Competition body wants hackers prosecuted

[Necuno]

Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers. "Teenager Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"...

Damn kids. They're all alike.

But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain, ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him? I am a hacker, enter my world...

Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...

Damn underachiever. They're all alike.

I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..."

Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike.

I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me...

Or feels threatened by me...

Or thinks I'm a smart ass...

Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...

Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike.

And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is found.

"This is it... this is where I belong..."

I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again... I know you all...

Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike...

You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.

This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.

I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.

http://www.totse.com/en/hack/introduction_to_hacking/manifsto.html

 

[adrianx]

Hacking entails gaining unauthorized access to a system. A Cracker might fit the profile better in this case.

Sorry for nitpicking, but IMHO, crackers are the ones that gain unauthorised access to systems, not hackers. The term "hacker" is also used to describe a very advanced or specialist (or compulsive) programmer. I think that it was largely the media that created this confusion.

 

[ld13]

Sorry for nitpicking, but IMHO, crackers are the ones that gain unauthorised access to systems, not hackers. The term "hacker" is also used to describe a very advanced or specialist (or compulsive) programmer. I think that it was largely the media that created this confusion.

Nitpick away, as I have Indeed switched the two

But the general consensus still prevails:

In computing, a hacker is a person in one of several distinct (but not completely disjoint) communities and subcultures:[1]

* People committed to circumvention of computer security. This is the oldest meaning of the word hacker in the computer context and initially referred to unauthorized users of the telephone network (phreakers).[2] Today, it primarily refers to unauthorized remote computer break-ins via a communication networks such as the Internet (black hats), but also includes those who debug or fix security problems (white hats). See "Hacker (computer security)".
* A community of enthusiast computer programmers and systems designers, originated in the 1960s around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)'s Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC) and MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.[3] This community is notable for launching the free software movement. The World Wide Web and the Internet itself are also hacker artifacts.[4] The Request for Comments RFC 1392 amplifies this meaning as "[a] person who delights in having an intimate understanding of the internal workings of a system, computers and computer networks in particular."

 

[Tns]

the banks charges are now exposed

 

[Shake&Bake]

Right. Here are the facts:

Yes, myadsl was part of all this.
Yes the current version on wikileaks has some censored bits*.
NO the "original uncensored report and links to how to hack it" were NOT published on myadsl at all. That is a blatant lie Mrs CC and you know it. The only thing that was posted on here was a Link to their site to download the respective parts of the report (It was split up in sections) and instructions on how to join them together into one document to make handling it easier. This thread was later removed due to a Take Down Request received by MyADSL.

*Due to technical reasons the images in the report are still censored.

Edit:


Nope. I had a look at the "original" redacted version (the one the CC published to the public) - while it was still split up in parts etc etc- the images ain't recoverable. Klaar oor en verby.

What images are you referring to?
The graphs, etc?
Those images are visible from the wikileaks unredacted version.

EDIT: Taking rwenzori's post below into account - I've only made it to PG 47

 

[rwenzori]

Nope. I had a look at the "original" redacted version (the one the CC published to the public) - while it was still split up in parts etc etc- the images ain't recoverable. Klaar oor en verby.

I'm interested in which images. Are the ones you referred to like the ones on pp 271, 272? Or are there other "censored" ones I am missing?

 

[telkomsuig]

typical gvt department mentality though ... one would expect somebody to be fired for the f up...

 

[Shake&Bake]

typical gvt department mentality though ... one would expect somebody to be fired for the f up...

Indeed - who is going to take responsibilty at the CC for this anal lack of security?
Heads should roll for their stupidity.

EDIT: Though I am thankful for it

 

[Jacques]

MyBroadband features in today's Sake24 (part of Beeld and Die Burger newspapers).

Looks like they aiming the police investigation at the forum. (most likely since there is no chance of them ever getting anything out of wikileaks)

The newspaper article starts with the heading: "Kommissie kry regsadvies oorbanverslag" with the byline: "Webuitlappers kan tronk toe"

Link to english version of article:
http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-1786_2449489
"Bank report hackers face jail"

 

[LazyLion]

LOL... good luck with that!

 

[thatdamnJoe]

MyBroadband features in today's Sake24 (part of Beeld and Die Burger newspapers).

Looks like they aiming the police investigation at the forum. (most likely since there is no chance of them ever getting anything out of wikileaks)

The newspaper article starts with the heading: "Kommissie kry regsadvies oorbanverslag" with the byline: "Webuitlappers kan tronk toe"

Link to english version of article:
http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-1786_2449489
"Bank report hackers face jail"

This is about to get interesting
/me gets popcorn

 

[Shake&Bake]

MyBroadband features in today's Sake24 (part of Beeld and Die Burger newspapers).

Looks like they aiming the police investigation at the forum. (most likely since there is no chance of them ever getting anything out of wikileaks)

The newspaper article starts with the heading: "Kommissie kry regsadvies oorbanverslag" with the byline: "Webuitlappers kan tronk toe"

Link to english version of article:
http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-1786_2449489
"Bank report hackers face jail"

LoL These people are nuts

Directions on how to decipher the censored parts of the report was first published on MyBroadband.com

It's .co.za!
Also no directions were needed as the unredacted version on wikileaks does not need any hacking/cracking

The commission had an agreement with that country's major retail banks that confidential information would be "scratched out". The hackers however made the highly technical instructions of how to decipher the invisible portions available on MyBroadband

Posting a link to webiste which hosts public information is hardly deciphering

Mokoena says in the course of their investigations the police will probably have discussions with MyBroadband on the original source of the directions.

rpm - get them to bring a nice big lunch while they're at it.
What discussions?
This site neither hosted the report nor did any of its members hack the damn thing.
I can't wait to see the shyte being wiped from the investigating officer(s) faces.

 

[Nod]

They are looking for a "fall guy", since they can't get to wikileaks, IMHO.

 

[LazyLion]

The hackers however made the highly technical instructions of how to decipher the invisible portions available on MyBroadband

um, there were 3 or 4 steps to show the blacked out portions? I didn't realize you haxxor okes wuz so highly technical!

 

[Nod]

um, there were 3 or 4 steps to show the blacked out portions? I didn't realize you haxxor okes wuz so highly technical!

And using the same software that you use to view it with

 

[Necuno]

lol....omg the over romanticism of hackers; yes we all just ****ing waiting to ****ing hack you when you get home. I just want to break into your system, i just want have all your info on your pc....zug...zug...

...what a laugh, btw a real hacker/cracker don't break in and go WTF WTF ZOMG OMG i have haxored you and i've do this and so on.

It does however get tiring of the forever continuing by the authorities or the so called experts going about on how this hacker has hacked them and now they going to e-pwanged him/her, but in actual reality it was they who ****ed up and is looking for the escape goat in the form of the ever believed threat of hackers out there.

anyways, if you don't have the proper intelligence for doing what you suppose to be doing properly don't go play the hacker card, its getting old.

 

[Shake&Bake]

Was wanting to see if MyBroadband.com does exist and it nogal does - in the USA

So now according to Fin24 our investigating officer will have to make a trip to the US and waste yet more of the taxpayer's money!?!

 

[Jacques]

Nando Mokoena, the commission's strategy manager, has confirmed that the commission has lodged a criminal charge against the hackers with the police, in terms of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act.

http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-1786_2449489

I wonder under which section they plan to prosecute?

http://www.acts.co.za/ect_act/
I suppose Section XIII ?

The aim of that act however seems to be to protect electronic transactions and personal information?

 

[thatdamnJoe]

http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-1786_2449489

I wonder under which section they plan to prosecute?

http://www.acts.co.za/ect_act/
I suppose Section XIII ?

The aim of that act however seems to be to protect electronic transactions and personal information?

Section XIII subsection 86

"1) Subject to the Interception and Monitoring Prohibition Act, 1992 (Act No. 127 of 1992), a person who intentionally accesses or intercepts any data without authority or permission to do so, is guilty of an offence."
Data wasnt intercepted, it was available freely for download.


"2) A person who intentionally and without authority to do so, interferes with data in a way which causes such data to be modified, destroyed or otherwise rendered ineffective, is guilty of an offence."
CC's copy of the report is still redacted so data is nto modified in any way.


"3) A person who unlawfully produces, sells, offers to sell, procures for use, designs, adapts for use, distributes or possesses any device, including a computer program or a component, which is designed primarily to overcome security measures for the protection of data, or performs any of those acts with regard to a password, access code or any other similar kind of data with the intent to unlawfully utilise such item to contravene this section, is guilty of' an offence."

Acrobat is hardly a tool "esigned primarily to overcome security measures for the protection of data"

"4) A person who utilises any device or computer program mentioned in subsection (3) in order to unlawfully overcome security measures designed to protect such data or access thereto, is guilty of an offence."

As mentioned before, Acrobat as hardly such a device or program

"5) A person who commits any act described in this section with the intent to interfere with access to an information system so as to constitute a denial, including a partial denial, of service to legitimate users is guilty of an offence.
"
N/A


Methinks they will have a tough time to prove anything.

 

[w1z4rd]

Lol.. the cops wont catch ****e. Lol.. theyre as thick as the cc.