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.)