Hacker Chronicles 1

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PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN { Final Issue } PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ ^*^ PWN Phrack World News PWN ^*^ Issue XV: Part Two ^*^ PWN PWN ^*^ Created, Written, and Edited ^*^ PWN by Knight Lightning PWN ^*^ ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN { Final Issue } PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN Crisis On Infinite Hackers July 27, 1987 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It all started on Tuesday, July 21, 1987. Taran King received a call from a girl who was contacting him on the behalf of Delta- Master. From there, we received all sorts of reports about busted hackers all across the country. Among 15-18 others, Bill From RNOC, Eric NYC, Solid State, Oryan QUEST, Mark Gerardo, The Rebel, and Delta-Master have been busted by the United States Secret Service. There are rumored to be several more members of the more "elite" community busted as well, but since we can neither disprove or prove the validity of these rumors, I have chosen not to name them at this time. One of the offshoots of this investigation is the end of The Lost City of Atlantis and The Lineman's treason against the community he once helped to bring about. In Pennsylvainia, 9 people were busted for credit card fraud. When asked where they learned how to perform the art in which they had been caught, they all responded with the reply of text files from The Lost City Of Atlantis. So, the Secret Service decided to give The Lineman a visit. Lineman, age 16 (a minor) had no charges against him, but he panicked anyway and turned over the bulletin board, all g-philes, and the complete userlog to the Secret Service. This included information from the "Club Board." The final outcome of this action is still on its way. In the meantime, many hackers are preparing for the worst. However, with the exception of Bill From RNOC, most hackers travel plans to PartyCon '87 went as expected and we had a great time. I feel that it was a necessary escape for many of the people that thought their world was coming to an end. The following are two articles that appeared in the San Francisco Examiner. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Secret Service Smash Two Hacker's Rings July 23, 1987 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Computer Break-Ins At Stanford Linked To Nationwide Crackdown" By John Markoff of the Examiner Staff United States Secret Service agents and local law enforcement authorities are breaking up two nationwide computer crime rings by arresting at least nine "hackers" in Pennsylania and serving search warrents in California and New York on a group known as the "Pink Floyd Gang." Authorities said the two rings had illegally entered corporate and university computer systems and stolen millions of dollars through illegal phone charges and credit card purchases. A series of computer break-ins at Stanford University that began September 1, 1986, and were reported in The Examiner on October 3, 1986 started the first investigation, which mushroomed into one of the largest computer crime investigations in history. [Give me a break Markoff, your paper has nothing to do with the current wave of busts and the Stanford University incidents only pertain to 3 hackers out in California. I always hate it when reporters make up material in their news broadcasts. -KL] As many as 17 arrests and searches have taken place in California, New York, Oregon, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. More arrests are expected, Secret Service officals said. In Mount Lebanon, Pa., nine high school students were arrested Tuesday and charged with using their home computers to gain access to credit card accounts at stores, police there said. Eight boys and one girl between of ages 14 and 17 illegally obtained everything from clothes to skateboards, Pennsylvania authorities told the Associated Press on Thursday. Daniel Mayer of the Secret Service in Pittsburg said arrests of juveniles and adults implicated in the ring were also expected following the completion of investigations in Dallas and San Antonio, Texas; Omaha, Nebraska; Augusta, Georgia; Fresno and Los Angeles, California; New York City, New York; Newark, New Jersey; and Toledo, Ohio. John Maxfield, a Detroit computer security expert who is familar with the case, said the California-New York group was involved in more serious activities. [A. There is no California-New York group and there is no Pink Floyd Gang. B. Maxfield knows very little of what really goes on in the computer underworld and the newspapers shouldn't be this dependent on his word. -KL] "The two groups may have overlapped on some of the bulletin boards - everybody is in touch with everybody - but the New York and San Francisco stuff is heavier," he said. "It goes beyond simple credit card theft. They where touching major corporations." The first ring was discovered in September, when a hacker using the password "P. Floyd" began illegally gaining access to computers on the Stanford University campus. The name Pink Floyd is frequently used by the underground culture of "malicious" computer hackers who use modems to break into remote computer systems. It has become an anthem for hackers and refers to a song by rock group Pink Floyd called "The Wall." [Actually, Mr. Markoff, the name P. Floyd was entered because it would look like a regular username. There is no Pink Floyd Gang or any hacker under that alias. Tell me, did you make this stuff up yourself or did you have help? -KL] Secret Service agents said the computer break-ins, performed by juveniles and adults, has raised national security concerns because of the defense-related and high-tech information contained in the systems they entered. "You're talking about a sensitive issue, the Stanford computers have national security information in them," said Richard McDrew, special agent in charge for the U.S. Secret Service in San Francisco. "We're trying to determine exactly what was gotten and how it was used." McDrew said local Secret Service agents were still working on the case Thursday and that more arrests were likely. A computer security expert in San Diego said that one of the hackers who had gained access to the Stanford computers used a government network to try to access a computer at the Los Alamos, New Mexico, nuclear test site. In the Bay Area Tuesday, Secret Service agents served warrents on two juveniles in Burlingame and Kentfield, but no arrests were made. McDrew said agents in his office had been in touch with Southern California Secret Service agents but that no arrests had been made there yet. Illegal purchases of goods and services made by the Midwest ring were "in the millions," according to officer John Michalec of the Mount Lebanon, Pa., police department. [Excuse me, but isn't Pennsylvainia just a little far North East to be called the midwest? -KL] Both groups illegally used private long-distance lines such as MCI to mask their location from investigators. [No, that isn't really the reason, it was to get out of paying for long distance service. -KL] The New York-California ring [Again, there is no New York- California ring, its a nationwide loosely affiliated group with boundries limited only by the phone lines. -KL] specialized in breaking into computers that ran the AT&T UNIX operationg system, according to computer crime experts familar with the events. The network of hackers were informal, computer security experts said. Members of the rings used computer bulletin boards in homes to stay in contact with each other, Maxfield said. By logging into the clandestine bulletin board systems, the hackers were able to exchange information, such as illegally obtained telephone and other credit cards and computer passwords. "In terms of what they were doing, they were into every computer system in the country," he said. "They definately were in to all the credit bureaus. It's not just the phone companies - they where into everything." He said the Secret Service arrests had created a great fear in the underground network of hackers who heard about the arrests in recent days. "One guy called me last night, and he said, `I'm sitting by my bed with my door unlocked so they won't knock it down. I've thrown away all my notes. Will they still arrest me?,'" Maxfield said. [Gosh, he must have been out of CONTROL.] Computer crime experts said they consider these rings of "malicious" hackers to be one of the most dangerous yet. "It's one of the most serious (crime rings), because they are part of an elite worldwide culture of malicious hackers," said Donn Parker, a computer crime expert at SRI International, in Menlo Park. [Excuse me Donn, but please explain how a hacker can be malicious.] McDrew said both juveniles and adults around the nation were involved and that the investigations were being coordinated by the Washington D.C., Secret Service; Fraud Division. Computer scientists who tracked the original Stanford break-ins said hackers had used telephone connections to break into computers at Stanford University, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, the University of Illinois, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mitre Corporation in Reston, Virginia, and at least three Silicon Valley corporations. In several cases the hackers actually spoke with Stanford University officals while he was breaking into their systems. Lester Earnest, associate chairman of the Stanford University computer science department, said Wednesday that such break-ins were frequent and that computer security experts had closed loopholes the hackers had used to enter Stanfords computers. [Only until more hackers find more loopholes in your system. -KL] Typed by Elric Of Immyr Special Thanks to Sir Francis Drake - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - =- ^ -= - = - = - = - = - = Hackers Offer Their Side of the Story July 24, 1987 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By John Markoff of the Examiner Staff Computer "hackers" consider themselves an elite group with extraodinary skills at breaking into corporate and university computer systems, accoording to experts and sources familiar with this underground network. One computer crime expert has refered to them as the "Pink Floyd Gang" because several members have used the password "P. Floyd" while breaking into computer systems around the country. The hackers themselves disdain the term and say that they prefer to be known as simply as "the Community" - a reference to their loose coorperative federation. [Now this is total bullshit, it must have come from Oryan QUEST. The way I see it is that its the Phreak/Hack World, or the Modem World, because it is a seperate pocket community inside America and the world. -KL] Thursday evening after a story about the Secret Service arrests and warrants appeared in The Examiner, several hackers who say they belong to the Community called the paper to give their side of the story. The caller asked to remain anonymous. Based on information they provided, the callers were obviously well-versed in the workings of the underground network. [Oryan Quest said,] "I can get into the telephone system computers," said one hacker. "Let's say I don't like you. I can turn your telephone off or I can turn your phone into a pay phone so it asks you to deposit 20 cents before making a call, or I can turn a pay phone into a free phone." The individuals "meet" electronically on computer bulletin boards. These are personal computers systems running special software programs that permit callers to exchange information via telephone and modem. According to the caller, they use colorful electronic aliases to mask their true identities: names like Icarus 212, Ninja NYC, Control C, Delta-Master, DEAD LOOP, and Silver Spy. One caller said that many members of the Community are young computer programmers who were self-taught experts in the AT&T UNIX operation system. (An operating system is a special program that does basic computer housekeeping chores). He said the Community had become adept at breaking into systems that run the UNIX operation system and had targeted AT&T computers, which where were vulnerable to the attacks. Computers security experts say UNIX is more vulnerable to hackers' attacks then other computer operating systems because it was orignally designed for academic and experimental use. Another caller said the popular image of hackers as nerds who "never see the light of day" was inaccurate. "I go out for sports at school and I'm considered a jock," he said. [And after school, Oryan QUEST is considered a "loser" bagger at a local supermarket. -KL] One caller said that several months ago a major "phone phreak" convention had taken place in St. Louis, where hackers and phone phreaks had gathered and exchanged data on breaking into systems. [Actually, what they are refering to is SummerCon '87, which was sponsored by Phrack Inc., Metal Shop Private, and TeleComputist Newsletter. Full details of this can be found in Phrack World News Issue 14, Part 2. There was no trading of the information stated in this article. -KL] He said that until the recent Secret Service arrests, many hackers had been acting bolder, but the arrests would change things; "Now you're going to see everyone go underground." Another caller said that many of the underground bulletin boards had disappeared since the arrests began. "It's finished, all the major boards in the country are down now," he said. [In a sense it is an ending to a lot of good "legendary" bulletin boards (like Metal Shop Private), but there will always be more to fill the void. -KL] Typed by Elric Of Immyr Special Thanks To Sir Francis Drake - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - On Monday, July 27, 1987 Cable News Network (CNN) showed actual footage of some of the recovered merchandise from the California hackers' busts. Among the items was a TRS-80 Color Computer and an IBM compatible, both belonging to Oryan QUEST. The CNN report was basically similar to the above news stories. Information Provided by Forest Ranger In conclusion, this wave of busts has indeed hurt the phreak/hack world, but it has not destroyed it. It will not be long before new hackers come to take the place of those that were busted. The majority of the "good" boards that are down, are down for reasons not affected by the busts and for every board that goes down, two more will spring up to take its place. :Knight Lightning ________________________________________________________________ Mad Hatter; Informant? July 31, 1987 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We at Phrack Inc. have uncovered a significant amount of information that has led us to the belief that Mad Hatter is an informant for some law enforcement organization. When Taran, Shades, Forest Ranger, and I arrived at Control C's in Chicago, Mad Hatter had already searched the place and had found some papers that could only have done ^C harm. We destroyed this information and thought everything was ok. However, as it turns out, we searched MH's bags and found a duplicate set of this information and the general hypothesis was they he intended to leave it behind as incriminating evidence. MH had also brought down several disks for the purpose of copying Phantasie Realm. Please note; PR was an IBM program and MH has an apple. Control C told us that when he went to pick MH up at the bus terminal, he watched the bus pull in and saw everyone who disembarked. Suddenly Mad Hatter was there, but not from the bus he was supposed to have come in on. In addition to this, he had baking soda wraped in a five dollar bill that he tried to pass off as cocaine. Perhaps to make us think he was cool or something. MH constantly tried to get left behind at ^C's apartment for unknown reasons. He also was seen at a neighbor's apartment making unauthorized calls into the city of Chicago. When asked who he called, his reply was "Don't worry about it." MH had absolutely no money with him during PartyCon (and incidentily ate everything in ^C's refrigerator) and yet he insisted that although he had taken the bus down and had return trip tickets for the bus, that he would fly back home. How was this going to be achieved? He had no money and even if he could get a refund for the bus tickets, he would still be over $200 short. When asked how he was going to do this, his reply was "Don't worry about it." On Saturday night while on the way to the Hard Rock Cafe, Mad Hatter asked Control C for the location of his computer system and other items 4 times. This is information that Hatter did not need to know, but perhaps a SS agent or someone could use very nicely. When Phrack Inc. discovered that Dan The Operator was an FBI informant and made the news public, several people were criticizing him on Free World II Private. Mad Hatter on the other hand, stood up for Noah and said that he was still his friend despite what had happened. Then later when he realized that people were questioning his legitimacy, his original posts were deleted and he started saying how much he wanted to kill Dan The Operator and that he hated him. Mad Hatter already has admitted to knowing that Dan The Operator was an FBI informant prior to SummerCon '87. He says the reason he didn't tell anyone is because he assumed we already knew. A few things to add, some time ago, Mad Hatter was contacted by AT&T because of an illegal Alliance Teleconference that he was responsible for. There was no bust. When Mad Hatter first entered the phreak/hack world, he joined Phreaks Anonymous World Wide (PAWW), Metalibashers, Inc (MBI), Order of The Rose, and Cult of The Dead Cow (-cDc-). If you were a fed and you wanted to become part of the phreak/hack world, wouldn't you try to join as many groups as possible to spread your name? This is all I have to say. Don't take my words as fact, and give Mad Hatter a chance to speak his behalf before you chop off his head. This by no means as strong as a case as there was aginst Dan The Operator or Scan Man. Apparently Mad Hatter has a lot of explaining to do. It should be fun to watch, but keep your ears open for contridicting stories. The information in this article has been presented in order to warn people about the possibility of Mad Hatter being an informant. All arguements stated in this article are true to the best of my knowledge and were written without bias. People with opposing views or information on MH's behalf should voice themselves. Do not bother to try and buttle to me, because I won't be around to hear it. Thank you. :Knight Lightning ________________________________________________________________ PWN Quicknotes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At 11:00 AM on July 8, 1987, The Sensei received a visit from MCI security and his local police. They confiscated several disks and a modem. They told him that federal charges were pending and the Secret Service may become involved shortly. His search and seizure is because of MCI code hacking. Since then he has released The Syndicate Report Issue #13, but whether he releases more issues is yet to be seen. Information by The Sensei (7/9/87) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sir Gallahad thought he had been busted by Allnet when a confused customer contacted him and demanded that he made long distance phone calls on his code. In reality, there were calls made to his phone number and the customer had misread his bill. Information by The Disk Jockey (7/9/87) ----------------------------------------------------------------- There was a major bust in San Jose, California (408) involving 5 people. The main person busted was the Infomaniak (supposedly a member of Anarchy, Inc.), Age 19. Another person involved was Joy Division. Grand Theft charges have been filed and the outcome remains to be seen. Later The Phantom, Sysop of a San Jose board (The Shaolin Board) was busted for having codes on his board and some codes in his wallet [sounds like a drug bust]. Nobody is sure if the busts were connected. Information by Sir Francis Drake (7/10/87-7/31/87) --------------------------------------------------------------- Lex Luthor (and The Leftist) announced that the Legion Of Doom Technical Journals Issue Two should appear within the next week on Digital Logic's Data Service. Also, with Bill From RNOC out of action, the chain of command of the Legion Of Doom now falls to Phantom Phreaker. Information by Lex Luthor (7/27/87) ________________________________________________________________ at he tried to pass off as cocaine. Perhaps to make us think he was cool or something. MH constantly tried to get left behind at ^C's apartment for unknown reasons. He also was seen at a neighbor's apartment making unauthorized calls into the city of Chicago. When asked who he called, his reply was "Don't worry about it." MH had absolutely no money with him during PartyCon (and incidentily ate everything in ^C's refrigerator) and yet he insisted that although he had taken the bus down and had return trip tickets for the bus, that he would fly back home. How was this going to be achieved? He had no money and even if he could get a refund for the bus tickets, he would still be over $200 short. When asked how he was going to do this, his reply was "Don't worry about it." On Saturday night while on the way to the Hard Rock Cafe, Mad Hatter asked Control C for the location of his computer system and other items 4 times. This is information th Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253 12yrs+