The main page of The New York Times was hacked by a group called HFG on Sunday, September 13, 1998. Although mainstream America probably had a great deal of difficulty translating their speech, some important points were made - namely that Kevin Mitnick remains in prison and that John Markoff, a writer for the Times, helped put him there. At the time of this hack, Mitnick had been in prison more than three and a half years without a trial. Ironically, this "political statement" is viewed by many to be more serious than anything Mitnick has been charged with.
One interesting note about this hack: more intelligent and pertinent commentary is actually found in the source to the page, which isn't visible to the casual viewer.
Here is the hidden message:
Just because we type in all caps and use 'elite' speak doesn't mean
we are kids, or we don't own your dumb ass. For everyone who calls
us immature kids, it shows one more person has underestimated us.
And worse, what does that say about their security? That "immature
kids" were able to bypass their 25,000 dollar firewalls, bypass
the security put there by admins with XX years of experience or a
XXX degree from some college. Nyah Nyah.
"The best is the enemy of the good."
- Voltaire
Labeling us as such is not constructive. If we find the time and
effort to hack a few pages, labeling us "terrorists" will only
further annoy us and provoke us since it is absurd to make
such parallels between two disparate groups. The real reason
we put any blame on Carolyn Meinel is because of her obtuse
overdramatizations of our actions. Did we hold anyone hostage?
No. Did we 'terrorize' anyone? No. Did we point out the
inadequacy of her ISP? Hell yes. End of story.
The injustice Markoff has committed is criminal. He belongs in a
jail rotting instead of Kevin Mitnick. Kevin is no dark side
hacker. He is not malicious. He is not a demon. He did not abuse
credit cards, distribute the software he found, or deny service
to a single machine. Is that so hard to comprehend?
Truth be known, she is writing a chapter about us in her second
book. She has contacted HFG on numerous occasions asking us if
we could show our 'hacking prowess' (her words) so that she may
cover it exclusively in her book. She offered us 10% of the
book earnings and we agreed. Since she doesn't know how to
read these comments using her Internet Explorer, we are giving
her a slap in the face. Her goal all along has been to lead us
on, watch us get busted, then write about us.. a la Markoff/Mitnick,
Shimomoru/Mitnick, Quittner/MOD, Stoll/Hess.. see a pattern forming
here? We sure do.
Obviously we don't really offer training seminars, but
damn well we should. Look at how many clueless admins are
out there. Look at what kind of proprietary data they are
tasked to guard. Think of how easy it is to get past their
pathetic defenses and compromise their security. I knew
working as a Taco Bell manager wouldn't cut it.
True, there is a much more noble reason for everything.
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knownledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
- Lord Alfred Tennyson
CAROLYN MEINEL TAUGHT US TO HACK AND TO HAVE NO ETHICS. BLAME HER.
You foolish windows chumps probably will never see any of the
real meaning of this page. Your loss.
Yes, it truly is boredom that sparked these pages.
milw0rm has been shown to be no better than rootshell.com kiddies.
solaris 2.4 statd is n0t exactly 0-day you know.
analyzer. glorified script kiddie.
MOD (Masters of Downloading). Wow. FTPing via 'anonymous' is 'leet
LOU (Legions of the Underground). optiklenz and zyklon, your pages
are so creative and inspiring. Like you had a real purpose and
meaningful statement by replacing a page with "Zyklon and lyp0x
owned you!!!!!!!!!1 HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS". *yawn* Shut up.
Enforcers. Contrived media hype for Ian. Enough said.
Cobra. www.rent-a-hacker.com elite? h0h0h0h0h0
Ashtray Lumberjacks. Your name says it all. More script kiddies.
AntiOnline. No wonder people give you shit. You don't cover all
the hacks you hear about, and you help glorify these amateur
glorified script kiddies. Eat our dust.
H4G1S. Enough said. (H4G1S == F4GZ)
For those of you out of the loop, the hacker known as 'u4ea' is
an FBI informant. He has been for well over a year now.
Further, Shimomura was under investigation after the whole Mitnick
ordeal. What, you didn't wonder where HE got some of the proprietary
software from? Or his OKI mods for scanning and tumbling?
We won't even go into the abuse and treachery surrounding the whole
vigilante justice thing. Or why biased reporter civilians were
allowed to partake in any part of the investigation.
Speaking of FBI.. did we forget to mention what Carolyn Meinel
offered to do for us? If asked who we were, or if she had any
knowledge of who we are, she offered to give misleading information
to the FBI in order to help us continue our hacking spree. She
assured us that she had plenty of other people to focus the FBI's
attention on, and that they would "surely take the heat". The only
qualifier to this arrangement, is that she get exclusive rights to
our 'story'.
And for you old crazy hags and FBI agents who want to catch us,
consider the whole picture. We are bored, want to make people laugh,
and most assuredly not malicious. Focus your efforts on those who
attempt to subvert your efforts, for the real evil lies in sheep's
clothing more often than not. Oh, Ms Meinel.. consider the following
as it applies to you more than you realize:
"As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil,
then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that
they set out to destroy." - Christopher Dawson
What are they saying about HFG?
HFG is "assaulting customers of RT66", "chilling freedom of speech
across the Internet", causing "1.8 million in damage" to rt66.com,
are responsible for "the hacker war that has escalated to epic
proportions", and "the worst terrorists in the history of computer
crime". - Carolyn Meinel
HFG is "hostage-takers", who "hold hostage" ISPs. - Carolyn Meinel
"HFG is lame. They are kids who like to edit webpages by dwelling
on others code to gain access." - DeathCrase in #phrack
Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you disagree with this crap, mail Carolyn P. Meinel (CM1733) at
cpm@techbroker.com, cpm@rt66.com .. or search for her in your
favorite info database: SS# 558-82-9106
505-281-9675, 505-281-9269, 505-281-0490
4 Fawn RD, Cedar Crest NM 87008
79 Weimer Rd. N, Sandia Park NM 87047
Feel free to mail her 'backdoor man' Winn Schwartau as well.
William L. Schwartau (aka Winn Schwartau) SS# 134-36-7297
winn@infowar.com
So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear,
Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost;
Evil, be thou my good.
- John Milton
People we figured should know about this:
markfoffnyt@aol.com, mrichtel@nytimes.com, alexander_wellen@zd.com,
apenenberg@forbes.com, declan@well.com, james@wired.com,
lzkoch@wwa.com, newsfeedback@wired.com, janetk@cnet.com,
skinny@cnet.com, aaa-list@lists.netlink.co.uk, bugtraq@netspace.org
winn@infowar.com, csp-list@sotmesc.org, isn@sekurity.org,
hh-chat@lists.secureservers.net, ameagle@whitemtns.com,
dc-stuff@dis.org, root@dis.org, root@l0pht.com, root@infonexus.com
root@phrack.com, root@505.org, webmaster@zd.com, editor@zdnet.com
tsutomu@sdsc.edu, emmanuel@2600.com