Text 4157, 108 rader
Skriven 2012-09-20 17:58:13 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
     Kommentar till en text av mark lewis
Ärende: SONGS OF THE CYBER-DOOMED
=================================
SONGS OF THE CYBER-DOOMED, II: THE TERMINATOR TERMINATES THE FIDONET'S
INTERNET E-MAIL GATEWAY

Earlier this year, Burt Juda, an administrator for the FIDOnet's
Internet mail gateway announced the network would lose the gateway
as a consequence of a denial-of-service attack on his system
carried out by a couple of the network's ex-sysops, one
of whom - The Terminator - is familiar to Crypt Newsletter followers
of the FIDOnet "cyber-doomed" news stories (Crypt 27 - 28).

Juda commented recently in a post widely distributed by various
on-line networks:

"Effective March 1, 1996,  the Internet Gateway at 1:1/31 will
be shutting down.  At that point, there will be NO MORE 'default'
gateway for electronic mail inbound from the Internet for [the US].

"The reasons for this termination of service are numerous . . .

"Most recently, an excommunicated SysOp has gone on a rampage of
forging subscription messages to subscribe numerous FidoNet
addresses to . . . unwanted Internet mailing-lists
in a deliberate attempt to 'break' [FidoNet] routing . . . and
the gateway structure."

Further, Juda writes, "I can no longer deal with the voluminous
netmail being received from [people] querying what has happened to
their inbound [electronic mail] coming [through the affected gateway].

Juda added he no longer had the time to support the  service when
cyber-denizens "continue[d] to break the rules of its use and
bypass . . . controls."

The Fidonet Internet-netmail junction, which provides service to the
community of amateur, pro and semi-pro BBS sysops and callers who use
the FIDOnet nationwide, was brought to the point of collapse
as a result of mass electronic mail forgery by The Terminator and
another collaborator.

In late 1995, The Terminator and a partner spent an evening ramming the
Fidonet-Internet gateway in Piscataway, New Jersey, with posts forged to
look like they originated from as many FIDO-sysop network e-mail accounts
as could be gathered. This is quite a few -- thousands -- as it turns out.
Many, many of these posts were simply subscription requests to Internet
mailing lists.

Subsequently, the Fidonet/Internet junction was overwhelmed with the
volume of nuisance mail and hung.

The Terminator had been involved in disruption of the FIDO Virus
Information echo and others throughout 1994 and 1995 with re-directed
spam-mail.  The mail-bombs, rammed through unsecured FIDOnet mail links
from Europe, Israel and the United States, consisted of virus source
code interspersed with a great deal of text hardcore filth dealing with
transvestism and scatological material fabricated for the occasion
and/or cross-posted from an adult-oriented network.

One example of such mail:

"Are there any persons out there that get off by watching a woman pee?
There is just something about seeing and hearing a woman pee.  Not sure
if I am into getting peed upon, but I am always open to new adventures."

Because of the level of trust in the inherently wide-open, difficult
to secure FIDO technology network, FIDO administrators and sysops
were never able to completely plug the system breaches exploited by
The Terminator, leading more recently to the collapse of its Internet
gateway when expanded attacks overpowered the message handling capacity
of the junction and the patience of its administrator.

At the time of the original nuisance mail rammings in the FIDO
Virus Information message base, some BBS operators monitored their
systems more closely for obviously fake mail; others attempted to
secure their automated mailer software with mixed success. Still
others took the expedient cure. They simply dropped service on
the special interest groups affected, the same answer given to the
problem by the FIDO/Internet electronic mail gateway administrator.

Shortly after the initial failure of the FIDO/Internet mail gateway,
The Terminator contacted Crypt Newsletter from Moberly, Missouri, to
point out the interruption in service brought about by the attack.

"The FIDO/Internet gateway is crashed," he said.

The start of attacks on FIDOnet computer virus information message
feeds in 1993 were attributed to Paskell "Geno" Paris of Oklahoma City,
a FIDO sysop and self-styled "technopath" who waged a guerilla war
for control of a small section of cyberspace moderated by Ed Cleton,
a European host of virus information topics on the FIDOnet.  Paris was
later indicted and convicted on fraud charges, crimes unrelated to his
activity on the FIDOnet. As a consequence, Paris served time in state
and federal prison. The Terminator carried on Paris' mail war with Virus
Information moderators Jeff Cook, a representative of Thunderbyte
Anti-virus, and his successor, Allen Taylor.  During the period and
as a result of repeated mail bombing runs, The Terminator was banned
from the message base. Nuisance mail-rammings of virus source code
and forged messages, however, continued to plague the FIDOnet echo.

                R\%/itt


... Mark Owen: "Hey, did you ever hear anything about that beer?
... Fellow SEAL: "You believed that shit, I bet you voted for change too,
... SUCKER."


--- GoldED+/W32-MSVC and D'Bridge 3.82
 * Origin: Lone Star Unit - Gulf States Backbone  (1:387/22)