FBI operation penetrates hacker underground
The FBI has gained a foothold in the hacker underground thanks to an 18-month undercover operation launched during the height of the U.S. military's 1999 bombing campaign in Kosovo. What started out as a Defense Department operation designed to ferret out pro-Serbian hackers responsible for the April 1999 denial-of-service attacks against U.S. government and NATO Web sites (see story) soon led to the first coordinated undercover operation targeting U.S.-based hackers, Computerworld has learned.
The operation, whose code name is being withheld for security reasons, involved a joint team of half a dozen FBI and Pentagon criminal investigators who posed as hackers on the Internet. Dozens of investigations by the Justice Department have been opened as a result of the operation's success, including some that are continuing.
