UNDERGROUND

A computer hacker created a whole new set of problems.

Although the worm was able to break into new accounts with

greater speed and reach than a single hacker, it was more pre-

dictable. Once the SPAN and DOE teams picked the worm

apart, they would know exactly what it could be expected to

do. However, a hacker was utterly unpredictable.

McMahon realised that killing off the worm was not going to

solve the problem. All the system managers across the NASA

and DOE networks would have to change all the passwords

of the accounts used by the worm. They would also have to

check every system the worm had invaded to see if it had built

a backdoor for the hacker. The system admin had to shut and

lock all the backdoors, no small feat.

What really scared the SPAN team about the worm, however,

was that it was rampaging through NASA simply by using the

simplest of attack strategies: username equals password. It

was getting complete control over NASA computers simply

by trying a password which was identical to the name of the

computer user's account.

The SPAN team didn't want to believe it, but the evidence

was overwhelming.

Todd Butler answered a call from one NASA site. It was a

gloomy call. He hung up.

'That node just got hit,' he told the team.

'How bad?' McMahon asked.

'A privileged account.'

'Oh boy.' McMahon jumped onto one of the terminals and

did a SET HOST, logging into the remote NASA site's machine.

Bang. Up it came. 'Your system has officially been WANKED.'

McMahon turned to Butler. 'What account did it get into?'

'They think it was SYSTEM.'

The tension quietly rolled into black humour. The team

couldn't help it. The head-slapping stupidity of the situation

could only be viewed as black comedy.

The NASA site had a password of SYSTEM for their fully

privileged SYSTEM account. It was so unforgivable. NASA,