                                .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
