colin@array.uucp (Colin Plumb) (08/11/90)
{Computerworld}, August 6, 1990, Vol. XXIV, No. 32, Page 8.
Dial 1-800...for Bellsouth `Secrets'
BY MICHAEL ALEXANDER
CW STAFF
CHICAGO --- The attorney for Craig Neidorf, a 20-year-old electronic
newsletter editor, said last week that he plans to file a civil
lawsuit against Bellsouth Corp. as a result of the firm's
``irresponsible'' handling of a case involving the theft of a computer
text file from the firm.
Federal prosecutors dismissed charges against Neidorf four days into
the trial, after the prosecution witnesses conceded in
cross-examination that much of the information in the text was widely
available.
Neidorf, the co-editor of ``Phrack,'' a newsletter for computer
hackers, was accused by federal authorities of conspiring to steal and
publish a text file that detailed the inner workings of Bellsouth's
enhanced 911 emergency telephone system across none states in the
southeast [CW, July 30].
``What happened in this case is that the government accepted lock,
stock, and barrel everything that Bellsouth told them without an
independent assessment.'' said Sheldon Zenner, Neidorf's attorney.
One witness, a Bellsouth service manager, acknowledged that detailed
information about the inner workings of the 911 system could be
purchased from Bellsouth for a nominal fee using a toll-free telephone
number.
A Bellcore security expert who was hired by Bellsouth to investigate
intrusions into its computer systems testified that the theft of the
file went unreported for nearly a year.
Last week, a Bellsouth spokesman said the firm's security experts
delayed reporting the theft because they were more intent on
monitoring and preventing intrusions into the company's computer
systems. ``There are only so much resources in the data security
arena, and we felt that it was more urgent to investigate,'' he said.
He also disputed assertions that the document was of little value.
``It is extremely proprietary and contained routing information on 911
calls through our none-state territory as well as entry points into
the system,'' he said.
A quick ending:
The case unraveled after Robert Riggs, a prosecution witness who had
already pleaded guilty for his role in the theft of the document,
testified that he had acted alone and Neidorf had merely agreed to
publish the text file in ``Phrack.''
Neidorf and his attorney agreed to a pretrial diversion, a program
under which the government voluntarily dismisses the indictment but
could reinstate it if Neidorf commits a similar crime withing a year.
The case has stirred up national debate on the rights of computer
users in the age of electronic information. The Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a civil liberties group set up by Mitch Kapor, founder of
Lotus Development Corp., may participate in the filing of a lawsuit
against Bellsouth, and Terry Gross, an attorney at the New York law
firm of Rabinowitz Boudin Standard Krinsky & Lieberman.
``The Electronic Frontier Foundation is concerned by the
irresponsibility of Bellsouth of claiming from the outset that this
was confidential information when it should have known that it was
not,'' Gross said.