[iwar] [fc:Hacking.in.the.name.of.security]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-07-22 20:45:17
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Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 20:45:17 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Hacking.in.the.name.of.security]
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Hacking in the name of security
<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/07/20/hackers.meeting.reut/index.html">http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/07/20/hackers.meeting.reut/index.html>

CNN via Reuters
'A little odd sometimes, but very, very smart'

July 20, 2002 Posted: 8:45 AM EDT (1245 GMT)

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Barry "The Key" Wels picks locks for the sport of
it, but also to make a broader point.

He fiddles with tumblers and cracks safes for fun, and to alert the
security industry to the weaknesses of many locks, which serve as a
bulwark of society's physical safety. Locks, whether keyed or
combination, melt like butter in his hands.

Lock pickers and safecrackers share with computer hackers a common
fascination with exposing security "vulnerabilities." The fraternity of
security violators surfaced at a rare meeting of the U.S. computer
underground in New York recently that drew 2,000 Internet enthusiasts
and security professionals.

"It's real easy, it's real addictive ... to open a lock in two or three
pops," said The Key, who is also an active computer hacker and
cryptology buff.

He's just one of the scores of speakers to discuss in intimate detail
how one can beat the security systems found on computers, networks,
telephones, radios, encryption, office security cards, keypads as well
as doors and bank safes.

The event has a curriculum of borderline criminal computer skills like
no school on Earth. It's not every conference where a speaker asks his
audience: "How many people have written a computer virus before?" and
several hands shoot up.

This may strike the casual observer as a school for scandal in the
spirit of Moliere or Dickens.

But the event is seen by many sober-minded computer experts who attend
it as essential information-sharing, a test of the health and security
of an open society.

The logic follows that the best way to defend against viruses is to
learn how to write one. Such frank discussion of security
vulnerabilities is viewed as the final defense against really dangerous
computer attacks or online privacy invasions.

"It tells you where the state of the art is, or at least where 90
percent of mainstream hackers are headed," said a U.S. Navy computer
intelligence officer, who goes by the online pseudonym of "NetSquid."

The three-day conference known as H2K2 -- short for Hackers 2002 -- was
organized by the publishers of 2600, a magazine sold in suburban
bookstores that celebrates the culture of computer hacking. To preserve
anonymity and draw the largest crowd, no names are taken at
registration.

"There is no other meeting in the world where you run into more elite
hackers," said the Navy computer expert, who asked that his real name
not be used. "What really startled me is how upright they are. Quirky, a
little odd sometimes, but very, very smart," he said.

The agenda is located on the Web at http://www.h2k2.net.

Computers, a hacker's caffeine

The hacker crowd draws lots of teen-agers and twentysomethings, some
with blue hair, others wit h peach-fuzz still on their cheeks. They mix
with 50-year-old hippies who in some cases got their start breaking into
old Ma Bell phone systems, years before computers went mainstream. Men
(and boys) outnumber women (and girls) roughly 20 to 1 at the event.

Participants share a love of all things electronic and gadgety. Many say
their interest in computers started young, when alienated from a wider
culture that lacks their easy facility with complex numbers. They found
meaning and community online, in the cloak and dagger world of computer
security.

The audience drinks in computer screens, with a passion that most people
reserve for slurping their first cup of coffee in the morning.

"I've got to get on a computer or I'm going to die," one
fish-out-of-water complains as he hurries between meetings.

Mike Glaser, a sales representative in the access control device
industry, stands out from the slacker crowd with his slick-backed hair
and two-piece suit. He cautions listeners during a presentation on his
latest product line-up that, "Everything has it's weaknesses. If you can
find it, you are going to be a very rich, or a very jailed person."

"You didn't hear it from me," said Glaser after revealing a security
detail known largely only to industry insiders.

Noticeably absent is any sign of the police, although participants
commonly believe that there are government agents circling in their
midst. The conference program warns: "This hotel is our home for the
weekend and there will be more authority types in proximity than you can
imagine."

Studying crimes to thwart them

The participants are defensive about being labeled bad guys, just
because they like to break into places.

"We explore and you call us criminals. ... Yes, I'm a criminal, my crime
is that of curiosity," said "Mentor", a hacking pioneer whose real name
is Lloyd Blankenship. The Texan wrote "Conscience of a Hacker," which
has become a kind of credo for young hackers since he wrote the essay in
1986. He gives an inspirational pep talk to hundreds of adoring
spectators, some of whom were not yet born when he wrote his passionate
defense of the art of exploring computer systems.

But for all their efforts to whip up positive feelings about the art of
the break-in, there is a level of paranoia that goes with the territory.

"It's best to change all your passwords after you leave this
conference," one teen-age hacker helpfully advises a bystander at the
conference.

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