Hacker hunts, and makes incredible find...

Malarkey. If a hacker doesn't want to cause damage, they don't--if they break something, they intended to. Getting IN doesn't require damaging the system or any data on it.

U.S. officials claim he caused $700,000 (388,000 pounds) worth of damage and even crippled vital defence systems shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Click to expand...

I guess I wouldn't consider someone a credible source when they claim to have 'accidentally' crippled any computer system. Pouring coffee on a keyboard? Accident. Taking down a server? Not an accident.

If I where to leave my front door unlocked, does that give you the right to walk in and search my belongings?

Yes, security is sometimes lacking. Yes, sometimes secrets are secret for the wrong reasons. But every country, company, organization, or individual has an inalienable right to keep information secret, provided it is not to support criminal activity.

I hope this hacker is convicted and sentenced to the full extent of the law.

As far as UFO's, I think he's using that as an imaginative defense for his crimes.

OrionGirl said:

I guess I wouldn't consider someone a credible source when they claim to have 'accidentally' crippled any computer system. Pouring coffee on a keyboard? Accident. Taking down a server? Not an accident.

Click to expand...

You know, after 9/11 you would assume that those computers would be more tight in their security from possible hackers. Our government is much as in fault as this guy is. Their systems are no longer top of the line and are lacking in security. A friend of mine was an Admin for the Gov and stated many of their systems were running software no longer supported by Microsoft.

I'm with DirkW on this one--an open door is NOT an invitation for theft. And, working in the IT field as I do, I am very familiar with how little the average non-tech person knows about security. For all to many otherwise very bright people, computers remain 'magic boxes', and they don't understand how they work. Even how pieces of them work. I know people who think that just by installing SpyBot, they're handling the spyware, nothing else needs to be done.

Just because you CAN rob someone blind does NOT make it okay to do so!

The thing is, I don't know how hard it is nowadays, but years back, I would chat at the MIRC page things. There were rooms where people would talk about hacking n stuff. you didn't have to be a genius programmer to hack into someone's computer. usually they're very small and simple programs that give you access to other computers....And if it's so easy to use, people will try them out.

That kid who jammed Yahoo and caused so much of a mess, "Mafia boy" admitted that when he shutdown Yahoo, it wasn't hard to do at all. he just got this program that pings the host. it repeats itself, over and over, until the server can't handle it, and it jams. I don't know the right computer terms n stuff, but you get the idea.

the military should have made it harder for this guy to break into their files. there must be a way. People are curious, and if they have a way of finding out info, they'll usually try it out. I think 70 years and 1.7 million $ is a little harsh...

cheech said:

That kid who jammed Yahoo and caused so much of a mess, "Mafia boy" admitted that when he shutdown Yahoo, it wasn't hard to do at all. he just got this program that pings the host. it repeats itself, over and over, until the server can't handle it, and it jams. I don't know the right computer terms n stuff, but you get the idea.

Click to expand...

Thats DDoS, or Distributed Denial of Service. You pretty much have the description correct.
I remember doing this to people in the computer lab in high school. When we were all working on big long projects, I used to find out where the people I didn't like were sitting at and crash their computer. They all had to start over so many times

I had a good laugh

They oughta give the guy a medal for finding the holes in their systems.

Mark