Date: Fri, 23 Oct 92 18:21:12 CDT
From: Moderators <tk0jut2@mvs.cso.niu.edu>
Subject: File 5--Update on Toronto Bust of Early October
 
When Toronto Metropolitan Police apprehended a 15 year old "computer
hacker" in the first week of October for disrupting the Toronto E911
system, the details about the extent of computer use was raised. From
initial reports, it appeared that the primary offense involved
repeated telephone hoaxes rather than an actual penetration of the
E911 computer system itself.  Today, a spokesperson for the Toronto
Metropolitan Police, the agency in charge of the case, provided
further details.
 
The disruption of the system itself involved a series of hoax calls to
Toronto emergency services. However, the calls were made by "phone
phreaking," in which calls were routed through a series of
PBX-Alliance-Meridien systems in the United States.  In addition to
theft of communication, the youth is being charged on 24 separate
counts of mischief and 10 counts of conveying false messages (false
alarms to the E911 system).
 
The spokesperson explained that under Canadian law, violations are
divided into indictable offenses and summary offenses.  The former are
equivalent in the U.S. to felony charges, and the latter to
misdemeanor charges.  The spokesperson indicated that the charges in
this case fall under provincial jurisdiction.  The Canadian justice
system is somewhat different than that of the U.S., which has federal,
state, and local jurisdictions. In the U.S., computer crimes may fall
under federal jurisdiction involving the Secret Service (for most
telecommunications/computer crimes) or the F.B.I. (for crimes in which
a federal computer is involved).  Although Canada also has tri-level
jurisdiction (federal, provincial--centralized authority in each
province, and municipal--the equivalent of city police in the U.S.),
computer crimes come under the jurisdiction of provincial or municipal
police.  Because the youth is a minor, the trial will be held in camera
(closed session) and records will not be made public.
 
The spokesperson said that, judging from the existing evidence, the
youth was acting alone and the case was unrelated to the recent cases
in New York/New Jersey.
 
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