From: um@c2.org (Ulf Moeller)
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 19:51:35 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Scientologists may subpoena anonymous remailer records
In-Reply-To: <autopost.829264955.3442@ulf.mali.sub.org>
Message-ID: <m0u7Wp8-0000ABC@ulf.mali.sub.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May) writes:

>some details. (To Jim Byrd, that "alumni account at Cal Tech" that you
>mentioned was one of the Cypherpunks remailers at Caltech that our own
>pioneering Hal Finney runs.)

From: noring@netcom.com (Jon Noring)
Subject: [X-Post, Caltech OFFICIALLY Speaks] -AB-,penet, and Caltech

*******************************************************
In article <3smmv3$ard@gap.cco.caltech.edu> rich@cco.caltech.edu (Richard E. Fagen) writes:

On Wednesday afternoon, February 8th, three private 
investigators  visited the Caltech Security Office and the Campus 
Computing Organization. The P.I.s wanted to know the identity of 
the holder of the account "tc" on the Caltech Alumni Association 
computer system (alumni.caltech.edu). They claimed to have 
gotten the account name from the anon.penet.fi server via the 
Helsinki police. Due to the unusual nature of this request, the 
P.I.s were told that Caltech would need more information before 
this type of information could be given out. Later that day, an 
attorney representing the Church of Scientology called the 
campus computing support office demanding the name of the 
account holder. The attorney claimed that a document had been 
stolen from a CoS computer system, and that the  document had 
been posted to the a.r.s newsgroup from alumni.caltech.edu via 
the anon remailer. (The claim was the document was created on 
Jan. 21 and appeared in a.r.s. on Jan. 24). The computing support 
staff did not divulge the name of the account holder, and the CoS 
attorney was referred to the Caltech General Counsel's office.

The Computer Crime Unit of the Bunco-Forgery Division of the 
LAPD subsequently contacted Caltech security and asked for 
more information on the case. The LAPD wanted to know if a 
breakin to the CoS computer had occurred from the alumni 
system. Caltech told the LAPD that no evidence of such a break 
in could be found. The LAPD requested and was given the name 
of the "tc" account holder with the understanding that this 
information would not be divulged. A couple days after that 
Caltech was informed that the LAPD could find no evidence that 
a crime had been committed.

In the ensuing several days, the attorney and P.I.s representing 
CoS made repeated attempts (both via phone and by physically 
appearing on the Caltech and JPL campuses) to obtain the 
contents of the tc account and also the tape backups (the account 
holder had admitted to deleting most of the contents of the 
account). The CoS attorney produced a letter allegedly signed by 
the tc account holder allowing CoS permission to get the data 
stored on that account and the backups. Due to irregularities 
with both the letter and a phone conversation with the account 
holder, permission for CoS to have access to the data in the 
account was denied by Caltech.

After the CoS attorney and P.I.s continued their attempts to get 
the data, Caltech retained the counsel of an independent law 
firm. Soon after that, all communication with the CoS ended. One 
phone call from the tc account holder requesting the backup data 
was received by the computing support staff. This request was 
also denied. That was the last communication with the account 
holder.

Our analysis is that Caltech was caught in the middle of what 
appears to be an internal matter between the Church of 
Scientology and one of its members, who also happened to be an 
account holder on the Caltech alumni computer. No evidence that 
a Caltech computer was used to break into another computer, or 
was used to store stolen documents could ever be found.

I hope this serves to shine a little light on this chain of events.

Rich Fagen
Director, Campus Computing Organization
Caltech


****************** end of cross-post ********************

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