-----Original Message----- From: Carolyn Meinel [mailto:cmeinel@techbroker.com] (mailto:[mailto:cmeinel@techbroker.com]) Sent: Monday, June 21, 1999 5:32 PM To: (various people at MSNBC) Cc: mcacas@freedomforum.org Subject: Max Cacas suggested I write to you Max Cacas of the PBS Freedom Forum suggested that I write to you about a potential problem brewing with Lew Koch, who says he is writing for MSNBC (presumably for ZDnet). He says he is researching allegations that John Vranesevich of http://www.antionline.com paid someone to break into and deface the US Senate Web site in exchange for getting the right to be the reporter who breaks the story. Sorry, I don't know who Koch's editor is. My concern is that Koch's sources are the hacker staff and associates of http://www.attrition.org. This Web site is so bizarre, and so obviously full of fantasy, who would think any reporter would use it as a source? Yet on June 7, Polly Sprenger of Wired ran a story "Hacker Pundits Squabble" (http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/20062.html) alleging that Vranesevich committed this felony. Wired refused to retract the story, even though Sprenger's editor, James Glave, has admitted that they made no effort to verify the Attrition.org claims. Because of Sprenger's story, two advertisers pulled out from Vranesevich's web site, putting him into the red. The second problem with Koch is his malicious attitude toward people whom the owner of Attrition.org (Brian Martin) dislikes. I know-because in 1996 I was a target of Koch's nasty emails and phone calls stemming from his relationship with Brian Martin. News stories (e.g.http://www.forbes.com/penenberg/0301.htm) say Martin has been raided by the FBI as a suspect in the $1.5 million attack on the New York Times computer system of Sept. 13, 1998. This assault was a retaliation against NYT reporter John Markoff. Even a casual reading of the Attrition site makes it clear that they favor computer crime, and harassment of reporters who fail to toe their party line. Over the last few months, Vranesevich's Antionline.com also has been targeted by an avalanche of computer crime. Logs suggest complicity by Attrition.org staff. Corey Gallatin (a Sprint network engineer) and I [Once again, Meinel accuses us of illegal activity yet provides no proof. Simply that her word must mean something. Three years of these accusations, 0 logs.] have been providing volunteer computer security consulting and free loans of hardware to keep Antionline running despite this barrage of crime. Koch's planned story for MSNBC may be an attempt by an unscrupulous competitor, in collaboration with computer criminals, to put Vranesevich out of business. My concern is that an assault by MSNBC would put Vranesevich out of business. This can make a MAJOR news story-a news story I hope never has to be told, because I hope you will make certain that anything that MSNBC/ZDnet publishes about Vranesevich is factual and fair. I would be happy to share with you any further information, including phone numbers of witnesses, that you may need to verify this complaint against the tactics of Koch. Carolyn Meinel http://www.happyhacker.org 505-281-9675