UNDERGROUND

The Australian hackers include a number of Mel- bourne people, some teenagers, suspected or already convicted of crimes including fraud, drug use and car theft. Most are considered to be at the least, digital voyeurs, at worst criminals with a possible big crime connection.

The information received by The Australian amounts to a confession on the part of the Australian hackers to involvement in the break-in of the US Citibank network as well as advice on phreaking . . . and bank access.

The following is taken directly from the bulletin board . . . It was stored in a private mailbox on the board and is from a hacker known as Ivan Trotsky to one who uses the name Killer Tomato:

'OK this is what's been happening . . .

'While back a Sysop had a call from the Feds, they wanted Force's, Phoenix's, Nom's, Brett MacMillan's and my names in connection with some hacking The Realm had done and also with some carding meant to have been done too.

'Then in the last few days I get info passed to me that the Hack that was done to the Citibank in the US which has led to arrests over there also had connections to Force and Electron . . .'

DPG monitoring service spokesman, Mr Stuart Gill, said he believed the Pacific Island material was only the tip of the iceberg.

'They're far better organised than the police,' he said.

'Unless everyone gets their act together and we legis- late against it, we'll still be talking about the same things this time next year.'

Yesterday, the South Australian police started an operation to put bulletin boards operating in that state under surveillance.

And in Western Australia, both political parties agreed