Anti-hacker site raises hackles of online underworld.

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-2181558.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..ni

By Erich Luening
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
June 30, 2000, 1:00 p.m. PT

John Vranesevich doesn't worry about being enemy No. 1 of the hacker
community. He embraces it.

"It's my job to catch them, so it's like a cocaine dealer and a cop,"
said Vranesevich, the lanky 21-year-old founder of AntiOnline.com. The
Web site, once a place where hackers bragged about their exploits, is
now an online security site used to catch them.

"It's not surprising that they wouldn't like me or what I'm doing,"
said Vranesevich, who wears the hacker community's disdain like a
crown and considers it a necessary evil of his work.

Vranesevich and his Web site have drawn not only notoriety in hacker
and security circles but have brought in an undisclosed amount of
venture capital financing. The Web site also has advertising revenue
from mainstream sources such as Microsoft and VeriSign.

According to the Web site, Vranesevich and his co-workers are working
on several government contracts. In the past, they have worked with
the Army, Air Force, Department of Defense and the FBI. Last March,
Vranesevich lectured at the FBI's academy in Quantico, Va. He's also
been quoted widely in the media, from The New York Times and CNN to
The British Broadcasting Corporation and National Public Radio.

It wasn't always like this.
Vranesevich, dubbed the Cyber Sherlock Holmes by the media, once moved
easily in the hacker community, interviewing and writing stories about
computer attackers for his Web site, which was then a Web information
source on hackers and online security.

AntiOnline was a place where hackers could explain their motivations,
voice their opinions, and even brag about their exploits. For
Vranesevich, the relationship brought traffic to the site and
intensifying media coverage.

But one day in September 1998, he found himself telling the story of a
California hacker who had promised to sell information about how to
navigate U.S. military networks to an alleged terrorist. What seemed
like harmless fun had suddenly turned into international espionage.

Vranesevich says he became disillusioned after he heard about the deal
made by the California hacker. Soon after that, he started to help
government officials investigate people accused of malicious hacking.
He turned over information to the FBI that led them to hackers in
connection with an attack on The New York Times' Web site also in
September 1998.

Vranesevich said he once thought hackers were right in their efforts
to expose security holes but said he later realized that they were
malicious and selfish.

Turning over a new leaf
So he crossed over--helping the government take down hackers by using
some of the same techniques to hunt them down that he once used to
follow and publicize their exploits.

Today, he's also selling his services to private corporations that
want to protect their systems. Currently, he is working with Klein
Associates, a consulting firm near Dayton, Ohio, which advises
companies on decision-making techniques.

His new line of work has drawn the wrath of some hackers who say they
feel betrayed. In fact, his Web site is attacked constantly. A live
tally on the Web site shows the probes and attacks--by midmorning
today, the site had already been hit eight times.

Vranesevich "largely gets a lot of half-cocked notions in his head and
takes them as fact," said Jay Dyson--a.k.a. Cancer Omega--a member of
Attrition.org, which has spearheaded an effort to discredit
Vranesevich.

"He has always been considered a poser by most hackers, and someone
who is out to make a name for himself at the expense of others," Dyson
said.

Dyson said he was one of the members who were investigated by the FBI
in connection with the New York Times hack. Though he was never
arrested or charged and denies involvement in the attack, he said the
controversy cost him a job at the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA).

Attrition.org members have posted messages on its Web site saying
Vranesevich has made false statements about hackers. And they say
Vranesevich paid a hacker to break into the Web site of the U.S.
Senate so that AntiOnline could be the first to report it--an
accusation Vranesevich denies.

"Read AntiOnline. What do you see? Libel and lots of it," reads a
message on Attrition.org. "You see them denying links from sites that
disagree with them, accusing their competitors of a wide range of
absurd actions, and worse, absolutely no proof of their claims."

Of course, not many hackers step up to offer information connecting
them to the attacks.

All in a day's work
Vranesevich doesn't take it too hard. "I'm out there trying to catch
them and helping others protect their systems from their attacks. It's
to be expected," he said.

He actually started out as a white hat in the computer game: In junior
high school, Vranesevich had to rehabilitate the school's computers
after a hacker attack.

"You could say I got started in this business as a victim," he says
with a laugh.

Vranesevich started AntiOnline while he was in junior high, sharing
the information he learned about computing and network security. He
left the University of Pennsylvania in his freshman year to devote
himself completely to the Web site.

"John has been successful as an information outlet and tracking expert
for the media and government agencies. He also understands who is who
in the hacker underground," said Chris Rouland, director of the
research and development arm of Internet Security Systems, an
electronic security management firm. "There is a real value there. It
is an important intelligence service."

Vranesevich said most people get the hacker bug to be part of a group,
like a youth joining a gang.

"There are also those who are politically motivated or driven by some
sort of cause," he said. And there are those looking for cash.
"There are people who have broken into systems to steal
credit card numbers or take part in corporate espionage."

Although recent attacks on big e-commerce sites like eBay, Amazon.com,
Buy.com and Yahoo got a lot of publicity, Vranesevich said the largest
hacker attacks are the ones that aren't publicized.

"There are those attacks that happen behind the scenes, like hacker
attacks on top-secret computers or terrorist activities," that the
government doesn't want to publicize because of national security
concerns, he said.

A new threat
Cyberterrorism is the new threat to both businesses and governments,
he said. "Before, terrorists blew up buildings. Now, the Internet
provides a tool to do things on a national level. Individuals who have
a gripe can do damage that has a national impact."

Cyberterrorism and national security aside, Vranesevich said the
reason his site has become so popular is because everyone from systems
administrators to "soccer moms" have questions about online security.

"People want to go to a site that has accurate and professional
information. We strive to educate the average user on security," he
said. One example is Ask Bub, where visitors type in questions for the
virtual security consultant, "Bub," a gray-haired gentleman in a suit.

AntiOnline has five full-time employees and 11 part-time employees
working in flashy new offices in downtown Beaver, Pa. The company has
transitioned itself from tracking and visiting hacker chat rooms to
developing software that automates the process of monitoring Web
sites.

In the next few years, Vranesevich said he sees his company doing more
consulting work within the government sector and expects the company
to go public within five years.

"I see privacy as being the next big thing in the security field, as
individuals, companies and of course government will look to protect
information from each other and other individuals," he said. "It will
be up to the national media to cover the ways in which people can
protect their own information."


*-------------------------------------------------*
"Communications without intelligence is noise;
Intelligence without communications is irrelevant."
Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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