HACKER OPPOSES GOV.'S DRUG STANCE

Gov. Gary Johnson's controversial views on drug legalization apparently was
one motive for the hacking of his Web site two times over the past week.

In an e-mail response to a Journal inquiry Friday, an individual claiming
responsibility and using the name Nemesystm, leader of the Delinquent
Hacking Corporation, explained his reasons for crashing the governor's Web
site.

"(The first hacking was) just to point out that not even the government has
enough knowledge to simply password their site," Nemesystm wrote. "Second
time because (Johnson) wanted to legalize drugs. I'm against that, but
there's no way (I'm) telling my friends that."

The FBI is investigating the hackings. During both hackings, all of the
information about the governor and his recent action on bills from the
Legislature were replaced by DHC messages and a link to the DHC home page.
The second incident included some violent statements, said the governor's
press secretary, Diane Kinderwater.

"It was a message of violence and against students," she said Friday. "Their
behavior is totally inappropriate."

The site at governor.state.nm.us has since been restored but is still
experiencing problems accessing some pages. The site should be completely
restored by Monday, Kinderwater said.

The computer vandalism also prevented the Governor's Office from using its
e-mail system and has cost "about $20,000 in manpower and to put in the
additional security, the firewalls," Kinderwater said.

The Governor's Office didn't have time to increase computer security before
the second hacking occurred Wednesday, Kinderwater said. Nemesystm agreed in
his e-mail.

"What increased security? I walked right on in again," he said of his second
hacking.

Johnson began a national campaign last year -- including a trip to
Washington, D.C., at state taxpayer expense -- to push for the legalization
of drugs including marijuana and heroin. Johnson has said the war on drugs
isn't working.

DHC already has defaced at least 18 other Web sites since Jan. 1, placing it
fourth in the world this year among hacking groups, according to the
computer-security Web service attrition.org.

The DHC home page claims the group has defaced or hacked more than 160 Web
sites. In his e-mail Friday, Nemesystm wrote that he originally was a
"member of a kind of lame group. We called ourselves hackers, but we were
just a bunch of kiddies."

"I decided to make my own group with a special formula: self-made,
self-written, self thought-up and found stuff," Nemesystm wrote. "So I
started with my best friend and all as a member and we now have 14 members.
We are quite close to each other."

The Governor's Office has transferred its Web site to the state General
Services Department, which has better firewalls against hackers, Kinderwater
said.

It will take weeks or months for the FBI to investigate the hackings of the
governor's Web site, said Doug Beldon, spokesman for the FBI office in
Albuquerque.

"The perpetrator may not be just an individual," Beldon said Friday. "The
governor's Web site may not be the only site targeted."

Under New Mexico's Computer Crimes Act, Nemesystm could be guilty of a
third-degree felony punishable by up to three years in prison and $5,000 in
fines.

But Nemesystm wrote that he feels he is helping the hacked sites identify
computer security problems.

"I think I put (hacking) to good use because when I just email a site about
a security problem, nine out of 10 times they don't fix the security," he
wrote. "Whereas with me defacing the site, nine out of 10 do."