From: William Knowles (wkC4I.ORG)
Date: Thu Apr 20 2000 - 02:27:18 CDT

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http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,35785,00.html

by Leander Kahney
2:20 p.m. Apr. 19, 2000 PDT

The hacking community is skeptical that the Canadian Royal Mounted
Police have nabbed the perpetrator of Februarys highly publicized
denial of service attacks.

Following news that the Mounties charged a Montreal juvenile in the
attacks, hackers are demanding evidence that the 15-year-old known by
the alias "Mafiaboy" was indeed involved.

"Im highly skeptical," said B.K. DeLong, a member of Attrition.org, an
Internet security group that monitors and archives website cracks and
defacement.

"I don't think they've found the person who did the attacks. I think
law enforcement is stalling the press and public to keep them off
their backs while they find the real person," DeLong said.

DeLong said his skepticism was based on what appears to be a paucity
of evidence linking "Mafiaboy" to the attacks. According to initial
reports, the RCMP found computer logs and the transcript of an online
chat group that led them to file the charges against the teen, whose
real identity is shielded by Canadian law.

DeLong said law enforcement had already blundered in the case with the
arrest of Coolio, a.k.a. Dennis Moran, who was detained by New
Hampshire police in March in relation to the attacks, but later was
charged with the unrelated defacement of a Los Angeles Police
Department anti-drug site.

DeLong also noted that denial of service attacks are notoriously
difficult to investigate and there has been a suspiciously long delay
between the attacks and the charges.

"I think they should show some definite evidence how they got this
guy," said Scully, editor of Cipherwar, a technology and politics
site. "Chat list logs are not enough."

Scully said that law enforcement agencies have a poor record of
finding and charging cyber-criminals, as evidenced by the four years
notorious computer hacker Kevin Mitnick was incarcerated awaiting
trial.

This is the second time "Mafiaboy" has been linked to the attacks.

Mafiaboy - whoever that may be -- first was tabbed as a potential
perpetrator of the attacks by an Internet security firm about a week
after they occurred.

Even then, hackers expressed their doubts Mafiaboy was involved.

"I seriously doubt that this guy is an actual suspect," Space Rogue,
editor of the Hackers News Network, told Wired News at the time.
"Maybe he did it, but the information I have doesn't point to that at
all."

*-------------------------------------------------*
"Communications without intelligence is noise;
Intelligence without communications is irrelevant."
Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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