On 7/20/05, paddy <paddy@ij.net> wrote:
> Chuck Hast wrote:
>
> >Folks,
> >I was contacted today by the FBI regarding the attempted intrussions into
> >a linux machine which I run here at my home. They are very interested in
> >any information that can be supplied to them, they asked me for log files
> >and any other information that I could give them.
> >
> >The agent appeared to be quite interested in what I could supply him, and
> >has sense sent me two more e-mails after calling me on the phone and
> >introducing him self. I know that it is probably like sticking a finger in the
> >dike, but I think that the more info these people have the more they can
> >work to try to go after them.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> Chuck;
>
> A word of caution; when you eat supper with the Devil, use a spoon with
> a long handle. These guys are cops and as such they are interested in
> putting the blame for something on the first good prospect, not
> necessarily the actual guilty person. Be cautious.
>
Paddy, I used to be a cop, and you know something, you do not get paid
enough for me to do any of those jobs anymore. Yes there are some bad
ones in there but most of them are in there for the art not the pay, and as
such I have a great respect for them. Yes this one may spend a lot of
time behind a desk, but as much as we sometimes want to take the dark
side to the max, again most of these people are just trying to do their job
in order to try to make ours a little bit less of a problem. I weighed all of
this before making that call and sending that first e-mail, but I decided
that if our goverment is supposed to be "for the people, by the people,
and of the people" which I know it has GREAT HEAVING warts on it, but
the only way that it will come near to working is if we try to do our part.
If they can get their hands on just one of these turkeys I will be happy
and if they do not, I figure that they will have a better chance at getting
institutions like Hope College and Yahoo Japan to go take a look at
their machines and figure out how they are being used and shut them
down.
Yea, I sat on the whole thing and ran it through my mind for 24 hours
before doing the deed, did I wonder and worry? yes. Do I regret it? up until
this point, NO! Let us see how it pays out, the machine is a simple packet
router, part of a amateur radio packet network, a hobby machine, but it
forms a part of a network that during disaster activities it becomes something
more important, passing traffic from shelters and other disaster recovery
activities. Does it matter? as a hobby not really indeed I would not have
worried about it, but after the crunch and you start monitoring traffic flow
through the thing, you realize that it played a important part in disaster
recovery. The present network is DOS based, we are trying to move it to
Linux, this is one of a series of machines that we use for testing as we
prepare to do this.
If these people will attempt this stuff to such a lowly piece of equipment
what about all of the other machines out there that do a lot more important
things and need to have those services available?
No, we have to start whacking these people somewhere, believe me if I
could reach out and terminate their miserable life at times I would think
about doing it, but that is what we have law for, and when we either pay
no heed on one end of the spectrum or resort to vigilantie tactics at the
other end we do society as a whole no good. Hey if they take my little
box down right now, no big deal, perhaps I did not get to go in and change
something, delaying the moving forward a bit, but if they do it to a box
that handles things of much greater importance then they have done us
all a malicous act. And we know that they do it because not a week goes
by that there is not a report of unauthorized access to something somewhere.
It has to stop somewhere, either we are a part of that action or we set back
and do nothing.
-- Chuck Hast To paraphrase my flight instructor; "the only dumb question is the one you DID NOT ask resulting in my going out and having to identify your bits and pieces in the midst of torn and twisted metal."----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
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