ABSTRACT
From 1986 to 1988, several computer hackers located in Hannover, Germany, worked their way into more than 40 computer systems here in the United States, mostly military and federal government research-related systems. They downloaded hundreds of files consisting of thousands of pages of material, looking for military secrets pertaining to the latest weapons and other defense systems. They sold these printouts to a Soviet KGB agent in East Berlin. Although they managed to penetrate scores of computers during this two-year period, not one page of the material they stole was classified. Sensitive information, yes, but all of it publicly available. In February 1989, a young 22-year-old U.S. soldier, Michael A. Peri, abruptly left his unit in Fulda, Germany and calmly climbed the barbedwire fence separating East and West Germany. In his black duffel bag was a laptop computer he had stolen from his unit, along with several floppy disks. Two of the disks contained hundreds of pages of classified U.S. secret documents, including the General War Plans that the United States would follow in any ground war with Soviet forces in Germany. In his 10minute defection, Peri delivered more information to the enemy than all the efforts by the “Hannover Hackers.”
