To All Interested Parties,
In All Interested News/Discussion Groups.

My computer has been hacked. I am a little out of my league and am looking for some help. I am in need of some assistance!

Post your email address if you are interested in assisting and I will get back with you ASAP.

Sincerely,
"Beef"

P.S. Let the fire bird build its nest!

To Mr. Angus MacGyver,
Care of the Phoenix Foundation.

Mr. MacGyver, you have a way with words. You are very clever in disguising who you are, but leaving enough clues for a friend to find you. I like beef too! I am afraid, your tracks may also be visible to your opponent. I hope you do not mind me replying to your address at work instead of on the Internet. In situations like these, you may have already let the cat too far out of the bag!

I do not believe it was your personal computer, MacGyver. Which of the major companies or universities are you working for? Why is the Phoenix Foundation so interested in them? What do you need or want from me?

Sincerely,
"Vichu"

P.S. Use Gnu Privacy Guard to encrypt all further messages to me. Do not post them in newsgroups. E-mail directly!

P.P.S. Don't let the Phoenix nest too long. It may become lazy and dull in mind!

P.P.P.S. The word is cracked not hacked!!

To Mr. Angus MacGyver,
Care of the Phoenix Foundation.

Mr. MacGyver, I am glad you took my advice and watched the cracker before acting. Many times, system administrators will act before they know the extent of the damage. This, as you found, can be dangerous. If a cracker has too much control over your system, they can get in another way and trash it out to make sure there are no tracks.

Through the traces and logs you sent me, I was able to track the individuals down. You will find their names, addresses, and telephone numbers attached. You should encourage and assist the organizations to setup firewalls. These firewalls should be a bare minimum of a packet filter. It might be a good idea to use proxies in the firewall configuration as well. Not only will this enhance security, but given a proper setup and use of some proxies, such as Squid, you can actually improve network performance.

On submitting this report to your contact at the FBI, I was told that this also proved to be evidence in the cases involving many of the e-commerce sites that have been hit recently. Again, you have killed one bird with one stone. I beg of you, in light of this, that you encourage people to protect their networks, even if they believe they have nothing to loose. It is people with the negligence and arrogance to say they have nothing to loose, that endanger the entire INTERNET community. I believe you can appreciate this fact!

Here are the facts as I can gather them. Apparently, both organizations suffered from the same problem. They were using NT machines that had IIS security holes and Back Orifice installed. Using these, the crackers were able to gain access to the local networks. After this, they found security holes on the local UNIX boxes (apparently, there were unneeded, compromised services still running). From here, the world was their play ground. They used these machines to launch further DoS attacks and to crack more machines. Expect these organizations to be hearing from those affected due to their negligence.

Please, thank Mr. Thornton for his help. My job was much easier with the packet sniffer with fiber optic capable ports that he provided. His influence with the upstream carriers was most handy. It allowed me to move that sniffer around as needed and cut our tracing time in half.

I do not mean to sound unprofessional, but I really do miss the TV show based on your exploits! Do you believe there might be any way for you to get them to create more episodes? Might there be a movie or a book series? I really love following your career to say the least!

Best of luck in your future ventures. Please, don't hesitate to contact me again if my services are necessary. Be aware, it looks like I will be working for a company that does INTERNET services. This will likely included network security, so you may have to go through them!

Sincerely,
"Vichu"

P.S. Although your friend Jack has the largest heart and never seems to mean harm, I am very glad this case didn't involve him. I am afraid he would have gummed it up royally.

P.P.S. Please, consult CERT and CDC advisories to learn how to remove/patch the security holes listed above. I would do this for you, but the organizations removed my access on learning I had filed my report with the FBI. The copy sent FBI is also attached.

Please note, the above is an entirely fictional account. The only truth in it regards Vichu and his interests in all things technology, especially those that are INTERNET related. Vichu does do network security, HTML design, and system administration.