COMPUTER HACKER ROBERT SCHIFREEN URGED A COMPUTER

COMPUTER HACKER ROBERT SCHIFREEN URGED A COMPUTER EXPERT TO

REPORT HIM TO BRITISH TELECOM AFTER HE SHOWED HER HOW HE BROKE INTO

CUSTOMER’S SECRET COMPUTER FILES, A COURT HEARD TODAY (WED).

SCHIFREEN TOLD THE EXPERT HOW HE GOT INTO CONFIDENTIAL

PRESTEL ELECTRONIC MAILBOXES.

AFTER THE DEMONSTRATION AT SCHIFREEN’S HOME THE EXPERT, MRS

DENISE SHEMUEL, CALLED BRITISH TELECOM TO TELL THEM HE HAD BEEN

ABUSING THE COMPUTER SYSTEM.

SHE TOLD SOUTHWARK CROWN COURT THAT SCHIFREEN HAD ASKED HER

TO VISIT HIM SAYING: ‘I HAVE SOMETHING VERY UNUSUAL WHICH YOU SHOULD

SEE’.

WHEN MRS SHEMUEL GOT TO HIS HOME SCHIFREEN SHOWED HER A LIST

OF PRESTEL USERS’ SECRET PASSWORDS AND PRIVATE NUMBERS.

‘HE SHOWED ME ON THE COMUTER CUSTOMER RECORDS OF PRESTEL,

INCLUDING PEOPLE’S IDENTITY NUMBERS’.

THAT NIGHT, ADDED MRS SHEMUEL WHO WORKS FOR NICROMET

COMPUTER MAGAZINE, ‘I CALLED BRITISH TELECOM WITH MR SCHIFREEN’S

APPROVAL’.

SCHIFREEN, 22, A FREELANCE COMPUTER JOURNALIST, OF

EDGWARBURY GARDENS, EDGWARE, AND STEPHEN GOLD, 30 OF WATT LANE,

SHEFFIELD, ARE BOTH ACCUSED OF FORGERY.

THEY ARE ALLEGED TO HAVE USED THE PRIVATE MAILBOXES TO

OBTAIN ACCESS TO A WIDE VARIETY OF PRESTEL SERVICES FOR NOTHING.

PROSECUTING COUNSEL MR AUSTIN ISSARD-DAVIES SAID THAT AFTER

SCHIFREEN NFORMED PRESTEL WHAT HE WAS DOING HE ‘CARRIED MERRILY

ON HIS WAY UNTIL FEBRUARY’.

COUNSEL ADDED: ‘MANY TIMES DURING THIS CASE IT MAY HAVE

SEEMED THAT WHAT THESE YOUNG MEN WERE DOING WAS A KIND OF CHILDISH

PRANK DESIGNED TO TWIST THE TAIL OF BRITISH TELECOM.

IF THAT IT IS,

IT DOESN’T MATTER’

INCLUDED AMONGST THE ELECTRONIC MAILBOXES SCHIFREEN GAINED

ACCESS TO WAS THAT OF HIS FORMER BOSS, MR TONY COAD.

”ARE WE REALLY TO BELIEVE THAT FRAMES FROM A MAIL

BOX WHICH JUST HAPPENED TO BELONG TO A FORMER BOSS OF THIS DEFENDANT

ARRIVED AT HIS HOME AS A RESULT OF SOME SORT OF FREAK ELECTRONIC

ACCIDENT?” HE ASKED THE JURY.

THE HEARING CONTINUES

ENDS/MFL