The case of the kung fu 'phreak'
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   By Kevin Poulsen, News.com
   Published on ZDNet News: Jan 21, 2000 12:00:00 AM 

   Two days after computer security expert Tsutomu Shimomura suffered the
   now-legendary  Christmas Day 1994 hack-attack that launched his search
   for  Kevin  Mitnick,  a  mysterious message left on his voice mail box
   added real-world menace to the cyberspace crime.

   "Damn  you,  my  technique  is  the  best,"  said  an  odd  voice in a
   faux-British  accent. "I know sendmail technique, and my style is much
   better ... Me and my friends, we'll kill you."

   Three  days later the caller left another message, this time beginning
   with a kung fu scream and affecting the voice of an actor in a martial
   arts  film:  "Your security technique will be defeated. Your technique
   is no good."

   In  a third message, on Feb. 4, 1995, the caller chided Shimomura, who
   he  called  "grasshopper,"  for  mentioning the messages in a Newsweek
   article  on  the  intrusion  and  for  putting digitized copies on the
   Internet. "Don't you know that my kung fu is the best?"

   The  taunting  phone  calls  were  presumed  to  be  from  Shimomura's
   intruder,  and  they  became  a  fixture  in the Shimomura vs. Mitnick
   manhunt  story.  Digitized copies can be found on the official Web
   site  for  Shimomura's  book,  "Takedown:  The  Pursuit and Capture of
   America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw -- By The Man Who Did It."

   The  equation  of  hacking with kung fu fighting has become a cultural
   touchstone  in  its own right, and on more than one occasion the "Lone
   Gunmen"  hackers on Fox's "The X-Files" have been heard to mutter, "My
   kung fu is the best."

   The real kung fu 'phreak'

   The  only  problem is, the thinly disguised voice never sounded at all
   like  Kevin Mitnick, and two of the messages came after the hacker had
   been arrested.

   "I  heard  that this guy named Shimomura had been hacked ... So I just
   thought,  What the hell, I'd leave some voice mails," says 31-year-old
   Zeke Shif. "I used to watch kung fu movies a lot."

   Under  the  handle  "SN,"  Shif  once  had  a  solid reputation in the
   computer  underground as a "phone phreak" (i.e., phone hacker). But he
   says  that,  by  1995, his fear of "The Man" had long since scared him
   straight;  he  simply  succumbed  to the temptation to make some prank
   phone calls.

   "I  thought  I'd  be funny," says Shif, who like many hackers from the
   early  1990s  has  gone on to work in the computer security trade, for
   Virginia-based Network Security Technologies Inc.

   The matter became less amusing when Shif read the news reports on Feb.
   15,  1995.  "I  found  out Mitnick got caught, and they were trying to
   link  that  to  the  voice  mail," says Shif, who responded by calling
   Shimomura  again. "I left a pre-emptive messages, saying, listen, this
   has nothing to do with any Mitnick or anything, I'm just making fun of
   kung fu movies."

   And this time, he didn't call him grasshopper.