Target Berkeley

From
Date
PaleoNetters:

Last week the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California
Berkeley had its computer network invaded by a rogue hacker who compromised
that system and perhaps several others on the Internet. As a result,
PaleoNet has been down since last Thursday as Rob Guralnick and others on
the Berkeley staff assessed the damage and set about the job of repairing
their system. Between hackers, pornographers, and quasi-terrorist political
groups the idea of an Internet "community" seems to be getting lost.
Moreover, because of its large Internet presence the Berkeley system (along
with many others) seems to be seen as a large target by some
computer-literate people with more time on their hands than sense. I wish I
could say that I knew the answer to the problem posed by malicious hackers,
but I don't. They exist and will probably be back to bedevil all of us
sooner or later. Anyway, due to the efforts of Rob, Jere Lipps, and their
co-workers at Berkeley, PaleoNet is back on-line and  I think I speak for
the entire PaleoNet community by extending you guys a big THANK YOU for a
job well done under difficult circumstances.


Norm MacLeod



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Norman MacLeod
Micropalaeontological Research
N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk (Internet)
N.MacLeod@uk.ac.nhm (Janet)

Address: Dept. of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum,
         Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD

Office Phone: 0171-938-9006
Dept. FAX:  0171-938-9277
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