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Accused Internet hacker fights Etisalat charges
From: InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 21:28:32 -0600
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=12948 Dubai By Eman Abdullah 26-03-01 Lawyers for Lee Ashurst, the Briton accused of hacking into Emirates Telecommunications Corp's (Etisalat) Internet system, are trying to prove that he did not use the hacking programmes found on his computer. The next hearing of the long-running case will take place on April 15 when the defence will submit Ashurst's defence witnesses including several computer specialists in an effort to discredit the accusations. Ashurst, a 21-year-old computer engineer, allegedly admitted - first to the police and then to the Public Prosecutor - that he hacked into the system. He has since denied the charges. The Public Prosecutor has accused Ashurst of misusing the Internet for illegal purposes under Article No. 46/b of Federal Law No 1 for 1990 which deals with Etisalat. He has also been accused under Article No. 380 of Federal Penal Law No 3 of 1987, which covers the opening of other people's mail. The prosecution has based its accusations on a Police Criminal Laboratory report, an Etisalat technical report and Ashurst's alleged confession. The prosecution claims that last June 21 Ashurst misused the Internet service for illegal purposes after he installed on his laptop two hacking programmes known as "Saint" and "Jack the Ripper". These enabled him to decipher the passwords of several Etisalat employees through which he entered sites forbidden to network users. The prosecution also claims that he copied the password file of Etisalat's managers as well as files of some employee e-mail. The prosecution has accused him of opening some e-mail by deciphering their passwords and copied some e-mail messages onto his computer. Police confiscated Ashurst's personal computer, hard disk and some books containing instructions on how to hack into networks. The Etisalat report claims Ashurst's computer contained programmes and files related to hacking, including programmes for scanning Internet networks, programmes for deciphering passwords and users' names and other programmes which teach steps of hacking. The report details the steps Ashurst followed when he hacked into the system. The report claims that he entered different parts of the Etisalat system using the user names of company employees. The Etisalat technical report details the dates and times when someone hacked into the company's Internet data authentication system. Etisalat's Internet engineers have said that on May 16 they noticed that the network was performing badly and that there was unusual pressure on the data authentication system. Following further unusual activity on the network on June 7, a technical team was formed, and a telephone number registered in the name of the company where Ashurst was working was identified as being used by a hacker. The hacker used the user name of an Etisalat employee responsible for the Internet system. Etisalat also claims to have found evidence that whoever was hacking into the system was using the user name of the company Ashurst worked for. ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com --- To unsubscribe email LISTSERV () SecurityFocus com with a message body of "SIGNOFF ISN".
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