B.T.L. denies hackers got into mainframe
It was the headline story in this week’s Reporter newspaper: “Hackers Rip off Belizeans”. The article alleges that computer hackers have broken into B.T.L.’s mainframe computer and are “raiding domestic business accounts”. According to the Reporter the sale of B.T.L. Internet passwords is rampant and if you know the right person — a computer whiz kid, a computer company technician, or even a B.T.L. employee — you can buy a password for a modest fee and use the Internet at your leisure. The article gives examples of Belizean businesses which have received Internet bills amounting to thousands of dollars because hackers have sold their passwords. This evening B.T.L. responded to the allegations stating categorically that their system has not been penetrated and that it is the customers themselves who may be to blame for misuse of their accounts. According to the Head of Information Systems at B.T.L. Rafael Marin people often share passwords with relatives or co-workers or have their passwords stolen by people looking over their shoulders at the office. This creates the potential for abuse or “jacking” as he terms it. Marin and the Head of Public Relations for B.T.L. Karen Bevans say the company will be implementing new security measures to help their customers control their Internet accounts. Both are adamant about the fact that hackers have not gotten into B.T.L.’s computers.
Karen Bevans, Public Relations, B.T.L.
“A review of the situation has determined that in all cases of abuse, passwords have been compromised. In no case has anyone ever hacked into or accessed B.T.L.’s computer system.”
Rafael Marin, Information Systems, B.T.L.
“I would like to emphasize that point, that there has never been a break into our computer system. What people have been referring to as “hacking” is more like a “jacking” of passwords than hacking into B.T.L.’s computer system. Since we have started in 1995 we have only had one attempted breakin into our system and that was detected by the security system that we have. In fact it was not only our system that was attacked at that point from the same source; several others in the worldwide network was attacked. They also complained to us because it was from our end that the attack came. There are these hacker sites so there are these little softwares and students with free access downloaded these things and tried them. So your system has to be well protected. Our security system traps the information as far as where it is coming from and what it is attempting to do and then just blocks it.”
Karen Bevans
“B.T.L. has no control on the use of a customer’s password. Nevertheless as a company committed to customer service excellence, we find it necessary to implement certain measures to assist the customers in controlling or monitoring the abuse of their passwords and excessive usage.
Some of the steps we are taking include that B.T.L. will now monitor Internet accounts on a daily basis and alert the customers on any possible abuse. Some specific areas we will address include simultaneous logins. At some points we found out that we have more than one customers accessing one customer account at the same time. In addition to that we need to further look at multiple telephone numbers accessing the accounts. You may access your account from home, which is one telephone number, and from the office, but you may also have other people accessing it from different telephone numbers. So whenever we see multiple accounts accessing your account or multiple telephones accessing your account that will be a signal for us and we will alert the customer.”
Marin says that by the end of the month, Internet users will be able to monitor their accounts via the B.T.L. website. He says from now on customers will have to come in to B.T.L. in person and show some form of identification to change their password. Marin says B.T.L. has no reason not to trust their technicians, who all have free Internet access, but he says they are working to develop software which will allow customers to enter a password without the aid of a technician.
