Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Waterford men hacked store files, FBI alleges

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 13:38:37 -0500

Waterford men hacked store files, FBI alleges

Laptop setup used for system access, agent tells court
November 11, 2003

BY DAVID ASHENFELTER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Two young men sitting in a car in the parking lot of a Lowe's home improvement
store in Southfield repeatedly hacked into the company's national computer
network over the past two weeks, gaining access to credit card numbers and other
information, federal prosecutors said Monday.

It's unclear what the two men planned to do with the information.
They may have been engaged in the recent hacker craze known as "wardriving" --
cruising around with a specially equipped laptop and an antenna searching for
unsecured wireless networks hooked to the Internet.  Assistant U.S. Attorney
Karen Reynolds said the investigation is under way.

Paul Timmins, 22, and Adam Botbyl, 20, both of Waterford, didn't explain what
they were up to when they appeared Monday in U.S. District Court.  Magistrate
Virginia Morgan told them anything they said could be used against them in
court.
Timmins said he is a $38,000-a-year computer network and security specialist for
a Southfield software company. Botbyl said he's a student at ITT Technical
Institute in Troy. Morgan released both men on $10,000 unsecured bonds.

FBI agent Denise Stemen said in an affidavit that Lowe's alerted the FBI
recently that intruders had broken into its computer at company headquarters in
North Carolina, altered its computer programs and illegally intercepted credit
card transactions.
Stemen said the company's computer system had been hacked repeatedly from Oct.
25 through Nov. 7. She said that the intruders gained access through the
national network by logging onto a user account over the wireless network of the
Lowe's store in Southfield.

Once in the system, the intruders gained access to Lowe's stores in six states
plus the headquarters system, Stemen said.
She said hackers altered the software Lowe's uses to process credit card
purchases nationwide. On Nov. 5, the hackers installed a malicious program that
disabled several computers at the Long Beach, Calif., store, she said.
Lowe's spokeswoman Chris Ahearn said the company has taken steps to beef up
security, but wouldn't elaborate.
In alerting the FBI, Lowe's security said the intruders probably were operating
within 1,000 feet of the Southfield store.

FBI agents set up surveillance Friday night and said they spotted the two men
sitting with laptops in a Pontiac Grand Prix equipped with antennae.  Agents
followed the men and apparently arrested them Saturday. Agents also searched
their apartments in Waterford.

During their court appearance Monday, Morgan ordered both men not to use
computer equipment or access the Internet except at work or school.

The men are charged with causing damage to a protected computer system, which
carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, upon
conviction. Reynolds told Morgan that the men, who were arrested on a criminal
complaint, are likely to be indicted within a few weeks in Michigan or
Charlotte, N.C.

"Wardriving" is named after the old hacker practice called wardialing, the stunt
that actor Matthew Broderick made famous in the 1983 film "WarGames."
Broderick's character hacked into a military computer and nearly triggered a
nuclear war with Russia.
http://www.freep.com/news/locoak/nhack11_20031111.htm

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