18 September 2000: Cryptome has been informed that it is HVU7, not HVU9 earlier posted on Cryptome, which discloses confidential French government radio frequencies that led to the imprisonment of LaRsEn (Vincent Plousey). Get it: http://www.ifrance.com/ezines/toon/hvu7.zip. This is a Zipped Word Doc. (512KB) which provides astonishingly detailed information about special police communications.
12 September 2000. Thanks to Quintessenz.
Source:
http://www.transfert.net/fr/cyber_societe/article.cfm?idx_rub=87&idx_art=1685
French hacker sued by an
antiterrorist judge
par
Jean-Marc
Manach
mis en ligne le 12 septembre 2000
Larsen, who's been arrested by the DST (french counter–intelligence agency), is accused of having disclosed national defence secrets by an antiterrorist judge. The trouble is that the informations he revealed on the Net are freely available in bookshops...
Vincent Plousey, 28, works as a telephone technician and defines himself as a retired hacker. He is one of the rare French specialists of radio frequencies, respected as such by the underground community, where he has only been known under his pseudonym : Larsen. Although Plousey had been off the scene for the last two years, he recently served two months in jail – where he was treated like a highly sensitive prisoner – under the charge, issued by an antiterrorist judge, of having disclosed national defence secret. In March 1998, a "special police" issue of HVU, Plousey’s e-zine, published an extensive list of the radio frequencies used by French strategic oceanic force, land forces, gendarmerie force and national police force. After several months of inquiry (electronic and phone wiretapping, physical surveillance), seven plainclothes agents of the DST (Direction de la surveillance du territoire, French agency for counter-intelligence) arrested Plousey at gunpoint, on April,18th.
Jean-Pierre Millet, Plousey’s lawyer, a specialist of civil liberties on the Net, blames what he sees as a repressive drift : "a inquisitive citizen can honestly put himself in danger because of an inappropriate legislation, a blind and ineffective repressive system, the failing of some State agencies in protecting so–called secret data and the free circulation of sensitive datas that are classified in a State and declassified in others. " Vincent Plousey, who's visibly hurt by his detention, defends himself by arguing that those frequencies, classified as "confidential defence" according to the judge, come from one "textbook for radio operator trainees" of the national police force, devoid of any mention of confidentiality. Furthermore, these frequencies have become almost obsolete. They have never been used for "operational communications", but essentially for testing. But the main trouble is that 90 % of the informations Plousey revealed are freely and legally available in specialized publications sold in french bookshops, such as the german Klingenfuss Editions, or the american Monitoring Times...
In the special police issue of his e-zine, Larsen wrote that he was "conscious of the risks incurred for disclosure of confidential information concerning national defence". What happened confirms his fears. On July 20th, Larsen published on madchat.org, the online rendez–vous of the French-speaking hacker community, a letter that was in fact a warning to his peers. There, he denounced the gap between the charges and the acts, hoping that this case could be used as a lesson by others : "take care of yourself, don't go to jail for bullshit". While Larsen wished above all to protect his true identity, the Intelligence Newsletter, "a must for all intelligence professionals" as it presents itself, revealed it by the end of august. The article stated that "according to sources close to the judge, the presence of an intelligence agent among the acquaintances of the hacker explained the distrust of the judge". Released on bail, Vincent Plousey, who had never heard of the said "agent", decided to reveal himself in order to expose the nonsense of this case. How can someone who just compiled open source informations be treated like a hard–core spy ? According to the new French penal code, Plousey may be condemned to five years of imprisonment plus a fine of 500.000FF.
Source: http://www.transfert.net/fr/cyber_societe/article.cfm?idx_rub=87&idx_art=1688
My story is commonplace
par
Jean-Marc
Manach
mis en ligne le 12 septembre 2000
As soon as he arrived at Transfert, Vincent Plousey could not refrain from having a look at the phone switchboard and providing hints about the improvement of its security. Not a tall man, with bright and quizzical eyes, Plousey is well mannered and has nothing of a boaster. He seems as shocked by the charges against him as by the conditions of his stay in jail.
What has been your personnal route ?
I left school before my teens and went to a specialized centre for kids suffering from educational and domestic problems. I ended up with a certificate in horticulture. I went into gardening, then became a technician in a telecom centre. Self taught, I created my first e-zine about telecoms and radio in 1995, before launching the Chaos Radio Club of France, which made fun of the French Chaos Computer Club, a group that had been created – and manipulated – by a hacker who had been overturned by the DST, the French counter–intelligence agency. I left this scene in 1998 because of squabbles between groups. Also, I was disgusted by these guys who swear they fight for freedom of expression, but crave to work in the computer security business –more or less hand in hand with the military.
How did it feel to be arrested by the DST ?
On April 18, at about 9 a.m., I left home for work when seven plain-clothes policemen, seized me at gunpoint in front of some of my neighbours. I was taken to the DST central office, then to the hyper-secure antiterrorist section of the high court. At first, I did not realize much what was happening to me, especially because I did nothing for the last two years. The examination was quite heavy, with a lot of morale advice on the side, and I was scared to death. I kept saying to myself : this must be a mistake. When they lock you in their cell you are not a human being any more, everything is made to humble you. You have nothing to eat and you can’t even drink : they piss in the cell sink... It was a little better in the prison I was locked in for the next two months, but it all amounts to the same misery.
What did you learn from this experience ?
I think my case was meant as an example, that could frighten quite a lot of people. In my opinion, they knew that I would write something to advise others not to go astray the way I did. On the other hand, they also turned me into some kind of a martyr – which I am not : anyone could have acted the same way. In fact, I've been very naive and immature. But I do not regret having informed others about the way networks function – and how easy it is, by crossing sources, to find informations. Everything I found was open-source, even if it was in the military field. Moreover, I told the judge that I had only done the job of an investigative journalist. The only source unavailable to the public that I used is a national police force manual that was given to me during a "2600" meeting at the Place d’Italie McDonald’s restaurant (the classic meeting place of french would-be hackers). My story is commonplace, but the punishment is too strong : I did all this just for fun, and out of curiosity. I have been so heavily punished because I opened my mouth too much. As far as freedom of expression is concerned, France is not the United States, where those very frequenciees that got me into trouble can be found in magazines – and where the First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech.