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- The Following Article appeared in the Sunday, June 24, 1990 edition of the
- Washington Post, in the Business section. (Page H1,H6)
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- THE TERMINAL MEN
- Crackdown on the `Legion of Doom' Ends an Era for Computer Hackers
- By Willie Schatz (Washington Post Staff Writer)
-
- They first sprang into existence as cartoon characters whose sole purpose
- was making life miserable for television's "Super Freinds." They were the
- Legion of Doom, and they were led by arch-criminal Lex Luthor.
- In the end of course, even the elite Legion proved no match for the likes
- of Superman and went the way of most of his enemies--consigned to cartoon
- oblivion.
- But the Legion of Doom was reincarnated in a different form in the early
- 1980s by a group of adventurers poised on the edge of the electronic age. They
- called themselves hackers, and their quarry was not a visitor from another
- plant. The target for "Phiber Optik," "Acid Phreak" and "Knight Lightning," as
- some members of the Legion called themselves, was --and still is-- the
- computer.
- The telephone networks linking corporate and government computer systems
- were their maze. The Passwords and security screens that protected netoworks
- from outsider's access were obstacles to outwit. They schemed to get inside
- these systems and browse through information files at will.
- It was a game, hacker versus hacker, played in unfettered spirit of
- discovery.
- "Hackers will do just about anything that doesn't involve crashing
- [bringing down] a system," said a New York City member who goes by the computer
- name of "Acid Phreak," but who would not further identify himself. "Thats the
- only taboo. We don't sell military secrets. We're jus tout to learn. We
- transfer data about records that we find in systems. But we draw the line on
- how we use that data. We use it to play around, not to abuse it."
- And then, without much warning, it wasn't just a game anymore.
- For a diverse group of men from New York City, Middletown, Md., and elsewhere,
- the change announced itself in the past few months through a series of knocks
- on the door by investigators bearing warrants. In raids that followed a
- two-year, nationwide investigation of potential computer fraud, Secret Service
- agents seized 42 computers, 23,000 computer disks, and other items from
- hackers, including Acid Phreak and Phiber Optik. The equipment will not be
- returned to its owners until the service finishes examining it as evidence for
- possible criminal violations.
- So far, the Secret Service sweep-- called Operation Sun Devil-- has
- produced only two arrests.
- Other investigations linked to the Secret Service campaign have resulted
- in serveral indictments of hackers, some of whoma re alleged to be members of
- the Legion of Doom. Those indicted have been charged with violations such as
- useing a computer without authorization, interstate transportation of the
- private information that was in the computer and fraudulently sending
- unauthorized information across state lines.
- "We're authorized to enforce the computer fraud act, and we're doing it to
- the best of our ability," said Gary Jenkins, assistant director of
- investigations for the Secret Service. "We're not interested in cases that
- are at the lowest threshold of violating the law," such as accessing a
- government computer without authorization, he said. "They have to be major
- criminal violators before we get involved."
- The law enforcer's view of the hacker contrasts sharply with the more
- benign view of just a few years ago, view sthat the hacker community still
- holds today.
- "The government's busting kids just for being curious," said the hacker
- Acid Phreak. "Just because they're in [the system], they [atuhorities]
- automatically assume they're criminals. The government and some companies are
- getting free lessions in computer security, but they're prosecuting us like
- we're criminals. It's like hacking's the worst thing since communism.
- Meanwhile, there are real [computer] criminals out there making real money."
- Curious kids or criminals? That the question even is being asked about
- the Legion of Doom members and others shows the dimension of change that has
- taken place.
- When Steven Levy wrote his 1984 book, "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer
- Revolution," he said: "Hackers are computer programmers and designers who
- regard computing as the most important thing in the world. Beneath their often
- unimposing exteriors, they were adventurers, visionaries, risk-takers, artists
- ... and the ones who most clearly saw why the computer was a truly
- revolutionary tool."
- Among them flows "a common philoophy which seemed tied to the elegantly
- flowing logic of the computer itself. It was a philosphy of sharing, openess,
- decentralization and getting your hands on the machine at any cost-- to improve
- the machines, and to improve the world. ..."
- "It's okay to do anything in the name of learning as long as you don't
- cause harm," a veteran hacker said. "You have the right to access any
- information that can be accessed [through your technique.] We also feel if
- they're not smart enough to stop us, we have the right to keep doing anything.
- That may be technical arrogance, but it's always there."
- And there were results from the concentration of all this intellectual
- energy.
- Hacking helped energize both the personal computer industry and the
- software industry. Steve Jobs and Wozniak, whose creation of the Apple
- computer made the machine accessible to average people, gained most of their
- knowledge from hacking. The same holds true for Bill Gates, whose fascination
- with software eventually led to the creation of Microsoft Corp., now the
- world's leading producer of operating programs for IBM personal computers.
- But with the increasing dependence of business and society upon electronic
- networks, the incursions of hackers became less and less tolerable.
- As early as 1984, a report by the House judiciary Committee called
- attention to the "activities of so-called `hackers', who have been able to
- access both private and public computer systems, sometimes with potentially
- serious results."
- The report also quoted Wilbur Miller, then president of Drake University,
- who told the committee, that there has been a tendency on the part of the
- public to view such violations as "intellectual pranksterism."
- "This is simply not the case," Miller Added. The ubiquity of computers
- in virtually every dimension of our everyday lives underlines this point and
- dictates our concern."
- Congress responded by passing the Counterfeit Access Device and Computer
- Fraud and Abuse Act, which provided penalties of as much as three months in
- jail for unauthorized access to computers. A 1986 revision established
- criminal penalties for six additional types of unauthorized computer access,
- including entering government computers.
- The legislation, while not halting hacking, apparently has curbed it
- severely. The law authorized the Secret Service to investigate offenses, and
- the agency has responded in ways that have spawned something of a backlash
- among computer users.
- Mitchell Kapor, the inventor of Lotus 1-2-3, the world's most popular
- financial software package, is expected t oannounce next month the formation of
- a coalition that will establish a hackers' legal defense fund, lobby Congress
- to change the 1984 law and help fight what Kapor said had the potential to be a
- "witch hunt."
-
- Birth of the Legion
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- None of this was an issue when the creator of the Legion of Doom took as
- his model, Lex Luthor and the cartoon Legion. The computer group was loosely
- based on the television characters, who had names such as Black Manta and
- Bizarro.
- "The name [Legion of Doom] has nothing to do with the group's intentions,"
- said an 18-year-old New Yorker whose computer name is Phiber Optik. The name
- is a cartoon spoof, he said.
- "But it is a name that demands respect," he said. "it's prupose was the
- get the best minds of the time together and have them communicate with each
- other. The name doesn't demand any respoect now, though. It accomplished much
- more a few years ago."
- And the group, which he said never had more than 15 to 20 members
- apparently has become much less particular about the quality of those members.
- "Now it's almost life if you say you're in, you are," said another Legion
- member, a computer consultant whose eqquipment was seized by the Secret Service
- as part of the Sun Devil investigations. "We dont have the same standards.
- "And I think a lot of our goals have change," he added. "I know I won't be
- able to hack the way I used to."
- Despite the absence of their hardware and software, however, the two are
- far better off thhan one of their alleged Legion colleagues.
-
- A Hackers Obession
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Leonard Rose Jr., a 31-year-old computer consultant and hacker from
- Middletown, Md., whose computer name is "Terminus," had his house searched Feb.
- 2 as part of Operation Sun Devil. According to Rose, it required half a moving
- truck and a 35-page inventory to account for the possessions removed by the
- agency. He also says the seizure has left him unable to operate his consulting
- company, Netsys Inc.
- As a result of the search, Rose was indicted May 15 in Baltimore on five
- counts of computer fraud, including electronically transmitting a computer
- program that was the property of American Telephone & Telegraph Co., acharges
- Rose has denied. According to the indictment, Rose was "associated" with the
- Legion.
- Rose began his lifelong fascination with electronics when he was 5 years
- old. His father, an engineer who tested solid-fuel rocket engines for Morton
- Thiokol Corp., gave Rose old junk radios. Rode would take them to the basement
- of the family's Elkton, Md., house and disassemble them. Then he started
- building radios from scratch.
- After a six-year ARmy stint spent mostly in Korea, Rose moved to New
- York's suburbs and began designing computer axial tomography (CAT) scanners
- and magnetic resonance image (MRI) machines for major medical technological
- companies. While preforming those tasks, he established a bulletin board
- called "APPLENET" that eventually attracted hundreds of subscribers.
- "I was a hacker in the original sense-- someone who loves computers and
- can learn as much as can be learned about a computer," Rose said in an
- interview.
- "I was obsessed. Hacking gave me the edge on my peers and co-workers. The
- higher the technology I worked on, the better my career would be. Other people
- didn't stand a chance when they were competing with me. That was my goal and
- that's what happened. I think it was a psychological carryover from my days in
- the cellar. But I never let it take over my life. I didn't lose perspective."
- His obsession had intensified by 1985, when he moved to Baltimore to take
- a job with a local medical technology company and he and his Korean-born wife
- had their first child. Rose continued to hone his skills through the use of
- more advanced computer equipment, and that expertise made Netsys succesful.
- The the Secret Service came. Since its visit, Rose said, his client base
- has dwindeled to one Baltimore-based accounting firm.
-
- The Battle Continues ...
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- For its part, the Secret Service says it isn't targeting any particular
- group of hackers.
- "We don't really now who belongs to the Legion of Doom," said Dale Boll,
- assistant special agent in charge of the Secret Service's fraud division.
- "We've never given them much real credence... They haven't been a predisposed
- target. We focus on individuals comitting serious offenses."
- "We are not in the business of slowing down technological innovation or
- stopping the Lewis and Clarks of the 21st century," said Earl Devaney, special
- agent in charge of the fraud division. "We're only looking for folks
- committing federal crimes and oding malicious damage."
- "We think the deterrent effect of Operation Sun Devil has been very
- beneficial," he added. "A lot of hackers get lulled into a sense of anonymity
- behind their computers. There's a psychological sense they won't get caught.
- But now they know they will."
- That thought may slwo them, but it apparently will not stop them.
- "After all this stuff, we know what not to do next time," Phiber Optik
- said. "And there will always be a next time."
-
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- This article typed by Laughing Gas on 06/24/90. Chaos, Inc News Services.
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