Forwarded From: William Knowles <erehwont_private> [Forbes Digital Tool, By Adam L. Penenberg] (http://www.forbes.com) J3 spends his days trolling around the hacker underground, monitoring hacker channels on Internet Relay Chat, checking out the latest on "phreaking,"--cracking the phone system-- dialing up bulletin boards and checking out web sites that offer password-cracking software and how-to guides. For J3 this isn't just a hobby, it's a job. ICSA, a computer security firm, hired J3 (not his real name nor his online "nick", since his success depends on total anonymity) two years ago as the company's lead underground analyst. His mission: to keep tabs on the latest trends and tools in the hacker world. When he gets wind of a new security hole, he passes the information on to ICSA's tech staff so that the company can either develop a defense or tip off software makers before the flaw can be exploited. J3 is very busy. Recently, a group of European hackers released a Trojan horse-like program that would enable them to set up backdoors in geeky programs known only to network administrators, such as "named" programs related to domain name servers, a basic component of any network connected to the larger Internet. J3 found out about it in the course of his monitoring, passed it on to ICSA, and the company informed CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) which posted an advisory. The Internet is a lot like Lord of the Flies, a nasty, violent --yet virtual--world where the strong intimidate the weak. He was also instrumental in helping ICSA detect two types of denial of service attack modes--Teardrop and Land--that were being used to exploit vulnerabilities in the TCP/IP protocol. These new attacks took advantage of tweaks that would beat existing patches, which made it difficult for system administrators to stay ahead of hackers. But J3, because of his links to the underground, was able to learn of these exploits shortly after they were posted on hacker channels. "I'm proud of a lot of the work we do," J3 says. "I've found a company's entire password file posted to a web site, or that hackers have root in a network or that a merchant site with a database of credit cards has been compromised. I then contact the companies and warn them." He says that the Internet is a lot like Lord of the Flies, a nasty, violent--yet virtual--world where the strong intimidate the weak. Not all hackers are destructive, of course. There are many good ones on a quest for pure information, the lifeblood of their avocation, who post security flaws because they believe it's the best way to fix them. It's the ones who exploit these flaws to cause damage that irritate J3. But they have a vulnerability: their need for self-aggrandizement, which is key to J3's success. "If hackers didn't brag," he says, "I wouldn't have a job." J3, who works mostly nights since the Internet never sleeps, isn't just a full-time worker. He's also a graduate student working on his Ph.D. in psychology. And his area of study? Hackers, of course. -o- Subscribe: mail majordomot_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated [www.repsec.com]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 13 2001 - 12:57:53 PDT