The Tangled Web of Gary Dale Hoke
By Phantom Dialer
Wall Street Journal Editorial
April 16, 1999
Gary Dale Hoke woke up in the morning like everyone else one fateful morning a few weeks ago and set out for a day at work. What Gary Hoke didn't know at the time was that a few weeks later he would have a visit from the FBI, not to mention more press than anyone else would or could imagine. Like every other potential criminal, Gary assumed that he would not get caught. After all, Gary had a computer science degree, and was an engineer with PairGain Technologies, much smarter than everyone else. Wrong!
Gary decided (for whatever reason)that he would create a site that looked like Bloomberg, felt like Bloomberg, but really "wasn't" Bloomberg. Gary got his email accounts all set up, one at Hotmail, one at Yahoo, through his Mindspring ISP. He created his message board alias on Yahoo and went to Lycos for a free homepage. As it turns out, Gary wanted to spread his business all over the internet, not discriminating against any online service or another for his "project". Gary tediously copied the gif, jpegs found on Bloomberg's homepage, and verified the links by looking at the "source" HTML code. Already, Gary had created a really neat looking Bloomberg page, that in reality, linked to Bloomberg. Now for the finishing touch, a link that PairGain would be bought out, also authored by Gary. This would be placed on his Angelfire homepage. One thing Gary did was to create his homepage using the IP address instead of a standard URL which he would use as his "bogus" Bloomberg. Most people would know that if they saw angelfire.com it would not be all that believable. So why not just susbtitute some fancy numbers instead like 203.44.185. etc etc [which are less obvious to most of us]and then follow it with a "Bloomberg like " directory schema? Excellent idea, huh? not so excellent if you are in Gary's shoes right now...
The site was caught and exposed in about an hour or so thanks to some diligent investors on top of the action. Pairgain came out and said they knew of no imminent deal either. The stock came back down. Some people laughed, others did not. Some people got taken, others did not.
So who is Gary? Well according to his website, he looks like quite the average All American boy. His resume is possibly the most revealing piece of work on his website that is horribly and haphazardly assembled. Spelling errors and contradictions plague the work. Gary must have used a spell checker on the press release. Of note is Gary's work experience. Gary states he graduated NC State in May of 1996 with a BS in CS and EE and a 2.6 GPA to show for it. Taking a closer look, it seems that on two occassions Gary worked two jobs and totalled over 70 hours a week at work. I am assuming he went to school at the same time too but where he found the time for that I do not know
www4.ncsu.edu
It looks like Gary was only 20 yrs old when he started working at IBM 40 hours a week as well. Fascinating. Draw your own conclusions after looking at the resume.
Gary has some tough days ahead of him. He couldn't have planned a worse time to plan this stunt right after the Melissa virus that paralyzed many large corporations and institutions. What Gary did was bring light to the fact that the interent is a dangerous place and that with the proliferation on online trading reaching record volumes, every piece of news must be examined and rexamined again. Greed is the overiding factor that caused James Cramer to (supposedly) lose money b/c of this from a Silicon Investor poster, not to mention the California investor who filed a lawsuit. To these people, I say "tough luck". If the rumor is true about james Cramer losing money then I suggest everyone with money at Cramer Berkowitz rethink their investment strategies and who is controlling their hard earned money. I mean, we all KNOW that James has "Live" Bloomberg Terminals, Reuters, and Bridge Terminals disseminating news constantly. As for the average Joe, this is a lesson in the school of hard internet knocks. Pick yourself back up, stop crying, get on with life, and learn a lesson.
Should Gary be portrayed as an evil diabolical figure? No, I don't think so. Is Gary a danger to investors and society in general? I highly doubt it. Gary like most of today's youth was bored and was looking for some sort of rush or excitement. Separatley Pairgain's computer usage policy probably dictates like most that non work related use of their computer systems is not allowed. At the same time, he thought he would not get caught. Is he deserving of 10 years in prision and a $1 milion fine--I have a better solution. Even the most notorious and famous computer hacker in the world Kevin Mitnick has plea bargained his way out of jail after a lengthy stay. Kevin though is a completly different animal. If convicted, Gary should serve our country either in the war or with the relief effort. Let Gary see the harsh realities of life...starvation, tears, hunger, losing a home, a family, and possibly your life to a war. Maybe Gary will get wet in the rain, fall in the mud, smell sometimes, step in some poop or catch a cold--fine with me. Gary needs discipline and direction in his life and maybe the US government could give him a little "tough love" here. I don't care if Gary is white, black, yellow or pink, Gary needs help.
The internet is a valuable tool and to be used, not abused. It is not a black hole where you can turn to to hide, play games in, at your own free will and remain "anonymous" like most people are led to believe. Someone is always watching. As it turns out, things would have been much easier and Gary would have been much better off calling off work and staying in bed that day a few weeks ago.
***Note this article was not published in the actual Wall Street Journal Editorial Section and all references and accounts are the sole opinion of the author. The article may be freely copied or re-distributed by the Wall Street Journal or any other news organization.
Phantom Dialer |
