The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998/hackers_encyclopedia.iso/zines/a_m/lodhtj04.006

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The LOD/H Technical Journal, Issue #4: File 06 of 10.


                            The History of LOD/H
                            Revision #3 May 1990
                            written by Lex Luthor


NOTES: I approximated all dates, as my records are not totally complete.
       If I left anyone out or put someone in that shouldn't be in, sorry I
       tried and did spend considerable time researching the dates and
       BBS files, the old LOD BBS software, etc. Revisions one and two were
       released to LOD/H members only. Some information may only be relevant
       to those who were around at the time.


   The primary purpose of this article is simply to present an accurate
picture of events and people who have been associated with this group. The
reputation of many groups and many people have been tainted by slanderous
remarks made by uninformed law enforcement and justice department personnel,
the media, and other hackers. I find this sad, but it's a fact of life that
must be endured. All that can be done in this article is to attempt to present
the facts as I see them. Due to the wild and unfounded accusations by said
persons, today LOD is viewed more as malicious criminals than as for what it
was viewed as in the past. That is, of a group of people who put themselves at
risk to help inform others. Of course this is a prettier picture than most
want to believe, and is slightly prettier than what it is in actuality, but
the ideal is there. Whenever a group of individuals get together, you cannot
forget that they are individuals. These individuals can and do make mistakes
in judgement in some cases. But also, they have been and continue to be
victimized by law enforcement and said others. Over the years I have collected
tens of newspaper and magazine articles about "The LOD", myself, and others
with not a one being perfectly accurate. You have heard it before: don't
believe everything you read. That goes for this article also, although I have
made an honest attempt at ensuring that it is truthful and accurate, as Ripley
said: believe it, or not.

   I have been "retired" for quite some time now. My definition of retired is
simply that of keeping my activities to those of a strictly legitimate nature.
It is quite funny yet pitiful to here people say, "once a crook always a
crook" AND BELIEVE IT! That statement is a fallacy. Nearly everyone has done
something wrong when they were young yet many grow up to become the so called
normal, law abiding citizens that society says we should be. At this point in
time and in the foreseeable future, the risks of exploring and learning about
telephone and computer networks in a less than legitimate fashion outweigh the
benefits. I think many of the older hackers have adopted this philosophy out
of necessity. This decision is even easier after reflecting on the events of
which I have seen during the course of my "career". Those events are primarily
those of seeing people's rights being violated by law enforcement. Their
privacy being forsaken by the media. I do not dispute however, that some
hackers have done these same things to other hackers and other people. Neither
side is right or fair so I suppose it is time to exit since it's getting too
hot in the kitchen. I will remain however, in an advisory capacity to the
Technical Journal and group for as long as they continue exist. If you are to
believe the rumors, LOD has been dead many times, again untrue. The main
drawback of becoming a BBS hermit is how the rumors start to accrue as time
progresses. I have been "busted" perhaps a hundred times if you believe every
rumor. The fact is that I have never been visited let alone busted. I have
seen many people get into trouble due to their own carelessness. Those who
have remained unmolested by the authorities are either very careful and
paranoid, or are helping them catch others. I have been extremely careful and
exceedingly paranoid, period.

   Now that I have harassed the reader with my comments regarding the whole
hacking/phreaking experience, I present the story. Please note that I realize
many people could care less about all this, and if you are in that category
you can always throw this into the shredder, now. But, there is a sufficient
number of people who actually are curious to get the real story on this stuff
so here it is, presented to correct the many inaccuracies which have surfaced
over the years and also for the sake of posterity.

_____________________________________________________________________________

   During the winter break from school in late 1983, I took a trip up to Long
Island, NY to visit Quasi Moto. I had met him in south Florida, and he had
since moved. He decided to put up a BBS, and while visiting him, we worked on
it. For those who do not remember, its name was PLOVERNET. PLOVERNET was
considered a resurrected OSUNY by some since some users migrated to PLOVERNET
after OSUNY went down, at least in part, by an article in Newsweek mentioning
it. A new hacker magazine, 2600, started posting advertisements on various
boards. I had been in contact with Emmanuel Goldstein, the editor of 2600, on
Pirates Cove, another 516 BBS. I gave him the number to PLOVERNET and due to
the large amount of users, (500, of which 70% were relatively active) 2600 had
plenty of response. PLOVERNET went online in January of 1984 and shortly
thereafter it was the busiest BBS around. It was so busy in fact, that a long
distance service called LDX had stopped connecting people who dialed
516-935-2481 which was PLOVERNET's number. Now remember, this is early 1984
here. The practice of blocking calls to a certain number wasn't really done
by common carriers until 1986/87 with the emergence of new security software
and audit trail information. I picked the best phreaks and hackers from
PLOVERNET and invited them onto the newly created LOD BBS. LOD was one of the
first boards which upon connection did nothing until you entered the primary
password, and there was no new user routine as the board was invitation only.
Again, this was back in early 1984. It was a fairly original albeit paranoid
practice at the time, and many boards subsequently adopted the technique as
security became an increasing concern.

   Various groups had started forming such as Fargo 4A and Knights of Shadow.
I was admitted into Knights of Shadow in early 84. After suggesting some
promising new phreaks/hacks for membership and being turned down because they
were not well known enough, (ie: they weren't big names even though they knew
more than the guys who supposedly were) I put up the Legion Of Doom! bulletin
board and shortly thereafter started a phreak/hack group of the same name.
This was about May of 84 from what my records show. I had been a member of
KOS and LOD or a brief time and then KOS broke up. Although there were many
users on the LOD bbs, VERY FEW WERE MEMBERS OF THE GROUP! This distinction
seems to have been forgotten by many, since some who were on the BBS have
claimed to have been in the group, which is not true.

   The name Legion Of Doom! obviously came from the cartoon series which
pitted them against The Superfriends. I suppose other group names have
come from stranger sources. My handle, Lex Luthor was taken from the
movie Superman I. In the cartoon series, LOD is led by Lex Luthor and
thus, the group name was rather fitting. Being young and naive, I thought
having a handle of someone who claimed to have 'the greatest criminal mind on
Earth' and leading a group of the world's most notorious criminals would be
cool. That was about 7-8 years ago. Now however, I see that there is nothing
cool or attractive about being a criminal (believe it, or not).

   The original group consisted of phreaks who I had thought were very good
but were not considered 'famous' like those in KOS. Those original members
later became some of the best known phreak personalities and contributed
substantially to the knowledge of new and old phreaks alike. A list of members
from the very beginning to the present follows. Through my records and from
the best of my recollection I have approximated dates of entrance and exit and
other information. Also, I believe I have a complete list however, there
could be a mistake or two. Very few if any, handles from the past have been
duplicated by 'impostors' whether knowingly or unknowingly.

   I look at this article as a historical document seeing how no other group
has survived as long as LOD has. LOD originally consisted mainly of phreaks,
but had split into two separate entities.  LOD for telecommunications
hobbyists, and LOH for hacking and security enthusiasts.

Handle                 Entered   Exit      Location   Reason for leaving
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lex Luthor             early 84  CURRENT   Here/There  ---CURRENT MEMBER---
Karl Marx              early 84  late  85  Colorado    Went underground/quit.
Mark Tabas             early 84  late  85  Colorado    Many reasons.
Agrajag The Prolonged  early 84  late  85  California  Loss of interest.
King Blotto            early 84  late  85  Ohio        No time/college.
Blue Archer            early 84  Fall  87  Texas       College.
The Dragyn             early 84  late  86  Minnesota   No time/lost interest.

Unknown Soldier        mid   84  early 85  Florida     Busted- Toll fraud.
Sharp Razor            late  84  early 86  New Jersey  Busted- Abusing CIS.
Doctor Who             late  84  early 86  Mass.       Misc.  Trouble
Erik Bloodaxe          late  84  CURRENT   Here/There  ---CURRENT MEMBER---
Sir Francis Drake      late  84  early 86  California  ???
Paul Muad'dib          late  84  early 86  New York    Went underground/quit.
Phucked Agent 04       late  84  late  87  California  No time. School.
X-man                  late  84  mid   85  New York    Busted- Blue boxing.
Randy Smith            late  84  mid   85  Texas       ???

Steve Dahl             early 85  early 86  Illinois    Busted-Carding.
The Warlock            early 85  early 86  Florida     Lost interest.
Terminal Man           early 85  late  85  Mass.  Kicked out-malicious hacking

Silver Spy             late  86  Fall  87  Mass.       College.
The Videosmith         early 86  Fall  87  Penn.       Lost interest.
Kerrang Khan           early 86  Fall  87  U.K.        ???
The Marauder           early 86  mid   88  Conn.       Lost interest.
Gary Seven             early 86  mid   88  Florida     Lost interest.
Bill From RNOC         early 87  late  87  New York    Misc.  Trouble.

Carrier Culprit        mid   87  mid   88  Penn.       Lost interest.
Master of Impact       mid   87  mid   88  California  School.
The Leftist            mid   87  Sum   89  Georgia     Misc.  Trouble.
Phantom Phreaker       mid   87  Fall  89  Here/There  Lost interest.
Doom Prophet           mid   87  Fall  89  Here/There  Lost interest.

Thomas Covenant        early 88  early 89  New York    Misc.  Trouble.
The Mentor             mid   88  Sum   89  Here/There  Lost interest.
The Urvile             mid   88  Sum   89  Georgia     Misc.  Trouble.
Phase Jitter           mid   88  CURRENT   Here/There  ---CURRENT MEMBER---
Prime Suspect          mid   88  CURRENT   Here/There  ---CURRENT MEMBER---
The Prophet            late  88  Sum   89  Georgia     Misc.  Trouble.
Skinny Puppy           late  88  CURRENT   Here/There  ---CURRENT MEMBER----
Professor Falken       late  89  CURRENT   Here/There  ---CURRENT MEMBER---


Directory key:
"Lost Interest": simply means they lost interest in phreaking/hacking in
general, not lost interest in LOD/H.
"???":  reason for leaving is unknown.
Misc. Trouble: Exactly that. Too much to go into here.
Of all 38 members, only one was forcefully ejected. It was found out that
Terminal Man destroyed data that was not related to covering his tracks. This
has always been unacceptable to us, regardless of what the media and law
enforcement tries to get you to think.
Remember, people's entrance/exit times have been estimated.


                               [ End of Article ]