The San Francisco Chronicle and the Associated Press reported today that the FBI located two young suspects in the case in Cloverdale, California. The FBI told the Chronicle that when agents arrived at the home of one of the boys, he was in the process of breaking into one of the Defense Department's nonclassified computers.

The agents seized computers, software, and printers from two Cloverdale homes, though neither of the high school students believed involved in the case have been arrested. Neither boy was identified.

The case made headlines Wednesday when deputy defense secretary John Hamre told reporters that a recent two-week series of attacks was viewed as "the most organized and systematic attack the Pentagon has seen to date." Defense Information and Electronics Report reported on the break-ins earlier this month at 11 military bases - seven Air Force sites and four Navy installations.

The owner of a Santa Rosa, California, Internet service provider - the apparent access point for at least some of the break-ins - expressed doubt that the Cloverdale teens were the only ones involved in the incident.

"The sheer volume of it differentiates it from some hobbyist amateur," Bill Zane of Netdex Internet Services told the Chronicle. "These people were doing it in a methodical, organized way. The activity took place virtually every day. ... The hours spread over the map. I would be very surprised if this were just kids. I doubt that a couple of teenagers did that."

Zane said Netdex first detected hackers using the service's computers as a launching point for exploration of government, military, and university computers in January. The company alerted both law enforcement and the Carnegie Mellon University's Computer Emergency Response Team.

-- Evil Hecubus - 2/28/99