[JP also directly told me via IRC that he/AntiOnline were funding development
 of LocalSecure. Unfortunately, that log is lost. Having a copy would be
 very nice though as it would give a second method of validation. :)]


LocalSecure is a product of: Network Security Solutions  (http://www.ns2.co.uk

More info on NSS: http://www.ns2.co.uk/about.html


IMPLICATION:

Serious questions would arise if it was known that a company was funding
a person(s) to create problems in order for them to profit from solutions.
By hiring an active hacker responsible for breaking into various systems, 
and then offering a product to help stop intruders, there is a direct 
cause/effect relationship that leads to unethical profiting from inflated 
and false threats of system intrusion. By having said hacker break into
a high profile web site, deface the web pages, and then offer 'exclusive'
"news", it presents the illusion of accurate and honest reporting, when
there was little or no news to begin with.


PROOF:

This mail from John Vranesevich shows that he and/or AntiOnline IS funding
the development of a product called "Local Secure".

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Received: from antionline.com ([209.166.177.36])
	by phalse.2600.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id PAA27067
	for (bronc@2600.com); Wed, 12 May 1999 15:02:29 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <199905121902.PAA27067@phalse.2600.com>
Received: from bessie ([209.166.177.43]) by antionline.com ( IA Mail Server
    Version: 2.3. Build: 10019 ) ) ; 12 May 1999 19:03:17 UT
X-Sender: jp@smtp.antionline.net
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.0
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 15:03:17 -0400
To: Bronc Buster (bronc@2600.com)
From: John Vranesevich (jp@AntiOnline.com)
Subject: Re: Information
In-Reply-To: (Pine.NEB.4.05.9905121444030.26886-100000@phalse.2600.com)
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Greetings:

Haha, first off.  "Local Secure" is a solaris vulnerability scanner that AntiOnline is having
commercially developed.  ROFL "some secret 'spy' project".  We had a small group of programmers contact
us about it, it looked cool, so we threw them a few bucks . 

[snip...]

Yours In CyberSpace,
John Vranesevich
Founder, AntiOnline



[Update: 08/07/02. Chris McNab (aka solo) has since replied and claimed John Vranesevich
is lying about the relationship between AntiOnline. McNab specifically said the following:]

JP was lying. He didn't throw us 'a few bucks'. LocalSecure was not
written for AntiOnline, nor was it funded by them. Myself and 2 others  
wrote the package, and posted to BugTraq in January 1999 to attract beta
testers:



http://cert.uni-stuttgart.de/archive/bugtraq/1999/01/msg00306.html

http://www.landfield.com/isn/mail-archive/1999/Jan/0071.html



If you want concrete proof of this, you are very welcome to have a copy of
the Network Security Solutions Ltd. company accounts for that period.