Demystifying the cyber world of the hackers

NEW YORK, May 2: They never unmasked the hacker responsible for Michelangelo, a famous computer virus that threw a scare into the high-te...

NEW YORK, May 2: They never unmasked the hacker responsible for Michelangelo, a famous computer virus that threw a scare into the high-tech world in 1992. But it took just days to identify the suspects allegedly behind two viruses that struck this year.

Digital footprints that every user of the internet leaves behind helped cybercops quickly trace the origins of the Melissa and Chernobyl virus. The footprints also led investigators to the man who allegedly posted a fake news story about a corporate merger that caused one company8217;s stock to gyrate.

While this may force troublemakers to think twice before they strike, it also shows how easy it is for anyone 8212; a government investigator or a skilled salesperson 8212; to follow your every online move.

8220;The same technology that tracks individuals is used to solve crimes and vice versa,8221; said Ari Schwartz, a policy analyst for the Center for Democracy and Technology, an internet civil liberties group in Washington.

8220;It8217;s melded into one kind ofsurveillance technology which could lead to an erosion of privacy.8221; Actually, there8217;s nothing all that complicated about how the law enforcers crack a case on the world wide web. In fact, it8217;s similar to the way telephone records are used by investigators.

The online accounts that most people use to roam the web or send E-mail are assigned a unique stamp, or internet protocol IP address, that helps direct the exchange of data between a web site and its visitors. Those IP addresses leave digital footprints that unfortunately for the ill-intentioned don8217;t get wiped out as easily or quickly as a trail of bread crumbs.

Little is known about Chening-Hau, the 24-year-old Taiwanese man identified on Thursday as the author of Chernobyl, a virus that crippled hundreds of thousands of computers this week. But IP addresses were clearly pivotal in tracking down the alleged merger hoaxer, Gary Dale Hoke.

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The 25-year-old North Carolina man was arrested two weeks ago after he allegedly posted a fictional storyApril 7 saying his employer, Pairgain Technologies, was about be taken over by another company. The false report caused Pairgain8217;s stock to rise sharply, then fall after the hoax was uncovered.

Hoke, officials said, attempted to conceal his identity with pseudonyms and fake E-mail addresses, but was identified through an IP address. He has been charged with five counts of securities fraud, punishable by up to 50 years in prison and dollars 5 million in fines. The hacker8217;s code is by no means unbreakable.

Student invents recovery software
DHAKA: A Bangladeshi student has invented software capable of recovering information lost when the dreaded CIH Chernobyl computer virus struck, Dhaka University has said. Manirul Islam Sharif, a student of Computer Science of the university, invented the 8220;M Recovery8221; programme, the university claimed in a statement. 8220;We are very happy and proud and will award Manirul for his outstanding work,8221; university vice-chancellor A.K. Azad Chowdhury said. The virusremedy had already been successfully tested on a computer at the university, he said.