[iwar] Italian police arrest 14 in hacker probe (fwd)

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Date: 2002-08-06 15:08:03


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Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2002 15:08:03 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] Italian police arrest 14 in hacker probe (fwd)
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Italian police arrest 14 in hacker probe
By Matthew Broersma 
Special to CNET News.com
August 2, 2002, 11:25 AM PT
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-948179.html 

Italian police have arrested 14 suspected hackers who are accused of=
thousands of computer intrusions, including attacks on the U.S. Army and=
Navy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 
Italy's financial police, the Guardia di Finanza, said Thursday that those=
arrested included four minors, the security manager of a large Italian=
Internet service provider, a network security manager for a computer=
consulting company, and several information technology consultants. Some=
had close ties to protest groups, police said. 

They were all members of two hacking groups, called "Mentor" and "Reservoir=
Dogs," the police said. The individuals were based in cities throughout=
Italy, they said. 

The arrests are the culmination of several months of investigation, which=
began last October and was initiated by the U.S. Secret Service following=
the theft of sensitive files from U.S. government and military sites. The=
U.S. Army CID (Criminal Investigation Command), U.S. Navy and the U.S.=
Secret Service assisted in the investigation. 

Besides the theft of government documents, the suspects are accused of=
running up large bills on credit card numbers stolen from servers and of=
using information gained from their attacks to crack an encryption system=
called SECA2, used by Italy's Tele+ and Stream satellite broadcasters. 

Upon carrying out search warrants, police also said they discovered several=
hundred pirated DVDs, which were allegedly being distributed by the=
suspects. The individuals kept the illegally copied DVD content on=
university servers that they had cracked, alleges the Guardia di Finanza. 

Some of those arrested had used their position as security consultants to=
gain illegal access to their clients' servers, the police said. 

"In certain circumstances, the security systems installed in the private=
companies network were actually hiding a back door, which allowed the=
hackers to conduct their attacks," said Dario Forte, a technical expert=
who runs the Guardia di Finanza's forensics unit. The unit located the=
hacking groups. 

The Reservoir Dogs group has surfaced before. An Estonian security group=
called "Domina" recently carried out an interview with a person claiming=
to be part of the group. In the interview, Reservoir Dogs was described as=
consisting of 10 members, all Italian, between the ages of 16 and 26. The=
group focused on hacking Unix and Unix-like operating systems such as=
Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris and Irix, the individual said. 

The unnamed member said that Reservoir Dogs was not interested in politics;=
they hacked systems more to demonstrate skill than to prove a point. He or=
she said the group hacked at least 100 sites per month, sometimes=
including one "serious" system, such as a bank or government server, per=
day. 

The member was unworried by the attentions of law-enforcement: "We have not=
had any confrontations with law enforcement, luckily. We think that there=
are a few rules to be followed (if you do not want to be) caught. We try=
to respect them." 

The accused hackers could be imprisoned for up to eight years. 

ZD U.K.'s Matthew Broersma reported from London. 

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