<nettime> Jam Echelon Day or Hype Media Day?

[nettimes_roving_reporter <nettime-l@bbs.thing.net>]

Jam Echelon Day or Hype Media Day? 
Monday, October 11, 1999 at 16:55:59
by John Vranesevich - Founder of AntiOnline 

Come one, come all, and join the ranks of the elite hacktivists.

At one time, the hacktivists were only the elite few that had the ability to
download and use complex tools like PHF Scanners, and write in cryptic
languages which involve numeric replacement of common vowels. But, no longer
are such skills necessary.

On October 21st, the elite hacktivists of the world invite you to join their
ranks and help them totally devastate a suspected international
eavesdropping system run by the NSA dubbed Echelon. You can join in on this
celebration of hacktivism by simply sending out a single e-mail.

But, this can't be any normal e-mail. This e-mail needs to contain keywords
which will trigger this Echelon system. Your e-mail, along with the e-mails
of tens of thousands of other hacktivist wannabe's will bring this massive
international system down to its knees, and totally disable the US' ability
to monitor the actions of terrorists, hostile nations, and individuals
wanting to take action on the International Stop Police Brutality day, which
will take place on October 22nd.

An elite group of hacktivists have taken the guesswork out of creating this
complex document of keywords, by providing template e-mails for you. Below
is a sample of one that they have posted on their hacktivist HQ website:

Not For Public Release 
>From Lt Colonel T. Brotherton, Vice Commander, Joint National Test Facility 
To United States Joint Chiefs of Staff 

The TELINT boys are kidding themselves if they think they can get away with
it. I heard they were going to make contact with Xu Yongyue in Las Vegas
just as everybodys sitting down for thanksgiving. Additionally, Some Serbian
nationals have flown in and hope to get the monthly drop from the 850th
Communications Squadron Lieutenant in Sydney on January 1st as that year
2000 thing really heats up. Further to that, Some Serbian nationals have
flown in and hope to get the monthly drop from the 850th Communications
Squadron Lieutenant in Waco on January 1st as that year 2000 thing really
heats up. Finally, As members of the holy revolutionary front, we must bring
the migrant workers up from Cuba in the morning. Payment is due to the
consulate in The White House when you least expect it. 

Ok, sarcastic mode off. What I wrote above sounds a lot like it should be
one of AntiOnline's Weekly News Spoofs. Unfortunately, it's a representation
of actual news stories which have been appearing in the mainstream press
recently.

A group of hacktivists decided to create "Jam Echelon Day". Its purpose and
methodology are exactly as I described above. The sample letter above
actually came from the website run by these hacktivists. 

In other words, yes, there are actually people out there that think this
way.

Now, I don't want to add to the already voluminous amounts of speculation
that's been written about this supposed system. However, allow me to provide
a little bit of food for thought. 

The NSA has supposedly created a system which can monitor all
communications, including all e-mails, websites, phone conversations, and
satellite communications that occur in every modernized country on the face
of the earth. How logical is it, that all this system does, is look for
simple keywords or even simple concepts? In other words, these hacktivists
would have you believe that the search capabilities of this system are far
less technologically advanced than the Altavista Website that you may use on
a daily basis to search the web. How likely is it that a few thousand, or
even a few hundred thousand e-mails, such as the one above, would cause this
system to become so over worked, that it is literally useless to its
creators?

Now, assuming that no logically thinking person would believe the scenario
that these hacktivists are presenting, what could there motivations possibly
be?

Personally, I think that "Jam Echelon Day" should be renamed to something
which more closely represents its true purpose. Something like "Hype Media
Day" perhaps?

Related Information On AntiOnline:
The Revenge Of The Script Kiddies

Links To Other Related Sites:
Official Jam Echelon Day Website



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