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Packet Storm Security site closed down
krp writes "The well known and regarded security softare and information site Packet Storm Security has been closed down by Harvard, who hosted the site, becuase of claims from John Vranesevich, of www.AntiOnline.com, about libellous material. The site will not re-open and backups will be destoryed. Ken Williams explains here and here - this guy put a lot of work into that site. "
Apparently for some time now, PacketStorm Security, a popular underground collection of security related tools and information, has been maintaining a vast archive of materials about AntiOnline. These materials included entire stories, copies of the weekly mailbag, e-mails, and other materials copyrighted by AntiOnline LLP.
On top of that, and what was far more serious, the site contained dozens and dozens of pages of libelous, harassing, and threatening items which included: e-mails, messages, documents, images, and even public surveys. These materials were libelous, and in some cases, were blatant threats against members of my immediate family, myself, and my company.
While I value the right to free speech as much, if not more, than the average American, I do not believe in individuals posting threatening and harassing documents about another individual, and their family members. It was for this reason, and no other, that I contacted Harvard University, which was hosting the PacketStorm Website, and requested that it be shut down. I did not threaten legal action, but simply directed University Administration to the website, for them to view, and to judge, on their own. Below is a copy of that letter:
Greetings:
May I first say that I did my best to see that this letter got sent to the appropriate individuals. I had some difficulty determining who those individuals may be, so if I have made an error, I would greatly appreciate it if you would forward this letter on to the appropriate individual(s).
My name is John Vranesevich, and I am the Founder and General Partner of AntiOnline LLP, a computer security company based outside of Pittsburgh, PA.
Earlier today, one of my colleagues forwarded me the following URL:
http://packetstorm.harvard.edu/jp/
Needless to say, I was shocked and outraged at what I saw. This page contains a large archive of libelous and, to put it bluntly, sick material. Everything from archives of copyrighted material from our website, to altered pictures of my family, to 'stories' about me which contain images ranging from people engaged in homosexual activities, to a nun that appears to be covered in seminal fluid.
I am astounded that an institution as prestigious Harvard would be party to the dissemination of this type of material. It is my hope that the University Administration was unaware of this site, and now that it has been brought to their attention, it is my hope that it will be dealt with promptly.
I have worked to help several educational institutions develop 'Acceptable Use Policies', and if Harvard is similar to them, the above URL would be a clear violation of that policy.
It is my hope that the above mentioned domain will be shut down immediately, and that the individual responsible will be seriously reprimanded.
I hope to hear from you soon about this matter, and what you may have done regarding it.
Yours In CyberSpace,
John Vranesevich
Founder, AntiOnline
Tonight, Ken Williams, the founder of Packet Storm Security, released a letter to the public. The letter read in part:
Funny how I spent the past few years donating my time, literally thousands of hours, to "the security community", never making even a penny off the time and work I invested, and have now lost it all because some asshole named John Vranesevich is able to make a quick phone call, fabricate absurd stories about criminal activity and bullshit I never did, and effectively ruin years of work, my education, my career, my life.
Ken, I know what it's like to dedicate many, many, thankless hours into a project, believe me. But, you did not loose your site because of me, you lost it because of you. I could not stand by and watch your site be used as a platform to harass and threaten my family, myself, and the business which I have worked hard to start. While you, and others who 'follow you' may criticize me for what I did, I think everyone that's reading this, who has family members that they love, and a career that they enjoy, will admit to themselves that if in my shoes, they would have done at least the same. I hold absolutely no grudge towards you as a person, and I hope that you have the best of success in all that you do.
Due to the types of threats that I have been receiving, and that sites like PacketStorm have been propagating, local law enforcement agencies were put on alert, and began doing extensive extra patrolling of the residence of my family members, my own residence, and the AntiOnline Offices. I realize that the actions that I have taken against PacketStorm may greatly increase the immediate threat against my family, myself, and my company; and that the harassment will now only get worse. However, I will not allow my family, myself, nor my company to become a victim. I am standing my ground, and will continue AntiOnline's mission of putting an end to malicious hackers.
People in this country have the right to say and do whatever they please, unless that is, what they say and do infringes on the rights of another - anonymous.
Yours In CyberSpace,
John Vranesevich
Founder, AntiOnline
Basically, he sucks. He just does this stuff to get attention, like some little kid having a spaz at the supermarket. Hell, all you have to do is read his site to realize that the guy's not quite right in the head (egomania, anyone?).
Anyway, the best way to handle a guy like this is to ignore him.
----
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
The official response from Harvard (found at www.hackernews.com):
=======================
* S T A T E M E N T *
As a service to the Internet community, Harvard agreed to
host a Packet Storm Security Website for security-related
materials only. Without Harvard's knowledge, unrelated
content was put on the Harvard server, including
sexually-related material and personal attacks on an
individual not affiliated with the University. A Harvard
administrative site focused on security issues is not the forum
for this type of material. We are returning the
content on the site and hope that Packet Storm will make
its security tools available through its own Website.
Joe Wrinn
Director
Office of News and Public Affairs
Joe Wrinn
Director, Harvard News Office
1350 Massachusetts Ave., Rm. 1060
Cambridge, MA 02138
http://www.attrition.org/negation/
Moderators: I don't beg for upping of my posts scores, but I think its important for everyone to see JP for who he is.
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
IMO, the second is more likely. This doesn't mean that we are being misled - just that we have an incomplete view. Can anyone who has emailed Harvard management (or who is within Harvard management), or who is otherwise involved with this, provide more information on what is actually going on?
Let me get this straight. Because AntiOnline is threatening legal action, Harvard is destroying all copies of the relevant data? Completely apart from whether or not this legal action has any merit, couldn't Harvard get in a lot more trouble for destroying evidence in a suit than they are likely to face in the suit itself?
Weblogging Considered Harmful:
To: uis-webadmin@harvard.edu, provost@harvard.edu
Subject: Letter of Protest
Dear CAIS and the Harvard Computing Community,
I am writing to protest strongly Harvard's confiscation of Ken Williams' site PacketStorm.
Ken is one of the brightest talents in the security community, has worked tirelessly for years on security related issues and has freely shared his
work with the rest of the community.
To pull his site and prohibit him from accessing his own content is outrageous.
As a professional network administrator, I used his site services at least once a day, and found his content to be professional accurate and trustworthy. His content helped me PROTECT MY NETWORK, and according to all reports, you've destroyed all of his content, his hard work, and a RESOURCE that I used. This is absurd. His content, regardless of libelousness, existed BEFORE it came to Harvard's domain, and libel suit threat aside, destroying data like that is a crime. If you wanted it removed, pull the plug on the machine, and RETURN the data to Ken.
It is my sincere hope that you will reconsider your actions.
Thank you for your considerate attention.
Sincerely,
Seth Cohn
network administrator of [removed for privacy]
Help achieve Liberty in your lifetime - join the Free State Project - http://www.freestateproject.org
Heres the mail John Vranesevich says he sent to Harward. If this mail is what made Harward close the site, then I'm all on Vranesevich's side. The important thing to remember, though, is we don't know!
(1) English is not my first language, so I'm sorry if this is the right word, what I mean is e.g. publishes fake porn images of me.
While I agree that Harvard is making a big mistake shutting the whole site down, and by destroying the site itself, the fact remains that we don't really know what the hey is going on. We've got Kevin's righteous indignation side of the story, and a reply from the now-vilified JP. No one here(at least no one admitting) has seen the offensive material, or knows what happened behind the scenes to get to this point. Yeah, it sucks that the site is down, but WE DON'T HAVE ALL THE INFORMATION. For instance, two days ago, around my office, people were talking about helping that "nice little Honduran boy who made it all the way from Central America to New York!" Come to find out the kid lived in Miami, and was only smart enough to make up a nicely believable story. Moral: Give the story time to develop, without jumping right on the banner headline: "POPULAR SITE SHUT DOWN BY JERK!"
A gentleman from Harvard Net Ops was kind enough to reply to a email I had sent him earlier in the day, and he included a Harvard press release. They are in fact going to return the full contents of the site to Ken Williams, although the site is no longer welcome on the Harvard network. The decision was in fact based on the fact that there were "sexually-related material and personal attacks on an individual not affiliated with the University". Which does change the situation, IMHO. I do home that a new home can be found for PacketStorm, but Harvard's decision is much more understandable now.
itachi
=======================
* S T A T E M E N T *
As a service to the Internet community, Harvard agreed to host a Packet Storm Security Website for security-related materials only. Without Harvard's knowledge, unrelated content was put on the Harvard server, including sexually-related material and personal attacks on an individual not affiliated with the University. A Harvard administrative site focused on security issues is not the forum for this type of material. We are returning the content on the site and hope that Packet Storm will make its security tools available through its own Website.
Joe Wrinn
Director
Office of News and Public Affairs
Seems to me that harvard is giving Ken his site back.
If the events that Ken describe are accurate, his situation does indeed suck. However, there are lessons to be learned here.
1) ALWAYS BACKUP DATA. This seems to burn you whenever you don't.
2) Always have a written contract. Harvard is pulling the site because he isn't a student. Because his contract wasn't written, and he isn't a student, Harvard doesn't have any reason not to pull the site without a hearing. The site shouldn't have been there in the first place, at least, in the eyes of Harvard. I'm sure Antionline knew this. (Strange, I can't connect to their site now... Timeouts and all...)
3) ALWAYS BACKUP DATA - this goes for regular users too. If you have a site you love with information you love, backup that information, if nothing else.
I truly feel for Ken. He seems to have gotten a shaft that few of us can ever imagine receiving. I would reccomend that he get a good lawyer, fight the charges, and file a counter suit. If he has been acedemically, financially, and personally destroyed by this, and their claims have no merit, then he should be able to punish them legally.
However, I doubt he has any case against Harvard. It *IS* Harvard, and he isn't a student. They're just wiping their hands clean. What can you expect from the school that has helped shape the dismal state of the Americal Legal System?
His only hope is that Jeff Gray makes a backup of his data before officially destroying it, and sometime in the future, Ken receives a complete backup of his data, site and all, from an anonymous user. If Jeff is all Ken cracks him up to be, I wouldn't doubt that this has already been done.
Linux - Because Mommy taught me to Share.
"We have word that the PacketStorm site has not been deleted and that Harvard University will be supplying Ken Williams with a back up copy of the site. "
-- as yet unconfirmed, from www.hackernews.com
-- r . m o s q u i t o --
I noticed when checking Ken Williams letter posted on both sites AntiOnline and HNN that there were some discrepancies. See for yourself: http://www.antionline.com/archives/editorials/pack etstorm.html and http://www.hackernews.com/orig/williams.html Scary how the AntiOnline version is tweaked just enough to make Ken Williams seem vengeful and juvenile.
If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.