Forwarded From: Julian Assange <profft_private> Originally To: lacct_private Police seek help in hacking case By NICOLE MANKTELOW 22jul98 VICTORIAN police have called for companies that have lost data or suffered damage to their computer systems to come forward after the arrest of a 30-year-old man allegedly responsible for a two-week hacking spree. Police allege the hacker, using the name Number Crunch, attacked business, corporate and government computers in all major capital cities. Police allege that in some cases attacks have resulted in computer crashes, requiring complete systems to be re-built. They allege the hacker exploited "operating systems weaknesses" of NT servers, workstations and Windows 95 workstations - in order to delete operating system software from servers and wipe important information from local area networks. Detective Senior Constable Richard Culshaw of the Computer Crime Squad said a man was arrested and charged with one count of criminal damage. He is now on bail. Detective Culshaw said some companies may have attributed loss of data or interference with systems to a virus. This was the first case of its kind to be handled by the Victorian computer crime squad, he said. Speaking generally and without any reference to this case, Detective Culshaw said the squad dealt with cases of fraud, particularly the misuse of credit cards. He said up to $10 million had been lost by Internet service providers due to credit card fraud, where bogus credit card numbers were used to attain Internet accounts. Fraudulent users then ran up the hourly and data charges to hefty bills - some as much as $16,000, he said. The crux of the problem was a program available on the Internet, which could generate plausible credit card numbers. Cases of computer hacking, on the other hand, were infrequent. Most reported incidents of hacking involved "teenagers mucking about", Detective Culshaw said. Police urge anyone with information about computer crime to ring Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Anyone with information about suspected hacking, particularly after June 29, should call Detective Senior Constable Culshaw on (03) 9865 2042. -o- Subscribe: mail majordomot_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: New Dimensions International [www.newdimensions.net]
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