(3/15/99)

Teens who think computer hacking is just harmless fun, had better think again. The government has launched a new campaign to tell teens, hacking is the same as breaking and entering. News Specialist Bob Walz takes a look.

A teenager recently shut down his town's entire telephone system. Another hacker cut off some air traffic communications. Others have broken into the Pentagon computers.

Michael Vatis, of the National Infrastructure Protection Center, says, "Once they acquire what they call superuser or root access to a system, which means they control the system just as much as the system administrator, they can do whatever they want."

Government officials say the nation's infrastructure is increasingly threatened by computer hackers who use the internet or other dialups to gain access to key control systems.

Many of the hackers are youngsters, prying and snooping in cyberspace when they might never think of reading a friend's diary.

Today Attorney General Janet Reno announced a joint government-industry campaign designed to teach kids about computer ethincs and morals.

Reno says, "We need youngsters to understand that hacking is the same as breaking and entering, that being a hacker doesn't make them cool or show they're smart. It makes them a criminal."

Industry and federal law enforcement agencies will share their top experts, and publish an online security directory, to stay ahead of cyber criminals.

Harris Miller, of Information Technology Association of America says, "They have to have a system that is secure. Secure from hackers, secure from internal personnel, secure from other bad guys."

Utah Companies like Novell sell programs to help secure computer systems against hackers.

But they say the best idea is to keep sensitive information out of the reach of computer hackers.