Massive hack attacks come to light

The youth, a sophomore at Cloverdale High School in Northern California, has declined requests for interviews from most media outlets. But he did contact John Vranesevich, who belongs to a computer security group known as AntiOnline. Vranesevich said he was acquainted with the teen as "a well-respected member of the hacking underground." But he said Sunday's telephone conversation represented his first personal contact with the teen.

Published on the Web
Excerpts of the conversation were published on the AntiOnline Web site. The boy and a friend were targeted by FBI raids last week, apparently in connection with a series of attacks on nonclassified Pentagon computer networks and other federal-related sites. Computer equipment and software programs were confiscated, but no arrests have been made in the case. The FBI says the investigation is continuing.

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In the interview, the teen -- who went by the pseudonym "Makaveli" -- complained that FBI agents took music CDs, speakers and even the phone line leading to the wall outlet during the raid. He denied reports that he was trying to break into a Pentagon computer when agents came to the house, saying that he was merely engaged in a computer chat with some friends.

And he said his questioners seemed most interested in computer attacks on the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories at Berkeley, Calif., which is engaged in military research. The boy reportedly speculated that the FBI "was really after" another attacker, whom he characterized as his mentor.

"If I was ever asked who the best hacker that ever was, it would be him without a doubt, man," Vranesevich quoted Makaveli as saying. "There are still well over 100 U.S. servers hacked that the FBI doesn't even know about yet." On Wednesday, Vranesevich posted the transcript of a computer conversation with the purported mentor, who used the pseudonym "Analyzer."

'Analyzer' to retire?
In the transcript, Analyzer provided few details about himself, saying that he was 18.5 years old and ready to retire from the hacker underground after breaking into servers for about two years. He declined to give his country of residence.

Analyzer said he wanted to teach Makaveli his tricks of the trade, but contended that Makaveli "didn't do" the most serious attacks.

"I just don't want them to 'hang' the wrong person," Analyzer told Vranesevich. Analyzer claimed responsibility for a number of break-ins, including unauthorized entries to computers operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Goddard Space Flight Center, Howard Air Force Base and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

"Lots of servers I've hacked say they're classified," Analyzer said.

He told Vranesevich that he had read documents about the working arrangements for NASA security guards as well

as NASA research. NASA reported that computers at a number of its space centers were hit by a wave of Internet-based attacks late Monday. It was not immediately clear, however, whether there was a connection between Analyzer's claims and this week's attacks.

Boredom cited
Analyzer said he carried out his attacks "mainly because I am bored," because of the challenge and because he didn't like large organizations and governments. He said he had nothing against the U.S. government in particular.

The Pentagon, NASA and government-related research centers are perennially popular targets for computerized break-in attempts. But break-in efforts involving the Pentagon took on more prominence in late February when Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre complained about a rash of attacks.

However, representatives of the Pentagon and the FBI have declined to comment on the specifics of the computer attacks or their investigation.

Analyzer also claimed responsibility for another in a series of attacks on Netdex Internet, a network service provider based in Santa Rosa, Calif. The company has been the target of computer break-ins since January, and Netdex owner Bill Zane said he alerted authorities to the attacks on federal computer networks -- helping to set off the investigation that led to last week's FBI raids.

AntiOnline posted a copy of the hacked Netdex Web page.

In an interview, Zane confirmed that his computers had been broken into as recently as Tuesday. He said he and his colleagues had worked "until close to midnight" to patch security holes and put other protective measures in place.

One of those protective measures was to disable the avenue for computer users to log into Netdex from a remote site via the Internet -- a capability known as telnet. "That's just the price you pay, and unfortunately this is more of the damage that's being done."

In a letter to subscribers, the company said that the attacks have had "very little impact on Netdex users." Credit card information was stored offline, "on hard copy kept in locked files in our offices," the letter said. "There is also no evidence that the hackers so much as read a single user's e-mail," Netdex said.

Zane said the battle with computer attackers was taking on a personal character. "We're into a personality thing now," he said, "and there are definitely some strong personalities."