◆ SpookStack

management of subscription information, but it was trusted by their internal network," says Lamo. He quickly found the intranet homepage, and an unprotected copy of a database that cataloged employees’ names and social security numbers. “From what I've been able to tell, it was a backup database being used for research." Armed with that information, the hacker could use the intranet account of any employee that hadn't changed their password from the default -- the last four digits of the person's social security number. One of those belonged to a worker that had the power to create new accounts, so Lamo set up his own account on the network with higher privileges. From there, it was a short hop to the op-ed database. "This is sort of a situation where security and privacy intersect," says David Sobel, an attorney with the Electronic Privacy Information Center {EPIC}. “One of the concerns with the online availability of personal information is the lack of security that often surrounds those kinds of systems... There's an ethical obligation to protect this data, given the harm that can result in the form of identity theft from obtaining a social security number." This isn't the first time personal information on the rich and powerful has been compromised by weak network security. One year ago, anti-globalization hackers penetrated a database maintained by the World Economic Forum, and downloaded similar data on attendees of the group's summit on global economic trends in Davos, Switzerland, including Bill Gates, Bil! Clinton, South African President Thabo Mbeki and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. But with the Times hack Lamo may have gone one better. Rather than merely crossing the information wake left by the elite, Lamo says he actually joined their ranks, creating his own entry in the 'L' section of the Times database, complete with his real name, cell phone number, and email address. In the space set aside for a description of the contributor’s expertise, Lamo wrote, "Computer hacking, national security, sommunications intelligence." FBI(19-cv-1495)-1609