| From: | Undetermined origin c/o Postmaster <POSTMASTER@*****.BITNET> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | None |
| Date: | Sat, 5 Feb 1994 22:01:37 +0100 |
Probe Underway for Some Time; Local Users Take Security Steps
By John Burgess, Washington Post Staff Writer
>From The Washington Post, Saturday, February 5, 1994, Page C1
(Reprinted without permission.)
The FBI is looking into increasingly frequent computer break-ins
that have unnerved the global communications network known as the
Internet, Justice Department and computer security sources said yesterday.
The probe has been underway for some time. FBI officials a year
ago interviewed computer technicians at George Mason University in Fairfax
[Virginia] after the discovery there of a small-scale break-in that
matched the pattern of the recent ones, univers ity officials said
yesterday.
The snowballing incidents led to an emergency call Thursday for
tighter security on the network, which serves roughly 15 million people.
The Internet links computers with high-capacity data lines,
allowing people to trade electronic mail, documents, pictures and sounds
almost instantly, whether across town or around the world. Users must
first type in passwords that are meant to be kept s ecret.
Security specialists have found that dozens of Internet computers
had been illicitly loaded with "sniffer" programs that surreptitiously
monitor network traffic adn collect passwords, then report them to unknown
parties on the outside.
The passwords would enable these people to enter computers as if
they were the authorized users, to view confidential information and
destroy or change it. That would violate federal fraud law.
Recently, the incidents have become more frequent. "This action
was no longer an experiment on the part of somebody," said Dain Gary of
the Computer Emergency Response Team, a federally funded security
organization based at the Software Engineering Insti tute in Pittsburgh.
"Rather the technique had been copied and widely disseminated." Gary
estimated yesterday that tens of thousands of passwords might have been
compromised.
It remains unclear to what extent the interlopers have done real
damage--many seem motivated more by the intellectual challenge of
collecting the passwords, security experts said. The FBI yesterday would
not confirm reports of an investigation.
Yesterday, technicians who mind Internet computers were struggling
with recommendations issued by Gary's group.
It offered up new security software for computers deemed
particularly vulnerable and recommended that anyone who transmits
passwords over the network to gain access to distant machines should
assume the passwords have been captured and change them. Passwords used
to sign on to a local machine by telephone link need not be changed.
The University of Maryland's computer science department yesterday
began running special diagnostic software to search for such intruders on
its machines, according to officials there. It found none. The school's
math department, meanwhile, disconnected its computers from the Internet
and changed passwords.
At George Mason, computer engineers yesterday decided that current
security arrangements were strong enough to make password changed
unnecessary.
One year ago, two small computer systems inside the university
were found to be harboring programs that were collecting passwords,
computer systems lead engineer Joe Hutchinson said.
In a job that took several days, the programs were removed. "We
stuffed the holes in these particular machines that were used to get in,"
he said.
Staff members at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a Washington
computer advocacy group, took action as well yesterday.
"We care about civil liberties but we also care about security,"
said executive director Jerry Berman. "So we're changing our passwords."
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Typed verbatim by J.D. Falk <jdfalk@***.gwu.edu>
Typos are probably my fault, incorrect information isn't.
