ARTICLE IN "THE SUNDAY STAR" (THE TORONTO STAR) JULY 23, 1995

TITLE: How Hacker Tapped into trouble
REPORTER: Colin Leslie

Rudy Lombardi got involved in an international conspiracy without leaving
his wood-panelled basement room in his parents' suburban house.

The 22-year-old Mississauga man has admitted to being the Canadian connection
in an international computer hacker ring that used stolen access codes to 
defraud U.S. telephone companies of at least $5 million.

"I was a rat," Lmbardi says of the cool February day when the RCMP arrived on
his quiet, tree-lined street at 8 a.m. "I told them everything."

Lombardi says he had an inkling trouble was coming.

"The night before I was talking to the guy in the U.S. in a phone booth (they
no longer trusted their home phones) and he said: 'Expect a visit.' "

Lombardi's "friend" said he had heard the U.S. Federal Bureasu of Investigation
was snooping around in Dallas.

But Lombardi was surprised the long arm of the law was that fast.  "I didn't 
know it would be the next morning!"

On Feb. 22, three Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers woke up the stocky
hacker, handcuffed him in front of his parents and carted off him and the 
computer he had spent so many hours hunched over.

At least one person has been charged in Germany and several in the United 
States after 

SUBTITILE: Computer Hacker's career began with a 'chat'

police conducted simultaneous searches in North America and 
Europe.  "It was a nightmare," says Lombardi, freely admitting he was scared
and that during the day-long questioning he named name and told his story.

These days, Lombardi is unemployed and spends his weekdays at home.

The RCMP has kept his old computer and the new one in his basement does not
have a modem - the device used to connect it to phone lines and the Internet
beyond.

Corporal Bob Davis of the RCMP's commercial crime section says Lombardi 
earned "probably less than $20,000" for his part in the ring.

On June 27, Lombardi pleaded guilty in a Brampton court to conspiracy to 
steal telecommunications services and was sentenced to three months in jail
to be served on weekends.

As well, he was ordered to perform 100 hours community service and put on 
probation for 18 months.

Ironically, interest in computers came slowly to Lombardi.  He says he didn't
particularly like computers while studying at Sheridan College.

But later, while working selling surplus computer equipment from the government 
and other sources, he caught the bug.

When asked how big a player he was in the ring, Lombardi holds his thumb and 
finger a centimetre apart:  "This small."

Lombardi says he was a novice working beside cyber wizards:  Men who could hide
their identities and break into telephone company computers as easily as most
of us change socks.

The police agree with him to an extent.

"(The Americans) were technically superior to the Canadian," says Davis.  
"But he was an important and significans player in the entire operation."

For Lombardi, his entry into the world of international crime began with an
innocent "chat" last summer.
He had logged into a local bulletin board system (BBS) sort of an electronic
meeting place and met a man from Texas, he says.

On BBSs, people can "chat" by typing messages back and forth on their computers
without knowing each others real identity.

In fact, Lombardi says, it was several months before "Texas" revealed his true
name.

"This guy is the real McCoy," says Lombardi, rubbing his thin goatee-style
beard.  "He's just a genius."

Through the fall, Texas began teaching Lombardi how to move around the cyber
world.

"He was telling me stuff, like how I could infiltrate a phone company," says
Lombardi.  "it was really amazing to me."

Texas' computer powers were vast.  Lombardi says Texas could temporarily
"borrow" other people's phone numbers so that when Lombardi called him at 
certain hours the phone number would ring through to Texas.  At other hours, 
Lombardi would call the same number and reach a fax machine or a corner store.

And Texas was also very good at getting access to phone company computers.

Lombardi sasys it didn't occur to him, but another hacker friend of his in Ohio
saw profit potential.

The is simple enough.

Search through phone company computers and pull out calling card numbers that
aren't being used.  The sell the numbers, and happy but unscrupulous consumers
can call long distance anywhere in the world without paying.

Each calling card number only works for a month or so thats when the phone
company realizes there's a problem.

In early winter, Lombardi agreed to the scheme.

"I was getting myself in deeper and deeper," he says.  "I was getting access 
codes from (Texas) and I was encrypting them (and selling them to the man in
Ohio)."

After that, the RCMP says the calling card numbers would be sold in Europe.

But the scheme was doomed from the beginning.  As he later found out, the 
RCMP had been tapping his phones since September, Lombardi says.

The RCMP is not talking about what tipped them off, but Lombardi thinks it was
a telephone call from France.

The scenario, Lombardi speculates, went like this:

One day last summer, he got a call from a man in France.  They talked computers.
He says he thinks the man in France got his phone number from his friend in 
Ohio.

Unfortunately, Lombardi says, the man from France was into a number of shady
deals and his phones were being tapped by Interpol.  Interpol called the RCMP.  
The RCMP started intercepting the data going to and from Lombardi's computer
over phone lines.

By February, the Mounties had enough.

"Oh yeah, it was a trap," says Lombardi.  "But it was my fault.  I shouldn't have
taken the access codes."

Like most hackers, Lombardi says, he was not motivated by money, but by desire 
to learn.

Davis of the RCMP says Lombardi got a reduced sentence because he co-operated.

END OF ARTICLE

Personal Notes:

To all those Canadian "HACKERS", you think that the cops can't tap your lines,
well guess again.  There are over 1000 people in Canada who have their phone
lines tapped for the same reason.  Just watch your back and think.  IS IT
ALL WORTH THE PRICE?

Signed

Mr. Anonymous
