Mrs. Edge
Bono's Belly Dancing Friend
U.S. hacker finds mother of all e-mails
Journalist cracks Saddam's account Iraqi leader gets spam, hate letters
HOLLY RAMER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DURHAM, N.H.?Even Saddam gets spam.
He also gets e-mail purporting to be from U.S. companies offering business deals, and threats, according to a journalist who figured out a way into an Iraqi government e-mail account and downloaded more than 1,000 messages.
Brian McWilliams, a freelancer who specializes in Internet security, says he hardly needed high-level hacking skills to snoop through e-mail addressed to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Last month, the Durham resident clicked on the official Iraqi government Web site, http://www.uruklink.net/iraq.
The site, which was off line yesterday, included links that allow visitors to send e-mail to Saddam and allowed users of the government-controlled site to check their own accounts.
On a whim, McWilliams typed in the address for Saddam, "press@uruklink.net," using "press" for president, and tried "press" again as a possible password.
"It took a long time. I was about to hit stop, but then, boom! The inbox appeared," said McWilliams.
The most disturbing messages appeared to be business proposals from American companies, despite U.S. prohibitions against such transactions, he said.
The CEO of a California wireless technology company e-mailed Saddam to request a meeting, suggesting they could discuss "technology improvements and exporting of rich technology aboard."
He also found interview requests from journalists and obscene messages from angry Americans.
One man who identified himself as a former U.S. paratrooper wrote that he would welcome an invitation to finish what he started during the Gulf War.
But the account also attracted admirers, including someone writing from Austria who called Americans arrogant and told Saddam that if the United States attacked Iraq, "you need only send a ticket and I will come to Iraq to fight Americans.''
Journalist cracks Saddam's account Iraqi leader gets spam, hate letters
HOLLY RAMER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DURHAM, N.H.?Even Saddam gets spam.
He also gets e-mail purporting to be from U.S. companies offering business deals, and threats, according to a journalist who figured out a way into an Iraqi government e-mail account and downloaded more than 1,000 messages.
Brian McWilliams, a freelancer who specializes in Internet security, says he hardly needed high-level hacking skills to snoop through e-mail addressed to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Last month, the Durham resident clicked on the official Iraqi government Web site, http://www.uruklink.net/iraq.
The site, which was off line yesterday, included links that allow visitors to send e-mail to Saddam and allowed users of the government-controlled site to check their own accounts.
On a whim, McWilliams typed in the address for Saddam, "press@uruklink.net," using "press" for president, and tried "press" again as a possible password.
"It took a long time. I was about to hit stop, but then, boom! The inbox appeared," said McWilliams.
The most disturbing messages appeared to be business proposals from American companies, despite U.S. prohibitions against such transactions, he said.
The CEO of a California wireless technology company e-mailed Saddam to request a meeting, suggesting they could discuss "technology improvements and exporting of rich technology aboard."
He also found interview requests from journalists and obscene messages from angry Americans.
One man who identified himself as a former U.S. paratrooper wrote that he would welcome an invitation to finish what he started during the Gulf War.
But the account also attracted admirers, including someone writing from Austria who called Americans arrogant and told Saddam that if the United States attacked Iraq, "you need only send a ticket and I will come to Iraq to fight Americans.''
