Oh, yes, the L0pht public relations people seem to neglect to mention that the L0pht has overlapping membership with the Cult of the Dead Cow, the gang that brought us Back Orifice. Yes, these are the same people who, at the 1999 Def Con hacker's convention were yelling at thousands of crazed kiddies "You can change the world ... get out there and hack shit." Oh, yes, that Def Con was run by a group of employees of Secure Computing Corp, which is a major contractor of the National Security Agency. Does anyone smell a skunk here? Or are we just paranoid?

If antivirus companies were ever caught writing and unleashing viruses on the world so people would buy their protective software, there would be a huge scandal. L0pht (whether operating under that name or their alternate identify of Cult of the Dead Cow) writes and unleashes Back Orifice and becomes wealthy helping people fight it. Where is the outrage?

Oh, and L0pht people were among the first to try to threaten Meinel into shutting down Happy Hacker. Their slogan was "We will fight them in the routers, we will fight them in the vaxen..." Looks like Meinel forgot to be afraid of the L0pht... Maybe Jay Dyson needs to take lessons from her.

Read Meinel's latest interview with Shewire reporter Karen Solomon. "Oh my gosh, you're in an escape sequence in a mail server! I've never seen that before!" While I can't see Carolyn Meinel on the other end of the telephone, I have no doubt she's jumped out of her seat. Together, in the midst of my first hacking lesson, we've discovered a new avenue to explore, and a new techie trick to master... her excitement is contagious, and I swell with the pride of successfully completing my first hack..."

A New York Times story reveals a smear campaign that has been orchestrated against Antionline's John Vranesevich.  It turns out that when the Time's Matt Richtel checked into the phony stories Brian Martin's Attrition.org computer crime advocacy web site has been distributing to credulous (or unethical) reporters, none of Martin's stories turned out to be true. 

Imagine that! 

OK, we can understand small-time reporters such as Lew Koch and Polly Sprenger getting suckered. However, Adam Penenberg is the third reporter to go on the warpath against Vranesevich, arm in arm with his long-time source Martin. Yet Penenberg is a much more prominent reporter than Sprenger or Koch. How did Brian Martin snooker Forbes' Adam Penenberg into writing a false and malicious editorial against Vranesevich?

Get more on this story about Martin's campaign against Vranesevich. 

Oh, yes, funny thing, Wired reporter Polly Sprenger, as well as her editor who decided to run a false and malicious story against Vranesevich, both no longer appear to be employed at Wired. Polly seems to have had to go back home to the UK, and her editor has changed careers, now writing about outdoors recreation. Maybe having no ethical standards is bad for a reporter's career? Anyone taking bets on how long Penenberg will hold on to his senior editor post at Forbes? (Turns out it wasn't long.)

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