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WebTV 911 Hacker... Cyber Terrorist?
Mastab286 writes "Federal agents have arrested David Jeansonne, 43, of Louisiana on cyberterrorism charges under the USA PATRIOT Act for a malware attack against eighteen MSN TV (formerly known as WebTV) customers. As part of an online conflict in July 2002, Mr. Jeansonne wrote a script to change the dial-up number of MSN TV equipment to the 911 emergency number. He disguised the script as a tool to change the colors of the user interface, and sent it to his eighteen foes; the next time they tried to log on, they would end up calling the police instead. Several of the customers sent the tool to friends, bringing the total number of victims up to twenty-one. The script also posted the users' browser history to a website and e-mailed hardware serial numbers to a free webmail account. Prosecutors charge that the act meets the definition of cyberterrorism since it endangered public safety."
Please, it would be something *near* "cyberterrorism" and a danger to public safety if it were self propgating, but this relied entirely upon the studity of the
user to not only run it, but manually propogate it to other people, which is kind of hard when it makes their system unusable after having run it.
Another example of the DOH'S trying to justify their existance.
Just because you disagree doesn't make it offtopic or flamebait.
Guys, terrorism is where you like blow up a building or gas people in the subway in the name of a political or religious cause.
What's going to be next next, kids who make prank calls ending up on death row for "terrorism"?
...may not seem like much, but what if this file found its way onto the net or one of the popular peer-to-peer services? If it were to propigate it would create genuine problems for people who have a serious need to get their call to 911 through.
As someone who has worked in emergency response, this could have more consequences than if it called, say Dominoes.
The 911 system is not a toy; lives are at stake.
On the other hand, calling it a terrorist act for maybe 21 calls is way overboard.
WTF has this got to do with terrorism?
A crime - sure, felony - if you like, even wicked. It has got absolutely nothing to do with terrorism. Why are your authotities mixing up that with your illegal invasions and war on "terror"?
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
Prosecutors charge that the act meets the definition of cyberterrorism since it endangered public safety.
The act also meets my definition of "this guy is a total dick".
-kgj
-kgj
This isn't justification for use of the Patriot Act. It did not have the intent of anything remotely considered terrorism.
Now, I'm not saying he should go to jail, however it's a sad look at the United States when anything that you could mildly construe as something that a terrorist might do, becomes a terrorist act.
http://use.perl.org
isn't getting on a plane with the flue or even just a really bad cold purposfully spreading biological weapons? The flue can kill people.....
breathing is a terrorist act!!!
Messing with an emergency number is really stupid. Not only do you waste people's time, but you may end up causing a real emergency to be left unheard. I don't think it's terrorism, but definitely criminal negligence. I honestly feel that this person should be put into prison.
Help I'm a rock.
"Ahh! Ahh! The Government is run amok! My library records, my library records! Patriot Act! Ahhh ahhh!"
Guess what. If the 43 y/o dimwad had the WebTV call Domino's Pizza no one would care. He chose 911.
This has ZERO (0) effect on me. I'm never going to break the law this way. (Beside who the Hell has WebTV anymore anyway? Were those the last 22 people?) This guy broke the law in a stupid way; fuck him. Don't break the law and you won't go to jail. There is no slippery slope here -- just one assclown going to jail because he should.
This
... so I guess he gets charged under the Patriot act. I don't condone what he did - he deserves a damn good kicking (metaphorically speaking, of course) for taking time from the emergency services, but a TERRORIST ? WTF ?
I can't believe there's not a more-appropriate crime to charge the guy with. Is there some sort of requirement to charge him with the most-serious charge you can, in the USA ? Perhaps that would explain it ?
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
Since there isn't a good descriptive phrase yet for someone who deliberately seeks to damage emergency infrastructure (which just happens to be based on a computer in some manner), I'll find "cyber terrroism" acceptable for this.
Technically speaking, it's about as 'cyber' a crime as splashing a hospital with gasoline and lighting it on fire is a 'chemical' crime, but it's still a deliberate act which put other people in harm's way.
His penalty? Well, it has to be severe enough that folks learn this is completely unacceptable behaviour and far from a simple prank. Jail for 10 years should do the trick.
If my own 911 call was blocked because of this goof, I know I sure wouldn't find it harmless. This was potentially life-threatening and served no purpose other than to be maliciously harmful.
Time to stop treating 'cyber kiddies' as something special just 'cuz they didn't think through the consequences of their actions.
will it ever stop? people definately tend to go crazy once they learn they've been owned or cracked, however this whole thing is more of a prank than terrorism. I wonder, if I was to press one of those call button boxes here on campus for the police and just run away, if I was caught, would I be arrested for terrorism? how about if I pulled the fire alarm in my dorm during a drunken stupor? would I be a terrorist then? overreaction isn't good, just try overreacting when the roads are covered in snow and ice, you'll end up in a ditch.
may the source be with you
While you can certainly argue in favor of prosecuting someone who endangers public safety, I'm more concerned about the company that allowed such a security hole to exist. Why isn't there a PKI infastructure around configuration changes in the MsnTV firmware? Why aren't scripts that change user settings required to be signed? At some point the vendors who provide these infarior and dangerous products must be held liable. Recently, slashdot had a with a quote from one of the heads of Microsoft security who said that in the case of Windows (where patch application is optional) We have never had vulnerabilities exploited before the patch was known'. In the case of NsnTV, firmware updates are not optional, and the fact that an update still doesn't exist which would authenticate scripts that change user settings, is extremely telling. Is it that it never occured to Microsoft that settings changes should be validated? That scripts which perform cuch changes should be signed or otherwise secured? Unbelievable...
--CTH
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
He gets pissed off at people so he decides to interfere with the 911 system? What if the delays in taking those misrouted calls prevented help from getting to someone who truly needed it?
I am glad that they are throwing the book at idiots like this.
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
I guess that makes pretty much everyone in the current administration a terrorist.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
yes, this guy's an idiot.
yes, he should be prosecuted for what he did
however, there are plenty of existing laws on the books that can punish him for screwing with 911 - use them.
this is too-bad-cop - a bit like the teacher in whale rider who tells the boys their dicks will fall off if they don't obey him - just deal with the situation and let the laws work.
but a few years down the line, the hs dept is going to have to show some deliverables - and one of them will be how many people were prosecuted under terrorism laws, and this sort of thing helps raise the count.
in that regard patriot could end up being the rustproof undercoating of the law enforcement world - make sure you try and tag it on top anything you can...
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
With the calls going to 911 it can easily be put in the category of endangering public saftey. Since it's easy to assume that the machines make the calls late at night.
3:21am
911 operater: Hello
caller: Dead air
In this situation what do they do? They dispatch.
So with this great new wonderful bill they get to tack on more to something that already had a stiff penalty.
What possesed this guy to do this anyway? Come on "I'll hack it to call 911". That's just asking for them to hunt you down.
This wasn't an "attack"
Any number of modified systems should not be labled terrorism. Terrorism is not messing with the public infrastrucure, it's making people terrified. I don't see how even a million affected systems dialing 911 instead of the local number would affect the public terror level.
This does however bring up a very good point... I've always hated that these "cunsumer devices" like WebTV and my satellite reciever don't display the phone number they are dialing on the screen.
Issues like this would be eliminated if the system displayed "dialing 867-5309" then waited 5 seconds before doin g so, with a "press any key to not dial" message.
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
"Unlawful" - definitely meets this word.
"force or violence" - sort of like forced entry into their tv system and forcing the system do something they weren't suppose to do... I'll buy it.
"against people or property" - seems to meet
"intention of intimidating or coercing" - I think this is where the application fails.
The guy wasn't trying to intimidate or coerce someone into doing something - he just wanted to be an a**hole. The ramifications on the 911 system effect public safety, no doubt, but that doesn't make it terrorism. That word means next to nothing anymore, other than something happened/is happening that you don't like. For example, did you know that the NEA, a union of teachers was called a terrorist group by Rod Paige, the Education Security for President Bush?
Can we use words that describe the situation instead of words that invoke powerful yet completely unrelated images?
Matt Fahrenbacher
James Tiberius Kirk: "Spock, the women on your planet are logical. No other planet in the galaxy can make that claim."
Looks like they'll have to add 'WebTV' to the next Computer Attack and Cyber Terrorism: Vulnerabilities and Policy Issues for Congress revision.
When will some of you guys learn it's not about the act, nor the group, nor the victim, nor the attacker. It's about the ability to control perception. The spookier the 'villain' the more money gets funneled to 'groups' like the Department of Homeland Insignificance. It's how they justify their budgets at the end of the year. "By golly Mabel them be terrorists, maybe we should pay more taxes to them mighty fine boys at the DOJ they be tough on terrorists" Nothing less, nothing more. It's about stats. Sure the guy was moronic, and now he will pay for being an idiot, and the sinful part is many - if he goes to a jury - will be blinded by pseudo sympathy spin on terror. To quote that old annoying song "It's all about the Benjamins baby"
MoFscker
Wasn't that one of their goals? Kill the feeling of safety, security, and common sense to the point that we give up what makes our country the "land of the free?"
Even though the above pargraph was most of what was preached after 9/11, and we all said, in a somewhat collective voice, "We won't let it happen," it still did, and it's still happening.
This is more than the music industry saying we copy their cds, this is more than sco saying they are going to file another law suit, this is more than the microsoft monopoly. This is what you can and can't do, and it is justified that the government gets more attention now, but not the kind it wants.
</offtopic>
Work sucked, until it became unemployment, when it became slightly more tolerable. -Tet
A 3 year old was sent to Guantanamo Bay after mashing random numbers on a telephone and reaching 911.
Overboard a bit? Not EVERYTHING is terrorism. Shit, this post is terrorism. Shit, that last statement was terrorism. I better hide.
Isn't it funny that something like this, in the past, would have not been considered terrorism? This was just a prank that went too far. It wasn't fair to the police for getting the prank to their 911 line. Their business line, yes, but not the emergency line. Does anyone think this have a different outcome if he had it go to their "business" line instead?
Also, I have seen others say the script relied on the stupidity of the person's foes. The guy had no motive to do anything after the fact, so how did it endanger public safety? Shouldn't the police be able to handle a few false calls to their emergency system? You think that prank calls to 911, as sad as they are, would be built into the equation of deciding how many people they need on shift in order to cover their district.
I guess this is just another overreaction by our lovely government.
--If only there was a license required to use a computer.
What exactly is so hard to believe? Does my Red Hat box refuse to let a script edit ifcfg-ppp0 until it sees a GPG signature? Does OS X prevent you from installing a modem unless you're dialing an Apple-approved phone number? Could any company sell a product which refused to let users make arbitrary changes to their own settings, and not be rightfully reviled for it on Slashdot?
Are you just hunting for the (+1, anti-Microsoft) mod points?
perhaps you might find their four-episode Creation Vs Evolution series enlightening.
Not only do I find it enightnening that these are the guys hired to sell DHS and the Patriot act to us, I find it downright scary.
Read, L
This doesn't even match the US government's definition of terrorism.
...The concept of "terror" as systematic use of violence to attain political ends was first codified by Maximilien Robespierre during the French Revolution. He deemed it an "emanation of virtue" that delivers "prompt, severe, and inflexible" justice, as "a consequence of the general principle of democracy applied to our country's most pressing needs."
From a Science article:
According to the U.S. Department of State report Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001 (1), no single definition of terrorism is universally accepted; however, for purposes of statistical analysis and policy-making: "The term `terrorism' means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience." Of course, one side's "terrorists" may well be another side's "freedom fighters" (Fig. 1). For example, in this definition's sense, the Nazi occupiers of France rightly denounced the "subnational" and "clandestine" French Resistance fighters as terrorists. During the 1980s, the International Court of Justice used the U.S. Administration's own definition of terrorism to call for an end to U.S. support for "terrorism" on the part of Nicaraguan Contras opposing peace talks.
For the U.S. Congress, "`act of terrorism' means an activity that--(A) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life that is a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State; and (B) appears to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping." (2). When suitable, the definition can be broadened to include states hostile to U.S. policy.
Terrorism is not messing with the public infrastrucure, it's making people terrified.
Huh? I can think of few things more terrifying than someone "messing with the public infrastructure"! Tainted water supply. No 911 response. No dial-tone or even cell-signal to even try to dial 911. No electricity.
These of the sorts of things that can cause mass confusion, panic, and death. Sounds pretty terrifying to me.
everything in moderation
That's sort of like saying, if it's not terrorism to blow up a small firecracker in a men's room, then it shouldn't be terrorism to blow up a large load of TNT.
This is one of the things that truly scares me about our country at the moment. We have an Attorney General who has directed state prosecutors to always seek the maximum sentence possible, and to never plea-bargain unless it's a case where the person is rolling over to indict someone bigger than him. The Justice department is trying to make laws into absolute things - no sense of jurisprudence, no making the punishment fit the crime. Just, these are the laws, and THEIR rule is absolute, with no possibility of human compassion or understanding entering into the system. Don't bother trying to rehabilitate or teach a social lesson, just lock up anyone who transgresses.
In the long run, an attitude like that will always lead to absolutism, and therefore, authoritarianism. This progression has been followed in pretty much every applicable case in history. It's just started leaning that way in America, and it's far from the point of no return. But it's still something we have to watch, and have to fight against, lest the problem grow.
Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.
He should have programmed it to call 411 or 611 instead. And a real sonavabitch would have programmed it to call a $65 per minute sex line...
I don't see how even a million affected systems dialing 911 instead of the local number would affect the public terror level.
In a mugging-gone-terribly-bad, you've been shot and you have two broken legs. The perpetrators think you're dead, but you're really just lying immobile in the next room, near a phone. The perpetrators are in the process of raping and torturing your wife; your mother is next. You quietly lift the phone receiver and dial 911 as silently as possible. Busy signal.
Terrified yet?
everything in moderation
I agree, the courts will look at the definitions of terrorism in the patriot act (such as section 802) and tankfully apply their precise legal meaning of "coercion" and "intimidation" and give the prosecutors a thrashing...the problem is that all the government has to do is call someone a terrorist no matter how far a stretch of the definition it is then then automatically, they get all these special powers - many of the checks and balances of the legal system are suspended (in the name of public saftey or national security) and the so called "terrorist" has no due process until they get to make their argument to a judge. Wether labeling someone a terrorist is valid or not dosen't get evaluated until after all the damage is done.
The "Patriot" Act was passed without some Congressmen and women even reading it. It was named that to intimidate members of Congress. Vote against this bill and you will be against patriotism!
The "Patriot" Act was supposed to protect us against people who want to destroy our entire society. Now its being used to harass citizens who do something stupid, and have no political motive. If they get away with this, you will see more and more extensions of government police power. History has shown that, even if they don't get away with it, they will try again.
More and more we are seeing examples of prosecutors who don't want sensible justice, but who just want other people to hurt, because of their own personal mental issues. Last week the Oprah Winfrey show provided another example: An 18-year-old man had sex with a 16-year-old woman at his school. (Big surprise, there.) Later she accused him of rape, and he was found NOT guilty. But he was put into prison for 10 years anyway. The prosecutor said that was entirely justified, and that he had no problems with the punishment.
The U.S. government is rapidly becoming more corrupt. Here are just a few examples:
Killing people and destroying their property:
N.Y. Times editorial
"... Americans paid Ahmad Chalabi to gull them into a war that is costing them a billion a week and a precious human cost."
Lying about scientific facts:
"The Bush administration has deliberately and systematically distorted scientific fact in the service of policy goals..."
N.Y. Times
The Guardian
Wired News
Union of Concerned Scientists
The present terrorism against the U.S. people is partly the result of the U.S. government's secret violence:
About a year ago, I hastily put together a short, incomplete history that shows what has happened: History surrounding the U.S. war with Iraq: Four short stories.
The Patriot Act - unconstitutional powers that were promised only to be used against terrorists.
BULLSHIT!
This guy obviously commited a crime, but that crime is prank calling 911, as well as illegally entering another person's computer system - both serious crimes - but would probably warrant 30 days in prison, tops, or probably a fine and community service.
Thanks to Ashcroft, NO terrorists have been prosecuted, but plenty of regular Americans have been.
F*ck that fascist c*cks*cker.
Aexia, thanks for the link to the story about Marcus Dixon. But the story does show corruption: "The prosecutor, in what can only be perceived as an act of complete disregard for the law, facts and justice in general,
and, "In the jurors own words, the look of horror across their faces when the judge sentenced Marcus to ten years minimum could be seen by everyone. They never knew the consequences. They could not fathom that a boy could go to jail for consensual sex, and certainly not for 10 years with no possibility of parole."
When the government does something completely screwy because of deliberately pursuing some purpose other than good government, that is corruption.
Sitting up in the Great White North (Canada), the general consensus up here is that OBL achieved his goals quite nicely. The terrorists have in fact won, at least as much as they attempted to win from 9/11.
The very existence of the Patriot Act, the hysteria that resulted from the anthrax scare, the massive delays going on with some flights, the incredibly annoying security checks, the fact that quite simply the life of the average American seems to have changed greatly...
You folks down there may not realize it, but what we see up here is that the US has changed, changed dramatically, changed permanently, and changed for the worse. The fact that the word "terrorism" even came up with this guy hacking WebTV is pretty much proof of that.
Yup, you (and we, in the larger global community) let the terrorists win. Now it's up to us to try to reverse some of the damage before it's too late. And I have no idea how to do that, sadly. The best I can come up with is "stop being so damn scared of your own shadow". I think we'll be dealing with these issues for decades to come.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
This whole "terrorism" law is poorly applied. We already have sufficient laws on the books to cover any mishap without adding Terrorism laws. We already had "secret evidence" provisions before the Patriot Act. In fact, that was one of Bush's campaign promises, to dismantle them.
What really gets me mad is that a podiatrist named Dr. Goldstein with the JDL was arrested for plotting to destroy up to 50 mosques and Islamic schools in Florida, and was caught with explosives, assault weapons, and maps and plans. He didn't get sentenced under the Terrorism statute, though many wanted him to be.
Your Red Hat or OS X box is not an appliance. WebTV is. You can't tie down a Linux, Windows or Mac box too much without severly limiting its functionality. WebTV has only one function, so you can lock down and white-list it up the wazoo. You're comparing apples and oranges.
Are you just hunting for the (+1, anti-Microsoft) mod points?
Hunting for cheap anti-anti-Microsoft points isn't any better, you know.
Yes... though we're not "giving up" these freedoms, they're being taken from us. By Bush, Ashcroft, and the congress. If Bush gets re-elected, THEN the phrase "giving up" will truly apply.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
Yeah, most of them are only millionaires. How could they reach the Forbes 500 without funnelling government spending to their corporations?
All these comments sound like senators in togas debating what a word like "terrorism" word means.
This isn't a trial or question of law. He's only been arrested.
Cops are not judges. They don't think a lot about Why, they just grab people doing what they see to be stupid or bad things and then find a reason to hold them until the courts either agree to lock them up or let them go.
So this guy was not only 'hacking' (something that bothers cop type people) he was also out-thinking stupid enemies (another thing that bothers and threatens cop type people) and worst, he was bothering the cops who answer 911.
As much as I ha..ve difficulty dealing with cops, I can certainly see why they would go nuts trying to find a law to lock this idiot up.
It's almost totally beside the point that 'terrorism' and 'freedom' are words that are getting abused into new nebulous and meaningless ideas.
Additionally, why did this retard have his script calling 911? That's about as stupid as crank calling someone and then starting a 3-way call with the cops. Or stopping off for doughnuts after robbing a bank.
The proper nerdy thing to do would be to have them dial up SCO. This would annoy idiots on both ends, and neither would know what's happening. That would be funny.
Unnecessarily calling 911 is as lame (and as dangerous to others) as not getting out of the way of an ambulance.
Cops wouldn't need to be arresting him on 'terrorism' charges if we simply had laws against being too stupid. Ever since America became the bastion and protectorate of all things stupid, the normal course of natural selection in weeding out idiots has been slowed to the point where society is choking to death on pure stupid-people-overload.
And so cop type people respond by retrenching into fascism, just as abstract thinkers retrench into pointless dialogues (like mine) and people who are neither really thinkers or really cops retrench into watching sports and shopping.