Nahshon Even-Chaim
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Nahshon Even-Chaim (born May 1971), aka Phoenix, was the first major computer
hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...
to be convicted in Australia. He was one of the most highly skilled members of a computer hacking group called The Realm, based in
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, Australia, from the late 1980s until his arrest by the Australian Federal Police in early 1990. His targets centered on defense and nuclear weapons research networks."Court 'no power' in hack case," Herald Sun, 14 August 1991, page 9. Story covered Even-Chaim's appearance in Melbourne Magistrates Court on 48 computer crime charges. Victims mentioned in the story include NASA, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and an unspecified Texas company."Hacker 'revelled in American publicity", Herald Sun, 26 August 1993, page 5. Story covered Even-Chaim's plea hearing in Victorian County Court. Even-Chaim had pleaded guilty to 15 charges. Victims mentioned in the story include University of California, Berkeley, NASA, Execucom Systems Corporation, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of Wisconsin, Madison and Purdue University, Indiana.


The trail of evidence

Even-Chaim began breaking into systems by dialing indirectly or placing a call through
X.25 X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet-switched data communication in wide area networks (WAN). It was originally defined by the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT, now ITU-T) in a series of drafts ...
networks, later taking advantage of
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
connectivity as it became available. He developed a reputation within The Realm, his computer hacking group, for his skill and arrogance. In late 1988 Australian Federal Police officers discovered his identity using a combination of undercover work and informants. Aided by new computer crime legislation that came into force in June 1989, the AFP obtained a warrant in January 1990 to eavesdrop not only on Even-Chaim's phone conversations but also the data transmitted through his
modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...
. The tap on his voice calls, which began on 26 January 1990, ran for eight weeks, while the data tap started two weeks later and ran for six weeks. The intercepts were being monitored by the AFP at its Telephone Intercept Branch in Canberra, 650 km from Even-Chaim's home. Both intercepts provided police with sufficient evidence to prosecute him and two other members of his hacking group, Richard Jones, a.k.a.
Electron The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no ...
and David John Woodcock, a.k.a. Nom. The data taps revealed Even-Chaim spent marathon sessions at his computer, working at a rapid pace to enter and tamper with computer systems. It was the first time in the world a remote data intercept had been used to gain evidence for a computer crime prosecution.''How I Nailed the Master Hacker'',
Sunday Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald Sun ...
, 31 July 2005, pages 82–83.
Transcripts of the phone taps captured Even-Chaim laughing with another hacker about how he had been "fucking with
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
", adding: "Yeah, they're gonna really want me bad. This is fun!" In another conversation, this time with an American hacker, he claimed: "The guys down at the local universities here are screaming with rage because they couldn't get rid of us. The Americans are getting pretty damn pissed off with me because I'm doing so much and they can't do much about it. I'm getting to the point now where I can get into almost any system on the Internet. I've virtually raped the Internet beyond belief." Accounts of the police investigation that identified Even-Chaim and the two other offenders, as well as their arrest and prosecution, are contained in the book ''Hackers: The Hunt for Australia’s Most Infamous Computer Cracker'', co-written by Bill Apro, an AFP computer crime investigator who led the investigation, in the book '' Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier'' by Suelette Dreyfus and '' In the Realm of the Hackers'', a film by Kevin Anderson.


Even-Chaim's targets

Even-Chaim pleaded guilty to 15 charges, which involved his intrusion into computers at: *
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research. CSIRO works with leading organisations around the world. From its headquarters in Canberra, CSIRO ...
in
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, where he gained unauthorised access to and copied
Zardoz ''Zardoz'' is a 1974 science fantasy film written, produced, and directed by John Boorman and starring Sean Connery and Charlotte Rampling. It depicts a post-apocalyptic world (which Boorman says, in the audio commentary, may or may not be mat ...
, a computer industry bulletin identifying security weaknesses in
Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, an ...
operating systems; *
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
(inserting data); *
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
in Virginia (accessing data, inserting data, altering data, obstructing the lawful use of the NASA computer); * Execucom, a software and technology company in
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
(altering data, erasing data); * Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California (altering data, interfering with a computer); *
University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
(inserting data); *
Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mone ...
,
West Lafayette, Indiana West Lafayette () is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, about northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister cit ...
(inserting data). After allegedly compromising computers used by computer security experts
Eugene Spafford Eugene Howard Spafford (born 1956), known as Spaf, is an American professor of computer science at Purdue University and a computer security expert. Spafford serves as an advisor to U.S. government agencies and corporations. In 1998, he founded ...
,
Clifford Stoll Clifford Paul "Cliff" Stoll (born June 4, 1950) is an American astronomer, author and teacher. He is best known for his investigation in 1986, while working as a systems administrator at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, that led to t ...
, and Russell L. Brand (at
LLNL Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response ...
), Even-Chaim called
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
journalist John Markoff in response to an article in which Markoff had attributed a recent spate of computer break-ins to a worm. Even-Chaim boasted to Markoff that the break-ins had been the work of himself and his associates, and ridiculed the computer security community, claiming: "It used to be the security guys chasing the hackers. Now, it's the hackers chasing the security guys." Markoff published the claims in a follow-up article in March 1990."Self-proclaimed hacker sends message to critics" by John Markoff, New York Times, March 1990.


The raid and aftermath

In the early hours of 2 April 1990, Even-Chaim's home in
Caulfield North Caulfield North is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 11 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Glen Eira local government area. Caulfield North recorded a population of 16,903 at the ...
, suburban Melbourne, was raided by the Australian Federal Police and he was arrested. Simultaneously, the AFP raided the homes of fellow Realm members Jones and Woodcock. Even-Chaim was charged with 48 offenses, most of which carried a maximum 10-year jail sentence. On 6 October 1993, Even-Chaim, who by then had negotiated a deal in which he would plead guilty if the number of charges was reduced to 15, was sentenced to 500 hours of community service, with a 12-month suspended jail term. Unlike his two co-accused, he had revealed little at his police interview or in court that might explain his motivation for his hacking. Even-Chaim apparently worked in IT for at least some time after his conviction and has pursued an interest in music. Despite approaches by ''
The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...
'' newspaper in 2003 and the producer of a television documentary on The Realm, Even-Chaim has declined to discuss his hacking career.


See also

*
List of convicted computer criminals Convicted computer criminals are people who are caught and convicted of computer crimes such as breaking into computers or computer networks. Computer crime can be broadly defined as criminal activity involving information technology infrastruc ...


References

Books *
Free electronic edition
* Newspapers * ''Hack to the Future'', The Sunday Age, 25 May 2003

* ''How I Nailed the Master Hacker'',
Sunday Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald Sun ...
, 31 July 2005. Magazines * ''Hackers 'plan revenge' for police clampdown on computer crime'': Extract of ''
New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publish ...
'' article on arrest of hackers, 21 April 1990

Film * '' In the Realm of the Hackers'', written and directed by Kevin Anderson, (Film Australia, 2003, 55 minutes)

E-zines: * Reprint of article ''Hacker Revelled in Spotlight, Court Told'' (
The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...
, 23 Aug 1993) in
Phrack ''Phrack'' is an e-zine written by and for hackers, first published November 17, 1985. Described by Fyodor as "the best, and by far the longest running hacker zine," the magazine is open for contributions by anyone who desires to publish remarkab ...


* Reference to article in
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
, 4 April 1990, on arrest of hackers in The Risks Digest


External links



dealing with offenses relating to computers {{DEFAULTSORT:Even-Chaim, Nahshon Living people 1971 births Place of birth missing (living people) Australian criminals Computer criminals Criminals from Melbourne Australian Jews People from Caulfield, Victoria