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   The State Of The Union
   An AntiOnline Editorial
   Thursday , June 03 1999
   
   The past two weeks have been pretty interesting. We saw the tentacles of what appears to be a rather
   extensive FBI investigation of dozens of individuals in the "underground". We saw 20 individuals
   raided and questioned by the FBI. We also saw a backlash by hackers which included denial-of-service
   attacks against the FBI, and the defacing of the Senate's website. But, the question we must ask
   ourselves now, is what will come of it?
   
   In reference to the recent attacks against the FBI's website, James Vicini of TechServer quoted
   Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder as saying "those responsible for the electronic attacks [will] be
   vigorously prosecuted when caught." Well, we at AntiOnline know as fact that the individual
   responsible, the "Israeli Ghost", is indeed from Israel. How likely is it that this individual will
   be tracked down, and even if found, how likely is it that he will be prosecuted? Probably not very
   likely at all.
   
   I think most of us remember the case of "The Analyzer" who was the focus of what was then dubbed
   "Project Solar Sunrise" by the US military. This Israeli teen broke into literally hundreds of US
   military servers. According to reports from USA Today at the time, it took a team of 40 FBI agents,
   as well as officials from 3 separate military organizations, to track him down. He currently faces
   charges for breaking into several sites in Israel, but not for hacking military sites over here in
   the US.
   
   The Senate's website was defaced by a group calling itself "MOD". Guess what? They're not from the US
   either. The primary individual in that attack is known to be from the UK. As a matter of fact, he
   too, is known to have broken into dozens of US military servers, stolen network topology maps of
   SIPRNET, and even taken some proprietary software from the DISA. That was almost a year ago. How
   likely is it that this individual will be caught and prosecuted?
   
   Although, maybe the question we should be asking about the "Israeli Ghost" and "MOD", is not how
   likely is it that these new "Terrors" will be caught and prosecuted, but rather if we as a country
   want to even bother spending the time and money it would take to do so.
   
   So, what will really come from these recent FBI investigations? Will it be dozens of arrests and
   prosecutions? Probably not. I think what will come from these investigations is something far more
   beneficial.
   
   As Holder told TechServer in the same story, "experts from the FBI and the Justice Department's
   computer crimes section [will] work with other government agencies to make their Web sites as secure
   as possible."
   
   It's about time.
   
   Yours In CyberSpace,
   John Vranesevich
   Founder, AntiOnline
   
   Back To AntiOnline
   
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