Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mit-eddie.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!bcn From: bcn@mit-eddie.UUCP (Clifford Neuman) Newsgroups: net.legal Subject: Intruder roundup Message-ID: <975@mit-eddie.UUCP> Date: Mon, 28-Nov-83 23:53:40 EST Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.975 Posted: Mon Nov 28 23:53:40 1983 Date-Received: Wed, 30-Nov-83 02:17:01 EST Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA Lines: 86 From: Arthur Keller Subject: More on ``Computer Crime'' Date: Fri, 4-Nov-83 03:11:28 PST To: su-bboards a042 0256 04 Nov 83 and a044 0306 04 Nov 83 PM-Computer Crime, Bjt,680+460 Computer Raiders Ran Holes Through UCLA System, Investigator Says By RICHARD DE ATLEY Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) - Three computer raiders known as ''Ron,'' ''Kev'' and ''Kar'' ran amok in UCLA's vast government, business and school computer files until their electronic chatter and carelessness gave them away, an investigator says. UCLA physics student Ronald Mark Austin, 19 - who officials said was known to computer users as ''Ron'' - pleaded innocent Thursday to 14 counts of malicious computer entry and theft of two round-trip airline tickets to London. Municipal Judge Michael Tynan lowered bail from $10,000 to $2,000 on the condition Austin stays away from computers. Austin's Santa Monica home and that of Kevin Lee Poulsen in North Hollywood were raided by investigators Sept. 22. Their computers were seized along with equipment, telephones and thousands of sheets of data. No charges have been filed against Poulsen, a juvenile, and court documents mention only one name for the third person, Kareem. On UCLA's electronic computer billboard, Poulsen was known as ''Kev'' and Kareem was known as ''Kar,'' said district attorney investigator J. Duane Trump. Besides breaking into the UCLA research computer last summer and allegedly changing the codes of scores of files, the three discussed their conquests via computer hookup which, unknown to them, was being monitored by school officials, then the campus police, and finally the district attorney's office. Deputy District Attorney Clifton Garrott refused to comment on the case after Austin's arraignment, but reports filed by Trump indicate that the three raiders had access to some of the most sophisticated computer networks in the country for two months. Austin and Poulsen both admitted tapping into files when Trump interviewed them after the raids on their homes, Trump said. A break in the case came when Austin gave his full name, address and phone number by computer to Poulsen. And it was Austin who bragged to Kareem one day about how he was capturing files, Trump said. The illegal access was first noticed on July 7 by Terry Gray, associate director of the UCLA Research Computer Science Department, who was told by staff members that someone outside UCLA's computer was using four unauthorized phone numbers to enter the system. Monitors also indicated that the raiders had entered the research computer through a network called Advanced Research Projects Agency, or ARPANET, a Defense Department communications system linking computers in government, labor and major universities throughout the United States. The monitors, Gray explained, were capable of showing how the computers were being entered. On Aug. 9, Gray filed a complaint with campus police that unknown people were illegally breaking into the UCLA system. Austin allegedly told Trump he also was able to enter the Telenet and Tymenet systems, which store programs for businesses. A typical program might be a current analysis of stocks for system members. Among items seized in the raid on Austin's home were airline tickets valued at $2,546. The tickets had been ordered by phone through valid credit card numbers, but when the people whose names were on the tickets were contacted by investigators, they said they had not ordered them, Trump said. He said Austin told investigators he had ''found'' the tickets. On Aug. 25, there was this cryptic message between ''Kev'' and ''Ron'': ''Who is this?'' ''Ron.'' ''Why are you using Betty (a password)?'' ''I can't tell you'' But the owner of the Betty file found out soon enough. On Sept. 3, UCLA student Betty Lee found she couldn't get into her own file. A supervisor used a special code to open the file, and Ms. Lee discovered that 50 to 60 hours of research work was missing. Aug. 25 provided another break in the case. Two suspicious researchers working late at night in the computer center noticed a young man and woman bent over a computer printout. One got close enough to see they were printing out a list of ARPANET computer sites and the various codes for access to those computers. The researchers followed the pair into a parking lot and took down the license plate of the car. Police say they traced it to Austin. ap-ny-11-04 0604EST ***************