louisg@vpnet.chi.il.us (Louis Giliberto) (02/21/91)
Has anyone seen the announcement for the Ides of March computer conference? The reason it caught my attention is that one of the speakers is Gail Thackery. My question is: why? Why is Gail speaking at a computer conference? What does she know about computers? She probably does know a lot about prosecution, I don't doubt her ability as a lawyer, but what does she know about computer crime specifically? Ok. We all know what she was involved in, but that just proves my point further. Those aren't exactly what you would call "clean" busts. And with Sundevil, there weren't even that many (any?) busts made. It doesn't say much for her ability to prosecute computer crime. What exactly is she going to speak about? I can't figure that out. Maybe she'sgoing to explain what KERMIT is or something. Though, she should explain that to law enforcement officials. See, that's where I have this problem. Here we have an individual speaking at an industry conference, and this individual is not in the industry. She does not affect the industry except in destructive ways (if you want a list on how it's been destructive, E-mail me. It's too long for here). And with her being on the Well and all, and now there's a rumor of her getting some type of "honor" with Barlow at the Comps, Sec, and Priv conference, I'm beginning to wonder how one becomes an authority on computers. Why not honor some beat cops who find some stolen PC's? They have about as muchto do with computer crime and how it relates to the industry as Gail. This is ridiculous. Does anyone else see politics or something coming into playhere or is it just me? If what law enforcement says is true, that most computer crime goes unreported since companies don't want to publicly admit that they have security problems, then aren't the companies bigger authorities on computer crime than lawyers and cops and feds and what have you? What can Gail tell an employee of AT&T or IBM or DEC or Maxis or Sierra or whoever that they don't already know, and probably know better? She can't tell them how systems are broken into. She can't tell them about a "ring" of hackers/phreaks since there is no such animal. She probably can't even thell them what a macro is. See, I agree with companies when they say that they don't want some punks breaking into their computers. I can even agree with arresting people who do. What I can't agree with is persecuting people (ala Len Rose) or widespread terror tactics (ala Sundevil). If I were a hacker I'd rather have AT&T's internal security knocking at my door rather than Gail & Co. seeing what they'vedone to people. The only reason I can see for Gail to be there is for someone to bury the hatchet with her and shove this mess into the background. Well, when you bury the hatchet with people who are experts at wielding one, you can bet it'll end up in your back in the end. Flames gratefully accepted. Louis Giliberto louisg@vpnet.chi.il.us
bei@dogface (Bob Izenberg) (02/24/91)
louisg@vpnet.chi.il.us (Louis Giliberto) writes: > If I were a hacker I'd rather have AT&T's > internal security knocking at my door rather than Gail & Co. Sometimes you get both. Interested parties have come along on a few raids. I've heard that some law enforcement agencies considered selling tickets to these busts, to help defray the cost of their investigations. ;-) I'll betcha Bill Cook is on the phone *every day* trying to talk to the "Cops" TV show's producer. Rumor has it that the Screenwriter's Guild, ABC and NBC each has private suites at one of the upcoming computer security conferences, "to get a Movie of The Week outta somebody." Shouldn't be any trouble getting the prosecutors cast, since some of the real prosecutors have gotten the opportunity to consider new careers... -- Bob
karl@ficc.ferranti.com (Karl Lehenbauer) (02/25/91)
In article <1991Feb21.080700.19274@vpnet.chi.il.us> louisg@vpnet.chi.il.us (Louis Giliberto) writes: >See, that's where I have this problem. Here we have an individual speaking at >an industry conference, and this individual is not in the industry. She does >not affect the industry except in destructive ways ... If she affects the industry, and as you say she does, it is relevant for her to attend. Perhaps this will be an opportunity to help educate her. As for her being on the WELL, same thing. Read the interview with Mitch Kapor and John Barlow in the Winter '91 issue of Mondo 2000. They say a lot of things that are really right on. Particularly relevant to this thread are their ideas about educating non-users... "moving the homesteaders into the electronic frontier...". Also, Barlow said some chilling things about the corporate state, like how Apple's security company is a revolving door for FBI people, thus they were able to get the FBI to jump on the case of the stolen ROM source fragments, and AT&T's cozy involvement with assorted gov't agencies. -- -- "If it ain't too broke, don't fix it." -- me, with apologies to Bert Lantz