Farmer said the notorious hacker Kevin Mitnick broke into his computer and grabbed an early copy of Satan during a widely publicized Internet crime spree last month. Mitnick's copy itself then was copied at least several times. Farmer said he didn't try to protect the security of Satan because he intended to give it away anyway. The program works just the same when it is known as Security Analysis Network Tool for Administrators. Satan uses the Mosaic-type graphical interface developed for the World Wide Web to guide users through a series of menus for analyzing networks.
Users simply type in the name of the network to be analyzed.
The networks can be scanned by type, or degree, of vulnerability, or by the number of separate flaws. Last year, Farmer said he and Shimomura both were approached by the National Security Agency, to work on Satan and other projects. Farmer said the project's funding ran into bureaucratic obstacles and he accepted an offer at Silicon Graphics instead. He said he's prepared for the controversy that is likely to intensify as Satan's release date nears. He cites the ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu, author of the ''The Art of War.'' ''The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him,'' Sun Tzu wrote.