Re: concerning ~el8 / project mayhem

["R. DuFresne" <dufresne () sysinfo com>]

On Sat, 17 Aug 2002, Marcus J. Ranum wrote:

> One other possibility (I can't estimate the likelihood) is that since
> the posting is anonymous, it's completely faked. A number of years ago
> (1997) me and 2 friends had too many tequilas at a conference and found
> ourselves outlining the core of a simple disinformation campaign that
> would create a "Hacker Elite" identity trivially easily. All it would
> take is a few cooperating members outside the hacker circles and you
> could pretty quickly create hard-to-penetrate covers. After all, your
> cover as a hacker is tough to penetrate if you can always lapse back
> into being mysterious, dodgy, uncommunicative, and anonymous. "Of
> course I won't show you my secret technique! It's _secret_!!"  All
> it'd take was cooperation from a few high-profile security practitioners,
> web-site admins, and open source coders and you could create a truly
> towering reputation out of nothing, or next to nothing.
>
> Some may say it's already happened.
>
> Then again, this post could also be disinformation. ;)  You tell me.

Marcus seems to have perhaps hammered the nail!  There's definately a
disinformation champaign and scam being perpetrated.  Seems the kiddies
are playing both sides of the coins in an attempt to get 'air time' and a 
soap box.  Course there are the sec folks ranting about the group being
legit, and skilled and hacking up their systems.  I'm actually guessing
that like the James Gang in the 1870's, this group will garner some
'credits' not deserved, and the reputations and infamy as well.

Then again, perhaps we should ask Marcus who those pals were he was
tossing back tequilas with <grin>...

Thanks,

Ron DuFresne
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        admin & senior security consultant:  sysinfo.com
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testing, only testing, and damn good at it too!

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