Who Goes There. A Dialogue of Questions and Answers About Benign Hacking

摘要

On August 23, 1986, it was noticed that the accounting files for one of LBL's computing systems failed to balance. On August 24, we received word that an unauthorized person was attempting entry into a US Navy computer from LBL. Preliminary investigation indicated that LBL was the victim of a benign hacker, where ''benign'' is used in the medical sense. It was thought that the perpetrator was a graduate student from a neighboring university, and that it would provide a useful object lesson to other such folk if he were caught and admonished. LBL therefore embarked upon a journey of detection and containment instead of prevention. That journey continues today, having led first across the country, then across the Atlantic. In the course of the journey we have gathered a number of observations that should be of interest to anyone running a computer with any connection to the outside world. (ERA citation 13:005343)