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                            .oO Phrack 50 Oo.

                        Volume Seven, Issue Fifty

                                 4 of 16


                         -:[ Phrack Pro-Phile ]:-

                                Aleph One
                                ~~~~~~~~~

Personal
~~~~~~~~

         Handle: Aleph One
       Call him: Aleph
   Past handles: None
  Handle origin: Transfinite Math
                 ("Infinity and the Mind" by Rudy Rucker)
  Date of Birth: 1974
         Height: 6 feet
         Weight: No idea.
      Eye color: Olive
     Hair Color: Dark Brown
      Computers: Two
       Admin of: Underground.Org, and BugTraq

Sites Frequented: None. I got better things to do with my time. URLs: http://www.disinfo.com/

Favorite Things
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
         Women: Intelligent, sexy with beautiful eyes and class.
          Cars: None.  They are a pain.  Ride a motorcycle.
         Foods: Exotic.  Sushi (Anago), Arab, Chinese, Vietnamese,
                Thai, Indian, Ethiopian.  Seafood.  Meat.  Anything on 
                a grill.  Anything flambé. Wine: Chianti.
         Music:      Techno: Leftfield, Orbital, Underworld, Electric 
                             Skychurch, Prodigy, Juno Reacto, 
                             Chemical Brothers, Ambient, GOA Trace.
                       Rock: Tool, Marylin Mason, Beck, Garbage, NIN.
                  Classical: Bach, Baroque
                Soundtracks: Natural Born Killers, The Piano, Braveheart, 
                             RobRoy.
         Books: "Godel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas R. Hofstadter
                "Infinity and the Mind" by Rudy Rucker
                "100 Years of Solitude" (in Spanish)
                  by Gabriel Garcia Marques
                "Metamorphosis" by Kafka
      Turn Ons: Intelligence.  Class.  Pierced belly buttons.
                Tasteful tattoos.  Long hair.
     Turn Offs: Ignorance.  Attitude.  Bad tattoos. 



Other passions, interests, loves:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Painting - Went to a painting/drawing class for 3 years.  Did
everything from pencil, pastels, up to watercolors.  I stopped going
when I started working with oils.  I haven't painted in almost 7 years.
Too bad, I enjoyed it.

Math - For some reason I always liked math.  I hated doing exercises,
but always liked the theory.  Guess that's why my grades were not
better.  I was intending to do a minor in math but I quit school
before that ever happened...

Reading - One of the things I value the most are my books.  I really enjoy
reading.  Sadly, lately, all I read are technical books.  I need to
start reading other stuff again.

AI - When I started fooling around with computers I wanted to go into AI,
but the lack of material at my disposition at the time kept me from
delving into it too much.

Most memorable experiences:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Death - It marks your life for ever.

Burning Man '95 - One of the most intense experiences of my life.
Nothing can compare to the creation and expression of this community 
that grows and dies in one of the most inhospitable, yet more 
beautiful, places on earth.

Some people to mention:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   

Annaliza (for all the rides from work, all the adventures, always being 
          there, and the hot cocoa)

Luis (for all the good times, the bad times, and begin one fucking
      crazy Spanish cosaco)

Mr. Upsetter, Buckaroo Banzai, Dan, Rod & Rika, Sir Dystic, Freqout, 
White Knight & Loren (for being good friends)

Intrepid Traveller (for giving me the number to Lunatic Labs)

Noid, Pappy, Phax, Elvis Smurf, Ming of Mongo, TRW, Clockwork, and the 
rest of the old LA 2600 crew (for being themselves)

Veggie (for being larger than life)

Mycroft (who would have thought?)

r00t (for being elite)

A few things you would like to say:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knowledge come from within.

The New Security Threat: Disinformation

Statistics show that network break-ins are on the rise. Entities connecting to the Net expect to be broken into. They know it's only a matter of time before some random hacker targets their machines using the latest warez to bypass their firewall and break into their machine. They have seen it happen over and over. The CIA, DOJ, NASA, MGM/UA, etc.

The modus operandi is always the same: Deface the web page, or trash the machines. For this occurrence they have prepared. Backups are in place, and ready to be used. Hacked web pages hardly stay up more than half and hour before they are taken down. What ever message the hackers wanted to deliver was probably only seen by a handful of people. There no longer is any incentive to hack a web site that no one will see.

So what is next? Disinformation.

The Internet as a medium facilitates the free flow of information. Single individuals can reach large, as yet before unreachable audiences. Information that before would have been relegated to some obscure corner, now travels at the speed of light and is disseminated all over the world. Everyday the Net is becoming a more important source of leads and information for the standard news media. It usually only takes a few hours before some information such as a new product, or some new bug, published on the Net appears on TV or some newspaper's web site. And as more companies publish information online our dependence on the Net as a source of information will only increase.

But the medium does not attempt to validate or even authenticate this information in most cases. A anonymous tip on some newsgroup or web site can cause a company a lot of headaches. Even the worst are half-truths. Just look at the damage control that corporations such as Microsoft and Intel had to do in the past. But this is only the beginning.

What if that motivated hacker decides that instead of replacing the company's web site with some obscene language and graphics that will be taken down almost immediately we will add a small officially worded press release to the web site. How long until someone notices? How long until they realize it's a fake. Maybe we should also email the press release to some media contacts. What are the chances that it will be catch before it makes it into the news? Or that it will catch before it's discussed on some newsgroup with a large audience?

The amount of damage control a well placed piece of information coming from a seemingly reputable source is incredible. This, I believe, is where future attacks lay.

EOF