Kuji Media Corporation Ltd.

EuroKom IT Security Seminar

Thursday 18th October, 2001

CEO’s and IT Managers from over fifty companies and organisations attended the EuroKom IT security seminar, which was held on 17 October in Citywest, Dublin. The seminar was opened by Noel Treacy, TD Minister for Science and Technology who told the attendees that ‘Confidence in IT Security is crucial to the success of eBusiness.’ Minister Treacy went on to elaborate on the actions that the Government are taking as a pro-active approach to meeting the challenges and opportunities which the digital economy presents. (The full text of the Minister’s speech can be viewed here.)

Brian Lynch, EuroKom’s Sales and Marketing Director, announced a partnership with Celare Ltd, one of Northern Ireland’s leading providers of IT Security Services. Brian stated that through this collaboration with Celare, EuroKom could now offer a unique range of corporate communications and security solutions throughout Ireland.

Keynote speaker at the seminar was Matt Bevan, otherwise known as ‘Kuji’, a reformed hacker who was quoted by the FBI as having ‘?created more harm than the KGB.’ Kuji, then a computer student, is alleged to have penetrated the US Air Force computer systems in 1994. He did it in the back bedroom of his parent’s home near Cardiff in Wales using a computer that his parents had given him for his 16th birthday. Kuji is also alleged to have hacked into NATO and NASA computer systems. In one case, he is also said to have hacked into the US FLEX system (Force Level Execution) and had the power to fire a Peacekeeper missile with a payload of 150 kilotonnes. Newspaper headlines at the time claimed that he ” Could have Started World War 3″ and that he “Even knew Mel Gibson’s Credit card number”. To this day, he believes that his e-mail, ordinary mail and telephones are still monitored by the Pentagon. (In 1994, there were 38,000 intrusions into Pentagon computers of which only 900 were detected.)

This is the mystery figure at the centre of a remarkable court case.

Cardiff computer student Matthew James Bevan appeared before Bow Street magistrates in London on Friday accused of hacking into the top secrets computer systems of NATO, NASA and the United States Air Force.

23 Jun 96 BRITON CHARGED WITH HACKING INTO PENTAGON DATA: REUTER NEWS

LONDON

British police said on Sunday they had charged a second man with hacking into US military computers months after the arrest of a teenage whizzkid accused of gaining access to messages from US agents in North Korea. MATHEW BEVAN, a 21-year-old information technology technician, has been charged with conspiracy to gain unauthorised access to computers and conspiracy to cause unauthorised modification to computers.

A spokeswoman for Scotland Yard said both charges related to computer systems operated by the US military and the Lockheed missile and space company.
Bevan’s co-defendant, RICHARD PRYCE, was charged last year with using a computer in his bedroom in north London to tap into several US Defence Department systems over a period of seven months.

PRYCE, who was just 16 at the time, got access to files on ballistic weapons research and messages from US agents in North Korea during a crisis over nuclear inspection in 1994, according to reports last year in The Independent newspaper.

Police sources said the two were arrested after a long search instigated by the US Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations based in Washington. BEVAN, from Cardiff in Wales, is to appear before magistrates in central London on July 11.
A recent study by the General Accounting Office of Congress said attempts to hack into Pentagon computers were running at a rate of 250,000 a year.
The GAO said the attacks were, at least, a multi-million dollar nuisance and, at worst, could pose a serious threat to national security.

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