olsen@wxlvax.UUCP (Neil Olsen) (12/07/84)
The country's media hacker fever seems on the rise again. I would like to contribute to the clarity of the debate by telling you about a "real" hacker I know. My neighbour's son is a 15 years old hi-school kid. He is in the football and baseball teams, and he is your typical "all-american-good-boy" who makes a few bucks delivering the Sunday papers, cutting the neighbours'grass or shoveling their snow. Last Xmas, he got two gifts: a PC and an automobile tool kit. He started then programming his PC, connecting himself to various electronic boards and nets,...and became a hacker. At the same time he also started messing around his mom's car, and learned quiet a bit about engines, transmissions, and so on. I trust his mechanical skills enough now, to hire him to change my oil and tune up my engine, saving myself quiet a few dollars. There is no reason why I should not trust his "computerese" to hire him to work on some of my tedious computer problems, avoiding a few over-time evening hours at work, and actually, saving my company a lot of dollars. Were I to label him a "computer vandal", I might as well label him a car vandal. Nobody is complaining about car vandals, not even New-York insurance companies. Why should the media start or rekindle a witch hunt on hackers? I am sure they could do much better service to the public.
linwood@jett.UUCP (12/14/84)
.
As most of you remember, 4 kids got caught breaking into the NASA computer
at the Marshell Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama this summer, so
I thought I would bring you an update on them since I know all 4
(unfortunatly). One of the four is seems to have been effected by the
break in and seems not to take as much intrest in the computer world as he
did. I do not know robert grumbles that well, but i think he is still
pretty active, but he suffered most because he had the most equipment
confiscated. The two others are alive and well too. Both seem highly
reguarded by their computer teacher in spite of what they did. The teacher
does not seem to think that the break in was all that serious, and one
of them will soon be in charge of the school computer system after the
computer operator presently in charge graduates. I have a personal grudge
against him, since he broke in to this computer from information derived
from other people who had accounts. All of his loopholes have been closed
I am happy to say. The computer they all broke into at NASA was only an
RSX - 11 system anyway, not to hard to get by security precautions.
- Linwood Varney (Jett Unix System, Huntsville, AL)
{ihnp4|akgua}!jett!linwood