It's about the people, not the technology.
By Simson Garfinkel
A trio of interesting stories about computer hackers crossed my laptop this morning.
Randall Schwartz was a system administrator at Intel back in 1993, when he was arrested for running a password-cracking program called "crack" on one of Intel's computer systems. I knew of Schwartz because he was the author of the best-selling O'Reilly book Learning Perl. How
could another O'Reilly author be a criminal?
Although the facts of Schwartz's case are confusing, we know that he had basically tried to crack the password file of Intel's Supercomputer Systems Division (SSD) after he had terminated a
consulting job with that part of Intel and moved on to another. In his defense, he said that he had been upset about the poor status of the group's security and was trying to demonstrate the problem. That explanation didn't fly with the court, and Schwartz was convicted of a felony. It was widely believed at the time that Schwartz was attacked by members of his old group because of bad blood: they wanted to run an internal group with little security, and he wanted to demonstrate that their actions were materially jeopardizing the company. Well, after 10 years as a felon, Schwartz has finally been granted a pardon and had his sentence expunged. He's no longer a felon. CNET has a summary of the article.
http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_blogPost.aspx?id=17546
* Lesson: If one leaves the
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Intel 'hacker' sentence expunged
http://news.com.com/Intel+hacker+sentence+expunged/2100-7350_3-6164113.html
Story last modified Mon Mar 05 06:14:54 PST 2007
Randall Schwartz had his arrest and conviction for bypassing Intel security systems "set aside" at the beginning of February, legally giving him a clean slate.
Schwartz was arrested in 1993 after using a program called "Crack" to find out the passwords of various former colleagues in the Intel Supercomputer Systems Division (SSD). Schwartz had left SSD under a cloud, and told the court he decided to crack the Intel passwords to show that SSD's security had gone downhill since he had left, and to reestablish respect he said he had lost when he left SSD.
In late 1995, Schwartz was convicted of three counts of computer crime and ordered to pay Intel $68,000 restitution. His sentence also included five years of probation, 480 hours of community service and 90 days of deferred (cancelable) jail time. His legal bill exceeded $170,000 by the end of 1995.
Schwartz has argued that his conviction was unfair, as he had not intended to cause any malicious damage. After an appeal, the restitution was dropped in 1999.
In October 2006, Schwartz appealed for clemency from a Democratic governor who "had already granted a few pardons," Schwartz explained on the Yahoo Tech Groups site. At the beginning of February 2007, an Oregon court ordered an expungement of his conviction.
Schwartz said that it will take a while for him to absorb the result.
"Even a few weeks later, I'm still in a bit of shock that I've reached this point in this over-13-year journey," Schwartz said. "It probably won't fully sink in until the first time I travel freely into Canada, or fill out a contractor form that asks the question about criminal history, or apply for a Small Business Administration program that was formerly unavailable to me."
Tom Espiner reported from London for
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To learn more about consulting, recommend the Weinburg series.
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