Posted at 6:31 a.m. PST Friday, March 3, 2000

Youth acknowledges 'small hacking,' but not big disruptions WOLFEBORO, N.H. (AP) -- A polite 17-year-old who says he dropped out of school because he was bored admitted today he hacked into several Web sites, including one of a leading computer security company.

But Dennis F. Moran, who used the screen name ``Coolio,'' denied responsibility for well-publicized attacks last month on major electronic-commerce companies. Sites including Yahoo! and Amazon.com were put out of business for hours by a barrage of messages sent to them all at once.

Moran said some friends started a rumor in a Internet chat room that he was responsible for those attacks and he jokingly took credit for them. Unbeknownst to the youths, a security expert from Stanford University was listening in and sent logs to the FBI, Moran said in an interview at his home this morning.

``He didn't realize I was joking,'' Moran said.

Moran said the FBI interviewed him twice about two weeks ago.

``At the end, it seemed to me they realized I'm innocent, but I'm not sure,'' he said.

Last month, Justice Department officials identified ``Coolio'' as one of three hackers, known only by their monikers, sought for questioning in the string of attacks on popular Web sites. But federal investigators believe the boy is only one of a number of people who have used ``Coolio'' -- the name of a popular rapper -- as a screen name.

The youth was identified as a suspect by the Los Angeles police, Officer Joe Buscaino of the Los Angeles Police Department said Thursday.

Los Angeles police became involved while investigating an attack on Dare.com, an anti-drug abuse site they founded. The computer crimes unit traced that attack to the youth, Buscaino said.

After the youth's residence was searched Wednesday, he told investigators he has been using computers since he was 3 years old, and spends about 16 hours a day on the Internet, Buscaino said.

Moran and his father, also named Dennis, came to the door of their apartment in downtown Wolfeboro as the father was leaving for work this morning. Dressed in slacks and an open shirt, the son has long, black hair and showed off of a room that was almost too messy to enter.

Buscaino said Moran told the FBI he had hacked into 100 Web sites. Today, he acknowledged breaking into three -- the anti-drug site in Los Angeles, a U.S. Commerce Department site that outlines rules for exporting chemicals that could be used to produce weapons, and Rsa.com, operated by RSA Security Inc., one of the nation's most prominent Internet security companies.

On Feb. 13, ``Coolio'' redirected visitors to RSA's Web site -- which proclaims itself ``the most trusted name in e-security'' -- to another hacked computer at a university in South America. There, a nearly duplicate hoax site proclaimed: ``Trust us with your data! Praise Allah!''

The hacker left a message, ``owned by coolio,'' and derided RSA's earlier announcement that it had developed a countermeasure to the types of attacks suffered a week earlier at major commercial Web sites.

The father said his son's intent was benign.

``He was showing these people, 'You better shore up your systems because look what I can do here,''' the elder Moran said.

After watching the news and talking to reporters today, the son said he realizes he might be charged in the hacking indicents he acknowledges.

He said he hacked into dare.com and cwc.gov last year.

``I'm not sure why I did it,'' he said, calling the incidents ``small hacking.''

``I don't think anything serious will come of it, but I didn't (think that) at first. At first I was pretty scared,'' he said.

The father said he is is confident his son is telling the truth about being uninvolved in the attacks on major sites last month.

``He's been perfect all his life. He never caused anybody any trouble,'' he said.

Dennis Moran Sr. said he was shocked when FBI agents first came to his door.

``This happens in the movies, not in real life,'' he said.

Divorced for years, Moran Sr. lives with his son and two daughters, ages 13 and 15. Though the boy dropped out of high school, he has already earned an equivalency diploma -- ahead of his classmates.

The family lives on two floors of a well-kept clapboard building in Wolfeboro. The picturesque town of about 5,000 is on the shore of New Hampshire's largest lake, Winnipesaukee, and bills itself as America's oldest resort.

State and federal prosecutors planned to meet today in New Hampshire to discuss possible charges against Moran.

http://www.sjmercury.com/breaking/docs/008684.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 03, 2000