* Original Area: virus_nfo  
* Original From: Kwisatz Haderach (1:147/69)
* Original To  : All (1:147/69)
IN HEARING OF THE ELECTRONIC BOGEYMAN: A CONTINUING SERIES
electronic bogeyman: a hacker, instrument of a hacker or anonymous source 
portrayed in the mainstream media as a menace to society. The electronic 
bogeyman must always be quoted making grandiose,unverifiable, or nutty claims 
(e.g., opening all the automatic garage doors in Anaheim, California at 
precisely 2:00 pm) about feats,usually malicious, that can be performed with 
a computer.
Usage:  Reuters interviewed an _electronic bogeyman_ from Croatia who claimed 
he had invaded an installation where atomic secrets were kept. In a later 
press release the e-bogeyman downgraded this claim to Anderson Air Force Base 
on the island of Guam.
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This week's episode of _electronic bogeyman_, the popular Web soap opera in 
which international and American news agencies print the press releases of 
teenagers who claim to have infiltrated and subverted the Pentagon or some 
other important and very secret place, takes us to Croatia, where a fifteen 
year-old hacker made his country so proud, officials there were inspired to 
hold a press conference so that people in the United States would notice.
In this episode, wire news reports about the Croatian electronic bogeyman 
changed so much from day to day (first a hacker had broken into an "atomic 
installation," then the hacker said he had downloaded files,later he said he 
had not, etc.), they reeked strongly of phlogiston. The waffling nature of 
the story speaks strongly for itself and large elements of it are reprinted 
verbatim from the original news releases.
February 20th --
". . . Laura Lui of the Reuter News Service says the [Croatian] local press 
is reporting [that] three high school students, surfing the Internet on their 
home computer, broke into several U.S. military installations' databases, 
including those of the Anderson nuclear installation and an unnamed satellite 
research center."
"Lui [said] that following a report in the Zagreb daily Vecernji List, local 
reporters flocked to the high school in the Adriatic port of Zadar where the 
. . . teen-age hackers . . . specialize in mathematics and information 
technology."
"One of the teenagers, identified . . . as [Vice Miskovic], told the state 
news agency HINA he accessed the Pentagon database while surfing the Net [in 
January].
"[Vice Miskovic] told [Reuters], 'The data are compressed and need to be 
extracted, so I don't really know everything they contained, but it sure was 
very interesting.'"
" . . . assistant Interior Minister Zeljko Sacic told state radio that 
invaders broke into the U.S. Defence [sic] Department computer system of the 
airbase on Guam island . . . "
February 21 --
"A report this week that high school computer users in Croatia had broken 
Pentagon protection codes and copied highly classified files from U.S. 
military bases has been flatly denied by the U.S. Defense Department . . ."
"Zagreb press is reporting [hackers], surfing the Internet on their home 
computer, broke into several U.S. military installations' databases,including 
those of the Anderson nuclear installation . . . [the hackers] broke codes . 
. ."
"'They did not,' Defense Department spokesman Ken Bacon told reporters in 
Washington. 'They did apparently get into some computers at Anderson Air 
Force Base in Guam.'"
March 3 --
"[Vice Miskovic], a Croatian teen-ager, says he modified programs he found on 
the Internet and used them, 'with a bit of luck,' to hack his way into a U.S. 
military computer at the Anderson Air Force Base in Guam."
"'It was a challenge,' says 15-year-old Vice Miskovic of Zadar. 'I was 
curious to see whether I could do it or not.'"
"Miskovic told Associated Press writer Snjezana Vukic he searched through the 
Anderson base files during the month of January, but whenever he wanted to 
download files, they started to disappear."
Crypt News translation: Vice Miskovic first claimed he downloaded secret 
files to get the attention of international wire news reporters like Laura 
Lui. But when he couldn't produce them weeks later, Miskovic confessed he 
hadn't actually downloaded any files at all and further confused the issue 
through clever use of a techno-magic, 
dog-ate-my-homework alibi.
The remainder of the March 3 news release on Vice Miskovic is full of 
standard, if unfortunate, electronic bogeyman cliches: The electronic 
bogeyman didn't destroy anything, the electronic bogeyman's computer was 
seized by government authorities, the electronic bogeyman's grandmother loved 
her grandson whom -- she said -- preferred computers to dating girls.
". . . Nediljka Miskovic said her shy grandson -- known in the computing 
underground as 'Intruder' -- has always been fascinated by computers. 'He had 
no interest in new jeans, sneakers or girls.'"
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Reuters, Associated Press, United Press International: international 
misinformation vendors.
Usage:  Reuters wire news stories told the legend of Vice Miskovic of Zadar, 
Croatia, a dangerous teenage electronic bogeyman who preferred his computer 
over various girlfriends.
Crypt News tip:  Hey, international teen hackers!  Interested in maximizing 
your worldwide publicity?  Stop wasting your time harassing the locals in 
chat rooms on America On-Line! Instead,buckle down and ensure your place in 
news wire immortality by sending those electronic press releases to your 
local Reuters or Associated Press bureau, preferably to a reporter or desk 
editor _not_ fluent with computers but hungry for a scoop.
--Excerpted from the Crypt News "Joseph K Guide to Tech Terminology"
--- Maximus 3.01
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