Passwords of PacBell Net Accounts Stolen

A 16-year-old San Fernando Valley boy working on an outdated computer in his bedroom hacked into Pacific Bell’s Internet server and lifted thousands of secret passwords, causing the company to force 63,000 subscribers to change their passwords, authorities said Tuesday.

The West Hills teenager, whose identity has not been released, was part of a hacking group called Global Hell that has taken credit for numerous high-profile computer break-ins, including cyber-attacks on the White House, authorities said.

The boy, a student at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, maneuvered into 26 other sites, including a master computer system at Harvard University, before authorities arrested him Dec. 14, said Damian Frisby, a sheriff’s detective from Eldorado County near Sacramento.

Frisby said Eldorado authorities began investigating the boy in early December, when the boy broke into the computers of an Eldorado Hills Internet service provider and boasted about it.

“This kid was pretty happy with himself,” the detective said. “He did a lot of chat room bragging that led us right to him.”

Last week, Pacific Bell learned that Eldorado detectives had found a disk in the boy’s bedroom packed with codes to the accounts of 200,000 Internet subscribers. The boy had decrypted 63,000 of those accounts, “so he could cruise anonymously,” Frisby said.

PacBell, a unit of San Antonio-based SBC Communications Inc., responded Friday by requiring the affected customers to change their passwords immediately, and the company is now e-mailing the rest of its 330,000 customers to suggest that they do likewise.

“We’re continuing to look into ways to improve our online security,” PacBell spokeswoman Michelle Strykowski said. “But there’s really no better way to protect your security than to regularly change your password.”

Strykowski suggested users change their passwords every 90 days to protect their accounts.

When detectives questioned the boy last month, he admitted to breaking into several sites but said he was doing it for “fun,” Frisby said.

Frisby said it appeared that the teenager was working with Global Hell, downloading codes on a computer that was several years old.

“This boy is what you call a ‘script bunny,’ ” he said. “He’s just beginning, so he teamed up with other hackers and used their scripts or programs to break into sites.”

Frisby said authorities expect to file charges of unlawful computer access and grand theft next month against the teenager, who is in his parents’ custody.

SBC shares fell 63 cents to close at $44.13 on the New York Stock Exchange.