CyberBabble
Site-Seeing on the Internet

A Cyber Okie From Muskogee

Duff MacDonald
Mirror contributing writer

   Only a few years ago mention of the name Dolly would surely have evoked the pneumatic Ms. Parton (www.dollymania.net), not the lamb who changed the world, making bio-ethics both water cooler fodder and 6 o’clock newsworthy.
   The encroachment on our civil rights with our government heeding the call of Corporate America is, unfortunately, not eliciting the same kind of interest or coverage. While it may be difficult to wrap our brains around the concept of clone rights, it’s visceral, so it wins out over the seemingly non-issue of digital rights.
   It’s not just Bauman Moscow State Technical University computer science Ph.D. student Dmitry Sklyarov (www.freesklyarov.org) who has had to tango with the FBI because it’s let the Emperor know that his new clothes are flawed. Brian K. West, who does sales and tech support for CWIS Internet Services in Oklahoma (http://www.cwis
.net) was recently “invited” to appear before a grand jury by U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of Oklahoma Sheldon J. “Shelly” Sperling. Even though West has yet to be charged or convicted of a crime, he’s being “urged” to accept a felony conviction and 5 years probation.
   What monstrous act could West have committed that would warrant pleading guilty to a crime before he’s even been formally accused? Perhaps symbolically, on Groundhog Day 2000, he had the audacity to contact the Poteau Daily News & Sun, who CWIS placed advertisements with and let publisher Wally Burchett know that the security of his newspaper’s Web site was compromised. The day before, a co-worker of West’s had created a banner ad in Microsoft’s Web design program, FrontPage and West was checking it out in IE (Internet Explorer) and noticed some peculiarities (www.linuxfreak.org/post.php/08/17/2001/134
.html).
Initially confused, West realized that the newspaper’s Web site was letting him into the server containing the FrontPage files without any user authentication. CWIS competitor, Cyberlink (www.clnk.com) was and still is the company hosting the online version of the Poteau Daily News & Sun. After West’s original call, an upset Burchett called West back and asked for detailed descriptions of the server’s problematic settings. West complied, but Burchett, rather than being gracious and grateful that he was informed of Cyberlink’s lax server configuration that put his paper’s site at risk, surreptitiously recorded their conversation and turned it over to the local police, who then contacted the FBI.
   If West was malicious, why would he ever have pointed out his competitor’s mistakes and even post articles that disparage him on his personal Web directory (www.bkw.org/pdf)? In fact, he’s the latest victim of overzealous and under-informed government lapdogs, who at the mention of possible cyber crime sink their teeth in and get pit bull lockjaw at the behest of Corporate America.
   This move by the FBI has raised the hackles of the uber geek community and has pitted geek against geek as to the proper protocol for letting someone know he’s got a security breach. Go to Slashdot (slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/08/18/170259&
mode=thread), the self-proclaimed “news for nerds” site for the insider view. The consensus is that in the current repressive climate maybe you should just let the clueless flail.
   In the interest of equal time, here’s the Poteau Daily News & Sun take on the matter (www.pdns.com/cgibin/pdns.pl?CGIscreen_main
=&art=7455). It’s basically pulling an Adobe-kind of maneuver, saying, “[our] standard response has been that the PDN did not file charges against West, and that the owners of the software that was tampered with and the FBI are pursuing the matter.”
   Apparently feeling some heat, the Department of Justice issued a statement via U.S. Attorney Sperling that was posted on Declan McCullagh’s Politechbot site on August 24,(www.politechbot.
com/p-02430.html). Sperling states, “A suspect’s intent, the amount of loss occasioned by the behavior, and the context of the alleged offense are among many factors that are within the scope of the investigation and weighed in such prosecutorial decisions” – which is a more reasoned response than the belabored statement by FBI agent Christopher Headrick (www.bkw.org/pdf/
affidavithack.pdf) to procure a search warrant for CWIS Internet Services.
   If you’re thinking that there’s a wind of paranoia, a current of cyber McCarthy-ism swelling in the digital world, you’re not mistaken. Aside from selfish corporate protectionism, there is a propaganda campaign currently underway by the National Counterintelligence Center (NACIC). Three different propaganda posters are available from the NACIC, one of them with a distinct World War II anti-Axis style imagery and verbiage, Without It’s Trade Secrets a Nation Will Die (www.ncix.gov/pubs/posters/trade_sec_
espionage.html).
   Never heard of the NACIC? Neither have I. They’ve got fingers in a lot of pies. “Operating under the auspices of the National Security Council, the NACIC draws its staffing from counterintelligence (CI) and security professionals from the FBI, CIA, DIA, NSA, the Office of Secretary of Defense, the military services, and the Departments of State and Energy.”
   Hmm, Dmitry and Brian’s cases don’t seem so random after all.
   Email CyberBabble: duffmacdonald@yahoo.com.