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."

Comments

Waste of tax dollars

[poptix_work]

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.

Re:Waste of tax dollars

[allism]

If it were blocking the use of the 911 services for a city, yeah, I think I might call that one terrorism. I consider 911 a public utility sort of thing, so cutting off the service for a city would be similar (in my mind, anyway) to killing the water service or the power for a city.

However, IANAL, etc., this is my opinion, which does not necessarily mean that it reflects the letter of the law.

Re:Waste of tax dollars

[ffub]

But it wasn't a major threat to public safety because it didn't spread rapidly, so that is a good qualifier of whether it should be classed as a threat to public safety. It was clearly a malicious act aimed at serveral people in particular. The script doesn't seem to have been very well equipped for, or directed at, propogating itself arouind the net.

Now I agree it was nasty, and a pain to the 911 operators as well as being perhaps an act of terrorism, but it should be applied to anything that can scale up to meet terrorism.

Your hypothetical premise is to suppose the script was more threatening, and then ask if it would be considered more threatening then. Well, yes it would.

Seems to me the major terrorism has been renamed to terror anyway, so the word terrorism can be applied blandly to anything subversive, with more than one victim, that a government wishes to attach more stigma to.

Re:Waste of tax dollars

[cyt0plas]

How's this for a number: 1. As in the number of people you actually attempt to control through terror.

This involved no fear, no terror. It placed a few prank 911 calls, but there is no evidence that anyone was physically or emotionally hurt.

It didn't even scare one person. So, just like many laws have a threshold (civil versus criminal traffic tickets, fraud, etc.), this isn't terrorism if you set the threshold to even one person.

I guess you could just set the threshold to zero people, but then we are all terrorists.

Re:Waste of tax dollars

[Alien Being]

IMO, the attorney bringing this charge is the actual terrorist. He's a public official responsible for upholding the law. By abusing his authority and undermining the rule of law, he damages our society in a much more serious way than did the accused. He is making a threat against all Americans by using this guy as an example of what can happen if you break the law, any law.

I'm in no way condoning what the cracker did, but his actions don't amount to jack squat compared to those of the prosecutor.

Terrorism?!

[Anonymous Coward]

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"?

Re:Terrorism?!

[mdpye]

Initially, I was of the same opinion. But then I thought what if this had been an al-Qaeda agent who had done this?

OK, so what you are saying. Maybe you are thinking that regardless of who committed the crime, the incident was still too small to qualify as terrorism. But what if it had been 100 users? 10,000 users? 1 million users? 100 million users

It's the intention to incite terror which makes it "terrorism". This was not an attempt to DoS the emergency services, it was a petty attempt to inconvenience some personal enemies, therefore it was irresponsible, yes, childish, yes, but I'm afraid it was not intended to instigate mass terror and therefore it is not terrorism

MP

A small handfull of calls to 911...

[Anonymous Coward]

...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.

Re:A small handfull of calls to 911...

[pe1rxq]

I think for something to be called terrorism there needs to be atleast some intend...
This guy never intended to disrupt 911 services, he intended his 18 victims to have problems...
While not nice it still isn't anywere near terrorism.

Jeroen

Re:A small handfull of calls to 911...

[notque]

How can you possibly claim that? He wrote a script that was designed to call 911 and divert resources from actual emergencies to WebTV users. That's clearly disrupting 911 services.

Right, but I'm pretty sure his intention was to get them in trouble, as opposed to hurt the 911 system.

If you call 911 and hang up, the cops show up. This is obviously a very good way to interactively screw with someone.

Like when you take resources away from Dominios ordering people pizzas they didn't request.

A bit excessive, but...

[wundabread]

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.

Re:A bit excessive, but...

[DjMd]

I think that this 'trick' is totally short sighted and asinine to the n-th degree...

Not only is 911, not a toy and most cities 911 lines are understaffed (making every wasted phone call a potential significant distraction).
But the worse part is what does a dial up program do when it fails to connect... Redial.
It's not use twenty-one people. Its twenty one computers, all making multiple attempts...
and it's not like the 911 operator can leave the phone off the hook. Every call has to get answered and recorded.
Is it terrorism? No.
Is this guy an ass who deserves sever punishment for abuseing 911? most certianly.
Don't forget that prob the only reason he chose 911, was most likely to send the police to these enemies houses... further expanding the danger waste.

I still don't understand...

[Gonoff]

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"?

What a Dick

[handy_vandal]

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

Re:What a Dick

[TheLinuxSRC]

Prosecutors charge that the act meets the definition of cyberterrorism since it endangered public safety.

By that definition, most Americans are terrorists. If you have broken the speed limit you have obviously endangered public safety therefore you are a terrorist.

There are some things you don't mess with

[prichardson]

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.

*sigh*

[jedi_odin]

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.

Re:terrorism

[Hans Lehmann]

The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.

I guess that makes pretty much everyone in the current administration a terrorist.

Sort of kinda terrorism

[portwojc]

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.

Re:terrorism

[Ghoser777]

"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

"Patriot" Act passed without reading

[Futurepower(R)]

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 terrorists won"

[freeweed]

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.