At the instigation of the French, Germany's federal police raided the homes of a number of known Chaos Computer Club members in Hamburg on September 27th and 28th, impounding their computer equipment. Ironically, the police overlooked the VAXbusters, who were not Chaos members. To a large extent, Chaos had become a victim of its own publicity: the police, not aware the VAXbusters were a separate group, had simply raided the homes of the most notorious hackers in Germany. It was a case of rounding up the usual suspects--one of whom was Steffen Wernery, who told them about his own role in the matter and of his previous cooperation with the secret service. Within four months the police had completed their investigations. They concluded that Steffen was simply a "switching center"--a conduit for information--and nothing more. Neither he nor the other Chaos members were involved in hacking into the French computers.
This information was passed to the French--who didn't believe it. The methods used to hack into the French sites were too similar to the techniques employed by the VAXbusters to be mere coincidence. And even though the gang's list of all the VAX computers it had hacked did not include either Philips-France or SGS-Thomson, the French authorities remained convinced that the trail from the two companies led back to Hamburg.
At about the same time, the secret service contacted Hans Gliss about the incidents in France and asked if he could help. Gliss discussed the matter with Steffen, and suggested that they both go to Paris for the forthcoming annual Securicom conference, in March 1988, and present a report on computer security- -particularly VAX security. Securicom was the ideal forum: it attracted the top computer security specialists in the world. Steffen could tell the delegates about the back door on the DEC machines and how to fix it.
Steffen acquiesced; he had found the limelight agreeable, and the visit to Securicom would give him another chance to bask in its glow. He arranged to go to Paris with a colleague from Chaos. Gliss would drive to Paris from his holiday home in the south of France.
Steffen also offered to meet representatives of Philips-France, one of the companies hit by the unknown hackers. Philips agreed, and asked Steffen to confirm the names so that security passes could be arranged.
Steffen arrived at Paris's Orly Airport on March 14th. He approached immigration control and handed his German passport to one of the officers on duty, a woman. She looked at the photo and his name and hesitated.
'There has been a problem," she said. "Please wait a moment." She reappeared a few minutes later with three men in civilian clothing who claimed to be from the Brigade Financiere, France's revenue service. Steffen now suspects that they were from French Intelligence.
"Where is your friend?" they wanted to know. His friend, the colleague from Chaos, was coming in later by train. Steffen was immediately concerned: how did they know about his friend? And why should he tell them where he was? Steffen was arrested and taken to the police cells.
Under French law an investigating judge can order the deten- tion of a suspect for twenty-four hours and then for an additional twenty-four hours if necessary. During that period the suspect is not allowed to make contact with anyone at all, not even a lawyer. The police began interrogating Steffen: they asked him about Chaos, about the VAXbusters, and about the two sites in France. They also went through his belongings and papers, looking at names and addresses. In his diary they found the Paris contact address for Hans Gliss.
Gliss had checked into the Pullman St. Jacques Hotel, having driven up from his house in the Dordogne. When he arrived at the hotel, he found three members of the "Brigade Financiere" waiting for him. Fortunately for Gliss he was with his wife, Ursula, who, seeing her husband arrested and escorted away, started telephoning for help.
Gliss was taken to the police station, and his passport was impounded. The police began asking him about the Chaos Computer Club. Gliss, whose French is poor, demanded an interpreter. The police told Gliss they had arrested Steffen- -unnecessarily, as it happens, because Gliss could hear him being questioned in a nearby cell.
Gliss was interrogated for two and a half hours before his passport was returned. Half an hour after that he was set free. On his return to the hotel, Ursula told him she had phoned their friends in Paris, who had contacted the German police, who in turn had called the secret service. The agency, it was presumed, had prevailed on the French authorities to release him.
