Jam Echelon Day and a big asshole

From Bronc Buster <bronc@2600.com>
Date Mon, 11 Oct 1999 18:37:27 -0400 (EDT)
In-reply-to <Pine.LNX.4.10.9910101541320.19258-100000@dojo.tao.ca>


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It apears this list has been invaded by the biggest lamer of them all. The
self proclaimed King of the Internet himself, John Vranserbitch. I guess
he has been watching whats been going on on this list and posted this crap
today to add to the mound of crap that he calls a web site. 

Please, PLEASE do not respond, reply, flame, e-mail, contact, etc. etc,
Antionline over this article. IGNORE IT.

I know I am about to ramble off topic, forgive me, but for those of you
who might not know, Mr.Vranserbitch runs a poor excuse of a 'security' web
site, that claims to bust hackers and crap like that. In any event, he is
running low on money and his traffic is way down. In the past he has
gotten money from investors because of the controversy over his site, and
the media attention it attracted. As of late he has been taking shots at
everyone and anything in a desperate attempt to draw attention to his site
and drive his traffic back up. If you decide to do anything else but
IGNORE him, it will have the effect he wishs.

For the total scoop on Antionline, check out:
http://www.attrition.org/negation/

That said, here is the BS atricle he posted on his site today.



Jam Echelon Day or Hype Media Day? 
Monday, October 11, 1999 at 16:55:59
by John Vranesevich - Founder of AntiOnline 

Come one, come all, and join the ranks of the elite hacktivists.

At one time, the hacktivists were only the elite few that had the ability
to download and use complex tools like PHF Scanners, and write in cryptic
languages which involve numeric replacement of common vowels. But, no
longer are such skills necessary.

On October 21st, the elite hacktivists of the world invite you to join
their ranks and help them totally devastate a suspected international
eavesdropping system run by the NSA dubbed Echelon. You can join in on
this celebration of hacktivism by simply sending out a single e-mail.

But, this can't be any normal e-mail. This e-mail needs to contain
keywords which will trigger this Echelon system. Your e-mail, along with
the e-mails of tens of thousands of other hacktivist wannabe's will bring
this massive international system down to its knees, and totally disable
the US' ability to monitor the actions of terrorists, hostile nations, and
individuals wanting to take action on the International Stop Police
Brutality day, which will take place on October 22nd.

An elite group of hacktivists have taken the guesswork out of creating
this complex document of keywords, by providing template e-mails for you.
Below is a sample of one that they have posted on their hacktivist HQ
website:

Not For Public Release 
>From Lt Colonel T. Brotherton, Vice Commander, Joint National Test
Facility 
To United States Joint Chiefs of Staff 

The TELINT boys are kidding themselves if they think they can get away
with it. I heard they were going to make contact with Xu Yongyue in Las
Vegas just as everybodys sitting down for thanksgiving. Additionally, Some
Serbian nationals have flown in and hope to get the monthly drop from the
850th Communications Squadron Lieutenant in Sydney on January 1st as that
year 2000 thing really heats up. Further to that, Some Serbian nationals
have flown in and hope to get the monthly drop from the 850th
Communications Squadron Lieutenant in Waco on January 1st as that year
2000 thing really heats up. Finally, As members of the holy revolutionary
front, we must bring the migrant workers up from Cuba in the morning.
Payment is due to the consulate in The White House when you least expect
it. 

Ok, sarcastic mode off. What I wrote above sounds a lot like it should be
one of AntiOnline's Weekly News Spoofs. Unfortunately, it's a
representation of actual news stories which have been appearing in the
mainstream press recently.

A group of hacktivists decided to create "Jam Echelon Day". Its purpose
and methodology are exactly as I described above. The sample letter above
actually came from the website run by these hacktivists. 

In other words, yes, there are actually people out there that think this
way.

Now, I don't want to add to the already voluminous amounts of speculation
that's been written about this supposed system. However, allow me to
provide a little bit of food for thought. 

The NSA has supposedly created a system which can monitor all
communications, including all e-mails, websites, phone conversations, and
satellite communications that occur in every modernized country on the
face of the earth. How logical is it, that all this system does, is look
for simple keywords or even simple concepts? In other words, these
hacktivists would have you believe that the search capabilities of this
system are far less technologically advanced than the Altavista Website
that you may use on a daily basis to search the web. How likely is it that
a few thousand, or even a few hundred thousand e-mails, such as the one
above, would cause this system to become so over worked, that it is
literally useless to its creators?

Now, assuming that no logically thinking person would believe the scenario
that these hacktivists are presenting, what could there motivations
possibly be?

Personally, I think that "Jam Echelon Day" should be renamed to something
which more closely represents its true purpose. Something like "Hype Media
Day" perhaps?





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