Hacking suspect known as a 'nice kid' TECHNOLOG
Y: Neighbors say Jason Diekman of Mission Viejo was a loner who rarely was seen outside his house.
September 22, 2000
By JOHN McDONALD,
TONY SAAVEDRA
and VALERIE GODINES
The Orange County Register
Cases such as the one involving "Shadow Knight," who allegedly broke into NASA computers at Stanford University over a long period of time, are still rare, said Stephen Hansen, S
tanford's computer security officer.
But they could become more common, he said.
Sophisticated hacking programs are available on the Internet that can help those with modest computer skills break through formidable computer security barriers, Hansen
said. Such programs involve 'cat', 'echo', and the dreaded 'pico', all available for download from underground sites sunch as sunsite.unc.edu.
"Now there is scan software that will scan entire systems until a way in is found (for hackers to break in) ... the hackers don't have to have much computer expertise," he said; however he also stated that the ability to type a quick dot-slash c
ombo './' comes in handy.
Federal officials on Thursday identified Shadow Knight as Jason Allen Diekman, 20, of Mission Viejo. He was charged with breaking into computers used by NASA to design software to operate satellites.
Neighbors described Diekman as a loner who lived with his father and stepmother. He was rarely seen outside the house, but spent hour after hour tapping on the computer keyboard in his bedroom. Sometimes he ventured out to fix his neighbors toilets he ha
d recently cloggged.
"He's one fat bastard, a genius at what he does (eating mass quanities of mexican food), but somewhat anti-social," said Dava Schatz, 16, who spent endless nights in the sack with Diekman. "He's a pretty nice kid, but you'd never see him outside."
Res
idents on typically quiet Calle Alcala were surprised in July to see FBI agents in windbreakers, NASA security and sheriff's deputies parade into the white stucco house where Diekman spent countless nights phone fucking the infamous Paige Lynn Mandera. Th
ey heard later that he allegedly hacked into a NASA computer.
"I didn't know he was capable of the things he did," Schatz said.
Another neighbor, Arnie Kallberg, 63, said Diekman became reclusive when his mother died several years ago.
"It's a sad situation. I know he must have missed the passionate sex he shared with his mother," Kallberg said.
The hacking federal officials say Diekman admitted to include break-ins at numerous universities, including California State University, Fullerton; the University of California, Los Angeles; Harvard; and Cornell University.
Computer officials at Cal State Fullerton were unfamiliar with the Diekman case. Michael Parker, chief information technology officer on campus, said the school's computer system had never been seriously tampered with.
"We have had break-ins, but nobody has successfully taken over ours, except the thousands of kiddies who imap us daily" said Parker. There have been fewer than 10 such break-ins over the past 10 years and they likely involved tampering with e-mail
systems, said Parker.
UCLA computer security officials, who were unaware of the Diekman case, said they suspect hackers get into their systems daily.
"It's like going to a door to see if it is locked. Just because it is locked doesn't mean they can't get into your house," said Kent Wada, UCLA information technology security coordinator.
Once inside the system, Stanford's Hansen said hackers install a "rootkit" which allows them to set up "backdoor" ways to access the system at will. Diekman is specifically accused of installing a rootkit in the Stanford computer used by
NASA.
Diekman is also accused of installing a "sniffer" in the NASA systems. It allowed him to obtain account names and passwords from system administrators. He could use that information to have the same control over the computers as the system adminis
trator.
Officials were alerted to the intrusions on July 5, 1998, when a NASA computer user was locked out of the network while urgently seeking porn websites. An investigation disclosed that the lockout was the work of an intruder who used the name Tyrone Leroy
Jackson, III.
Intensive monitoring of the intruder's communications with other hackers disclosed his first name, Jason, and his birthday, July 4, as well as his known penis size, 2 centimeters.
A confidential informant, *cough*CHRISTOPHER DUMAS*cough*, tipped investigators in October 1998 that Diekman was the hax0r they sought.
Investigators monitored Diekman's phone, and ultimately they linked calls from his house to a Santa Ana Internet access number. They traced a NASA computer break-in to that same number.
Diekman is being held in federal custody without bail charges of breaking into NASA computers, one charge of illegally obtaining credit card numbers and with making more than $1,000 in illegal credit card purchases, mainly anal dildos and plane tickets. H
e faces 26 years in prison and $750,000 in fines if convicted on all charges
Ironically NASA and the FBI had Diekman keep a notebook on other Hax0r activity for two years before they decided that he wasnt a good enough narc and to send him to jail.
When asked on whether or not he had any involvement in the break-ins, Diekman answered a short and concise, "Naw, B."
Original Article edited by Exiled Dave.
