internet, possibly in Taiwan or Chile. If 
        you can afford to rent space on a computer on the other side of the world 
        (which probably is cheaper than having your own), there are no problems 
        with maintaining such an operation from Sweden. This is when the cyberpunks 
        can go from information syndicate to broad, underground, political movement. 
        And this is the real threat to established society. It is not certain 
        that it is a threat to society from a historical perspective. I will return 
        to this question.<sup><a href="#FTNT12">(12)</a></sup></font> </p>
      <hr>
      <br>
      <font color="#666666"><a name="FTNT1"></a> 1. </font> <font face="Times New Roman" color="#666666"> 
      German authorities took this approach in trying to shut down </font> <font face="Times New Roman" color="#666666"><i>Radikal</i></font> 
      <font face="Times New Roman" color="#666666">, an extreme-leftist magazine, 
      which - intelligently enough - has stored their files on a computer in Holland. 
      The endeavor became a fiasco: about thirty supporters copied the documents 
      to their own computers, with the result that Germany would have to disconnect 
      the entire world to get rid of </font> <font face="Times New Roman" color="#666666"><i>Radikal</i></font> 
      <font face="Times New Roman" color="#666666">.</font> <font face="Times New Roman" color="#666666"><br>
      <br>
      <a name="FTNT2"></a> 2. Japan, for example, has a very liberal view of material 
      that people in Sweden would most likely put in the category of child pornography. 
      <br>
      <br>
      <a name="FTNT3"></a> 3. I am not fond of international governmental organizations 
      except as forums for discussion. As such, they excel. On the question of 
      international retaliations and such, I am undecided. <br>
      <br>
      <a name="FTNT4"></a> 4. I. e., computer crime sometimes pays - if you're 
      the baddest. <br>
      <br>
      <a name="FTNT5"></a> 5. Some may object to me defining this in my own terms. 
      This is because there is no legal framework within which to discuss the 
      issue. <br>
      <br>
      <a name="FTNT6"></a> 6. I am greatly indebted to Anders R Olsson for many 
      of the details regarding the origins of the Data Code and the inception 
      of Datainspectionen. <br>
      <br>
      <a name="FTNT7"></a> 7. This is probably the reason that Europe's largest 
      hacking magazine, <i>Hacktic</i> , is based in Holland. The hackers later 
      started an Internet company called XS4ALL, which is one of the largest and 
      most controversial Dutch internet providers. <br>
      <br>
      <a name="FTNT8"></a> 8. On the other hand, I don't think that this type 
      of government is ideal, nor that it will last in the future. <br>
      <br>
      <a name="FTNT9"></a> 9. In case you are wondering: yes, I've studied social 
      psychology as well. <br>
      <br>
      <a name="FTNT10"></a> 10. I have obtained this information from an anonymous 
      technician at Telia. Ronnie Bjarnf&#228;lt, at Telia National Security, 
      claims that the logs are normally only kept for 24 hours. I have personally 
      seen logs comprising three months of telephone traffic. <br>
      <br>
      <a name="FTNT11"></a> 11. Anonymous hacker in october 1996: <i>&quot;I am 
      inside Telia's firewall again... they installed a new one that was much 
      better, but I got around it...&quot;</i> <br>
      <br>
      <a name="FTNT12"></a> 12. All &quot;fictional&quot; events in this episode 
      have occured in reality.</font></td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p align="center"><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><a href="ch9web.htm"><img src="arrowleft.gif" width="45" height="54" align="absmiddle" name="ch1web.htm" border="0"></a><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+1" color="#999999"> 
  <a href="mainindex.htm">INDEX</a> </font><a href="ch11web.htm"><img src="arrowright.gif" width="45" height="54" align="absmiddle" border="0"></a></font><font color=BLUE><b></b></font><font color=BLUE><b></b></font></p>
<p align=center> </p>
<p align=center><font size="1">Design and formatting by <a href="mailto:nirgendwo@usa.net">Daniel 
  Arnrup</a>/<a href="http://www.voodoosystems.nu">Voodoo Systems</a></font></p>
<FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman"> 
</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font>
</BODY></HTML>