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- SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Two California teenagers who mounted one of the most
organized and systematic hacker attacks ever on U.S. military computers
pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of juvenile delinquency. U.S. Attorney
Michael Yamaguchi said the two whizkids, who have not been officially identified,
had admitted to a string of cyber-attacks in February which set alarm bells
ringing over the state of U.S. computer security. ``The government takes
very seriously any attacks on the computer systems which have become so
much a part of the American infrastructure,'' Yamaguchi said in a statement.
``We all rely heavily on these computers operating properly on a day-to-day
basis, and any intrusion can lead to major disruption in important public
and private services.'' The California hackers were cornered on Feb. 25,
when FBI agents descended on their homes in Cloverdale, about 75 miles
north of San Francisco, searched their homes and seized computers, software
and printers.
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- The search followed an intensive investigation
by the FBI, the Defense Department and NASA, all of whom had grown concerned
at a series of hacker assaults on sensitive military and institutional
computers.
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- Although officials said no classified
networks were penetrated, the ease with which the hackers accessed computers
at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the U.S. Air Force and other
organizations clearly demonstrated how vulnerable the U.S. computer system
had become. Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre told reporters the barrage
was ``the most organized and systematic attack the Pentagon has seen to
date.'' The teenagers pleaded guilty to illegally accessing restricted
computers, using ``sniffer'' programs to intercept computer passwords,
and reprogramming computers to allow complete access to all of its files.
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- They also pleaded guilty to inserting
``backdoor'' programs in the computer to allow themselves to re-enter at
will. Beginning with a local Internet service provider, which eventually
raised the alarm over possible intrusion, the boys leapfrogged into other
systems, including the University of California at Berkeley, the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, national laboratories, numerous military computers
and two sites in Mexico. Yamaguchi said some of the computers hit by the
hackers were ``Domain Name Servers'' -- which are key to routing information
across the Internet.
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- ``Damage to these computers had the potential
to disrupt military communications throughout the world,'' Yamaguchi said.
Each of the two teenagers could have been put into custody until his 21st
birthday. But Yamaguchi said that under plea agreements, he would recommend
that they be placed on probation -- and kept well away from any unsupervised
use of computers. ``Each juvenile will only be able to access a remote
computer system (i.e. use a modem to access a remote computer) under the
supervision of a school teacher, a librarian, an employer, or other person
approved by the probation office,'' Yamaguchi said. Furthermore, the boys
were both forbidden to possess a modem at home, and were barred from seeking
employment in the computer field during their probation. They are expected
to be formally sentenced in several months.
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- Yamaguchi said the incident highlighted
how easy it had become for skilled individuals -- often children -- to
access computer systems, no matter what kind of defenses are put up. ``Parents
and teachers must realize that we have a responsibility to teach our children,
not only how to use computers, but also how not to use them,'' he said.
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