Fixing A Hole Where The Brains Get, Emily Kumler, Review-Journal

Boot camp teaches how to find security flaws and close them to hackers

Who would know best about how to hack into a computer system?

Former hackers, perhaps.

Which is why a group of hackers-turned-businessmen formed a company and conducted a class recently in the valley. The class was for information technology employees and designed to teach them to test their systems for potential vulnerabilities.

The class drew 17 participants, each of whom paid $4,000 to attend.

While most of the corporate security employees worked for enterprises such as Honeywell International, the U.S. Army, McCarran International Airport and other large companies, one participant was the infamous Kevin Mitnick. Mitnick is a former hacker who spent more than four years in prison after the federal government alleged that he stole more than $300 million worth of privileged information from more than 35 companies and organizations, including Motorola, Nokia, Novell and SunMicrosystems.

Mitnick, who now spends his time writing books, traveling the world speaking to the masses and working as an IT security consultant for large companies, came to the boot camp, called Intense School, to play with new hacking tools and catch up with old friends.

"The real challenge for IT is to find all the vulnerabilities," Mitnick said. "Hackers only need to find one and they're in."

Former hacker Ralph Echimendia, who taught the course, used real-life examples of how to find system weaknesses, sneak into corporate databases, create fictitious users and steal information. The boot camp, which concluded Friday at Residence Inn Marriott in Henderson, outlined guidelines consultants and IT staff can use to talk to upper management about system problems without invoking fear. It instilled the importance of contracts and destroying findings after presenting them to company officials.

"Quick quiz: What is the default password on Microsoft's admin sequel server?" Echimendia asked the class. "BLANK! That's right, isn't that great?"

Echimendia said that when companies load software on their machines, they often don't change the system preferences, instead leaving the Microsoft Corp.-issued passwords. He said often people don't even realize how vulnerable their systems are and how easy it is to test systems for illegal access.

"I would say 50 percent of all large companies' sites are vulnerable and 70 percent of all small- to medium-size businesses have serious problems with their systems," Echimendia said.

Echimendia said e-commerce companies are some of the easiest businesses to break into. Online stores are vulnerable to hundreds of thousands of dollars in hacking damages, he said, adding that on Friday the class learned firsthand how easy it is to change the price of goods sold by an online vendor. He said simple tools available to anyone can be used as destructive hacking devices.

"Google is one of the best hacking tools out there," he said. "It has tons of special features that are out there for anyone but aren't well known."

Echimendia gave the example of a class he taught in which he instructed the students to enter a simple code into Google. The Web site recognized the search and called up all Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that contained passwords on the Internet. Another Google search identified users' names. The class found a match: one sheet listing the usernames and one identifying passwords from the same Internet location.

"We see someone was stupid enough to put this on their Web server," Echimendia said. "I showed the class how to look into it further and we identified that it was a scientist who was a professor at a university, but also he was working at a nuclear facility, which is where the box of information we found was located. It was at the scientific facility. Can you believe that? We called him and the facility and let them know. But he probably needed a database to keep his findings and didn't know anything about the program or the security it should have had."

Echimendia said that as technology advances and systems change, computer specialists must be aware of the vulnerabilities that go along with each new development. With the innovation of Wi-Fi there are no physical boundaries since someone can be miles away from a company and tap into its network, he said.

The biggest security threats are people, Echimendia said.

"The weakest link is people, the bigger the organization the easier it is to manipulate people into giving you information," Echimendia said. "Do you know how easy it is to call a company's help desk and ask them for information about their system? They usually don't have a way to see where the call is coming from and their job is to fix people's computer problems so they just answer the questions. Try calling an executive's assistant at 4 p.m. on a Friday. Their job is to make sure you don't have to talk to the executive. You can get anything out of them," he said, adding that companies should host parties where people come and talk about these kinds of security infractions.

Vince Macri, a network analyst for McCarran International Airport, said taking the class is one more way the airport is working aggressively to ensure its safety.

"We are concerned about security and this class gives an in-depth view inside a hacker's mind," Macri said. "The skills I learned in this class will directly apply to the airport's overall security."