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If You Hack NBC, You Don't Get to Meet Tom Brokaw
subgeek writes "Security Focus Online is carrying this story about the spot that Adrian Lamo almost had on the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. NBC changed their mind after they realized the possible legal implications of filming someone hack corporate systems. NBC also seemed a bit touchy that Lamo had gotten into their system so handily. According to the article, it took him about five minutes and one guessed password to get inside NBC's intranet from a computer at a Kinko's. Lamo's comment: "It was a very full service system.""
of homer...
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Demonstrating OTHER corporations are security dumb-asses is one thing, but demonstrating THEY are security dumb-asses on nationwide television must've triggered someone's clue meter.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Sounds to me like they're more embarassed that he did it so easily and from such a public location. After all, he was invited by an NBC employee to attempt to hack their system.
Perhaps they just didn't want to admit that they'd been cracked by somebody with the last name of "Lame-O".
Reminds me of the great SNL skit with Nicholas Cage:
"The name is Dumass, Dumass!"
So, if this guy was able to guess someones password, I am VERY curious as to what it was. If you know anything about the person, it makes guessing easier. However, if you don't know even the owner of the account, how do you guess a good password?
My only hunch is that the password was something like 'abc123'. It cracks me up how many people have passwords such as that and are supposedly worried about security.
It is also funny to hear what some of my friends think are secure passwords. Among them being obscure Anime characters.
His identity was kept secret in the TV show, but a few days after, the TV station was forced by police to reveal the identity of the guy to get him convicted. The incident got a lot of media coverage, because before that many or most had thought press has the right to protect their "sources" and do not need to reveal details about individuals.
Anyway, maybe in this Lamo case, it is more about "agitating someone to do a crime", the court might see for example that part of the motivation for breaking in some system could be the fact that he would get press coverage and fame because of it - and NBC would be to blame for agitating.... or something totally different :)
It's ok to publicize the flaws of airport security, how easy it is to build a bomb, and numerous other cases where some psycho can be encouraged to kill hundreds of people. They do so nominally under the justification that exposing the flaws helps society (as if government can and will simply just put a stopper in the hole). However, when it comes to exposing the flaws in their own computer network they get philosophical all of the sudden. Funny how that works.
He got into Worldcom's systems while I was working there, and it threw the entire company for a loop - out of the blue, passwords were expired en mass on various portions of the network, and a weak VPN software package was crammed down the throats of the Windows users. Thousands of people had to get it installed, and ALL of the registration and training and configurations had to be handled through a VERY small pipe. That was an interesting time... good thing I wasn't one of the people that had to rely on the VPN software to do my job.
Come to the University of Mars! Classes starting soon!
Teenage intruder: See? I run nmap 234.34.53.5 and I get a list of all the ports that are open on their machine. I can then do some other stuff with libpcap...
Brokaw: Wardrobe!....dammit, get this kid a large sleek trenchcoat, combat boots, and a pair of those $300 designer sunglasses. They're expecting neo, not urkel. Audio!...cue that "techno" music they listen to. (to "hacker")Okay, kid, your motivation is to disrupt The System, bring down The Corporate Machine that runs the government, and then make it with Carrie Ann Moss in a hovercraft.
Teenage intruder: But I just thought I would show you how I learned about this network vulnerability in my quest for knowl....
Brokaw: (to cameraman) Start rolling in five, four, three, two...
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
It would have been great if he would have gotten into the NBC Nightly News teleprompter and put at the end of Tom Brokaw's lines "...and in other news, while visiting a low-income daycare center Dick Cheney bit the head off an infant. Additionally, I am a turnip, vroom vroom."
I bet he'd say it.
So, maybe he doesn't get his exposé on NBC about cracking NBC's networks...
But I'll bet that ABC would be happy do do a report on cracking NBC's networks...
Where are you, Mr. Jennings...
The MacOS running WebStar and other webservers as has never been exploited or defaced, and are are unbreakable based on historical evidence.
Based on historical evidence, my backyard shed is burglar-proof.