Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!wugate!uunet!mcsun!unido!sinix!es
From: es@sinix.UUCP (Dr. Sanio)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Author seeks help
Message-ID: <881@athen.sinix.UUCP>
Date: 13 Nov 89 17:23:50 GMT
References: <14468@well.UUCP> <509@rsiatl.UUCP> <227@jove.dec.com>
Reply-To: es@athen.UUCP (Dr. Sanio)
Organization: Siemens AG, K D ST SP4, Munich
Lines: 51

In article <227@jove.dec.com> reid@decwrl.dec.com (Brian Reid) writes:
>>In article <14468@well.UUCP> kmh@well.UUCP (Katherine Hafner) writes:
>>>(a question)
>
>Now, here's the question that I think Katie was trying to ask but doesn't
>speak our language well enough to ask:
>
>    My name is Katie Hafner. I'm working on a book about people
>    who abuse computer technology. For example, Kevin Mitnick,
>    who is in jail right now for being caught in posession of
>	..
>    considers Mitnick and people like him to be outlaws. If you
>    don't think Mitnick is an outlaw (many don't), then
>    howabout Hans Huebner (Pengo), who penetrated various
>    systems and sold the results to the KGB. A person who
>    breaks into a computer network and steals money is clearly
>    on the wrong side of the law; a person who breaks into the
>    same network and just joyrides may well not be. I'd like to
>    hear from you about where you think the boundary is. 
>
>	..
Well, Brian, I agree to most you wrote as far as I can verify it.
But I already expressed in an email I sent to Katie that I'm 
strongly pissed off about the rumours about Hans Huebner.

Though I don't know that guy personally, I know him  from several
contributions on regional, continental and international networks.
I know him as a serious, knowledgeable person.
About that KGB affair, I know that he is not in prison, is not sentenced,
even not (yet?) formally accused.

As most people all over the world, I regard spying as a serious criminal
offense. But in our legal system in Germany (the same with you, I believe),
a person has as long to be considered as innocent as (s)he has not been 
sentenced. The whole "KGB Hacker" affair has been inflated excessively
by the press, IMHO. The small company in Berlin (with a public access
computer, where I'm a user, too), to which H.Huebner had some connections,
has been accused to be involved in spying, which has clearly proved false
in the meantime.

I regarded the way the press spread names of suspected persons as highly
discriminating and intolerable. In those publications, source programs
you can find in any university computer were declared to subjects of
national security uncovering the complete ignorance of the journalists.

I'm sad seeing similar shit being repeated on a network mainly visited by
computer experts. That cannot be excused by the fact that some people
(especially in the U.S.) turn into lunatics with foam on their mouth
as soon as they hear keywords like "KGB" etc .
>Brian Reid
regards, es