Forwarded From: shadowvrai@trust-me.com http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/18067.html Hacker Sentenced to Prison by James Glave and John Gartner 7:00 p.m. 22.Feb.99.PST A Rhode Island hacker who broke into universities, disabled Internet services, and ran a Web site for hackers will have to break through more than firewalls after receiving a one- year federal prison sentence. US District Judge Patti Saris recommended Sean Trifero, 21, of Middleton, Rhode Island, spend 12 months in a boot camp and ordered he pay US$32,650 in damages to the institutions he violated. During 1996 and 1997, Trifero broke into computers at Harvard University, damaged servers at Amherst College, and stole passwords and disrupted services at numerous sites in Alaska, Nebraska, and Florida. Trifero pled guilty to computer-hacking charges in October 1998 and admitted running a hacking-group Web site called Virii. Colleagues of Trifero who contributed to the site said his sentence was too harsh. "Let the punishment fit the crime. Rapists don't get that much time," said a colleague who identified himself as Calldan, a 21-year-old from Oregon. Fellow hackers familiar with Trifero's actions said he was a scapegoat for other hackers' crimes and poorly secured Web sites. "If you leave your car parked in Harlem with it running and walk away, do you expect it to be there in an hour?" said a hacker identified as Neverend. The interview was conducted in Internet Relay Chat, a medium where identities can easily be concealed or forged. Calldan added that any competent system administrator could have stopped the attacks within five minutes. "I think [the sentence] was appropriate," said Bill Fread, director of information technology at Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, one of the companies that was compromised. In a telephone interview, Fread said although the damage to his company was limited, hackers need to be deterred. "There is a level of trust on the Internet, and it never hurts to use a hammer to reinforce that trust from time to time." Fread said the hacked server was a test server outside the firewall and did not contain sensitive information. Fread said Trifero used known entry methods and was not viewed as particularly expert. The criminal investigation was a cooperative effort between the US attorney's office, the FBI, the Middletown Police Department and the Inspector General of NASA. -o- Subscribe: mail majordomoat_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Internet Security Institute [www.isi-sec.com]
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