Chapter 10. Case Studies

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Some case studies of successful break-ins are explored in detail here to help you understand how they progress and typical reactions. Comments are offered on how the SysAdmins could have handled problems better, or how things were handled well. Hopefully, you will find them entertaining as well. The topics covered in this chapter include:

• "Confessions of a Berkeley System Mole" on page 373

• "Knights of the Realm (Forensics)" on page 376

• "Ken Thompson Cracks the Navy" on page 378

• "The Virtual Machine Trojan" on page 379

• "AOL's DNS Change Fiasco" on page 380

• "I'm Innocent, I Tell Ya!" on page 382

• "Cracking with a Laptop and a Pay Phone" on page 383

• "Take a Few Cents off the Top" on page 384

• "Nonprofit Organization Runs Out of Luck" on page 384

• "Persistence with Recalcitrant SysAdmins Pays Off" on page 386

• ".Net Shipped with Nimda" on page 387

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