◆ SpookStack

. SecurityFocus HOME News: LaQpumped from NBC After Hacking Th ~ « ° \_Sign In | MyAccount | AboutUs | Advertisa | Contact Page | of 4 Lamo Bumped from NBC After Hacking Them The helpful hacker demonstrates his techniques on camera for the NBC Nightly News, but lawyers kill the story when he cracks the broadcast network's own systems. By Kevin Poulsen, Aug 27 2002 2:24PM How did a mediagenic hacker like Adrian Lamo get himself bumped last week from a scheduled appearance on the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw? Perhaps with his impromptu on-camera intrusion into the peacock network's own computers. The vagabond hacker known for his drifter lifestyle and his public forays into large and poorly-secured corporate intranets sat down at a Washington D.C. Kinko's laptop station earlier this month with a freelance NBC news producer to show-off his particular style of hacking -- the 21-year-old typically uses little more than an ordinary browser, possessing an eerie knack for finding undocumented Web servers and open proxies at large organizations. That method has gotten Lamo deep into the electronic infrastructures of such companies as troubled telecom giant Worldcom, Internet portal Yahoo, and most recently the New York Times, where last February he exploited lax security to tap a database of 3,000 Times op-ed contributors, culling such tidbits of information as Robert Redford's social-security number, and former president Jimmy Carter's home phone number. But unlike most intruders, Lamo eventually goes public with his discoveries, and offers to help those he's hacked tighten their - security pro bono -- an offer that's been accepted by several of his corporate targets. So far Lamo’s managed to avoid prosecution, though federal officials in New York are believed to be investigating him for the Times hack. "Maybe they should have * Lamo says NBC was taping him at Kinko’s while he demonstrated just talked to the . security holes in a telecommunications company's systems, when lawyers first... Alitfle the interviewer asked him if he'd be successful hacking NBC. front end work to identify the pitfalls Five minutes and one guessed would have made it a password later and Lamo was good story." surfing the television network's 7 toe private messaging system and an - Journalism ethicist affiliate scheduling application that Kelly McBride included internal memos and : ‘ information on advertising rates. Adrian Lamo dovs moat ef his hacking Screen shots of the hack provided by Lamo and reviewed by ‘with an ordinary Web browser, SecurityFocus Online include a page from an NBC vendor database with the network's trademark "living color" peacock and the warning, "All information contained on this Web site ‘NEWS Bug Triad _ Whacks b6 1 Microsoft =D 7C —1 Browser Sep 04, 2002 Sprint Security Faulted in Vegas Hacks Aug 19, 2002 ‘Creative Attacks’ Beat Crypto -- Expert Aug 09, 2002 Researcher: Biometrics Unproven, Hard To Test Aug 07, 2002 [archive] FROM THE WIRES Computer Security Standards Ready Sep 05, 2002 MS patches bogus certificate FBI(19-cv-1495)-167