the hacker crackdown -
TRANSCRIPT
LITER
ARY FR
EEWA
RE —
Not fo
r Com
mercial U
se
Sid
eways P
DF versio
n 0
.1 b
y E-Scrib
e <in
fo@
e-scribe.co
m>
by B
ruce S
terlin
g<b
ruces@
well.s
f.ca.u
s>
CO
NT
EN
TS
Pre
face to
the Electronic R
elease of T
he Hacker C
rackdow
n
Chro
nolo
gy o
f the Hacker C
rackdow
n
Intro
ductio
n
Part 1
: CRA
SH
ING
TH
E SYSTEM
A B
rief Histo
ry of T
elepho
ny/ B
ell's Gold
en V
aporw
are / Universal S
ervice / Wild
Boys
and W
ire Wom
en / The Electro
nic Com
munities / T
he Ung
entleG
iant / The B
reakup / In D
efense of the S
ystem / T
he Crash
Post- M
ortem
/ Landslid
es in Cyb
erspace
Part 2
: TH
E DIG
ITA
L UN
DER
GRO
UN
D S
teal This Pho
ne /Phreaking
and H
acking / T
he View
From
Und
er theFlo
orb
oard
s / Board
s: Core o
f the Und
ergro
und / Phile Phun /
The R
ake's Progress / S
trong
hold
s of the Elite / S
ting B
oard
s/ H
ot Po
tatoes / W
ar on the Leg
ion / T
erminus / Phile 9
-1-1
/ War G
ames / R
eal Cyb
erpunk
Part 3
: LAW
AN
D O
RD
ER C
rooked
Board
s / The W
orld
'sBiggest H
acker Bust / T
each Them
a Lesson / The U
.S. SecretService / T
he Secret S
ervice Battles the B
oodlers / A
Walk
Dow
ntow
n / FCIC
: The C
utting-Ed
ge M
ess / Cyb
erspace
Ran
gers / FL
ETC
: Train
ing th
e Hacker-T
rackers
Part 4
: TH
E CIV
IL L
IBER
TA
RIA
NS N
uPro
meth
eus +
FBI =
Grateful D
ead / W
hole Earth +
Com
puter R
evolutio
n = W
ELL /Phib
er Runs U
nderg
round
and A
cid S
pikes the W
ell / The T
rialof K
night Lig
htning / S
hadow
hawk Plum
mets to
Earth / Kyrie
in the Confessio
nal / $7
9,4
99
/ A S
cholar Investig
ates /Com
puters, Freed
om
, and Privacy
Ele
ctro
nic
Afte
rword
to *T
he Hacker C
rackdow
n,* New
Years' D
ay 19
94
BR
UC
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AC
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FO
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IAL
US
E2
Pre
face to
the E
lectro
nic
Rele
ase
of T
he H
acke
r Cra
ckd
ow
n
January 1, 1
99
4 —
Austin, T
exas
Hi, I'm
Bruce S
terling, the autho
r of this electro
nic book.
Out in the trad
itional w
orld
of p
rint, *The H
acker Crackd
ow
n* is ISBN
0-5
53
-08
05
8-X
, and is fo
rmally catalo
gued b
y the L
ibrary o
fCongress as "1
. Com
puter crimes —
United States. 2
. Telephone —
United
States —
Corrup
t practices. 3
. Program
ming
(Electronic co
m-
puters) —
United
States —
Corrup
t practices." 'C
orrup
t practices,' I
always g
et a kick out o
f that descrip
tion. Lib
rarians are very ingenio
uspeo
ple.
The p
aperb
ack is ISBN
0-5
53
-56
37
0-X
. If you g
o an
d b
uy a p
rint
version o
f *The H
acker Crackd
ow
n,* an action I enco
urage heartily, yo
um
ay notice that in the front of the book, beneath the copyright notice —"C
opyrig
ht (C) 1
99
2 b
y Bruce S
terling" —
it has this little blo
ck of
printed
legal b
oilerp
late from
the pub
lisher. It says, and I q
uote:
"No p
art of this b
ook m
ay be rep
roduced
or transm
itted in any fo
rm o
rby any m
eans, electronic o
r mechanical, includ
ing p
hoto
copying
,reco
rding
, or b
y any inform
ation sto
rage and
retrieval system, w
ithout
perm
ission in
writin
g fro
m th
e publish
er. For in
form
ation ad
dress:
Bantam
Books."
This is a p
retty good d
isclaimer, as such d
isclaimers g
o. I co
llect intel-lectual-p
roperty d
isclaimers, and
I've seen dozens o
f them, and
this one
is at least pretty straig
htforw
ard. In this narro
w and
particular case,
how
ever, it isn't quite accurate. B
antam B
ooks p
uts that disclaim
er on
every book they pub
lish, but B
antam B
ooks does not, in fact, own the
electronic rig
hts to this b
ook. I d
o, b
ecause of certain extensive co
n-tract m
aneuverings m
y agent and I w
ent through b
efore this book w
as
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
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TH
E H
AC
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RA
CK
DO
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OT
FO
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OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E3
written. I w
ant to g
ive those electro
nic pub
lishing rig
hts away thro
ugh
certain not-fo
r-pro
fit channels, and I've co
nvinced B
antam that this is
a good idea.
Since Bantam
has seen fit to peacably agree to this scheme of m
ine,Bantam
Books is not going to fuss about this. Provided you don't try to
sell the book, they are not going to bother you for what you do w
ith theelectro
nic copy o
f this book. If yo
u want to
check this out p
ersonally,
you can ask them
; they're at 15
40
Bro
adw
ay NY N
Y 1
00
36
. How
ever,if yo
u were so
foolish as to
print this b
ook and
start retailing it fo
rm
oney in vio
lation o
f my co
pyrig
ht and the co
mm
ercial interests of
Bantam
Books, then B
antam, a p
art of the g
igantic B
ertelsmann m
ulti-natio
nal pub
lishing co
mbine, w
ould
roust so
me o
f their heavy-duty
attorneys o
ut of hib
ernation and
crush you like a b
ug. T
his is only to
be
expected. I didn't write this book so that you could m
ake money out of it.
If anybody is gonna make m
oney out of this book, it's gonna be me and m
ypublish
er.
My publisher deserves to m
ake money out of this book. N
ot only did thefolks at B
antam B
ooks comm
ission me to w
rite the book, and pay me a
hefty sum to
do so
, but they b
ravely printed
, in text, an electronic d
oc-
ument the reproduction of w
hich was once alleged to be a federal felony.
Bantam
Books and
their numero
us attorneys w
ere very brave and
forth-
right ab
out this b
ook. Furtherm
ore, m
y form
er edito
r at Bantam
Books,
Betsy M
itchell, genuinely cared
about this p
roject, and
worked
hard o
nit, and had a lot of w
ise things to say about the manuscript. B
etsydeserves g
enuine credit fo
r this book, cred
it that edito
rs too rarely g
et.
The critics w
ere very kind to
*The H
acker Crackd
ow
n,* and co
mm
er-cially the b
ook has d
one w
ell. On the o
ther hand, I d
idn't w
rite this book
in ord
er to sq
ueeze every last nickel and d
ime o
ut of the m
itts of im
pov-
erished sixteen-year-o
ld cyb
erpunk hig
h-school-stud
ents. Teenag
ersdon't have any m
oney — (no, not even enoug
h for the six- dollar*H
acker Crackd
ow
n* p
aperb
ack, with
its attractive brig
ht-red
cover
and useful ind
ex). That's a m
ajor reaso
n why teenag
ers som
etimes
succumb to the tem
ptation to do things they shouldn't, such as swiping
my b
ooks o
ut of lib
raries. Kid
s: this one is all yo
urs, all right? G
ogive
the p
rint ve
rsion b
ack. *8-)
BR
UC
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US
E4
Well-m
ean
ing, p
ublic-sp
irited civil lib
ertarian
s don't h
ave m
uch
money, either. A
nd it seems alm
ost criminal to snatch cash out of the
hands o
f Am
erica's direly und
erpaid
electronic law
enforcem
ent com
-m
unity.
If you're a co
mputer co
p, a hacker, o
r an electronic civil lib
ertiesactivist, yo
u are the target aud
ience for this b
ook. I w
rote this b
ook
because I wanted to help you, and help other people understand you and
your uniq
ue, uhm, p
roblem
s. I wro
te this book to
aid yo
ur activities,and
to co
ntribute to
the pub
lic discussio
n of im
portant p
olitical issues.
In giving
the text away in this fashio
n, I am d
irectly contrib
uting to
thebook's ultim
ate aim: to
help civilize cyb
erspace.
Inform
ation *w
ants* to b
e free. And
the inform
ation insid
e this book
long
s for freed
om
with a p
eculiar intensity. I genuinely b
elieve that thenatural hab
itat of this b
ook is insid
e an electronic netw
ork. T
hat may
not be the easiest direct method to generate revenue for the book's
author, b
ut that doesn't m
atter; this is where this b
ook b
elong
s by its
nature. I've written o
ther books —
plenty o
f other b
ooks —
and I'll
write m
ore and
I am w
riting m
ore, b
ut this one is sp
ecial. I am m
aking*T
he Hacker C
rackdow
n* available electro
nically as wid
ely as I canco
nveniently manag
e, and if yo
u like the book, and
think it is useful,then I urge you to do the sam
e with it.
You can copy this electronic book. Copy the heck out of it, be m
y guest,and give those copies to anybody w
ho wants them
. The nascent w
orld ofcyb
erspace is fu
ll of sysad
min
s, teachers, train
ers, cybrarian
s, netg
u-
rus, and vario
us species o
f cybernetic activist. If yo
u're one o
f those
people, I know about you, and I know
the hassle you go through to try tohelp
peo
ple learn ab
out the electro
nic frontier. I ho
pe that p
ossessing
this book in electro
nic form
will lessen yo
ur troub
les. Granted
, thistreatm
ent of o
ur electronic so
cial spectrum
is not the ultim
ate in acade-
mic rig
or. A
nd p
olitically, it has so
mething
to o
ffend and
troub
le almost
everyone. B
ut hey, I'm to
ld it's read
able, and
at least the price is rig
ht.
You can upload the book onto bulletin board systems, or Internet nodes,
or electro
nic discussio
n gro
ups. G
o rig
ht ahead and
do that, I am
giving
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
5
you exp
ress perm
ission rig
ht now
. Enjoy yo
urself.
You can put the book on disks and give the disks away, as long as you
don't take any money for it.
But this b
ook is no
t pub
lic dom
ain. You can't co
pyrig
ht it in your o
wn
name. I ow
n the copyright. Attem
pts to pirate this book and make
money fro
m sellin
g it m
ay invo
lve you in
a serious litig
ative snarl.
Believe m
e, for the p
ittance you m
ight w
ring o
ut of such an actio
n, it'sreally not w
orth it. This b
ook don't "belong
" to you. In an odd but very
genuine way, I feel it doesn't "belong" to m
e, either. It's a book aboutthe p
eople o
f cybersp
ace, and d
istributing
it in this way is the b
est way
I know
to actually m
ake this inform
ation availab
le, freely and easily, to
all the peo
ple o
f cybersp
ace — includ
ing p
eople far o
utside the b
ord
ersof the U
nited States, who otherw
ise may never have a chance to see any
editio
n of the b
ook, and
who
may p
erhaps learn so
mething
useful from
this strange sto
ry of d
istant, obscure, b
ut portento
us events in so-
called "A
merican cyb
erspace."
This electro
nic book is no
w literary freew
are. It now
belo
ngs to
theem
ergent realm
of alternative info
rmatio
n econo
mics. Y
ou have no
right
to make this electronic b
ook part of the conventional flow of com
merce.
Let it be part of the flow of know
ledge: there's a difference. I've dividedthe b
ook into
four sectio
ns, so that it is less ung
ainly for up
load
anddow
nload
; if there's a section o
f particular relevance to
you and
your
colleagues, feel free to reproduce that one and skip the rest.
Just make m
ore when you need them
, and give them to w
hoever might
want them
.
Now
have fun.
Bruce S
terling —
bruces@
well.sf.ca.us
BR
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US
E6
CHRONOLOGY O
F T
HE
HACKER C
RACKDOW
N
1865 U
.S. S
ecret Service (U
SSS) fo
unded
.
1876 A
lexander G
raham B
ell invents telepho
ne.
1878 First teenag
e males flung
off p
hone system
by enrag
ed autho
ri-ties.
1939 "Futurian" science-fictio
n gro
up raid
ed b
y Secret S
ervice.
1971 Y
ippie p
hone p
hreaks start YIPL/T
AP m
agazine.
1972 *R
amparts* m
agazin
e seized in
blu
e-box rip
-off scan
dal.
1978 W
ard C
hristenson and
Rand
y Suess create first p
ersonal co
m-
puter b
ulletin board
system.
1982 W
illiam G
ibso
n coins term
"cybersp
ace."
1982 "4
14
Gang
" raided
.
1983-1983 A
T&
T d
ismantled
in divestiture.
1984 C
ong
ress passes C
om
prehensive C
rime C
ontro
l Act g
iving U
SSS
jurisdictio
n over cred
it card fraud
and co
mputer fraud
.
1984 "Legion of D
oom" form
ed.
1984 *2
60
0: T
he Hacker Q
uarterly* found
ed.
1984 *W
hole Earth S
oftw
are Catalo
g* p
ublished
.
1985 First p
olice "sting
" bulletin b
oard
systems estab
lished.
BR
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OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E7
1985 W
hole Earth 'Lectro
nic Link com
puter co
nference (WELL) g
oes
on-lin
e.
1986 C
omputer Fraud and A
buse Act passed.
1986 Electro
nic Com
municatio
ns Privacy Act p
assed.
1987 C
hicago prosecutors form C
omputer Fraud and A
buse Task
Force.
1988
July. Secret S
ervice covertly vid
eotap
es "Sum
merC
on" hacker co
nven-tio
n.
Sep
tember. "Pro
phet" cracks B
ellSouth A
IMSX co
mputer netw
ork and
downloads E9
11 D
ocument to his ow
n computer and to Jolnet.
Sep
tember. A
T&
T C
orp
orate Info
rmatio
n Security info
rmed
of
Prophet's actio
n.
Octo
ber. B
ellcore S
ecurity inform
ed o
f Prophet's actio
n.
1989
January. Prophet up
load
s E91
1 D
ocum
ent to K
night Lig
htning.
Febru
ary 25
. Knig
ht L
ightn
ing p
ublish
es E91
1D
ocu
men
t in *P
hrack*
electronic new
sletter.
May. C
hicago T
ask Force raid
s and arrests "K
yrie."
June. "NuPro
metheus Leag
ue" distrib
utes Apple C
om
puter p
roprietary
softw
are.
June 13
. Florid
a pro
batio
n office cro
ssed w
ith pho
ne-sex line insw
itching-statio
n stunt.
BR
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OT
FO
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IAL
US
E8
July. "Fry Guy" raid
ed b
y USSS and
Chicag
o C
om
puter Fraud
and A
buse
Task Fo
rce.
July. S
ecret Service raid
s "Pro
phet," "L
eftist," and "U
rvile" inG
eorg
ia.
1990
January 15
. Martin Luther K
ing D
ay Crash strikes A
T&
T lo
ng-d
istancenetw
ork natio
nwid
e.
January 18
-19
Chicag
o T
ask Force raid
s Knig
ht Lightning
in St. Lo
uis.
January 24
. USSS and
New
York S
tate Police raid
"Phiber O
ptik,"
"Acid
Phreak," and "S
corp
ion" in N
ew Y
ork C
ity.
Febru
ary 1. U
SSS raid
s "Term
inus" in
Marylan
d.
February 3
. Chicag
o T
ask Force raid
s Richard
And
rews' ho
me.
February 6
. Chicag
o T
ask Force raid
s Richard
And
rews' b
usiness.
Febru
ary 6. U
SSS arrests T
ermin
us, P
rophet, L
eftist, and U
rvile.
February 9
. Chicag
o T
ask Force arrests K
night Lig
htning.
February 2
0. A
T&
T S
ecurity shuts dow
n pub
lic-access "attctc" com
-pute
r in D
allas.
February 2
1. C
hicago T
ask Force raid
s Robert Izenb
erg in A
ustin.
March 1
. Chicag
o T
ask Force raid
s Steve Jackso
n Gam
es, Inc.,"M
entor," and
"Erik Blo
odaxe" in A
ustin.
May 7
,8,9
. USSS and
Arizo
na Org
anized C
rime and
Racketeering
Bureau
cond
uct "Operatio
n Sund
evil" raids in C
incinnatti, Detro
it, Los A
ngeles,
Miam
i, New
ark, Phoenix, Pittsb
urgh, R
ichmond
, Tucso
n, San D
iego, S
anJo
se, and S
an Francisco.
BR
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IAL
US
E9
May. FB
I interview
s John P
erry Barlo
w re N
uPro
meth
eus case.
June. Mitch K
apor and
Barlo
w fo
und Electro
nic Frontier Fo
undatio
n;Barlo
w p
ublishes *C
rime and
Puzzlement* m
anifesto.
July
24
-27
. Trial o
f Knig
ht L
ightn
ing.
1991
February. C
PSR R
ound
table in W
ashingto
n, D.C
.
March 2
5-2
8. C
om
puters, Freed
om
and Privacy co
nference in San
Francisco.
May 1
. Electronic Fro
ntier Found
ation, S
teve Jackson, and
others file
suit against m
embers o
f Chicag
o T
ask Force.
July 1-2
. Sw
itching statio
n pho
ne softw
are crash affects Washing
ton,
Los A
ngeles, Pittsb
urgh, S
an Francisco.
Sep
tember 1
7. A
T&
T p
hone crash affects N
ew Y
ork C
ity and three air-
ports.
BR
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E1 0
IN
TR
OD
UC
TIO
N
This is a b
ook ab
out co
ps, and
wild
teenage w
hiz- kids, and
lawyers, and
hairy-eyed
anarch
ists, and in
dustrial tech
nician
s, and h
ippies, an
dhig
h-tech millio
naires, and g
ame ho
bbyists, and
com
puter security
experts, and
Secret S
ervice agents, and
grifters, and
thieves.
This b
ook is ab
out the electro
nic frontier o
f the 19
90
s. It concerns
activities that take place insid
e com
puters and
over telep
hone lines.
A science fictio
n writer co
ined the useful term
"cybersp
ace" in 19
82
.But the territo
ry in questio
n, the electronic fro
ntier, is about a hund
redand
thirty years old
. Cyb
erspace is the "p
lace" where a telep
hone co
n-versatio
n appears to
occur. N
ot insid
e your actual p
hone, the p
lasticdevice on your desk. N
ot inside the other person's phone, in some other
city. *The p
lace betw
een* the pho
nes. The ind
efinite place *o
ut there,*w
here the two o
f you, tw
o hum
an being
s, actually meet and
com
muni-
cate.
Altho
ugh it is no
t exactly "real," "cybersp
ace" is a genuine p
lace.Things happen there that have very genuine consequences. T
his "place"is no
t "real," but it is serio
us, it is earnest. Tens o
f thousand
s of p
eople
have ded
icated their lives to
it, to the p
ublic service o
f pub
lic com
mu-
nication b
y wire and
electronics.
People have w
orked
on this "fro
ntier" for g
enerations no
w. S
om
e peo
ple
becam
e rich and fam
ous fro
m their effo
rts there. Som
e just played
init, as ho
bbyists. O
thers soberly p
ond
ered it, and
wro
te about it, and
regulated
it, and neg
otiated
over it in internatio
nal forum
s, and sued
one
another ab
out it, in g
igantic, ep
ic court b
attles that lasted fo
r years.A
nd almost since the b
eginning
, some people have com
mitted crim
es inthis p
lace.
But in the p
ast twenty years, this electrical "sp
ace," which w
as once
thin and d
ark and o
ne-dim
ensional —
little more than a narro
w sp
eak-ing
-tube, stretching
from
pho
ne to p
hone —
has flung itself o
pen like a
gig
antic jack-in- the- box. Lig
ht has flooded
upon it, the eerie lig
ht of
the glo
wing
com
puter screen. T
his dark electric netherw
orld
has
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becom
e a vast flowering
electronic landscape. Since the 1960s, the
world
of the telep
hone has cro
ss-bred
itself with co
mputers and
televi-sion, and thoug
h there is still no substance to cyb
erspace, nothing you
can handle, it has a strange kind of physicality now
. It makes g
ood sensetoday to talk of cyberspace as a place all its ow
n.
Because peo
ple live in it now
. Not just a few
people, no
t just a fewtechnicians and eccentrics, b
ut thousands of people, quite normal people.
And
not just fo
r a little while, either, b
ut for ho
urs straight, o
verw
eeks, and months, and years. C
yberspace today is a "Net," a
"Matrix," internatio
nal in scope and
gro
wing
swiftly and
steadily. It's
gro
wing
in size, and w
ealth, and p
olitical im
portance.
People are m
aking entire careers in m
odern cyb
erspace. S
cientists andtechnicians, o
f course; they've b
een there for tw
enty years now
. But
increasin
gly, cyb
erspace is fillin
g w
ith jo
urn
alists and d
octo
rs and
lawyers and
artists and clerks. C
ivil servants make their careers
there now
, "on-line" in vast g
overnm
ent data- b
anks; and so
do sp
ies,ind
ustrial, political, and
just plain sno
ops; and
so d
o p
olice, at least a
few o
f them. A
nd there are child
ren living there no
w.
People have m
et there and b
een married
there. There are entire living
com
munities in cyb
erspace to
day; chattering
, gossip
ping
, planning
,co
nferring and
scheming
, leaving o
ne another vo
ice-mail and
electronic
mail, g
iving o
ne another b
ig w
eightless chunks o
f valuable d
ata, both
legitim
ate and illeg
itimate. T
hey busily p
ass one ano
ther com
puter
softw
are and the o
ccasional festering
com
puter virus.
We d
o no
t really understand
how
to live in cyb
erspace yet. W
e are feel-ing
our w
ay into it, b
lundering
about. T
hat is not surp
rising. O
ur livesin
the p
hysical w
orld
, the "real" w
orld
, are also far fro
m p
erfect,desp
ite a lot m
ore p
ractice. Hum
an lives, real lives, are imperfect b
ytheir nature, and
there are human b
eings in cyb
erspace. T
he way w
elive in cyb
erspace is a funho
use mirro
r of the w
ay we live in the real
world. W
e take both our advantag
es and our troubles w
ith us.
This b
ook is ab
out tro
uble in cyb
erspace. S
pecifically, this b
ook is ab
out
certain strange events in the year 1
99
0, an unp
recedented
and startling
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year for the the g
row
ing w
orld
of co
mputerized
com
municatio
ns.
In 19
90
there came a natio
nwid
e crackdow
n on illicit co
mputer hack-
ers, w
ith arre
sts, crimin
al charg
es, o
ne d
ramatic sh
ow
-trial, seve
ralguilty pleas, and huge confiscations of data and equipm
ent all over theU
SA
.
The H
acker Crackd
ow
n of 1
99
0 w
as larger, b
etter org
anized, m
ore
delib
erate, and m
ore reso
lute than any previo
us effort in the b
rave neww
orld
of co
mputer crim
e. The U
.S. S
ecret Service, p
rivate telepho
nesecurity, and state and local law
enforcement g
roups across the countryall joined forces in a determ
ined attempt to b
reak the back of A
merica's
electronic und
ergro
und. It w
as a fascinating effo
rt, with very m
ixedresults.
The H
acker Crackdow
n had another unprecedented effect; it spurred thecreatio
n, within "the co
mputer co
mm
unity," of the Electro
nic Frontier
Foundation, a new and very odd interest group, fiercely dedicated to the
establish
men
t and p
reservation o
f electronic civil lib
erties. The crack-
dow
n, remarkab
le in itself, has created a m
elee of d
ebate o
ver electronic
crime, p
unishment, freed
om
of the p
ress, and issues o
f search andseizure. Po
litics has entered cyb
erspace. W
here peo
ple g
o, p
olitics
follo
w.
This is the story of the people of cyberspace.
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PA
RT
O
NE
Cra
shin
g th
e S
yste
m
On January 1
5, 1
99
0, A
T&
T's lo
ng-d
istance telepho
ne switching
sys-tem
crashed.
This w
as a strange, d
ire, huge event. S
ixty thousand
peo
ple lo
st theirtelep
hone service co
mpletely. D
uring the nine lo
ng ho
urs of frantic
effort that it to
ok to
restore service, so
me seventy m
illion telep
hone
calls went unco
mpleted
.
Losses of service, known as "outages" in the telco trade, are a know
n andaccepted hazard of the telephone business. H
urricanes hit, and phonecables get snapped by the thousands. Earthquakes w
rench throughburied
fiber-o
ptic lines. S
witching
stations catch fire and
burn to
theground. T
hese things do happen. There are contingency plans for them
,and decades of experience in dealing w
ith them. B
ut the Crash of
January 15
was unp
recedented
. It was unb
elievably hug
e, and it
occurred
for no
apparent p
hysical reason.
The crash started
on a M
ond
ay afternoon in a sing
le switching
-station
in Manhattan. B
ut, unlike any merely p
hysical dam
age, it sp
read and
spread
. Statio
n after station acro
ss Am
erica collap
sed in a chain reac-
tion, until fully half o
f AT&
T's netw
ork had
gone hayw
ire and the
remaining
half was hard
-put to
handle the o
verflow
.
Within nine ho
urs, AT&
T so
ftware eng
ineers more o
r less understo
od
what had
caused the crash. R
eplicating
the pro
blem
exactly, poring
over
software line b
y line, took them a couple of w
eeks. But b
ecause it was
hard to
understand
technically, the full truth of the m
atter and its
implicatio
ns were no
t wid
ely and tho
roug
hly aired and
explained
. The
root cause o
f the crash remained
obscure, surro
unded
by rum
or and
fear.
The crash w
as a grave co
rporate em
barrassm
ent. The "culp
rit" was a
bug in AT&
T's ow
n software —
not the sort of admission the telecom
mu-
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nications g
iant wanted
to m
ake, especially in the face o
f increasing co
m-
petitio
n. Still, the truth *w
as* told
, in the baffling
technical terms
necessary to exp
lain it.
Somehow
the explanation failed to persuade Am
erican law enforcem
entofficials and
even telepho
ne corp
orate security p
ersonnel. T
hese peo
ple
were no
t technical experts o
r softw
are wizard
s, and they had
their ow
nsusp
icions ab
out the cause o
f this disaster.
The p
olice and
telco security had
important so
urces of info
rmatio
ndenied to
mere so
ftware eng
ineers. They had info
rmants in the co
mput-
er underg
round
and years o
f experience in d
ealing w
ith high-tech ras-
cality that seemed to grow
ever more sophisticated. For years they had
been expecting a direct and savage attack against the Am
erican nationaltelephone system
. And w
ith the Crash of January 1
5 —
the first month
of a new
, high-tech d
ecade —
their pred
ictions, fears, and
suspicio
nsseem
ed at last to have entered the real world. A
world w
here the tele-pho
ne system had
not m
erely crashed, b
ut, quite likely, *b
een* crashed—
by "hackers."
The crash created
a large d
ark cloud
of susp
icion that w
ould
colo
r cer-tain people's assum
ptions and actions for months. T
he fact that it tookplace in the realm
of software w
as suspicious on its face. The fact that
it occurred
on M
artin Luther King
Day, still the m
ost p
olitically to
uchyof A
merican ho
lidays, m
ade it m
ore susp
icious yet.
The C
rash of January 15 gave the H
acker Crackdow
n its sense of edgeand
its sweaty urg
ency. It mad
e peo
ple, p
ow
erful peo
ple in p
ositio
ns of
pub
lic authority, w
illing to
believe the w
orst. A
nd, m
ost fatally, it
helped
to g
ive investigato
rs a willing
ness to take extrem
e measures and
the determ
ination to
preserve alm
ost to
tal secrecy.
An o
bscure so
ftware fault in an ag
ing sw
itching system
in New
York w
asto
lead to
a chain reaction o
f legal and
constitutio
nal troub
le all across
the country.
__
__
_
Like the crash in the telepho
ne system, this chain reactio
n was read
y
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and w
aiting to
happen. D
uring the 1
98
0s, the A
merican leg
al systemw
as extensively patched to deal with the novel issues of com
puter crime.
There w
as, for instance, the Electro
nic Com
municatio
ns Privacy Act o
f1
98
6 (elo
quently d
escribed
as "a stinking m
ess" by a p
rom
inent lawenfo
rcement o
fficial). And
there was the d
raconian C
om
puter Fraud
andA
buse Act of 1
986, passed unanim
ously by the United States Senate,
which
later would
reveal a large n
um
ber o
f flaws. Exten
sive, well-
meant efforts had been m
ade to keep the legal system up to date. B
ut inthe d
ay-to-d
ay grind
of the real w
orld
, even the most eleg
ant softw
aretends to crum
ble and suddenly reveal its hidden b
ugs.
Like the advancing telephone system
, the Am
erican legal system
was
certainly not ruined
by its tem
porary crash; b
ut for tho
se caught und
erthe w
eight of the collapsing
system, life b
ecame a series of b
lackouts andano
malies.
In ord
er to und
erstand w
hy these weird
events occurred
, both in the
world of technology and in the w
orld of law, it's not enough to understand
the merely technical p
roblem
s. We w
ill get to
those; b
ut first and fo
re-m
ost, we m
ust try to understand the telephone, and the business of tele-phones, and the com
munity of hum
an beings that telephones have creat-ed
._
__
__
Techno
logies have life cycles, like cities d
o, like institutio
ns do, like
laws and governm
ents do.
The first stage of any technology is the Q
uestion Mark, often know
n asthe "G
olden Vaporw
are" stage. At this early point, the technology is
only a p
hantom
, a mere g
leam in the invento
r's eye. One such invento
rw
as a speech teacher and
electrical tinkerer named
Alexand
er Graham
Bell.
Bell's early inventio
ns, while ing
enious, failed
to m
ove the w
orld
. In1
86
3, th
e teenag
e Bell an
d h
is bro
ther M
elville mad
e an artificial talk-
ing m
echanism o
ut of w
ood, rub
ber, g
utta-percha, and
tin. This w
eirddevice had a rubber-covered "tongue" m
ade of movable w
ooden seg-m
ents, with vib
rating rub
ber "vo
cal cord
s," and rub
ber "lip
s" and
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"cheeks." While M
elville puffed
a bello
ws into
a tin tube, im
itating the
lungs, yo
ung A
lec Bell w
ould
manip
ulate the "lips," "teeth," and
"tong
ue," causing the thing
to em
it high-p
itched falsetto
gib
berish.
Ano
ther would
-be technical b
reakthroug
h was the B
ell "pho
nautograp
h"of 1
874, actually m
ade out of a human cadaver's ear. C
lamped into place
on a tripod, this grisly g
adget drew
sound-wave im
ages on sm
oked glass
throug
h a thin straw g
lued to
its vibrating
earbones.
By 1
87
5, B
ell had learned
to p
roduce aud
ible so
unds —
ugly shrieks and
squaw
ks — b
y using m
agnets, d
iaphrag
ms, and
electrical current.
Most "G
olden Vaporw
are" technologies go nowhere.
But the second stage of technology is the Rising Star, or, the "G
oofyPrototype," stage. T
he telephone, Bell's m
ost ambitious gadget yet,
reached this stage on M
arch 10, 1
876. O
n that great day, A
lexanderG
raham B
ell becam
e the first perso
n to transm
it intelligib
le human
speech electrically. A
s it happened
, young
Professo
r Bell, ind
ustrious-
ly tinkering in his B
osto
n lab, had
spattered
his trousers w
ith acid.
His assistan
t, Mr. W
atson, h
eard h
is cry for h
elp —
over B
ell's experi-
mental aud
io- teleg
raph. T
his was an event w
ithout p
recedent.
Techno
logies in their "G
oofy Pro
totyp
e" stage rarely w
ork very w
ell.They're exp
erimental, and
therefore half- b
aked and
rather frazzled.
The prototype m
ay be attractive and novel, and it does look as if it oughtto
be g
ood fo
r som
ething-o
r-other. B
ut nobody, includ
ing the invento
r,is q
uite sure what. Invento
rs, and sp
eculators, and
pund
its may have
very firm id
eas about its p
otential use, b
ut those id
eas are often very
wro
ng.
The natural hab
itat of the Goofy Prototype is in trade show
s and in thepopular p
ress. Infant technolo
gies need
pub
licity and investm
entm
oney like a to
ttering calf need
milk. T
his was very true o
f Bell's
machine. T
o raise research and
develo
pm
ent money, B
ell toured
with
his device as a stage attraction.
Contem
porary press reports of the stage debut of the telephone showed
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pleased
astonishm
ent mixed
with co
nsiderab
le dread
. Bell's stag
e tele-phone w
as a large w
ooden box w
ith a crude speaker-nozzle, the whole
contraption about the size and shape of an overg
rown B
rownie cam
era.Its b
uzzing steel so
undplate, p
umped
up b
y pow
erful electrom
agnets,
was lo
ud eno
ugh to
fill an audito
rium. B
ell's assistant Mr. W
atson, w
hoco
uld m
anage o
n the keyboard
s fairly well, kicked
in by p
laying the
org
an from
distant ro
om
s, and, later, d
istant cities. This feat w
as con-
sidered
marvello
us, but very eerie ind
eed.
Bell's o
riginal no
tion fo
r the telepho
ne, an idea p
rom
oted
for a co
uple o
fyears, w
as that it would becom
e a mass m
edium. W
e might recognize
Bell's idea today as som
ething close to modern "cable radio."
Telep
hones at a central so
urce would
transmit m
usic, Sund
ay sermons,
and im
portant p
ublic sp
eeches to a p
aying netw
ork o
f wired
-up sub
-scrib
ers.
At the tim
e, most people thought this notion m
ade good sense. In fact,Bell's id
ea was w
orkab
le. In Hung
ary, this philo
sophy o
f the telepho
new
as successfully put into
everyday p
ractice. In Bud
apest, fo
r decad
es,fro
m 1
89
3 u
ntil after W
orld
War I, th
ere was a g
overn
men
t-run
inform
ation service called
"Telefo
n Hirm
ond
o=
." Hirm
ond
o=
was a
centralized so
urce of new
s and entertainm
ent and culture, includ
ingsto
ck reports, p
lays, concerts, and
novels read
aloud
. At certain ho
ursof the d
ay, the pho
ne would
ring, yo
u would
plug
in a loud
speaker fo
r theuse o
f the family, and
Telefo
n Hirm
ond
o=
would
be o
n the air — o
rrather, o
n the pho
ne.
Hirm
ondo= is dead tech today, but H
irmondo=
might be considered a
spiritual ancesto
r of the m
odern telep
hone-accessed
com
puter d
ata ser-vices, such as C
om
puS
erve, GEnie o
r Prodig
y. The p
rinciple b
ehindH
irmond
o=
is also no
t too far fro
m co
mputer "b
ulletin- board
systems"
or B
BS's, w
hich
arrived in
the late 1
97
0s, sp
read rap
idly acro
ssA
merica, an
d w
ill figure larg
ely in th
is book.
We are used
to using
telepho
nes for ind
ividual p
erson-to
-perso
nspeech, because w
e are used to the Bell system
. But this w
as just onepossib
ility among
many. C
om
municatio
n networks are very flexib
le andpro
tean, especially w
hen their hardw
are beco
mes sufficiently ad
vanced.
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They can be put to all kinds of uses. A
nd they have been — and they w
illbe.
Bell's telep
hone w
as bound
for g
lory, b
ut this was a co
mbinatio
n of
political d
ecisio
ns, can
ny in
fightin
g in
court, in
spire
d in
dustrial le
ad-
ership, recep
tive local co
nditio
ns and o
utright g
ood luck. M
uch the same
is true of comm
unications systems today.
As B
ell and his b
ackers struggled
to install their new
fangled
system in
the real world
of nineteenth-century N
ew Eng
land, they had
to fig
htag
ainst skepticism
and ind
ustrial rivalry. There w
as already a stro
ngelectrical co
mm
unications netw
ork p
resent in Am
erica: the telegrap
h.The head
of the W
estern Unio
n telegrap
h system d
ismissed
Bell's p
roto
-type as "an electrical toy" and refused to b
uy the rights to B
ell's patent.The telep
hone, it seem
ed, m
ight b
e all right as a p
arlor entertainm
ent—
but no
t for serio
us business.
Teleg
rams, unlike m
ere telepho
nes, left a perm
anent physical reco
rd o
ftheir m
essages. T
elegram
s, unlike telepho
nes, could
be answ
eredw
henever the recipient had time and convenience. A
nd the telegram had
a much lo
nger d
istance-range than B
ell's early telepho
ne. These facto
rsm
ade telegraphy seem a m
uch more sound and businesslike technology —
at least to some.
The teleg
raph system
was hug
e, and w
ell-entrenched. In 1
87
6, the
United
States had
21
4,0
00
miles o
f telegrap
h wire, and
85
00
telegrap
hoffices. T
here were sp
ecialized teleg
raphs fo
r businesses and
stock
traders, g
overnm
ent, police and
fire dep
artments. A
nd B
ell's "toy" w
asbest kno
wn as a stag
e-mag
ic musical d
evice.
The third stage of technology is know
n as the "Cash C
ow" stage. In the
"cash cow" stag
e, a technology finds its place in the w
orld, and matures,
and becomes settled and productive. A
fter a year or so, Alexander
Graham
Bell and
his capitalist b
ackers conclud
ed that eerie m
usic pip
edfro
m nineteenth-century cyb
erspace w
as not the real selling
-point o
fhis inventio
n. Instead, the telep
hone w
as about sp
eech — ind
ividual,
personal speech, the human voice, hum
an conversation and human
interaction. The telephone w
as not to be managed from
any centralized
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broadcast center. It was to be a personal, intim
ate technology.
When you picked up a telephone, you w
ere not absorbing the cold outputof a m
achine — you w
ere speaking to another human being. O
nce peoplerealized
this, their instinctive dread
of the telep
hone as an eerie,
unnatural device, sw
iftly vanished. A
"telepho
ne call" was no
t a "call"fro
m a "telep
hone" itself, b
ut a call from
another hum
an being
, som
e-one you w
ould generally know
and recognize. T
he real point was not
what the m
achine could
do fo
r you (o
r to yo
u), but w
hat you yo
urself, aperso
n and citizen, co
uld d
o *thro
ugh* the m
achine. This d
ecision o
nthe p
art of the yo
ung B
ell Com
pany w
as abso
lutely vital.
The first telephone netw
orks went up around B
oston — m
ostly among the
technically curious and
the well-to
-do (m
uch the same seg
ment o
f theA
merican p
opulace that, a hund
red years later, w
ould
be b
uying p
erson-
al computers). Entrenched backers of the telegraph continued to scoff.
But in January 1
87
8, a d
isaster mad
e the telepho
ne famous. A
traincrash
ed in
Tarriffville, C
onnecticu
t. Forw
ard-lo
okin
g d
octo
rs in th
enearb
y city of H
artford
had had
Bell's "sp
eaking telep
hone" installed
.A
n alert local d
ruggist w
as able to
telepho
ne an entire com
munity o
flocal doctors, w
ho rushed to the site to give aid. T
he disaster, as disas-ters do, aroused intense press coverag
e. The phone had proven its use-
fuln
ess in th
e real world
.
After T
arriffville, the telepho
ne network sp
read like crab
grass. B
y1
89
0 it w
as all over N
ew Eng
land. B
y '93
, out to
Chicag
o. B
y '97
, intoM
innesota, N
ebraska and
Texas. B
y 19
04
it was all o
ver the continent.
The telephone had becom
e a mature technology. Professor B
ell (nowgenerally kno
wn as "D
r. Bell" d
espite his lack o
f a form
al deg
ree)becam
e quite w
ealthy. He lo
st interest in the tedio
us day-to
-day b
usi-ness m
uddle of the boom
ing telephone netw
ork, and gratefully returned
his atten
tion to
creatively hackin
g-aro
und in
his vario
us lab
orato
ries,w
hich
were n
ow
much
larger, b
etter- ventilated
, and g
ratifyingly b
et-ter-eq
uipped
. Bell w
as never to have ano
ther great inventive success,
thoug
h his speculatio
ns and p
roto
types anticip
ated fib
er-optic trans-
missio
n, m
anned
flight, so
nar, h
ydro
foil sh
ips, tetrah
edral co
nstru
c-
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tion, and
Montesso
ri educatio
n. The "d
ecibel," the stand
ard scientific
measure o
f sound
intensity, was nam
ed after B
ell.
Not all B
ell's vaporw
are notio
ns were insp
ired. H
e was fascinated
by
human eug
enics. He also
spent m
any years develo
ping
a weird
perso
nalsystem
of astro
physics in w
hich gravity d
id no
t exist.
Bell w
as a definite eccentric. He w
as something
of a hypochondriac, andthro
ugho
ut his life he habitually stayed
up until fo
ur A.M
., refusing to
rise before noon. B
ut Bell had accom
plished a great feat; he w
as an idolof m
illions and
his influence, wealth, and
great p
ersonal charm
, com
-bined w
ith his eccentricity, made him
something
of a loose cannon ondeck. B
ell maintained
a thriving scientific salo
n in his winter m
ansion
in Washing
ton, D
.C., w
hich gave him
consid
erable b
ackstage influence in
governm
ental and scientific circles. H
e was a m
ajor financial b
acker of
the the mag
azines *Science* and
*Natio
nal Geo
grap
hic,* both still
flourishing
today as im
portant o
rgans o
f the Am
erican scientific estab-
lishment.
Bell's co
mpanio
n Tho
mas W
atson, sim
ilarly wealthy and
similarly o
dd,
becam
e the ardent p
olitical d
isciple o
f a 19
th-century science-fiction
writer and
would
-be so
cial reform
er, Edw
ard B
ellamy. W
atson also
trod the b
oard
s briefly as a S
hakespearian acto
r.
There w
ould
never be ano
ther Alexand
er Graham
Bell, b
ut in years toco
me there w
ould
be surp
rising num
bers o
f peo
ple like him
. Bell w
as apro
totyp
e of the hig
h-tech entrepreneur. H
igh-tech entrep
reneursw
ill play a very p
rom
inent role in this b
ook: no
t merely as technicians
and b
usinessmen, b
ut as pio
neers of the technical fro
ntier, who
cancarry the p
ow
er and p
restige they d
erive from
high-techno
logy into
thepolitical and
social arena.
Like later entrepreneurs, B
ell was fierce in d
efense of his o
wn techno
-lo
gical territo
ry. As the telep
hone b
egan to
flourish, B
ell was so
on
involved
in violent law
suits in the defense o
f his patents. B
ell's Bosto
nlaw
yers were excellent, ho
wever, and
Bell him
self, as an elecution
teacher and g
ifted p
ublic sp
eaker, was a d
evastatingly effective leg
alw
itness. In the eighteen years o
f Bell's p
atents, the Bell co
mpany w
as
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involved
in six hundred
separate law
suits. The leg
al record
s printed
filled 1
49
volum
es. The B
ell Com
pany w
on every sing
le suit.
After B
ell's exclusive patents exp
ired, rival telep
hone co
mpanies
sprang
up all o
ver Am
erica. Bell's co
mpany, A
merican B
ell Telep
hone,
was so
on in d
eep tro
uble. In 1
90
7, A
merican B
ell Telep
hone fell into
the h
ands o
f the rath
er sinister J.P
. Morg
an fin
ancial cartel, ro
bber-
baro
n speculato
rs who
dom
inated W
all Street.
At this p
oint, histo
ry mig
ht have taken a different turn. A
merican
mig
ht well have b
een served fo
rever by a p
atchwork o
f locally o
wned
telepho
ne com
panies. M
any state politicians and
local b
usinessmen
consid
ered this an excellent so
lution.
But the new
Bell ho
lding
com
pany, A
merican T
elepho
ne and T
elegrap
h or
AT&
T, p
ut in a new m
an at the helm, a visio
nary industrialist nam
edTheo
dore V
ail. Vail, a fo
rmer Po
st Office m
anager, und
erstood larg
eorg
anizations and
had an innate feeling
for the nature o
f large-scale
com
municatio
ns. Vail q
uickly saw to
it that AT&
T seized
the technolo
gi-
cal edge once again. The Pupin and C
ampbell "loading coil," and the
deForest "audion," are both extinct technology today, but in 1913 they
gave V
ail's com
pany the b
est *long
-distance* lines ever b
uilt. By co
n-tro
lling lo
ng-d
istance — the links b
etween, and
over, and
above the
smaller lo
cal pho
ne com
panies —
AT&
T sw
iftly gained
the whip
-handover them
, and was soon devouring
them rig
ht and left.
Vail p
low
ed the p
rofits b
ack into research and
develo
pm
ent, starting the
Bell trad
ition o
f huge-scale
and b
rilliant in
dustrial re
search
.
Technically and
financially, AT&
T g
radually steam
rollered
the opposi-
tion. Ind
epend
ent telepho
ne com
panies never b
ecame entirely extinct,
and hundreds of them flourish today. B
ut Vail's A
T&
T becam
e thesuprem
e comm
unications company. A
t one point, Vail's A
T&
T bought
Western U
nion itself, the very co
mpany that had
derid
ed B
ell's tele-phone as a "toy." V
ail thoroughly reform
ed Western U
nion's hidebound
business alo
ng his m
odern p
rinciples; b
ut when the fed
eral governm
entgrew
anxious at this centralizatio
n of p
ow
er, Vail p
olitely g
ave Western
Unio
n back.
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This centralizing
pro
cess was no
t unique. V
ery similar events had
hap-
pened
in Am
erican steel, oil, and
railroad
s. But A
T&
T, unlike the o
therco
mpanies, w
as to rem
ain suprem
e. The m
ono
poly ro
bber-b
arons o
fthose other industries w
ere humbled and shattered b
y governm
enttru
st-bustin
g.
Vail, the fo
rmer Po
st Office o
fficial, was q
uite willing
to acco
mm
odate
the US g
overnm
ent; in fact he would
forg
e an active alliance with it.
AT&
T w
ould become alm
ost a wing of the A
merican governm
ent, almost
another Post Office —
though not quite. A
T&
T w
ould willing
ly subm
it tofed
eral regulatio
n, but in return, it w
ould
use the governm
ent's regula-
tors as its own police, w
ho would keep out com
petitors and assure theBell system
's pro
fits and p
reeminence.
This w
as the second
birth —
the political b
irth — o
f the Am
erican tele-pho
ne system. V
ail's arrangem
ent was to
persist, w
ith vast success, for
many decades, until 1
982. H
is system w
as an odd kind of Am
ericanind
ustrial socialism
. It was b
orn at ab
out the sam
e time as Leninist
Com
munism
, and it lasted almost as long —
and, it must be adm
itted, toco
nsiderab
ly better effect.
Vail's system
worked. Except perhaps for aerospace, there has b
een notechnology m
ore thoroughly dominated by A
mericans than the telephone.
The telephone w
as seen from the b
eginning
as a quintessentiallyA
merican techno
logy. B
ell's policy, and
the policy o
f Theo
dore V
ail, was
a pro
found
ly dem
ocratic p
olicy o
f *universal access.* Vail's fam
ous
corp
orate slo
gan, "O
ne Policy, O
ne System
, Universal S
ervice," was a
political slo
gan, w
ith a very Am
erican ring to
it.
The A
merican telephone w
as not to become the specialized tool of gov-
ernment o
r business, b
ut a general p
ublic utility. A
t first, it was true,
only the w
ealthy could
afford
private telep
hones, and
Bell's co
mpany
pursued
the business m
arkets prim
arily. The A
merican p
hone system
was a capitalist effo
rt, meant to
make m
oney; it w
as not a charity. B
utfro
m the first, alm
ost all co
mm
unities with telep
hone service had
pub
-lic telep
hones. A
nd m
any stores —
especially d
rugsto
res — o
ffered p
ub-
lic use of their phones. You might not ow
n a telephone — but you could
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always get into the system
, if you really needed to.
There w
as nothing inevitab
le about this decision to m
ake telephones"p
ublic" and
"universal." Vail's system
involved
a pro
found
act of trust
in the pub
lic. This d
ecision w
as a political o
ne, inform
ed b
y the basic
values of the A
merican rep
ublic. T
he situation m
ight have b
een verydifferent; and
in other co
untries, under o
ther systems, it certainly
was.
Joseph Stalin, for instance, vetoed plans for a Soviet phone system soon
after the Bolshevik revo
lution. S
talin was certain that p
ublicly acces-
sible telep
hones w
ould
beco
me instrum
ents of anti-S
oviet co
unterrevo-
lution and
consp
iracy. (He w
as pro
bab
ly right.) W
hen telepho
nes did
arrive in the Soviet U
nion, they w
ould
be instrum
ents of Party autho
ri-ty, and
always heavily tap
ped
. (Alexand
er Solzhenitsyn's p
rison-cam
pno
vel *The First C
ircle* describ
es efforts to
develo
p a p
hone system
more suited
to S
talinist purp
oses.)
France, with its trad
ition o
f rational centralized
governm
ent, had fo
ught
bitterly even ag
ainst the electric telegrap
h, which seem
ed to
the Frenchentirely to
o anarchical and
frivolo
us. For d
ecades, nineteenth- century
France com
municated
via the "visual telegrap
h," a nation-sp
anning,
government-ow
ned semaphore system
of huge stone towers that sig-
nalle
d fro
m h
illtops, acro
ss vast distan
ces, w
ith b
ig w
indm
ill-likearm
s. In 18
46
, one D
r. Barb
ay, a semap
hore enthusiast, m
emorab
lyuttered
an early version o
f what m
ight b
e called "the security exp
ert'sargum
ent" against the open media.
"No, the electric teleg
raph is no
t a sound
invention. It w
ill always b
e atthe m
ercy of the slig
htest disrup
tion, w
ild yo
uths, drunkard
s, bum
s,etc.... T
he electric telegraph m
eets those destructive elements w
ith onlya few
meters o
f wire o
ver which sup
ervision is im
possib
le. A sing
lem
an could
, witho
ut being
seen, cut the telegrap
h wires lead
ing to
Paris,and
in twenty-fo
ur hours cut in ten d
ifferent places the w
ires of the
same line, w
ithout b
eing arrested
. The visual teleg
raph, o
n the con-
trary, has its to
wers, its h
igh w
alls, its gates w
ell-guard
ed fro
m in
side
by stro
ng arm
ed m
en. Yes, I d
eclare, substitutio
n of the electric tele-
grap
h for the visual o
ne is a dread
ful measure, a truly id
iotic act."
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Dr. B
arbay and
his high-security sto
ne machines w
ere eventuallyunsuccessful, b
ut his argum
ent — that co
mm
unication exists fo
r thesafety and convenience of the state, and m
ust be carefully protected fromthe w
ild boys and the gutter rabble who m
ight want to crash the system
— w
ould be heard again and again.
When the French telep
hone system
finally did
arrive, its snarled inad
e-quacy w
as to be notorious. Devotees of the A
merican B
ell System often
recom
mend
ed a trip
to France, fo
r skeptics.
In E
dw
ardian
Britain
, issues o
f class and p
rivacy were
a ball-an
d-ch
ainfor telephonic progress. It w
as considered outrageous that anyone —any w
ild fo
ol o
ff the street — co
uld sim
ply b
arge b
ellow
ing into
one's
office o
r hom
e, preced
ed o
nly by the ring
ing o
f a telepho
ne bell. In
Britain, p
hones w
ere tolerated
for the use o
f business, b
ut private
phones tended be stuffed away into closets, sm
oking rooms, or servants'
quarters. T
elepho
ne operato
rs were resented
in Britain b
ecause theydid not seem
to "know their place." A
nd no one of breeding would print a
telephone number on a business card; this seem
ed a crass attempt to
make the acquaintance of strangers.
But phone access in A
merica w
as to becom
e a popular right; som
ethinglike universal suffrag
e, only m
ore so
. Am
erican wom
en could
not yet
vote when the phone system
came through; yet from
the beginningA
merican w
omen doted on the telephone. T
his "feminization" of the
Am
erican telephone was often com
mented on by foreigners. Phones in
Am
erica were no
t censored
or stiff o
r form
alized; they w
ere social,
private, intim
ate, and d
om
estic. In Am
erica, Mother's D
ay is by far the
busiest day of the year for the phone network.
The early telephone com
panies, and especially AT&
T, w
ere among
theforem
ost employers of A
merican w
omen. T
hey employed the daughters
of the A
merican m
iddle-class in g
reat armies: in 1
89
1, eig
ht thousand
wom
en; by 1
94
6, alm
ost a q
uarter of a m
illion. W
om
en seemed
toenjo
y telepho
ne work; it w
as respectab
le, it was stead
y, it paid
fairlyw
ell as wom
en's work w
ent, and — not least —
it seemed a genuine con-
tribution to the social good of the comm
unity. Wom
en found Vail's ideal
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of p
ublic service attractive. T
his w
as especially tru
e in ru
ral areas,w
here w
om
en o
perato
rs, runnin
g exten
sive rural p
arty- lines, en
joyed
consid
erable so
cial pow
er. The o
perato
r knew everyo
ne on the p
arty-line, and
everyone knew
her.
Altho
ugh B
ell himself w
as an ardent suffrag
ist, the telepho
ne com
pany
did not employ w
omen for the sake of advancing fem
ale liberation. AT&
Tdid
this for so
und co
mm
ercial reasons. T
he first telepho
ne operato
rs of
the Bell system
were not w
omen, but teenage A
merican boys. T
hey were
telegraphic m
essenger b
oys (a group ab
out to be rendered technically
obsolescent), who sw
ept up around the phone office, dunned customers
for b
ills, and m
ade p
hone co
nnections o
n the switchb
oard
, all on the
cheap.
Within the very first year o
f operatio
n, 18
78
, Bell's co
mpany learned
a sharp lesson about combining teenage boys and telephone sw
itchboards.Putting teenage boys in charge of the phone system
brought swift and
consistent d
isaster. Bell's chief eng
ineer describ
ed them
as "Wild
Indians." The boys w
ere openly rude to customers. T
hey talked back tosub
scribers, saucing
off, uttering
facetious rem
arks, and g
enerallygiving
lip. T
he rascals took S
aint Patrick's Day o
ff witho
ut perm
ission.
And
worst o
f all they played
clever tricks with the sw
itchboard
plug
s:disco
nnecting calls, cro
ssing lines so
that custom
ers found
themselves
talking to
strangers, and
so fo
rth.
This co
mbinatio
n of p
ow
er, technical mastery, and
effective anonym
ityseem
ed to act like catnip on teenage boys.
This w
ild-kid
-on-the-w
ires pheno
meno
n was no
t confined
to the U
SA
;from
the beg
inning, the sam
e was true of the B
ritish phone system. A
nearly B
ritish com
mentato
r kindly rem
arked: "N
o d
oub
t boys in their
teens found
the work no
t a little irksom
e, and it is also
highly p
robab
lethat under the early conditions of em
ployment the adventurous and
inquisitive sp
irits of w
hich the average healthy b
oy o
f that age is p
os-
sessed, were not alw
ays conducive to the best attention being given to thew
ants of the telep
hone sub
scribers."
So the boys were flung off the system
— or at least, deprived of control
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of the sw
itchboard
. But the "ad
venturous and
inquisitive sp
irits" of the
teenage boys would be heard from
in the world of telephony, again and
again.
The fourth stag
e in the technological life-cycle is death: "the D
og," dead
tech. The telephone has so far avoided this fate. O
n the contrary, it isth
riving, still sp
readin
g, still evo
lving, an
d at in
creasing sp
eed.
The telephone has achieved a rare and exalted state for a technological
artifact: it has becom
e a *household object.* T
he telephone, like theclo
ck, like pen and
pap
er, like kitchen utensils and running
water, has
becom
e a technology that is visib
le only by its ab
sence. The telephone is
technolo
gically transp
arent. The g
lobal telep
hone system
is the largest
and m
ost co
mplex m
achine in the world
, yet it is easy to use. M
ore
remarkab
le yet, the telepho
ne is almost entirely p
hysically safe for the
user.
For the averag
e citizen in the 18
70
s, the telepho
ne was w
eirder, m
ore
shocking
, more "hig
h-tech" and hard
er to co
mprehend
, than the most
outrageous stunts of advanced computing for us A
mericans in the 1
990s.
In trying to
understand
what is hap
pening
to us to
day, w
ith our b
ul-le
tin-b
oard
syste
ms, d
irect o
verse
as diallin
g, fib
er- o
ptic tran
smis-
sions, co
mputer viruses, hacking
stunts, and a vivid
tangle o
f new law
sand
new crim
es, it is important to
realize that our so
ciety has been
throug
h a similar challeng
e befo
re — and
that, all in all, we d
id rather
well b
y it.
Bell's stag
e telephone seemed b
izarre at first. But the sensations of
weird
ness vanished q
uickly, once p
eople b
egan to
hear the familiar
voices o
f relatives and friend
s, in their ow
n hom
es on their o
wn tele-
phones. The telephone changed from
a fearsome high-tech totem
to aneveryd
ay pillar o
f human co
mm
unity.
This has also
happened
, and is still hap
pening
, to co
mputer netw
orks.
Com
puter netw
orks such as N
SFnet, B
ITnet, U
SEN
ET, JA
NET
, aretechnically ad
vanced, intim
idating
, and m
uch harder to
use than tele-pho
nes. Even the popular, co
mm
ercial com
puter netw
orks, such as
GEnie, Pro
dig
y, and C
om
puS
erve, cause much head
-scratching and
have
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been d
escribed
as "user-hateful." Nevertheless they to
o are chang
ingfro
m fancy hig
h-tech items into
everyday so
urces of hum
an com
munity.
The w
ords "comm
unity" and "comm
unication" have the same root.
Wherever yo
u put a co
mm
unications netw
ork, yo
u put a co
mm
unity asw
ell. And
whenever yo
u *take away* that netw
ork —
confiscate it, o
ut-law
it, crash it, raise its price b
eyond
afford
ability —
then you hurt
that com
munity.
Com
munities w
ill fight to
defend
themselves. Peo
ple w
ill fight hard
erand
more b
itterly to d
efend their co
mm
unities, than they will fig
ht todefend
their ow
n individ
ual selves. And
this is very true of the "elec-
tronic co
mm
unity" that arose aro
und co
mputer netw
orks in the 1
98
0s
— o
r rather, th
e *various* electro
nic co
mm
unities, in
telephony, law
enforcement, com
puting, and the dig
ital underground that, b
y the year1
99
0, w
ere
raidin
g, rally
ing, arre
sting, su
ing, jailin
g, fin
ing an
dissuing
angry m
anifestos.
None of the events of 1
990 w
ere entirely new. N
othing happened in
19
90
that did
not have so
me kind
of earlier and
more und
erstandab
leprecedent. W
hat gave the Hacker C
rackdown its new
sense of gravityand im
portance was the feeling
— the *com
munity* feeling
— that the
political stakes had
been raised
; that troub
le in cybersp
ace was no
longer m
ere misch
ief or in
conclu
sive skirmish
ing, b
ut a g
enuin
e fight
over g
enuine issues, a fight fo
r com
munity survival and
the shape o
f thefuture.
These electro
nic com
munities, having
flourished
throug
hout the 1
98
0s,
were b
ecom
ing aw
are of them
selves, and increasing
ly, beco
ming
aware
of o
ther, rival com
munities. W
orries w
ere spro
uting up
right and
left,w
ith com
plaints, rum
ors, uneasy sp
eculations. B
ut it would
take a cat-alyst, a sho
ck, to m
ake the new w
orld
evident. Like B
ell's great p
ublic-
ity bre
ak, the T
arriffville R
ail Disaste
r of Jan
uary 1
87
8, it w
ould
takea cause celeb
re.
That cause w
as the AT&
T C
rash of January 1
5, 1
99
0. A
fter the Crash,
the wounded and anxious telephone com
munity w
ould come out fighting
hard.
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__
__
_
The co
mm
unity of telep
hone technicians, eng
ineers, operato
rs andresearchers is the o
ldest co
mm
unity in cybersp
ace. These are the vet-
erans, the most developed g
roup, the richest, the most respectab
le, inm
ost ways the m
ost powerful. W
hole generations have come and gone
since Alexand
er Graham
Bell's d
ay, but the co
mm
unity he found
ed sur-
vives; peo
ple w
ork fo
r the pho
ne system to
day w
hose g
reat-grand
par-
ents worked for the phone system
. Its specialty mag
azines, such as*T
elepho
ny,* *AT&
T T
echnical Journal,* *T
elepho
ne Engineer and
Manag
ement,* are d
ecades o
ld; they m
ake com
puter p
ublicatio
ns like*M
acworld
* and *P
C W
eek* lo
ok like
amate
ur jo
hnny-co
me-late
lies.
And the phone com
panies take no back seat in high- technology, either.O
ther com
panies' ind
ustrial researchers may have w
on new
markets;
but the researchers o
f Bell Lab
s have won *seven N
obel Prizes.* O
nepotent d
evice that Bell Lab
s orig
inated, the transisto
r, has createden
tire *gro
ups* o
f industries. B
ell Lab
s are world
-famous fo
r gen
er-ating
"a patent a day," and have even made vital discoveries in astrono-
my, p
hysics and co
smolo
gy.
Thro
ugho
ut its seventy-year history, "M
a Bell" w
as not so
much a co
m-
pany as a w
ay of life. U
ntil the cataclysmic d
ivestiture of the 1
98
0s,
Ma B
ell was p
erhaps the ultim
ate maternalist m
ega-em
plo
yer. The
AT&
T corporate im
age w
as the "gentle g
iant," "the voice with a sm
ile,"a vag
uely so
cialist-realist world
of clean
shaven
linem
en in
shin
y hel-
mets and
bland
ly pretty p
hone-g
irls in headsets and
nylons. B
ellSystem
emplo
yees were fam
ous as ro
ck-ribbed
Kiw
anis and R
otary
mem
bers, Little-Leag
ue enthusiasts, school-b
oard
peo
ple.
During
the long
heyday o
f Ma B
ell, the Bell em
plo
yee corp
s were nur-
tured to
p-to
-botto
n on a co
rporate etho
s of p
ublic service. T
here was
good m
oney in B
ell, but B
ell was no
t *about* m
oney; B
ell used p
ublic
relations, b
ut never mere m
arketeering. Peo
ple w
ent into the B
ellSystem
for a good life, and they had a good life. But it w
as not mere
money that led B
ell people out in the midst of storm
s and earthquakes tofig
ht with toppled phone-poles, to w
ade in flooded manholes, to pull the
red- eyed
graveyard
-shift o
ver collap
sing sw
itchin
g-system
s. The B
ell
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ethic was the electrical eq
uivalent of the p
ostm
an's: neither rain, nor
snow
, nor g
loom
of nig
ht would
stop these co
uriers.
It is easy to be cynical ab
out this, as it is easy to be cynical ab
out anypolitical or social system
; but cynicism
does not change the fact that
thousands of people took these ideals very seriously. And som
e still do.
The B
ell ethos w
as about p
ublic service; and
that was g
ratifying; b
ut itw
as also ab
out p
rivate *pow
er,* and that w
as gratifying
too. A
s a cor-
poratio
n, Bell w
as very special. B
ell was p
rivileged
. Bell had
snuggled
up close to the state. In fact, Bell w
as as close to government as you
could
get in A
merica and
still make a w
hole lo
t of leg
itimate m
oney.
But unlike o
ther com
panies, B
ell was ab
ove and
beyo
nd the vulg
ar com
-m
ercial fray. Thro
ugh its reg
ional o
perating
com
panies, B
ell was
om
nipresent, lo
cal, and intim
ate, all over A
merica; b
ut the centralivo
ry tow
ers at its corp
orate heart w
ere the tallest and the ivo
riestaro
und.
There w
ere other p
hone co
mpanies in A
merica, to
be sure; the so
-calledind
epend
ents. Rural co
operatives, m
ostly; sm
all fry, mostly to
lerated,
sometim
es warred upon. For m
any decades, "independent" Am
ericanpho
ne com
panies lived
in fear and lo
athing o
f the official B
ell mono
poly
(or the "B
ell Octo
pus," as M
a Bell's nineteenth- century enem
iesdescrib
ed her in many ang
ry newspaper m
anifestos). Some few
of theseind
epend
ent entrepreneurs, w
hile legally in the w
rong
, foug
ht so b
it-terly ag
ainst the Octo
pus that their illeg
al pho
ne networks w
ere castinto
the street by B
ell agents and
pub
licly burned
.
The p
ure technical sweetness o
f the Bell S
ystem g
ave its operato
rs,inventors and eng
ineers a deeply satisfying sense of pow
er and mastery.
They had
devo
ted their lives to
impro
ving this vast natio
n-spanning
machine; o
ver years, who
le human lives, they had
watched
it impro
veand
gro
w. It w
as like a great techno
logical tem
ple. T
hey were an elite,
and they knew it —
even if others did not; in fact, they felt even more
pow
erful *because* o
thers did
not und
erstand.
The deep attraction of this sensation of elite technical pow
er should
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never be und
erestimated
. "Technical p
ow
er" is not fo
r everybody; fo
rm
any peo
ple it sim
ply has no
charm at all. B
ut for so
me p
eople, it
beco
mes the co
re of their lives. Fo
r a few, it is o
verwhelm
ing, o
bses-
sive; it becomes som
ething close to an addiction. People — especially
clever teenage b
oys w
hose lives are o
therwise m
ostly p
ow
erless andput-up
on —
love this sensatio
n of secret p
ow
er, and are w
illing to
do
all sorts o
f amazing
things to
achieve it. The technical *p
ow
er* of elec-
tronics has m
otivated
many strang
e acts detailed
in this book, w
hichw
ould
otherw
ise be inexp
licable.
So B
ell had p
ow
er beyo
nd m
ere capitalism
. The B
ell service ethos
worked
, and w
as often p
ropag
andized
, in a rather saccharine fashion.
Over the decades, people slow
ly grew
tired of this. And then, openly
impatient w
ith it. By the early 1
98
0s, M
a Bell w
as to find
herself with
scarcely a real friend in
the w
orld
. Vail's in
dustrial so
cialism h
adbeco
me ho
pelessly o
ut-of-fashio
n politically. B
ell would
be p
unishedfor that. A
nd that punishment w
ould fall harshly upon the people of thetelep
hone co
mm
unity._
__
__
In 19
83
, Ma B
ell was d
ismantled
by fed
eral court actio
n. The p
ieces of
Bell are now
separate corporate entities. The core of the com
panybecam
e AT&
T C
om
municatio
ns, and also
AT&
T Ind
ustries (form
erlyW
estern Electric, Bell's m
anufacturing arm
). AT&
T B
ell Labs b
ecom
eBell C
om
municatio
ns Research, B
ellcore. T
hen there are the Reg
ional
Bell O
perating
Com
panies, o
r RBO
Cs, p
rono
unced "arb
ocks."
Bell w
as a titan and even these reg
ional chunks are g
igantic enterp
rises:Fo
rtune 50
com
panies w
ith plenty o
f wealth and
pow
er behind
them.
But the clean lines o
f "One Po
licy, One S
ystem, U
niversal Service" have
been shattered
, apparently fo
rever.
The "O
ne Policy" of the early Reagan A
dministration w
as to shatter asystem
that smacked of noncom
petitive socialism. Since that tim
e, therehas b
een no real telephone "policy" on the federal level. Despite the
breakup, the rem
nants of Bell have never b
een set free to compete in the
open m
arketplace.
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The R
BO
Cs are still very heavily reg
ulated, b
ut not fro
m the to
p.
Instead, they strug
gle p
olitically, eco
nom
ically and leg
ally, in what
seems an end
less turmoil, in a p
atchwork o
f overlap
ping
federal and
state ju
risdictio
ns. In
creasin
gly, like
oth
er m
ajor A
merican
corp
ora-
tions, the R
BO
Cs are b
ecom
ing m
ultinational, acq
uiring im
portant
com
mercial interests in Euro
pe, Latin A
merica, and
the Pacific Rim
.But this, to
o, ad
ds to
their legal and
political p
redicam
ent.
The people of w
hat used to be Ma B
ell are not happy about their fate.They feel ill-used
. They m
ight have b
een grud
ging
ly willing
to m
ake afull transitio
n to the free m
arket; to b
ecom
e just com
panies am
id o
thercom
panies. But this never happened. Instead, A
T&
T and the RB
OCS
("the Bab
y Bells") feel them
selves wrenched
from
side to
side b
y statereg
ulators, b
y Cong
ress, by the FC
C, and
especially b
y the federal co
urtof Judg
e Harold G
reene, the mag
istrate who ordered the B
ell breakup and
who has been the de facto czar of A
merican telecom
munications ever
since 19
83
.
Bell p
eople feel that they exist in a kind
of p
aralegal lim
bo to
day. T
heydon't understand w
hat's demanded of them
. If it's "service," why aren't
they treated like a p
ublic service? A
nd if it's m
oney, then w
hy aren'tthey free to com
pete for it? No one seem
s to know, really. T
hose who
claim to
know
keep chang
ing their m
inds. N
obody in autho
rity seems
willing
to g
rasp the nettle fo
r once and
all.
Telephone people from
other countries are amazed b
y the Am
ericantelephone system
today. Not that it w
orks so well; for now
adays even theFrench telephone system
works, m
ore or less. They are am
azed that theA
merican telep
hone system
*still* works *at all,* und
er these strange
cond
itions.
Bell's "O
ne System
" of lo
ng-d
istance service is now
only ab
out eig
htypercent o
f a system, w
ith the remaind
er held b
y Sprint, M
CI, and
them
idget lo
ng-d
istance com
panies. U
gly w
ars over d
ubio
us corp
orate
practices such as "slamm
ing" (an underhanded m
ethod of snitchingclien
ts from
rivals) break o
ut w
ith so
me reg
ularity in
the realm
of
long
-distance service. T
he battle to
break B
ell's long
-distance m
ono
p-
oly was long
and ugly, and since the b
reakup the battlefield has not
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beco
me m
uch prettier. A
T&
T's fam
ous sham
e-and-b
lame ad
vertise-m
ents, which em
phasized
the shoddy w
ork and
purp
orted
ethical shadi-
ness of their co
mpetito
rs, were m
uch remarked
on fo
r their studied
psycho
logical cruelty.
There is m
uch bad
blo
od in this ind
ustry, and m
uch long
-treasuredresentm
ent. AT&
T's p
ost-b
reakup co
rporate lo
go, a strip
ed sp
here, iskno
wn in the ind
ustry as the "Death S
tar" (a reference from
the movie
*Star W
ars,* in which the "D
eath Star" w
as the spherical hig
h- techfo
rtress of th
e harsh
-breath
ing im
perial u
ltra-bad
die, D
arth V
ader.)
Even AT&
T em
plo
yees are less than thrilled b
y the Death S
tar. A p
opu-
lar (thoug
h banned
) T- shirt am
ong
AT&
T em
plo
yees bears the o
ld-
fashioned
Bell lo
go o
f the Bell S
ystem, p
lus the newfang
led strip
edsp
here, with the b
efore-and
-after com
ments: "T
his is your b
rain —This is yo
ur brain o
n drug
s!" AT&
T m
ade a very w
ell-financed and
determ
ined effo
rt to b
reak into the p
ersonal co
mputer m
arket; it was
disastro
us, and telco
com
puter exp
erts are derisively kno
wn b
y theirco
mpetito
rs as "the pole-clim
bers." A
T&
T and
the Bab
y Bell arb
ocks
still seem to
have few friend
s.
Und
er cond
itions o
f sharp co
mm
ercial com
petitio
n, a crash like that of
January 15
, 19
90
was a m
ajor em
barrassm
ent to A
T&
T. It w
as a direct
blo
w ag
ainst th
eir m
uch
-treasu
red re
putatio
n fo
r reliab
ility. With
indays o
f the crash AT&
T's C
hief Executive Officer, B
ob A
llen, officially
apolo
gized
, in terms o
f deep
ly pained
humility:
"AT&
T had
a majo
r service disrup
tion last M
ond
ay. We d
idn't live up
toour o
wn stand
ards o
f quality, and
we d
idn't live up
to yo
urs. It's as sim-
ple as that. And that's not acceptable to us. O
r to you.... We understand
how m
uch people have come to depend upon A
T&
T service, so our A
T&
TBell Lab
orato
ries scientists and o
ur network eng
ineers are doing
every-thing
possib
le to g
uard ag
ainst a recurrence.... We kno
w there's no
way
to make up for the inconvenience this prob
lem m
ay have caused you."
Mr A
llen's "open letter to
custom
ers" was p
rinted in lavish ad
s all over
the country: in the *W
all Street Jo
urnal,* *USA
Today,* *N
ew Y
ork
Tim
es,* *L
os A
ngele
s Tim
es,* *C
hicag
o T
ribune,* *P
hilad
elp
hia
Inquire
r,* *San
Francisco
Chro
nicle
Exam
iner,* *B
osto
n G
lobe,*
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*Dallas M
orn
ing N
ew
s,* *Detro
it Free P
ress,* *W
ashin
gto
n P
ost,*
*Housto
n C
hro
nicle
,* *Cle
velan
d P
lain D
eale
r,* *Atlan
ta Journ
alC
onstitu
tion,* *M
inneap
olis S
tar Trib
une,* *S
t. Pau
l Pio
neer P
ress
Disp
atch,* *Seattle T
imes/Po
st Intelligencer,* *T
acom
a New
sT
ribune,* *M
iami H
erald
,* *Pittsb
urg
h P
ress,* *S
t. Louis P
ost
Disp
atch,* *Denver Po
st,* *Phoenix R
epub
lic Gazette* and
*Tam
pa
Trib
une.*
In another press release, AT&
T w
ent to some pains to suggest that this
"softw
are glitch" *m
ight* have hap
pened
just as easily to M
CI,
althoug
h, in fact, it hadn't. (M
CI's sw
itching so
ftware w
as quite d
iffer-ent from
AT&
T's —
though not necessarily any safer.) A
T&
T also
announced their plans to offer a rebate of service on V
alentine's Day to
make up
for the lo
ss during
the Crash.
"Every technical resource availab
le, including
Bell Lab
s scientists andeng
ineers, has been d
evoted
to assuring
it will no
t occur ag
ain," thepub
lic was told. T
hey were further assured that "T
he chances of arecurrence are sm
all — a p
roblem
of this m
agnitud
e never occurred
befo
re."
In the meantim
e, how
ever, police and
corp
orate security m
aintainedtheir o
wn susp
icions ab
out "the chances o
f recurrence" and the real
reason why a "prob
lem of this m
agnitude" had appeared, seem
ingly out
of no
where. Po
lice and security knew
for a fact that hackers o
funp
recedented
sophisticatio
n were illeg
ally entering, and
repro
gram
-m
ing, certain d
igital sw
itching statio
ns. Rum
ors o
f hidden "viruses"
and secret "lo
gic b
om
bs" in the sw
itches ran rampant in the und
er-gro
und, w
ith much cho
rtling o
ver AT&
T's p
redicam
ent, and id
le specu-
lation o
ver what unsung
hacker genius w
as responsib
le for it. S
om
ehackers, includ
ing p
olice info
rmants, w
ere trying hard
to fing
er one
another as the true culp
rits of the C
rash.
Telco
peo
ple fo
und little co
mfo
rt in objectivity w
hen they contem
plated
these possibilities. It w
as just too close to the bone for them
; it was
embarrassing
; it hurt so m
uch, it was hard
even to talk ab
out.
There has alw
ays been thieving
and m
isbehavio
r in the pho
ne system.
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There has alw
ays been tro
uble w
ith the rival indep
endents, and
in thelocal loops. B
ut to have such trouble in the core of the system
, the long-
distance sw
itching statio
ns, is a horrifying
affair. To telco
peo
ple, this
is all the difference b
etween find
ing ro
aches in your kitchen and
big
horrid
sew
er-rats in
your b
edro
om
.
From the outside, to the averag
e citizen, the telcos still seem g
igantic
and im
perso
nal. The A
merican p
ublic seem
s to reg
ard them
as som
e-thing
akin to Soviet apparats. Even when the telcos do their b
est corpo-rate- citizen ro
utine, subsid
izing m
agnet hig
h-schools and
sponso
ringnew
s-show
s on p
ublic televisio
n, they seem to
win little excep
t pub
licsusp
icion.
But fro
m the insid
e, all this looks very d
ifferent. There's harsh co
mpe-
tition. A leg
al and political system that seem
s baffled and b
ored, when
not actively hostile to telco interests. There's a loss of m
orale, a deepsensation of having som
ehow lost the upper hand. T
echnological changehas caused a loss of data and revenue to other, new
er forms of transm
is-sion. T
here's theft, and new form
s of theft, of grow
ing scale and b
old-ness and
sophisticatio
n. With all these facto
rs, it was no
surprise to
seethe telco
s, large and
small, b
reak out in a litany o
f bitter co
mplaint.
In late '88
and thro
ugho
ut 19
89
, telco rep
resentatives grew
shrill intheir co
mplaints to
those few
Am
erican law enfo
rcement o
fficials who
make it their b
usiness to try to understand w
hat telephone people aretalking
about. T
elco security o
fficials had d
iscovered
the com
puter-
hacker underg
round
, infiltrated it tho
roug
hly, and b
ecom
e deep
lyalarm
ed at its grow
ing expertise. H
ere they had found a target that w
asno
t only lo
athsom
e on its face, b
ut clearly ripe fo
r counterattack.
Tho
se bitter rivals: A
T&
T, M
CI and
Sprint —
and a cro
wd o
f Bab
y Bells:
PacBell, B
ell South, S
outhw
estern Bell, N
YN
EX, U
SW
est, as well as the
Bell research co
nsortium
Bellco
re, and the ind
epend
ent long
-distance
carrier Mid
-Am
erican —
all were to
have th
eir role in
the g
reat hack-
er dragnet of 1990. A
fter years of being battered and pushed around,the telco
s had, at least in a sm
all way, seized
the initiative again. A
fteryears o
f turmoil, telco
s and g
overnm
ent officials w
ere once ag
ain tow
ork smoothly in concert in defense of the System
. Optim
ism b
lossomed;
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enthusiasm grew
on all sides; the prospective taste of vengeance was
sweet.
__
__
_
From the beginning —
even before the crackdown had a nam
e — secrecy
was a b
ig prob
lem. T
here were m
any good reasons for secrecy in the
hacker crackdow
n. Hackers and
code-thieves w
ere wily p
rey, slinkingback to
their bed
room
s and b
asements and
destro
ying vital incrim
inat-ing
evidence at the first hint o
f troub
le. Furthermore, the crim
es them-
selves were heavily technical and
difficult to
describ
e, even to p
olice —
much less to
the general p
ublic.
When such crim
es *had* b
een describ
ed intellig
ibly to
the pub
lic, inthe p
ast, that very pub
licity had tend
ed to
*increase* the crimes eno
r-m
ously. T
elco o
fficials, while p
ainfu
lly aware o
f the vu
lnerab
ilities of
their systems, w
ere anxious no
t to p
ublicize tho
se weaknesses.
Experience showed them
that those weaknesses, once discovered, w
ouldbe p
itilessly explo
ited b
y tens of tho
usands o
f peo
ple —
not o
nly by p
ro-
fessional g
rifters and b
y underg
round
hackers and p
hone p
hreaks, but
by m
any otherw
ise more-o
r-less honest everyd
ay folks, w
ho reg
arded
stealing service fro
m the faceless, so
ulless "Phone C
om
pany" as a kind
of harm
less indoor sp
ort. W
hen it came to
pro
tecting their interests,
telcos had long since g
iven up on general pub
lic sympathy for "the V
oicew
ith a Sm
ile." Now
adays the telco
's "Voice" w
as very likely to b
e aco
mputer's; and
the Am
erican pub
lic show
ed m
uch less of the p
roper
respect and gratitude due the fine pub
lic service bequeathed them
by D
r.Bell and
Mr. V
ail. The m
ore efficient, hig
h-tech, com
puterized
, andim
personal the telcos became, it seem
ed, the more they w
ere met by
sullen pub
lic resentment and
amoral g
reed.
Telco
officials w
anted to
punish the p
hone-p
hreak underg
round
, in aspub
lic and exem
plary a m
anner as possib
le. They w
anted to
make d
ireexam
ples o
f the worst o
ffenders, to
seize the ringlead
ers and intim
idate
the small fry, to
disco
urage and
frighten the w
acky hobbyists, and
sendth
e pro
fessional g
rifters to jail. T
o d
o all th
is, publicity w
as vital.
Yet operational secrecy was even m
ore so. If word got out that a nation-
wid
e crackdow
n was co
ming
, the hackers mig
ht simply vanish; d
estroy
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the evidence, hid
e their com
puters, g
o to
earth, and w
ait for the cam
-paig
n to b
low
over. Even the yo
ung hackers w
ere crafty and susp
icious,
and as fo
r the pro
fessional g
rifters, they tended
to sp
lit for the nearest
state-line at the first sign o
f troub
le. For the crackd
ow
n to w
ork w
ell,they w
ould all have to be caught red-handed, swept upon suddenly, out of
the blue, fro
m every co
rner of the co
mpass.
And
there was ano
ther strong
motive fo
r secrecy. In the worst-case
scenario, a blown cam
paign might leave the telcos open to a devastating
hacker counter-attack. If there w
ere indeed
hackers loose in A
merica
who
had caused
the January 15
Crash —
if there were truly g
ifted hack-
ers, loose in the natio
n's long
-distance sw
itching system
s, and enrag
edor frig
htened b
y the crackdow
n — then they m
ight react unp
redictab
lyto an attem
pt to collar them. Even if caught, they m
ight have talentedand
vengeful friend
s still running aro
und lo
ose. C
onceivab
ly, it could
turn ugly. V
ery ugly. In fact, it w
as hard to
imag
ine just how
ugly
things m
ight turn, g
iven that possib
ility.
Counter-attack fro
m hackers w
as a genuine co
ncern for the telco
s. Inpoint o
f fact, they would
never suffer any such counter-attack. B
ut inm
onths to come, they w
ould be at some pains to publicize this notion and
to utter g
rim w
arnings ab
out it.
Still, that risk seem
ed w
ell worth running
. Better to
run the risk of
vengeful attacks, than to
live at the mercy o
f potential crashers. A
nyco
p w
ould
tell you that a p
rotectio
n racket had no
real future.
And
pub
licity was such a useful thing
. Corp
orate security o
fficers,includ
ing telco
security, generally w
ork und
er cond
itions o
f great d
is-cretio
n. And
corp
orate security o
fficials do no
t make m
oney fo
r theirco
mpanies. T
heir job is to
*prevent the lo
ss* of m
oney, w
hich is much
less glam
oro
us than actually winning
pro
fits.
If you are a co
rporate secu
rity official, an
d yo
u d
o yo
ur jo
b b
rilliantly,
then nothing bad happens to your company at all. B
ecause of this, youap
pear co
mpletely sup
erfluous. T
his is one o
f the many unattractive
aspects of security work. It's rare that these folks have the chance to
draw som
e healthy attention to their own efforts.
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Publicity also
served the interest o
f their friends in law
enforcem
ent.Public o
fficials, inclu
din
g law
enfo
rcemen
t officials, th
rive by attract-
ing favo
rable p
ublic interest. A
brilliant p
rosecutio
n in a matter o
fvital p
ublic interest can m
ake the career of a p
rosecuting
attorney. A
ndfo
r a police o
fficer, good p
ublicity o
pens the p
urses of the leg
islature; itm
ay bring
a citation, o
r a pro
motio
n, or at least a rise in status and
theresp
ect of o
ne's peers.
But to have both publicity and secrecy is to have one's cake and eat it too.
In months to
com
e, as we w
ill show
, this impossib
le act was to
causegreat pain to the ag
ents of the crackdown. B
ut early on, it seemed possi-
ble —
mayb
e even likely — that the crackd
ow
n could
successfully com
-bine the b
est of b
oth w
orld
s. The *arrest* o
f hackers would
be heavily
pub
licized. T
he actual *deed
s* of the hackers, w
hich were technically
hard to
explain and
also a security risk, w
ould
be left d
ecently obscured
.The *threat* hackers p
osed
would
be heavily trum
peted
; the likelihood
of their actually co
mm
itting such fearso
me crim
es would
be left to
thepub
lic's imag
ination. T
he spread
of the co
mputer und
ergro
und, and
itsgro
wing
technical sophisticatio
n, would
be heavily p
rom
oted
; the actualhackers them
selves, mostly b
espectacled
mid
dle-class w
hite suburb
anteenag
ers, would
be d
enied any p
ersonal p
ublicity.
It does not seem to have occurred to any telco official that the hackers
accused w
ould
dem
and a d
ay in court; that jo
urnalists would
smile up
on
the hackers as "good co
py;" that w
ealthy high-tech entrep
reneursw
ould
offer m
oral and
financial support to
crackdow
n victims; that co
n-stitutio
nal lawyers w
ould
show
up w
ith briefcases, fro
wning
mig
htily.This possib
ility does not seem to have ever entered the g
ame-plan.
And
even if it had, it p
robab
ly would
not have slo
wed
the ferocio
us pur-
suit of a sto
len pho
ne-com
pany d
ocum
ent, mellifluo
usly know
n as"C
ontro
l Office A
dm
inistration o
f Enhanced 9
11
Services fo
r Special
Services and
Majo
r Acco
unt Centers."
In the chapters to
follo
w, w
e will exp
lore the w
orld
s of p
olice and
theco
mputer und
ergro
und, and
the large shad
ow
y area where they o
verlap.
But first, w
e must exp
lore the b
attlegro
und. B
efore w
e leave the world
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of the telcos, we m
ust understand what a sw
itching system
actually isand
how
your telep
hone actually w
orks.
__
__
_
To the averag
e citizen, the idea of the telephone is represented by, w
ell,a *telep
hone:* a d
evice that you talk into
. To a telco
pro
fessional, ho
w-
ever, the telepho
ne itself is know
n, in lord
ly fashion, as a "sub
set."The "sub
set" in your ho
use is a mere ad
junct, a distant nerve end
ing, o
fthe central sw
itching statio
ns, which are ranked
in levels of heirarchy,
up to
the long
-distance electro
nic switching
stations, w
hich are som
e of
the largest co
mputers o
n earth.
Let us imag
ine that it is, say, 19
25
, befo
re the introductio
n of co
mput-
ers, when the phone system
was sim
pler and somew
hat easier to grasp.
Let's further imag
ine that you are M
iss Leticia Luthor, a fictio
nal oper-
ator fo
r Ma B
ell in New
York C
ity of the 2
0s.
Basically, yo
u, Miss Lutho
r, *are* the "switching
system." Y
ou are
sitting in fro
nt of a larg
e vertical switchb
oard
, know
n as a "cord
board
,"m
ade o
f shiny wooden p
anels, with ten tho
usand m
etal-rimm
ed ho
lespunched
in them, kno
wn as jacks. T
he engineers w
ould
have put m
ore
holes into your switchb
oard, but ten thousand is as m
any as you canreach w
ithout actually having
to g
et up o
ut of yo
ur chair.
Each of these ten tho
usand ho
les has its ow
n little electric lightb
ulb,
know
n as a "lamp," and
its ow
n neatly printed
number co
de.
With the ease o
f long
habit, yo
u are scanning yo
ur board
for lit-up
bulbs. This is w
hat you do most of the tim
e, so you are used to it.
A lam
p lights up. This m
eans that the phone at the end of that line hasbeen taken off the hook. W
henever a handset is taken off the hook, thatclo
ses a circuit inside the p
hone w
hich then signals the lo
cal office, i.e.
you, auto
matically. T
here mig
ht be so
meb
ody calling
, or then ag
ain thephone m
ight be simply off the hook, but this does not m
atter to you yet.The first thing
you d
o, is reco
rd that num
ber in yo
ur logbook, in yo
urfin
e Am
erican p
ublic-sch
ool h
andw
riting. T
his co
mes first, n
aturally,
since it is done fo
r billing
purp
oses.
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You no
w take the p
lug o
f your answ
ering co
rd, w
hich goes d
irectly toyo
ur headset, and
plug
it into the lit-up
hole. "O
perato
r," you anno
unce.
In operato
r's classes, befo
re taking this jo
b, yo
u have been issued
alarg
e pam
phlet full o
f canned o
perato
r's responses fo
r all kinds o
f con-
tingencies, w
hich you had to mem
orize. You have also b
een trained in apro
per no
n- regio
nal, non-ethnic p
ronunciatio
n and to
ne of vo
ice. You
rarely have the occasion to make any spontaneous rem
ark to a cus-to
mer, and
in fact this is frow
ned up
on (excep
t out o
n the rural linesw
here peo
ple have tim
e on their hand
s and g
et up to
all kinds o
f mis-
chief).
A tough-sounding user's voice at the end of the line gives you a num
ber.Im
med
iately, you w
rite that number d
ow
n in your lo
gbook, next to
thecaller's num
ber, w
hich you just w
rote earlier. Y
ou then lo
ok and
see ifthe num
ber this g
uy wants is in fact o
n your sw
itchboard
, which it g
en-erally is, since it's g
enerally a local call. Lo
ng d
istance costs so
much
that peo
ple use it sp
aringly.
Only then do you pick up a calling
-cord from a shelf at the b
ase of thesw
itchboard. T
his is a long elastic cord m
ounted on a kind of reel so thatit w
ill zip b
ack in when yo
u unplug
it. There are a lo
t of co
rds d
ow
nthere, and w
hen a bunch of them are out at once they look like a nest of
snakes. Som
e of the g
irls think there are bug
s living in tho
se cable-
holes. They're called "cable m
ites" and are supposed to bite your handsand
give yo
u rashes. You d
on't b
elieve this, yourself.
Grip
ping
the head o
f your calling
-cord
, you slip
the tip o
f it deftly into
the sleeve of the jack for the called person. Not all the w
ay in, though.
You just to
uch it. If you hear a clicking
sound
, that means the line is
busy and yo
u can't put the call throug
h. If the line is busy, yo
u have tostick the calling
-cord
into a "b
usy-tone jack," w
hich will g
ive the guy a
busy-to
ne. This w
ay you do
n't have to talk to
him yo
urself and abso
rbhis n
atural h
um
an fru
stration.
But the line isn't b
usy. So yo
u pop the co
rd all the w
ay in. Relay cir-
cuits in your b
oard
make the d
istant pho
ne ring, and
if som
ebody p
icks
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it up off the hook, then a phone conversation starts. You can hear thisco
nversation o
n your answ
ering co
rd, until yo
u unplug
it. In fact you
could
listen to the w
hole co
nversation if yo
u wanted
, but this is sternly
frow
ned up
on b
y manag
ement, and
frankly, when yo
u've overheard
one,
you've p
retty much heard
'em all.
You can tell ho
w lo
ng the co
nversation lasts b
y the glo
w o
f the calling-
cord
's lamp, d
ow
n on the calling
-cord
's shelf. When it's o
ver, you
unplug
and the calling
-cord
zips b
ack into p
lace.
Having done this stuff a few
hundred thousand times, you becom
e quitegood at it. In fact you're plugging, and connecting, and disconnecting,ten, tw
enty, forty co
rds at a tim
e. It's a manual hand
icraft, really,quite satisfying
in a way, rather like w
eaving o
n an uprig
ht loom
.
Sho
uld a lo
ng-d
istance call com
e up, it w
ould
be d
ifferent, but no
t allthat different. Instead of connecting
the call through your ow
n localsw
itchboard, you have to g
o up the hierarchy, onto the long-distance
lines, know
n as "trunklines." Dep
ending
on ho
w far the call g
oes, it m
ayhave to
work its w
ay throug
h a who
le series of o
perato
rs, which can
take quite a w
hile. The caller d
oesn't w
ait on the line w
hile this com
-plex process is negotiated across the country by the gaggle of operators.Instead
, the caller hangs up
, and yo
u call him b
ack yourself w
hen thecall has finally w
orked
its way thro
ugh.
After fo
ur or five years o
f this work, yo
u get m
arried, and
you have to
quit yo
ur job, this b
eing the natural o
rder o
f wom
anhood in the
Am
erican 1920s. T
he phone company has to train som
ebody else —m
aybe two people, since the phone system
has grown som
ewhat in the
meantim
e. And this costs m
oney.
In fact, to use any kind
of hum
an being
as a switching
system is a very
expensive p
ropositio
n. Eight tho
usand Leticia Lutho
rs would
be b
aden
ough, b
ut a q
uarter o
f a millio
n o
f them
is a military-scale p
roposi-
tion and
makes d
rastic measures in auto
matio
n financially worthw
hile.
Although the phone system
continues to grow today, the num
ber ofhum
an being
s employed b
y telcos has been dropping
steadily for years.
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Phone "o
perato
rs" now
deal w
ith nothing
but unusual co
ntingencies, all
routine operations having been shrugged off onto m
achines.Conseq
uently, telepho
ne operato
rs are consid
erably less m
achine-likenow
adays, and have been known to have accents and actual character in
their voices. W
hen you reach a hum
an operato
r today, the o
perato
rs arerather m
ore "hum
an" than they were in Leticia's d
ay — b
ut on the o
therhand
, human b
eings in the p
hone system
are much hard
er to reach in the
first place.
Over the first half o
f the twentieth century, "electro
mechanical"
switching
systems o
f gro
wing
com
plexity w
ere cautiously intro
duced
into the p
hone system
. In certain backw
aters, som
e of these hyb
ridsystem
s are still in use. But after 1
965, the phone system
beg
an to go
completely electronic, and this is b
y far the dominant m
ode today.Electro
mechanical system
s have "crossb
ars," and "b
rushes," and o
therlarg
e moving
mechanical p
arts, which, w
hile faster and cheap
er thanLeticia, are still slo
w, and
tend to
wear o
ut fairly quickly.
But fully electro
nic systems are inscrib
ed o
n silicon chip
s, and are
lightning
-fast, very cheap, and
quite d
urable. T
hey are much cheap
erto m
aintain than even the best electrom
echanical systems, and they fit
into half the sp
ace. And
with every year, the silico
n chip g
row
s small-
er, faster, and cheap
er yet. Best o
f all, autom
ated electro
nics work
around
the clock and
don't have salaries o
r health insurance.
There are, ho
wever, q
uite serious d
rawbacks to
the use of co
mputer-
chips. When they do b
reak down, it is a daunting
challenge to fig
ure outw
hat the heck has gone wrong w
ith them. A
broken cordboard generallyhad
a pro
blem
in it big
enoug
h to see. A
bro
ken chip has invisib
le,m
icroscopic faults. And the faults in bad softw
are can be so subtle as tobe p
ractically theolo
gical.
If you want a m
echanical system to do som
ething new, then you m
usttravel to
where it is, and
pull p
ieces out o
f it, and w
ire in new p
ieces.This costs m
oney. How
ever, if you want a chip to do som
ething new
, allyo
u have to d
o is chang
e its softw
are, which is easy, fast and
dirt-cheap
.You don't even have to see the chip to change its program
. Even if you didsee the chip
, it would
n't look like m
uch. A chip
with p
rogram
X d
oesn't
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look o
ne whit d
ifferent from
a chip w
ith pro
gram
Y.
With the proper codes and sequences, and access to specialized phone-
lines, you can chang
e electronic sw
itching system
s all over A
merica
from
anywhere yo
u please.
And so can other people. If they know
how, and if they w
ant to, they cansneak into
a micro
chip via the sp
ecial pho
nelines and d
iddle w
ith it,leaving
no p
hysical trace at all. If they bro
ke into the o
perato
r's station
and held
Leticia at gunp
oint, that w
ould
be very o
bvio
us. If they bro
keinto
a telco b
uilding
and w
ent after an electrom
echanical switch w
ith atoolbelt, that w
ould at least leave many traces. B
ut people can do allm
anner of am
azing thing
s to co
mputer sw
itches just by typ
ing o
n a key-board
, and keyb
oard
s are everywhere to
day. T
he extent of this vulnera-
bility is d
eep, d
ark, bro
ad, alm
ost m
ind-b
oggling
, and yet this is a
basic, p
rimal fact o
f life about any co
mputer o
n a network.
Security exp
erts over the p
ast twenty years have insisted
, with g
row
ingurg
ency, that this basic vulnerab
ility of co
mputers rep
resents anentirely new
level of risk, o
f unknow
n but o
bvio
usly dire p
otential to
society. A
nd they are rig
ht.
An electro
nic switching
station d
oes p
retty much everything
Letitia did
,except in nanoseconds and on a m
uch larger scale. Com
pared to Miss
Luthor's ten tho
usand jacks, even a p
rimitive 1
ESS sw
itching co
mputer,
60
s vintage, has a 1
28
,00
0 lines. A
nd the current A
T&
T system
of
choice is the m
onstro
us fifth-generatio
n 5ES
S.
An Electro
nic Sw
itching S
tation can scan every line o
n its "board
" in atenth of a second, and it does this over and over, tirelessly, around theclock. Instead of eyes, it uses "ferrod scanners" to check the condition oflo
cal lines and trunks. Instead
of hand
s, it has "signal d
istributo
rs,""central p
ulse distrib
utors," "m
agnetic latching
relays," and "reed
switches," w
hich com
plete and
break the calls. Instead
of a b
rain, it hasa "central p
rocesso
r." Instead o
f an instruction m
anual, it has a pro
-gram
. Instead o
f a handw
ritten logbook fo
r record
ing and
billing
calls,it has m
agnetic tapes. And it never has to talk to anybody. Everything a
custom
er mig
ht say to it is d
one b
y punching
the direct-d
ial tone b
ut-
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tons o
n your sub
set.
Althoug
h an Electronic Switching
Station can't talk, it does need aninterface, so
me w
ay to relate to
its, er, emplo
yers. This interface is
know
n as the "master co
ntrol center." (T
his interface mig
ht be b
etterkno
wn sim
ply as "the interface," since it d
oesn't actually "co
ntrol"
pho
ne calls directly. H
ow
ever, a term like "M
aster Contro
l Center" is
just the kind o
f rhetoric that telco
maintenance eng
ineers — and
hack-ers —
find p
articularly
satisfyin
g.)
Using
the master control center, a phone eng
ineer can test local andtru
nk lin
es for m
alfunctio
ns. H
e (rarely she) can
check vario
us alarm
disp
lays, measure traffic o
n the lines, examine the reco
rds o
f telepho
neusage and the charges for those calls, and change the program
ming.
And, of course, anybody else w
ho gets into the master control center by
remote co
ntrol can also
do these thing
s, if he (rarely she) has manag
edto
figure them
out, o
r, more likely, has so
meho
w sw
iped
the know
ledge
from
peo
ple w
ho alread
y know
.
In 1
98
9 an
d 1
99
0, o
ne p
articular R
BO
C, B
ellSouth
, which
felt partic-
ularly troub
led, sp
ent a purp
orted
$1
.2 m
illion o
n com
puter security.
Som
e think it spent as m
uch as two m
illion, if yo
u count all the asso
ci-ated
costs. T
wo m
illion d
ollars is still very little co
mpared
to the g
reatco
st-saving utility o
f telepho
nic com
puter system
s.
Unfo
rtunately, com
puters are also
stupid
. Unlike hum
an being
s, com
-puters p
ossess the truly p
rofo
und stup
idity o
f the inanimate.
In the 19
60
s, in the first shocks o
f spread
ing co
mputerizatio
n, therew
as much easy talk about the stupidity of com
puters — how
they could"o
nly follo
w the p
rogram
" and w
ere rigid
ly required
to d
o "o
nly what
they were told." T
here has been rather less talk ab
out the stupidity ofcom
puters since they began to achieve grandmaster status in chess
tournam
ents, and to
manifest m
any other im
pressive fo
rms o
f apparent
cleverness.
Nevertheless, co
mputers *still* are p
rofo
undly b
rittle and stup
id; they
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are simply vastly m
ore sub
tle in their stupid
ity and b
rittleness. The
com
puters o
f the 19
90
s are much m
ore reliab
le in their com
ponents
than earlier com
puter system
s, but they are also
called up
on to
do far
more co
mplex thing
s, under far m
ore challeng
ing co
nditio
ns.
On a b
asic mathem
atical level, every single line o
f a softw
are pro
gram
offers a chance fo
r som
e possib
le screwup
. Softw
are does no
t sit stillw
hen it works; it "runs," it interacts w
ith itself and w
ith its ow
n inputs
and o
utputs. B
y analogy, it stretches like p
utty into m
illions o
f possib
leshapes and conditions, so m
any shapes that they can never all be suc-
cessfully tested, not even in the lifespan of the universe. Sometim
es theputty snap
s.
The stuff w
e call "softw
are" is not like anything
that human so
ciety isused
to thinking
about. S
oftw
are is som
ething like a m
achine, and so
me-
thing like m
athematics, and
som
ething like lang
uage, and
som
ething like
thought, and art, and inform
ation.... but softw
are is not in fact any ofthose other things. T
he protean quality of software is one of the great
sources o
f its fascination. It also
makes so
ftware very p
ow
erful, verysu
btle, very u
npred
ictable, an
d very risky.
Some softw
are is bad and b
uggy. Som
e is "robust," even "b
ulletproof."The best softw
are is that which has been tested by thousands of users
under tho
usands o
f different co
nditio
ns, over years. It is then kno
wn as
"stable." T
his does *no
t* mean that the so
ftware is no
w flaw
less, freeof b
ugs. It g
enerally means that there are p
lenty of b
ugs in it, b
ut thebug
s are well-id
entified and
fairly well und
erstood.
There is sim
ply no
way to
assure that softw
are is free of flaw
s. Tho
ugh
softw
are is mathem
atical in nature, it cannot b
y "pro
ven" like a mathe-
matical theo
rem; so
ftware is m
ore like lang
uage, w
ith inherent ambi-
guities, w
ith d
ifferent d
efinitio
ns, d
ifferent assu
mptio
ns, d
ifferent lev-
els of m
eaning that can co
nflict.
Hum
an being
s can manag
e, more or less, w
ith human lang
uage b
ecausew
e can catch the gist of it.
Com
puters, d
espite years o
f effort in "artificial intellig
ence," have
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pro
ven spectacularly b
ad in "catching
the gist" o
f anything at all. T
hetiniest b
it of sem
antic grit m
ay still bring
the mig
htiest com
puter tum
-bling dow
n. One of the m
ost hazardous things you can do to a computer
pro
gram
is try to im
pro
ve it — to
try to m
ake it safer. Softw
are"p
atches" represent new
, untried un- "stab
le" softw
are, which is b
ydefin
ition riskie
r.
The m
odern telep
hone system
has com
e to d
epend
, utterly and irretriev-
ably, up
on so
ftware. A
nd the S
ystem C
rash of January 1
5, 1
99
0, w
ascaused
by an *im
pro
vement* in so
ftware. O
r rather, an *attempted
*im
pro
vement.
As it happened, the prob
lem itself —
the problem
per se — took this
form. A
piece of telco software had b
een written in C
languag
e, a stan-dard language of the telco field. W
ithin the C softw
are was a long "do...
while" co
nstruct. The "d
o... w
hile" construct co
ntained a "sw
itch" state-m
ent. The "sw
itch" statement contained an "if" clause. T
he "if" clauseco
ntained a "b
reak." The "b
reak" was *sup
posed
* to "b
reak" the "ifclause." Instead, the "b
reak" broke the "sw
itch" statement.
That w
as the problem
, the actual reason why people picking
up phoneson January 1
5, 1
99
0, co
uld no
t talk to o
ne another.
Or at least, that w
as the subtle, ab
stract, cybersp
atial seed o
f the pro
b-
lem. T
his is how
the pro
blem
manifested
itself from
the realm o
f pro
-gram
ming
into the realm
of real life.
The S
ystem 7
softw
are for A
T&
T's 4
ESS sw
itching statio
n, the "Generic
44
E14
Central O
ffice Sw
itch Softw
are," had b
een extensively tested, and
was considered very stable. B
y the end of 1989, eighty of A
T&
T's
switching
systems natio
nwid
e had b
een pro
gram
med
with the new
soft-
ware. C
autiously, thirty- fo
ur stations w
ere left to run the slo
wer,
less-capable System
6, b
ecause AT&
T suspected there m
ight b
e shake-dow
n problem
s with the new
and unprecedently sophisticated System 7
network.
The stations w
ith System 7
were prog
ramm
ed to switch over to a b
ackupnet in case o
f any pro
blem
s. In mid
-Decem
ber 1
98
9, ho
wever, a new
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high-velo
city, high- security so
ftware p
atch was d
istributed
to each o
fthe 4
ESS switches that w
ould enable them to sw
itch over even more
quickly, m
aking the S
ystem 7
network that m
uch more secure.
Unfo
rtunately, every one o
f these 4ES
S sw
itches was no
w in p
ossessio
nof a sm
all but d
eadly flaw
.
In ord
er to m
aintain the network, sw
itches must m
onito
r the cond
ition
of o
ther switches —
whether they are up
and running
, whether they
have temporarily shut dow
n, whether they are overloaded and in need of
assistance, and so forth. The new
software helped control this b
ook-keep
ing functio
n by m
onito
ring the status calls fro
m o
ther switches.
It only takes fo
ur to six seco
nds fo
r a troub
led 4
ESS sw
itch to rid
itselfof all its calls, d
rop everything
temporarily, and
re-boot its so
ftware
from
scratch. S
tarting o
ver from
scratch w
ill gen
erally rid th
e switch
of any so
ftware p
roblem
s that may have d
eveloped
in the course o
f run-ning
the system. B
ugs that arise w
ill be sim
ply w
iped
out b
y thispro
cess. It is a clever idea. T
his pro
cess of auto
matically re-b
ooting
from
scratch is know
n as the "norm
al fault recovery ro
utine." Since
AT&
T's so
ftware is in fact excep
tionally stab
le, systems rarely have to
go into
"fault recovery" in the first p
lace; but A
T&
T has alw
ays boasted
of its "real w
orld
" reliability, an
d th
is tactic is a belt-an
d-su
spen
ders
routine.
The 4
ESS sw
itch used its new
softw
are to m
onito
r its fellow
switches as
they recovered from faults. A
s other switches cam
e back on line after
recovery, they w
ould
send their "O
K" sig
nals to the sw
itch. The sw
itchw
ould make a little note to that effect in its "status m
ap," recognizing
that the fellow sw
itch was back and ready to go, and should be sent som
ecalls and
put b
ack to reg
ular work.
Unfo
rtunately, while it w
as busy b
ookkeep
ing w
ith the status map
, thetiny flaw
in the brand
-new so
ftware cam
e into p
lay. The flaw
caused the
4ES
S sw
itch to interacted
, subtly b
ut drastically, w
ith incom
ing tele-
pho
ne calls from
human users. If —
and o
nly if — tw
o inco
ming
pho
ne-calls happened to hit the sw
itch within a hundredth of a second, then a
small patch of data w
ould be garbled by the flaw.
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But the sw
itch had b
een pro
gram
med
to m
onito
r itself constantly fo
r anypossible dam
age to its data. When the sw
itch perceived that its data hadbeen som
ehow g
arbled, then it too w
ould go dow
n, for swift repairs to
its softw
are. It would
signal its fello
w sw
itches not to
send any m
ore
work. It w
ould
go into
the fault- recovery m
ode fo
r four to
six second
s.A
nd then the switch w
ould be fine again, and would send out its "O
K,
ready fo
r work" sig
nal.
How
ever, the "OK, read
y for w
ork" sig
nal was the *very thing
that hadcaused the sw
itch to go dow
n in the first place.* And *all* the System
7 sw
itches had the same flaw
in their status-map softw
are. As soon as
they stopped to make the bookkeeping note that their fellow
switch w
as"O
K," then they too w
ould become vulnerable to the slight chance that
two p
hone-calls w
ould
hit them w
ithin a hundred
th of a seco
nd.
At ap
pro
ximately 2
:25
p.m
. EST o
n Mond
ay, January 15
, one o
f AT&
T's
4ES
S to
ll switching
systems in N
ew Y
ork C
ity had an actual, leg
itimate,
mino
r pro
blem
. It went into
fault recovery ro
utines, announced
"I'mgoing
down," then announced, "I'm
back, I'm
OK." A
nd this cheery mes-
sage then blasted throughout the network to m
any of its fellow 4
ESSsw
itches.
Many o
f the switches, at first, co
mpletely escap
ed tro
uble. T
hese luckysw
itches were no
t hit by the co
incidence o
f two p
hone calls w
ithin ahundredth of a second. T
heir software did not fail —
at first. But three
switches —
in Atlanta, S
t. Louis, and
Detro
it — w
ere unlucky, and w
erecaught w
ith their hands full. And they w
ent down. A
nd they came back
up, almost im
mediately. A
nd they too began to broadcast the lethal mes-
sage that they, too, w
ere "OK" ag
ain, activating the lurking
software b
ugin yet o
ther switches.
As m
ore and more sw
itches did have that bit of bad luck and collapsed,the call-traffic b
ecame m
ore and
more d
ensely packed
in the remaining
switches, w
hich were g
roaning to keep up w
ith the load. And of course,
as the calls becam
e more densely packed, the sw
itches were *m
uch more
likely* to b
e hit twice w
ithin a hundred
th of a seco
nd.
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It only to
ok fo
ur second
s for a sw
itch to g
et well. T
here was no
*physi-
cal* dam
age o
f any kind to
the switches, after all. Physically, they
were w
orking
perfectly. T
his situation w
as "only" a so
ftware p
roblem
.
But the 4
ESS sw
itches were leap
ing up
and d
ow
n every four to
six sec-ond
s, in a virulent spread
ing w
ave all over A
merica, in utter, m
anic,m
echanical stupid
ity. They kep
t *knocking
* one ano
ther dow
n with
their contagious "OK" m
essages.
It took ab
out ten m
inutes for the chain reactio
n to crip
ple the netw
ork.
Even then, switches w
ould
perio
dically luck-o
ut and m
anage to
resume
their norm
al work. M
any calls — m
illions o
f them —
were m
anaging
toget thro
ugh. B
ut millio
ns weren't.
The sw
itching stations that used System 6
were not directly affected.
Thanks to these old-fashioned sw
itches, AT&
T's national system
avoidedcom
plete collapse. This fact also m
ade it clear to engineers that System7
was at fault.
Bell L
abs e
ngin
eers, w
orkin
g fe
verish
ly in
New
Jerse
y, Illin
ois, an
dO
hio, first tried
their entire reperto
ire of stand
ard netw
ork rem
edies
on the malfunctioning System
7. N
one of the remedies w
orked, ofcourse, because nothing like this had ever happened to any phone systembefo
re.
By cutting
out the b
ackup safety netw
ork entirely, they w
ere able to
reduce the frenzy of "OK" m
essages by about half. The system
thenbeg
an to recover, as the chain reaction slowed. B
y 11:3
0 pm
on Monday
January 15
, sweating
engineers o
n the mid
night shift b
reathed a sig
h of
relief as the last switch cleared
-up.
By T
uesday they w
ere pulling
all the brand
-new 4
ESS so
ftware and
replacin
g it w
ith an
earlier version o
f System
7.
If these had b
een human o
perato
rs, rather than com
puters at w
ork,
someone w
ould simply have eventually stopped scream
ing. It w
ould havebeen *obvious* that the situation w
as not "OK," and com
mon sense w
ouldhave kicked in. H
umans possess com
mon sense —
at least to some
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extent. Com
puters sim
ply d
on't.
On the other hand, com
puters can handle hundreds of calls per second.H
umans sim
ply can't. If every sing
le human b
eing in A
merica w
orked
for the phone company, w
e couldn't match the perform
ance of digitalsw
itches: d
irect-d
ialling, th
ree-w
ay callin
g, sp
eed-callin
g, call- w
ait-ing
, Caller ID
, all the rest of the co
rnucopia o
f dig
ital bounty.
Rep
lacing co
mputers w
ith operato
rs is simply no
t an optio
n any more.
And
yet we still, anachro
nistically, expect hum
ans to b
e running o
urphone system
. It is hard for us to understand that we have sacrificed
huge am
ounts o
f initiative and co
ntrol to
senseless yet pow
erfulm
achines. When the phones fail, w
e want som
ebody to b
e responsible.
We w
ant somebody to blam
e.
When the C
rash of January 1
5 hap
pened
, the Am
erican populace w
assim
ply no
t prep
ared to
understand
that enorm
ous land
slides in cyb
er-sp
ace, like the Crash itself, can hap
pen, and
can be no
body's fault in
particular. It w
as easier to b
elieve, mayb
e even in som
e odd w
ay more
reassuring to
believe, that so
me evil p
erson, o
r evil gro
up, had
done
this to us. "H
ackers" had d
one it. W
ith a virus. A tro
jan horse. A
soft-
ware b
om
b. A
dirty p
lot o
f som
e kind. Peo
ple b
elieved this, resp
onsi-
ble p
eople. In 1
99
0, they w
ere looking
hard fo
r evidence to
confirm
their h
eartfelt susp
icions.
And they w
ould look in a lot of places.
Com
e 19
91
, how
ever, the outlines o
f an apparent new
reality would
begin to emerge from
the fog.
On July 1
and 2
, 19
91
, com
puter-so
ftware co
llapses in telep
hone
switching
stations d
isrupted
service in Washing
ton D
C, Pittsb
urgh, Lo
sA
ngeles and San Francisco. O
nce again, seem
ingly m
inor maintenance
pro
blem
s had crip
pled
the dig
ital System
7. A
bout tw
elve millio
n peo
-ple w
ere affected in the C
rash of July 1
, 19
91
.
Said the New
York T
imes Service: "T
elephone company executives and
federal reg
ulators said
they were no
t ruling o
ut the possib
ility of sab
o-
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IAL
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tage by computer hackers, but m
ost seemed to think the problem
sstem
med from
some unknow
n defect in the software running
the net-w
orks."
And sure enoug
h, within the w
eek, a red-faced software com
pany, DSC
Com
municatio
ns Corp
oratio
n of Plano
, Texas, o
wned
up to
"glitches" in
the "signal transfer p
oint" so
ftware that D
SC had
desig
ned fo
r Bell
Atlantic and
Pacific Bell. T
he imm
ediate cause o
f the July 1 C
rash was a
single m
istyped
character: one tiny typ
ograp
hical flaw in o
ne single
line of the so
ftware. O
ne mistyp
ed letter, in o
ne single line, had
dep
rived the natio
n's capital o
f pho
ne service. It was no
t particularly
surprising
that this tiny flaw had
escaped
attention: a typ
ical System
7statio
n requires *ten m
illion* lines o
f code.
On T
uesday, September 1
7, 1
991, cam
e the most spectacular outage yet.
This case had
nothing
to d
o w
ith softw
are failures — at least, no
t direct-
ly. Instead, a g
roup
of A
T&
T's sw
itching statio
ns in New
York C
ity hadsim
ply run o
ut of electrical p
ow
er and shut d
ow
n cold
. Their b
ack-upbatteries had failed. A
utomatic w
arning system
s were supposed to w
arnof the loss of battery pow
er, but those automatic system
s had failed asw
ell.
This tim
e, Kenned
y, La Guard
ia, and N
ewark airp
orts all had
their voice
and d
ata com
municatio
ns cut. This ho
rrifying event w
as particularly
ironic, as attacks o
n airport co
mputers b
y hackers had lo
ng b
een a stan-dard
nightm
are scenario, m
uch trumpeted
by co
mputer- security
experts who feared the com
puter underground. There had even been a
Hollyw
ood th
riller about sin
ister hackers ru
inin
g airp
ort co
mputers —
*Die
Hard
II.*
Now
AT&
T itself had
crippled
airports w
ith com
puter m
alfunctions —
not just o
ne airport, b
ut three at once, so
me o
f the busiest in the w
orld
.
Air traffic cam
e to a stand
still throug
hout the G
reater New
York area,
causing m
ore than 5
00
flights to
be cancelled
, in a spread
ing w
ave allover A
merica and
even into Euro
pe. A
nother 5
00
or so
flights w
eredelayed
, affecting, all in all, ab
out 8
5,0
00
passeng
ers. (One o
f thesepasseng
ers was the chairm
an of the Fed
eral Com
municatio
ns
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
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R C
OM
ME
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IAL
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Com
missio
n.)
Strand
ed p
assengers in N
ew Y
ork and
New
Jersey were further infuri-
ated to discover that they could not even manage to m
ake a long distancepho
ne call, to exp
lain their delay to
loved
ones o
r business asso
ciates.Thanks to
the crash, about fo
ur and a half m
illion d
om
estic calls, andhalf a m
illion internatio
nal calls, failed to
get thro
ugh.
The S
eptem
ber 1
7 N
YC C
rash, unlike the previo
us ones, invo
lved no
t aw
hisper o
f "hacker" misd
eeds. O
n the contrary, b
y 19
91
, AT&
T itself
was suffering
much o
f the vilification that had
form
erly been d
irected at
hackers. Cong
ressmen w
ere grum
bling
. So w
ere state and fed
eral regu-
lators. A
nd so
was the p
ress.
For their p
art, ancient rival MC
I took o
ut snide full- p
age new
spap
erad
s in New
York, o
ffering their o
wn lo
ng- d
istance services for the
"next time that A
T&
T goes dow
n."
"You w
ould
n't find a classy co
mpany like A
T&
T using
such advertising
,"pro
tested A
T&
T C
hairman R
obert A
llen, unconvincing
ly. Once ag
ain, out
came the full-p
age A
T&
T ap
olo
gies in new
spap
ers, apolo
gies fo
r "aninexcusab
le culminatio
n of b
oth hum
an and m
echanical failure." (This
time, ho
wever, A
T&
T o
ffered no
disco
unt on later calls. U
nkind critics
suggested that AT&
T w
ere worried about setting any precedent for
refunding
the financial losses caused
by telep
hone crashes.)
Industry jo
urnals asked p
ublicly if A
T&
T w
as "asleep at the sw
itch."The telep
hone netw
ork, A
merica's p
urported
marvel o
f high-tech relia-
bility, had
gone d
ow
n three times in 1
8 m
onths. *Fo
rtune* mag
azinelisted the C
rash of September 1
7 am
ong the "Biggest B
usiness Goofs of
19
91
," cruelly paro
dying
AT&
T's ad
campaig
n in an article entitled"A
T&
T W
ants You B
ack (Safely O
n the Gro
und, G
od W
illing)."
Why had
those N
ew Y
ork sw
itching system
s simply run o
ut of p
ow
er?Because no hum
an being had attended to the alarm system
. Why did the
alarm system
s blare auto
matically, w
ithout any hum
an being
noticing
?Because the three telco
technicians who
*should
* have been listening
were ab
sent from
their stations in the p
ow
er-room
, on ano
ther floor o
f
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
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the build
ing —
attending
a training class. A
training class ab
out the
alarm system
s for the p
ow
er room
!
"Crashing the System
" was no longer "unprecedented" by late 1
991. O
nthe co
ntrary, it no lo
nger even seem
ed an o
ddity. B
y 19
91
, it was clear
that all the policemen in the w
orld could no longer "protect" the phone
system fro
m crashes. B
y far the worst crashes the system
had ever
had, had
been inflicted
, by the system
, upon *itself.* A
nd this tim
enobody w
as making cocksure statem
ents that this was an anom
aly,som
ething that would never happen again. B
y 1991 the System
'sdefenders had m
et their nebulous Enemy, and the Enem
y was —
theSystem
.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
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E5 3
PA
RT
T
WO
THE D
IGIT
AL U
NDERGROUND
The d
ate was M
ay 9, 1
99
0. T
he Pope w
as touring
Mexico
City.
Hustlers fro
m th
e Med
ellin C
artel were tryin
g to
buy b
lack-market
Sting
er missiles in Flo
rida. O
n the com
ics pag
e, Doonesb
ury characterA
ndy was dying
of AID
S. And then.... a hig
hly unusual item w
hose novel-ty and
calculated rheto
ric won it head
scratching attentio
n in newsp
apers
all over A
merica.
The U
S A
ttorney's o
ffice in Phoenix, A
rizona, had
issued a p
ress releaseanno
uncing a natio
nwid
e law enfo
rcement crackd
ow
n against "illeg
alco
mputer hacking
activities." The sw
eep w
as officially kno
wn as
"Operatio
n Sund
evil."
Eight p
aragrap
hs in the press release g
ave the bare facts: tw
enty-sevensearch w
arrants carried o
ut on M
ay 8, w
ith three arrests, and a hun-
dred
and fifty ag
ents on the p
row
l in "twelve" cities acro
ss Am
erica.(D
ifferent counts in lo
cal press rep
orts yield
ed "thirteen," "fo
urteen,"and
"sixteen" cities.) Officials estim
ated that crim
inal losses o
f rev-enue to
telepho
ne com
panies "m
ay run into m
illions o
f dollars." C
redit
for the S
undevil investig
ations w
as taken by the U
S S
ecret Service,
Assistant U
S Attorney T
im H
oltzen of Phoenix, and the Assistant
Atto
rney General o
f Arizo
na, Gail T
hackeray.
The p
repared
remarks o
f Garry M
. Jenkins, appearing
in a U.S
.D
epartm
ent of Justice p
ress release, were o
f particular interest. M
r.Jenkins w
as the Assistant D
irector o
f the US S
ecret Service, and
thehig
hest-ranking fed
eral official to
take any direct p
ublic ro
le in thehacker crackd
ow
n of 1
99
0.
"Today, the Secret Service is sending a clear m
essage to those computer
hackers who
have decid
ed to
violate the law
s of this natio
n in the mis-
taken belief that they can successfully avoid detection b
y hiding b
ehindthe relative ano
nymity o
f their com
puter term
inals.(...) "Und
ergro
undgro
ups have b
een form
ed fo
r the purp
ose o
f exchanging
inform
ation rel-
evant to their crim
inal activities. These g
roup
s often co
mm
unicate with
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E5 4
each other through message system
s between com
puters called 'bulletinboard
s.' "Our exp
erience show
s that many co
mputer hacker susp
ects areno
long
er misg
uided
teenagers, m
ischievously p
laying g
ames w
ith theirco
mputers in their b
edro
om
s. Som
e are now
high tech co
mputer o
pera-
tors using com
puters to engag
e in unlawful conduct."
Who
were these "und
ergro
und g
roup
s" and "hig
h- tech operato
rs?"W
here had they co
me fro
m? W
hat did
they want? W
ho *w
ere* they?W
ere they "mischievo
us?" Were they d
angero
us? How
had "m
isguid
edteenagers" m
anaged to alarm the U
nited States Secret Service? And just
how
wid
espread
was this so
rt of thing
?
Of all the m
ajor p
layers in the Hacker C
rackdow
n: the pho
ne com
panies,
law enfo
rcement, the civil lib
ertarians, and the "hackers" them
selves —the "hackers" are b
y far the most m
ysterious, b
y far the hardest to
understand
, by far the *w
eirdest.*
Not o
nly are "hackers" novel in their activities, b
ut they com
e in avariety o
f odd sub
cultures, with a variety o
f languag
es, motives and
values.
The earliest p
roto
-hackers were p
robab
ly those unsung
mischievo
usteleg
raph b
oys w
ho w
ere summ
arily fired b
y the Bell C
om
pany in
18
78
.
Legitim
ate "hackers," those co
mputer enthusiasts w
ho are ind
epend
ent-m
inded
but law
-abid
ing, g
enerally trace th
eir spiritu
al ancestry to
elite technical universities, especially M
.I.T. and
Stanfo
rd, in the
19
60
s.
But the g
enuine roots o
f the modern hacker *und
ergro
und* can p
robab
lybe traced
most successfully to
a now
much-o
bscured
hippie anarchist
movem
ent known as the Y
ippies. The Y
ippies, who took their nam
efro
m the larg
ely fictional "Y
outh Internatio
nal Party," carried o
ut alo
ud an
d lively p
olicy o
f surrealistic su
bversio
n an
d o
utrag
eous p
oliti-
cal mischief. T
heir basic tenets w
ere flagrant sexual p
rom
iscuity, open
and co
pio
us drug
use, the political o
verthrow
of any p
ow
ermong
er over
thirty years of age, and an im
mediate end to the w
ar in Vietnam
, by any
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
5 5
means necessary, includ
ing the p
sychic levitation o
f the Pentagon.
The tw
o m
ost visib
le Yip
pies w
ere Abbie H
offm
an and Jerry R
ubin.
Rub
in eventually becam
e a Wall S
treet bro
ker. Hoffm
an, ardently
soug
ht by fed
eral authorities, w
ent into hid
ing fo
r seven years, inM
exico, France, and
the United
States. W
hile on the lam
, Hoffm
an con-
tinued to
write and
pub
lish, with help
from
sympathizers in the
Am
erican anarcho-leftist und
ergro
und. M
ostly, H
offm
an survivedthro
ugh false ID
and o
dd jo
bs. Eventually he und
erwent facial p
lasticsurg
ery and ad
opted
an entirely new id
entity as one "B
arry Freed."
After surrend
ering him
self to autho
rities in 19
80
, Hoffm
an spent a
year in priso
n on a co
caine convictio
n.
Hoffm
an's world
view g
rew m
uch darker as the g
lory d
ays of the 1
96
0s
faded. In 1989, he purportedly com
mitted suicide, under odd and, to
som
e, rather suspicio
us circumstances.
Abbie H
offman is said to have caused the Federal B
ureau of Investigation
to am
ass the single larg
est investigatio
n file ever opened
on an ind
ivid-
ual A
merican
citizen. (If th
is is true, it is still q
uestio
nab
le wheth
erthe FB
I regard
ed A
bbie H
offm
an a serious p
ublic threat —
quite p
ossi-
bly, his file w
as enorm
ous sim
ply b
ecause Hoffm
an left colo
rful leg-
endry w
herever he went). H
e was a g
ifted p
ublicist, w
ho reg
arded
electronic media as both playground and w
eapon. He actively enjoyed
manip
ulating netw
ork T
V and
other g
ullible, im
age- hung
ry med
ia,w
ith vario
us w
eird lies, m
indbogglin
g ru
mors, im
perso
natio
n scam
s,and
other sinister d
istortio
ns, all abso
lutely guaranteed
to up
set cops,
Presidential candidates, and federal judges. H
offman's m
ost famous
work w
as a book self-reflexively kn
ow
n as *S
teal This B
ook,* w
hich
pub
licized a num
ber o
f metho
ds b
y which yo
ung, p
enniless hippie ag
ita-tors m
ight live off the fat of a system
supported by hum
orless drones.*S
teal This B
ook,* w
hose title urg
ed read
ers to d
amag
e the very means
of d
istributio
n which had
put it into
their hands, m
ight b
e describ
ed as a
spiritual ancesto
r of a co
mputer virus.
Hoffm
an, like many a later co
nspirato
r, mad
e extensive use of p
ay-pho
nes for his ag
itation w
ork —
in his case, generally thro
ugh the use o
fcheap
brass w
ashers as coin-slug
s.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
5 6
During
the Vietnam
War, there w
as a federal surtax im
posed
on tele-
phone service; Hoffm
an and his cohorts could, and did, argue that in
systematically stealing
pho
ne service they were eng
aging
in civil dis-
obed
ience: virtuously d
enying tax fund
s to an illeg
al and im
moral w
ar.
But this thin veil o
f decency w
as soon d
ropped
entirely. Rip
ping
-off the
System
found
its ow
n justification in d
eep alienatio
n and a b
asic outlaw
contem
pt fo
r conventio
nal bourg
eois values. Ing
enious, vag
uely politi-
cized varieties o
f rip-o
ff, which m
ight b
e describ
ed as "anarchy b
yco
nvenience," becam
e very popular in Y
ippie circles, and
because rip
-off w
as so useful, it w
as to survive the Y
ippie m
ovem
ent itself.
In th
e early 19
70
s, it required
fairly limited
expertise an
d in
gen
uity to
cheat payp
hones, to
divert "free" electricity and
gas service, o
r to ro
bvending
machines and parking
meters for handy pocket chang
e. It alsoreq
uired a co
nspiracy to
spread
this know
ledge, and
the gall and
nerveactually to com
mit petty theft, b
ut the Yippies had these qualifications
in plenty. In June 1
97
1, A
bbie H
offm
an and a telep
hone enthusiast sar-
castically know
n as "Al B
ell" beg
an pub
lishing a new
sletter called*Y
outh Internatio
nal Party Line.* This new
sletter was d
edicated
to co
l-lating
and sp
reading
Yip
pie rip
-off techniq
ues, especially o
f pho
nes, tothe joy of the freew
heeling underg
round and the insensate rage of all
straight p
eople.
As a p
olitical tactic, p
hone-service theft ensured
that Yip
pie ad
vocates
would alw
ays have ready access to the long-distance telephone as am
edium
, desp
ite the Yip
pies' chro
nic lack of o
rganizatio
n, discip
line,m
oney, or even a steady home address.
*Party Line* was run o
ut of G
reenwich V
illage fo
r a coup
le of years,
then "Al B
ell" more o
r less defected
from
the faltering ranks o
fYip
pied
om
, changing
the newsletter's nam
e to *T
AP* o
r *Technical
Assistance Program
.* After the V
ietnam W
ar ended, the steam began
leaking rap
idly o
ut of A
merican rad
ical dissent. B
ut by this tim
e, "Bell"
and his dozen or so core contributors had the bit between their teeth,
and had
beg
un to d
erive tremend
ous g
ut-level satisfaction fro
m the sen-
sation o
f pure *technical p
ow
er.*
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
5 7
*TA
P* articles, o
nce h
ighly p
oliticized
, becam
e pitilessly jarg
onized
and technical, in ho
mag
e or p
arody to
the Bell S
ystem's o
wn technical
docum
ents, which *T
AP* stud
ied clo
sely, gutted
, and rep
roduced
witho
utperm
ission. T
he *TA
P* elite revelled in g
loating
possessio
n of the sp
e-cialized know
ledge necessary to beat the system.
"Al B
ell" dropped out of the game by the late 7
0s, and "T
om Edison" took
over; T
AP read
ers (som
e 14
00
of them
, all told
) now
beg
an to sho
wm
ore interest in telex sw
itches and the g
row
ing p
henom
enon o
f com
put-
er systems.
In 19
83
, "Tom
Ediso
n" had his co
mputer sto
len and his ho
use set on fire
by an arso
nist. This w
as an eventually mortal b
low
to *T
AP* (tho
ugh
the legendary nam
e was to b
e resurrected in 1990 b
y a youngK
entuckian com
puter- o
utlaw nam
ed "Pred
at0r.")
__
__
_
Ever since telephones began to make m
oney, there have been peoplew
illing to rob and defraud phone companies. T
he legions of petty phonethieves vastly o
utnumber tho
se "pho
ne phreaks" w
ho "exp
lore the sys-
tem" fo
r the sake of the intellectual challeng
e. The N
ew Y
ork m
etropol-
itan area (long
in the vanguard
of A
merican crim
e) claims o
ver1
50
,00
0 p
hysical attacks on p
ay telepho
nes every year! Stud
ied care-
fully, a m
odern
payp
hone reveals itself as a little fo
rtress, carefully
designed and redesig
ned over generations, to resist coin- slug
s, zaps ofelectricity, chunks o
f coin-shap
ed ice, p
rybars, m
agnets, lo
ckpicks,
blastin
g cap
s. Public p
ay- phones m
ust su
rvive in a w
orld
of u
nfrien
d-
ly, greedy people, and a m
odern payphone is as exquisitely evolved as acactus.
Because the phone netw
ork pre-dates the computer netw
ork, thesco
fflaws kno
wn as "p
hone p
hreaks" pre-d
ate the scofflaw
s know
n as"co
mputer hackers." In p
ractice, today, the line b
etween "p
hreaking"
and "hacking
" is very blurred
, just as the distinctio
n betw
een tele-phones and com
puters has blurred. The phone system
has been digitized,and
com
puters have learned
to "talk" o
ver pho
ne-lines. What's w
orse
— and this w
as the point of the Mr. Jenkins of the Secret Service —
some
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
5 8
hackers have learned to steal, and some thieves have learned to hack.
Desp
ite the b
lurrin
g, o
ne can
still draw
a few u
seful b
ehavio
ral distin
c-tio
ns betw
een "phreaks" and
"hackers." Hackers are intensely interested
in the "system" p
er se, and enjo
y relating to
machines. "Phreaks" are
more so
cial, manip
ulating the system
in a roug
h-and-read
y fashion in
order to get through to other human beings, fast, cheap and under the
table.
Phone p
hreaks love no
thing so
much as "b
ridges," illeg
al conference
calls of ten o
r twelve chatting
consp
irators, seab
oard
to seab
oard
, last-ing
for many hours —
and running, of course, on som
ebody else's tab
,preferab
ly a large co
rporatio
n's.
As p
hone-p
hreak conferences w
ear on, p
eople d
rop o
ut (or sim
ply leave
the phone off the hook, while they sashay off to w
ork or school orbab
ysitting), and
new p
eople are p
honed
up and
invited to
join in, fro
mso
me o
ther continent, if p
ossib
le. Technical trivia, b
oasts, b
rags, lies,
head
-trip d
eceptio
ns, w
eird ru
mors, an
d cru
el gossip
are all freelyexchang
ed.
The low
est rung of phone-phreaking
is the theft of telephone accesscodes. C
harging a phone call to somebody else's stolen num
ber is, ofco
urse, a pig
-easy way o
f stealing p
hone service, req
uiring p
racticallyno
technical expertise. T
his practice has b
een very wid
espread
, espe-
cially among
lonely p
eople w
ithout m
uch money w
ho are far fro
m ho
me.
Code theft has flo
urished esp
ecially in colleg
e dorm
s, military b
ases,and, notoriously, am
ong roadies for rock bands. Of late, code theft has
spread
very rapid
ly among T
hird
World
ers in th
e US, w
ho p
ile up en
or-
mous unp
aid lo
ng-d
istance bills to
the Carib
bean, S
outh A
merica, and
Pakistan.
The sim
plest w
ay to steal p
hone-co
des is sim
ply to
look o
ver a victim's
should
er as he punches-in his o
wn co
de-num
ber o
n a pub
lic payp
hone.
This techniq
ue is know
n as "should
er-surfing," and
is especially co
m-
mon in airp
orts, b
us terminals, and
train stations. T
he code is then so
ldby the thief for a few
dollars. The b
uyer abusing
the code has no com-
puter exp
ertise, but calls his M
om
in New
York, K
ingsto
n or C
aracas
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and ru
ns u
p a h
uge b
ill with
impunity. T
he lo
sses from
this p
rimitive
phreaking
activity are far, far greater than the m
onetary lo
sses causedby co
mputer-in
trudin
g h
ackers.
In the mid
-to-late 1
98
0s, until the intro
ductio
n of sterner telco
secu-rity m
easures, *com
puterized
* code theft w
orked
like a charm, and
was
virtually om
nipresent thro
ugho
ut the dig
ital underg
round
, among
phreaks and
hackers alike. This w
as accom
plished
throug
h pro
gram
-m
ing one's computer to try random
code numbers over the telephone
until one o
f them w
orked
. Sim
ple p
rogram
s to d
o this w
ere wid
elyavailab
le in the underg
round
; a com
puter running
all night w
as likely tocom
e up with a dozen or so useful hits. T
his could be repeated week
after week until o
ne had a larg
e library o
f stolen co
des.
Now
adays, the computerized dialling
of hundreds of numbers can b
edetected w
ithin hours and swiftly traced. If a stolen code is repeatedly
abused, this too can be detected within a few
hours. But for years in the
19
80
s, the pub
lication o
f stolen co
des w
as a kind o
f elementary eti-
quette fo
r fledgling
hackers. The sim
plest w
ay to estab
lish your b
ona-
fides as a raider was to steal a code through repeated random
dialling andoffer it to the "com
munity" for use. C
odes could be both stolen, andused
, simply and
easily from
the safety of o
ne's ow
n bed
room
, with very
little fear of d
etection o
r punishm
ent.
Befo
re com
puters and
their pho
ne-line modem
s entered A
merican ho
mes
in gig
antic numbers, p
hone p
hreaks had their o
wn sp
ecial telecom
muni-
cations hardware g
adget, the fam
ous "blue b
ox." This fraud device (now
rendered
increasingly useless b
y the dig
ital evolutio
n of the p
hone sys-
tem) co
uld trick sw
itching system
s into g
ranting free access to
long
-distance lines. It d
id this b
y mim
icking the system
's ow
n signal, a to
neof 2
60
0 hertz.
Steven Jobs and Steve W
ozniak, the founders of Apple C
omputer, Inc.,
once d
abbled
in selling b
lue-boxes in co
llege d
orm
s in Califo
rnia. For
man
y, in th
e early days o
f phreakin
g, b
lue-b
oxin
g w
as scarcely per-
ceived as "theft," b
ut rather as a fun (if sneaky) way to
use excesspho
ne capacity harm
lessly. After all, the lo
ng-d
istance lines were
*just sittin
g th
ere*.... Whom
did
it hurt, really? If yo
u're n
ot *d
am-
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aging
* the system, and
you're no
t *using up
any tangib
le resource,*
and if no
body *find
s out* w
hat you d
id, then w
hat real harm have yo
udone? W
hat exactly *have* you "sto
len," anyway? If a tree falls in the
forest and
nobody hears it, ho
w m
uch is the noise w
orth? Even no
w this
remains a rather d
icey questio
n.
Blue-b
oxing
was no
joke to
the pho
ne com
panies, ho
wever. Ind
eed,
when
*Ram
parts* m
agazin
e, a radical p
ublicatio
n in
Califo
rnia, p
rinted
the wiring
schematics necessary to
create a mute b
ox in June 1
97
2,
the mag
azine was seized
by p
olice and
Pacific Bell p
hone- co
mpany o
ffi-cials. T
he mute b
ox, a b
lue-box variant, allo
wed
its user to receive
long
-distance calls free o
f charge to
the caller. This d
evice was clo
selydescrib
ed in a *R
amparts* article w
ryly titled "R
egulating
the Phone
Com
pany In Y
our H
om
e." Publicatio
n of this article w
as held to
be in
violatio
n of C
alifornian S
tate Penal Code sectio
n 50
2.7
, which o
utlaws
ow
nersh
ip o
f wire-frau
d d
evices and th
e selling o
f "plan
s or in
struc-
tions fo
r any instrument, ap
paratus, o
r device intend
ed to
avoid
tele-pho
ne toll charg
es."
Issues of *R
amparts* w
ere recalled o
r seized o
n the newsstand
s, and the
resultant loss of income helped put the m
agazine out of b
usiness. This
was an o
mino
us preced
ent for free-exp
ression issues, b
ut the telco's
crushing o
f a radical-fring
e mag
azine passed
witho
ut serious challeng
eat the tim
e. Even in the freewheeling
Califo
rnia 19
70
s, it was w
idely
felt that there was som
ething sacrosanct about what the phone com
panyknew
; that the telco had
a legal and
moral rig
ht to p
rotect itself b
y shut-ting
off the flo
w o
f such illicit inform
ation. M
ost telco
inform
ation w
asso "specialized" that it w
ould scarcely be understood by any honestm
ember o
f the pub
lic. If not p
ublished
, it would
not b
e missed
. To
print such m
aterial did
not seem
part o
f the legitim
ate role o
f a freepress.
In 19
90
there would
be a sim
ilar telco-insp
ired attack o
n the electron-
ic phreak/h
acking "m
agazin
e" *Phrack.* T
he *P
hrack* leg
al casebecam
e a central issue in the Hacker C
rackdown, and g
ave rise to great
contro
versy. *Phrack* would
also b
e shut dow
n, for a tim
e, at least,but this tim
e both the telco
s and their law
-enforcem
ent allies would
pay
a much
larger p
rice for th
eir actions. T
he *P
hrack* case w
ill be
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examined
in detail, later.
Phone-p
hreakin
g as a so
cial practice is still very m
uch
alive at this
mom
ent. Today, p
hone-p
hreaking is thriving
much m
ore vig
oro
uslythan the b
etter-know
n and w
orse-feared
practice o
f "com
puter hack-
ing." N
ew fo
rms o
f phreaking
are spread
ing rap
idly, fo
llow
ing new
vulnerabilities in so
phisticated
pho
ne services.
Cellu
lar phones are
esp
ecially
vuln
erab
le; th
eir ch
ips can
be re
-pro
-gram
med
to p
resent a false caller ID and
avoid
billing
. Doing
so also
avoid
s police tap
ping
, making
cellular-pho
ne abuse a favo
rite among
dru
g-d
ealers. "Call-sell o
peratio
ns" u
sing p
irate cellular p
hones can
,and
have, been run rig
ht out o
f the backs o
f cars, which m
ove fro
m"cell" to
"cell" in the local p
hone system
, retailing sto
len long
-distance
service, like som
e kind o
f dem
ented electro
nic version o
f the neighb
or-
hood ice-cream
truck.
Private branch-exchang
e pho
ne systems in larg
e corp
oratio
ns can be
penetrated
; phreaks d
ial-up a lo
cal com
pany, enter its internal p
hone-
system, hack it, then use the com
pany's own PB
X system to dial back out
over the public netw
ork, causing the com
pany to be stuck w
ith theresulting
long
-distance b
ill. This techniq
ue is know
n as "diverting
.""D
iverting" can b
e very costly, esp
ecially because p
hreaks tend to
travel in packs and
never stop talking
. Perhaps the w
orst b
y-pro
duct
of this "PBX fraud" is that victim
companies and telcos have sued one
another o
ver the financial responsib
ility for the sto
len calls, thusen
richin
g n
ot o
nly sh
abby p
hreaks b
ut w
ell-paid
lawyers.
"Voice-m
ail systems" can also
be ab
used; p
hreaks can seize their ow
nsections of these sophisticated electronic answ
ering m
achines, and usethem
for trad
ing co
des o
r know
ledge o
f illegal techniq
ues. Voice-m
ailab
use does not hurt the company directly, b
ut finding supposedly em
ptyslo
ts in your co
mpany's answ
ering m
achine all cramm
ed w
ith phreaks
eagerly chattering
and hey-d
uding
one ano
ther in impenetrab
le jargon
can cause sensations of almost m
ystical repulsion and dread.
Worse yet, p
hreaks have som
etimes b
een know
n to react truculently to
attempts to
"clean up" the vo
ice-mail system
. Rather than hum
bly
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acquiescing
to b
eing thro
wn o
ut of their p
laygro
und, they m
ay very well
call up the co
mpany o
fficials at work (o
r at hom
e) and lo
udly d
emand
free voice-m
ail addresses o
f their very ow
n. Such b
ullying is taken
very seriously b
y spooked
victims.
Acts o
f phreak reveng
e against straig
ht peo
ple are rare, b
ut voice-m
ailsystem
s are especially tem
pting
and vulnerab
le, and an infestatio
n of
angry p
hreaks in one's vo
ice-mail system
is no jo
ke. They can erase
legitim
ate messag
es; or sp
y on p
rivate messag
es; or harass users w
ithrecorded taunts and obscenities. T
hey've even been known to seize con-
trol o
f voice-m
ail security, and lo
ck out leg
itimate users, o
r even shutdow
n the system entirely.
Cellu
lar phone-calls, co
rdless p
hones, an
d sh
ip-to
- shore telep
hony
can all be m
onito
red b
y various fo
rms o
f radio
; this kind o
f "passive
monito
ring" is sp
reading
explo
sively today. T
echnically eavesdro
pping
on o
ther peo
ple's co
rdless and
cellular pho
ne-calls is the fastest-gro
wing
area in phreaking
today. T
his practice stro
ngly ap
peals to
thelust fo
r pow
er and co
nveys gratifying
sensations o
f technical superio
ri-ty o
ver the eavesdro
pping
victim. M
onito
ring is rife w
ith all manner o
ftem
pting
evil mischief. S
imple p
rurient snooping
is by far the m
ost
com
mon activity. B
ut credit-card
numbers unw
arily spoken o
ver thephone can be recorded, stolen and used. A
nd tapping people's phone-calls(w
hether throug
h active telepho
ne taps o
r passive rad
io m
onito
rs) does
lend itse
lf conve
nie
ntly to
activities like
blackm
ail, industrial e
spi-
onag
e, and p
olitical d
irty tricks.
It should be repeated that telecomm
unications fraud, the theft of phoneservice, causes vastly g
reater monetary lo
sses than the practice o
fentering
into co
mputers b
y stealth. Hackers are m
ostly yo
ung sub
ur-ban A
merican w
hite males, and
exist in their hundred
s — b
ut "phreaks"
come from
both sexes and from m
any nationalities, ages and ethnicbackg
round
s, and are flo
urishing in the tho
usands.
__
__
_
The term
"hacker" has had an unfo
rtunate history. T
his book, *T
heH
acker Crackd
ow
n,* h
as little to say ab
out "h
acking" in
its finer, o
rigi-
nal sense. The term
can signify the free-w
heeling intellectual exp
lo-
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ration of the highest and deepest potential of computer system
s.H
acking can describe the determination to m
ake access to computers and
inform
ation as free and
open as p
ossib
le. Hacking
can involve the
heartfelt conviction that beauty can b
e found in computers, that the fine
aesthetic in a perfect p
rogram
can liberate the m
ind and
spirit. T
his is"hacking
" as it was d
efined in S
teven Levy's much-p
raised histo
ry of the
pio
neer co
mpute
r milie
u, *H
ackers,* p
ublish
ed in
19
84
.
Hackers o
f all kinds are ab
solutely so
aked thro
ugh w
ith heroic anti-
bureaucratic sentim
ent. Hackers lo
ng fo
r recognitio
n as a praisew
orthy
cultural archetype, the p
ostm
odern electro
nic equivalent o
f the cow
boy
and m
ountain m
an. Whether they d
eserve such a reputatio
n is som
e-thing
for histo
ry to d
ecide. B
ut many hackers —
including
those o
utlawhackers w
ho are co
mputer intrud
ers, and w
hose activities are d
efined as
criminal —
actually attempt to
*live up to
* this techno-co
wboy rep
uta-tio
n. And
given that electro
nics and teleco
mm
unications are still larg
e-ly u
nexp
lore
d te
rritorie
s, there
is simply *n
o te
lling* w
hat h
ackers
mig
ht uncover.
For so
me p
eople, this freed
om
is the very breath o
f oxyg
en, the inven-tive sp
ontaneity that m
akes life worth living
and that fling
s open d
oors
to m
arvellous p
ossib
ility and ind
ividual em
pow
erment. B
ut for m
anypeo
ple —
and increasing
ly so —
the hacker is an om
inous fig
ure, asm
art- aleck socio
path read
y to b
urst out o
f his basem
ent wild
ernessand
savage o
ther peo
ple's lives fo
r his ow
n anarchical convenience.
Any fo
rm o
f pow
er witho
ut responsib
ility, witho
ut direct and
form
alchecks and b
alances, is frightening
to people — and reasonab
ly so. Itsho
uld b
e frankly adm
itted that hackers *are* frig
htening, and
that thebasis o
f this fear is n
ot irratio
nal.
Fear of hackers g
oes w
ell beyo
nd the fear o
f merely crim
inal activity.
Sub
version and
manip
ulation o
f the pho
ne system is an act w
ith dis-
turbing
political o
vertones. In A
merica, co
mputers and
telepho
nes arepotent sym
bols of organized authority and the technocratic businesselite.
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But there is an elem
ent in Am
erican culture that has always stro
ngly
rebelled
against these sym
bols; reb
elled ag
ainst all large ind
ustrialco
mputers and
all pho
ne com
panies. A
certain anarchical tinge d
eep in
the Am
erican soul d
elights in causing
confusio
n and p
ain to all b
ureau-cracies, includ
ing techno
logical o
nes.
There is so
metim
es malice and
vandalism
in this attitude, b
ut it is adeep and cherished part o
f the Am
erican national character. T
he outlaw
,the reb
el, the rugged
individ
ual, the pio
neer, the sturdy Jefferso
nianyeo
man, the p
rivate citizen resisting interference in his p
ursuit of
happiness —
these are figures that all A
mericans reco
gnize, and
thatm
any will stro
ngly ap
plaud
and d
efend.
Many scrup
ulously law
-abid
ing citizens to
day d
o cutting
-edge w
ork
with electro
nics — w
ork that has alread
y had trem
endous so
cial influ-ence and
will have m
uch more in years to
com
e. In all truth, these tal-ented
, hardw
orking
, law-ab
iding
, mature, ad
ult peo
ple are far m
ore
disturbing to the peace and order of the current status quo than anysco
fflaw g
roup
of ro
mantic teenag
e punk kid
s. These law
-abid
ing hack-
ers have the pow
er, ability, and
willing
ness to influence o
ther peo
ple's
lives quite unp
redictab
ly. They have m
eans, motive, and
opportunity to
med
dle d
rastically with the A
merican so
cial ord
er. When co
rralledinto
governm
ents, universities, or larg
e multinatio
nal com
panies, and
forced to follow ruleb
ooks and wear suits and ties, they at least have
some conventional halters on their freedom
of action. But w
hen loosedalo
ne, or in sm
all gro
ups, and
fired b
y imag
ination and
the entrepre-
neurial spirit, they can m
ove m
ountains —
causing land
slides that w
illlikely crash
directly in
to yo
ur o
ffice and livin
g ro
om
.
These p
eople, as a class, instinctively reco
gnize that a p
ublic, p
oliti-
cized attack on hackers will eventually spread to them
— that the term
"hacker," once demonized, m
ight be used to knock their hands off thelevers of pow
er and choke them out of existence. T
here are hackersto
day w
ho fiercely and
pub
licly resist any besm
irching o
f the noble title
of hacker. N
aturally and und
erstandab
ly, they deep
ly resent the attackon their values im
plicit in using
the word
"hacker" as a synonym
for
com
pute
r-crimin
al.
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This b
ook, sad
ly but in m
y opinio
n unavoid
ably, rather ad
ds to
thedeg
radatio
n of the term
. It concerns itself m
ostly w
ith "hacking" in its
com
monest latter-d
ay definitio
n, i.e., intruding
into co
mputer system
sby stealth and
witho
ut perm
ission.
The term
"hacking" is used
routinely to
day b
y almost all law
enforce-
ment o
fficials with any p
rofessio
nal interest in com
puter fraud
andab
use. Am
erican police d
escribe alm
ost any crim
e com
mitted
with, b
y,thro
ugh, o
r against a co
mputer as hacking
.
Most im
portantly, "hacker" is w
hat com
puter- intrud
ers choose to
call*them
selves.* Nobody w
ho "hacks" into
systems w
illingly d
escribes
him
self (rare
ly, herse
lf) as a "com
pute
r intru
der," "co
mpute
r tres-
passer," "cracker," "w
orm
er," "darksid
e hacker" or "hig
h tech streetgangster." Several other dem
eaning terms have been invented in the
hope that the p
ress and p
ublic w
ill leave the orig
inal sense of the w
ord
alone. But few
people actually use these terms. (I exem
pt the term"cyb
erpunk," w
hich a few hackers and
law enfo
rcement p
eople actually
do use. T
he term "cyb
erpunk" is d
rawn fro
m literary criticism
and has
som
e odd and
unlikely resonances, b
ut, like hacker, cyberp
unk too has
beco
me a crim
inal pejo
rative today.)
In any case, breaking
into co
mputer system
s was hard
ly alien to the
orig
inal hacker traditio
n. The first to
ttering system
s of the 1
96
0s
require
d fairly e
xtensive
inte
rnal su
rgery m
ere
ly to fu
nctio
n d
ay-by-
day. Their users "invaded" the deepest, m
ost arcane recesses of theiroperating
softw
are almost as a m
atter of ro
utine. "Com
puter security"
in these early, prim
itive systems w
as at best an aftertho
ught. W
hatsecurity there w
as, was entirely p
hysical, for it w
as assumed
that any-one allo
wed
near this expensive, arcane hard
ware w
ould
be a fully q
ual-ified
pro
fessional exp
ert.
In a campus enviro
nment, tho
ugh, this m
eant that grad
students, teach-
ing assistants, und
ergrad
uates, and eventually, all m
anner of d
ropouts
and hangers-on ended up accessing and often running the works.
Universities, even m
odern universities, are no
t in the business o
fm
aintain
ing secu
rity over in
form
ation. O
n th
e contrary, u
niversities,
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as institutions, p
re-date the "info
rmatio
n econo
my" b
y many centuries
and are no
t- for-p
rofit cultural entities, w
hose reaso
n for existence
(purp
orted
ly) is to d
iscover truth, co
dify it thro
ugh techniq
ues of
scholarship
, and then teach it. U
niversities are meant to
*pass the
torch o
f civilization,* no
t just dow
nload
data into
student skulls, and
thevalues of the academ
ic comm
unity are strongly at odds with those of all
would
-be in
form
ation em
pires. T
eachers at all levels, fro
m kin
der-
garten up, have proven to be shameless and persistent softw
are and datapirates. U
niversities do no
t merely "leak info
rmatio
n" but vig
oro
uslybroadcast free thought.
This clash o
f values has been fraug
ht with co
ntroversy. M
any hackersof the 1
96
0s rem
ember their p
rofessio
nal apprenticeship
as a long
guerilla w
ar against the up
tight m
ainframe-co
mputer "info
rmatio
npriestho
od." T
hese com
puter-hung
ry young
sters had to
struggle hard
for access to computing pow
er, and many of them
were not above cer-
tain, er, shortcuts. B
ut, over the years, this p
ractice freed co
mputing
from
the sterile reserve of lab
-coated
technocrats and
was larg
elyresp
onsib
le for the exp
losive g
row
th of co
mputing
in general so
ciety —esp
ecially *perso
nal* co
mputin
g.
Access to technical pow
er acted like catnip on certain of these young-
sters. Most o
f the basic techniq
ues of co
mputer intrusio
n: passw
ord
cracking, trap
doors, b
ackdoors, tro
jan horses —
were invented
in col-
lege enviro
nments in the 1
96
0s, in the early d
ays of netw
ork co
mput-
ing. S
om
e off-the-cuff exp
erience at com
puter intrusio
n was to
be in
the inform
al resume o
f most "hackers" and
many future ind
ustry giants.
Outside of the tiny cult of com
puter enthusiasts, few people thought
much ab
out the im
plicatio
ns of "b
reaking into
" com
puters. T
his sort o
factivity had
not yet b
een pub
licized, m
uch less criminalized
.
In the 19
60
s, definitio
ns of "p
roperty" and
"privacy" had
not yet b
eenextended to cyberspace. C
omputers w
ere not yet indispensable to soci-ety. T
here were no
vast datab
anks of vulnerab
le, pro
prietary info
rma-
tion sto
red in co
mputers, w
hich mig
ht be accessed
, copied
witho
ut per-
missio
n, erased, altered
, or sab
otag
ed. T
he stakes were lo
w in the early
days —
but they g
rew every year, exp
onentially, as co
mputers them
-selves g
rew.
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By the 1
99
0s, co
mm
ercial and p
olitical p
ressures had b
ecom
e over-
whelm
ing, and
they bro
ke the social b
ound
aries of the hacking
subcul-
ture. Hacking had becom
e too important to be left to the hackers.
Society was now
forced to tackle the intangib
le nature of cyberspace-
as-pro
perty, cyb
erspace as p
rivately-ow
ned unreal-estate. In the
new, severe, resp
onsib
le, high- stakes co
ntext of the "Info
rmatio
nSociety" o
f the 19
90
s, "hacking" w
as called into
questio
n.
What d
id it m
ean to b
reak into a co
mputer w
ithout p
ermissio
n and use
its com
putatio
nal pow
er, or lo
ok aro
und insid
e its files witho
ut hurtinganything
? What w
ere com
puter-intrud
ing hackers, anyw
ay — ho
wsho
uld so
ciety, and the law
, best d
efine their actions? W
ere they just*b
row
sers,* h
armle
ss inte
llectu
al exp
lore
rs? W
ere
they *vo
yeurs,*
snoops, invad
ers of p
rivacy? Sho
uld they b
e sternly treated as p
otential
*agents o
f espio
nage,* o
r perhap
s as *industrial sp
ies?* Or w
ere theybest d
efined as *tresp
assers,* a very com
mon teenag
e misd
emeano
r?W
as hacking *theft o
f service?* (After all, intrud
ers were g
ettingso
meo
ne else's com
puter to
carry out their o
rders, w
ithout p
ermissio
nand
witho
ut paying
). Was hacking
*fraud?* M
aybe it w
as best
describ
ed as *im
perso
nation.* T
he com
monest m
ode o
f com
puter intru-
sion was (and is) to sw
ipe or snoop somebody else's passw
ord, and thenenter the com
puter in the guise of another person —
who is com
monly
stuck with the b
lame and
the bills.
Perhaps a medical m
etaphor was b
etter — hackers should b
e defined as"sick," as *co
mputer ad
dicts* unab
le to co
ntrol their irresp
onsib
le,co
mpulsive b
ehavior.
But these w
eighty assessments m
eant little to the people who w
ere actu-ally b
eing jud
ged
. From
inside the und
ergro
und w
orld
of hacking
itself,all these p
erceptio
ns seem q
uaint, wro
nghead
ed, stup
id, o
r meaning
less.The m
ost im
portant self-p
erceptio
n of und
ergro
und hackers —
from
the1
96
0s, rig
ht throug
h to the p
resent day —
is that they are an *elite.*The d
ay-to-d
ay struggle in the und
ergro
und is no
t over so
ciolo
gical d
ef-initions —
who cares? —
but for pow
er, knowledg
e, and status among
one's p
eers.
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When yo
u are a hacker, it is your o
wn inner co
nviction o
f your elite
status that enables yo
u to b
reak, or let us say "transcend
," the rules. Itis no
t that *all* rules go b
y the board
. The rules hab
itually bro
ken by
hackers are *unimportant* rules —
the rules of d
opey g
reedhead
telcobureaucrats and
pig
-igno
rant governm
ent pests.
Hackers have their *o
wn* rules, w
hich separate b
ehavior w
hich is cool
and elite, fro
m b
ehavior w
hich is rodentlike, stup
id and
losing
. These
"rules," how
ever, are mostly unw
ritten and enfo
rced b
y peer p
ressureand
tribal feeling
. Like all rules that dep
end o
n the unspoken co
nviction
that everybody else is a g
ood old boy, these rules are ripe for ab
use. The
mechanism
s of hacker p
eer- pressure, "teletrials" and
ostracism
, arerarely u
sed an
d rarely w
ork. B
ack-stabbin
g slan
der, th
reats, and elec-
tronic h
arassmen
t are also freely em
plo
yed in
dow
n- an
d-d
irty intra-
hacker feuds, b
ut this rarely forces a rival o
ut of the scene entirely.
The o
nly real solutio
n for the p
roblem
of an utterly lo
sing, treachero
usand
rodentlike hacker is to
*turn him in to
the police.* U
nlike theM
afia or M
edellin C
artel, the hacker elite cannot sim
ply execute the
big
mouths, creep
s and tro
ublem
akers among
their ranks, so they turn
one ano
ther in with asto
nishing freq
uency.
There is no
traditio
n of silence o
r *om
erta* in the hacker underw
orld
.H
ackers can be shy, even reclusive, b
ut when they d
o talk, hackers tend
to b
rag, b
oast and
strut. Alm
ost everything
hackers do is *invisib
le;*if they d
on't b
rag, b
oast, and
strut about it, then *no
body w
ill everknow
.* If you don't have something to brag, boast, and strut about, then
nobody in the und
ergro
und w
ill recognize yo
u and favo
r you w
ith vitalco
operatio
n and resp
ect.
The w
ay to w
in a solid
reputatio
n in the underg
round
is by telling
other
hackers things that co
uld o
nly have been learned
by excep
tional cunning
and stealth. Fo
rbid
den kno
wled
ge, therefo
re, is the basic currency o
f thedig
ital underg
round
, like seashells among
Tro
briand
Islanders. H
ackersho
ard this kno
wled
ge, and
dw
ell upon it o
bsessively, and
refine it, andbarg
ain with it, and
talk and talk ab
out it.
Many hackers even suffer from
a strange ob
session to *teach* — to
spread the ethos and the knowledge of the digital underground. T
hey'll do
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this even when it g
ains them no particular advantag
e and presents agrave
perso
nal risk.
And
when that risk catches up
with them
, they will g
o rig
ht on teaching
and p
reaching —
to a new
audience this tim
e, their interrogato
rs from
law enfo
rcement. A
lmost every hacker arrested
tells everything he
know
s — all ab
out his friend
s, his mento
rs, his discip
les — leg
ends,
thre
ats, horro
r storie
s, dire
rum
ors, g
ossip
, hallu
cinatio
ns. T
his is, o
fcourse, convenient for law
enforcement —
except when law
enforcement
beg
ins to b
elieve hacker legend
ry.
Phone p
hreaks are u
niq
ue am
ong crim
inals in
their w
illingness to
callup
law enfo
rcement o
fficials — in the o
ffice, at their hom
es — and
give
them an extend
ed p
iece of their m
ind. It is hard
not to
interpret this as
*beg
ging
for arrest,* and
in fact it is an act of incred
ible fo
olhard
iness.Po
lice are naturally nettled b
y these acts of chutzp
ah and w
ill go w
ellout o
f their way to
bust these flaunting
idio
ts. But it can also
be inter-
preted
as a pro
duct o
f a world
-view so
elitist, so clo
sed and
hermetic,
that electronic p
olice are sim
ply no
t perceived
as "police," b
ut ratheras *enem
y phone phreaks* who should b
e scolded into behaving
"decent-ly."
Hackers at their m
ost g
randilo
quent p
erceive themselves as the elite
pioneers of a new electronic w
orld. Attem
pts to make them
obey thedem
ocratically estab
lished law
s of co
ntemporary A
merican so
ciety areseen as rep
ression and
persecutio
n. After all, they arg
ue, if Alexand
erG
raham B
ell had g
one alo
ng w
ith the rules of the W
estern Unio
n tele-graph com
pany, there would have been no telephones. If Jobs and
Wozniak had
believed
that IBM
was the b
e-all and end
-all, there would
have been no
perso
nal com
puters. If B
enjamin Franklin and
Tho
mas
Jefferson had
tried to
"work w
ithin the system" there w
ould
have been
no U
nited S
tates.
Not o
nly do hackers p
rivately believe this as an article o
f faith, but they
have been known to w
rite ardent manifestos about it. H
ere are some
revealing excerp
ts from
an especially vivid
hacker manifesto
: "The
Techno
- Revo
lution" b
y "Dr. C
rash," which ap
peared
in electronic
form
in *P
hrack* V
olu
me 1
, Issue 6
, Phile
3.
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"To fully exp
lain the true motives b
ehind hacking
, we m
ust first take aquick lo
ok into
the past. In the 1
96
0s, a g
roup
of M
IT stud
ents built the
first modern co
mputer system
. This w
ild, reb
ellious g
roup
of yo
ungm
en were the first to bear the nam
e 'hackers.' The system
s that theydeveloped w
ere intended to be used to solve world problem
s and to bene-fit all of m
ankind. "As w
e can see, this has not been the case. The com
-puter system
has been solely in the hands of b
ig b
usinesses and the gov-
ernment. T
he wonderful device m
eant to enrich life has becom
e aw
eapon which dehum
anizes people. To the g
overnment and larg
e busi-
nesses, people are no more than disk space, and the governm
ent doesn'tuse com
puters to arrange aid for the poor, b
ut to control nuclear deathw
eapons. The averag
e Am
erican can only have access to a small m
icro-co
mputer w
hich is worth o
nly a fraction o
f what they p
ay for it. T
hebusinesses keep
the true state-of-the-art eq
uipm
ent away fro
m the
peo
ple b
ehind a steel w
all of incred
ibly hig
h prices and
bureaucracy. It
is because o
f this state of affairs that hacking
was b
orn.(...) "O
f course,
the government doesn't w
ant the monopoly of technology broken, so they
have outlawed hacking and arrest anyone w
ho is caught.(...) The phone
company is another exam
ple of technology abused and kept from people
with hig
h prices.(...) "H
ackers often find
that their existing eq
uipm
ent,due to the m
onopoly tactics of computer com
panies, is inefficient fortheir p
urposes. D
ue to the exo
rbitantly hig
h prices, it is im
possib
le toleg
ally purchase the necessary eq
uipm
ent. This need
has given still
another segment of the fight: C
redit Carding. C
arding is a way of
obtaining the necessary goods without paying for them
. It is again due tothe com
panies' stupidity that Carding is so easy, and show
s that thew
orld
's businesses are in the hand
s of tho
se with co
nsiderab
ly lesstechnical kno
w-ho
w than w
e, the hackers. (...) "Hacking
must co
ntinue.W
e must train new
com
ers to the art o
f hacking.(....) A
nd w
hatever you
do, co
ntinue the fight. W
hether you kno
w it o
r not, if yo
u are a hacker,yo
u are a revolutio
nary. Don't w
orry, yo
u're on the rig
ht side."
The d
efense of "card
ing" is rare. M
ost hackers reg
ard cred
it-card theft
as "poiso
n" to the und
ergro
und, a sleazy and
imm
oral effo
rt that, worse
yet, is hard to get aw
ay with. N
evertheless, manifestos advocating
credit- card
theft, the delib
erate crashing o
f com
puter system
s, andeven acts of violent physical destruction such as vandalism
and arson do
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exist in the underg
round
. These b
oasts and
threats are taken quite seri-
ously b
y the police. A
nd no
t every hacker is an abstract, Plato
nic com
-puter- nerd
. Som
e few are q
uite experienced
at picking
locks, ro
bbing
pho
ne-trucks, and b
reaking and
entering b
uilding
s.
Hackers vary in their d
egree o
f hatred fo
r authority and
the violence o
ftheir rheto
ric. But, at a b
otto
m line, they are sco
fflaws. T
hey don't
regard
the current rules of electro
nic behavio
r as respectab
le efforts to
preserve law
and o
rder and
pro
tect pub
lic safety. They reg
ard these
laws as im
moral effo
rts by so
ulless corp
oratio
ns to p
rotect their p
rofit
marg
ins and to
crush dissid
ents. "Stup
id" p
eople, includ
ing p
olice,
businessm
en, politicians, and
journalists, sim
ply have no
right to
judge
the actions o
f those p
ossessed
of g
enius, techno-revo
lutionary inten-
tions, and
technical expertise.
__
__
_
Hackers are g
enerally teenagers and colleg
e kids not engag
ed in earning a
living. T
hey o
ften co
me fro
m fairly w
ell-to-d
o m
iddle-class b
ack-gro
unds, and
are marked
ly anti-materialistic (excep
t, that is, when it
comes to com
puter equipment). A
nyone motivated by greed for m
erem
oney (as opposed to the greed for power, know
ledge and status) issw
iftly written-o
ff as a narrow
- mind
ed b
readhead
who
se interests canonly b
e corrup
t and co
ntemptib
le. Having
gro
wn up
in the 19
70
s and1
98
0s, the yo
ung B
ohem
ians of the d
igital und
ergro
und reg
ard straig
htso
ciety as awash in p
lutocratic co
rruptio
n, where everyo
ne from
thePresid
ent dow
n is for sale and
who
ever has the gold
makes the rules.
Interestingly, there's a funho
use-mirro
r imag
e of this attitud
e on the
other side of the conflict. The police are also one of the m
ost markedly
anti-materialistic g
roup
s in Am
erican society, m
otivated
not b
y mere
money b
ut by id
eals of service, justice, esp
rit-de-co
rps, and
, of
course, their o
wn b
rand o
f specialized
know
ledge and
pow
er.Rem
arkably, the p
ropag
anda w
ar betw
een cops and
hackers has always
involved
angry alleg
ations that the o
ther side is trying
to m
ake a sleazybuck. H
ackers consistently sneer that anti-p
hreak pro
secutors are
angling
for cushy jo
bs as telco
lawyers and
that com
puter- crim
e police
are aiming
to cash in later as w
ell-paid
com
puter-security co
nsultantsin the p
rivate sector.
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For th
eir part, p
olice p
ublicly co
nflate all h
acking crim
es with
robbin
gpayp
hones w
ith crow
bars. A
llegatio
ns of "m
onetary lo
sses" from
com
-puter intrusio
n are noto
riously inflated
. The act o
f illicitly copying
adocum
ent from
a com
puter is m
orally eq
uated w
ith directly ro
bbing
aco
mpany o
f, say, half a millio
n dollars. T
he teenage co
mputer intrud
erin p
ossessio
n of this "p
roprietary" d
ocum
ent has certainly not so
ld it
for such a sum
, would
likely have little idea ho
w to
sell it at all, andquite probably doesn't even understand w
hat he has. He has not m
ade acent in p
rofit fro
m his felo
ny but is still m
orally eq
uated w
ith a thiefw
ho has ro
bbed
the church poorb
ox and
lit out fo
r Brazil.
Police w
ant to b
elieve that all hackers are thieves. It is a tortuo
us andalm
ost unb
earable act fo
r the Am
erican justice system to
put p
eople in
jail because they w
ant to learn thing
s which are fo
rbid
den fo
r them to
know
. In an Am
erican context, alm
ost any p
retext for p
unishment is
better than jailing
peo
ple to
pro
tect certain restricted kind
s of info
r-m
ation. N
evertheless, *policing
inform
ation* is p
art and p
arcel of the
struggle ag
ainst hackers.
This d
ilemm
a is well exem
plified
by th
e remarkab
le activities of
"Emm
anuel Gold
stein," edito
r and p
ublisher o
f a print m
agazine kno
wn
as *26
00
: The H
acker Quarterly.* G
old
stein was an Eng
lish majo
r atLo
ng Island
's State U
niversity of N
ew Y
ork in the '7
0s, w
hen he becam
einvo
lved w
ith the local co
llege rad
io statio
n. His g
row
ing interest in
electronics caused
him to
drift into
Yip
pie *T
AP* circles and
thus intothe d
igital und
ergro
und, w
here he becam
e a self-describ
ed techno
- rat.H
is mag
azine pub
lishes techniques o
f com
puter intrusio
n and telep
hone
"exploration" as well as g
loating exposes of telco m
isdeeds and govern-
mental failing
s.
Gold
stein lives q
uietly an
d very p
rivately in a larg
e, crum
blin
gV
ictorian m
ansion in S
etauket, New
York. T
he seaside ho
use is deco
rat-ed
with telco
decals, chunks o
f driftw
ood, and
the basic b
ric-a-brac o
f ahip
pie
crash-p
ad. H
e is u
nm
arried, m
ildly u
nke
mpt, an
d su
rvives
mostly on T
V dinners and turkey-stuffing
eaten straight out of the b
ag.
Gold
stein is a man o
f consid
erable charm
and fluency, w
ith a brief, d
is-arm
ing sm
ile and the kind
of p
itiless, stubborn, tho
roug
hly recidivist
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G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
7 3
integrity that A
merica's electro
nic police find
genuinely alarm
ing.
Gold
stein took his no
m-d
e-plum
e, or "hand
le," from
a character inO
rwell's *1
98
4,* w
hich may b
e taken, correctly, as a sym
pto
m o
f thegravity o
f his socio
political w
orld
view. H
e is not him
self a practicing
com
puter intrud
er, thoug
h he vigoro
usly abets these actio
ns, especially
when they are p
ursued ag
ainst large co
rporatio
ns or g
overnm
entalag
encies. Nor is he a thief, fo
r he loudly sco
rns mere theft o
f phone
service, in favor o
f 'explo
ring and
manip
ulating the system
.' He is
pro
bab
ly best d
escribed
and und
erstood as a *d
issident.*
Weird
ly, Gold
stein is livin
g in
modern
Am
erica under co
nditio
ns very
similar to
those o
f form
er East European intellectual d
issidents. In
other w
ord
s, he flagrantly esp
ouses a value-system
that is deep
ly andirrevocably opposed to the system
of those in power and the police. T
hevalu
es in *2
60
0* are g
enerally exp
ressed in
terms th
at are ironic,
sarcastic, parad
oxical, o
r just dow
nright co
nfused. B
ut there's no m
is-takin
g th
eir rad
ically anti-au
thoritarian
tenor. *2
60
0* h
old
s that
technical pow
er and sp
ecialized kno
wled
ge, o
f any kind o
btainab
le,belong
by rig
ht in the hands of those individuals brave and b
old enough
to d
iscover them
— b
y whatever m
eans necessary. Devices, law
s, or
systems that forb
id access, and the free spread of knowledg
e, are provo-catio
ns that any free and self-resp
ecting hacker sho
uld relentlessly
attack. The "p
rivacy" of g
overnm
ents, corp
oratio
ns and o
ther soulless
technocratic organizations should never be protected at the expense ofthe lib
erty and free initiative o
f the individ
ual techno-rat.
How
ever, in our co
ntemporary w
orkad
ay world
, both g
overnm
ents andco
rporatio
ns are very anxious ind
eed to
police info
rmatio
n which is
secret, pro
prietary, restricted
, confid
ential, copyrig
hted, p
atented,
hazard
ous, illeg
al, uneth
ical, embarrassin
g, o
r oth
erwise sen
sitive.This m
akes Gold
stein perso
na non g
rata, and his p
hiloso
phy a threat.
Very little ab
out the co
nditio
ns of G
old
stein's daily life w
ould
astonish,
say, Vaclav H
avel. (We m
ay note in p
assing that Presid
ent Havel o
ncehad
his word
-pro
cessor co
nfiscated b
y the Czecho
slovak p
olice.)
Gold
stein lives by *sam
izdat,* acting
semi-o
penly as a d
ata-center for
the underg
round
, while challeng
ing the p
ow
ers-that-be to
abid
e by
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
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E
HA
CK
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CR
AC
KD
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OR
CO
MM
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CIA
L U
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7 4
their own stated rules: freedom
of speech and the First Am
endment.
Gold
stein thoro
ughly lo
oks and
acts the part o
f techno-rat, w
ith shoul-
der-len
gth
ringlets an
d a p
iratical black fish
erman
's-cap set at a rak-
ish angle. He often show
s up like Banquo's ghost at m
eetings of computer
pro
fessionals, w
here h
e listens q
uietly, h
alf-smilin
g an
d takin
g th
or-
ough notes.
Com
puter p
rofessio
nals g
enerally m
eet publicly, an
d fin
d it very d
iffi-cult to
rid them
selves of G
old
stein and his ilk w
ithout extraleg
al andunco
nstitutional actio
ns. Sym
pathizers, m
any of them
quite resp
ectable
peo
ple w
ith responsib
le jobs, ad
mire G
old
stein's attitude and
surrepti-
tiously p
ass him info
rmatio
n. An unkno
wn b
ut presum
ably larg
e pro
-portio
n o
f Gold
stein's 2
,00
0-p
lus read
ership
are telco secu
rity per-
sonnel and
police, w
ho are fo
rced to
subscrib
e to *2
60
0* to
stayab
reast of new developm
ents in hacking. T
hey thus find themselves
*payin
g th
is guy's ren
t* while g
rindin
g th
eir teeth in
anguish
, a situa-
tion that would have delighted A
bbie Hoffm
an (one of Goldstein's few
idols).
Gold
stein is pro
bab
ly the best-kno
wn p
ublic rep
resentative of the
hacker underg
round
today, and
certainly the best-hated
. Police reg
ardhim
as a Fagin, a co
rrupter o
f youth, and
speak o
f him w
ith untempered
loathing
. He is q
uite an accom
plished
gad
fly.
After the M
artin Luther King
Day C
rash of 1
99
0, G
old
stein, for
instance, adep
tly rubbed
salt into the w
ound
in the pag
es of *2
60
0.*
"Yeah, it was fun for the phone phreaks as w
e watched the netw
orkcrum
ble," he ad
mitted
cheerfully. "But it w
as also an o
mino
us sign o
fw
hat's to come... Som
e AT&
T people, aided b
y well-m
eaning b
ut igno-
rant media, w
ere spreading the notion that many com
panies had the same
software and therefore could face the sam
e problem som
eday. Wrong.
This w
as entirely an AT&
T so
ftware d
eficiency. Of co
urse, other co
mpa-
nies could
face entirely *different* so
ftware p
roblem
s. But then, so
too
could
AT&
T."
After a technical d
iscussion o
f the system's failing
s, the Long
Islandtechno
-rat went o
n to o
ffer thoug
htful criticism to
the gig
antic multi-
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
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E
HA
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OR
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7 5
national's hund
reds o
f pro
fessionally q
ualified eng
ineers. "What w
edon't kno
w is ho
w a m
ajor fo
rce in com
municatio
ns like AT&
T co
uld b
eso sloppy. W
hat happened to backups? Sure, computer system
s go down
all the time, b
ut people making
phone calls are not the same as people
logging on to computers. W
e must m
ake that distinction. It's notacceptable for the phone system
or any other essential service to 'godow
n.' If we continue to trust technolog
y without understanding
it, we
can look forward to m
any variations on this theme. "A
T&
T ow
es it to itscusto
mers to
be p
repared
to *instantly* sw
itch to ano
ther network if
som
ething strang
e and unp
redictab
le starts occurring
. The new
s hereisn't so
much the failure o
f a com
puter p
rogram
, but the failure o
fA
T&
T's entire structure."
The very id
ea of this.... this *p
erson*.... o
ffering "ad
vice" about
"AT&
T's entire structure" is m
ore than so
me p
eople can easily b
ear.H
ow
dare this near-crim
inal dictate w
hat is or isn't "accep
table"
behavio
r from
AT&
T? Esp
ecially when he's p
ublishing
, in the very same
issue, detailed
schematic d
iagram
s for creating
various sw
itching-net-
work sig
nalling to
nes unavailable to
the pub
lic.
"See what happens w
hen you drop a 'silver box' tone or two dow
n yourlo
cal exchange o
r throug
h different lo
ng d
istance service carriers,"ad
vises *26
00
* contrib
utor "M
r. Upsetter" in "H
ow
To B
uild a S
ignal
Box." "If yo
u experim
ent systematically and
keep g
ood reco
rds, yo
u will
surely disco
ver som
ething interesting
."
This is, o
f course, the scientific m
ethod, g
enerally regard
ed as a p
raise-w
orthy activity and
one o
f the flow
ers of m
odern civilizatio
n. One can
indeed
learn a great d
eal with this so
rt of structured
intellectual activi-ty. T
elco em
plo
yees regard
this mode o
f "explo
ration" as akin to
fling-
ing sticks of dynamite into their pond to see w
hat lives on the bottom.
*26
00
* has been p
ublished
consistently since 1
98
4. It has also
run abulletin
board
com
puter system
, prin
ted *2
60
0* T
-shirts, taken
faxcalls... T
he Spring
19
91
issue has an interesting anno
uncement o
n pag
e4
5: "W
e just disco
vered an extra set o
f wires attached
to o
ur fax lineand heading up the pole. (T
hey've since been clipped.) Your faxes to usand to anyone else could be m
onitored."
BR
UC
E S
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In the world
view o
f *26
00
,* the tiny band
of techno
- rat bro
thers(rarely, sisters) are a b
eseiged
vanguard
of the truly free and
honest.
The rest o
f the world
is a maelstro
m o
f corp
orate crim
e and hig
h-levelgovernm
ental corrup
tion, o
ccasionally tem
pered
with w
ell-meaning
igno
rance. To read
a few issues in a ro
w is to
enter a nightm
are akin toSolzhenitsyn's, so
mew
hat tempered
by the fact that *2
60
0* is o
ftenextrem
ely funny.
Goldstein did not becom
e a target of the Hacker C
rackdown, though he
pro
tested lo
udly, elo
quently, and
pub
licly about it, and
it added
consid
-erably to his fam
e. It was not that he is not regarded as dangerous,
because he is so reg
arded. Goldstein has had b
rushes with the law
in thepast: in 1
98
5, a *2
60
0* b
ulletin board
com
puter w
as seized b
y theFB
I, and so
me so
ftware o
n it was fo
rmally d
eclared "a b
urglary to
ol in
the form
of a co
mputer p
rogram
." But G
old
stein escaped
direct rep
res-sio
n in 19
90
, because his m
agazine is p
rinted o
n pap
er, and reco
gnized
as subject to Constitutional freedom
of the press protection. As w
as seenin the *R
amparts* case, this is far fro
m an ab
solute g
uarantee. Still,
as a practical m
atter, shutting d
ow
n *26
00
* by co
urt-ord
er would
create so m
uch legal hassle that it is sim
ply unfeasib
le, at least for the
present. Throug
hout 1990, b
oth Goldstein and his m
agazine w
erepeevish
ly th
riving.
Instead, the C
rackdow
n of 1
99
0 w
ould
concern itself w
ith the com
put-
erized versio
n of fo
rbid
den d
ata. The crackd
ow
n itself, first and fo
re-m
ost, w
as about *b
ulletin board
systems.* B
ulletin Board
System
s,m
ost o
ften know
n by the ug
ly and un-p
luralizable acro
nym "B
BS," are
the life-blo
od o
f the dig
ital underg
round
. Board
s were also
central tolaw
enforcement's tactics and strateg
y in the Hacker C
rackdown.
A "b
ulletin board
system" can b
e form
ally defined
as a com
puter w
hichserves as an info
rmatio
n and m
essage- p
assing center fo
r users dialing
-up over the phone-lines through the use of m
odems. A
"modem
," orm
odulato
r- dem
odulato
r, is a device w
hich translates the dig
italim
pulses o
f com
puters into
audib
le analog telep
hone sig
nals, and vice
versa. Modem
s connect computers to phones and thus to each other.
BR
UC
E S
TE
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R C
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Large-scale m
ainframe com
puters have been connected since the
19
60
s, but *p
ersonal* co
mputers, ru
n b
y individ
uals o
ut o
f their
hom
es, were first netw
orked
in the late 19
70
s. The "b
oard
" created b
yW
ard C
hristensen and R
andy S
uess in February 1
97
8, in C
hicago,
Illinois, is g
enerally re
gard
ed as th
e first p
erso
nal-co
mpute
r bulle
tinboard system
worthy of the nam
e.
Board
s run on m
any different m
achines, emplo
ying m
any different kind
sof so
ftware. Early b
oard
s were crud
e and b
uggy, and
their manag
ers,kno
wn as "system
operato
rs" or "syso
ps," w
ere hard-w
orking
technicalexp
erts who
wro
te their ow
n softw
are. But like m
ost everything
else inthe w
orld
of electro
nics, board
s becam
e faster, cheaper, b
etter-desig
ned, and
generally far m
ore so
phisticated
throug
hout the 1
98
0s.
They also m
oved swiftly out of the hands of pioneers and into those of the
general p
ublic. B
y 19
85
there were so
mething
in the neighb
orho
od o
f4
,00
0 b
oard
s in Am
erica. By 1
99
0 it w
as calculated, vag
uely, thatthere w
ere about 3
0,0
00 b
oards in the US, w
ith uncounted thousandsoverseas.
Com
puter b
ulletin board
s are unregulated
enterprises. R
unning a b
oard
is a rough-an
d-re
ady, catch
- as-catch-can
pro
positio
n. B
asically,anyb
ody with a com
puter, modem
, software and a phone-line can start a
board
. With seco
nd-hand
equip
ment and
pub
lic-dom
ain free softw
are,the price of a b
oard mig
ht be quite sm
all — less than it w
ould take topub
lish a mag
azine or even a d
ecent pam
phlet. Entrep
reneurs eagerly
sell bulletin- b
oard
softw
are, and w
ill coach no
ntechnical amateur
sysops in its use.
Board
s are not "p
resses." They are no
t mag
azines, or lib
raries, or
pho
nes, or C
B rad
ios, o
r traditio
nal cork b
ulletin board
s dow
n at thelo
cal laundry, tho
ugh they have so
me p
assing resem
blance to
those ear-
lier med
ia. Board
s are a new m
edium
— they m
ay even be a *larg
e num-
ber* o
f new m
edia.
Consider these unique characteristics: b
oards are cheap, yet they canhave a national, even g
lobal reach. B
oards can be contacted from
any-w
here in the glo
bal telep
hone netw
ork, at *no
cost* to
the perso
n run-ning
the board
— the caller p
ays the pho
ne bill, and
if the caller is local,
BR
UC
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the call is free. Board
s do no
t involve an ed
itorial elite ad
dressing
am
ass audience. T
he "sysop" o
f a board
is not an exclusive p
ublisher o
rw
riter — he is m
anaging
an electronic salo
n, where ind
ividuals can
address the g
eneral pub
lic, play the p
art of the g
eneral pub
lic, and also
exchange p
rivate mail w
ith other ind
ividuals. A
nd the "co
nversation" o
nboard
s, thoug
h fluid, rap
id, and
highly interactive, is no
t spoken, b
utw
ritten. It is also relatively ano
nymous, so
metim
es com
pletely so
.
And b
ecause boards are cheap and ub
iquitous, regulations and licensing
requirem
ents would
likely be p
ractically unenforceab
le. It would
almost be easier to "regulate" "inspect" and "license" the content of
private m
ail — p
robab
ly more so
, since the mail system
is operated
by
the federal g
overnm
ent. Board
s are run by ind
ividuals, ind
epend
ently,en
tirely at their o
wn w
him
.
For the syso
p, the co
st of o
peratio
n is not the p
rimary lim
iting facto
r.O
nce the investment in a com
puter and modem
has been made, the only
steady co
st is the charge fo
r maintaining
a pho
ne line (or several p
hone
lines). The p
rimary lim
its for syso
ps are tim
e and energ
y. Board
sreq
uire upkeep
. New
users are generally "valid
ated" —
they must b
eissued
individ
ual passw
ord
s, and called
at hom
e by vo
ice-pho
ne, so that
their identity can b
e verified. O
bno
xious users, w
ho exist in p
lenty,m
ust be chided or purged. Proliferating messages m
ust be deleted when
they grow old, so that the capacity of the system
is not overwhelm
ed.A
nd so
ftware p
rogram
s (if such things are kep
t on the b
oard
) must b
eexam
ined fo
r possib
le com
puter viruses. If there is a financial charg
eto
use the board
(increasingly co
mm
on, esp
ecially in larger and
fanciersystem
s) then accounts must b
e kept, and users must b
e billed. A
nd ifthe b
oard crashes — a very com
mon occurrence —
then repairs must b
em
ade.
Boards can b
e distinguished b
y the amount of effort spent in reg
ulatingthem
. First, we have the com
pletely open board, w
hose sysop is offchug
ging
brew
s and w
atching re-runs w
hile his users generally d
egen-
erate over time into peevish anarchy and eventual silence. Second com
esthe sup
ervised b
oard
, where the syso
p b
reaks in every once in a w
hileto
tidy up
, calm b
rawls, issue anno
uncements, and
rid the co
mm
unity of
dolts and
troub
lemakers. T
hird is the heavily sup
ervised b
oard
, which
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sternly urges ad
ult and resp
onsib
le behavio
r and sw
iftly edits any m
es-sag
e consid
ered o
ffensive, impertinent, illeg
al or irrelevant. A
nd last
com
es the com
pletely ed
ited "electro
nic pub
lication," w
hich is pre-
sented to
a silent audience w
hich is not allo
wed
to resp
ond
directly in
any way.
Boards can also b
e grouped b
y their degree of anonym
ity. There is the
completely anonym
ous board, w
here everyone uses pseudonyms —
"han-dles" —
and even the sysop is unaware of the user's true identity. T
hesyso
p him
self is likely pseud
onym
ous o
n a board
of this typ
e. Seco
nd,
and rather m
ore co
mm
on, is the b
oard
where the syso
p kno
ws (o
rthinks he kno
ws) the true nam
es and ad
dresses o
f all users, but the
users don't know one another's nam
es and may not know
his. Third is
the board
where everyo
ne has to use real nam
es, and ro
leplaying
andpseud
onym
ous p
osturing
are forb
idden.
Board
s can be g
roup
ed b
y their imm
ediacy. "C
hat- lines" are board
slin
king several u
sers togeth
er over several d
ifferent p
hone-lin
essim
ultaneously, so that people exchange messages at the very m
oment
that they type. (M
any large b
oard
s feature "chat" capab
ilities along
with o
ther services.) Less imm
ediate b
oard
s, perhap
s with a sing
lephoneline, store m
essages serially, one at a tim
e. And som
e boards are
only o
pen fo
r business in d
aylight ho
urs or o
n weekend
s, which g
reatlyslo
ws resp
onse. A
*network* o
f board
s, such as "FidoN
et," can carryelectro
nic mail fro
m b
oard
to b
oard
, continent to
continent, acro
ss huge
distances — but at a relative snail's pace, so that a m
essage can takeseveral d
ays to reach its targ
et audience and
elicit a reply.
Boards can be grouped by their degree of com
munity. Som
e boardsem
phasize the exchang
e of p
rivate, perso
n-to-p
erson electro
nic mail.
Others em
phasize public posting
s and may even purg
e people who
"lurk," merely read
ing p
osts b
ut refusing to
openly p
articipate. S
om
eboard
s are intimate and
neighb
orly. O
thers are frosty and
highly tech-
nical. Som
e are little more than sto
rage d
umps fo
r softw
are, where
users "download" and "upload" prog
rams, b
ut interact among
themselves
little if at all.
Boards can be grouped by their ease of access. Som
e boards are entirely
BR
UC
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pub
lic. Others are p
rivate and restricted
only to
perso
nal friends o
f thesysop. Som
e boards divide users by status. On these boards, som
eusers, esp
ecially beg
inners, stran
gers o
r child
ren, w
ill be restricted
togeneral topics, and perhaps forb
idden to post. Favored users, though,
are granted the ab
ility to post as they please, and to stay "on-line" aslong as they like, even to the disadvantage of other people trying to callin. H
igh- status users can b
e given access to
hidden areas in the b
oard
,such as o
ff-colo
r topics, p
rivate discussio
ns, and/o
r valuable so
ftware.
Favored users may even becom
e "remote sysops" w
ith the power to take
remote control of the board through their ow
n home com
puters. Quite
often "rem
ote syso
ps" end
up d
oing
all the work and
taking fo
rmal co
n-tro
l of the enterp
rise, desp
ite the fact that it's physically lo
cated in
someone else's house. Som
etimes several "co-sysops" share pow
er.
And b
oards can also be g
rouped by size. M
assive, nationwide com
mercial
networks, such as C
om
puS
erve, Delp
hi, GEnie and
Prodig
y, are run on
mainfram
e com
puters and
are generally no
t consid
ered "b
oard
s," thoug
hthey share m
any of their characteristics, such as electro
nic mail, d
is-cussio
n topics, lib
raries of so
ftware, and
persistent and
gro
wing
pro
b-
lems w
ith civil-liberties issues. S
om
e private b
oard
s have as many as
thirty pho
ne-lines and q
uite sophisticated
hardw
are. And
then thereare tiny b
oard
s.
Board
s vary in popularity. S
om
e board
s are huge and
crow
ded
, where
users must claw
their way in ag
ainst a constant b
usy-signal. O
thers arehug
e and em
pty —
there are few thing
s sadder than a fo
rmerly flo
urish-ing board w
here no one posts any longer, and the dead conversations ofvanished
users lie about g
athering d
igital d
ust. Som
e board
s are tinyand
intimate, their telep
hone num
bers intentio
nally kept co
nfidential so
that only a sm
all number can lo
g o
n.
And
som
e board
s are *underg
round
.*
Board
s can be m
ysterious entities. T
he activities of their users can b
ehard
to d
ifferentiate from
consp
iracy. Som
etimes they *are* co
nspira-
cies. Board
s have harbored
, or have b
een accused o
f harboring
, allm
anner of fringe groups, and have abetted, or been accused of abetting,every m
anner o
f frow
ned
-upon, sleazy, rad
ical, and crim
inal activity.
BR
UC
E S
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E H
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OM
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US
E8 1
There are S
atanist board
s. Nazi b
oard
s. Porno
grap
hic board
s.Ped
ophile b
oard
s. Drug
- dealing
board
s. Anarchist b
oard
s. Com
munist
board
s. Gay and
Lesbian b
oard
s (these exist in great p
rofusio
n, many o
fth
em
quite
lively w
ith w
ell-e
stablish
ed h
istorie
s). Relig
ious cu
ltboard
s. Evangelical b
oard
s. Witchcraft b
oard
s, hippie b
oard
s, punk
board
s, skateboard
er board
s. Board
s for U
FO b
elievers. There m
ay well
be b
oard
s for se
rial killers, airlin
e te
rrorists an
d p
rofe
ssional assas-
sins. There is sim
ply no
way to
tell. Board
s spring
up, flo
urish, anddisap
pear in larg
e numbers, in m
ost every co
rner of the d
eveloped
world
. Even apparently inno
cuous p
ublic b
oard
s can, and so
metim
es do,
harbor secret areas know
n only to a few. A
nd even on the vast, public,
com
mercial services, p
rivate mail is very p
rivate — an
d q
uite p
ossib
lycrim
inal.
Boards cover m
ost every topic imag
inable and som
e that are hard toim
agine. T
hey cover a vast sp
ectrum o
f social activity. H
ow
ever, allboard users do have som
ething in com
mon: their possession of com
put-ers and
pho
nes. Naturally, co
mputers and
pho
nes are prim
ary topics o
fco
nversation o
n almost every b
oard
.
And hackers and phone phreaks, those utter devotees of com
puters andpho
nes, live by b
oard
s. They sw
arm b
y board
s. They are b
red b
yboard
s. By the late 1
98
0s, p
hone-p
hreak gro
ups and
hacker gro
ups,
united b
y board
s, had p
roliferated
fantastically.
As evid
ence, here is a list of hacker g
roup
s com
piled
by the ed
itors o
f*P
hrack* o
n A
ugust 8
, 19
88
.
The A
dministration. A
dvanced Telecom
munications, Inc. A
LIAS.
Am
erican Tone T
ravelers. Anarchy Inc. A
pple M
afia. The A
ssociatio
n.A
tlantic P
irates Guild
.
Bad
Ass M
other Fuckers. B
ellcore. B
ell Sho
ck Force. B
lack Bag
.
Cam
orra. C
&M
Productio
ns. Catho
lics Ano
nymous. C
haos C
om
puter
Club
. Chief Executive O
fficers. Circle O
f Death. C
ircle Of D
eneb. C
lubX. C
oalitio
n of H
i-Tech Pirates. C
oast-T
o-C
oast. C
orrup
t Com
puting
.Cult O
f The D
ead Cow
. Custom
Retaliations.
BR
UC
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IAL
US
E8 2
Dam
age Inc. D&
B C
omm
unications. The D
ange Gang. D
ec Hunters.
Dig
ital Gang
. DPA
K.
Eastern Alliance. T
he Elite Hackers G
uild. Elite Phreakers and
Hackers
Club
. The Elite S
ociety O
f Am
erica. EPG. Executives O
f Crim
e. ExtasyyElite.
Fargo 4
A. Farm
ers Of D
oom
. The Fed
eration. Fed
s R U
s. First Class.
Five O. Five S
tar. Force H
ackers. The 4
14
s.
Hack-A
-Trip
. Hackers O
f Am
erica. Hig
h Mountain H
ackers. Hig
hSociety. T
he Hitchhikers.
IBM
Syn
dicate
. The Ice
Pirate
s. Imperial W
arlord
s. Inner C
ircle.
Inner C
ircle II. Insan
ity Inc. In
ternatio
nal C
om
puter U
nderg
round
Band
its.
Justice League o
f Am
erica.
Kaos Inc. K
nights Of Shadow
. Knights O
f The Round T
able.
League Of A
depts. Legion Of D
oom. Legion O
f Hackers. Lords O
f Chaos.
Lunatic Labs, U
nlimited
.
Master H
ackers. MA
D! T
he Maraud
ers. MD
/PhD. M
etalC
om
municatio
ns, In
c. MetalliB
ashers, In
c. MBI. M
etroCom
municatio
ns. Mid
west Pirates G
uild.
NA
SA
Elite. The N
ATO
Asso
ciation. N
eon K
nights. N
ihilist Ord
er.O
rder Of T
he Rose. OSS.
Pacific Pirates Guild
. Phantom
Access A
ssociates. PH
ido PH
reaks. The
Phirm. Phlash. Pho
neLine Phantom
s. Phone Phreakers O
f Am
erica.Pho
rtune 50
0. Phreak H
ack Delinq
uents. Phreak Hack D
estroyers.
Phreakers, Hackers, A
nd Laund
rom
at Emplo
yees Gang
(PHA
LSE G
ang).
Phreaks Against G
eeks. Phreaks Against Phreaks A
gainst G
eeks.Phreaks and
Hackers o
f Am
erica. Phreaks Ano
nymous W
orld
Wid
e.
BR
UC
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OM
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IAL
US
E8 3
Project G
enesis. The Punk M
afia.
The Racketeers. Red D
awn T
ext Files. Roscoe Gang.
SA
BRE. S
ecret Circle o
f Pirates. Secret S
ervice. 70
7 C
lub. S
hadow
Bro
therhood. S
harp Inc. 6
5C0
2 Elite. S
pectral Fo
rce. Star Leag
ue.Sto
waw
ays. Strata-C
rackers.
Team
Hackers '8
6. T
eam H
ackers '87. T
eleCom
putist New
sletter Staff.Trib
unal Of K
now
ledge. T
riple Entente. T
urn Over A
nd D
ie Synd
rom
e(T
OA
DS). 3
00
Club
. 12
00
Club
. 23
00
Club
. 26
00
Club
. 26
01
Club
.2
AF.
The U
nited S
oft W
areZ Force. U
nited T
echnical Und
ergro
und.
Ware B
rigad
e. The W
arelord
s. WA
SP.
Contem
plating
this list is an impressive, alm
ost hum
bling
business.
As a cultural artifact, the thing
appro
aches poetry.
Und
ergro
und g
roup
s — sub
cultures — can b
e disting
uished fro
m ind
e-pend
ent cultures by their hab
it of referring
constantly to
the parent
society. U
nderg
round
s by their nature co
nstantly must m
aintain am
embrane o
f differentiatio
n. Funny/distinctive clo
thes and hair, sp
e-cialized
jargon, sp
ecialized g
hettoized
areas in cities, different ho
urs of
rising, w
orking
, sleeping
.... The d
igital und
ergro
und, w
hich specializes
in inform
ation, relies very heavily o
n languag
e to d
istinguish itself. A
scan b
e seen from this list, they m
ake heavy use of parody and mockery.
It's revealing to see who they choose to m
ock.
First, large co
rporatio
ns. We have the Pho
rtune 50
0, T
he Chief
Executive Officers, B
ellcore, IB
M S
yndicate, S
ABRE (a co
mputerized
reservation service m
aintained b
y airlines). The co
mm
on use o
f "Inc."is telling
— no
ne of these g
roup
s are actual corp
oratio
ns, but take clear
delig
ht in mim
icking them
.
Second, governments and police. N
ASA
Elite, NA
TO
Association. "Feds R
Us" and
"Secret S
ervice" are fine bits o
f fleering b
old
ness. OSS —
the
BR
UC
E S
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RL
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FO
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OM
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IAL
US
E8 4
Office o
f Strateg
ic Services w
as the forerunner o
f the CIA
.
Third
, criminals. U
sing stig
matizing
pejo
ratives as a perverse b
adge o
fho
nor is a tim
e-hono
red tactic fo
r subcultures: p
unks, gang
s, delin-
quents, m
afias, pirates, b
andits, racketeers.
Specialized
ortho
grap
hy, especially the use o
f "ph" fo
r "f" and "z" fo
rthe p
lural "s," are instant recognitio
n symbols. S
o is the use o
f thenum
eral "0" fo
r the letter "O" —
com
puter-so
ftware o
rthograp
hy gen-
erally features a slash throug
h the zero, m
aking the d
istinction o
bvio
us.
Som
e terms are p
oetically d
escriptive o
f com
puter intrusio
n: theSto
waw
ays, the Hitchhikers, the Pho
neLine Phantom
s, Coast-to
-Coast.
Others are sim
ple b
ravado and
vainglo
rious p
uffery. (Note the insistent
use of the term
s "elite" and "m
aster.") Som
e terms are b
lasphem
ous,
som
e obscene, o
thers merely cryp
tic — anything
to p
uzzle, offend
, con-
fuse, and keep the straights at bay.
Many hacker g
roup
s further re-encrypt their nam
es by the use o
facro
nyms: U
nited T
echnical Und
ergro
und b
ecom
es UTU
, Farmers o
fD
oom becom
e FoD, the U
nited SoftWareZ Force becom
es, at its own
insistence, "TuSw
F," and woe to the ig
norant rodent who capitalizes the
wro
ng letters.
It should be further recog
nized that the mem
bers of these g
roups arethem
selves pseud
onym
ous. If yo
u did
, in fact, run across the
"PhoneLine Phanto
ms," yo
u would
find them
to co
nsist of "C
arrierC
ulp
rit," "The Execu
tioner," "B
lack Majik," "Eg
yptian
Lover," "S
olid
State
," and "M
r Icom
." "Carrie
r Culp
rit" will like
ly be re
ferre
d to
by
his friends as "C
C," as in, "I g
ot these d
ialups fro
m C
C o
f PLP."
It's quite p
ossib
le that this entire list refers to as few
as a thousand
people. It is not a complete list of underg
round groups —
there hasnever b
een such a list, and there never w
ill be. G
roup
s rise, flourish,
decline, share m
embership
, maintain a clo
ud o
f wannab
es and casual
hangers-o
n. People p
ass in and o
ut, are ostracized
, get b
ored
, are bust-
ed b
y police, o
r are cornered
by telco
security and p
resented w
ith huge
bills. M
any "underg
round
gro
ups" are so
ftware p
irates, "warez d
00
dz,"
BR
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DO
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FO
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OM
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RC
IAL
US
E8 5
who
mig
ht break co
py p
rotectio
n and p
irate pro
gram
s, but likely
would
n't dare to
intrude o
n a com
puter-system
.
It is hard to
estimate the true p
opulatio
n of the d
igital und
ergro
und.
There is constant turnover. M
ost hackers start young, com
e and go, then
drop out at age 22 —
the age of college graduation. And a large m
ajorityof "hackers" access pirate boards, adopt a handle, sw
ipe software and
perhap
s abuse a p
hone-co
de o
r two, w
hile never actually joining
theelite.
Som
e pro
fessional info
rmants, w
ho m
ake it their business to
retailkno
wled
ge o
f the underg
round
to p
aymasters in p
rivate corp
orate secu-
rity, have estimated
the hacker populatio
n at as high as fifty tho
usand.
This is likely hig
hly inflated, unless o
ne counts every sing
le teenage
software pirate and petty phone-booth thief. M
y best guess is about5,0
00 people. O
f these, I would guess that as few
as a hundred aretruly "elite" —
active com
puter intrud
ers, skilled eno
ugh to
penetrate
sophisticated
systems and
truly to w
orry co
rporate security and
lawenfo
rcement.
Ano
ther interesting sp
eculation is w
hether this gro
up is g
row
ing o
r not.
Young teenage hackers are often convinced that hackers exist in vastsw
arms and
will so
on d
om
inate the cybernetic universe. O
lder and
wiser veterans, p
erhaps as w
izened as 2
4 o
r 25
years old
, are con-
vinced that the glory days are long gone, that the cops have the under-gro
und's num
ber no
w, and
that kids these d
ays are dirt-stup
id and
justw
ant to p
lay Nintend
o.
My o
wn assessm
ent is that com
puter intrusio
n, as a non-p
rofit act o
fintellectual exp
loratio
n and m
astery, is in slow
decline, at least in the
United
States; b
ut that electronic fraud
, especially teleco
mm
unication
crime, is g
row
ing b
y leaps and
bound
s.
One m
ight find
a useful parallel to
the dig
ital underg
round
in the drug
underg
round
. There w
as a time, no
w m
uch-obscured
by histo
ricalrevisio
nism, w
hen Bohem
ians freely shared jo
ints at concerts, and
hip,
small- scale m
arijuana dealers m
ight turn p
eople o
n just for the sake o
fenjoying a long stoned conversation about the D
oors and Allen G
insberg.
BR
UC
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IN
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AC
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RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E8 6
Now
drug
s are increasingly verb
oten, excep
t in a high-stakes, hig
hly-crim
inal world
of hig
hly addictive d
rugs. O
ver years of d
isenchantment
and p
olice harassm
ent, a vaguely id
eolo
gical, free-w
heeling d
rugund
ergro
und has relinq
uished the b
usiness of d
rug- d
ealing to
a farm
ore savag
e criminal hard
-core. T
his is not a p
leasant pro
spect to
contem
plate, b
ut the analogy is fairly co
mpelling
.
What d
oes an und
ergro
und b
oard
look like? W
hat disting
uishes it from
a standard
board
? It isn't necessarily the conversatio
n — hackers o
ftentalk ab
out co
mm
on b
oard
topics, such as hard
ware, so
ftware, sex, sci-
ence fiction, current events, p
olitics, m
ovies, p
ersonal g
ossip
.U
nderg
round
board
s can best b
e disting
uished b
y their files, or
"philes," pre-composed texts w
hich teach the techniques and ethos ofthe und
ergro
und. T
hese are prized
reservoirs o
f forb
idden kno
wled
ge.
Some are anonym
ous, but most proudly bear the handle of the "hacker"
who
has created them
, and his g
roup
affiliation, if he has o
ne.
Here is a p
artial table-o
f-contents o
f philes fro
m an und
ergro
undboard
, som
ewhere in the heart o
f mid
dle A
merica, circa 1
99
1. T
hedescrip
tions are m
ostly self- exp
lanato
ry.
BANKAMER.ZIP 5406 06-11-91 Hacking Bank America
CHHACK.ZIP 4481 06-11-91 Chilton Hacking
CITIBANK.ZIP 4118 06-11-91 Hacking Citibank
CREDIMTC.ZIP 3241 06-11-91 Hacking Mtc Credit
Company
DIGEST.ZIP 5159 06-11-91 Hackers Digest
HACK.ZIP 14031 06-11-91 How To Hack
HACKBAS.ZIP 5073 06-11-91 Basics Of Hacking
HACKDICT.ZIP 42774 06-11-91 Hackers Dictionary
HACKER.ZIP 57938 06-11-91 Hacker Info
HACKERME.ZIP 3148 06-11-91 Hackers Manual
HACKHAND.ZIP 4814 06-11-91 Hackers Handbook
HACKTHES.ZIP 48290 06-11-91 Hackers Thesis
HACKVMS.ZIP 4696 06-11-91 Hacking Vms Systems
MCDON.ZIP 3830 06-11-91 Hacking Macdonalds
(Home Of The Archs)
P500UNIX.ZIP 15525 06-11-91 Phortune 500 Guide To
Unix
RADHACK.ZIP 8411 06-11-91 Radio Hacking
TAOTRASH.DOC 4096 12-25-89 Suggestions For
Trashing
TECHHACK.ZIP 5063 06-11-91 Technical Hacking
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
8 7
The files ab
ove are d
o-it-yo
urself manuals ab
out co
mputer intrusio
n.The ab
ove is o
nly a small sectio
n of a m
uch larger lib
rary of hacking
andphreaking
techniques and history. We now
move into a different and
perh
aps su
rprisin
g are
a.
+------------+
| Anarchy |
+------------+
ANARC.ZIP 3641 06-11-91 Anarchy Files
ANARCHST.ZIP 63703 06-11-91 Anarchist Book
ANARCHY.ZIP 2076 06-11-91 Anarchy At Home
ANARCHY3.ZIP 6982 06-11-91 Anarchy No 3
ANARCTOY.ZIP 2361 06-11-91 Anarchy Toys
ANTIMODM.ZIP 2877 06-11-91 Anti-modem Weapons
ATOM.ZIP 4494 06-11-91 How To Make An Atom
Bomb
BARBITUA.ZIP 3982 06-11-91 Barbiturate Formula
BLCKPWDR.ZIP 2810 06-11-91 Black Powder Formulas
BOMB.ZIP 3765 06-11-91 How To Make Bombs
BOOM.ZIP 2036 06-11-91 Things That Go Boom
CHLORINE.ZIP 1926 06-11-91 Chlorine Bomb
COOKBOOK.ZIP 1500 06-11-91 Anarchy Cook Book
DESTROY.ZIP 3947 06-11-91 Destroy Stuff
DUSTBOMB.ZIP 2576 06-11-91 Dust Bomb
ELECTERR.ZIP 3230 06-11-91 Electronic Terror
EXPLOS1.ZIP 2598 06-11-91 Explosives 1
EXPLOSIV.ZIP 18051 06-11-91 More Explosives
EZSTEAL.ZIP 4521 06-11-91 Ez-stealing
FLAME.ZIP 2240 06-11-91 Flame Thrower
FLASHLT.ZIP 2533 06-11-91 Flashlight Bomb
FMBUG.ZIP 2906 06-11-91 How To Make An Fm Bug
OMEEXPL.ZIP 2139 06-11-91 Home Explosives
HOW2BRK.ZIP 3332 06-11-91 How To Break In
LETTER.ZIP 2990 06-11-91 Letter Bomb
LOCK.ZIP 2199 06-11-91 How To Pick Locks
MRSHIN.ZIP 3991 06-11-91 Briefcase Locks
NAPALM.ZIP 3563 06-11-91 Napalm At Home
NITRO.ZIP 3158 06-11-91 Fun With Nitro
PARAMIL.ZIP 2962 06-11-91 Paramilitary Info
PICKING.ZIP 3398 06-11-91 Picking Locks
PIPEBOMB.ZIP 2137 06-11-91 Pipe Bomb
POTASS.ZIP 3987 06-11-91 Formulas With Potassium
PRANK.TXT 11074 08-03-90 More Pranks To Pull On
Idiots!
REVENGE.ZIP 4447 06-11-91 Revenge Tactics
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E8 8
ROCKET.ZIP 2590 06-11-91 Rockets For Fun
SMUGGLE.ZIP 3385 06-11-91 How To Smuggle
*Holy C
ow
!* The d
amned
thing is full o
f stuff about b
om
bs!
What are w
e to m
ake of this?
First, it should
be ackno
wled
ged
that spread
ing kno
wled
ge ab
out d
emoli-
tions to
teenagers is a hig
hly and d
eliberately antiso
cial act. It is not,
how
eve
r, illegal.
Second, it should be recognized that most of these philes w
ere in fact*w
ritten* by teenag
ers. Most ad
ult Am
erican males w
ho can rem
ember
their teenage years w
ill recognize that the no
tion o
f build
ing a
flameth
row
er in yo
ur g
arage is an
incred
ibly n
eat-o id
ea. *Actu
ally*build
ing a flam
ethro
wer in
your g
arage, h
ow
ever, is fraught w
ith d
is-co
uraging
difficulty. S
tuffing g
unpow
der into
a booby-trap
ped
flash-lig
ht, so as to
blo
w the arm
off yo
ur high-scho
ol vice-p
rincipal, can b
ea thing of dark beauty to contem
plate. Actually com
mitting assault by
explo
sives will earn yo
u the sustained attentio
n of the fed
eral Bureau o
fA
lcoho
l, Tobacco
and Firearm
s.
Som
e peo
ple, ho
wever, w
ill actually try these plans. A
determ
inedly
murd
erous A
merican teenag
er can pro
bab
ly buy o
r steal a handgun far
more easily than he can b
rew fake "nap
alm" in the kitchen sink.
Nevertheless, if tem
ptatio
n is spread
befo
re peo
ple a certain num
ber
will succum
b, and
a small m
inority w
ill actually attempt these stunts.
A larg
e m
inority
of th
at small m
inority
will e
ither fail o
r, quite
likely
,m
aim them
selves, since these "philes" have no
t been checked
for accu-
racy, are not the p
roduct o
f pro
fessional exp
erience, and are o
ften high-
ly fanciful. But the g
loating
menace o
f these philes is no
t to b
e entirelydism
issed.
Hackers m
ay not b
e "serious" ab
out b
om
bing
; if they were, w
e would
hear far more ab
out exploding flashlig
hts, homem
ade bazookas, and g
ymteachers p
oiso
ned b
y chlorine and
potassium
. How
ever, hackers are*very* serious ab
out forbidden know
ledge. T
hey are possessed notm
erely by curio
sity, but b
y a positive *lust to
know
.* The d
esire tokno
w w
hat others d
on't is scarcely new
. But the *intensity* o
f this
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desire, as manifested by these young technophilic denizens of the
Inform
ation A
ge, m
ay in fact *be* new
, and m
ay represent so
me b
asicshift in so
cial values — a harb
inger o
f what the w
orld
may co
me to
, asso
ciety lays more and
more value o
n the possessio
n, assimilatio
n andretailing
of *info
rmatio
n* as a basic co
mm
odity o
f daily life.
There have alw
ays been young
men w
ith obsessive interests in these
topics. Never b
efore, however, have they b
een able to netw
ork soextensively and
easily, and to
pro
pag
andize their interests w
ithim
punity to
random
passers-b
y. Hig
h-school teachers w
ill recognize
that there's always one in a crow
d, but when the one in a crow
d escapesco
ntrol b
y jumping
into the p
hone-lines, and
beco
mes a hund
red such
kids all to
gether o
n a board
, then troub
le is brew
ing visib
ly. The urg
eof autho
rity to *d
o so
mething
,* even som
ething d
rastic, is hard to
resist. And
in 19
90
, authority d
id so
mething
. In fact authority d
id a
great d
eal._
__
__
The process b
y which b
oards create hackers goes som
ething like this. A
youngster b
ecomes interested in com
puters — usually, com
puter gam
es.H
e hears from
friends that "b
ulletin board
s" exist where g
ames can b
eobtained
for free. (M
any com
puter g
ames are "freew
are," not co
py-
righted
— invented
simply fo
r the love o
f it and g
iven away to
the pub
-lic; som
e of these games are quite good.) H
e bugs his parents for am
odem, or quite often, uses his parents' m
odem.
The w
orld of boards suddenly opens up. Com
puter games can be quite
expensive, real b
udget-b
reakers for a kid
, but p
irated g
ames, strip
ped
of co
py p
rotectio
n, are cheap o
r free. They are also
illegal, b
ut it isvery rare, alm
ost unheard
of, fo
r a small-scale so
ftware p
irate to b
eprosecuted. O
nce "cracked" of its copy protection, the program, being
dig
ital data, b
ecom
es infinitely repro
ducib
le. Even the instructions to
the game, any m
anuals that accompany it, can be reproduced as text
files, or p
hoto
copied
from
legitim
ate sets. Other users o
n board
s cangive m
any useful hints in gam
e-playing
tactics. And
a young
ster with an
infinite supply o
f free com
puter g
ames can certainly cut q
uite a swath
among
his modem
- less friends.
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And boards are pseudonym
ous. No one need know
that you're fourteenyears o
ld —
with a little p
ractice at subterfug
e, you can talk to
adults
about adult things, and be accepted and taken seriously! You can evenpretend
to b
e a girl, o
r an old
man, o
r anybody yo
u can imag
ine. If you
find this kind
of d
eceptio
n gratifying
, there is ample o
pportunity to
hone
your ab
ility on b
oard
s.
But lo
cal board
s can gro
w stale. A
nd alm
ost every b
oard
maintains a list
of p
hone-num
bers to
other b
oard
s, som
e in distant, tem
pting
, exotic
locales. W
ho kno
ws w
hat they're up to
, in Oreg
on o
r Alaska o
r Florid
aor C
alifornia? It's very easy to
find o
ut — just o
rder the m
odem
to call
throug
h its softw
are — no
thing to
this, just typing
on a keyb
oard
, thesam
e thing you would do for m
ost any computer gam
e. The m
achinereacts sw
iftly and in a few
second
s you are talking
to a b
unch of inter-
esting people on another seaboard.
And
yet the *bills* fo
r this trivial action can b
e staggering
! Just by
going
tippety-tap
with yo
ur fingers, yo
u may have sad
dled
your p
arentsw
ith four hundred bucks in long
-distance charges, and g
otten chewed out
but g
ood. T
hat hardly seem
s fair.
How
horrifying to have m
ade friends in another state and to be deprived
of their company —
and their software —
just because telephone com
-panies dem
and absurd am
ounts of money! H
ow painful, to b
e restrictedto boards in one's ow
n *area code* — w
hat the heck is an "area code"anyw
ay, and w
hat makes it so
special? A
few g
rumbles, co
mplaints,
and inno
cent questio
ns of this so
rt will o
ften elicit a sympathetic rep
lyfrom
another board user — som
eone with som
e stolen codes to hand.You d
ither a while, kno
wing
this isn't quite rig
ht, then you m
ake upyo
ur mind
to try them
anyhow
— *and
they work!* S
uddenly yo
u'redoing som
ething even your parents can't do. Six months ago you w
erejust so
me kid
— no
w, yo
u're the Crim
son Flash o
f Area C
ode 5
12
!You're b
ad —
you're natio
nwid
e!
Maybe you'll stop at a few
abused codes. Maybe you'll decide that boards
aren't all that interesting after all, that it's w
rong
, not w
orth the risk
— b
ut mayb
e you won't. T
he next step is to pick up your own repeat-
dialling
pro
gram
— to
learn to g
enerate your o
wn sto
len codes. (T
his
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was dead easy five years ago, m
uch harder to get away w
ith nowadays,
but no
t yet impossib
le.) And
these dialling
pro
gram
s are not co
mplex
or intim
idating
— so
me are as sm
all as twenty lines o
f softw
are.
Now
, you too can share codes. You can trade codes to learn other tech-niques. If you're sm
art enough to catch on, and obsessive enough tow
ant to b
other, and
ruthless enoug
h to start serio
usly bend
ing rules,
then you'll get better, fast. You start to develop a rep. You move up to a
heavier class of board — a board w
ith a bad attitude, the kind of boardthat naive d
opes like yo
ur classmates and
your fo
rmer self have never
even heard o
f! You p
ick up the jarg
on o
f phreaking
and hacking
from
theboard. You read a few
of those anarchy philes — and m
an, you neverrealized
you co
uld b
e a real *outlaw
* witho
ut ever leaving yo
ur bed
-ro
om
.
You still play other com
puter gam
es, but now
you have a new and b
igger
gam
e. This o
ne will b
ring yo
u a different kind
of status than d
estroying
even eight zillio
n lousy sp
ace invaders.
Hacking
is perceived
by hackers as a "g
ame." T
his is not an entirely
unreasonab
le or so
ciopathic p
erceptio
n. You can w
in or lo
se at hacking,
succeed o
r fail, but it never feels "real." It's no
t simply that im
agina-
tive young
sters som
etimes have a hard
time telling
"make-b
elieve"fro
m "real life." C
ybersp
ace is *not real!* "R
eal" thin
gs are p
hysical
objects like trees and shoes and cars. Hacking takes place on a screen.
Word
s aren't physical, num
bers (even telep
hone num
bers and
credit
card num
bers) aren't p
hysical. Sticks and
stones m
ay break m
y bones,
but d
ata will n
ever hurt m
e. Com
puters *sim
ulate* reality, like co
m-
puter gam
es that simulate tank b
attles or dogfig
hts or spaceships.Sim
ulations are just m
ake- believe, and
the stuff in com
puters is *no
tre
al.*
Consid
er this: if "hacking" is sup
posed
to b
e so serio
us and real-life and
dang
erous, then ho
w co
me *nine-year-o
ld kid
s* have com
puters and
modem
s? You w
ould
n't give a nine year o
ld his o
wn car, o
r his ow
nrifle, o
r his ow
n chainsaw —
those thing
s are "real."
People underg
round are perfectly aw
are that the "gam
e" is frow
ned upon
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by the powers that be. W
ord gets around about busts in the under-gro
und. Pub
licizing b
usts is one o
f the prim
ary functions o
f pirate
boards, but they also promulgate an attitude about them
, and their own
idio
syncratic ideas o
f justice. The users o
f underg
round
board
s won't
com
plain if so
me g
uy is busted
for crashing
systems, sp
reading
viruses,or stealing
money b
y wire- fraud
. They m
ay shake their heads w
ith asneaky grin, but they w
on't openly defend these practices. But w
hen akid
is charged
with so
me theo
retical amount o
f theft: $2
33
,84
6.1
4, fo
rinstance, because he sneaked into a com
puter and copied something, and
kept it in his ho
use on a flo
ppy d
isk — this is reg
arded
as a sign o
f near-insanity fro
m p
rosecuto
rs, a sign that they've d
rastically mistaken the
imm
aterial gam
e of co
mputing
for their real and
boring
everyday w
orld
of fatcat corporate money.
It's as if big
com
panies and
their suck-up law
yers think that com
puting
belo
ngs to
them, and
they can retail it with p
rice stickers, as if it were
boxes o
f laundry so
ap! B
ut pricing
"inform
ation" is like trying
to p
riceair o
r price d
reams. W
ell, anybody o
n a pirate b
oard
know
s that com
-puting
can be, and
oug
ht to b
e, *free.* Pirate board
s are little indep
en-dent w
orlds in cyberspace, and they don't belong to anybody but theund
ergro
und. U
nderg
round
board
s aren't "bro
ught to
you b
y Procter &
Gam
ble."
To log on to an underground board can m
ean to experience liberation, toenter a w
orld
where, fo
r once, m
oney isn't everything
and ad
ults don't
have all the answers.
Let's sample ano
ther vivid hacker m
anifesto. H
ere are som
e excerpts
from
"The C
onscience o
f a Hacker," b
y "The M
entor," fro
m *Phrack*
Volum
e One, Issue 7
, Phile 3.
"I made a discovery today. I found a com
puter. Wait a second, this is
cool. It does what I w
ant it to. If it makes a m
istake, it's because I
screwed
it up. N
ot b
ecause it doesn't like m
e.(...) "And
then it hap-
pened... a door opened to a world... rushing
through the phone line like
heroin thro
ugh an ad
dict's veins, an electro
nic pulse is sent o
ut, arefug
e from
day-to
-day inco
mpetencies is so
ught... a b
oard
is found
.'T
his is it... this is where I b
elong
...' "I know
everyone here... even if
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I've never met them
, never talked to
them, m
ay never hear from
themag
ain... I know
you all...(...) "T
his is our w
orld
now
.... the world
of the
electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. W
e make use of a ser-
vice already existing
witho
ut paying
for w
hat could
be d
irt-cheap if it
wasn't run b
y pro
fiteering g
luttons, and
you call us crim
inals. We
explo
re... and yo
u call us criminals. W
e seek after know
ledge... and
you
call us crim
inals. W
e exist with
out skin
colo
r, with
out n
ationality,
witho
ut religio
us bias... and
you call us crim
inals. You b
uild ato
mic
bom
bs, you w
age w
ars, you murder, cheat and lie to us and try to m
akeus b
elieve that it's for o
ur ow
n good, yet w
e're the criminals. "Y
es, I ama crim
inal. M
y crime is th
at of cu
riosity. M
y crime is th
at of ju
dgin
gpeo
ple b
y what they say and
think, not w
hat they look like. M
y crime is
that of o
utsmarting
you, so
mething
that you w
ill never forg
ive me fo
r."_
__
__
There have been underground boards alm
ost as long as there have beenboards. O
ne of the first was 8
BBS, w
hich became a stronghold of the
West C
oast p
hone- p
hreak elite. After g
oing
on-line in M
arch 19
80
,8
BBS sp
onso
red "S
usan Thund
er," and "T
uc," and, m
ost no
torio
usly,"the C
ondor." "The C
ondor" bore the sing
ular distinction of becom
ingthe m
ost vilified
Am
erican phreak and
hacker ever. Ang
ry underg
round
associates, fed
up w
ith Cond
or's p
eevish behavio
r, turned him
in topolice, alo
ng w
ith a heaping
doub
le-helping
of o
utrageo
us hacker leg-
endry. A
s a result, Cond
or w
as kept in so
litary confinem
ent for seven
months, fo
r fear that he mig
ht start World
War T
hree by trig
gering
missile silo
s from
the priso
n payp
hone. (H
aving served
his time,
Cond
or is no
w w
alking aro
und lo
ose; W
WIII has thus far co
nspicuo
uslyfailed
to o
ccur.)
The syso
p o
f 8BBS w
as an ardent free-sp
eech enthusiast who
simply felt
that *any* attempt to
restrict the expressio
n of his users w
as uncon-
stitutional and
imm
oral. S
warm
s of the technically curio
us entered8
BBS and
emerg
ed as p
hreaks and hackers, until, in 1
98
2, a friend
ly8BBS alum
nus passed the sysop a new m
odem w
hich had been purchasedby cred
it-card fraud
. Police to
ok this o
pportunity to
seize the entireboard and rem
ove what they considered an attractive nuisance.
Plovernet was a pow
erful East Coast pirate b
oard that operated in both
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New
York and Florida. Ow
ned and operated by teenage hacker "Quasi
Moto
," Plovernet attracted
five hundred
eager users in 1
98
3.
"Emm
anuel Gold
stein" was o
ne-time co
-sysop o
f Plovernet, alo
ng w
ith"Lex Luthor," founder of the "Leg
ion of Doom
" group. Plovernet b
orethe signal honor of being the original hom
e of the "Legion of Doom
,"ab
out w
hich the reader w
ill be hearing
a great d
eal, soon.
"Pirate-8
0," o
r "P-8
0," ru
n b
y a sysop kn
ow
n as "S
can- M
an," g
ot
into the g
ame very early in C
harleston, and
continued
steadily fo
r years.P-8
0 flo
urished so
flagrantly that even its m
ost hard
ened users b
ecame
nervous, and some slanderously speculated that "Scan M
an" must have
ties to co
rporate security, a charg
e he vigoro
usly denied
.
"41
4 Private" w
as the hom
e board
for the first *g
roup
* to attract co
n-sp
icuous tro
uble, the teenag
e "41
4 G
ang," w
hose intrusio
ns into S
loan-
Kettering
Cancer C
enter and Lo
s Alam
os m
ilitary com
puters w
ere to b
e anin
e-d
ays- w
onder in
19
82
.
At ab
out this time, the first softw
are piracy boards b
egan to open up,
trading cracked games for the A
tari 800 and the C
omm
odore C64.
Naturally these b
oard
s were heavily freq
uented b
y teenagers. A
nd w
iththe 1
98
3 release o
f the hacker-thriller movie *W
ar Gam
es,* the sceneexploded. It seem
ed that every kid in Am
erica had demanded and gotten
a modem
for Christm
as. Most of these dab
bler w
annabes put their
modem
s in the attic after a few w
eeks, and most of the rem
ainder minded
their P's and Q's and stayed w
ell out of hot water. B
ut some stubborn
and talented
diehard
s had this hacker kid
in *War G
ames* fig
ured fo
r ahappening dude. T
hey simply could not rest until they had contacted the
underg
round
— o
r, failing that, created
their ow
n.
In the mid
-80
s, underg
round
board
s sprang
up like d
igital fung
i.Shad
ow
Spaw
n Elite. Sherw
ood Fo
rest I, II, and III. D
igital Lo
gic D
ataService in Flo
rida, syso
ped
by no
less a man than "D
igital Lo
gic" him
-self; Lex Luthor of the Leg
ion of Doom
was prom
inent on this board,
since it was in his area co
de. Lex's o
wn b
oard
, "Legio
n of D
oom
," start-ed
in 19
84
. The N
eon K
nights ran a netw
ork o
f Apple- hacker b
oard
s:N
eon K
nights N
orth, S
outh, East and
West. Free W
orld
II was run b
y"M
ajor H
avoc." Lunatic Lab
s is still in operatio
n as of this w
riting.
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Dr. R
ipco
in Chicag
o, an anything
-goes anarchist b
oard
with an exten-
sive and rauco
us history, w
as seized b
y Secret S
ervice agents in 1
99
0on S
undevil d
ay, but up
again alm
ost im
med
iately, with new
machines
and scarcely d
iminished
vigor.
The S
t. Louis scene w
as not to
rank with m
ajor centers o
f Am
ericanhacking
such as New
York and
L.A. B
ut St. Lo
uis did
rejoice in p
osses-
sion of "Knig
ht Lightning
" and "Taran K
ing," tw
o of the foremost
*journ
alists* native to
the u
nderg
round. M
issouri b
oard
s like Metal
Sho
p, M
etal Sho
p Private, M
etal Sho
p B
rewery, m
ay not have b
een theheaviest b
oard
s around
in terms o
f illicit expertise. B
ut they becam
eboards w
here hackers could exchange social g
ossip and try to figure out
what the heck w
as going
on natio
nally — and
internationally. G
ossip
from
Metal S
hop w
as put into
the form
of new
s files, then assembled
into a g
eneral electronic p
ublicatio
n, *Phrack,* a portm
anteau titleco
ined fro
m "p
hreak" and "hack." T
he *Phrack* edito
rs were as o
bses-
sively curious ab
out o
ther hackers as hackers were ab
out m
achines.
*Phrack,* being
free of charg
e and lively read
ing, b
egan to
circulatethroug
hout the undergro
und. As T
aran King
and Knig
ht Lightning
lefthig
h school fo
r colleg
e, *Phrack* beg
an to ap
pear o
n mainfram
em
achines linked to
BIT
NET
, and, thro
ugh B
ITN
ET to
the "Internet," thatlo
ose b
ut extremely p
otent no
t-for-p
rofit netw
ork w
here academ
ic,governm
ental and corporate machines trade data through the U
NIX
TC
P/IP pro
toco
l. (The "Internet W
orm
" of N
ovem
ber 2
-3,1
98
8,
created b
y Cornell g
rad stud
ent Robert M
orris, w
as to b
e the largest
and b
est- pub
licized co
mputer-intrusio
n scandal to
date. M
orris
claimed
that his ingenio
us "worm
" pro
gram
was m
eant to harm
lesslyexp
lore the Internet, b
ut due to
bad
pro
gram
ming
, the Worm
replicated
out of control and crashed some six thousand Internet com
puters.Sm
aller- scale and less am
bitio
us Internet hacking w
as a standard
for
the underg
round
elite.)
Most any und
ergro
und b
oard
not ho
pelessly lam
e and o
ut-of-it w
ould
feature a com
plete run o
f *Phrack* — and
, possib
ly, the lesser-know
nstand
ards o
f the underg
round
: the *Legio
n of D
oom
Technical Jo
urnal,*the o
bscene and
raucous *C
ult of the D
ead C
ow
* files, *P/HU
N* m
aga-
zine, *Pirate,* the *Synd
icate Rep
orts,* and
perhap
s the highly
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E9 6
anarch
o-p
olitical *A
ctivist Tim
es In
corp
orate
d.*
Possessio
n of *Phrack* o
n one's b
oard
was p
rima facie evid
ence of a
bad
attitude. *Phrack* w
as seeming
ly everywhere, aid
ing, ab
etting,
and spreading the underground ethos. And this did not escape the atten-
tion o
f corp
orate security o
r the police.
We now
come to the touchy subject of police and boards. Police, do, in
fact, ow
n board
s. In 19
89
, there were p
olice-sp
onso
red b
oard
s inC
aliforn
ia, Colo
rado, Flo
rida, G
eorg
ia, Idah
o, M
ichig
an, M
issouri,
Texas, and
Virg
inia: board
s such as "Crim
e Bytes," "C
rimesto
ppers,"
"All P
oin
ts" and "B
ullet-N
-Board
." Police o
fficers, as private co
m-
puter en
thusiasts, ran
their o
wn b
oard
s in A
rizona, C
aliforn
ia,C
olo
rado, C
onnecticu
t, Florid
a, Misso
uri, M
aryland, N
ew M
exico, N
orth
Carolina, O
hio, Tennessee and T
exas. Police boards have often proved
helpful in co
mm
unity relations. S
om
etimes crim
es are reported
on
police b
oard
s.
Som
etimes crim
es are *com
mitted
* on p
olice b
oard
s. This has so
me-
times happened b
y accident, as naive hackers blunder onto police b
oardsand
blithely b
egin o
ffering telep
hone co
des. Far m
ore o
ften, how
ever, itoccurs thro
ugh the no
w alm
ost-trad
itional use o
f "sting b
oard
s." The
first police sting
-board
s were estab
lished in 1
98
5: "U
nderg
round
Tunnel" in A
ustin, Texas, w
hose syso
p S
gt. R
obert A
nsley called him
self"Pluto
" — "T
he Phone C
om
pany" in Pho
enix, Arizo
na, run by K
enM
acLeod of the Maricopa C
ounty Sheriff's office — and Sgt. D
anPasq
uale's board
in Fremont, C
alifornia. S
ysops p
osed
as hackers, andsw
iftly garnered coteries of ardent users, who posted codes and loaded
pirate software w
ith abandon, and came to a sticky end.
Sting
board
s, like other b
oard
s, are cheap to
operate, very cheap
by the
standards of undercover police operations. Once accepted by the local
underg
round
, sysops w
ill likely be invited
into o
ther pirate b
oard
s,w
here they can compile m
ore dossiers. And w
hen the sting is announcedand
the worst o
ffenders arrested
, the pub
licity is generally g
ratifying.
The resultant p
aranoia in the und
ergro
und —
perhap
s more justly
described as a "deterrence effect" —
tends to quell local lawbreaking
forquite a w
hile.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E9 7
Obviously police do not have to beat the underbrush for hackers. O
n theco
ntrary, they can go tro
lling fo
r them. T
hose caug
ht can be g
rilled.
Some becom
e useful informants. T
hey can lead the way to pirate boards
all across the co
untry.
And
board
s all across the co
untry show
ed the sticky fing
erprints o
f*Phrack,* and
of that lo
udest and
most flag
rant of all und
ergro
undgroups, the "Legion of D
oom."
The term
"Legion of Doom
" came from
comic books. T
he Legion of Doom
,a co
nspiracy o
f costum
ed sup
er- villains headed
by the chro
me-d
om
edcrim
inal u
ltra- masterm
ind L
ex Luth
or, g
ave Superm
an a lo
t of fo
ur-
colo
r grap
hic troub
le for a num
ber o
f decad
es. Of co
urse, Sup
erman,
that exemplar o
f Truth, Justice, and
the Am
erican Way, alw
ays won in
the long run. This didn't m
atter to the hacker Doom
sters — "Legion of
Doom
" was not som
e thunderous and evil Satanic reference, it was not
meant to b
e taken seriously. "Legion of D
oom" cam
e from funny-b
ooksand w
as supposed to be funny.
"Legion of Doom
" did have a good mouthfilling ring
to it, though. Itso
unded
really cool. O
ther gro
ups, such as the "Farm
ers of D
oom
,"clo
sely allied to
LoD
, recognized
this grand
iloquent q
uality, and m
ade fun
of it. There w
as even a hacker group called "Justice Leag
ue of Am
erica,"nam
ed after S
uperm
an's club o
f true-blue crim
efighting
superhero
s.
But they d
idn't last; the Leg
ion d
id.
The orig
inal Legion of D
oom, hang
ing out on Q
uasi Moto's Plovernet
board
, were p
hone p
hreaks. They w
eren't much into
com
puters. "Lex
Luthor" him
self (who
was und
er eighteen w
hen he form
ed the Leg
ion)
was a C
OSM
OS exp
ert, CO
SM
OS b
eing the "C
entral System
for M
ainframe
Operatio
ns," a telco internal co
mputer netw
ork. Lex w
ould
eventuallybeco
me q
uite a dab
hand at b
reaking into
IBM
mainfram
es, but altho
ugh
everyone liked Lex and admired his attitude, he w
as not considered atruly acco
mplished
com
puter intrud
er. Nor w
as he the "masterm
ind" o
fthe Legion of D
oom —
LoD w
ere never big on formal leadership. A
s areg
ular on Plo
vernet and syso
p o
f his "Legio
n of D
oom
BBS," Lex w
as
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
9 8
the Legio
n's cheerleader and
recruiting o
fficer.
Legio
n of D
oom
beg
an on the ruins o
f an earlier phreak g
roup
, The
Knights of Shadow
. Later, LoD w
as to subsume the personnel of the
hacker group "T
ribunal of K
nowledg
e." People came and w
ent constantlyin Lo
D; g
roup
s split up
or fo
rmed
offsho
ots.
Early on, the Lo
D p
hreaks befriend
ed a few
com
puter-intrusio
n enthu-siasts, w
ho became the associated "Legion of H
ackers." Then the tw
ogroups conflated into the "Legion of D
oom/H
ackers," or LoD/H
. When
the orig
inal "hacker" wing
, Messrs. "C
om
pu- Phreak" and
"PhuckedA
gent 0
4," found other m
atters to occupy their time, the extra "/H
"slo
wly atro
phied
out o
f the name; b
ut by this tim
e the phreak w
ing,
Messrs. Lex Lutho
r, "Blue A
rcher," "Gary S
even," "Kerrang
Khan,"
"Master o
f Impact," "S
ilver Spy," "T
he Maraud
er," and "T
heV
ideo
smith," had
picked
up a p
lethora o
f intrusion exp
ertise and had
become a force to be reckoned w
ith.
LoD m
embers seem
ed to have an instinctive understanding that the way
to real p
ow
er in the underg
round
lay throug
h covert p
ublicity. Lo
Dw
ere flagrant. N
ot o
nly was it o
ne of the earliest g
roup
s, but the m
em-
bers to
ok p
ains to w
idely d
istribute their illicit kno
wled
ge. S
om
e LoD
mem
bers, like "T
he Mento
r," were clo
se to evang
elical about it.
*Legion of D
oom T
echnical Journal* beg
an to show up on b
oardsthro
ugho
ut the underg
round
.
*LoD
Technical Jo
urnal* was nam
ed in cruel p
arody o
f the ancient andho
nored
*AT&
T T
echnical Journal.* T
he material in these tw
o p
ublica-
tions w
as quite sim
ilar — m
uch of it, ad
opted
from
pub
lic journals and
discussions in the telco comm
unity. And yet, the predatory attitude of
LoD m
ade even its most innocuous data seem
deeply sinister; an outrage;a clear and
present d
anger.
To see w
hy this should
be, let's co
nsider the fo
llow
ing (invented
) para-
grap
hs, as a kind o
f thoug
ht experim
ent.
(A) "W
. Fred B
row
n, AT&
T V
ice President fo
r Advanced
Technical
Developm
ent, testified May 8
at a Washing
ton hearing of the N
ational
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
9 9
Teleco
mm
unications and
Inform
ation A
dm
inistration (N
TIA
), regard
ingBellco
re's GA
RD
EN p
roject. G
ARD
EN (G
eneralized A
utom
atic Rem
ote
Distrib
uted Electro
nic Netw
ork) is a telep
hone-sw
itch pro
gram
ming
tool that m
akes it possib
le to d
evelop new
telecom
services, including
hold
-on-ho
ld and
custom
ized m
essage transfers, fro
m any keyp
ad ter-
minal, w
ithin second
s. The G
ARD
EN p
roto
type co
mbines centrex lines
with a m
inicom
puter using
UN
IX o
perating
system so
ftware."
(B) "C
rimso
n Flash 51
2 o
f the Centrex M
obsters rep
orts: D
00
dz, yo
uw
ould
n't believe this G
ARD
EN b
ullshit Bellco
re's just com
e up w
ith!N
ow you don't even need a lousy C
omm
odore to reprogram a sw
itch —just log
on to GA
RDEN
as a technician, and you can reprogram
switches
right o
ff the keypad
in any pub
lic pho
ne booth! Y
ou can g
ive yourself
hold
-on-ho
ld and
custom
ized m
essage transfers, and
best o
f all, thething
is run off (no
torio
usly insecure) centrex lines using —
get this —
standard
UN
IX so
ftware! H
a ha ha ha!"
Messag
e (A), co
uched in typ
ical techno- b
ureaucratese, appears ted
ious
and alm
ost unread
able. (A
) scarcely seems threatening
or m
enacing.
Messag
e (B), o
n the other hand
, is a dread
ful thing, p
rima facie evi-
dence o
f a dire co
nspiracy, d
efinitely not the kind
of thing
you w
ant your
teenager read
ing.
The *in
form
ation,* h
ow
eve
r, is identical. It is *p
ublic* in
form
ation,
presented before the federal g
overnment in an open hearing
. It is not"secret." It is no
t "pro
prietary." It is no
t even "confid
ential." On the
contrary, the development of advanced softw
are systems is a m
atter ofgreat p
ublic p
ride to
Bellco
re.
How
ever, when B
ellcore p
ublicly anno
unces a pro
ject of this kind
, itexpects a certain attitude from
the public —
something
along the lines of
*gosh w
ow
, you g
uys are great, keep
that up, w
hatever it is* — cer-
tainly not cruel m
imickry, o
ne-upm
anship and
outrag
eous sp
eculations
about p
ossib
le security holes.
Now
put yourself in the place of a policeman confronted by an outraged
parent, o
r telco o
fficial, with a co
py o
f Versio
n (B). T
his well-m
eaningcitizen
, to h
is horro
r, has d
iscovered
a local b
ulletin
-board
carrying
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
1 0 0
outrag
eous stuff like (B
), which his so
n is examining
with a d
eep and
unhealthy interest. If (B) w
ere printed
in a book o
r mag
azine, you, as
an Am
erican law enfo
rcement o
fficer, would
know
that it would
take ahell of a lot of troub
le to do anything ab
out it; but it doesn't take techni-
cal genius to
recognize that if there's a co
mputer in yo
ur area harboring
stuff like (B), there's g
oing
to b
e troub
le.
In fact, if you ask aro
und, any co
mputer-literate co
p w
ill tell you
straight o
ut that board
s with stuff like (B
) are the *source* o
f troub
le.A
nd the *w
orst* so
urce of tro
uble o
n board
s are the ringlead
ers invent-ing
and sp
reading
stuff like (B). If it w
eren't for these jo
kers, therew
ould
n't *be* any tro
uble.
And Legion of D
oom w
ere on boards like nobody else. Plovernet. The
Legion of Doom
Board. T
he Farmers of D
oom B
oard. Metal Shop. O
SUN
Y.Blo
ttoland
. Private Secto
r. Atlantis. D
igital Lo
gic. H
ell Phrozen O
ver.
LoD
mem
bers also
ran their ow
n board
s. "Silver S
py" started
his ow
nboard, "C
atch-22," considered one of the heaviest around. So did
"Mento
r," with his "Pho
enix Project." W
hen they did
n't run board
sthem
selves, they showed up on other people's boards, to brag, boast, and
strut. And
where they them
selves did
n't go, their p
hiles went, carrying
evil know
ledge and
an even more evil attitud
e.
As early as 1
98
6, the p
olice w
ere under the vag
ue impressio
n that*everyone* in the underg
round was Leg
ion of Doom
. LoD w
as neverthat larg
e — co
nsiderab
ly smaller than either "M
etal Com
municatio
ns"or "T
he Adm
inistration," for instance — b
ut LoD g
ot tremendous press.
Especially in *Phrack,* w
hich at times read
like an LoD
fan mag
azine;and
*Phrack* was everyw
here, especially in the o
ffices of telco
securi-ty. Y
ou couldn't *get* b
usted as a phone phreak, a hacker, or even alousy codes kid or w
arez dood, without the cops asking if you w
ere LoD.
This w
as a difficult charg
e to d
eny, as LoD
never distrib
uted m
ember-
ship b
adges o
r laminated
ID card
s. If they had, they w
ould
likely havedied
out q
uickly, for turno
ver in their mem
bership
was co
nsiderab
le.Lo
D w
as less a high-tech street-g
ang than an o
ngoing
state-of- m
ind.
LoD w
as the Gang
That Refused to D
ie. By 1
990, LoD
had *ruled* for
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 0 1
ten years, and it seem
ed *w
eird* to
police that they w
ere continually
busting
people who w
ere only sixteen years old. All these teenag
esm
all-timers w
ere
ple
adin
g th
e tire
som
e h
acker litan
y of "ju
st curi-
ous, no
criminal intent." S
om
ewhere at the center o
f this consp
iracythere had
to b
e som
e serious ad
ult masterm
inds, no
t this seeming
ly end-
less supply o
f myo
pic sub
urban w
hite kids w
ith high S
ATs and
funnyhaircuts.
There w
as no question that most any A
merican hacker arrested w
ould"know
" LoD. T
hey knew the handles of contributors to *LoD
Tech
Journal,* and
were likely to
have learned their craft thro
ugh Lo
Dboards and LoD
activism. B
ut they'd never met anyone from
LoD. Even
som
e of the ro
tating cad
re who
were actually and
form
ally "in LoD
"knew
one ano
ther only b
y board
-mail and
pseud
onym
s. This w
as ahig
hly u
nco
nven
tional p
rofile fo
r a crimin
al consp
iracy. Com
puter
networking
, and the rap
id evo
lution o
f the dig
ital underg
round
, mad
ethe situatio
n very diffuse and
confusing
.
Furthermore, a b
ig rep
utation in the d
igital und
ergro
und d
id no
t coin-
cide w
ith one's w
illingness to
com
mit "crim
es." Instead, rep
utation
was b
ased on cleverness and technical mastery. A
s a result, it oftenseem
ed that the *heavier* the hackers w
ere, the *less* likely theyw
ere to have co
mm
itted any kind
of co
mm
on, easily p
rosecutab
le crime.
There w
ere som
e hackers who
could
really steal. And
there were hack-
ers who could really hack. B
ut the two g
roups didn't seem to overlap
much, if at all. Fo
r instance, most p
eople in the und
ergro
und lo
oked
upto
"Emm
anuel Gold
stein" of *2
60
0* as a hacker d
emig
od. B
utG
old
stein's pub
lishing activities w
ere entirely legal —
Gold
stein justprinted dodgy stuff and talked about politics, he didn't even hack. W
henyo
u came rig
ht dow
n to it, G
old
stein spent half his tim
e com
plaining
thatco
mputer security *w
asn't strong
enoug
h* and o
ught to
be d
rasticallyim
pro
ved acro
ss the board
!
Truly heavy-d
uty hackers, those w
ith serious technical skills w
ho had
earned the respect of the underground, never stole money or abused
credit cards. Sometim
es they might abuse phone-codes —
but often, theyseem
ed to get all the free phone-time they w
anted without leaving a
trace of any kind
.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 0 2
The b
est hackers, the most p
ow
erful and technically acco
mplished
, were
not p
rofessio
nal fraudsters. T
hey raided
com
puters hab
itually, but
wouldn't alter anything
, or damag
e anything. T
hey didn't even stealco
mputer eq
uipm
ent — m
ost had
day-jo
bs m
essing w
ith hardw
are, andcould get all the cheap secondhand equipm
ent they wanted. T
he hottesthackers, unlike the teenag
e wannab
es, weren't snob
s about fancy or
expensive hard
ware. T
heir machines tend
ed to
be raw
second
-hand d
ig-
ital hot-rods full of custom add-ons that they'd cobbled together out of
chickenwire, m
emory chip
s and sp
it. Som
e were ad
ults, com
puter so
ft-w
are writers and
consultants b
y trade, and
making
quite g
ood living
s atit. Som
e of them *actually w
orked for the phone company* —
and fortho
se, the "hackers" actually found
under the skirts o
f Ma B
ell, therew
ould
be little m
ercy in 1
99
0.
It has long b
een an article of faith in the underground that the "b
est"hackers never g
et caught. T
hey're far too smart, supposedly. T
heynever get caught because they never boast, brag, or strut. T
hesedem
igods m
ay read underground b
oards (with a condescending
smile),
but they never say anything
there. The "b
est" hackers, according to
legend
, are adult co
mputer p
rofessio
nals, such as mainfram
e systemad
ministrato
rs, who
already kno
w the ins and
outs o
f their particular
brand
of security. Even the "b
est" hacker can't break in to
just anycom
puter at random: the know
ledge of security holes is too specialized,
varying w
idely w
ith different so
ftware and
hardw
are. But if p
eople are
emplo
yed to
run, say, a UN
IX m
ainframe o
r a VA
X/V
MS m
achine, thenthey tend
to learn security fro
m the insid
e out. A
rmed
with this kno
wl-
edge, they can look into most anybody else's U
NIX or V
MS w
ithout much
troub
le or risk, if they w
ant to. A
nd, acco
rding
to hacker leg
end, o
fcourse they w
ant to, so of course they do. They just don't m
ake a bigdeal of w
hat they've done. So nobody ever finds out.
It is also an article o
f faith in the underg
round
that pro
fessional telco
peo
ple "p
hreak" like crazed w
easels. *Of co
urse* they spy o
n Mad
onna's
pho
ne calls — I m
ean, *would
n't you?* O
f course they g
ive themselves
free long
- distance —
why the hell sho
uld *they* p
ay, they're runningthe w
hole sheb
ang!
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
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It has, as a third m
atter, long
been an article o
f faith that any hackercaug
ht can escape serious punishment if he confesses *how
he did it.*H
ackers seem to
believe that g
overnm
ental agencies and
large co
rpora-
tions are b
lundering
about in cyb
erspace like eyeless jellyfish o
r cavesalam
anders. T
hey feel that these large b
ut pathetically stup
id o
rgani-
zations w
ill pro
ffer up g
enuine gratitud
e, and p
erhaps even a security
post and
a big
salary, to the ho
t-shot intrud
er who
will d
eign to
revealto them
the supreme genius of his m
odus operandi.
In the case of lo
ngtim
e LoD
mem
ber "C
ontro
l-C," this actually hap
-pened
, more o
r less. Contro
l-C had
led M
ichigan B
ell a merry chase,
and when captured in 1
987, he turned out to b
e a brig
ht and apparentlyphysically harm
less young
fanatic, fascinated b
y pho
nes. There w
as nochance in hell that C
ontro
l-C w
ould
actually repay the eno
rmous and
largely theo
retical sums in lo
ng-d
istance service that he had accum
u-lated
from
Michig
an Bell. H
e could
always b
e indicted
for fraud
or
com
puter-intrusio
n, but there seem
ed little real p
oint in this —
hehadn't physically dam
aged any com
puter. He'd just plead g
uilty, and he'dlikely g
et the usual slap-o
n-the-wrist, and
in the meantim
e it would
be
a big
hassle for M
ichigan B
ell just to b
ring up
the case. But if kep
t on
the payro
ll, he mig
ht at least keep his fello
w hackers at b
ay.
There w
ere uses for him
. For instance, a co
ntrite Contro
l-C w
as fea-tured
on M
ichigan B
ell internal posters, sternly w
arning em
plo
yees toshred
their trash. He'd
always g
otten m
ost o
f his best insid
e info fro
m"trashing
" — raid
ing telco
dum
psters, fo
r useful data ind
iscreetlythrow
n away. H
e signed these posters, too. Control-C
had become
som
ething like a M
ichigan B
ell masco
t. And
in fact, Contro
l-C *d
id*
keep o
ther hackers at bay. Little hackers w
ere quite scared
of C
ontro
l-C and
his heavy-duty Leg
ion o
f Doom
friends. A
nd b
ig hackers *w
ere*his friend
s and d
idn't w
ant to screw
up his cushy situatio
n.
No m
atter what one m
ight say of LoD, they did stick together. W
hen"W
asp," an ap
parently g
enuinely malicio
us New
York hacker, b
egan
crashing B
ellcore m
achines, Contro
l-C received
swift vo
lunteer helpfrom
"the Mentor" and the G
eorgia LoD w
ing made up of "T
he Prophet,""U
rvile," and "Leftist." U
sing M
entor's Pho
enix Project b
oard
to co
or-
dinate, the D
oom
sters helped
telco security to
trap W
asp, b
y luring him
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
1 0 4
into a m
achine with a tap
and line-trace installed
. Wasp
lost. Lo
D w
on!
And
my, d
id they b
rag.
Urvile
, Pro
phet an
d L
eftist w
ere
well-q
ualifie
d fo
r this activity
, pro
b-
ably m
ore so even than the quite accomplished C
ontrol-C. T
he Georg
iaboys knew
all about p
hone sw
itching-statio
ns. Tho
ugh relative jo
hnny-com
e- latelies in the Legion of D
oom, they w
ere considered some of
LoD's heaviest guys, into the hairiest system
s around. They had the good
fortune to
live in or near A
tlanta, hom
e of the sleep
y and ap
parently
tolerant B
ellSouth R
BO
C.
As R
BO
C security w
ent, BellS
outh w
ere "cake." US W
est (of A
rizona,
the Rockies and
the Pacific Northw
est) were to
ugh and
aggressive,
pro
bab
ly the h
eaviest RBO
C aro
und. P
acific Bell, C
aliforn
ia's PacB
ell,w
ere sleek, high- tech, and
long
time veterans o
f the LA p
hone-p
hreakw
ars. NYN
EX had
the misfo
rtune to run the N
ew Y
ork C
ity area, andw
ere warily p
repared
for m
ost an
ythin
g. Even
Mich
igan
Bell, a d
ivi-sion of the A
meritech RB
OC, at least had the elem
entary sense to hiretheir o
wn hacker as a useful scarecro
w. B
ut BellS
outh, even tho
ugh
their corp
orate P.R
. pro
claimed
them to
have "Everything Y
ou Exp
ectFro
m a Lead
er," were p
athetic.
When rum
or ab
out Lo
D's m
astery of G
eorg
ia's switching
network g
ot
around
to B
ellSouth thro
ugh B
ellcore and
telco security scuttleb
utt,they at first refused
to b
elieve it. If you p
aid serio
us attention to
everyrum
or o
ut and ab
out these hacker kid
s, you w
ould
hear all kinds o
fw
acko saucer-nut no
nsense: that the Natio
nal Security A
gency m
oni-
tored
all Am
erican pho
ne calls, that the CIA
and D
EA tracked
traffic on
bulletin-b
oard
s with w
ord
- analysis pro
gram
s, that the Cond
or co
uldstart W
orld
War III fro
m a p
ayphone.
If there were hackers into
BellS
outh sw
itching- statio
ns, then how
com
enothing
had happened? Nothing
had been hurt. B
ellSouth's machines
weren't crashing
. BellS
outh w
asn't suffering esp
ecially bad
ly from
fraud. B
ellSouth's custo
mers w
eren't com
plaining
. BellS
outh w
as head-
quartered
in Atlanta, am
bitio
us metro
polis o
f the new hig
h-techSunb
elt; and B
ellSouth w
as upgrad
ing its netw
ork b
y leaps and
bound
s,dig
itizing the w
orks left rig
ht and center. T
hey could
hardly b
e consid
-
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
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R C
OM
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RC
IAL
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ered slug
gish o
r naive. BellS
outh's technical exp
ertise was seco
nd to
none, thank yo
u kindly.
But then cam
e the Florid
a business.
On June 1
3, 1
98
9, callers to
the Palm B
each County Pro
batio
nD
epartm
ent, in Delray B
each, Florid
a, found
themselves invo
lved in a
remarkab
le discussio
n with a p
hone-sex w
orker nam
ed "T
ina" in New
York S
tate. Som
ehow
, *any* call to this p
robatio
n office near M
iami
was instantly and
mag
ically transported
across state lines, at no
extracharg
e to the user, to
a porno
grap
hic pho
ne- sex hotline hund
reds o
fm
iles away!
This p
ractical joke m
ay seem u
tterly hilario
us at first h
earing, an
dind
eed there w
as a good d
eal of chuckling
about it in p
hone p
hreak cir-cles, includ
ing the A
utumn 1
98
9 issue o
f *26
00
.* But fo
r Southern
Bell (the d
ivision o
f the BellS
outh R
BO
C sup
plying
local service fo
rFlo
rida, G
eorg
ia, North C
arolina and
South C
arolina), this w
as a smok-
ing g
un. For the first tim
e ever, a com
puter intrud
er had b
roken into
aBellS
outh central o
ffice switching
station and
re-pro
gram
med
it!
Or so
BellS
outh tho
ught in June 1
98
9. A
ctually, LoD
mem
bers had
been
frolickin
g h
armlessly in
BellS
outh
switch
es since S
eptem
ber 1
98
7.
The stunt o
f June 13
— call-fo
rward
ing a num
ber thro
ugh m
anipulatio
nof a sw
itching statio
n — w
as child's p
lay for hackers as acco
mplished
asthe G
eorg
ia wing
of Lo
D. S
witching
calls interstate sound
ed like a b
igdeal, b
ut it took only four lines of code to accomplish this. A
n easy, yetm
ore d
iscreet, stunt, would
be to
call-forw
ard ano
ther number to
your
own house. If you w
ere careful and considerate, and changed the soft-w
are back later, then not a soul w
ould know. Except you. A
nd whoever
you had bragged to about it.
As fo
r BellS
outh, w
hat they did
n't know
would
n't hurt them.
Except now som
ebody had blown the w
hole thing wide open, and
BellS
outh knew
.
A no
w alerted
and co
nsiderab
ly parano
id B
ellSouth b
egan searching
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
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IAL
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switches rig
ht and left fo
r signs o
f impro
priety, in that ho
t summ
er of
19
89
. No few
er than forty-tw
o B
ellSouth em
plo
yees were p
ut on 1
2-
hour shifts, tw
enty-four ho
urs a day, fo
r two so
lid m
onths, p
oring
over
records and monitoring
computers for any sig
n of phony access. These
forty-tw
o o
verworked
experts w
ere know
n as BellS
outh's "Intrusio
nTask Fo
rce."
What the investig
ators found astounded them. Pro
prietary telco databas-
es had been manipulated: phone num
bers had been created out of thinair, w
ith no users' nam
es and no
addresses. A
nd p
erhaps w
orst o
f all, nocharges and no records of use. T
he new digital ReM
OB (Rem
oteO
bservation) diag
nostic feature had been extensively tam
pered with —
hackers had learned
to rep
rogram
ReM
OB so
ftware, so
that they could
listen in on any sw
itch-routed
call at their leisure! They w
ere usingtelco
pro
perty to
*spy!*
The electrifying
news w
ent out thro
ugho
ut law enfo
rcement in 1
98
9. It
had never really o
ccurred to
anyone at B
ellSouth that their p
rized and
bran
d-n
ew d
igital sw
itchin
g-statio
ns co
uld
be *re-p
rogram
med
.*People seem
ed utterly amazed that anyone could have the nerve. O
fcourse these sw
itching stations w
ere "computers," and everyb
ody knewhackers liked
to "b
reak into co
mputers:" b
ut telepho
ne peo
ple's co
m-
puters w
ere *different* fro
m no
rmal p
eople's co
mputers.
The exact reaso
n *why* these co
mputers w
ere "different" w
as ratherill-d
efined. It certainly w
asn't the extent of their security. T
he secu-rity o
n these BellS
outh co
mputers w
as lousy; the A
IMSX co
mputers, fo
rinstance, didn't even have passw
ords. But there w
as no question thatBellS
outh stro
ngly *felt* that their co
mputers w
ere very different
indeed. And if there w
ere some crim
inals out there who had not gotten
that message, B
ellSouth was determ
ined to see that message taught.
After all, a 5
ESS sw
itching statio
n was no
mere b
ookkeep
ing system
for
som
e local chain o
f florists. Pub
lic service dep
ended
on these statio
ns.Pub
lic *safety* depended on these stations.
And h
ackers, lurkin
g in
there call-fo
rward
ing o
r ReM
obbin
g, co
uld
spy
on anyb
ody in the lo
cal area! They co
uld sp
y on telco
officials! T
hey
BR
UC
E S
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RL
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FO
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could spy on police stations! They could spy on local offices of the Secret
Service....
In 1
98
9, electro
nic co
ps an
d h
acker-trackers beg
an u
sing scram
bler-
phones and secured lines. It only made sense. T
here was no telling
who
was into those system
s. Whoever they w
ere, they sounded scary. This
was so
me new
level of antiso
cial daring
. Could
be W
est Germ
an hackers,in the pay of the K
GB. T
hat too had seemed a w
eird and farfetchedno
tion, until C
lifford
Sto
ll had p
oked
and p
rodded
a sluggish W
ashingto
nlaw
-enforcem
ent bureaucracy into
investigating
a com
puter intrusio
nthat turned out to b
e exactly that — *hackers, in the pay of the K
GB!*
Sto
ll, the systems m
anager fo
r an Internet lab in B
erkeley Califo
rnia,had ended up on the front page of the *N
ew York T
imes,* proclaim
ed anatio
nal hero in the first true sto
ry of internatio
nal com
puter esp
i-onag
e. Sto
ll's countersp
y efforts, w
hich he related in a b
estselling b
ook,
*The C
uckoo's Eg
g,* in 1
98
9, had
established
the credib
ility of 'hack-
ing' as a possib
le threat to national security. The U
nited States SecretService d
oesn't m
ess around
when it susp
ects a possib
le action b
y a for-
eign intellig
ence apparat.
The S
ecret Service scram
bler-p
hones and
secured lines p
ut a tremen-
dous kink in law
enforcem
ent's ability to
operate freely; to
get the w
ord
out, co
operate, p
revent misund
erstanding
s. Nevertheless, 1
98
9scarcely seem
ed the tim
e for half-m
easures. If the police and
Secret
Service them
selves were no
t operatio
nally secure, then how
could
theyreaso
nably d
emand
measures o
f security from
private enterp
rise? At
least, the inconvenience made people aw
are of the seriousness of thethreat.
If there was a final spur needed to g
et the police off the dime, it cam
e inthe realizatio
n that the emerg
ency 91
1 system
was vulnerab
le. The
91
1 system
has its ow
n specialized
softw
are, but it is run o
n the same
dig
ital switching
systems as the rest o
f the telepho
ne network. 9
11
isnot p
hysically d
ifferent fro
m n
orm
al telephony. B
ut it is certain
ly cul-
turally different, b
ecause this is the area of telep
honic cyb
erspace
reserved fo
r the police and
emerg
ency services.
Your averag
e policem
an may no
t know
much ab
out hackers o
r pho
ne-
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
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RC
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phreaks. C
om
puter p
eople are w
eird; even co
mputer *co
ps* are rather
weird; the stuff they do is hard to fig
ure out. But a threat to the 9
11
system is anything
but an ab
stract threat. If the 911 system
goes, peo-
ple can d
ie.
Imag
ine being
in a car-wreck, stag
gering
to a p
hone- b
ooth, p
unching9
11
and hearing
"Tina" p
ick up the p
hone-sex line so
mew
here in New
York! T
he situation's no
long
er com
ical, som
ehow
.
And w
as it possible? No question. H
ackers had attacked 911 system
sbefo
re. Phreaks can max-o
ut 91
1 system
s just by siccing
a bunch o
fco
mputer-m
odem
s on them
in tandem
, dialling
them o
ver and o
ver untilthey clo
g. T
hat's very crude and
low
-tech, but it's still a serio
us busi-
ness.
The tim
e had come for action. It w
as time to take stern m
easures with
the underground. It w
as time to start picking
up the dropped threads,the loose edges, the bits of braggadocio here and there; it w
as time to get
on the stick and
start putting
serious casew
ork to
gether. H
ackersw
eren't "invisible." T
hey *thoug
ht* they were invisib
le; but the truth
was, they had just been tolerated too long.
Und
er sustained p
olice attentio
n in the summ
er of '8
9, the d
igital
underg
round
beg
an to unravel as never b
efore.
The first b
ig b
reak in the case came very early o
n: July 19
89
, the fol-
lowing
month. T
he perpetrator of the "Tina" sw
itch was caug
ht, andco
nfessed. H
is name w
as "Fry Guy," a 1
6-year-o
ld in Ind
iana. Fry Guy
had been a very wicked young m
an.
Fry Guy had
earned his hand
le from
a stunt involving
French fries. FryG
uy had filched the log-in of a local M
acDonald's m
anager and had
logged-on to the M
acDonald's m
ainframe on the Sprint T
elenet system.
Posing
as the manag
er, Fry Guy had
altered M
acDonald
's record
s, andgiven so
me teenag
e hamburg
er-flipping
friends o
f his, genero
us raises.He had not been caught.
Embold
ened b
y success, Fry Guy m
oved
on to
credit- card
abuse. Fry
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
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CK
DO
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OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
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Guy w
as quite an acco
mplished
talker; with a g
ift for "so
cial engineer-
ing." If yo
u can do "so
cial engineering
" — fast-talk, fake-o
uts,im
personation, conning, scamm
ing — then card abuse com
es easy.(G
etting aw
ay with it in the lo
ng run is ano
ther questio
n).
Fry Guy had run across "U
rvile" of the Legion of Doom
on the ALT
OS C
hatboard in B
onn, Germ
any. ALT
OS C
hat was a sophisticated b
oard, accessi-ble thro
ugh g
lobe-sp
anning co
mputer netw
orks like B
ITnet, T
ymnet,
and Telenet. A
LTO
S was m
uch frequented by mem
bers of Germ
any'sChaos C
omputer C
lub. Tw
o Chaos hackers w
ho hung out on ALT
OS,
"Jaeger" and
"Pengo," had
been the central villains o
f Cliffo
rd S
toll's
CU
CKO
O'S
EGG
case: conso
rting in East B
erlin with a sp
ymaster fro
mthe K
GB, and
breaking
into A
merican co
mputers fo
r hire, throug
h theInternet.
When LoD
mem
bers learned the story of Jaeg
er's depredations fromSto
ll's book, they w
ere rather less than impressed
, technically speak-
ing. O
n LoD
's ow
n favorite b
oard
of the m
om
ent, "Black Ice," Lo
D m
em-
bers bragged that they themselves could have done all the C
haos break-ins in a w
eek flat! Nevertheless, Lo
D w
ere grud
ging
ly impressed
by the
Chao
s rep, the sheer hairy-eyed
daring
of hash-sm
oking
anarchisthackers w
ho had
rubbed
should
ers with the fearso
me b
ig-b
oys o
f inter-national C
omm
unist espionage. LoD m
embers som
etimes traded bits of
know
ledge w
ith friendly G
erman hackers o
n ALT
OS —
pho
ne numbers fo
rvulnerab
le VA
X/V
MS co
mputers in G
eorg
ia, for instance. D
utch andBritish p
hone p
hreaks, and the A
ustralian clique o
f "Phoenix," "N
om
,"and
"Electron," w
ere ALT
OS reg
ulars, too. In und
ergro
und circles, to
hang out on ALT
OS w
as considered the sign of an elite dude, a sophisti-cated
hacker of the internatio
nal dig
ital jet-set.
Fry Guy q
uickly learn
ed h
ow
to raid
info
rmatio
n fro
m cred
it-card co
n-
sumer-rep
orting
agencies. H
e had o
ver a hundred
stolen cred
it-cardnum
bers in his no
tebooks, and
upw
ards o
f a thousand
swip
ed lo
ng-d
is-tance access codes. H
e knew how
to get onto Altos, and how
to talk the talkof the underg
round convincingly. H
e now w
heedled knowledg
e of switch-
ing-statio
n tricks from
Urvile o
n the ALT
OS system
.
Com
bining these two form
s of knowledge enabled Fry G
uy to bootstrap
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
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TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
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OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
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his way up
to a new
form
of w
ire- fraud. First, he'd
snitched cred
itcard
numbers fro
m cred
it-com
pany co
mputers. T
he data he co
pied
included
names, ad
dresses and
pho
ne numbers o
f the random
card-ho
ld-
ers.
Then Fry G
uy, imperso
nating a card
-hold
er, called up
Western U
nion
and asked for a cash advance on "his" credit card. Western U
nion, as asecurity g
uarantee, would
call the custom
er back, at ho
me, to
verify thetransactio
n.
But, just as he had
switched
the Florid
a pro
batio
n office to
"Tina" in
New
York, Fry G
uy switched
the card- ho
lder's num
ber to
a local p
ay-pho
ne. There he w
ould
lurk in wait, m
uddying
his trail by ro
uting and
re-routing
the call, throug
h switches as far aw
ay as Canad
a. When the
call came thro
ugh, he w
ould
bold
ly "social-eng
ineer," or co
n, theW
estern Unio
n peo
ple, p
retending
to b
e the legitim
ate card-ho
lder.
Since he'd answered the proper phone num
ber, the deception was not
very hard. Western U
nion's money w
as then shipped to a confederate ofFry G
uy's in his hom
e tow
n in Indiana.
Fry Guy and
his coho
rt, using Lo
D techniq
ues, stole six tho
usand d
ollars
from
Western U
nion b
etween D
ecember 1
98
8 and
July 19
89
. They also
dab
bled
in ord
ering d
elivery of sto
len goods thro
ugh card
-fraud. Fry
Guy w
as intoxicated
with success. T
he sixteen-year-old
fantasizedw
ildly to
hacker rivals, boasting
that he'd used
rip-o
ff money to
hirehim
self a big
limousine, and
had d
riven out-o
f-state with a g
roup
iefro
m his favo
rite heavy- metal b
and, M
otley C
rue.
Arm
ed w
ith know
ledge, p
ow
er, and a g
ratifying stream
of free m
oney,
Fry Guy no
w to
ok it up
on him
self to call lo
cal representatives o
f Indiana
Bell security, to
brag
, boast, strut, and
utter torm
enting w
arnings that
his pow
erful friends in the no
torio
us Legio
n of D
oom
could
crash thenational telephone netw
ork. Fry Guy even nam
ed a date for the scheme:
the Fourth o
f July, a national ho
liday.
This eg
regio
us example o
f the beg
ging
-for-arrest synd
rom
e was sho
rtlyfo
llow
ed b
y Fry Guy's arrest. A
fter the Indiana telep
hone co
mpany fig
-ured out w
ho he was, the Secret Service had D
NRs —
Dialed N
umber
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OR
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MM
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CIA
L U
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1 1 1
Recorders — installed on his hom
e phone lines. These devices are not
taps, and can't record the substance of phone calls, but they do recordthe p
hone num
bers o
f all calls going
in and o
ut. Tracing
these numbers
show
ed Fry G
uy's long
-distance co
de fraud
, his extensive ties to p
iratebulletin b
oard
s, and num
erous p
ersonal calls to
his LoD
friends in
Atlanta. B
y July 11
, 19
89
, Prophet, U
rvile and Leftist also
had S
ecretService D
NR "p
en registers" installed
on their o
wn lines.
The S
ecret Service sho
wed
up in fo
rce at Fry Guy's ho
use on July 2
2,
19
89
, to the ho
rror o
f his unsuspecting
parents. T
he raiders w
ere ledby a sp
ecial agent fro
m the S
ecret Service's Ind
ianapolis o
ffice.H
ow
ever, the raiders w
ere accom
panied
and ad
vised b
y Tim
othy M
. Foley
of the Secret Service's Chicag
o office (a gentlem
an about w
hom w
e will
soon b
e hearing a g
reat deal).
Follo
wing
federal co
mputer-crim
e techniques that had
been stand
ardsince the early 1
98
0s, the S
ecret Service searched
the house tho
roug
h-ly, and
seized all o
f Fry Guy's electro
nic equip
ment and
noteb
ooks. A
llFry G
uy's equipment w
ent out the door in the custody of the SecretService, w
hich put a sw
ift end to
his dep
redatio
ns.
The U
SSS interrogated Fry G
uy at length. H
is case was put in the charg
eof D
eborah D
aniels, the federal U
S A
ttorney fo
r the Southern D
istrict of
Indiana. Fry G
uy was charg
ed w
ith eleven counts o
f com
puter fraud
,unautho
rized co
mputer access, and
wire fraud
. The evid
ence was tho
r-oug
h and irrefutab
le. For his p
art, Fry Guy b
lamed
his corrup
tion o
nthe Legion of D
oom and offered to testify against them
.
Fry Guy insisted that the Legion intended to crash the phone system
on anatio
nal holid
ay. And
when A
T&
T crashed
on M
artin Luther King
Day,
19
90
, this lent a credence to
his claim that g
enuinely alarmed
telcosecurity and
the Secret S
ervice.
Fry Guy eventually p
led g
uilty on M
ay 31
, 19
90
. On S
eptem
ber 1
4, he
was sentenced
to fo
rty-four m
onths' p
robatio
n and fo
ur hundred
hours'
comm
unity service. He could have had it m
uch worse; b
ut it made sense
to p
rosecuto
rs to take it easy o
n this teenage m
inor, w
hile zeroing
in on
the notorious kingpins of the Legion of Doom
.
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But the case against LoD
had nagging flaws. D
espite the best effort ofinvestig
ators, it was im
possible to prove that the Leg
ion had crashed thephone system
on January 15, because they, in fact, hadn't done so. T
heinvestig
ations of 1989 did show
that certain mem
bers of the Leg
ion ofD
oom had achieved unprecedented pow
er over the telco switching sta-
tions, and
that they were in active co
nspiracy to
obtain m
ore p
ow
er yet.Investig
ators were privately convinced that the Leg
ion of Doom
intendedto
do aw
ful things w
ith this know
ledge, b
ut mere evil intent w
as not
enoug
h to p
ut them in jail.
And
althoug
h the Atlanta T
hree — Pro
phet, Leftist, and
especially U
rvile—
had taug
ht Fry Guy p
lenty, they were no
t themselves cred
it-cardfraud
sters. The o
nly thing they'd
"stolen" w
as long
-distance service —
and since they'd
done m
uch of that thro
ugh p
hone-sw
itch manip
ulation,
there was no easy w
ay to judge how m
uch they'd "stolen," or whether
this practice w
as even "theft" of any easily reco
gnizab
le kind.
Fry Guy's theft of long-distance codes had cost the phone com
paniesplenty. T
he theft of lo
ng-d
istance service may b
e a fairly theoretical
"loss," but it costs genuine money and genuine tim
e to delete all thosestolen codes, and to re-issue new
codes to the innocent owners of those
corrupted codes. The ow
ners of the codes themselves are victim
ized, andlose tim
e and money and peace of m
ind in the hassle. And then there
were the cred
it-card victim
s to d
eal with, to
o, and
Western U
nion.
When it cam
e to rip
-off, Fry G
uy was far m
ore o
f a thief than LoD
. Itw
as only w
hen it came to
actual com
puter exp
ertise that Fry Guy w
assm
all potato
es.
The A
tlanta Legion thought most "rules" of cyberspace w
ere for rodentsand
losers, b
ut they *did
* have rules. *They never crashed
anything,
and they never to
ok m
oney.* T
hese were ro
ugh rules-o
f-thumb, and
rather dub
ious p
rinciples w
hen it com
es to the ethical sub
tleties of
cyberspace, b
ut they enabled the A
tlanta Three to
operate with a rela-
tively clear conscience (tho
ugh never w
ith peace o
f mind
).
If you d
idn't hack fo
r money, if yo
u weren't ro
bbing
peo
ple o
f actualfund
s — m
oney in the b
ank, that is — then no
body *really* g
ot hurt, in
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LoD
's opinio
n. "Theft o
f service" was a b
ogus issue, and
"intellectualpro
perty" w
as a bad
joke. B
ut LoD
had o
nly elitist contem
pt fo
r rip-o
ffartists, "leechers," thieves. T
hey consid
ered them
selves clean. Intheir o
pinio
n, if you d
idn't sm
ash-up o
r crash any systems —
(well,
not on purpose, anyhow —
accidents can happen, just ask RobertM
orris) then it w
as very unfair to call yo
u a "vandal" o
r a "cracker."W
hen you w
ere hanging
out o
n-line with yo
ur "pals" in telco
security,you could face them
down from
the higher plane of hacker m
orality. And
you co
uld m
ock the p
olice fro
m the sup
ercilious heig
hts of yo
ur hacker'squest fo
r pure kno
wled
ge.
But fro
m the p
oint o
f view o
f law enfo
rcement and
telco security, ho
w-
ever, Fry Guy w
as not really d
angero
us. The A
tlanta Three *w
ere* dan-
gero
us. It wasn't the crim
es they were co
mm
itting, b
ut the *dang
er,*the p
otential hazard
, the sheer *technical pow
er* LoD
had accum
ulated,
that had made the situation untenable.
Fry Guy w
as not Lo
D. H
e'd never laid
eyes on anyo
ne in LoD
; his only
contacts with them
had been electronic. Core m
embers of the Legion of
Doom
tended to meet physically for conventions every year or so, to get
drunk, g
ive each other the hacker hig
h-sign, send
out fo
r pizza and
rav-ag
e hotel suites. Fry Guy had never done any of this. D
eborah D
anielsassessed Fry G
uy accurately as "an LoD w
annabe."
Nevertheless Fry G
uy's crimes w
ould
be d
irectly attributed
to Lo
D in
much future police propag
anda. LoD w
ould be describ
ed as "a closelykn
it gro
up" in
volved
in "n
um
erous illeg
al activities" inclu
din
g "stealin
gand
modifying
individ
ual credit histo
ries," and "fraud
ulently obtaining
money and
pro
perty." Fry G
uy did
this, but the A
tlanta Three d
idn't;
they simply w
eren't into theft, b
ut rather intrusion. T
his caused a
strange kink in the p
rosecutio
n's strategy. Lo
D w
ere accused o
f "dis-
seminating
inform
ation ab
out attacking
com
puters to
other co
mputer
hackers in an effort to shift the focus of law enforcem
ent to those otherhackers and aw
ay from the Legion of D
oom."
This last accusatio
n (taken directly fro
m a p
ress release by the C
hicago
Com
puter Fraud
and A
buse T
ask Force) so
unds p
articularly far-fetched.
One m
ight conclude at this point that investigators would have been
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well-advised to g
o ahead and "shift their focus" from the "Leg
ion ofD
oom." M
aybe they *should* concentrate on "those other hackers" —the ones w
ho were actually stealing
money and physical ob
jects.
But the H
acker Crackd
ow
n of 1
99
0 w
as not a sim
ple p
olicing
action. It
wasn't m
eant just to w
alk the beat in cyb
erspace —
it was a *crack-
down,* a deliberate attem
pt to nail the core of the operation, to send adire and potent m
essage that would settle the hash of the digital under-
ground for good.
By this reaso
ning, Fry G
uy wasn't m
uch more than the electro
nic equiv-
alent of a cheap streetcorner dope dealer. As long as the m
asterminds of
LoD
were still flag
rantly o
peratin
g, p
ush
ing th
eir mountain
s of illicit
know
ledge rig
ht and left, and
whip
ping
up enthusiasm
for b
latant law-
breaking
, then there would
be an *infinite sup
ply* o
f Fry Guys.
Because Lo
D w
ere flagrant, they had
left trails everywhere, to
be p
ickedup
by law
enforcem
ent in New
York, Ind
iana, Florid
a, Texas, A
rizona,
Misso
uri, even Australia. B
ut 19
90
's war o
n the Legio
n of D
oom
was
led o
ut of Illino
is, by the C
hicago C
om
puter Fraud
and A
buse T
ask Force.
__
__
_
The C
omputer Fraud and A
buse T
ask Force, led by federal prosecutor
William
J. Cook, had
started in 1
98
7 and
had sw
iftly beco
me o
ne of the
most ag
gressive lo
cal "ded
icated co
mputer-crim
e units." Chicag
o w
as anatural ho
me fo
r such a gro
up. T
he world
's first com
puter b
ulletin-board
system had
been invented
in Illinois. T
he state of Illino
is hadso
me o
f the nation's first and
sternest com
puter crim
e laws. Illino
isState P
olice w
ere marked
ly alert to th
e possib
ilities of w
hite-co
llarcrim
e and electro
nic fraud.
And W
illiam J. C
ook in
particu
lar was a risin
g star in
electronic
crime-b
usting. H
e and his fello
w fed
eral pro
secutors at the U
.S.
Atto
rney's office in C
hicago had
a tight relatio
n with the S
ecret Service,
especially g
o- g
etting C
hicago-b
ased ag
ent Tim
othy Fo
ley. While C
ook
and his Departm
ent of Justice colleagues plotted strateg
y, Foley was
their man o
n the street.
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Throug
hout the 1980s, the federal g
overnment had g
iven prosecutors anarm
ory o
f new, untried
legal to
ols ag
ainst com
puter crim
e. Cook and
hisco
lleagues w
ere pio
neers in the use of these new
statutes in the real-lifecut-and
-thrust of the fed
eral courtro
om
.
On O
ctober 2, 1
986, the U
S Senate had passed the "Com
puter Fraud andA
buse A
ct" unanimously, b
ut there were p
itifully few co
nvictions und
erthis statute. C
ook's group took their nam
e from this statute, since they
were d
etermined
to transfo
rm this p
ow
erful but rather theo
retical Act
of C
ong
ress into a real-life eng
ine of leg
al destructio
n against co
mputer
fraudsters and
scofflaw
s.
It was no
t a questio
n of m
erely disco
vering crim
es, investigating
them,
and then trying
and p
unishing their p
erpetrato
rs. The C
hicago unit,
like most everyo
ne else in the business, alread
y *knew* w
ho the b
adguys w
ere: the Legio
n of D
oom
and the w
riters and ed
itors o
f *Phrack.*The task at hand w
as to find some legal m
eans of putting these charactersaw
ay.
This approach m
ight seem a bit dubious, to som
eone not acquainted with
the gritty realities o
f pro
secutorial w
ork. B
ut pro
secutors d
on't p
utpeo
ple in jail fo
r crimes they have co
mm
itted; they p
ut peo
ple in jail
for crim
es they have com
mitted
*that can be p
roved
in court.* C
hicago
federal p
olice p
ut Al C
apone in p
rison fo
r incom
e-tax fraud. C
hicago is
a big
tow
n, with a ro
ugh- and
-ready b
are-knuckle traditio
n on b
oth
sides o
f the law.
Fry Guy had broken the case w
ide open and alerted telco security to thescope of the prob
lem. B
ut Fry Guy's crim
es would not put the A
tlantaThree b
ehind b
ars — m
uch less the wacko
underg
round
journalists o
f*Phrack.* S
o o
n July 22
, 19
89
, the same d
ay that Fry Guy w
as raided
in Indiana, the Secret Service descended upon the Atlanta T
hree.
This w
as likely inevitable. B
y the summ
er of 1
98
9, law
enforcem
entw
ere closing
in on the A
tlanta Three fro
m at least six d
irections at o
nce.First, there w
ere the leads fro
m Fry G
uy, which had
led to
the DN
R reg
-isters b
eing installed
on the lines o
f the Atlanta T
hree. The D
NR evi-
dence alo
ne would
have finished them
off, so
oner o
r later.
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But seco
nd, the A
tlanta lads w
ere already w
ell-know
n to C
ontro
l-C and
his telco security sponsors. LoD's contacts w
ith telco security had made
them overconfident and even m
ore boastful than usual; they felt thatthey had
pow
erful friends in hig
h places, and
that they were b
eing o
pen-
ly tolerated
by telco
security. But B
ellSouth's Intrusio
n Task Fo
rcew
ere hot on the trail of LoD and sparing
no effort or expense.
The A
tlanta Three had also been identified by nam
e and listed on theextensive anti-hacker files m
aintained, and
retailed fo
r pay, b
y private
security operative Jo
hn Maxfield
of D
etroit. M
axfield, w
ho had
exten-sive ties to
telco security and
many info
rmants in the und
ergro
und, w
asa b
ete noire o
f the *Phrack* crow
d, and
the dislike w
as mutual.
The A
tlanta Three them
selves had w
ritten articles for *Phrack.* T
hisboastful act could not possibly escape telco and law
enforcement atten-
tion.
"Knig
htmare," a hig
h-school ag
e hacker from
Arizo
na, was a clo
sefriend and disciple o
f Atlanta Lo
D, b
ut he had been nab
bed b
y the form
i-dab
le Arizo
na Org
anized C
rime and
Racketeering
Unit. K
nightm
are was
on so
me o
f LoD
's favorite b
oard
s — "B
lack Ice" in particular —
and w
asprivy to
their secrets. And
to have G
ail Thackeray, the A
ssistantA
ttorney G
eneral of A
rizona, o
n one's trail w
as a dread
ful peril fo
r anyhacker.
And
perhap
s worst o
f all, Prophet had
com
mitted
a majo
r blund
er by
passin
g an
illicitly copied
BellS
outh
com
puter-file to
Knig
ht L
ightn
ing,
who
had p
ublished
it in *Phrack.* This, as w
e will see, w
as an act of
dire consequence for almost everyone concerned.
On July 2
2, 1
98
9, the S
ecret Service sho
wed
up at the Leftist's ho
use,w
here he lived w
ith his parents. A
massive sq
uad o
f som
e twenty o
ffi-cers surro
unded
the build
ing: S
ecret Service, fed
eral marshals, lo
calpolice, p
ossib
ly BellS
outh telco
security; it was hard
to tell in the
crush. Leftist's dad
, at work in his b
asement o
ffice, first noticed
a mus-
cular stranger in p
lain clothes crashing
throug
h the back yard
with a
drawn pistol. A
s more strang
ers poured into the house, Leftist's dad
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naturally assumed
there was an arm
ed ro
bbery in p
rogress.
Like most hacker parents, Leftist's m
om and dad had only the vaguest
notions of what their son had b
een up to all this time. Leftist had a day-
job rep
airing co
mputer hard
ware. H
is obsessio
n with co
mputers
seemed
a bit o
dd, b
ut harmless eno
ugh, and
likely to p
roduce a w
ell-paying
career. The sud
den, o
verwhelm
ing raid
left Leftist's parents
traumatized
.
The Leftist him
self had b
een out after w
ork w
ith his co-w
orkers, sur-
round
ing a co
uple o
f pitchers o
f marg
aritas. As he cam
e trucking o
nteq
uila-numbed
feet up the p
avement, to
ting a b
ag full o
f floppy-d
isks,he no
ticed a larg
e number o
f unmarked
cars parked
in his drivew
ay. All
the cars sported
tiny micro
wave antennas.
The Secret Service had knocked the front door off its hing
es, almost
flattening his M
om
.
Inside, Leftist was greeted by Special A
gent James C
ool of the US Secret
Service, Atlanta office. Leftist w
as flabberg
asted. He'd never m
et aSecret Service agent before. H
e could not imagine that he'd ever done
anything w
orthy o
f federal attentio
n. He'd
always fig
ured that if his
activities becam
e intolerab
le, one o
f his contacts in telco
security would
give him
a private p
hone-call and
tell him to
knock it o
ff.
But no
w Leftist w
as pat-searched
for w
eapons b
y grim
pro
fessionals,
and his b
ag o
f floppies w
as quickly seized
. He and
his parents w
ere allshep
herded
into sep
arate room
s and g
rilled at leng
th as a score o
f offi-
cers scoured
their hom
e for anything
electronic.
Leftist was ho
rrified as his treasured
IBM
AT p
ersonal co
mputer w
ithits fo
rty-meg
hard
disk, an
d h
is recently p
urch
ased 8
03
86
IBM
-clone
with a w
hopping
hundred
-meg
hard d
isk, both w
ent swiftly o
ut the door
in Secret S
ervice custody. T
hey also seized
all his disks, all his no
te-books, and a trem
endous booty in dogeared telco documents that Leftist
had snitched out of trash dumpsters.
Leftist figured
the who
le thing fo
r a big
misund
erstanding
. He'd
never
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been into
*military* co
mputers. H
e wasn't a *sp
y* or a *C
om
munist.*
He w
as just a good ol' Georgia hacker, and now
he just wanted all these
people out of the house. But it seem
ed they wouldn't go until he m
adesom
e kind of statement.
And
so, he levelled
with them
.
And
that, Leftist said later fro
m his fed
eral priso
n camp in T
alladeg
a,A
labam
a, was a b
ig m
istake.
The A
tlanta area was unique, in that it had three m
embers of the Legion
of D
oom
who
actually occup
ied m
ore o
r less the same p
hysical locality.
Unlike the rest of LoD
, who tended to associate by phone and com
puter,A
tlanta LoD
actually *were* "tig
htly knit." It was no
real surprise that
the Secret S
ervice agents ap
prehend
ing U
rvile at the com
puter-lab
s atG
eorg
ia Tech, w
ould
disco
ver Prophet w
ith him as w
ell.
Urvile, a 2
1-year-o
ld G
eorg
ia Tech
studen
t in p
olym
er chem
istry,posed
quite a p
uzzling case fo
r law enfo
rcement. U
rvile — also
know
nas "N
ecron 99," as w
ell as other handles, for he tended to change hiscover-alias about once a m
onth — w
as both an accomplished hacker and a
fanatic sim
ulatio
n-g
amer.
Sim
ulation g
ames are an unusual ho
bby; b
ut then hackers are unusualpeople, and their favorite pastim
es tend to be som
ewhat out of the ordi-
nary. The b
est-know
n Am
erican simulatio
n gam
e is pro
bab
ly"D
ungeo
ns & D
ragons," a m
ulti-player p
arlor entertainm
ent played
with p
aper, m
aps, p
encils, statistical tables and
a variety of o
ddly-
shaped
dice. Players p
retend to
be hero
ic characters explo
ring a w
hol-
ly-invented fantasy w
orld
. The fantasy w
orld
s of sim
ulation g
aming
areco
mm
only p
seudo-m
edieval, invo
lving sw
ord
s and so
rcery — sp
ell-casting
wizard
s, knights in arm
or, unico
rns and d
ragons, d
emons and
goblins.
Urvile an
d h
is fellow
gam
ers preferred
their fan
tasies hig
hly tech
no-
logical. They m
ade use of a game know
n as "G.U
.R.P.S.," the "Generic
Universal R
ole Playing
System
," pub
lished b
y a com
pany called
Steve
Jackson G
ames (S
JG).
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
1 1 9
"G.U
.R.P.S
." served as a fram
ework fo
r creating a w
ide variety o
f arti-ficial fantasy w
orld
s. Steve Jackso
n Gam
es pub
lished a sm
org
asboard
of
books, full o
f detailed
inform
ation and
gam
ing hints, w
hich were used
toflesh-o
ut many d
ifferent fantastic backg
round
s for the b
asic GU
RPS
framew
ork. U
rvile mad
e extensive use of tw
o S
JG b
ooks called
*GU
RPS
Hig
h-T
ech* an
d *G
URPS S
pecial O
ps.*
In th
e artificial fan
tasy-world
of *G
URPS S
pecial O
ps,* p
layers
entered a modern fantasy of intrig
ue and international espionage. O
nbeg
inning the g
ame, p
layers started sm
all and p
ow
erless, perhap
s asm
inor-leag
ue CIA
agents o
r penny-ante arm
s dealers. B
ut as players
persisted
throug
h a series of g
ame sessio
ns (gam
e sessions g
enerallylasted
for ho
urs, over lo
ng, elab
orate cam
paig
ns that mig
ht be p
ursuedfo
r months o
n end) then they w
ould
achieve new skills, new
know
ledge,
new p
ow
er. They w
ould
acquire and
hone new
abilities, such as m
arks-m
anship, karate, w
iretapping
, or W
atergate b
urglary. T
hey could
alsow
in vario
us kin
ds o
f imag
inary b
ooty, like
Bere
ttas, or m
artini sh
ak-ers, o
r fast cars with ejectio
n seats and m
achine-guns und
er the head-
lights.
As m
ight b
e imag
ined fro
m the co
mplexity o
f these gam
es, Urvile's g
am-
ing no
tes were very d
etailed and
extensive. Urvile w
as a "dung
eon-
master," inventing
scenarios fo
r his fellow
gam
ers, giant sim
ulatedad
venture-puzzles fo
r his friends to
unravel. Urvile's g
ame no
tes cov-
ered d
ozens o
f pag
es with all so
rts of exo
tic lunacy, all about ninja raid
son Lib
ya and b
reak-ins on encryp
ted R
ed C
hinese superco
mputers. H
isno
tes were w
ritten on scrap
-pap
er and kep
t in loose-leaf b
inders.
The hand
iest scrap p
aper aro
und U
rvile's colleg
e dig
s were the m
anypounds of B
ellSouth printouts and documents that he had snitched out of
telco d
umpsters. H
is notes w
ere written o
n the back o
f misap
pro
priated
telco p
roperty. W
orse yet, the g
aming
notes w
ere chaotically inter-
spersed
with
Urvile's h
and-scraw
led reco
rds in
volvin
g *actu
al com
-puter intrusio
ns* that he had co
mm
itted.
Not o
nly was it next to
impossib
le to tell U
rvile's fantasy gam
e-notes
from
cybersp
ace "reality," but U
rvile him
self barely m
ade th
is dis-
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 2 0
tinction. It's no
exaggeratio
n to say that to
Urvile it w
as *all* a gam
e.U
rvile was very b
right, hig
hly imag
inative, and q
uite careless of o
therpeo
ple's no
tions o
f pro
priety. H
is connectio
n to "reality" w
as not so
me-
thing to which he paid a great deal of attention.
Hacking
was a g
ame fo
r Urvile. It w
as an amusem
ent he was carrying
out, it was som
ething he w
as doing for fun. A
nd Urvile w
as an obsessive
young man. H
e could no more stop hacking than he could stop in the
mid
dle o
f a jigsaw
puzzle, o
r stop in the m
iddle o
f reading
a Step
henD
onald
son fantasy trilo
gy. (T
he name "U
rvile" came fro
m a b
est-sell-ing
Donald
son no
vel.)
Urvile's airy, b
ulletp
roof attitu
de serio
usly an
noyed
his in
terrogato
rs.First o
f all, he did
n't consid
er that he'd d
one anything
wro
ng. T
here was
scarcely a shred o
f honest rem
orse in him
. On the co
ntrary, he seemed
privately co
nvinced that his p
olice interro
gato
rs were o
perating
in adem
ented fantasy-w
orld
all their ow
n. Urvile w
as too p
olite and
well-
behaved
to say this straig
ht- out, b
ut his reactions w
ere askew and
dis-
quieting
.
For instance, there w
as the business ab
out Lo
D's ab
ility to m
onito
rpho
ne-calls to the p
olice and
Secret S
ervice. Urvile ag
reed that this
was quite possib
le, and posed no big
problem
for LoD. In fact, he and his
friends had kicked the idea around on the "Black Ice" b
oard, much as
they had d
iscussed m
any other nifty no
tions, such as b
uilding
perso
nalflam
e-th
row
ers an
d ju
ry-riggin
g fistfu
lls of b
lasting-cap
s. They h
adhundreds of dial-up num
bers for g
overnment ag
encies that they'd gotten
through scanning
Atlanta phones, or had pulled from
raided VA
X/V
MS
mainfram
e com
puters.
Basically, they'd never g
otten around to listening in on the cops b
ecausethe idea w
asn't interesting enoug
h to bother w
ith. Besides, if they'd
been m
onito
ring S
ecret Service p
hone calls, o
bvio
usly they'd never have
been caug
ht in the first place. R
ight?
The S
ecret Service w
as less than
satisfied w
ith th
is rapier-like h
ackerlo
gic.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 2 1
Then there w
as the issue of crashing the phone system
. No prob
lem,
Urvile ad
mitted
sunnily. Atlanta Lo
D co
uld have shut d
ow
n pho
ne ser-vice all o
ver Atlanta any tim
e they liked. *Even the 9
11
service?*N
othing
special ab
out that, U
rvile explained
patiently. B
ring the
switch to
its knees, with say the U
NIX
"maked
ir" bug
, and 9
11
goes
down too as a m
atter of course. The 9
11 system
wasn't very interest-
ing, frankly. It m
ight b
e tremend
ously interesting
to co
ps (fo
r odd
reasons o
f their ow
n), but as technical challeng
es went, the 9
11
servicew
as yawnsville.
So of course the Atlanta T
hree could crash service. They prob
ably could
have crashed service all o
ver BellS
outh territo
ry, if they'd w
orked
at itfo
r a while. B
ut Atlanta Lo
D w
eren't crashers. Only lo
sers and ro
dents
were crash
ers. LoD
were *elite.*
Urvile w
as privately co
nvinced that sheer technical exp
ertise could
win
him free o
f any kind o
f pro
blem
. As far as he w
as concerned
, elite statusin the d
igital und
ergro
und had
placed
him p
ermanently b
eyond
the intel-lectual g
rasp o
f cops and
straights. U
rvile had a lo
t to learn.
Of the three Lo
D stalw
arts, Prophet w
as in the most d
irect troub
le.Pro
phet w
as a UN
IX p
rogram
ming
expert w
ho b
urrow
ed in and
out o
f theInternet as a m
atter of course. He'd started his hacking
career ataro
und ag
e 14
, med
dling
with a U
NIX
mainfram
e system at the
University o
f North
Caro
lina.
Prophet him
self had w
ritten the handy Leg
ion o
f Doom
file "UN
IX U
seand
Security Fro
m the G
round
Up." U
NIX
(pro
nounced
"you-nicks") is
a pow
erfu
l, flexib
le co
mpute
r operatin
g-syste
m, fo
r multi-u
ser,
multi-tasking
com
puters. In 1
96
9, w
hen UN
IX w
as created in B
ellLab
s, such com
puters w
ere exclusive to larg
e corp
oratio
ns and univer-
sities, but to
day U
NIX
is run on tho
usands o
f pow
erful hom
e machines.
UN
IX w
as particu
larly well- su
ited to
telecom
municatio
ns p
rogram
-m
ing, and
had b
ecom
e a standard
in the field. N
aturally, UN
IX also
became a standard for the elite hacker and phone phreak.
Lately, Prophet had
not b
een so active as Leftist and
Urvile, b
ut Prophet
was a recid
ivist. In 19
86
, when he w
as eighteen, Pro
phet had
been
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 2 2
convicted of "unauthorized access to a computer netw
ork" in North
Caro
lina. He'd
been d
iscovered
breaking
into the S
outhern B
ell Data
Netw
ork, a U
NIX
-based
internal telco netw
ork sup
posed
ly closed
to the
public. He'd gotten a typical hacker sentence: six m
onths suspended,1
20
hours co
mm
unity service, and three years' p
robatio
n.
After that hum
iliating b
ust, Prophet had
gotten rid
of m
ost o
f his ton-
nage of illicit phreak and hacker data, and had tried to g
o straight. H
ew
as, after all, still on p
robatio
n. But b
y the autumn o
f 19
88
, thetem
ptations of cyberspace had proved too much for young Prophet, and
he was sho
ulder-to
-should
er with U
rvile and Leftist into
som
e of the
hairiest systems aro
und.
In early Sep
tember 1
98
8, he'd
bro
ken into B
ellSouth's centralized
automation system
, AIM
SX or "Advanced Inform
ation Managem
entSystem
." AIM
SX w
as an internal business netw
ork fo
r BellS
outh,
where telco em
ployees stored electronic mail, datab
ases, mem
os, andcalend
ars, and d
id text p
rocessing
. Since A
IMSX d
id no
t have pub
licdial-up
s, it was co
nsidered
utterly invisible to
the pub
lic, and w
as not
well-secured
— it d
idn't even req
uire passw
ord
s. Prophet ab
used an
account known as "w
aa1," the personal account of an unsuspecting telco
employee. D
isguised as the ow
ner of waa1
, Prophet made ab
out ten vis-its to
AIM
SX.
Prophet did not damage or delete anything in the system
. His presence
in AIM
SX w
as harmless and
almost invisib
le. But he co
uld no
t rest con-
tent with that.
One particular piece of processed text on A
IMSX w
as a telco document
know
n as "Bell S
outh S
tandard
Practice 66
0-2
25
-10
4SV
Contro
lO
ffice Adm
inistration o
f Enhanced 9
11
Services fo
r Special S
ervices andM
ajor A
ccount C
enters dated
March 1
98
8."
Prophet had not been looking
for this document. It w
as merely one
among
hundred
s of sim
ilar docum
ents with im
penetrab
le titles.H
ow
ever, havin
g b
lundered
over it in
the co
urse o
f his illicit w
ander-
ings thro
ugh A
IMSX, he d
ecided
to take it w
ith him as a tro
phy. It m
ight
pro
ve very useful in som
e future boasting
, brag
ging
, and strutting
ses-
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
1 2 3
sion. S
o, so
me tim
e in Sep
tember 1
98
8, Pro
phet o
rdered
the AIM
SX
mainfram
e com
puter to
copy this d
ocum
ent (henceforth called
simply
called "the E911 D
ocument") and to transfer this copy to his hom
eco
mputer.
No one noticed that Prophet had done this. H
e had "stolen" the E911
Docum
ent in some sense, but notions of property in cyberspace can be
tricky. BellS
outh no
ticed no
thing w
rong
, because B
ellSouth still had
their original copy. T
hey had not been "rob
bed" of the docum
ent itself.M
any people were supposed to copy this docum
ent — specifically, people
who
worked
for the nineteen B
ellSouth "sp
ecial services and m
ajor
account centers," scattered throughout the Southeastern United States.
That w
as what it w
as for, w
hy it was p
resent on a co
mputer netw
ork in
the first place: so that it could be copied and read — by telco em
ployees.But now
the data had been copied by someone w
ho wasn't supposed to look
at it.
Prophet now had his trophy. B
ut he further decided to store yet anotherco
py o
f the E91
1 D
ocum
ent on ano
ther perso
n's com
puter. T
his unwit-
ting person w
as a computer enthusiast nam
ed Richard Andrew
s who
lived n
ear Joliet, Illin
ois. R
ichard
Andrew
s was a U
NIX
pro
gram
mer b
ytrad
e, and ran a p
ow
erful UN
IX b
oard
called "Jo
lnet," in the basem
ent of
his house.
Prophet, using the handle "Robert Johnson," had obtained an account onRichard A
ndrews' com
puter. And there he stashed the E9
11 D
ocument,
by sto
ring it in his o
wn p
rivate section o
f And
rews' co
mputer.
Why d
id Pro
phet d
o this? If Pro
phet had
eliminated
the E91
1 D
ocum
entfro
m his o
wn co
mputer, and
kept it hund
reds o
f miles aw
ay, on ano
therm
achine, under an alias, then he m
ight have b
een fairly safe from
dis-
covery and
pro
secution —
althoug
h his sneaky action had
certainly put
the unsuspecting
Richard
And
rews at risk.
But, like m
ost hackers, Pro
phet w
as a pack-rat fo
r illicit data. W
hen itcam
e to the crunch, he could not bear to part from
his trophy. When
Prophet's p
lace in Decatur, G
eorg
ia was raid
ed in July 1
98
9, there w
asthe E9
11 D
ocument, a sm
oking gun. And there w
as Prophet in the hands
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 2 4
of the S
ecret Service, d
oing
his best to
"explain."
Our sto
ry now
takes us away fro
m the A
tlanta Three and
their raids o
fthe S
umm
er of 1
98
9. W
e must leave A
tlanta Three "co
operating
fully"w
ith their numero
us investigato
rs. And
all three of them
did
cooperate,
as their Sentencing
Mem
orand
um fro
m the U
S D
istrict Court o
f theN
orthern D
ivision o
f Geo
rgia exp
lained —
just befo
re all three of them
were sentenced
to vario
us federal p
risons in N
ovem
ber 1
99
0.
We m
ust now catch up on the other aspects of the w
ar on the Legion ofD
oom. T
he war on the Legion w
as a war on a netw
ork — in fact, a net-
work o
f three networks, w
hich intertwined
and interrelated
in a com
-plex fashio
n. The Leg
ion itself, w
ith Atlanta Lo
D, and
their hanger-o
nFry G
uy, were the first netw
ork. T
he second
network w
as *Phrack*m
agazine, w
ith its edito
rs and co
ntributo
rs.
The third
network invo
lved the electro
nic circle around
a hackerkno
wn as "T
erminus."
The w
ar against these hacker netw
orks w
as carried o
ut by a law
enforcement netw
ork. Atlanta LoD
and Fry Guy w
ere pursued by U
SSSag
ents and federal prosecutors in Atlanta, Indiana, and C
hicago.
"Term
inus" found
himself p
ursued b
y USSS and
federal p
rosecuto
rsfro
m B
altimore and
Chicag
o. A
nd the w
ar against Phrack w
as almost
entirely a Chicag
o o
peratio
n.
The investig
ation o
f Term
inus involved
a great d
eal of energ
y, mostly
from
the Chicag
o T
ask Force, b
ut it was to
be the least-kno
wn and
least-pub
licized o
f the Crackd
ow
n operatio
ns. Term
inus, who
lived in
Marylan
d, w
as a UN
IX p
rogram
mer an
d co
nsu
ltant, fairly w
ell- know
n(und
er his given nam
e) in the UN
IX co
mm
unity, as an acknow
ledged
expert o
n AT&
T m
inicom
puters. T
erminus id
olized
AT&
T, esp
eciallyBellco
re, and lo
nged
for p
ublic reco
gnitio
n as a UN
IX exp
ert; his highest
ambitio
n was to
work fo
r Bell Lab
s.
But T
erminus had odd friends and a spotted history. T
erminus had once
been
the su
bject o
f an ad
mirin
g in
terview in
*Phrack* (V
olu
me II,
Issue 1
4, P
hile 2
— d
ated M
ay 19
87
). In th
is article, *Phrack* co
-
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 2 5
edito
r Taran K
ing d
escribed
"Term
inus" as an electronics eng
ineer,5
'9", b
row
n-haired, b
orn in 1
95
9 —
at 28
years old
, quite m
ature for
a hacker.
Term
inus had once been sysop of a phreak/hack underg
round board
called "M
etroN
et," which ran o
n an Apple II. Later he'd
replaced
"Metro
Net" w
ith an underg
round
board
called "M
egaN
et," specializing
inIB
Ms. In his yo
unger d
ays, Term
inus had w
ritten one o
f the very firstand
most eleg
ant code-scanning
pro
gram
s for the IB
M-PC
. This p
ro-
gram
had b
een wid
ely distrib
uted in the und
ergro
und. U
ncounted
legio
nsof PC
- ow
ning p
hreaks and hackers had
used T
erminus's scanner p
ro-
gram to rip-off telco codes. T
his feat had not escaped the attention oftelco
security; it h
ardly co
uld
, since T
ermin
us's earlier h
andle,
"Term
inal Technician," w
as pro
udly w
ritten right o
n the pro
gram
.
When he b
ecame a full-tim
e com
puter p
rofessio
nal (specializing
inteleco
mm
unications p
rogram
ming
), he adopted
the handle T
erminus,
meant to indicate that he had "reached the final point of b
eing a profi-
cient hacker." He'd m
oved up to the UN
IX-based "Netsys" board on an
AT&
T co
mputer, w
ith four p
hone lines and
an impressive 2
40
meg
s of
storag
e. "Netsys" carried
com
plete issues o
f *Phrack,* and T
erminus
was q
uite friendly w
ith its pub
lishers, Taran K
ing and
Knig
ht Lightning
.
In th
e early 19
80
s, Term
inus h
ad b
een a reg
ular o
n P
lovern
et, Pirate-
80
, Sherw
ood Fo
rest and S
hadow
land, all w
ell-know
n pirate b
oard
s, allheavily frequented by the Legion of D
oom. A
s it happened, Term
inusw
as never officially "in Lo
D," b
ecause he'd never b
een given the o
fficialLo
D hig
h-sign and
back-slap
by Leg
ion m
aven Lex Luthor. T
erminus
had never p
hysically met anyo
ne from
LoD
. But that scarcely m
atteredm
uch — the A
tlanta Three them
selves had never been officially vetted byLex, either.
As far as law
enforcem
ent was co
ncerned, the issues w
ere clear.Term
inus w
as a full-tim
e, adult co
mputer p
rofessio
nal w
ith p
articular
skills at AT&
T so
ftware and
hardw
are — b
ut Term
inus reeked o
f theLegion of D
oom and the underground.
On Feb
ruary 1, 1
99
0 —
half a month after the M
artin Luther King
Day
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 2 6
Crash —
USSS ag
ents Tim
Foley from C
hicago, and Jack Lew
is from the
Baltim
ore o
ffice, accom
panied
by A
T&
T security o
fficer Jerry Dalto
n,travelled
to M
iddle T
ow
n, M
aryland. T
here th
ey grilled
Term
inus in
his
hom
e (to th
e stark terror o
f his w
ife and sm
all child
ren), an
d, in
their
custom
ary fashion, hauled
his com
puters o
ut the door.
The N
etsys machine proved to contain a plethora of arcane U
NIX
software
— p
roprietary so
urce code fo
rmally o
wned
by A
T&
T. S
oftw
are such as:U
NIX
System
Five Release 3
.2; U
NIX
SV
Release 3
.1; U
UCP co
mm
unica-tio
ns so
ftware
; KO
RN
SH
ELL; R
FS; IW
B; W
WB; D
WB; th
e C
++
pro
-gram
ming
languag
e; PMO
N; T
OO
L CH
EST; Q
UEST
; DA
CT, and S FIN
D.
In the long
-established
piratical trad
ition o
f the underg
round
,Term
inus h
ad b
een trad
ing th
is illicitly- copied
softw
are with
a small
circle of fello
w U
NIX
pro
gram
mers. V
ery unwisely, he had
stored
seven years of his electro
nic mail o
n his Netsys m
achine, which d
ocu-
mented
all the friendly arrang
ements he had
mad
e with his vario
us col-
leagues.
Term
inus had not crashed the AT&
T phone system
on January 15. H
ew
as, how
eve
r, blith
ely
runnin
g a n
ot- fo
r-pro
fit AT
&T
softw
are-p
ira-cy ring
. This w
as not an activity A
T&
T fo
und am
using. A
T&
T security
officer Jerry D
alton valued
this "stolen" p
roperty at o
ver three hundred
thousand
dollars.
AT&
T's entry into the tussle of free enterprise had b
een complicated b
ythe new
, vague g
round
rules of the info
rmatio
n econo
my. U
ntil thebreak-up
of M
a Bell, A
T&
T w
as forb
idden to
sell com
puter hard
ware o
rso
ftware. M
a Bell w
as the pho
ne com
pany; M
a Bell w
as not allo
wed
touse the eno
rmous revenue fro
m telep
hone utilities, in o
rder to
financeany entry into
the com
puter m
arket.
AT&
T nevertheless invented the U
NIX operating system
. And som
ehowA
T&
T m
anaged
to m
ake UN
IX a m
inor so
urce of inco
me. W
eirdly, U
NIX
was no
t sold
as com
puter so
ftware, b
ut actually retailed und
er anobscure reg
ulatory exem
ptio
n allow
ing sales o
f surplus eq
uipm
ent andscrap
. Any b
old
er attempt to
pro
mote o
r retail UN
IX w
ould
have aroused
angry leg
al oppositio
n from
com
puter co
mpanies. Instead
, UN
IX w
as
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 2 7
licensed to universities, at modest rates, w
here the acids of academic
freedom
ate away stead
ily at AT&
T's p
roprietary rig
hts.
Com
e the breakup, A
T&
T recog
nized that UN
IX w
as a potential gold-
mine. B
y now, large chunks of U
NIX code had been created that w
ere notA
T&
T's, and
were b
eing so
ld b
y others. A
n entire rival UN
IX-b
asedoperating
system had
arisen in Berkeley, C
alifornia (o
ne of the w
orld
'sgreat fo
unts of id
eolo
gical hackerd
om
). Today, "hackers" co
mm
only co
n-sid
er "Berkeley U
NIX
" to b
e technically superio
r to A
T&
T's "S
ystem V
UN
IX," b
ut AT&
T has not allow
ed mere technical eleg
ance to intrude onthe real-w
orld
business o
f marketing
pro
prietary so
ftware. A
T&
T has
mad
e its ow
n code d
eliberately inco
mpatib
le with o
ther folks' U
NIX
, andhas w
ritten code that it can prove is copyrightab
le, even if that codehap
pens to
be so
mew
hat awkw
ard —
"kludgey." A
T&
T U
NIX
user licens-es are serio
us business ag
reements, rep
lete with very clear co
pyrig
htstatem
ents and no
n- disclo
sure clauses.
AT&
T has not exactly kept the U
NIX cat in the bag, but it kept a grip on
its scruff with so
me success. B
y the rampant, exp
losive stand
ards o
fso
ftware p
iracy, AT&
T U
NIX
source co
de is heavily co
pyrig
hted, w
ell-guard
ed, w
ell-licensed
. UN
IX w
as traditio
nally ru
n o
nly o
n m
ainfram
em
achines, ow
ned b
y large g
roup
s of suit-and
- tie pro
fessionals, rather
than on bedroom m
achines where people can get up to easy m
ischief.
And
AT&
T U
NIX
source co
de is serio
us high-level p
rogram
ming
. The
number o
f skilled U
NIX
pro
gram
mers w
ith any actual motive to
swip
eUN
IX source code is sm
all. It's tiny, compared to the tens of thousands
prep
ared to
rip-o
ff, say, entertain
ing P
C g
ames like "L
eisure S
uit
Larry
."
But b
y 19
89
, the warez-d
00
d und
ergro
und, in the p
ersons o
f Term
inusand
his friends, w
as gnaw
ing at A
T&
T U
NIX
. And
the pro
perty in q
ues-tion w
as not sold for twenty b
ucks over the counter at the local branch
of B
abbag
e's or Eg
ghead
's; this was m
assive, sophisticated
, multi-line,
multi-autho
r corp
orate co
de w
orth tens o
f thousand
s of d
ollars.
It must b
e recognized
at this point that T
erminus's p
urported
ring o
fU
NIX
softw
are pirates had
not actually m
ade any m
oney fro
m their sus-
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 2 8
pected
crimes. T
he $3
00
,00
0 d
ollar fig
ure band
ied ab
out fo
r the con-
tents of T
erminus's co
mputer d
id no
t mean that T
erminus w
as in actualillicit p
ossessio
n of three hund
red tho
usand o
f AT&
T's d
ollars.
Term
inus was ship
ping
softw
are back and
forth, p
rivately, perso
n toperso
n, for free. H
e was no
t making
a com
mercial b
usiness of p
iracy.H
e hadn't asked for money; he didn't take m
oney. He lived quite m
odest-ly.
AT&
T em
plo
yees — as w
ell as freelance UN
IX co
nsultants, like Term
inus—
com
monly w
orked
with "p
roprietary" A
T&
T so
ftware, b
oth in the
office and
at hom
e on their p
rivate machines. A
T&
T rarely sent securi-
ty officers out to comb the hard disks of its consultants. C
heap free-lance U
NIX
contractors were quite useful to A
T&
T; they didn't have
health insurance or retirem
ent pro
gram
s, much less unio
n mem
bership
in the Com
municatio
n Workers o
f Am
erica. They w
ere humble d
igital
drudges, w
andering w
ith mop and b
ucket through the G
reat Technolog
icalTem
ple o
f AT&
T; b
ut when the S
ecret Service arrived
at their hom
es, itseem
ed they w
ere eating w
ith com
pany silverw
are and sleep
ing o
n com
-pany sheets! O
utrageously, they behaved as if the things they worked
with every day belonged to them
!
And
these were no
mere hacker teenag
ers with their hand
s full of trash-
paper and their noses pressed to the corporate window
pane. These guys
were U
NIX
wizard
s, not o
nly carrying A
T&
T d
ata in their machines and
their heads, b
ut eagerly netw
orking
about it, o
ver machines that w
erefar m
ore p
ow
erful than anything p
reviously im
agined
in private hand
s.H
ow do you keep people disposab
le, yet assure their awestruck respect
for yo
ur pro
perty? It w
as a dilem
ma.
Much
UN
IX co
de w
as public-d
om
ain, availab
le for free. M
uch
"pro
pri-
etary" UN
IX co
de had
been extensively re-w
ritten, perhap
s altered so
much that it b
ecame an entirely new
product — or perhaps not.
Intellectual pro
perty rig
hts for so
ftware d
evelopers w
ere, and are,
extraord
inarily com
plex and
confused
. And
softw
are "piracy," like the
private co
pying
of vid
eos, is o
ne of the m
ost w
idely p
racticed "crim
es"in the w
orld
today.
The U
SSS w
ere not exp
erts in UN
IX o
r familiar w
ith the custom
s of its
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 2 9
use. The U
nited States Secret Service, considered as a body, did nothave o
ne single p
erson in it w
ho co
uld p
rogram
in a UN
IX enviro
nment
— no, not even one. T
he Secret Service *were* m
aking extensive use of
expert help, but the "experts" they had chosen w
ere AT&
T and B
ellcoresecurity o
fficials, the very victims o
f the purp
orted
crimes und
erinvestig
ation, the very p
eople w
hose interest in A
T&
T's "p
roprietary"
software w
as most pronounced.
On Feb
ruary 6, 1
99
0, T
erminus w
as arrested b
y Agent Lew
is.Eventually, T
erminus w
ould
be sent to
priso
n for his illicit use o
f apiece of A
T&
T softw
are.
The issue o
f pirated
AT&
T so
ftware w
ould
bub
ble alo
ng in the b
ack-ground during the w
ar on the Legion of Doom
. Some half-dozen of
Term
inus's o
n-lin
e acquain
tances, in
cludin
g p
eople in
Illinois, T
exasand
Califo
rnia, were g
rilled b
y the Secret S
ervice in connectio
n with the
illicit copying
of so
ftware. Excep
t for T
erminus, ho
wever, no
ne were
charged
with a crim
e. None o
f them shared
his peculiar p
rom
inence inthe hacker und
ergro
und.
But that did not m
eant that these people would, or could, stay out of
trouble. T
he tran
sferral of illicit d
ata in cyb
erspace is h
azy and ill-
defined
business, w
ith parad
oxical d
angers fo
r everyone co
ncerned:
hackers, sig
nal carriers, b
oard
ow
ners, co
ps, p
rosecu
tors, even
ran-
dom
passers-b
y. Som
etimes, w
ell-meant attem
pts to
avert troub
le or
punish w
rong
doing
bring
more tro
uble than w
ould
simple ig
norance,
indiffe
rence
or im
pro
prie
ty.
Term
inus's "Netsys" b
oard
was no
t a com
mon-o
r- gard
en bulletin b
oard
system, though it had m
ost of the usual functions of a board. Netsys w
asno
t a stand-alo
ne machine, b
ut part o
f the glo
be-sp
anning "U
UCP"
cooperative netw
ork. T
he UU
CP netw
ork uses a set o
f Unix so
ftware
pro
gram
s called "U
nix-to
-Unix C
opy," w
hich
allow
s Unix system
s tothrow
data to one another at high speed through the public telephonenetw
ork. U
UC
P is a rad
ically decen
tralized, n
ot-fo
r-pro
fit netw
ork o
fUN
IX computers. T
here are tens of thousands of these UN
IX machines.
Som
e are small, b
ut many are p
ow
erful and also
link to o
ther networks.
UU
CP has certain arcane links to
majo
r networks such as JA
NET
,
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
1 3 0
EasyNet, B
ITN
ET, JU
NET
, VN
ET, D
ASnet, PeaceN
et and Fid
oN
et, as well
as the gig
antic Internet. (The so
-called "Internet" is no
t actually a net-w
ork itself, b
ut rather an "internetwork" co
nnections stand
ard that
allow
s several glo
be-sp
anning co
mputer netw
orks to
com
municate w
ithone another. Readers fascinated b
y the weird and intricate tang
les ofm
odern co
mputer netw
orks m
ay enjoy Jo
hn S. Q
uarterman's autho
rita-tive
71
9-p
age e
xplicatio
n, *T
he M
atrix,* Dig
ital Pre
ss, 19
90
.)
A skilled
user of T
erminus' U
NIX
machine co
uld send
and receive elec-
tronic m
ail from
almost any m
ajor co
mputer netw
ork in the w
orld
.N
etsys was not called a "board" per se, but rather a "node." "N
odes"w
ere larger, faster, and
more so
phisticated
than mere "b
oard
s," and fo
rhackers, to hang
out on internationally-connected "nodes" was quite the
step up
from
merely hang
ing o
ut on lo
cal "board
s."
Term
inus's Netsys no
de in M
aryland had
a number o
f direct links to
other, sim
ilar UU
CP no
des, run b
y peo
ple w
ho shared
his interests andat least som
ething of his free-wheeling attitude. O
ne of these nodes was
Jolnet, o
wned
by R
ichard A
ndrew
s, who
, like Term
inus, was an ind
e-pendent U
NIX consultant. Jolnet also ran U
NIX, and could be contacted at
high sp
eed b
y mainfram
e machines fro
m all o
ver the world
. Jolnet w
asquite a so
phisticated
piece o
f work, technically sp
eaking, b
ut it was still
run b
y an in
divid
ual, as a p
rivate, not-fo
r-pro
fit hobby. Jo
lnet w
asm
ostly used
by o
ther UN
IX p
rogram
mers —
for m
ail, storag
e, and access
to networks. Jolnet supplied access netw
ork access to about two hundred
peo
ple, as w
ell as a local junio
r colleg
e.
Am
ong
its various features and
services, Jolnet also
carried *Phrack*
mag
azine.
For reaso
ns of his o
wn, R
ichard A
ndrew
s had b
ecom
e suspicio
us of a new
user called "R
obert Jo
hnson." R
ichard A
ndrew
s took it up
on him
self tohave a look at w
hat "Robert Johnson" w
as storing in Jolnet. A
ndA
ndrews found the E9
11 D
ocument.
"Robert Johnson" was the Prophet from
the Legion of Doom
, and theE9
11
Docum
ent was illicitly co
pied
data fro
m Pro
phet's raid
on the
BellS
outh co
mputers.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 3 1
The E9
11
Docu
men
t, a particu
larly illicit piece o
f dig
ital pro
perty, w
asab
out to
resume its lo
ng, co
mplex, and
disastro
us career.
It struck Andrew
s as fishy that someone not a telephone em
ployee shouldhave a docum
ent referring to the "Enhanced 911 System
." Besides, the
docum
ent itself bore an o
bvio
us warning
.
"WA
RNIN
G: N
OT FO
R USE O
R DISC
LOSU
RE OUTSID
E BELLSO
UTH
OR A
NY
OF IT
S S
UBSID
IARIES
EXC
EPT U
ND
ER W
RIT
TEN
AG
REEM
ENT."
These standard nondisclosure tags are often appended to all sorts of cor-
porate m
aterial. Telco
s as a species are p
articularly noto
rious fo
rstam
ping
most everything
in sight as "no
t for use o
r disclo
sure." Still,
this particular piece of data was about the 9
11 System
. That sounded
bad
to R
ich And
rews.
Andrew
s was not prepared to ig
nore this sort of trouble. H
e thought it
would be w
ise to pass the document along to a friend and acquaintance on
the UN
IX netw
ork, fo
r consultatio
n. So, aro
und S
eptem
ber 1
98
8,
Andrew
s sent yet another copy of the E911 D
ocument electronically to
an AT&
T em
plo
yee, one C
harles Boykin, w
ho ran a U
NIX
-based
node
called "attctc" in D
allas, Texas.
"Attctc" w
as the property of AT&
T, and w
as run from A
T&
T's C
ustomer
Technology C
enter in Dallas, hence the nam
e "attctc." "Attctc" w
as bet-ter-kno
wn as "K
iller," the name o
f the machine that the system
was
running o
n. "Killer" w
as a hefty, pow
erful, AT&
T 3
B2
50
0 m
odel, a
multi-u
ser, multi-taskin
g U
NIX
platfo
rm w
ith 3
2 m
eg o
f mem
ory an
d a
mind
-boggling
3.2
Gig
abytes o
f storag
e. When K
iller had first arrived
in Texas, in 1
985, the 3
B2 had b
een one of AT&
T's g
reat white hopes for
going
head- to
-head w
ith IBM
for the co
rporate co
mputer-hard
ware
market. "K
iller" had b
een shipped
to the C
ustom
er Techno
logy C
enter inthe D
allas Infom
art, essentially a high-techno
logy m
all, and there it
sat, a dem
onstratio
n model.
Charles B
oykin, a veteran A
T&
T hard
ware and
dig
ital com
municatio
nsexpert, w
as a local technical backup m
an for the AT&
T 3
B2 system
. As
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 3 2
a disp
lay model in the Info
mart m
all, "Killer" had
little to d
o, and
itseem
ed a shame to w
aste the system's capacity. So B
oykin ingeniouslyw
rote so
me U
NIX
bulletin-b
oard
softw
are for "K
iller," and p
lugged
them
achine in to the lo
cal pho
ne network. "K
iller's" deb
ut in late 19
85
mad
e it the first pub
licly available U
NIX
site in the state of T
exas.A
nyone who w
anted to play was w
elcome.
The m
achine imm
ediately attracted
an electronic co
mm
unity. It joined
the UU
CP netw
ork, and
offered
network links to
over eig
hty other co
m-
puter sites, all o
f which b
ecame d
epend
ent on K
iller for their links to
the greater w
orld
of cyb
erspace. A
nd it w
asn't just for the b
ig g
uys;perso
nal com
puter users also
stored
freeware p
rogram
s for the A
mig
a,the A
pple, the IB
M and
the Macinto
sh on K
iller's vast 3,2
00
meg
archives. A
t one tim
e, Killer h
ad th
e largest lib
rary of p
ublic-d
om
ainM
acintosh so
ftware in T
exas.
Eventu
ally, Killer attracted
about 1
,50
0 u
sers, all busily co
mm
unicat-
ing, up
load
ing and
dow
nload
ing, g
etting m
ail, gossip
ping
, and linking
toarcane and
distant netw
orks.
Boykin received
no p
ay for running
Killer. H
e consid
ered it g
ood p
ub-
licity for the A
T&
T 3
B2
system (w
hose sales w
ere som
ewhat less than
stellar), but h
e also sim
ply en
joyed
the vib
rant co
mm
unity h
is skillhad created. H
e gave aw
ay the bulletin-b
oard UN
IX softw
are he hadw
ritten, free of charg
e.
In the UN
IX p
rogram
ming
com
munity, C
harlie Boykin had
the reputatio
nof a w
arm, o
pen-hearted
, level- headed
kind o
f guy. In 1
98
9, a g
roup
of T
exan UN
IX p
rofessio
nals voted
Boykin "S
ystem A
dm
inistrator o
f theYear." H
e was considered a fellow
you could trust for good advice.
In Sep
tember 1
98
8, w
ithout w
arning, the E9
11
Docum
ent came p
lung-
ing in
to B
oykin
's life, forw
arded
by R
ichard
Andrew
s. Boykin
imm
edi-
ately recognized that the Docum
ent was hot property. H
e was not a
voice- comm
unications man, and knew
little about the ins and outs of the
Bab
y Bells, b
ut he certainly knew w
hat the 91
1 S
ystem w
as, and he w
asangry to see confidential data about it in the hands of a nogoodnik. T
hisw
as clearly a matter fo
r telco security. S
o, o
n Sep
tember 2
1, 1
98
8,
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 3 3
Boykin m
ade yet *another* copy of the E911 D
ocument and passed this
one along to a professional acquaintance of his, one Jerom
e Dalton, from
AT&
T C
orp
orate Info
rmatio
n Security. Jerry D
alton w
as the very fel-lo
w w
ho w
ould
later raid T
erminus's ho
use.
From
AT&
T's security d
ivision, the E9
11
Docum
ent went to
Bellco
re.
Bellco
re (or B
ELL CO
mm
unications R
Esearch) had o
nce been the cen-
tral laborato
ry of the B
ell System
. Bell Lab
s emplo
yees had invented
the UN
IX o
perating
system. N
ow
Bellco
re was a q
uasi-indep
endent,
jointly owned com
pany that acted as the research arm for all seven of
the Bab
y Bell R
BO
Cs. B
ellcore w
as in a good p
ositio
n to co
-ord
inatesecurity technolog
y and consultation for the RBO
Cs, and the g
entleman in
charge o
f this effort w
as Henry M
. Kluep
fel, a veteran of the B
ellSystem
who
had w
orked
there for tw
enty-four years.
On O
ctober 13, 1
988, D
alton passed the E911 D
ocument to H
enryK
luepfel. K
luepfel, a veteran exp
ert witness in teleco
mm
unications
fraud and
com
puter-fraud
cases, had certainly seen w
orse tro
uble than
this. He recognized the docum
ent for what it w
as: a trophy from a
hacke
r bre
ak-in.
How
ever, whatever harm
had b
een done in the intrusio
n was p
resum-
ably old news. A
t this point there seemed little to be done. K
luepfelm
ade a careful note of the circumstances and shelved the problem
for thetim
e being
.
Who
le months p
assed.
Febru
ary 19
89
arrived. T
he A
tlanta T
hree w
ere living it u
p in
Bell
South's switches, and had not yet m
et their comeuppance. T
he Legionw
as thriving. So w
as *Phrack* mag
azine. A g
ood six months had passed
since P
rophet's A
IMSX b
reak-in. P
rophet, as h
ackers will, g
rew w
earyof sitting
on his laurels. "K
night Lig
htning" and
"Taran K
ing," the ed
i-to
rs of *Phrack,* w
ere always b
egging
Prophet fo
r material they co
uldpublish. Prophet decided that the heat m
ust be off by this time, and that
he could
safely brag
, boast, and
strut.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
1 3 4
So he sent a copy of the E911 D
ocument —
yet another one — from
RichA
ndrews' Jolnet m
achine to Knig
ht Lightning
's BIT
net account at theU
niv
ersity
of M
issouri.
Let's review the fate of the docum
ent so far.
0. T
he orig
inal E91
1 D
ocum
ent. This in the A
IMSX system
on a m
ain-fram
e com
puter in A
tlanta, available to
hundred
s of p
eople, b
ut all of
them, p
resumab
ly, BellS
outh em
plo
yees. An unkno
wn num
ber o
f themm
ay have their ow
n copies o
f this docum
ent, but they are all p
rofes-
sionals and
all trusted b
y the pho
ne com
pany.
1. Pro
phet's illicit co
py, at ho
me o
n his ow
n com
puter in D
ecatur,G
eorg
ia.
2. Pro
phet's b
ack-up co
py, sto
red o
n Rich A
ndrew
's Jolnet m
achine inthe b
asement o
f Rich A
ndrew
s' house near Jo
liet Illinois.
3. C
harles Boykin's co
py o
n "Killer" in D
allas, Texas, sent b
y Rich
And
rews fro
m Jo
liet.
4. Jerry D
alton's co
py at A
T&
T C
orp
orate Info
rmatio
n Security in N
ewJersey, sen
t from
Charles B
oykin
in D
allas.
5. H
enry Kluep
fel's copy at B
ellcore security head
quarters in N
ewJersey, sent b
y Dalto
n.
6. K
night Lig
htning's co
py, sent b
y Prophet fro
m R
ich And
rews'
mach
ine, an
d n
ow
in C
olu
mbia, M
issouri.
We can see that the "security" situatio
n of this p
roprietary d
ocum
ent,once dug
out of AIM
SX, sw
iftly becam
e bizarre. W
ithout any money
changing
hands, w
ithout any p
articular special effo
rt, this data had
been
repro
duced
at least six times and
had sp
read itself all o
ver the continent.
By far the w
orst, ho
wever, w
as yet to co
me.
In Feb
ruary 1
98
9, P
rophet an
d K
nig
ht L
ightn
ing b
argain
ed electro
ni-
cally over the fate of this trophy. Prophet wanted to boast, but, at the
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 3 5
same tim
e, scarcely wanted to be caught.
For his p
art, Knig
ht Lightning
was eag
er to p
ublish as m
uch of the d
ocu-
ment as he co
uld m
anage. K
night Lig
htning w
as a fledgling
political-
science
majo
r with
a particu
lar inte
rest in
freedom
-of-in
form
ation
issues. He w
ould
glad
ly pub
lish most anything
that would
reflect glo
ryon the prow
ess of the underground and embarrass the telcos. H
owever,
Knig
ht Lightning
himself had
contacts in telco
security, and so
metim
esconsulted them
on material he'd received that m
ight be too dicey forpub
lication.
Prophet and Knight Lightning decided to edit the E9
11 D
ocument so as
to d
elete most o
f its identifying
traits. First of all, its larg
e "NO
T FO
RUSE O
R DISC
LOSU
RE" warning
had to go. T
hen there were other m
atters.Fo
r instance, it listed the o
ffice telepho
ne numbers o
f several BellS
outh
91
1 sp
ecialists in Florid
a. If these pho
ne numbers w
ere pub
lished in
*Phrack,* th
e BellS
outh
emplo
yees invo
lved w
ould
very likely be h
as-sled b
y phone phreaks, which w
ould anger B
ellSouth no end, and pose adefinite o
peratio
nal hazard fo
r both Pro
phet and
*Phrack.*
So K
night Lig
htning cut the D
ocum
ent almost in half, rem
oving
thepho
ne numbers and
som
e of the to
uchier and m
ore sp
ecific inform
ation.
He p
assed it b
ack electronically to
Prophet; Pro
phet w
as still nervous,
so K
night Lig
htning cut a b
it more. T
hey finally agreed
that it was read
yto
go, and
that it would
be p
ublished
in *Phrack* under the p
seudonym
,"T
he Eavesdro
pper."
And
this was d
one o
n February 2
5, 1
98
9.
The tw
enty-fourth issue o
f *Phrack* featured a chatty interview
with
co-ed
pho
ne-phreak "C
handa Leir," three articles o
n BIT
NET
and its
links to o
ther com
puter netw
orks, an article o
n 80
0 and
90
0 num
bers
by "U
nknow
n User," "V
axCat's" article o
n telco b
asics (slyly entitled"Lifting
Ma B
ell's Veil o
f Secrecy,)" and
the usual "Phrack World
New
s."
The N
ews section, w
ith painful irony, featured an extended account ofthe sentencing
of "S
hadow
hawk," an eig
hteen-year-old
Chicag
o hacker
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 3 6
who
had just b
een put in fed
eral priso
n by W
illiam J. C
ook him
self.
And
then there were the tw
o articles b
y "The Eavesd
ropper." T
he firstw
as the edited E911 D
ocument, now
titled "Control O
fficeA
dm
inistration O
f Enhanced 9
11
Services fo
r Special S
ervices andM
ajor A
ccount C
enters." Eavesdro
pper's seco
nd article w
as a glo
ssaryof term
s explaining
the blizzard
of telco
acronym
s and b
uzzword
s in theE9
11
Docum
ent.
The hap
less docum
ent was no
w d
istributed
, in the usual *Phrack* rou-
tine, to a good one hundred and fifty sites. Not a hundred and fifty *peo-
ple,* m
ind yo
u — a hund
red and
fifty *sites,* som
e of these sites linked
to U
NIX
nodes o
r bulletin b
oard
systems, w
hich themselves had
reader-
ships of tens, dozens, even hundreds of people.
This w
as February 1
98
9. N
othing
happened
imm
ediately. S
umm
ercam
e, and the A
tlanta crew w
ere raided
by the S
ecret Service. Fry G
uyw
as apprehend
ed. S
till nothing
whatever hap
pened
to *Phrack.* S
ixm
ore issues o
f *Phrack* came o
ut, 30
in all, more o
r less on a m
onthly
schedule. K
night Lig
htning and
co-ed
itor T
aran King
went unto
uched.
*Phrack* tended to duck and cover whenever the heat cam
e down.
During
the summ
er busts o
f 19
87
— (hacker b
usts tended
to cluster in
summ
er, perhap
s because hackers w
ere easier to find
at hom
e than inco
llege) —
*Phrack* had ceased
pub
lication fo
r several months, and
laidlo
w. S
everal LoD
hangers-o
n had b
een arrested, b
ut nothing
had hap
-pened
to the *Phrack* crew
, the prem
iere gossip
s of the und
ergro
und.
In 19
88
, *Phrack* had b
een taken over b
y a new ed
itor, "C
rimso
nD
eath," a raucous yo
ungster w
ith a taste for anarchy files.
19
89
, how
ever, looked
like a bounty year fo
r the underg
round
. Knig
htLig
htning and
his co-ed
itor T
aran King
took up
the reins again, and
*Phrack* flourished
throug
hout 1
98
9. A
tlanta LoD
went d
ow
n hard in
the su
mm
er of 1
98
9, b
ut *P
hrack* ro
lled m
errily on. P
rophet's
E91
1 D
ocum
ent seemed
unlikely to cause *Phrack* any tro
uble. B
yJan
uary 1
99
0, it h
ad b
een availab
le in *P
hrack* fo
r almost a year.
Kluep
fel and D
alton, o
fficers of B
ellcore and
AT&
T security, had
pos-
sessed the document for sixteen m
onths — in fact, they'd had it even
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 3 7
befo
re Knig
ht Lightning
himself, and
had d
one no
thing in p
articular tosto
p its d
istributio
n. They had
n't even told
Rich A
ndrew
s or C
harlesBoykin to
erase the copies fro
m their U
NIX
nodes, Jo
lnet and K
iller.
But then cam
e the monster M
artin Luther King
Day C
rash of January
15
, 19
90
.
A flat three d
ays later, on January 1
8, fo
ur agents sho
wed
up at K
night
Lightning
's fraternity house. One w
as Tim
othy Foley, the secondBarbara G
olden, both of them Secret Service agents from
the Chicago
office. A
lso alo
ng w
as a University o
f Misso
uri security officer, and
Reed
New
lin, a security man fro
m S
outhw
estern Bell, the R
BO
C having
jurisd
iction o
ver M
issouri.
Foley accused Knig
ht Lightning
of causing the nationw
ide crash of thepho
ne system.
Knight Lightning w
as aghast at this allegation. On the face of it, the
suspicio
n was no
t entirely implausib
le — tho
ugh K
night Lig
htning knew
that he himself hadn't done it. Plenty of hot-dog hackers had bragged
that they could crash the phone system, how
ever. "Shadowhaw
k," forinstance, the C
hicago hacker w
hom
William
Cook had
recently put in
jail, had several times boasted on boards that he could "shut dow
nA
T&
T's p
ublic sw
itched netw
ork."
And
now
this event, or so
mething
that looked
just like it, had actually
taken place. The C
rash had lit a fire under the Chicag
o Task Force. A
ndthe fo
rmer fence- sitters at B
ellcore and
AT&
T w
ere now
ready to
roll.
The co
nsensus among
telco security —
already ho
rrified b
y the skill of
the BellS
outh intrud
ers — w
as that the dig
ital underg
round
was o
ut of
hand. Lo
D and
*Phrack* must g
o.
And
in pub
lishing Pro
phet's E9
11
Docum
ent, *Phrack* had p
rovid
edlaw
enforcement w
ith what appeared to b
e a powerful leg
al weapon.
Foley confronted Knight Lightning about the E9
11 D
ocument.
Knig
ht Lightning
was co
wed
. He im
med
iately beg
an "cooperating
fully"
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
1 3 8
in the usual traditio
n of the d
igital und
ergro
und.
He g
ave Foley a co
mplete run o
f *Phrack,*printed
out in a set o
f three-rin
g b
inders. H
e han
ded
over h
is electronic m
ailing list o
f *Phrack*
subscrib
ers. Knig
ht Lightning
was g
rilled fo
r four ho
urs by Fo
ley andhis cohorts. K
night Lig
htning adm
itted that Prophet had passed him the
E911 D
ocument, and he adm
itted that he had known it w
as stolen bootyfrom
a hacker raid on a telephone company. K
night Lig
htning sig
ned astatem
ent to this effect, and
agreed
, in writing
, to co
operate w
ith inves-tig
ators.
Next d
ay — January 1
9, 1
99
0, a Frid
ay — the S
ecret Service returned
with a search w
arrant, and tho
roug
hly searched K
night Lig
htning's
upstairs ro
om
in the fraternity house. T
hey took all his flo
ppy d
isks,tho
ugh, interesting
ly, they left Knig
ht Lightning
in possessio
n of b
oth
his computer and his m
odem. (T
he computer had no hard disk, and in
Foley's judgem
ent was not a store of evidence.) B
ut this was a very
min
or b
right sp
ot am
ong K
nig
ht L
ightn
ing's rap
idly m
ultip
lying tro
u-
bles. B
y this time, K
night Lig
htning w
as in plenty o
f hot w
ater, not o
nlyw
ith federal p
olice, p
rosecuto
rs, telco investig
ators, and
universitysecurity, b
ut with the eld
ers of his o
wn cam
pus fraternity, w
ho w
ereoutrag
ed to
think that they had b
een unwitting
ly harboring
a federal
com
pute
r-crimin
al.
On M
onday, Knight Lightning w
as summ
oned to Chicago, w
here he was
further grilled
by Fo
ley and U
SSS veteran ag
ent Barb
ara Gold
en, thistim
e with an atto
rney present. And o
n Tuesday, he w
as form
ally indictedby a fed
eral grand
jury.
The trial o
f Knig
ht L
ightn
ing, w
hich
occu
rred o
n Ju
ly 24
-27
, 19
90
,w
as the crucial show
-trial of the H
acker Crackd
ow
n. We w
ill examine
the trial at som
e length in Part Fo
ur of this b
ook.
In the meantim
e, we m
ust continue our dogged pursuit of the E9
11
Docum
ent.
It must have b
een clear by January 1
99
0 that the E9
11
Docum
ent, inthe fo
rm *Phrack* had
pub
lished it b
ack in February 1
98
9, had
gone
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 3 9
off at the sp
eed o
f light in at least a hund
red and
fifty different d
irec-tions. T
o attempt to put this electronic genie back in the bottle w
asflatly
impossib
le.
And
yet, the E91
1 D
ocum
ent was *still* sto
len pro
perty, fo
rmally and
legally sp
eaking. A
ny electronic transference o
f this docum
ent, by any-
one unauthorized to have it, could be interpreted as an act of w
ire fraud.Interstate transfer o
f stolen p
roperty, includ
ing electro
nic pro
perty,
was a fed
eral crime.
The C
hicago Com
puter Fraud and Abuse T
ask Force had been assured thatthe E9
11 D
ocument w
as worth a hefty sum
of money. In fact, they had a
precise estim
ate of its w
orth fro
m B
ellSouth security p
ersonnel:
$7
9,4
49
. A sum
of this scale seem
ed to
warrant vig
oro
us pro
secution.
Even if the damage could not be undone, at least this large sum
offered agood leg
al pretext fo
r stern punishm
ent of the thieves. It seem
ed likely
to impress judg
es and juries. And it could b
e used in court to mop up the
Legion of Doom
.
The A
tlanta crowd w
as already in the bag, by the time the C
hicago Task
Force had gotten around to *Phrack.* B
ut the Legion w
as a hydra-headedthing
. In late 89
, a brand
-new Leg
ion o
f Doom
board
, "Phoenix
Project," had
gone up
in Austin, T
exas. Phoenix Pro
ject was syso
ped
by
no less a m
an than the Mento
r himself, ab
ly assisted b
y University o
fTexas student and hardened D
oomster "Erik B
loodaxe."
As w
e have seen from
his *Phrack* manifesto
, the Mento
r was a hacker
zealot who reg
arded computer intrusion as som
ething close to a m
oralduty. Pho
enix Project w
as an ambitio
us effort, intend
ed to
revive thedig
ital underg
round
to w
hat Mento
r consid
ered the full flo
wer o
f theearly 8
0s. T
he Phoenix b
oard
would
also b
old
ly bring
elite hackersface-to
-face with the telco
"oppositio
n." On "Pho
enix," Am
erica'scleverest hackers w
ould supposedly shame the telco squareheads out of
their stick-in-the-mud
attitudes, and
perhap
s convince them
that theLeg
ion o
f Doom
elite were really an all-rig
ht crew. T
he prem
iere of
"Phoen
ix Pro
ject" was h
eavily trum
peted
by *P
hrack,* an
d "P
hoen
ixPro
ject" carried a co
mplete ru
n o
f *Phrack* issu
es, inclu
din
g th
eE9
11
Docum
ent as *Phrack* had p
ublished
it.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 4 0
Phoenix Project was only one of m
any — possib
ly hundreds — of nodes
and b
oard
s all over A
merica that w
ere in guilty p
ossessio
n of the E9
11
Docum
ent. But Phoenix w
as an outright, unashamed Legion of D
oomboard
. Und
er Mento
r's guid
ance, it was flaunting
itself in the face of
telco security p
ersonnel. W
orse yet, it w
as actively trying to
*win them
over* as sym
pathizers fo
r the dig
ital underg
round
elite. "Phoenix" had
no card
s or co
des o
n it. Its hacker elite consid
ered Pho
enix at leasttechnically leg
al. But Pho
enix was a co
rrupting
influence, where
hacker anarchy was eating
away like d
igital acid
at the underb
elly of
corp
orate p
ropriety.
The C
hicago Com
puter Fraud and Abuse T
ask Force now prepared to
descend upon Austin, T
exas.
Oddly, no
t one b
ut *two* trails o
f the Task Fo
rce's investigatio
n ledto
ward
Austin. T
he city of A
ustin, like Atlanta, had
mad
e itself a bul-
wark o
f the Sunb
elt's Inform
ation A
ge, w
ith a strong
universityresearch p
resence, and a num
ber o
f cutting-ed
ge electro
nics com
panies,
including
Moto
rola, D
ell, Com
puA
dd, IB
M, S
ematech and
MCC.
Where co
mputing
machinery w
ent, hackers generally fo
llow
ed. A
ustinboasted
not o
nly "Phoenix Pro
ject," currently LoD
's most flag
rantund
ergro
und b
oard
, but a num
ber o
f UN
IX no
des.
One of these nodes w
as "Elephant," run by a UN
IX consultant named
Robert Izenb
erg. Izenb
erg, in search o
f a relaxed S
outhern lifestyle and
a low
ered co
st-of-living
, had recently m
igrated
to A
ustin from
New
Jersey. In New
Jersey, Izenberg
had w
orked
for an ind
epend
ent con-
tracting co
mpany, p
rogram
ming
UN
IX co
de fo
r AT&
T itself. "T
erminus"
had been a frequent user on Izenb
erg's privately ow
ned Elephant node.
Having
interviewed
Term
inus and exam
ined the reco
rds o
n Netsys, the
Chicago T
ask Force were now
convinced that they had discovered anund
ergro
und g
ang o
f UN
IX so
ftware p
irates, who
were d
emonstrab
lyguilty o
f interstate trafficking in illicitly co
pied
AT&
T so
urce code.
Izenberg
was sw
ept into
the drag
net around
Term
inus, the self-pro
-claim
ed ultim
ate UN
IX hacker.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 4 1
Izenberg
, in Austin, had
settled d
ow
n into a U
NIX
job w
ith a Texan
branch o
f IBM
. Izenberg
was no
long
er working
as a contracto
r for
AT&
T, b
ut he had friends in New
Jersey, and he still logged on to A
T&
TU
NIX
com
puters b
ack in New
Jersey, more o
r less whenever it p
leasedhim
. Izenberg
's activities appeared
highly susp
icious to
the Task Fo
rce.Izenb
erg m
ight w
ell be b
reaking into
AT&
T co
mputers, sw
iping
AT&
Tsoftw
are, and passing it to T
erminus and other possib
le confederates,throug
h the UN
IX node netw
ork. And this data w
as worth, not m
erely$
79
,49
9, b
ut hundred
s of tho
usands o
f dollars!
On Feb
ruary 21
, 19
90
, Robert Izenb
erg arrived
hom
e from
work at
IBM
to find
that all the com
puters had
mysterio
usly vanished fro
m his
Austin apartm
ent. Naturally he assum
ed that he had been rob
bed. H
is"Elep
hant" node, his o
ther machines, his no
tebooks, his d
isks, his tapes,
all gone! How
ever, nothing much else seem
ed disturbed — the place had
not b
een ransacked.
The p
uzzle becam
ing m
uch stranger so
me five m
inutes later. Austin U
.S. S
ecret Service A
gent A
l Soliz, acco
mpanied
by U
niversity of T
exascam
pus-security o
fficer Larry Couto
rie and the ub
iquito
us Tim
Foley,
mad
e their appearance at Izenb
erg's d
oor. T
hey were in p
lain clothes:
slacks, polo
shirts. They cam
e in, and T
im Fo
ley accused Izenb
erg o
fbelonging to the Legion of D
oom.
Izenberg told them that he had never heard of the "Legion of D
oom." A
ndw
hat about a certain stolen E911 D
ocument, that posed a direct threat to
the police em
ergency lines? Izenb
erg claim
ed that he'd
never heard o
fthat, either.
His interro
gato
rs found
this difficult to
believe. D
idn't he kno
wT
erm
inus?
Who
?
They g
ave him T
erminus's real nam
e. Oh yes, said
Izenberg
. He knew
*that* guy all rig
ht — he w
as leading
discussio
ns on the Internet ab
out
AT&
T co
mputers, esp
ecially the AT&
T 3
B2
.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
1 4 2
AT&
T had
thrust this machine into
the marketp
lace, but, like m
any of
AT&
T's am
bitio
us attempts to
enter the com
puting
arena, the 3B2
pro
-ject had
som
ething less than a g
littering success. Izenb
erg him
self hadbeen a contractor for the division of A
T&
T that supported the 3
B2. T
heentire d
ivision had
been shut d
ow
n.
Now
adays, the cheapest and quickest way to get help w
ith this fractiouspiece o
f machinery w
as to jo
in one o
f Term
inus's discussio
n gro
ups o
nthe Internet, w
here friendly and
know
ledgeab
le hackers would
help yo
ufo
r free. Natu
rally the rem
arks with
in th
is gro
up w
ere less than
flat-tering
about the D
eath Star.... w
as *that* the pro
blem
?
Foley to
ld Izenb
erg that T
erminus had
been acq
uiring ho
t softw
arethro
ugh his, Izenb
erg's, m
achine.
Izenberg shrugged this off. A good eight m
egabytes of data flowed
throug
h his UU
CP site every d
ay. UU
CP no
des sp
ewed
data like fire
hoses. Elep
hant had b
een directly linked
to N
etsys — no
t surprising
,since T
erminus w
as a 3B2
expert and
Izenberg
had b
een a 3B2
contrac-
tor. Izenb
erg w
as also linked to
"attctc" and the University o
f Texas.
Term
inus was a w
ell-know
n UN
IX exp
ert, and m
ight have b
een up to
allm
anner of hijinks o
n Elephant. N
othing
Izenberg
could
do ab
out that.
That w
as physically im
possib
le. Need
le in a haystack.
In a four-ho
ur grilling
, Foley urg
ed Izenb
erg to
com
e clean and ad
mit
that he was in co
nspiracy w
ith Term
inus, and a m
ember o
f the Legio
n of
Doom
.
Izenberg
denied
this. He w
as no w
eirdo teenag
e hacker — he w
as thirty-tw
o years old, and didn't even have a "handle." Izenberg was a form
er TV
technician and electro
nics specialist w
ho had
drifted
into U
NIX
consult-
ing as a full-g
row
n adult. Izenb
erg had
never met T
erminus, p
hysical-ly. H
e'd once bought a cheap high- speed modem
from him
, though.
Foley to
ld him
that this modem
(a Telenet T
25
00
which ran at 1
9.2
kilobaud
, and w
hich had just g
one o
ut Izenberg
's door in S
ecret Service
custody) w
as likely hot p
roperty. Izenb
erg w
as taken aback to
hear
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 4 3
this; but then ag
ain, most of Izenb
erg's equipm
ent, like that of most
freelance pro
fessionals in the ind
ustry, was d
iscounted
, passed
hand-
to-hand
throug
h various kind
s of b
arter and g
ray-market. T
here was
no proof that the modem
was stolen, and even if it w
as, Izenberg
hardlysaw
how
that gave them
the right to
take every electronic item
in hisho
use.
Still, if the U
nited S
tates Secret S
ervice figured
they needed
his com
-puter fo
r national security reaso
ns — o
r whatever —
then Izenberg
would
not kick. H
e figured
he would
som
ehow
make the sacrifice o
f histw
enty thousand
dollars' w
orth o
f pro
fessional eq
uipm
ent, in the spirit
of full co
operatio
n and g
ood citizenship
.
Robert Izenb
erg w
as not arrested. Izenberg
was not charg
ed with any
crime. H
is UU
CP no
de —
full of so
me 1
40
meg
abytes o
f the files, mail,
and data of himself and his dozen or so entirely innocent users —
went
out the door as "evidence." Along w
ith the disks and tapes, Izenberg hadlost about 8
00 m
egabytes of data.
Six months w
ould pass before Izenberg decided to phone the SecretService and ask how
the case was going. T
hat was the first tim
e thatRobert Izenb
erg w
ould
ever hear the name o
f William
Cook. A
s of
January 19
92
, a full two years after the seizure, Izenb
erg, still no
tcharg
ed w
ith any crime, w
ould
be strug
gling
throug
h the morass o
f theco
urts, in hope o
f recovering
his thousand
s of d
ollars' w
orth o
f seizedeq
uipm
ent.
In the meantim
e, the Izenberg
case received ab
solutely no
press co
ver-age. T
he Secret Service had walked into an A
ustin home, rem
oved aU
NIX
bulletin- b
oard
system, and
met w
ith no o
peratio
nal difficulties
whatso
ever.
Except that word of a crackdow
n had percolated through the Legion ofD
oom
. "The M
entor" vo
luntarily shut dow
n "The Pho
enix Project." It
seemed
a pity, esp
ecially as telco security em
plo
yees had, in fact, sho
wn
up on Phoenix, just as he had hoped — along
with the usual m
otley crowd
of Lo
D heavies, hang
ers-on, p
hreaks, hackers and w
annabes. T
here was
"Sand
y" Sand
quist fro
m U
S S
PRIN
T security, and
som
e guy nam
ed H
enry
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 4 4
Klu
epfel, fro
m B
ellcore itself! K
luep
fel had
been
tradin
g frien
dly b
an-
ter with hackers o
n Phoenix since January 3
0th (tw
o w
eeks after theM
artin Luther King
Day C
rash). The p
resence of such a stellar telco
official seem
ed q
uite the coup
for Pho
enix Project.
Still, M
ento
r could
judge th
e climate. A
tlanta in
ruin
s, *Phrack* in
deep
troub
le, som
ething w
eird g
oing
on w
ith UN
IX no
des —
discretio
nw
as advisab
le. Phoenix Pro
ject went o
ff-line.
Kluep
fel, of co
urse, had b
een monito
ring this Lo
D b
ulletin board
for his
own purposes —
and those of the Chicago unit. A
s far back as June1987, K
luepfel had logged on to a Texas underground board called
"Phreak Klass 2
60
0." T
here he'd d
iscovered
an Chicag
o yo
ungster
named
"Shad
ow
hawk," strutting
and b
oasting
about rifling
AT&
T co
m-
puter files, and
brag
ging
of his am
bitio
ns to rid
dle A
T&
T's B
ellcore
com
puters w
ith trojan ho
rse pro
gram
s. Kluep
fel had p
assed the new
s toCook in C
hicago, Shadowhaw
k's computers had gone out the door in
Secret S
ervice custody, and
Shad
ow
hawk him
self had g
one to
jail.
Now
it was Pho
enix Project's turn. Pho
enix Project p
ostured
about
"legality" and
"merely intellectual interest," b
ut it reeked o
f the under-
gro
und. It had
*Phrack* on it. It had
the E91
1 D
ocum
ent. It had a lo
t of
dicey talk ab
out b
reaking into
systems, includ
ing so
me b
old
and reckless
stuff about a supposed "decryption service" that M
entor and friendsw
ere planning
to run, to
help crack encryp
ted p
assword
s off o
f hackedsystem
s.
Mento
r was an ad
ult. There w
as a bulletin b
oard
at his place o
f work,
as well. K
leupfel logged onto this board, too, and discovered it to becalled
"Illuminati." It w
as run by so
me co
mpany called
Steve Jackso
nG
ames.
On M
arch 1, 1
99
0, the A
ustin crackdow
n went into
high g
ear.
On the m
orning
of M
arch 1 —
a Thursd
ay — 2
1-year- o
ld U
niversity of
Texas stud
ent "Erik Blo
odaxe," co
-sysop o
f Phoenix Pro
ject and an
avowed m
ember of the Legion of D
oom, w
as wakened by a police revolver
levelled at his head
.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
1 4 5
Blo
odaxe w
atched, jittery, as S
ecret Service ag
ents appro
priated
his3
00
bau
d term
inal an
d, riflin
g h
is files, disco
vered h
is treasured
source-co
de fo
r Robert M
orris's no
torio
us Internet Worm
. But
Bloodaxe, a w
ily operator, had suspected that something
of the likem
ight b
e coming
. All his b
est equipment had b
een hidden away else-
where. T
he raiders to
ok everything
electronic, ho
wever, includ
ing his
telepho
ne. They w
ere stymied
by his hefty arcad
e-style Pac-Man g
ame,
and left it in p
lace, as it was sim
ply to
o heavy to
move.
Bloodaxe w
as not arrested. He w
as not charged with any crim
e. A good
two years later, the p
olice still had
what they had
taken from
him, ho
w-
ever.
The M
entor w
as less wary. T
he daw
n raid ro
usted him
and his w
ife from
bed
in their underw
ear, and six S
ecret Service ag
ents, accom
panied
by
an Austin p
olicem
an and H
enry Kluep
fel himself, m
ade a rich haul. O
ffw
ent the works, into
the agents' w
hite Chevro
let minivan: an IB
M PC
-A
T clo
ne with 4
meg
of R
AM
and a 1
20
-meg
hard d
isk; a Hew
lett-Packard
LaserJet II p
rinter; a co
mpletely leg
itimate an
d h
ighly exp
en-
sive SCO
-Xenix 2
86
operating
system; Pag
emaker d
isks and d
ocum
enta-tio
n; and the M
icroso
ft Word
word
-pro
cessing p
rogram
. Mento
r's wife
had her inco
mplete acad
emic thesis sto
red o
n the hard-d
isk; that went,
too, and so did the couple's telephone. As of tw
o years later, all thispro
perty rem
ained in p
olice custo
dy.
Mento
r remained
under g
uard in his ap
artment as ag
ents prep
ared to
raid Steve Jackson Gam
es. The fact that this w
as a business headquar-
ters and not a private residence did not deter the agents. It w
as stillvery early; no one w
as at work yet. T
he agents prepared to b
reak down
the door, b
ut Mento
r, eavesdro
pping
on the S
ecret Service w
alkie-talkietraffic, begged them
not to do it, and offered his key to the building.
The exact details of the next events are unclear. T
he agents would not let
anyone else into
the build
ing. T
heir search warrant, w
hen pro
duced
,w
as unsigned
. Apparently they b
reakfasted fro
m the lo
cal"W
hataburg
er," as the litter from
hamburg
ers was later fo
und insid
e.They also
extensively sampled
a bag
of jellyb
eans kept b
y an SJG
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 4 6
emplo
yee. Som
eone to
re a "Dukakis fo
r President" sticker fro
m the
wall.
SJG
emplo
yees, dilig
ently show
ing up
for the d
ay's work, w
ere met at
the door and briefly questioned by U.S. Secret Service agents. T
heem
ployees watched in astonishm
ent as agents wielding crow
bars andscrew
drivers emerg
ed with captive m
achines. They attacked outdoor
storag
e units with b
oltcutters. T
he agents w
ore b
lue nylon w
indbreak-
ers with "S
ECRET
SER
VIC
E" stencilled acro
ss the back, w
ith running-
shoes and
jeans.
Jackson's co
mpany lo
st three com
puters, several hard
-disks, hund
redof flo
ppy d
isks, two m
onito
rs, three modem
s, a laser printer, vario
uspow
ercord
s, cables, and
adap
ters (and, o
ddly, a sm
all bag
of screw
s,bolts and
nuts). The seizure o
f Illuminati B
BS d
eprived
SJG
of all the
pro
gram
s, text files, and p
rivate e-mail o
n the board
. The lo
ss of tw
oother S
JG co
mputers w
as a severe blo
w as w
ell, since it caused the lo
ssof electro
nically stored
contracts, financial p
rojectio
ns, address d
irec-to
ries, mailing
lists, perso
nnel files, business co
rrespond
ence, and, no
tleast, the drafts of forthcom
ing games and gam
ing books.
No one at Steve Jackson G
ames w
as arrested. No one w
as accused of anycrim
e. No charg
es were filed
. Everything ap
pro
priated
was o
fficiallykep
t as "evidence" o
f crimes never sp
ecified.
After the *Phrack* sho
w-trial, the S
teve Jackson G
ames scand
al was
the most b
izarre and aggravating
incident of the Hacker C
rackdown of
19
90
. This raid
by the C
hicago T
ask Force o
n a science-fiction g
aming
pub
lisher was to
rouse a sw
arming
host o
f civil liberties issues, and
gave rise to
an enduring
contro
versy that was still re-co
mplicating
itself, and g
row
ing in the sco
pe o
f its implicatio
ns, a full two years
later.
The pursuit of the E9
11 D
ocument stopped w
ith the Steve Jackson Gam
esraid. A
s we have seen, there w
ere hundreds, perhaps thousands of com-
puter users in A
merica w
ith the E91
1 D
ocum
ent in their possessio
n.Theo
retically, Chicag
o had
a perfect leg
al right to
raid any o
f these peo
-ple, and could have leg
ally seized the machines of anyb
ody who sub
-
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 4 7
scribed
to *Phrack.* H
ow
ever, there was no
copy o
f the E91
1 D
ocum
enton Jackso
n's Illuminati b
oard
. And
there the Chicag
o raid
ers stopped
dead; they have not raided anyone since.
It mig
ht be assum
ed that R
ich And
rews and
Charlie B
oykin, w
ho had
brought the E911 D
ocument to the attention of telco security, m
ight besp
ared any o
fficial suspicio
n. But as w
e have seen, the willing
ness to"co
operate fully" o
ffers little, if any, assurance against fed
eral anti-hacker p
rosecutio
n.
Richard
And
rews fo
und him
self in deep
troub
le, thanks to the E9
11
Docum
ent. And
rews lived
in Illinois, the native sto
mping
gro
unds o
f theChicag
o Task Force. O
n February 3
and 6, b
oth his home and his place of
work w
ere raided by U
SSS. His m
achines went out the door, too, and he
was g
rilled at leng
th (thoug
h not arrested
). And
rews p
roved
to b
e inpurp
orted
ly guilty p
ossessio
n of: U
NIX
SV
R 3
.2; U
NIX
SV
R 3
.1; U
UCP;
PM
ON
; WW
B; IW
B; D
WB; N
RO
FF; KO
RN
SH
ELL '8
8; C
++
; and Q
UES
T,
among
other items. A
ndrews had received this proprietary code —
which A
T&
T o
fficially valued at w
ell over $
25
0,0
00
— thro
ugh the
UN
IX netw
ork, m
uch of it sup
plied
to him
as a perso
nal favor b
yTerm
inus. Perhaps w
orse yet, A
ndrew
s adm
itted to
returning the favo
r,by passing
Term
inus a copy of AT&
T proprietary ST
ARLA
N source code.
Even Charles B
oykin, him
self an AT&
T em
plo
yee, entered so
me very ho
tw
ater. By 1
990, he'd alm
ost forgotten ab
out the E911 prob
lem he'd
reported in September 8
8; in fact, since that date, he'd passed tw
o more
security alerts to Jerry D
alton, co
ncerning m
atters that Boykin co
nsid-
ered far w
orse than the E9
11
Docum
ent.
But b
y 19
90
, year of the crackd
ow
n, AT&
T C
orp
orate Info
rmatio
nSecurity w
as fed up
with "K
iller." This m
achine offered
no d
irectincom
e to AT&
T, and w
as providing aid and com
fort to a cloud of suspi-cio
us yokels fro
m o
utside the co
mpany, so
me o
f them actively m
alicious
tow
ard A
T&
T, its p
roperty, and
its corp
orate interests. W
hatevergoodw
ill and p
ublicity had
been w
on am
ong
Killer's 1
,50
0 d
evoted
usersw
as consid
ered no
long
er worth the security risk. O
n February 2
0,
19
90
, Jerry Dalto
n arrived in D
allas and sim
ply unp
lugged
the pho
nejacks, to
the puzzled
alarm o
f Killer's m
any Texan users. K
iller went
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 4 8
perm
anently off-line, w
ith the loss o
f vast archives of p
rogram
s andhug
e quantities o
f electronic m
ail; it was never resto
red to
service.A
T&
T sho
wed
no p
articular regard
for the "p
roperty" o
f these 1,5
00
peo
ple. W
hatever "pro
perty" the users had
been sto
ring o
n AT&
T's co
m-
puter sim
ply vanished
com
pletely.
Boykin, w
ho had
himself rep
orted
the E91
1 p
roblem
, now
found
himself
under a clo
ud o
f suspicio
n. In a weird
private-security rep
lay of the
Secret S
ervice seizures, Boykin's o
wn ho
me w
as visited b
y AT&
TSecurity and
his ow
n machines w
ere carried o
ut the door.
How
ever, there were m
arked sp
ecial features in the Boykin case.
Boykin's d
isks and his p
ersonal co
mputers w
ere swiftly exam
ined b
y hisco
rporate em
plo
yers and returned
politely in just tw
o d
ays — (unlike
Secret S
ervice seizures, which co
mm
only take m
onths o
r years).Boykin w
as not charg
ed w
ith any crime o
r wro
ngdoing
, and he kep
t hisjo
b w
ith AT&
T (tho
ugh he d
id retire fro
m A
T&
T in S
eptem
ber 1
99
1, at
the age o
f 52
).
It's interesting to note that the US Secret Service som
ehow failed to
seize Boykin's "K
iller" node and
carry AT&
T's o
wn co
mputer o
ut thedoor. N
or d
id they raid
Boykin's ho
me. T
hey seemed
perfectly w
illingto take the w
ord of AT&
T Security that A
T&
T's em
ployee, and AT&
T's
"Killer" no
de, w
ere free of hacker co
ntraband
and o
n the up-and
-up.
It's dig
ital wate
r-under-th
e-b
ridge at th
is poin
t, as Kille
r's 3,2
00
meg
abytes o
f Texan electro
nic com
munity w
ere erased in 1
99
0, and
"Killer" itself w
as shipped
out o
f the state.
But the exp
eriences of A
ndrew
s and B
oykin, and
the users of their sys-
tems, rem
ained side issues. They did not begin to assum
e the social,political, and
legal im
portance that g
athered, slo
wly b
ut inexorab
ly,around the issue of the raid on Steve Jackson G
ames.
__
__
_
We m
ust now turn our attention to Steve Jackson G
ames itself, and
explain w
hat SJG
was, w
hat it really did
, and ho
w it had
manag
ed to
attract this particularly o
dd and
virulent kind o
f troub
le. The read
er
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HA
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ER
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AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
1 4 9
may recall that this is not the first b
ut the second time that the com
panyhas ap
peared
in this narrative; a Steve Jackso
n gam
e called G
URPS
was a
favorite p
astime o
f Atlan
ta hacker U
rvile, and U
rvile's science-fictio
nal
gam
ing notes had b
een mixed up prom
iscuously with notes ab
out hisactual co
mputer intrusio
ns.
First, Steve Jackso
n Gam
es, Inc., was *no
t* a pub
lisher of "co
mputer
gam
es." SJG
pub
lished "sim
ulation g
ames," p
arlor g
ames that w
ereplayed
on p
aper, w
ith pencils, and
dice, and
printed
guid
ebooks full o
frules and
statistics tables. T
here were no
com
puters invo
lved in the
games them
selves. When you bought a Steve Jackson G
ame, you did not
receive any software disks. W
hat you got was a plastic bag w
ith some
cardboard game tokens, m
aybe a few m
aps or a deck of cards. Most of
their pro
ducts w
ere books.
How
ever, com
puters *w
ere* deep
ly involved
in the Steve Jackso
nG
ames b
usiness. Like almost all m
odern p
ublishers, S
teve Jackson and
his fifteen employees used com
puters to write text, to keep accounts,
and to run the business g
enerally. They also used a com
puter to runtheir o
fficial bulletin b
oard
system fo
r Steve Jackso
n Gam
es, a board
called Illum
inati. On Illum
inati, simulatio
n gam
ers who
happened
toow
n computers and m
odems could associate, trade m
ail, debate the theo-ry and practice of gam
ing, and keep up w
ith the company's new
s and itsproduct announcem
ents.
Illuminati w
as a modestly p
opular b
oard
, run on a sm
all com
puter w
ithlim
ited sto
rage, o
nly one p
hone-line, and
no ties to
large-scale co
m-
puter netw
orks. It d
id, ho
wever, have hund
reds o
f users, many o
f themded
icated g
amers w
illing to
call from
out-o
f-state.
Illuminati w
as *not* an "und
ergro
und" b
oard
. It did
not feature hints
on co
mputer in
trusio
n, o
r "anarch
y files," or illicitly p
osted
credit
card num
bers, o
r long
-distance access co
des. S
om
e of Illum
inati'susers, how
ever, were m
embers of the Legion of D
oom. A
nd so was one
of Steve Jackson's senior employees —
the Mentor. T
he Mentor w
rotefo
r *Phrack,* and also
ran an underg
round
board
, Phoenix Pro
ject —but the M
entor was not a com
puter professional. The M
entor was the
managing editor of Steve Jackson G
ames and a professional gam
e design-
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er by trad
e. These Lo
D m
embers d
id no
t use Illuminati to
help their
*hackin
g* activities. T
hey u
sed it to
help
their *g
ame-p
laying* activ-
ities — and they w
ere even more dedicated to sim
ulation gaming than
they were to
hacking.
"Illuminati" g
ot its nam
e from
a card-g
ame that S
teve Jackson him
self,the co
mpany's fo
under and
sole o
wner, had
invented. T
his multi-p
layercard
-gam
e was o
ne of M
r Jackson's b
est-know
n, most successful, m
ost
technically innovative p
roducts. "Illum
inati" was a g
ame o
f parano
iacco
nsp
iracy in w
hich
various an
tisocial cu
lts warred
covertly to
dom
i-nate the w
orld
. "Illuminati" w
as hilarious, and
great fun to
play,
involving
flying saucers, the C
IA, the K
GB, the p
hone co
mpanies, the K
uKlux K
lan, the South A
merican N
azis, the cocaine cartels, the B
oy
Scouts, and dozens of other splinter groups from the tw
isted depths ofM
r. Jackson's p
rofessio
nally fervid
imag
inatio
n. Fo
r the u
nin
itiated,
any pub
lic discussio
n of the "Illum
inati" card-g
ame so
unded
, by turns,
utterly menacing
or co
mpletely insane.
And
then there was S
JG's "C
ar Wars," in w
hich soup
ed-up
armored
hot-
rods w
ith rocket-launchers and
heavy machine-g
uns did
battle o
n theA
merican hig
hways o
f the future. The lively C
ar Wars d
iscussion o
nthe Illum
inati board
featured m
any meticulo
us, painstaking
discussio
nsof the effects o
f grenad
es, land-m
ines, flamethro
wers and
napalm
. Itso
unded
like hacker anarchy files run amuck.
Mr Jackso
n an
d h
is co-w
orkers earn
ed th
eir daily b
read b
y supplyin
gpeo
ple w
ith make-b
elieve adventures and
weird
ideas. T
he more far-
out, the b
etter.
Sim
ulation g
aming
is an unusual pastim
e, but g
amers have no
t generally
had to beg the permission of the Secret Service to exist. W
argames and
role-p
laying ad
ventures are an old
and ho
nored
pastim
e, much favo
redby p
rofessio
nal military strateg
ists. Once little- kno
wn, these g
ames
are now played by hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts throughout
North A
merica, Euro
pe and
Japan. G
aming
-books, o
nce restricted to
hobby o
utlets, now
com
monly ap
pear in chain-sto
res like B. D
alton's
and W
aldenb
ooks, and
sell vigoro
usly.
BR
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R C
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Steve Jackson Gam
es, Inc., of Austin, T
exas, was a gam
es company of the
mid
dle rank. In 1
98
9, S
JG g
rossed
about a m
illion d
ollars. Jackso
nhim
self had a g
ood rep
utation in his ind
ustry as a talented and
innovative
desig
ner of rather unco
nventional g
ames, b
ut his com
pany w
as som
e-thing
less than a titan of the field
— certainly no
t like the multim
illion-
dollar T
SR Inc., o
r Britain's g
igantic "G
ames W
orksho
p."
SJG
's Austin head
quarters w
as a modest tw
o-sto
ry brick o
ffice-suite,cluttered
with p
hones, p
hoto
copiers, fax m
achines and co
mputers. It
bustled
with sem
i-org
anized activity and
was littered
with g
lossy p
ro-
motional b
rochures and dog-eared science-fiction novels. A
ttached tothe o
ffices was a larg
e tin-roofed
wareho
use piled
twenty feet hig
h with
cardboard boxes of games and books. D
espite the weird im
aginings thatw
ent on w
ithin it, the SJG
headquarters w
as quite a q
uotid
ian, everyday
sort o
f place. It lo
oked
like what it w
as: a pub
lishers' dig
s.
Both
"Car W
ars" and "Illu
min
ati" were w
ell-know
n, p
opular g
ames.
But the m
ainstay of the Jackso
n org
anization w
as their Generic
Universal R
ole-Playing
System
, "G.U
.R.P.S
." The G
URPS
system w
asco
nsidered
solid
and w
ell-desig
ned, an asset fo
r players. B
ut perhap
sthe m
ost popular feature of the GURPS system
was that it allow
ed gam
-ing
-masters to
desig
n scenarios that clo
sely resembled
well-kno
wn
books, movies, and other w
orks of fantasy. Jackson had licensed andadapted w
orks from m
any science fiction and fantasy authors. There w
as*G
URPS C
onan
,* *GU
RPS R
iverw
orld
,* *GU
RPS H
orse
clans,* *G
URPS
Witch
World
,* nam
es emin
ently fam
iliar to scien
ce-fiction read
ers.A
nd there w
as *GU
RPS
Special O
ps,* fro
m the w
orld
of esp
ionag
e fan-tasy and
unconventio
nal warfare.
And
then there was *G
URPS
Cyb
erpunk.*
"Cyb
erpunk" w
as a term g
iven to certain science fictio
n writers w
hohad
entered the g
enre in the 19
80
s. "Cyb
erpunk," as the lab
el implies,
had tw
o g
eneral disting
uishing features. First, its w
riters had a co
m-
pelling
interest in inform
ation techno
logy, an interest clo
sely akin toscience fictio
n's earlier fascination w
ith space travel. A
nd seco
nd, these
writers w
ere "punks," w
ith all the disting
uishing features that that
implies: B
ohem
ian artin
ess, youth
run w
ild, an
air of d
eliberate reb
el-
BR
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R C
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lion, funny clo
thes and hair, o
dd p
olitics, a fo
ndness fo
r abrasive ro
ckan
d ro
ll; in a w
ord
, trouble.
The "cyb
erpunk" S
F writers w
ere a small g
roup
of m
ostly co
llege-ed
u-cated
white m
iddle-class litterateurs, scattered
throug
h the US and
Canad
a. Only o
ne, Rud
y Rucker, a p
rofesso
r of co
mputer science in
Silico
n Valley, co
uld rank w
ith even the humblest co
mputer hacker.
But, excep
t for Pro
fessor R
ucker, the "cyberp
unk" authors w
ere not
pro
gram
mers o
r hardw
are experts; they co
nsidered
themselves artists
(as, indeed
, did
Professo
r Rucker). H
ow
ever, these writers all o
wned
com
puters, and
took an intense and
pub
lic interest in the social ram
ifi-catio
ns of the info
rmatio
n industry.
The cyberpunks had a strong follow
ing among the global generation that
had g
row
n up in a w
orld
of co
mputers, m
ultinational netw
orks, and
cable televisio
n. Their o
utlook w
as consid
ered so
mew
hat morb
id, cyni-
cal, and d
ark, but then ag
ain, so w
as the outlo
ok o
f their generatio
nalpeers. A
s that generatio
n matured
and increased
in strength and
influ-ence, so
did
the cyberp
unks. As science-fictio
n writers w
ent, theyw
ere doing
fairly well fo
r themselves. B
y the late 19
80
s, their work
had attracted attention from gam
ing companies, including Steve Jackson
Gam
es, which w
as planning
a cyberp
unk simulatio
n for the flo
urishingG
URPS
gam
ing- system
.
The tim
e seemed
ripe fo
r such a pro
duct, w
hich had alread
y been p
roven
in the marketplace. T
he first gam
es- company out of the g
ate, with a
pro
duct b
old
ly called "C
yberp
unk" in defiance o
f possib
le infringem
ent-of- co
pyrig
ht suits, had b
een an upstart g
roup
called R
. Talso
rian.Talso
rian's Cyb
erpunk w
as a fairly decent g
ame, b
ut the mechanics o
fthe sim
ulation system
left a lot to
be d
esired. C
om
mercially, ho
wever,
the gam
e did
very well.
The next cyberpunk gam
e had been the even more successful
*Shad
ow
run* by FA
SA
Corp
oratio
n. The m
echanics of this g
ame w
erefine, b
ut the scenario w
as rendered
moro
nic by sap
py fantasy elem
entslike elves, tro
lls, wizard
s, and d
ragons —
all hig
hly id
eolo
gically-
incorrect, acco
rding
to the hard
-edged
, high-tech stand
ards o
f cyber-
punk science fictio
n.
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Other g
ame desig
ners were cham
ping at the b
it. Prominent am
ong them
was the M
entor, a g
entleman w
ho, like m
ost o
f his friends in the Leg
ion
of Doom
, was quite the cyberpunk devotee. M
entor reasoned that thetim
e had co
me fo
r a *real* cyberp
unk gam
ing-b
ook —
one that the
princes o
f com
puter-m
ischief in the Legio
n of D
oom
could
play w
ithout
laughing
themselves sick. T
his book, *G
URPS
Cyb
erpunk,* w
ould
reekof cu
lturally o
n- lin
e au
thenticity.
Mento
r was p
articularly
well-q
ualifie
d fo
r this task. N
aturally
, he
knew far m
ore ab
out co
mputer-intrusio
n and d
igital skulld
uggery than
any previo
usly pub
lished cyb
erpunk autho
r. Not o
nly that, but he w
asgood at his w
ork. A
vivid im
aginatio
n, com
bined
with an instinctive
feeling fo
r the working
of system
s and, esp
ecially, the loopho
les within
them, are excellent q
ualities for a p
rofessio
nal gam
e desig
ner.
By M
arch 1st, *G
URPS
Cyb
erpunk* w
as almost co
mplete, read
y toprint and
ship. S
teve Jackson exp
ected vig
oro
us sales for this item
,w
hich, he hoped
, would
keep the co
mpany financially aflo
at for several
months. *G
URPS
Cyb
erpunk,* like the o
ther GU
RPS
"modules," w
as not
a "game" like a M
onopoly set, but a *book:* a bound paperback book thesize o
f a glo
ssy mag
azine, with a slick co
lor co
ver, and p
ages full o
f text,illustrations, tables and footnotes. It w
as advertised as a game, and w
asused
as an aid to
gam
e-playing
, but it w
as a book, w
ith an ISBN
num-
ber, p
ublished
in Texas, co
pyrig
hted, and
sold
in booksto
res.
And now
, that book, stored on a computer, had gone out the door in the
custody of the Secret Service.
The d
ay after the raid, S
teve Jackson visited
the local S
ecret Service
headquarters w
ith a lawyer in to
w. T
here he confro
nted T
im Fo
ley (stillin A
ustin at that time) and dem
anded his book back. But there w
astro
uble. *G
URPS
Cyb
erpunk,* alleg
ed a S
ecret Service ag
ent to asto
n-ished
businessm
an Steve Jackso
n, was "a m
anual for co
mputer crim
e."
"It's science fiction," Jackso
n said.
"No, this is real." T
his statement w
as repeated
several times, b
y sev-
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eral agents. Jackson's om
inously accurate gam
e had passed from pure,
obscu
re, small- scale fan
tasy into
the im
pure, h
ighly p
ublicized
,larg
e- scale fantasy of the H
acker Crackd
ow
n.
No m
ention was m
ade of the real reason for the search. According to
their search warrant, the raid
ers had exp
ected to
find the E9
11
Docum
ent stored
on Jackso
n's bulletin b
oard
system. B
ut that warrant
was sealed; a procedure that m
ost law enforcem
ent agencies w
ill useonly w
hen lives are dem
onstrab
ly in dang
er. The raid
ers' true motives
were no
t disco
vered until the Jackso
n search- warrant w
as unsealed b
yhis law
yers, many m
onths later. T
he Secret S
ervice, and the C
hicago
Com
puter Fraud and Abuse T
ask Force, said absolutely nothing to SteveJackson about any threat to the police 9
11 System
. They said nothing
about the A
tlanta Three, no
thing ab
out *Phrack* o
r Knig
ht Lightning
,no
thing ab
out T
erminus.
Jackson was left to believe that his com
puters had been seized becausehe intended to pub
lish a science fiction book that law
enforcement con-
sidered too dangerous to see print.
This m
isconception was repeated again and again, for m
onths, to anever-w
idening
pub
lic audience. It w
as not the truth o
f the case; but as
months p
assed, and
this misco
nceptio
n was p
ublicly p
rinted ag
ain andag
ain, it becam
e one of the few pub
licly known "facts" ab
out the myste-
rious Hacker C
rackdown. T
he Secret Service had seized a computer to
stop the p
ublicatio
n of a cyb
erpunk science fictio
n book.
The second section of this b
ook, "The D
igital U
nderground," is alm
ostfinished
now
. We have b
ecom
e acquainted
with all the m
ajor fig
ures of
this case who
actually belo
ng to
the underg
round
milieu o
f com
puter
intrusion. W
e have som
e idea o
f their history, their m
otives, their
general m
odus o
perand
i. We no
w kno
w, I ho
pe, w
ho they are, w
herethey cam
e from, and m
ore or less what they w
ant. In the next section ofthis b
ook, "Law
and O
rder," w
e will leave this m
ilieu and d
irectly enterthe w
orld
of A
merica's co
mputer-crim
e police.
At this p
oint, ho
wever, I have ano
ther figure to
introduce: m
yself.
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My n
ame is B
ruce S
terling. I live in
Austin
, Texas, w
here I am
a sci-en
ce fiction w
riter by trad
e: specifically, a *cyb
erpunk* scien
ce fic-tio
n w
riter.
Like my "cyb
erpunk" co
lleagues in the U
.S. and
Canad
a, I've never been
entirely happy w
ith this literary label —
especially after it b
ecame a
synonym
for co
mputer crim
inal. But I d
id o
nce edit a b
ook o
f stories b
ym
y colleag
ues, called *M
IRRO
RSH
AD
ES: the C
yberp
unk Antho
logy,*
and I've lo
ng b
een a w
riter of literary- critical cyb
erpunk m
anifesto
s.I am
not a "hacker" o
f any description, tho
ugh I do
have readers in thedig
ital underg
round
.
When the S
teve Jackson G
ames seizure o
ccurred, I naturally to
ok an
intense interest. If "cyberp
unk" books w
ere being
banned
by fed
eralpolice in m
y ow
n hom
e tow
n, I reasonab
ly wond
ered w
hether I myself
might be next. W
ould my com
puter be seized by the Secret Service? At
the time, I w
as in possession of an aging
Apple IIe w
ithout so much as a
hard d
isk. If I were to
be raid
ed as an autho
r of co
mputer-crim
e manu-
als, the loss o
f my feeb
le word
-pro
cessor w
ould
likely pro
voke m
ore
snickers than sympathy.
I'd kno
wn S
teve Jackson fo
r many years. W
e knew o
ne another as co
l-leag
ues, for w
e frequented
the same lo
cal science-fiction co
nventions.
I'd p
layed Jackso
n gam
es, and reco
gnized
his cleverness; but he certain-
ly had never struck m
e as a potential m
astermind
of co
mputer crim
e.
I also knew
a little about co
mputer b
ulletin-board
systems. In the m
id-
19
80
s I had taken an active ro
le in an Austin b
oard
called "S
MO
F-BBS,"
one of the first boards dedicated to science fiction. I had a modem
, and onoccasio
n I'd lo
gged
on to
Illuminati, w
hich always lo
oked
entertainlyw
acky, but certainly harm
less enoug
h.
At the tim
e of the Jackson seizure, I had no experience whatsoever w
ithund
ergro
und b
oard
s. But I knew
that no o
ne on Illum
inati talked ab
out
breaking
into system
s illegally, o
r about ro
bbing
pho
ne com
panies.
Illuminati d
idn't even o
ffer pirated
com
puter g
ames. S
teve Jackson, like
many creative artists, w
as marked
ly touchy ab
out theft o
f intellectualpro
perty.
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It seemed to m
e that Jackson was either seriously suspected of som
ecrim
e — in w
hich case, he would b
e charged soon, and w
ould have his dayin co
urt — o
r else he was inno
cent, in which case the S
ecret Service
would
quickly return his eq
uipm
ent, and everyo
ne would
have a good
laugh. I rather expected the good laugh. The situation w
as not without
its com
ic side. T
he raid, kno
wn as the "C
yberp
unk Bust" in the science
fiction co
mm
unity, was w
inning a g
reat deal o
f free national p
ublicity
both fo
r Jackson him
self and the "cyb
erpunk" science fictio
n writers
generally.
Besid
es, science fiction p
eople are used
to b
eing m
isinterpreted
.Science fictio
n is a colo
rful, disrep
utable, slip
shod o
ccupatio
n, full of
unlikely oddballs, w
hich, of co
urse, is why w
e like it. Weird
ness canbe an o
ccupatio
nal hazard in o
ur field. Peo
ple w
ho w
ear Hallo
ween co
s-tum
es are som
etimes m
istaken for m
onsters.
Once up
on a tim
e — b
ack in 19
39
, in New
York C
ity — science fictio
nand
the U.S
. Secret S
ervice collid
ed in a co
mic case o
f mistaken id
entity.This w
eird incid
ent involved
a literary gro
up q
uite famous in science
fiction, kno
wn as "the Futurians," w
hose m
embership
included
suchfuture g
enre greats as Isaac A
simov, Fred
erik Pohl, and
Dam
on K
night.
The Futurians w
ere every bit as o
ffbeat and
wacky as any o
f their spiri-
tual descend
ants, including
the cyberp
unks, and w
ere given to
com
munal
living, sp
ontaneo
us gro
up rend
itions o
f light o
pera, and
mid
night fenc-
ing exhib
itions o
n the lawn. T
he Futurians did
n't have bulletin b
oard
systems, b
ut they did have the technological equivalent in 1
939 —
mim
eograp
hs and a p
rivate printing
press. T
hese were in stead
y use,pro
ducing
a stream o
f science-fiction fan m
agazines, literary m
ani-festo
s, and w
eird articles, w
hich
were p
icked u
p in
ink-sticky b
undles
by a succession of strange, gangly, spotty young men in fedoras and
overco
ats.
The neig
hbors g
rew alarm
ed at the antics o
f the Futurians and rep
orted
them to the Secret Service as suspected counterfeiters. In the w
inter of1
93
9, a sq
uad o
f USSS ag
ents with d
rawn g
uns burst into
"FuturianH
ouse," p
repared
to co
nfiscate the forg
ed currency and
illicit printing
presses. T
here they disco
vered a slum
bering
science fiction fan nam
ed
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Geo
rge H
ahn, a guest o
f the Futurian com
mune w
ho had
just arrived in
New
York. G
eorge H
ahn manag
ed to explain himself and his g
roup, andthe S
ecret Service ag
ents left the Futurians in peace hencefo
rth. (Alas,
Hahn d
ied in 1
99
1, just b
efore I had
disco
vered this asto
nishing histo
r-ical p
arallel, and ju
st befo
re I could
interview
him
for th
is book.)
But the Jackson case did not com
e to a swift and com
ic end. No quick
answers cam
e his way, o
r mine; no
swift reassurances that all w
asrig
ht in the dig
ital world
, that matters w
ere well in hand
after all.Q
uite the opposite. In my alternate role as a som
etime pop-science
journalist, I interview
ed Jackso
n and his staff fo
r an article in aBritish m
agazine. T
he strange d
etails of the raid
left me m
ore co
n-cerned
than ever. Witho
ut its com
puters, the co
mpany had
been finan-
cially and o
peratio
nally crippled
. Half the S
JG w
orkfo
rce, a gro
up o
fentirely inno
cent peo
ple, had
been so
rrow
fully fired, d
eprived
of their
livelihoods by the seizure. It began to dawn on m
e that authors —A
merican w
riters — m
ight w
ell have their com
puters seized
, under
sealed w
arrants, witho
ut any criminal charg
e; and that, as S
teveJackso
n had d
iscovered
, there was no
imm
ediate reco
urse for this. T
hisw
as no jo
ke; this wasn't science fictio
n; this was real.
I determined to put science fiction aside until I had discovered w
hat hadhappened and w
here this trouble had come from
. It was tim
e to enter thepurp
orted
ly real world
of electro
nic free expressio
n and co
mputer
crime. H
ence, this book. H
ence, the world of the telcos; and the w
orld ofthe d
igital und
ergro
und; and
next, the world
of the p
olice.
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PA
RT
T
HR
EE
LAW
AND O
RDER
Of the vario
us anti-hacker activities of 1
99
0, "O
peratio
n Sund
evil" hadby far the hig
hest pub
lic pro
file. The sw
eeping
, nationw
ide co
mputer
seizures of M
ay 8, 1
99
0 w
ere unpreced
ented in sco
pe and
highly, if
rather se
lective
ly, publicize
d.
Unlike the efforts of the C
hicago C
omputer Fraud and A
buse T
ask Force,"O
peration Sundevil" was not intended to com
bat "hacking" in the senseof co
mputer intrusio
n or so
phisticated
raids o
n telco sw
itching statio
ns.N
or d
id it have anything
to d
o w
ith hacker misd
eeds w
ith AT&
T's so
ft-w
are, or w
ith Southern B
ell's pro
prietary d
ocum
ents.
Instead, "O
peratio
n Sund
evil" was a crackd
ow
n on tho
se traditio
nalscourg
es of the digital underg
round: credit-card theft and telephonecode abuse. T
he ambitious activities out of C
hicago, and the somew
hatlesser-kno
wn b
ut vigoro
us anti- hacker actions o
f the New
York S
tatePo
lice in 19
90
, were never a p
art of "O
peratio
n Sund
evil" per se,
which w
as based
in Arizo
na.
Nevertheless, after the sp
ectacular May 8
raids, the p
ublic, m
isled b
ypolice secrecy, hacker p
anic, and a p
uzzled natio
nal press-co
rps, co
n-flated
all aspects o
f the nationw
ide crackd
ow
n in 19
90
under the b
lanketterm
"Operatio
n Sund
evil." "Sund
evil" is still the best-kno
wn syno
nymfo
r the crackdow
n of 1
99
0. B
ut the Arizo
na org
anizers of "S
undevil"
did
not really d
eserve this reputatio
n — any m
ore, fo
r instance, than allhackers d
eserve a reputatio
n as "hackers."
There w
as som
e justice in this confused
percep
tion, tho
ugh. Fo
r one
thing, the confusion was abetted by the W
ashington office of the SecretService, w
ho responded to Freedom of Inform
ation Act requests on
"Operatio
n Sund
evil" by referring
investigato
rs to the p
ublicly kno
wn
cases of Knight Lightning and the A
tlanta Three. A
nd "Sundevil" was
certainly the largest aspect of the C
rackdown, the m
ost deliberate and
the best-o
rganized
. As a crackd
ow
n on electro
nic fraud, "S
undevil"
lacked the frantic pace of the war on the Legion of D
oom; on the con-
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trary, Sund
evil's targets w
ere picked
out w
ith cool d
eliberatio
n over an
elaborate investig
ation lasting
two full years.
And once again the targets w
ere bulletin board systems.
Boards can b
e powerful aids to org
anized fraud. Underg
round boards
carry lively, extensive, detailed
, and o
ften quite flag
rant "discussio
ns"of law
breaking
techniques and
lawbreaking
activities. "Discussing
"crim
e in the abstract, o
r "discussing
" the particulars o
f criminal cases,
is not illeg
al — b
ut there are stern state and fed
eral laws ag
ainst cold
-blo
oded
ly consp
iring in g
roup
s in ord
er to co
mm
it crimes.
In the eyes of p
olice, p
eople w
ho actively co
nspire to
break the law
areno
t regard
ed as "club
s," "deb
ating salo
ns," "users' gro
ups," o
r "freespeech advocates." Rather, such people tend to find them
selves formal-
ly indicted
by p
rosecuto
rs as "gang
s," "racketeers," "corrup
t org
aniza-tio
ns" and "o
rganized
crime fig
ures."
What's m
ore, the illicit data contained on outlaw b
oards goes w
ell beyond
mere acts o
f speech and
/or p
ossib
le criminal co
nspiracy. A
s we have
seen, it was co
mm
on p
ractice in the dig
ital underg
round
to p
ost p
ur-loined telephone codes on boards, for any phreak or hacker w
ho cared toabuse them
. Is posting digital booty of this sort supposed to be protectedby the First A
mend
ment? H
ardly —
thoug
h the issue, like most issues
in cybersp
ace, is not entirely reso
lved. S
om
e theorists arg
ue that tom
ere
ly *re
cite* a n
um
ber p
ublicly
is not ille
gal —
only
its *use
* isilleg
al. But anti-hacker p
olice p
oint o
ut that mag
azines and new
spa-
pers (m
ore trad
itional fo
rms o
f free expressio
n) n
ever publish
stolen
telepho
ne codes (even tho
ugh this m
ight w
ell raise their circulation).
Sto
len credit card
numbers, b
eing riskier and
more valuab
le, were less
often publicly posted on boards — but there is no question that som
eund
ergro
und b
oard
s carried "card
ing" traffic, g
enerally exchanged
thro
ugh p
rivate mail.
Und
ergro
und b
oard
s also carried
handy p
rogram
s for "scanning
" tele-phone codes and raiding
credit card companies, as w
ell as the usualobno
xious g
alaxy of p
irated so
ftware, cracked
passw
ord
s, blue-b
ox
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schematics, intrusio
n manuals, anarchy files, p
orn files, and
so fo
rth.
But b
esides their nuisance p
otential fo
r the spread
of illicit kno
wled
ge,
bulletin b
oard
s have another vitally interesting
aspect fo
r the pro
fes-sio
nal in
vestigato
r. Bulletin
board
s are cram-fu
ll of *evid
ence.* A
llthat b
usy trading
of electro
nic mail, all tho
se hacker boasts, b
rags and
struts, even the stolen co
des and
cards, can b
e neat, electronic, real-
time reco
rdin
gs o
f crimin
al activity.
As an investig
ator, when you seize a pirate b
oard, you have scored aco
up as effective as tap
ping
pho
nes or intercep
ting m
ail. How
ever, you
have not actually tapped a phone or intercepted a letter. The rules of
evidence reg
arding
pho
ne-taps and
mail intercep
tions are o
ld, stern and
well- und
erstood b
y police, p
rosecuto
rs and d
efense attorneys alike.
The rules o
f evidence reg
arding
board
s are new, w
affling, and
under-
stood by nobody at all.
Sund
evil was the larg
est crackdow
n on b
oard
s in world
history. O
n May
7, 8
, and 9
, 19
90
, about fo
rty- two co
mputer system
s were seized
. Of
those fo
rty- two co
mputers, ab
out tw
enty-five actually were running
boards. (The vagueness of this estim
ate is attributable to the vaguenessof (a) w
hat a "com
puter system
" is, and (b
) what it actually m
eans to"run a b
oard
" with o
ne — o
r with tw
o co
mputers, o
r with three.)
About tw
enty-five board
s vanished into
police custo
dy in M
ay 19
90
. As
we have seen, there are an estim
ated 30,0
00 b
oards in Am
erica today.If w
e assume that one board in a hundred is up to no good w
ith codes andcard
s (which rather flatters the ho
nesty of the b
oard
-using co
mm
uni-ty), then that w
ould
leave 2,9
75
outlaw
board
s untouched
by S
undevil.
Sundevil seized about one tenth of one percent of all com
puter bulletin
board
s in Am
erica. Seen o
bjectively, this is so
mething
less than a com
-prehensive assault. In 1
99
0, S
undevil's o
rganizers —
the team at the
Phoenix S
ecret Service o
ffice, and the A
rizona A
ttorney G
eneral's office
— had a list of at least *three hundred* b
oards that they consideredfully d
eserving o
f search and seizure w
arrants. The tw
enty-fiveboards actually seized w
ere merely am
ong the m
ost obvious and eg
re-gious of this m
uch larger list of candidates. A
ll these boards had b
eenexam
ined b
eforehand
— either b
y inform
ants, who
had p
assed p
rintouts
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to the Secret Service, or by Secret Service ag
ents themselves, w
ho notonly com
e equipped with m
odems but know
how to use them
.
There w
ere a number o
f motives fo
r Sund
evil. First, it offered
a chanceto
get ahead
of the curve o
n wire-fraud
crimes. T
racking b
ack credit-
card rip
offs to
their perp
etrators can b
e appalling
ly difficult. If these
miscreants have any kind
of electro
nic sophisticatio
n, they can snarltheir tracks thro
ugh the p
hone netw
ork into
a mind
-boggling
, untrace-ab
le mess, w
hile still manag
ing to
"reach out and
rob so
meo
ne." Board
s,how
ever, full of brag
s and boasts, codes and cards, offer evidence in the
handy congealed form.
Seizures them
selves — the m
ere physical rem
oval o
f machines —
tends
to take the p
ressure off. D
uring S
undevil, a larg
e number o
f code kid
s,w
arez d00dz, and credit card thieves w
ould be deprived of those boards—
their means of com
munity and conspiracy —
in one swift b
low. A
sfor the sysops them
selves (comm
only among the boldest offenders) they
would
be d
irectly stripped
of their co
mputer eq
uipm
ent, and rend
ereddig
itally mute and
blind
.
And this aspect of Sundevil w
as carried out with g
reat success.Sund
evil seems to
have been a co
mplete tactical surp
rise — unlike the
fragm
entary and continuing seizures of the w
ar on the Legion of D
oom,
Sund
evil was p
recisely timed
and utterly o
verwhelm
ing. A
t least forty
"com
puters" w
ere seized d
uring M
ay 7, 8
and 9
, 19
90
, in Cincinnati,
Detro
it, Los A
ngeles, M
iami, N
ewark, Pho
enix, Tucso
n, Richm
ond
, San
Dieg
o, S
an Jose, Pittsb
urgh and
San Francisco
. Som
e cities saw m
ulti-ple raid
s, such as the five separate raid
s in the New
York C
ity environs.
Plano, T
exas (essentially a suburb
of the D
allas/Fort W
orth m
etroplex,
and a hub
of the teleco
mm
unications ind
ustry) saw fo
ur com
puter
seizures. Chicag
o, ever in the fo
refront, saw
its ow
n local S
undevil
raid, b
riskly carried o
ut by S
ecret Service ag
ents Tim
othy Fo
ley andBarb
ara Gold
en.
Many o
f these raids o
ccurred, no
t in the cities pro
per, b
ut in associated
white-m
iddle class sub
urbs —
places like M
ount Leb
anon, Pennsylvania
and C
lark Lake, Michig
an. There w
ere a few raid
s on o
ffices; most to
ok
place in people's homes, the classic hacker basem
ents and bedrooms.
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The S
undevil raid
s were searches and
seizures, not a g
roup
of m
assarrests. T
here were o
nly four arrests d
uring S
undevil. "T
ony the
Trashm
an," a longtim
e teenage b
ete noire of the Arizona Racketeering
unit, was arrested
in Tucso
n on M
ay 9. "D
r. Rip
co," syso
p o
f an outlaw
board
with the m
isfortune to
exist in Chicag
o itself, w
as also arrested
— o
n illegal w
eapons charg
es. Local units also
arrested a 1
9-year-o
ldfem
ale pho
ne phreak nam
ed "Electra" in Pennsylvania, and
a male
juvenile in Califo
rnia. Federal ag
ents how
ever were no
t seekingarrests, b
ut com
puters.
Hackers are g
enerally not ind
icted (if at all) until the evid
ence in theirseized com
puters is evaluated — a process that can take w
eeks, months
— even years. W
hen hackers are arrested o
n the spot, it's g
enerally anarrest fo
r other reaso
ns. Drug
s and/o
r illegal w
eapons sho
w up
in agood third
of anti-hacker co
mputer seizures (tho
ugh no
t during
Sund
evil).
That sco
fflaw teenag
e hackers (or their p
arents) should
have marijuana
in th
eir hom
es is pro
bab
ly not a sh
ockin
g revelatio
n, b
ut th
e surp
ris-ing
ly com
mon p
resence of illeg
al firearms in hacker d
ens is a bit d
is-quieting
. A Perso
nal Com
puter can b
e a great eq
ualizer for the techno
-co
wboy —
much like that m
ore trad
itional A
merican "G
reat Equalizer,"
the Personal S
ixgun. M
aybe it's no
t all that surprising
that som
e guy
obsessed
with p
ow
er throug
h illicit technolo
gy w
ould
also have a few
illicit high-velo
city-impact d
evices around
. An elem
ent of the d
igital
underg
round
particularly d
otes o
n those "anarchy p
hiles," and this ele-
ment tend
s to shad
e into the crackp
ot m
ilieu of survivalists, g
un-nuts,an
archo-le
ftists and th
e u
ltra-libertarian
right-w
ing.
This is not to say that hacker raids to date have uncovered any m
ajorcrack-d
ens or illeg
al arsenals; but S
ecret Service ag
ents do no
t regard
"hackers" as "just kids." T
hey regard
hackers as unpred
ictable p
eople,
brig
ht and slip
pery. It d
oesn't help
matters that the hacker him
self hasbeen "hid
ing b
ehind his keyb
oard
" all this time. C
om
monly, p
olice have
no id
ea what he lo
oks like. T
his makes him
an unknow
n quantity, so
me-
one b
est treated w
ith pro
per cautio
n.
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To date, no hacker has com
e out shooting, though they do sometim
es bragon b
oard
s that they will d
o just that. T
hreats of this so
rt are takenserio
usly. Secret S
ervice hacker raids tend
to b
e swift, co
mprehen-
sive, well-m
anned (even o
ver- manned
); and ag
ents generally b
urstthroug
h every door in the home at once, som
etimes w
ith drawn g
uns.A
ny potential resistance is sw
iftly quelled
. Hacker raid
s are usuallyraids on people's hom
es. It can be a very dang
erous business to raid an
Am
erican hom
e; peo
ple can p
anic when strang
ers invade their sanctum
.Statistically speaking
, the most dang
erous thing a policem
an can do is toenter som
eone's home. (T
he second most dangerous thing is to stop a car
in traffic.) People have g
uns in their hom
es. More co
ps are hurt in
hom
es than are ever hurt in biker b
ars or m
assage p
arlors.
But in any case, no
one w
as hurt during
Sund
evil, or ind
eed d
uring any
part o
f the Hacker C
rackdow
n.
Nor w
ere there any allegatio
ns of any p
hysical mistreatm
ent of a sus-
pect. G
uns were p
ointed
, interrogatio
ns were sharp
and p
rolo
nged
; but
no o
ne in 19
90
claimed
any act of b
rutality by any crackd
ow
n raider.
In additio
n to the fo
rty or so
com
puters, S
undevil reap
ed flo
ppy d
isks inparticularly g
reat abund
ance — an estim
ated 2
3,0
00
of them
, which
naturally included
every manner o
f illegitim
ate data: p
irated g
ames,
stolen codes, hot credit card numbers, the com
plete text and software of
entire p
irate bulletin
-board
s. These flo
ppy d
isks, which
remain
inpolice custo
dy to
day, o
ffer a gig
antic, almost em
barrassing
ly richso
urce of p
ossib
le criminal ind
ictments. T
hese 23
,00
0 flo
ppy d
isksalso
include a thus-far unkno
wn q
uantity of leg
itimate co
mputer g
ames,
legitim
ate softw
are, purp
orted
ly "private" m
ail from
board
s, business
record
s, and p
ersonal co
rrespond
ence of all kind
s.
Stand
ard co
mputer-crim
e search warrants lay g
reat emphasis o
n seiz-ing
written d
ocum
ents as well as co
mputers —
specifically includ
ingpho
toco
pies, co
mputer p
rintouts, telep
hone b
ills, address b
ooks, lo
gs,
notes, mem
oranda and correspondence. In practice, this has meant that
diaries, gam
ing m
agazines, softw
are documentation, nonfiction b
ooks onhacking
and co
mputer security, so
metim
es even science fiction no
vels,have all vanished
out the d
oor in p
olice custo
dy. A
wid
e variety of elec-
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
1 6 4
tronic item
s have been kno
wn to
vanish as well, includ
ing telep
hones,
televisions, answ
ering m
achines, Sony W
alkmans, d
esktop p
rinters,com
pact disks, and audiotapes.
No few
er than 150 m
embers of the Secret Service w
ere sent into thefield
during
Sund
evil. They w
ere com
monly acco
mpanied
by sq
uads o
flocal and/or state police. M
ost of these officers — especially the locals
— had never b
een on an anti- hacker raid before. (T
his was one g
oodreaso
n, in fact, why so
many o
f them w
ere invited alo
ng in the first
place.) A
lso, the p
resence of a unifo
rmed
police o
fficer assures theraid
ees that the peo
ple entering
their hom
es are, in fact, police. S
ecretService ag
ents wear plain clothes. So do the telco security experts w
hocom
monly accom
pany the Secret Service on raids (and who m
ake noparticular effo
rt to id
entify themselves as m
ere emplo
yees of telep
hone
com
panies).
A typ
ical hacker raid g
oes so
mething
like this. First, police sto
rm in
rapid
ly, throug
h every entrance, with o
verwhelm
ing fo
rce, in theassum
ptio
n that this tactic will keep
casualties to a m
inimum
. Seco
nd,
possib
le suspects are im
med
iately removed
from
the vicinity of any and
all com
puter system
s, so that they w
ill have no chance to
purg
e or
destroy computer evidence. Suspects are herded into a room
without
com
puters, co
mm
only the living
room
, and kep
t under g
uard —
not
*armed
* guard
, for the g
uns are swiftly ho
lstered, b
ut under g
uardnevertheless. T
hey are presented
with the search w
arrant and w
arnedthat anything they say m
ay be held against them. C
omm
only they have agreat d
eal to say, esp
ecially if they are unsuspecting
parents.
Somew
here in the house is the "hot spot" — a com
puter tied to a phoneline (p
ossib
ly several com
puters and
several pho
nes). Com
monly it's a
teenager's bedroom, but it can be anyw
here in the house; there may be
several such rooms. T
his "hot spot" is put in charge of a tw
o-agent
team, the "find
er" and the "reco
rder." T
he "finder" is co
mputer-
trained, comm
only the case agent who has actually obtained the search
warrant from
a judge. H
e or she understands what is b
eing soug
ht, andactually carries o
ut the seizures: unplug
s machines, o
pens d
rawers,
desks, files, flo
ppy-d
isk containers, etc. T
he "record
er" pho
tograp
hsall the eq
uipm
ent, just as it stands —
especially the tang
le of w
ired co
n-
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 6 5
nections in the b
ack, which can o
therwise b
e a real nightm
are toresto
re. The reco
rder w
ill also co
mm
only p
hoto
grap
h every room
in theho
use, lest som
e wily crim
inal claim that the p
olice had
robbed
himduring
the search. Som
e record
ers carry video
cams o
r tape reco
rders;
how
ever, it's more co
mm
on fo
r the record
er to sim
ply take w
rittennotes. O
bjects are described and numbered as the finder seizes them
,generally o
n standard
prep
rinted p
olice invento
ry form
s.
Even Secret Service agents w
ere not, and are not, expert computer
users. They have not m
ade, and do not make, judgem
ents on the fly aboutpotential threats p
osed
by vario
us form
s of eq
uipm
ent. They m
ay exer-cise d
iscretion; they m
ay leave Dad
his com
puter, fo
r instance, but they
don't *have* to
. Stand
ard co
mputer-crim
e search warrants, w
hichdate back to the early 8
0s, use a sw
eeping language that targets comput-
ers, most anything attached to a com
puter, most anything used to oper-
ate a computer —
most anything that rem
otely resembles a com
puter —plus m
ost any and
all written d
ocum
ents surround
ing it. C
om
puter-
crime investig
ators have stro
ngly urg
ed ag
ents to seize the w
orks.
In this sense, Operatio
n Sund
evil appears to
have been a co
mplete suc-
cess. Boards w
ent down all over A
merica, and w
ere shipped en masse to
the com
puter investig
ation lab
of the S
ecret Service, in W
ashingto
n DC,
along
with the 2
3,0
00
floppy d
isks and unkno
wn q
uantities of p
rintedm
aterial.
But the seizure o
f twenty-five b
oard
s, and the m
ulti-meg
abyte m
oun-
tains of p
ossib
ly useful evidence co
ntained in these b
oard
s (and in their
ow
ners' other co
mputers, also
out the d
oor), w
ere far from
the only
motives for O
peration Sundevil. An unprecedented action of great
ambitio
n and size, S
undevil's m
otives can o
nly be d
escribed
as political.
It was a p
ublic-relatio
ns effort, m
eant to p
ass certain messag
es, meant
to m
ake certain situations clear: b
oth in the m
ind o
f the general p
ublic,
and in the m
inds o
f various co
nstituencies of the electro
nic com
munity.
First — and this m
otivation was vital —
a "messag
e" would b
e sent fromlaw
enforcement to the dig
ital underground. T
his very messag
e was
recited in so
many w
ord
s by G
arry M. Jenkins, the A
ssistant Directo
r of
the US S
ecret Service, at the S
undevil p
ress conference in Pho
enix on
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 6 6
May 9
, 19
90
, imm
ediately after th
e raids. In
brief, h
ackers were
mistaken in their fo
olish b
elief that they could
hide b
ehind the "relative
anonym
ity of their co
mputer term
inals." On the co
ntrary, they should
fully understand
that state and fed
eral cops w
ere actively patro
lling the
beat in cyb
erspace — that they w
ere on the watch everyw
here, even inthose sleazy and secretive dens of cyb
ernetic vice, the underground
board
s.
This is no
t an unusual messag
e for p
olice to
pub
licly convey to
crooks.
The m
essage is a standard message; only the context is new
.
In this respect, the S
undevil raid
s were the d
igital eq
uivalent of the
standard
vice-squad
crackdow
n on m
assage p
arlors, p
orno
booksto
res,head
-shops, o
r floating
crap-g
ames. T
here may b
e few o
r no arrests in
a raid o
f this sort; no
convictio
ns, no trials, no
interrogatio
ns. In casesof this so
rt, police m
ay well w
alk out the d
oor w
ith many p
ound
s of
sleazy mag
azines, X-rated
video
tapes, sex to
ys, gam
bling
equip
ment,
bag
gies o
f marijuana....
Of co
urse, if som
ething truly ho
rrendous is d
iscovered
by the raid
ers,th
ere will b
e arrests and p
rosecu
tions. Far m
ore likely, h
ow
ever,there w
ill simply b
e a brief b
ut sharp d
isruptio
n of the clo
sed and
secretive world
of the no
goodniks. T
here will b
e "street hassle.""H
eat." "Deterrence." A
nd, of course, the imm
ediate loss of the seizedgoods. It is very unlikely that any o
f this seized m
aterial will ever b
ereturned
. Whether charg
ed o
r not, w
hether convicted
or no
t, the per-
petrato
rs will alm
ost surely lack the nerve ever to
ask for this stuff to
be g
iven back.
Arrests and
trials — p
utting p
eople in jail —
may invo
lve all kinds o
ffo
rmal leg
alities; but d
ealing w
ith the justice system is far fro
m the
only task o
f police. Po
lice do no
t simply arrest p
eople. T
hey don't sim
-ply p
ut peo
ple in jail. T
hat is not ho
w the p
olice p
erceive their jobs.
Police "p
rotect and
serve." Police "keep
the peace," they "keep
pub
licord
er." Like other fo
rms o
f pub
lic relations, keep
ing p
ublic o
rder is no
tan exact science. K
eeping
pub
lic ord
er is som
ething o
f an art-form
.
If a gro
up o
f toug
h-looking
teenage ho
odlum
s was lo
itering o
n a street-
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 6 7
corner, no
one w
ould
be surp
rised to
see a street-cop arrive and
sternlyord
er them to
"break it up
." On the co
ntrary, the surprise w
ould
com
eif o
ne of these ne'er-d
o-w
ells stepped
briskly into
a pho
ne-booth,
called a civil rig
hts lawyer, and
instituted a civil suit in d
efense of his
Constitutio
nal rights o
f free speech and
free assembly. B
ut som
ethingm
uch along this line was one of the m
any anomolous outcom
es of theH
acker Crackd
ow
n.
Sund
evil also carried
useful "messag
es" for o
ther constituents o
f theelectronic com
munity. T
hese messages m
ay not have been read aloudfro
m the Pho
enix podium
in front o
f the press co
rps, b
ut there was lit-
tle mistaking
their meaning
. There w
as a messag
e of reassurance fo
rthe p
rimary victim
s of co
ding
and card
ing: the telco
s, and the cred
itco
mpanies. S
undevil w
as greeted
with jo
y by the security o
fficers of the
electronic b
usiness com
munity. A
fter years of hig
h-tech harassment
and sp
iralling revenue lo
sses, their com
plaints o
f rampant o
utlawry
were b
eing taken serio
usly by law
enforcem
ent. No m
ore head
-scratch-ing
or d
ismissive shrug
s; no m
ore feeb
le excuses about "lack o
f com
put-
er-train
ed o
fficers" o
r the lo
w p
riority
of "victim
less" w
hite
-collar
telecom
municatio
n crimes.
Com
puter-crim
e experts have lo
ng b
elieved that co
mputer-related
offenses are d
rastically under-rep
orted
. They reg
ard this as a m
ajor
open scand
al of their field
. Som
e victims are reluctant to
com
e forth,
because they b
elieve that police and
pro
secutors are no
t com
puter-lit-
erate, and can and
will d
o no
thing. O
thers are embarrassed
by their
vuln
erabilities, an
d w
ill take strong m
easures to
avoid
any p
ublicity;
this is especially true o
f banks, w
ho fear a lo
ss of investo
r confid
encesho
uld an em
bezzlem
ent-case or w
ire-fraud surface. A
nd so
me victim
sare so
helplessly co
nfused b
y their ow
n high techno
logy that they never
even realize that a crime has occurred —
even when they have been
fleeced to the bone.
The results o
f this situation can b
e dire. C
riminals escap
e apprehensio
nand
punishm
ent. The co
mputer-crim
e units that do exist, can't g
et work.
The true sco
pe o
f com
puter-crim
e: its size, its real nature, the scope o
fits threats, and
the legal rem
edies fo
r it — all rem
ain obscured
.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
1 6 8
Ano
ther pro
blem
is very little pub
licized, b
ut it is a cause of g
enuineco
ncern. Where there is p
ersistent crime, b
ut no effective p
olice p
ro-
tection, then vig
ilantism can result. T
elcos, b
anks, credit co
mpanies,
the majo
r corp
oratio
ns who
maintain extensive co
mputer netw
orks
vulnerable to
hacking —
these org
anizations are p
ow
erful, wealthy, and
politically influential. T
hey are disinclined
to b
e pushed
around
by
crooks (o
r by m
ost anyo
ne else, for that m
atter). They o
ften maintain
well-o
rganized
private security fo
rces, com
monly run b
y experienced
veterans of m
ilitary and p
olice units, w
ho have left p
ublic service fo
rthe g
reener pastures o
f the private secto
r. For p
olice, the co
rporate
security manag
er can be a p
ow
erful ally; but if this g
entleman find
s noallies in
the p
olice, an
d th
e pressu
re is on fro
m h
is board
-of-d
irectors,
he may q
uietly take certain matters into
his ow
n hands.
Nor is there any lack o
f disp
osab
le hired-help
in the corp
orate security
business. Private security ag
encies — the 'security b
usiness' generally
— g
rew explosively in the 1
980s. T
oday there are spooky gum
shoedarm
ies of "security co
nsultants," "rent-a- cops," "p
rivate eyes,""o
utside exp
erts" — every m
anner of shad
y operato
r who
retails in"results" and discretion. O
r course, many of these g
entlemen and ladies
may b
e paragons of professional and m
oral rectitude. But as anyone
who has read a hard-b
oiled detective novel knows, police tend to b
e lessthan fo
nd o
f this sort o
f private-secto
r com
petitio
n.
Com
panies in search o
f com
puter-security have even b
een know
n tohire hackers. Po
lice shudder at this p
rosp
ect.
Police treasure g
ood relatio
ns with the b
usiness com
munity. R
arelyw
ill you see a p
olicem
an so ind
iscreet as to alleg
e pub
licly that som
em
ajor em
plo
yer in his state or city has succum
bed
to p
aranoia and
gone
off the rails. N
evertheless, police —
and co
mputer p
olice in p
articular—
are aware o
f this possib
ility. Com
puter-crim
e police can and
do
spend
up to
half of their b
usiness hours just d
oing
pub
lic relations:
seminars, "d
og and
pony sho
ws," so
metim
es with p
arents' gro
ups o
rco
mputer u
sers, but g
enerally w
ith th
eir core au
dien
ce: the likely vic-
tims o
f hacking crim
es. These, o
f course, are telco
s, credit card
com
pa-
nies and larg
e com
puter- eq
uipped
corp
oratio
ns. The p
olice stro
ngly
urge these p
eople, as g
ood citizens, to
report o
ffenses and p
ress crimi-
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 6 9
nal charges; they pass the message that there is som
eone in authorityw
ho cares, und
erstands, and
, best o
f all, will take useful actio
n should
aco
mpute
r-crime o
ccur.
But reassuring
talk is cheap. S
undevil o
ffered actio
n.
The final m
essage o
f Sund
evil was intend
ed fo
r internal consum
ptio
n by
law enforcem
ent. Sundevil was offered as proof that the com
munity of
Am
erican com
puter-crim
e police had
com
e of ag
e. Sund
evil was p
roof
that enorm
ous thing
s like Sund
evil itself could
now
be acco
mplished
.Sund
evil was p
roof that the S
ecret Service and
its local law
-enforce-
ment allies co
uld act like a w
ell- oiled
machine —
(desp
ite the hamper-
ing use of those scrambled phones). It w
as also proof that the Arizona
Org
anized C
rime and
Racketeering
Unit —
the sparkp
lug o
f Sund
evil —ranked
with the b
est in the world
in ambitio
n, org
anization, and
sheerco
nceptual d
aring.
And
, as a final fillip, S
undevil w
as a messag
e from
the Secret S
ervice totheir lo
ngtim
e rivals in the Federal B
ureau of Investig
ation. B
yC
ong
ressional fiat, b
oth U
SSS and
FBI fo
rmally share jurisd
iction o
verfed
eral com
puter-crim
ebusting
activities. Neither o
f these gro
ups has
ever been rem
otely hap
py w
ith this mud
dled
situation. It seem
s to sug
-gest that C
ongress cannot make up its m
ind as to which of these groups is
better q
ualified. A
nd there is scarcely a G
-man o
r a Special A
gent any-
where w
ithout a very firm
opinio
n on that to
pic.
__
__
_
For the neophyte, one of the most puzzling aspects of the crackdow
n onhackers is w
hy the United States Secret Service has anything
at all to dow
ith this matter.
The S
ecret Service is b
est know
n for its p
rimary p
ublic ro
le: its agents
protect the President of the United States. T
hey also guard thePresid
ent's fam
ily, the V
ice Presid
ent an
d h
is family, fo
rmer
Presidents, and
Presidential cand
idates. T
hey som
etimes g
uard fo
reign
dig
nitaries who
are visiting the U
nited S
tates, especially fo
reign head
sof state, and have b
een known to accom
pany Am
erican officials on diplo-m
atic missio
ns overseas.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E1 7 0
Special Agents of the Secret Service don't w
ear uniforms, b
ut the SecretService also
has two unifo
rmed
police ag
encies. There's the fo
rmer
White H
ouse Po
lice (now
know
n as the Secret S
ervice Unifo
rmed
Divisio
n, since they currently guard
foreig
n embassies in W
ashingto
n,as w
ell as the White H
ouse itself). A
nd there's the unifo
rmed
Treasury
Police Fo
rce.
The S
ecret Service has b
een charged
by C
ong
ress with a num
ber o
f lit-tle-kno
wn d
uties. They g
uard the p
recious m
etals in Treasury vaults.
They guard the m
ost valuable historical documents of the U
nited States:orig
inals of the C
onstitutio
n, the Declaratio
n of Ind
epend
ence, Lincoln's
Second Inaugural A
ddress, an Am
erican-owned copy of the M
agna C
arta,and so forth. O
nce they were assigned to guard the M
ona Lisa, on herA
merican to
ur in the 19
60
s.
The entire S
ecret Service is a d
ivision o
f the Treasury D
epartm
ent.Secret S
ervice Special A
gents (there are ab
out 1
,90
0 o
f them) are
bodyg
uards fo
r the President et al, b
ut they all work fo
r the Treasury.
And
the Treasury (thro
ugh its d
ivisions o
f the U.S
. Mint and
the Bureau
of Eng
raving and
Printing) p
rints the nation's m
oney.
As T
reasury police, the S
ecret Service g
uards the natio
n's currency; itis the o
nly federal law
enforcem
ent agency w
ith direct jurisd
iction o
verco
unterfeiting and
forg
ery. It analyzes docum
ents for authenticity, and
its fight ag
ainst fake cash is still quite lively (esp
ecially since theskilled
counterfeiters o
f Med
ellin, Colum
bia have g
otten into
the act).G
overnm
ent checks, bond
s, and o
ther oblig
ations, w
hich exist in untold
millio
ns and are w
orth unto
ld b
illions, are co
mm
on targ
ets for fo
rgery,
which the S
ecret Service also
battles. It even hand
les forg
ery of
postage stamps.
But cash is fading in im
portance today as money has becom
e electronic.A
s necessity beckoned, the Secret Service m
oved from fig
hting the coun-
terfeiting o
f pap
er currency and the fo
rging
of checks, to
the pro
tection
of fund
s transferred b
y wire.
From
wire
-fraud, it w
as a simple
skip-an
d-ju
mp to
what is fo
rmally
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known as "access device fraud." C
ongress granted the Secret Service theauthority to investig
ate "access device fraud" under Title 1
8 of the
United States C
ode (U.S.C
. Section 1029).
The term
"access device" seem
s intuitively simple. It's so
me kind
of
high-tech gizmo you use to get m
oney with. It m
akes good sense to putthis so
rt of thing
in the charge o
f counterfeiting
and w
ire- fraudexp
erts.
How
ever, in Sectio
n 10
29
, the term "access d
evice" is very genero
uslydefined. A
n access device is: "any card, plate, code, account number, or
other means of account access that can be used, alone or in conjunction
with another access device, to ob
tain money, g
oods, services, or anyother thing
of value, or that can be used to initiate a transfer of funds."
"Access device" can therefore b
e construed to include credit cards them-
selves (a popular fo
rgery item
now
adays). It also
includes cred
it cardaccount *num
bers,* those standards of the dig
ital underground. T
hesam
e goes fo
r telepho
ne charge card
s (an increasingly p
opular item
with telcos, w
ho are tired of being
robbed of pocket chang
e by phone-
booth thieves). A
nd also telephone access *codes,* those *other* stan-dards of the digital underground. (Stolen telephone codes m
ay not"o
btain m
oney," b
ut they certainly do o
btain valuab
le "services," which
is specifically fo
rbid
den b
y Sectio
n 10
29
.)
We can now
see that Section 1029 already pits the U
nited States SecretService d
irectly against the d
igital und
ergro
und, w
ithout any m
ention at
all of the w
ord
"com
puter."
Stand
ard p
hreaking d
evices, like "blue b
oxes," used
to steal p
hone ser-
vice from
old
-fashioned
mechanical sw
itches, are unquestio
nably
"counterfeit access d
evices." Thanks to
Sec.1
02
9, it is no
t only illeg
alto
*use* counterfeit access d
evices, but it is even illeg
al to *b
uild*
them. "Pro
ducing
," "desig
ning" "d
uplicating
" or "assem
bling
" blue
boxes are all fed
eral crimes to
day, and
if you d
o this, the S
ecret Service
has been charged by Congress to com
e after you.
Auto
matic T
eller Machines, w
hich replicated
all over A
merica d
uring
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the 1980s, are definitely "access devices," too, and an attem
pt to tam-
per w
ith their punch-in co
des and
plastic b
ank cards falls d
irectlyund
er Sec. 1
02
9.
Sectio
n 10
29
is remarkab
ly elastic. Sup
pose yo
u find a co
mputer p
ass-w
ord in somebody's trash. T
hat password m
ight be a "code" —
it's cer-tainly a "m
eans of account access." Now
suppose you log on to a comput-
er and co
py so
me so
ftware fo
r yourself. Y
ou've certainly o
btained
"ser-vice" (co
mputer service) and
a "thing o
f value" (the softw
are).Suppose you tell a dozen friends ab
out your swiped passw
ord, and letthem
use it, too. N
ow
you're "trafficking
in unauthorized
accessdevices." A
nd when the Prophet, a m
ember of the Legion of D
oom, passed
a stolen telephone company docum
ent to Knig
ht Lightning
at *Phrack*m
agazine, they w
ere both charg
ed under Sec. 1029!
There are tw
o lim
itations o
n Sectio
n 10
29
. First, the offense m
ust"affect interstate or foreign com
merce" in order to becom
e a matter of
federal jurisd
iction. T
he term "affecting
com
merce" is no
t well d
efined;
but yo
u may take it as a g
iven that the Secret S
ervice can take an inter-est if you've done m
ost anything that happens to cross a state line. Stateand
local p
olice can b
e touchy ab
out their jurisd
ictions, and
can som
e-tim
es be m
ulish when the feds show
up. But w
hen it comes to com
put-er- crim
e, the local p
olice are p
athetically grateful fo
r federal help
—in fact they com
plain that they can't get enough of it. If you're stealinglo
ng-d
istance service, you're alm
ost certainly cro
ssing state lines, and
you're definitely "affecting the interstate comm
erce" of the telcos. And
if you're ab
using cred
it cards b
y ord
ering stuff o
ut of g
lossy catalo
gs
from
, say, Verm
ont, yo
u're in for it.
The seco
nd lim
itation is m
oney. A
s a rule, the feds d
on't p
ursue penny-
ante offenders. Federal judges w
ill dismiss cases that appear to w
astetheir tim
e. Federal crim
es must b
e serious; S
ection 1
02
9 sp
ecifies am
inimum
loss o
f a thousand
dollars.
We now
come to the very next section of T
itle 18, w
hich is Section1
03
0, "Fraud
and related
activity in connectio
n with co
mputers." T
hisstatute g
ives the Secret S
ervice direct jurisd
iction o
ver acts of co
mput-
er intrusion. On the face of it, the Secret Service w
ould now seem
to
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com
mand
the field. S
ection 1
03
0, ho
wever, is no
where near so
ductile
as Sectio
n 10
29
.
The first anno
yance is Sectio
n 10
30
(d), w
hich reads:
"(d) T
he United
States S
ecret Service shall, *in ad
ditio
n to any o
therag
ency having such autho
rity,* have the authority to
investigate o
ffens-es under this section. Such authority of the U
nited States Secret Serviceshall b
e exercised in acco
rdance w
ith an agreem
ent which shall b
eentered into b
y the Secretary of the Treasury *and the A
ttorneyG
eneral.*" (A
uth
or's italics.)
The S
ecretary of the T
reasury is the titular head o
f the Secret S
ervice,w
hile the Atto
rney General is in charg
e of the FB
I. In Sectio
n (d),
Congress sh
rugged
off resp
onsib
ility for th
e com
puter-crim
e turf-b
at-tle b
etween the Service and the B
ureau, and made them
fight it out all b
ythem
selves. The result w
as a rather dire o
ne for the S
ecret Service, fo
rth
e FBI en
ded
up w
ith exclu
sive jurisd
iction o
ver com
puter b
reak-ins
having to
do w
ith national security, fo
reign esp
ionag
e, federally insured
ban
ks, and U
.S. m
ilitary base
s, while
retain
ing jo
int ju
risdictio
n o
ver
all the other co
mputer intrusio
ns. Essentially, when it co
mes to
Sectio
n1
03
0, the FB
I not o
nly gets the real g
lamor stuff fo
r itself, but can p
eerover the shoulder of the Secret Service and b
arge in to m
eddle whenever
it suits them.
The second prob
lem has to do w
ith the dicey term "Federal interest com
-puter." S
ection 1
03
0(a)(2
) makes it illeg
al to "access a co
mputer
witho
ut authorizatio
n" if that com
puter b
elong
s to a financial institutio
nor an issuer o
f credit card
s (fraud cases, in o
ther word
s). Cong
ressw
as quite w
illing to
give the S
ecret Service jurisd
iction o
ver money-
transferring co
mputers, b
ut Cong
ress balked
at letting them
investigate
any and all com
puter intrusions. Instead, the U
SSS had to
settle for the
money m
achines and the "Federal interest computers." A
"Federalinterest co
mputer" is a co
mputer w
hich the governm
ent itself ow
ns, or
is using. Larg
e networks o
f interstate com
puters, linked
over state
lines, are also co
nsidered
to b
e of "Fed
eral interest." (This no
tion o
f"Fed
eral interest" is legally rather fo
ggy and
has never been clearly
defined in the courts. The Secret Service has never yet had its hand
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slapped
for investig
ating co
mputer b
reak-ins that were *no
t* of
"Federal interest," b
ut conceivab
ly som
eday this m
ight hap
pen.)
So the S
ecret Service's autho
rity over "unautho
rized access" to
com
put-
ers covers a lo
t of territo
ry, but b
y no m
eans the who
le ball o
fcyb
erspatial w
ax. If you are, fo
r instan
ce, a *local* co
mputer retail-
er, or the o
wner o
f a *local* b
ulletin board
system, then a m
alicious
*local* in
truder can
break in
, crash yo
ur system
, trash yo
ur files an
dscatter viruses, and
the U.S
. Secret S
ervice cannot d
o a sing
le thingab
out it.
At least, it can't d
o anything
*directly.* B
ut the Secret S
ervice will d
oplenty to help the local people w
ho can.
The FB
I may have dealt itself an ace off the bottom
of the deck when it
comes to Section 1
030; but that's not the w
hole story; that's not thestreet. W
hat's Congress thinks is one thing, and C
ongress has beenkno
wn to
change its m
ind. T
he *real* turf- struggle is o
ut there in thestreets w
here it's happening
. If you're a lo
cal street-cop w
ith a com
-puter p
roblem
, the Secret S
ervice wants yo
u to kno
w w
here you can find
the real expertise. W
hile the Bureau cro
wd are o
ff having their
favorite sho
es polished
— (w
ing-tip
s) — and
making
derisive fun o
f theService's favo
rite shoes —
("pansy-ass tassels") —
the tassel-toting
Secret S
ervice has a crew
of read
y- and-ab
le hacker-trackers
installed in the cap
ital of every state in the U
nion. N
eed ad
vice?They'll g
ive you ad
vice, or at least p
oint yo
u in the right d
irection. N
eedtraining? T
hey can see to that, too.
If you're a lo
cal cop and
you call in the FB
I, the FBI (as is w
idely and
slandero
usly rumored
) will o
rder yo
u around
like a coolie, take all the
credit fo
r your b
usts, and m
op up
every possib
le scrap o
f reflectedglory. T
he Secret Service, on the other hand, doesn't brag
a lot. They're
the quiet typ
es. *Very* q
uiet. Very co
ol. Efficient. H
igh-tech.
Mirro
rshad
es, icy
stares, rad
io e
ar-plu
gs, an
Uzi m
achin
e-p
istol
tucked so
mew
here in that well-cut jacket. A
merican sam
urai, sworn to
give their lives to
pro
tect our Presid
ent. "The g
ranite agents." T
rainedin m
artial arts, abso
lutely fearless. Every single o
ne of 'em
has a top-
secret security clearance. Som
ething g
oes a little w
rong
, you're no
t
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gonna hear any w
hining and
moaning
and p
olitical b
uck- passing
out o
fthese g
uys.
The facade of the granite agent is not, of course, the reality. Secret
Service ag
ents are human b
eings. A
nd the real g
lory in S
ervice work is
not in b
attling co
mputer crim
e — no
t yet, anyway —
but in p
rotecting
the President. T
he real glam
our o
f Secret S
ervice work is in the W
hiteH
ouse Detail. If you're at the President's side, then the kids and the
wife see yo
u on televisio
n; you rub
should
ers with the m
ost p
ow
erfulpeo
ple in the w
orld
. That's the real heart o
f Service w
ork, the num
ber
one priority. More than one com
puter investigation has stopped dead in
the water w
hen Service agents vanished at the President's need.
There's ro
mance in the w
ork o
f the Service. T
he intimate access to
cir-cles o
f great p
ow
er; the esprit- d
e-corp
s of a hig
hly trained and
disci-
plined
elite; the high resp
onsib
ility of d
efending
the Chief Executive; the
fulfillment o
f a patrio
tic duty. A
nd as p
olice w
ork g
oes, the p
ay's not
bad. B
ut there's squalor in Service work, too. Y
ou may g
et spat upon by
protesters howling abuse —
and if they get violent, if they get too close,som
etimes you have to knock one of them
down —
discreetly.
The real sq
ualor in S
ervice work is d
rudgery such as "the q
uarterlies,"traip
sing o
ut fo
ur tim
es a year, year in, year o
ut, to
interview
the var-
ious p
athetic wretches, m
any of them
in priso
ns and asylum
s, who
haveseen fit to
threaten the President's life. And then there's the g
rindingstress o
f searching all tho
se faces in the endless b
ustling cro
wds, lo
ok-
ing fo
r hatred, lo
oking
for p
sychosis, lo
oking
for the tig
ht, nervous face
of an A
rthur Brem
er, a Squeaky Fro
mm
e, a Lee Harvey O
swald
. It'sw
atching all tho
se grasp
ing, w
aving hand
s for sud
den m
ovem
ents, while
your ears strain at yo
ur radio
headpho
ne for the lo
ng-rehearsed
cry of
"Gun!"
It's poring
, in grind
ing d
etail, over the b
iograp
hies of every ro
ttenlo
ser who
ever shot at a Presid
ent. It's the unsung w
ork o
f theProtective Research Section, w
ho study scrawled, anonym
ous deaththreats w
ith all the meticulo
us tools o
f anti- forg
ery techniques.
And
it's maintaining
the hefty com
puterized
files on anyo
ne who
ever
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threatened the Presid
ent's life. Civil lib
ertarians have beco
me increas-
ingly concerned at the G
overnment's use of com
puter files to trackA
merican citizens —
but the S
ecret Service file o
f potential Presid
entialassassins, w
hich has upw
ard o
f twenty tho
usand nam
es, rarely causes apeep
of p
rotest. If yo
u *ever* state that you intend
to kill the
President, the S
ecret Service w
ill want to
know
and reco
rd w
ho yo
u are,w
here you are, w
hat you are, and
what yo
u're up to
. If you're a serio
usthreat —
if you're o
fficially consid
ered "o
f pro
tective interest" — then
the Secret S
ervice may w
ell keep tab
s on yo
u for the rest o
f your natur-
al life.
Protecting
the President has first call o
n all the Service's reso
urces.But there's a lo
t more to
the Service's trad
itions and
history than stand
-ing guard outside the O
val Office.
The S
ecret Service is the natio
n's old
est general fed
eral law-enfo
rce-m
ent agency. C
om
pared
to the S
ecret Service, the FB
I are new-hires
and the CIA
are temps. T
he Secret Service was founded 'w
ay back in1
86
5, at the sug
gestio
n of H
ugh M
cCullo
ch, Abraham
Lincoln's
Secretary o
f the Treasury. M
cCullo
ch wanted
a specialized
Treasury
police to combat counterfeiting
. Abraham
Lincoln agreed that this
seemed
a good id
ea, and, w
ith a terrible iro
ny, Abraham
Lincoln w
assho
t that very night b
y John W
ilkes Booth.
The S
ecret Service o
riginally had
nothing
to d
o w
ith pro
tectingPresid
ents. They d
idn't take this o
n as a regular assig
nment until after
the Garfield assassination in 1
881. A
nd they didn't get any
Cong
ressional m
oney fo
r it until President M
cKinley w
as shot in 1
90
1.
The S
ervice was o
riginally d
esigned
for o
ne purp
ose: d
estroying
coun-
terfeiters._
__
__
There are interesting
parallels b
etween the S
ervice's nineteenth-cen-tury entry into
counterfeiting
, and A
merica's tw
entieth-century entryin
to co
mpute
r-crime.
In 1
86
5, A
merica's p
aper cu
rrency w
as a terrible m
uddle. S
ecurity
was d
rastically bad
. Currency w
as printed
on the sp
ot b
y local b
anks in
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literally hundred
s of d
ifferent desig
ns. No o
ne really knew w
hat theheck a d
ollar b
ill was sup
posed
to lo
ok like. B
ogus b
ills passed
easily. Ifso
me jo
ker told
you that a o
ne-dollar b
ill from
the Railro
ad B
ank of
Low
ell, Massachusetts had
a wom
an leaning o
n a shield, w
ith a loco
mo-
tive, a co
rnuco
pia, a co
mpass, vario
us ag
ricultu
ral imple
ments, a rail-
road bridge, and some factories, then you pretty m
uch had to take hisw
ord
for it. (A
nd in fact he w
as telling the truth!)
*Sixteen hund
red* lo
cal Am
erican banks d
esigned
and p
rinted their o
wn
pap
er currency, and there w
ere no g
eneral standard
s for security. Like
a bad
ly guard
ed no
de in a co
mputer netw
ork, b
adly d
esigned
bills w
ereeasy to
fake, and p
osed
a security hazard fo
r the entire monetary sys-
tem.
No one knew
the exact extent of the threat to the currency. There w
erepanicked
estimates that as m
uch as a third o
f the entire national cur-
rency was faked
. Counterfeiters —
know
n as "boodlers" in the und
er-gro
und slang
of the tim
e — w
ere mostly technically skilled
printers
who had g
one to the bad. M
any had once worked printing
legitim
ate cur-rency. B
oodlers o
perated
in rings and
gang
s. Technical exp
ertsengraved the bogus plates —
comm
only in basements in N
ew York C
ity.Sm
ooth co
nfidence m
en passed
large w
ads o
f high-q
uality, high- d
enom
-inatio
n fakes, including
the really sophisticated
stuff — g
overnm
entbond
s, stock certificates, and
railway shares. C
heaper, b
otched
fakesw
ere sold
or sharew
ared to
low
-level gang
s of b
oodler w
annabes. (T
hereally ch
eesy low
life boodlers m
erely upgrad
ed real b
ills by alterin
gface values, changing ones to fives, tens to hundreds, and so on.)
The techniq
ues of b
oodling
were little-kno
wn and
regard
ed w
ith a cer-tain aw
e by the m
id- nineteenth-century p
ublic. T
he ability to
manip
-ulate the system
for rip
-off seem
ed d
iabolically clever. A
s the skill anddaring
of the b
oodlers increased
, the situation b
ecame into
lerable. T
hefed
eral governm
ent stepped
in, and b
egan o
ffering its o
wn fed
eral cur-rency, w
hich was p
rinted in fancy g
reen ink, but o
nly on the b
ack — the
orig
inal "greenb
acks." And
at first, the impro
ved security o
f the well-
desig
ned, w
ell-printed
federal g
reenbacks seem
ed to
solve the p
roblem
;but then the co
unterfeiters caught o
n. Within a few
years things w
erew
orse than ever: a *centralized
* system w
here *all* security was b
ad!
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The lo
cal police w
ere helpless. T
he Governm
ent tried o
ffering b
lood
money to
potential info
rmants, b
ut this met w
ith little success. Banks,
plag
ued b
y boodling
, gave up
hope o
f police help
and hired
private secu-
rity men instead. M
erchants and bankers queued up by the thousands tobuy p
rivately-p
rinte
d m
anuals o
n cu
rrency se
curity, slim
little b
ooks
like Laban H
eath's *Infallible G
overnm
ent Counterfeit D
etector.* T
heback of the book offered Laban H
eath's patent microscope for five bucks.
Then the Secret Service entered the picture. T
he first agents w
ere aro
ugh and
ready crew
. Their chief w
as one W
illiam P. W
ood, a fo
rmer
guerilla in the M
exican War w
ho'd
won a rep
utation b
usting co
ntractor
fraudsters fo
r the War D
epartm
ent during
the Civil W
ar. Wood, w
how
as also K
eeper o
f the Cap
ital Prison, had
a sideline as a co
unterfeitingexpert, b
agging
boodlers for the federal b
ounty money.
Wood w
as named
Chief o
f the new S
ecret Service in July 1
86
5. T
herew
ere only ten S
ecret Service ag
ents in all: Wood him
self, a handful
who
'd w
orked
for him
in the War D
epartm
ent, and a few
form
er private
investigators — counterfeiting experts —
whom
Wood had w
on over topub
lic service. (The S
ecret Service o
f 18
65
was m
uch the size of the
Chicag
o C
om
puter Fraud
Task Fo
rce or the A
rizona R
acketeering U
nit of
1990.) T
hese ten "Operatives" had an additional tw
enty or so "Assistant
Operatives" and
"Inform
ants." Besid
es salary and p
er diem
, each Secret
Service em
plo
yee received a w
hopping
twenty-five d
ollars fo
r eachboodler he cap
tured.
Wood him
self pub
licly estimated
that at least *half* of A
merica's cur-
rency was co
unterfeit, a perhap
s pard
onab
le percep
tion. W
ithin a yearthe S
ecret Service had
arrested o
ver 20
0 co
unterfeiters. They b
ustedab
out tw
o hund
red b
oodlers a year fo
r four years straig
ht.
Wood attrib
uted his success to
travelling fast and
light, hitting
the bad
-guys hard, and avoiding
bureaucratic b
aggag
e. "Because m
y raids were
made w
ithout military escort and I did not ask the assistance of state
officers, I su
rprised
the p
rofessio
nal co
unterfeiter."
Wood's social m
essage to the once-im
pudent boodlers b
ore an eerie ring
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of S
undevil: "It w
as also m
y purp
ose to
convince such characters that it
would
no lo
nger b
e healthy for them
to p
ly their vocatio
n witho
ut being
handled roughly, a fact they soon discovered."
William
P. Wood, the S
ecret Service's g
uerilla pio
neer, did
not end
well.
He succum
bed
to the lure o
f aiming
for the really b
ig sco
re. The no
tori-
ous B
rockw
ay Gang
of N
ew Y
ork C
ity, headed
by W
illiam E. B
rockw
ay,the "K
ing of the Counterfeiters," had forged a num
ber of government
bond
s. They'd
passed
these brilliant fakes o
n the prestig
ious W
all Street
investment firm
of Jay C
ooke and
Com
pany. T
he Cooke firm
were fran-
tic and o
ffered a hug
e reward
for the fo
rgers' p
lates.
Laboring
dilig
ently, Wood co
nfiscated the p
lates (thoug
h not M
r.Bro
ckway) and
claimed
the reward
. But the C
ooke co
mpany treacher-
ously reneg
ed. W
ood g
ot invo
lved in a d
ow
n-and-d
irty lawsuit w
ith theCooke cap
italists. Wood's b
oss, S
ecretary of the T
reasury McC
ulloch,
felt that Wood's dem
ands for money and glory w
ere unseemly, and even
when the rew
ard m
oney finally cam
e throug
h, McC
ulloch refused
to p
ayW
ood anything
. Wood fo
und him
self mired
in a seeming
ly endless ro
undof fed
eral suits and C
ong
ressional lo
bbying
.
Wood never got his m
oney. And he lost his job to boot. H
e resigned in1
86
9.
Wood's agents suffered, too. O
n May 1
2, 1
869, the second C
hief of theSecret Service took over, and alm
ost imm
ediately fired most of W
ood'spio
neer Secret S
ervice agents: O
peratives, A
ssistants and Info
rmants
alike. The p
ractice of receiving
$2
5 p
er crook w
as abolished
. And
theSecret S
ervice beg
an the long
, uncertain pro
cess of tho
roug
h pro
fes-sio
nalization.
Wood ended badly. H
e must have felt stabbed in the back. In fact his
entire org
anization w
as mang
led.
On the o
ther hand, W
illiam P. W
ood *w
as* the first head o
f the Secret
Service. W
illiam W
ood w
as the pio
neer. People still ho
nor his nam
e.W
ho remem
bers the name of the *second* head of the Secret Service?
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As fo
r William
Bro
ckway (also
know
n as "Colo
nel Spencer"), he w
asfinally arrested
by the S
ecret Service in 1
88
0. H
e did
five years inpriso
n, got o
ut, and w
as still boodling
at the age o
f seventy- four.
__
__
_
Anyo
ne with an interest in O
peratio
n Sund
evil — o
r in Am
erican com
-puter-crim
e generally —
could
scarcely miss the p
resence of G
ailThackeray, A
ssistant Attorney G
eneral of the State of Arizona.
Com
puter-crim
e training m
anuals often cited
Thackeray's g
roup
andher w
ork; she w
as the highest-ranking
state official to
specialize in
com
puter-related
offenses. H
er name had
been o
n the Sund
evil press
release (thoug
h modestly ranked
well after the lo
cal federal p
rosecuting
attorney and the head of the Phoenix Secret Service office).
As public com
mentary, and controversy, began to m
ount about theH
acker Crackd
ow
n, this Arizo
nan state official b
egan to
take a higher and
higher p
ublic p
rofile. T
houg
h uttering alm
ost no
thing sp
ecific about the
Sund
evil operatio
n itself, she coined
som
e of the m
ost striking
sound
-bites of the grow
ing propaganda war: "A
gents are operating in goodfaith, and
I don't think yo
u can say that for the hacker co
mm
unity," was
one. Another w
as the mem
orable "I am not a m
ad dog prosecutor"(*H
ousto
n Chro
nicle,* Sep
t 2, 1
99
0.) In the m
eantime, the S
ecretService m
aintained its usual extrem
e discretio
n; the Chicag
o U
nit,sm
arting from the backlash of the Steve Jackson scandal, had gone com
-pletely to
earth.
As I co
llated m
y gro
wing
pile o
f newsp
aper clip
ping
s, Gail T
hackerayranked as a com
parative fount of public know
ledge on police operations.
I decided that I had to get to know G
ail Thackeray. I w
rote to her at theA
rizona A
ttorney G
eneral's Office. N
ot o
nly did
she kindly rep
ly to m
e,but, to
my asto
nishment, she knew
very well w
hat "cyberp
unk" sciencefictio
n was.
Shortly after th
is, Gail T
hackeray lo
st her jo
b. A
nd I tem
porarily m
is-placed
my o
wn career as a science-fictio
n writer, to
beco
me a full-tim
eco
mpute
r-crime jo
urn
alist. In e
arly M
arch, 1
99
1, I fle
w to
Phoenix,
Arizo
na, to interview
Gail T
hackeray for m
y book o
n the hacker crack-
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dow
n._
__
__
"Credit cards didn't used to cost anything to get," says G
ail Thackeray.
"Now
they cost forty bucks — and that's all just to cover the costs from
*rip-o
ff artists.*"
Electronic nuisance crim
inals are parasites. O
ne by o
ne they're not
much harm
, no big deal. But they never com
e just one by one. They
com
e in swarm
s, heaps, leg
ions, so
metim
es who
le subcultures. A
ndthey b
ite. Every time w
e buy a cred
it card to
day, w
e lose a little finan-
cial vitality to a p
articular species o
f blo
odsucker.
What, in her exp
ert opinio
n, are the worst fo
rms o
f electronic crim
e, Iask, co
nsulting m
y notes. Is it —
credit card
fraud? B
reaking into
ATM
bank m
achines? Phone-p
hreaking? C
om
puter intrusio
ns? Softw
areviruses? A
ccess-code theft? R
ecord
s tampering
? Softw
are piracy?
Porno
grap
hic bulletin b
oard
s? Satellite T
V p
iracy? Theft o
f cable ser-
vice? It's a long
list. By the tim
e I reach the end o
f it I feel ratherdep
ressed.
"Oh no
," says Gail T
hackeray, leaning fo
rward
over the tab
le, her who
lebody g
one stiff with energ
etic indignation, "the b
iggest dam
age is tele-
pho
ne fraud. Fake sw
eepstakes, fake charities. B
oiler-ro
om
con o
pera-
tions. You could pay off the national debt with w
hat these guys steal....They target old people, they get hold of credit ratings and dem
ographics,they rip off the old and the w
eak." The w
ords come tum
bling out of her.
It's low
-tech
stuff, yo
ur e
veryd
ay boile
r-room
fraud. G
rifters, co
n-
ning people out of money over the phone, have been around for decades.
This is w
here the word
"pho
ny" came fro
m!
It's just th
at it's so m
uch
*easier* now
, horrib
ly facilitated b
yadvances in technology and the byzantine structure of the m
odern phonesystem
. The sam
e pro
fessional fraud
sters do it o
ver and o
ver, Thackeray
tells me, they hid
e behind
dense o
nion-shells o
f fake com
panies.... fake
hold
ing co
rporatio
ns nine or ten layers d
eep, reg
istered all o
ver them
ap. They g
et a phone installed under a false name in an em
pty safe-
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house. And then they call-forw
ard everything out of that phone to yetanother phone, a phone that m
ay even be in another *state.* And they
don't even pay the charges on their phones; after a month or so, they
just split. S
et up so
mew
here else in another Po
dunkville w
ith the same
seedy crew
of veteran p
hone-cro
oks. T
hey buy o
r steal com
mercial
credit card
reports, slap
them o
n the PC, have a p
rogram
pick o
ut peo
-ple o
ver sixty-five who
pay a lo
t to charities. A
who
le subculture liv-
ing o
ff this, merciless fo
lks on the co
n.
"The 'lig
ht-bulb
s for the b
lind' p
eople," T
hackeray muses, w
ith a spe-
cial loathing
. "There's just no
end to
them."
We're sitting
in a dow
ntow
n diner in Pho
enix, Arizo
na. It's a toug
htow
n, Phoenix. A state capital seeing som
e hard times. Even to a T
exanlike m
yself, Arizo
na state politics seem
rather baro
que. T
here was, and
remains, end
less troub
le over the M
artin Luther King
holid
ay, the sort
of stiff-necked
, foot-sho
oting
incident fo
r which A
rizona p
olitics seem
famous. T
here was Evan M
echam, the eccentric R
epub
lican millio
nairegoverno
r who
was im
peached
, after reducing
state governm
ent to a lud
i-cro
us shambles. T
hen there was the natio
nal Keating
scandal, invo
lvingA
rizona saving
s and lo
ans, in which b
oth o
f Arizo
na's U.S
. senators,
DeC
oncini and
McC
ain, played
sadly p
rom
inent roles.
And
the very latest is the bizarre A
zScam
case, in which state leg
isla-to
rs were vid
eotap
ed, eag
erly taking cash fro
m an info
rmant o
f thePhoenix city police departm
ent, who w
as posing as a Vegas m
obster.
"Oh," says T
hackeray cheerfully. "These p
eople are am
ateurs here, theythoug
ht they were finally g
etting to play w
ith the big
boys. T
hey don'thave the least id
ea how
to take a b
ribe! It's no
t institutional co
rruptio
n.It's n
ot like
back in
Philly."
Gail T
hackeray was a fo
rmer p
rosecuto
r in Philadelp
hia. Now
she's aform
er assistant attorney general of the State of A
rizona. Since moving
to A
rizona in 1
98
6, she had
worked
under the aeg
is of S
teve Tw
ist, herboss in the A
ttorney G
eneral's office. S
teve Tw
ist wro
te Arizo
na's pio
-neering
com
puter crim
e laws and
naturally took an interest in seeing
them enforced. It w
as a snug niche, and T
hackeray's Org
anized Crim
e and
BR
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Racketeering
Unit w
on a natio
nal reputatio
n for am
bitio
n and technical
know
ledgeab
ility.... Until the latest electio
n in Arizo
na. Thackeray's
boss ran fo
r the top jo
b, and
lost. T
he victor, the new
Atto
rney General,
apparently w
ent to so
me p
ains to elim
inate the bureaucratic traces o
fhis rival, includ
ing his p
et gro
up —
Thackeray's g
roup
. Tw
elve peo
ple
got their w
alking p
apers.
Now
Thackeray's p
ainstakingly assem
bled
com
puter lab
sits gathering
dust so
mew
here in the glass-and
-concrete A
ttorney G
eneral's HQ
on
12
75
Washing
ton S
treet. Her co
mputer-crim
e books, her p
ainstaking-
ly garnered
back issues o
f phreak and
hacker zines, all boug
ht at herow
n expense — are piled in boxes som
ewhere. T
he State of Arizona is
simply no
t particularly interested
in electronic racketeering
at them
om
ent.
At the m
om
ent of o
ur interview, G
ail Thackeray, o
fficially unemplo
yed,
is working
out o
f the county sheriff's o
ffice, living o
n her savings, and
pro
secuting several cases —
working
60
-hour w
eeks, just as always —
for no
pay at all. "I'm
trying to
train peo
ple," she m
utters.
Half her life seem
s to b
e spent training
peo
ple —
merely p
ointing
out, to
the naive and incred
ulous (such as m
yself) that this stuff is *actuallygoing
on o
ut there.* It's a small w
orld
, com
puter crim
e. A yo
ung w
orld
.G
ail Thackeray, a trim
blo
nde B
aby- B
oom
er who
favors G
rand C
anyon
white-w
ater rafting to
kill som
e slow
time, is o
ne of the w
orld
's most
senior, m
ost veteran "hacker-trackers." H
er mento
r was D
onn
Parker, the Califo
rnia think-tank theorist w
ho g
ot it all started
'way
back in the m
id- 7
0s, the "g
randfather o
f the field," "the g
reat bald
eagle o
f com
puter crim
e."
And
what she has learned
, Gail T
hackeray teaches. Endlessly. T
irelessly.To anybody. T
o Secret Service agents and state police, at the Glynco,
Geo
rgia fed
eral training center. T
o lo
cal police, o
n "road
show
s" with
her slide p
rojecto
r and no
tebook. T
o co
rporate security p
ersonnel. T
ojo
urnalists. To p
arents.
Even *crooks* lo
ok to
Gail T
hackeray for ad
vice. Phone-p
hreaks callher at the o
ffice. They kno
w very w
ell who
she is. They p
ump her fo
r
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information on w
hat the cops are up to, how m
uch they know. Som
etimes
who
le *crow
ds* o
f pho
ne phreaks, hang
ing o
ut on illeg
al conference
calls, will call G
ail Thackeray up
. They taunt her. A
nd, as alw
ays, theyboast. Pho
ne-phreaks, real sto
ne pho
ne-phreaks, sim
ply *canno
t shutup
.* They natter o
n for ho
urs.
Left to them
selves, they mostly talk ab
out the intricacies o
f ripping
-off
pho
nes; it's about as interesting
as listening to
hot-ro
dders talk ab
out
suspensio
n and d
istributo
r-caps. T
hey also g
ossip
cruelly about each
other. A
nd w
hen talking to
Gail T
hackeray, they incriminate them
-selves. "I have tap
es," Thackeray says co
olly.
Phone p
hreaks just talk like crazy. "Dial-T
one" o
ut in Alab
ama has
been kno
wn to
spend
half-an- hour sim
ply read
ing sto
len pho
ne-codes
aloud
into vo
ice-mail answ
ering m
achines. Hund
reds, tho
usands o
fnum
bers, recited
in a mono
tone, w
ithout a b
reak — an eerie p
henom
e-no
n. When arrested
, it's a rare pho
ne phreak w
ho d
oesn't info
rm at
endless length on everybody he knows.
Hackers are no
better. W
hat other g
roup
of crim
inals, she asks rhetor-
ically, pub
lishes newsletters and
hold
s conventio
ns? She seem
s deep
lynettled b
y the sheer brazenness of this b
ehavior, though to an outsider,
this activity mig
ht make o
ne wond
er whether hackers sho
uld b
e consid
-ered
"criminals" at all. S
kateboard
ers have mag
azines, and they tres-
pass a lot. Hot rod people have m
agazines and they break speed limits
and so
metim
es kill peo
ple....
I ask her whether it w
ould
be any lo
ss to so
ciety if pho
ne phreaking
andco
mputer hacking
, as hobbies, sim
ply d
ried up
and b
lew aw
ay, so that
nobody ever d
id it ag
ain.
She seem
s surprised
. "No," she says sw
iftly. "Mayb
e a little... in the old
days... the MIT
stuff... But there's a lo
t of w
onderful, leg
al stuff you can
do with com
puters now, you don't have to break into som
ebody else'sjust to
learn. You d
on't have that excuse. Y
ou can learn all yo
u like."
Did
you ever hack into
a system? I ask.
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The trainees d
o it at G
lynco. Just to
dem
onstrate system
vulnerabilities.
She's co
ol to
the notio
n. Genuinely ind
ifferent.
"What kind of com
puter do you have?"
"A C
om
paq
28
6LE," she m
utters.
"What kind
do yo
u *wish* yo
u had?"
At this q
uestion, the unm
istakable lig
ht of true hackerd
om
flares in Gail
Thackeray's eyes. She becom
es tense, animated, the w
ords pour out:"A
n Am
iga 2
000 w
ith an IBM
card and Mac em
ulation! The m
ost comm
onhacker m
achines are Am
igas and Com
modores. A
nd Apples." If she had
the Am
iga, she enthuses, she could run a w
hole galaxy of seized com
put-er-evid
ence disks o
n one co
nvenient multifunctio
nal machine. A
cheapone, too. N
ot like the old Attorney G
eneral lab, where they had an
ancient CP/M
machine, asso
rted A
mig
a flavors and
Apple flavo
rs, a cou-
ple IB
MS, all the utility so
ftware... b
ut no C
om
modores. T
he worksta-
tions down at the A
ttorney General's are W
ang dedicated w
ord-proces-sors. Lam
e machines tied in to an office net —
though at least they geton- line to
the Lexis and W
estlaw leg
al data services.
I don't say anything
. I recognize the synd
rom
e, thoug
h. This co
mputer-
fever has been running
throug
h segm
ents of o
ur society fo
r years now
.It's a strang
e kind o
f lust: K-hung
er, Meg
-hunger; b
ut it's a shared d
is-ease; it can kill p
arties dead
, as conversatio
n spirals into
the deep
estand
most d
eviant recesses of so
ftware releases and
expensive p
eripher-
als.... The m
ark of the hacker beast. I have it too. T
he whole "electronic
com
munity," w
hatever the hell that is, has it. Gail T
hackeray has it.G
ail Thackeray is a hacker co
p. M
y imm
ediate reactio
n is a strong
rushof ind
ignant p
ity: *why d
oesn't so
meb
ody b
uy this wom
an her Am
iga?!*
It's not like she's asking
for a C
ray X-M
P superco
mputer m
ainframe; an
Am
iga's a sw
eet little cookie-b
ox thing
. We're lo
sing zillio
ns in org
a-nized fraud; prosecuting
and defending a sing
le hacker case in court cancost a hundred grand easy. H
ow com
e nobody can come up w
ith fourlousy g
rand so this wom
an can do her job? For a hundred g
rand we could
buy every com
puter cop in Am
erica an Am
iga. T
here aren't that many of
'em.
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Com
puters. T
he lust, the hunger, fo
r com
puters. T
he loyalty they
inspire, the intense sense o
f possessiveness. T
he culture they havebred
. I myself am
sitting in d
ow
ntow
n Phoenix, A
rizona b
ecause it sud-
denly occurred to me that the police m
ight —
just *mig
ht* — com
e andtake aw
ay my co
mputer. T
he pro
spect o
f this, the mere *im
plied
threat,* was unb
earable. It literally chang
ed m
y life. It was chang
ingthe lives o
f many o
thers. Eventually it would
change everyb
ody's life.
Gail T
hackeray was o
ne of the to
p co
mputer- crim
e peo
ple in A
merica.
And I w
as just some novelist, and yet I had a b
etter computer than hers.
*Practically everybody I knew
* had a b
etter com
puter than G
ailThackeray and
her feeble lap
top 2
86
. It was like send
ing the sheriff in
to clean up Dodg
e City and arm
ing her w
ith a slingshot cut from
an oldru
bber tire
.
But then again, you don't need a how
itzer to enforce the law. You can do a
lot just w
ith a bad
ge. W
ith a bad
ge alo
ne, you can b
asically wreak havo
c,take a terrib
le vengeance on w
rongdoers. N
inety percent of "computer
crime investig
ation" is just "crim
e investigatio
n:" names, p
laces,dossiers, m
odus o
perand
i, search warrants, victim
s, com
plainants,
inform
ants...
What w
ill com
puter crim
e look like in
ten years? W
ill it get b
etter?D
id "S
undevil" send
'em reeling
back in co
nfusion?
It'll be like it is no
w, o
nly worse, she tells m
e with p
erfect convictio
n.Still there in the b
ackgro
und, ticking
along
, changing
with the tim
es: thecrim
inal u
nderw
orld
. It'll be like
dru
gs are
. Like
our p
roble
ms w
ithalco
hol. A
ll the cops and
laws in the w
orld
never solved
our p
roblem
sw
ith alcoho
l. If there's som
ething peo
ple want, a certain percentag
e of
them are just g
oing
to take it. Fifteen p
ercent of the p
opulace w
ill neversteal. Fifteen p
ercent will steal m
ost anything
not nailed
dow
n. The
battle is fo
r the hearts and m
inds o
f the remaining
seventy percent.
And
criminals catch o
n fast. If there's not "to
o steep
a learning curve"
— if it d
oesn't req
uire a baffling
amount o
f expertise and
practice —
then criminals are often som
e of the first through the g
ate of a new
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
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E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
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1 8 7
technology. Especially if it helps them
to hide. They have tons of cash,
criminals. T
he new co
mm
unications tech —
like pag
ers, cellularpho
nes, faxes, Federal Exp
ress — w
ere pio
neered b
y rich corp
orate
peo
ple, and
by crim
inals. In the early years of p
agers and
beep
ers, dope
dealers were so enthralled this technolog
y that owing
a beeper w
aspractically p
rima facie evid
ence of co
caine dealing
. CB rad
io exp
loded
when the sp
eed lim
it hit 55
and b
reaking the hig
hway law
becam
e anatio
nal pastim
e. Dope d
ealers send cash b
y Federal Exp
ress, desp
ite,or p
erhaps *b
ecause of,* the w
arnings in Fed
Ex offices that tell yo
unever to
try this. Fed Ex uses X
-rays and d
ogs o
n their mail, to
stop
drug
shipm
ents. That d
oesn't w
ork very w
ell.
Drug
dealers w
ent wild
over cellular p
hones. T
here are simple m
ethods
of faking
ID o
n cellular pho
nes, making
the locatio
n of the call m
obile,
free of charg
e, and effectively untraceab
le. Now
victimized
cellularco
mpanies ro
utinely bring
in vast toll-lists o
f calls to C
olo
mbia and
Pakistan.
Judge G
reene's fragm
entation of the phone company is driving
lawenforcem
ent nuts. Four thousand telecomm
unications companies. Fraud
skyrocketing
. Every temptatio
n in the world
available w
ith a pho
ne anda cred
it card num
ber. C
riminals untraceab
le. A g
alaxy of "new
neatrotten things to do."
If there were o
ne thing T
hackeray would
like to have, it w
ould
be an
effective legal end
-run throug
h this new frag
mentatio
n minefield
.
It would
be a new
form
of electro
nic search warrant, an "electro
nic let-ter of m
arque" to be issued by a judge. It would create a new
category of"electro
nic emerg
ency." Like a wiretap
, its use would
be rare, b
ut itw
ould
cut across state lines and
force sw
ift cooperatio
n from
all con-
cerned. C
ellular, pho
ne, laser, com
puter netw
ork, PB
Xes, A
T&
T, B
aby
Bells, lo
ng-d
istance entrepreneurs, p
acket radio
. Som
e docum
ent, som
em
ighty co
urt-ord
er, that could
slice throug
h four tho
usand sep
arateform
s of corporate red-tape, and get her at once to the source of calls,
the source o
f email threats and
viruses, the sources o
f bom
b threats,
kidnap
ping
threats. "From
now
on," she says, "the Lind
berg
bab
y will
always d
ie."
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Som
ething that w
ould
make the N
et sit still, if only fo
r a mom
ent.Som
ething that would get her up to speed. Seven league boots. T
hat'sw
hat she really needs. "Those guys m
ove in nanoseconds and I'm on the
Pony Exp
ress."
And
then, too, there's the co
ming
international ang
le. Electronic crim
ehas never b
een easy to lo
calize, to tie to
a physical jurisd
iction. A
ndpho
ne- phreaks and
hackers loathe b
ound
aries, they jump them
when-
ever they can. The Eng
lish. The D
utch. And the G
ermans, especially the
ubiq
uitous C
haos C
om
puter C
lub. T
he Australians. T
hey've all learnedpho
ne-phreaking
from
Am
erica. It's a gro
wth m
ischief industry. T
hem
ultinational netw
orks are g
lobal, b
ut governm
ents and the p
olice sim
-ply aren't. N
either are the laws. O
r the legal fram
eworks fo
r citizenpro
tection.
One lang
uage is g
lobal, tho
ugh —
English. Pho
ne phreaks sp
eak English;
it's their native tong
ue even if they're Germ
ans. English m
ay havestarted in Eng
land but now
it's the Net lang
uage; it m
ight as w
ell be
called "C
NN
ese."
Asians just aren't m
uch into p
hone p
hreaking. T
hey're the world
mas-
ters at org
anized so
ftware p
iracy. The French aren't into
pho
ne-phreaking
either. The French are into
com
puterized
industrial esp
i-onag
e.
In the old
days o
f the MIT
righteo
us hackerdom
, crashing system
s did
n'thurt anyb
ody. Not all that m
uch, anyway. N
ot permanently. N
ow the
players are m
ore venal. N
ow
the conseq
uences are worse. H
acking w
illbeg
in killing p
eople so
on. A
lready there are m
ethods o
f stacking calls
onto 911 system
s, annoying the police, and possibly causing the death ofso
me p
oor so
ul calling in w
ith a genuine em
ergency. H
ackers in Am
trakco
mpute
rs, or air- traffic co
ntro
l com
pute
rs, will kill so
mebody so
me-
day. Mayb
e a lot of people. Gail T
hackeray expects it.
And
the viruses are getting
nastier. The "S
cud" virus is the latest o
neout. It w
ipes hard
-disks.
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Acco
rding
to T
hackeray, the idea that p
hone- p
hreaks are Robin H
oods is
a fraud. T
hey don't d
eserve this repute. B
asically, they pick o
n thew
eak. AT&
T now
protects itself with the fearsom
e AN
I (Autom
aticN
umber Id
entification) trace cap
ability. W
hen AT&
T w
ised up
andtig
htened security g
enerally, the phreaks d
rifted into
the Bab
y Bells.
The B
aby B
ells lashed o
ut in 19
89
and 1
99
0, so
the phreaks sw
itched to
smaller lo
ng-d
istance entrepreneurs. T
oday, they are m
oving
intolo
cally ow
ned PB
Xes and
voice-m
ail systems, w
hich are full of security
holes, dreadfully easy to hack. These victim
s aren't the moneyb
ags
Sheriff o
f Notting
ham o
r Bad
King
John, b
ut small g
roup
s of inno
centpeo
ple w
ho find
it hard to
pro
tect themselves, and
who
really sufferfrom
these depredations. Phone phreaks pick on the weak. T
hey do itfo
r pow
er. If it were leg
al, they would
n't do it. T
hey don't w
ant service,or kno
wled
ge, they w
ant the thrill of p
ow
er- tripping
. There's p
lentyof kno
wled
ge o
r service around
, if you're w
illing to
pay. Pho
ne phreaks
don't p
ay, they steal. It's because it is illeg
al that it feels like pow
er,th
at it gratifies th
eir vanity.
I leave Gail T
hackeray with a hand
shake at the door o
f her office b
uilding
— a vast Internatio
nal- Style o
ffice build
ing d
ow
ntow
n. The S
heriff'soffice is renting
part o
f it. I get the vag
ue impressio
n that quite a lo
t of
the build
ing is em
pty —
real estate crash.
In a Phoenix sp
orts ap
parel sto
re, in a dow
ntow
n mall, I m
eet the "Sun
Devil" him
self. He is the carto
on m
ascot o
f Arizo
na State U
niversity,w
hose fo
otb
all stadium
, "Sund
evil," is near the local S
ecret Service H
Q—
hence the name O
peratio
n Sund
evil. The S
un Devil him
self is named
"Sparky." S
parky the S
un Devil is m
aroon and
brig
ht yellow
, the school
colo
rs. Sparky b
randishes a three-tined
yellow
pitchfo
rk. He has a
small m
ustache, pointed
ears, a barb
ed tail, and
is dashing
forw
ard jab
-bing
the air with the p
itchfork, w
ith an expressio
n of d
evilish glee.
Phoenix was the hom
e of Operation Sundevil. T
he Legion of Doom
ran ahacker b
ulletin board
called "T
he Phoenix Pro
ject." An A
ustralianhacker nam
ed "Phoenix" once burrow
ed through the Internet to attack
Cliff Stoll, then b
ragged and b
oasted about it to *T
he New
York T
imes.*
This net of coincidence is both odd and m
eaningless.
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The head
quarters o
f the Arizo
na Atto
rney General, G
ail Thackeray's fo
r-m
er workp
lace, is on 1
27
5 W
ashingto
n Avenue. M
any of the d
ow
ntow
nstreets in Pho
enix are named
after pro
minent A
merican p
residents:
Washing
ton, Jefferso
n, Mad
ison....
After d
ark, all the emplo
yees go ho
me to
their suburb
s. Washing
ton,
Jefferson and
Mad
ison —
what w
ould
be the Pho
enix inner city, if therew
ere an inner city in this spraw
ling auto
mobile-b
red to
wn —
beco
me
the haunts of transients and derelicts. The hom
eless. The sidew
alks alongW
ashingto
n are lined w
ith orang
e trees. Rip
e fallen fruit lies scatteredlike croquet balls on the sidew
alks and gutters. No one seem
s to be eat-ing
them. I try a fresh o
ne. It tastes unbearab
ly bitter.
The A
ttorney G
eneral's office, b
uilt in 19
81
during
the Bab
bitt ad
min-
istration, is a lo
ng lo
w tw
o- sto
ry build
ing o
f white cem
ent and w
all-sized
sheets of curtain-g
lass. Behind
each glass w
all is a lawyer's
office, q
uite open and
visible to
anyone stro
lling b
y. Acro
ss the street isa d
our g
overnm
ent build
ing lab
elled sim
ply EC
ON
OM
IC S
ECU
RIT
Y,
something that has not been in great supply in the A
merican Southw
estlately.
The offices are about tw
elve feet square. They feature tall w
ooden casesfull o
f red-sp
ined law
books; W
ang co
mputer m
onito
rs; telepho
nes;Post-it notes g
alore. Also fram
ed law diplom
as and a general excess of
bad
Western land
scape art. A
nsel Adam
s pho
tos are a b
ig favo
rite, per-
haps to co
mpensate fo
r the dismal specter o
f the parking- lo
t, two acres
of strip
ed b
lack asphalt, w
hich features gravel land
scaping
and so
me
sickly-lo
okin
g b
arrel cacti.
It has gro
wn d
ark. Gail T
hackeray has told
me that the p
eople w
ho w
ork
late here, are afraid o
f mug
ging
s in the parking
lot. It seem
s cruellyiro
nic that a wom
an tracing electro
nic racketeers across the interstate
labyrinth o
f Cyb
erspace sho
uld fear an assault b
y a hom
eless derelict in
the parking
lot o
f her ow
n workp
lace.
Perhaps this is less than co
incidence. Perhap
s these two seem
ingly d
is-parate w
orlds are somehow
generating
one another. The poor and disen-
franchised take to
the streets, while the rich and
com
puter-eq
uipped
,
BR
UC
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AC
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OW
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NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
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1 9 1
safe in their bedroom
s, chatter over their modem
s. Quite often the
derelicts kick the g
lass out and
break in to
the lawyers' o
ffices, if theysee som
ething they need or want badly enough.
I cross the parking lot to the street b
ehind the Attorney G
eneral's office.A
pair of young tramps are bedding dow
n on flattened sheets of card-board
, under an alco
ve stretching o
ver the sidew
alk. One tram
p w
ears aglitter-co
vered T
-shirt read
ing "C
ALIFO
RN
IA" in
Coca-C
ola cu
rsive.H
is nose and cheeks look chafed and swollen; they g
listen with w
hatseem
s to be V
aseline. The other tram
p has a ragged long
-sleeved shirtand
lank bro
wn hair p
arted in the m
iddle. T
hey both w
ear blue jeans
coated
in grim
e. They are b
oth d
runk.
"You g
uys crash here a lot?" I ask them
.
They lo
ok at m
e warily. I am
wearing
black jeans, a b
lack pinstrip
edsuit jacket and
a black silk tie. I have o
dd sho
es and a funny haircut.
"It's our first tim
e here," says the red-no
sed tram
p unco
nvincingly.
There is a lot of cardboard stacked here. M
ore than any two people could
use.
"We usually stay at the V
innie's dow
n the street," says the bro
wn-
haired
tramp, p
uffin
g a M
arlboro
with
a med
itative air, as he sp
rawls
with his head
on a b
lue nylon b
ackpack. "T
he Saint V
incent's."
"You kno
w w
ho w
orks in that b
uilding
over there?" I ask, p
ointing
.
The b
row
n-haired tram
p shrug
s. "Som
e kind o
f attorneys, it says."
` We urge one another to take it easy. I give them
five bucks.
A b
lock d
ow
n the street I meet a vig
oro
us workm
an who
is wheeling
along
som
e kind o
f industrial tro
lley; it has what ap
pears to
be a tank o
fpro
pane o
n it.
We m
ake eye contact. We nod politely. I w
alk past him. "H
ey! Excusem
e sir!" he says.
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"Yes?" I say, sto
pping
and turning
.
"Have yo
u seen," the guy says rap
idly, "a b
lack guy, ab
out 6
'7", scars
on b
oth his cheeks like this —
" he gestures —
"wears a b
lack baseb
allcap
on b
ackward
s, wand
ering aro
und here anyp
lace?"
"Sound
s like I don't m
uch *want* to
meet him
," I say.
"He to
ok m
y wallet," says m
y new acq
uaintance. "Took it this m
orning
.Y'know
, some people w
ould be *scared* of a g
uy like that. But I'm
notscared
. I'm fro
m C
hicago. I'm
gonna hunt him
dow
n. We d
o thing
s likethat in C
hicago."
"Yeah?"
"I went to the cops and now
he's got an APB
out on his ass," he says with
satisfaction. "Y
ou run into
him, yo
u let me kno
w."
"Okay," I say. "W
hat is your nam
e, sir?"
"Stanley...."
"And
how
can I reach you?"
"Oh," Stanley says, in the sam
e rapid voice, "you don't have to reach,uh, m
e. You can just call the cops. Go straight to the cops." H
e reachesinto a pocket and pulls out a greasy piece of pasteboard. "See, here's m
yrep
ort o
n him."
I look. T
he "report," the size o
f an index card
, is labelled
PRO
-ACT:
Phoenix R
esidents O
pposing
Active C
rime T
hreat.... or is it O
rganized
Against C
rime T
hreat? In the darkening
street it's hard to
read. S
om
ekind
of vig
ilante gro
up? N
eighb
orho
od w
atch? I feel very puzzled
.
"Are yo
u a p
olice o
fficer, sir?"
He sm
iles, seems very p
leased b
y the questio
n.
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"No," he says.
` "But yo
u are a 'Phoenix R
esident?'"
"Would
you b
elieve a hom
eless perso
n," Stanley says.
"Really? B
ut what's w
ith the..." For the first tim
e I take a close lo
ok at
Stanley's tro
lley. It's a rubber-w
heeled thing
of ind
ustrial metal, b
utthe d
evice I had m
istaken for a tank o
f pro
pane is in fact a w
ater-cooler.
Stanley also has an Arm
y duffel-bag
, stuffed tight as a sausag
e with
clothing
or p
erhaps a tent, and
, at the base o
f his trolley, a card
board
box and
a battered
leather briefcase.
"I see," I say, quite at a lo
ss. For the first tim
e I notice that S
tanley hasa w
allet. He has no
t lost his w
allet at all. It is in his back p
ocket and
chained to his belt. It's not a new w
allet. It seems to have seen a lot of
wear.
"Well, yo
u know
how
it is, bro
ther," says Stanley. N
ow
that I know
thathe is ho
meless —
*a possib
le threat* — m
y entire percep
tion o
f himhas chang
ed in an instant. His speech, w
hich once seemed just b
right
and enthusiastic, now seem
s to have a dangerous tang of mania. "I have
to do this!" he assures me. "T
rack this guy dow
n... It's a thing I do... you
know
... to keep
myself to
gether!" H
e smiles, no
ds, lifts his tro
lley by
its decaying
rubber hand
grip
s.
"Gotta w
ork to
gether, y'kno
w, " S
tanley boom
s, his face alight w
ithcheerfulness, "the p
olice can't d
o everything
!"
The g
entlemen I m
et in my stro
ll in dow
ntow
n Phoenix are the o
nlyco
mputer illiterates in this b
ook. T
o reg
ard them
as irrelevant, how
ev-er, w
ould
be a g
rave mistake.
As co
mputerizatio
n spread
s across so
ciety, the populace at larg
e is sub-
jected to wave after w
ave of future shock. But, as a necessary converse,
the "computer com
munity" itself is sub
jected to wave after w
ave ofin
com
ing co
mputer illiterates. H
ow
will th
ose cu
rrently en
joyin
g
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Am
erica's dig
ital bounty reg
ard, and
treat, all this teeming
refuseyearning
to b
reathe free? Will the electro
nic frontier b
e another Land
of O
pportunity —
or an arm
ed and
monito
red enclave, w
here the disen-
franchised snuggle on their cardboard at the locked doors of our housesof justice?
Some people just don't get along w
ith computers. T
hey can't read. They
can't type. They just don't have it in their heads to m
aster arcaneinstructio
ns in wireb
ound
manuals. S
om
ewhere, the p
rocess o
f com
-puterizatio
n of the p
opulace w
ill reach a limit. S
om
e peo
ple —
quite
decent people mayb
e, who m
ight have thrived in any other situation —
will b
e left irretrievably o
utside the b
ound
s. What's to
be d
one w
iththese p
eople, in the b
right new
shiny electrow
orld
? How
will they b
ereg
arded
, by the m
ouse-w
hizzing m
asters of cyb
erspace? W
ith con-
tempt? Ind
ifference? Fear?
In retrosp
ect, it astonishes m
e to realize ho
w q
uickly poor S
tanleybecam
e a perceived
threat. Surp
rise and fear are clo
sely allied feeling
s.A
nd the w
orld
of co
mputing
is full of surp
rises.
I met o
ne character in the streets of Pho
enix who
se role in tho
se book is
suprem
ely and d
irectly relevant. That p
ersonag
e was S
tanley's giant
thieving scarred
phanto
m. T
his phantasm
is everywhere in this b
ook.
He is the sp
ecter haunting cyb
erspace.
Sometim
es he's a maniac vandal ready to sm
ash the phone system for no
sane reason at all. S
om
etimes he's a fascist fed
, cold
ly pro
gram
ming
hism
ighty m
ainframes to
destro
y our B
ill of R
ights. S
om
etimes he's a telco
bureaucrat, co
vertly consp
iring to
register all m
odem
s in the service of
an Orw
ellian surveillance regim
e. Mostly, tho
ugh, this fearso
me
phantom is a "hacker." H
e's strange, he doesn't belong, he's not autho-rized
, he doesn't sm
ell right, he's no
t keeping
his pro
per p
lace, he's not
one of us. The focus of fear is the hacker, for m
uch the same reasons
that Stanley's fancied
assailant is black.
Stanley's demon can't go aw
ay, because he doesn't exist. Despite single-
mind
ed and
tremend
ous effo
rt, he can't be arrested
, sued, jailed
, or
fired. T
he only co
nstructive way to
do *anything
* about him
is to learn
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more ab
out S
tanley himself. T
his learning p
rocess m
ay be rep
ellent, itm
ay be ug
ly, it may invo
lve grave elem
ents of p
aranoiac co
nfusion, b
utit's necessary. K
now
ing S
tanley requires so
mething
more than class-
crossing
cond
escension. It req
uires more than steely leg
al objectivity.
It requires hum
an com
passio
n and sym
pathy.
To know
Stanley is to know his dem
on. If you know the other guy's
demon, then m
aybe you'll come to know
some of your ow
n. You'll beab
le to sep
arate reality from
illusion. A
nd then yo
u won't d
o yo
urcause, and yourself, m
ore harm than g
ood. Like poor damned Stanley
from
Chicag
o d
id.
__
__
_
The Fed
eral Com
puter Investig
ations C
om
mittee (FC
IC) is the m
ost
important and
influential org
anization in the realm
of A
merican co
m-
puter-crim
e. Since the p
olice o
f other co
untries have largely taken
their com
puter-crim
e cues from
Am
erican metho
ds, the FC
IC m
ight
well b
e called the m
ost im
portant co
mputer crim
e gro
up in the w
orld
.
It is also, b
y federal stand
ards, an o
rganizatio
n of g
reat unortho
doxy.
State and
local investig
ators m
ix with fed
eral agents. Law
yers, finan-cial aud
itors and
com
puter-security p
rogram
mers trad
e notes w
ithstreet cops. Industry vendors and telco security people show
up toexp
lain their gad
getry and
plead
for p
rotectio
n and justice. Private
investig
ators, th
ink-tan
k experts an
d in
dustry p
undits th
row
in th
eirtw
o cents' w
orth. T
he FCIC
is the antithesis of a fo
rmal b
ureaucracy.
Mem
bers o
f the FCIC
are obscurely p
roud
of this fact; they reco
gnize
their gro
up as ab
errant, but are entirely co
nvinced that this, fo
r them,
outrig
ht *w
eird* b
ehavio
r is neverth
eless *abso
lutely n
ecessary* toget their jo
bs d
one.
FCIC
regulars —
from
the Secret S
ervice, the FBI, the IR
S, the
Departm
ent of Labor, the offices of federal attorneys, state police, the
Air Fo
rce, from
military intellig
ence — o
ften attend m
eetings, held
hither and thither acro
ss the country, at their o
wn exp
ense. The FC
ICdoesn't get grants. It doesn't charge m
embership fees. It doesn't have a
boss. It has no headquarters —
just a mail drop in W
ashington D
C, at the
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Fraud Division of the Secret Service. It doesn't have a budget. It doesn't
have schedules. It meets three tim
es a year — sort of. Som
etimes it
issues p
ublicatio
ns, b
ut th
e FCIC
has n
o reg
ular p
ublish
er, no treasu
r-er, no
t even a secretary. There are no
minutes o
f FCIC
meeting
s. Non-
federal p
eople are co
nsidered
"non-vo
ting m
embers," b
ut there's not
much in the w
ay of electio
ns. There are no
bad
ges, lap
el pins o
r certifi-cates o
f mem
bership
. Everyone is o
n a first- name b
asis. There are
about forty of them. N
obody knows how
many, exactly. People com
e,peo
ple g
o —
som
etimes p
eople "g
o" fo
rmally b
ut still hang aro
und any-
way. N
obody has ever exactly fig
ured o
ut what "m
embership
" of this
"Com
mittee" actually entails.
Strang
e as this may seem
to so
me, to
anyone fam
iliar with the so
cialw
orld
of co
mputing
, the "org
anization" o
f the FCIC
is very recognizab
le.
For years now, econom
ists and managem
ent theorists have speculatedthat the tid
al wave o
f the inform
ation revo
lution w
ould
destro
y rigid
,pyram
idal b
ureaucracies, where everything
is top- d
ow
n and centrally
contro
lled. H
ighly trained
"emplo
yees" would
take on m
uch greater
autono
my, b
eing self-starting
, and self-m
otivating
, moving
from
place
to place, task to
task, with g
reat speed and fluidity. "Ad-ho
cracy" would
rule, with g
roup
s of p
eople sp
ontaneo
usly knitting to
gether acro
ssorg
anizational lines, tackling
the pro
blem
at hand, ap
plying
intenseco
mputer-aid
ed exp
ertise to it, and
then vanishing w
hence they came.
This is m
ore o
r less what has actually hap
pened
in the world
of fed
eralcom
puter investigation. With the conspicuous exception of the phone
com
panies, w
hich are after all over a hund
red years o
ld, p
ractically*every* o
rganizatio
n that plays any im
portant ro
le in this book func-
tions just like the FC
IC. T
he Chicag
o T
ask Force, the A
rizona
Racketeering
Unit, the Leg
ion o
f Doom
, the Phrack crow
d, the Electro
nicFro
ntier Found
ation —
they *all* look and
act like "tiger team
s" or
"user's gro
ups." T
hey are all electronic ad
-hocracies leap
ing up
spon-
taneously to attempt to m
eet a need.
Som
e are police. S
om
e are, by strict d
efinition, crim
inals. Som
e arepolitical interest-g
roup
s. But every sing
le gro
up has that sam
e quality
of apparent spontaneity — "H
ey, gang! My uncle's got a barn —
let's put
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on a sho
w!"
Every one o
f these gro
ups is em
barrassed
by this "am
ateurism," and
,fo
r the sake of their p
ublic im
age in a w
orld
of no
n-com
puter p
eople,
they all attempt to
look as stern and
form
al and im
pressive as p
ossib
le.These electro
nic fro
ntier-d
wellers resem
ble g
roups o
f nin
eteenth
-cen-
tury pio
neers hankering after the resp
ectability o
f statehood. T
here areho
wever, tw
o crucial d
ifferences in the historical exp
erience of these
"pio
neers" of the nineteeth and
twenty-first centuries.
First, pow
erful inform
ation techno
logy *d
oes* p
lay into the hand
s of
small, fluid
, loosely o
rganized
gro
ups. T
here have always b
een "pio
-neers," "ho
bbyists," "am
ateurs," "dilettantes," "vo
lunteers," "move-
ments," "users' g
roup
s" and "b
lue-ribbon p
anels of exp
erts" around
.But a g
roup of this kind — w
hen technically equipped to ship huge
amounts o
f specialized
inform
ation, at lig
htning sp
eed, to
its mem
bers,
to g
overnm
ent, and to
the press —
is simply a d
ifferent kind o
f animal.
It's like the difference b
etween an eel and
an electric eel.
The seco
nd crucial chang
e is that Am
erican society is currently in a
state appro
aching p
ermanent techno
logical revo
lution. In the w
orld
of
com
pute
rs particu
larly, it is practically im
possib
le to
*eve
r* stop
being
a "pio
neer," unless you either d
rop d
ead o
r delib
erately jump o
ffthe b
us. The scene has never slow
ed down enoug
h to becom
e well-insti-
tutionalized
. And
after twenty, thirty, fo
rty years the "com
puter revo
-lution" continues to spread, to perm
eate new corners of society.
Anything
that really works is alread
y obso
lete.
If you sp
end yo
ur entire working
life as a "pio
neer," the word
"pio
neer"beg
ins to lo
se its meaning
. Your w
ay of life lo
oks less and
less like anintroduction to "som
ething else" more stable and organized, and m
oreand
more like *just the w
ay things are.* A
"perm
anent revolutio
n" isreally a co
ntrad
iction in
terms. If "tu
rmoil" lasts lo
ng en
ough, it sim
-ply b
ecom
es *a new kind
of so
ciety* — still the sam
e gam
e of histo
ry,but new
players, new
rules.
Apply this to
the world
of late tw
entieth-century law enfo
rcement, and
the implicatio
ns are novel and
puzzling
indeed
. Any b
ureaucratic rule-
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E S
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CK
ER
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AC
KD
OW
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NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
1 9 8
book yo
u write ab
out co
mputer-crim
e will b
e flawed
when yo
u write it,
and almost an antique b
y the time it sees print. T
he fluidity and fastreactio
ns of the FC
IC g
ive them a g
reat advantage in this reg
ard, which
explains their success. Even w
ith the best w
ill in the world
(which it
does no
t, in fact, possess) it is im
possib
le for an o
rganizatio
n the size of
the U.S. Federal B
ureau of Investigation to get up to speed on the theoryand
practice o
f com
puter crim
e. If they tried to
train all their agents to
do this, it w
ould
be *suicid
al,* as they would
*never be ab
le to d
o any-
thing else.*
The FB
I does try to
train its agents in the b
asics of electro
nic crime, at
their base in Q
uantico, V
irginia. A
nd the S
ecret Service, alo
ng w
ithm
any other law
enforcem
ent gro
ups, runs q
uite successful and w
ell-attend
ed training
courses o
n wire fraud
, business crim
e, and co
mputer
intrusion at the Fed
eral Law Enfo
rcement T
raining C
enter (FLETC,
pronounced "fletsy") in Glynco, G
eorgia. B
ut the best efforts of these
bureaucracies does not remove the absolute need for a "cutting-edge
mess" like the FC
IC.
For yo
u see — the m
embers o
f FCIC
*are* the trainers of the rest o
f lawenfo
rcement. Practically and
literally speaking
, they are the Glynco
com
puter-crim
e faculty by ano
ther name. If the FC
IC w
ent over a cliff
on a bus, the U.S. law
enforcement com
munity w
ould be rendered deafdum
b and
blind
in the world
of co
mputer crim
e, and w
ould
swiftly feel a
desperate need to reinvent them. A
nd this is no time to go starting from
scratch.
On June 1
1, 1
99
1, I o
nce again arrived
in Phoenix, A
rizona, fo
r thelatest m
eeting of the Federal C
omputer Investig
ations Com
mittee. T
hisw
as more or less the tw
entieth meeting
of this stellar group. T
he countw
as uncertain, since nobody co
uld fig
ure out w
hether to includ
e them
eetings o
f "the Colluq
uy," which is w
hat the FCIC
was called
in them
id-1980s b
efore it had even manag
ed to obtain the dig
nity of its own
acronym
.
Since m
y last visit to A
rizona, in M
ay, the local A
zScam
brib
ery scandal
had reso
lved itself in a g
eneral mud
dle o
f humiliatio
n. The Pho
enixchief of police, w
hose agents had videotaped nine state legislators up to
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no g
ood, had
resigned
his office in a tussle w
ith the Phoenix city co
uncilover the p
ropriety o
f his underco
ver operatio
ns.
The Pho
enix Chief co
uld no
w jo
in Gail T
hackeray and eleven o
f her clos-
est associates in the shared
experience o
f politically m
otivated
unem-
plo
yment. A
s of June, resig
nations w
ere still continuing
at the Arizo
naA
ttorney G
eneral's office, w
hich could
be interp
reted as either a N
ewBro
om
Sw
eeping
Clean o
r a Nig
ht of the Lo
ng K
nives Part II, dep
ending
on yo
ur point o
f view.
The m
eeting of FCIC
was held at the Scottsdale H
ilton Resort. Scottsdaleis a w
ealthy suburb
of Pho
enix, know
n as "Sco
ttsdull" to
scoffing
local
trendies, b
ut well-eq
uipped
with p
osh sho
pping
- malls and
manicured
lawns, w
hile consp
icuously und
ersupplied
with ho
meless d
erelicts. The
Sco
ttsdale H
ilton R
esort w
as a spraw
ling ho
tel in postm
odern cryp
to-
Southw
estern style. It featured a "m
ission b
ell tow
er" plated
inturq
uoise tile and
vaguely resem
bling
a Saud
i minaret.
Inside it w
as all barb
arically striped
Santa Fe S
tyle deco
r. There w
as ahealth spa dow
nstairs and a large oddly-shaped pool in the patio. A
poolsid
e um
brella-stan
d o
ffered B
en an
d Jerry's p
olitically co
rrectPeace Po
ps.
I registered
as a mem
ber o
f FCIC
, attaining a hand
y disco
unt rate, thenw
ent in search of the Feds. Sure enough, at the back of the hotel groundscam
e the unmistakab
le sound
of G
ail Thackeray ho
lding
forth.
Since I had also attended the Com
puters Freedom and Privacy conference
(about w
hich more later), this w
as the second
time I had
seen Thackeray
in a gro
up o
f her law enfo
rcement co
lleagues. O
nce again I w
as struckby how
simply pleased they seem
ed to see her. It was natural that she'd
get *some* attention, as G
ail was one of tw
o wom
en in a group of some
thirty men; b
ut there was a lo
t more to
it than that.
Gail T
hackeray perso
nifies the social g
lue of the FC
IC. T
hey could
give a
dam
n about her lo
sing her jo
b w
ith the Atto
rney General. T
hey were
sorry ab
out it, o
f course, b
ut hell, they'd all lo
st jobs. If they w
ere thekind of g
uys who liked steady b
oring job
s, they would never have g
otten
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into co
mputer w
ork in the first p
lace.
I wand
ered into
her circle and w
as imm
ediately intro
duced
to five
strangers. T
he cond
itions o
f my visit at FC
IC w
ere reviewed
. I would
not quote anyone directly. I would not tie opinions expressed to the
agencies of the attendees. I w
ould not (a purely hypothetical example)
report the co
nversation o
f a guy fro
m the S
ecret Service talking
quite
civilly to a g
uy from
the FBI, as these tw
o ag
encies *never* talk toeach o
ther, and the IR
S (also
present, also
hypothetical) *never talks to
anybody.*
Worse yet, I w
as forbidden to attend the first conference. A
nd I didn't. Ihave no idea w
hat the FCIC
was up to behind closed doors that afternoon. I
rather suspect that they w
ere engag
ing in a frank and
thoro
ugh co
nfes-sio
n of their erro
rs, goof-up
s and b
lunders, as this has b
een a feature of
every FCIC
meeting
since their legend
ary Mem
phis b
eer- bust o
f 19
86
.Perhap
s the single g
reatest attraction o
f FCIC
is that it is a place w
hereyo
u can go, let yo
ur hair dow
n, and co
mpletely level w
ith peo
ple w
hoactually co
mprehend
what yo
u are talking ab
out. N
ot o
nly do they und
er-stand
you, b
ut they *really pay attentio
n,* they are *grateful fo
r your
insights,* and
they *forg
ive you,* w
hich in nine cases out o
f ten issom
ething even your boss can't do, because as soon as you start talking"R
OM
," "BBS," o
r "T-1
trunk," h
is eyes glaze o
ver.
I had nothing much to do that afternoon. T
he FCIC
were beavering aw
ayin their co
nference room
. Doors w
ere firmly clo
sed, w
indow
s too d
arkto
peer thro
ugh. I w
ond
ered w
hat a real hacker, a com
puter intrud
er,w
ould
do at a m
eeting like this.
The answ
er came at once. H
e would "trash" the place. N
ot reduce theplace to trash in som
e orgy of vandalism; that's not the use of the term
in the hacker milieu. N
o, he w
ould
quietly *em
pty the trash b
askets*and
silently raid any valuab
le data ind
iscreetly throw
n away.
Journalists have b
een know
n to d
o this. (Jo
urnalists hunting info
rma-
tion have been know
n to do almost every sing
le unethical thing that
hackers have ever done. T
hey also thro
w in a few
awful techniq
ues alltheir o
wn.) T
he legality o
f 'trashing' is so
mew
hat dub
ious b
ut it is not
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in fact flagrantly illeg
al. It was, ho
wever, ab
surd to
contem
plate
trashing the FC
IC. T
hese peo
ple knew
all about trashing
. I would
n't lastfifteen seco
nds.
The idea sounded interesting, though. I'd been hearing a lot about the
practice lately. O
n the spur o
f the mom
ent, I decid
ed I w
ould
try trash-ing
the office *acro
ss the hall* from
the FCIC
, an area which had
noth-
ing to
do w
ith the investigato
rs.
The o
ffice was tiny; six chairs, a tab
le.... Nevertheless, it w
as open, so
Idug
around
in its plastic trash can.
To m
y utter astonishm
ent, I came up
with the to
rn scraps o
f a SPR
INT
long-distance phone b
ill. More dig
ging
produced a bank statem
ent andthe scrap
s of a hand
-written letter, alo
ng w
ith gum
, cigarette ashes,
candy w
rappers and
a day-o
ld-issue o
f USA
TO
DA
Y.
The trash w
ent back in its recep
tacle while the scrap
s of d
ata went into
my travel b
ag. I detoured throug
h the hotel souvenir shop for some
Scotch tape and went up to m
y room.
Coincid
ence or no
t, it was q
uite true. Som
e poor so
ul had, in fact,
throw
n a SPR
INT b
ill into the ho
tel's trash. Date M
ay 19
91
, total
amount d
ue: $2
52
.36
. Not a b
usiness pho
ne, either, but a resid
entialbill, in the nam
e of so
meo
ne called Evelyn (no
t her real name).
Evelyn's record
s show
ed a #
# PA
ST D
UE B
ILL ##
! Here w
as hernine-d
igit acco
unt ID. H
ere was a stern co
mputer-p
rinted w
arning:
"TREA
T YO
UR FO
NCA
RD A
S YOU W
OULD
AN
Y CRED
IT C
ARD
. TO
SECURE
AG
AIN
ST FRA
UD
, NEV
ER GIV
E YO
UR FO
NCA
RD N
UM
BER O
VER T
HE PH
ON
EU
NLES
S Y
OU
INIT
IATED
TH
E CA
LL. IF YO
U R
ECEIV
E SU
SPIC
IOU
S C
ALLS
PLEASE N
OTIFY
CU
STO
MER
SER
VIC
E IMM
EDIA
TELY
!"
I examined
my w
atch. Still p
lenty of tim
e left for the FC
IC to
carry on.
I sorted
out the scrap
s of Evelyn's S
PRIN
T b
ill and re-assem
bled
themw
ith fresh Sco
tch tape. H
ere was her ten-d
igit FO
NCA
RD
number.
Did
n't seem to
have the ID num
ber necessary to
cause real fraud tro
uble.
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UC
E S
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RL
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E
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CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
2 0 2
I did
, how
ever, have Evelyn's hom
e pho
ne number. A
nd the p
hone num
-bers fo
r a who
le crow
d o
f Evelyn's long
-distance friend
s and acq
uain-tances. In San D
iego, Folsom, Redondo, Las V
egas, La Jolla, Topeka, and
Northam
pto
n Massachusetts. Even so
meb
ody in A
ustralia!
I examined other docum
ents. Here w
as a bank statement. It w
asEvelyn's IR
A acco
unt dow
n at a bank in S
an Mateo
Califo
rnia (total b
al-ance $
18
77
.20
). Here w
as a charge-card
bill fo
r $3
82
.64
. She w
aspaying
it off b
it by b
it.
Driven b
y motives that w
ere com
pletely unethical and
prurient, I no
wexam
ined the hand
written no
tes. They had
been to
rn fairly thoro
ughly,
so much so that it took m
e almost an entire five m
inutes to reassemble
them.
They w
ere drafts of a love letter. They had b
een written on the lined
stationery o
f Evelyn's emplo
yer, a bio
med
ical com
pany. Pro
bab
lyw
ritten at work w
hen she should have been doing
something
else.
"Dear B
ob," (no
t his real name) "I g
uess in everyone's life there co
mes
a time w
hen hard decisions have to be m
ade, and this is a difficult onefor m
e — very upsetting. Since you haven't called m
e, and I don'tunderstand w
hy, I can only surmise it's b
ecause you don't want to. I
thoug
ht I would
have heard fro
m yo
u Friday. I d
id have a few
unusualpro
blem
s with m
y pho
ne and p
ossib
ly you tried
, I hope so
. "Robert, yo
uasked m
e to 'let go'..."
The first no
te ended
. *Unusual p
roblem
s with her p
hone?* I lo
oked
swiftly at the next no
te.
"Bob, no
t hearing fro
m yo
u for the w
hole w
eekend has left m
e very per-
plexed
..."
Next d
raft.
"Dear B
ob, there is so
much I d
on't und
erstand rig
ht now
, and I w
ish Idid
. I wish I co
uld talk to
you, b
ut for so
me unkno
wn reaso
n you have
elected not to call — this is so difficult for m
e to understand..."
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She tried
again.
"Bob, S
ince I have always held
you in such hig
h esteem, I had
every hope
that we co
uld rem
ain good friend
s, but no
w o
ne essential ingred
ient ism
issing —
respect. Y
our ab
ility to d
iscard p
eople w
hen their purp
ose is
served is appalling to m
e. The kindest thing
you could do for me now
isto leave m
e alone. You are no long
er welcom
e in my heart or hom
e..."
Try ag
ain.
"Bob, I w
rote a very factual note to you to say how m
uch respect I hadlo
st for yo
u, by the w
ay you treat p
eople, m
e in particular, so
uncaringand cold. T
he kindest thing you can do for m
e is to leave me alone entire-
ly, as you are no
long
er welco
me in m
y heart or ho
me. I w
ould
appreci-
ate it if you could retire your debt to m
e as soon as possible —
I wish no
link to
you in
any w
ay. Sin
cerely, Evelyn."
Good heavens, I thoug
ht, the bastard actually ow
es her money! I turned
to the next page.
"Bob: very sim
ple. G
OO
DBYE! N
o m
ore m
ind g
ames —
no m
ore fascina-
tion — no m
ore coldness — no m
ore respect for you! It's over — Finis.
Evie"
There w
ere two versio
ns of the final b
rushoff letter, b
ut they read ab
out
the same. M
aybe she had
n't sent it. The final item
in my illicit and
shameful booty w
as an envelope addressed to "Bob" at his hom
e address,but it had no stam
p on it and it hadn't been mailed.
Mayb
e she'd just b
een blo
wing
off steam
because her rascal b
oyfriend
had neglected to call her one weekend. B
ig deal. Maybe they'd kissed and
made up, m
aybe she and Bob w
ere down at Pop's C
hocolate Shop now,
sharing a m
alted. S
ure.
Easy to find
out. A
ll I had to
do w
as call Evelyn up. W
ith a half-cleversto
ry and eno
ugh b
rass- plated
gall I co
uld p
robab
ly trick the truth out
of her. Pho
ne-phreaks and
hackers deceive p
eople o
ver the pho
ne all the
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time. It's called
"social eng
ineering." S
ocial eng
ineering is a very co
m-
mon p
ractice in the underg
round
, and alm
ost m
agically effective. H
uman
being
s are almost alw
ays the weakest link in co
mputer security. T
hesim
plest w
ay to learn T
hings Y
ou A
re Not M
eant To K
now
is simply to
call up and
explo
it the know
ledgeab
le peo
ple. W
ith social eng
ineering,
you use the bits of specialized knowledge you already have as a key, to
manip
ulate peo
ple into
believing
that you are leg
itimate. Y
ou can then
coax, flatter, o
r frighten them
into revealing
almost anything
you w
antto
know
. Deceiving
peo
ple (esp
ecially over the p
hone) is easy and
fun.Exp
loitin
g th
eir g
ullib
ility is ve
ry g
ratifyin
g; it m
akes y
ou fe
el ve
rysup
erior to
them.
If I'd b
een a malicio
us hacker on a trashing
raid, I w
ould
now
haveEvelyn very m
uch in my p
ow
er. Given all this insid
e data, it w
ould
n'ttake m
uch effort at all to
invent a convincing
lie. If I were ruthless
enoug
h, and jad
ed eno
ugh, and
clever enoug
h, this mom
entary indiscre-
tion of hers — m
aybe comm
itted in tears, who know
s — could cause her a
who
le world
of co
nfusion and
grief.
I did
n't even have to have a *m
alicious* m
otive. M
aybe I'd
be "o
n herside," and call up B
ob instead, and anonym
ously threaten to break b
othhis kneecap
s if he did
n't take Evelyn out fo
r a steak dinner p
ronto
. Itw
as still pro
found
ly *none o
f my b
usiness.* To have g
otten this
knowledge at all w
as a sordid act and to use it would be to inflict a sordid
inju
ry.
To d
o all these aw
ful things w
ould
require exactly zero
high-tech
expertise. A
ll it would
take was the w
illingness to
do it and
a certainam
ount o
f bent im
aginatio
n.
I went b
ack dow
nstairs. The hard
-working
FCIC
, who
had lab
ored
forty-
five minutes o
ver their schedule, w
ere throug
h for the d
ay, andad
journed
to the ho
tel bar. W
e all had a b
eer.
I had a chat w
ith a guy ab
out "Isis," o
r rather IACIS
, the International
Asso
ciation o
f Com
puter Investig
ation S
pecialists. T
hey're into "co
m-
puter fo
rensics," the techniques o
f picking
com
puter- system
s apart
witho
ut destro
ying vital evid
ence. IACIS
, currently run out o
f Oreg
on, is
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com
prised
of investig
ators in the U
.S., C
anada, T
aiwan and
Ireland.
"Taiw
an an
d Ire
land?" I said
. Are
*Taiw
an* an
d *Ire
land* re
ally inthe fo
refront o
f this stuff? Well no
t exactly, my info
rmant ad
mitted
.They just happen to have been the first ones to have caught on by w
ord ofm
outh. S
till, the international ang
le counts, b
ecause this is obvio
uslyan internatio
nal pro
blem
. Phone-lines g
o everyw
here.
There w
as a Mountie here fro
m the R
oyal C
anadian M
ounted
Police. H
eseem
ed to be having quite a good time. N
obody had flung this Canadian
out b
ecause he mig
ht pose a fo
reign security risk. T
hese are cyberspace
cops. T
hey still worry a lo
t about "jurisd
ictions," b
ut mere g
eograp
hyis the least o
f their troub
les.
NA
SA had failed to show
. NA
SA suffers a lot from
computer intrusions,
in p
articular fro
m A
ustralian
raiders an
d a w
ell-trum
peted
Chao
sCom
puter C
lub case, and
in 19
90
there was a b
rief press flurry w
henit w
as revealed that one of NA
SA's H
ouston branch-exchanges had beensystem
atically ripped off by a g
ang of phone-phreaks. B
ut the NA
SAguys had
had their fund
ing cut. T
hey were strip
ping
everything.
Air Fo
rce OSI, its O
ffice of S
pecial Investig
ations, is the *o
nly* federal
entity dedicated full-time to com
puter security. They'd been expected to
show up in force, but som
e of them had cancelled —
a Pentagon budgetpinch.
As the em
pties p
iled up
, the guys b
egan jo
shing aro
und and
telling w
ar-sto
ries. "These are co
ps," T
hackeray said to
lerantly. "If they're not
talking shop they talk about wom
en and beer."
I heard the story about the guy who, asked for "a copy" of a com
puterdisk, *photocopied the lab
el on it.* He put the floppy disk onto the g
lassplate of a photocopier. T
he blast of static w
hen the copier worked com
-pletely erased
all the real inform
ation o
n the disk.
Some other poor souls threw
a whole bag of confiscated diskettes into the
squad
-car trunk next to the p
olice rad
io. T
he pow
erful radio
signal
blasted them, too.
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We heard a b
it about D
ave Geneson, the first com
puter prosecutor, am
ainframe-runner in D
ade C
ounty, turned
lawyer. D
ave Geneso
n was
one g
uy who
had hit the g
round
running, a sig
nal virtue in making
thetransitio
n to co
mputer-crim
e. It was g
enerally agreed
that it was easi-
er to learn the w
orld
of co
mputers first, then p
olice o
r pro
secutorial
work. Y
ou could take certain computer people and train 'em
to successfulpolice w
ork — b
ut of course they had to have the *cop mentality.* T
heyhad to have street sm
arts. Patience. Persistence. And discretion.
You've got to make sure they're not hot- shots, show
-offs, "cowboys."
Most o
f the folks in the b
ar had b
ackgro
unds in m
ilitary intelligence, o
rdrug
s, or ho
micid
e. It was rud
ely opined
that "military intellig
ence"w
as a contrad
iction in term
s, while even the g
risly world
of ho
micid
ew
as considered cleaner than drug enforcement. O
ne guy had been 'way
underco
ver doing
dope-w
ork in Euro
pe fo
r four years straig
ht. "I'malm
ost recovered now," he said deadpan, w
ith the acid black hum
or thatis p
ure cop. "H
ey, now
I can say *fucker* witho
ut putting
*mother*
in front o
f it."
"In the cop w
orld
," another g
uy said earnestly, "everything
is good and
bad
, black and
white. In the co
mputer w
orld
everything is g
ray."
One guy —
a founder of the FCIC
, who'd been w
ith the group since it was
just the Colluq
uy — d
escribed
his ow
n introductio
n to the field
. He'd
been a W
ashington D
C hom
icide guy called in on a "hacker" case. From
the word
"hacker," he naturally assumed
he was o
n the trail of a knife-
wielding m
arauder, and went to the com
puter center expecting blood anda b
ody. W
hen he finally figured
out w
hat was hap
pening
there (afterlo
udly d
emand
ing, in vain, that the p
rogram
mers "sp
eak English"), he
called headquarters and told them he w
as clueless about computers.
They told him
nobody else knew diddly either, and to get the hell back to
work.
So, he said, he had proceeded by comparisons. B
y analogy. By m
etaphor."S
om
ebody b
roke in to
your co
mputer, huh?" B
reaking and
entering; I
can understand that. How
'd he get in? "O
ver the phone- lines."H
arassing p
hone-calls, I can und
erstand that! W
hat we need
here is atap
and a trace!
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It worked. It w
as better than nothing
. And it w
orked a lot faster when
he got hold of another cop who'd done som
ething similar. A
nd then thetw
o of them got another, and another, and pretty soon the C
olluquy was a
happening thing. It helped a lot that everybody seemed to know
Carlton
Fitzpatrick, th
e data-p
rocessin
g train
er in G
lynco
.
The ice b
roke b
ig-tim
e in Mem
phis in '8
6. T
he Colluq
uy had attracted
abunch o
f new g
uys — S
ecret Service, FB
I, military, o
ther feds, heavy
guys. Nobody w
anted to tell anybody anything. They suspected that if
word got back to the hom
e office they'd all be fired. They passed an
uncom
fortab
ly guard
ed afterno
on.
The fo
rmalities g
ot them
now
here. But after the fo
rmal sessio
n was
over, the o
rganizers b
roug
ht in a case of b
eer. As so
on as the p
artici-pants kno
cked it o
ff with the b
ureaucratic ranks and turf-fig
hting,
everything chang
ed. "I b
ared m
y soul," o
ne veteran reminisced
pro
udly.
By nig
htfall they were b
uilding
pyram
ids o
f empty b
eer-cans and d
oing
everything but composing a team
fight song.
FCIC
were no
t the only co
mputer-crim
e peo
ple aro
und. T
here was
DA
TTA
(District A
ttorneys' Technology T
heft Association), though they
mostly sp
ecialized in
chip
theft, in
tellectual p
roperty, an
d b
lack-mar-
ket cases. There w
as HTCIA
(Hig
h Tech C
omputer Investig
atorsA
ssociatio
n), also o
ut in Silico
n Valley, a year o
lder than FC
IC and
fea-turing
brilliant p
eople like D
onald
Ingraham
. There w
as LEETA
C (Law
Enforcem
ent Electronic T
echnolo
gy A
ssistance Com
mittee) in Flo
rida,
and co
mputer- crim
e units in Illinois and
Maryland
and T
exas and O
hioand
Colo
rado and
Pennsylvania. But these w
ere local g
roup
s. FCIC
were
the first to really netw
ork natio
nally and o
n a federal level.
FCIC
peo
ple live o
n the pho
ne lines. Not o
n bulletin b
oard
systems —
they know
very well w
hat board
s are, and they kno
w that b
oard
s aren'tsecure. Everyo
ne in the FCIC
has a voice-p
hone b
ill like you w
ould
n'tbelieve. FC
IC people have b
een tight w
ith the telco people for a longtim
e. Telep
hone cyb
erspace is their native hab
itat.
FCIC
has three basic sub
-tribes: the trainers, the security p
eople, and
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the investigato
rs. That's w
hy it's called an "Investig
ations C
om
mittee"
with no
mentio
n of the term
"com
puter-crim
e" — the d
readed
"C-w
ord
."FC
IC, o
fficially, is "an associatio
n of ag
encies rather than individ
uals;"uno
fficially, this field is sm
all enoug
h that the influence of ind
ividuals
and ind
ividual exp
ertise is param
ount. A
ttendance is b
y invitation o
nly,and
most everyo
ne in FCIC
consid
ers himself a p
rophet w
ithout ho
nor in
his ow
n house.
Again and
again I heard
this, with d
ifferent terms b
ut identical senti-
ments. "I'd
been sitting
in the wild
erness talking to
myself." "I w
asto
tally isolated
." "I was d
esperate." "FC
IC is the b
est thing there is
about co
mputer crim
e in Am
erica." "FCIC
is what really w
orks." "T
hisis w
here you hear real p
eople telling
you w
hat's really happening
out
there, not just law
yers picking
nits." "We taug
ht each other everything
we knew
."
The sincerity o
f these statements co
nvinces me that this is true. FC
IC is
the real thing and
it is invaluable. It's also
very sharply at o
dds w
iththe rest o
f the traditio
ns and p
ow
er structure in Am
erican law enfo
rce-m
ent. There prob
ably hasn't b
een anything around as loose and g
o-get-
ting as the FC
IC since the start o
f the U.S
. Secret S
ervice in the 18
60
s.FC
IC p
eople
are livin
g like
twenty-first- ce
ntu
ry people
in a tw
enti-
eth-century environm
ent, and w
hile there's a great d
eal to b
e said fo
rthat, there's also a great deal to be said against it, and those against ithappen to control the budgets.
I listened to
two FC
IC g
uys from
Jersey com
pare life histo
ries. One o
fthem
had b
een a biker in a fairly heavy-d
uty gang
in the 19
60
s. "Oh,
did
you kno
w so
-and-so
?" said the o
ther guy fro
m Jersey. "B
ig g
uy,heavyset?"
"Yeah, I knew
him."
"Yeah, he was one of ours. H
e was our plant in the gang."
"Really? W
ow
! Yeah, I knew
him. H
elluva guy."
Thackeray rem
inisced at leng
th about b
eing tear-g
assed b
lind in the
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Novem
ber 1
96
9 antiw
ar pro
tests in Washing
ton C
ircle, covering
themfor her colleg
e paper. "Oh yeah, I w
as there," said another cop. "Glad to
hear that tear gas hit somethin'. H
aw haw
haw." H
e'd been so blindhim
self, he confessed
, that later that day he'd
arrested a sm
all tree.
FCIC
are an odd group, sifted out by coincidence and necessity, andturned into a new
kind of cop. There are a lot of specialized cops in the
world
— yo
ur bunco
guys, yo
ur drug
guys, yo
ur tax guys, b
ut the only
gro
up that m
atches FCIC
for sheer iso
lation are p
robab
ly the child-
porno
grap
hy peo
ple. B
ecause they both d
eal with co
nspirato
rs who
aredesperate to exchange forbidden data and also desperate to hide; andbecause nobody else in law
enforcement even w
ants to hear about it.
FCIC
people tend to change jobs a lot. They tend not to get the equipm
entand training they w
ant and need. And they tend to get sued quite often.
As the nig
ht wore on and a b
and set up in the bar, the talk g
rew darker.
Nothing ever gets done in governm
ent, someone opined, until there's a
*disaster.* C
om
puting
disasters are aw
ful, but there's no
denying
thatthey g
reatly help the cred
ibility o
f FCIC
peo
ple. T
he Internet Worm
,for instance. "For years w
e'd been w
arning ab
out that — b
ut it's nothingcom
pared to what's com
ing." They expect horrors, these people. T
heykno
w that no
thing w
ill really get d
one until there is a ho
rror.
__
__
_
Next day w
e heard an extensive briefing
from a g
uy who'd b
een a com-
puter cop, gotten into hot w
ater with an A
rizona city council, and nowinstalled
com
puter netw
orks fo
r a living (at a co
nsiderab
le rise in pay).
He talked
about p
ulling fib
er-optic netw
orks ap
art.
Even a single co
mputer, w
ith enoug
h perip
herals, is a literal "network"
— a b
unch of m
achines all cabled
together, g
enerally with a co
mplexity
that puts stereo units to shame. FC
IC people invent and pub
licizem
ethods o
f seizing co
mputers and
maintaining
their evidence. S
imple
things, so
metim
es, but vital rules o
f thumb fo
r street cops, w
ho no
wa-
days o
ften stumble acro
ss a busy co
mputer in the m
idst o
f a drug
inves-tig
ation o
r a white-co
llar bust. Fo
r instance: Photo
grap
h the systembefore you touch it. Label the ends of all the cables before you detach
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anything. "Park" the heads on the disk drives b
efore you move them
.Get the diskettes. D
on't put the diskettes in magnetic fields. D
on't write
on diskettes with b
allpoint pens. Get the m
anuals. Get the printouts.
Get the handw
ritten notes. Copy data before you look at it, and then
examine the co
py instead
of the o
riginal.
Now
our lecturer d
istributed
copied
diag
rams o
f a typical LA
N o
r "Local
Area N
etwork", w
hich happened to be out of Connecticut. *O
ne hundredand
fifty-nine* deskto
p co
mputers, each w
ith its ow
n perip
herals.Three "file servers." Five "star co
uplers" each
with
thirty-tw
o p
orts.
One sixteen- p
ort co
upler o
ff in the corner o
ffice. All these m
achinestalkin
g to
each o
ther, d
istributin
g electro
nic m
ail, distrib
utin
g so
ft-w
are, distrib
utin
g, q
uite p
ossib
ly, crimin
al eviden
ce. All lin
ked b
yhig
h- capacity fiber-optic cab
le. A b
ad guy —
cops talk a lot about "b
adguys" —
mig
ht b
e lurkin
g o
n P
C #
47
or #
12
3 an
d d
istributin
g h
is illdoings onto som
e dupe's "personal" machine in another office —
orano
ther floor —
or, q
uite possib
ly, two o
r three miles aw
ay! Or, co
n-ceivab
ly, the evidence m
ight b
e "data-strip
ed" —
split up
into m
eaning-
less slivers stored
, one b
y one, o
n a who
le crow
d o
f different d
isk dri-
ves.
The lecturer challeng
ed us fo
r solutio
ns. I for o
ne was utterly clueless.
As far as I co
uld fig
ure, the Cossacks w
ere at the gate; there w
ere pro
b-
ably m
ore d
isks in this single b
uilding
than were seized
during
theentirety o
f Operatio
n Sund
evil.
"Inside info
rmant," so
meb
ody said
. Rig
ht. There's alw
ays the human
angle, something easy to forget w
hen contemplating the arcane recesses
of high technolog
y. Cops are skilled at g
etting people to talk, and com
-puter p
eople, g
iven a chair and so
me sustained
attention, w
ill talk about
their com
puters till their thro
ats go raw
. There's a case o
n record
of a
single q
uestion —
"How
'd yo
u do it?" —
eliciting a fo
rty-five-minute
video
taped
confessio
n from
a com
puter crim
inal who
not o
nly com
plete-
ly incrim
inated
him
self but d
rew h
elpfu
l diag
rams.
Com
puter p
eople talk. H
ackers *brag
.* Phone- p
hreaks talk *patho
-lo
gically* —
why else are they stealing
pho
ne-codes, if no
t to natter fo
rten ho
urs straight to
their friends o
n an opposite seab
oard
? Com
puter-
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literate people do in fact possess an arsenal of nifty gadgets and tech-niq
ues that would
allow
them to
conceal all kind
s of exo
tic skulldug
gery,
and if they co
uld o
nly *shut up* ab
out it, they co
uld p
robab
ly get aw
ayw
ith all manner o
f amazing
inform
ation-crim
es. But that's just no
tho
w it w
orks —
or at least, that's no
t how
it's worked
*so far.*
Most every p
hone-p
hreak ever busted
has swiftly im
plicated
his men-
tors, h
is discip
les, and h
is friends. M
ost every w
hite-co
llar com
puter-
criminal, sm
ugly co
nvinced that his clever schem
e is bulletp
roof,
swiftly learn
s oth
erwise w
hen
, for th
e first time in
his life, an
actual
no-kid
ding
policem
an leans over, g
rabs the fro
nt of his shirt, lo
oks him
right in the eye and
says: "All rig
ht, *asshole* —
you and
me are g
oing
dow
ntow
n!" All the hard
ware in the w
orld
will no
t insulate your
nerves from
these actual real-life sensations o
f terror and
guilt.
Cops know
ways to get from
point A to point Z w
ithout thumbing through
every letter in som
e smart-ass b
ad-g
uy's alphab
et. Cops kno
w ho
w to
cut to the chase. Cops know
a lot of things other people don't know.
Hackers know
a lot of things other people don't know, too. H
ackerskno
w, fo
r instance, how
to sneak into
your co
mputer thro
ugh the p
hone-
lines. But co
ps can sho
w up
*right o
n your d
oorstep
* and carry o
ff*yo
u* and yo
ur com
puter in sep
arate steel boxes. A
cop interested
inhackers can g
rab them
and g
rill them. A
hacker interested in co
ps has to
depend on hearsay, underground leg
ends, and what cops are w
illing to
pub
licly reveal. And
the Secret S
ervice did
n't get nam
ed "the *S
ecret*Service" b
ecause they blab
a lot.
Som
e peo
ple, o
ur lecturer inform
ed us, w
ere under the m
istakenim
pressio
n that it was "im
possib
le" to tap
a fiber-o
ptic line. W
ell, heanno
unced, he and
his son had
just whip
ped
up a fib
er-optic tap
in hisw
orksho
p at ho
me. H
e passed
it around
the audience, alo
ng w
ith a cir-cuit-co
vered LA
N p
lug-in card
so w
e'd all reco
gnize o
ne if we saw
it on a
case. We all had
a look.
The tap w
as a classic "Goofy Prototype" —
a thumb-length rounded m
etalcylind
er with a p
air of p
lastic brackets o
n it. From
one end
dang
ledthree thin b
lack cables, each o
f which end
ed in a tiny b
lack plastic cap
.
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When you plucked the safety-cap off the end of a cable, you could see the
glass fib
er — no
thicker than a pinho
le.
Our lecturer info
rmed
us that the metal cylind
er was a "w
avelength
divisio
n multip
lexer." Apparently, w
hat one d
id w
as to cut the fib
er-optic cable, insert tw
o of the legs into the cut to complete the netw
orkag
ain, and then read any passing data on the line b
y hooking up the third
leg to some kind of m
onitor. Sounded simple enough. I w
ondered why
nobody had thought of it before. I also wondered w
hether this guy's sonback at the w
orkshop had any teenage friends.
We had a break. T
he guy sitting next to me w
as wearing a giveaw
aybaseb
all cap ad
vertising the U
zi subm
achine gun. W
e had a d
esultory
chat about the m
erits of Uzis. Long
a favorite of the Secret Service, itseem
s Uzis w
ent out o
f fashion w
ith the advent o
f the Persian Gulf W
ar,our A
rab allies taking
som
e offense at A
mericans to
ting Israeli w
eapons.
Besid
es, I was info
rmed
by ano
ther expert, U
zis jam. T
he equivalent
weapon of choice today is the H
eckler & K
och, manufactured in G
ermany.
The g
uy with the U
zi cap was a forensic photog
rapher. He also did a lot
of p
hoto
grap
hic surveillance work in co
mputer crim
e cases. He used
to, th
at is, until th
e firings in
Phoen
ix. He w
as now
a private in
vesti-gato
r and, w
ith his wife, ran a p
hoto
grap
hy salon sp
ecializing in w
ed-
dings and portrait photos. A
t — one m
ust repeat — a considerab
le rise ininco
me.
He w
as still FCIC
. If you were FC
IC, and you needed to talk to an expert
about fo
rensic pho
tograp
hy, well, there he w
as, willing
and ab
le. If hehad
n't show
n up, p
eople w
ould
have missed
him.
Our lecturer had
raised the p
oint that p
reliminary investig
ation o
f aco
mputer system
is vital befo
re any seizure is undertaken. It's vital to
understand
how
many m
achines are in there, what kind
s there are, what
kind of operating system
they use, how m
any people use them, w
herethe actual data itself is stored. T
o simply b
arge into an office dem
anding"all the co
mputers" is a recip
e for sw
ift disaster.
This entails so
me d
iscreet inquiries b
eforehand
. In fact, what it entails
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is basically u
nderco
ver work. A
n in
telligen
ce operatio
n. *S
pyin
g,*
not to put too fine a point on it.
In a chat after the lecture, I asked an attendee whether "trashing
" mig
htw
ork.
I received a sw
ift briefing
on the theo
ry and p
ractice of "trash co
vers."Police
"trash co
vers," like
"mail co
vers" o
r like w
iretap
s, require
the
agreem
ent of a judge. T
his obtained, the "trashing
" work of cops is just
like that of hackers, only more so and m
uch better org
anized. So much
so, I w
as inform
ed, that m
obsters in Pho
enix make extensive use o
flo
cked g
arbag
e cans picked
up b
y a specialty hig
h-security trash com
-pany.
In one case, a tiger team of A
rizona cops had trashed a local residence forfour m
onths. Every week they show
ed up on the municipal g
arbag
etruck, disguised as garbagem
en, and carried the contents of the suspectcans off to a shade tree, w
here they combed through the garbage —
am
essy task, especially co
nsidering
that one o
f the occup
ants was und
er-going
kidney d
ialysis. All useful d
ocum
ents were cleaned
, dried
andexam
ined. A
discard
ed typ
ewriter-rib
bon w
as an especially valuab
leso
urce of d
ata, as its long
one- strike rib
bon o
f film co
ntained the co
n-tents of every letter m
ailed out of the house. The letters w
ere neatlyretyp
ed b
y a police secretary eq
uipped
with a larg
e desk-m
ounted
mag
-nifying
glass.
There is so
mething
weird
ly disq
uieting ab
out the w
hole sub
ject of
"trashing" — an unsuspected and indeed rather disgusting m
ode of deepperso
nal vulnerability. T
hings that w
e pass b
y every day, that w
e takeutterly fo
r granted
, can be exp
loited
with so
little work. O
nce disco
v-ered
, the know
ledge o
f these vulnerabilities tend
to sp
read.
Take the lo
wly sub
ject of *m
anhole co
vers.* The hum
ble m
anhole co
verrep
roduces m
any of the d
ilemm
as of co
mputer-security in m
iniature.M
anhole co
vers are, of co
urse, technolo
gical artifacts, access-p
oints to
our b
uried urb
an infrastructure. To the vast m
ajority o
f us, manho
leco
vers are invisible. T
hey are also vulnerab
le. For m
any years now
,the S
ecret Service has m
ade a p
oint o
f caulking m
anhole co
vers along
all
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routes o
f the Presidential m
oto
rcade. T
his is, of co
urse, to d
eter ter-ro
rists from
leapin
g o
ut o
f underg
round am
bush
or, m
ore likely, p
lant-
ing rem
ote-co
ntrol car- sm
ashing b
om
bs b
eneath the street.
Lately, manho
le covers have seen m
ore and
more crim
inal explo
itation,
especially in N
ew Y
ork C
ity. Recently, a telco
in New
York C
ity disco
v-ered
that a cable televisio
n service had b
een sneaking into
telco m
an-ho
les and installing
cable service alo
ngsid
e the pho
ne-lines — *w
ithout
paying
royalties.* N
ew Y
ork co
mpanies have also
suffered a g
eneralplag
ue of (a) und
ergro
und co
pper cab
le theft; (b) d
umping
of g
arbag
e,includ
ing to
xic waste, and
(c) hasty dum
ping
of m
urder victim
s.
Industry co
mplaints reached
the ears of an inno
vative New
England
industrial-security co
mpany, and
the result was a new
pro
duct kno
wn
as "the Intimid
ator," a thick titanium
-steel bolt w
ith a precisely
machined head that requires a special device to unscrew
. All these
"keys" have registered
serial numbers kep
t on file w
ith the manufac-
turer. There are no
w so
me tho
usands o
f these "Intimid
ator" b
olts b
eingsunk into
Am
erican pavem
ents wherever o
ur President p
asses, likesom
e macabre parody of strew
n roses. They are also spreading as fast
as steel dand
elions aro
und U
S m
ilitary bases and
many centers o
f pri-
vate industry.
Quite likely it has never o
ccurred to
you to
peer und
er a manho
le cover,
perhap
s climb d
ow
n and w
alk around
dow
n there with a flashlig
ht, justto
see what it's like. Fo
rmally sp
eaking, this m
ight b
e trespassing
, but
if you d
idn't hurt anything
, and d
idn't m
ake an abso
lute habit o
f it,nob
ody would really care. T
he freedom to sneak under m
anholes was
likely a freedom
you never intend
ed to
exercise.
You no
w are rather less likely to
have that freedom
at all. You m
aynever even have m
issed it until yo
u read ab
out it here, b
ut if you're in
New
York C
ity it's gone, and
elsewhere it's likely g
oing
. This is o
ne of
the things that crime, and the reaction to crim
e, does to us.
The tenor of the m
eeting now changed as the Electronic Frontier
Found
ation arrived
. The EFF, w
hose p
ersonnel and
history w
ill be
examined
in detail in the next chap
ter, are a pio
neering civil lib
erties
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gro
up w
ho aro
se in direct resp
onse to
the Hacker C
rackdow
n of 1
99
0.
Now
Mitchell K
apor, the Fo
undatio
n's presid
ent, and M
ichael Godw
in, itschief atto
rney, were co
nfronting
federal law
enforcem
ent *mano
am
ano* fo
r the first time ever. Ever alert to
the manifo
ld uses o
f pub
-licity, M
itch K
apor an
d M
ike Godw
in h
ad b
rought th
eir ow
n jo
urn
alistin to
w: R
obert D
raper, fro
m A
ustin, who
se recent well- received
book
about ROLLIN
G ST
ON
E magazine w
as still on the stands. Draper w
as onassig
nment fo
r TEX
AS M
ON
TH
LY.
The S
teve Jackson/EFF civil law
suit against the C
hicago C
om
puter Fraud
and A
buse T
ask Force w
as a matter o
f consid
erable reg
ional interest in
Texas. T
here were no
w tw
o A
ustinite journalists here o
n the case. Infact, co
unting G
odw
in (a form
er Austinite and
form
er journalist) there
were three o
f us. Lunch was like O
ld H
om
e Week.
Later, I took D
raper up
to m
y hotel ro
om
. We had
a long
frank talkab
out the case, netw
orking
earnestly like a miniature freelance-jo
urnoversio
n of the FC
IC: p
rivately confessing
the numero
us blund
ers of
journalists co
vering the sto
ry, and trying
hard to
figure o
ut who
was
who
and w
hat the hell was really g
oing
on o
ut there. I show
ed D
raper
everything I had dug out of the Hilton trashcan. W
e pondered the ethicsof "trashing
" for a w
hile, and ag
reed that they w
ere dism
al. We also
agreed
that finding
a SPR
INT b
ill on yo
ur first time o
ut was a heck o
f aco
incidence.
First I'd "trashed" — and now
, mere hours later, I'd b
ragged to som
eoneelse. H
aving entered
the lifestyle of hackerd
om
, I was no
w, unsurp
ris-ing
ly, follo
wing
its logic. H
aving d
iscovered
som
ething rem
arkable
throug
h a surreptitio
us action, I o
f course *had
* to "b
rag," and
to d
ragthe p
assing D
raper into
my iniq
uities. I felt I needed
a witness.
Otherw
ise nobody would have believed w
hat I'd discovered....
Back at th
e meetin
g, T
hackeray co
rdially, if rath
er tentatively, in
tro-
duced Kapor and G
odwin to her colleag
ues. Papers were distrib
uted.K
apor to
ok center stag
e. The b
rilliant Bosto
nian high-tech entrep
re-neur, no
rmally the haw
k in his ow
n adm
inistration and
quite an effec-
tive pub
lic speaker, seem
ed visib
ly nervous, and
frankly adm
itted as
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much. H
e beg
an by saying
he consided computer-intrusion to b
em
orally wrong
, and that the EFF was not a "hacker defense fund," despite
what had appeared in print. K
apor chatted a bit ab
out the basic m
oti-vatio
ns of his g
roup
, emphasizing
their good faith and
willing
ness tolisten and
seek com
mon g
round
with law
enforcem
ent — w
hen, er, pos-
sible.
Then, at G
odw
in's urging
, Kap
or sud
denly rem
arked that EFF's o
wn
Internet machine had b
een "hacked" recently, and that EFF did not con-sid
er this incident am
using.
After this surp
rising co
nfession, thing
s beg
an to lo
osen up
quite rap
idly.
Soon K
apor w
as fielding
questio
ns, parrying
objectio
ns, challenging
definitio
ns, and jug
gling
parad
igm
s with so
mething
akin to his usual
gusto
.
Kapor seem
ed to score quite an effect with his shrew
d and skepticalanalysis o
f the merits o
f telco "C
aller-ID" services. (O
n this topic,
FCIC
and EFF have never b
een at loggerhead
s, and have no
particular
established
earthworks to
defend
.) Caller-ID
has generally b
een pro
-m
oted
as a privacy service fo
r consum
ers, a presentatio
n Kap
or
describ
ed as a "sm
okescreen," the real p
oint o
f Caller-ID
being
to*allo
w co
rporate custo
mers to
build
extensive com
mercial d
atabases o
neveryb
ody w
ho p
hones o
r faxes them.* C
learly, few p
eople in the ro
om
had co
nsidered
this possib
ility, except p
erhaps fo
r two late-arrivals
from
US W
EST R
BO
C security, w
ho chuckled
nervously.
Mike G
odw
in then mad
e an extensive presentatio
n on "C
ivil Liberties
Implicatio
ns of C
om
puter S
earches and S
eizures." Now
, at last, we w
eregettin
g to
the real n
itty-gritty h
ere, real political h
orse-trad
ing. T
he
audience listened
with clo
se attention, ang
ry mutters rising
occasio
nal-ly: "H
e's trying to
teach us our jo
bs!" "W
e've been thinking
about this
for years! W
e think about these issues every d
ay!" "If I did
n't seize thew
orks, I'd
be sued
by the g
uy's victims!" "I'm
violating
the law if I
leave ten thousand
disks full o
f illegal *p
irated so
ftware* and
*stolen
codes!*" "It's our job to m
ake sure people don't trash the Constitution
— w
e're the *defenders* of the Constitution!" "W
e seize stuff when w
ekno
w it w
ill be fo
rfeited anyw
ay as restitution fo
r the victim!"
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"If it's forfeitab
le, then don't g
et a search warrant, g
et a forfeiture
warrant," G
odw
in suggested
coolly. H
e further remarked
that most
suspects in co
mputer crim
e don't *w
ant* to see their co
mputers vanish
out the door, headed God knew
where, for w
ho knows how
long. They
mig
ht not m
ind a search, even an extensive search, b
ut they want their
machines searched
on-site.
"Are they gonna feed us?" som
ebody asked sourly.
"How
about if you take copies of the data?" Godw
in parried.
"That'll never stand
up in co
urt."
"Okay, yo
u make co
pies, g
ive *them* the co
pies, and
take the orig
i-nals."
Hm
mm
.
Godw
in champio
ned b
ulletin-board
systems as rep
osito
ries of First
Am
endment protected free speech. H
e complained that federal com
put-er- crim
e training m
anuals gave b
oard
s a bad
press, sug
gesting
thatthey are hotbeds of crim
e haunted by pedophiles and crooks, whereas the
vast majo
rity of the natio
n's thousand
s of b
oard
s are com
pletely inno
cu-ous, and
now
here near so ro
mantically susp
icious.
People w
ho run b
oard
s violently resent it w
hen their systems are
seized, and
their dozens (o
r hundred
s) of users lo
ok o
n in abject ho
rror.
Their rig
hts of free exp
ression are cut sho
rt. Their rig
ht to asso
ciatew
ith other p
eople is infring
ed. A
nd their p
rivacy is violated
as theirprivate electro
nic mail b
ecom
es police p
roperty.
Not a soul spoke up to defend the practice of seizing boards. T
he issuepassed
in chastened silence. Leg
al princip
les aside —
(and tho
se prin-
ciples cannot be settled without law
s passed or court precedents) —seizing
bulletin b
oard
s has beco
me p
ublic-relatio
ns poiso
n for
Am
erican com
puter p
olice.
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And anyw
ay, it's not entirely necessary. If you're a cop, you can get
'most everything
you need
from
a pirate b
oard
, just by using
an inside
info
rman
t. Plen
ty of vig
ilantes —
well, *co
ncern
ed citizen
s* — w
illinfo
rm p
olice the m
om
ent they see a pirate b
oard
hit their area (andw
ill tell the police all ab
out it, in such technical d
etail, actually, thatyo
u kinda w
ish they'd shut up
). They w
ill happily sup
ply p
olice w
ithextensive d
ow
nload
s or p
rintouts. It's *im
possib
le* to keep
this fluidelectro
nic inform
ation o
ut of the hand
s of p
olice.
Some people in the electronic com
munity becom
e enraged at the prospectof cops "m
onitoring" b
ulletin boards. T
his does have touchy aspects, asSecret S
ervice peo
ple in p
articular examine b
ulletin board
s with so
me
regularity. B
ut to exp
ect electronic p
olice to
be d
eaf dum
b and
blind
inreg
ard to
this particular m
edium
rather flies in the face of co
mm
on
sense. Police w
atch television, listen to
radio
, read new
spap
ers andm
agazines; why should the new
medium
of boards be different? Cops
can exercise the same access to electronic inform
ation as everybody
else. As w
e have seen, quite a few
com
puter p
olice m
aintain *theirow
n* b
ulletin
board
s, inclu
din
g an
ti-hacker "stin
g" b
oard
s, which
have generally p
roven q
uite effective.
As a final clincher, their M
ountie friend
s in Canad
a (and co
lleagues in
Ireland and
Taiw
an) don't have First A
mend
ment o
r Am
erican constitu-
tional restrictio
ns, but they d
o have p
hone lines, and
can call any bul-
letin board
in Am
erica whenever they p
lease. The sam
e technolo
gical
determinants that play into the hands of hackers, phone phreaks and
softw
are pirates can p
lay into the hand
s of p
olice. "T
echnolo
gical d
eter-m
inants" don't have *any* hum
an allegiances. T
hey're not b
lack or
white, o
r Establish
men
t or U
nderg
round, o
r pro
-or-an
ti anyth
ing.
Godw
in complained at length about w
hat he called "the Clever H
obbyisthypothesis" —
the assumption that the "hacker" you're b
usting is
clearly a technical genius, and
must therefo
re by searched
with extrem
etho
roug
hness. So: fro
m the law
's point o
f view, w
hy risk missing
any-thing? T
ake the works. T
ake the guy's computer. T
ake his books. Take
his noteb
ooks. T
ake the electronic d
rafts of his lo
ve letters. Take his
Walkm
an. Take his w
ife's com
puter. T
ake his dad
's com
puter. T
ake hiskid
sister's com
puter. T
ake his emplo
yer's com
puter. T
ake his com
pact
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 1 9
disks —
they *mig
ht* be C
D-R
OM
disks, cunning
ly disg
uised as p
op
music. T
ake his laser printer —
he mig
ht have hidden so
mething
vitalin the p
rinter's 5m
eg o
f mem
ory. T
ake his softw
are manuals and
hard-
ware d
ocum
entation. T
ake his science-fiction no
vels and his sim
ulation-
gam
ing b
ooks. T
ake his Nintend
o G
ame-B
oy and
his Pac-Man arcad
egam
e. Take his answ
ering m
achine, take his telephone out of the wall.
Take anything
remotely susp
icious.
Godw
in pointed out that most "hackers" are not, in fact, clever g
eniushob
byists. Q
uite a few are crooks and g
rifters who don't have m
uch inth
e way o
f technical so
phisticatio
n; ju
st som
e rule-o
f-thum
b rip
-off
techniques. T
he same g
oes fo
r most fifteen- year-o
lds w
ho've d
ow
n-lo
aded
a code-scanning
pro
gram
from
a pirate b
oard
. There's no
realneed
to seize everything
in sight. It d
oesn't req
uire an entire com
puter
system and ten thousand disks to prove a case in court.
What if the co
mputer is the instrum
entality of a crim
e? som
eone
demanded.
Godw
in adm
itted q
uietly that the doctrine o
f seizing the instrum
entalityof a crim
e was p
retty well estab
lished in the A
merican leg
al system.
The m
eeting b
roke up. Godw
in and Kapor had to leave. K
apor was testi-
fying next m
orning
befo
re the Massachusetts D
epartm
ent Of Pub
licU
tility, about IS
DN
narro
wban
d w
ide-area n
etworkin
g.
As soon as they w
ere gone, Thackeray seem
ed elated. She had taken agreat risk w
ith this. Her co
lleagues had
not, in fact, to
rn Kap
or and
Godw
in's heads off. She was very proud of them
, and told them so.
"Did
you hear w
hat Godw
in said ab
out *instrum
entality of a crim
e?*"she exulted
, to no
body in p
articular. "Wow
, that means *M
itch isn'tgoing
to sue m
e.*"_
__
__
Am
erica's com
puter p
olice are an interesting
gro
up. A
s a social p
he-no
meno
n they are far more interesting
, and far m
ore im
portant, than
teenage p
hone p
hreaks and co
mputer hackers. First, they're o
lder and
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 2 0
wiser; no
t dizzy ho
bbyists w
ith leaky morals, b
ut seasoned
adult p
ro-
fessionals w
ith all th
e responsib
ilities of p
ublic service. A
nd, u
nlike
hackers, they possess no
t merely *technical* p
ow
er alone, b
ut heavy-duty leg
al and so
cial authority.
And
, very interestingly, they are just as m
uch at sea in cybersp
ace aseveryo
ne else. They are no
t happy ab
out this. Po
lice are authoritarian
by nature, and prefer to
obey rules and precedents. (Even tho
se police
who secretly en
joy a fast rid
e in ro
ugh territo
ry will so
berly d
isclaimany "co
wboy" attitud
e.) But in cyb
erspace there *are* no
rules andpreced
ents. They are g
round
breaking
pio
neers, Cyb
erspace R
angers,
whether they like it o
r not.
In my o
pinio
n, any teenager enthralled
by co
mputers, fascinated
by the
ins and o
uts of co
mputer security, and
attracted b
y the lure of sp
ecial-ized form
s of knowledge and pow
er, would do w
ell to forget all about"hacking
" and set his (or her) sights on b
ecoming
a fed. Feds can trump
hackers at almost every sing
le thing hackers d
o, includ
ing g
atheringin
telligen
ce, underco
ver disg
uise, trash
ing, p
hone-tap
pin
g, b
uild
ing
dossiers, n
etworkin
g, an
d in
filtrating co
mputer system
s — *crim
inal*
computer system
s. Secret Service agents know
more ab
out phreaking,
coding and carding
than most phreaks can find out in years, and w
hen itco
mes to
viruses, break-ins, so
ftware b
om
bs and
trojan ho
rses, Feds
have direct access to
red-ho
t confid
ential inform
ation that is o
nly vague
rumor in the und
ergro
und.
And
if it's an impressive p
ublic rep
you're after, there are few
peo
ple
in th
e world
who can
be so
chillin
gly im
pressive as a w
ell-trained
,w
ell-armed
United
States S
ecret Service ag
ent.
Of co
urse, a few p
ersonal sacrifices are necessary in o
rder to
obtain
that pow
er and kno
wled
ge. First, yo
u'll have the galling
discip
line of
belo
nging
to a larg
e org
anization; b
ut the world
of co
mputer crim
e isstill so
small, an
d so
amazin
gly fast-m
ovin
g, th
at it will rem
ain sp
ec-tacularly fluid
for years to
com
e. The seco
nd sacrifice is that yo
u'llhave to
give up
ripping
peo
ple o
ff. This is no
t a great lo
ss. Abstaining
from
the use of illeg
al drug
s, also necessary, w
ill be a b
oon to
your
health.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
2 2 1
A career in co
mputer security is no
t a bad
choice fo
r a young
man o
rw
om
an today. T
he field w
ill almost certainly exp
and d
rastically inyears to com
e. If you are a teenager today, by the time you becom
e apro
fessional, the p
ioneers yo
u have read ab
out in this b
ook w
ill be the
grand old m
en and wom
en of the field, swam
ped by their m
any disciplesand
successors. O
f course, so
me o
f them, like W
illiam P. W
ood o
f the1
86
5 S
ecret Service, m
ay well b
e man
gled
in th
e whirrin
g m
achin
eryof leg
al contro
versy; but b
y the time yo
u enter the com
puter-crim
efield
, it may have stab
ilized so
mew
hat, while rem
aining entertaining
lychalleng
ing.
But you can't just have a b
adge. Y
ou have to win it. First, there's the
federal law
enforcem
ent training. A
nd it's hard
— it's a challeng
e. Areal challeng
e — no
t for w
imps and
rodents.
Every Secret S
ervice agent m
ust com
plete g
ruelling co
urses at theFed
eral Law Enfo
rcement T
raining C
enter. (In fact, Secret S
erviceag
ents are
perio
dically re
-trained d
urin
g th
eir e
ntire
careers.)
In ord
er to g
et a glim
pse o
f what this m
ight b
e like, I myself travelled
toFLET
C.
__
__
_
The Fed
eral Law Enfo
rcement T
raining C
enter is a 15
00
-acre facilityon G
eorg
ia's Atlantic co
ast. It's a milieu o
f marshg
rass, seabird
s,dam
p, cling
ing sea-b
reezes, palm
ettos, m
osq
uitos, and
bats. U
ntil1
97
4, it w
as a Navy A
ir Base, and
still features a working
runway, and
som
e WW
II vintage b
lockho
uses and o
fficers' quarters. T
he Center has
since
benefitte
d b
y a fo
rty-m
illion-d
ollar re
trofit, b
ut th
ere
's stilleno
ugh fo
rest and sw
amp o
n the facility for the B
ord
er Patrol to
put in
tracking p
ractice.
As a to
wn, "G
lynco" scarcely exists. T
he nearest real tow
n isBrunsw
ick, a few m
iles dow
n Hig
hway 1
7, w
here I stayed at the ap
tlynam
ed M
arshview H
olid
ay Inn. I had S
unday d
inner at a seafood restau-
rant called "Jinrig
ht's," where I feasted
on d
eep-fried
alligato
r tail.This lo
cal favorite w
as a heaped
basket o
f bite-sized
chunks of w
hite,
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 2 2
tender, alm
ost fluffy rep
tile meat, steam
ing in a p
eppered
batter crust.
Allig
ator m
akes a culinary experience that's hard
to fo
rget, esp
eciallyw
hen liberally b
asted w
ith hom
emad
e cocktail sauce fro
m a Jinrig
htsq
ueeze-bottle.
The cro
wded
clientele were to
urists, fishermen, lo
cal black fo
lks intheir Sunday b
est, and white G
eorgian locals w
ho all seemed to b
ear anuncanny resem
blance to
Geo
rgia hum
orist Lew
is Grizzard
.
The 2
,400 students from
75 federal ag
encies who m
ake up the FLETC
population scarcely seem to m
ake a dent in the low-key local scene. T
hestudents look like tourists, and the teachers seem
to have taken on much
of the relaxed
air of the D
eep S
outh. M
y host w
as Mr. C
arlton
Fitzpatrick, the Pro
gram
Coord
inator o
f the Financial Fraud Institute.
Carlto
n Fitzpatrick is a m
ustached, sinew
y, well-tanned
Alab
ama native
som
ewhere near his late fo
rties, with a fo
ndness fo
r chewing
tobacco
,pow
erful com
puters, and
salty, dow
n-hom
e hom
ilies. We'd
met b
efore,
at FCIC
in Arizo
na.
The Financial Fraud
Institute is one o
f the nine divisio
ns at FLETC.
Besid
es Fin
ancial Frau
d, th
ere
's Drive
r & M
arine, Fire
arms, an
dPhysical T
raining. T
hese are specialized
pursuits. T
here are also five
general training
divisio
ns: Basic T
raining, O
peratio
ns, Enforcem
entTechniq
ues, Legal D
ivision, and
Behavio
ral Science.
Som
ewhere in this curriculum
is everything necessary to
turn green
colleg
e grad
uates into fed
eral agents. First they're g
iven ID card
s. Then
they get the rather m
iserable-lo
oking
blue co
veralls know
n as "smurf
suits." The trainees are assig
ned a b
arracks and a cafeteria, and
imm
e-diately set o
n FLETC's b
one-g
rinding
physical training
routine. B
esides
the oblig
atory d
aily jogging
— (the trainers run up
dang
er flags b
eside
the track when the hum
idity rises hig
h enoug
h to threaten heat stro
ke)—
there's th
e Nau
tilus m
achin
es, the m
artial arts, the su
rvival skills....
The eig
hteen federal agencies w
ho maintain on- site academ
ies at FLETC
emplo
y a wid
e variety of sp
ecialized law
enforcem
ent units, som
e of
them
rather arcan
e. There's B
ord
er Patro
l, IRS C
rimin
al Investig
ation
Divisio
n, P
ark Service
, Fish an
d W
ildlife
, Custo
ms, Im
mig
ration,
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 2 3
Secret S
ervice and the T
reasury's uniform
ed sub
divisio
ns.... If you're a
federal co
p and
you d
on't w
ork fo
r the FBI, yo
u train at FLETC. T
hisincludes people as apparently ob
scure as the agents of the Railroad
Retirem
ent Board
Inspecto
r General. O
r the Tennessee V
alley Autho
rityPo
lice, who
are in fact federal p
olice o
fficers, and can and
do arrest
criminals o
n the federal p
roperty o
f the Tennessee V
alley Autho
rity.
And
then there are the com
puter-crim
e peo
ple. A
ll sorts, all b
ack-gro
unds. M
r. Fitzpatrick is no
t jealous o
f his specialized
know
ledge.
Cops all o
ver, in every branch o
f service, may feel a need
to learn w
hathe can teach. B
ackgrounds don't m
atter much. Fitzpatrick him
self was
orig
inally a Bord
er Patrol veteran, then b
ecame a B
ord
er Patrol
instructor at FLET
C. H
is Spanish is still fluent —
but he fo
und him
selfstrang
ely fascinated w
hen the first com
puters sho
wed
up at the T
rainingCenter. Fitzp
atrick did
have a backg
round
in electrical engineering
, andthoug
h he never considered himself a com
puter hacker, he somehow
found h
imself w
riting u
seful little p
rogram
s for th
is new
and p
rom
ising
gizm
o.
He b
egan lo
oking
into the g
eneral subject o
f com
puters and
crime, read
-ing
Donn Parker's b
ooks and
articles, keeping
an ear cocked
for w
arsto
ries, useful insights fro
m the field
, the up-and
-com
ing p
eople o
f thelo
cal com
puter-crim
e and hig
h- technolo
gy units.... S
oon he g
ot a rep
u-tatio
n around
FLETC as the resid
ent "com
puter exp
ert," and that rep
uta-tio
n alone b
roug
ht him m
ore exp
osure, m
ore exp
erience — until o
ne day
he looked
around
, and sure eno
ugh he *w
as* a federal co
mputer-crim
eexp
ert.
In fact, this unassuming
, genial m
an may b
e *the* federal co
mputer-
crime exp
ert. There are p
lenty of very g
ood co
mputer p
eople, and
plenty of very good federal investig
ators, but the area w
here thesew
orld
s of exp
ertise overlap
is very slim. A
nd C
arlton Fitzp
atrick hasbeen rig
ht at the center of that since 1
98
5, the first year o
f theColluq
uy, a gro
up w
hich ow
es much to
his influence.
He seem
s quite at ho
me in his m
odest, aco
ustic-tiled o
ffice, with its
Ansel A
dam
s-style Western p
hoto
grap
hic art, a gold
-framed
Senio
rInstructo
r Certificate, and
a tow
ering b
ookcase cram
med
with three-
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 2 4
ring b
inders w
ith om
inous titles such as *D
atapro
Rep
orts o
nInfo
rmatio
n Security* and
*CFC
A T
elecom
Security '9
0.*
The phone rings every ten m
inutes; colleagues show up at the door to
chat about new
developments in locksm
ithing or to shake their heads
over the latest d
ismal d
evelopm
ents in the BCCI g
lobal b
anking scand
al.
Carlto
n Fitzp
atrick is a fount o
f com
puter-crim
e war-sto
ries, relatedin an acerb
ic draw
l. He tells m
e the colo
rful tale of a hacker caug
ht inCalifo
rnia som
e years back. H
e'd b
een raiding
systems, typ
ing co
de
witho
ut a detectab
le break, fo
r twenty, tw
enty-four, thirty-six ho
ursstraig
ht. Not just lo
gged
on —
*typing
.* Investigato
rs were b
affled.
Nobody could do that. D
idn't he have to go to the bathroom? W
as it some
kind o
f autom
atic keyboard
-whacking
device that co
uld actually typ
eco
de?
A raid on the suspect's hom
e revealed a situation of astonishing squalor.
The hacker turned out to b
e a Pakistani computer-science student w
hohad
flunked o
ut of a C
alifornia university. H
e'd g
one co
mpletely und
er-gro
und as an illeg
al electronic im
mig
rant, and w
as selling sto
lenpho
ne- service to stay alive. T
he place w
as not m
erely messy and
dirty,
but in a state o
f psycho
tic diso
rder. Po
wered
by so
me w
eird m
ix of cul-
ture shock, computer addiction, and am
phetamines, the suspect had in
fact been sitting
in front o
f his com
puter fo
r a day and
a half straight,
with snacks and drugs at hand on the edge of his desk and a cham
ber-potunder h
is chair.
Word
about stuff like this g
ets around
in the hacker-tracker com
muni-
ty.
Carlto
n Fitzpatrick takes m
e for a g
uided
tour b
y car around
the FLETC
gro
unds. O
ne of o
ur first sights is the b
iggest ind
oor firing
range in the
world
. There are fed
eral trainees in there, Fitzpatrick assures m
epolitely, b
lasting aw
ay with a w
ide variety o
f autom
atic weap
ons: U
zis,G
locks, A
K-4
7s.... H
e's willing
to take m
e inside. I tell him
I'm sure
that's really interesting, b
ut I'd rather see his co
mputers. C
arlton
Fitzpatrick seem
s quite surp
rised and
pleased
. I'm ap
parently the first
journalist he's ever seen w
ho has turned
dow
n the shooting
gallery in
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
2 2 5
favor o
f micro
chips.
Our next sto
p is a favo
rite with to
uring C
ong
ressmen: the three-m
ilelo
ng FLET
C d
riving rang
e. Here trainees o
f the Driver &
Marine
Divisio
n are taught hig
h-speed
pursuit skills, setting
and b
reakingro
ad-b
locks, d
iplo
matic secu
rity drivin
g fo
r VIP
limousin
es.... Afavo
rite FLETC pastim
e is to strap a passing
Senato
r into the passeng
erseat b
eside a D
river & M
arine train
er, hit a h
undred
miles an
hour,
then take it right into
"the skid-p
an," a section o
f greased
track where
two to
ns of D
etroit iro
n can whip
and sp
in like a hockey p
uck.
Cars d
on't fare w
ell at FLETC. First they're rifled
again and
again fo
rsearch p
ractice. Then they d
o 2
5,0
00
miles o
f high-sp
eed p
ursuittraining
; they get ab
out seventy m
iles per set o
f steel-belted
radials.
Then it's o
ff to the skid
pan, w
here som
etimes they ro
ll and tum
ble
headlo
ng in the g
rease. When they're sufficiently g
rease-stained, d
ent-ed
, and creaky, they're sent to
the road
blo
ck unit, where they're b
at-tered
witho
ut pity. A
nd finally then they're sacrificed
to the B
ureau of
Alco
hol, T
obacco
and Firearm
s, who
se trainees learn the ins and o
uts of
car-bom
b w
ork b
y blo
wing
them into
smoking
wreckag
e.
There's a railro
ad b
ox-car o
n the FLETC g
round
s, and a larg
e gro
unded
boat, and
a pro
pless p
lane; all training-g
round
s for searches. T
heplane sits fo
rlornly o
n a patch o
f weed
y tarmac next to
an eerie blo
ck-ho
use know
n as the "ninja com
pound
," where anti-terro
rism sp
ecialistspractice hostage rescues. A
s I gaze on this creepy paragon of modern
low
-intensity warfare, m
y nerves are jangled
by a sud
den staccato
out-
burst of autom
atic weapons fire, som
ewhere in the w
oods to my rig
ht."N
ine- m
illimete
r," Fitzpatrick ju
dges calm
ly.
Even the eldritch ninja co
mpound
pales so
mew
hat com
pared
to the truly
surreal area know
n as "the raid-ho
uses." This is a street lined
on b
oth
sides w
ith nond
escript co
ncrete-blo
ck houses w
ith flat peb
bled
roofs.
They w
ere once o
fficers' quarters. N
ow
they are training g
round
s. The
first one to
our left, Fitzp
atrick tells me, has b
een specially ad
apted
for
com
puter search-and
-seizure practice. Insid
e it has been w
ired fo
rvid
eo fro
m to
p to
botto
m, w
ith eighteen p
an-and-tilt rem
otely co
n-tro
lled vid
eocam
s mounted
on w
alls and in co
rners. Every movem
ent of
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the trainee agent is reco
rded
live by teachers, fo
r later taped
analysis.W
asted m
ovem
ents, hesitations, p
ossib
ly lethal tactical mistakes —
allare g
one o
ver in detail.
Perhaps the w
eirdest sing
le aspect o
f this build
ing is its fro
nt door,
scarred and scuffed all along the bottom, from
the repeated impact, day
after day, o
f federal sho
e-leather.
Dow
n at the far end of the row of raid-houses som
e people are practicinga m
urder. W
e drive b
y slow
ly as som
e very young
and rather nervo
us-lo
oking
federal trainees interview
a heavyset bald
man o
n the raid-
house law
n. Dealing
with m
urder takes a lo
t of p
ractice; first you have
to learn to
contro
l your o
wn instinctive d
isgust and
panic, then yo
uhave to learn to control the reactions of a nerve- shredded crow
d ofcivilians, som
e of whom
may have just lost a loved one, som
e of whom
may b
e murd
erers — q
uite possib
ly both at o
nce.
A dum
my plays the corpse. T
he roles of the bereaved, the m
orbidly
curious, and
the hom
icidal are p
layed, fo
r pay, b
y local G
eorg
ians:w
aitresses, musicians, m
ost anybody who needs to m
oonlight and canlearn a scrip
t. These p
eople, so
me o
f who
m are FLET
C reg
ulars yearafter year, m
ust surely have one o
f the strangest jo
bs in the w
orld
.
Som
ething ab
out the scene: "no
rmal" p
eople in a w
eird situatio
n, stand-
ing aro
und talking
in brig
ht Geo
rgia sunshine, unsuccessfully p
retend-
ing that so
mething
dread
ful has gone o
n, while a d
umm
y lies inside o
nfaked
blo
odstains.... W
hile behind
this weird
masq
uerade, like a nested
set of R
ussian
dolls, are g
rim fu
ture realities o
f real death
, real vio-
lence, real murd
ers of real p
eople, that these yo
ung ag
ents will really
investigate, m
any times d
uring their careers.... O
ver and o
ver.... Will
those anticip
ated m
urders lo
ok like this, feel like this —
not as "real" as
these amateur actors are trying
to make it seem
, but b
oth as "real," andas num
bing
ly unreal, as watching
fake peo
ple stand
ing aro
und o
n a fakelaw
n? Som
ething ab
out this scene unhing
es me. It seem
s nightm
arish tom
e, Kafkaesque. I sim
ply don't know how
to take it; my head is turned
around
; I don't kno
w w
hether to laug
h, cry, or just shud
der.
When the to
ur is over, C
arlton Fitzp
atrick and I talk ab
out co
mputers.
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For the first tim
e cybersp
ace seems like q
uite a com
fortab
le place. It
seems very real to
me sud
denly, a p
lace where I kno
w w
hat I'm talking
about, a p
lace I'm used
to. It's real. "R
eal." Whatever.
Carlto
n Fitzpatrick is the o
nly perso
n I've met in cyb
erspace circles
who
is happy w
ith his present eq
uipm
ent. He's g
ot a 5
Meg
RA
M PC
with
a 112 m
eg hard disk; a 660 m
eg's on the way. H
e's got a Com
paq 386
desktop, and a Zenith 386 laptop w
ith 120 m
eg. D
own the hall is a N
ECM
ulti-Sync 2
A w
ith a CD
-RO
M d
rive and a 9
60
0 b
aud m
odem
with fo
urco
m-lin
es. There's a train
ing m
inico
mputer, an
d a 1
0-m
eg lo
cal min
ijust fo
r the Center, and
a lab-full o
f student PC
clones and
half-a-dozen
Macs or so. T
here's a Data G
eneral MV
2500 w
ith 8 m
eg on board and a3
70
meg
disk.
Fitzpatrick p
lans to run a U
NIX
board
on the D
ata General w
hen he's fin-ished
beta-testing
the softw
are for it, w
hich he wro
te himself. It'll
have E- m
ail features, m
assive files on all m
anner o
f com
puter-crim
eand
investigatio
n pro
cedures, and
will fo
llow
the com
puter-security
specifics o
f the Dep
artment o
f Defense "O
range B
ook." H
e thinks it will
be the biggest BBS in the federal governm
ent.
Will it h
ave *P
hrack* o
n it?
I ask wry
ly.
Sure, h
e tells me. *P
hrack,* *T
AP,* *C
om
puter U
nderg
round
Dig
est,* all that stuff. With p
roper d
isclaimers, o
f course.
I ask him if he p
lans to b
e the sysop. R
unning a system
that size is verytim
e-consum
ing, and
Fitzpatrick teaches tw
o three-ho
ur courses every
day.
No, he says seriously, FLET
C has to get its m
oney worth out of the
instructors. H
e thinks he can get a lo
cal volunteer to
do it, a hig
h-scho
ol stud
ent.
He says a b
it more, so
mething
I think about an Eag
le Sco
ut law-enfo
rce-m
ent liaison p
rogram
, but m
y mind
has rocketed
off in d
isbelief.
"You're g
oing
to p
ut a *teenager* in charg
e of a fed
eral security BBS?"
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I'm speechless. It hasn't escaped m
y notice that the FLETC Financial
Fraud In
stitute is th
e *ultim
ate* hacker-trash
ing targ
et; there is stu
ffin here, stuff of such utter and consum
mate cool by every standard of
the dig
ital underg
round
.... I imag
ine the hackers of m
y acquaintance,
fainting d
ead-aw
ay from
forb
idden- kno
wled
ge g
reed-fits, at the m
erepro
spect o
f cracking the sup
erultra top-secret co
mputers used
to train
the Secret S
ervice in com
puter-crim
e....
"Uhm
, Carlto
n," I b
abble, "I'm
sure h
e's a really nice kid
and all, b
ut
that's a terrible tem
ptation to set in front of someb
ody who's, you know
,into
com
puters and
just starting o
ut..."
"Yeah," he says, "that did occur to m
e." For the first time I b
egin to
suspect that he's p
ulling m
y leg.
He seem
s proudest when he show
s me an ongoing project called JIC
C,
Joint Intellig
ence Contro
l Council. It's b
ased o
n the services pro
vided
by EPIC
, the El Paso Intellig
ence Center, w
hich supplies d
ata and intel-
ligence to
the Drug
Enforcem
ent Adm
inistration, the C
ustom
s Service,
the Coast G
uard, and the state police of the four southern border states.Certain EPIC
files can now
be accessed
by d
rug-enfo
rcement p
olice o
fCentral A
merica, S
outh A
merica and
the Carib
bean, w
ho can also
trade
inform
ation am
ong
themselves. U
sing a teleco
m p
rogram
called "W
hiteH
at," written b
y two b
rothers nam
ed Lo
pez fro
m the D
om
inicanRep
ublic, p
olice can no
w netw
ork internatio
nally on inexp
ensive PCs.
Carlto
n Fitzpatrick is teaching
a class of d
rug-w
ar agents fro
m the
Third
World
, and he's very p
roud
of their p
rogress. Perhap
s soon the
sophisticated
smug
gling
networks o
f the Med
ellin Cartel w
ill be m
atchedby a so
phisticated
com
puter netw
ork o
f the Med
ellin Cartel's sw
orn
enemies. T
hey'll track boats, track co
ntraband
, track the international
drug
-lord
s who
now
leap o
ver bord
ers with g
reat ease, defeating
thepolice thro
ugh the clever use o
f fragm
ented natio
nal jurisdictio
ns.
JICC and EPIC
must rem
ain beyond the scope of this book. They seem
tom
e to b
e very large to
pics fraug
ht with co
mplicatio
ns that I am no
t fit tojud
ge. I d
o kno
w, ho
wever, that the internatio
nal, com
puter-assisted
networking
of p
olice, acro
ss national b
ound
aries, is som
ething that
Carlto
n Fitzp
atrick consid
ers very importan
t, a harb
inger o
f a desir-
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able future. I also
know
that networks b
y their nature igno
re physical
boundaries. A
nd I also know that w
here you put comm
unications you puta com
munity, and that w
hen those comm
unities becom
e self-aware they
will fig
ht to p
reserve themselves and
to exp
and their influence. I m
akeno
judgem
ents whether this is g
ood o
r bad
. It's just cybersp
ace; it'sjust the w
ay things are.
I asked C
arlton Fitzp
atrick what ad
vice he would
have for a tw
enty-year-o
ld w
ho w
anted to
shine som
eday in the w
orld
of electro
nic lawenfo
rcement.
He told m
e that the number one rule w
as simply not to b
e scared of com-
puters. You don't need to be an obsessive "computer w
eenie," but youm
ustn't be buffaloed just because some m
achine looks fancy. The advan-
tages computers give sm
art crooks are matched by the advantages they
give sm
art cops. C
ops in the future w
ill have to enfo
rce the law "w
iththeir heads, not their holsters." T
oday you can make good cases w
ithoutever leaving
your o
ffice. In the future, cops w
ho resist the co
mputer
revolutio
n will never g
et far beyo
nd w
alking a b
eat.
I asked C
arlton Fitzp
atrick if he had so
me sing
le messag
e for the p
ublic;
som
e single thing
that he would
most like the A
merican p
ublic to
know
about his w
ork.
He tho
ught ab
out it w
hile. "Yes," he said
finally. "*Tell* m
e the rules,and
I'll *teach* those rules!" H
e looked
me straig
ht in the eye. "I do the
best that I can."
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PA
RT
F
OU
R
THE C
IVIL
LIB
ERTA
RIA
NS
The sto
ry of the H
acker Crackd
ow
n, as we have fo
llow
ed it thus far, has
been techno
logical, sub
cultural, criminal and
legal. T
he story o
f theC
ivil Libertarians, tho
ugh it p
artakes of all tho
se other asp
ects, is pro
-fo
undly an
d th
oro
ughly *p
olitical.*
In 19
90
, the obscure, lo
ng-sim
mering
struggle o
ver the ow
nership and
nature of cyb
erspace b
ecame lo
udly and
irretrievably p
ublic. Peo
ple
from som
e of the oddest corners of Am
erican society suddenly foundthem
selves public fig
ures. Some of these people found this situation
much m
ore than they had ever barg
ained for. They b
ackpedalled, andtried
to retreat b
ack to the m
andarin o
bscurity o
f their cozy sub
culturalniches. T
his was g
enerally to p
rove a m
istake.
But the civil lib
ertarians seized the d
ay in 19
90
. They fo
und them
selvesorg
anizing, p
ropag
andizing
, podium
- pound
ing, p
ersuading
, touring
,neg
otiating
, posing
for p
ublicity p
hoto
s, subm
itting to
interviews,
squinting
in the limelig
ht as they tried a tentative, b
ut gro
wing
lyso
phisticated
, buck-and
-wing
upon the p
ublic stag
e.
It's not hard
to see w
hy the civil libertarians sho
uld have this co
mpeti-
tive advantag
e.
The hackers o
f the dig
ital underg
round
are an hermetic elite. T
hey findit hard
to m
ake any remotely co
nvincing case fo
r their actions in fro
ntof the g
eneral pub
lic. Actually, hackers ro
undly d
espise the "ig
norant"
public, and have never trusted the judg
ement of "the system
." Hackers
do propagandize, b
ut only among
themselves, m
ostly in giddy, b
adlysp
elled m
anifestos o
f class warfare, yo
uth rebellio
n or naive techie
utopianism
. Hackers m
ust strut and b
oast in o
rder to
establish and
pre-
serve their underg
round
reputatio
ns. But if they sp
eak out to
o lo
udly
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and p
ublicly, th
ey will b
reak the frag
ile surface-ten
sion o
f the u
nder-
gro
und, and
they will b
e harrassed o
r arrested. O
ver the long
er term,
most hackers stum
ble, g
et busted, g
et betrayed, or sim
ply give up. A
s apolitical fo
rce, the dig
ital underg
round
is hamstrung
.
The telco
s, for their p
art, are an ivory to
wer und
er pro
tracted seig
e.They have p
lenty of m
oney w
ith which to
push their calculated
pub
licim
age, but they waste m
uch energy and goodwill attacking one another
with slanderous and dem
eaning ad campaigns. T
he telcos have sufferedat the hand
s of p
oliticians, and
, like hackers, they don't trust the p
ub-
lic's judgem
ent. And
this distrust m
ay be w
ell-found
ed. S
hould
thegeneral p
ublic o
f the high-tech 1
99
0s co
me to
understand
its ow
n best
interests in telecom
municatio
ns, that mig
ht well p
ose a g
rave threat tothe sp
ecialized technical p
ow
er and autho
rity that the telcos have rel-
ished for over a century. The telcos do have strong advantages: loyal
emplo
yees, specialized
expertise, influence in the halls o
f pow
er, tac-tical allies in law
enforcem
ent, and unb
elievably vast am
ounts o
f money.
But p
olitically sp
eaking, they lack g
enuine grassro
ots sup
port; they
simply d
on't seem
to have m
any friends.
Cops kno
w a lo
t of thing
s other p
eople d
on't kno
w. B
ut cops w
illingly
reveal only tho
se aspects o
f their know
ledge that they feel w
ill meet
their institutional p
urposes and
further pub
lic ord
er. Cops have
respect, they have resp
onsib
ilities, they have pow
er in the streets andeven p
ow
er in the hom
e, but co
ps d
on't d
o p
articularly well in lim
elight.
When p
ressed, they w
ill step o
ut in the pub
lic gaze to
threaten bad
-guys, o
r to cajo
le pro
minent citizens, o
r perhap
s to sternly lecture the
naive and m
isguid
ed. B
ut then they go b
ack within their tim
e-hono
redfo
rtress of the statio
n-house, the co
urtroom
and the rule-b
ook.
The electro
nic civil libertarians, ho
wever, have p
roven to
be b
orn
political anim
als. They seem
ed to
grasp
very early on the p
ostm
odern
truism that co
mm
unication is p
ow
er. Publicity is p
ow
er. Sound
bites
are power. T
he ability to shove one's issue onto the public agenda — and
*keep it there* —
is pow
er. Fame is p
ow
er. Sim
ple p
ersonal fluency
and eloquence can be power, if you can som
ehow catch the public's eye
and ear.
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The civil lib
ertarians had no
mono
poly o
n "technical pow
er" — tho
ugh
they all ow
ned co
mputers, m
ost w
ere not p
articularly advanced
com
put-
er experts. They had a good deal of m
oney, but nowhere near the earth-
shaking wealth and the galaxy of resources possessed by telcos or federal
agencies. T
hey had no ability to arrest people. T
hey carried out nophreak an
d h
acker covert d
irty-tricks.
But they really knew
how
to netw
ork.
Unlike th
e oth
er gro
ups in
this b
ook, th
e civil libertarian
s have o
perat-
ed very m
uch
in th
e open
, more o
r less right in
the p
ublic h
urly-b
urly.
They have lectured
audiences g
alore and
talked to
countless jo
urnalists,and
have learned to
refine their spiels. T
hey've kept the cam
erasclicking
, kept tho
se faxes humm
ing, sw
apped
that email, run tho
se pho
-to
copiers o
n overtim
e, licked envelo
pes and
spent sm
all fortunes o
nairfare and
long
- distance. In an info
rmatio
n society, this o
pen, o
vert,obvious activity has proven to be a profound advantage.
In 19
90
, the civil libertarians o
f cybersp
ace assembled
out o
f now
herein p
articular, at warp
speed
. This "g
roup
" (actually, a networking
gag
-gle o
f interested p
arties which scarcely d
eserves even that loose term
)has alm
ost no
thing in the w
ay of fo
rmal o
rganizatio
n. Tho
se form
alcivil lib
ertarian org
anizations w
hich did
take an interest in cybersp
aceissues, m
ainly the Com
puter Pro
fessionals fo
r Social R
esponsib
ility andthe A
merican C
ivil Liberties U
nion, w
ere carried alo
ng b
y events in1
99
0, and
acted m
ostly as ad
juncts, underw
riters or launching
- pad
s.
The civil lib
ertarians nevertheless enjoyed
the greatest success o
f anyof the g
roup
s in the Crackd
ow
n of 1
99
0. A
t this writing
, their futurelo
oks ro
sy and th
e political in
itiative is firmly in
their h
ands. T
his
should
be kep
t in mind
as we stud
y the highly unlikely lives and
lifestyles of the p
eople w
ho actually m
ade this hap
pen.
__
__
_
In June 19
89
, Apple C
om
puter, Inc., o
f Cup
ertino, C
alifornia, had
apro
blem
. Som
eone had
illicitly copied
a small p
iece of A
pple's p
ropri-
etary softw
are, softw
are which co
ntrolled
an internal chip d
riving the
Macinto
sh screen disp
lay. This C
olo
r QuickD
raw so
urce code w
as a
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closely g
uarded
piece o
f Apple's intellectual p
roperty. O
nly trustedA
pple insid
ers were sup
posed
to p
ossess it.
But the "N
uPrometheus Leag
ue" wanted thing
s otherwise. T
his person(o
r perso
ns) mad
e several illicit copies o
f this source co
de, p
erhaps as
many as tw
o d
ozen. H
e (or she, o
r they) then put tho
se illicit floppy
disks into envelo
pes and mailed them
to peo
ple all over A
merica: peo
plein the co
mputer ind
ustry who
were asso
ciated w
ith, but no
t directly
emplo
yed b
y, Apple C
om
puter.
The N
uProm
etheus caper w
as a com
plex, hig
hly ideo
logical, and
veryhacker-like crim
e. Pro
meth
eus, it w
ill be recalled
, stole th
e fire of th
eGods and gave this potent gift to the general ranks of dow
ntroddenm
ankin
d. A
similar g
od-in
-the-m
anger attitu
de w
as implied
for th
eco
rporate elite o
f Apple C
om
puter, w
hile the "Nu" Pro
metheus had
him-
self cast in the role o
f rebel d
emig
od. T
he illicitly copied
data w
as given
away fo
r free.
The new
Prometheus, w
hoever he was, escaped the fate of the ancient
Greek Pro
metheus, w
ho w
as chained to
a rock fo
r centuries by the
vengeful g
ods while an eag
le tore and ate his liver. On the other hand,
NuPro
metheus chickened
out so
mew
hat by co
mpariso
n with his ro
lem
odel. The sm
all chunk of Color Q
uickDraw
code he had filched andrep
licated w
as more o
r less useless to
Apple's in
dustrial rivals (o
r, infact, to
anyone else). Instead
of g
iving fire to
mankind
, it was m
ore as
if NuProm
etheus had photocopied the schematics for part of a B
iclig
hter. The act w
as not a g
enuine work o
f industrial esp
ionag
e. It was
best interp
reted as a sym
bolic, d
eliberate slap
in the face for the A
pple
corp
orate h
eirarchy.
Apple's internal strug
gles w
ere well-kno
wn in the ind
ustry. Apple's
found
ers, Jobs and
Wozniak, had
both taken their leave lo
ng since.
Their rauco
us core o
f senior em
plo
yees had b
een a barnsto
rming
crew o
f1
96
0s C
alifornians, m
any of them
marked
ly less than happy w
ith thenew
butto
n-dow
n multim
illion d
ollar reg
ime at A
pple. M
any of the p
ro-
gramm
ers and developers who had invented the M
acintosh model in the
early 1980s had also taken their leave of the com
pany. It was they, not
the current masters of A
pple's corporate fate, who had invented the
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stolen C
olo
r QuickD
raw co
de. T
he NuPro
metheus stunt w
as well-calcu-
lated to wound com
pany morale.
Apple called
the FBI. T
he Bureau takes an interest in hig
h-pro
fileintellectual-p
roperty theft cases, ind
ustrial espio
nage and
theft of trad
esecrets. T
hese were likely the rig
ht peo
ple to
call, and rum
or has it
that the entities responsib
le were in fact d
iscovered
by the FB
I, and then
quietly sq
uelched b
y Apple m
anagem
ent. NuPro
metheus w
as never pub
-licly charg
ed w
ith a crime, o
r pro
secuted, o
r jailed. B
ut there were no
furth
er illicit releases of M
acinto
sh in
ternal so
ftware. Even
tually th
epainful issue o
f NuPro
metheus w
as allow
ed to
fade.
In the meantim
e, how
ever, a large num
ber o
f puzzled
bystand
ers found
themselves entertaining
surprise g
uests from
the FBI.
One o
f these peo
ple w
as John Perry B
arlow
. Barlo
w is a m
ost unusual
man, d
ifficult to d
escribe in co
nventional term
s. He is p
erhaps b
estkno
wn as a so
ngw
riter for the G
rateful Dead
, for he co
mposed
lyrics for
"Hell in a B
ucket," "Picasso M
oon," "M
exicali Blues," "I N
eed a
Miracle," and
many m
ore; he has b
een writing
for the b
and since 1
97
0.
Befo
re we tackle the vexing
questio
n as to w
hy a rock lyricist sho
uld b
einterview
ed b
y the FBI in a co
mputer- crim
e case, it mig
ht be w
ell tosay a w
ord or two ab
out the Grateful D
ead. The G
rateful Dead are per-
haps the m
ost successful and
long
-lasting o
f the numero
us culturalem
anations fro
m the H
aight-A
shbury d
istrict of S
an Francisco, in the
glo
ry days o
f Movem
ent politics and
lysergic transcend
ance. The
Grateful D
ead are a nexus, a veritab
le whirlw
ind, o
f appliq
ue decals,
psych
edelic van
s, tie-dyed
T-sh
irts, earth-co
lor d
enim
, frenzied
dan
c-ing and open and unasham
ed drug use. The sym
bols, and the realities, ofCalifo
rnian freak pow
er surround
the Grateful D
ead like kno
ttedm
acrame.
The G
rateful Dead and their thousands of D
eadhead devotees are radicalBohem
ians. This m
uch is wid
ely understo
od. Exactly w
hat this implies
in the 19
90
s is rather more p
roblem
atic.
The G
rateful Dead are am
ong the w
orld's most popular and w
ealthy
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entertainers: number 2
0, acco
rding
to *Fo
rbes* m
agazine, rig
htbetw
een M.C
. Ham
mer and
Sean C
onnery. In 1
99
0, this jeans-clad
gro
up o
f purp
orted
raffish outcasts earned
seventeen millio
n dollars.
They have b
een earning sum
s much alo
ng this line fo
r quite so
me tim
eno
w.
And
while the D
ead are no
t investment b
ankers or three-p
iece-suit taxsp
ecialists — they are, in p
oint o
f fact, hippie m
usicians — this m
oney
has not been squandered in senseless Bohem
ian excess. The D
ead havebeen q
uietly active for m
any years, funding
various w
orthy activities in
their extensive and w
idesp
read cultural co
mm
unity.
The G
rateful Dead
are not co
nventional p
layers in the Am
erican pow
erestab
lishment. T
hey nevertheless are som
ething o
f a force to
be reck-
oned with. T
hey have a lot of money and a lot of friends in m
any places,both
likely an
d u
nlike
ly.
The D
ead m
ay be kno
wn fo
r back-to
-the-earth environm
entalistrheto
ric, but this hard
ly makes them
anti-technolo
gical Lud
dites. O
nthe co
ntrary, like most ro
ck musicians, the G
rateful Dead
have spent
their entire adult lives in the co
mpany o
f com
plex electro
nic equip
ment.
They have funds to burn on any sophisticated tool and toy that m
ighthappen to catch their fancy. A
nd their fancy is quite extensive.
The D
eadhead comm
unity boasts any num
ber of recording
engineers,
lighting
experts, ro
ck video
mavens, electro
nic technicians of all
descriptions. And the drift g
oes both w
ays. Steve Wozniak, A
pple's co-fo
under, used
to thro
w ro
ck festivals. Silico
n Valley ro
cks out.
These are the 1
99
0s, no
t the 19
60
s. Today, fo
r a surprising
number o
fpeo
ple all o
ver Am
erica, the supposed
divid
ing line b
etween B
ohem
ianand
technician simply no
long
er exists. People o
f this sort m
ay have aset of w
indchimes and a dog w
ith a knotted kerchief 'round its neck, butthey're also
quite likely to
ow
n a multim
egab
yte Macinto
sh runningM
IDI synthesizer so
ftware and
trippy fractal sim
ulations. T
hese days,
even T
imoth
y Leary h
imself, p
rophet o
f LSD
, does virtu
al-reality com
-puter- g
raphics d
emos in his lecture to
urs.
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John Perry B
arlow
is not a m
ember o
f the Grateful D
ead. H
e is, how
ev-er, a ranking
Dead
head.
Barlo
w d
escribes him
self as a "techno-crank." A
vague term
like"so
cial activist" mig
ht not b
e far from
the mark, either. B
ut Barlo
wm
ight b
e better describ
ed as a "poet" — if one keeps in m
ind PercyShelley's archaic d
efinition o
f poets as "unackno
wled
ged
legislato
rs of
the world
."
Barlow
once made a stab
at acknowledg
ed legislator status. In 1
987, he
narrow
ly missed
the Rep
ublican no
minatio
n for a seat in the W
yom
ingState S
enate. Barlo
w is a W
yom
ing native, the third
-generatio
n scion o
fa w
ell-to
-do cattle
-ranch
ing fam
ily. H
e is in
his e
arly fo
rties, m
ar-ried
and the father o
f three daug
hters.
Barlo
w is no
t much tro
ubled
by o
ther peo
ple's narro
w no
tions o
f con-
sistency. In
the late 1
98
0s, th
is Rep
ublican
rock lyricist cattle ran
ch-
er sold his ranch and became a com
puter telecomm
unications devotee.
The free-sp
irited B
arlow
mad
e this transition w
ith ease. He g
enuinelyenjo
yed co
mputers. W
ith a beep
of his m
odem
, he leapt fro
m sm
all-to
wn Pined
ale, Wyo
ming
, into electro
nic contact w
ith a large and
livelycro
wd o
f brig
ht, inventive, technolo
gical so
phisticates fro
m all o
ver thew
orld
. Barlo
w fo
und the so
cial milieu o
f com
puting
attractive: its fast-lane p
ace, its blue-sky rheto
ric, its open- end
edness. B
arlow
beg
andab
bling
in com
puter jo
urnalism, w
ith marked
success, as he was a
quick study, and both shrew
d and eloquent. He frequently travelled to
San Francisco
to netw
ork w
ith Dead
head friend
s. There B
arlow
mad
eextensive co
ntacts throug
hout the C
alifornian co
mputer co
mm
unity,includ
ing friend
ships am
ong
the wild
er spirits at A
pple.
In May 1
99
0, B
arlow
received a visit fro
m a lo
cal Wyo
ming
agent o
f theFB
I. The N
uProm
etheus case had reached
Wyo
ming
.
Barlo
w w
as troub
led to
find him
self under investig
ation in an area o
f hisinterests once quite free of federal attention. H
e had to struggle toexp
lain the very nature of co
mputer-crim
e to a head
scratching lo
calFB
I man
who sp
ecialized in
cattle-rustlin
g. B
arlow
, chattin
g h
elpfu
lly
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and demonstrating the w
onders of his modem
to the puzzled fed, was
alarmed
to find
all "hackers" generally und
er FBI susp
icion as an evil
influence in the electronic co
mm
unity. The FB
I, in pursuit o
f a hackercalled "N
uPrometheus," w
ere tracing attendees of a suspect g
roup calledthe H
ackers Conference.
The H
ackers Conference, w
hich had b
een started in 1
98
4, w
as a yearlyCalifo
rnian meeting
of d
igital p
ioneers and
enthusiasts. The hackers o
fthe H
ackers Conference had little if anything
to do with the hackers of
the dig
ital underg
round
. On the co
ntrary, the hackers of this co
nfer-ence w
ere mostly w
ell-to-d
o C
alifornian hig
h-tech CEO
s, consultants,
journalists and
entrepreneurs. (T
his gro
up o
f hackers were the exact
sort o
f "hackers" most likely to
react with m
ilitant fury at any criminal
deg
radatio
n of the term
"hacker.")
Barlow
, though he w
as not arrested or accused of a crime, and thoug
h hiscom
puter had certainly not gone out the door, w
as very troubled b
y thisano
maly. H
e carried the w
ord
to the W
ell.
Like the Hackers C
onference, "the W
ell" was an em
anation o
f the Point
Found
ation. Po
int Found
ation, the insp
iration o
f a wealthy C
alifornian
60
s radical nam
ed S
tewart B
rand, w
as to b
e a majo
r launch-pad
of the
civil lib
ertarian
effo
rt.
Point Fo
undatio
n's cultural efforts, like tho
se of their fello
w B
ay Area
Califo
rnians the Grateful D
ead, w
ere multifaceted
and m
ultitudino
us.Rig
id id
eolo
gical co
nsistency had never b
een a strong
suit of the *W
hole
Earth Catalo
g.* T
his Point p
ublicatio
n had enjo
yed a stro
ng vo
gue d
ur-ing
the late 60
s and early 7
0s, w
hen it offered
hundred
s of p
ractical(an
d n
ot so
practical) tip
s on co
mm
unitarian
living, en
vironm
entalism
,and
getting
back-to
-the-land. T
he *Who
le Earth Catalo
g,* and
itsseq
uels, sold
two and
half millio
n copies and
won a N
ational B
ook A
ward
.
With the slo
w co
llapse o
f Am
erican radical d
issent, the *Who
le EarthCatalo
g* had
slipped
to a m
ore m
odest co
rner of the cultural rad
ar; but
in its m
agazin
e incarn
ation, *C
oEvo
lutio
n Q
uarterly,* th
e Poin
tFoundation continued to offer a m
agpie potpourri of "access to tools andid
eas."
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*CoEvo
lutio
n Q
uarterly,* w
hich
started in
19
74
, was n
ever a wid
elypopular m
agazine. D
espite p
eriodic o
utbreaks o
f millenarian fervo
r,*C
oEvo
lutio
n Q
uarterly* failed
to revo
lutio
nize W
estern civilizatio
nand
replace lead
en centuries of histo
ry with b
right new
Califo
rnianparadig
ms. Instead, this pro
paganda arm
of Po
int Foundatio
n cakewalked
a fine line betw
een impressive b
rilliance and N
ew A
ge flakiness.
*CoEvo
lution Q
uarterly* carried no
advertising
, cost a lo
t, and cam
eout o
n cheap new
sprint w
ith modest b
lack-and-w
hite grap
hics. It was
poorly d
istributed
, and sp
read m
ostly b
y subscrip
tion and
word
of
mouth.
It could not seem to grow
beyond 30,0
00 subscribers. A
nd yet — it
never seemed
to shrink m
uch, either. Year in, year o
ut, decad
e in,decade out, som
e strange demographic m
inority accreted to support them
agazine. The enthusiastic readership did not seem
to have much in the
way o
f coherent po
litics or ideals. It w
as som
etimes hard to
understandw
hat held them
together (if the o
ften bitter d
ebate in the letter-co
lumns
could be described as "togetherness").
But if the m
agazine d
id no
t flourish, it w
as resilient; it got b
y. Then, in
19
84
, the birth-year o
f the Macinto
sh com
puter, *C
oEvo
lution
Quarterly* sud
denly hit the rap
ids. Po
int Found
ation had
disco
vered the
com
puter revo
lution. O
ut came the *W
hole Earth S
oftw
are Catalo
g* o
f1
98
4, aro
using head
scratching d
oub
ts among
the tie- dyed
faithful, andrab
id enthusiasm
among
the nascent "cyberp
unk" milieu, p
resent com
-pany includ
ed. Po
int Found
ation started
its yearly Hackers C
onference,
and b
egan to
take an extensive interest in the strange new
possib
ilitiesof d
igital co
unterculture. *CoEvo
lution Q
uarterly* fold
ed its teep
ee,rep
laced b
y *Who
le Earth Softw
are Review
* and eventually b
y *Who
leEarth R
eview* (the m
agazine's p
resent incarnation, currently und
erth
e edito
rship
of virtu
al-reality maven
How
ard R
hein
gold
).
19
85
saw the b
irth of the "W
ELL" — the "W
hole Earth 'Lectro
nic Link."The W
ell was Po
int Found
ation's b
ulletin board
system.
As b
oard
s went, the W
ell was an ano
maly fro
m the b
eginning
, andrem
ained o
ne. It was lo
cal to S
an Francisco. It w
as huge, w
ith multip
le
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pho
nelines and eno
rmous files o
f com
mentary. Its co
mplex U
NIX
-based
softw
are mig
ht be m
ost charitab
ly describ
ed as "user- o
paq
ue." It was
run on a m
ainframe o
ut of the ram
bling
offices o
f a non-p
rofit cultural
foundation in Sausalito. And it w
as cramm
ed with fans of the G
ratefulD
ead.
Thoug
h the Well w
as peopled by chattering
hipsters of the Bay A
reaco
unterculture, it was b
y no m
eans a "dig
ital underg
round
" board
.Teenag
ers were fairly scarce; m
ost W
ell users (know
n as"W
ellbeing
s") were thirty- and
forty-so
mething
Bab
y Boom
ers. They
tended
to w
ork in the info
rmatio
n industry: hard
ware, so
ftware,
telecom
municatio
ns, med
ia, entertainment. Lib
rarians, academ
ics, andjo
urnalists were esp
ecially com
mon o
n the Well, attracted
by Po
intFoundation's open-handed distrib
ution of "tools and ideas."
There w
ere no anarchy files o
n the Well, scarcely a d
ropped
hint about
access codes or credit-card theft. No one used handles. V
icious "flame-
wars" w
ere held to
a com
paratively civilized
rumble. D
ebates w
ereso
metim
es sharp, b
ut no W
ellbeing
ever claimed
that a rival had d
is-co
nnected his p
hone, trashed
his house, o
r posted
his credit card
num-
bers.
The W
ell grew slow
ly as the 1980s advanced. It charged a m
odest sumfor access and storage, and lost m
oney for years — but not enough to
hamper the Po
int Found
ation, w
hich was no
npro
fit anyway. B
y 19
90
,the W
ell had about five thousand users. These users w
andered about agigantic cyberspace sm
orgasbord of "Conferences", each conference
itself consisting of a w
elter of "topics," each topic containing dozens,
som
etimes hund
reds o
f com
ments, in a tum
bling
, multip
erson d
ebate
that could last for months or years on end.
In 19
91
, the Well's list o
f conferences lo
oked
like this:
CONFERENCES ON THE WELL
WELL "Screenzine" Digest (g zine)
Best of the WELL - vintage material - (g best)
Index listing of new topics in all conferences - (g new-
tops)
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Business - Education
----------------------
Apple Library Users Group(g alug)
Agriculture (g agri)
Brainstorming (g brain)
Classifieds (g cla)
Computer Journalism (g cj)
Consultants (g consult)
Consumers (g cons)
Design (g design)
Desktop Publishing (g desk)
Disability (g disability)
Education (g ed)
Energy (g energy91)
Entrepreneurs (g entre)
Homeowners (g home)
Indexing (g indexing)
Investments (g invest)
Kids91 (g kids)
Legal (g legal)
One Person Business (g one)
Periodical/newsletter(g per)
Telecomm Law (g tcl)
The Future (g fut)
Translators (g trans)
Travel (g tra)
Work (g work)
Electronic Frontier Foundation (g eff)
Computers, Freedom & Privacy (g cfp)
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (g cpsr)
Social - Political - Humanities
---------------------------------
Aging (g gray)
AIDS (g aids)
Amnesty International (g amnesty)
Archives (g arc)
Berkeley (g berk)
Buddhist (g wonderland)
Christian (g cross)
Couples (g couples)
Current Events (g curr)
Dreams (g dream)
Drugs (g dru)
East Coast (g east)
Emotional Health**** (g private)
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Erotica (g eros)
Environment (g env)
Firearms (g firearms)
First Amendment (g first)
Fringes of Reason (g fringes)
Gay (g gay)
Gay (Private) # (g gaypriv)
Geography (g geo)
German (g german)
Gulf War (g gulf)
Hawaii (g aloha)
Health (g heal)
History (g hist)
Holistic (g holi)
Interview (g inter)
Italian (g ital)
Jewish (g jew)
Liberty (g liberty)
Mind (g mind)
Miscellaneous (g misc)
Men on the WELL** (g mow)
Network Integration (g origin)
Nonprofits (g non)
North Bay (g north)
Northwest (g nw)
Pacific Rim (g pacrim)
Parenting (g par)
Peace (g pea)
Peninsula (g pen)
Poetry (g poetry)
Philosophy (g phi)
Politics (g pol)
Psychology (g psy)
Psychotherapy (g therapy)
Recovery## (g recovery)
San Francisco (g sanfran)
Scams (g scam)
Sexuality (g sex)
Singles (g singles)
Southern (g south)
Spanish (g spanish)
Spirituality (g spirit)
Tibet (g tibet)
Transportation (g transport)
True Confessions (g tru)
Unclear (g unclear)
WELL Writer's Workshop***(g www)
Whole Earth (g we)
BR
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Women on the WELL*(g wow)
Words (g words)
Writers (g wri)
**** Private Conference - mail wooly for entry
***Private conference - mail sonia for entry
** Private conference - mail flash for entry
* Private conference - mail reva for entry
# Private Conference - mail hudu for entry
## Private Conference - mail dhawk for entry
Arts - Recreation - Entertainment
-----------------------------------
ArtCom Electronic Net (g acen)
Audio-Videophilia (g aud)
Bicycles (g bike)
Bay Area Tonight**(g bat)
Boating (g wet)
Books (g books)
CD's (g cd)
Comics (g comics)
Cooking (g cook)
Flying (g flying)
Fun (g fun)
Games (g games)
Gardening (g gard)
Kids (g kids)
Nightowls* (g owl)
Jokes (g jokes)
MIDI (g midi)
Movies (g movies)
Motorcycling (g ride)
Motoring (g car)
Music (g mus)
On Stage (g onstage)
Pets (g pets)
Radio (g rad)
Restaurant (g rest)
Science Fiction (g sf)
Sports (g spo)
Star Trek (g trek)
Television (g tv)
Theater (g theater)
Weird (g weird)
Zines/Factsheet Five(g f5)
* Open from midnight to 6am
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** Updated daily
Grateful Dead
-------------
Grateful Dead (g gd)
Deadplan* (g dp)
Deadlit (g deadlit)
Feedback (g feedback)
GD Hour (g gdh)
Tapes (g tapes)
Tickets (g tix)
Tours (g tours)
* Private conference - mail tnf for entry
Computers
-----------
AI/Forth/Realtime (g realtime)
Amiga (g amiga)
Apple (g app)
Computer Books (g cbook)
Art & Graphics (g gra)
Hacking (g hack)
HyperCard (g hype)
IBM PC (g ibm)
LANs (g lan)
Laptop (g lap)
Macintosh (g mac)
Mactech (g mactech)
Microtimes (g microx)
Muchomedia (g mucho)
NeXt (g next)
OS/2 (g os2)
Printers (g print)
Programmer's Net (g net)
Siggraph (g siggraph)
Software Design (g sdc)
Software/Programming (software)
Software Support (g ssc)
Unix (g unix)
Windows (g windows)
Word Processing (g word)
Technical - Communications
----------------------------
Bioinfo (g bioinfo)
Info (g boing)
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Media (g media)
NAPLPS (g naplps)
Netweaver (g netweaver)
Networld (g networld)
Packet Radio (g packet)
Photography (g pho)
Radio (g rad)
Science (g science)
Technical Writers (g tec)
Telecommunications(g tele)
Usenet (g usenet)
Video (g vid)
Virtual Reality (g vr)
The WELL Itself
---------------
Deeper (g deeper)
Entry (g ent)
General (g gentech)
Help (g help)
Hosts (g hosts)
Policy (g policy)
System News (g news)
Test (g test)
The list itself is d
azzling, b
ringing
to the untuto
red eye a d
izzyingim
pre
ssion o
f a bizarre
milie
u o
f mountain
- climbin
g H
awaiian
holistic
photo
grap
hers trad
ing tru
e-life confessio
ns w
ith b
isexual w
ord
-pro
-cessing
Tib
etans.
But this co
nfusion is m
ore apparent than real. Each o
f these conferences
was a little cyb
erspace w
orld
in itself, com
prising
dozens and
perhap
shundreds of sub-topics. Each conference w
as comm
only frequented by afairly sm
all, fairly like-min
ded
com
munity o
f perh
aps a few
dozen
peo
-ple. It w
as humanly im
possib
le to enco
mpass the entire W
ell (espe-
cially since access to the W
ell's mainfram
e com
puter w
as billed
by the
hour). M
ost lo
ng- tim
e users contented
themselves w
ith a few favo
ritetopical neig
hborhoods, w
ith the occasional foray elsewhere for a taste of
exotica. B
ut especially im
portant new
s items, and
hot to
pical d
ebates,
could catch the attention of the entire Well com
munity.
Like any com
munity, the W
ell had its celeb
rities, and Jo
hn Perry
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Barlo
w, th
e silver-tongued
and silver- m
odem
ed lyricist o
f the G
rateful
Dead
, ranked p
rom
inently among
them. It w
as here on the W
ell thatBarlo
w p
osted
his true-life tale of co
mputer-crim
e encounter w
ith theFB
I.
The story, as m
ight b
e expected, created a great stir. T
he Well w
asalread
y prim
ed fo
r hacker contro
versy. In Decem
ber 1
98
9,
*Harper's* m
agazine had hosted a debate on the Well about the ethics of
illicit com
pute
r intru
sion. W
hile
ove
r forty
various co
mpute
r-m
avens took part, Barlow
proved a star in the debate. So did "Acid
Phreak" and "Phib
er Optik," a p
air of yo
ung N
ew Y
ork hacker-p
hreaksw
hose skills at telco
switching
-station intrusio
n were m
atched o
nly by
their apparently lim
itless hunger fo
r fame. T
he advent o
f these two
bold
ly swag
gering
outlaw
s in the precincts o
f the Well created
a sensa-tio
n akin to that o
f Black Panthers at a co
cktail party fo
r the radically
chic.
Phiber O
ptik in p
articular was to
seize the day in 1
99
0. A
devo
tee of the
*26
00
* circle and stalw
art of the N
ew Y
ork hackers' g
roup
"Masters o
fD
eceptio
n," Phiber O
ptik w
as a splend
id exem
plar o
f the com
puter
intruder as co
mm
itted d
issident. T
he eighteen-year-o
ld O
ptik, a hig
h-scho
ol d
ropout and
part-tim
e com
puter rep
airman, w
as young
, smart,
and ru
thlessly o
bsessive, a sh
arp- d
ressing, sh
arp-talkin
g d
igital d
ude
who
was utterly and
airily contem
ptuo
us of anyo
ne's rules but his o
wn.
By late
19
91
, Phib
er O
ptik h
ad ap
peare
d in
*Harp
er's,* *E
squire
,**T
he New
York T
imes,* in co
untless pub
lic deb
ates and co
nventions,
even on a televisio
n show
hosted
by G
eraldo R
ivera.
Treated
with g
ingerly resp
ect by B
arlow
and o
ther Well m
avens,Phib
er Optik sw
iftly becam
e a Well celeb
rity. Strang
ely, desp
ite histho
rny attitude and
utter single-m
inded
ness, Phiber O
ptik seem
ed to
arouse strong protective instincts in m
ost of the people who m
et him. H
ew
as great co
py fo
r journalists, alw
ays fearlessly ready to
swag
ger, and
,better yet, to
actually *dem
onstrate* so
me o
ff-the-wall d
igital stunt.
He w
as a born m
edia d
arling.
Even cops seemed to recognize that there w
as something peculiarly
unw
orld
ly and u
ncrim
inal ab
out th
is particu
lar troublem
aker. He w
as
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so bold, so flagrant, so young, and so obviously doomed, that even those
who
strong
ly disap
pro
ved o
f his actions g
rew anxio
us for his w
elfare,and began to flutter about him
as if he were an endangered seal pup.
In Jan
uary 2
4, 1
99
0 (n
ine d
ays after the M
artin L
uth
er Kin
g D
ayCrash), Phib
er Optik, A
cid Phreak, and
a third N
YC sco
fflaw nam
edSco
rpio
n were raid
ed b
y the Secret S
ervice. Their co
mputers w
ent out
the door, along w
ith the usual blizzard of papers, noteb
ooks, compact
disks, answ
ering m
achines, Sony W
alkmans, etc. B
oth A
cid Phreak and
Phiber O
ptik w
ere accused o
f having caused
the Crash.
The m
ills of justice g
round
slow
ly. The case eventually fell into
thehand
s of the N
ew Y
ork S
tate Police. Phib
er had lo
st his machinery in the
raid, b
ut there were no
charges filed
against him
for o
ver a year. His
pred
icament w
as extensively pub
licized o
n the Well, w
here it causedm
uch resentment fo
r police tactics. It's o
ne thing to
merely hear ab
out
a hacker raided or busted; it's another to see the police attacking
some-
one you've come to know
personally, and who has explained his m
otivesat leng
th. Throug
h the *Harper's* deb
ate on the Well, it had b
ecome
clear to the W
ellbeing
s that Phiber O
ptik w
as not in fact g
oing
to "hurt
anything." In their o
wn salad
days, m
any Wellb
eings had
tasted tear-
gas in p
itched street-b
attles with p
olice. T
hey were inclined
to ind
ul-gence fo
r acts of civil d
isobed
ience.
Wellb
eings w
ere also startled
to learn o
f the draco
nian thoro
ughness o
f atyp
ical hacker search-and- seizure. It to
ok no
great stretch o
f imag
i-natio
n for them
to envisio
n themselves suffering
much the sam
e treat-m
ent.
As early as January 1
99
0, sentim
ent on the W
ell had alread
y beg
un tosour, and people had b
egun to g
rumble that "hackers" w
ere getting
a rawdeal fro
m the ham
- handed
pow
ers-that-be. T
he resultant issue of
*Harp
er's* mag
azine posed
the questio
n as to w
hether com
puter-
intrusion w
as a "crime" at all. A
s Barlo
w p
ut it later: "I've beg
un tow
ond
er if we w
ould
n't also reg
ard sp
elunkers as desp
erate criminals if
AT&
T ow
ned all the caves."
In February 1
99
1, m
ore than a year after the raid
on his ho
me, Phib
er
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Optik w
as finally arrested, and
was charg
ed w
ith first-deg
ree Com
puter
Tam
pering and Com
puter Trespass, N
ew York state offenses. H
e was
also charg
ed w
ith a theft-of-service m
isdem
eanor, invo
lving a co
mplex
free-call scam to
a 90
0 num
ber. Phib
er Optik p
led g
uilty to the m
isde-
meanor charge, and w
as sentenced to 35 hours of com
munity service.
This p
assing harassm
ent from
the unfathom
able w
orld
of straig
ht peo
ple
seemed
to b
other O
ptik him
self little if at all. Dep
rived o
f his com
puter
by the January search-and
-seizure, he simply b
oug
ht himself a
portable computer so the cops could no longer m
onitor the phone where
he lived w
ith his Mom
, and he w
ent right o
n with his d
epred
ations,
som
etimes o
n live radio
or in fro
nt of televisio
n cameras.
The crackd
ow
n raid m
ay have done little to
dissuad
e Phiber O
ptik, b
utits g
alling affect o
n the Wellb
eings w
as pro
found
. As 1
99
0 ro
lled o
n,the sling
s and arro
ws m
ounted
: the Knig
ht Lightning
raid, the S
teveJackso
n raid, the natio
n-spanning
Operatio
n Sund
evil. The rheto
ric of
law enforcem
ent made it clear that there w
as, in fact, a concertedcrackd
ow
n on hackers in p
rogress.
The hackers o
f the Hackers C
onference, the W
ellbeing
s, and their ilk,
did
not really m
ind the o
ccasional p
ublic m
isapprehensio
n of "hacking
";if anything
, this mem
brane o
f differentiatio
n from
straight so
ciety mad
ethe "co
mputer co
mm
unity" feel different, sm
arter, better. T
hey hadnever b
efore b
een confro
nted, ho
wever, b
y a concerted
vilification cam
-paig
n.
Barlo
w's central ro
le in the counter-strug
gle w
as one o
f the majo
rano
malies o
f 19
90
. Journalists investig
ating the co
ntroversy o
ftenstum
bled
over the truth ab
out B
arlow
, but they co
mm
only d
usted them
-selves o
ff and hurried
on as if no
thing had
happened
. It was as if it w
ere*too m
uch to believe* that a 1
960s freak from
the Grateful D
ead hadtaken o
n a federal law
enforcem
ent operatio
n head-to
-head and
*actual-ly seem
ed to
be w
inning!*
Barlo
w had
no easily d
etectable p
ow
er-base fo
r a political strug
gle o
fthis kind
. He had
no fo
rmal leg
al or technical cred
entials. Barlo
w w
as,ho
wever, a co
mputer netw
orker o
f truly stellar brilliance. H
e had a
BR
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poet's g
ift of co
ncise, colo
rful phrasing
. He also
had a jo
urnalist'sshrew
dness, an o
ff-the-wall, self-d
eprecating
wit, and
a pheno
menal
wealth o
f simple p
ersonal charm
.
The kind
of influence B
arlow
possessed
is fairly com
mon currency in
literary, artistic, or m
usical circles. A
gifted
critic can w
ield g
reatartistic influence sim
ply thro
ugh d
efining the tem
per o
f the times, b
ycoining the catch-phrases and the term
s of debate that become the com
-m
on currency o
f the perio
d. (A
nd as it hap
pened
, Barlo
w *w
as* apart-tim
e art critic, with a sp
ecial fond
ness for the W
estern art of
Frederic R
emin
gto
n.)
Barlo
w w
as the first com
mentato
r to ad
opt W
illiam G
ibso
n's strikingscience-fictio
nal term "cyb
erspace" as a syno
nym fo
r the present-d
aynexus o
f com
puter and
telecom
municatio
ns networks. B
arlow
was
insistent that cybersp
ace should
be reg
arded
as a qualitatively new
world
, a "frontier." A
ccord
ing to
Barlo
w, the w
orld
of electro
nic com
-m
unications, no
w m
ade visib
le throug
h the com
puter screen, co
uld no
long
er be usefully reg
arded
as just a tangle o
f high-tech w
iring.
Instead, it had become a *place,* cyberspace, w
hich demanded a new
set of m
etapho
rs, a new set o
f rules and b
ehaviors. T
he term, as B
arlow
employed it, struck a useful chord, and this concept of cyb
erspace was
picked
up b
y *Tim
e,* *Scien
tific Am
erican,* co
mputer p
olice, h
ack-ers, and
even Constitutio
nal scholars. "C
ybersp
ace" now
seems likely
to become a perm
anent fixture of the language.
Barlo
w w
as very striking in p
erson: a tall, crag
gy- faced
, beard
ed,
deep
-voiced
Wyo
ming
an in a dashing
Western ensem
ble o
f jeans, jacket,co
wboy b
oots, a kno
tted thro
at-kerchief and an ever-p
resent Grateful
Dead
cloiso
nne lapel p
in.
Arm
ed w
ith a modem
, how
ever, Barlo
w w
as truly in his element.
Form
al hierarch
ies were n
ot B
arlow
's strong su
it; he rarely m
issed a
chance to b
elittle the "large o
rganizatio
ns and their d
rones," w
ith theirup
tight, institutio
nal mind
set. Barlo
w w
as very much o
f the free-sp
irit persu
asion, d
eeply
unim
pre
ssed b
y b
rass-hats an
d jacks-in
-office. B
ut when it cam
e to the d
igital g
rapevine, B
arlow
was a cyb
er-sp
ace ad-ho
crat par excellence.
BR
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There w
as not a m
ighty arm
y of B
arlow
s. There w
as only o
ne Barlo
w,
and he w
as a fairly anom
olo
us individ
ual. How
ever, the situation o
nlyseem
ed to
*require* a sing
le Barlo
w. In fact, after 1
99
0, m
any peo
-ple m
ust have concluded that a single B
arlow w
as far more than they'd
ever barg
ained fo
r.
Barlo
w's q
uerulous m
ini-essay about his enco
unter with the FB
I strucka stro
ng cho
rd o
n the Well. A
number o
f other free sp
irits on the
fringes o
f Apple C
om
puting
had co
me und
er suspicio
n, and they liked
itnot one w
hit better than he did.
One o
f these was M
itchell Kap
or, the co
-inventor o
f the spread
sheetpro
gram
"Lotus 1
-2-3
" and the fo
under o
f Lotus D
evelopm
entCorp
oratio
n. Kap
or had
written-o
ff the passing
indig
nity of b
eing fin-
gerp
rinted d
ow
n at his ow
n local B
osto
n FBI head
quarters, b
ut Barlo
w's
post made the full national scope of the FB
I's dragnet clear to K
apor.The issue now
had Kapor's full attention. A
s the Secret Service swung
into anti-hacker o
peratio
n nationw
ide in 1
99
0, K
apor w
atched every
move w
ith deep
skepticism
and g
row
ing alarm
.
As it hap
pened
, Kap
or had
already m
et Barlo
w, w
ho had
interviewed
Kap
or fo
r a Califo
rnia com
puter jo
urnal. Like most p
eople w
ho m
etBarlo
w, K
apor had
been very taken w
ith him. N
ow
Kap
or to
ok it up
on
himself to
dro
p in o
n Barlo
w fo
r a heart-to-heart talk ab
out the situa-
tion.
Kapor w
as a regular on the Well. K
apor had been a devotee of the*W
hole Earth C
atalog* since the b
eginning
, and treasured
a com
plete
run of the magazine. A
nd Kapor not only had a m
odem, but a private jet.
In pursuit o
f the scattered hig
h-tech investments o
f Kap
or Enterp
risesIn
c., his p
erso
nal, m
ulti-m
illion d
ollar h
old
ing co
mpan
y, K
apor co
m-
monly crossed state lines w
ith about as much thought as one m
ight giveto
faxing a letter.
The K
apor-B
arlow
council o
f June 1
99
0, in
Pin
edale, W
yom
ing, w
asthe start o
f the Electronic Fro
ntier Found
ation. B
arlow
swiftly w
rote a
manifesto
, "Crim
e and Puzzlem
ent," which anno
unced his, and
Kap
or's,
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intention to
form
a political o
rganizatio
n to "raise and
disb
urse funds
for ed
ucation, lo
bbying
, and litig
ation in the areas relating
to d
igital
speech and the extension of the Constitution into C
yberspace."
Furthermore, p
roclaim
ed the m
anifesto, the fo
undatio
n would
"fund,
conduct, and support legal efforts to demonstrate that the Secret Service
has exercised
prio
r restraint o
n p
ublicatio
ns, lim
ited free sp
eech, co
n-
ducted improper seizure of equipm
ent and data, used undue force, andgenerally co
nducted
itself in a fashion w
hich is arbitrary, o
ppressive,
and unco
nstitutional."
"Crim
e and Puzzlem
ent" was d
istributed
far and w
ide thro
ugh co
mputer
networking
channels, and also
printed
in the *Who
le Earth Review
.*The sud
den d
eclaration o
f a coherent, p
oliticized
counter-strike fro
mthe ranks o
f hackerdom
electrified the co
mm
unity. Steve W
ozniak
(perhap
s a bit stung
by the N
uProm
etheus scandal) sw
iftly offered
tom
atch any funds Kapor offered the Foundation.
John G
ilmore, o
ne of the p
ioneers o
f Sun M
icrosystem
s, imm
ediately
offered
his ow
n extensive financial and p
ersonal sup
port. G
ilmore, an
ardent lib
ertarian, was to
pro
ve an eloquent ad
vocate o
f electronic p
ri-vacy issues, esp
ecially freedom
from
governm
ental and co
rporate co
m-
puter-assisted
surveillan
ce of p
rivate citizens.
A seco
nd m
eeting in S
an Francisco ro
unded
up further allies: S
tewart
Bran
d o
f the P
oin
t Foundatio
n, virtu
al-reality pio
neers Jaro
n L
anier
and C
huck Blanchard
, network entrep
reneur and venture cap
italist Nat
Gold
haber. A
t this dinner m
eeting, the activists settled
on a fo
rmal title:
the Electronic Fro
ntier Found
ation, Inco
rporated
. Kap
or b
ecame its
president. A new
EFF Conference w
as opened on the Point Foundation'sW
ell, and the W
ell was d
eclared "the ho
me o
f the Electronic Fro
ntierFo
undatio
n."
Press coverag
e was im
med
iate and intense. Like their nineteenth-cen-
tury spiritual ancesto
rs, Alexand
er Graham
Bell and
Tho
mas W
atson,
the high-tech co
mputer entrep
reneurs of the 1
97
0s and
19
80
s — p
eo-
ple such as W
ozniak, Jo
bs, K
apor, G
ates, and H
. Ross Pero
t, who
hadraised
themselves b
y their bootstrap
s to d
om
inate a glittering
new
BR
UC
E S
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industry — had alw
ays made very good copy.
But w
hile the Wellb
eings rejo
iced, the p
ress in general seem
ed no
n-plu
ssed b
y the self-d
eclared "civilizers o
f cybersp
ace." EFF's insis-
tence that the war ag
ainst "hackers" involved
grave C
onstitutio
nal civillib
erties issues seemed
som
ewhat farfetched
, especially since no
ne of
EFF's org
anizers were law
yers or estab
lished p
oliticians. T
he busi-
ness press in p
articular found
it easier to seize o
n the apparent co
re of
the story —
that high-tech entrep
reneur Mitchell K
apor had
established
a "defense fund
for hackers." W
as EFF a genuinely im
portant p
olitical
develo
pm
ent — o
r merely a cliq
ue of w
ealthy eccentrics, dab
bling
inm
atters better left to
the pro
per autho
rities? The jury w
as still out.
But the stage w
as now set for open confrontation. A
nd the first and them
ost critical b
attle was the hacker sho
w-trial o
f "Knig
ht Lightning
."_
__
__
It has been m
y practice thro
ugho
ut this book to
refer to hackers o
nly by
their "handles." T
here is little to g
ain by g
iving the real nam
es of these
peo
ple, m
any of w
hom
are juveniles, many o
f who
m have never b
eenconvicted of any crim
e, and many of w
hom had unsuspecting parents w
hohave alread
y suffered eno
ugh.
But th
e trial of K
nig
ht L
ightn
ing o
n Ju
ly 24
-27
, 19
90
, mad
e this p
ar-ticular "hacker" a natio
nally know
n pub
lic figure. It can d
o no
particu-
lar harm to
himself o
r his family if I rep
eat the long
-established
factthat his nam
e is Craig
Neid
orf (p
rono
unced N
YE-d
orf).
Neid
orf's jury trial to
ok p
lace in the United
States D
istrict Court,
North
ern
District o
f Illinois, E
astern
Divisio
n, w
ith th
e H
onorab
leN
icholas J. B
ua presid
ing. T
he United
States o
f Am
erica was the p
lain-tiff, the defendant M
r. Neidorf. T
he defendant's attorney was Sheldon T
.Zenner o
f the Chicag
o firm
of K
atten, Muchin and
Zavis.
The prosecution w
as led by the stalwarts of the C
hicago Com
puter Fraudand
Abuse T
ask Force: W
illiam J. C
ook, C
olleen D
. Coug
hlin, and D
avid A
.G
lockner, all A
ssistant United
States A
ttorneys. T
he Secret S
erviceCase A
gent was T
imothy M
. Foley.
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UC
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AC
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OW
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NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
2 5 2
It will b
e recalled that N
eidorf w
as the co-ed
itor o
f an underg
round
hacke
r "mag
azine" calle
d *P
hrack*. *P
hrack* w
as an e
ntire
ly ele
c-tro
nic pub
lication, d
istributed
throug
h bulletin b
oard
s and o
ver elec-tro
nic networks. It w
as amateur p
ublicatio
n given aw
ay for free.
Neid
orf had
never mad
e any money fo
r his work in *Phrack.* N
eitherhad
his unindicted
co-ed
itor "T
aran King
" or any o
f the numero
us*P
hrack* co
ntrib
uto
rs.
The C
hicago Com
puter Fraud and Abuse T
ask Force, however, had decided
to p
rosecute N
eidorf as a fraud
ster. To fo
rmally ad
mit that *Phrack*
was a "m
agazine" and
Neid
orf a "p
ublisher" w
as to o
pen a p
rosecuto
rialPandora's B
ox of First Am
endment issues. T
o do this was to play into
the hands o
f Zenner and his EFF ad
visers, which no
w includ
ed a p
halanxof p
rom
inent New
York civil rig
hts lawyers as w
ell as the form
idab
leleg
al staff of K
atten, Muchin and
Zavis. Instead, the p
rosecutio
n reliedheavily o
n the issue of access d
evice fraud: S
ection 1
02
9 o
f Title 1
8,
the section fro
m w
hich the Secret S
ervice drew
its most d
irect juris-dictio
n over co
mputer crim
e.
Neidorf's alleg
ed crimes centered around the E9
11 D
ocument. H
e was
accused of having entered into a fraudulent schem
e with the Prophet,
who
, it will b
e recalled, w
as the Atlanta Lo
D m
ember w
ho had
illicitlycopied the E9
11 D
ocument from
the BellSouth A
IMSX
system.
The Pro
phet him
self was also
a co-d
efendant in the N
eidorf case, p
art-and
-parcel o
f the alleged
"fraud schem
e" to "steal" B
ellSouth's E9
11
Docum
ent (and to pass the Docum
ent across state lines, which helped
establish the N
eidorf trial as a fed
eral case). The Pro
phet, in the sp
iritof full co
-operatio
n, had ag
reed to
testify against N
eidorf.
In fact, all three of the Atlanta crew
stood ready to testify againstN
eidorf. T
heir ow
n federal p
rosecuto
rs in Atlanta had
charged
theA
tlanta T
hree w
ith: (a) co
nsp
iracy, (b) co
mputer frau
d, (c) w
irefraud
, (d) access d
evice fraud, and
(e) interstate transportatio
n of
stolen p
roperty (T
itle 18
, Sectio
ns 37
1, 1
03
0, 1
34
3, 1
02
9, and
23
14
).
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Faced w
ith this blizzard
of tro
uble, Pro
phet and
Leftist had d
ucked any
pub
lic trial and had
pled
guilty to
reduced
charges —
one co
nspiracy
count apiece. Urvile had pled g
uilty to that odd bit of Section 1
029
which m
akes it illegal to
possess "fifteen o
r more" illeg
al access devices
(in his case, com
puter p
assword
s). And
their sentences were sched
uledfo
r Sep
tember 1
4, 1
99
0 —
well after the N
eidorf trial. A
s witnesses,
they could
presum
ably b
e relied up
on to
behave.
Neidorf, how
ever, was pleading
innocent. Most everyone else caug
ht upin the crackdow
n had "cooperated fully" and pled guilty in hope of
reduced sentences. (Steve Jackson was a notable exception, of course,
and had
strong
ly pro
tested his inno
cence from
the very beg
inning. B
utSteve Jackson could not get a day in court —
Steve Jackson had neverbeen charg
ed w
ith any crime in the first p
lace.)
Neid
orf had
been urg
ed to
plead
guilty. B
ut Neid
orf w
as a political sci-
ence majo
r and w
as disinclined
to g
o to
jail for "fraud
" when he had
not
made any m
oney, had not broken into any computer, and had been pub-
lishing a m
agazine that he co
nsidered
pro
tected und
er the FirstA
mend
ment.
Neid
orf's trial w
as the *only* leg
al action o
f the entire Crackd
ow
n thatactually invo
lved b
ringing
the issues at hand o
ut for a p
ublic test in
front o
f a jury of A
merican citizens.
Neid
orf, to
o, had
cooperated
with investig
ators. H
e had vo
luntarilyhanded over m
uch of the evidence that had led to his own indictm
ent. He
had already admitted in w
riting that he knew
that the E911 D
ocument
had b
een stolen b
efore he had
"pub
lished" it in *Phrack* —
or, fro
m the
pro
secution's p
oint o
f view, illeg
ally transported
stolen p
roperty b
yw
ire in som
ething p
urporting
to b
e a "pub
lication."
But even if the "publication" of the E9
11 D
ocument w
as not held to be acrim
e, that would
n't let Neid
orf o
ff the hook. N
eidorf had
still receivedthe E9
11
Docum
ent when Pro
phet had
transferred it to
him fro
m R
ichA
ndrews' Jolnet node. O
n that occasion, it certainly hadn't been "pub
-lished
" — it w
as hacker booty, p
ure and sim
ple, transp
orted
across state
lines.
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The C
hicago T
ask Force led a Chicag
o grand jury to indict N
eidorf on aset o
f charges that co
uld have p
ut him in jail fo
r thirty years. When
som
e of these charg
es were successfully challeng
ed b
efore N
eidorf actu-
ally went to
trial, the Chicag
o T
ask Force rearrang
ed his ind
ictment so
that he faced a p
ossib
le jail term o
f over sixty years! A
s a first offend
-er, it w
as very unlikely that Neid
orf w
ould
in fact receive a sentence sodrastic; b
ut the Chicag
o Task Force clearly intended to see N
eidorf putin p
rison, and
his consp
iratorial "m
agazine" p
ut perm
anently out o
fcom
mission. T
his was a federal case, and N
eidorf was charg
ed with the
fraudulent theft o
f pro
perty w
orth alm
ost eig
hty thousand
dollars.
William
Cook w
as a strong b
eliever in h
igh-p
rofile p
rosecu
tions w
ithsym
bolic o
vertones. H
e often p
ublished
articles on his w
ork in the
security trade press, arguing that "a clear message had to be sent to the
pub
lic at large and
the com
puter co
mm
unity in particular that unautho
-rized attacks on com
puters and the theft of computerized inform
ationw
ould not be tolerated by the courts."
The issues w
ere com
plex, the p
rosecutio
n's tactics som
ewhat uno
rtho-
dox, but the Chicago T
ask Force had proved sure-footed to date."Shadow
hawk" had been bagged on the w
ing in 1989 by the T
ask Force,and
sentenced to
nine months in p
rison, and
a $1
0,0
00
fine. The
Shad
ow
hawk case invo
lved charg
es under S
ection 1
03
0, the "fed
eralinterest co
mputer" sectio
n.
Shadowhaw
k had not in fact been a devotee of "federal-interest" comput-
ers per se. On the contrary, Shadow
hawk, w
ho owned an A
T&
T hom
ecom
puter, seemed to cherish a special aggression tow
ard AT&
T. H
e hadbrag
ged
on the und
ergro
und b
oard
s "Phreak Klass 2
60
0" and
"Dr.
Rip
co" o
f his skills at raiding
AT&
T, and
of his intentio
n to crash
AT&
T's national phone system
. Shadowhaw
k's brags were noticed by
Henry K
luepfel o
f Bellco
re Security, sco
urge o
f the outlaw
board
s,w
hose relatio
ns with the C
hicago T
ask Force w
ere long
and intim
ate.
The T
ask Force successfully established that Section 1
030 applied to the
teenage Shadowhaw
k, despite the objections of his defense attorney.Shadow
hawk had entered a com
puter "owned" by U
.S. Missile C
omm
and
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and merely "m
anaged" by AT&
T. H
e had also entered an AT&
T com
puterlocated at Robbins A
ir Force Base in G
eorgia. Attacking A
T&
T w
as of"fed
eral interest" whether S
hadow
hawk had
intended
it or no
t.
The T
ask Force also convinced the court that a piece of AT&
T softw
arethat S
hadow
hawk had
illicitly copied
from
Bell Lab
s, the "Artificial
Intelligence C
5 Exp
ert System
," was w
orth a co
ol o
ne millio
n dollars.
Shadowhaw
k's attorney had argued that Shadowhaw
k had not sold thepro
gram
and had
mad
e no p
rofit fro
m the illicit co
pying
. And
in point o
ffact, the C
5 Expert System
was experim
ental software, and had no
established m
arket value because it had never b
een on the market in the
first place. A
T&
T's o
wn assessm
ent of a "o
ne millio
n dollar" fig
ure for
its ow
n intangib
le pro
perty w
as accepted
witho
ut challenge b
y theco
urt, how
ever. And
the court co
ncurred w
ith the governm
ent pro
secu-tors that Shadow
hawk show
ed clear "intent to defraud" whether he'd got-
ten any money or not. Shadow
hawk w
ent to jail.
The T
ask Force's o
ther best-kno
wn trium
ph had
been the co
nviction and
jailing o
f "Kyrie
." Kyrie
, a true d
enize
n o
f the d
igital crim
inal u
nder-
gro
und, w
as a 36
-year-old
Canad
ian wom
an, convicted
and jailed
for
telecom
municatio
ns fraud in C
anada. A
fter her release from
priso
n,she had fled the w
rath of Canada B
ell and the Royal Canadian M
ountedPo
lice, and eventually settled
, very unwisely, in C
hicago.
"Kyrie," w
ho also
called herself "Lo
ng D
istance Inform
ation," sp
ecial-ized
in voice-m
ail abuse. S
he assembled
large num
bers o
f hot lo
ng-
distance codes, then read them aloud into a series of corporate voice-
mail system
s. Kyrie and
her friends w
ere electronic sq
uatters in cor-
porate vo
ice-mail system
s, using them
much as if they w
ere pirate
bulletin b
oard
s, then moving
on w
hen their vocal chatter clo
gged
thesystem
and the o
wners necessarily w
ised up
. Kyrie's cam
p fo
llow
ersw
ere a loose trib
e of so
me hund
red and
fifty pho
ne-phreaks, w
ho fo
l-lo
wed
her trail of p
iracy from
machine to
machine, ard
ently beg
ging
for
her services and exp
ertise.
Kyrie's d
isciples p
assed her sto
len credit-card
numbers, in exchang
efo
r her stolen "lo
ng d
istance inform
ation." S
om
e of K
yrie's clients paid
her off in cash, b
y scamm
ing cred
it-card cash ad
vances from
Western
BR
UC
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E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
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NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
2 5 6
Unio
n.
Kyrie travelled
incessantly, mostly thro
ugh airline tickets and
hotel
room
s that she scamm
ed thro
ugh sto
len credit card
s. Tiring
of this, she
found
refuge w
ith a fellow
female p
hone p
hreak in Chicag
o. K
yrie'sho
stess, like a surprising
number o
f pho
ne phreaks, w
as blind
. She w
asalso
physically d
isabled
. Kyrie alleg
edly m
ade the b
est of her new
situ-atio
n by ap
plying
for, and
receiving, state w
elfare funds und
er a falseid
entity as a qualified
caretaker for the hand
icapped
.
Sad
ly, Kyrie's tw
o child
ren by a fo
rmer m
arriage had
also vanished
underg
round
with her; these p
re-teen dig
ital refugees had
no leg
alA
merican id
entity, and had
never spent a d
ay in school.
Kyrie w
as addicted
to technical m
astery and enthralled
by her o
wn clev-
erness and the ard
ent worship
of her teenag
e follo
wers. T
his foolishly
led her to
pho
ne up G
ail Thackeray in A
rizona, to
boast, b
rag, strut, and
offer to
play info
rmant. T
hackeray, how
ever, had alread
y learned far
more than enoug
h about K
yrie, whom
she roundly despised as an adultcrim
inal corrup
ting m
inors, a "fem
ale Fagin." T
hackeray passed
hertapes of K
yrie's boasts to the Secret Service.
Kyrie w
as raided
and arrested
in Chicag
o in M
ay 19
89
. She co
nfessed at
great leng
th and p
led g
uilty.
In Aug
ust 1990, C
ook and his Task Force colleag
ue Colleen C
oughlin sent
Kyrie to
jail for 2
7 m
onths, fo
r com
puter and
telecom
municatio
nsfraud
. This w
as a marked
ly severe sentence by the usual w
rist-slap-
ping standards of "hacker" busts. Seven of Kyrie's forem
ost teenagediscip
les were also
indicted
and co
nvicted. T
he Kyrie "hig
h-tech streetgang," as C
ook described it, had been crushed. Cook and his colleagues
had b
een the first ever to p
ut som
eone in p
rison fo
r voice-m
ail abuse.
Their pioneering
efforts had won them
attention and kudos.
In his article on Kyrie, C
ook drove the messag
e home to the readers of
*Security M
anagem
ent* mag
azine, a trade jo
urnal for co
rporate secu-
rity pro
fessionals. T
he case, Cook said
, and K
yrie's stiff sentence,"reflect a new
reality for hackers and
com
puter crim
e victims in the
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'90
s.... Individ
uals and co
rporatio
ns who
report co
mputer and
telecom
-m
unications crim
es can now
expect that their co
operatio
n with fed
erallaw
enforcem
ent will result in m
eaningful p
unishment. C
om
panies and
the pub
lic at large m
ust report co
mputer-enhanced
crimes if they w
antprosecutors and the course to protect their rig
hts to the tangib
le andintang
ible property developed and stored on com
puters."
Cook had
mad
e it his business to
construct this "new
reality for hack-
ers." He'd
also m
ade it his b
usiness to p
olice co
rporate p
roperty rig
htsto
the intangib
le.
Had the Electronic Frontier Foundation b
een a "hacker defense fund" asthat term
was g
enerally understood, they presumab
ly would have stood
up for Kyrie. H
er 1990 sentence did indeed send a "m
essage" that fed-eral heat w
as coming
down on "hackers." B
ut Kyrie found no defenders
at EFF, or anyw
here else, for that m
atter. EFF was no
t a bail-o
ut fundfo
r electronic cro
oks.
The N
eidorf case paralleled the Shadowhaw
k case in certain ways. T
hevictim
once again was allow
ed to set the value of the "stolen" property.O
nce again K
luepfel was b
oth investigator and technical advisor. O
nceagain no m
oney had changed hands, but the "intent to defraud" was cen-
tral.
The prosecution's case show
ed signs of weakness early on. T
he Task
Force had
orig
inally hoped
to p
rove N
eidorf the center o
f a nationw
ide
Legio
n of D
oom
criminal co
nspiracy. T
he *Phrack* edito
rs threwphysical g
et-togethers every sum
mer, w
hich attracted hackers fro
macross the country; generally tw
o dozen or so of the magazine's favorite
contrib
utors and
readers. (S
uch conventio
ns were co
mm
on in the hack-
er com
munity; 2
60
0 M
agazine, fo
r instance, held p
ublic m
eetings o
fhackers in N
ew Y
ork, every m
onth.) Lo
D heavy-d
udes w
ere always a
strong
presence at these *Phrack*-sp
onso
red "S
umm
ercons."
In July 19
88
, an Arizo
na hacker named
"Dictato
r" attended
Sum
merco
nin N
eidorf's home tow
n of St. Louis. D
ictator was one of G
ail Thackeray's
underg
round
inform
ants; Dictato
r's underg
round
board
in Phoenix w
as asting
operatio
n for the S
ecret Service. D
ictator b
roug
ht an underco
ver
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crew of Secret Service agents to Sum
mercon. T
he agents bored spyholesthroug
h the wall of D
ictator's hotel room in St Louis, and videotaped the
frolicking
hackers throug
h a one-w
ay mirro
r. As it hap
pened
, how
ev-er, no
thing illeg
al had o
ccurred o
n video
tape, o
ther than the guzzling
of
beer b
y a coup
le of m
inors. S
umm
ercons w
ere social events, no
t sinis-ter cab
als. The tap
es show
ed fifteen ho
urs of rauco
us laughter, p
izza-gobblin
g, in
-joke
s and b
ack-slappin
g.
Neid
orf's law
yer, Sheld
on Zenner, saw
the Secret S
ervice tapes b
efore
the trial. Zenner was sho
cked b
y the com
plete harm
lessness of this
meeting
, which C
ook had
earlier characterized as a sinister interstate
conspiracy to comm
it fraud. Zenner wanted to show
the Summ
ercontapes to the jury. It took protracted m
aneuverings b
y the Task Force to
keep the tap
es from
the jury as "irrelevant."
The E9
11
Docum
ent was also
pro
ving a w
eak reed. It had
orig
inallybeen valued
at $7
9,4
49
. Unlike S
hadow
hawk's arcane A
rtificialIntellig
ence booty, the E9
11
Docum
ent was no
t softw
are — it w
as writ-
ten in English. C
om
puter-kno
wled
geab
le peo
ple fo
und this value —
for a
twelve-p
age b
ureaucratic docum
ent — frankly incred
ible. In his
"Crim
e and Puzzlem
ent" manifesto
for EFF, B
arlow
com
mented
: "We
will p
robab
ly never know
how
this figure w
as reached o
r by w
hom
,tho
ugh I like to
imag
ine an appraisal team
consisting
of Franz K
afka,Jo
seph H
eller, and T
hom
as Pynchon."
As it hap
pened
, Barlo
w w
as unduly p
essimistic. T
he EFF did
, in fact,eventually d
iscover exactly ho
w this fig
ure was reached
, and b
y who
m—
but o
nly in 19
91
, long
after the Neid
orf trial w
as over.
Kim
Meg
ahee, a Southern B
ell security manag
er, had arrived
at the doc-
ument's value b
y simply ad
ding
up the "co
sts associated
with the p
ro-
duction" of the E911 D
ocument. T
hose "costs" were as follow
s:
1. A
technical writer had
been hired
to research and
write the E9
11
Docum
ent. 20
0 ho
urs of w
ork, at $
35
an hour, co
st : $7
,00
0. A
Project M
anager had
overseen the technical w
riter. 20
0 ho
urs, at $3
1an ho
ur, mad
e: $6
,20
0.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 5 9
2. A
week of typing had cost $
721 dollars. A
week of form
atting hadcost $
721. A
week of graphics form
atting had cost $742.
3. T
wo days of editing cost $
367.
4. A
box o
f ord
er labels co
st five dollars.
5. Prep
aring a p
urchase ord
er for the D
ocum
ent, including
typing
andthe o
btaining
of an autho
rizing sig
nature from
within the B
ellSouth
bureaucracy, co
st $1
29
.
6. Printing
cost $
31
3. M
ailing the D
ocum
ent to fifty p
eople to
ok fifty
hours b
y a clerk, and co
st $8
58
.
7. Placing
the Docum
ent in an index to
ok tw
o clerks an ho
ur each,to
talling $
43
.
Bureaucratic overhead alone, therefore, w
as alleged to have cost a
who
pping
$1
7,0
99
. Acco
rding
to M
r. Meg
ahee, the typing
of a tw
elve-pag
e document had taken a full w
eek. Writing
it had taken five weeks,
including
an overseer w
ho ap
parently d
id no
thing else b
ut watch the
author for five weeks. Editing tw
elve pages had taken two days.
Prin
ting an
d m
ailing an
electronic d
ocu
men
t (which
was alread
y avail-able on the Southern B
ell Data N
etwork to any telco em
ployee who needed
it), had co
st over a tho
usand d
ollars.
But this w
as just the beg
inning. T
here were also
the *hardw
areexp
enses.* Eight hund
red fifty d
ollars fo
r a VT2
20
com
puter m
onito
r.*T
hirty-one tho
usand d
ollars* fo
r a sophisticated
VA
Xstatio
n II com
-puter. S
ix thousand
dollars fo
r a com
puter p
rinter. *Tw
enty-two
thousand
dollars* fo
r a copy o
f "Interleaf" softw
are. Tw
o tho
usand five
hundred
dollars fo
r VM
S so
ftware. A
ll this to create the tw
elve-pag
eD
ocum
ent.
Plus ten percent o
f the cost o
f the softw
are and the hard
ware, fo
r main-
tenance. (Actually, the ten percent m
aintenance costs, though m
en-tio
ned, had
been left o
ff the final $7
9,4
49
total, ap
parently thro
ugh a
mercifu
l ove
rsight).
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
2 6 0
Mr. M
egahee's letter had
been m
ailed d
irectly to W
illiam C
ook him
self,at the office of the C
hicago federal attorneys. The U
nited StatesGovernm
ent accepted these telco figures without question.
As incred
ulity mounted
, the value of the E9
11
Docum
ent was o
fficiallyrevised
dow
nw
ard. T
his tim
e, Robert K
ibler o
f BellS
outh
Secu
rity esti-m
ated the value of the twelve pages as a m
ere $24,6
39.0
5 —
based,purp
orted
ly, on "R
&D
costs." B
ut this specific estim
ate, right d
ow
n tothe nickel, d
id no
t move the skep
tics at all; in fact it pro
voked
open
scorn and
a torrent o
f sarcasm.
The financial issues co
ncerning theft o
f pro
prietary info
rmatio
n havealw
ays been p
eculiar. It could
be arg
ued that B
ellSouth had
not "lo
st" itsE9
11
Docum
ent at all in the first place, and
therefore had
not suffered
any monetary dam
age from this "theft." A
nd Sheldon Zenner did in factarg
ue this at Neid
orf's trial —
that Prophet's raid
had no
t been "theft,"
but w
as better und
erstood as illicit co
pying
.
The m
oney, ho
wever, w
as not central to
anyone's true p
urposes in this
trial. It was no
t Cook's strateg
y to co
nvince the jury that the E91
1D
ocument w
as a major act of theft and should be punished for that reason
alone. His strateg
y was to arg
ue that the E911 D
ocument w
as *danger-
ous.* It was his intention to estab
lish that the E911 D
ocument w
as "aroad-m
ap" to the Enhanced 911 System
. Neidorf had delib
erately andrecklessly d
istributed
a dang
erous w
eapon. N
eidorf and
the Prophet d
idno
t care (or p
erhaps even g
loated
at the sinister idea) that the E9
11
Docum
ent could
be used
by hackers to
disrup
t 91
1 service, "a life line
for every p
erson certainly in the S
outhern B
ell regio
n of the U
nitedStates, and indeed, in m
any comm
unities throughout the United States,"
in Cook's o
wn w
ord
s. Neid
orf had
put p
eople's lives in d
anger.
In pre-trial m
aneuverings, C
ook had
established
that the E91
1D
ocument w
as too hot to appear in the public proceedings of the Neidorf
trial. The *jury itself* w
ould
not b
e allow
ed to
ever see thisD
ocum
ent, lest it slip into
the official co
urt record
s, and thus into
thehand
s of the g
eneral pub
lic, and, thus, so
meho
w, to
malicio
us hackersw
ho m
ight lethally ab
use it.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 6 1
Hid
ing the E9
11
Docum
ent from
the jury may have b
een a clever legal
maneuver, b
ut it had a severe flaw
. There w
ere, in point o
f fact, hun-dreds, perhaps thousands, of people, already in possession of the E9
11
Docum
ent, just as *Phrack* had p
ublished
it. Its true nature was
already o
bvio
us to a w
ide sectio
n of the interested
pub
lic (all of w
hom
,by the w
ay, were, at least theo
retically, party to
a gig
antic wire-fraud
consp
iracy). Most everyo
ne in the electronic co
mm
unity who
had a
modem
and any interest in the Neidorf case already had a copy of the
Docum
ent. It had alread
y been availab
le in *Phrack* for o
ver a year.
People, even q
uite norm
al peo
ple w
ithout any p
articular prurient
interest in forb
idden kno
wled
ge, d
id no
t shut their eyes in terror at the
thought of beholding a "dangerous" document from
a telephone company.
On the contrary, they tended to trust their ow
n judgem
ent and simply
read the Docum
ent for themselves. A
nd they were not im
pressed.
One such p
erson w
as John N
agle. N
agle w
as a forty- o
ne-year-old
pro
-fessio
nal pro
gram
mer w
ith a masters' d
egree in co
mputer science fro
mStanford. H
e had worked for Ford A
erospace, where he had invented a
com
puter-netw
orking
technique kno
wn as the "N
agle A
lgorithm
," andfo
r the pro
minent C
alifornian co
mputer- g
raphics firm
"Auto
desk,"
where he w
as a majo
r stockho
lder.
Nag
le was also
a pro
minent fig
ure on the W
ell, much resp
ected fo
r histechnical kno
wled
geab
ility.
Nag
le had fo
llow
ed the civil-lib
erties deb
ate closely, fo
r he was an
ardent teleco
mm
unicator. H
e was no
particular friend
of co
mputer
intruders, b
ut he believed
electronic p
ublishing
had a g
reat deal to
offer
society at larg
e, and attem
pts to
restrain its gro
wth, o
r to censo
r freeelectro
nic exp
ression, stro
ngly ro
used
his ire.
The N
eidorf case, and the E911 D
ocument, w
ere both being discussed indetail o
n the Internet, in an electronic p
ublicatio
n called *T
elecom
Dig
est.* Nag
le, a long
time Internet m
aven, was a reg
ular reader o
f*T
elecom
Dig
est.* Nag
le had never seen a co
py o
f *Phrack,* but the
implicatio
ns of the case d
isturbed
him.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 6 2
While in a Stanford b
ookstore hunting b
ooks on robotics, N
agle happened
across a b
ook called
*The Intellig
ent Netw
ork.* T
humbing
throug
h it atrand
om
, Nag
le came acro
ss an entire chapter m
eticulously d
etailing the
working
s of E9
11
police em
ergency system
s. This extensive text w
asbeing
sold
openly, and
yet in Illinois a yo
ung m
an was in d
anger o
f going
to p
rison fo
r pub
lishing a thin six-p
age d
ocum
ent about 9
11
service.
Nag
le mad
e an ironic co
mm
ent to this effect in *T
elecom
Dig
est.* From
there, Nag
le was p
ut in touch w
ith Mitch K
apor, and
then with N
eidorf's
lawyers.
Sheldon Zenner was delig
hted to find a computer telecom
munications
expert willing
to speak up for Neidorf, one w
ho was not a w
acky teenage
"hacker." Nag
le was fluent, m
ature, and respectable; he'd once had a
federal security clearance.
Nag
le was asked to fly to Illinois to join the defense team
.
Having
joined the defense as an expert witness, N
agle read the entire
E911 D
ocument for him
self. He m
ade his own judg
ement ab
out itspotential fo
r menace.
The tim
e has now com
e for you yourself, the reader, to have a look at theE9
11
Docum
ent. This six-p
age p
iece of w
ork w
as the pretext fo
r a fed-
eral pro
secution that co
uld have sent an electro
nic pub
lisher to p
rison
for thirty, o
r even sixty, years. It was the p
retext for the search and
seizure of S
teve Jackson G
ames, a leg
itimate p
ublisher o
f printed
books.
It was also
the form
al pretext fo
r the search and seizure o
f the Mento
r'sbulletin b
oard
, "Phoenix Pro
ject," and fo
r the raid o
n the hom
e of Erik
Bloodaxe. It also had m
uch to do with the seizure of Richard A
ndrews'
Jolnet node and the shutdown of C
harles Boykin's A
T&
T node. T
he E911
Docum
ent was the single m
ost important piece of evidence in the H
ackerCrackdow
n. There can b
e no real and legitim
ate substitute for the
Docum
ent itself.
==
Phrack Inc.==
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
2 6 3
Volu
me T
wo, Issu
e 24
, File 5 o
f 13
Contro
l Office A
dm
inistratio
n O
f Enhan
ced 9
11
Services
For S
pecial S
ervices and A
ccount C
enters
by the Eavesd
ropper
March, 1
98
8
Descrip
tion o
f Service
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
The co
ntro
l office fo
r Emerg
ency 9
11
service is assigned
in acco
rdan
ce with
the existing stand
ard g
uidelines to
one o
f the follo
wing
centers:
o S
pecial S
ervice
s Cente
r (SSC
)o M
ajor A
ccounts C
enter (M
AC
)o S
erving T
est Cen
ter (STC
)o T
oll C
ontro
l Center (T
CC
)
The S
SC/M
AC d
esignatio
n is used in this d
ocum
ent interchangeab
ly for any o
fth
ese four cen
ters. T
he S
pecial S
ervices Cen
ters (SSC
s) or M
ajor A
ccount
Centers (M
ACs) have b
een desig
nated as the tro
uble rep
orting
contact fo
r allE9
11
custo
mer (P
SA
P) rep
orted
troubles. S
ubscrib
ers who h
ave trouble o
n an
E9
11
call will co
ntin
ue to
contact lo
cal repair se
rvice (C
RSA
B) w
ho w
ill refe
rth
e trouble to
the S
SC
/MA
C, w
hen
appro
priate.
Due to
the critical n
ature o
f E91
1 service, th
e contro
l and tim
ely repair o
ftro
ubles is d
eman
ded
. As th
e prim
ary E91
1 cu
stom
er contact, th
e SSC
/MA
Cis in the uniq
ue positio
n to m
onito
r the status of the tro
uble and
insure itsreso
lution.
Syste
m O
verv
iew
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~The num
ber 9
11
is intended
as a nationw
ide universal telep
hone num
ber w
hichpro
vides th
e public w
ith d
irect access to a P
ublic S
afety Answ
ering P
oin
t(P
SA
P). A
PSA
P is also
refe
rred to
as an E
merg
ency S
ervice
Bure
au (E
SB).
A P
SA
P is an
agency o
r facility which
is auth
orize
d b
y a municip
ality toreceive an
d resp
ond to
police, fire an
d/o
r ambulan
ce services. One o
r more
attendants are lo
cated at the PS
AP facilities to
receive and hand
le calls of an
emerg
ency n
ature in
accord
ance w
ith th
e local m
unicip
al requirem
ents.
An im
portant ad
vantage o
f E91
1 em
ergency service is im
pro
ved (red
uced)
response tim
es for em
ergency services. A
lso clo
se coord
ination am
ong
agen-
cies p
rovid
ing vario
us e
merg
ency se
rvices is a valu
able
capab
ility pro
vided
by E9
11
service.
1A
ESS is used
as the tandem
office fo
r the E91
1 netw
ork to
route all 9
11
calls to th
e correct (p
rimary) P
SA
P d
esignated
to serve th
e calling statio
n.
The E9
11
feature w
as develo
ped
prim
arily to p
rovid
e routin
g to
the co
rrectPSA
P fo
r all 91
1 calls. S
ele
ctive ro
utin
g allo
ws a 9
11
call orig
inate
d fro
m a
particu
lar station lo
cated in
a particu
lar district, zo
ne, o
r tow
n, to
be ro
uted
to th
e prim
ary PSA
P d
esignated
to serve th
at custo
mer statio
n reg
ardless o
f
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 6 4
wire cen
ter boundaries. T
hus, selective ro
utin
g elim
inates th
e pro
blem
of
wire cen
ter boundaries n
ot co
incid
ing w
ith d
istrict or o
ther p
olitical b
ound-
aries.
The services availab
le with
the E9
11
feature in
clude:
Forced
Disco
nnect Default R
outing
Altern
ative Routin
g N
ight S
erviceSelective R
outing
Auto
matic N
umber Id
entification (A
NI)
Selective T
ransfer A
uto
matic L
ocatio
n Id
entificatio
n (A
LI)
Pre
serv
ice/In
stallation G
uid
elin
es
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
When a co
ntract for an E9
11
system has b
een signed
, it is the responsib
ilityof N
etwork M
arketing to
establish an im
plem
entation/cuto
ver com
mittee
which sho
uld includ
e a representative fro
m the S
SC
/MA
C. D
uties of the E9
11
Implem
entation T
eam includ
e coord
ination o
f all phases o
f the E91
1 system
dep
loym
ent and the fo
rmatio
n of an o
n-going
E91
1 m
aintenance subco
mm
ittee.
Marke
ting is re
sponsib
le fo
r pro
vidin
g th
e fo
llow
ing cu
stom
er sp
ecific in
for-
matio
n to
the S
SC
/MA
C p
rior to
the start o
f call thro
ugh testin
g:
o A
ll PSA
P's (n
ame, ad
dress, lo
cal contact)
o A
ll PSA
P circu
it ID's
o 1
00
4 9
11
service request includ
ing PS
AP d
etails on each PS
AP (1
00
4Sectio
n K, L, M
)o N
etwork co
nfiguratio
no A
ny vendor info
rmatio
n (name, telep
hone num
ber, eq
uipm
ent)
The S
SC/M
AC need
s to kno
w if the eq
uipm
ent and sets at the PS
AP are m
ain-tained
by the B
OCs, an ind
epend
ent com
pany, o
r an outsid
e vendor, o
r anyco
mbinatio
n. This info
rmatio
n is then entered o
n the PSA
P pro
file sheets andreview
ed q
uarterly fo
r chan
ges, ad
ditio
ns an
d d
eletions.
Marketin
g w
ill secure th
e Majo
r Acco
unt N
um
ber (M
AN
) and p
rovid
e this
number to
Corp
orate C
om
municatio
ns so that the initial issue o
f the serviceord
ers carry the M
AN
and can
be tracked
by th
e SSC
/MA
C via C
ORD
NET
.PSA
P circu
its are o
fficial serv
ices b
y d
efin
ition.
All service o
rders req
uired
for th
e installatio
n o
f the E9
11
system sh
ould
include the M
AN
assigned
to the city/co
unty which has p
urchased the system
.
In acco
rdan
ce w
ith th
e b
asic SSC
/MA
C strate
gy fo
r pro
visionin
g, th
eSSC
/MA
C w
ill be O
verall C
ontro
l Office
(OC
O) fo
r all Node to
PSA
P circu
its(o
fficial service
s) and an
y oth
er se
rvices fo
r this cu
stom
er. T
rainin
g m
ust
be sch
edule
d fo
r all SSC
/MA
C in
volve
d p
erso
nnel d
urin
g th
e p
re-se
rvicestag
e of the p
roject.
The E9
11
Implem
entation T
eam w
ill form
the on-g
oing
maintenance sub
com
-m
ittee prio
r to the initial im
plem
entation o
f the E91
1 system
. This sub
-com
-m
ittee will estab
lish post im
plem
entation q
uality assurance pro
cedures to
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 6 5
ensure that the E91
1 system
continues to
pro
vide q
uality service to the cus-
tom
er. Custo
mer/C
om
pan
y trainin
g, tro
uble rep
ortin
g in
terfaces for th
e cus-
tom
er, telepho
ne com
pany and
any involved
indep
endent telep
hone co
mpanies
needs to
be ad
dressed
and im
plem
ented p
rior to
E91
1 cuto
ver. These func-
tions can b
e best ad
dressed
by the fo
rmatio
n of a sub
- com
mittee o
f the E91
1Im
plem
entation T
eam to
set up g
uidelines fo
r and to
secure service com
mit-
ments o
f inte
rfacing o
rgan
izations. A
SSC
/MA
C su
perviso
r should
chair th
issub
com
mittee and
include the fo
llow
ing o
rganizatio
ns:
1) S
witch
ing C
ontro
l Cen
ter- E
91
1 tran
slations
- Trunking
- End o
ffice and T
andem
office h
ardw
are/softw
are2
) Recent C
hange M
emory A
dm
inistration C
enter- D
aily R
C u
pdate
activity fo
r TN
/ESN
translatio
ns
- Pro
cesse
s valid
ity e
rrors an
d re
jects
3) Line and
Num
ber A
dm
inistration
- Verificatio
n o
f TN
/ESN
translatio
ns
4) S
pecial S
ervice
Cente
r/Majo
r Acco
unt C
ente
r- S
ingle p
oint o
f contact fo
r all PSA
P and N
ode to
host tro
ubles
- Logs, tracks &
statusin
g o
f all trouble
reports
- Tro
uble
refe
rral, follo
w u
p, an
d e
scalation
- Custo
mer n
otificatio
n o
f status an
d resto
ration
- Analyzatio
n o
f "chro
nic" tro
uble
s- T
esting, in
stallation an
d m
ainten
ance o
f E91
1 circu
its5
) Installatio
n an
d M
ainte
nan
ce (S
SIM
/I&M
)- R
epair and
maintenance o
f PSA
P equip
ment and
Telco
ow
ned sets
6) M
inicom
puter M
aintenance Operatio
ns Center
- E91
1 circu
it main
tenan
ce (where ap
plicab
le)7
) Area M
aintenance Engineer
- Tech
nical assistan
ce on vo
ice (CO
-PSA
P) n
etwork related
E91
1 tro
u-
bles
Maintenance G
uidelines
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
~~
The C
CN
C w
ill test the Node circuit fro
m the 2
02
T at the H
ost site to
the2
02
T at the N
ode site. S
ince Host to
Node (C
CN
C to
MM
OC) circuits are o
ffi-cial co
mpan
y service
s, the C
CN
C w
ill refe
r all Node circu
it trouble
s to th
eSSC
/MA
C. T
he S
SC
/MA
C is resp
onsib
le for th
e testing an
d fo
llow
up to
restoratio
n o
f these circu
it troubles.
Alth
ough N
ode to
PSA
P circu
it are o
fficial service
s, the M
MO
C w
ill refe
rPSA
P circu
it trouble
s to th
e ap
pro
priate
SSC
/MA
C. T
he S
SC
/MA
C is re
spon-
sible fo
r testing an
d fo
llow
up to
restoratio
n o
f PSA
P circu
it troubles.
The S
SC
/MA
C w
ill also re
ceiv
e re
ports fro
m C
RSA
B/IM
C(s) o
n su
bscrib
er
91
1 tro
ubles w
hen
they are n
ot lin
e troubles. T
he S
SC
/MA
C is resp
onsib
lefo
r testing and
restoratio
n of these tro
ubles.
Main
tenan
ce re
sponsib
ilities are
as follo
ws:
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 6 6
SC
C* V
oice N
etwork (A
NI to
PSA
P)
*SC
C re
sponsib
le fo
r tandem
switch
SSIM
/I&M
PSA
P E
quip
ment (M
odem
s, CIU
's, sets)
Vend
or PS
AP Eq
uipm
ent (when C
PE)SSC
/MA
C P
SA
P to
Node circu
its, and tan
dem
to P
SA
P vo
ice circuits
(EMN
T)
MM
OC N
ode site (M
odem
s, cables, etc)
Note: A
ll above w
ork g
roups are req
uired
to reso
lve troubles b
y interfacin
gw
ith ap
pro
priate
work g
roups fo
r reso
lutio
n.
The S
witch
ing C
ontro
l Cente
r (SC
C) is re
sponsib
le fo
r E9
11
/1A
ESS tran
sla-tio
ns in
tandem
central o
ffices. These tran
slations ro
ute E9
11
calls, selec-tive
transfe
r, defau
lt routin
g, sp
eed callin
g, e
tc., for e
ach P
SA
P. T
he S
CC
isalso
responsib
le for tro
ublesho
oting
on the vo
ice network (call o
riginating
toend
office tand
em eq
uipm
ent).
For e
xample
, AN
I failure
s in th
e o
rigin
ating o
ffices w
ould
be a re
sponsib
ilityof the S
CC.
Recen
t Chan
ge M
emory A
dm
inistratio
n C
enter (R
CM
AC
) perfo
rms th
e daily
tandem
translation up
dates (recent chang
e) for ro
uting o
f individ
ual telepho
nenum
bers.
Rece
nt ch
anges are
generate
d fro
m se
rvice o
rder activity (n
ew
service
,ad
dress chang
es, etc.) and co
mpiled
into a d
aily file by the E9
11
Center
(ALI/D
MS E9
11
Com
puter).
SSIM
/I&M
is resp
onsib
le fo
r the in
stallation an
d re
pair o
f PSA
P e
quip
ment.
PSA
P e
quip
ment in
cludes A
NI C
ontro
ller, A
LI C
ontro
ller, d
ata sets, cab
les,
sets, and o
ther p
eripheral eq
uip
men
t that is n
ot ven
dor o
wned
. SSIM
/I&M
isresp
onsib
le for estab
lishin
g m
ainten
ance test kits, co
mplete w
ith sp
are parts
for P
SA
P m
ainten
ance. T
his in
cludes test g
ear, data sets, an
d A
NI/A
LI
Contro
ller p
arts.
Special S
ervice
s Cente
r (SSC
) or M
ajor A
ccount C
ente
r (MA
C) se
rves as th
etro
uble rep
ortin
g co
ntact fo
r all (PSA
P) tro
ubles rep
orted
by cu
stom
er. The
SSC
/MA
C refe
rs troubles to
pro
per o
rgan
izations fo
r han
dlin
g an
d tracks
status o
f troubles, escalatin
g w
hen
necessary. T
he S
SC
/MA
C w
ill close o
ut
trouble
s with
custo
mer. T
he S
SC
/MA
C w
ill analyze
all trouble
s and tracks
"chro
nic" P
SA
P tro
uble
s.
Corp
orate C
om
municatio
ns N
etwork C
enter (C
CN
C) w
ill test and refer tro
u-
ble
s on all n
ode to
host circu
its. All E
91
1 circu
its are classifie
d as o
fficialco
mpany p
roperty.
The M
inicom
puter M
aintenance Operatio
ns Center (M
MO
C) m
aintains the E91
1(A
LI/D
MS) co
mputer h
ardw
are at the H
ost site. T
his M
MO
C is also
responsi-
ble fo
r monito
ring th
e system an
d rep
ortin
g certain
PSA
P an
d system
pro
b-
lem
s to th
e lo
cal MM
OC
's, SC
C's o
r SSC
/MA
C's. T
he M
MO
C p
erso
nnel also
operate so
ftware p
rogram
s that maintain the T
N d
ata base und
er the directio
nof the E9
11
Center. T
he maintenance o
f the NO
DE co
mputer (the interface
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
2 6 7
betw
een the PSA
P and the A
LI/DM
S co
mputer) is a functio
n of the M
MO
C at
the NO
DE site. T
he MM
OC's at the N
OD
E sites may also
be invo
lved in the
testing o
f NO
DE to
Host circuits. T
he MM
OC
will also
assist on H
ost to
PSA
Pand
data netw
ork related
troub
les not reso
lved thro
ugh stand
ard tro
uble
clearin
g p
roce
dure
s.
Installatio
n A
nd M
ainte
nan
ce C
ente
r (IMC
) is resp
onsib
le fo
r refe
rral of E
91
1su
bscrib
er troubles th
at are not su
bscrib
er line p
roblem
s.
E91
1 C
enter - P
erform
s the ro
le of S
ystem A
dm
inistratio
n an
d is resp
onsib
lefo
r overall o
peratio
n of the E9
11
com
puter so
ftware. T
he E91
1 C
enter does
A-Z tro
uble an
alysis and p
rovid
es statistical info
rmatio
n o
n th
e perfo
rman
ceof the system
.
This an
alysis in
cludes p
roce
ssing P
SA
P in
quirie
s (trouble
reports) an
d re
fer-
ral of n
etwork tro
ubles. T
he E9
11
Cen
ter also p
erform
s daily p
rocessin
g o
ftand
em recent chang
e and p
rovid
es inform
ation to
the RCM
AC fo
r tandem
input. T
he E9
11
Cen
ter is responsib
le for d
aily pro
cessing o
f the A
LI/D
MS
com
puter d
ata base an
d p
rovid
es error files, etc. to
the C
usto
mer S
ervicesdep
artment fo
r investigatio
n and co
rrection. T
he E91
1 C
enter particip
ates inall system
implem
entations and
on-g
oing
maintenance effo
rt and assists in the
develo
pm
ent of p
roced
ures, training and
educatio
n of info
rmatio
n to all
gro
ups.
Any g
roup
receiving a 9
11
troub
le from
the SSC
/MA
C sho
uld clo
se out the
trouble w
ith th
e SSC
/MA
C o
r pro
vide a statu
s if the tro
uble h
as been
refe
rred to
anoth
er g
roup. T
his w
ill allow
the S
SC
/MA
C to
pro
vide a statu
sback to
the custom
er or escalate as ap
pro
priate.
Any g
roup
receiving a tro
uble fro
m the H
ost site (M
MO
C o
r CC
NC
) should
close the tro
uble b
ack to that g
roup
.
The M
MO
C sho
uld no
tify the appro
priate S
SC
/MA
C w
hen the Host, N
ode, o
rall N
ode circu
its are dow
n so
that th
e SSC
/MA
C can
reply to
custo
mer
reports th
at may b
e called in
by th
e PSA
Ps. T
his w
ill elimin
ate duplicate
reporting
of tro
ubles. O
n com
plete o
utages the M
MO
C w
ill follo
w escalatio
npro
cedures fo
r a Node after tw
o (2
) hours an
d fo
r a PSA
P after fo
ur (4
)hours. A
dditio
nally th
e MM
OC
will n
otify th
e appro
priate S
SC
/MA
C w
hen
the
Host, N
ode, o
r all Node circu
its are dow
n.
The P
SA
P w
ill call the S
SC
/MA
C to
report E
91
1 tro
uble
s. The p
erso
n re
port-
ing th
e E91
1 tro
uble m
ay not h
ave a circuit I.D
. and w
ill therefo
re report th
ePSA
P n
ame an
d ad
dress. M
any P
SA
P tro
ubles are n
ot circu
it specific. In
those in
stances w
here th
e caller cannot p
rovid
e a circuit I.D
., the S
SC
/MA
Cw
ill be req
uired
to d
etermin
e the circu
it I.D. u
sing th
e PSA
P p
rofile. U
nder n
ocircu
mstan
ces will th
e SSC
/MA
C C
enter refu
se to take th
e trouble. T
he E9
11
trouble sh
ould
be h
andled
as quickly as p
ossib
le, with
the S
SC
/MA
C p
rovid
ing
as much assistance as p
ossib
le while taking
the troub
le report fro
m the
caller.
The S
SC
/MA
C w
ill screen/test th
e trouble to
determ
ine th
e appro
priate
handoff o
rganizatio
n based
on the fo
llow
ing criteria:
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 6 8
PSA
P e
quip
ment p
roble
m: S
SIM
/I&M
Circu
it pro
ble
m: S
SC
/MA
CV
oice netw
ork p
roblem
: SC
C (rep
ort trunk g
roup
number)
Pro
ble
m affe
cting m
ultip
le P
SA
Ps (N
o A
LI re
port fro
mall PS
APs): C
ontact the M
MO
C to
check for N
OD
E or
Host co
mputer p
roblem
s befo
re further testing.
The S
SC
/MA
C w
ill track the statu
s of rep
orted
troubles an
d escalate as
appro
priate
. The S
SC
/MA
C w
ill close
out cu
stom
er/co
mpan
y reports w
ithth
e initiatin
g co
ntact. G
roups w
ith sp
ecific main
tenan
ce responsib
ilities,defin
ed ab
ove, w
ill investig
ate "chro
nic" tro
ubles u
pon req
uest fro
m th
eSSC/M
AC and
the ong
oing
maintenance sub
com
mittee.
All "o
ut o
f service" E91
1 tro
ubles are p
riority o
ne typ
e reports. O
ne lin
kdow
n to a PS
AP is co
nsidered
a prio
rity one tro
uble and
should
be hand
led as
if the P
SA
P w
as isolate
d.
The P
SA
P w
ill report tro
uble
s with
the A
NI co
ntro
ller, A
LI co
ntro
ller o
r set
equip
ment to
the SSC/M
AC.
NO
AN
I: Where th
e PSA
P rep
orts N
O A
NI (d
igital d
isplay screen
is blan
k) askif th
is conditio
n exists o
n all screen
s and o
n all calls. It is im
portan
t to d
if-feren
tiate betw
een b
lank screen
s and screen
s disp
laying 9
11
-00
XX, o
r allzero
es.
When th
e P
SA
P re
ports all scre
ens o
n all calls, ask if th
ere
is any vo
ice co
n-
tact with
callers. If there is n
o vo
ice contact th
e trouble sh
ould
be referred
to the S
CC im
med
iately since 91
1 calls are no
t getting
throug
h which m
ayreq
uire altern
ate routin
g o
f calls to an
oth
er PSA
P.
When the PS
AP rep
orts this co
nditio
n on all screens b
ut not all calls and
hasvo
ice co
ntact w
ith calle
rs, the re
port sh
ould
be re
ferre
d to
SSIM
/I&M
for
disp
atch. T
he S
SC
/MA
C sh
ould
verify with
the S
CC
that A
NI is p
ulsin
g b
efore
disp
atching S
SIM
.
When
the P
SA
P rep
orts th
is conditio
n o
n o
ne screen
for all calls (o
thers w
ork
fine) th
e trouble sh
ould
be referred
to S
SIM
/I&M
for d
ispatch
, becau
se the
troub
le is isolated
to o
ne piece o
f equip
ment at the custo
mer p
remise.
An A
NI failure (i.e. all zero
es) indicates that the A
NI has no
t been received
by
the P
SA
P fro
m th
e tandem
office o
r was lo
st by th
e PSA
P A
NI co
ntro
ller.The P
SA
P m
ay receive "02
" alarms w
hich
can b
e caused
by th
e AN
I con-
troller lo
ggin
g m
ore th
an th
ree all zero failu
res on th
e same tru
nk. T
he P
SA
Phas b
een instructed to
report this co
nditio
n to the S
SC/M
AC since it co
uldind
icate an equip
ment tro
uble at the PS
AP w
hich mig
ht be affecting
all sub-
scribers callin
g in
to th
e P
SA
P. W
hen
all zeroes are b
eing received
on all calls
or "0
2" alarm
s continue, a tester sho
uld analyze the co
nditio
n to d
etermine
the appro
priate actio
n to b
e taken. The tester m
ust perfo
rm co
operative
testing w
ith the SCC w
hen there appears to
be a p
roblem
on the T
andem
-PSA
Ptrunks b
efore req
uesting d
ispatch.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 6 9
When
an o
ccasional all zero
conditio
n is rep
orted
, the S
SC
/MA
C sh
ould
dis-
patch
SSIM
/I&M
to ro
utin
e equip
men
t on a "ch
ronic" tro
ublesw
eep.
The P
SA
Ps are in
structed
to rep
ort in
ciden
tal AN
I failures to
the B
OC
on a
PSA
P in
quiry tro
uble ticket (p
aper) th
at is sent to
the C
usto
mer S
ervicesE9
11
gro
up and
forw
arded
to E9
11
center when req
uired. T
his usuallyinvo
lves only a p
articular telepho
ne number and
is not a co
nditio
n that would
require
a report to
the S
SC
/MA
C. M
ultip
le A
NI failu
res w
hich
our fro
m th
esam
e end o
ffice (XX d
enotes end
office), ind
icate a hard tro
uble co
nditio
n may
exist in th
e end o
ffice or en
d o
ffice tandem
trunks. T
he P
SA
P w
ill report th
istyp
e of co
nditio
n to the S
SC
/MA
C and
the SSC
/MA
C sho
uld refer the rep
ort
to the S
CC resp
onsib
le for the tand
em o
ffice. NO
TE: X
X is the ES
CO
(Emerg
ency Service N
umber) asso
ciated w
ith the incom
ing 9
11
trunks intothe tand
em. It is im
portant that the C
/MA
C tell the S
CC w
hat is disp
layed at
the P
SA
P (i.e. 9
11
-00
11
) which
indicates to
the S
CC
which
end o
ffice is intro
uble.
Note
: It is esse
ntial th
at the P
SA
P fill o
ut in
quiry fo
rm o
n e
very A
NI failu
re.
The P
SA
P w
ill report a tro
uble an
y time an
address is n
ot received
on an
address d
isplay (screen b
lank) E91
1 call. (If a reco
rd is no
t in the 91
1 d
atabase
or an
AN
I failure
is enco
unte
red, th
e scre
en w
ill pro
vide a d
isplay n
otic-
ing su
ch co
nditio
n). T
he S
SC
/MA
C sh
ould
verify with
the P
SA
P w
heth
er the
NO
ALI co
nditio
n is on o
ne screen or all screens.
When the co
nditio
n is on o
ne screen (other screens receive A
LI inform
ation)
the S
SC
/MA
C w
ill request S
SIM
/I&M
to d
ispatch
.
If no scre
ens are
rece
iving A
LI in
form
ation, th
ere
is usu
ally a circu
it trouble
betw
een the PSA
P and the H
ost co
mputer. T
he SSC/M
AC sho
uld test the
trouble
and re
fer fo
r resto
ral.
Note
: If the S
SC
/MA
C re
ceive
s calls from
multip
le P
SA
P's, all o
f which
arereceiving
NO
ALI, there is a p
roblem
with the N
ode o
r Node to
Host circuits o
rth
e Host co
mputer itself. B
efore referrin
g th
e trouble th
e SSC
/MA
C sh
ould
call the MM
OC
to inq
uire if the Node o
r Host is in tro
uble.
Alarm
conditio
ns o
n th
e AN
I contro
ller dig
ital disp
lay at the P
SA
P are to
be
reported
by th
e PSA
P's. T
hese alarm
s can in
dicate vario
us tro
uble co
nditio
ns
so the S
SC
/MA
C sho
uld ask the PS
AP if any p
ortio
n of the E9
11
system is no
tfunctio
ning p
roperly.
The S
SC
/MA
C sho
uld verify w
ith the PSA
P attendant that the eq
uipm
ent'sprim
ary fu
nctio
n is an
swerin
g E
91
1 calls. If it is, th
e S
SC
/MA
C sh
ould
request a d
ispatch
SSIM
/I&M
. If the e
quip
ment is n
ot p
rimarily u
sed fo
rE9
11
, then
the S
SC
/MA
C sh
ould
advise P
SA
P to
contact th
eir CPE ven
dor.
Note: T
hese troub
les can be q
uite confusing
when the PS
AP has vend
or eq
uip-
ment m
ixed in w
ith equip
ment that the B
OC m
aintains. The M
arketing rep
re-sen
tative should
pro
vide th
e SSC
/MA
C in
form
ation co
ncern
ing an
y unusu
al or
exceptio
n item
s where th
e PSA
P sh
ould
contact th
eir vendor. T
his in
form
a-tio
n should
be includ
ed in the PS
AP p
rofile sheets.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 7 0
AN
I or A
LI contro
ller dow
n: When the ho
st com
puter sees the PS
AP eq
uip-
ment d
ow
n and it d
oes no
t com
e back up
, the MM
OC w
ill report the tro
uble to
the S
SC
/MA
C; th
e equip
men
t is dow
n at th
e PSA
P, a d
ispatch
will b
ereq
uired.
PSA
P lin
k (circuit) d
ow
n: T
he M
MO
C w
ill pro
vide th
e S
SC
/MA
C w
ith th
e cir-
cuit ID that the H
ost co
mputer ind
icates in troub
le. Altho
ugh each PS
AP has
two circu
its, when
either circu
it is dow
n th
e conditio
n m
ust b
e treated as an
emerg
ency sin
ce failure o
f the seco
nd circu
it will cau
se the P
SA
P to
be iso
-lated
.
Any p
roblem
s that the MM
OC id
entifies from
the Node lo
cation to
the Host
com
puter w
ill be h
andled
directly w
ith th
e appro
priate M
MO
C(s)/C
CN
C.
Note: T
he cu
stom
er will call o
nly w
hen
a pro
blem
is apparen
t to th
e PSA
P.
When o
nly one circuit is d
ow
n to the PS
AP, the custo
mer m
ay not b
e aware
there is a troub
le, even thoug
h there is one link d
ow
n, notificatio
n should
appear o
n th
e PSA
P screen
. Tro
ubles called
into
the S
SC
/MA
C fro
m th
eM
MO
C o
r other co
mpany em
plo
yee should
not b
e closed
out b
y calling the
PSA
P since it may result in the custo
mer resp
ond
ing that they d
o no
t have atro
uble. T
hese reports can o
nly be clo
sed o
ut by receiving
inform
ation that
the troub
le was fixed
and b
y checking w
ith the com
pany em
plo
yee thatrep
orted
the troub
le. The M
MO
C p
ersonnel w
ill be ab
le to verify that the
trouble h
as cleared b
y reviewin
g a p
rinto
ut fro
m th
e host.
When the C
RSA
B receives a sub
scriber co
mplaint (i.e., canno
t dial 9
11
) theRSA
should
obtain as m
uch inform
ation as p
ossib
le while the custo
mer is o
nthe line.
For exam
ple, w
hat happened
when the sub
scriber d
ialed 9
11
? The rep
ort is
autom
atically directed
to the IM
C fo
r subscrib
er line testing. W
hen no line
trouble is fo
und, th
e IMC
will refer th
e trouble co
nditio
n to
the S
SC
/MA
C.
The S
SC
/MA
C w
ill contact C
usto
mer S
ervices E91
1 G
roup an
d verify th
at the
subscrib
er should
be ab
le to call 9
11
and o
btain the ES
N. T
he SSC
/MA
C w
illve
rify the E
SN
via 2SC
CS. W
hen b
oth
verificatio
ns m
atch, th
e S
SC
/MA
C w
illrefer th
e report to
the S
CC
responsib
le for th
e 91
1 tan
dem
office fo
r investi-
gatio
n and reso
lution. T
he MA
C is resp
onsib
le for tracking
the troub
le andin
form
ing th
e IM
C w
hen it is re
solve
d.
For m
ore
info
rmatio
n, p
lease
refe
r to E
91
1 G
lossary o
f Term
s.
End o
f Phrack File
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
_
The read
er is forg
iven if he or she w
as entirely unable to
read this d
oc-
ument. Jo
hn Perry Barlo
w had
a great d
eal of fun at its exp
ense, in"C
rime and
Puzzlement:" "B
ureaucrat-ese of surp
assing o
pacity.... T
o
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
2 7 1
read the w
hole thing
straight thro
ugh w
ithout entering
com
a requires
either a machine o
r a human w
ho has to
o m
uch practice thinking
likeone. A
nyone w
ho can und
erstand it fully and
fluidly had
altered his co
n-scio
usness beyo
ne the ability to
ever again read
Blake, W
hitman, o
rTolstoy.... the docum
ent contains little of interest to anyone who is not a
student of advanced organizational sclerosis."
With the D
ocum
ent itself to hand
, how
ever, exactly as it was p
ublished
(in its six-pag
e edited
form
) in *Phrack,* the reader m
ay be ab
le toverify a few
statements o
f fact about its nature. First, there is no
soft-
ware, no
com
puter co
de, in the D
ocum
ent. It is not co
mputer-p
rogram
-m
ing lang
uage like FO
RTRA
N o
r C+
+, it is Eng
lish; all the sentenceshave nouns and verbs and punctuation. It does not explain how
to breakinto the E9
11 system
. It does not suggest ways to destroy or dam
age theE9
11
system.
There are no access codes in the D
ocument. T
here are no computer
passwords. It does not explain how
to steal long distance service. It doesno
t explain ho
w to
break in to
telco sw
itching statio
ns. There is no
thingin it ab
out using
a perso
nal com
puter o
r a modem
for any p
urpose at all,
good or bad.
Clo
se study w
ill reveal that this docum
ent is not ab
out m
achinery. The
E91
1 D
ocum
ent is about *ad
ministratio
n.* It describ
es how
one creates
and ad
ministers certain units o
f telco b
ureaucracy: Special S
erviceCenters and
Majo
r Acco
unt Centers (S
SC/M
AC). It d
escribes ho
w these
centers should
distrib
ute responsib
ility for the E9
11
service, to o
therunits o
f telco b
ureaucracy, in a chain of co
mm
and, a fo
rmal hierarchy.
It describ
es who
answers custo
mer co
mplaints, w
ho screens calls, w
horep
orts eq
uipm
ent failures, who
answers tho
se reports, w
ho hand
lesm
aintenance, who
chairs subco
mm
ittees, who
gives o
rders, w
ho fo
llow
sord
ers, *who
* tells *who
m* w
hat to d
o. T
he Docum
ent is not a
"roadmap" to com
puters. The D
ocument is a roadm
ap to *people.*
As an aid
to b
reaking into
com
puter system
s, the Docum
ent is *useless.*A
s an aid to harassing and deceiving telco people, however, the D
ocument
mig
ht pro
ve handy (esp
ecially with its G
lossary, w
hich I have not
included). An intense and protracted study of this D
ocument and its
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 7 2
Glossary, com
bined with m
any other such documents, m
ight teach one tospeak like a telco em
ployee. And telco people live b
y *speech* — they
live by p
hone co
mm
unication. If yo
u can mim
ic their languag
e over the
phone, you can "social-engineer" them
. If you can con telco people, youcan w
reak havoc among them
. You can force them to no longer trust one
another; yo
u can break the telep
honic ties that b
ind their co
mm
unity;you can m
ake them paranoid. A
nd people will fight harder to defend
their com
munity than they w
ill fight to
defend
their individ
ual selves.
This w
as the genuine, g
ut-level threat posed
by *Phrack* m
agazine.
The real strug
gle w
as over the control of telco languag
e, the control oftelco know
ledge. It was a struggle to defend the social "m
embrane of dif-
ferentiation" that fo
rms the w
alls of the telco
com
munity's ivo
ry tow
er—
the special jargon that allow
s telco professionals to recognize one
another, and
to exclud
e charlatans, thieves, and up
starts. And
the pro
s-ecution brought out this fact. T
hey repeatedly made reference to the
threat posed
to telco
pro
fessionals b
y hackers using "so
cial engineer-
ing."
How
ever, Craig
Neid
orf w
as not o
n trial for learning
to sp
eak like apro
fessional teleco
mm
unications exp
ert. Craig
Neid
orf w
as on trial fo
raccess device fraud and transportation of stolen property. H
e was on
trial for stealing
a docum
ent that was p
urported
ly highly sensitive and
purp
orted
ly worth tens o
f thousand
s of d
ollars.
__
__
_
John Nagle read the E9
11 D
ocument. H
e drew his ow
n conclusions. And
he presented Zenner and his defense team w
ith an overflowing box of
similar m
aterial, d
rawn m
ostly fro
m S
tanfo
rd U
nive
rsity's engin
eerin
glib
raries. During
the trial, the defense team
— Zenner, half-a-d
ozen
other atto
rneys, Nag
le, Neid
orf, and
com
puter-security exp
ert Doro
thyD
ennin
g, all p
ored
over th
e E91
1 D
ocu
men
t line-b
y-line.
On the afterno
on o
f July 25
, 19
90
, Zenner beg
an to cro
ss-examine a
wom
an n
amed
Billie W
illiams, a service m
anag
er for S
outh
ern B
ell inA
tlanta. Ms. W
illiams had
been resp
onsib
le for the E9
11
Docum
ent.(S
he was no
t its author —
its orig
inal "author" w
as a Southern B
ell staffm
anager nam
ed R
ichard H
elms. H
ow
ever, Mr. H
elms sho
uld no
t bear the
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 7 3
entire blam
e; many telco staff people and m
aintenance personnel hadam
ended the Docum
ent. It had not been so much "w
ritten" by a singleautho
r, as built b
y com
mittee o
ut of co
ncrete-blo
cks of jarg
on.)
Ms. W
illiams had
been called
as a witness fo
r the pro
secution, and
hadgam
ely tried to
explain the b
asic technical structure of the E9
11
sys-tem
, aided
by charts.
Now
it was Zenner's turn. H
e first established
that the "pro
prietary
stamp" that B
ellSouth had used on the E911 D
ocument w
as stamped on
*every single d
ocum
ent* that BellS
outh w
rote —
*thousand
s* of d
ocu-
ments. "W
e do not publish anything
other than for our own com
pany,"M
s. William
s explained
. "Any co
mpany d
ocum
ent of this nature is co
n-sid
ered p
roprietary." N
obody w
as in charge o
f singling
out sp
ecialhig
h-secu
rity publicatio
ns fo
r special h
igh-secu
rity pro
tection. T
hey
were *all* sp
ecial, no m
atter how
trivial, no m
atter what th
eir sub-
ject matter —
the stamp w
as put on as soon as any document w
as writ-
ten, and the stamp w
as never removed.
Zenner now asked w
hether the charts she had been using to explain them
echanics of E9
11
system w
ere "pro
prietary," to
o. W
ere they *pub
licinfo
rmatio
n,* these charts, all about PS
APs, A
LIs, nodes, lo
cal endsw
itches? Could he take the charts out in the street and show
them to
anybody, "w
ithout vio
lating so
me p
roprietary no
tion that B
ellSouth
has?"
Ms W
illiams sho
wed
som
e confusio
n, but finally ag
reed that the charts
were, in
fact, public.
"But isn't this w
hat you said
was b
asically what ap
peared
in*P
hra
ck?*"
Ms. W
illiams d
enie
d th
is.
Zenner now
pointed
out that the E9
11
Docum
ent as pub
lished in Phrack
was o
nly half the size of the o
riginal E9
11
Docum
ent (as Prophet had
purloined it). Half of it had b
een deleted — edited b
y Neidorf.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 7 4
Ms. W
illiams co
untered that "M
ost o
f the inform
ation that is in the text
file is redund
ant."
Zenner continued to probe. Exactly w
hat bits of know
ledge in the
Docum
ent were, in fact, unkno
wn to
the pub
lic? Locatio
ns of E9
11
com
puters? Pho
ne numbers fo
r telco p
ersonnel? O
ngoing
maintenance
subco
mm
ittees? Had
n't Neid
orf rem
oved
much o
f this?
Then he p
ounced
. "Are yo
u familiar w
ith Bellco
re Technical R
eferenceD
ocu
ment T
R-T
SY-0
00
35
0?" It w
as, Zenner e
xplain
ed, o
fficiallytitled
"E91
1 Pub
lic Safety A
nswering
Point Interface B
etween 1
-1A
ESS
Sw
itch and C
ustom
er Premises Eq
uipm
ent." It contained
highly d
etailedand
specific technical info
rmatio
n about the E9
11
System
. It was p
ub-
lished b
y Bellco
re and p
ublicly availab
le for ab
out $
20
.
He show
ed the witness a B
ellcore catalog which listed thousands of docu-
ments fro
m B
ellcore and
from
all the Bab
y Bells, B
ellSouth includ
ed.
The catalog, Zenner pointed out, w
as free. Anyone w
ith a credit cardco
uld call the B
ellcore to
ll-free 80
0 num
ber and
simply o
rder any o
fthese docum
ents, which w
ould be shipped to any customer w
ithout ques-tio
n. Including
, for instance, "B
ellSouth E9
11
Service Interfaces to
Custo
mer Prem
ises Equip
ment at a Pub
lic Safety A
nswering
Point."
Zenner gave the w
itness a copy o
f "BellS
outh E9
11
Service Interfaces,"
which cost, as he pointed out, $
13, straig
ht from the catalog
. "Look at itcarefully," he urg
ed M
s. William
s, "and tell m
e if it doesn't co
ntainabout tw
ice as much detailed inform
ation about the E911 system
ofBellS
outh than ap
peared
anywhere in *Phrack.*"
"You w
ant me to
...." Ms. W
illiams trailed
off. "I d
on't und
erstand."
"Take a careful look," Zenner persisted. "T
ake a look at that document,
and tell me w
hen you're done looking at it if, indeed, it doesn't contain
much m
ore detailed information ab
out the E911 system
than appeared in*P
hra
ck.*"
"*Phrack* w
asn't take
n fro
m th
is," Ms. W
illiams said
.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
2 7 5
"Excuse me?" said
Zenner.
"*Phrack* w
asn't taken
from
this."
"I can't hear you," Zenner said
.
"*Phrack* was no
t taken from
this docum
ent. I don't und
erstand yo
urquestion to m
e."
"I guess yo
u don't," Zenner said
.
At this point, the prosecution's case had b
een gutshot. M
s. William
s was
distressed
. Her co
nfusion w
as quite g
enuine. *Phrack* had no
t been
taken fro
m an
y publicly availab
le Bellco
re docu
men
t. *Phrack*'s
E911 D
ocument had been stolen from
her own com
pany's computers,
from
her ow
n com
pany's text files, that her o
wn co
lleagues had
written,
and revised
, with m
uch labor.
But the "value" of the D
ocument had b
een blow
n to smithereens. It w
as-n't w
orth eig
hty grand
. Acco
rding
to B
ellcore it w
as worth thirteen
bucks. And the loom
ing menace that it supposedly posed had been
reduced
in instants to a scarecro
w. B
ellcore itself w
as selling m
aterialfar m
ore detailed and "dangerous," to anybody with a credit card and a
pho
ne.
Actually, B
ellcore w
as not g
iving this info
rmatio
n to just anyb
ody. T
heygave it to *anybody w
ho asked,* but not many did ask. N
ot many people
knew that B
ellcore had a free catalog and an 8
00 num
ber. John N
agle
knew, b
ut certainly the average teenag
e phreak didn't know. "T
uc," afriend
of N
eidorf's and
som
etime *Phrack* co
ntributo
r, knew, and
Tuc
had been very helpful to the defense, behind the scenes. But the Legion
of Doom
didn't know —
otherwise, they w
ould never have wasted so m
uchtim
e raiding
dum
psters. C
ook d
idn't kno
w. Fo
ley did
n't know
. Kluep
feldidn't know
. The right hand of B
ellcore knew not w
hat the left hand was
doing
. The rig
ht hand w
as battering
hackers witho
ut mercy, w
hile theleft hand
was d
istributing
Bellco
re's intellectual pro
perty to
anybody
who
was interested
in telepho
ne technical trivia — ap
parently, a
pathetic few
.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 7 6
The d
igital und
ergro
und w
as so am
ateurish and p
oorly o
rganized
thatthey had
never disco
vered this heap
of ung
uarded
riches. The ivo
rytow
er of the telcos was so w
rapped-up in the fog of its ow
n technicalobscurity that it had left all the w
indows open and flung open the doors.
No one had even noticed.
Zenner sank another nail in the co
ffin. He p
roduced
a printed
issue of
*Telep
hone Eng
ineer & M
anagem
ent,* a pro
minent ind
ustry journal
that comes out tw
ice a month and costs $
27 a year. T
his particularissue o
f *TE&
M,* called
"Update o
n 91
1," featured
a galaxy o
f technicaldetails o
n 91
1 service and
a glo
ssary far more extensive than
*Phra
ck*'s.
The trial rum
bled
on, so
meho
w, thro
ugh its o
wn m
om
entum. T
im Fo
leytestified
about his interro
gatio
ns of N
eidorf. N
eidorf's w
ritten adm
is-sio
n that he had kno
wn the E9
11
Docum
ent was p
ilfered w
as officially
read into
the court reco
rd.
An interesting
side issue came up: "T
erminus" had once passed N
eidorf apiece o
f UN
IX A
T&
T so
ftware, a lo
g-in seq
uence, that had b
een cunningly
altered so
that it could
trap p
assword
s. The U
NIX
softw
are itself was
illegally co
pied
AT&
T p
roperty, and
the alterations "T
erminus" had
mad
e to it, had
transform
ed it into
a device fo
r facilitating co
mputer
break-ins. T
erminus him
self would
eventually plead
guilty to
theft of
this piece of software, and the C
hicago group would send T
erminus to
priso
n for it. B
ut it was o
f dub
ious relevance in the N
eidorf case.
Neidorf hadn't w
ritten the program
. He w
asn't accused of ever havingused it. A
nd Neidorf w
asn't being charged with softw
are theft or owning
a passw
ord
trapper.
On the next d
ay, Zenner took the o
ffensive. The civil lib
ertarians now
had their o
wn arcane, untried
legal w
eaponry to
launch into actio
n —the Electro
nic Com
municatio
ns Privacy Act o
f 19
86
, 18
US C
ode,
Sectio
n 27
01
et seq. S
ection 2
70
1 m
akes it a crime to
intentionally
access witho
ut authorizatio
n a facility in which an electro
nic com
muni-
cation service is p
rovid
ed —
it is, at heart, an anti-bug
ging
and anti-
tapping
law, intend
ed to
carry the traditio
nal pro
tections o
f telepho
nes
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
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into o
ther electronic channels o
f com
municatio
n. While p
rovid
ingpenalties fo
r amateur sno
ops, ho
wever, S
ection 2
70
3 o
f the ECPA
alsolays so
me fo
rmal d
ifficulties on the b
ugging
and tap
ping
activities of
police.
The S
ecret Service, in the p
erson o
f Tim
Foley, had
served R
ichardA
ndrew
s with a fed
eral grand
jury subpoena, in their p
ursuit of
Prophet, the E9
11
Docum
ent, and the T
erminus so
ftware ring
. But
accord
ing to
the Electronic C
om
municatio
ns Privacy Act, a "p
rovid
er of
remote co
mputing
service" was leg
ally entitled to
"prio
r notice" fro
mthe g
overnment if a sub
poena was used. Richard A
ndrews and his b
ase-m
ent UN
IX no
de, Jo
lnet, had no
t received any "p
rior no
tice." Tim
Foley
had p
urported
ly violated
the ECPA
and co
mm
itted an electro
nic crime!
Zenner now
soug
ht the judge's p
ermissio
n to cro
ss-examine Fo
ley on the
topic o
f Foley's o
wn electro
nic misd
eeds.
Cook arg
ued that R
ichard A
ndrew
s' Jolnet w
as a privately o
wned
bulletin
board, and not w
ithin the purview of EC
PA. Judg
e Bua g
ranted them
otio
n of the g
overnm
ent to p
revent cross-exam
ination o
n that point,
and Zenner's o
ffensive fizzled. T
his, how
ever, was the first d
irectassault on the legality of the actions of the C
omputer Fraud and A
buseTask Force itself —
the first suggestion that they them
selves had broken
the law, and m
ight, perhaps, b
e called to account.
Zenner, in any case, did
not really need
the ECPA
. Instead, he g
rilledFo
ley on the g
laring co
ntradictio
ns in the supposed
value of the E9
11
Docum
ent. He also brought up the em
barrassing fact that the supposedlyred
- hot E9
11
Docum
ent had b
een sitting aro
und fo
r months, in Jo
lnet,w
ith Kluep
fel's know
ledge, w
hile Kluep
fel had d
one no
thing ab
out it.
In the afternoon, the Pro
phet w
as bro
ught in to
testify for the p
rosecu-
tion. (T
he Prophet, it w
ill be recalled
, had also
been ind
icted in the case
as partner in a fraud
scheme w
ith Neid
orf.) In A
tlanta, the Prophet had
already p
led g
uilty to o
ne charge o
f consp
iracy, one charg
e of w
ire fraudand one charg
e of interstate transportation of stolen property. The
wire fraud
charge, and
the stolen p
roperty charg
e, were b
oth d
irectlybased on the E9
11 D
ocument.
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The tw
enty-year-old
Prophet p
roved
a sorry custo
mer, answ
eringquestio
ns politely b
ut in a barely aud
ible m
umble, his vo
ice trailing o
ffat the ends of sentences. H
e was constantly urged to speak up.
Cook, exam
ining Prophet, forced him to adm
it that he had once had a"d
rug p
roblem
," abusing
amphetam
ines, marijuana, co
caine, and LS
D.
This m
ay have established
to the jury that "hackers" are, o
r can be,
seedy lo
wlife characters, b
ut it may have d
amag
ed Pro
phet's cred
ibility
somew
hat. Zenner later suggested that drugs might have dam
agedPro
phet's m
emory. T
he interesting fact also
surfaced that Pro
phet had
never physically m
et Craig
Neid
orf. H
e did
n't even know
Neid
orf's last
name —
at least, not until the trial.
Prophet co
nfirmed
the basic facts o
f his hacker career. He w
as a mem
-ber of the Legion of D
oom. H
e had abused codes, he had broken intosw
itching statio
ns and re-ro
uted calls, he had
hung o
ut on p
irate bul-
letin board
s. He had
raided
the BellS
outh A
IMSX co
mputer, co
pied
theE9
11
Docum
ent, stored
it on Jo
lnet, mailed
it to N
eidorf. H
e and N
eidorf
had edited it, and Neidorf had know
n where it cam
e from.
Zenner, how
ever, had Pro
phet co
nfirm that N
eidorf w
as not a m
ember o
fthe Legion of D
oom, and had not urged Prophet to break into B
ellSouthcom
puters. Neidorf had never urg
ed Prophet to defraud anyone, or tosteal anything
. Prophet also admitted that he had never know
n Neidorf
to break in to any computer. Prophet said that no one in the Legion of
Doom
consid
ered C
raig N
eidorf a "hacker" at all. N
eidorf w
as not a U
NIX
maven, and
simply lacked
the necessary skill and ab
ility to b
reak intoco
mputers. N
eidorf just p
ublished
a mag
azine.
On Frid
ay, July 27
, 19
90
, the case against N
eidorf co
llapsed
. Cook
moved
to d
ismiss the ind
ictment, citing
"inform
ation currently avail-
able to us that w
as not available to us at the inception of the trial."
Judge B
ua praised
the pro
secution fo
r this action, w
hich he describ
ed as
"very responsib
le," then dism
issed a juro
r and d
eclared a m
istrial.
Neid
orf w
as a free man. H
is defense, ho
wever, had
cost him
self and his
family d
early. Months o
f his life had b
een consum
ed in ang
uish; he hadseen his clo
sest friends shun him
as a federal crim
inal. He o
wed
his
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lawyers over a hundred thousand dollars, despite a g
enerous payment to
the defense b
y Mitch K
apor.
Neid
orf w
as not fo
und inno
cent. The trial w
as simply d
ropped
.N
evertheless, on S
eptem
ber 9
, 19
91
, Judge B
ua granted
Neid
orf's
motion for the "expung
ement and sealing
" of his indictment record. T
heU
nited S
tates Secret S
ervice was o
rdered
to d
elete and d
estroy all fin-
gerp
rints, pho
tograp
hs, and o
ther record
s of arrest o
r pro
cessingrelating
to N
eidorf's ind
ictment, includ
ing their p
aper d
ocum
ents andtheir co
mputer reco
rds.
Neidorf w
ent back to school, b
lazingly determ
ined to becom
e a lawyer.
Having
seen the justice system at w
ork, N
eidorf lo
st much o
f his enthu-siasm
for m
erely technical p
ow
er. At th
is writin
g, C
raig N
eidorf is
working
in Washing
ton as a salaried
researcher for the A
merican C
ivilLib
ertie
s Unio
n.
__
__
_
The o
utcom
e of the N
eidorf trial chang
ed the EFF fro
m vo
ices-in-the-w
ilderness to
the med
ia darling
s of the new
frontier.
Legally sp
eaking, the N
eidorf case w
as not a sw
eeping
triumph fo
r any-one concerned. N
o constitutional principles had been estab
lished. The
issues of "freed
om
of the p
ress" for electro
nic pub
lishers remained
inleg
al limbo. T
here were p
ublic m
isconcep
tions ab
out the case. M
anypeople thoug
ht Neidorf had b
een found innocent and relieved of all hisleg
al debts b
y Kapor. T
he truth was that the g
overnment had sim
plydropped the case, and N
eidorf's family had gone deeply into hock to sup-
port him
.
But the N
eidorf case d
id p
rovid
e a single, d
evastating, p
ublic so
und-b
ite:*T
he feds said
it was w
orth eig
hty grand
, and it w
as only w
orth thirteen
bucks.*
This is the N
eidorf case's sing
le most m
emorab
le element. N
o serio
usrep
ort o
f the case missed
this particular elem
ent. Even cops co
uld no
tread this w
ithout a wince and a shake of the head. It left the pub
liccred
ibility o
f the crackdow
n agents in tatters.
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The crackdow
n, in fact, continued, however. T
hose two charges against
Prophet, which had b
een based on the E9
11 D
ocument, w
ere quietlyforgotten at his sentencing —
even though Prophet had already pledguilty to
them. G
eorg
ia federal p
rosecuto
rs strong
ly argued
for jail tim
efor the A
tlanta Three, insisting on "the need to send a m
essage to thecom
munity," "the m
essage that hackers around the country need tohear."
There w
as a great deal in their sentencing
mem
orandum ab
out the awful
things that various other hackers had done (though the Atlanta T
hreethem
selves had no
t, in fact, actually com
mitted
these crimes). T
herew
as also much speculation about the aw
ful things that the Atlanta T
hree*m
ight* have done and *were capable* of doing (even though they had
not, in fact, actually d
one them
). The p
rosecutio
n's argum
ent carriedthe day. T
he Atlanta T
hree were sent to prison: U
rvile and Leftist both
got 14 m
onths each, while Prophet (a second offender) got 2
1 m
onths.
The A
tlanta Three w
ere also assessed staggering
fines as "restitution":$233,0
00 each. B
ellSouth claimed that the defendants had "stolen"
"appro
ximately $
23
3,8
80
worth" o
f "pro
prietary co
mputer access
inform
ation" —
specifically, $
23
3,8
80
worth o
f com
puter p
assword
sand connect addresses. B
ellSouth's astonishing claim
of the extreme
value of its own com
puter passwords and addresses w
as accepted at facevalue b
y the Geo
rgia co
urt. Furthermore (as if to
emphasize its theo
-retical nature) this eno
rmous sum
was no
t divvied
up am
ong
the Atlanta
Three, but each of them
had to pay all of it.
A striking
aspect of the sentence was that the A
tlanta Three w
ere specif-ically fo
rbid
den to
use com
puters, excep
t for w
ork o
r under sup
ervi-sion. D
epriving hackers of home com
puters and modem
s makes som
esense if o
ne consid
ers hackers as "com
puter ad
dicts," b
ut EFF, filing an
amicus b
rief in the case, pro
tested that this p
unishment w
as unconsti-
tutional —
it dep
rived the A
tlanta Three o
f their rights o
f free associa-
tion and
free expressio
n throug
h electronic m
edia.
Term
inus, the "ultimate hacker," w
as finally sent to p
rison fo
r a yearthrough the dogged efforts of the C
hicago Task Force. H
is crime, to
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which he p
led g
uilty, was the transfer o
f the UN
IX p
assword
trapper,
which w
as officially valued
by A
T&
T at $
77
,00
0, a fig
ure which
aroused
intense skepticism
among
those fam
iliar with U
NIX
"login.c"
pro
gram
s.
The jailing
of T
erminus and
the Atlanta Leg
ionnaires o
f Doom
, how
ever,did not cause the EFF any sense of em
barrassment or defeat. O
n theco
ntrary, th
e civil lib
ertarian
s were
rapid
ly gath
erin
g stre
ngth
.
An early and
potent sup
porter w
as Senato
r Patrick Leahy, Dem
ocrat
from V
ermont, w
ho had been a Senate sponsor of the ElectronicCom
municatio
ns Privacy Act. Even b
efore the N
eidorf trial, Leahy had
spoken out in defense of hacker-power and freedom
of the keyboard: "We
cannot u
nduly in
hib
it the in
quisitive
13
-year-o
ld w
ho, if le
ft to e
xper-
iment to
day, m
ay tom
orro
w d
evelop the teleco
mm
unications o
r com
put-
er technology to lead the U
nited States into the 21st century. H
e repre-sents o
ur future and o
ur best ho
pe to
remain a techno
logically co
mpeti-
tive nation."
It was a handsom
e statement, rendered perhaps rather m
ore effective by
the fact that the crackdow
n raiders *d
id no
t have* any Senato
rs speak-
ing o
ut for *them
.* On the co
ntrary, their highly secretive actio
ns andtactics, all "sealed
search warrants" here and
"confid
ential ong
oing
investigatio
ns" there, mig
ht have won them
a burst o
f glam
oro
us pub
-licity at first, b
ut were crip
pling
them in the o
n-going
pro
pag
anda w
ar.Gail T
hackeray was reduced to unsupported b
luster: "Some of these peo-
ple w
ho are lo
udest o
n the band
wag
on m
ay just slink into the b
ack-ground," she predicted in *N
ewsw
eek* — w
hen all the facts came out,
and the cops were vindicated.
But all the facts did not com
e out. Those facts that did, w
ere not veryflattering
. And the cops w
ere not vindicated. And G
ail Thackeray lost
her job. B
y the end o
f 19
91
, William
Cook had
also left p
ublic em
plo
y-m
ent.
1990 had belonged to the crackdow
n, but by '91 its agents w
ere insevere d
isarray, and the lib
ertarians were o
n a roll. Peo
ple w
ereflo
cking to
the cause.
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A p
articularly interesting ally had
been M
ike Godw
in of A
ustin, Texas.
Godw
in was an ind
ividual alm
ost as d
ifficult to d
escribe as B
arlow
; hehad been editor of the student new
spaper of the University of T
exas, anda co
mputer salesm
an, and a p
rogram
mer, and
in 19
90
was b
ack in lawscho
ol, lo
oking
for a law
deg
ree.
Godw
in was also
a bulletin b
oard
maven. H
e was very w
ell-know
n inthe A
ustin board
com
munity und
er his handle "Jo
hnny Mnem
onic,"
which he ad
opted
from
a cyberp
unk science fiction sto
ry by W
illiamG
ibso
n. Godw
in was an ardent cyb
erpunk science fiction fan. A
s a fellow
Austinite o
f similar ag
e and sim
ilar interests, I myself had
know
nG
odw
in socially fo
r many years. W
hen William
Gib
son and
myself had
been w
riting o
ur collab
orative S
F novel, *T
he Difference Eng
ine,*G
odw
in had b
een our technical ad
visor in o
ur effort to
link our A
pple
word
-pro
cessors fro
m A
ustin to V
ancouver. G
ibso
n and I w
ere sopleased b
y his generous expert help that w
e named a character in the
novel "M
ichael Godw
in" in his hono
r.
The hand
le "Mnem
onic" suited
Godw
in very well. H
is eruditio
n and his
mastery o
f trivia were im
pressive to
the point o
f stupor; his ard
entcuriosity seem
ed insatiable, and his desire to debate and argue seemed
the central drive o
f his life. Godw
in had even started
his ow
n Austin
deb
ating so
ciety, wryly kno
wn as the "D
ull Men's C
lub." In p
erson,
Godw
in could
be o
verwhelm
ing; a flyp
aper- b
rained p
olym
ath who
could not seem to let any idea go. O
n bulletin boards, however, G
odwin's
closely reaso
ned, hig
hly gram
matical, erud
ite posts suited
the med
iumw
ell, and he b
ecame a lo
cal board
celebrity.
Mike G
odw
in was the m
an most resp
onsib
le for the p
ublic natio
nalexposure of the Steve Jackson case. T
he Izenberg seizure in Austin had
received no
press co
verage at all. T
he March 1
raids o
n Mento
r,Bloodaxe, and Steve Jackson G
ames had received a b
rief front-page
splash in the fro
nt pag
e of the *A
ustin Am
erican-Statesm
an,* but it
was co
nfused and
ill-inform
ed: the w
arrants were sealed
, and the
Secret Service wasn't talking
. Steve Jackson seemed doom
ed to obscuri-
ty. Jackson had not been arrested; he w
as not charged w
ith any crime;
he was no
t on trial. H
e had lo
st som
e com
puters in an o
ngoing
investi-
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gation — so w
hat? Jackson tried hard to attract attention to the trueextent o
f his plig
ht, but he w
as draw
ing a b
lank; no o
ne in a positio
n tohelp him
seemed able to get a m
ental grip on the issues.
Godw
in, how
ever, was uniq
uely, almost m
agically, q
ualified to
carryJackson's case to the outside w
orld. Godw
in was a board enthusiast, a
science fiction fan, a fo
rmer jo
urnalist, a com
puter salesm
an, alaw
yer-to-b
e, and an A
ustinite. Thro
ugh a co
incidence yet m
ore am
az-ing
, in his last year of law
school G
odw
in had sp
ecialized in fed
eralpro
secutions and
criminal p
roced
ure. Acting
entirely on his o
wn,
Godw
in mad
e up a p
ress packet w
hich summ
arized the issues and
pro
-vid
ed useful co
ntacts for rep
orters. G
odw
in's behind
-the-scenes effort
(which he carried
out m
ostly to
pro
ve a point in a lo
cal board
deb
ate)bro
ke the story ag
ain in the *Austin A
merican-S
tatesman* and
then in*N
ewsw
eek.*
Life was never the sam
e for Mike G
odwin after that. A
s he joined thegro
wing
civil liberties d
ebate o
n the Internet, it was o
bvio
us to all p
ar-ties involved that here w
as one guy w
ho, in the midst of com
plete murk
and co
nfusion, *g
enuinely understo
od everything
he was talking
about.*
The d
isparate elem
ents of G
odw
in's dilettantish existence sud
denly fell
together as neatly as the facets of a Rubik's cube.
When the tim
e came to
hire a full-time EFF staff atto
rney, Godw
in was
the obvious choice. He took the T
exas bar exam, left A
ustin, moved to
Cam
brid
ge, b
ecam
e a fu
ll-time, p
rofe
ssional, co
mpute
r civil libertari-
an, and w
as soon to
uring the natio
n on b
ehalf of EFF, d
elivering w
ell-received addresses on the issues to crow
ds as disparate as academics,
industrialists, science fictio
n fans, and fed
eral cops.
Michael G
odw
in is currently the chief legal co
unsel of the Electro
nicFro
ntier Found
ation in C
ambrid
ge, M
assachusetts._
__
__
Ano
ther early and influential p
articipant in the co
ntroversy w
asD
orothy Denning
. Dr. D
enning w
as unique among
investigators of the
computer underground in that she did not enter the debate w
ith any setof p
oliticized
motives. S
he was a p
rofessio
nal crypto
grap
her and co
m-
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puter secu
rity expert w
hose p
rimary in
terest in h
ackers was *sch
ol-
arly.* She had
a B.A
. and M
.A. in m
athematics, and
a Ph.D. in co
mput-
er science from
Purdue. S
he had w
orked
for S
RI Internatio
nal, theCalifo
rnia think-tank that was also
the hom
e of co
mputer- security
maven D
onn Parker, and
had autho
red an influential text called
*Cryp
tograp
hy and D
ata Security.* In 1
99
0, D
r. Denning
was w
orking
for D
igital Eq
uipm
ent Corp
oratio
n in their System
s Reseach C
enter.H
er husband
, Peter Denning
, was also
a com
puter security exp
ert,w
orking for N
ASA
's Research Institute for Advanced C
omputer Science.
He had
edited
the well- received
*Com
puters U
nder A
ttack: Intruders,
Worm
s and V
iruses.*
Dr. D
enning to
ok it up
on herself to
contact the d
igital und
ergro
und,
more o
r less with an anthro
polo
gical interest. T
here she disco
vered that
these com
puter- intrud
ing hackers, w
ho had
been characterized
asunethical, irresp
onsib
le, and a serio
us dang
er to so
ciety, did
in facthave their o
wn sub
culture and their o
wn rules. T
hey were no
t particu-
larly w
ell-co
nsid
ere
d ru
les, b
ut th
ey w
ere
, in fact, ru
les. B
asically,
they didn't take money and they didn't break anything.
Her d
ispassio
nate reports o
n her researches did
a great d
eal to influence
serious-m
inded
com
puter p
rofessio
nals — the so
rt of p
eople w
ho m
ere-ly ro
lled their eyes at the cyb
erspace rhap
sodies o
f a John Perry
Barlo
w.
For yo
ung hackers o
f the dig
ital underg
round
, meeting
Doro
thy Denning
was a g
enuinely mind
-boggling
experience. H
ere was this neatly
coiffed
, conservatively d
ressed, d
ainty little perso
nage, w
ho rem
inded
most hackers o
f their mom
s or their aunts. A
nd yet she w
as an IBM
systems p
rogram
mer w
ith pro
found
expertise in co
mputer architec-
tures and hig
h-security inform
ation flo
w, w
ho had
perso
nal friends in
the FBI and
the Natio
nal Security A
gency.
Doro
thy Denning
was a shining
example o
f the Am
erican mathem
aticalin
telligen
tsia, a gen
uin
ely brillian
t perso
n fro
m th
e central ran
ks of
the com
puter- science elite. A
nd here she w
as, gently q
uestioning
twen
ty-year-old
hairy-eyed
phone-p
hreaks o
ver the d
eeper eth
icalim
plicatio
ns o
f their b
ehavio
r.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 8 5
Confro
nted b
y this genuinely nice lad
y, most hackers sat up
verystraig
ht and d
id their b
est to keep
the anarchy- file stuff dow
n to a faint
whiff o
f brim
stone. N
evertheless, the hackers *were* in fact p
repared
to serio
usly discuss serio
us issues with D
oro
thy Denning
. They w
erew
illing to
speak the unsp
eakable and
defend
the indefensib
le, to b
lurtout their convictions that inform
ation cannot be ow
ned, that the data-bases of g
overnments and larg
e corporations were a threat to the rig
htsan
d p
rivacy of in
divid
uals.
Denning
's articles mad
e it clear to m
any that "hacking" w
as not sim
ple
vandalism
by so
me evil cliq
ue of p
sychotics. "H
acking" w
as not an
aberrant m
enace that could
be charm
ed aw
ay by ig
noring
it, or sw
ept
out o
f existence by jailing
a few ring
leaders. Instead
, "hacking" w
assym
pto
matic o
f a gro
wing
, prim
al struggle o
ver know
ledge and
pow
er inthe ag
e of info
rmatio
n.
Denning
pointed out that the attitude of hackers were at least partially
shared b
y forw
ard-lo
oking
manag
ement theo
rists in the business co
m-
munity: p
eople like P
eter Dru
cker and T
om
Peters. P
eter Dru
cker, inhis b
ook *T
he New
Realities,* had
stated that "co
ntrol o
f inform
ation
by the g
overnm
ent is no lo
nger p
ossib
le. Indeed
, inform
ation is no
wtransnatio
nal. Like money, it has no
'fatherland.'"
And m
anagement m
aven Tom
Peters had chided large corporations foruptig
ht, p
roprietary attitu
des in
his b
estseller, *Thrivin
g o
n C
hao
s:*"In
form
ation h
oard
ing, esp
ecially by p
olitically m
otivated
, pow
er-seeking
staffs, had been com
monplace throug
hout Am
erican industry,service an
d m
anufactu
ring alike. It w
ill be an
impossib
le millsto
ne
aroung
the neck of to
morro
w's o
rganizatio
ns."
Dorothy D
enning had shattered the social m
embrane of the dig
italunderg
round. She attended the Neidorf trial, w
here she was prepared to
testify for the d
efense as an expert w
itness. She w
as a behind
-the-scenes organizer of tw
o of the most im
portant national meetings of the
com
puter civil lib
ertarians. Tho
ugh no
t a zealot o
f any descrip
tion, she
bro
ught d
isparate elem
ents of the electro
nic com
munity into
a surpris-
ing an
d fru
itful co
llusio
n.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
2 8 6
Doro
thy Denning
is currently the Chair o
f the Com
puter S
cienceD
epartm
ent at Geo
rgeto
wn U
niversity in Washing
ton, D
C.
__
__
_
There
were
man
y stellar fig
ure
s in th
e civil lib
ertarian
com
munity.
There's no
questio
n, how
ever, that its single m
ost influential fig
ure was
Mitchell D
. Kap
or. O
ther peo
ple m
ight have fo
rmal titles, o
r govern-
mental p
ositio
ns, have more exp
erience with crim
e, or w
ith the law, o
rw
ith the arcanities of co
mputer security o
r constitutio
nal theory. B
utby 1
99
1 K
apor had
transcended
any such narrow
role. K
apor had
beco
me "M
itch."
Mitch had
beco
me the central civil-lib
ertarian ad- ho
crat. Mitch had
stood up
first, he had sp
oken o
ut loud
ly, directly, vig
oro
usly and ang
ri-ly, he had
put his o
wn rep
utation, and
his very consid
erable p
ersonal
fortune, o
n the line. By m
id-'9
1 K
apor w
as the best-kno
wn ad
vocate o
fhis cause and
was kno
wn *p
ersonally* b
y almost every sing
le human
being
in Am
erica with any d
irect influence on the q
uestion o
f civil lib-
erties in cybersp
ace. Mitch had
built b
ridges, cro
ssed vo
ids, chang
edparad
igm
s, forg
ed m
etapho
rs, mad
e pho
ne-calls and sw
apped
business
cards to such spectacular effect that it had become im
possible for anyoneto take any action in the "hacker question" w
ithout wondering
what
Mitch m
ight think —
and say —
and tell his friend
s.
The EFF had
simply *netw
orked
* the situation into
an entirely newstatus quo. A
nd in fact this had been EFF's deliberate strategy from the
beg
inning. B
oth B
arlow
and K
apor lo
athed b
ureaucracies and had
delib
-erately cho
sen to w
ork alm
ost entirely thro
ugh the electro
nic spid
erweb
of "valuab
le perso
nal contacts."
After a year o
f EFF, both B
arlow
and K
apor had
every reason to
look
back w
ith satisfaction. EFF had
established
its ow
n Internet node,
"eff.org
," with a w
ell-stocked
electronic archive o
f docum
ents on elec-
tronic civil rig
hts, privacy issues, and
academ
ic freedom
. EFF was also
publish
ing *E
FFecto
r,* a quarte
rly p
rinte
d jo
urn
al, as well as
*EFFector O
nlin
e,* an electro
nic n
ewsletter w
ith o
ver 1,2
00
sub-
scribers. A
nd EFF w
as thriving o
n the Well.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 8 7
EFF had a natio
nal headquarters in C
ambrid
ge and
a full-time staff. It
had b
ecom
e a mem
bership
org
anization and
was attracting
grass-ro
ots
support. It had
also attracted
the support o
f som
e thirty civil-rights
lawyers, ready and eager to do pro bono w
ork in defense of theConstitutio
n in Cyb
erspace.
EFF had lo
bbied
successfully in Washing
ton and
in Massachusetts to
change state and
federal leg
islation o
n com
puter netw
orking
. Kap
or in
particular had
beco
me a veteran exp
ert witness, and
had jo
ined the
Com
puter Science and Telecom
munications B
oard of the National
Academ
y of Science and Engineering.
EFF had sponsored meeting
s such as "Com
puters, Freedom and Privacy"
and the C
PSR R
ound
table. It had
carried o
ut a press o
ffensive that, inthe w
ords of *EFFector,* "has affected the climate of opinion ab
outco
mputer netw
orking
and b
egun to
reverse the slide into
'hacker hyste-ria' that w
as beg
inning to
grip
the nation."
It had help
ed C
raig N
eidorf avo
id p
rison.
And
, last but certainly no
t least, the Electronic Fro
ntier Found
ation had
filed a fed
eral lawsuit in the nam
e of S
teve Jackson, S
teve Jackson
Gam
es Inc., and three users o
f the Illuminati b
ulletin board
system. T
hedefend
ants were, and
are, the United
States S
ecret Service, W
illiamCook, T
im Fo
ley, Barb
ara Gold
en and H
enry Kleup
fel.
The case, w
hich is in pre-trial p
roced
ures in an Austin fed
eral court as
of this w
riting, is a civil actio
n for d
amag
es to red
ress alleged
violatio
nsof the First and Fourth A
mendm
ents to the United States C
onstitution, asw
ell as the Privacy Protectio
n Act o
f 19
80
(42
USC 2
00
0aa et seq
.),and
the Electronic C
om
municatio
ns Privacy Act (1
8 U
SC 2
51
0 et seq
and 2
70
1 et seq
).
EFF had estab
lished that it had
credib
ility. It had also
established
that ithad
teeth.
In the fall of 1
99
1 I travelled
to M
assachusetts to sp
eak perso
nally with
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 8 8
Mitch K
apor. It w
as my final interview
for this b
ook.
__
__
_
The city of B
oston has always b
een one of the major intellectual centers
of the A
merican rep
ublic. It is a very o
ld city b
y Am
erican standard
s, aplace o
f skyscrapers o
vershadow
ing seventeenth-century g
raveyards,
where the hig
h-tech start-up co
mpanies o
f Route 1
28
co-exist w
ith thehand
-wro
ught p
re-industrial g
race of "O
ld Iro
nsides," the U
SS
*Constitutio
n.*
The B
attle of B
unker Hill, o
ne of the first and
bitterest arm
ed clashes o
fthe A
merican R
evolutio
n, was fo
ught in B
osto
n's environs. T
oday there
is a monum
ental spire o
n Bunker H
ill, visible thro
ugho
ut much o
f thecity. T
he willing
ness of the rep
ublican revo
lutionaries to
take uparm
s and fire o
n their oppresso
rs has left a cultural legacy that tw
ofull centuries have no
t effaced. B
unker Hill is still a p
otent center o
fA
merican p
olitical sym
bolism
, and the S
pirit o
f '76
is still a potent
imag
e for tho
se who
seek to m
old
pub
lic opinio
n.
Of co
urse, not everyo
ne who
wrap
s himself in the flag
is necessarily apatrio
t. When I visited
the spire in S
eptem
ber 1
99
1, it b
ore a hug
e,bad
ly-erased, sp
ray-can grafitto
around
its botto
m read
ing "B
RIT
S O
UT
— IR
A PR
OV
OS." Insid
e this hallow
ed ed
ifice was a g
lass-cased d
ioram
aof thousands of tiny toy soldiers, reb
els and redcoats, fighting
and dyingover th
e green
hill, th
e riverside m
arshes, th
e rebel tren
chw
orks.
Plaques indicated the movem
ent of troops, the shiftings of strategy. The
Bunker H
ill Monum
ent is occup
ied at its very center b
y the toy so
ldiers
of a m
ilitary war-g
ame sim
ulatio
n.
The B
osto
n metro
plex is a p
lace of g
reat universities, pro
minent am
ong
the Massachusetts Institute of T
echnology, w
here the term "com
puterhacker" w
as first coined
. The H
acker Crackd
ow
n of 1
99
0 m
ight b
einterp
reted as a p
olitical strug
gle am
ong
Am
erican cities: traditio
nalstro
ngho
lds o
f long
hair intellectual liberalism
, such as Bosto
n, San
Francisco
, and A
ustin
, versus th
e bare-kn
uckle in
dustrial p
ragm
atismof C
hicago and
Phoenix (w
ith Atlanta and
New
York w
rapped
in internalstrug
gle).
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 8 9
The head
quarters o
f the Electronic Fro
ntier Found
ation is o
n 15
5 S
econd
Street in C
ambrid
ge, a B
osto
nian suburb
north o
f the River C
harles.Second Street has w
eedy sidewalks of dented, sagging brick and elderly
cracked asp
halt; large street-sig
ns warn "N
O PA
RK
ING
DU
RIN
GD
ECLA
RED
SN
OW
EMER
GEN
CY." T
his is an old
area of m
odest m
anufac-turing
industries; the EFF is cateco
rner from
the Greene R
ubber
Com
pany. EFF's b
uilding
is two sto
ries of red
brick; its larg
e wooden
wind
ow
s feature gracefully arched
tops and
stone sills.
The glass w
indow beside the Second Street entrance bears three sheets of
neatly laser-printed
pap
er, taped
against the g
lass. They read
: ON
Techno
logy. EFF. K
EI.
"ON
Techno
logy" is K
apor's so
ftware co
mpany, w
hich currently special-
izes in "gro
upw
are" for the A
pple M
acintosh co
mputer. "G
roup
ware" is
intended
to p
rom
ote efficient so
cial interaction am
ong
office-w
orkers
linked b
y com
puters. O
N T
echnolo
gy's m
ost successful so
ftware p
rod-
ucts to date are "Meeting M
aker" and "Instant Update."
"KEI" is K
apor Enterp
rises Inc., Kap
or's p
ersonal ho
lding
com
pany, the
com
mercial entity that fo
rmally co
ntrols his extensive investm
ents inother hard
ware and
softw
are corp
oratio
ns.
"EFF" is a political actio
n gro
up —
of a sp
ecial sort.
Inside, someone's bike has been chained to the handrails of a m
odestflig
ht of stairs. A
wall o
f modish g
lass brick sep
arates this anteroom
from the offices. B
eyond the brick, there's an alarm
system m
ounted onthe w
all, a sleek, com
plex little num
ber that resem
bles a cro
ss betw
eena therm
ostat and
a CD
player. Piled
against the w
all are box after b
ox o
fa recent sp
ecial issue of *S
cientific Am
erican,* "How
to W
ork, Play,
and T
hrive in Cyb
erspace," w
ith extensive coverag
e of electro
nic net-w
orking
techniques and
political issues, includ
ing an article b
y Kap
or
himself. T
hese boxes are addressed to Gerard V
an der Leun, EFF'sD
irector o
f Com
municatio
ns, who
will sho
rtly mail tho
se mag
azines toevery m
ember o
f the EFF.
The jo
int headquarters o
f EFF, KEI, and
ON
Techno
logy, w
hich Kap
or
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
2 9 0
currently rents, is a modestly b
ustling p
lace. It's very much the sam
ephysical size as S
teve Jackson's g
aming
com
pany. It's certainly a far
cry from
the gig
antic gray steel-sid
ed railw
ay shipping
barn, o
n theM
onsig
nor O
'Brien H
ighw
ay, that is ow
ned b
y Lotus D
evelopm
entCorp
oratio
n.
Lotus is, o
f course, the so
ftware g
iant that Mitchell K
apor fo
unded
in thelate 7
0s. T
he softw
are pro
gram
Kap
or co
-authored
, "Lotus 1
-2-3
," isstill that co
mpany's m
ost p
rofitab
le pro
duct. "Lo
tus 1-2
-3" also
bears
a singular d
istinction in the d
igital und
ergro
und: it's p
robab
ly the most
pirated
piece o
f applicatio
n softw
are in world
history.
Kap
or g
reets me co
rdially in his o
wn o
ffice, dow
n a hall. Kap
or, w
hose
name is p
rono
unced K
AY-p
or, is in his early fo
rties, married
and the
father of two. H
e has a round face, high forehead, straight nose, aslig
htly tousled
mop o
f black hair p
eppered
with g
ray. His larg
e bro
wn
eyes are wid
eset, reflective, one m
ight alm
ost say so
ulful. He d
isdains
ties, and co
mm
only w
ears Haw
aiian shirts and tro
pical p
rints, not so
much g
arish as simply cheerful and
just that little bit ano
malo
us.
There is just the w
hiff of hacker b
rimsto
ne about M
itch Kap
or. H
e may
not h
ave th
e h
ard-rid
ing, h
ell-fo
r- leath
er, g
uitar-stru
mm
ing ch
aris-m
a of his W
yom
ing co
lleague Jo
hn Perry Barlo
w, b
ut there's som
ethingabout the guy that still stops one short. H
e has the air of the Easterncity d
ude in the b
ow
ler hat, the dream
y, Long
fellow
-quo
ting p
oker
shark who only *happens* to know
the exact mathem
atical odds against
draw
ing to
an inside straig
ht. Even among
his com
puter-co
mm
unityco
lleagues, w
ho are hard
ly know
n for m
ental sluggishness, K
apor
strikes one fo
rcefully as a very intelligent m
an. He sp
eaks rapid
ly,w
ith vigoro
us gestures, his B
osto
n accent som
etimes slip
ping
to the
sharp nasal tang
of his yo
uth in Long
Island.
Kap
or, w
hose K
apor Fam
ily Found
ation d
oes m
uch of his p
hilanthropic
work, is a stro
ng sup
porter o
f Bosto
n's Com
puter M
useum. K
apor's
interest in the history o
f his industry has b
roug
ht him so
me rem
ark-ab
le curios, such as the "b
yte" just outsid
e his office d
oor. T
his "byte"
— eig
ht digital b
its — has b
een salvaged from
the wreck of an electronic
com
puter o
f the pre-transisto
r age. It's a stand
ing g
unmetal rack ab
out
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 9 1
the size of a sm
all toaster- o
ven: with eig
ht slots o
f hand-so
ldered
bread
board
ing featuring
thumb-sized
vacuum tub
es. If it fell off a tab
leit co
uld easily b
reak your fo
ot, b
ut it was state-o
f-the-art com
putatio
nin the 1
94
0s. (It w
ould
take exactly 15
7,1
84
of these p
rimord
ialto
asters to ho
ld the first p
art of this b
ook.)
There's also
a coiling
, multico
lored
, scaly drag
on that so
me insp
iredtechno
-punk artist has co
bbled
up entirely o
ut of transisto
rs, capaci-
tors, an
d b
rightly p
lastic-coated
wirin
g.
Inside the o
ffice, Kap
or excuses him
self briefly to
do a little m
ouse-
whizzing
housekeep
ing o
n his perso
nal Macinto
sh IIfx. If its giant
screen were an o
pen w
indow
, an agile p
erson co
uld clim
b thro
ugh it
witho
ut much tro
uble at all. T
here's a coffee-cup
at Kap
or's elb
ow
, am
emento
of his recent trip
to Eastern Euro
pe, w
hich has a black-and
-w
hite stencilled photo and the legend CA
PITA
LIST FO
OLS T
OUR. It's
Kap
or, B
arlow
, and tw
o C
aliforn
ia ventu
re-cap
italist lum
inarie
s of
their acquaintance, fo
ur wind
blo
wn, g
rinning B
aby B
oom
er dud
es inleather jackets, b
oots, d
enim, travel b
ags, stand
ing o
n airport tarm
acso
mew
here behind
the form
erly Iron C
urtain. They lo
ok as if they're
having the ab
solute tim
e of their lives.
Kap
or is in a rem
iniscent mood. W
e talk a bit ab
out his yo
uth — hig
hschool days as a "m
ath nerd," Saturdays attending Colum
biaU
niversity's high-scho
ol science ho
nors p
rogram
, where he had
hisfirst exp
erience p
rogram
min
g co
mputers. IB
M 1
62
0s, in
19
65
and
'66
. "I was very interested
," says Kap
or, "and
then I went o
ff to co
llege
and g
ot d
istracted b
y drug
s sex and ro
ck and ro
ll, like anybody w
ith halfa b
rain would
have then!" After co
llege he w
as a pro
gressive-ro
ck DJ
in Hartfo
rd, C
onnecticut, fo
r a coup
le of years.
I ask him if he ever m
isses his rock and
roll d
ays — if he ever w
ished he
could
go b
ack to rad
io w
ork.
He shakes his head flatly. "I stopped thinking about going back to be a D
Jthe day after A
ltamont."
Kapor m
oved to Boston in 1
974 and g
ot a job prog
ramm
ing m
ainframes
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E2 9 2
in CO
BO
L. He hated it. H
e quit and became a teacher of transcendental
med
itation. (It w
as Kap
or's lo
ng flirtatio
n with Eastern m
ysticism that
gave the w
orld
"Lotus.")
In 19
76
Kap
or w
ent to S
witzerland
, where the T
ranscendental
Med
itation m
ovem
ent had rented
a gig
antic Victo
rian hotel in S
t-Moritz.
It was an all-m
ale group —
a hundred and twenty of them
— determ
inedupon Enlig
htenment or B
ust. Kapor had g
iven the transcendant his best
shot. He w
as becoming disenchanted by "the nuttiness in the organiza-
tion." "They w
ere teaching people to levitate," he says, staring
at theflo
or. H
is voice dro
ps an octave, b
ecom
es flat. "*They do
n't levitate.*"
Kapor chose B
ust. He w
ent back to the States and acquired a degree inco
unselling p
sycholo
gy. H
e worked
a while in a ho
spital, co
uldn't stand
that either. "My rep
was," he says "a very b
right kid
with a lo
t of
potential w
ho hasn't fo
und him
self. Alm
ost thirty. S
ort o
f lost."
Kap
or w
as unemplo
yed w
hen he boug
ht his first perso
nal com
puter —
anA
pple II. He sold his stereo to raise cash and drove to N
ew H
ampshire to
avoid
the sales tax.
"The d
ay after I purchased
it," Kap
or tells m
e, "I was hang
ing o
ut in aco
mputer sto
re and I saw
another g
uy, a man in his fo
rties, well-
dressed guy, and eavesdropped on his conversation with the salesm
an.H
e didn't know anything
about com
puters. I'd had a year program
ming
.A
nd I co
uld p
rogram
in BA
SIC
. I'd taug
ht myself. S
o I w
ent up to
him,
and I actually sold myself to him
as a consultant." He pauses. "I don't
know
where I g
ot the nerve to
do this. It w
as uncharacteristic. I justsaid
, 'I think I can help yo
u, I've been listening
, this is what yo
u need to
do and I think I can do it for you.' And he took m
e on! He w
as my first
client! I becam
e a computer consultant the first day after I b
ought the
Apple II."
Kap
or had
found
his true vocatio
n. He attracted
more clients fo
r hisco
nsultant service, and started
an Apple users' g
roup
.
A friend
of K
apor's, Eric R
osenfeld
, a grad
uate student at M
IT, had
apro
blem
. He w
as doing
a thesis on an arcane fo
rm o
f financial statistics,
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but could not wedge him
self into the crowded queue for tim
e on MIT
'sm
ainframes. (O
ne mig
ht note at this p
oint that if M
r. Rosenfeld
had d
is-ho
nestly bro
ken into the M
IT m
ainframes, K
apor him
self mig
ht havenever invented
Lotus 1
-2-3
and the PC
business m
ight have b
een setback fo
r years!) Eric Rosenfeld
did
have an Apple II, ho
wever, and
hethoug
ht it mig
ht be possib
le to scale the problem
down. K
apor, as favor,w
rote a p
rogram
for him
in BA
SIC
that did
the job.
It then occurred to the two of them
, out of the blue, that it might be pos-
sible to
*sell* this pro
gram
. They m
arketed it them
selves, in plastic
bag
gies, for ab
out a hundred bucks a pop, m
ail order. "This w
as a totalco
ttage ind
ustry by a m
arginal co
nsultant," Kap
or says p
roud
ly. "That's
how I got started, honest to G
od."
Rosenfeld
, who
later becam
e a very pro
minent fig
ure on W
all Street,
urged Kapor to go to M
IT's business school for an M
BA
. Kapor did seven
months there, but never got his M
BA
. He picked up som
e useful tools —m
ainly a firm g
rasp o
f the princip
les of acco
unting —
and, in his o
wn
words, "learned to talk M
BA
." Then he dropped out and w
ent to SiliconV
alley.
The invento
rs of V
isiCalc, the A
pple co
mputer's p
remier b
usiness pro
-gram
, had sho
wn an interest in M
itch Kap
or. K
apor w
orked
dilig
entlyfo
r them fo
r six months, g
ot tired
of C
alifornia, and
went b
ack to B
osto
nw
here they had better bookstores. The V
isiCalc group had m
ade thecritical erro
r of b
ringing
in "pro
fessional m
anagem
ent." "That d
rove
them into
the gro
und," K
apor says.
"Yeah, you don't hear a lot about VisiC
alc these days," I muse.
Kap
or lo
oks surp
rised. "W
ell, Lotus.... w
e *boug
ht* it."
"Oh. Y
ou *b
oug
ht* it?"
"Yeah."
"Sort o
f like the Bell S
ystem b
uying W
estern Unio
n?"
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Kap
or g
rins. "Yep
! Yep
! Yeah, exactly!"
Mitch K
apor w
as not in full co
mm
and o
f the destiny o
f himself o
r hisind
ustry. The ho
ttest softw
are com
modities o
f the early 19
80
s were
*computer gam
es* — the A
tari seemed destined to enter every teenage
hom
e in Am
erica. Kap
or g
ot into
business so
ftware sim
ply b
ecause hedid
n't have any particular feeling
for co
mputer g
ames. B
ut he was
suprem
ely fast on his feet, o
pen to
new id
eas and inclined
to trust his
instincts. And his instincts w
ere good. He chose good people to deal w
ith—
gifted
pro
gram
mer Jo
nathan Sachs (the co
-author o
f Lotus 1
-2-3
).Financial w
izard Eric R
osenfeld
, canny Wall S
treet analyst and venture
capitalist Ben Rosen. K
apor was the founder and C
EO of Lotus, one of the
most sp
ectacularly successful business ventures o
f the later twentieth
century.
He is no
w an extrem
ely wealthy m
an. I ask him if he actually kno
ws
how m
uch money he has.
"Yeah," he says. "W
ithin a percent o
r two."
How
much d
oes he actually have, then?
He shakes his head. "A
lot. A lot. N
ot something I talk about. Issues of
money and class are things that cut pretty close to the bone."
I don't p
ry. It's besid
e the point. O
ne mig
ht presum
e, impolitely, that
Kapor has at least forty m
illion — that's w
hat he got the year he left
Lotus. People who ought to know
claim K
apor has about a hundred andfifty m
illion, g
ive or take a m
arket swing
in his stock ho
lding
s. If Kap
or
had stuck w
ith Lotus, as his co
lleague friend
and rival B
ill Gates has
stuck with his o
wn so
ftware start-up
, Micro
soft, then K
apor w
ould
likely have much the sam
e fortune G
ates has — so
mew
here in the neigh-
borho
od o
f three billio
n, give o
r take a few hund
red m
illion. M
itchKap
or has all the m
oney he w
ants. Money has lo
st whatever charm
itever held
for him
— p
robab
ly not m
uch in the first place. W
hen Lotus
became too uptight, too bureaucratic, too far from
the true sources ofhis o
wn satisfactio
n, Kap
or w
alked. H
e simply severed
all connectio
nsw
ith the company and w
ent out the door. It stunned everyone — except
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those w
ho knew
him b
est.
Kap
or has no
t had to
strain his resources to
wreak a tho
roug
h transfor-
matio
n in cybersp
ace politics. In its first year, EFF's b
udget w
as about
a quarter o
f a millio
n dollars. K
apor is running
EFF out o
f his pocket
change.
Kap
or takes p
ains to tell m
e that he does no
t consid
er himself a civil
libertarian p
er se. He has sp
ent quite so
me tim
e with true-b
lue civillib
ertarians lately, and there's a p
olitical-co
rrectness to them
thatbug
s him. T
hey seem to him
to spend entirely too much tim
e in legal
nitpicking
and no
t enoug
h vigoro
usly exercising civil rig
hts in theeveryd
ay real world
.
Kap
or is an
entre
pre
neur. L
ike all h
ackers, h
e p
refe
rs his in
volve
-m
ents direct, personal, and hands-on. "The fact that EFF has a node on
the Internet is a great thing
. We're a p
ublisher. W
e're a distrib
utor o
finfo
rmatio
n." Am
ong
the items the eff.o
rg Internet no
de carries is b
ackissues o
f *Phrack.* They had
an internal deb
ate about that in EFF, and
finally decid
ed to
take the plung
e. They m
ight carry o
ther dig
italund
ergro
und p
ublicatio
ns — b
ut if they do, he says, "w
e'll certainlycarry D
onn Parker, and
anything G
ail Thackeray w
ants to p
ut up. W
e'llturn it into
a pub
lic library, that has the w
hole sp
ectrum o
f use. Evolve
in the directio
n of p
eople m
aking up
their ow
n mind
s." He g
rins. "We'll
try to lab
el all the ed
itorials."
Kap
or is d
etermined
to tackle the technicalities o
f the Internet in theservice o
f the pub
lic interest. "The p
roblem
with b
eing a no
de o
n theN
et today is that you've got to have a captive technical specialist. We
have Chris D
avis around
, for the care and
feeding
of the b
alky beast! W
eco
uldn't d
o it o
urselves!"
He pauses. "So one direction in w
hich technology has to evolve is much
more stand
ardized
units, that a non- technical p
erson can feel co
mfo
rt-ab
le with. It's the sam
e shift as from
minico
mputers to
PCs. I can see a
future in which any person can have a N
ode on the Net. A
ny person canbe a p
ublisher. It's b
etter than the med
ia we no
w have. It's p
ossib
le.W
e're workin
g actively."
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Kap
or is in his elem
ent now
, fluent, thoro
ughly in co
mm
and in his
material. "Y
ou g
o tell a hard
ware Internet hacker that everyo
ne should
have a node on the Net," he says, "and the first thing they're going to say
is, 'IP doesn't scale!'" ("IP" is the interface p
roto
col fo
r the Internet.A
s it currently exists, the IP softw
are is simply no
t capab
le of ind
efi-nite exp
ansion; it w
ill run out o
f usable ad
dresses, it w
ill saturate.)"T
he answer," K
apor says, "is: evo
lve the pro
toco
l! Get the sm
art peo
-ple together and figure out w
hat to do. Do w
e add ID? D
o we add new
pro
toco
l? Don't just say, *w
e can't do it.*"
Getting
smart people tog
ether to figure out w
hat to do is a skill at which
Kap
or clearly excels. I co
unter that peo
ple o
n the Internet rather enjoy
their elite technical status, and d
on't seem
particularly anxio
us todem
ocratize the Net.
Kap
or ag
rees, with a sho
w o
f scorn. "I tell them
that this is the snob-
bery o
f the peo
ple o
n the *Mayflo
wer* lo
oking
dow
n their noses at the
people who cam
e over *on the second boat!* Just because they got herea year, o
r five years, or ten years b
efore everyb
ody else, that d
oesn't
give them
ow
nership o
f cybersp
ace! By w
hat right?"
I remark that the telcos are an electronic netw
ork, too, and they seem to
guard
their specialized
know
ledge p
retty closely.
Kap
or rip
ostes that the telco
s and the Internet are entirely d
ifferentanim
als. "The Internet is an o
pen system
, everything is p
ublished
,everything
gets arg
ued about, b
asically by anyb
ody who can g
et in.M
ostly, it's exclusive and
elitist just because it's so
difficult. Let's
make it easier to
use."
On the other hand, he allow
s with a sw
ift change o
f emphasis, the so-
called elitists d
o have a p
oint as w
ell. "Befo
re peo
ple start co
ming
in,w
ho are new, w
ho want to m
ake suggestions, and criticize the N
et as 'allscrew
ed up'.... They should at least take the tim
e to understand the cul-ture o
n its ow
n terms. It has its o
wn histo
ry — sho
w so
me resp
ect for
it. I'm a co
nservative, to that extent."
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The Internet is K
apor's p
aradig
m fo
r the future of teleco
mm
unications.
The In
ternet is d
ecentralized
, non- h
eirarchical, alm
ost an
archic.
There are no bosses, no chain of com
mand, no secret data. If each node
obeys the g
eneral interface standard
s, there's simply no
need fo
r anycentral netw
ork autho
rity.
Wouldn't that spell the doom
of AT&
T as an institution? I ask.
That prospect doesn't faze K
apor for a mom
ent. "Their big advantage,
that they have now
, is that they have all of the w
iring. B
ut two thing
sare hap
pening
. Anyo
ne with rig
ht-of-w
ay is putting
dow
n fiber —
Southern Pacific R
ailroad
, peo
ple like that —
there's enorm
ous 'd
arkfib
er' laid
in." ("D
ark Fiber" is fib
er-o
ptic cab
le, w
hose
enorm
ous
capacity so exceeds the demands of current usage that m
uch of the fiberstill h
as no lig
ht-sig
nals o
n it —
it's still 'dark,' aw
aiting fu
ture u
se.)
"The other thing
that's happening is the local-loop stuff is g
oing to g
ow
ireless. Everyone fro
m B
ellcore to
the cable T
V co
mpanies to
AT&
Tw
ants to put in these things called 'personal com
munication system
s.'So yo
u could
have local co
mpetitio
n — yo
u could
have multip
licity of
people, a bunch of neighborhoods, sticking stuff up on poles. And a
bunch o
f other p
eople laying
in dark fib
er. So w
hat happens to
the tele-phone com
panies? There's enorm
ous pressure on them from
both sides.
"The m
ore I lo
ok at this, the m
ore I b
elieve that in a post-ind
ustrial,dig
ital world
, the idea o
f regulated
mono
polies is b
ad. Peo
ple w
ill look
back on it and say that in the 1
9th and 2
0th centuries the idea of pub
licutilities w
as an okay comprom
ise. You needed one set of w
ires in theground. It w
as too economically inefficient, otherw
ise. And that m
eantone entity running
it. But no
w, w
ith pieces b
eing w
ireless — the co
n-nectio
ns are going
to b
e via high- level interfaces, no
t via wires. I
mean, *ultim
ately* there are going
to b
e wires —
but the w
ires are justa co
mm
odity. Fib
er, wireless. Y
ou no
long
er *need* a utility."
Wate
r utilitie
s? G
as utilitie
s?
Of course w
e still need those, he agrees. "But w
hen what you're m
ovingis info
rmatio
n, instead o
f physical sub
stances, then you can p
lay by a
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different set o
f rules. We're evo
lving tho
se rules now
! Hopefully yo
ucan have a m
uch more decentralized system
, and one in which there's
more co
mpetitio
n in the marketp
lace.
"The role of governm
ent will be to m
ake sure that nobody cheats. The
pro
verbial 'level p
laying field
.' A p
olicy that p
revents mono
polizatio
n.It sho
uld result in b
etter service, low
er prices, m
ore cho
ices, and lo
calem
pow
erment." H
e smiles. "I'm
very big
on lo
cal empow
erment."
Kap
or is a m
an with a visio
n. It's a very novel visio
n which he and
hisallies are w
orking
out in co
nsiderab
le detail and
with g
reat energy.
Dark, cynical, m
orb
id cyb
erpunk that I am
, I cannot avo
id co
nsidering
som
e of the d
arker implicatio
ns of "d
ecentralized, no
nhierarchical,lo
cally empow
ered" netw
orking
.
I remark that som
e pundits have suggested that electronic netw
orking —
faxes, pho
nes, small-scale p
hoto
copiers —
played
a strong
role in d
is-solving
the power of centralized com
munism
and causing the collapse of
the Warsaw
Pact.
Socialism
is totally d
iscredited
, says Kap
or, fresh b
ack from
theEastern B
loc. T
he idea that faxes d
id it, all b
y themselves, is rather
wish
ful th
inkin
g.
Has it o
ccurred to
him that electro
nic networking
mig
ht corro
de
Am
erica's industrial and
political infrastructure to
the point w
here thew
hole thing
beco
mes untenab
le, unworkab
le — and
the old
ord
er justco
llapses head
long
, like in Eastern Europe?
"No," K
apor says flatly. "I th
ink th
at's extraord
inarily u
nlikely. In
part, b
ecause ten or fifteen years ag
o, I had
similar ho
pes ab
out p
erson-
al com
puters —
which utterly failed
to m
aterialize." He g
rins wryly,
then his eyes narrow
. "I'm *very* o
pposed
to techno
-utopias. Every
time I see o
ne, I eith
er run aw
ay, or try to
kill it."
It daw
ns on m
e then that Mitch K
apor is no
t trying to
make the w
orld
safe for d
emocracy. H
e certainly is not trying
to m
ake it safe for anar-
chists or uto
pians —
least of all fo
r com
puter intrud
ers or electro
nic
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rip-o
ff artists. What he really ho
pes to
do is m
ake the world
safe for
future Mitch K
apors. T
his world
of d
ecentralized, sm
all- scale nodes,
with instant g
lobal access for the b
est and brig
htest, would b
e a perfectm
ilieu for the sho
estring attic cap
italism that m
ade M
itch Kap
or w
hathe is to
day.
Kap
or is a very b
right m
an. He has a rare co
mbinatio
n of visio
naryintensity w
ith a strong
practical streak. T
he Board
of the EFF: Jo
hnBarlo
w, Jerry B
erman o
f the ACLU
, Stew
art Brand
, John G
ilmore, S
teveW
ozniak, and
Esther Dyso
n, the doyenne o
f East-West co
mputer entre-
pren
eurism
— sh
are his g
ift, his visio
n, an
d h
is form
idab
le netw
orkin
gtalents. T
hey are peo
ple o
f the 19
60
s, winno
wed
-out b
y its turbu-
lence and rewarded w
ith wealth and influence. T
hey are some of the
best and the brightest that the electronic comm
unity has to offer. But
can they do it, in the real w
orld
? Or are they o
nly dream
ing? T
hey areso few
. And there is so m
uch against them.
I leave Kap
or and
his networking
emplo
yees struggling
cheerfully with
the pro
mising
intricacies of their new
ly installed M
acintosh S
ystem 7
software. T
he next day is Saturday. EFF is closed. I pay a few visits to
points o
f interest dow
ntow
n.
One of them
is the birthplace of the telephone.
It's marked
by a b
ronze p
laque in a p
linth of b
lack- and-w
hite speckled
granite. It sits in the p
laza of the Jo
hn F. Kenned
y Federal B
uilding
, thevery p
lace where K
apor w
as once fing
erprinted
by the FB
I.
The p
laque has a b
as-relief picture o
f Bell's o
riginal telep
hone.
"BIR
TH
PLACE O
F TH
E TELEPH
ON
E," it reads. "H
ere, on June 2
, 18
75
,A
lexander G
raham B
ell and T
hom
as A. W
atson first transm
itted so
undover w
ires.
"This successful exp
eriment w
as com
pleted
in a fifth floor g
arret atw
hat was then 1
09
Court S
treet and m
arked the b
eginning
of w
orld
-w
ide telep
hone service."
10
9 C
ourt S
treet is long
gone. W
ithin sight o
f Bell's p
laque, acro
ss a
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street, is one o
f the central offices o
f NYN
EX, the lo
cal Bell R
BO
C, o
n 6Bow
doin S
quare.
I cross the street and
circle the telco b
uilding
, slow
ly, hands in m
yjacket p
ockets. It's a b
right, w
indy, N
ew Eng
land autum
n day. T
he cen-tral o
ffice is a handso
me 1
94
0s-era m
egalith in late A
rt Deco
, eight
stories hig
h.
Parked o
utside the b
ack is a pow
er-generatio
n truck. The g
enerator
strikes me as rather ano
malo
us. Don't they alread
y have their ow
n gen-
erators in this eig
ht-story m
onster? T
hen the suspicio
n strikes me
that NYN
EX must have heard of the Septem
ber 17 A
T&
T pow
er-outagew
hich crashed N
ew Y
ork C
ity. Belt-and
-suspend
ers, this generato
r.V
ery telco.
Over the glass doors of the front entrance is a handsom
e bronze bas-relief o
f Art D
eco vines, sunflo
wers, and
bird
s, entwining
the Bell lo
go
and the legend NEW
ENGLA
ND
TELEPH
ON
E AN
D T
ELEGRA
PH C
OM
PAN
Y —an entity w
hich no lo
nger o
fficially exists.
The doors are locked securely. I peer throug
h the shadowed g
lass. Insideis an o
fficial poster read
ing:
"New
England Telephone a N
YNEX C
ompany
ATTEN
TIO
N
"All p
ersons w
hile on N
ew Eng
land T
elepho
ne Com
pany p
remises are
required
to visib
ly wear their id
entification card
s (C.C
.P. Sectio
n 2,
Page 1
).
"Visito
rs, vendors, co
ntractors, and
all others are req
uired to
visibly
wear a d
aily pass. "T
hank you. K
evin C. S
tanton. B
uilding
Security
Coord
inator."
Outsid
e, around
the corner, is a p
ull-dow
n ribbed
metal security d
oor, a
locked
delivery entrance. S
om
e passing
stranger has g
rafitti-tagged
this d
oor, w
ith a sin
gle w
ord
in red
spray-p
ainted
cursive:
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
3 0 1
*F
ury
*_
__
__
My b
ook o
n the Hacker C
rackdow
n is almost o
ver now
. I have delib
er-ately saved the best for last.
In February 1
99
1, I attend
ed the C
PSR Pub
lic Policy R
ound
table, in
Washing
ton, D
C. C
PSR, C
om
puter Pro
fessionals fo
r Social
Resp
onsib
ility, was a sister o
rganizatio
n of EFF, o
r perhap
s its aunt,being
old
er and p
erhaps so
mew
hat wiser in the w
ays of the w
orld
of p
ol-
itics.
Com
puter Pro
fessionals fo
r Social R
esponsib
ility beg
an in 19
81
inPalo
Alto
, as an inform
al discussio
n gro
up o
f Califo
rnian com
puter sci-
entists and technicians, united
by no
thing m
ore than an electro
nic mail-
ing list. T
his typical hig
h-tech ad-ho
cracy received the d
ignity o
f itsow
n acronym
in 19
82
, and w
as form
ally incorp
orated
in 19
83
.
CPS
R lo
bbied
governm
ent and p
ublic alike w
ith an educatio
nal outreach
effort, sternly w
arning ag
ainst any foolish and
unthinking trust in co
m-
plex co
mputer system
s. CPS
R insisted
that mere co
mputers sho
uldnever b
e consid
ered a m
agic p
anacea for hum
anity's social, ethical o
rpolitical p
roblem
s. CPS
R m
embers w
ere especially tro
ubled
about the
stability, safety, and
dep
endab
ility of m
ilitary com
puter system
s, andvery esp
ecially troub
led b
y those system
s contro
lling nuclear arsenals.
CPS
R w
as best-kno
wn fo
r its persistent and
well- p
ublicized
attacks on
the scientific credib
ility of the S
trategic D
efense Initiative ("Star
Wars").
In 1
99
0, C
PSR w
as the n
ation's veteran
cyber-p
olitical activist g
roup,
with o
ver two tho
usand m
embers in tw
enty- one lo
cal chapters acro
ssthe U
S. It w
as especially active in B
osto
n, Silico
n Valley, and
Washing
ton D
C, w
here its Washing
ton o
ffice sponso
red the Pub
lic Policy
Round
table.
The Roundtable, how
ever, had been funded by EFF, which had passed
CPS
R an extensive g
rant for o
peratio
ns. This w
as the first large-scale,
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E3 0 2
official m
eeting o
f what w
as to b
ecom
e the electronic civil lib
ertarianco
mm
unity.
Sixty people attended, myself included —
in this instance, not so much as
a journalist as a cyb
erpunk autho
r. Many o
f the luminaries o
f the fieldto
ok p
art: Kap
or and
Godw
in as a matter o
f course. R
ichard C
iville andM
arc Rotenb
erg o
f CPS
R. Jerry B
erman o
f the ACLU
. John Q
uarterman,
author o
f *The M
atrix.* Steven Levy, autho
r of *H
ackers.* Geo
rge
Perry and S
andy W
eiss of Pro
dig
y Services, there to
network ab
out the
civil-libertie
s trouble
s their y
oung co
mm
ercial n
etw
ork w
as exp
eri-
encing. D
r. Doro
thy Denning
. Cliff Fig
allo, m
anager o
f the Well. S
teveJackso
n was there, having
finally found
his ideal targ
et audience, and
sow
as Craig
Neid
orf, "K
night Lig
htning" him
self, with his atto
rney,Sheld
on Zenner. K
atie Hafner, science jo
urnalist, and co
- author o
f*C
yberp
unk: Outlaw
s and H
ackers on the C
om
puter Fro
ntier.* Dave
Farber, A
RPA
net pio
neer and fab
led Internet g
uru. Janlori G
old
man o
fthe A
CLU
's Project on Privacy and Technology. John N
agle of Autodesk
and the Well. D
on Goldberg of the H
ouse Judiciary Com
mittee. T
omGuidoboni, the defense attorney in the Internet W
orm case. Lance
Hoffm
an, com
puter-science p
rofesso
r at The G
eorg
e Washing
ton
University. Eli N
oam
of C
olum
bia. A
nd a ho
st of o
thers no less d
istin-guished
.
Senato
r Patrick Leahy delivered
the keynote ad
dress, exp
ressing his
determination to keep ahead of the curve on the issue of electronic free
speech. The address w
as well-received, and the sense of excitem
ent was
palp
able. Every p
anel discussio
n was interesting
— so
me w
ere entirelyco
mpelling
. People netw
orked
with an alm
ost frantic interest.
I myself had
a most interesting
and co
rdial lunch d
iscussion w
ith Noel
and Jeanne G
ayler, Adm
iral Gayler b
eing a fo
rmer d
irector o
f theN
ational Security Agency. A
s this was the first know
n encounter betw
eenan actual no
-kidding
cyberp
unk and a chief executive o
f Am
erica'slarg
est and b
est-financed electro
nic espio
nage ap
parat, there w
as natu-rally a b
it of eyeb
row
-raising o
n both sid
es.
Unfo
rtunately, our d
iscussion w
as off-the-reco
rd. In fact all the d
is-cussio
ns at the CPS
R w
ere officially o
ff- the- record
, the idea b
eing to
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E3 0 3
do so
me serio
us networking
in an atmosp
here of co
mplete frankness,
rather than to stag
e a med
ia circus.
In any case, CPS
R R
ound
table, tho
ugh interesting
and intensely valu-
able, w
as as nothing
com
pared
to the truly m
ind-b
oggling
event thattransp
ired a m
ere month later.
__
__
_
"Com
puters, Freed
om
and Privacy." Fo
ur hundred
peo
ple fro
m every
conceivab
le corner o
f Am
erica's electronic co
mm
unity. As a science
fiction w
riter, I have been to
som
e weird
gig
s in my d
ay, but this thing
is truly *beyo
nd the p
ale.* Even "Cyb
erthon," Po
int Found
ation's
"Woodstock of C
yberspace" where B
ay Area psychedelia collided headlong
with the em
ergent w
orld
of co
mputerized
virtual reality, was like a
Kiw
anis Club
gig
com
pared
to this asto
nishing d
o.
The "electro
nic com
munity" had
reached an ap
ogee. A
lmost every p
rin-cip
al in this book is in attend
ance. Civil Lib
ertarians. Com
puter C
ops.
The D
igital Underground. Even a few
discreet telco people. Colorcoded
dots fo
r lapel tag
s are distrib
uted. Free Exp
ression issues. Law
Enforcem
ent. Com
puter S
ecurity. Privacy. Journalists. Law
yers.Ed
ucato
rs. Lib
rarians. P
rogram
mers. S
tylish p
unk-b
lack dots fo
r the
hackers and phone phreaks. Alm
ost everyone here seems to w
ear eightor nine d
ots, to
have six or seven p
rofessio
nal hats.
It is a com
munity. S
om
ething like Leb
anon p
erhaps, b
ut a dig
ital nation.
People w
ho had
feuded
all year in the national p
ress, peo
ple w
ho enter-
tained the deepest suspicions of one another's motives and ethics, are
now
in each others' lap
s. "Com
puters, Freed
om
and Privacy" had
everyreaso
n in the world
to turn ug
ly, and yet excep
t for sm
all irruptio
ns of
puzzling
nonsense fro
m the co
nvention's to
ken lunatic, a surprising
bonho
mie reig
ned. C
FP was like a w
edding
-party in w
hich two lo
vers,unstab
le brid
e and charlatan g
room
, tie the knot in a clearly d
isastrous
matrim
ony.
It is clear to both families —
even to neighbors and random guests —
thatthis is no
t a workab
le relationship
, and yet the yo
ung co
uple's d
esperate
attraction can b
rook no
further delay. T
hey simply canno
t help them
-
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E3 0 4
selve
s. Cro
ckery w
ill fly, shrie
ks from
their n
ew
lywed h
om
e w
ill wake
the city blo
ck, divo
rce waits in the w
ings like a vulture o
ver theKalahari, and
yet this is a wed
ding
, and there is g
oing
to b
e a child fro
mit. T
raged
ies end in d
eath; com
edies in m
arriage. T
he Hacker C
rackdow
nis end
ing in m
arriage. A
nd there w
ill be a child
.
From
the beg
inning, ano
malies reig
n. John Perry B
arlow
, cybersp
acerang
er, is here. His co
lor p
hoto
in *The N
ew Y
ork T
imes M
agazine,*
Barlo
w sco
wling
in a grim
Wyo
ming
snow
scape, w
ith long
black co
at,dark hat, a M
acintosh SE30 propped on a fencepost and an aw
esome
frontier rifle tu
cked u
nder o
ne arm
, will b
e the sin
gle m
ost strikin
gvisual im
age of the Hacker C
rackdown. A
nd he is CFP's guest of honor —
along w
ith Gail T
hackeray of the FCIC
! What on earth do they expect
these dual guests to do with each other? W
altz?
Barlo
w d
elivers the first address. U
ncharacteristically, he is hoarse —
the sheer volum
e of ro
adw
ork has w
orn him
dow
n. He sp
eaks briefly,
cong
enially, in a plea fo
r conciliatio
n, and takes his leave to
a storm
of
applause.
Then G
ail Thackeray takes the stag
e. She's visibly nervous. She's b
eenon the W
ell a lot lately. R
eading
those B
arlow
posts. Fo
llow
ing B
arlow
is a challenge to
anyone. In ho
nor o
f the famous lyricist fo
r the Grateful
Dead, she announces reedily, she is going to read —
*a poem.* A
poemshe has com
posed herself.
It's an awful p
oem
, doggerel in the ro
llicking m
eter of R
obert W
.Service's *T
he Crem
ation o
f Sam
McG
ee,* but it is in fact, a p
oem
. It'sthe *B
allad o
f the Electronic Fro
ntier!* A p
oem
about the H
ackerCrackd
ow
n and the sheer unlikeliho
od o
f CFP. It's full o
f in-jokes. T
hescore or so cops in the audience, w
ho are sitting tog
ether in a nervousclaq
ue, are abso
lutely cracking-up
. Gail's p
oem
is the funniest goddam
nthing
they've ever heard. T
he hackers and civil-lib
s, who
had this
wom
an figured
for Ilsa S
he-Wolf o
f the SS, are staring
with their jaw
shang
ing lo
osely. N
ever in the wild
est reaches of their im
aginatio
n hadthey fig
ured G
ail Thackeray w
as capab
le of such a to
tally off-the-w
allm
ove. Y
ou can see them
punching
their mental C
ON
TRO
L-RES
ET b
ut-to
ns. Jesus! This w
om
an's a hacker weird
o! S
he's *just like us!*
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E
HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
3 0 5
God, this chang
es everything!
Al B
ayse, computer technician for the FB
I, had been the only cop at the
CPS
R R
ound
table, d
ragged
there with his arm
bent b
y Doro
thy Denning
.H
e was g
uarded and tightlipped at C
PSR Roundtable; a "lion throw
n to theC
hristian
s."
At C
FP, backed by a claque of cops, Bayse suddenly w
axes eloquent andeven d
roll, d
escribing
the FBI's "N
CIC
20
00
", a gig
antic dig
ital catalog
of crim
inal record
s, as if he has suddenly b
ecom
e som
e weird
hybrid
of
Georg
e Orw
ell and Georg
e Gob
el. Tentatively, he m
akes an arcane jokeab
out statistical analysis. At least a third of the crow
d laughs aloud.
"They didn't laugh at that at m
y last speech," Bayse observes. H
e hadbeen addressing cops —
*straight* cops, not computer people. It had
been a w
orthy m
eeting, useful o
ne supposes, b
ut nothing
like *this.*There has never b
een *anything* like this. W
ithout any p
rodding
,w
ithout any p
reparatio
n, peo
ple in the aud
ience simply b
egin to
askquestio
ns. Long
hairs, freaky peo
ple, m
athematicians. B
ayse is answer-
ing, p
olite
ly, fran
kly, fu
lly, like
a man
walkin
g o
n air. T
he b
allroom
'satm
osp
here crackles with surreality. A
female law
yer behind
me
breaks into
a sweat and
a hot w
aft of surp
risingly p
otent and
musky
perfum
e flow
s off her p
ulse-points.
People are g
iddy w
ith laughter. Peo
ple are interested
, fascinated, their
eyes so w
ide and
dark that they seem
eroticized
. Unlikely d
aisy-chainsfo
rm in the halls, aro
und the b
ar, on the escalato
rs: cops w
ith hackers,civil rig
hts w
ith FB
I, Secret S
ervice with
phone p
hreaks.
Gail T
hackeray is at her crispest in a w
hite wool sw
eater with a tiny
Secret S
ervice logo. "I fo
und Phib
er Optik at the p
aypho
nes, and w
henhe saw
my sw
eater, he turned into
a *pillar o
f salt!*" she chortles.
Phiber d
iscusses his case at much leng
th with his arresting
officer, D
on
Delaney of the N
ew York State Police. A
fter an hour's chat, the two of
them lo
ok read
y to b
egin sing
ing "A
uld Lang
Syne." Phib
er finally finds
the courage to get his worst com
plaint off his chest. It isn't so much the
arrest. It was the *charg
e.* Pirating service o
ff 90
0 num
bers. I'm
a
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E3 0 6
*pro
gram
mer,* P
hib
er insists. T
his lam
e charg
e is goin
g to
hurt m
yreputation. It w
ould have been cool to be busted for something happen-
ing, like S
ection 1
03
0 co
mputer intrusio
n. Mayb
e som
e kind o
f crime
that's scarcely been invented yet. Not lousy phone fraud. Phooey.
Delaney seem
s regretful. H
e had a m
ountain o
f possib
le criminal
charges ag
ainst Phiber O
ptik. T
he kid's g
onna p
lead g
uilty anyway. H
e'sa first tim
er, they always p
lead. C
ould
a charged
the kid w
ith most any-
thing, and gotten the same result in the end. D
elaney seems genuinely
sorry no
t to have g
ratified Phib
er in this harmless fashio
n. Too late
now
. Phiber's p
led alread
y. All w
ater under the b
ridge. W
haddya g
onna
do?
Delaney's got a good grasp on the hacker m
entality. He held a press con-
ference after he busted a bunch of Masters of D
eception kids. Some
journo
had asked
him: "W
ould
you d
escribe these p
eople as *g
enius-es?*" D
elaney's dead
pan answ
er, perfect: "N
o, I w
ould
describ
e thesepeople as *defendants.*" D
elaney busts a kid for hacking
codes with
repeated
random
dialling
. Tells the p
ress that NYN
EX can track this
stuff in no time flat now
adays, and a kid has to be *stupid* to do som
e-thing so easy to catch. D
ead on again: hackers don't mind being thought
of as G
enghis K
han by the straig
hts, but if there's anything
that reallygets 'em
where they live, it's b
eing called
*dum
b.*
Won't be as m
uch fun for Phiber next time around. A
s a second offenderhe's g
onna see prison. Hackers b
reak the law. T
hey're not geniuses,
either. They're gonna be defendants. A
nd yet, Delaney m
uses over adrink in the ho
tel bar, he has fo
und it im
possib
le to treat them
as com
-m
on crim
inals. Delaney kno
ws crim
inals. These kid
s, by co
mpariso
n,are clueless —
there is just no cro
ok vib
e off o
f them, they d
on't sm
ellrig
ht, th
ey're just n
ot *b
ad.*
Delaney has seen a lot of action. H
e did Vietnam
. He's been shot at, he has
shot people. He's a hom
icide cop from N
ew York. H
e has the appearanceof a m
an who has not only seen the shit hit the fan but has seen it splat-
tered acro
ss who
le city blo
cks and left to
ferment fo
r years. This g
uyhas b
een around
.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
G —
TH
E H
AC
KE
R C
RA
CK
DO
WN
N
OT
FO
R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E3 0 7
He listens to Steve Jackson tell his story. T
he dreamy g
ame strateg
isthas b
een dealt a bad hand. H
e has played it for all he is w
orth. U
nder hisnerd
ish SF-fan exterio
r is a core o
f iron. Friend
s of his say S
teveJackso
n b
elieves in th
e rules, b
elieves in fair p
lay. He w
ill never co
m-
pro
mise his p
rinciples, never g
ive up. "S
teve," Delaney says to
Steve
Jackson, "they had
som
e balls, w
hoever b
usted yo
u. You're all rig
ht!"Jackso
n, stunned, falls silent and
actually blushes w
ith pleasure.
Neid
orf has g
row
n up a lo
t in the past year. T
he kid is a q
uick study, yo
ugotta give him
that. Dressed by his m
om, the fashion m
anager for anatio
nal clo
thin
g ch
ain, M
issouri co
llege tech
ie-frat Craig
Neid
orf o
ut-
dappers everyone at this gig
but the toniest East C
oast lawyers. T
he ironjaw
s of p
rison clang
ed shut w
ithout him
and no
w law
school b
eckons fo
rN
eidorf. H
e looks like a larval C
ong
ressman.
Not a "hacker," o
ur Mr. N
eidorf. H
e's not interested
in com
puter sci-
ence. Why should he b
e? He's not interested in w
riting C
code the restof his life, and
besid
es, he's seen where the chip
s fall. To the w
orld
of
com
puter science he and
*Phrack* were just a curio
sity. But to
thew
orld
of law
.... The kid
has learned w
here the bodies are b
uried. H
ecarries his no
tebook o
f press clip
ping
s wherever he g
oes.
Phiber O
ptik m
akes fun of N
eidorf fo
r a Mid
western g
eek, for b
elievingthat "A
cid Phreak" does acid and listens to acid rock. Hell no. A
cid'snever d
one *acid
!* Acid
's into *acid
house m
usic.* Jesus. The very
idea o
f doing
LSD
. Our *p
arents* did
LSD
, ya clow
n.
Thackeray sud
denly turns up
on C
raig N
eidorf the full lig
hthouse g
lare of
her attention and
beg
ins a determ
ined half-ho
ur attempt to
*win the b
oy
over.* T
he Joan o
f Arc o
f Com
puter C
rime is *g
iving career ad
vice toK
night Lig
htning!* "Y
our exp
erience would
be very valuab
le — a real
asset," she tells h
im w
ith u
nm
istakeable sixty-th
ousan
d-w
att sinceri-
ty. Neid
orf is fascinated
. He listens w
ith unfeigned
attention. H
e's nod-
ding and saying yes ma'am
. Yes, Craig, you too can forget all about
money and
enter the glam
oro
us and ho
rribly und
erpaid
world
of PR
OSE-
CU
TIN
G C
OM
PU
TER
CRIM
E! You can
put yo
ur fo
rmer frien
ds in
priso
n—
ooops....
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
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R C
OM
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IAL
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You cannot go on dueling at modem
's length indefinitely. You cannot beatone an
oth
er senseless w
ith ro
lled-u
p p
ress-clippin
gs. S
ooner o
r lateryou have to com
e directly to grips. And yet the very act of assem
blinghere has chang
ed the entire situatio
n drastically. Jo
hn Quarterm
an,autho
r of *T
he Matrix,* exp
lains the Internet at his symposium
. It isthe larg
est news netw
ork in the w
orld
, it is gro
wing
by leap
s andbounds, and yet you cannot m
easure Internet because you cannot stop itin place. It cannot stop, b
ecause there is no one anywhere in the w
orldw
ith the authority to
stop Internet. It chang
es, yes, it gro
ws, it em
bed
sitself acro
ss the post-ind
ustrial, postm
odern w
orld
and it g
eneratesco
mm
unity wherever it to
uches, and it is d
oing
this all by itself.
Phib
er is differen
t. A very fin
de siecle kid
, Phib
er Optik. B
arlow
sayshe looks like an Edw
ardian dandy. He does rather. Shaven neck, the
sides o
f his skull cropped
hip-ho
p clo
se, unruly tangle o
f black hair o
nto
p that lo
oks p
om
aded
, he stays up till fo
ur a.m. and
misses all the ses-
sions, then hangs out in payphone b
ooths with his acoustic coupler
gutsily C
RA
CKIN
G S
YSTEM
S R
IGH
T IN
TH
E MID
ST O
F TH
E HEA
VIES
T LA
WEN
FORCEM
ENT D
UD
ES IN
TH
E U.S
., or at least *p
retending
* to....
Unlike "Frank D
rake." Drake, w
ho w
rote D
oro
thy Denning
out o
fno
where, and
asked fo
r an interview fo
r his cheapo cyb
erpunk fanzine,
and then started
grilling
her on her ethics. S
he was sq
uirmin', to
o....
Drake, scarecro
w-tall w
ith h
is floppy b
lond m
ohaw
k, rottin
g ten
nis
shoes and
black leather jacket lettered
ILLUM
INA
TI in red
, gives o
ff anunm
istakeable air o
f the bohem
ian literatus. Drake is the kind
of g
uyw
ho read
s British ind
ustrial desig
n mag
azines and ap
preciates W
illiamGibson because the quality of the prose is so tasty. D
rake could nevertouch a phone or a keyb
oard again, and he'd still have the nose- ring
andthe b
lurry pho
toco
pied
fanzines and the sam
pled
industrial m
usic. He's
a radical p
unk with a d
esktop- p
ublishing
rig and
an Internet address.
Stand
ing next to
Drake, the d
iminutive Phib
er looks like he's b
eenphysically co
agulated
out o
f pho
ne-lines. Born to
phreak.
Doro
thy Denning
appro
aches Phiber sud
denly. T
he two o
f them are
about the sam
e height and b
ody-build. D
enning's b
lue eyes flash behind
the round
wind
ow
- frames o
f her glasses. "W
hy did
you say I w
as'q
uaint?'" she asks Phiber, q
uaintly.
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UC
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HA
CK
ER
CR
AC
KD
OW
N
NO
T F
OR
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L U
SE
3 0 9
It's a perfect d
escriptio
n but Phib
er is nonp
lussed... "W
ell, I uh, you
know
...."
"I also think yo
u're quaint, D
oro
thy," I say, novelist to
the rescue, thejourno gift of gab... She is neat and dapper and yet there's an arcanequality to
her, som
ething like a Pilg
rim M
aiden b
ehind lead
ed g
lass; ifshe w
ere six inches high D
oro
thy Denning
would
look g
reat inside a
china cabinet... T
he Cryp
tograp
heress.... The C
rypto
grap
hrix... what-
ever... Weird
ly, Peter D
ennin
g lo
oks ju
st like his w
ife, you co
uld
pick
this gentleman out of a thousand guys as the soulm
ate of Dorothy
Denning
. Wearing
tailored
slacks, a spotless fuzzy varsity sw
eater, anda neatly kno
tted acad
emician's tie.... T
his fineboned
, exquisitely p
olite,
utterly civilized and
hyperintellig
ent coup
le seem to
have emerg
ed fro
mso
me cleaner and
finer parallel universe, w
here humanity exists to
do
the Brain T
easers colum
n in Scientific A
merican. W
hy does this N
iceLad
y hang o
ut with these unsavo
ry characters?
Because the tim
e has come for it, that's w
hy. Because she's the best
there is at what she does.
Donn Parker is here, the G
reat Bald
Eagle o
f Com
puter C
rime.... W
ithhis b
ald d
om
e, great heig
ht, and eno
rmous Linco
ln-like hands, the g
reatvisio
nary pio
neer of the field
plo
ws thro
ugh the lesser m
ortals like an
icebreaker.... H
is eyes are fixed o
n the future with the rig
idity o
f abro
nze statue.... Eventually, he tells his audience, all b
usiness crime
will b
e com
puter crim
e, because b
usinesses will d
o everything
throug
hco
mputers. "C
om
puter crim
e" as a category w
ill vanish.
In the meantim
e, passing
fads w
ill flourish and
fail and evap
orate....
Parker's co
mm
andin
g, reso
nan
t voice is sp
hin
xlike, everythin
g is
viewed
from
som
e eldritch valley o
f deep
historical ab
straction... Y
es,they've com
e and they've gone, these passing flaps in the world of digital
com
putatio
n.... The rad
io-freq
uency emanatio
n scandal... K
GB and
MI5
and CIA
do it every day, it's easy, but nob
ody else ever has.... The sala-
mi-slice frau
d, m
ostly m
ythical... "C
rimoid
s," he calls th
em....
Com
puter viruses are the current crim
oid
champ, a lo
t less dang
erous
than most people let on, b
ut the novelty is fading and there's a crim
oidvacuum
at the mom
ent, the press is visib
ly hungering
for so
mething
BR
UC
E S
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R C
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IAL
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more outrag
eous.... The G
reat Man shares w
ith us a few speculations on
the com
ing crim
oid
s.... Deskto
p Fo
rgery! W
ow
.... Com
puters sto
lenjust fo
r the sake of the info
rmatio
n within them
— d
ata- napping
!H
appened
in Britain a w
hile ago, co
uld b
e the com
ing thing
.... Phantom
nodes in the Internet!
Parker handles his o
verhead p
rojecto
r sheets with an ecclesiastical
air... He w
ears a grey d
oub
le-breasted
suit, a light b
lue shirt, and a
very quiet tie o
f understated
maro
on and
blue p
aisley... Apho
risms
emerg
e from
him w
ith slow
, leaden em
phasis... T
here is no such thing
as an adequately secure computer w
hen one faces a sufficiently powerful
adversary.... D
eterrence is the most so
cially useful aspect o
f security...Peo
ple are the p
rimary w
eakness in all inform
ation system
s... The
entire baseline o
f com
puter security m
ust be shifted
upw
ard.... D
on't
ever violate yo
ur secu
rity by p
ublicly d
escribin
g yo
ur secu
rity mea-
sures...
People in the aud
ience are beg
inning to
squirm
, and yet there is so
me-
thing ab
out the elem
ental purity o
f this guy's p
hiloso
phy that co
mpels
uneasy respect.... Parker so
unds like the o
nly sane guy left in the
lifeboat, so
metim
es. The g
uy who
can pro
ve rigoro
usly, from
deep
moral p
rinciples, that H
arvey there, the one w
ith the bro
ken leg and
thecheckered
past, is the o
ne who
has to b
e, err.... that is, Mr. H
arvey isbest placed to m
ake the necessary sacrifice for the security and indeedthe very survival o
f the rest of this lifeb
oat's crew
.... Com
puter secu-
rity, Parker in
form
s us m
ourn
fully, is a n
asty topic, an
d w
e wish
we
didn't have to have it... The security expert, arm
ed with m
ethod andlo
gic, m
ust think — im
agine —
everything that the ad
versary mig
ht do
befo
re the adversary m
ight actually d
o it. It is as if the crim
inal's dark
brain w
ere an extensive subpro
gram
within the shining
cranium o
fD
onn Parker. H
e is a Holm
es who
se Moriarty d
oes no
t quite yet exist
and so
must b
e perfectly sim
ulated.
CFP is a stellar g
athering, w
ith the gid
diness o
f a wed
ding
. It is a happy
time, a hap
py end
ing, they kno
w their w
orld
is changing
forever
tonight, and they're proud to have been there to see it happen, to talk, tothink, to
help.
BR
UC
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CK
DO
WN
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OT
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R C
OM
ME
RC
IAL
US
E3 1 1
And
yet as night falls, a certain eleg
iac quality m
anifests itself, as thecro
wd g
athers beneath the chand
eliers with their w
ineglasses and
dessert plates. Something
is ending here, g
one forever, and it takes aw
hile to p
inpoint it.
It is the End o
f the Am
ateurs.
BR
UC
E S
TE
RL
IN
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AC
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RA
CK
DO
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FO
R C
OM
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IAL
US
E3 1 2
AF
TE
RW
OR
D
The H
acker C
rackdow
n
Thre
e Y
ears
Late
r
Three years in cyb
erspace is like thirty years anyp
lace real. It feels asif a g
eneration has p
assed since I w
rote this b
ook. In term
s of the g
en-eratio
ns of co
mputing
machinery invo
lved, that's p
retty much the case.
The b
asic shape of cyberspace has chang
ed drastically since 1990. A
new U
.S. A
dm
inistration is in p
ow
er who
se perso
nnel are, if anything,
only too aware of the nature and potential of electronic netw
orks. It'snow
clear to all players concerned that the status quo is dead-and-gone
in Am
erican med
ia and teleco
mm
unications, and
almost any territo
ry on
the electro
nic fro
ntier is u
p fo
r grab
s. Interactive m
ultim
edia, cab
le-phone allian
ces, th
e In
form
ation S
uperh
ighw
ay, fiber- to
-the-cu
rb,
lapto
ps and
palm
tops, the exp
losive g
row
th of cellular and
the Internet—
the earth trembles visib
ly.
The year 1
99
0 w
as not a p
leasant one fo
r AT&
T. B
y 19
93
, how
ever,A
T&
T had successfully devoured the com
puter company N
CR in an
unfrien
dly takeo
ver, finally g
iving th
e pole-clim
bers a m
ajor p
iece of
the dig
ital action. A
T&
T m
anaged
to rid
itself of o
wnership
of the tro
u-bleso
me U
NIX
operating
system, selling
it to N
ovell, a netw
are com
pany,
which w
as itself prep
aring fo
r a savage m
arket dust-up
with o
perating
-system
titan Micro
soft. Furtherm
ore, A
T&
T acq
uired M
cCaw
Cellular in
a gig
antic merg
er, giving
AT&
T a p
otential w
ireless whip
-hand o
ver itsform
er progeny, the RB
OCs. T
he RBO
Cs them
selves were now
AT&
T's
clearest potential rivals, as the C
hinese firewalls b
etween reg
ulatedm
ono
poly and
frenzied d
igital entrep
reneurism b
egan to
melt and
col-
lapse head
long
.
AT&
T, m
ocked
by ind
ustry analysts in 19
90
, was reap
ing aw
estruck
BR
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R C
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praise by comm
entators in 1993. A
T&
T had m
anaged to avoid any more
majo
r softw
are crashes in its switching
stations. A
T&
T's new
found
reputatio
n as "the nimble g
iant" was all the sw
eeter, since AT&
T's tra-
ditio
nal rival g
iant in
the w
orld
of m
ultin
ational co
mputin
g, IB
M, w
asalm
ost p
rostrate b
y 19
93
. IBM
's vision o
f the com
mercial co
mputer-
network o
f the future, "Prodig
y," had m
anaged
to sp
end $
90
0 m
illion
witho
ut a who
le heck of a lo
t to sho
w fo
r it, while A
T&
T, b
y contrast,
was b
old
ly speculating
on the p
ossib
ilities of p
ersonal co
mm
unicators
and hed
ging
its bets w
ith investments in hand
written interfaces. In
1990 A
T&
T had looked b
ad; but in 1
993 A
T&
T looked like the future.
At least, A
T&
T's *ad
vertising* lo
oked
like the fu
ture. S
imilar p
ublic
attention w
as riveted o
n the massive $
22
billio
n meg
amerg
er betw
eenRBO
C B
ell Atlantic and
cable-T
V g
iant Tele-C
om
municatio
ns Inc. Nynex
was b
uying into
cable co
mpany V
iacom
International. B
ellSouth w
asbuying
stock in Prim
e Manag
ement, S
outhw
estern Bell acq
uiring a cab
leco
mpany in W
ashingto
n DC, and
so fo
rth. By stark co
ntrast, theInternet, a no
ncom
mercial entity w
hich officially d
id no
t even exist, hadno
advertising b
udget at all. A
nd yet, almost b
elow
the level of g
overn-
mental and
corp
orate aw
areness, the Internet was stealthily d
evouring
everything in its p
ath, gro
wing
at a rate that defied
com
prehensio
n.Kid
s who
mig
ht have been eag
er com
puter-intrud
ers a mere five years
earlier were n
ow
surfin
g th
e Intern
et, where th
eir natu
ral urg
e toexp
lore led
them into
cybersp
ace landscap
es of such m
indboggling
vast-ness that the very idea of hacking passw
ords seemed rather a w
aste oftim
e.
By 1
99
3, there had
not b
een a solid
, knock 'em
dow
n, panic-striking
,teenag
e-hacker com
puter-intrusio
n scandal in m
any long
months.
There had
, of co
urse, been so
me striking
and w
ell-pub
licized acts o
fillicit co
mputer access, b
ut they had b
een com
mitted
by ad
ult white-
collar in
dustry in
siders in
clear p
ursu
it of p
erso
nal o
r com
mercial
advantage. T
he kids, by contrast, all seem
ed to be on IRC
, Internet RelayChat.
Or, p
erhaps, fro
licking o
ut in the endless g
lass-roots netw
ork o
f per-
sonal b
ulletin board
systems. In 1
99
3, there w
ere an estimated
60
,00
0 b
oard
s in Am
erica; the populatio
n of b
oard
s had fully d
oub
led
BR
UC
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since Operatio
n Sund
evil in 19
90
. The ho
bby w
as transmuting
fitfullyinto
a genuine ind
ustry. The b
oard
com
munity w
ere no lo
nger o
bscure
hobbyists; m
any were still ho
bbyists and
pro
ud o
f it, but b
oard
sysops
and advanced board users had become a far m
ore cohesive and politicallyaw
are com
munity, no
long
er allow
ing them
selves to b
e obscure.
The specter of cyb
erspace in the late 1980s, of outw
itted authoritiestrem
bling
in fear befo
re teenage hacker w
hiz- kids, seem
ed d
ow
nright
antiquated by 1993. Law
enforcement em
phasis had changed, and thefavo
rite electronic villain o
f 19
93
was no
t the vandal child
, but the
victimizer o
f children, the d
igital child
porno
grap
her. "Operatio
nLo
ngarm
," a child- p
orno
grap
hy com
puter raid
carried o
ut by the p
re-vio
usly little- know
n cybersp
ace rangers o
f the U.S
. Custo
ms S
ervice,w
as almost the size o
f Operatio
n Sund
evil, but received
very littleno
tice by co
mpariso
n.
The hug
e and w
ell-org
anized "O
peratio
n Disco
nnect," an FBI strike
against telep
hone rip
-off co
n-artists, was actually larg
er thanSund
evil. "Operatio
n Disco
nnect" had its b
rief mom
ent in the sun of
pub
licity, and then vanished
utterly. It was unfo
rtunate that a law-
enforcem
ent affair as apparently w
ell-cond
ucted as O
peratio
nD
isconnect, w
hich pursued
telecom
adult career crim
inals a hundred
times m
ore m
orally rep
ugnant than teenag
e hackers, should
havereceived
so little attentio
n and fanfare, esp
ecially com
pared
to the
abortive S
undevil and
the basically d
isastrous effo
rts of the C
hicago
Com
puter Fraud and Abuse T
ask Force. But the life of an electronic
policem
an is seldom
easy.
If any law enfo
rcement event truly d
eserved full-scale p
ress coverag
e(w
hile somehow
managing to escape it), it w
as the amazing saga of N
ewYork S
tate Police S
enior Investig
ator D
on D
elaney Versus the O
rchardStreet Fing
er- Hackers. T
his story p
robab
ly represents the real
future of p
rofessio
nal telecom
municatio
ns crime in A
merica. T
he fin-ger- hackers so
ld, and
still sell, stolen lo
ng-d
istance pho
ne service to a
captive clien
tele of illeg
al aliens in
New
York C
ity. This clien
tele is des-
perate to
call hom
e, yet as a gro
up, illeg
al aliens have few leg
al means o
fobtaining
standard
pho
ne service, since their very presence in the
United
States is ag
ainst the law. T
he finger-hackers o
f Orchard
Street
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UC
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R C
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were very unusual "hackers," w
ith an astonishing
lack of any kind
of
genuine techno
logical kno
wled
ge. A
nd yet these N
ew Y
ork call-sell
thieves show
ed a street-level ing
enuity appalling
in its single- m
inded
sense of larceny.
There w
as no d
issident-hacker rheto
ric about freed
om
- of-info
rmatio
nam
ong the fing
er-hackers. Most of them
came out of the cocaine-dealing
fraternity, and they retailed
stolen calls w
ith the same street-crim
etechniques of lookouts and bagholders that a crack gang w
ould employ.
This w
as dow
n- an
d-d
irty, urb
an, eth
nic, o
rgan
ized crim
e, carried o
ut
by crim
e families every d
ay, for cash o
n the barrelhead
, in the harshw
orld
of the streets. T
he finger-hackers d
om
inated certain p
aypho
nesin certain striking
ly unsavory neig
hborho
ods. T
hey pro
vided
a serviceno
one else w
ould
give to
a clientele with little to
lose.
With such a vast sup
ply o
f electronic crim
e at hand, D
on D
elaney rock-
eted from a background in hom
icide to teaching telecom crim
e at FLETC
in less than three years. Few can rival D
elaney's hands-o
n, street-level exp
erience in pho
ne fraud. A
nyone in 1
99
3 w
ho still b
elievestelecom
munications crim
e to be som
ething rare and arcane should have a
few w
ord
s with M
r Delaney. D
on D
elaney has also w
ritten two fine
essays, on teleco
m fraud
and co
mputer crim
e, in Josep
h Grau's
*Crim
inal an
d C
ivil Inve
stigatio
ns H
andbook* (M
cGraw
Hill 1
99
3).
*Phrack* w
as still publish
ing in
19
93
, now
under th
e ab
le e
dito
rship
of Erik Bloodaxe. B
loodaxe made a determ
ined attempt to get law
enforcem
ent and co
rporate security to
pay real m
oney fo
r their elec-tro
nic copies o
f *Phrack,* but, as usual, these stalw
art defend
ers of
intellectual pro
perty p
referred to
pirate the m
agazine. B
loodaxe has
still not g
otten b
ack any of his p
roperty fro
m the seizure raid
s of M
arch1
, 19
90
. Neither has the M
entor, w
ho is still the m
anaging
edito
r of
Steve Jackson Gam
es.
Nor has Rob
ert Izenberg
, who has suspended his court strug
gle to g
et hism
achinery back. M
r Izenberg
has calculated that his $
20
,00
0 o
feq
uipm
ent seized in 1
99
0 is, in 1
99
3, w
orth $
4,0
00
at most. T
hem
issing software, also gone out his door, w
as long ago replaced. He
mig
ht, he says, sue for the sake o
f princip
le, but he feels that the p
eople
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who seized his m
achinery have already been discredited, and w
on't be
doing
any more seizures. A
nd even if his m
achinery were returned
—and
in good rep
air, which is d
oub
tful — it w
ill be essentially w
orthless
by 1
99
5. R
obert Izenb
erg no
long
er works fo
r IBM
, but has a jo
b p
ro-
gram
ming
for a m
ajor teleco
mm
unications co
mpany in A
ustin.
Steve Jackso
n won his case ag
ainst the Secret S
ervice on M
arch 12
,1
99
3, just o
ver three years after the federal raid
on his enterp
rise.Thanks to the delaying
tactics available throug
h the legal doctrine of
"qualified
imm
unity," Jackson w
as tactically forced
to d
rop his suit
against the ind
ividuals W
illiam C
ook, T
im Fo
ley, Barb
ara Gold
en andH
enry Kluep
fel. (Cook, Fo
ley, Gold
en and K
luepfel d
id, ho
wever, testify
durin
g th
e trial.)
The S
ecret Service fo
ught vig
oro
usly in the case, battling
Jackson's
lawyers rig
ht dow
n the line, on the (m
ostly p
reviously untried
) legal
turf of the Electro
nic Com
municatio
ns Privacy Act and
the PrivacyPro
tection A
ct of 1
98
0. T
he Secret S
ervice denied
they were leg
ally or
morally resp
onsib
le for seizing
the work o
f a pub
lisher. They claim
edthat (1
) Jackson's g
aming
"books" w
eren't real books anyho
w, and
(2)
the Secret S
ervice did
n't realize SJG
Inc was a "p
ublisher" w
hen theyraided his offices, and (3
) the books only vanished b
y accident because
they merely happened to b
e inside the computers the ag
ents were appro-
priating
.
The S
ecret Service also
denied
any wro
ngdoing
in reading
and erasing
allthe sup
posed
ly "private" e-m
ail inside Jackso
n's seized b
oard
,Illum
inati. The U
SSS atto
rneys claimed
the seizure did
not vio
late theElectro
nic Com
municatio
ns Privacy Act, b
ecause they weren't actually
"intercepting
" electronic m
ail that was m
oving
on a w
ire, but o
nly elec-tro
nic mail that w
as quietly sitting
on a d
isk inside Jackso
n's com
puter.
They also claim
ed that USSS agents hadn't read any of the private m
ail onIllum
inati; and anyw
ay, even supposing
that they had, they w
ere allow
edto do that by the subpoena.
The Jackson case b
ecame even m
ore peculiar when the Secret Service
attorneys went so far as to allege that the federal raid against the gam
ingco
mpany had
actually *impro
ved Jackso
n's business* thanks to
the
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ensuing natio
nwid
e pub
licity.
It was a lo
ng and
rather involved
trial. The jud
ge seem
ed m
ost p
er-turb
ed, not by the arcane m
atters of electronic law, b
ut by the fact that
the Secret Service could have avoided almost all the consequent trouble
simply b
y giving
Jackson his co
mputers b
ack in short o
rder. T
heSecret S
ervice easily could
have looked
at everything in Jackso
n's com
-puters, reco
rded
everything, and
given the m
achinery back, and
therew
ould
have been no
majo
r scandal o
r federal co
urt suit. On the co
n-trary, everyb
ody sim
ply w
ould
have had a g
ood laug
h. Unfo
rtunately, itappeared that this idea had never entered the heads of the C
hicago-basedinvestig
ators. T
hey seemed
to have co
ncluded
unilaterally, and w
ithout
due course of law, that the w
orld would be better off if Steve Jackson
didn't have computers. G
olden and Foley claimed that they had both
never even heard of the Privacy Protection Act. C
ook had heard of theA
ct, but he'd decided on his own that the Privacy Protection A
ct hadnothing to do w
ith Steve Jackson.
The Jackso
n case was also
a very politicized
trial, both sid
es delib
erate-ly ang
ling fo
r a long
-term leg
al preced
ent that would
stake-out b
igclaim
s for their interests in cyb
erspace. Jackso
n and his EFF ad
visors
tried hard
to estab
lish that the least e-mail rem
ark of the lo
nely elec-tro
nic pam
phleteer d
eserves the same so
mber civil-rig
hts pro
tection as
that afford
ed *T
he New
York T
imes.* B
y stark contrast, the S
ecretService's atto
rneys argued
bold
ly that the contents o
f an electronic b
ul-letin board have no m
ore expectation of privacy than a heap of postcards.In
the fin
al analysis, ve
ry little w
as firmly n
ailed d
ow
n. Fo
rmally, th
eleg
al rulings in the Jackso
n case apply o
nly in the federal W
esternD
istrict of T
exas. It was, ho
wever, estab
lished that these w
ere realcivil- lib
erties issues that pow
erful peo
ple w
ere prep
ared to
go to
theco
urthouse o
ver; the seizure of b
ulletin board
systems, tho
ugh it still
goes on, can b
e a perilous act for the seizer. The Secret Service ow
esSteve Jackson $
50,0
00 in dam
ages, and a thousand dollars each to threeof Jackson's angry and offended board users. A
nd Steve Jackson, ratherth
an o
wnin
g th
e single-lin
e bulletin
board
system "Illu
min
ati" seized in
19
90
, now
rejoices in p
ossessio
n of a hug
e privately-o
wned
Internetno
de, "io
.com
," with d
ozens o
f pho
ne-lines on its o
wn T
-1 trunk.
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Jackson has m
ade the entire b
low
-by-b
low
narrative of his case avail-
able electro
nically, for interested
parties. A
nd yet, the Jackso
n casem
ay still not b
e over; a S
ecret Service ap
peal seem
s likely and the EFF
is also g
ravely dissatisfied
with the ruling
on electro
nic interceptio
n.
The W
ELL, hom
e of the A
merican electro
nic civil libertarian m
ovem
ent,added tw
o thousand more users and dropped its aging Sequent com
puterin favo
r of a snap
py new
Sun S
parcstatio
n. Search-and
-seizure discus-
sions on the WELL are now
taking a decided back-seat to the current hotto
pic in
dig
ital civil libertie
s, unbre
akable
public-ke
y e
ncry
ptio
n fo
rprivate citizens.
The Electro
nic Frontier Fo
undatio
n left its modest ho
me in B
osto
n tom
ove insid
e the Washing
ton B
eltway o
f the Clinto
n Adm
inistration. Its
new executive d
irector, EC
PA p
ioneer and
long
time A
CLU
activist JerryBerm
an, gained a reputation of a m
an adept as dining w
ith tigers, as the
EFF devoted its attention to networking at the highest levels of the com
-puter and
telecom
municatio
ns industry. EFF's p
ro- encryp
tion lo
bby
and an
ti-wire
tappin
g in
itiative w
ere
esp
ecially im
pre
ssive, su
ccess-
fully assembling
a herd o
f highly varieg
ated ind
ustry camels und
er thesam
e EFF tent, in open and
pow
erful oppositio
n to the electro
nic ambi-
tions of the FBI and the N
SA.
EFF had transm
uted at lig
ht-speed
from
an insurrection to
an institu-tio
n. EFF Co-Fo
under M
itch Kap
or o
nce again sid
estepped
the bureau-
cratic consequences of his own success, b
y remaining
in Boston and
adap
ting the ro
le of EFF g
uru and g
ray eminence. Jo
hn Perry Barlo
w,
for his p
art, left Wyo
ming
, quit the R
epub
lican Party, and m
oved
to N
ewYork C
ity, accom
panied
by his sw
arm o
f cellular pho
nes. Mike G
odw
inleft B
osto
n for W
ashingto
n as EFF's official leg
al adviser to
the elec-tro
nically afflicted
.
After th
e Neid
orf trial, D
oro
thy D
ennin
g fu
rther p
roved
her firm
scholastic ind
epend
ence-of-m
ind b
y speaking
up b
old
ly on the useful-
ness an
d so
cial value o
f federal w
iretappin
g. M
any civil lib
ertarians,
who
regard
ed the p
ractice of w
iretapping
with d
eep o
ccult horro
r, were
crestfallen to the p
oint o
f com
edy w
hen nationally kno
wn "hacker sym
-pathizer" D
oro
thy Denning
sternly defend
ed p
olice and
pub
lic interests
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in official eavesd
ropping
. How
ever, no am
ount o
f pub
lic upro
ar seemed
to swerve the "quaint" D
r. Denning
in the slightest. She not only m
adeup
her ow
n mind
, she mad
e it up in p
ublic and
then stuck to her g
uns.
In 19
93
, the stalwarts o
f the Masters o
f Decep
tion, Phib
er Optik, A
cidPhreak an
d S
corp
ion, fin
ally fell afoul o
f the m
achin
eries of leg
al pro
s-ecutio
n. Acid
Phreak and S
corp
ion w
ere sent to p
rison fo
r six months,
six months o
f hom
e detentio
n, 75
0 ho
urs of co
mm
unity service, and,
oddly, a $
50
fine for co
nspiracy to
com
mit co
mputer crim
e. Phiber
Optik, the co
mputer intrud
er with p
erhaps the hig
hest pub
lic pro
file inthe entire w
orld
, took the lo
ngest to
plead
guilty, b
ut, facing the p
ossi-
bility o
f ten years in jail, he finally did
so. H
e was sentenced
to a year
and a d
ay in priso
n.
As for the A
tlanta wing of the Legion of D
oom, Prophet, Leftist and
Urvile... U
rvile now
works fo
r a softw
are com
pany in A
tlanta. He is
still on p
robatio
n and still rep
aying his eno
rmous fine. In fifteen
months, he w
ill once again b
e allowed to ow
n a personal computer. H
e isstill a co
nvicted fed
eral felon, b
ut has not had
any legal d
ifficulties sinceleaving
priso
n. He has lo
st contact w
ith Prophet and
Leftist.Unfortunately, so have I, thoug
h not through lack of honest effort.
Knig
ht Lightning
, now
24
, is a technical writer fo
r the federal g
overn-
ment in W
ashington D
C. H
e has still not been accepted into law
school,but having
spent m
ore than his share o
f time in the co
mpany o
f attor-
neys, he's come to think that m
aybe an MBA
would be m
ore to the point.H
e still ow
es his attorneys $
30
,00
0, b
ut the sum is d
wind
ling stead
ilysince he is m
anfully working
two jo
bs. K
night Lig
htning custo
marily
wears a suit and
tie and carries a valise. H
e has a federal security
clearance.
Unin
dicted
*Phrack* co
-edito
r Taran
Kin
g is also
a technical w
riter inW
ashingto
n DC, and
recently got m
arried.
Term
inus d
id h
is time, g
ot o
ut o
f priso
n, an
d cu
rrently lives in
Silico
nV
alley where he is running
a full-scale Internet node, "netsys.co
m." H
epro
gram
s pro
fessionally fo
r a com
pan
y specializin
g in
satellite links
for the Internet.
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Carlto
n Fitzpatrick still teaches at the Fed
eral Law Enfo
rcement
Training
Center, b
ut FLETC fo
und that the issues invo
lved in sp
onso
ringand
running a b
ulletin board
system are rather m
ore co
mplex than they
at first appear to
be.
Gail T
hackeray briefly co
nsidered
going
into p
rivate security, but then
changed tack, and joined the M
aricopa County D
istrict Attorney's O
ffice(w
ith a salary). S
he is still vig
oro
usly p
rose
cutin
g e
lectro
nic racke
-teerin
g in
Phoen
ix, Arizo
na.
The fo
urth consecutive C
om
puters, Freed
om
and Privacy C
onference
will take p
lace in M
arch 1
99
4 in
Chicag
o.
As fo
r Bru
ce Sterlin
g... w
ell *8-). I th
ankfu
lly aban
doned
my b
riefcareer as a true-crim
e journalist and
wro
te a new science fictio
nno
vel, *Heavy W
eather,* and assem
bled
a new co
llection o
f short sto
-rie
s, *Glo
balh
ead
.* I also w
rite n
onfictio
n re
gularly, fo
r the p
opular-
science colum
n in *The M
agazine o
f Fantasy and S
cience Fiction.*
I like life better on the far side of the b
oundary betw
een fantasy andreality; b
ut I've com
e to reco
gnize that reality has an unfo
rtunate way
of annexing
fantasy for its o
wn p
urposes. T
hat's why I'm
on the Po
liceLiaiso
n C
om
mittee fo
r EFF- Austin
, a local electro
nic civil lib
ertiesgro
up (eff- austin@
tic.com
). I don't think I w
ill ever get o
ver my
experience o
f the Hacker C
rackdow
n, and I exp
ect to b
e involved
in elec-tro
nic civil lib
ertie
s activism fo
r the re
st of m
y life.
It would
n't be hard
to find
material fo
r another b
ook o
n com
puter crim
ean
d civil lib
erties issues. I tru
ly believe th
at I could
write an
oth
erbook m
uch like this one, every year. C
ybersp
ace is very big
. There's a
lot going on out there, far more than can be adequately covered by the
tiny, thoug
h gro
wing
, cadre o
f network-literate rep
orters. I d
o w
ish Ico
uld d
o m
ore w
ork o
n this topic, b
ecause the various p
eople o
f cyber-
space are an elem
ent of o
ur society that d
efinitely requires sustained
study and attention.
But there's only one of m
e, and I have a lot on my m
ind, and, like most
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science fiction w
riters, I have a lot m
ore im
aginatio
n than discip
line.H
aving d
one m
y stint as an electronic-fro
ntier reporter, m
y hat is off
to those stalwart few
who do it every day. I m
ay return to this topicsom
e day, but I have no real plans to do so. How
ever, I didn't have anyreal p
lans to w
rite "Hacker C
rackdow
n," either. Thing
s happen, no
wa-
days. T
here are landslid
es in cybersp
ace. I'll just have to try and
stayalert and
on m
y feet.
The electronic landscape chang
es with astounding
speed. We are living
throug
h the fastest technolo
gical transfo
rmatio
n in human histo
ry. Iw
as glad to have a chance to document cyberspace during one m
oment in
its long
mutatio
n; a kind o
f strobe-flash o
f the maelstro
m. T
his book is
already o
ut-of- d
ate, thoug
h, and it w
ill be q
uite obso
lete in another
five years. It seems a p
ity.
How
ever, in about fifty years, I think this b
ook m
ight seem
quite inter-
esting. A
nd in a hund
red years, this b
ook sho
uld seem
mind
-boggling
lyarchaic and
bizarre, and
will p
robab
ly seem far w
eirder to
an audience
in 20
92
than it ever seemed
to the co
ntemporary read
ership.
Keeping
up in cyberspace requires a g
reat deal of sustained attention.Perso
nally, I keep
tabs w
ith th
e milieu
by read
ing th
e invalu
able elec-
tronic m
agazine C
om
puter und
ergro
und D
igest
(tk0jut2
@m
vs.cso.niu.ed
u with the sub
ject header: S
UB C
uD and
a mes-
sage that says: S
UB C
uD yo
ur name yo
ur.full.internet@ad
dress). I
also read
Jack Rickard
's bracing
ly icono
clastic *Board
watch M
agazine*
for p
rint news o
f the BBS and
online co
mm
unity. And
, needless to
say, Iread
*Wired
,* the first mag
azine of the 1
99
0s that actually lo
oks and
acts like it really belo
ngs in this d
ecade. T
here are other w
ays to learn,
of co
urse, but these three o
utlets will g
uide yo
ur efforts very w
ell.
When I m
yself want to
pub
lish som
ething electro
nically, which I'm
doing
with increasing
frequency, I g
enerally put it o
n the gopher at
Texas Internet C
onsulting
, who
are my, w
ell, Texan Internet co
nsultants(tic.co
m). T
his book can b
e found
there. I think it is a worthw
hile actto
let this work g
o free.
From thence, one's bread floats out onto the dark w
aters of cyberspace,
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only to return someday, tenfold. A
nd of course, thoroughly soggy, andrid
dled
with an entire am
azing eco
system o
f bizarre and
gnaw
ingly hun-
gry cyb
ermarine life- fo
rms. Fo
r this author at least, that's all that
really counts.
Than
ks for yo
ur atten
tion *8
-)
Bru
ce S
terlin
g
<bruces@
well.sf.ca.us>
New
Years' D
ay 19
94
, Austin T
exas
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