📸

HACKING FOR PROFIT

Other publishers have resorted to more extreme methods. One celebrated case involved a large American cosmetics conglomerate. To handle the distribution of its products, the company had leased a program from a small software house. On 16 October 1990, after a disagreement between the two about the lease payments, the software company dialled into the cosmetic giant's computer and entered a code that disabled its own program. The cosmetic conglomerate's entire distribution operation was halted for three days. The software company argued it was simply protecting its property, and its action was akin to a disconnection by the telephone company. The conglomerate said it was 'commercial terrorism'.

The Cleveland District Court, however, rejected arguments that the AIDS diskette simply contained some sort of elaborate copyright protection device. It also ruled that Popp was fit to stand trial, and ordered his extradition to Britain to face charges. He arrived in London, accompanied by two detectives from the Computer Crime Unit, on 21 February 1991; the next day he appeared at London's Bow Street Magistrates' Court. His trial was set for November 1991.

Popp was the first person ever extradited for a computer crime, and the first ever committed to trial in Britain for writing a malicious program. From the welter of complaints, the police had prepared five counts against Popp; he faced ten years in prison on each charge. The police took the case seriously. Popp, they argued, had perpetrated a scam that could have grossed him over $7.5 million - assuming that each of 20,000 recipients of the AIDS diskette had sent the 'lifetime' licence fee. More realistically, it was estimated that 1,000 recipients had actually loaded the diskette after receiving it; even if only those 1,000 had sent the minimum licence fee, that would still have earned Popp $189,000.

The police also discovered a diskette that they believed Popp intended to send out to 'registered users' who had opted for the cheaper, $189 licence. Far from being an antidote, it was another trojan and merely extended the counter from ninety boot-ups to 365 before scrambling the hard disk. In addition, the police had evidence that the London mailing was only an initial test run: when Popp's home in Ohio was raided, the FBI found one million blank diskettes. It was believed Popp was intending to use the proceeds from the

📸