At 08:20 AM 4/20/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>They didn't steal anything from you.  At most, they found a back door 
>unlocked,
>came in and jimmied the lock so they could get in whenever they wanted.  They
>didn't even make a mess or spray grafitti on the walls.  As a physical crime,
>it would probably get even less interest from the police than you got.

That's not exactly accurate.  They came in, changed how the entire 
operating system works, and then left a "backdoor" for them to come back 
anytime they want.  They also left a program so that computer could be used 
to attack other computers.  How is that not a crime?   If I yanked out the 
ATM from the local bank and put in my own ATM, that functioned the same but 
instead put everyone's ATM passcode into my own account . . . wouldn't that 
be stealing also?

It's interesting that behind the anonymous nature of a PC, people will do 
the most bold and brazen things, but in real life, they wouldn't have the 
gozongas to throw litter from their car window.

As to a monetary value, between the cost of the box itself which no longer 
operates in the manner it was intended to, at probably $2500 initial cost 
or so,  plus my time, plus the time of anyone else involved, plus down time 
to my customers . . . yes it could be a case that the FBI or someone should 
be investigating with whole hearted interest.  Otherwise morons like this 
keep doing it and progressing on to other bigger and better things.  The 
percentage of people that pursuit "little breakins" like this is what 
causes people to become more brazen about what they do.   "Well, I didn't 
get caught doing this, so what if I do something else . . . "

-- Bradley Miller