Dubai 'hacker' due in court

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1164000/1164567.stm

Sunday, 11 February, 2001

A British man charged with hacking into the United Arab Emirates'
internet system is due in court on Sunday.

Lee Ashurst, a 21-year old computer programmer from Oldham, Greater
Manchester, is expected to be tried under a misuse of
telecommunications equipment law.

He was first questioned by Dubai police last Summer after the UAE's
telecoms company Etisalat accused him of hacking into its internet
system causing it to crash for long periods.

But Mr Ashurst's lawyer says his client is being made a scapegoat for
the inadequacies of Etisalat - the sole internet service provider
(ISP) in the Arab state.

Etisalat is the sole internet provider in the UAE

Mr Ashurst says he has told the public prosecution authorities in
Dubai that he did hack into Etisalat's computer system but that he did
not make any changes or cause disruption to the internet service.

He said he was publicly accused of being the leader of an
international gang of hackers and of trying to circumvent a firewall
used by the ISP to prevent people accessing pornography and other
sites the authorities deemed sensitive.

There is no law against hacking in the UAE but the law against the
misuse of telecommunications equipment carries a maximum sentence of
six months in prison and a fine of almost 2,000.

The case has been embarrassing for the UAE, especially as Dubai has
been trying to position itself as the internet hub of the Middle East.

It has also given ammunition to local critics of the state's monopoly
on telecommunications.

ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com
---
To unsubscribe email LISTSERV () SecurityFocus com with a message body of
"SIGNOFF ISN".