x SPORTS
l-back ready for
Raiders
Calvin Jones, the
second-leading rusher in
Husker history, was
taken 80th by the Los
Angeles Raiders.
Page 7
Tuesday
71/44
Today, there will be
a chance of
thundershowers.
April 26, 1994
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Vol. 93 No. 149
Student recovers in wake of mom s murder
Editor's note: The following is
Alissa Reider’s account of her
mother's murder in February
1993. Reider’s brother is
serving an II- to 20-year
sentence for the murder. Reider
is a University of Nebraska
Lincoln sophomore.
By Angie Brunkow
Senior Reporter_
Alissa Reider and her
brother Brett monitored
the climate inside their
home like the weather.
“She’s mildly cranky right
now,” Brett would tell Alissa
when she returned home from
school. “I’d avoid her right now
if 1 were you.”
Claudia’s mood ruled the west
Omaha home and the four
member family who lived inside
it.
“I didn’t like being around her
because her temper would snap
inevitably,” Alissa says. “She
could be in a good mood, and a
lot of times she would act like she
and I were best friends ... and
then she would change.”
Change could mean a pound
ing: sometimes verbally, some
times physically.
For several years, the two
siblings withstood the radical
mood swings of their mother, a
manic-depressive. Last year, with
Alissa away at college, Brett
decided he couldn’t endure it any
longer. He stabbed his mother to
death. “
Friends, family and colleagues
who had envisioned the success
ful father, dutiful wife and ideal
children as the perfect family
finally got a true glimpse of what
occurred inside the Reider home.
John Lammel. principal of the
high school Brett attended, was
shocked, an Omaha newspaper
reported.
“(Brett) has been involved in
freshman football, is currently
involved in concert band, is a
See ALISSA on 3
William Lauer/DN
Arrrrggh!
Denise Walter off Lincoln wails In frustration whle trying to break into her
son Nick’s car. “He’s always locking his keys in his car,” she said.
-_-—
a
Alissa Reider and her father make lunch Monday
afternoon.
Hackers finding it easy
to break into computers
By Angie Brunkow
Senior Reporter _ '_
The lack of security in the Computer
Science and Engineering department’s
computer system is an open invitation
to hackers, one computer engineering student
said.
But department members said that didn’t
give them license to hack.
“When the weather’s hot
like this,” said Steve
Reichcnbach, an assistant
professor in the department,
“1 leave the windows on my
house open, but it’s not an
invitation to come in.”
Last week, James Taylor,
an undeclared freshman at
the University of Ncbraska
Lincoln, was arrested for
breaking into the system.
Taylor was charged with Access without Au
thorization, a Class V misdemeanor.
Rcichenbach said more arrests and charges
could be made in the case.
Rcichenbach said by accessing the system,
hackers could get into professors’ files, send
bogus e-mail messages and destroy faculty re
search and student projects.
“Many students in this department arc wor
ried about protecting files,” he said.
A computer engineering student, who spoke
on condition of anonymity, said the computer
science department should blame ilselfwhen its
system was accessed by hackers.
The file containing the encrypted passwords
for the system are accessible by anyone, the
student said. Hackers simply use a dictionary
and a password-making program to break the
code.
“Anyone could learn to do it,” he said.
About 40 percent of the passwords on the
computer science system have been cracked, he
said.
“If you leave lollipops sitting in front of the
store, somebody’s going to take one,” he said.
Joseph Leung, chairman of the computer
science department, said staff members were
constantly upgrading the system to keep hack
ers out.
-44
When the weather’s hot like
this I leave the windows on
my house open, but it’s not
an invitation to come in.
—Reichenbach
Computer Science assistant
professor
-ff -
“It’s an ongoing battle,” he said. *
The department upgrades system security
just to have hackers break in again, he said.
The department has been working to protect
the system since the last break-in, Leung said.
Blit Reichenbach said it would never be com
pletely closed to hackers.
“It’s not possible to make a system com
pletely secure,” he said.
Efforts to make the system more secure arc
time-consuming, Reichenbach said, taking him
and others away from more important tasks,
such as preparing for class.
“It’s not a part ofourjobs that is productive,”
he said.
But the student said department members
should take the time.
“It’s just laziness and ignorance,” he said.
Reichenbach said university penalties and
the new.strictcrNebraskalawsagainst hacking
should deter hackers in the future. Possible
punishments include expulsion from the uni
versity and felony charges, he said.
“It people become more aware of the pos
sible penalties, there will be many fewer people
that will be willing to take those risks,” he said.
The student said department members should
try to stop hackers before, not after, they hack.
“In the underground, there’s a lot ofdisdain
for people that would rather catch and convict
hackers than make their systems more secure,”
he said.
“They’d rather arrest you than fix it.”
But Reichenbach disagreed.
“The system is secure from everyone who is
properly using the system,” he said. “I don’t
think we’d use that standard for any other phase
of our lives.”
Journalist warns of reckless
U.S. involvement in Bosnia
By Brian Sharp
Staff Reporter _______
It began with a handshake, and
it’s been followed by silence.
On Sept. 13,1993. the lead
ers of the Palestinian Liberation Or
ganization and Israel rcachedan agree
men t that would bri ng peace and would
give Palestinians the right to self-rule
on the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Since then, it’s been eerily quiet, a
renowned journalist said Monday.
Thomas Friedman, a New York
Times correspondent, spoke about the
realities of that historic handshake.
Friedman, author of “From Beirut to
Jerusalem,” was the guest speaker of
the E.N. Thompson Forum on World
Issues at the Lied
Center for Perform
ing Arts.
“What was re
ally going on (with
the handshake) was
Yasser Arafat (PLO
chairman)wasslip
ping beneath the
waves,” Friedman
_ said. Aratat was
R’iedman about to go under,
and just at that moment, who of all
people but the prime minister oflsrael
(Yitzhak Rabin) threw him a life
line.”
Friedman said there were reasons
for each.
With the end of the Cold War,
Arafat found himself deprived of the
support he had previously enjoyed.
Arafat was weakened by Eastern
Europe’s trend to move from total itar
ian rule to democracy, Friedman said,
and sulTcred another blow by support
ing Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War.
“(Arafat) was weak enough to ac
cept Israel’s terms, but still strong
enough to make them stick in his own
community.
For Rabin, it was more an issue of
security, Friedman said, which was
reshaped by the Gulf War.
“There was the (battle) front and
there was daily life, and the two were
separate in the Israeli psyche,” he
said.
“The First Israelis killed by Scuds
were killed in their bedrooms. The
message on the Scuds said there is no
front anymore.”
The territories (Gaza and the West
Bank), which were supposed to be a
sourceofsecurity, had become a source
of insecurity, Friedman said. Only by
separating from the territories could
the Israelis feel safe again, he said.
“Historically, it was the wrong men,
in the wrong place, at the right time.”
Friedman said. “Fortunately, this time
we had the right people, in the right
place, at the right time.”
The mistake most people make in
assessing the problems in the Middle
East is believing that opposing sides
don ’ t understand one another, he said.
In reality, they understand one an
other all too well, which means un
derstanding that they each want somc
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