Marcus Hess, a West German was a particularly dangerous hacker. He was a computer prodigy and was recruited by the KGB. He was an international spy and obtained U.S. military information for the Soviets. His hacking activities were discovered fortuitously by Clifford Stoll, an astronomer turned systems administrator of the computer center of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in California. His first duty at his job was that of tracking an accounting error in the LBL system. In no time, Hess was able to determine that the computer system at LBL has been compromised. Not only has the computer been compromised, but the hacker had obtained “root” or systems privileges. Stoll was able to figure out how the hacker got into the system and what the hacker was doing to the system. LBL management entertained the idea of sealing off the system from this hacker, but Stoll and his colleagues convinced LBL’s management that sealing the system would be impossible. Instead, they decided to install a trap to trap the hacker. Hess’s initial activities started in at the University of Bremen in Hanover, Germany or through the German DATEX-P Network via satellite link or transatlantic cable to the Tymnet International Gateway. Subsequently, he branched out to the Jet Propulsion Laboratories[1] (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov) in Pasadena, California and to the Tymnet Switching System . It was through this switching system that he accessed the LBL computers. He had a very devious motive in using the LBL computers. He was able to attack 400 U.S. military computers by using LBL to “piggyback” to ARPANET and MILNET. ARPANET was a civilian wide area network created by the Department of Defense. MILNET was its military counterpart. ARPANET became the internet that we know today. The facilities that he hacked into included: The Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti  listen, or KGB, (Russian: Комите́т Госуда́рственной Безопа́сности; English: Committee for State Security), was the name of the main Soviet Security Agency and intelligence agency, as well as the main secret police agency from March 13, 1954 to November 6, 1991. ... Clifford Stoll (or Cliff Stoll) is an astronomer and computer systems administrator, and author. ... The Berkeley Lab is perched on a hill overlooking the Berkeley central campus and San Francisco Bay. ... The University of Bremen (Universität Bremen) is a university of about 22,000 students and 1,500 scientists in Bremen, Germany. ... This article needs cleanup. ... The armed forces of the United States of America consist of the United States Army United States Navy United States Air Force United States Marine Corps United States Coast Guard Note: The United States Coast Guard has both military and law enforcement functions. ... ARPANET logical map, March 1977. ... The MILNET was an ARPANET-based computer network intended for use by United States military computers, carrying only unclassified information. ... The United States Department of Defense, abbreviated DoD or DOD and sometimes called the Defense Department, is a civilian Cabinet organization of the United States government. ...

• • SRI International - Omaha, NB
  • U.S. Army Darcom - Seckenheim, West Germany
  • Fort Bruckner Army Base - Japan
  • U.S. Army 24th Infantry - Fort Stewart, GA
  • U.S. Navy Coastal Systems Computer - Panama City, FL
  • U.S. Air Force - Ramstein, West Germany
  • MIT MX Computer, Cambridge, MA
  • OPTIMUS Database - Pentagon
  • Air Force Systems Command - El Segundo, CA
  • Anniston Army Depot - Anniston, AL

Stoll, with the help of local authorities was able to trace the call to Tyment switch in Oakland, California. Tymnet was a "gateway" service that a user called into that routed him to any one of a number of computer systems that also used the service. Tyment was one of a number of services available that provided local telephone numbers, where directly accessing the computer would have been a long distance call. Users normally use packet switching services like Tymnet for cost reasons. Because the call came in from Oakland rather than from Berkeley, it was obvious that the hacker was not working locally. Tymnet officials helped LBL trace the various calls and the hacker’s calls appeared to have come from the homes of Jack London, Ed Messe and Gertrude Stein. Enlisting the aid of ATT and the FBI, Stoll was eventually able to determine that the calls were being “piggybacked” across the United States though the origin of the call was from Hanover, Germany. Stoll was able to trap Hess by creating records of a “bogus” military project conducted on LBL computers. The pretense was that the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories was engaged in an important part of the SDI Star Wars project. This “trap” was conducted on separate dedicated computer to monitor and record Hess’ activities. Several of the LBL employees worked full time creating many fictitious military letters and memoranda. Stoll was able to effectively keep Hess online as long as possible and trace his calls to their source. The fictitious letters and memoranda that appeared to be military in nature were worthless information if a scientist was reading this material, but Hess was no scientist just a clever computer hacker. The trap worked and Hess got ensnared. At this time, this type of hacking was new and it was a challenge to get the cooperation of the FBI and the West German government. Eventually, the German authorities were able to break in and caught Marcus Hess in the act. Hess was on trial in 1990 and Stoll testified during the trial. Hess was found guilty of espionage and was sentenced to a one to three year sentence. Eventually, he was released on probation and currently writes networking software for a computer company in Germany. Omaha is the name of some places in the United States: *Omaha, Nebraska (the most familiar one) Omaha, Georgia Omaha, Illinois Omaha, Texas It is also the name of a Native American tribe, after which the city in Nebraska is named; see Omaha (tribe). ... The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... Fort Stewart is a census-designated place and US army base located in Liberty County, Georgia. ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ... This is about the capital of Panama. ... Seal of the Air Force. ... MIT redirects here. ... The city of Cambridge is an old English university town and the regional centre of the county of Cambridgeshire. ... In geometry, a pentagon is any five-sided polygon. ... An air force is a military organization that primarily operates in air-based war. ... El Segundo is a city located in Los Angeles County, California on the Santa Monica Bay. ... Anniston is a city located in Calhoun County in Alabama, a state of the United States of America. ... Oakland is the name of several places in the United States of America: Oakland, Alabama Oakland, California (The best-known city with this name) Oakland, Florida Oakland, Maine Oakland, Maryland Oakland, Michigan Oakland, Nebraska Oakland, New Jersey Oakland, Oregon Oakland, Pennsylvania Oakland, Rhode Island Oakland, Tennessee Oakland, Wisconsin Oakland Township... Oakland is the name of several places in the United States of America: Oakland, Alabama Oakland, California (The best-known city with this name) Oakland, Florida Oakland, Maine Oakland, Maryland Oakland, Michigan Oakland, Nebraska Oakland, New Jersey Oakland, Oregon Oakland, Pennsylvania Oakland, Rhode Island Oakland, Tennessee Oakland, Wisconsin Oakland Township... Berkeley is the name of several places: Berkeley, California Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England Berkeley, Illinois Berkeley, Missouri Berkeley, Virginia Berkeley Heights, New Jersey Berkeley Lake, Georgia Berkeley Township, New Jersey Berkeley County, South Carolina Berkeley County, West Virginia Berkeley Plantation in Virginia It can also refer to University of California, Berkeley. ... AT&T (formerly an abbreviation for American Telephone and Telegraph) Corporation (NYSE: T) is an American telecommunications company. ... Map of Germany showing Hanover Hanover (German: Hannover [haˈnoːfɐ]), on the river Leine, is the capital of the state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany. ... For the missile defense program, see Strategic Defense Initiative. ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ...

References

• Apprehending the Computer Hacker... (http://www.shk-dplc.com/cfo/articles/hack.htm)

External Links

• Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (http://www.lbl.gov)
• Jet Propulsion Laboratories (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov)
• Background of ARPANET (http://www.biography.ms/ARPANET.html)
• The History of Tymnet (http://tymshare.biography.ms/)