Date: Tue, Mar 24, '92 22:15:34 PST From: John F. McMullen Subject: File 9--CFP-2 Features Role-Playing FBI Scenario (NEWSBYTES REPRINT) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1992 MAR 25(NB) -- As part of the "Birds-of-a-Feather" (BOF) sessions featured at the 2nd Conference on Computers, Freedom & Privacy (CFP-2), FBI agent J. Michael Gibbons, acting as a live gamemaster, orchestrated the play-acting of an investigation by federal agents into allegations of computer intrusion and crimienal activity. The scenario, set up by Gibbons to show the difficulties faced by investigators in balancing the conducting of an investigation with a protection of the rights of the individual under investigation, was acted out with non-law enforcement officials cast in the role of investigators; New York State Police Senior Investigator Donald Delaney as "Doctor Doom", the suspected ringleader of the computer criminals; Newsbytes New York Bureau Chief John McMullen as a magistrate responsible for considering the investigators' request for a search warrant; and author Bruce Sterling as a neighbor and possible cohort of Doctor Doom. Gibbons, in His role of Gamemaster, regularly intercepted the action to involve the audience in a discussion of what the appropriate next step in the scenario would be -- "Do you visit the suspect or get a search warrant or visit his school or employer to obtain more information?; Do you take books in the search and seizure?, printers?, monitors?, etc." During the discussion with the audience, points of law were clarified by Mike Godwin, Electronic Frontier Foundation in-house counsel, and Alameda County Assistant District Attorney Donald Ingraham. The role-playing session immediately followed a BOF panel, "Hackers: Why Don't They Understand" which attempted to present a hacker view of on-line ethics. The panel, moderated by McMullen, was composed of Steve Levy, MacWorld columnist and author of "Hackers"; Dorothy Denning, Chair of Computer Science at Georgetown University; Glenn Tenney, California Congressional Candidate and chair of the annual "Hacker's Conference"; Craig Neidorf, defendant in a controversial case involving the electronic publishing of a stolen document; "Dispater", the publisher of the electronic publication "Phrack"; Emmanuel Goldstein, editor and publisher of "2600: The Hacker Quarterly", and hacker "Phiber Optik". During the panel discussion, Levy, Denning and Tenney discussed the roots of the activities that we now refer to as hacking, Goldstein and Dispater described what they understood as hacking and asked for an end to what they see as overreaction by the law enforcement community, Neidorf discussed the case which, although dropped by the government, has left him over $50,000 in debt; and Phiber Optik described the details of two searches and seizures of his computer equipment and his 1991 arrest by Delaney. In Neidorf's talk, he called attention to the methods used in valuing the stolen document that he published as $78,000. He said that it came out after the trial that the $78,000 included the full value of the laser printer on which it was printed, the cost of the word processing system used in its production and the cost of the workstation on which it was entered. Neidorf's claims were substantiated by EFF counsel Godwin, whose filing of a motion in the Steve Jackson cases caused the release of papers including the one referred to by Neidorf. Godwin also pointed out that it was the disclosure by interested party John Nagle that the document, valued at $78,000, was obtainable in a book priced at under $20.00 that led to the dropping of the charges by the US Attorney's office. SRI security consultant Donn Parker, one of the many in the audience to participate, admonished Phiber and other hackers to use their demonstrated talents constructively and to complete an education that will prepare them for employment in the computer industry. Another audience member, Charles Conn, described his feeling of exhilaration when, as a 12-year old, he "hacked" into a computer at a local Kentucky Fried Chicken. Conn said "It was wonderful. It was like a drug. I just wanted to explore more and more." Parker later told Newsbytes that he thought that it was a mistake to put hackers such as Phiber Optic and those like Craig Neidorf who glorify hackers on a panel. Parker said "Putting them on a panel glorifies them to other hackers and makes the problem worse." The Birds-of-a-Feather sessions were designed to provide an opportunity for discussions of topics that were not a part of the formal CFP-2 program. (Barbara E. McMullen/Press Contact: Dianne Martin, The George Washington University, 202-994-8238/19920325) Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253