Ever since Sept. 1998, criminals have frequently assaulted the Happy Hacker web site with these same sorts of DOS attacks. Fortunately our guardian angel, John Vranesevich, knows how to track down and shut off the attackers fast. Now that the bad guys are hitting the mega web sites, the FBI is finally making noises about tracking down the criminals and putting them behind bars. About time!

Latest hacker war news from Adam Penenberg. He reports on how yet another person the FBI has accused of being a Hacking for Girliez d00d has emotionally disintegrated. Nowadays Jay Dyson sounds like a homicidal maniac. Get the Feb. 6, 2000 print version of Forbes magazine to see Dyson holding the gun he says he's going to use to shoot a member of the Hagis gang. Dyson has been acting like a kewl haxor d00d in flame wars on the DC-stuff list (the official Def Con mailing list) for a long time, so we don't feel entirely sorry for him.

If you were wondering whether Penenberg is giving an accurate report of the Jay Dyson story, Dyson's attorney, Jennifer Granick, emailed Meinel saying "First, Mr. Dyson never threatened to use a gun to kill a member of the Hagis gang, or anyone else for that matter. A February 6, 2000 article by Forbes magazine writer Adam Penenberg states as follows, quoting Mr. Dyson: "I have no intention of dragging u4ea to the authorities,' he [Dyson] says, fingering his.45, 'This is strictly between him and me. I will do whatever it takes to see this end [of the harassment] come about.' The writer of that story certainly inferred that Mr. Dyson was threatening some sort of revenge. That conclusion was Mr. Penenberg's to draw. But it was not what Mr. Dyson said... Most importantly, I must remind you and your readers that while the FBI questioned Mr. Dyson in connection with their investigation of the Hacking for Girliez group, he is not formally charged with or accused of anything... I am Mr. Dyson's lawyer and I spoke personally with the investigating FBI agents. As far as I know, Mr. Dyson is not now a suspect in or a target of any FBI investigation."

Granick goes on to threaten to sue Meinel over the comments on this web page regarding Peneberg's article.

Granick has also threatened to sue Vranesevich over Penenberg's Dyson story, even though Vranesevich's Antionline site has never written anything about it. Check out Antionline's Feb. 21 mailbag for his hilarious response and the full text of Granick's threatening email (which is identical to the one she sent Meinel). Sheesh, we get blamed for everything. News flash to Granick: neither Meinel nor Vranesevich control Penenberg or Forbes. Wonder how much money she's charging Dyson for sending threatening emails to people who didn't write Adam Penenberg's story? If you ever need a lawyer to charge you money by threatening to sue us over other people's news stories, you can email her at jgranick@dnai.com.

The L0pht just got $10 million in venture capital to become a "nontraditional" computer security firm. At first the media response was -- fawning. However, two reporters have raised the issue that this development looks very much like a protection racket. Click here for PC Week's view of this disturbing development. For more on the L0pht threat, see Antionline's report.

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