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Full Text Artic December 01.wpd Page 1 b6 -1 b7C -1 Full Text Articles. 6 December 01 Hacker views MCI network data Computer sleuth gained access to private corporate lines By Bob Sullivan MSNBC Dec. 5 - A 20-year-old computer security.researcher managed to crack several MCI WorIdcom networks last week and view dozens.ofthe company's private networks. The perpetrator, Adrian Lamo, toId MSNBC.com he obtained thousands of employee records and, while posing as various MCI Worldcom workers, found he could have compromised networks belonging to dozens of big-name clients, such as Bank of America, Citicorp, and Pfizer. Lamo subsequently contacted MCI Worldcom and the security flaw has been fixed. AN MCI SPOKESPERSON admitted the company had a security vulnerability, but said no customer networks were compromised. "We did discover on Friday that unauthorized access could be made to an administrative internal data network used by employees to access intema! Web sites and information. There was no customer network impact," she said. Lamo told MSNBC.com he began breaking into MCI Worldcom's network with a simple hack of an MCI Worldcom Web server - hardly a newsworthy event. But from there, the researcher was able to gain access to much more.critical internal networks. As a result, he was able to obtain Iists of thousands of employees and their social security numbers. Armed with those, and a date of birth obtained from Web site Anybirthday.com, Lamo was able to reset employee passwords. From there, breaking into other critical networks was a breeze, since he could now impersonate company employees. "I managed to reset someone's password at the director level," Lamo said. "I was able to use his online ID to create new employees, and could have requested the hiring of contractors ... I could have changed direct deposit information." Equally alarming, Lamo could have accessed private circuit networks operated by MCI for Fortune 500 companies. These networks are used only to connect corporate offices and are generally considered to be very secure because they are not connected to the Internet. "I could have cut off segments of the company from each other," Lamo said. "If I zeroed out. the configuration settings for Cisco routers that would have required site visits to restore communications between offices." Lamo said over 500 companies' private networks were vulnerable, including firms like Chase Mellon, Daimler Chrysler, FOX TV, H&R Block, and General Electric. He provided FBI(19-cv-1495)-9964