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An Electrifying Hoax
9/29/99
Mike Hudack
Editor-in-Chief
A CORRECTION REGARDING THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN ISSUED. PLEASE READ IT BEFORE
CONTINUING.
"Tomorrow I will leave Belgium
without power, and that is not so difficult," an anonymous "computer hacker"
told a Danish newspaper. Both the newspapers in Belgium and news sources
on the Net (Excite News, Yahoo! News, Reuters) labeled the terrorist a hacker.
In reality, however, all this "hacker" did was make a couple phone calls.
The terrorist threatened to attack between 1:30 and 3:30pm on Thursday Danish
time to take the network down. Some time later he said he decided not to
do it. How convenient.
It seems that nowadays it doesnґt take anything more than a phone and an
attitude to be called a "computer hacker" and feared by thousands. Itґs
true that every threat has to be taken seriously -- itґs been a policy for
everyoneґs protection for years. At the same time though, restraint must
be practiced.
On a side note, Reuters quoted a spokesperson for the Belgian electric
company as saying, "the systems that pilot Electrabel's power distribution were
developed specifically for the company," implying security through obscurity.
Tsk, tsk. |