◆ SpookStack

New Architect: Inside the meg’ @ Page 4 of 6 off an email to an autoresponder to get their middle initial to see if it was the right person, and see a specific IP address in the headers of the autoresponse from the New York Times that led to finding another subnet that I scanned on a whim...that glosses over a lot of it, but when things unfold like that, it's really the best for me. Sure, you can protect yourself against $5,000 commercial scanning software, but can't nothing protect you against unlikely coincidence. Chance undoes the best of our plans; it's important that we keep a sense of absurdity about it. NA: And you reported the hole to the Times? AL: I browsed, and promptly forgot about it. It just wasn't that interesting. They're a newspaper. Big deal. Eventually I made a call to SecurityFocus to see when they thought would be best to do the disclosure. NA: What was the reaction from the Times? AL: The Times has had no official reaction other than to convey how seriously they take security, and that they're still evaluating ail their options. It'd be nice if they'd contacted me. [Editor's Note: Since our interview, an FBI investigation appears to have been initiated.] NA: Have you ever been prosecuted for any of your hacks? AL: I've not been prosecuted. Probably my closest brush with the law has been any of my several random police stops—I'm frequently in random places at night, on a dark road in middle of nowhere, walking on the shoulder, whatever. That's the only context in which I've had any cop/detainee interactions that were in any way serious. NA: Does prosecution concern you? AL: I am, of course, aware of the possibility of prosecution, It’s not a distant, theoretical awareness either—I think about it when I hear cars outside fate at night, and I don't make any sudden moves when a white Crown Victoria pulls up near me when I'm walking. But we all take risks in life, The important thing is to not stop living my life because of what might or might not happen. NA: Random places at night? Dark roads in the middle of nowhere? Explain. AL: I just end up in strange places. Like when I got stranded in Ohio because of a string of random luck, I didn't think it was unreasonable to walk about twenty miles to Dayton, but the local cop that got a call from a concerned farmer did. NA: How do you fund your travels? AL: Walking is free, and Greyhound from coast to coast is something hitp://www.newarchitectmag.coni/documents/s=2415/na12021/ 9/8/2003 FBI(19-cv-1495)-1096