August 23, 2000
Teen ‘guest hackers’ to attempt digital intrusion during UW workshop on computer security
Computer professionals at the University of Washington will get hands-on training in Internet security on Thursday when a couple of teen-age cyber aficionados attempt to hack digital safeguards set up by the university.
The occasion is a half-day seminar, hosted by the UW electrical engineering department and scheduled for 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the new Linux Instructional Lab, in the EE/CSE building. The instructor will be university Senior Security Engineer Dave Dittrich, who has worked with federal authorities in fighting malicious computer viruses. Dittrich was instrumental in identifying and decoding programs used earlier this year in the distributed denial of service attacks that crippled such Internet giants as Yahoo!, Amazon.com and eBay.
The “guest hackers” are Sasha Howard, 18, a recent high school graduate and summer employee in the electrical engineering department, and Alex Gallichotte, 15, who attends Garfield High School and is interning this summer in the department. During the seminar, Sasha and Alex will exploit well-known security weaknesses and install a “root kit” on the system.
“Root kits” are sets of programs (often called Trojan horse programs) that replace operating system programs. Root kits are designed to conceal what is happening on a system, allowing an intruder to work without tipping off the owner. When told that a system is compromised, system administrators are often tricked by the kits into thinking the system is clean and re-install it onto the network, where the intruders still have control of it.
Re-installing the system also destroys evidence useful to the FBI in tracing the attackers. The need for better forensic analysis of compromised systems has become an issue in high-profile incidents; this course is designed to aid system administrators with training in forensic analysis tools and techniques to determine what has happened after a break-in.
Dittrich will be assisted by Sekar Thiagarajan, EE Department manager of computer operations, and Jeff Silverman, senior computing specialist in the electrical engineering department.
To attend the seminar or set up interviews, contact Rosemary Coleman at rcoleman@ee.washington.edu or (206) 221-5290.