9999 ,please follow the copyright guidelines in this file4 9999 collection in memory of my great aunt1 ,lucie ,palmer4 ,lucie was an explorer1 a naturalist1 a keen undersea diver and above all a gifted painter4 ,in the last years of her life1 she lost her vision due to macular degeneration4 ,she could no longer do her beloved undersea paintings4 ,but1 while she could not travel in person1 she continued to travel in her mind through books for the vision impaired4 ,i hope you enjoy your journey to another world as much as she did4 -- ,from ,suelette ,dreyfus1 ,author1 ,underground ,underground -- ,hacking1 madness and obsession on the electronic frontier4 ,by ,suelette ,dreyfus with ,research by ,julian ,assange4 ,gripping1 eminently readable44 ,dreyfus has uncovered one of this country's best kept secrets and in doing so has created a highly intense and enjoyable read' -- ,rolling ,stone www4underground-book4net ,this edition has been specifically adapted for speech synthesis4 ,we recommend using a different distribution with intact type-setting for visual use4 ,first ,published #aiig by ,mandarin2 a part of ,reed ,books ,australia2 #ce ,cotham ,road1 ,kew #caja4 a subsidiary of ,random ,house books ,australia4 a division of ,random ,house ,international ,pty ,limited4 ,copyright 7c7 #aiig1 #bjja ,suelette ,dreyfus ,julian ,assange4 ,all rights reserved4 ,without limiting the rights under copyright above1 no part of this publication may be reproduced1 stored in or introduced into a retrieval system1 or transmitted in any form or by any means 7electronic1 mechanical1 photocopying1 recording or otherwise71 without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher4 ,typeset in ,new ,baskerville by ,j,m ,typesetting4 ,printed and bound in ,australia by ,australian ,print ,group4 ,national ,library of ,australia4 cataloguing-in-publication data3 ,dreyfus1 ,suelette4 ,underground3 tales of hacking1 madness obsession on the electronic frontier4 ,bibliography3 ,,isbn number #a #hfccj #eie #e #a4 ,computer hackers--,australia--,biography4 #b4 ,computer crimes--,australia4 #c4 ,computer security--,australia4 ,i4 ,assange1 ,julian4 ,,ii4 ,title4 #cfd4afhjibb ,send all comments to feedbackunderground-book4net4 ,preface to the electronic edition4 ,why would an author give away an unlimited number of copies of her book for free8 ,that's a good question4 ,when ,underground''s researcher1 ,julian ,assange1 first suggested releasing an electronic version of the book on the ,net for free1 ,i had to stop and think about just that question4 ,i'd spent nearly three years researching1 writing and editing the nearly #ejj pages of ,underground'4 ,julian had worked thousands of hours doing painstaking research2 discovering and cultivating sources1 digging with great resourcefulness into obscure databases and legal papers1 not to mention providing valuable editorial advice4 ,so why would ,i give away this carefully ripened fruit for free8 ,because part of the joy of creating a piece of art is in knowing that many people can - and are - enjoying it4 ,particularly people who can't otherwise afford to pay #aa ,,usd for a book4 ,people such as cash strapped hackers4 ,this book is about them1 their lives and obsessions4 ,it rubs clear a small circle in the frosted glass so the reader can peer into that hazy world4 ,underground' belongs on the ,net1 in their ephemeral landscape4 ,the critics have been good to ,underground'1 for which ,i am very grateful4 ,but the best praise came from two of the hackers detailed in the book4 ,surprising praise1 because while the text is free of the narrative moralising that plague other works1 the selection of material is often very personal and evokes mixed sympathies4 ,one of the hackers1 ,anthrax dropped by my office to say ,hi'4 ,out of the blue1 he said with a note of amazement1 ,when ,i read those chapters1 it was so real1 as if you had been right there inside my head'4 ,not long after ,par1 half a world away1 and with a real tone of bewildered incredulity in his voice made exactly the same observation4 ,for a writer1 it just doesn't get any better than that4 ,by releasing this book for free on the ,net1 ,i'm hoping more people will not only enjoy the story of how the international computer underground rose to power1 but also make the journey into the minds of hackers involved4 ,when ,i first began sketching out the book's structure1 ,i decided to go with depth4 ,i wanted the reader to think1 ',,now ,i understand1 because ,i too was there4' ,i hope those words will enter your thoughts as you read this electronic book4 ,michael ,hall1 a supersmart lawyer on the book's legal team1 told me in ,july last year he saw a young man in ,sydney reading a copy of ,underground' beside him on the #chj bus to ,north ,bondi4 ,michael said he wanted to lean over and proclaim proudly1 ,i legalled that book6'4 ,instead1 he chose to watch the young man's reactions4 ,the young man was completely absorbed1 reading hungrily through his well-worn copy1 which he had completely personalised4 ,the pages were covered in highlighter1 scrawled margin writing and post-it notes4 ,he had underlined sections and dog-eared pages4 ,if the bus had detoured to ,brisbane1 he probably wouldn't have noticed4 ,i like that4 ,call me subversive1 but ,i'm chuffed ,underground' is engaging enough to make people miss bus stops4 ,it makes me happy1 and happy people usually want to share4 ,there are other reasons for releasing ,underground' in this format4 ,the electronic version is being donated to the visionary ,project ,gutenburg1 a collection of free electronic books run with missionary zeal by ,michael ,hart4 ,project ,gutenburg promises to keep old out-of-print books in free electronic'' print forever1 to bring literature to those who can't afford books1 and to brighten the world of the visually impaired4 ,underground' isn't out of print -- and long may it remain that way -- but those are laudable goals4 ,i wrote in the ,introduction' to the printed edition about my great aunt1 a diver and artist who pioneered underwater painting in the #aidjs4 ,she provided me with a kind of inspiration for this book4 ,what ,i didn't mention is that as a result of macular degeneration in both eyes1 she is now blind4 ,she can no longer paint or dive4 ,but she does read - avidly - through talking books'4 ,she is another reason ,i decided to release ,underground' in this format4 ,so1 now you can download and read the electronic version of ,underground' for free4 ,you can also send the work to your friends for free4 ,or your enemies4 ,at over a megabyte of plain text each1 a few dozen copies of underground make an extremely effective mail bomb4 ,that's a joke1 folks1 not a suggestion4 2-7 ,like many of the people in this book1 ,i'm not big on rules4 ,fortunately1 there aren't many that come with this electronic version4 ,don't print the work on paper1 ,,cd or any other format1 except for your own personal reading pleasure4 ,this includes using the work as teaching material in institutions4 ,you must not alter or truncate the work in any way4 ,you must not redistribute the work for any sort of payment1 including selling it on its own or as part of a package4 ,random ,house is a friendly place1 but as one of the world's largest publishers it has a collection of equally large lawyers4 ,messing with them will leave you with scars in places that could be hard to explain to any future partner4 ,if you want to do any of these things1 please contact me or my literary agents ,curtis ,brown ,co first4 ,i retain the copyright on the work4 ,julian ,assange designed the elegant layout of this electronic edition1 and he retains ownership of this design and layout4 ,if you like the electronic version of the book1 do buy the paper version4 ,why8 ,for starters1 it's not only much easier to read on the bus1 its much easier to read full stop4 ,it's also easier to thumb through1 highlight1 scribble on1 dribble on1 and show off4 ,it never needs batteries4 ,it can run on solar power and candles4 ,it looks sexy on your bookshelf1 by your bed and in your bed4 ,if you are a male geek1 the book comes with a girl-magnet guarantee4 ,the paper version is much easier to lend to a prospective girlfriend4 ,when she's finished reading the book1 ask her which hacker thrilled her to pieces4 ,then nod knowingly1 and say coyly ,well1 ,i've never admitted this to anyone except the author and the ,feds1 but 44' ,and the most important reason to purchase a paper copy8 ,because buying the printed edition of the book lets the author continue to write more fine books like this one4 ,enjoy6 ,suelette ,dreyfus ,january #bjja sueletteiq4org ,researcher's introduction4 ,man is least himself when he talks in his own person4 ,give him a mask1 and he will tell you the truth -- ,oscar ,wilde ,what is essential is invisible to the eye -- ,antoine ,de ,saint-,exupery ,but1 how do you 99know99 it happened like that8 -- ,reader ,due of the seamless nature of ,underground' this is a reasonable question to ask1 although hints can be found at the back of the book in the ,bibliography and ,endnotes4 ,the simple answer to this question is that we conducted over a hundred interviews and collected around #dj1jjj pages of primary documentation2 telephone intercepts1 data intercepts1 log-files1 witness statements1 confessions1 judgements4 ,telephone dialog and on-line discussions are drawn directly from the latter4 ,every significant hacking incident mentioned in this book has reams of primary documentation behind it4 ,system ,x included4 ,the non-simple answer goes more like this3 ,in chapter #d1 ,par1 one of the principle subjects of this book1 is being watched by the ,secret ,service4 ,he's on the run4 ,he's a wanted fugitive4 ,he's hiding out with another hacker1 ,nibbler in a motel chalet1 ,black ,mountain1 ,north ,carolina4 ,the ,secret ,service move in4 ,the incident is vital in explaining ,par's life on the run and the nature of his interaction with the ,secret ,service4 ,yet1 just before the final edits of this book were to go the publisher1 all the pages relating to the ,block ,mountain incident were about to be pulled4 ,why8 ,suelette had flown to ,tuscon ,az where she spent three days interviewing ,par4 ,i had spent dozens of hours interviewing ,par on the phone and on-line4 ,par gave both of us extraordinary access to his life4 ,while ,par displayed a high degree of paranoia about why events had unfolded in the manner they had1 he was consistent1 detailed and believable as to the events themselves4 ,he showed very little blurring of these two realities1 but we needed to show none at all4 ,during ,par's time on the run1 the international computer underground was a small and strongly connected place4 ,we had already co-incidentally interviewed half a dozen hackers he had communicated with at various times during his zig-zag flight across ,america4 ,suelette also spoke at length to his lead lawyer ,richard ,rosen1 who1 after getting the all-clear from ,par1 was kind enough to send us a copy of the legal brief4 ,we had logs of messages ,par had written on underground ,,bbs's4 ,we had data intercepts of other hackers in conversation with ,par4 ,we had obtained various ,secret ,service documents and propriety security reports relating to ,par's activities4 ,i had extensively interviewed his ,swiss girlfriend ,theorem 7who had also been involved with ,electron and ,pengo71 and yes1 she did have a melting ,french accent4 ,altogether we had an enormous amount of material on ,par's activities1 all of which was consistent with what ,par had said during his interviews1 but none of it1 including ,rosen's file1 contained any reference to ,black ,mountain1 ,,nc4 ,rosen1 ,theorem and others had heard about a ,,ss raid on the run1 yet when the story was traced back1 it always led to one source4 ,to ,par4 ,was ,par having us on8 ,par had said that he had made a telephone call to ,theorem in ,switzerland from a phone booth outside the motel a day or two before the ,secret ,service raid4 ,during a storm4 ,not just any storm4 ,hurricane ,hugo4 ,but archival news reports on ,hugo discussed it hitting ,south ,carolina1 not ,north ,carolina4 ,and not ,black ,mountain4 ,theorem remembered ,par calling once during a storm4 ,but not ,hugo4 ,and she didn't remember it in relation to the ,black ,mountain raid4 ,par had destroyed most of his legal documents1 in circumstances that become clear in the book1 but of the hundreds of pages of documentary material we had obtained from other sources there was wasn't a single mention of ,black ,mountain4 ,the ,black ,mountain ,motel didn't seem to exist4 ,par said ,nibbler had moved and couldn't be located4 ,dozens of calls by ,suelette to the ,secret ,service told us what we didn't want to hear4 ,the agents we thought most likely to have been involved in the the hypothetical ,black ,mountain incident had either left the ,secret ,service or were otherwise unreachable4 ,the ,secret ,service had no idea who would have been involved1 because while ,par was still listed in the ,secret ,service central database1 his profile1 contained three significant annotations3 #a4 ,another agency had borrowed'' parts ,par's file4 #b4 ,there were medical issues'' surrounding ,par4 #c4 ,,ss documents covering the time of ,black ,mountain incident had been destroyed for various reasons that become clear the book4 #d4 ,the remaining ,,ss documents had been moved into deep-storage'' and would take two weeks to retrieve4 ,with only one week before our publisher's use it or lose it'' dead-line1 the chances of obtaining secondary confirmation of the ,black ,mountain events did not look promising4 ,while we waited for leads on the long trail of ex1 transfered and seconded ,,ss agents who might have been involved in the ,black ,mountain raid1 ,i turned to resolving the two inconsistencies in ,par's story2 ,hurricane ,hugo and the strange invisibility of the ,black ,mountain ,motel4 ,hurricane ,hugo had wreathed a path of destruction1 but like most most hurricanes heading directly into a continental land-mass it had started out big and ended up small4 ,news reports followed this pattern1 with a large amount of material on its initial impact1 but little or nothing about subsequent events4 ,finally ,i obtained detailed time by velocity weather maps from the ,national ,reconnaissance ,office1 which showed the remaining ,hugo epicentre ripping through ,charlotte ,,nc 7pop4 #djjk7 before spending itself on the ,carolinas4 ,database searches turned up a report by ,natalie1 ,d4 ,ball1 ,w1 ,,eis ,coordinator1 ,north ,carolina ,emergency ,management1 ,how ,north ,carolina ,managed ,hurricane ,hugo' -- which was used to flesh out the scenes in ,chapter #d describing ,par's escape to ,new ,york via the ,charlotte ,airport4 ,old ,fashioned gum-shoe leg-work1 calling every motel in ,black ,mountain and the surrounding area1 revealed that the ,black ,mountain ,motel had changed name1 ownership and44 all its staff4 ,par's story was holding1 but in someways ,i wished it hadn't4 ,we were back to square one in terms of gaining independent secondary confirmation4 ,who else could have been involved8 ,there must have been a paper-trail outside of ,washington4 ,perhaps the ,,ss representation in ,charlotte had something8 ,no4 ,perhaps there were records of the warrants in the ,charlotte courts8 ,no4 ,perhaps ,,nc state police attended the ,,ss raid in support8 ,maybe1 but finding walm bodies who had been directly involved proved proved futile4 ,if it was a ,,ss case1 they had no indexable records that they were willing to provide4 ,what about the local coppers8 ,an ,,ss raid on a fugitive computer hacker holed up at one of the local motels was not the sort of event that would be likely to have passed unnoticed at the ,black ,mountain county police office1 indexable records or not4 ,neither however1 were international telephone calls from strangely accented foreign-nationals wanting to know about them4 ,perhaps the ,reds were no-longer under the beds1 but in ,black ,mountain1 this could be explained away by the fact they were now hanging out in phone booths4 ,i waited for a new shift at the ,black ,mountain county police office1 hoping against hope1 that the officer ,i had spoken to wouldn't contaminate his replacement4 ,shamed1 ,i resorted to using that most special of ,,us militia infiltration devices4 ,an ,american accent and a woman's touch4 ,suelette weaved her magic4 ,the ,black ,mountain raid had taken place4 ,the county police had supported it4 ,we had our confirmation4 ,while this anecdote is a strong account1 it's also representative one4 ,every chapter in underground has many tales just like it4 ,they're unseen1 because a book must not just be true in details1 but true in feeling4 ,true to the visible and the invisible4 ,a difficult combination4 ,julian ,assange ,january #bjja proffiq4org ,literary ,freeware3 ,not for ,commercial ,use4 ,copyright 7c7 #aiig1 #bjja ,suelette ,dreyfus ,julian ,assange ,this ,,html and text electronic version was arranged by ,julian ,assange proffiq4org and is based on the printed paper edition4 ,permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this publication provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies and distribution is without fee4 ,contents4 ,acknowledgements viii ,introduction xi #a #aj1 #i1 #h1 #g1 #f1 #e1 #d1 #c1 #b1 #a #a #b ,the ,corner ,pub #de #c ,the ,american ,connection #hd #d ,the ,fugitive #abj #e ,the ,holy ,grail #aei #f ,page ,one1 the ,new ,york ,times #bab #g ,judgment ,day #bdd #h ,the ,international ,subversives #bhe #i ,operation ,weather #cbc #aj ,anthrax--the ,outsider #cfd #aa ,the ,prisoner's ,dilemma #djj ,afterword #dbg ,glossary and ,abbreviations #dee ,notes #dfj ,bibliography ,page numbers above correspond to the ,random ,house printed edition ,acknowledgements4 ,there are many people who were interviewed for this work1 and many others who helped in providing documents so vital for fact checking4 ,often this help invovled spending a considerable amount of time explaining complex technical or legal matters4 ,i want to express my gratitude to all these people1 some of whom prefer to remain anonymous1 for their willingness to dig through the files in search of yet one more report and their patience in answering yet one more question4 ,i want to thank the members of the computer underground1 past and present1 who were interviewed for this book4 ,most gave me extraordinary access to their lives1 for which ,i am very grateful4 ,i also want to thank ,julian ,assange for his tireless research efforts4 ,his superb technical expertise and first-rate research is evidence by the immense number of details which are included in this book4 ,three exceptional women -- ,fiona ,inglis1 ,deb ,callaghan and ,jennifer ,byrne -- believed in my vision for this book and helped me to bring it to fruition4 ,carl ,harrison-,ford's excellent editing job streamlined a large and difficult manuscript despite the tight deadline4 ,thank you also to ,judy ,brookes4 ,i am also very grateful to the following people and organisations for their help 7in no particular order73 ,john ,mc,mahon1 ,ron ,tencati1 ,kevin ,oberman1 ,ray ,kaplan1 the ,new ,york ,daily ,news library staff1 the ,new ,york ,post library staff1 ,bow ,street ,magistrates ,court staff1 ,southwark ,court staff1 the ,,us ,secret ,service1 the ,black ,mountain ,police1 ,michael ,rosenberg1 ,michael ,rosen1 ,melbourne ,magistrates ,court staff1 ,d4,l ,sellers ,co4 staff1 ,victorian ,county ,court staff1 ,paul ,galbally1 ,mark ,dorset1 ,suburbia4net1 ,freeside ,communications1 ,greg ,hooper1 ,h,s ,support ,services1 ,peter ,andrews1 ,kevin ,thompson1 ,andrew ,weaver1 ,mukhtar ,hussain1 ,midnight ,oil1 ,helen ,meredith1 ,ivan ,himmelhoch1 ,michael ,hall1 ,donn ,ferris1 ,victorian ,state ,library staff1 ,news ,limited library staff 7,sydney71 ,allan ,young1 ,ed ,de,hart1 ,annette ,seeber1 ,arthur ,arkin1 ,doug ,barnes1 ,jeremy ,porter1 ,james ,mc,nabb1 ,carolyn ,ford1 ,,ata1 ,domini ,banfield1 ,alistair ,kelman1 ,ann-,maree ,moodie1 ,jane ,hutchinson1 ,catherine ,murphy1 ,norma ,hawkins1 ,n4 ,llewelyn1 ,christine ,assange1 ,russel ,brand1 ,matthew ,bishop1 ,matthew ,cox1 ,michele ,ziehlky1 ,andrew ,james1 ,brendan ,mc,grath1 ,warner ,chappell ,music ,australia1 ,news ,limited1 ,pearson ,williams ,solicitors1 ,tami ,friedman1 the ,free ,software ,foundation 7,,gnu ,project71 and the ,,us ,department of ,energy ,computer ,incident ,advisory ,capability4 ,finally1 ,i would like to thank my family1 whose unfailing support1 advice and encouragement have made this book possible4 ,introduction4 ,my great aunt used to paint underwater4 ,piling on the weighty diving gear used in #aici and looking like something out of #bjjjj ,leagues ,under the ,sea1 ,lucie slowly sank below the surface1 with palette1 special paints and canvas in hand4 ,she settled on the ocean floor1 arranged her weighted painter's easel and allowed herself to become completely enveloped by another world4 ,red and white striped fish darted around fields of blue-green coral and blue-lipped giant clams4 ,lionfish drifted by1 gracefully waving their dangerous feathered spines4 ,striped green moray eels peered at her from their rock crevice homes4 ,lucie dived and painted everywhere4 ,the ,sulu ,archipelago4 ,mexico4 ,australia's ,great ,barrier ,reef4 ,hawaii4 ,borneo4 ,sometimes she was the first white woman seen by the ,pacific villagers she lived with for months on end4 ,as a child1 ,i was entranced by her stories of the unknown world below the ocean's surface1 and the strange and wonderful cultures she met on her journeys4 ,i grew up in awe of her chosen task3 to capture on canvas the essence of a world utterly foreign to her own4 ,new technology--revolutionary for its time--had allowed her to do this4 ,using a compressor1 or sometimes just a hand pump connected to air hoses running to the surface1 human beings were suddenly able to submerge themselves for long periods in an otherwise inaccessible world4 ,new technology allowed her to both venture into this unexplored realm1 and to document it in canvas4 ,i came upon the brave new world of computer communications and its darker side1 the underground1 quite by accident4 ,it struck me somewhere in the journey that followed that my trepidations and conflicting desires to explore this alien world were perhaps not unlike my aunt's own desires some half a century before4 ,like her journey1 my own travels have only been made possible by new technologies4 ,and like her1 ,i have tried to capture a small corner of this world4 ,this is a book about the computer underground4 ,it is not a book about law enforcement agencies1 and it is not written from the point of view of the police officer4 ,from a literary perspective1 ,i have told this story through the eyes of numerous computer hackers4 ,in doing so1 ,i hope to provide the reader with a window into a mysterious1 shrouded and usually inaccessible realm4 ,who are hackers8 ,why do they hack8 ,there are no simple answers to these questions4 ,each hacker is different4 ,to that end1 ,i have attempted to present a collection of individual but interconnected stories1 bound by their links to the international computer underground4 ,these are true stories1 tales of the world's best and the brightest hackers and phreakers4 ,there are some members of the underground whose stories ,i have not covered1 a few of whom would also rank as world-class4 ,in the end1 ,i chose to paint detailed portraits of a few hackers rather than attempt to compile a comprehensive but shallow catalogue4 ,while each hacker has a distinct story1 there are common themes which appear throughout many of the stories4 ,rebellion against all symbols of authority4 ,dysfunctional families4 ,bright children suffocated by ill-equipped teachers4 ,mental illness or instability4 ,obsession and addiction4 ,i have endeavoured to track what happened to each character in this work over time3 the individual's hacking adventures1 the police raid and the ensuing court case4 ,some of those court cases have taken years to reach completion4 ,hackers use handles'--on-line nicknames--that serve two purposes4 ,they shield the hacker's identity and1 importantly1 they often make a statement about how the hacker perceives himself in the underground4 ,hawk1 ,crawler1 ,toucan ,jones1 ,comhack1 ,dataking1 ,spy1 ,ripmax1 ,fractal ,insanity1 ,blade4 ,these are all real handles used in ,australia4 ,in the computer underground1 a hacker's handle is his name4 ,for this reason1 and because most hackers in this work have now put together new lives for themselves1 ,i have chosen to use only their handles4 ,where a hacker has had more than one handle1 ,i have used the one he prefers4 ,each chapter in this book is headed with a quote from a ,midnight ,oil song which expresses an important aspect of the chapter4 ,the ,oilz are uniquely ,australian4 ,their loud voice of protest against the establishment--particularly the military-industrial establishment--echoes a key theme in the underground1 where music in general plays a vital role4 ,the idea for using these ,oilz extracts came while researching ,chapter #a1 which reveals the tale of the ,,wank worm crisis in ,,nasa4 ,next to the ,,rtm worm1 ,,wank is the most famous worm in the history of computer networks4 ,and it is the first major worm bearing a political message4 ,with ,,wank1 life imitated art1 since the term computer worm' came from ,john ,brunner's sci-fi novel1 ,the ,shockwave ,rider1 about a politically motivated worm4 ,the ,,wank worm is also believed to be the first worm written by an ,australian1 or ,australians4 ,this chapter shows the perspective of the computer system administrators--the people on the other side from the hackers4 ,lastly1 it illustrates the sophistication which one or more ,australian members of the worldwide computer underground brought to their computer crimes4 ,the following chapters set the scene for the dramas which unfold and show the transition of the underground from its early days1 its loss of innocence1 its closing ranks in ever smaller circles until it reached the inevitable outcome3 the lone hacker4 ,in the beginning1 the computer underground was a place1 like the corner pub1 open and friendly4 ,now1 it has become an ephemeral expanse1 where hackers occasionally bump into one another but where the original sense of open community has been lost4 ,the computer underground has changed over time1 largely in response to the introduction of new computer crime laws across the globe and to numerous police crackdowns4 ,this work attempts to document not only an important piece of ,australian history1 but also to show fundamental shifts in the underground --to show1 in essence1 how the underground has moved further underground4 ,suelette ,dreyfus ,march #aiig ,,chapter #a -- #aj1 #i1 #h1 #g1 #f1 #e1 #d1 #c1 #b1 #a4 ,somebody's out there1 somebody's waiting2 ,somebody's trying to tell me something4 -- from ,somebody's ,trying to ,tell ,me ,something'1 #aj1 #i1 #h1 #g1 #f1 #e1 #d1 #c1 #b1 #a4 ,monday1 #af ,october #aihi ,kennedy ,space ,center1 ,florida ,,nasa buzzed with the excitement of a launch4 ,galileo was finally going to ,jupiter4 ,administrators and scientists in the world's most prestigious space agency had spent years trying to get the unmanned probe into space4 ,now1 on ,tuesday1 #ag ,october1 if all went well1 the five astronauts in the ,atlantis space shuttle would blast off from the ,kennedy ,space ,center at ,cape ,canaveral1 ,florida1 with ,galileo in tow4 ,on the team's fifth orbit1 as the shuttle floated #bie kilometres above the ,gulf of ,mexico1 the crew would liberate the three-tonne space probe4 ,an hour later1 as ,galileo skated safely away from the shuttle1 the probe's #cbejj pound booster system would fire up and ,,nasa staff would watch this exquisite piece of human ingenuity embark on a six-year mission to the largest planet in the solar system4 ,galileo would take a necessarily circuitous route1 flying by ,venus once and ,earth twice in a gravitational slingshot effort to get up enough momentum to reach ,jupiter4#b ,,nasa's finest minds had wrestled for years with the problem of exactly how to get the probe across the solar system4 ,solar power was one option4 ,but if ,jupiter was a long way from ,earth1 it was even further from the ,sun--#ggh4c million kilometres to be exact4 ,galileo would need ridiculously large solar panels to generate enough power for its instruments at such a distance from the ,sun4 ,in the end1 ,,nasa's engineers decided on a tried if not true earthly energy source3 nuclear power4 ,nuclear power was perfect for space1 a giant void free of human life which could play host to a bit of radioactive plutonium #bch dioxide4 ,the plutonium was compact for the amount of energy it gave off--and it lasted a long time4 ,it seemed logical enough4 ,pop just under #bd kilograms of plutonium in a lead box1 let it heat up through its own decay1 generate electricity for the probe's instruments1 and presto6 ,galileo would be on its way to investigate ,jupiter4 ,american anti-nuclear activists didn't quite see it that way4 ,they figured what goes up might come down4 ,and they didn't much like the idea of plutonium rain4 ,,nasa assured them ,galileo's power pack was quite safe4 ,the agency spent about #ej million on tests which supposedly proved the probe's generators were very safe4 ,they would survive intact in the face of any number of terrible explosions1 mishaps and accidents4 ,,nasa told journalists that the odds of a plutonium release due to inadvertent atmospheric re-entry' were #a in #b million4 ,the likelihood of a plutonium radiation leak as a result of a launch disaster was a reassuring #a in #bgjj4 ,the activists weren't having a bar of it4 ,in the best tradition of modern ,american conflict resolution1 they took their fight to the courts4 ,the coalition of anti-nuclear and other groups believed ,america's ,national ,aeronautics and ,space ,administration had underestimated the odds of a plutonium accident and they wanted a ,,us ,district ,court in ,washington to stop the launch4 ,the injunction application went in1 and the stakes went up4 ,the unprecedented hearing was scheduled just a few days before the launch1 which had originally been planned for #ab ,october4 ,for weeks1 the protesters had been out in force1 demonstrating and seizing media attention4 ,things had become very heated4 ,on ,saturday1 #g ,october1 sign-wielding activists fitted themselves out with gas masks and walked around on street corners in nearby ,cape ,canaveral in protest4 ,at #h a4m4 on ,monday1 #i ,october1 ,,nasa started the countdown for the ,thursday blast-off4 ,but as ,atlantis's clock began ticking toward take-off1 activists from the ,florida ,coalition for ,peace and ,justice demonstrated at the centre's tourist complex4 ,that these protests had already taken some of the shine off ,,nasa's bold space mission was the least of the agency's worries4 ,the real headache was that the ,florida ,coalition told the media it would put people on the launchpad in a non-violent protest'4#c ,the coalition's director1 ,bruce ,gagnon1 put the threat in folksy terms1 portraying the protesters as the little people rebelling against a big bad government agency4 ,president ,jeremy ,rivkin of the ,foundation on ,economic ,trends1 another protest group1 also drove a wedge between the people' and ,,nasa's people'4 ,he told ,,upi1 ,the astronauts volunteered for this mission4 ,those around the world who may be the victims of radiation contamination have not volunteered4'#d ,but the protesters weren't the only people working the media4 ,,nasa knew how to handle the press4 ,they simply rolled out their superstars--the astronauts themselves4 ,these men and women were1 after all1 frontier heroes who dared to venture into cold1 dark space on behalf of all humanity4 ,atlantis commander ,donald ,williams didn't hit out at the protesters in a blunt fashion1 he just damned them from an aloof distance4 ,there are always folks who have a vocal opinion about something or other1 no matter what it is1' he told an interviewer4 ,on the other hand1 it's easy to carry a sign4 ,it's not so easy to go forth and do something worthwhile4'#e ,,nasa had another trump card in the families of the heroes4 ,atlantis co-pilot ,michael ,mc,culley said the use of ,r,t,gs1 ,radioisotope ,thermoelectric ,generators--the chunks of plutonium in the lead boxes--was a non-issue'4 ,so much so1 in fact1 that he planned to have his loved ones at the ,space ,center when ,atlantis took off4 ,maybe the astronauts were nutty risk-takers1 as the protesters implied1 but a hero would never put his family in danger4 ,besides the ,vice-,president of the ,united ,states1 ,dan ,quayle1 also planned to watch the launch from inside the ,kennedy ,space ,center control room1 a mere seven kilometres from the launchpad4 ,while ,,nasa looked calm1 in control of the situation1 it had beefed up its security teams4 ,it had about #bjj security guards watching the launch site4 ,,nasa just wasn't taking any chances4 ,the agency's scientists had waited too long for this moment4 ,galileo's parade would not be rained on by a bunch of peaceniks4 ,the launch was already running late as it was--almost seven years late4 ,congress gave the ,galileo project its stamp of approval way back in #aigg and the probe1 which had been budgeted to cost about #djj million1 was scheduled to be launched in #aihb4 ,however1 things began going wrong almost from the start4 ,in #aigi1 ,,nasa pushed the flight out to #aihd because of shuttle development problems4 ,galileo was now scheduled to be a split launch'1 which meant that ,,nasa would use two different shuttle trips to get the mothership and the probe into space4 ,by #aiha1 with costs spiralling upwards1 ,,nasa made major changes to the project4 ,it stopped work on ,galileo's planned three-stage booster system in favour of a different system and pushed out the launch deadline yet again1 this time to #aihe4 ,after a federal ,budget cut fight in #aiha to save ,galileo's booster development program1 ,,nasa moved the launch yet again1 to ,may #aihf4 ,the #aihf ,challenger disaster1 however1 saw ,,nasa change ,galileo's booster system for safety reasons1 resulting in yet more delays4 ,the best option seemed to be a two-stage1 solid-fuel ,,ius system4 ,there was only one problem4 ,that system could get ,galileo to ,mars or ,venus1 but the probe would run out of fuel long before it got anywhere near ,jupiter4 ,then ,roger ,diehl of ,,nasa's ,jet ,propulsion ,laboratory had a good idea4 ,loop ,galileo around a couple of nearby planets a few times so the probe would build up a nice little gravitational head of steam1 and then fling it off to ,jupiter4 ,galileo's ,,veega' trajectory--,venus-,earth-,earth-gravity -assist--delayed the spacecraft's arrival at ,jupiter for three extra years1 but it would get there eventually4 ,the anti-nuclear campaigners argued that each ,earth flyby increased the mission's risk of a nuclear accident4 ,but in ,,nasa's view1 such was the price of a successful slingshot4 ,galileo experienced other delays getting off the ground4 ,on ,monday1 #i ,october1 ,,nasa announced it had discovered a problem with the computer which controlled the shuttle's number #b main engine4 ,true1 the problem was with ,atlantis1 not ,galileo4 ,but it didn't look all that good to be having technical problems1 let alone problems with engine computers1 while the anti-nuclear activists' court drama was playing in the background4 ,,nasa's engineers debated the computer problem in a cross-country teleconference4 ,rectifying it would delay blast-off by more than a few hours4 ,it would likely take days4 ,and ,galileo didn't have many of those4 ,because of the orbits of the different planets1 the probe had to be on its way into space by #ba ,november4 ,if ,atlantis didn't take off by that date1 ,galileo would have to wait another nineteen months before it could be launched4 ,the project was already #a billion over its original #djj million budget4 ,the extra year and a half would add another #acj million or so and there was a good chance the whole project would be scrapped4 ,it was pretty much now or never for ,galileo4 ,despite torrential downpours which had deposited #ajj millimetres of rain on the launchpad and #aej millimetres in neighbouring ,melbourne1 ,florida1 the countdown had been going well4 ,until now4 ,,nasa took its decision4 ,the launch would be delayed by five days1 to #ag ,october1 so the computer problem could be fixed4 ,to those scientists and engineers who had been with ,galileo from the start1 it must have appeared at that moment as if fate really was against ,galileo4 ,as if1 for some unfathomable reason1 all the forces of the universe--and especially those on ,earth--were dead against humanity getting a good look at ,jupiter4 ,as fast as ,,nasa could dismantle one barrier1 some invisible hand would throw another down in its place4 ,monday1 #af ,october1 #aihi ,,nasa's ,goddard ,space ,flight ,center1 ,greenbelt1 ,maryland ,across the vast ,,nasa empire1 reaching from ,maryland to ,california1 from ,europe to ,japan1 ,,nasa workers greeted each other1 checked their in-trays for mail1 got their cups of coffee1 settled into their chairs and tried to login to their computers for a day of solving complex physics problems4 ,but many of the computer systems were behaving very strangely4 ,from the moment staff logged in1 it was clear that someone--or something--had taken over4 ,instead of the usual system's official identification banner1 they were startled to find the following message staring them in the face3 ,worms ,aginst ,nuclear ,killers6 ,your ,system ,has ,been ,officically ,wanked4 ,you talk of times of peace for all1 and then prepare for war4 ,wanked8 ,most of the ,american computer system managers reading this new banner had never heard the word wank4 ,who would want to invade ,,nasa's computer systems8 ,and who exactly were the ,worms ,against ,nuclear ,killers8 ,were they some loony fringe group8 ,were they a guerrilla terrorist group launching some sort of attack on ,,nasa8 ,and why worms'8 ,a worm was a strange choice of animal mascot for a revolutionary group4 ,worms were the bottom of the rung4 ,as in as lowly as a worm'4 ,who would chose a worm as a symbol of power8 ,as for the nuclear killers1 well1 that was even stranger4 ,the banner's motto--,you talk of times of peace for all1 and then prepare for war'--just didn't seem to apply to ,,nasa4 ,the agency didn't make nuclear missiles1 it sent people to the moon4 ,it did have military payloads in some of its projects1 but ,,nasa didn't rate very highly on the nuclear killer' scale next to other agencies of the ,,us ,government1 such as the ,department of ,defense4 ,so the question remained3 why ,,nasa8 ,and that word1 ,,wanked'4 ,it did not make sense4 ,what did it mean when a system was wanked'8 ,it meant ,,nasa had lost control over its computer systems4 ,a ,,nasa scientist logging in to an infected computer on that ,monday got the following message3 deleted file filename#a deleted file filename#b deleted file filename#c1 etc ,with those lines the computer told the scientist3 ,i am deleting all your files'4 ,the line looked exactly as if the scientist typed in the command3 delete_/log 99499 --exactly as if the scientist had instructed the computer to delete all the files herself4 ,the ,,nasa scientist must have started at the sight of her files rolling past on the computer screen1 one after another1 on their way to oblivion4 ,something was definitely wrong4 ,she would have tried to stop the process1 probably pressing the control key and the c' key at the same time4 ,this should have broken the command sequence at that moment and ordered the computer to stop what it was doing right away4 ,but it was the intruder1 not the ,,nasa scientist1 who controlled the computer at that moment4 ,and the intruder told the computer3 ,that command means nothing4 ,ignore it'4 ,the scientist would press the command key sequence again1 this time more urgently4 ,and again1 over and over4 ,she would be at once baffled at the illogical nature of the computer1 and increasingly upset4 ,weeks1 perhaps months1 of work spent uncovering the secrets of the universe4 ,all of it disappearing before her eyes--all of it being mindlessly devoured by the computer4 ,the whole thing beyond her control4 ,going4 ,going4 ,gone4 ,people tend not to react well when they lose control over their computers4 ,typically1 it brings out the worst in them--hand-wringing whines from the worriers1 aching entreaties for help from the sensitive1 and imperious table-thumping bellows from command-and-control types4 ,imagine1 if you will1 arriving at your job as a manager for one of ,,nasa's local computer systems4 ,you get into your office on that ,monday morning to find the phones ringing4 ,every caller is a distraught1 confused ,,nasa worker4 ,and every caller assures you that his or her file or accounting record or research project--every one of which is missing from the computer system--is absolutely vital4 ,in this case1 the problem was exacerbated by the fact that ,,nasa's field centres often competed with each other for projects4 ,when a particular flight project came up1 two or three centres1 each with hundreds of employees1 might vie for it4 ,losing control of the computers1 and all the data1 project proposals and costing1 was a good way to lose out on a bid and its often considerable funding4 ,this was not going to be a good day for the guys down at the ,,nasa ,,span computer network office4 ,this was not going to be a good day for ,john ,mc,mahon4 ,as the assistant ,,decnet protocol manager for ,,nasa's ,goddard ,space ,flight ,center in ,maryland1 ,john ,mc,mahon normally spent the day managing the chunk of the ,,span computer network which ran between ,goddard's fifteen to twenty buildings4 ,mc,mahon worked for ,code #fcj4d1 otherwise known as ,goddard's ,advanced ,data ,flow ,technology ,office1 in ,building #bh4 ,goddard scientists would call him up for help with their computers4 ,two of the most common sentences he heard were ,this doesn't seem to work' and ,i can't get to that part of the network from here'4 ,,span was the ,space ,physics ,analysis ,network1 which connected some #ajjjjj computer terminals across the globe4 ,unlike the ,internet1 which is now widely accessible to the general public1 ,,span only connected researchers and scientists at ,,nasa1 the ,,us ,department of ,energy and research institutes such as universities4 ,,span computers also differed from most ,internet computers in an important technical manner3 they used a different operating system4 ,most large computers on the ,internet use the ,unix operating system1 while ,,span was composed primarily of ,,vax computers running a ,,vms operating system4 ,the network worked a lot like the ,internet1 but the computers spoke a different language4 ,the ,internet talked' ,,tcp_/,,ip1 while ,,span spoke' ,,decnet4 ,indeed1 the ,,span network was known as a ,,decnet internet4 ,most of the computers on it were manufactured by the ,digital ,equipment ,corporation in ,massachusetts--hence the name ,,decnet4 ,,dec built powerful computers4 ,each ,,dec computer on the ,,span network might have #dj terminals hanging off it4 ,some ,,span computers had many more4 ,it was not unusual for one ,,dec computer to service #djj people4 ,in all1 more than a quarter of a million scientists1 engineers and other thinkers used the computers on the network4 ,an electrical engineer by training1 ,mc,mahon had come from ,,nasa's ,cosmic ,background ,explorer ,project1 where he managed computers used by a few hundred researchers4 ,goddard's ,building #g1 where he worked on the ,,cobe project1 as it was known1 housed some interesting research4 ,the project team was attempting to map the universe4 ,and they were trying to do it in wavelengths invisible to the human eye4 ,,nasa would launch the ,,cobe satellite in ,november #aihi4 ,its mission was to measure the diffuse infrared and microwave radiation from the early universe1 to the limits set by our astronomical environment'4#f ,to the casual observer the project almost sounded like a piece of modern art1 something which might be titled ,map of the ,universe in ,infrared'4 ,on #af ,october ,mc,mahon arrived at the office and settled into work1 only to face a surprising phone call from the ,,span project office4 ,todd ,butler and ,ron ,tencati1 from the ,national ,space ,science ,data ,center1 which managed ,,nasa's half of the ,,span network1 had discovered something strange and definitely unauthorised winding its way through the computer network4 ,it looked like a computer worm4 ,a computer worm is a little like a computer virus4 ,it invades computer systems1 interfering with their normal functions4 ,it travels along any available compatible computer network and stops to knock at the door of systems attached to that network4 ,if there is a hole in the security of the computer system1 it will crawl through and enter the system4 ,when it does this1 it might have instructions to do any number of things1 from sending computer users a message to trying to take over the system4 ,what makes a worm different from other computer programs1 such as viruses1 is that it is self-propagating4 ,it propels itself forward1 wiggles into a new system and propagates itself at the new site4 ,unlike a virus1 a worm doesn't latch onto a data file or a program4 ,it is autonomous4#g ,the term worm' as applied to computers came from ,john ,brunner's #aige science fiction classic1 ,the ,shockwave ,rider4 ,the novel described how a rebel computer programmer created a program called tapeworm' which was released into an omnipotent computer network used by an autocratic government to control its people4 ,the government had to turn off the computer network1 thus destroying its control1 in order to eradicate the worm4 ,brunner's book is about as close as most ,,vms computer network managers would ever have come to a real rogue worm4 ,until the late #aihjs1 worms were obscure things1 more associated with research in a computer laboratory4 ,for example1 a few benevolent worms were developed by ,xerox researchers who wanted to make more efficient use of computer facilities4#h ,they developed a town crier worm' which moved through a network sending out important announcements4 ,their diagnostic worm' also constantly weaved through the network1 but this worm was designed to inspect machines for problems4 ,for some computer programmers1 the creation of a worm is akin to the creation of life4 ,to make something which is intelligent enough to go out and reproduce itself is the ultimate power of creation4 ,designing a rogue worm which took over ,,nasa's computer systems might seem to be a type of creative immortality--like scattering pieces of oneself across the computers which put man on the moon4 ,at the time the ,,wank banner appeared on computer screens across ,,nasa1 there had only been two rogue worms of any note4 ,one of these1 the ,,rtm worm1 had infected the ,unix-based ,internet less than twelve months earlier4 ,the other worm1 known as ,father ,christmas1 was the first ,,vms worm4 ,father ,christmas was a small1 simple worm which did not cause any permanent damage to the computer networks it travelled along4 ,released just before ,christmas in #aihh1 it tried to sneak into hundreds of ,,vms machines and wait for the big day4 ,on ,christmas morning1 it woke up and set to work with great enthusiasm4 ,like confetti tossed from an overhead balcony1 ,christmas greetings came streaming out of worm-infested computer systems to all their users4 ,no-one within its reach went without a ,christmas card4 ,its job done1 the worm evaporated4 ,john ,mc,mahon had been part of the core team fighting off the ,father ,christmas worm4 ,at about #d p4m41 just a few days before ,christmas #aihh1 ,mc,mahon's alarm-monitoring programs began going haywire4 ,mc,mahon began trying to trace back the dozens of incoming connections which were tripping the warning bells4 ,he quickly discovered there wasn't a human being at the other end of the line4 ,after further investigation1 he found an alien program in his system1 called ,,hi4,,com4 ,as he read the pages of ,,hi4,,com code spilling from his line printer1 his eyes went wide4 ,he thought1 ,this is a worm6 ,he had never seen a worm before4 ,he rushed back to his console and began pulling his systems off the network as quickly as possible4 ,maybe he wasn't following protocol1 but he figured people could yell at him after the fact if they thought it was a bad idea4 ,after he had shut down his part of the network1 he reported back to the local area networking office4 ,with print-out in tow1 he drove across the base to the network office1 where he and several other managers developed a way to stop the worm by the end of the day4 ,eventually they traced the ,father ,christmas worm back to the system where they believed it had been released--in ,switzerland4 ,but they never discovered who created it4 ,father ,christmas was not only a simple worm2 it was not considered dangerous because it didn't hang around systems forever4 ,it was a worm with a use-by date4 ,by contrast1 the ,,span project office didn't know what the ,,wank invader was capable of doing4 ,they didn't know who had written or launched it4 ,but they had a copy of the program4 ,could ,mc,mahon have a look at it8 ,an affable computer programmer with the nickname ,fuzzface1 ,john ,mc,mahon liked a good challenge4 ,curious and cluey at the same time1 he asked the ,,span ,project ,office1 which was quickly becoming the crisis centre for the worm attack1 to send over a copy of the strange intruder4 ,he began pouring over the invader's seven printed pages of source code trying to figure out exactly what the thing did4 ,the two previous rogue worms only worked on specific computer systems and networks4 ,in this case1 the ,,wank worm only attacked ,,vms computer systems4 ,the source code1 however1 was unlike anything ,mc,mahon had ever seen4 ,it was like sifting through a pile of spaghetti1' he said4 ,you'd pull one strand out and figure1 ,,ok1 that is what that thing does4 ,but then you'd be faced with the rest of the tangled mess in the bowl4' ,the program1 in digital command language1 or ,,dcl1 wasn't written like a normal program in a nice organised fashion4 ,it was all over the place4 ,john worked his way down ten or fifteen lines of computer code only to have to jump to the top of the program to figure out what the next section was trying to do4 ,he took notes and slowly1 patiently began to build up a picture of exactly what this worm was capable of doing to ,,nasa's computer system4 ,it was a big day for the anti-nuclear groups at the ,kennedy ,space ,center4 ,they might have lost their bid in the ,,us ,district ,court1 but they refused to throw in the towel and took their case to the ,,us ,court of ,appeals4 ,on #af ,october the news came4 ,the ,appeals ,court had sided with ,,nasa4 ,protesters were out in force again at the front gate of the ,kennedy ,space ,center4 ,at least eight of them were arrested4 ,the ,st ,louis ,post-,dispatch carried an ,agence ,france-,presse picture of an #hj-year-old woman being taken into custody by police for trespassing4 ,jane ,brown1 of the ,florida ,coalition for ,peace and ,justice1 announced1 ,this is just 444 the beginning of the government's plan to use nuclear power and weapons in space1 including the ,star ,wars program'4 ,inside the ,kennedy ,center1 things were not going all that smoothly either4 ,late ,monday1 ,,nasa's technical experts discovered yet another problem4 ,the black box which gathered speed and other important data for the space shuttle's navigation system was faulty4 ,the technicians were replacing the cockpit device1 the agency's spokeswoman assured the media1 and ,,nasa was not expecting to delay the ,tuesday launch date4 ,the countdown would continue uninterrupted4 ,,nasa had everything under control4 ,everything except the weather4 ,in the wake of the ,challenger disaster1 ,,nasa's guidelines for a launch decision were particularly tough4 ,bad weather was an unnecessary risk1 but ,,nasa was not expecting bad weather4 ,meteorologists predicted an #hj per cent chance of favourable weather at launch time on ,tuesday4 ,but the shuttle had better go when it was supposed to1 because the longer term weather outlook was grim4 ,by ,tuesday morning1 ,galileo's keepers were holding their breath4 ,the countdown for the shuttle launch was ticking toward #ab4eg p4m4 ,the anti-nuclear protesters seemed to have gone quiet4 ,things looked hopeful4 ,galileo might finally go4 ,then1 about ten minutes before the launch time1 the security alarms went off4 ,someone had broken into the compound4 ,the security teams swung into action1 quickly locating the guilty intruder 444 a feral pig4 ,with the pig safely removed1 the countdown rolled on4 ,and so did the rain clouds1 gliding toward the space shuttle's emergency runway1 about six kilometres from the launchpad4 ,,nasa launch director ,robert ,sieck prolonged a planned hold' at ,t minus nine minutes4 ,atlantis had a #bf-minute window of opportunity4 ,after that1 its launch period would expire and take-off would have to be postponed1 probably until ,wednesday4 ,the weather wasn't going to budge4 ,at #a4ah p4m41 with ,atlantis's countdown now holding at just ,t minus five minutes1 ,sieck postponed the launch to ,wednesday4 ,back at the ,,span centre1 things were becoming hectic4 ,the worm was spreading through more and more systems and the phones were beginning to ring every few minutes4 ,,nasa computers were getting hit all over the place4 ,the ,,span project staff needed more arms4 ,they were simultaneously trying to calm callers and concentrate on developing an analysis of the alien program4 ,was the thing a practical joke or a time bomb just waiting to go off8 ,who was behind this8 ,,nasa was working in an information void when it came to ,,wank4 ,some staff knew of the protesters' action down at the ,space ,center1 but nothing could have prepared them for this4 ,,nasa officials were confident enough about a link between the protests against ,galileo and the attack on ,,nasa's computers to speculate publicly that the two were related4 ,it seemed a reasonable likelihood1 but there were still plenty of unanswered questions4 ,callers coming into the ,,span office were worried4 ,people at the other end of the phone were scared4 ,many of the calls came from network managers who took care of a piece of ,,span at a specific ,,nasa site1 such as the ,marshall ,space ,flight ,center4 ,some were panicking2 others spoke in a sort of monotone1 flattened by a morning of calls from #be different hysterical system administrators4 ,a manager could lose his job over something like this4 ,most of the callers to the ,,span head office were starved for information4 ,how did this rogue worm get into their computers8 ,was it malicious8 ,would it destroy all the scientific data it came into contact with8 ,what could be done to kill it8 ,,nasa stored a great deal of valuable information on its ,,span computers4 ,none of it was supposed to be classified1 but the data on those computers is extremely valuable4 ,millions of man-hours go into gathering and analysing it4 ,so the crisis team which had formed in the ,,nasa ,,span project office1 was alarmed when reports of massive data destruction starting coming in4 ,people were phoning to say that the worm was erasing files4 ,it was every computer manager's worst nightmare1 and it looked as though the crisis team's darkest fears were about to be confirmed4 ,yet the worm was behaving inconsistently4 ,on some computers it would only send anonymous messages1 some of them funny1 some bizarre and a few quite rude or obscene4 ,no sooner would a user login than a message would flash across his or her screen3 ,remember1 even if you win the rat race--you're still a rat4 ,or perhaps they were graced with some bad humour3 ,nothing is faster than the speed of light444 ,to prove this to yourself1 try opening the refrigerator door before the light comes on4 ,other users were treated to anti-authoritarian observations of the paranoid3 ,the ,,fbi is watching ,,you4 or ,vote anarchist4 ,but the worm did not appear to be erasing files on these systems4 ,perhaps the seemingly random file-erasing trick was a portent of things to come--just a small taste of what might happen at a particular time1 such as midnight4 ,perhaps an unusual keystroke by an unwitting computer user on those systems which seemed only mildly affected could trigger something in the worm4 ,one keystroke might begin an irreversible chain of commands to erase everything on that system4 ,the ,,nasa ,,span computer team were in a race with the worm4 ,each minute they spent trying to figure out what it did1 the worm was pushing forward1 ever deeper into ,,nasa's computer network4 ,every hour ,,nasa spent developing a cure1 the worm spent searching1 probing1 breaking and entering4 ,a day's delay in getting the cure out to all the systems could mean dozens of new worm invasions doing ,god knows what in vulnerable computers4 ,the ,,span team had to dissect this thing completely1 and they had to do it fast4 ,some computer network managers were badly shaken4 ,the ,,span office received a call from ,,nasa's ,jet ,propulsion ,laboratories in ,california1 an important ,,nasa centre with #fejj employees and close ties to ,california ,institute of ,technology 7,caltech74 ,,jpl was pulling itself off the network4 ,this worm was too much of a risk4 ,the only safe option was to isolate their computers4 ,there would be no ,,span ,,dec-based communications with the rest of ,,nasa until the crisis was under control4 ,this made things harder for the ,,span team2 getting a worm exterminating program out to ,,jpl1 like other sites which had cut their connection to ,,span1 was going to be that much tougher4 ,everything had to be done over the phone4 ,worse1 ,,jpl was one of five routing centres for ,,nasa's ,,span computer network4 ,it was like the centre of a wheel1 with a dozen spokes branching off--each leading to another ,,span site4 ,all these places1 known as tailsites1 depended on the lab site for their connections into ,,span4 ,when ,,jpl pulled itself off the network1 the tailsites went down too4 ,it was a serious problem for the people in the ,,span office back in ,virginia4 ,to ,ron ,tencati1 head of security for ,,nasa ,,span1 taking a routing centre off-line was a major issue4 ,but his hands were tied4 ,the ,,span office exercised central authority over the wide area network1 but it couldn't dictate how individual field centres dealt with the worm4 ,that was each centre's own decision4 ,the ,,span team could only give them advice and rush to develop a way to poison the worm4 ,the ,,span office called ,john ,mc,mahon again1 this time with a more urgent request4 ,would he come over to help handle the crisis8 ,the ,,span centre was only #hjj metres away from ,mc,mahon's office4 ,his boss1 ,jerome ,bennett1 the ,,decnet protocol manager1 gave the nod4 ,mc,mahon would be on loan until the crisis was under control4 ,when he got to ,building #bf1 home of the ,,nasa ,,span project office1 ,mc,mahon became part of a core ,,nasa crisis team including ,todd ,butler1 ,ron ,tencati and ,pat ,sisson4 ,other key ,,nasa people jumped in when needed1 such as ,dave ,peters and ,dave ,stern4 ,jim ,green1 the head of the ,national ,space ,science ,data ,center at ,goddard and the absolute boss of ,,span1 wanted hourly reports on the crisis4 ,at first the core team seemed only to include ,,nasa people and to be largely based at ,goddard4 ,but as the day wore on1 new people from other parts of the ,,us government would join the team4 ,the worm had spread outside ,,nasa4 ,it had also attacked the ,,us ,department of ,energy's worldwide ,high-,energy ,physics' ,network of computers4 ,known as ,,hepnet1 it was another piece of the overall ,,span network1 along with ,euro-,,hepnet and ,euro-,,span4 ,the ,,nasa and ,,doe computer networks of ,,dec computers crisscrossed at a number of places4 ,a research laboratory might1 for example1 need to have access to computers from both ,,hepnet and ,,nasa ,,span4 ,for convenience1 the lab might just connect the two networks4 ,the effect as far as the worm was concerned was that ,,nasa's ,,span and ,,doe's ,,hepnet were in fact just one giant computer network1 all of which the worm could invade4 ,the ,department of ,energy keeps classified information on its computers4 ,very classified information4 ,there are two groups in ,,doe3 the people who do research on civilian energy projects and the people who make atomic bombs4 ,so ,,doe takes security seriously1 as in threat to national security' seriously4 ,although ,,hepnet wasn't meant to be carrying any classified information across its wires1 ,,doe responded with military efficiency when its computer managers discovered the invader4 ,they grabbed the one guy who knew a lot about computer security on ,,vms systems and put him on the case3 ,kevin ,oberman4 ,like ,mc,mahon1 ,oberman wasn't formally part of the computer security staff4 ,he had simply become interested in computer security and was known in-house as someone who knew about ,,vms systems and security4 ,officially1 his job was network manager for the engineering department at the ,,doe-financed ,lawrence ,livermore ,national ,laboratory1 or ,,llnl1 near ,san ,francisco4 ,,llnl conducted mostly military research1 much of it for the ,strategic ,defense ,initiative4 ,many ,,llnl scientists spent their days designing nuclear arms and developing beam weapons for the ,star ,wars program4#i ,,doe already had a computer security group1 known as ,,ciac1 the ,computer ,incident ,advisory ,capability4 ,but the ,,ciac team tended to be experts in security issues surrounding ,unix rather than ,,vms-based computer systems and networks4 ,because there had been very few security problems over the years with ,,vms1' ,oberman concluded1 they had never brought in anybody who knew about ,,vms and it wasn't something they were terribly concerned with at the time4' ,the worm shattered that peaceful confidence in ,,vms computers4 ,even as the ,,wank worm coursed through ,,nasa1 it was launching an aggressive attack on ,,doe's ,fermi ,national ,accelerator ,laboratory1 near ,chicago4 ,it had broken into a number of computer systems there and the ,fermilab people were not happy4 ,they called in ,,ciac1 who contacted ,oberman with an early morning phone call on #af ,october4 ,they wanted him to analyse the ,,wank worm4 ,they wanted to know how dangerous it was4 ,most of all1 they wanted to know what to do about it4 ,the ,,doe people traced their first contact with the worm back to #ad ,october4 ,further1 they hypothesised1 the worm had actually been launched the day before1 on ,friday the #acth4 ,such an inauspicious day would1 in ,oberman's opinion1 have been in keeping with the type of humour exhibited by the creator or creators of the worm4 ,oberman began his own analysis of the worm1 oblivious to the fact that #cbjj kilometres away1 on the other side of the continent1 his colleague and acquaintance ,john ,mc,mahon was doing exactly the same thing4 ,every time ,mc,mahon answered a phone call from an irate ,,nasa system or network manager1 he tried to get a copy of the worm from the infected machine4 ,he also asked for the logs from their computer systems4 ,which computer had the worm come from8 ,which systems was it attacking from the infected site8 ,in theory1 the logs would allow the ,,nasa team to map the worm's trail4 ,if the team could find the managers of those systems in the worm's path1 it could warn them of the impending danger4 ,it could also alert the people who ran recently infected systems which had become launchpads for new worm attacks4 ,this wasn't always possible4 ,if the worm had taken over a computer and was still running on it1 then the manager would only be able to trace the worm backward1 not forward4 ,more importantly1 a lot of the managers didn't keep extensive logs on their computers4 ,mc,mahon had always felt it was important to gather lots of information about who was connecting to a computer4 ,in his previous job1 he had modified his machines so they collected as much security information as possible about their connections to other computers4 ,,vms computers came with a standard set of alarms1 but ,mc,mahon didn't think they were thorough enough4 ,the ,,vms alarms tended to send a message to the computer managers which amounted to1 ,hi6 ,you just got a network connection from here'4 ,the modified alarm system said1 ,hi6 ,you just got a network connection from here4 ,the person at the other end is doing a file transfer' and any other bits and pieces of information that ,mc,mahon's computer could squeeze out of the other computer4 ,unfortunately1 a lot of other ,,nasa computer and network managers didn't share this enthusiasm for audit logs4 ,many did not keep extensive records of who had been accessing their machines and when1 which made the job of chasing the worm much tougher4 ,the ,,span office was1 however1 trying to keep very good logs on which ,,nasa computers had succumbed to the worm4 ,every time a ,,nasa manager called to report a worm disturbance1 one of the team members wrote down the details with paper and pen4 ,the list1 outlining the addresses of the affected computers and detailed notations of the degree of infection1 would also be recorded on a computer4 ,but handwritten lists were a good safeguard4 ,the worm couldn't delete sheets of paper4 ,when ,mc,mahon learned ,,doe was also under attack1 he began checking in with them every three hours or so4 ,the two groups swapped lists of infected computers by telephone because voice1 like the handwritten word1 was a worm-free medium4 ,it was a kind of archaic system1 but on the other hand we didn't have to depend on the network being up1' ,mc,mahon said4 ,we needed to have some chain of communications which was not the same as the network being attacked4' ,a number of the ,,nasa ,,span team members had developed contacts within different parts of ,,dec through the company's users' society1 ,,decus4 ,these contacts were to prove very helpful4 ,it was easy to get lost in the bureaucracy of ,,dec1 which employed more than #abejjj people1 posted a billion-dollar profit and declared revenues in excess of #ab billion in #aihi4aj ,such an enormous and prestigious company would not want to face a crisis such as the ,,wank worm1 particularly in such a publicly visible organisation like ,,nasa4 ,whether or not the worm's successful expedition could be blamed on ,,dec's software was a moot point4 ,such a crisis was1 well1 undesirable4 ,it just didn't look good4 ,and it mightn't look so good either if ,,dec just jumped into the fray4 ,it might look like the company was in some way at fault4 ,things were different1 however1 if someone already had a relationship with a technical expert inside the company4 ,it wasn't like ,,nasa manager cold-calling a ,,dec guy who sold a million dollars worth of machines to someone else in the agency six months ago4 ,it was the ,,nasa guy calling the ,,dec guy he sat next to at the conference last month4 ,it was a colleague the ,,nasa manager chatted with now and again4 ,john ,mc,mahon's analysis suggested there were three versions of the ,,wank worm4 ,these versions1 isolated from worm samples collected from the network1 were very similar1 but each contained a few subtle differences4 ,in ,mc,mahon's view1 these differences could not be explained by the way the worm recreated itself at each site in order to spread4 ,but why would the creator of the worm release different versions8 ,why not just write one version properly and fire it off8 ,the worm wasn't just one incoming missile2 it was a frenzied attack4 ,it was coming from all directions1 at all sorts of different levels within ,,nasa's computers4 ,mc,mahon guessed that the worm's designer had released the different versions at slightly different times4 ,maybe the creator released the worm1 and then discovered a bug4 ,he fiddled with the worm a bit to correct the problem and then released it again4 ,maybe he didn't like the way he had fixed the bug the first time1 so he changed it a little more and released it a third time4 ,in northern ,california1 ,kevin ,oberman came to a different conclusion4 ,he believed there was in fact only one real version of the worm spiralling through ,,hepnet and ,,span4 ,the small variations in the different copies he dissected seemed to stem from the worm's ability to learn and change as it moved from computer to computer4 ,mc,mahon and ,oberman weren't the only detectives trying to decipher the various manifestations of the worm4 ,,dec was also examining the worm1 and with good reason4 ,the ,,wank worm had invaded the corporation's own network4 ,it had been discovered snaking its way through ,,dec's own private computer network1 ,easynet1 which connected ,,dec manufacturing plants1 sales offices and other company sites around the world4 ,,dec was circumspect about discussing the matter publicly1 but the ,easynet version of the ,,wank worm was definitely distinct4 ,it had a strange line of code in it1 a line missing from any other versions4 ,the worm was under instructions to invade as many sites as it could1 with one exception4 ,under no circumstances was it to attack computers inside ,,dec's area #dh4 ,the ,,nasa team mulled over this information4 ,one of them looked up area #dh4 ,it was ,new ,zealand4 ,new ,zealand8 ,the ,,nasa team were left scratching their heads4 ,this attack was getting stranger by the minute4 ,just when it seemed that the ,,span team members were travelling down the right path toward an answer at the centre of the maze of clues1 they turned a corner and found themselves hopelessly lost again4 ,then someone pointed out that ,new ,zealand's worldwide claim to fame was that it was a nuclear-free zone4 ,in #aihf1 ,new ,zealand announced it would refuse to admit to its ports any ,,us ships carrying nuclear arms or powered by nuclear energy4 ,the ,,us retaliated by formally suspending its security obligations to the ,south ,pacific nation4 ,if an unfriendly country invaded ,new ,zealand1 the ,,us would feel free to sit on its hands4 ,the ,,us also cancelled intelligence sharing practices and joint military exercises4 ,many people in ,australia and ,new ,zealand thought the ,,us had overreacted4 ,new ,zealand hadn't expelled the ,americans2 it had simply refused to allow its population to be exposed to nuclear arms or power4 ,in fact1 ,new ,zealand had continued to allow the ,americans to run their spy base at ,waihopai1 even after the ,,us suspension4 ,the country wasn't anti-,,us1 just anti-nuclear4 ,and ,new ,zealand had very good reason to be anti-nuclear4 ,for years1 it had put up with ,france testing nuclear weapons in the ,pacific4 ,then in ,july #aihe the ,french blew up the ,greenpeace anti-nuclear protest ship as it sat in ,auckland harbour4 ,the ,rainbow ,warrior was due to sail for ,mururoa ,atoll1 the test site1 when ,french secret agents bombed the ship1 killing ,greenpeace activist ,fernando ,pereira4 ,for weeks1 ,france denied everything4 ,when the truth came out--that ,president ,mitterand himself had known about the bombing plan--the ,french were red-faced4 ,heads rolled4 ,french ,defence ,minister ,charles ,hernu was forced to resign4 ,admiral ,pierre ,lacoste1 director of ,france's intelligence and covert action bureau1 was sacked4 ,france apologised and paid ,,nz#ac million compensation in exchange for ,new ,zealand handing back the two saboteurs1 who had each been sentenced to ten years' prison in ,auckland4 ,as part of the deal1 ,france had promised to keep the agents incarcerated for three years at the ,hao atoll ,french military base4 ,both agents walked free by ,may #aihh after serving less than two years4 ,after her return to ,france1 one of the agents1 ,captain ,dominique ,prieur1 was promoted to the rank of commandant4 ,finally1 ,mc,mahon thought4 ,something that made sense4 ,the exclusion of ,new ,zealand appeared to underline the meaning of the worm's political message4 ,when the ,,wank worm invaded a computer system1 it had instructions to copy itself and send that copy out to other machines4 ,it would slip through the network and when it came upon a computer attached to the network1 it would poke around looking for a way in4 ,what it really wanted was to score a computer account with privileges1 but it would settle for a basic-level1 user-level account4 ,,vms systems have accounts with varying levels of privilege4 ,a high-privilege account holder might1 for example1 be able to read the electronic mail of another computer user or delete files from that user's directory4 ,he or she might also be allowed to create new computer accounts on the system1 or reactivate disabled accounts4 ,a privileged account holder might also be able to change someone else's password4 ,the people who ran computer systems or networks needed accounts with the highest level of privilege in order to keep the system running smoothly4 ,the worm specifically sought out these sorts of accounts because its creator knew that was where the power lay4 ,the worm was smart1 and it learned as it went along4 ,as it traversed the network1 it created a masterlist of commonly used account names4 ,first1 it tried to copy the list of computer users from a system it had not yet penetrated4 ,it wasn't always able to do this1 but often the system security was lax enough for it to be successful4 ,the worm then compared that list to the list of users on its current host4 ,when it found a match--an account name common to both lists--the worm added that name to the masterlist it carried around inside it1 making a note to try that account when breaking into a new system in future4 ,it was a clever method of attack1 for the worm's creator knew that certain accounts with the highest privileges were likely to have standard names1 common across different machines4 ,accounts with names such as ,,system'1 ,,decnet' and ,,field' with standard passwords such as ,,system' and ,,decnet' were often built into a computer before it was shipped from the manufacturer4 ,if the receiving computer manager didn't change the pre-programmed account and password1 then his computer would have a large security hole waiting to be exploited4 ,the worm's creator could guess some of the names of these manufacturer's accounts1 but not all of them4 ,by endowing the worm with an ability to learn1 he gave it far more power4 ,as the worm spread1 it became more and more intelligent4 ,as it reproduced1 its offspring evolved into ever more advanced creatures1 increasingly successful at breaking into new systems4 ,when ,mc,mahon performed an autopsy on one of the worm's progeny1 he was impressed with what he found4 ,slicing the worm open and inspecting its entrails1 he discovered an extensive collection of generic privileged accounts across the ,,span network4 ,in fact1 the worm wasn't only picking up the standard ,,vms privileged accounts2 it had learned accounts common to ,,nasa but not necessarily to other ,,vms computers4 ,for example1 a lot of ,,nasa sites which ran a type of ,,tcp_/,,ip mailer that needed either a ,,postmaster or a ,,mailer account4 ,john saw those names turn up inside the worm's progeny4 ,even if it only managed to break into an unprivileged account1 the worm would use the account as an incubator4 ,the worm replicated and then attacked other computers in the network4 ,as ,mc,mahon and the rest of the ,,span team continued to pick apart the rest of the worm's code to figure out exactly what the creature would do if it got into a fully privileged account1 they found more evidence of the dark sense of humour harboured by the hacker behind the worm4 ,part of the worm1 a subroutine1 was named find fucked'4 ,the ,,span team tried to give ,,nasa managers calling in as much information as they could about the worm4 ,it was the best way to help computer managers1 isolated in their offices around the country1 to regain a sense of control over the crisis4 ,like all the ,,span team1 ,mc,mahon tried to calm the callers down and walk them through a set a questions designed to determine the extent of the worm's control over their systems4 ,first1 he asked them what symptoms their systems were showing4 ,in a crisis situation1 when you're holding a hammer1 everything looks like a nail4 ,mc,mahon wanted to make sure that the problems on the system were in fact caused by the worm and not something else entirely4 ,if the only problem seemed to be mysterious comments flashing across the screen1 ,mc,mahon concluded that the worm was probably harassing the staff on that computer from a neighbouring system which it had successfully invaded4 ,the messages suggested that the recipients' accounts had not been hijacked by the worm4 ,yet4 ,,vax_/,,vms machines have a feature called ,phone1 which is useful for on-line communications4 ,for example1 a ,,nasa scientist could ring up' one of his colleagues on a different computer and have a friendly chat on-line4 ,the chat session is live1 but it is conducted by typing on the computer screen1 not voice'4 ,the ,,vms ,phone facility enabled the worm to send messages to users4 ,it would simply call them using the phone protocol4 ,but instead of starting a chat session1 it sent them statements from what was later determined to be the aptly named ,fortune ,cookie file--a collection of #fj or so pre-programmed comments4 ,in some cases1 where the worm was really bugging staff1 ,mc,mahon told the manager at the other end of the phone to turn the computer's ,phone feature off4 ,a few managers complained and ,mc,mahon gave them the obvious ultimatum3 choose ,phone or peace4 ,most chose peace4 ,when ,mc,mahon finished his preliminary analysis1 he had good news and bad news4 ,the good news was that1 contrary to what the worm was telling computer users all over ,,nasa1 it was not actually deleting their files4 ,it was just pretending to delete their data4 ,one big practical joke4 ,to the creator of the worm anyway4 ,to the ,,nasa scientists1 just a headache and heartache4 ,and occasionally a heart attack4 ,the bad news was that1 when the worm got control over a privileged account1 it would help someone--presumably its creator--perpetrate an even more serious break-in at ,,nasa4 ,the worm sought out the ,,field account created by the manufacturer and1 if it had been turned off1 tried to reactivate the account and install the password ,,field4 ,the worm was also programmed to change the password for the standard account named ,,decnet to a random string of at least twelve characters4 ,in short1 the worm tried to pry open a backdoor to the system4 ,the worm sent information about accounts it had successfully broken into back to a type of electronic mailbox--an account called ,,gempak on ,,span node #f4ei4 ,presumably1 the hacker who created the worm would check the worm's mailbox for information which he could use to break into the ,,nasa account at a later date4 ,not surprisingly1 the mailboxes had been surreptitiously borrowed' by the hacker1 much to the surprise of the legitimate owners4 ,a computer hacker created a whole new set of problems4 ,although the worm was able to break into new accounts with greater speed and reach than a single hacker1 it was more predictable4 ,once the ,,span and ,,doe teams picked the worm apart1 they would know exactly what it could be expected to do4 ,however1 a hacker was utterly unpredictable4 ,mc,mahon realised that killing off the worm was not going to solve the problem4 ,all the system managers across the ,,nasa and ,,doe networks would have to change all the passwords of the accounts used by the worm4 ,they would also have to check every system the worm had invaded to see if it had built a backdoor for the hacker4 ,the system admin had to shut and lock all the backdoors1 no small feat4 ,what really scared the ,,span team about the worm1 however1 was that it was rampaging through ,,nasa simply by using the simplest of attack strategies3 username equals password4 ,it was getting complete control over ,,nasa computers simply by trying a password which was identical to the name of the computer user's account4 ,the ,,span team didn't want to believe it1 but the evidence was overwhelming4 ,todd ,butler answered a call from one ,,nasa site4 ,it was a gloomy call4 ,he hung up4 ,that node just got hit1' he told the team4 ,how bad8' ,mc,mahon asked4 ,a privileged account4' ,oh boy4' ,mc,mahon jumped onto one of the terminals and did a ,,set ,,host1 logging into the remote ,,nasa site's machine4 ,bang4 ,up it came4 ,your system has officially been ,,wanked4' ,mc,mahon turned to ,butler4 ,what account did it get into8' ,they think it was ,,system4' ,the tension quietly rolled into black humour4 ,the team couldn't help it4 ,the head-slapping stupidity of the situation could only be viewed as black comedy4 ,the ,,nasa site had a password of ,,system for their fully privileged ,,system account4 ,it was so unforgivable4 ,,nasa1 potentially the greatest single collection of technical minds on ,earth1 had such lax computer security that a computer-literate teenager could have cracked it wide open4 ,the tall poppy was being cut down to size by a computer program resembling a bowl of spaghetti4 ,the first thing any computer system manager learns in ,computer ,security #aja is never to use the same password as the username4 ,it was bad enough that naive users might fall into this trap 444 but a computer system manager with a fully privileged account4 ,was the hacker behind the worm malevolent8 ,probably not4 ,if its creator had wanted to1 he could have programmed the ,,wank worm to obliterate ,,nasa's files4 ,it could have razed everything in sight4 ,in fact1 the worm was less infectious than its author appeared to desire4 ,the ,,wank worm had been instructed to perform several tasks which it didn't execute4 ,important parts of the worm simply didn't work4 ,mc,mahon believed this failure to be accidental4 ,for example1 his analysis showed the worm was programmed to break into accounts by trying no password1 if the account holder had left the password blank4 ,when he disassembled the worm1 however1 he found that part of the program didn't work properly4 ,nonetheless1 the fragmented and partly dysfunctional ,,wank worm was causing a major crisis inside several ,,us government agencies4 ,the thing which really worried ,john was thinking about what a seasoned ,,dcl programmer with years of ,,vms experience could do with such a worm4 ,someone like that could do a lot of malicious damage4 ,and what if the ,,wank worm was just a dry run for something more serious down the track8 ,it was scary to contemplate4 ,even though the ,,wank worm did not seem to be intentionally evil1 the ,,span team faced some tough times4 ,mc,mahon's analysis turned up yet more alarming aspects to the worm4 ,if it managed to break into the ,,system account1 a privileged account1 it would block all electronic mail deliveries to the system administrator4 ,the ,,span office would not be able to send electronic warnings or advice on how to deal with the worm to systems which had already been seized4 ,this problem was exacerbated by the lack of good information available to the project office on which systems were connected to ,,span4 ,the only way to help people fighting this bushfire was to telephone them1 but in many instances the main ,,span office didn't know who to call4 ,the ,,span team could only hope that those administrators who had the phone number of ,,span headquarters pinned up near their computers would call when their computers came under attack4 ,mc,mahon's preliminary report outlined how much damage the worm could do in its own right4 ,but it was impossible to measure how much damage human managers would do to their own systems because of the worm4 ,one frantic computer manager who phoned the ,,span office refused to believe ,john's analysis that the worm only pretended to erase data4 ,he claimed that the worm had not only attacked his system1 it had destroyed it4 ,he just didn't believe us when we told him that the worm was mostly a set of practical jokes1' ,mc,mahon said4 ,he reinitialised his system4' ,reinitialised' as in started up his system with a clean slate4 ,as in deleted everything on the infected computer--all the ,,nasa staff's data gone4 ,he actually did what the worm only pretended to do4 ,the sad irony was that the ,,span team never even got a copy of the data from the manager's system4 ,they were never able to confirm that his machine had even been infected4 ,all afternoon ,mc,mahon moved back and forth between answering the ever-ringing ,,span phone and writing up ,,nasa's analysis of the worm4 ,he had posted a cryptic electronic message about the attack across the network1 and ,kevin ,oberman had read it4 ,the message had to be circumspect since no-one knew if the creator of the ,,wank worm was in fact on the network1 watching1 waiting4 ,a short time later1 ,mc,mahon and ,oberman were on the phone together--voice--sharing their ideas and cross-checking their analysis4 ,the situation was discouraging4 ,even if ,mc,mahon and ,oberman managed to develop a successful program to kill off the worm1 the ,,nasa ,,span team faced another daunting task4 ,getting the worm-killer out to all the ,,nasa sites was going to be much harder than expected because there was no clear1 updated map of the ,,span network4 ,much of ,,nasa didn't like the idea of a centralised map of the ,,span system4 ,mc,mahon recalled that1 some time before the ,,wank worm attack1 a manager had tried to map the system4 ,his efforts had accidentally tripped so many system alarms that he was quietly taken aside and told not to do it again4 ,the result was that in instances where the team had phone contact details for managers1 the information was often outdated4 ,no1 he used to work here1 but he left over a year ago4' ,no1 we don't have a telephone tree of people to ring if something goes wrong with our computers4 ,there are a whole bunch of people in different places here who handle the computers4' ,this is what ,john often heard at the other end of the phone4 ,the network had grown into a rambling hodgepodge for which there was little central coordination4 ,worse1 a number of computers at different ,,nasa centres across the ,,us had just been tacked onto ,,span without telling the main office at ,goddard4 ,people were calling up the ad-hoc crisis centre from computer nodes on the network which didn't even have names4 ,these people had been practising a philosophy known in computer security circles as security through obscurity'4 ,they figured that if no-one knew their computer system existed--if it didn't have a name1 if it wasn't on any list or map of the ,,span network--then it would be protected from hackers and other computer enemies4 ,mc,mahon handled a number of phone calls from system managers saying1 ,there is something strange happening in my system here'4 ,john's most basic question was1 ,where is here8' ,and of course if the ,,span office didn't know those computer systems existed1 it was a lot harder to warn their managers about the worm4 ,or tell them how to protect themselves4 ,or give them a worm-killing program once it was developed4 ,or help them seal up breached accounts which the worm was feeding back to its creator4 ,it was such a mess4 ,at times1 ,mc,mahon sat back and considered who might have created this worm4 ,the thing almost looked as though it had been released before it was finished4 ,its author or authors seemed to have a good collection of interesting ideas about how to solve problems1 but they were never properly completed4 ,the worm included a routine for modifying its attack strategy1 but the thing was never fully developed4 ,the worm's code didn't have enough error handling in it to ensure the creature's survival for long periods of time4 ,and the worm didn't send the addresses of the accounts it had successfully breached back to the mailbox along with the password and account name4 ,that was really weird4 ,what use was a password and account name without knowing what computer system to use it on8 ,on the other hand1 maybe the creator had done this deliberately4 ,maybe he had wanted to show the world just how many computers the worm could successfully penetrate4 ,the worm's mail-back program would do this4 ,however1 including the address of each infected site would have made the admins' jobs easier4 ,they could simply have used the ,,gempak collection as a hitlist of infected sites which needed to be de-wormed4 ,the possible theories were endless4 ,there were some points of brilliance in the worm1 some things that ,mc,mahon had never considered1 which was impressive since he knew a lot about how to break into ,,vms computers4 ,there was also considerable creativity1 but there wasn't any consistency4 ,after the worm incident1 various computer security experts would hypothesise that the ,,wank worm had in fact been written by more than one person4 ,but ,mc,mahon maintained his view that it was the work of a single hacker4 ,it was as if the creator of the worm started to pursue an idea and then got sidetracked or interrupted4 ,suddenly he just stopped writing code to implement that idea and started down another path1 never again to reach the end4 ,the thing had a schizophrenic structure4 ,it was all over the place4 ,mc,mahon wondered if the author had done this on purpose1 to make it harder to figure out exactly what the worm was capable of doing4 ,perhaps1 he thought1 the code had once been nice and linear and it all made sense4 ,then the author chopped it to pieces1 moved the middle to the top1 the top to the bottom1 scrambled up the chunks and strung them all together with a bunch of ,,go ,,to' commands4 ,maybe the hacker who wrote the worm was in fact a very elegant ,,dcl programmer who wanted the worm to be chaotic in order to protect it4 ,security through obscurity4 ,oberman maintained a different view4 ,he believed the programming style varied so much in different parts that it had to be the product of a number of people4 ,he knew that when computer programmers write code they don't make lots of odd little changes in style for no particular reason4 ,kevin ,oberman and ,john ,mc,mahon bounced ideas off one another4 ,both had developed their own analyses4 ,oberman also brought ,mark ,kaletka1 who managed internal networking at ,fermilab1 one of ,,hepnet's largest sites1 into the cross-checking process4 ,the worm had a number of serious vulnerabilities1 but the problem was finding one1 and quickly1 which could be used to wipe it out with minimum impact on the besieged computers4 ,whenever a ,,vms machine starts up an activity1 the computer gives it a unique process name4 ,when the worm burrowed into a computer site1 one of the first things it did was check that another copy of itself was not already running on that computer4 ,it did this by checking for its own process names4 ,the worm's processes were all called ,,netw followed by a random1 four-digit number4 ,if the incoming worm found this process name1 it assumed another copy of itself was already running on the computer1 so it destroyed itself4 ,the answer seemed to be a decoy duck4 ,write a program which pretended to be the worm and install it across all of ,,nasa's vulnerable computers4 ,the first anti-,,wank program did just that4 ,it quietly sat on the ,,span computers all day long1 posing as a ,,netw process1 faking out any real version of the ,,wank worm which should come along4 ,oberman completed an anti-,,wank program first and ran it by ,mc,mahon4 ,it worked well1 but ,mc,mahon noticed one large flaw4 ,oberman's program checked for the ,,netw process name1 but it assumed that the worm was running under the ,,system group4 ,in most cases1 this was true1 but it didn't have to be4 ,if the worm was running in another group1 ,oberman's program would be useless4 ,when ,mc,mahon pointed out the flaw1 ,oberman thought1 ,god1 how did ,i miss that8 ,mc,mahon worked up his own version of an anti-,,wank program1 based on ,oberman's program1 in preparation for releasing it to ,,nasa4 ,at the same time1 ,oberman revised his anti-,,wank program for ,,doe4 ,by ,monday night ,,us ,eastern ,standard ,time1 ,oberman was able to send out an early copy of a vaccine designed to protect computers which hadn't been infected yet1 along with an electronic warning about the worm4 ,his first electronic warning1 distributed by ,,ciac1 said in part3 ,,the ,,computer ,,incident ,,advisory ,,capability ,c ,i ,a ,c ,,advisory ,,notice ,the ,w4,,com ,worm affecting ,,vax ,,vms ,systems ,october #af1 #aihi #ah3cg ,p,s,t,number ,a-#b ,this is a mean bug to kill and could have done a lot of damage4 ,since it notifies 7by mail7 someone of each successful penetration and leaves a trapdoor 7the ,,field account71 just killing the bug is not adequate4 ,you must go in and make sure all accounts have passwords and that the passwords are not the same as the account name4 ,r4 ,kevin ,oberman ,advisory ,notice ,a worm is attacking ,,nasa's ,,span network via ,,vax_/,,vms systems connected to ,d,e,cnet4 ,it is unclear if the spread of the worm has been checked4 ,it may spread to other systems such as ,,doe's ,,hepnet within a few days4 ,,vms system managers should prepare now4 ,the worm targets ,,vms machines1 and can only be propagated via ,d,e,cnet4 ,the worm exploits two features of ,d,e,cnet_/,,vms in order to propagate itself4 ,the first is the default ,d,e,cnet account1 which is a facility for users who don't have a specific login ,,id for a machine to have some degree of anonymous access4 ,it uses the default ,d,e,cnet account to copy itself to a machine1 and then uses the ,,task #j' feature of ,d,e,cnet to invoke the remote copy4 ,it has several other features including a brute force attack4 ,once the worm has successfully penetrated your system it will infect 4,,com files and create new security vulnerabilities4 ,it then seems to broadcast these vulnerabilities to the outside world4 ,it may also damage files as well1 either unintentionally or otherwise4 ,an analysis of the worm appears below and is provided by ,r4 ,kevin ,oberman of ,lawrence ,livermore ,national ,laboratory4 ,included with the analysis is a ,,dcl program that will block the current version of the worm4 ,at least two versions of this worm exist and more may be created4 ,this program should give you enough time to close up obvious security holes4 ,a more thorough ,,dcl program is being written4 ,if your site could be affected please call ,,ciac for more details444 ,report on the ,w4,,com worm4 ,r4 ,kevin ,oberman ,engineering ,department ,lawrence ,livermore ,national ,laboratory ,october #af1 #aihi ,the following describes the action of the ,w4,,com worm 7currently based on the examination of the first two incarnations74 ,the replication technique causes the code to be modified slightly which indicates the source of the attack and learned information4 ,all analysis was done with more haste than ,i care for1 but ,i believe ,i have all of the basic facts correct4 ,first a description of the program3 #a4 ,the program assures that it is working in a directory to which the owner 7itself7 has full access 7,read1 ,write1 ,execute1 and ,delete74 #b4 ,the program checks to see if another copy is still running4 ,it looks for a process with the first #e characters of ,,netw'4 ,if such is found1 it deletes itself 7the file7 and stops its process4 ,,note ,a quick check for infection is to look for a process name starting with ,,netw'4 ,this may be done with a ,,show ,,process command4 #c4 ,the program then changes the default ,,decnet account password to a random string of at least #ab characters4 #d4 ,information on the password used to access the system is mailed to the user ,,gemtop on ,,span node #f4ei4 ,some versions may have a different address4#aa #e4 ,the process changes its name to ,,netw' followed by a random number4 #f4 ,it then checks to see if it has ,,sysnam priv4 ,if so1 it defines the system announcement message to be the banner in the program3 ,worms ,against ,nuclear ,killers6 ,your ,system ,has ,been ,officically ,wanked4 ,you talk of times of peace for all1 and then prepare for war4 #g4 ,if it has ,,sysprv1 it disables mail to the ,,system account4 #h4 ,if it has ,,sysprv1 it modifies the system login command procedure to ,,appear to delete all of a user's file4 7,it really does nothing47 #i4 ,the program then scans the account's logical name table for command procedures and tries to modify the ,,field account to a known password with login from any source and all privs4 ,this is a primitive virus1 but very effective ,,if it should get into a privileged account4 #aj4 ,it proceeds to attempt to access other systems by picking node numbers at random4 ,it then uses ,,phone to get a list of active users on the remote system4 ,it proceeds to irritate them by using ,,phone to ring them4 #aa4 ,the program then tries to access the ,,rightslist file and attempts to access some remote system using the users found and a list of standard' users included within the worm4 ,it looks for passwords which are the same as that of the account or are blank4 ,it records all such accounts4 #ab4 ,it looks for an account that has access to ,,sysuaf4,,dat4 #ac4 ,if a priv4 account is found1 the program is copied to that account and started4 ,if no priv4 account was found1 it is copied to other accounts found on the random system4 #ad4 ,as soon as it finishes with a system1 it picks another random system and repeats 7forever74 ,response3 #a4 ,the following program will block the worm4 ,extract the following code and execute it4 ,it will use minimal resources4 ,it creates a process named ,,netw,,block which will prevent the worm from running4 ,editors note3 ,this fix will work only with this version of the worm4 ,mutated worms will require modification of this code2 however1 this program should prevent the worm from running long enough to secure your system from the worms attacks4#ac --- ,mc,mahon's version of an anti-,,wank program was also ready to go by late ,monday1 but he would face delays getting it out to ,,nasa4 ,working inside ,,nasa was a balancing act1 a delicate ballet demanding exquisite choreography between getting the job done1 following official procedures and avoiding steps which might tread on senior bureaucrats' toes4 ,it was several days before ,,nasa's anti-,,wank program was officially released4 ,,doe was not without its share of problems in launching the anti-,,wank program and advisory across ,,hepnet4 ,at #e4jd p4m4 ,pacific ,coast ,time on #ag ,october1 as ,oberman put the final touches on the last paragraph of his final report on the worm1 the floor beneath his feet began to shake4 ,the building was trembling4 ,kevin ,oberman was in the middle of the #aihi ,san ,francisco earthquake4 ,measuring #g4a on the ,richter scale1 the ,loma ,prieta earthquake ripped through the greater ,san ,francisco area with savage speed4 ,inside the computer lab1 ,oberman braced himself for the worst4 ,once the shaking stopped and he ascertained the computer centre was still standing1 he sat back down at his terminal4 ,with the ,,pa blaring warnings for all non-essential personnel to leave the building immediately1 ,oberman rushed off the last sentence of the report4 ,he paused and then added a postscript saying that if the paragraph didn't make sense1 it was because he was a little rattled by the large earthquake which had just hit ,lawrence ,livermore ,labs4 ,he pressed the key1 sent out his final anti-,,wank report and fled the building4 ,back on the east coast1 the ,,span office continued to help people calling from ,,nasa sites which had been hit4 ,the list of sites which had reported worm-related problems grew steadily during the week4 ,official estimates on the scope of the ,,wank worm attack were vague1 but trade journals such as ,network ,world and ,computerworld quoted the space agency as suffering only a small number of successful worm invasions1 perhaps #fj ,,vms-based computers4 ,,span security manager ,ron ,tencati estimated only #bj successful worm penetrations in the ,,nasa part of ,,span's network1 but another internal estimate put the figure much higher3 #bej to #cjj machines4 ,each of those computers might have had #ajj or more users4 ,figures were sketchy1 but virtually everyone on the network--all #bgjjjj computer accounts--had been affected by the worm1 either because their part of the network had been pulled off-line or because their machines had been harassed by the ,,wank worm as it tried again and again to login from an infected machine4 ,by the end of the worm attack1 the ,,span office had accumulated a list of affected sites which ran over two columns on several computer screens4 ,each of them had lodged some form of complaint about the worm4 ,also by the end of the crisis1 ,,nasa and ,,doe computer network managers had their choice of vaccines1 antidotes and blood tests for the ,,wank worm4 ,mc,mahon had released ,,antiwank4,,com1 a program which killed the worm and vaccinated a system against further attacks1 and ,,worm-,,info4,,text1 which provided a list of worm-infestation symptoms4 ,oberman's program1 called 4,,security,,check,,system4,,com1 checked for all the security flaws used by the worm to sneak into a computer system4 ,,dec also had a patch to cover the security hole in the ,,decnet account4 ,whatever the real number of infected machines1 the worm had certainly circumnavigated the globe4 ,it had reach into ,european sites1 such as ,,cern--formerly known as the ,european ,centre for ,nuclear ,research--in ,switzerland1 through to ,goddard's computers in ,maryland1 on to ,fermilab in ,chicago and propelled itself across the ,pacific into the ,riken ,accelerator ,facility in ,japan4#ad ,,nasa officials told the media they believed the worm had been launched about #d4cj a4m4 on ,monday1 #af ,october4#ae ,they also believed it had originated in ,europe1 possibly in ,france4 ,wednesday1 #ah ,october #aihi ,kennedy ,space ,center1 ,florida ,the five-member ,atlantis had some bad news on ,wednesday morning4 ,the weather forecasters gave the launch site a #dj per cent chance of launch guideline-violating rain and cloud4 ,and then there was the earthquake in ,california4 ,the ,kennedy ,space ,center wasn't the only place which had to be in tip-top working order for a launch to go ahead4 ,the launch depended on many sites far away from ,florida4 ,these included ,edwards ,air ,force ,base in ,california1 where the shuttle was due to land on ,monday4 ,they also included other sites1 often military bases1 which were essential for shuttle tracking and other mission support4 ,one of these sites was a tracking station at ,onizuka ,air ,force ,base at ,sunnyvale1 ,california4 ,the earthquake which ripped through the ,bay area had damaged the tracking station and senior ,,nasa decision-makers planned to meet on ,wednesday morning to consider the ,sunnyvale situation4 ,still1 the space agency maintained a calm1 cool exterior4 ,regardless of the technical problems1 the court challenges and the protesters1 the whimsical weather1 the natural disasters1 and the ,,wank worm1 ,,nasa was still in control of the situation4 ,there's been some damage1 but we don't know how much4 ,the sense ,i get is it's fairly positive1' a ,,nasa spokesman told ,,upi4 ,but there are some problems4'#af ,in ,washington1 ,pentagon spokesman ,rick ,oborn reassured the public again1 ,they are going to be able to handle shuttle tracking and support for the mission 444 ,they will be able to do their job'4#ag ,atlantis waited1 ready to go1 at launchpad #ci;,b4 ,the technicians had filled the shuttle up with rocket fuel and it looked as if the weather might hold4 ,it was partly cloudy1 but conditions at ,kennedy passed muster4 ,the astronauts boarded the shuttle4 ,everything was in place4 ,but while the weather was acceptable in ,florida1 it was causing some problems in ,africa1 the site of an emergency landing location4 ,if it wasn't one thing1 it was another4 ,,nasa ordered a four-minute delay4 ,finally at #ab4ed p4m41 ,atlantis boomed from its launchpad4 ,rising up from the ,kennedy ,center1 streaking a trail of twin flames from its huge solid-fuel boosters1 the shuttle reached above the atmosphere and into space4 ,at #g4ae p4m41 exactly #f hours and #ba minutes after lift-off1 ,galileo began its solo journey into space4 ,and at #h4ae p4m41 ,galileo's booster ignited4 ,inside shuttle mission control1 ,,nasa spokesman ,brian ,welch announced1 ,the spacecraft ,galileo 444 has achieved ,earth escape velocity'4#ah ,monday1 #cj ,october #aihi ,,nasa's ,goddard ,space ,flight ,center1 ,greenbelt1 ,maryland ,the week starting #af ,october had been a long one for the ,,span team4 ,they were keeping twelve-hour days and dealing with hysterical people all day long4 ,still1 they managed to get copies of anti-,,wank out1 despite the limitations of the dated ,,span records and the paucity of good logs allowing them to retrace the worm's path4 ,what we learned that week was just how much data is not collected1' ,mc,mahon observed4 ,by ,friday1 #bj ,october1 there were no new reports of worm attacks4 ,it looked as though the crisis had passed4 ,things could be tidied up by the rest of the ,,span team and ,mc,mahon returned to his own work4 ,a week passed4 ,all the while1 though1 ,mc,mahon was on edge4 ,he doubted that someone who had gone to all that trouble of creating the ,,wank worm would let his baby be exterminated so quickly4 ,the decoy-duck strategy only worked as long as the worm kept the same process name1 and as long as it was programmed not to activate itself on systems which were already infected4 ,change the process name1 or teach the worm to not to suicide1 and the ,,span team would face another1 larger problem4 ,john ,mc,mahon had an instinct about the worm2 it might just be back4 ,his instinct was right4 ,the following ,monday1 ,mc,mahon received another phone call from the ,,span project office4 ,when he poked his head in his boss's office1 ,jerome ,bennett looked up from his desk4 ,the thing is back1' ,mc,mahon told him4 ,there was no need to explain what the thing' was4 ,i'm going over to the ,,span office4' ,ron ,tencati and ,todd ,butler had a copy of the new ,,wank worm ready for ,mc,mahon4 ,this version of the worm was far more virulent4 ,it copied itself more effectively and therefore moved through the network much faster4 ,the revised worm's penetration rate was much higher--more than four times greater than the version of ,,wank released in the first attack4 ,the phone was ringing off the hook again4 ,john took a call from one irate manager who launched into a tirade4 ,i ran your anti-,,wank program1 followed your instructions to the letter1 and look what happened6' ,the worm had changed its process name4 ,it was also designed to hunt down and kill the decoy-duck program4 ,in fact1 the ,,span network was going to turn into a rather bloody battlefield4 ,this worm didn't just kill the decoy1 it also killed any other copy of the ,,wank worm4 ,even if ,mc,mahon changed the process name used by his program1 the decoy-duck strategy was not going to work any longer4 ,there were other disturbing improvements to the new version of the ,,wank worm4 ,preliminary information suggested it changed the password on any account it got into4 ,this was a problem4 ,but not nearly as big a problem as if the passwords it changed were for the only privileged accounts on the system4 ,the new worm was capable of locking a system manager out of his or her own system4 ,prevented from getting into his own account1 the computer manager might try borrowing the account of an average user1 call him ,edwin4 ,unfortunately1 ,edwin's account probably only had low-level privileges4 ,even in the hands of a skilful computer manager1 the powers granted to ,edwin's account were likely too limited to eradicate the worm from its newly elevated status as computer manager4 ,the manager might spend his whole morning matching wits with the worm from the disadvantaged position of a normal user's account4 ,at some point he would have to make the tough decision of last resort3 turn the entire computer system off4 ,the manager would have to conduct a forced reboot of the machine4 ,take it down1 then bring it back up on minimum configuration4 ,break back into it4 ,fix the password which the worm had changed4 ,logout4 ,reset some variables4 ,reboot the machine again4 ,close up any underlying security holes left behind by the worm4 ,change any passwords which matched users' names4 ,a cold start of a large ,,vms machine took time4 ,all the while1 the astronomers1 physicists and engineers who worked in this ,,nasa office wouldn't be able to work on their computers4 ,at least the ,,span team was better prepared for the worm this time4 ,they had braced themselves psychologically for a possible return attack4 ,contact information for the network had been updated4 ,and the general ,,decnet internet community was aware of the worm and was lending a hand wherever possible4 ,help came from a system manager in ,france1 a country which seemed to be of special interest to the worm's author4 ,the manager1 ,bernard ,perrot of ,institut de ,physique ,nucleaire in ,orsay1 had obtained a copy of the worm1 inspected it and took special notice of the creature's poor error checking ability4 ,this was the worm's true ,achilles' heel4 ,the worm was trained to go after the ,,rightslist database1 the list of all the people who have accounts on the computer4 ,what if someone moved the database by renaming it and put a dummy database in its place8 ,the worm would1 in theory1 go after the dummy1 which could be designed with a hidden bomb4 ,when the worm sniffed out the dummy1 and latched onto it1 the creature would explode and die4 ,if it worked1 the ,,span team would not have to depend on the worm killing itself1 as they had during the first invasion4 ,they would have the satisfaction of destroying the thing themselves4 ,ron ,tencati procured a copy of the ,french manager's worm-killing program and gave it to ,mc,mahon1 who set up a sort of mini-laboratory experiment4 ,he cut the worm into pieces and extracted the relevant bits4 ,this allowed him to test the ,french worm-killing program with little risk of the worm escaping and doing damage4 ,the ,french program worked wonderfully4 ,out it went4 ,the second version of the worm was so much more virulent1 getting it out of ,,span was going to take considerably longer than the first time around4 ,finally1 almost two weeks after the second onslaught1 the ,,wank worm had been eradicated from ,,span4 ,by ,mc,mahon's estimate1 the ,,wank worm had incurred up to half a million dollars in costs4 ,most of these were through people wasting time and resources chasing the worm instead of doing their normal jobs4 ,the worm was1 in his view1 a crime of theft4 ,people's time and resources had been wasted1' he said4 ,the theft was not the result of the accident4 ,this was someone who deliberately went out to make a mess4 ,in general1 ,i support prosecuting people who think breaking into machines is fun4 ,people like that don't seem to understand what kind of side effects that kind of fooling around has4 ,they think that breaking into a machine and not touching anything doesn't do anything4 ,that is not true4 ,you end up wasting people's time4 ,people are dragged into the office at strange hours4 ,reports have to be written4 ,a lot of yelling and screaming occurs4 ,you have to deal with law enforcement4 ,these are all side effects of someone going for a joy ride in someone else's system1 even if they don't do any damage4 ,someone has to pay the price4' ,mc,mahon never found out who created the ,,wank worm4 ,nor did he ever discover what he intended to prove by releasing it4 ,the creator's motives were never clear and1 if it had been politically inspired1 no-one took credit4 ,the ,,wank worm left a number of unanswered questions in its wake1 a number of loose ends which still puzzle ,john ,mc,mahon4 ,was the hacker behind the worm really protesting against ,,nasa's launch of the plutonium-powered ,galileo space probe8 ,did the use of the word ,,wank'--a most un-,american word--mean the hacker wasn't ,american8 ,why had the creator recreated the worm and released it a second time8 ,why had no-one1 no political or other group1 claimed responsibility for the ,,wank worm8 ,one of the many details which remained an enigma was contained in the version of the worm used in the second attack4 ,the worm's creator had replaced the original process name1 ,,netw1 with a new one1 presumably to thwart the anti-,,wank program4 ,mc,mahon figured the original process name stood for netwank'--a reasonable guess at the hacker's intended meaning4 ,the new process name1 however1 left everyone on the ,,span team scratching their heads3 it didn't seem to stand for anything4 ,the letters formed an unlikely set of initials for someone's name4 ,no-one recognised it as an acronym for a saying or an organisation4 ,and it certainly wasn't a proper word in the ,english language4 ,it was a complete mystery why the creator of the ,,wank worm1 the hacker who launched an invasion into hundreds of ,,nasa and ,,doe computers1 should choose this weird word4 ,the word was ,,oilz'4 ,,chapter #b -- ,the ,corner ,pub4 ,you talk of times of peace for all2 and then prepare for war4 -- from ,blossom of ,blood'1 ,species ,deceases4 ,it is not surprising the ,,span security team would miss the mark4 ,it is not surprising1 for example1 that these officials should to this day be pronouncing the ,oilz' version of the ,,wank worm as oil zee'4 ,it is also not surprising that they hypothesised the worm's creator chose the word ,oilz' because the modifications made to the last version made it slippery1 perhaps even oily4 ,likely as not1 only an ,australian would see the worm's link to the lyrics of ,midnight ,oil4 ,this was the world's first worm with a political message1 and the second major worm in the history of the worldwide computer networks4 ,it was also the trigger for the creation of ,,first1 the ,forum of ,incident ,response and ,security ,teams4#b ,,first was an international security alliance allowing governments1 universities and commercial organisations to share information about computer network security incidents4 ,yet1 ,,nasa and the ,,us ,department of ,energy were half a world away from finding the creator of the ,,wank worm4 ,even as investigators sniffed around electronic trails leading to ,france1 it appears the perpetrator was hiding behind his computer and modem in ,australia4 ,geographically1 ,australia is a long way from anywhere4 ,to ,americans1 it conjures up images of fuzzy marsupials1 not computer hackers4 ,american computer security officials1 like those at ,,nasa and the ,,us ,department of ,energy1 had other barriers as well4 ,they function in a world of concretes1 of appointments made and kept1 of real names1 business cards and official titles4 ,the computer underground1 by contrast1 is a veiled world populated by characters slipping in and out of the half-darkness4 ,it is not a place where people use their real names4 ,it is not a place where people give out real personal details4 ,it is1 in fact1 not so much a place as a space4 ,it is ephemeral1 intangible--a foggy labyrinth of unmapped1 winding streets through which one occasionally ascertains the contours of a fellow traveller4 ,when ,ron ,tencati1 the manager in charge of ,,nasa ,,span security1 realised that ,,nasa's computers were being attacked by an intruder1 he rang the ,,fbi4 ,the ,,us ,federal ,bureau of ,investigation's ,computer ,crime ,unit fired off a stream of questions4 ,how many computers had been attacked8 ,where were they8 ,who was behind the attack8 ,the ,,fbi told ,tencati1 keep us informed of the situation'4 ,like the ,,ciac team in the ,department of ,energy1 it appears the ,,fbi didn't have much knowledge of ,,vms1 the primary computer operating system used in ,,span4 ,but the ,,fbi knew enough to realise the worm attack was potentially very serious4 ,the winding electronic trail pointed vaguely to a foreign computer system and1 before long1 the ,,us ,secret ,service was involved4 ,then the ,french secret service1 the ,direction de la ,surveillance du ,territoire1 or ,,dst1 jumped into the fray4 ,,dst and the ,,fbi began working together on the case4 ,a casual observer with the benefit of hindsight might see different motivations driving the two government agencies4 ,the ,,fbi wanted to catch the perpetrator4 ,the ,,dst wanted to make it clear that the infamous ,,wank worm attack on the world's most prestigious space agency did not originate in ,france4 ,in the best tradition of cloak-and-dagger government agencies1 the ,,fbi and ,,dst people established two communication channels--an official channel and an unofficial one4 ,the official channel involved embassies1 attachs1 formal communiques and interminable delays in getting answers to the simplest questions4 ,the unofficial channel involved a few phone calls and some fast answers4 ,ron ,tencati had a colleague named ,chris on the ,,span network in ,france1 which was the largest user of ,,span in ,europe4 ,chris was involved in more than just science computer networks4 ,he had certain contacts in the ,french government and seemed to be involved in their computer networks4 ,so1 when the ,,fbi needed technical information for its investigation--the kind of information likely to be sanitised by some embassy bureaucrat--one of its agents rang up ,ron ,tencati4 ,ron1 ask your friend this1' the ,,fbi would say4 ,and ,ron would4 ,chris1 the ,,fbi wants to know this1' ,tencati would tell his colleague on ,,span ,france4 ,then ,chris would get the necessary information4 ,he would call ,tencati back1 saying1 ,ron1 here is the answer4 ,now1 the ,,dst wants to know that'4 ,and off ,ron would go in search of information requested by the ,,dst4 ,the investigation proceeded in this way1 with each helping the other through backdoor channels4 ,but the ,americans' investigation was headed toward the inescapable conclusion that the attack on ,,nasa had originated from a ,french computer4 ,the worm may have simply travelled through the ,french computer from yet another system1 but the ,french machine appeared to be the sole point of infection for ,,nasa4 ,the ,french did not like this outcome4 ,not one bit4 ,there was no way that the worm had come from ,france4 ,ce n'est pas vrai4 ,word came back from the ,french that they were sure the worm had come from the ,,us4 ,why else would it have been programmed to mail details of all computer accounts it penetrated around the world back to a ,,us machine1 the computer known as ,,gempak8 ,because the author of the worm was an ,american1 of course6 ,therefore it is not our problem1 the ,french told the ,americans4 ,it is your problem4 ,most computer security experts know it is standard practice among hackers to create the most tangled trail possible between the hacker and the hacked4 ,it makes it very difficult for people like the ,,fbi to trace who did it4 ,so it would be difficult to draw definite conclusions about the nationality of the hacker from the location of a hacker's information drop-off point--a location the hacker no doubt figured would be investigated by the authorities almost immediately after the worm's release4 ,tencati had established the ,french connection from some computer logs showing ,,nasa under attack very early on ,monday1 #af ,october4 ,the logs were important because they were relatively clear4 ,as the worm had procreated during that day1 it had forced computers all over the network to attack each other in ever greater numbers4 ,by #aa a4m4 it was almost impossible to tell where any one attack began and the other ended4 ,some time after the first attack1 ,,dst sent word that certain agents were going to be in ,washington ,,dc regarding other matters4 ,they wanted a meeting with the ,,fbi4 ,a representative from the ,,nasa ,inspector ,general's ,office would attend the meeting1 as would someone from ,,nasa ,,span security4 ,tencati was sure he could show the ,,wank worm attack on ,,nasa originated in ,france4 ,but he also knew he had to document everything1 to have exact answers to every question and counter-argument put forward by the ,french secret service agents at the ,,fbi meeting4 ,when he developed a timeline of attacks1 he found that the ,,gempak machine showed ,x4#be network connection1 via another system1 from a ,french computer around the same time as the ,,wank worm attack4 ,he followed the scent and contacted the manager of that system4 ,would he help ,tencati8 ,mais oui4 ,the machine is at your disposal1 ,monsieur ,tencati4 ,tencati had never used an ,x4#be network before2 it had a unique set of commands unlike any other type of computer communications network4 ,he wanted to retrace the steps of the worm1 but he needed help4 ,so he called his friend ,bob ,lyons at ,,dec to walk him through the process4 ,what ,tencati found startled him4 ,there were traces of the worm on the machine all right1 the familiar pattern of login failures as the worm attempted to break into different accounts4 ,but these remnants of the ,,wank worm were not dated #af ,october or any time immediately around then4 ,the logs showed worm-related activity up to two weeks before the attack on ,,nasa4 ,this computer was not just a pass-through machine the worm had used to launch its first attack on ,,nasa4 ,this was the development machine4 ,ground zero4 ,tencati went into the meeting with ,,dst at the ,,fbi offices prepared4 ,he knew the accusations the ,french were going to put forward4 ,when he presented the results of his sleuthwork1 the ,french secret service couldn't refute it1 but they dropped their own bombshell4 ,yes they told him1 you might be able to point to a ,french system as ground zero for the attack1 but our investigations reveal incoming ,x4#be connections from elsewhere which coincided with the timing of the development of the ,,wank worm4 ,the connections came from ,australia4 ,the ,french had satisfied themselves that it wasn't a ,french hacker who had created the ,,wank worm4 ,ce n'est pas notre problem4 ,at least1 it's not our problem any more4 ,it is here that the trail begins to go cold4 ,law enforcement and computer security people in the ,,us and ,australia had ideas about just who had created the ,,wank worm4 ,fingers were pointed1 accusations were made1 but none stuck4 ,at the end of the day1 there was coincidence and innuendo1 but not enough evidence to launch a case4 ,like many ,australian hackers1 the creator of the ,,wank worm had emerged from the shadows of the computer underground1 stood momentarily in hazy silhouette1 and then disappeared again4 ,the ,australian computer underground in the late #aihjs was an environment which spawned and shaped the author of the ,,wank worm4 ,affordable home computers1 such as the ,apple ,i,ie and the ,commodore #fd1 made their way into ordinary suburban families4 ,while these computers were not widespread1 they were at least in a price range which made them attainable by dedicated computer enthusiasts4 ,in #aihh1 the year before the ,,wank worm attack on ,,nasa1 ,australia was on an upswing4 ,the country was celebrating its bicentennial4 ,the economy was booming4 ,trade barriers and old regulatory structures were coming down4 ,crocodile ,dundee had already burst on the world movie scene and was making ,australians the flavour of the month in cities like ,,la and ,new ,york4 ,the mood was optimistic4 ,people had a sense they were going places4 ,australia1 a peaceful country of seventeen or so million people1 poised on the edge of ,asia but with the order of a ,western ,european democracy1 was on its way up4 ,perhaps for the first time1 ,australians had lost their cultural cringe1 a unique type of insecurity alien to can-do cultures such as that found in the ,,us4 ,exploration and experimentation require confidence and1 in #aihh1 confidence was something ,australia had finally attained4 ,yet this new-found confidence and optimism did not subdue ,australia's tradition of cynicism toward large institutions4 ,the two coexisted1 suspended in a strange paradox4 ,australian humour1 deeply rooted in a scepticism of all things serious and sacred1 continued to poke fun at upright institutions with a depth of irreverence surprising to many foreigners4 ,this cynicism of large1 respected institutions coursed through the newly formed ,australian computer underground without dampening its excitement or optimism for the brave new world of computers in the least4 ,in #aihh1 the ,australian computer underground thrived like a vibrant ,asian street bazaar4 ,in that year it was still a realm of place not space4 ,customers visited their regular stalls1 haggled over goods with vendors1 bumped into friends and waved across crowded paths to acquaintances4 ,the market was as much a place to socialise as it was to shop4 ,people ducked into tiny coffee houses or corner bars for intimate chats4 ,the latest imported goods1 laid out on tables like reams of bright ,chinese silks1 served as conversation starters4 ,and1 like every street market1 many of the best items were tucked away1 hidden in anticipation of the appearance of that one customer or friend most favoured by the trader4 ,the currency of the underground was not money2 it was information4 ,people didn't share and exchange information to accumulate monetary wealth2 they did it to win respect--and to buy a thrill4 ,the members of the ,australian computer underground met on bulletin board systems1 known as ,b,b,ses4 ,simple things by today's standards1 ,b,b,ses were often composed of a souped-up ,apple ,,ii computer1 a single modem and a lone telephone line4 ,but they drew people from all walks of life4 ,teenagers from working-class neighbourhoods and those from the exclusive private schools4 ,university students4 ,people in their twenties groping their way through first jobs4 ,even some professional people in their thirties and forties who spent weekends poring over computer manuals and building primitive computers in spare rooms4 ,most regular ,,bbs users were male4 ,sometimes a user's sister would find her way into the ,,bbs world1 often in search of a boyfriend4 ,mission accomplished1 she might disappear from the scene for weeks1 perhaps months1 presumably until she required another visit4 ,the ,,bbs users had a few things in common4 ,they were generally of above average intelligence--usually with a strong technical slant--and they were obsessed with their chosen hobby4 ,they had to be4 ,it often took #de minutes of attack dialling a busy ,,bbs's lone phone line just to visit the computer system for perhaps half an hour4 ,most serious ,,bbs hobbyists went through this routine several times each day4 ,as the name suggests1 a ,,bbs had what amounted to an electronic version of a normal bulletin board4 ,the owner of the ,,bbs would have divided the board into different areas1 as a school teacher crisscrosses coloured ribbon across the surface of a corkboard to divide it into sections4 ,a single ,,bbs might have #cj or more electronic discussion groups4 ,as a user to the board1 you might visit the politics section1 tacking up a note' on your views of ,,alp or ,liberal policies for anyone passing by to read4 ,alternatively1 you might fancy yourself a bit of a poet and work up the courage to post an original piece of work in the ,poet's ,corner4 ,the corner was often filled with dark1 misanthropic works inspired by the miseries of adolescence4 ,perhaps you preferred to discuss music4 ,on many ,b,b,ses you could find postings on virtually any type of music4 ,the most popular groups included bands like ,pink ,floyd1 ,tangerine ,dream and ,midnight ,oil4 ,midnight ,oil's anti-establishment message struck a particular chord within the new ,,bbs community4 ,nineteen eighty-eight was the golden age of the ,,bbs culture across ,australia4 ,it was an age of innocence and community1 an open-air bazaar full of vitality and the sharing of ideas4 ,for the most part1 people trusted their peers within the community and the ,,bbs operators1 who were often revered as demigods4 ,it was a happy place4 ,and1 in general1 it was a safe place1 which is perhaps one reason why its visitors felt secure in their explorations of new ideas4 ,it was a place in which the creator of the ,,wank worm could sculpt and hone his creative computer skills4 ,the capital of this spirited new ,australian electronic civilisation was ,melbourne4 ,it is difficult to say why this southern city became the cultural centre of the ,,bbs world1 and its darker side1 the ,australian computer underground4 ,maybe the city's history as ,australia's intellectual centre created a breeding ground for the many young people who built their systems with little more than curiosity and salvaged computer bits discarded by others4 ,maybe ,melbourne's personality as a city of suburban homebodies and backyard tinkerers produced a culture conducive to ,b,b,ses4 ,or maybe it was just ,melbourne's dreary beaches and often miserable weather4 ,as one ,melbourne hacker explained it1 ,what else is there to do here all winter but hibernate inside with your computer and modem8' ,in #aihh1 ,melbourne had some #fj to #ajj operating ,b,b,ses4 ,the numbers are vague because it is difficult to count a collection of moving objects4 ,the amateur nature of the systems1 often a jumbled tangle of wires and second-hand electronics parts soldered together in someone's garage1 meant that the life of any one system was frequently as short as a teenager's attention span4 ,b,b,ses popped up1 ran for two weeks1 and then vanished again4 ,some of them operated only during certain hours1 say between #aj p4m4 and #h a4m4 ,when the owner went to bed1 he or she would plug the home phone line into the ,,bbs and leave it there until morning4 ,others ran #bd hours a day1 but the busiest times were always at night4 ,of course it wasn't just intellectual stimulation some users were after4 ,visitors often sought identity as much as ideas4 ,on an electronic bulletin board1 you could create a personality1 mould it into shape and make it your own4 ,age and appearance did not matter4 ,technical aptitude did4 ,any spotty1 gawky teenage boy could instantly transform himself into a suave1 graceful ,,bbs character4 ,the transformation began with the choice of name4 ,in real life1 you might be stuck with the name ,elliot ,dingle--an appellation chosen by your mother to honour a long-dead great uncle4 ,but on a ,,bbs1 well1 you could be ,blade ,runner1 ,ned ,kelly or ,mad ,max4 ,small wonder that1 given the choice1 many teenage boys chose to spend their time in the world of the ,,bbs4 ,generally1 once a user chose a handle1 as the on-line names are known1 he stuck with it4 ,all his electronic mail came to an account with that name on it4 ,postings to bulletin boards were signed with it4 ,others dwelling in the system world knew him by that name and no other4 ,a handle evolved into a name laden with innate meaning1 though the personality reflected in it might well have been an alter ego4 ,and so it was that characters like ,the ,wizard1 ,conan and ,iceman came to pass their time on ,b,b,ses like the ,crystal ,palace1 ,megaworks1 ,the ,real ,connection and ,electric ,dreams4 ,what such visitors valued about the ,,bbs varied greatly4 ,some wanted to participate in its social life4 ,they wanted to meet people like themselves--bright but geeky or misanthropic people who shared an interest in the finer technical points of computers4 ,many lived as outcasts in real life1 never quite making it into the normal' groups of friends at school or uni4 ,though some had started their first jobs1 they hadn't managed to shake the daggy awkwardness which pursued them throughout their teen years4 ,on the surface1 they were just not the sort of people one asked out to the pub for a cold one after the footy4 ,but that was all right4 ,in general1 they weren't much interested in footy anyway4 ,each ,,bbs had its own style4 ,some were completely legitimate1 with their wares--all legal goods--laid out in the open4 ,others1 like ,the ,real ,connection1 had once housed ,australia's earliest hackers but had gone straight4 ,they closed up the hacking parts of the board before the first ,commonwealth government hacking laws were enacted in ,june #aihi4 ,perhaps ten or twelve of ,melbourne's ,b,b,ses at the time had the secret1 smoky flavour of the computer underground4 ,a handful of these were invitation-only boards1 places like ,greyhawk and ,the ,realm4 ,you couldn't simply ring up the board1 create a new account and login4 ,you had to be invited by the board's owner4 ,members of the general modeming public need not apply4 ,the two most important hubs in the ,australian underground between #aihg and #aihi were named ,pacific ,island and ,zen4 ,a #bc-year-old who called himself ,craig ,bowen ran both systems from his bedroom4 ,also known as ,thunderbird#a1 ,bowen started up ,pacific ,island in #aihg because he wanted a hub for hackers4 ,the fledgling hacking community was dispersed after ,,ahubbs1 possibly ,melbourne's earliest hacking board1 faded away4 ,bowen decided to create a home for it1 a sort of dark1 womb-like cafe bar amid the bustle of the ,,bbs bazaar where ,melbourne's hackers could gather and share information4 ,his bedroom was a simple1 boyish place4 ,built-in cupboards1 a bed1 a wallpaper design of vintage cars running across one side of the room4 ,a window overlooking the neighbours' leafy suburban yard4 ,a collection of ,,pc magazines with titles like ,nibble and ,byte4 ,a few volumes on computer programming4 ,,vax_/,,vms manuals4 ,not many books1 but a handful of science fiction works by ,arthur ,c4 ,clarke4 ,the ,hitchhiker's ,guide to the ,galaxy4 ,a ,chinese-language dictionary used during his high school ,mandarin classes1 and after1 as he continued to study the language on his own while he held down his first job4 ,the ,apple ,i,ie1 modem and telephone line rested on the drop-down drawing table and fold-up card table at the foot of his bed4 ,bowen put his ,,tv next to the computer so he could sit in bed1 watch ,,tv and use ,pacific ,island all at the same time4 ,later1 when he started ,zen1 it sat next to ,pacific ,island4 ,it was the perfect set-up4 ,pacific ,island was hardly fancy by today's standards of ,unix ,internet machines1 but in #aihg it was an impressive computer4 ,,pi1 pronounced pie' by the local users1 had a #bj megabyte hard drive--gargantuan for a personal computer at the time4 ,bowen spent about #ejjj setting up ,,pi alone4 ,he loved both systems and spent many hours each week nurturing them4 ,there was no charge for computer accounts on ,,pi or ,,zen1 like most ,b,b,ses4 ,this gentle-faced youth1 a half-boy1 half-man who would eventually play host on his humble ,,bbs to many of ,australia's cleverest computer and telephone hackers1 could afford to pay for his computers for two reasons3 he lived at home with his mum and dad1 and he had a full-time job at ,telecom--then the only domestic telephone carrier in ,australia4 ,,pi had about #hjj computer users1 up to #bjj of whom were core' users accessing the system regularly4 ,,pi had its own dedicated phone line1 separate from the house phone so ,bowen's parents wouldn't get upset the line was always tied up4 ,later1 he put in four additional phone lines for ,zen1 which had about #bjjj users4 ,using his ,telecom training1 he installed a number of non-standard1 but legal1 features to his house4 ,junction boxes1 master switches4 ,bowen's house was a telecommunications hot-rod4 ,bowen had decided early on that if he wanted to keep his job1 he had better not do anything illegal when it came to ,telecom4 ,however1 the ,australian national telecommunications carrier was a handy source of technical information4 ,for example1 he had an account on a ,telecom computer system--for work--from which he could learn about ,telecom's exchanges4 ,but he never used that account for hacking4 ,most respectable hackers followed a similar philosophy4 ,some had legitimate university computer accounts for their courses1 but they kept those accounts clean4 ,a basic rule of the underground1 in the words of one hacker1 was ,don't foul your own nest'4 ,,pi contained a public section and a private one4 ,the public area was like an old-time pub4 ,anyone could wander in1 plop down at the bar and start up a conversation with a group of locals4 ,just ring up the system with your modem and type in your details--real name1 your chosen handle1 phone number and other basic information4 ,many ,,bbs users gave false information in order to hide their true identities1 and many operators didn't really care4 ,bowen1 however1 did4 ,running a hacker's board carried some risk1 even before the federal computer crime laws came into force4 ,pirated software was illegal4 ,storing data copied from hacking adventures in foreign computers might also be considered illegal4 ,in an effort to exclude police and media spies1 ,bowen tried to verify the personal details of every user on ,,pi by ringing them at home or work4 ,often he was successful4 ,sometimes he wasn't4 ,the public section of ,,pi housed discussion groups on the major ,,pc brands--,,ibm1 ,commodore1 ,amiga1 ,apple and ,atari--next to the popular ,lonely ,hearts group4 ,lonely ,hearts had about twenty regulars1 most of whom agonised under the weight of pubescent hormonal changes4 ,a boy pining for the affections of the girl who dumped him or1 worse1 didn't even know he existed4 ,teenagers who contemplated suicide4 ,the messages were completely anonymous1 readers didn't even know the authors' handles1 and that anonymous setting allowed heart-felt messages and genuine responses4 ,zen was ,,pi's sophisticated younger sister4 ,within two years of ,,pi making its debut1 ,bowen opened up ,zen1 one of the first ,australian ,b,b,ses with more than one telephone line4 ,the main reason he set up ,zen was to stop his computer users from bothering him all the time4 ,when someone logged into ,,pi1 one of the first things he or she did was request an on-line chat with the system operator4 ,,pi's ,apple ,i,ie was such a basic machine by today's standards1 ,bowen couldn't multi-task on it4 ,he could not do anything with the machine1 such as check his own mail1 while a visitor was logged into ,,pi4 ,zen was a watershed in the ,australian ,,bbs community4 ,zen multi-tasked4 ,up to four people could ring up and login to the machine at any one time1 and ,bowen could do his own thing while his users were on-line4 ,better still1 his users could talk request each other instead of hassling him all the time4 ,having users on a multi-tasking machine with multiple phone lines was like having a gaggle of children4 ,for the most part1 they amused each other4 ,mainstream and respectful of authority on the surface1 ,bowen possessed the same streak of anti-establishment views harboured by many in the underground4 ,his choice of name for ,zen underlined this4 ,zen came from the futuristic ,british ,,tv science fiction series ,blake #g'1 in which a bunch of underfunded rebels attempted to overthrow an evil totalitarian government4 ,zen was the computer on the rebels' ship4 ,the rebels banded together after meeting on a prison ship2 they were all being transported to a penal settlement on another planet4 ,it was a story people in the ,australian underground could relate to4 ,one of the lead characters1 a sort of heroic anti-hero1 had been sentenced to prison for computer hacking4 ,his big mistake1 he told fellow rebels1 was that he had relied on other people4 ,he trusted them4 ,he should have worked alone4 ,craig ,bowen had no idea of how true that sentiment would ring in a matter of months4 ,bowen's place was a hub of current and future lights in the computer underground4 ,the ,wizard4 ,the ,force4 ,powerspike4 ,phoenix4 ,electron4 ,nom4 ,prime ,suspect4 ,mendax4 ,train ,trax4 ,some1 such as ,prime ,suspect1 merely passed through1 occasionally stopping in to check out the action and greet friends4 ,others1 such as ,nom1 were part of the close-knit ,,pi family4 ,nom helped ,bowen set up ,,pi4 ,like many early members of the underground1 they met through ,,ausom1 an ,apple users' society in ,melbourne4 ,bowen wanted to run ,,ascii ,express1 a program which allowed people to transfer files between their own computers and ,,pi4 ,but1 as usual1 he and everyone he knew only had a pirated copy of the program4 ,no manuals4 ,so ,nom and ,bowen spent one weekend picking apart the program by themselves4 ,they were each at home1 on their own machines1 with copies4 ,they sat on the phone for hours working through how the program worked4 ,they wrote their own manual for other people in the underground suffering under the same lack of documentation4 ,then they got it up and running on ,,pi4 ,making your way into the various groups in a ,,bbs such as ,,pi or ,zen had benefits besides hacking information4 ,if you wanted to drop your mantle of anonymity1 you could join a pre-packaged1 close-knit circle of friends4 ,for example1 one clique of ,,pi people were fanatical followers of the film ,the ,blues ,brothers4 ,every ,friday night1 this group dressed up in ,blues ,brothers costumes of a dark suit1 white shirt1 narrow tie1 ,rayban sunglasses and1 of course1 the snap-brimmed hat4 ,one couple brought their child1 dressed as a mini-,blues ,brother4 ,the group of ,friday night regulars made their way at #aa4cj to ,northcote's ,valhalla ,theatre 7now the ,westgarth74 ,its grand but slightly tatty vintage atmosphere lent itself to this alternative culture flourishing in late-night revelries4 ,leaping up on stage mid-film1 the ,,pi groupies sent up the actors in key scenes4 ,it was a fun and1 as importantly1 a cheap evening4 ,the ,valhalla staff admitted regulars who were dressed in appropriate costume for free4 ,the only thing the groupies had to pay for was drinks at the intermission4 ,occasionally1 ,bowen arranged gatherings of other young ,,pi and ,zen users4 ,usually1 the group met in downtown ,melbourne1 sometimes at the ,city ,square4 ,the group was mostly boys1 but sometimes a few girls would show up4 ,bowen's sister1 who used the handle ,syn1 hung around a bit4 ,she went out with a few hackers from the ,,bbs scene4 ,and she wasn't the only one4 ,it was a tight group which interchanged boyfriends and girlfriends with considerable regularity4 ,the group hung out in the ,city ,square after watching a movie1 usually a horror film4 ,nightmare #b4 ,house #c4 ,titles tended to be a noun followed by a numeral4 ,once1 for a bit of lively variation1 they went bowling and drove the other people at the alley nuts4 ,after the early entertainment1 it was down to ,mc,donald's for a cheap burger4 ,they joked and laughed and threw gherkins against the restaurant's wall4 ,this was followed by more hanging around on the stone steps of the ,city ,square before catching the last bus or train home4 ,the social sections of ,,pi and ,zen were more successful than the technical ones1 but the private hacking section was even more successful than the others4 ,the hacking section was hidden2 would-be members of the ,melbourne underground knew there was something going on1 but they couldn't find out what is was4 ,getting an invite to the private area required hacking skill or information1 and usually a recommendation to ,bowen from someone who was already inside4 ,within the ,inner ,sanctum1 as the private hacking area was called1 people could comfortably share information such as opinions of new computer products1 techniques for hacking1 details of companies which had set up new sites to hack and the latest rumours on what the law enforcement agencies were up to4 ,the ,inner ,sanctum was not1 however1 the only private room4 ,two hacking groups1 ,elite and ,h4,a4,c4,k41 guarded entry to their yet more exclusive back rooms4 ,even if you managed to get entry to the ,inner ,sanctum1 you might not even know that ,h4,a4,c4,k4 or ,elite existed4 ,you might know there was a place even more selective than your area1 but exactly how many layers of the onion stood between you and the most exclusive section was anyone's guess4 ,almost every hacker interviewed for this book described a vague sense of being somehow outside the innermost circle4 ,they knew it was there1 but wasn't sure just what it was4 ,bowen fielded occasional phone calls on his voice line from wanna-be hackers trying to pry open the door to the ,inner ,sanctum4 ,i want access to your pirate system1' the voice would whine4 ,what pirate system8 ,who told you my system was a pirate system8' ,bowen sussed out how much the caller knew1 and who had told him4 ,then he denied everything4 ,to avoid these requests1 ,bowen had tried to hide his address1 real name and phone number from most of the people who used his ,b,b,ses4 ,but he wasn't completely successful4 ,he had been surprised by the sudden appearance one day of ,masked ,avenger on his doorstep4 ,how ,masked ,avenger actually found his address was a mystery4 ,the two had chatted in a friendly fashion on-line1 but ,bowen didn't give out his details4 ,nothing could have prepared him for the little kid in the big crash helmet standing by his bike in front of ,bowen's house4 ,hi6' he squeaked4 ,i'm the ,masked ,avenger6' ,masked ,avenger--a boy perhaps fifteen years old--was quite resourceful to have found out ,bowen's details4 ,bowen invited him in and showed him the system4 ,they became friends4 ,but after that incident1 ,bowen decided to tighten security around his personal details even more4 ,he began1 in his own words1 moving toward full anonymity'4 ,he invented the name ,craig ,bowen1 and everyone in the underground came to know him by that name or his handle1 ,thunderbird#a4 ,he even opened a false bank account in the name of ,bowen for the periodic voluntary donations users sent into ,,pi4 ,it was never a lot of money1 mostly #e or #aj1 because students don't tend to have much money4 ,he ploughed it all back into ,,pi4 ,people had lots of reasons for wanting to get into the ,inner ,sanctum4 ,some wanted free copies of the latest software1 usually pirated games from the ,,us4 ,others wanted to share information and ideas about ways to break into computers1 often those owned by local universities4 ,still others wanted to learn about how to manipulate the telephone system4 ,the private areas functioned like a royal court1 populated by aristocrats and courtiers with varying seniority1 loyalties and rivalries4 ,the areas involved an intricate social order and respect was the name of the game4 ,if you wanted admission1 you had to walk a delicate line between showing your superiors that you possessed enough valuable hacking information to be elite and not showing them so much they would brand you a blabbermouth4 ,a perfect bargaining chip was an old password for ,melbourne ,university's dial-out4 ,the university's dial-out was a valuable thing4 ,a hacker could ring up the university's computer1 login as modem' and the machine would drop him into a modem which let him dial out again4 ,he could then dial anywhere in the world1 and the university would foot the phone bill4 ,in the late #aihjs1 before the days of cheap1 accessible ,internet connections1 the university dial-out meant a hacker could access anything from an underground ,,bbs in ,germany to a ,,us military system in ,panama4 ,the password put the world at his fingertips4 ,a hacker aspiring to move into ,,pi's ,inner ,sanctum wouldn't give out the current dial-out password in the public discussion areas4 ,most likely1 if he was low in the pecking order1 he wouldn't have such precious information4 ,even if he had managed to stumble across the current password somehow1 it was risky giving it out publicly4 ,every wanna-be and his dog would start messing around with the university's modem account4 ,the system administrator would wise up and change the password and the hacker would quickly lose his own access to the university account4 ,worse1 he would lose access for other hackers--the kind of hackers who ran ,h4,a4,c4,k41 ,elite and the ,inner ,sanctum4 ,they would be really cross4 ,hackers hate it when passwords on accounts they consider their own are changed without warning4 ,even if the password wasn't changed1 the aspiring hacker would look like a guy who couldn't keep a good secret4 ,posting an old password1 however1 was quite a different matter4 ,the information was next to useless1 so the hacker wouldn't be giving much away4 ,but just showing he had access to that sort of information suggested he was somehow in the know4 ,other hackers might think he had had the password when it was still valid4 ,more importantly1 by showing off a known1 expired password1 the hacker hinted that he might just have the current password4 ,voila6 ,instant respect4 ,positioning oneself to win an invite into the ,inner ,sanctum was a game of strategy2 titillate but never go all the way4 ,after a while1 someone on the inside would probably notice you and put in a word with ,bowen4 ,then you would get an invitation4 ,if you were seriously ambitious and wanted to get past the first inner layer1 you then had to start performing for real4 ,you couldn't hide behind the excuse that the public area might be monitored by the authorities or was full of idiots who might abuse valuable hacking information4 ,the hackers in the most elite area would judge you on how much information you provided about breaking into computer or phone systems4 ,they also looked at the accuracy of the information4 ,it was easy getting out-of-date login names and passwords for a student account on ,monash ,university's computer system4 ,posting a valid account for the ,new ,zealand forestry department's ,,vms system intrigued the people who counted considerably more4 ,the ,great ,rite of ,passage from boy to man in the computer underground was ,minerva4 ,,otc1 ,australia's then government-owned ,overseas ,telecommunications ,commission1#c ran ,minerva1 a system of three ,prime mainframes in ,sydney4 ,for hackers such as ,mendax1 breaking into ,minerva was the test4 ,back in early #aihh1 ,mendax was just beginning to explore the world of hacking4 ,he had managed to break through the barrier from public to private section of ,,pi1 but it wasn't enough4 ,to be recognised as up-and-coming talent by the aristocracy of hackers such as ,the ,force and ,the ,wizard1 a hacker had to spend time inside the ,minerva system4 ,mendax set to work on breaking into it4 ,minerva was special for a number of reasons4 ,although it was in ,sydney1 the phone number to its entry computer1 called an ,x4#be pad1 was a free call4 ,at the time ,mendax lived in ,emerald1 a country town on the outskirts of ,melbourne4 ,a call to most ,melbourne numbers incurred a long-distance charge1 thus ruling out options such as the ,melbourne ,university dial-out for breaking into international computer systems4 ,emerald was hardly ,emerald ,city4 ,for a clever sixteen-year-old boy1 the place was dead boring4 ,mendax lived there with his mother2 ,emerald was merely a stopping point1 one of dozens1 as his mother shuttled her child around the continent trying to escape from a psychopathic former de facto4 ,the house was an emergency refuge for families on the run4 ,it was safe and so1 for a time1 ,mendax and his exhausted family stopped to rest before tearing off again in search of a new place to hide4 ,sometimes ,mendax went to school4 ,often he didn't4 ,the school system didn't hold much interest for him4 ,it didn't feed his mind the way ,minerva would4 ,they ,sydney computer system was a far more interesting place to muck around in than the rural high school4 ,minerva was a ,prime computer1 and ,primes were in4 ,force1 one of the more respected hackers in #aihg-hh in the ,australian computer underground1 specialised in ,primos1 the special operating system used on ,prime computers4 ,he wrote his own programs--potent hacking tools which provided current usernames and passwords--and made the systems fashionable in the computer underground4 ,prime computers were big and expensive and no hacker could afford one1 so being able to access the speed and computational grunt of a system like ,minerva was valuable for running a hacker's own programs4 ,for example1 a network scanner1 a program which gathered the addresses of computers on the ,x4#be network which would be targets for future hacking adventures1 ate up computing resources4 ,but a huge machine like ,minerva could handle that sort of program with ease4 ,minerva also allowed users to connect to other computer systems on the ,x4#be network around the world4 ,better still1 ,minerva had a ,,basic interpreter on it4 ,this allowed people to write programs in the ,,basic programming language--by far the most popular language at the time--and make them run on ,minerva4 ,you didn't have to be a ,primos fanatic1 like ,force1 to write and execute a program on the ,,otc computer4 ,minerva suited ,mendax very well4 ,the ,,otc system had other benefits4 ,most major ,australian corporations had accounts on the system4 ,breaking into an account requires a username and password2 find the username and you have solved half the equation4 ,minerva account names were easy picking4 ,each one was composed of three letters followed by three numbers1 a system which could have been difficult to crack except for the choice of those letters and numbers4 ,the first three letters were almost always obvious acronyms for the company4 ,for example1 the ,,anz ,bank had accounts named ,,anz#jja1 ,,anz#jjb and ,,anz#jjb4 ,the numbers followed the same pattern for most companies4 ,,bhp#jja4 ,,cra#jja4 ,,nab#jja4 ,even ,,otc#jjg4 ,anyone with the ,,iq of a desk lamp could guess at least a few account names on ,minerva4 ,passwords were a bit tougher to come by1 but ,mendax had some ideas for that4 ,he was going to have a crack at social engineering4 ,social engineering means smooth-talking someone in a position of power into doing something for you4 ,it always involved a ruse of some sort4 ,mendax decided he would social engineer a password out of one of ,minerva's users4 ,he had downloaded a partial list of ,minerva users another ,,pi hacker had generously posted for those talented enough to make use of it4 ,this list was maybe two years old1 and incomplete1 but it contained #cj-odd pages of ,minerva account usernames1 company names1 addresses1 contact names and telephone and fax numbers4 ,some of them would probably still be valid4 ,mendax had a deep voice for his age2 it would have been impossible to even contemplate social engineering without it4 ,cracking adolescent male voices were the kiss of death for would-be social engineers4 ,but even though he had the voice1 he didn't have the office or the ,sydney phone number if the intended victim wanted a number to call back on4 ,he found a way to solve the ,sydney phone number by poking around until he dug up a number with ,sydney's #jb area code which was permanently engaged4 ,one down1 one to go4 ,next problem3 generate some realistic office background noise4 ,he could hardly call a company posing as an ,,otc official to cajole a password when the only background noise was birds tweeting in the fresh country air4 ,no1 he needed the same background buzz as a crowded office in downtown ,sydney4 ,mendex had a tape recorder1 so he could pre-record the sound of an office and play it as background when he called companies on the ,minerva list4 ,the only hurdle was finding the appropriate office noise4 ,not even the local post office would offer a believable noise level4 ,with none easily accessible1 he decided to make his own audible office clutter4 ,it wouldn't be easy4 ,with a single track on his recording device1 he couldn't dub in sounds on top of each other3 he had to make all the noises simultaneously4 ,first1 he turned on the ,,tv news1 down very low1 so it just hummed in the background4 ,then he set up a long document to print on his ,commodore ,,mps #hja printer4 ,he removed the cover from the noisy dot matrix machine1 to create just the right volume of clackity-clack in the background4 ,still1 he needed something more4 ,operators' voices mumbling across a crowded floor4 ,he could mumble quietly to himself1 but he soon discovered his verbal skills had not developed to the point of being able to stand in the middle of the room talking about nothing to himself for a quarter of an hour4 ,so he fished out his volume of ,shakespeare and started reading aloud4 ,loud enough to hear voices1 but not so loud that the intended victim would be able to pick ,macbeth4 ,,otc operators had keyboards1 so he began tapping randomly on his4 ,occasionally1 for a little variation1 he walked up to the tape recorder and asked a question--and then promptly answered it in another voice4 ,he stomped noisily away from the recorder again1 across the room1 and then silently dove back to the keyboard for more keyboard typing and mumblings of ,macbeth4 ,it was exhausting4 ,he figured the tape had to run for at least fifteen minutes uninterrupted4 ,it wouldn't look very realistic if the office buzz suddenly went dead for three seconds at a time in the places where he paused the tape to rest4 ,the tapes took a number of attempts4 ,he would be halfway through1 racing through line after line of ,shakespeare1 rap-tap-tapping on his keyboard and asking himself questions in authoritative voices when the paper jammed in his printer4 ,damn4 ,he had to start all over again4 ,finally1 after a tiring hour of auditory schizophrenia1 he had the perfect tape of office hubbub4 ,mendax pulled out his partial list of ,minerva users and began working through the #cj-odd pages4 ,it was discouraging4 ,the number you have dialled is not connected4 ,please check the number before dialling again4' ,next number4 ,sorry1 he is in a meeting at the moment4 ,can ,i have him return your call8' ,ah1 no thanks4 ,another try4 ,that person is no longer working with our company4 ,can ,i refer you to someone else8' ,uhm1 not really4 ,and another try4 ,finally1 success4 ,mendax reached one of the contact names for a company in ,perth4 ,valid number1 valid company1 valid contact name4 ,he cleared his throat to deepen his voice even further and began4 ,this is ,john ,keller1 an operator from ,,otc ,minerva in ,sydney4 ,one of our ,d#jij hard drives has crashed4 ,we've pulled across the data on the back-up tape and we believe we have all your correct information4 ,but some of it might have been corrupted in the accident and we would just like to confirm your details4 ,also the back-up tape is two days old1 so we want to check your information is up to date so your service is not interrupted4 ,let me just dig out your details 444' ,mendax shuffled some papers around on the table top4 ,oh1 dear4 ,yes4 ,let's check it1' the worried manager responded4 ,mendax started reading all the information on the ,minerva list obtained from ,pacific ,island1 except for one thing4 ,he changed the fax number slightly4 ,it worked4 ,the manager jumped right in4 ,oh1 no4 ,that's wrong4 ,our fax number is definitely wrong1' he said and proceeded to give the correct number4 ,mendax tried to sound concerned4 ,hmm1' he told the manager4 ,we may have bigger problems than we anticipated4 ,hmm4' ,he gave another pregnant pause4 ,working up the courage to ask the ,big ,question4 ,it was hard to know who was sweating more1 the fretting ,perth manager1 tormented by the idea of loud staff complaints from all over the company because the ,minerva account was faulty1 or the gangly kid trying his hand at social engineering for the first time4 ,well1' ,mendax began1 trying to keep the sound of authority in his voice4 ,let's see4 ,we have your account number1 but we had better check your password 444 what was it8' ,an arrow shot from the bow4 ,it hit the target4 ,yes1 it's ,l-,u-,r-,c-,h--full stop4' ,lurch8 ,uhuh4 ,an ,addams ,family fan4 ,can you make sure everything is working8 ,we don't want our service interrupted4' ,the ,perth manager sounded quite anxious4 ,mendax tapped away on the keyboard randomly and then paused4 ,well1 it looks like everything is working just fine now1' he quickly reassured him4 ,just fine4 ,oh1 that's a relief6' the ,perth manager exclaimed4 ,thank you for that4 ,thank you4 ,i just can't thank you enough for calling us6' ,more gratitude4 ,mendax had to extract himself4 ,this was getting embarrassing4 ,yes1 well ,i'd better go now4 ,more customers to call4' ,that should work4 ,the ,perth manager wanted a contact telephone number1 as expected1 if something went wrong--so ,mendax gave him the one which was permanently busy4 ,thank you again for your courteous service6' ,uhuh4 ,anytime4 ,mendax hung up and tried the toll-free ,minerva number4 ,the password worked4 ,he couldn't believe how easy it was to get in4 ,he had a quick look around1 following the pattern of most hackers breaking into a new machine4 ,first thing to do was to check the electronic mail of the borrowed' account4 ,email often contains valuable information4 ,one company manager might send another information about other account names1 password changes or even phone numbers to modems at the company itself4 ,then it was off to check the directories available for anyone to read on the main system--another good source of information4 ,final stop3 ,minerva's bulletin board of news4 ,this included postings from the system operators about planned downtime or other service issues4 ,he didn't stay long4 ,the first visit was usually mostly a bit of reconnaissance work4 ,minerva had many uses4 ,most important among these was the fact that ,minerva gave hackers an entry point into various ,x4#be networks4 ,x4#be is a type of computer communications network1 much like the ,unix-based ,internet or the ,,vms-based ,,decnet4 ,it has different commands and protocols1 but the principle of an extensive worldwide data communications network is the same4 ,there is1 however1 one important difference4 ,the targets for hackers on the ,x4#be networks are often far more interesting4 ,for example1 most banks are on ,x4#be4 ,indeed1 ,x4#be underpins many aspects of the world's financial markets4 ,a number of countries' classified military computer sites only run on ,x4#be4 ,it is considered by many people to be more secure than the ,internet or any ,,decnet system4 ,minerva allowed incoming callers to pass into the ,x4#be network--something most ,australian universities did not offer at the time4 ,and ,minerva let ,australian callers do this without incurring a long-distance telephone charge4 ,in the early days of ,minerva1 the ,,otc operators didn't seem to care much about the hackers1 probably because it seemed impossible to get rid of them4 ,the ,,otc operators managed the ,,otc ,x4#be exchange1 which was like a telephone exchange for the ,x4#be data network4 ,this exchange was the data gateway for ,minerva and other systems connected to that data network4 ,australia's early hackers had it easy1 until ,michael ,rosenberg arrived4 ,rosenberg1 known on-line simply as ,michael,r1 decided to clean up ,minerva4 ,an engineering graduate from ,queensland ,university1 ,michael moved to ,sydney when he joined ,,otc at age #ba4 ,he was about the same age as the hackers he was chasing off his system4 ,rosenberg didn't work as an ,,otc operator1 he managed the software which ran on ,minerva4 ,and he made life hell for people like ,force4 ,closing up security holes1 quietly noting accounts used by hackers and then killing those accounts1 ,rosenberg almost single-handedly stamped out much of the hacker activity in ,,otc's ,minerva4 ,despite this1 the hackers--my hackers' as he termed the regulars--had a grudging respect for ,rosenberg4 ,unlike anyone else at ,,otc1 he was their technical equal and1 in a world where technical prowess was the currency1 ,rosenberg was a wealthy young man4 ,he wanted to catch the hackers1 but he didn't want to see them go to prison4 ,they were an annoyance1 and he just wanted them out of his system4 ,any line trace1 however1 had to go through ,telecom1 which was at that time a separate body from ,,otc4 ,telecom1 ,rosenberg was told1 was difficult about these things because of strict privacy laws4 ,so1 for the most part1 he was left to deal with the hackers on his own4 ,rosenberg could not secure his system completely since ,,otc didn't dictate passwords to their customers4 ,their customers were usually more concerned about employees being able to remember passwords easily than worrying about warding off wily hackers4 ,the result3 the passwords on a number of ,minerva accounts were easy pickings4 ,the hackers and ,,otc waged a war from #aihh to #aiij1 and it was fought in many ways4 ,sometimes an ,,otc operator would break into a hacker's on-line session demanding to know who was really using the account4 ,sometimes the operators sent insulting messages to the hackers--and the hackers gave it right back to them4 ,they broke into the hacker's session with ,oh1 you idiots are at it again'4 ,the operators couldn't keep the hackers out1 but they had other ways of getting even4 ,electron1 a ,melbourne hacker and rising star in the ,australian underground1 had been logging into a system in ,germany via ,,otc's ,x4#be link4 ,using a ,,vms machine1 a sort of sister system to ,minerva1 he had been playing a game called ,empire on the ,altos system1 a popular hang-out for hackers4 ,it was his first attempt at ,empire1 a complex war game of strategy which attracted players from around the world4 ,they each had less than one hour per day to conquer regions while keeping production units at a strategic level4 ,the ,melbourne hacker had spent weeks building his position4 ,he was in second place4 ,then1 one day1 he logged into the game via ,minerva and the ,german system1 and he couldn't believe what he saw on the screen in front of him4 ,his regions1 his position in the game1 all of it--weeks of work--had been wiped out4 ,an ,,otc operator had used an ,x4#be packet-sniffer to monitor the hacker's login and capture his password to ,empire4 ,instead of trading the usual insults1 the operator had waited for the hacker to logoff and then had hacked into the game and destroyed the hacker's position4 ,electron was furious4 ,he had been so proud of his position in his very first game4 ,still1 wreaking havoc on the ,minerva system in retribution was out of the question4 ,despite the fact that they wasted weeks of his work1 ,electron had no desire to damage their system4 ,he considered himself lucky to be able to use it as long as he did4 ,the anti-establishment attitudes nurtured in ,b,b,ses such as ,,pi and ,zen fed on a love of the new and untried4 ,there was no bitterness1 just a desire to throw off the mantle of the old and dive into the new4 ,camaraderie grew from the exhilarating sense that the youth in this particular time and place were constantly on the edge of big discoveries4 ,people were calling up computers with their modems and experimenting4 ,what did this key sequence do8 ,what about that tone8 ,what would happen if 444 ,it was the question which drove them to stay up day and night1 poking and prodding4 ,these hackers didn't for the most part do drugs4 ,they didn't even drink that much1 given their age4 ,all of that would have interfered with their burning desire to know1 would have dulled their sharp edge4 ,the underground's anti-establishment views were mostly directed at organisations which seemed to block the way to the new frontier--organisations like ,telecom4 ,it was a powerful word4 ,say ,telecom' to a member of the computer underground from that era and you will observe the most striking reaction4 ,instant contempt sweeps across his face4 ,there is a pause as his lips curl into a noticeable sneer and he replies with complete derision1 ,telescum'4 ,the underground hated ,australia's national telephone carrier with a passion equalled only to its love of exploration4 ,they felt that ,telecom was backward and its staff had no idea how to use their own telecommunications technology4 ,worst of all1 ,telecom seemed to actively dislike ,b,b,ses4 ,line noise interfered with one modem talking to another1 and in the eyes of the computer underground1 ,telecom was responsible for the line noise4 ,a hacker might be reading a message on ,,pi1 and there1 in the middle of some juicy technical titbit1 would be a bit of crud--random characters #b'bh v'#a'2;,dnj#d'--;followed by the comment1 ,line noise4 ,damn ,telescum6 ,at their best as usual1 ,i see'4 ,sometimes the line noise was so bad it logged the hacker off1 thus forcing him to spend another #de minutes attack dialling the ,,bbs4 ,the modems didn't have error correction1 and the faster the modem speed1 the worse the impact of line noise4 ,often it became a race to read mail and post messages before ,telecom's line noise logged the hacker off4 ,rumours flew through the underground again and again that ,telecom was trying to bring in timed local calls4 ,the volume of outrage was deafening4 ,the ,,bbs community believed it really irked the national carrier that people could spend an hour logged into a ,,bbs for the cost of one local phone call4 ,even more heinous1 other rumours abounded that ,telecom had forced at least one ,,bbs to limit each incoming call to under half an hour4 ,hence ,telecom's other nickname in the computer underground3 ,teleprofit4 ,to the ,,bbs community1 ,telecom's ,protective ,services ,unit was the enemy4 ,they were the electronic police4 ,the underground saw ,protective ,services as the enforcers'--an all-powerful government force which could raid your house1 tap your phone line and seize your computer equipment at any time4 ,the ultimate reason to hate ,telecom4 ,there was such hatred of ,telecom that people in the computer underground routinely discussed ways of sabotaging the carrier4 ,some people talked of sending #bdj volts of electricity down the telephone line--an act which would blow up bits of the telephone exchange along with any line technicians who happened to be working on the cable at the time4 ,telecom had protective fuses which stopped electrical surges on the line1 but ,,bbs hackers had reportedly developed circuit plans which would allow high-frequency voltages to bypass them4 ,other members of the underground considered what sweet justice it would be to set fire to all the cables outside a particular ,telecom exchange which had an easily accessible cable entrance duct4 ,it was against this backdrop that the underground began to shift into phreaking4 ,phreaking is loosely defined as hacking the telephone system4 ,it is a very loose definition4 ,some people believe phreaking includes stealing a credit card number and using it to make a long-distance call for free4 ,purists shun this definition4 ,to them1 using a stolen credit card is not phreaking1 it is carding4 ,they argue that phreaking demands a reasonable level of technical skill and involves manipulation of a telephone exchange4 ,this manipulation may manifest itself as using computers or electrical circuits to generate special tones or modify the voltage of a phone line4 ,the manipulation changes how the telephone exchange views a particular telephone line4 ,the result3 a free and hopefully untraceable call4 ,the purist hacker sees phreaking more as a way of eluding telephone traces than of calling his or her friends around the world for free4 ,the first transition into phreaking and eventually carding happened over a period of about six months in #aihh4 ,early hackers on ,,pi and ,zen relied primarily on dial-outs1 like those at ,melbourne ,university or ,telecom's ,clayton office1 to bounce around international computer sites4 ,they also used ,x4#be dial-outs in other countries--the ,,us1 ,sweden and ,germany--to make another leap in their international journeys4 ,gradually1 the people running these dial-out lines wised up4 ,dial-outs started drying up4 ,passwords were changed4 ,facilities were cancelled4 ,but the hackers didn't want to give up access to overseas systems4 ,they'd had their first taste of international calling and they wanted more4 ,there was a big shiny electronic world to explore out there4 ,they began trying different methods of getting where they wanted to go4 ,and so the ,melbourne underground moved into phreaking4 ,phreakers swarmed to ,p,a,b,xes like bees to honey4 ,a ,,pabx1 a private automatic branch exchange1 works like a mini-,telecom telephone exchange4 ,using a ,,pabx1 the employee of a large company could dial another employee in-house without incurring the cost of a local telephone call4 ,if the employee was1 for example1 staying in a hotel out of town1 the company might ask him to make all his calls through the company's ,,pabx to avoid paying extortionate hotel long-distance rates4 ,if the employee was in ,brisbane on business1 he could dial a ,brisbane number which might route him via the company's ,,pabx to ,sydney4 ,from there1 he might dial out to ,rome or ,london1 and the charge would be billed directly to the company4 ,what worked for an employee also worked for a phreaker4 ,a phreaker dialling into the ,,pabx would generally need to either know or guess the password allowing him to dial out again4 ,often1 the phreaker was greeted by an automated message asking for the employee's telephone extension--which also served as the password4 ,well1 that was easy enough4 ,the phreaker simply tried a series of numbers until he found one which actually worked4 ,occasionally1 a ,,pabx system didn't even have passwords4 ,the managers of the ,,pabx figured that keeping the phone number secret was good enough security4 ,sometimes phreakers made free calls out of ,p,a,b,xes simply by exploited security flaws in a particular model or brand of ,,pabx4 ,a series of specific key presses allowed the phreaker to get in without knowing a password1 an employee's name1 or even the name of the company for that matter4 ,as a fashionable pastime on ,b,b,ses1 phreaking began to surpass hacking4 ,,pi established a private phreaking section4 ,for a while1 it became almost old hat to call yourself a hacker4 ,phreaking was forging the path forward4 ,somewhere in this transition1 the ,phreakers ,five sprung to life4 ,a group of five hackers-turned-phreakers gathered in an exclusive group on ,,pi4 ,tales of their late-night podding adventures leaked into the other areas of the ,,bbs and made would-be phreakers green with jealousy4 ,first1 the phreakers would scout out a telephone pod--the grey steel1 rounded box perched nondescriptly on most streets4 ,ideally1 the chosen pod would be by a park or some other public area likely to be deserted at night4 ,pods directly in front of suburban houses were a bit risky--the house might contain a nosy little old lady with a penchant for calling the local police if anything looked suspicious4 ,and what she would see1 if she peered out from behind her lace curtains1 was a small tornado of action4 ,one of the five would leap from the van and open the pod with a key begged1 borrowed or stolen from a ,telecom technician4 ,the keys seemed easy enough to obtain4 ,the ,b,b,ses message boards were rife with gleeful tales of valuable ,telecom equipment1 such as #ejj metres of cable or a pod key1 procured off a visiting ,telecom repairman either through legitimate means or in exchange for a six-pack of beer4 ,the designated phreaker would poke inside the pod until he found someone else's phone line4 ,he'd strip back the cable1 whack on a pair of alligator clips and1 if he wanted to make a voice call1 run it to a linesman's handset also borrowed1 bought or stolen from ,telecom4 ,if he wanted to call another computer instead of talking voice1 he would need to extend the phone line back to the phreakers' car4 ,this is where the #ejj metres of ,telecom cable came in handy4 ,a long cable meant the car1 containing five anxious1 whispering young men and a veritable junkyard of equipment1 would not have to sit next to the pod for hours on end4 ,that sort of scene might look a little suspicious to a local resident out walking his or her dog late one night4 ,the phreaker ran the cable down the street and1 if possible1 around the corner4 ,he pulled it into the car and attached it to the waiting computer modem4 ,at least one of the five was proficient enough with electronics hardware to have rigged up the computer and modem to the car battery4 ,the ,phreaker's ,five could now call any computer without being traced or billed4 ,the phone call charges would appear at the end of a local resident's phone bill4 ,telecom did not itemise residential telephone bills at the time4 ,true1 it was a major drama to zoom around suburban streets in the middle of the night with computers1 alligator clips and battery adaptors in tow1 but that didn't matter so much4 ,in fact1 the thrill of such a cloak-and-dagger operation was as good as the actual hacking itself4 ,it was illicit4 ,in the phreakers' own eyes1 it was clever4 ,and therefore it was fun4 ,craig ,bowen didn't think much of the ,phreakers ,five's style of phreaking4 ,in fact1 the whole growth of phreaking as a pastime depressed him a bit4 ,he believed it just didn't require the technical skills of proper hacking4 ,hacking was1 in his view1 about the exploration of a brave new world of computers4 ,phreaking was1 well1 a bit beneath a good hacker4 ,somehow it demeaned the task at hand4 ,still1 he could see how in some cases it was necessary in order to continue hacking4 ,most people in the underground developed some basic skills in phreaking1 though people like ,bowen always viewed it more as a means to an end--just a way of getting from computer ,a to computer ,b1 nothing more4 ,nonetheless1 he allowed phreaking discussion areas in the private sections of ,,pi4 ,what he refused to allow was discussion areas around credit card fraud4 ,carding was anathema to ,bowen and he watched with alarm as some members of the underground began to shift from phreaking into carding4 ,like the transition into phreaking1 the move into carding was a logical progression4 ,it occurred over a period of perhaps six months in #aihh and was as obvious as a group of giggling schoolgirls4 ,many phreakers saw it simply as another type of phreaking4 ,in fact it was a lot less hassle than manipulating some company's ,,pabx4 ,instead1 you just call up an operator1 give him some stranger's credit card number to pay for the call1 and you were on your way4 ,of course1 the credit cards had a broader range of uses than the ,p,a,b,xes4 ,the advent of carding meant you could telephone your friends in the ,,us or ,,uk and have a long voice conference call with all of them simultaneously--something which could be a lot tougher to arrange on a ,,pabx4 ,there were other benefits4 ,you could actually charge things with that credit card4 ,as in goods4 ,mail order goods4 ,one member of the underground who used the handle ,ivan ,trotsky1 allegedly ordered #ejjjj worth of goods1 including a jet ski1 from the ,,us on a stolen card1 only to leave it sitting on the ,australian docks4 ,the ,customs guys don't tend to take stolen credit cards for duty payments4 ,in another instance1 ,trotsky was allegedly more successful4 ,a try-hard hacker who kept pictures of ,karl ,marx and ,lenin taped to the side of his computer terminal1 ,trotsky regularly spewed communist doctrine across the underground4 ,a self-contained paradox1 he spent his time attending ,communist ,party of ,australia meetings and duck shoots4 ,according to one hacker1 ,trotsky's particular contribution to the overthrow of the capitalist order was the arrangement of a shipment of expensive modems from the ,,us using stolen credit cards4 ,he was rumoured to have made a tidy profit by selling the modems in the computer community for about #bjj each4 ,apparently1 being part of the communist revolution gave him all sorts of ready-made rationalisations4 ,membership has its advantages4 ,to ,bowen1 carding was little more than theft4 ,hacking may have been a moral issue1 but in early #aihh in ,australia it was not yet much of a legal one4 ,carding was by contrast both a moral and a legal issue4 ,bowen recognised that some people viewed hacking as a type of theft--stealing someone else's computer resources--but the argument was ambiguous4 ,what if no-one needed those resources at #b a4m4 on a given night8 ,it might be seen more as borrowing' an under-used asset1 since the hacker had not permanently appropriated any property4 ,not so for carding4 ,what made carding even less noble was that it required the technical skill of a wind-up toy4 ,not only was it beneath most good hackers1 it attracted the wrong sort of people into the hacking scene4 ,people who had little or no respect for the early ,australian underground's golden rules of hacking3 don't damage computer systems you break into 7including crashing them72 don't change the information in those systems 7except for altering logs to cover your tracks72 and share information4 ,for most early ,australian hackers1 visiting someone else's system was a bit like visiting a national park4 ,leave it as you find it4 ,while the cream seemed to rise to the top of the hacking hierarchy1 it was the scum that floated at the top of the carding community4 ,few people in the underground typified this more completely than ,blue ,thunder1 who had been hanging around the outskirts of the ,melbourne underground since at least #aihf4 ,the senior hackers treated ,blue ,blunder1 as they sometimes called him1 with great derision4 ,his entrance into the underground was as ignominious as that of a debutante who1 delicately descending the grand steps of the ballroom1 trips and tumbles head-first onto the dance floor4 ,he picked a fight with the grande doyenne of the ,melbourne underground4 ,the ,real ,article occupied a special place in the underground4 ,for starters1 ,the ,real ,article was a woman--perhaps the only female to play a major role in the early ,melbourne underground scene4 ,although she didn't hack computers1 she knew a lot about them4 ,she ran ,the ,real ,connection1 a ,,bbs frequented by many of the hackers who hung out on ,,pi4 ,she wasn't somebody's sister wafting in and out of the picture in search of a boyfriend4 ,she was older4 ,she was as good as married4 ,she had kids4 ,she was a force to be reckoned with in the hacking community4 ,forthright and formidable1 ,the ,real ,article commanded considerable respect among the underground4 ,a good indicator of this respect was the fact that the members of ,h4,a4,c4,k4 had inducted her as an honorary member of their exclusive club4 ,perhaps it was because she ran a popular board4 ,more likely it was because1 for all their bluff and bluster1 most hackers were young men with the problems of young men4 ,being older and wiser1 ,the ,real ,article knew how to lend a sympathetic ear to those problems4 ,as a woman and a non-hacker1 she was removed from the jumble of male ego hierarchical problems associated with confiding in a peer4 ,she served as a sort of mother to the embryonic hacking community1 but she was young enough to avoid the judgmental pitfalls most parents fall into with children4 ,the ,real ,article and ,blue ,thunder went into partnership running a ,,bbs in early #aihf4 ,blue ,thunder1 then a high-school student1 was desperate to run a board1 so she let him co-sysop the system4 ,at first the partnership worked4 ,blue ,thunder used to bring his high-school essays over for her to proofread and correct4 ,but a short time into the partnership1 it went sour4 ,the ,real ,article didn't like ,blue ,thunder's approach to running a ,,bbs1 which appeared to her to be get information from other hackers and then dump them4 ,the specific strategy seemed to be3 get hackers to logon and store their valuable information on the ,,bbs1 steal that information and then lock them out of their own account4 ,by locking them out1 he was able to steal all the glory2 he could then claim the hacking secrets were his own4 ,it was1 in her opinion1 not only unsustainable1 but quite immoral4 ,she parted ways with ,blue ,thunder and excommunicated him from her ,,bbs4 ,not long after1 ,the ,real ,article started getting harassing phone calls at #d in the morning4 ,the calls were relentless4 ,four a4m4 on the dot1 every night4 ,the voice at the other end of the line was computer synthesised4 ,this was followed by a picture of a machine-gun1 printed out on a cheap dot matrix printer in ,commodore ,,ascii1 delivered in her letterbox4 ,there was a threatening message attached which read something like1 ,if you want the kids to stay alive1 get them out of the house'4 ,after that came the brick through the window4 ,it landed in the back of her ,,tv4 ,then she woke up one morning to find her phone line dead4 ,someone had opened the ,telecom well in the nature strip across the road and cut out a metre of cable4 ,it meant the phone lines for the entire street were down4 ,the ,real ,article tended to rise above the petty games that whining adolescent boys with bruised egos could play1 but this was too much4 ,she called in ,telecom ,protective ,services1 who put a last party release on her phone line to trace the early-morning harassing calls4 ,she suspected ,blue ,thunder was involved1 but nothing was ever proved4 ,finally1 the calls stopped4 ,she voiced her suspicions to others in the computer underground4 ,whatever shred of reputation ,blue ,chunder1 as he then became known for a time1 had was soon decimated4 ,since his own technical contributions were seen by his fellow ,,bbs users as limited1 ,blue ,thunder would likely have faded into obscurity1 condemned to spend the rest of his time in the underground jumping around the ankles of the aristocratic hackers4 ,but the birth of carding arrived at a fortuitous moment for him and he got into carding in a big way1 so big in fact that he soon got busted4 ,people in the underground recognised him as a liability1 both because of what many hackers saw as his loose morals and because he was boastful of his activities4 ,one key hacker said1 ,he seemed to relish the idea of getting caught4 ,he told people he worked for a credit union and that he stole lots of credit card numbers4 ,he sold information1 such as accounts on systems1 for financial gain4' ,in partnership with a carder1 he also allegedly sent a bouquet of flowers to the police fraud squad--and paid for it with a stolen credit card number4 ,on #ca ,august #aihh1 ,blue ,thunder faced #bb charges in the ,melbourne ,magistrates ,court1 where he managed to get most of the charges dropped or amalgamated4 ,he only ended up pleading guilty to five counts1 including deception and theft4 ,the ,real ,article sat in the back of the courtroom watching the proceedings4 ,blue ,thunder must have been pretty worried about what kind of sentence the magistrate would hand down because she said he approached her during the lunch break and asked if she would appear as a character witness for the defence4 ,she looked him straight in the eye and said1 ,i think you would prefer it if ,i didn't'4 ,he landed #bjj hours of community service and an order to pay #gjf in costs4 ,craig ,bowen didn't like where the part of the underground typified by ,blue ,thunder was headed4 ,in his view1 ,chunder and ,trotsky stood out as bad apples in an otherwise healthy group1 and they signalled an unpleasant shift towards selling information4 ,this was perhaps the greatest taboo4 ,it was dirty4 ,it was seedy4 ,it was the realm of criminals1 not explorers4 ,the ,australian computer underground had started to lose some of its fresh-faced innocence4 ,somewhere in the midst of all this1 a new player entered the ,melbourne underground4 ,his name was ,stuart ,gill1 from a company called ,hackwatch4 ,bowen met ,stuart through ,kevin ,fitzgerald1 a well-known local hacker commentator who founded the ,chisholm ,institute of ,technology's ,computer ,abuse ,research ,bureau1 which later became the ,australian ,computer ,abuse ,research ,bureau4 ,after seeing a newspaper article quoting ,fitzgerald1 ,craig decided to ring up the man many members of the underground considered to be a hacker-catcher4 ,why not8 ,there were no federal laws in ,australia against hacking1 so ,bowen didn't feel that nervous about it4 ,besides1 he wanted to meet the enemy4 ,no-one from the ,australian underground had ever done it before1 and ,bowen decided it was high time4 ,he wanted to set the record straight with ,fitzgerald1 to let him know what hackers were really on about4 ,they began to talk periodically on the phone4 ,along the way1 ,bowen met ,stuart ,gill who said that he was working with ,fitzgerald4#d ,before long1 ,gill began visiting ,,pi4 ,eventually1 ,bowen visited ,gill in person at the ,mount ,martha home he shared with his elderly aunt and uncle4 ,stuart had all sorts of computer equipment hooked up there1 and a great number of boxes of papers in the garage4 ,oh1 hello there1 ,paul1' ,gill's ancient-looking uncle said when he saw the twosome4 ,as soon as the old man had tottered off1 ,gill pulled ,bowen aside confidentially4 ,don't worry about old ,eric1' he said4 ,he lost it in the war4 ,today he thinks ,i'm ,paul1 tomorrow it will be someone else4' ,bowen nodded1 understanding4 ,there were many strange things about ,stuart ,gill1 all of which seemed to have a rational explanation1 yet that explanation somehow never quite answered the question in full4 ,aged in his late thirties1 he was much older and far more worldly than ,craig ,bowen4 ,he had very1 very pale skin--so pasty it looked as though he had never sat in the sun in his life4 ,gill drew ,bowen into the complex web of his life4 ,soon he told the young hacker that he wasn't just running ,hackwatch1 he was also involved in intelligence work4 ,for the ,australian ,federal ,police4 ,for ,,asio4 ,for the ,national ,crime ,authority4 ,for the ,victoria ,police's ,bureau of ,criminal ,intelligence 7,,bci74 ,he showed ,bowen some secret computer files and documents1 but he made him sign a special form first--a legal-looking document demanding non-disclosure based on some sort of official secrets act4 ,bowen was impressed4 ,why wouldn't he be8 ,gill's cloak-and-dagger world looked like the perfect boy's own adventure4 ,even bigger and better than hacking4 ,he was a little strange1 but that was part of the allure4 ,like the time they took a trip to ,sale together around ,christmas #aihh4 ,gill told ,bowen he had to get out of town for a few days--certain undesirable people were after him4 ,he didn't drive1 so could ,craig help him out8 ,sure1 no problem4 ,they had shared an inexpensive motel room in ,sale1 paid for by ,gill4 ,being so close to ,christmas1 ,stuart told ,craig he had brought him two presents4 ,craig opened the first--a ,john ,travolta fitness book4 ,when ,craig opened the second gift1 he was a little stunned4 ,it was a red ,g-string for men4 ,craig didn't have a girlfriend at the time--perhaps ,stuart was trying to help him get one4 ,oh1 ah1 thanks1' ,craig said1 a bit confused4 ,glad you like it1' ,stuart said4 ,go on4 ,try it on4' ,try it on8' ,craig was now very confused4 ,yeah1 mate1 you know1 to see if it fits4 ,that's all4' ,oh1 um1 right4' ,craig hesitated4 ,he didn't want to seem rude4 ,it was a weird request1 but never having been given a ,g-string before1 he didn't know the normal protocol4 ,after all1 when someone gives you a jumper1 it's normal for them to ask you to try it on1 then and there1 to see if it fits4 ,craig tried it on4 ,quickly4 ,yes1 seems to fit1' ,stuart said matter of factly1 then turned away4 ,craig felt relieved4 ,he changed back into his clothing4 ,that night1 and on many others during their trips or during ,craig's overnight visits to ,stuart's uncle's house1 ,craig lay in bed wondering about his secretive new friend4 ,stuart was definitely a little weird1 but he seemed to like women so ,craig figured he couldn't be interested in ,craig that way4 ,stuart bragged that he had a very close relationship with a female newspaper reporter1 and he always seemed to be chatting up the girl at the video store4 ,craig tried not to read too much into ,stuart's odd behaviour1 for the young man was willing to forgive his friend's eccentricities just to be part of the action4 ,soon ,stuart asked ,craig for access to ,,pi--unrestricted access4 ,the idea made ,craig uncomfortable1 but ,stuart was so persuasive4 ,how would he be able to continue his vital intelligence work without access to ,victoria's most important hacking board8 ,besides1 ,stuart ,gill of ,hackwatch wasn't after innocent-faced hackers like ,craig ,bowen4 ,in fact1 he would protect ,bowen when the police came down on everyone4 ,what ,stuart really wanted was the carders--the fraudsters4 ,craig didn't want to protect people like that1 did he8 ,craig found it a little odd1 as usual1 that ,stuart seemed to be after the carders1 yet he had chummed up with ,ivan ,trotsky4 ,still1 there were no doubt secrets ,stuart couldn't reveal--things he wasn't allowed to explain because of his intelligence work4 ,craig agreed4 ,what ,craig couldn't have known as he pondered ,stuart ,gill from the safety of his boyish bedroom was exactly how much innocence the underground was still to lose4 ,if he had foreseen the next few years--the police raids1 the ,ombudsman's investigation1 the stream of newspaper articles and the court cases--,craig ,bowen would1 at that very moment1 probably have reached over and turned off his beloved ,,pi and ,zen forever4 ,,chapter #c -- ,the ,american ,connection4 ,,us forces give the nod2 ,it's a setback for your country4 -- from ,,us ,forces'1 #aj1 #i1 #h1 #g1 #f1 #e1 #d1 #c1 #b1 #a4 ,force had a secret4 ,the ,parmaster wanted it4 ,like most hackers1 ,the ,parmaster didn't just want the secret1 he needed it4 ,he was in that peculiar state attained by real hackers where they will do just about anything to obtain a certain piece of information4 ,he was obsessed4 ,of course1 it wasn't the first time ,the ,parmaster craved a juicy piece of information4 ,both he and ,force knew all about infatuation4 ,that's how it worked with real hackers4 ,they didn't just fancy a titbit here and there4 ,once they knew information about a particular system was available1 that there was a hidden entrance1 they chased it down relentlessly4 ,so that was exactly what ,par was doing4 ,chasing ,force endlessly1 until he got what he wanted4 ,it began innocently enough as idle conversation between two giants in the computer underground in the first half of #aihh4 ,force1 the well-known ,australian hacker who ran the exclusive ,realm ,,bbs in ,melbourne1 sat chatting with ,par1 the ,american master of ,x4#be networks1 in ,germany4 ,neither of them was physically in ,germany1 but ,altos was4 ,altos ,computer ,systems in ,hamburg ran a conference feature called ,altos ,chat on one of its machines4 ,you could call up from anywhere on the ,x4#be data communications network1 and the company's computer would let you connect4 ,once connected1 with a few brief keystrokes1 the ,german machine would drop you into a real-time1 on-screen talk session with anyone else who happened to be on-line4 ,while the rest of the company's computer system grunted and toiled with everyday labours1 this corner of the machine was reserved for live on-line chatting4 ,for free4 ,it was like an early form of the ,internet ,relay ,chat4 ,the company probably hadn't meant to become the world's most prestigious hacker hang-out1 but it soon ended up doing so4 ,altos was the first significant international live chat channel1 and for most hackers it was an amazing thing4 ,the good hackers had cruised through lots of computer networks around the world4 ,sometimes they bumped into one another on-line and exchanged the latest gossip4 ,occasionally1 they logged into overseas ,b,b,ses1 where they posted messages4 ,but ,altos was different4 ,while underground ,b,b,ses had a tendency to simply disappear one day1 gone forever1 ,altos was always there4 ,it was live4 ,instantaneous communications with a dozen other hackers from all sorts of exotic places4 ,italy4 ,canada4 ,france4 ,england4 ,israel4 ,the ,,us4 ,and all these people not only shared an interest in computer networks but also a flagrant contempt for authority of any type4 ,instant1 real-time penpals--with attitude4 ,however1 ,altos was more exclusive than the average underground ,,bbs4 ,wanna-be hackers had trouble getting into it because of the way ,x4#be networks were billed4 ,some systems on the network took reverse-charge connections--like a #a-hjj number--and some1 including ,altos1 didn't4 ,to get to ,altos you needed a company's ,,nui 7,network ,user ,identifier71 which was like a calling card number for the ,x4#be network1 used to bill your time on-line4 ,or you had to have access to a system like ,minerva which automatically accepted billing for all the connections made4 ,x4#be networks are different in various ways from the ,internet1 which developed later4 ,x4#be networks use different communication protocols and1 unlike the ,internet at the user-level1 they only use addresses containing numbers not letters4 ,each packet of information travelling over a data network needs to be encased in a particular type of envelope4 ,a letter' sent across the ,x4#be network needs an ,x4#be stamped' envelope1 not an ,internet stamped' envelope4 ,the ,x4#be networks were controlled by a few very large players1 companies such as ,telenet and ,tymnet1 while the modern ,internet is1 by contrast1 a fragmented collection of many small and medium-sized sites4 ,altos unified the international hacking world as nothing else had done4 ,in sharing information about their own countries' computers and networks1 hackers helped each other venture further and further abroad4 ,the ,australians had gained quite a reputation on ,altos4 ,they knew their stuff4 ,more importantly1 they possessed ,,defcon1 a program which mapped out uncharted networks and scanned for accounts on systems within them4 ,force wrote ,,defcon based on a simple automatic scanning program provided by his friend and mentor1 ,craig ,bowen 7,thunderbird#a74 ,like the telephone system1 the ,x4#be networks had a large number of phone numbers'1 called network user addresses 7,n,u,as74 ,most were not valid4 ,they simply hadn't been assigned to anyone yet4 ,to break into computers on the network1 you had to find them first1 which meant either hearing about a particular system from a fellow hacker or scanning4 ,scanning--typing in one possible address after another--was worse than looking for a needle in a haystack4 #jbfbd-ehijjd-jjjd4 ,then increasing the last digit by one on each attempt4 #jjje4 #jjjf4 #jjjg4 ,until you hit a machine at the other end4 ,back in #aihg or early #aihh1 ,force had logged into ,pacific ,island for a talk with ,craig ,bowen4 ,force bemoaned the tediousness of hand scanning4 ,well1 why the hell are you doing it manually8' ,bowen responded4 ,you should just use my program4' ,he then gave ,force the source code for his simple automated scanning program1 along with instructions4 ,force went through the program and decided it would serve as a good launchpad for bigger things1 but it had a major limitation4 ,the program could only handle one connection at a time1 which meant it could only scan one branch of a network at a time4 ,less than three months later1 ,force had rewritten ,bowen's program into the far more powerful ,,defcon1 which became the jewel in the crown of the ,australian hackers' reputation4 ,with ,,defcon1 a hacker could automatically scan fifteen or twenty network addresses simultaneously4 ,he could command the computer to map out pieces of the ,belgian1 ,british and ,greek ,x4#be communications networks1 looking for computers hanging off the networks like buds at the tips of tree branches4 ,conceptually1 the difference was a little like using a basic ,,pc1 which can only run one program at a time1 as opposed to operating a more sophisticated one where you can open many windows with different programs running all at once4 ,even though you might only be working in one window1 say1 writing a letter1 the computer might be doing calculations in a spreadsheet in another window in the background4 ,you can swap between different functions1 which are all running in the background simultaneously4 ,while ,,defcon was busy scanning1 ,force could do other things1 such as talk on ,altos4 ,he continued improving ,,defcon1 writing up to four more versions of the program4 ,before long1 ,,defcon didn't just scan twenty different connections at one time2 it also automatically tried to break into all the computers it found through those connections4 ,though the program only tried basic default passwords1 it had a fair degree of success1 since it could attack so many network addresses at once4 ,further1 new sites and mini-networks were being added so quickly that security often fell by the wayside in the rush to join in4 ,since the addresses were unpublished1 companies often felt this obscurity offered enough protection4 ,,defcon produced lists of thousands of computer sites to raid4 ,force would leave it scanning from a hacked ,prime computer1 and a day or two later he would have an output file with #fjjj addresses on different networks4 ,he perused the list and selected sites which caught his attention4 ,if his program had discovered an interesting address1 he would travel over the ,x4#be network to the site and then try to break into the computer at that address4 ,alternatively1 ,,defcon might have already successfully penetrated the machine using a default password1 in which case the address1 account name and password would all be waiting for ,force in the log file4 ,he could just walk right in4 ,everyone on ,altos wanted ,,defcon1 but ,force refused to hand over the program4 ,no way was he going to have other hackers tearing up virgin networks4 ,not even ,erik ,bloodaxe1 one of the leaders of the most prestigious ,american hacking group1 ,legion of ,doom 7,,lod71 got ,,defcon when he asked for it4 ,erik took his handle from the name of a ,viking king who ruled over the area now known as ,york1 ,england4 ,although ,erik was on friendly terms with the ,australian hackers1 ,force remained adamant4 ,he would not let the jewel out of his hands4 ,but on this fateful day in #aihh1 ,par didn't want ,,defcon4 ,he wanted the secret ,force had just discovered1 but held so very close to his chest4 ,and the ,australian didn't want to give it to him4 ,force was a meticulous hacker4 ,his bedroom was remarkably tidy1 for a hacker's room4 ,it had a polished1 spartan quality4 ,there were a few well-placed pieces of minimalist furniture3 a black enamel metal single bed1 a modern black bedside table and a single picture on the wall--a photographic poster of lightning1 framed in glass4 ,the largest piece of furniture was a blue-grey desk with a return1 upon which sat his computer1 a printer and an immaculate pile of print-outs4 ,the bookcase1 a tall modern piece matching the rest of the furniture1 contained an extensive collection of fantasy fiction books1 including what seemed to be almost everything ever written by ,david ,eddings4 ,the lower shelves housed assorted chemistry and programming books4 ,a chemistry award proudly jutted out from the shelf housing a few ,dungeons and ,dragons books4 ,he kept his hacking notes in an orderly set of plastic folders1 all filed in the bottom of his bookcase4 ,each page of notes1 neatly printed and surrounded by small1 tidy handwriting revealing updates and minor corrections1 had its own plastic cover to prevent smudges or stains4 ,force thought it was inefficient to hand out his ,,defcon program and have ten people scan the same network ten different times4 ,it wasted time and resources4 ,further1 it was becoming harder to get access to the main ,x4#be sites in ,australia1 like ,minerva4 ,scanning was the type of activity likely to draw the attention of a system admin and result in the account being killed4 ,the more people who scanned1 the more accounts would be killed1 and the less access the ,australian hackers would have4 ,so ,force refused to hand over ,,defcon to hackers outside ,the ,realm1 which is one thing that made it such a powerful group4 ,scanning with ,,defcon meant using ,netlink1 a program which legitimate users didn't often employ4 ,in his hunt for hackers1 an admin might look for people running ,netlink1 or he might just examine which systems a user was connecting to4 ,for example1 if a hacker connected directly to ,altos from ,minerva without hopping through a respectable midpoint1 such as another corporate machine overseas1 he could count on the ,minerva admins killing off the account4 ,,defcon was revolutionary for its time1 and difficult to reproduce4 ,it was written for ,prime computers1 and not many hackers knew how to write programs for ,primes4 ,in fact1 it was exceedingly difficult for most hackers to learn programming of any sort for large1 commercial machines4 ,getting the system engineering manuals was tough work and many of the large companies guarded their manuals almost as trade secrets4 ,sure1 if you bought a #ajjjjj system1 the company would give you a few sets of operating manuals1 but that was well beyond the reach of a teenage hacker4 ,in general1 information was hoarded--by the computer manufacturers1 by the big companies which bought the systems1 by the system administrators and even by the universities4 ,learning on-line was slow and almost as difficult4 ,most hackers used #cjj or #abjj baud modems4 ,virtually all access to these big1 expensive machines was illegal4 ,every moment on-line was a risky proposition4 ,high schools never had these sorts of expensive machines4 ,although many universities had systems1 the administrators were usually miserly with time on-line for students4 ,in most cases1 students only got accounts on the big machines in their second year of computer science studies4 ,even then1 student accounts were invariably on the university's oldest1 clunkiest machine4 ,and if you weren't a comp-sci student1 forget it4 ,indulging your intellectual curiosity in ,,vms systems would never be anything more than a pipe dream4 ,even if you did manage to overcome all the roadblocks and develop some programming experience in ,,vms systems1 for example1 you might only be able to access a small number of machines on any given network4 ,the ,x4#be networks connected a large number of machines which used very different operating systems4 ,many1 such as ,primes1 were not in the least bit intuitive4 ,so if you knew ,,vms and you hit a ,prime machine1 well1 that was pretty much it4 ,unless1 of course1 you happened to belong to a clan of hackers like ,the ,realm4 ,then you could call up the ,,bbs and post a message4 ,hey1 ,i found a really cool ,primos system at this address4 ,ran into problems trying to figure the parameters of the ,netlink command4 ,ideas anyone8' ,and someone from your team would step forward to help4 ,in ,the ,realm1 ,force tried to assemble a diverse group of ,australia's best hackers1 each with a different area of expertise4 ,and he happened to be the resident expert in ,prime computers4 ,although ,force wouldn't give ,,defcon to anyone outside ,the ,realm1 he wasn't unreasonable4 ,if you weren't in the system but you had an interesting network you wanted mapped1 he would scan it for you4 ,force referred to scans for network user addresses as ,,nua sprints'4 ,he would give you a copy of the ,,nua sprint4 ,while he was at it1 he would also keep a copy for ,the ,realm4 ,that was efficient4 ,force's pet project was creating a database of systems and networks for ,the ,realm1 so he simply added the new information to its database4 ,force's great passion was mapping new networks1 and new mini-networks were being added to the main ,x4#be networks all the time4 ,a large corporation1 such a ,,bhp1 might set up its own small-scale network connecting its offices in ,western ,australia1 ,queensland1 ,victoria and the ,united ,kingdom4 ,that mini-network might be attached to a particular ,x4#be network1 such as ,austpac4 ,get into the ,austpac network and chances were you could get into any of the company's sites4 ,exploration of all this uncharted territory consumed most of ,force's time4 ,there was something cutting-edge1 something truly adventurous about finding a new network and carefully piecing together a picture of what the expanding web looked like4 ,he drew detailed pictures and diagrams showing how a new part of the network connected to the rest4 ,perhaps it appealed to his sense of order1 or maybe he was just an adventurer at heart4 ,whatever the underlying motivation1 the maps provided ,the ,realm with yet another highly prized asset4 ,when he wasn't mapping networks1 ,force published ,australia's first underground hacking journal1 ,globetrotter4 ,widely read in the international hacking community1 ,globetrotter reaffirmed ,australian hackers' pre-eminent position in the international underground4 ,but on this particular day1 ,par wasn't thinking about getting a copy of ,globetrotter or asking ,force to scan a network for him4 ,he was thinking about that secret4 ,force's new secret4 ,the secret ,parmaster desperately wanted4 ,force had been using ,,defcon to scan half a dozen networks while he chatted to ,par on ,altos4 ,he found an interesting connection from the scan1 so he went off to investigate it4 ,when he connected to the unknown computer1 it started firing off strings of numbers at ,force's machine4 ,force sat at his desk and watched the characters rush by on his screen4 ,it was very odd4 ,he hadn't done anything4 ,he hadn't sent any commands to the mystery computer4 ,he hadn't made the slightest attempt to break into the machine4 ,yet here the thing was throwing streams of numbers4 ,what kind of computer was this8 ,there might have been some sort of header which would identify the computer1 but it had zoomed by so fast in the unexpected data dump that ,force had missed it4 ,force flipped over to his chat with ,par on ,altos4 ,he didn't completely trust ,par1 thinking the friendly ,american sailed a bit close to the wind4 ,but ,par was an expert in ,x4#be networks and was bound to have some clue about these numbers4 ,besides1 if they turned out to be something sensitive1 ,force didn't have to tell ,par where he found them4 ,i've just found a bizarre address4 ,it is one strange system4 ,when ,i connected1 it just started shooting off numbers at me4 ,check these out4' ,force didn't know what the numbers were1 but ,par sure did4 ,those look like credit cards1' he typed back4 ,oh4' ,force went quiet4 ,par thought the normally chatty ,australian hacker seemed astonished4 ,after a short silence1 the now curious ,par nudged the conversation forward4 ,i have a way ,i can check out whether they really are valid cards1' he volunteered4 ,it'll take some time1 but ,i should be able to do it and get back to you4' ,yes4' ,force seemed hesitant4 ,,ok4' ,on the other side of the ,pacific from ,par1 ,force thought about this turn of events4 ,if they were valid credit cards1 that was very cool4 ,not because he intended to use them for credit card fraud in the way ,ivan ,trotsky might have done4 ,but ,force could use them for making long-distance phone calls to hack overseas4 ,and the sheer number of cards was astonishing4 ,thousand and thousands of them4 ,maybe #ajjjj4 ,all he could think was1 ,shit6 ,free connections for the rest of my life4 ,hackers such as ,force considered using cards to call overseas computer systems a little distasteful1 but certainly acceptable4 ,the card owner would never end up paying the bill anyway4 ,the hackers figured that ,telecom1 which they despised1 would probably have to wear the cost in the end1 and that was fine by them4 ,using cards to hack was nothing like ordering consumer goods4 ,that was real credit card fraud4 ,and ,force would never sully his hands with that sort of behaviour4 ,force scrolled back over his capture of the numbers which had been injected into his machine4 ,after closer inspection1 he saw there were headers which appeared periodically through the list4 ,one said1 ,citi,saudi'4 ,he checked the prefix of the mystery machine's network address again4 ,he knew from previous scans that it belonged to one of the world's largest banks4 ,citibank4 ,the data dump continued for almost three hours4 ,after that1 the ,citibank machine seemed to go dead4 ,force saw nothing but a blank screen1 but he kept the connection open4 ,there was no way he was going to hang up from this conversation4 ,he figured this had to be a freak connection--that he accidentally connected to this machine somehow1 that it wasn't really at the address he had tried based on the ,,defcon scan of ,citibank's network4 ,how else could it have happened8 ,surely ,citibank wouldn't have a computer full of credit cards which spilled its guts every time someone rang up to say hello'8 ,there would be tonnes of security on a machine like that4 ,this machine didn't even have a password4 ,it didn't even need a special character command1 like a secret handshake4 ,freak connections happened now and then on ,x4#be networks4 ,they had the same effect as a missed voice phone connection4 ,you dial a friend's number--and you dial it correctly--but somehow the call gets screwed up in the tangle of wires and exchanges and your call gets put through to another number entirely4 ,of course1 once something like that happens to an ,x4#be hacker1 he immediately tries to figure out what the hell is going on1 to search every shred of data from the machine looking for the system's real address4 ,because it was an accident1 he suspects he will never find the machine again4 ,force stayed home from school for two days to keep the connection alive and to piece together how he landed on the doorstep of this computer4 ,during this time1 the ,citibank computer woke up a few times1 dumped a bit more information1 and then went back to sleep4 ,keeping the connection alive meant running a small risk of discovery by an admin at his launch point1 but the rewards in this case far exceeded the risk4 ,it wasn't all that unusual for ,force to skip school to hack4 ,his parents used to tell him1 ,you better stop it1 or you'll have to wear glasses one day'4 ,still1 they didn't seem to worry too much1 since their son had always excelled in school without much effort4 ,at the start of his secondary school career he had tried to convince his teachers he should skip year #i4 ,some objected4 ,it was a hassle1 but he finally arranged it by quietly doing the coursework for year #i while he was in year #h4 ,after ,force had finally disconnected from the ,citi,saudi computer and had a good sleep1 he decided to check on whether he could reconnect to the machine4 ,at first1 no-one answered1 but when he tried a little later1 someone answered all right4 ,and it was the same talkative resident who answered the door the first time4 ,although it only seemed to work at certain hours of the day1 the ,citibank network address was the right one4 ,he was in again4 ,as ,force looked over the captures from his ,citibank hack1 he noticed that the last section of the data dump didn't contain credit card numbers like the first part4 ,it had people's names--,middle ,eastern names--and a list of transactions4 ,dinner at a restaurant4 ,a visit to a brothel4 ,all sorts of transactions4 ,there was also a number which looked like a credit limit1 in come cases a very1 very large limit1 for each person4 ,a sheik and his wife appeared to have credit limits of #a million--each4 ,another name had a limit of #e million4 ,there was something strange about the data1 ,force thought4 ,it was not structured in a way which suggested the ,citibank machine was merely transmitting data to another machine4 ,it looked more like a text file which was being dumped from a computer to a line printer4 ,force sat back and considered his exquisite discovery4 ,he decided this was something he would share only with a very few close1 trusted friends from ,the ,realm4 ,he would tell ,phoenix and perhaps one other member1 but no-one else4 ,as he looked through the data once more1 ,force began to feel a little anxious4 ,citibank was a huge financial institution1 dependent on the complete confidence of its customers4 ,the corporation would lose a lot of face if news of ,force's discovery got out4 ,it might care enough to really come after him4 ,then1 with the sudden clarity of the lightning strike photo which hung on his wall1 a single thought filled his mind4 ,i am playing with fire4 ,where did you get those numbers8' ,par asked ,force next time they were both on ,altos4 ,force hedged4 ,par leaped forward4 ,i checked those numbers for you4 ,they're valid1' he told ,force4 ,the ,american was more than intrigued4 ,he wanted that network address4 ,it was lust4 ,next stop1 mystery machine4 ,so1 what's the address8' ,that was the one question ,force didn't want to hear4 ,he and ,par had a good relationship1 sharing information comfortably if occasionally4 ,but that relationship only went so far4 ,for all he knew1 ,par might have a less than desirable use for the information4 ,force didn't know if ,par carded1 but he felt sure ,par had friends who might be into it4 ,so ,force refused to tell ,par where to find the mystery machine4 ,par wasn't going to give up all that easily4 ,not that he would use the cards for free cash1 but1 hey1 the mystery machine seemed like a very cool place to check out4 ,there would be no peace for ,force until ,par got what he wanted4 ,nothing is so tempting to a hacker as the faintest whiff of information about a system he wants1 and ,par hounded ,force until the ,australian hacker relented just a bit4 ,finally ,force told ,par roughly where ,,defcon had been scanning for addresses when it stumbled upon the ,citi,saudi machine4 ,force wasn't handing over the street address1 just the name of the suburb4 ,,defcon had been accessing the ,citibank network through ,telenet1 a large ,american data network using ,x4#be communications protocols4 ,the sub-prefixes for the ,citibank portion of the network were #bbc and #bbd4 ,par pestered ,force some more for the rest of the numbers1 but the ,australian had dug his heels in4 ,force was too careful a player1 too fastidious a hacker1 to allow himself to get mixed up in the things ,par might get up to4 ,,ok1 thought the seventeen-year-old ,par1 ,i can do this without you4 ,par estimated there were #bjjjj possible addresses on that network1 any one of which might be the home of the mystery machine4 ,but he assumed the machine would be in the low end of the network1 since the lower numbers were usually used first and the higher numbers were generally saved for other1 special network functions4 ,his assumptions narrowed the likely search field to about #bjjj possible addresses4 ,par began hand-scanning on the ,citibank ,global ,telecommunications ,network 7,,gtn7 looking for the mystery machine4 ,using his knowledge of the ,x4#be network1 he picked a number to start with4 ,he typed #bbcja1 #bbcjb1 #bbcjc4 ,on and on1 heading toward #bbcajjjj4 ,hour after hour1 slowly1 laboriously1 working his way through all the options1 ,par scanned out a piece1 or a range1 within the network4 ,when he got bored with the #bbc prefix1 he tried out the #bbd one for a bit of variety4 ,bleary-eyed and exhausted after a long night at the computer1 ,par felt like calling it quits4 ,the sun had splashed through the windows of his ,salinas1 ,california1 apartment hours ago4 ,his living room was a mess1 with empty1 upturned beer cans circling his ,apple ,i,ie4 ,par gave up for a while1 caught some shut-eye4 ,he had gone through the entire list of possible addresses1 knocking at all the doors1 and nothing had happened4 ,but over the next few days he returned to scanning the network again4 ,he decided to be more methodical about it and do the whole thing from scratch a second time4 ,he was part way through the second scan when it happened4 ,par's computer connected to something4 ,he sat up and peered toward the screen4 ,what was going on8 ,he checked the address4 ,he was sure he had tried this one before and nothing had answered4 ,things were definitely getting strange4 ,he stared at his computer4 ,the screen was blank1 with the cursor blinking silently at the top4 ,now what8 ,what had ,force done to get the computer to sing its song8 ,par tried pressing the control key and a few different letters4 ,nothing4 ,maybe this wasn't the right address after all4 ,he disconnected from the machine and carefully wrote down the address1 determined to try it again later4 ,on his third attempt1 he connected again but found the same irritating blank screen4 ,this time he went through the entire alphabet with the control key4 ,control ,l4 ,that was the magic keystroke4 ,the one that made ,citi,saudi give up its mysterious cache4 ,the one that gave ,par an adrenalin rush1 along with thousands and thousands of cards4 ,instant cash1 flooding his screen4 ,he turned on the screen capture so he could collect all the information flowing past and analyse it later4 ,par had to keep feeding his little ,apple ,i,ie more disks to store all the data coming in through his #abjj baud modem4 ,it was magnificent4 ,par savoured the moment1 thinking about how much he was going to enjoy telling ,force4 ,it was going to be sweet4 ,hey1 ,aussie1 you aren't the only show in town4 ,see ya in ,citibank4 ,an hour or so later1 when the ,citi,saudi data dump had finally finished1 ,par was stunned at what he found in his capture4 ,these weren't just any old cards4 ,these were debit cards1 and they were held by very rich ,arabs4 ,these people just plopped a few million in a bank account and linked a small1 rectangular piece of plastic to that account4 ,every charge came directly out of the bank balance4 ,one guy listed in the data dump bought a #ccj1jjj ,mercedes ,benz in ,istanbul--on his card4 ,par couldn't imagine being able to throw down a bit of plastic for that4 ,taking that plastic out for a spin around the block would bring a whole new meaning to the expression1 ,charge it6' ,when someone wins the lottery1 they often feel like sharing with their friends4 ,which is exactly what ,par did4 ,first1 he showed his room-mates4 ,they thought it was very cool4 ,but not nearly so cool as the half dozen hackers and phreakers who happened to be on the telephone bridge ,par frequented when the master of ,x4#be read off a bunch of the cards4 ,par was a popular guy after that day4 ,par was great1 a sort of ,robin ,hood of the underground4 ,soon1 everyone wanted to talk to him4 ,hackers in ,new ,york4 ,phreakers in ,virginia4 ,and the ,secret ,service in ,san ,francisco4 ,par didn't mean to fall in love with ,theorem4 ,it was an accident1 and he couldn't have picked a worse girl to fall for4 ,for starters1 she lived in ,switzerland4 ,she was #bc and he was only seventeen4 ,she also happened to be in a relationship--and that relationship was with ,electron1 one of the best ,australian hackers of the late #aihjs4 ,but ,par couldn't help himself4 ,she was irresistible1 even though he had never met her in person4 ,theorem was different4 ,she was smart and funny1 but refined1 as a ,european woman can be4 ,they met on ,altos in #aihh4 ,theorem didn't hack computers4 ,she didn't need to1 since she could connect to ,altos through her old university computer account4 ,she had first found ,altos on #bc ,december #aihf4 ,she remembered the date for two reasons4 ,first1 she was amazed at the power of ,altos--that she could have a live conversation on-line with a dozen people in different countries at the same time4 ,altos was a whole new world for her4 ,second1 that was the day she met ,electron4 ,electron made ,theorem laugh4 ,his sardonic1 irreverent humour hit a chord with her4 ,traditional ,swiss society could be stifling and closed1 but ,electron was a breath of fresh air4 ,theorem was ,swiss but she didn't always fit the mould4 ,she hated skiing4 ,she was six feet tall4 ,she liked computers4 ,when they met on-line1 the #ba-year-old ,theorem was at a crossroad in her youth4 ,she had spent a year and a half at university studying mathematics4 ,unfortunately1 the studies had not gone well4 ,the truth be told1 her second year of university was in fact the first year all over again4 ,a classmate had introduced her to ,altos on the university's computers4 ,not long after she struck up a relationship with ,electron1 she dropped out of uni all together and enrolled in a secretarial course4 ,after that1 she found a secretarial job at a financial institution4 ,theorem and ,electron talked on ,altos for hours at a time4 ,they talked about everything--life1 family1 movies1 parties--but not much about what most people on ,altos talked about--hacking4 ,eventually1 ,electron gathered up the courage to ask ,theorem for her voice telephone number4 ,she gave it to him happily and ,electron called her at home in ,lausanne4 ,they talked4 ,and talked4 ,and talked4 ,soon they were on the telephone all the time4 ,seventeen-year-old ,electron had never had a girlfriend4 ,none of the girls in his middle-class high school would give him the time of day when it came to romance4 ,yet here was this bright1 vibrant girl--a girl who studied maths--speaking to him intimately in a melting ,french accent4 ,best of all1 she genuinely liked him4 ,a few words from his lips could send her into silvery peals of laughter4 ,when the phone bill arrived1 it was #ajjj4 ,electron surreptitiously collected it and buried it at the bottom of a drawer in his bedroom4 ,when he told ,theorem1 she offered to help pay for it4 ,a cheque for #gjj showed up not long after4 ,it made the task of explaining ,telecom's reminder notice to his father much easier4 ,the romantic relationship progressed throughout #aihg and the first half of #aihh4 ,electron and ,theorem exchanged love letters and tender intimacies over #afjjj kilometres of computer networks1 but the long-distance relationship had some bumpy periods4 ,like when she had an affair over several months with ,pengo4 ,a well-known ,german hacker with links to the ,german hacking group called the ,chaos ,computer ,club1 ,pengo was also a friend and mentor to ,electron4 ,pengo was1 however1 only a short train ride away from ,theorem4 ,she became friends with ,pengo on ,altos and eventually visited him4 ,things progressed from there4 ,theorem was honest with ,electron about the affair1 but there was something unspoken1 something below the surface4 ,even after the affair ended1 ,theorem was sweet on ,pengo the way a girl remains fond of her first love regardless of how many other men she has slept with since then4 ,electron felt hurt and angry1 but he swallowed his pride and forgave ,theorem her dalliance4 ,eventually1 ,pengo disappeared from the scene4 ,pengo had been involved with people who sold ,,us military secrets--taken from computers--to the ,,kgb4 ,although his direct involvement in the ongoing international computer espionage had been limited1 he began to worry about the risks4 ,his real interest was in hacking1 not spying4 ,the ,russian connection simply enabled him to get access to bigger and better computers4 ,beyond that1 he felt no loyalty to the ,russians4 ,in the first half of #aihh1 he handed himself in to the ,german authorities4 ,under ,west ,german law at the time1 a citizen-spy who surrendered himself before the state discovered the crime1 and thus averted more damage to the state1 acquired immunity from prosecution4 ,having already been busted in ,december #aihf for using a stolen ,,nui1 ,pengo decided that turning himself in would be his best hope of taking advantage of this legal largesse4 ,by the end of the year1 things had become somewhat hairy for ,pengo and in ,march #aihi the twenty-year-old from ,berlin was raided again1 this time with the four others involved in the spy ring4 ,the story broke and the media exposed ,pengo's real name4 ,he didn't know if he would eventually be tried and convicted of something related to the incident4 ,pengo had a few things on his mind other than the six-foot ,swiss girl4 ,with ,pengo out of the way1 the situation between ,theorem and the ,australian hacker improved4 ,until ,par came along4 ,theorem and ,par began innocently enough4 ,being one of only a few girls in the international hacking and phreaking scene and1 more particularly1 on ,altos1 she was treated differently4 ,she had lots of male friends on the ,german chat system1 and the boys told her things in confidence they would never tell each other4 ,they sought out her advice4 ,she often felt like she wore many hats--mother1 girlfriend1 psychiatrist--when she spoke with the boys on ,altos4 ,par had been having trouble with his on-line girlfriend1 ,nora1 and when he met ,theorem he turned to her for a bit of support4 ,he had travelled from ,california to meet ,nora in person in ,new ,york4 ,but when he arrived in the sweltering heat of a ,new ,york summer1 without warning1 her conservative ,chinese parents didn't take kindly to his unannounced appearance4 ,there were other frictions between ,nora and ,par4 ,the relationship had been fine on ,altos and on the phone1 but things were just not clicking in person4 ,he already knew that virtual relationships1 forged over an electronic medium which denied the importance of physical chemistry1 could sometimes be disappointing4 ,par used to hang out on a phone bridge with another ,australian member of ,the ,realm1 named ,phoenix1 and with a fun girl from southern ,california4 ,tammi1 a casual phreaker1 had a great personality and a hilarious sense of humour4 ,during those endless hours chatting1 she and ,phoenix seemed to be in the throes of a mutual crush4 ,in the phreaking underground1 they were known as a bit of a virtual item4 ,she had even invited ,phoenix to come visit her sometime4 ,then1 one day1 for the fun of it1 ,tammi decided to visit ,par in ,monterey4 ,her appearance was a shock4 ,tammi had described herself to ,phoenix as being a blue-eyed1 blonde ,california girl4 ,par knew that ,phoenix visualised her as a stereotypical bikini-clad1 beach bunny from ,,la4 ,his perception rested on a foreigner's view of the southern ,california culture4 ,the land of milk and honey4 ,the home of the ,beach ,boys and ,,tv series like ,charlie's ,angels'4 ,when ,tammi arrived1 ,par knew instantly that she and ,phoenix would never hit it off in person4 ,tammi did in fact have both blonde hair and blue eyes4 ,she had neglected to mention1 however1 that she weighed about #cjj pounds1 had a rather homely face and a somewhat down-market style4 ,par really liked ,tammi1 but he couldn't get the ugly phrase white trash' out of his thoughts4 ,he pushed and shoved1 but the phrase was wedged in his mind4 ,it fell to ,par to tell ,phoenix the truth about ,tammi4 ,so ,par knew all about how reality could burst the foundations of a virtual relationship4 ,leaving ,new ,york and ,nora behind1 ,par moved across the river to ,new ,jersey to stay with a friend1 ,byteman1 who was one of a group of hackers who specialised in breaking into computer systems run by ,bell ,communications ,research 7,bellcore74 ,bellcore came into existence at the beginning of #aihd as a result of the break-up of the ,,us telephone monopoly known as ,bell ,systems4 ,before the break-up1 ,bell ,systems' paternalistic holding company1 ,american ,telephone and ,telegraph 7,,at,t71 had fostered the best and brightest in ,bell ,labs1 its research arm4 ,over the course of its history1 ,bell ,labs boasted at least seven ,nobel-prize winning researchers and numerous scientific achievements4 ,all of which made ,bellcore a good target for hackers trying to prove their prowess4 ,byteman used to chat with ,theorem on ,altos1 and eventually he called her1 voice4 ,par must have looked pretty inconsolable1 because one day while ,byteman was talking to ,theorem1 he suddenly said to her1 ,hey1 wanna talk to a friend of mine8' ,theorem said ,sure' and ,byteman handed the telephone to ,par4 ,they talked for about twenty minutes4 ,after that they spoke regularly both on ,altos and on the phone4 ,for weeks after ,par returned to ,california1 ,theorem tried to cheer him up after his unfortunate experience with ,nora4 ,by mid-#aihh1 they had fallen utterly and passionately in love4 ,electron1 an occasional member of ,force's ,realm group1 took the news very badly4 ,not everyone on ,altos liked ,electron4 ,he could be a little prickly1 and very cutting when he chose to be1 but he was an ace hacker1 on an international scale1 and everyone listened to him4 ,obsessive1 creative and quick off the mark1 ,electron had respect1 which is one reason ,par felt so badly4 ,when ,theorem told ,electron the bad news in a private conversation on-line1 ,electron had let fly in the public area1 ripping into the ,american hacker on the main chat section of ,altos1 in front of everyone4 ,par took it on the chin and refused to fight back4 ,what else could he do8 ,he knew what it was like to hurt4 ,he felt for the guy and knew how he would feel if he lost ,theorem4 ,and he knew that ,electron must be suffering a terrible loss of face4 ,everyone saw ,electron and ,theorem as an item4 ,they had been together for more than a year4 ,so ,par met ,electron's fury with grace and quiet words of consolation4 ,par didn't hear much from ,electron after that day4 ,the ,australian still visited ,altos1 but he seemed more withdrawn1 at least whenever ,par was around4 ,after that day1 ,par ran into him once1 on a phone bridge with a bunch of ,australian hackers4 ,phoenix said on the bridge1 ,hey1 ,electron4 ,par's on the bridge4' ,electron paused4 ,oh1 really1' he answered coolly4 ,then he went silent4 ,par let ,electron keep his distance4 ,after all1 ,par had what really counted--the girl4 ,par called ,theorem almost every day4 ,soon they began to make plans for her to fly to ,california so they could meet in person4 ,par tried not to expect too much1 but he found it difficult to stop savouring the thought of finally seeing ,theorem face to face4 ,it gave him butterflies4 ,yeah1 ,par thought1 things are really looking up4 ,the beauty of ,altos was that1 like ,pacific ,island or any other local ,,bbs1 a hacker could take on any identity he wanted4 ,and he could do it on an international scale4 ,visiting ,altos was like attending a glittering masquerade ball4 ,anyone could recreate himself4 ,a socially inept hacker could pose as a character of romance and adventure4 ,and a security official could pose as a hacker4 ,which is exactly what ,telenet security officer ,steve ,mathews did on #bg ,october #aihh4 ,par happened to be on-line1 chatting away with his friends and hacker colleagues4 ,at any given moment1 there were always a few strays on ,altos1 a few people who weren't regulars4 ,naturally1 ,mathews didn't announce himself as being a ,telenet guy4 ,he just slipped quietly onto ,altos looking like any other hacker4 ,he might engage a hacker in conversation1 but he let the hacker do most of the talking4 ,he was there to listen4 ,on that fateful day1 ,par happened to be in one of his magnanimous moods4 ,par had never had much money growing up1 but he was always very generous with what he did have4 ,he talked for a little while with the unknown hacker on ,altos1 and then gave him one of the debit cards taken from his visits to the ,citi,saudi computer4 ,why not8 ,on ,altos1 it was a bit like handing out your business card4 ,the ,parmaster--,parameters ,par ,excellence'4 ,par had got his full name--,the ,parmaster--in his earliest hacking days4 ,back then1 he belonged to a group of teenagers involved in breaking the copy protections on software programs for ,apple ,i,ies1 particularly games4 ,par had a special gift for working out the copy protection parameters1 which was a first step in bypassing the manufacturers' protection schemes4 ,the ringleader of the group began calling him the master of parameters'--,the ,parmaster--,par1 for short4 ,as he moved into serious hacking and developed his expertise in ,x4#be networks1 he kept the name because it fitted nicely in his new environment4 ,par8' was a common command on an ,x4#be pad1 the modem gateway to an ,x4#be network4 ,i've got lots more where that come from1' ,par told the stranger on ,altos4 ,i've got like #djjj cards from a ,citibank system4' ,not long after that1 ,steve ,mathews was monitoring ,altos again1 when ,par showed up handing out cards to people once more4 ,i've got an inside contact1' ,par confided4 ,he's gonna make up a whole mess of new1 plastic cards with all these valid numbers from the ,citibank machine4 ,only the really big accounts1 though4 ,nothing with a balance under #bejjj4' ,was ,par just making idle conversation1 talking big on ,altos8 ,or would he really have gone through with committing such a major fraud8 ,citibank1 ,telenet and the ,,us ,secret ,service would never know1 because their security guys began closing the net around ,par before he had a chance to take his idea any further4 ,mathews contacted ,larry ,wallace1 fraud investigator with ,citibank in ,san ,mateo1 ,california4 ,wallace checked out the cards4 ,they were valid all right4 ,they belonged to the ,saudi-,american ,bank in ,saudi ,arabia and were held on a ,citibank database in ,sioux ,falls1 ,south ,dakota4 ,wallace determined that1 with its affiliation to the ,middle ,eastern bank1 ,citibank had a custodial responsibility for the accounts4 ,that meant he could open a major investigation4 ,on #g ,november1 ,wallace brought in the ,,us ,secret ,service4 ,four days later1 ,wallace and ,special ,agent ,thomas ,holman got their first major lead when they interviewed ,gerry ,lyons of ,pacific ,bell's security office in ,san ,francisco4 ,yes1 ,lyons told the investigators1 she had some information they might find valuable4 ,she knew all about hackers and phreakers4 ,in fact1 the ,san ,jose ,police had just busted two guys trying to phreak at a pay phone4 ,the phreakers seemed to know something about a ,citibank system4 ,when the agents showed up at the ,san ,jose ,police ,department for their appointment with ,sergeant ,dave ,flory1 they received another pleasant surprise4 ,the sergeant had a book filled with hackers' names and numbers seized during the arrest of the two pay-phone phreakers4 ,he also happened to be in possession of a tape recording of the phreakers talking to ,par from a prison phone4 ,the cheeky phreakers had used the prison pay phone to call up a telephone bridge located at the ,university of ,virginia4 ,par1 the ,australian hackers and other assorted ,american phreakers and hackers visited the bridge frequently4 ,at any one moment1 there might be eight to ten people from the underground sitting on the bridge4 ,the phreakers found ,par hanging out there1 as usual1 and they warned him4 ,his name and number were inside the book seized by police when they were busted4 ,par didn't seem worried at all4 ,hey1 don't worry4 ,it's cool1' he reassured them4 ,i have just disconnected my phone number today--with no forwarding details4' ,which wasn't quite true4 ,his room-mate1 ,scott1 had indeed disconnected the phone which was in his name because he had been getting prank calls4 ,however1 ,scott opened a new telephone account at the same address with the same name on the same day--all of which made the job of tracking down the mysterious hacker named ,par much easier for the law enforcement agencies4 ,in the meantime1 ,larry ,wallace had been ringing around his contacts in the security business and had come up with another lead4 ,wanda ,gamble1 supervisor for the ,southeastern ,region of ,,mci ,investigations1 in ,atlanta1 had a wealth of information on the hacker who called himself ,par4 ,she was well connected when it came to hackers1 having acquired a collection of reliable informants during her investigations of hacker-related incidents4 ,she gave the ,citibank investigator two mailbox numbers for ,par4 ,she also handed them what she believed was his home phone number4 ,the number checked out and on #be ,november1 the day after ,thanksgiving1 the ,secret ,service raided ,par's house4 ,the raid was terrifying4 ,at least four law enforcement officers burst through the door with guns drawn and pointed4 ,one of them had a shotgun4 ,as is often the case in the ,,us1 investigators from private1 commercial organisations--in this case ,citibank and ,pacific ,bell--also took part in the raid4 ,the agents tore the place apart looking for evidence4 ,they dragged down the food from the kitchen cupboards4 ,they emptied the box of cornflakes into the sink looking for hidden computer disks4 ,they looked everywhere1 even finding a ceiling cavity at the back of a closet which no-one even knew existed4 ,they confiscated ,par's ,apple ,i,ie1 printer and modem4 ,but1 just to be sure1 they also took the ,yellow ,pages1 along with the telephone and the new ,nintendo game paddles ,scott had just bought4 ,they scooped up the very large number of papers which had been piled under the coffee table1 including the spiral notebook with ,scott's airline bookings from his job as a travel agent4 ,they even took the garbage4 ,it wasn't long before they found the red shoebox full of disks peeping out from under the fish tank next to ,par's computer4 ,they found lots of evidence4 ,what they didn't find was ,par4 ,instead1 they found ,scott and ,ed1 two friends of ,par4 ,they were pretty shaken up by the raid4 ,not knowing ,par's real identity1 the ,secret ,service agents accused ,scott of being ,par4 ,the phone was in his name1 and ,special ,agent ,holman had even conducted some surveillance more than a week before the raid1 running the plates on ,scott's #aife black ,ford ,mustang parked in front of the house4 ,the ,secret ,service was sure it had its man1 and ,scott had a hell of a time convincing them otherwise4 ,both ,scott and ,ed swore up and down that they weren't hackers or phreakers1 and they certainly weren't ,par4 ,but they knew who ,par was1 and they told the agents his real name4 ,after considerable pressure from the ,secret ,service1 ,scott and ,ed agreed to make statements down at the police station4 ,in ,chicago1 more than #bgjj kilometres away from the crisis unfolding in northern ,california1 ,par and his mother watched his aunt walk down the aisle in her white gown4 ,par telephoned home once1 to ,scott1 to say hi' from the ,midwest4 ,the call came after the raid4 ,so1' a relaxed ,par asked his room-mate1 ,how are things going at home8' ,fine1' ,scott replied4 ,nothing much happening here4' ,par looked down at the red bag he was carrying with a momentary expression of horror4 ,he realised he stood out in the ,san ,jose bus terminal like a peacock among the pigeons 444 ,blissfully ignorant of the raid which had occurred three days before1 ,par and his mother had flown into ,san ,jose airport4 ,they had gone to the bus terminal to pick up a ,greyhound home to the ,monterey area4 ,while waiting for the bus1 ,par called his friend ,tammi to say he was back in ,california4 ,any casual bystander waiting to use the pay phones at that moment would have seen a remarkable transformation in the brown-haired boy at the row of phones4 ,the smiling face suddenly dropped in a spasm of shock4 ,his skin turned ash white as the blood fled south4 ,his deep-set chocolate brown eyes1 with their long1 graceful lashes curving upward and their soft1 shy expression1 seemed impossibly large4 ,for at that moment ,tammi told ,par that his house had been raided by the ,secret ,service4 ,that ,scott and ,ed had been pretty upset about having guns shoved in their faces1 and had made statements about him to the police4 ,that they thought their phone was tapped4 ,that the ,secret ,service guys were still hunting for ,par1 they knew his real name1 and she thought there was an all points bulletin out for him4 ,scott had told the ,secret ,service about ,par's red bag1 the one with all his hacking notes that he always carried around4 ,the one with the print-out of all the ,citibank credit card numbers4 ,and so it was that ,par came to gaze down at his bag with a look of alarm4 ,he realised instantly that the ,secret ,service would be looking for that red bag4 ,if they didn't know what he looked like1 they would simply watch for the bag4 ,that bag was not something ,par could hide easily4 ,the ,citibank print-out was the size of a phone book4 ,he also had dozens of disks loaded with the cards and other sensitive hacking information4 ,par had used the cards to make a few free calls1 but he hadn't been charging up any jet skis4 ,he fought temptation valiantly1 and in the end he had won1 but others might not have been so victorious in the same battle4 ,par figured that some less scrupulous hackers had probably been charging up a storm4 ,he was right4 ,someone had1 for example1 tried to send a #cfg bouquet of flowers to a woman in ,el ,paso using one of the stolen cards4 ,the carder had unwittingly chosen a debit card belonging to a senior ,saudi bank executive who happened to be in his office at the time the flower order was placed4 ,citibank investigator ,larry ,wallace added notes on that incident to his growing file4 ,par figured that ,citibank would probably try to pin every single attempt at carding on him4 ,why not8 ,what kind of credibility would a seventeen-year-old hacker have in denying those sorts of allegations8 ,zero4 ,par made a snap decision4 ,he sidled up to a trash bin in a dark corner4 ,scanning the scene warily1 ,par casually reached into the red bag1 pulled out the thick wad of ,citibank card print-outs and stuffed it into the bin4 ,he fluffed a few stray pieces of garbage over the top4 ,he worried about the computer disks with all his other valuable hacking information4 ,they represented thousands of hours of work and he couldn't bring himself to throw it all away4 ,the #aj megabyte trophy4 ,more than #djjj cards4 #acjjjj different transactions4 ,in the end1 he decided to hold on to the disks1 regardless of the risk4 ,at least1 without the print-out1 he could crumple the bag up a bit and make it a little less conspicuous4 ,as ,par slowly moved away from the bin1 he glanced back to check how nondescript the burial site appeared from a distance4 ,it looked like a pile of garbage4 ,trash worth millions of dollars1 headed for the dump4 ,as he boarded the bus to ,salinas with his mother1 ,par's mind was instantly flooded with images of a homeless person fishing the print-out from the bin and asking someone about it4 ,he tried to push the idea from his head4 ,during the bus ride1 ,par attempted to figure out what he was going to do4 ,he didn't tell his mother anything4 ,she couldn't even begin to comprehend his world of computers and networks1 let alone his current predicament4 ,further1 ,par and his mother had suffered from a somewhat strained relationship since he ran away from home not long after his seventeenth birthday4 ,he had been kicked out of school for non-attendance1 but had found a job tutoring students in computers at the local college4 ,before the trip to ,chicago1 he had seen her just once in six months4 ,no1 he couldn't turn to her for help4 ,the bus rolled toward the ,salinas station4 ,en route1 it travelled down the street where ,par lived4 ,he saw a jogger1 a thin black man wearing a walkman4 ,what the hell is a jogger doing here1 ,par thought4 ,no-one jogged in the semi-industrial neighbourhood4 ,par's house was about the only residence amid all the light-industrial buildings4 ,as soon as the jogger was out of sight of the house1 he suddenly broke away from his path1 turned off to one side and hit the ground4 ,as he lay on his stomach on some grass1 facing the house1 he seemed to begin talking into the walkman4 ,sitting watching this on the bus1 ,par flipped out4 ,they were out to get him1 no doubt about it4 ,when the bus finally arrived at the depot and his mother began sorting out their luggage1 ,par tucked the red bag under his arm and disappeared4 ,he found a pay phone and called ,scott to find out the status of things4 ,scott handed the phone to ,chris1 another friend who lived in the house4 ,chris had been away at his parents' home during the ,thanksgiving raid4 ,hold tight and lay low1' ,chris told ,par4 ,i'm on my way over to pick you up and take you to a lawyer's office where you can get some sort of protection4' ,a specialist in criminal law1 ,richard ,rosen was born in ,new ,york but raised in his later childhood in ,california4 ,he had a personality which reflected the steely stubbornness of a ,new ,yorker1 tempered with the laid-back friendliness of the west coast4 ,rosen also harboured a strong anti-authoritarian streak4 ,he represented the local chapter of ,hell's ,angels in the middle-class ,county of ,monterey4 ,he also caused a splash representing the growing midwifery movement1 which promoted home-births4 ,the doctors of ,california didn't like him much as a result4 ,par's room-mates met with ,rosen after the raid to set things up for ,par's return4 ,they told him about the terrifying ordeal of the ,secret ,service raid1 and how they were interrogated for an hour and a half before being pressured to give statements4 ,scott1 in particular1 felt that he had been forced to give a statement against ,par under duress4 ,while ,par talked to ,chris on the phone1 he noticed a man standing at the end of the row of pay phones4 ,this man was also wearing a walkman4 ,he didn't look ,par in the eye4 ,instead1 he faced the wall1 glancing furtively off to the side toward where ,par was standing4 ,who was that guy8 ,fear welled up inside ,par and all sorts of doubts flooded his mind4 ,who could he trust8 ,scott hadn't told him about the raid4 ,were his room-mates in cahoots the ,secret ,service8 ,were they just buying time so they could turn him in8 ,there was no-one else ,par could turn to4 ,his mother wouldn't understand4 ,besides1 she had problems of her own4 ,and he didn't have a father4 ,as far as ,par was concerned1 his father was as good as dead4 ,he had never met the man1 but he heard he was a prison officer in ,florida4 ,not a likely candidate for helping ,par in this situation4 ,he was close to his grandparents--they had bought his computer for him as a present--but they lived in a tiny ,mid-,western town and they simply wouldn't understand either4 ,par didn't know what to do1 but he didn't seem to have many options at the moment1 so he told ,chris he would wait at the station for him4 ,then he ducked around a corner and tried to hide4 ,a few minutes later1 ,chris pulled into the depot4 ,par dove into the ,toyota ,landcruiser and ,chris tore out of the station toward ,rosen's office4 ,they noticed a white car race out of the bus station after them4 ,while they drove1 ,par pieced together the story from ,chris4 ,no-one had warned him about the raid because everyone in the house believed the phone line was tapped4 ,telling ,par while he was in ,chicago might have meant another visit from the ,secret ,service4 ,all they had been able to do was line up ,rosen to help him4 ,par checked the rear-view mirror4 ,the white car was still following them4 ,chris made a hard turn at the next intersection and accelerated down the ,california speedway4 ,the white car tore around the corner in pursuit4 ,no matter what ,chris did1 he couldn't shake the tail4 ,par sat in the seat next to ,chris1 quietly freaking out4 ,just #bd hours before1 he had been safe and sound in ,chicago4 ,how did he end up back here in ,california being chased by a mysterious driver in a white car8 ,chris tried his best to break free1 swerving and racing4 ,the white car wouldn't budge4 ,but ,chris and ,par had one advantage over the white car2 they were in a four-wheel drive4 ,in a split-second decision1 ,chris jerked the steering wheel to one side4 ,the ,landcruiser veered off the road onto a lettuce field4 ,par gripped the inside of the door as the #d,,wd bounced through the dirt over the neat crop rows4 ,near-ripe heads of lettuce went flying out from under the tires4 ,half-shredded lettuce leaves filled the air4 ,a cloud of dirt enveloped the car4 ,the vehicle skidded and jerked1 but finally made its way to a highway at the far end of the field4 ,chris hit the highway running1 swerving into the lane at high speed4 ,when ,par looked back1 the white car had disappeared4 ,chris kept his foot on the accelerator and ,par barely breathed until the ,landcruiser pulled up in front of ,richard ,rosen's building4 ,par leaped out1 the red bag still clutched tightly under his arm1 and high-tailed it into the lawyer's office4 ,the receptionist looked a bit shocked when he said his name4 ,someone must have filled her in on the details4 ,rosen quickly ushered him into his office4 ,introductions were brief and ,par cut to the story of the chase4 ,rosen listened intently1 occasionally asking a well-pointed question1 and then took control of the situation4 ,the first thing they needed to do was call off the ,secret ,service chase1 ,rosen said1 so ,par didn't have to spend any more time ducking around corners and hiding in bus depots4 ,he called the ,secret ,service's ,san ,francisco office and asked ,special ,agent ,thomas ,j4 ,holman to kill the ,secret ,service pursuit in exchange for an agreement that ,par would turn himself in to be formally charged4 ,holman insisted that they had to talk to ,par4 ,no1 ,rosen said4 ,there would be no interviews for ,par by law enforcement agents until a deal had been worked out4 ,but the ,secret ,service needed to talk to ,par1 ,holman insisted4 ,they could only discuss all the other matters after the ,secret ,service had had a chance to talk with ,par4 ,rosen politely warned ,holman not to attempt to contact his client4 ,you have something to say to ,par1 you go through me1 he said4 ,holman did not like that at all4 ,when the ,secret ,service wanted to talk to someone1 they were used to getting their way4 ,he pushed ,rosen1 but the answer was still no4 ,no no no and no again4 ,holman had made a mistake4 ,he had assumed that everyone wanted to do business with the ,united ,states ,secret ,service4 ,when he finally realised ,rosen wouldn't budge1 ,holman gave up4 ,rosen then negotiated with the federal prosecutor1 ,,us ,attorney ,joe ,burton1 who was effectively ,holman's boss in the case1 to call off the pursuit in exchange for ,par handing himself in to be formally charged4 ,then ,par gave ,rosen his red bag1 for safekeeping4 ,at about the same time1 ,citibank investigator ,wallace and ,detective ,porter of the ,salinas ,police interviewed ,par's mother as she returned home from the bus depot4 ,she said that her son had moved out of her home some six months before1 leaving her with a #bjjj phone bill she couldn't pay4 ,they asked if they could search her home4 ,privately1 she worried about what would happen if she refused4 ,would they tell the office where she worked as a clerk8 ,could they get her fired8 ,a simple woman who had little experience dealing with law enforcement agents1 ,par's mother agreed4 ,the investigators took ,par's disks and papers4 ,par turned himself in to the ,salinas ,police in the early afternoon of #ab ,december4 ,the police photographed and fingerprinted him before handing him a citation--a small yellow slip headed #ejb 7c7 7#a7 ,,pc'4 ,it looked like a traffic ticket1 but the two charges ,par faced were felonies1 and each carried a maximum term of three years for a minor4 ,count #a1 for hacking into ,citicorp ,credit ,services1 also carried a fine of up to #ajjjj4 ,count #b1 for defrauding a telephone service'1 had no fine3 the charges were for a continuing course of conduct1 meaning that they applied to the same activity over an extended period of time4 ,federal investigators had been astonished to find ,par was so young4 ,dealing with a minor in the federal court system was a big hassle1 so the prosecutor decided to ask the state authorities to prosecute the case4 ,par was ordered to appear in ,monterey ,county ,juvenile ,court on #aj ,july #aihi4 ,over the next few months1 ,par worked closely with ,rosen4 ,though ,rosen was a very adept lawyer1 the situation looked pretty depressing4 ,citibank claimed it had spent #cjjjj on securing its systems and ,par believed that the corporation might be looking for up to #c million in total damages4 ,while they couldn't prove ,par had made any money from the cards himself1 the prosecution would argue that his generous distribution of them had led to serious financial losses4 ,and that was just the financial institutions4 ,much more worrying was what might come out about ,par's visits to ,,trw's computers4 ,the ,secret ,service had seized at least one disk with ,,trw material on it4 ,,trw was a large1 diverse company1 with assets of #b4a billion and sales of almost #g billion in #aihi1 nearly half of which came from the ,,us government4 ,it employed more than #gcjjj people1 many of who worked with the company's credit ratings business4 ,,trw's vast databases held private details of millions of people--addresses1 phone numbers1 financial data4 ,that1 however1 was just one of the company's many businesses4 ,,trw also did defence work--very secret defence work4 ,its ,space and ,defense division1 based in ,redondo ,beach1 ,california1 was widely believed to be a major beneficiary of the ,reagan ,government's ,star ,wars budget4 ,more than #aj per cent of the company's employees worked in this division1 designing spacecraft systems1 communications systems1 satellites and other1 unspecified1 space instruments'4 ,the siezed disk had some mail from the company's ,,trwmail systems4 ,it wasn't particularly sensitive1 mostly just company propaganda sent to employees1 but the ,secret ,service might think that where there was smoke1 there was bound to be fire4 ,,trw did the kind of work that makes governments very nervous when it comes to unauthorised access4 ,and ,par had visited certain ,,trw machines2 he knew that company had a missiles research section1 and even a space weapons section4 ,with so many people out to get him--,citibank1 the ,secret ,service1 the local police1 even his own mother had helped the other side--it was only a matter of time before they unearthed the really secret things he had seen while hacking4 ,par began to wonder if was such a good idea for him to stay around for the trial4 ,in early #aihi1 when ,theorem stepped off the plane which carried her from ,switzerland to ,san ,francisco1 she was pleased that she had managed to keep a promise to herself4 ,it wasn't always an easy promise4 ,there were times of intimacy1 of perfect connection1 between the two voices on opposite sides of the globe1 when it seemed so breakable4 ,meanwhile1 ,par braced himself4 ,theorem had described herself in such disparaging terms4 ,he had even heard from others on ,altos that she was homely4 ,but that description had ultimately come from her anyway1 so it didn't really count4 ,finally1 as he watched the stream of passengers snake out to the waiting area1 he told himself it didn't matter anyway4 ,after all1 he had fallen in love with her--her being1 her essence--not her image as it appeared in flesh4 ,and he had told her so4 ,she had said the same back to him4 ,suddenly she was there1 in front of him4 ,par had to look up slightly to reach her eyes1 since she was a little more than an inch taller4 ,she was quite pretty1 with straight1 brown shoulder-length hair and brown eyes4 ,he was just thinking how much more attractive she was than he had expected1 when it happened4 ,theorem smiled4 ,par almost lost his balance4 ,it was a devastating smile1 big and toothy1 warm and genuine4 ,her whole face lit up with a fire of animation4 ,that smile sealed it4 ,she had kept her promise to herself4 ,there was no clear image of ,par in her mind before meeting him in person4 ,after meeting a few people from ,altos at a party in ,munich the year before1 she had tried not to create images of people based on their on-line personalities4 ,that way she would never suffer disappointment4 ,par and ,theorem picked up her bags and got into ,brian's car4 ,brian1 a friend who offered to play airport taxi because ,par didn't have a car1 thought ,theorem was pretty cool4 ,a six-foot-tall ,french-speaking ,swiss woman4 ,it was definitely cool4 ,they drove back to ,par's house4 ,then ,brian came in for a chat4 ,brian asked ,theorem all sorts of questions4 ,he was really curious1 because he had never met anyone from ,europe before4 ,par kept trying to encourage his friend to leave but ,brian wanted to know all about life in ,switzerland4 ,what was the weather like8 ,did people ski all the time8 ,par kept looking ,brian in the eye and then staring hard at the door4 ,did most ,swiss speak ,english8 ,what other languages did she know8 ,a lot of people skied in ,california4 ,it was so cool talking to someone from halfway around the world4 ,par did the silent chin-nudge toward the door and1 at last1 ,brian got the hint4 ,par ushered his friend out of the house4 ,brian was only there for about ten minutes1 but it felt like a year4 ,when ,par and ,theorem were alone1 they talked a bit1 then ,par suggested they go for a walk4 ,halfway down the block1 ,par tentatively reached for her hand and took it in his own4 ,she seemed to like it4 ,her hand was warm4 ,they talked a bit more1 then ,par stopped4 ,he turned to face her4 ,he paused1 and then told her something he had told her before over the telephone1 something they both knew already4 ,theorem kissed him4 ,it startled ,par4 ,he was completely unprepared4 ,then ,theorem said the same words back to him4 ,when they returned to the house1 things progressed from there4 ,they spent two and a half weeks in each other's arms--and they were glorious1 sun-drenched weeks4 ,the relationship proved to be far1 far better in person than it had ever been on-line or on the telephone4 ,theorem had captivated ,par1 and ,par1 in turn1 created a state of bliss in ,theorem4 ,par showed her around his little world in northern ,california4 ,they visited a few tourist sites1 but mostly they just spent a lot of time at home4 ,they talked1 day and night1 about everything4 ,then it was time for ,theorem to leave1 to return to her job and her life in ,switzerland4 ,her departure was hard--driving to the airport1 seeing her board the plane--it was heart-wrenching4 ,theorem looked very upset4 ,par just managed to hold it together until the plane took off4 ,for two and a half weeks1 ,theorem had blotted out ,par's approaching court case4 ,as she flew away1 the dark reality of the case descended on him4 ,the fish liked to watch4 ,par sat at the borrowed computer all night in the dark1 with only the dull glow of his monitor lighting the room1 and the fish would all swim over to the side of their tank and peer out at him4 ,when things were quiet on-line1 ,par's attention wandered to the eel and the lion fish4 ,maybe they were attracted to the phosphorescence of the computer screen4 ,whatever the reason1 they certainly liked to hover there4 ,it was eerie4 ,par took a few more drags of his joint1 watched the fish some more1 drank his ,coke and then turned his attention back to his computer4 ,that night1 ,par saw something he shouldn't have4 ,not the usual hacker stuff4 ,not the inside of a university4 ,not even the inside of an international bank containing private financial information about ,middle ,eastern sheiks4 ,what he saw was information about some sort of killer spy satellite--those are the words ,par used to describe it to other hackers4 ,he said the satellite was capable of shooting down other satellites caught spying1 and he saw it inside a machine connected to ,,trw's ,space and ,defense division network4 ,he stumbled upon it much the same way ,force had accidentally found the ,citi,saudi machine--through scanning4 ,par didn't say much else about it because the discovery scared the hell out of him4 ,suddenly1 he felt like the man who knew too much4 ,he'd been in and out of so many military systems1 seen so much sensitive material1 that he had become a little blas about the whole thing4 ,the information was cool to read but1 ,god knows1 he never intended to actually do anything with it4 ,it was just a prize1 a glittering trophy testifying to his prowess as a hacker4 ,but this discovery shook him up1 slapped him in the face1 made him realise he was exposed4 ,what would the ,secret ,service do to him when they found out8 ,hand him another little traffic ticket titled #ejb;,c'8 ,no way4 ,let him tell the jury at his trial everything he knew8 ,let the newspapers print it8 ,not a snowball's chance in hell4 ,this was the era of ,ronald ,reagan and ,george ,bush1 of space defence initiatives1 of huge defence budgets and very paranoid military commanders who viewed the world as one giant battlefield with the evil empire of the ,soviet ,union4 ,would the ,,us government just lock him up and throw away the key8 ,would it want to risk him talking to other prisoners--hardened criminals who knew how to make a dollar from that sort of information8 ,definitely not4 ,that left just one option4 ,elimination4 ,it was not a pretty thought4 ,but to the seventeen-year-old hacker it was a very plausible one4 ,par considered what he could do and came up with what seemed to be the only solution4 ,run4 ,,chapter #d -- ,the ,fugitive4 ,there's one gun1 probably more2 and the others are pointing at our backdoor4 -- from ,knife's ,edge'1 ,bird ,noises4 ,when ,par failed to show up for his hearing on #aj ,july #aihi in the ,monterey ,county ,juvenile ,court in ,salinas1 he officially became a fugitive4 ,he had1 in fact1 already been on the run for some weeks4 ,but no-one knew4 ,not even his lawyer4 ,richard ,rosen had an idea something was wrong when ,par didn't show up for a meeting some ten days before the hearing1 but he kept hoping his client would come good4 ,rosen had negotiated a deal for ,par3 reparations plus fifteen days or less in juvenile prison in exchange for ,par's full cooperation with the ,secret ,service4 ,par had appeared deeply troubled over the matter for weeks4 ,he didn't seem to mind telling the ,feds how he had broken into various computers1 but that's not what they were really looking for4 ,they wanted him to rat4 ,and to rat on everyone4 ,they knew ,par was a kingpin and1 as such1 he knew all the important players in the underground4 ,the perfect stooge4 ,but ,par couldn't bring himself to narc4 ,even if he did spill his guts1 there was still the question of what the authorities would do to him in prison4 ,the question of elimination loomed large in his mind4 ,so1 one morning1 ,par simply disappeared4 ,he had planned it carefully1 packed his bags discreetly and made arrangements with a trusted friend outside the circle which included his room-mates4 ,the friend drove around to pick ,par up when the room-mates were out4 ,they never had an inkling that the now eighteen-year-old ,par was about to vanish for a very long time4 ,first1 ,par headed to ,san ,diego4 ,then ,,la4 ,then he made his way to ,new ,jersey4 ,after that1 he disappeared from the radar screen completely4 ,life on the run was hard4 ,for the first few months1 ,par carried around two prized possessions2 an inexpensive laptop computer and photos of ,theorem taken during her visit4 ,they were his lifeline to a different world and he clutched them in his bag as he moved from one city to another1 often staying with his friends from the computer underground4 ,the loose-knit network of hackers worked a bit like the nineteenth-century ,american underground railroad' used by escaped slaves to flee from the ,south to the safety of the northern states4 ,except that1 for ,par1 there was never a safe haven4 ,par crisscrossed the continent1 always on the move4 ,a week in one place4 ,a few nights in another4 ,sometimes there were breaks in the electronic underground railroad1 spaces between the place where one line ended and another began4 ,those breaks were the hardest4 ,they meant sleeping out in the open1 sometimes in the cold1 going without food and being without anyone to talk to4 ,he continued hacking1 with new-found frenzy1 because he was invincible4 ,what were the law enforcement agencies going to do8 ,come and arrest him8 ,he was already a fugitive and he figured things couldn't get much worse4 ,he felt as though he would be on the run forever1 and as if he had already been on the run for a lifetime1 though it was only a few months4 ,when he was staying with people from the computer underground1 ,par was careful4 ,but when he was alone in a dingy motel room1 or with people completely outside that world1 he hacked without fear4 ,blatant1 in-your-face feats4 ,things he knew the ,secret ,service would see4 ,even his illicit voice mailbox had words for his pursuers3 ,yeah1 this is ,par4 ,and to all those faggots from the ,secret ,service who keep calling and hanging up1 well1 lots of luck4 ',cause1 ,i mean1 you're so fucking stupid1 it's not even funny4 ,i mean1 if you had to send my shit to ,apple ,computers for analysis1 you must be so stupid1 it's pitiful4 ,you also thought ,i had blue-boxing equipment for phreaking4 ,i'm just laughing trying to think what you thought was a blue box4 ,you are so lame4 ,oh well4 ,and anyone else who needs to leave me a message1 go ahead4 ,and everyone take it easy and leave me some shit4 ,alright4 ,later4 ,despite the bravado1 paranoia took hold of ,par as it never had before4 ,if he saw a cop across the street1 his breath would quicken and he would turn and walk in the opposite direction4 ,if the cop was heading toward him1 ,par crossed the street and turned down the nearest alley4 ,police of any type made him very nervous4 ,by the autumn of #aihi1 ,par had made his way to a small town in ,north ,carolina4 ,he found a place to stop and rest with a friend who used the handle ,the ,nibbler and whose family owned a motel4 ,a couple of weeks in one place1 in one bed1 was paradise4 ,it was also free1 which meant he didn't have to borrow money from ,theorem1 who helped him out while he was on the run4 ,par slept in whatever room happened to be available that night1 but he spent most of his time in one of the motel chalets ,nibbler used in the off-season as a computer room4 ,they spent days hacking from ,nibbler's computer4 ,the fugitive had been forced to sell off his inexpensive laptop before arriving in ,north ,carolina4 ,after a few weeks at the motel1 however1 he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched4 ,there were too many strangers coming and going4 ,he wondered if the hotel guests waiting in their cars were spying on him1 and he soon began jumping at shadows4 ,perhaps1 he thought1 the ,secret ,service had found him after all4 ,par thought about how he could investigate the matter in more depth4 ,one of ,the ,atlanta ,three hackers1 ,the ,prophet1 called ,nibbler occasionally to exchange hacking information1 particularly security bugs in ,unix systems4 ,during one of their talks1 ,prophet told ,par about a new security flaw he'd been experimenting with on a network that belonged to the phone company4 ,the ,atlanta ,three1 a ,georgia-based wing of ,the ,legion of ,doom1 spent a good deal of time weaving their way through ,bell,south1 the phone company covering the south-eastern ,,us4 ,they knew about phone switching stations the way ,par knew about ,tymnet4 ,the ,secret ,service had raided the hackers in ,july #aihi but had not arrested them yet1 so in ,september ,the ,prophet continued to maintain an interest in his favourite target4 ,par thought the flaw in ,bell,south's network sounded very cool and began playing around in the company's systems4 ,dial up the company's computer network1 poke around1 look at things4 ,the usual stuff4 ,it occurred to ,par that he could check out the phone company's records of the motel to see if there was anything unusual going on4 ,he typed in the motel's main phone number and the system fed back the motel's address1 name and some detailed technical information1 such as the exact cable and pair attached to the phone number4 ,then he looked up the phone line of the computer chalet4 ,things looked odd on that line4 ,the line which he and ,nibbler used for most of their hacking showed a special status3 maintenance unit on line'4 ,what maintenance unit8 ,nibbler hadn't mentioned any problems with any of the motel's lines1 but ,par checked with him4 ,no problems with the telephones4 ,par felt nervous4 ,in addition to messing around with the phone company's networks1 he had been hacking into a ,russian computer network from the computer chalet4 ,the ,soviet network was a shiny new toy4 ,it had only been connected to the rest of the world's global packet-switched network for about a month1 which made it particularly attractive virgin territory4 ,nibbler called in a friend to check the motel's phones4 ,the friend1 a former telephone company technician turned freelancer1 came over to look at the equipment4 ,he told ,nibbler and ,par that something weird was happening in the motel's phone system4 ,the line voltages were way off4 ,par realised instantly what was going on4 ,the system was being monitored4 ,every line coming in and going out was probably being tapped1 which meant only one thing4 ,someone--the phone company1 the local police1 the ,,fbi or the ,secret ,service--was onto him4 ,nibbler and ,par quickly packed up all ,nibbler's computer gear1 along with ,par's hacking notes1 and moved to another motel across town4 ,they had to shut down all their hacking activities and cover their tracks4 ,par had left programs running which sniffed people's passwords and login names on a continual basis as they logged in1 then dumped all the information into a file on the hacked machine4 ,he checked that file every day or so4 ,if he didn't shut the programs down1 the log file would grow until it was so big the system administrator would become curious and have a look4 ,when he discovered that his system had been hacked he would close the security holes4 ,par would have problems getting back into that system4 ,after they finished tidying up the hacked systems1 they gathered up all ,par's notes and ,nibbler's computer equipment once again and stashed them in a rented storage space4 ,then they drove back to the motel4 ,par couldn't afford to move on just yet4 ,besides1 maybe only the telephone company had taken an interest in the motel's phone system4 ,par had done a lot of poking and prodding of the telecommunications companies' computer systems from the motel phone1 but he had done it anonymously4 ,perhaps ,bell,south felt a little curious and just wanted to sniff about for more information4 ,if that was the case1 the law enforcement agencies probably didn't know that ,par1 the fugitive1 was hiding in the motel4 ,the atmosphere was becoming oppressive in the motel4 ,par became even more watchful of the people coming and going4 ,he glanced out the front window a little more often1 and he listened a little more carefully to the footsteps coming and going4 ,how many of the guests were really just tourists8 ,par went through the guest list and found a man registered as being from ,new ,jersey4 ,he was from one of the ,,at,t corporations left after the break-up of ,bell ,systems4 ,why on earth would an ,,at,t guy be staying in a tiny hick town in ,north ,carolina8 ,maybe a few ,secret ,service agents had snuck into the motel and were watching the chalet4 ,par needed to bring the paranoia under control4 ,he needed some fresh air1 so he went out for a walk4 ,the weather was bad and the wind blew hard1 whipping up small tornadoes of autumn leaves4 ,soon it began raining and ,par sought cover in the pay phone across the street4 ,despite having been on the run for a few months1 ,par still called ,theorem almost every day1 mostly by phreaking calls through bulk telecommunications companies4 ,he dialled her number and they talked for a bit4 ,he told her about how the voltage was way off on the motel's ,,pabx and how the phone might be tapped4 ,she asked how he was holding up4 ,then they spoke softly about when they might see each other again4 ,outside the phone box1 the storm worsened4 ,the rain hammered the roof from one side and then another as the wind jammed it in at strange angles4 ,the darkened street was deserted4 ,tree branches creaked under the strain of the wind4 ,rivulets rushed down the leeward side of the booth and formed a wall of water outside the glass4 ,then a trash bin toppled over and its contents flew onto the road4 ,trying to ignore to the havoc around him1 ,par curled the phone handset into a small protected space1 cupped between his hand1 his chest and a corner of the phone booth4 ,he reminded ,theorem of their time together in ,california1 of two and a half weeks1 and they laughed gently over intimate secrets4 ,a tree branch groaned and then broke under the force of the wind4 ,when it crashed on the pavement near the phone booth1 ,theorem asked ,par what the noise was4 ,there's a hurricane coming1' he told her4 ,hurricane ,hugo4 ,it was supposed to hit tonight4 ,i guess it's arrived4' ,theorem sounded horrified and insisted ,par go back to the safety of the motel immediately4 ,when ,par opened the booth door1 he was deluged by water4 ,he dashed across the road1 fighting the wind of the hurricane1 staggered into his motel room and jumped into bed to warm up4 ,he fell asleep listening to the storm1 and he dreamed of ,theorem4 ,hurricane ,hugo lasted more than three days1 but they felt like the safest three days ,par had spent in weeks4 ,it was a good bet that the ,secret ,service wouldn't be conducting any raids during a hurricane4 ,south ,carolina took the brunt of ,hugo but ,north ,carolina also suffered massive damage4 ,it was one of the worst hurricanes to hit the area in decades4 ,winds near its centre reached more than #bdj kilometres per hour1 causing #fj deaths and #g billion in damages as it made its way up the coast from the ,west ,indies to the ,carolinas4 ,when ,par stepped outside his motel room one afternoon a few days after the storm1 the air was fresh and clean4 ,he walked to the railing outside his second-storey perch and found himself looking down on a hive of activity in the car park4 ,there were cars4 ,there was a van4 ,there was a collection of spectators4 ,and there was the ,secret ,service4 ,at least eight agents wearing blue jackets with the ,secret ,service emblem on the back4 ,par froze4 ,he stopped breathing4 ,everything began to move in slow motion4 ,a few of the agents formed a circle around one of the guys from the motel1 a maintenance worker named ,john1 who looked vaguely like ,par4 ,they seemed to be hauling ,john over the coals1 searching his wallet for identification and quizzing him4 ,then they escorted him to the van1 presumably to run his prints4 ,par's mind began moving again4 ,he tried to think clearly4 ,what was the best way out8 ,he had to get back into his room4 ,it would give him some cover while he figured out what to do next4 ,the photos of ,theorem flashed through his mind4 ,no way was he going to let the ,secret ,service get hold of those4 ,he needed to stash them and fast4 ,he could see the ,secret ,service agents searching the computer chalet4 ,thank ,god he and ,nibbler had moved all the equipment4 ,at least there was nothing incriminating in there and they wouldn't be able to seize all their gear4 ,par breathed deeply1 deliberately1 and forced himself to back away from the railing toward the door to his room4 ,he resisted the urge to dash into his room1 to recoil from the scene being played out below him4 ,abrupt movements would draw the agents' attention4 ,just as ,par began to move1 one of the agents turned around4 ,he scanned the two-storey motel complex and his gaze quickly came to rest on ,par4 ,he looked ,par dead in the eye4 ,this is it1 ,par thought4 ,i'm screwed4 ,no way out of here now4 ,months on the run only to get done in a hick town in ,north ,carolina4 ,these guys are gonna haul my ass away for good4 ,i'll never see the light of day again4 ,elimination is the only option4 ,while these thoughts raced through ,par's mind1 he stood rigid1 his feet glued to the cement floor1 his face locked into the probing gaze of the ,secret ,service agent4 ,he felt like they were the only two people who existed in the universe4 ,then1 inexplicably1 the agent looked away4 ,he swivelled around to finish his conversation with another agent4 ,it was as if he had never even seen the fugitive4 ,par stood1 suspended and unbelieving4 ,somehow it seemed impossible4 ,he began to edge the rest of the way to his motel room4 ,slowly1 casually1 he slid inside and shut the door behind him4 ,his mind raced back to the photos of ,theorem and he searched the room for a safe hiding place4 ,there wasn't one4 ,the best option was something above eye-level4 ,he pulled a chair across the room1 climbed on it and pressed on the ceiling4 ,the rectangular panel of plasterboard lifted easily and ,par slipped the photos in the space1 then replaced the panel4 ,if the agents tore the room apart1 they would likely find the pictures4 ,but the photos would probably escape a quick search1 which was the best he could hope for at this stage4 ,next1 he turned his mind to escaping4 ,the locals were pretty cool about everything1 and ,par thought he could count on the staff not to mention his presence to the ,secret ,service4 ,that bought him some time1 but he couldn't get out of the room without being seen4 ,besides1 if he was spotted walking off the property1 he would certainly be stopped and questioned4 ,even if he did manage to get out of the motel grounds1 it wouldn't help much4 ,the town wasn't big enough to shield him from a thorough search and there was no-one there he trusted enough to hide him4 ,it might look a little suspicious1 this young man running away from the motel on foot in a part of the world where everyone travelled by car4 ,hitchhiking was out of the question4 ,with his luck1 he'd probably get picked up by one of the agents leaving the raid4 ,no1 he wanted a more viable plan4 ,what he really needed was to get out of the area altogether1 to flee the state4 ,par knew that ,john travelled to ,asheville to attend classes and that he left very early4 ,if the authorities had been watching the motel for a while1 they would know that his #e a4m4 departure was normal4 ,and there was one other thing about the early departure which seemed promising4 ,it was still dark at that hour4 ,if ,par could get as far as ,asheville1 he might be able to get a lift to ,charlotte1 and from there he could fly somewhere far away4 ,par considered the options again and again4 ,hiding out in the motel room seemed the most sensible thing to do4 ,he had been moving rooms around the motel pretty regularly1 so he might have appeared to be just another traveller to anyone watching the motel4 ,with any luck the ,secret ,service would be concentrating their search on the chalet1 ripping the place apart in a vain hunt for the computer equipment4 ,as these thoughts went through his head1 the phone rang1 making ,par jump4 ,he stared at it1 wondering whether to answer4 ,he picked it up4 ,it's ,nibbler1' a voice whispered4 ,yeah1' ,par whispered back4 ,par1 the ,secret ,service is here1 searching the motel4' ,i know4 ,i saw them4' ,they've already searched the room next to yours4' ,par nearly died4 ,the agents had been less than two metres from where he was standing and he hadn't even known it4 ,that room was where ,john stayed4 ,it was connected to his by an inner door1 but both sides were locked4 ,move into ,john's room and lay low4 ,gotta go4' ,nibbler hung up abruptly4 ,par put his ear to the wall and listened4 ,nothing4 ,he unlocked the connecting inner door1 turned the knob and pressed lightly4 ,it gave4 ,someone had unlocked the other side after the search4 ,par squinted through the crack in the door4 ,the room was silent and still4 ,he opened it--no-one home4 ,scooping up his things1 he quickly moved into ,john's room4 ,then he waited4 ,pacing and fidgeting1 he strained his ears to catch the sounds outside4 ,every bang and creak of a door opening and closing set him on edge4 ,late that night1 after the law enforcement officials had left1 ,nibbler called him on the house phone and told him what had happened4 ,nibbler had been inside the computer chalet when the ,secret ,service showed up with a search warrant4 ,the agents took names1 numbers1 every detail they could1 but they had trouble finding any evidence of hacking4 ,finally1 one of them emerged from the chalet triumphantly waving a single computer disk in the air4 ,the law enforcement entourage hanging around in front of the chalet let out a little cheer1 but ,nibbler could hardly keep a straight face4 ,his younger brother had been learning the basics of computer graphics with a program called ,logo4 ,the ,united ,states ,secret ,service would soon be uncovering the secret drawings of a primary school student4 ,par laughed4 ,it helped relieve the stress4 ,then he told ,nibbler his escape plan1 and ,nibbler agreed to arrange matters4 ,his parents didn't know the whole story1 but they liked ,par and wanted to help him4 ,then ,nibbler wished his friend well4 ,par didn't even try to rest before his big escape4 ,he was as highly strung as a racehorse at the gate4 ,what if the ,secret ,service was still watching the place8 ,there was no garage attached to the main motel building which he could access from the inside4 ,he would be exposed1 even though it would only be for a minute or so4 ,the night would provide reasonable cover1 but the escape plan wasn't fool-proof4 ,if agents were keeping the motel under observation from a distance they might miss him taking off from his room4 ,on the other hand1 there could be undercover agents posing as guests watching the entire complex from inside their room4 ,paranoid thoughts stewed in ,par's mind throughout the night4 ,just before #e a4m41 he heard ,john's car pull up outside4 ,par flicked off the light in his room1 opened his door a crack and scanned the motel grounds4 ,all quiet1 bar the single car1 which puffed and grunted in the still1 cold air4 ,the windows in most of the buildings were dark4 ,it was now or never4 ,par opened the door all the way and slipped down the hallway4 ,as he crept downstairs1 the pre-dawn chill sent a shiver down his spine4 ,glancing quickly from side to side1 he hurried toward the waiting car1 pulled the back door open and dove onto the seat4 ,keeping his head down1 he twisted around1 rolled onto the floor and closed the door with little more than a soft click4 ,as the car began to move4 ,par reached for a blanket which had been tossed on the floor and pulled it over himself4 ,after a while1 when ,john told him they were safely out of the town1 ,par slipped the blanket off his face and he looked up at the early morning sky4 ,he tried to get comfortable on the floor4 ,it was going to be a long ride4 ,at ,asheville1 ,john dropped ,par off at an agreed location4 ,par thanked him and hopped into a waiting car4 ,someone else from his extensive network of friends and acquaintances took him to ,charlotte4 ,this time ,par rode in the front passenger seat4 ,for the first time1 he saw the true extent of the damage wreaked by ,hurricane ,hugo4 ,the small town where he had been staying had been slashed by rain and high winds1 but on the way to the ,charlotte airport1 where he would pick up a flight to ,new ,york1 ,par watched the devastation with amazement4 ,he stared out the car window1 unable to take his eyes off the storm's trail of havoc4 ,the hurricane had swept up anything loose or fragile and turned it into a missile on a suicide mission4 ,whatever mangled1 broken fragments remained after the turbulent winds had passed would have been almost unrecognisable to those who had seen them before4 ,theorem worried about ,par as he staggered from corner to corner of the continent4 ,in fact1 she had often asked him to consider giving himself up4 ,moving from town to town was taking its toll on ,par1 and it wasn't that much easier on ,theorem4 ,she hadn't thought going on the lam was such a great idea in the first place1 and she offered to pay for his lawyer so he could stop running4 ,par declined4 ,how could he hand himself in when he believed elimination was a real possibility8 ,theorem sent him money1 since he had no way of earning a living and he needed to eat4 ,the worst parts1 though1 were the dark thoughts that kept crossing her mind4 ,anything could happen to ,par between phone calls4 ,was he alive8 ,in prison8 ,had he been raided1 even accidentally shot during a raid8 ,the ,secret ,service and the private security people seemed to want him so badly4 ,it was worrying1 but hardly surprising4 ,par had embarrassed them4 ,he had broken into their machines and passed their private information around in the underground4 ,they had raided his home when he wasn't even home4 ,then he had escaped a second raid1 in ,north ,carolina1 slipping between their fingers4 ,he was constantly in their face1 continuing to hack blatantly and to show them contempt in things such as his voicemail message4 ,he figured they were probably exasperated from chasing all sorts of false leads as well1 since he was perpetually spreading fake rumours about his whereabouts4 ,most of all1 he thought they knew what he had seen inside the ,,trw system4 ,he was a risk4 ,par became more and more paranoid1 always watching over his shoulder as he moved from city to city4 ,he was always tired4 ,he could never sleep properly1 worrying about the knock on the door4 ,some mornings1 after a fitful few hours of rest1 he woke with a start1 unable to remember where he was4 ,which house or motel1 which friends1 which city4 ,he still hacked all the time1 borrowing machines where he could4 ,he posted messages frequently on ,the ,phoenix ,project1 an exclusive ,,bbs run by ,the ,mentor and ,erik ,bloodaxe and frequented by ,,lod members and the ,australian hackers4 ,some well-known computer security people were also invited onto certain1 limited areas of the ,texas-based board1 which immediately elevated the status of ,the ,phoenix ,project in the computer underground4 ,hackers were as curious about the security people as the security people were about their prey4 ,the ,phoenix ,project was special because it provided neutral ground1 where both sides could meet to exchange ideas4 ,via the messages1 ,par continued to improve his hacking skills while also talking with his friends1 people like ,erik ,bloodaxe1 from ,texas1 and ,phoenix1 from ,the ,realm in ,melbourne4 ,electron also frequented ,the ,phoenix ,project4 ,these hackers knew ,par was on the run1 and sometimes they joked with him about it4 ,the humour made the stark reality of ,par's situation bearable4 ,all the hackers on ,the ,phoenix ,project had considered the prospect of being caught4 ,but the presence of ,par1 and his tortured existence on the run1 hammered the implications home with some regularity4 ,as ,par's messages became depressed and paranoid1 other hackers tried to do what they could to help him4 ,elite ,,us and foreign hackers who had access to the private sections of ,the ,phoenix ,project saw his messages and they felt for him4 ,yet ,par continued to slide deeper and deeper into his own strange world4 ,subject3 ,,damn 666 ,from3 ,the ,parmaster ,date3 ,sat ,jan #ac #jh3dj3ag #aiij ,shit1 i got drunk last night and went onto that ,philippine system444 ,stupid ,admin comes on and asks who i am 444 ,next thing i know1 i'm booted off and both accounts on the system are gone4 ,not only this 44 but the whole fucking ,philippine ,net isn't accepting collect calls anymore4 7,the thing went down completely after i was booted off67 ,apparently someone there had enough of me4 ,by the way1 kids1 never drink and hack6 - ,par ,subject3 gawd ,from3 ,the ,parmaster ,date3 ,sat ,jan #ac #ji3jg3jf #aiij ,those ,,ss boys and ,,nsa boys think i'm a ,,comrade 44 hehehe i'm just glad i'm still fucking free4 ,bahahaha ,glastnost and all that happy horseshit - ,par ,subject3 ,the ,bottom line4 ,from3 ,the ,parmaster ,date3 ,sun ,jan #ba #aj3je3ch #aiij ,the bottom line is a crackdown4 ,the phrack boys were just the start1 i'm sure of it4 ,this is the time to watch yourself4 ,no matter what you are into1 whether it's just codes1 cards1 etc4 ,apparently the government has seen the last straw4 ,unfortunately1 with all of this in the news now1 they will be able to get more government money to combat hackers4 ,and that's ,,bad fucking news for us4 ,i think they are going after all the teachers'--the people who educate others into this sort of thing4 ,i wonder if they think that maybe these remote cases are linked in any way4 ,the only way they canprobably see is that we are hackers4 ,and so that is where their energies will be put4 ,to stop ,,all hackers--and stop them ,,before they can become a threat4 ,after they wipe out the educators1 that is4 ,just a theory4 - ,par ,subject3 ,connection ,from3 ,the ,parmaster ,date3 ,sun ,jan #ba #aj3af3aa #aiij ,well1 the only connection is disconnection1 as ,gandalf a ,british hacker would say4 ,that's what i'm putting on my epitaph4 ,,the ,,only ,,connection ,,is ,,disconnection 444 ,oh well1 maybe i'll take a few of the buggers with me when they come for me4 - ,par ,subject3 ,oh well4 ,from3 ,the ,parmaster ,date3 ,tue ,jan #bc #ai3cj3je #aiij ,and now1 the end is near4 ,i've traveled each and every byway 444' in the words of the ,king4 ,oh well4 ,who cares8 ,he was a fat shit before he died anyway4 ,to everyone who's been a good friend of mine and help me cover up the fact that i don't know a fucking thing--i thank u4 ,and to everyone else1 take it easy and hang tough4 i was temporarily insane at the time ,see you smart guys at the funny farm4 - ,par ,subject3 ,par ,from3 ,erik ,bloodaxe ,date3 ,tue ,jan #bc #bc3ba3ci #aiij ,shit man1 don't drink and think about things like that4 ,it's not healthy1 mentally or physically4 ,come to ,austin1 ,texas4 ,we'll keep you somewhere until we can get something worked out for you4 ,a year in minimum security 7,club ,fed7 is better then chucking a whole life4 ,hell1 you're #ai66 ,i have discarded the permanent' solution for good4 ,dead people can't get laid1 but people in federal prisons ,,do get conjugal visits666 ,think of ,theorem4 ,call over here at whatever time you read this 444 ,i can see you are really getting worried1 so just fucking call 444 - ,erik ,subject3 ,hah ,from3 ,the ,parmaster ,date3 ,thu ,jan #be #ah3eh3jj #aiij ,just keep in mind they see everything you do4 ,believe me4 ,i know4 - ,par ,subject3 ,well shit4 ,from3 ,the ,parmaster ,date3 ,mon ,jan #bi #ae3de3je #aiij ,it's happening soon guys4 ,i wish i could have bought more time4 ,and worked out a deal4 ,but nada4 ,they are nearby now4 ,i can tell which cars are theirs driving by outside4 ,this is the weirdest case of ,deja vu i've ever had4 ,anyway got an interesting call today4 ,it was from ,eddie1 one of the ,bell systems computers4 ,it was rather fantasy like 444 ,probably just his way of saying ,goodbye'4 ,eddie was a good friend1 smartest damn ,,unix box around 444 ,and he called today to tell me goodbye4 ,now i know i'm fucked4 ,thanks1 ,eddie1 it's been real4 7whoever you are7 ok eddie1 this one's for you' ,much ,later1 - ,par ,subject3 ,par ,from3 ,erik ,bloodaxe ,date3 ,mon ,jan #bi #ai3cf3ch #aiij ,buddy1 ,par1 you are over the edge 444 lay off the weed4 ,not everyone with glasses and dark suits are ,feds4 ,not all cars with generic hubcaps are government issue4 ,well1 hell1 ,i don't know what the hell ,eddie' is1 but that's a real bizarre message you left4 ,fly to ,austin 444 like tomorrow 444 got plenty of places to stash you until things can be smoothed out for a calm transition4 - ,erik ,subject3 eehh444 ,from3 ,phoenix from ,australia ,date3 ,tue ,jan #cj #jg3be3ei #aiij hmmmmmmmm444 wonders real ,,real thoughtufully sic and turns up a blank444 what is young ,par up to8 ,subject3 ,par and ,erik ,from3 ,daneel ,olivaw ,date3 ,mon ,jan #bi #ba3aj3jj #aiij ,erik1 you aren't exactly the best person to be stashing people are you8 ,subject3 ,you know you are screwed when4 ,from3 ,the ,parmaster ,date3 ,wed ,jan #ca #ad3bf3jd #aiij ,you know you are screwed when3 ,when surveyers survey your neighbors regularly1 and wear sunglasses when it's like #aa degrees farenheit and cloudy as hell out4 ,when the same cars keep driving by outside day and night4 7,i've been thinking about providing coffee an d doughnuts74 - ,par ,subject3 heh1 ,par ,from3 ,the ,mentor ,date3 ,wed ,jan #ca #af3cg3jd #aiij ,ummm4 ,i wear sunglasses when it's #aa degrees and cloudy 444 so you can eliminate that one4 3-7 ,subject3 ,hmm1 ,par ,from3 ,phoenix ,date3 ,thu ,feb #ja #aj3bb3df #aiij ,at least you arent getting shot at4 ,subject3 ,par1 why don't you 444 ,from3 ,ravage ,date3 ,thu ,feb #ja #aj3ef3jd #aiij ,why not just go out and say hi' to the nice gentleman8 ,if i kept seeing the same people tooling around my neighborhood1 i would actively check them out if they seemed weird4 ,subject3 ,par1 jump 'em ,from3 ,aston ,martin ,date3 ,tue ,feb #jf #ah3jd3ee #aiij ,what you could do is go out to one of the vans sitting in the street 7you know1 the one with the two guys sitting in it all day7 with a pair of jumper cables4 ,tell them you've seen them sitting there all day and you thought they were stuck4 ,ask them if they need a jump4 - ,aston ,between these strange messages1 ,par often posted comments on technical matters4 ,other hackers routinely asked him questions about ,x4#be networks4 ,unlike some hackers1 ,par almost always offered some help4 ,in fact1 he believed that being one of the teachers' made him a particular target4 ,but his willingness to teach others so readily1 combined with his relatively humble1 self-effacing demeanour1 made ,par popular among many hackers4 ,it was one reason he found so many places to stay4 ,spring arrived1 brushing aside a few of the hardships of a winter on the run1 then summer4 ,par was still on the run1 still dodging the ,secret ,service's national hunt for the fugitive4 ,by autumn1 ,par had eluded law enforcement officials around the ,united ,states for more than a year4 ,the gloom of another cold winter on the run sat on the horizon of ,par's future1 but he didn't care4 ,anything1 everything was bearable4 ,he could take anything ,fate would dish up because he had something to live for4 ,theorem was coming to visit him again4 ,when ,theorem arrived in ,new ,york in early #aiia1 the weather was bitterly cold4 ,they travelled to ,connecticut1 where ,par was staying in a share-house with friends4 ,par was nervous about a lot of things1 but mostly about whether things would be the same with ,theorem4 ,within a few hours of her arrival1 his fears were assuaged4 ,theorem felt as passionately about him as she had in ,california more than twelve months before4 ,his own feelings were even stronger4 ,theorem was a liferaft of happiness in the growing turmoil of his life4 ,but things were different in the outside world4 ,life on the run with ,theorem was grim4 ,constantly dependent on other people1 on their charity1 they were also subject to their petty whims4 ,a room-mate in the share-house got very drunk one night and picked a fight with one of ,par's friends4 ,it was a major row and the friend stormed out4 ,in a fit of intoxicated fury1 the drunk threatened to turn ,par in to the authorities4 ,slurring his angry words1 he announced he was going to call the ,,fbi1 ,,cia and ,secret ,service to tell them all where ,par was living4 ,par and ,theorem didn't want to wait around to see if the drunk would be true to his word4 ,they grabbed their coats and fled into the darkness4 ,with little money1 and no place else to stay1 they walked around for hours in the blistering1 cold wind4 ,eventually they decided they had no choice but to return to the house late at night1 hopefully after the drunk had fallen asleep4 ,they sidled up to the front of the house1 alert and on edge4 ,it was quite possible the drunk had called every law enforcement agency his blurry mind could recall1 in which case a collection of agents would be lying in wait4 ,the street was deadly quiet4 ,all the parked cars were deserted4 ,par peered in a darkened window but he couldn't see anything4 ,he motioned for ,theorem to follow him into the house4 ,though she couldn't see ,par's face1 ,theorem could feel his tension4 ,most of the time1 she revelled in their closeness1 a proximity which at times seemed to border on telepathy4 ,but at this moment1 the extraordinary gift of empathy felt like a curse4 ,theorem could feel ,par's all-consuming paranoia1 and it filled her with terror as they crept through the hall1 checking each room4 ,finally they reached ,par's room1 expecting to find two or three ,secret ,service agents waiting patiently for them in the dark4 ,it was empty4 ,they climbed into bed and tried to get some sleep1 but ,theorem lay awake in the dark for a little while1 thinking about the strange and fearful experience of returning to the house4 ,though she spoke to ,par on the phone almost every day when they were apart1 she realised she had missed something4 ,being on the run for so long had changed ,par4 ,some time after she returned to ,switzerland1 ,theorem's access to ,altos shrivelled up and died4 ,she had been logging in through her old university account but the university eventually killed her access since she was no longer a student4 ,without access to any ,x4#be network linked to the outside world1 she couldn't logon to ,altos4 ,although she was never involved with hacking1 ,theorem had become quite addicted to ,altos4 ,the loss of access to the ,swiss ,x4#be network--and therefore to ,altos--left her feeling very depressed4 ,she told ,par over the telephone1 in sombre tones4 ,par decide to make a little present for ,theorem4 ,while most hackers broke into computers hanging off the ,x4#be networks1 ,par broke into the computers of the companies which ran the ,x4#be networks4 ,having control over the machines owned by ,telenet or ,tymnet was real power4 ,and as the master of ,x4#be networks1 ,par could simply create a special account--just for ,theorem--on ,tymnet4 ,when ,par finished making the account1 he leaned back in his chair feeling pretty pleased with himself4 ,account name3 ,theorem4 ,password3 ,par,loves,me6 ,well1 thought ,par1 she's going to have to type that in every time she gets on the ,tymnet network4 ,altos might be filled with the world's best hackers1 and they might even try to flirt with ,theorem1 but she'll be thinking of me every time she logs on1 he thought4 ,par called her on the telephone and gave her his special present4 ,when he told her the password to her new account1 ,theorem laughed4 ,she thought it was sweet4 ,and so did the ,,mod boys4 ,masters of ,deception1 or ,destruction--it depended on who told the story--was a ,new ,york-based gang of hackers4 ,they thought it would be cool to hack ,altos4 ,it wasn't that easy to get ,altos shell access1 which ,theorem had1 and most people had to settle for using one of the guest' accounts4 ,but it was much easier to hack ,altos from a shell account than from a guest' account4 ,theorem's account would be the targeted jump-off point4 ,how did ,,mod get ,theorem's ,altos password8 ,most probably they were watching one of the ,x4#be gateways she used as she passed through ,tymnet on her way to ,altos4 ,maybe the ,,mod boys sniffed her password en route4 ,or maybe they were watching the ,tymnet security officials who were watching that gateway4 ,in the end it didn't matter how ,,mod got ,theorem's password on ,altos4 ,what mattered was that they changed her password4 ,when ,theorem couldn't get into ,altos she was beside herself4 ,she felt like a junkie going cold turkey4 ,it was too much4 ,and of course she couldn't reach ,par4 ,because he was on the run1 she had to wait for him to call her4 ,in fact she couldn't reach any of her other friends on ,altos to ask for help4 ,how was she going to find them8 ,they were all hackers4 ,they chose handles so no-one would know their real names4 ,what ,theorem didn't know was that1 not only had she lost access to ,altos1 but the ,,mod boys were using her account to hack the ,altos system4 ,to the outside world it appeared as though she was doing it4 ,theorem finally managed to get a third-hand message to ,gandalf1 a well-known ,british hacker4 ,she sought him out for two reasons4 ,first1 he was a good friend and was therefore likely to help her out4 ,second1 ,gandalf had root access on ,altos1 which meant he could give her a new password or account4 ,gandalf had established quite a reputation for himself in the computer underground through the hacking group #hlgm--,the ,eight-,legged ,groove ,machine1 named after a ,british band4 ,he and his friend1 fellow ,british hacker ,pad1 had the best four legs in the chorus line4 ,they were a world-class act1 and certainly some of the best talent to come out of the ,british hacking scene4 ,but ,gandalf and1 to a lesser extent1 ,pad had also developed a reputation for being arrogant4 ,they rubbed some of the ,american hackers the wrong way4 ,not that ,pad and ,gandalf seemed to care4 ,their attitude was3 ,we're good4 ,we know it4 ,bugger off4 ,gandalf disabled ,theorem's account on ,altos4 ,he couldn't very well just change the password and then send the new one through the extended grapevine that ,theorem had used to get a message through to him4 ,clearly1 someone had targeted her account specifically4 ,no way was he going to broadcast a new password for her account throughout the underground4 ,but the trouble was that neither ,par nor ,theorem knew what ,gandalf had done4 ,meanwhile1 ,par called ,theorem and got an earful4 ,an angry ,par vowed to find out just who the hell had been messing with her account4 ,when the ,,mod boys told ,par they were the culprits1 he was a bit surprised because he had always been on good terms with them4 ,par told them how upset ,theorem had been1 how she gave him an earful4 ,then an extraordinary thing happened4 ,corrupt1 the toughest1 baddest guy in ,,mod1 the black kid from the roughest part of ,new ,york1 the hacker who gave shit to everyone because he could1 apologised to ,par4 ,the ,,mod guys never apologised1 even when they knew they were in the wrong4 ,apologies never got anyone very far on a ,new ,york ,city street4 ,it was an attitude thing4 ,i'm sorry1 man' from ,corrupt was the equivalent of a normal person licking the mud from the soles of your shoes4 ,the new password was3 ,m#j;,dm#j;d,m#j;,d4 ,that's the kind of guys they were4 ,par was just signing off to try out the new password when ,corrupt jumped in4 ,yeah1 and ah1 ,par1 there's something you should know4' ,yeah8' ,par answered1 anxious to go4 ,i checked out her mail4 ,there was some stuff in it4' ,theorem's letters8 ,stuff8 ,what kind of stuff8' he asked4 ,letters from ,gandalf4' ,yeah8' ,friendly letters4 ,real friendly4' ,par wanted to know1 but at the same time1 he didn't4 ,he could have arranged root access on ,altos long ago if he'd really wanted it4 ,but he didn't4 ,he didn't want it because it would mean he could access ,theorem's mail4 ,and ,par knew that if he could1 he would4 ,theorem was popular on ,altos and1 being the suspicious type1 ,par knew he would probably take something perfectly innocent and read it the wrong way4 ,then he would get in a fight with ,theorem1 and their time together was too precious for that4 ,too friendly1' ,corrupt went on4 ,it must have been hard for him to tell ,par4 ,snagging a friend's girlfriend's password and breaking into her account was one thing4 ,there wasn't much wrong with that4 ,but breaking that kind of news1 well1 that was harsh4 ,especially since ,corrupt had worked with ,gandalf in #hlgm4 ,thanks1' ,par said finally4 ,then he took off4 ,when ,par tried out the ,,mod password1 it didn't work of course1 because ,gandalf had disabled the account4 ,but ,par didn't know that4 ,finding out that ,theorem's account was disabled didn't bother him1 but discovering who disabled it for her didn't make ,par all that happy4 ,still1 when he confronted ,theorem1 she denied that anything was going on between her and ,gandalf4 ,what could ,par do8 ,he could believe ,theorem or he could doubt her4 ,believing her was hard1 but doubting her was painful4 ,so he chose to believe her4 ,the incident made ,theorem take a long look at ,altos4 ,it was doing bad things to her life4 ,in the days that she was locked out of the ,german chat system1 she had made the unpleasant discovery that she was completely addicted4 ,and she didn't like it at all4 ,staring at her life with fresh eyes1 she realised she had been ignoring her friends and her life in ,switzerland4 ,what on earth was she doing1 spending every night in front of a computer screen8 ,so ,theorem made a tough decision4 ,she decided to stop using ,altos forever4 ,bad things seemed to happen to ,the ,parmaster around ,thanksgiving4 ,in late ,november #aiia1 ,par flew up from ,virginia ,beach to ,new ,york4 ,an acquaintance named ,morty ,rosenfeld1 who hung out with the ,,mod hackers a bit1 had invited him to come for a visit4 ,par thought a trip to the ,city would do him good4 ,morty wasn't exactly ,par's best friend1 but he was all right4 ,he had been charged by the ,feds a few months earlier for selling a password to a credit record company which resulted in credit card fraud4 ,par didn't go in for selling passwords1 but to each his own4 ,morty wasn't too bad in the right dose4 ,he had a place on ,coney ,island1 which was hardly the ,village in ,manhattan1 but close enough1 and he had a fold-out sofa bed4 ,it beat sleeping on the floor somewhere else4 ,par hung out with a ,morty and a bunch of his friends1 drinking and goofing around on ,morty's computer4 ,one morning1 ,par woke up with a vicious hangover4 ,his stomach was growling and there was nothing edible in the fridge1 so he rang up and ordered pork fried rice from a ,chinese take-away4 ,then he threw on some clothes and sat on the end of the sofa-bed1 smoking a cigarette while he waited4 ,he didn't start smoking until he was nineteen1 some time late into his second year on the run4 ,it calmed his nerves4 ,there was a knock at the front door4 ,par's stomach grumbled in response4 ,as he walked toward the front door1 he thought ,pork ,fried ,rice1 here ,i come4 ,but when ,par opened the front door1 there was something else waiting for him4 ,the ,secret ,service4 ,two men4 ,an older1 distinguished gentleman standing on the left and a young guy on the right4 ,the young guy's eyes opened wide when he saw ,par4 ,suddenly1 the young guy pushed ,par1 and kept pushing him4 ,small1 hard1 fast thrusts4 ,par couldn't get his balance4 ,each time he almost got his footing1 the agent shoved the hacker backward again until he landed against the wall4 ,the agent spun ,par around so his face pressed against the wall and pushed a gun into his kidney4 ,then he slammed handcuffs on ,par and started frisking him for weapons4 ,par looked at ,morty1 now sobbing in the corner1 and thought1 ,you narced on me4 ,once ,par was safely cuffed1 the agents flashed their badges to him4 ,then they took him outside1 escorted him into a waiting car and drove into ,manhattan4 ,they pulled up in front of the ,world ,trade ,center and when ,par got out the young agent swapped the cuffs so ,par's hands were in front of him4 ,as the agents escorted the handcuffed fugitive up a large escalator1 the corporate world stared at the trio4 ,business men and women in prim navy suits1 secretaries and office boys all watched wide-eyed from the opposite escalator4 ,and if the handcuffs weren't bad enough1 the younger ,secret ,service agent was wearing a nylon jacket with a noticeable gun-shaped lump in the front pouch4 ,why are these guys bringing me in the front entrance8 ,par kept thinking4 ,surely there must be a backdoor1 a car park back entrance4 ,something not quite so public4 ,the view from any reasonably high floor of the ,world ,trade ,center is breathtaking1 but ,par never got a chance to enjoy the vista4 ,he was hustled into a windowless room and handcuffed to a chair4 ,the agents moved in and out1 sorting out paperwork details4 ,they uncuffed him briefly while they inked his fingers and rolled them across sheets of paper4 ,then they made him give handwriting samples1 first his right hand then his left4 ,par didn't mind being cuffed to the chair so much1 but he found the giant metal cage in the middle of the fingerprinting room deeply disturbing4 ,it reminded him of an animal cage1 the kind used in old zoos4 ,the two agents who arrested him left the room1 but another one came in4 ,and the third agent was far from friendly4 ,he began playing the bad cop1 railing at ,par1 shouting at him1 trying to unnerve him4 ,but no amount of yelling from the agent could rile ,par as much as the nature of the questions he asked4 ,the agent didn't ask a single question about ,citibank4 ,instead1 he demanded to hear everything ,par knew about ,,trw4 ,all ,par's worst nightmares about the killer spy satellite1 about becoming the man who knew too much1 rushed through his mind4 ,par refused to answer4 ,he just sat silently1 staring at the agent4 ,eventually1 the older agent came back into the room1 dragged the pitbull agent away and took him outside for a whispered chat4 ,after that1 the pitbull agent was all sweetness and light with ,par4 ,not another word about ,,trw4 ,par wondered why a senior guy from the ,secret ,service would tell his minion to clam up about the defence contractor8 ,what was behind the sudden silence8 ,the abrupt shift alarmed ,par almost as much as the questions had in the first place4 ,the agent told ,par he would be remanded in custody while awaiting extradition to ,california4 ,after all the paperwork had been completed1 they released him from the handcuffs and let him stand to stretch4 ,par asked for a cigarette and one of the agents gave him one4 ,then a couple of other agents--junior guys--came in4 ,the junior agents were very friendly4 ,one of them even shook ,par's hand and introduced himself4 ,they knew all about the hacker4 ,they knew his voice from outgoing messages on voicemail boxes he had created for himself4 ,they knew what he looked like from his ,california police file1 and maybe even surveillance photos4 ,they knew his personality from telephone bridge conversations which had been recorded and from the details of his ,secret ,service file4 ,perhaps they had even tracked him around the country1 following a trail of clues left in his flightpath4 ,whatever research they had done1 one thing was clear4 ,these agents felt like they knew him intimately--,par the person1 not just ,par the hacker4 ,it was a strange sensation4 ,these guys ,par had never met before chatted with him about the latest ,michael ,jackson video as if he was a neighbour or friend just returned from out of town4 ,then they took him further uptown1 to a police station1 for more extradition paperwork4 ,this place was no ,world ,trade ,center deluxe office4 ,par stared at the peeling grey paint in the ancient room1 and then watched officers typing out reports using the two-finger hunt-and-peck method on electric typewriters--not a computer in sight4 ,the officers didn't cuff ,par to the desk4 ,par was in the heart of a police station and there was no way he was going anywhere4 ,while the officer handling ,par was away from his desk for ten minutes1 ,par felt bored4 ,so he began flipping through the folders with information on other cases on the officer's desk4 ,they were heavy duty fraud cases--mafia and drug-money laundering--cases which carried reference to ,,fbi involvement4 ,these people looked hairy4 ,that day1 ,par had a quick appearance in court1 just long enough to be given protective custody in the ,manhattan detention complex known as the ,tombs while he waited for the authorities from ,california to come and pick him up4 ,par spent almost a week in the ,tombs4 ,by day three1 he was climbing the walls4 ,it was like being buried alive4 ,during that week1 ,par had almost no contact with other human beings--a terrible punishment for someone with so much need for a continual flow of new information4 ,he never left his cell4 ,his jailer slid trays of food into his cell and took them away4 ,on day six1 ,par went nuts4 ,he threw a fit1 began screaming and banging on the door4 ,he yelled at the guard4 ,told him none too nicely that he wanted to get the fuck outta here'4 ,the guard said he would see if he could get ,par transferred to ,rikers ,island1 ,new ,york's notorious jail4 ,par didn't care if he was transferred to the moon1 as long as he got out of solitary confinement4 ,except for the serial killer1 the north infirmary at ,rikers ,island was a considerable improvement on the ,tombs4 ,par was only locked in his cell at night4 ,during the day he was free to roam inside the infirmary area with other prisoners4 ,some of them were there because the authorities didn't want to put them in with the hardened criminals1 and some of them were there because they were probably criminally insane4 ,it was an eclectic bunch4 ,a fireman turned jewellery heister4 ,a ,colombian drug lord4 ,a chop-shop ringleader1 who collected more than #cjj stolen cars1 chopped them up1 reassembled them as new and then sold them off4 ,a man who killed a homosexual for coming onto him4 ,faggot ,killer'1 as he was known inside1 hadn't meant to kill anyone3 things had gotten a little out of hand2 next thing he knew1 he was facing ten to twelve on a murder rap4 ,par wasn't wild about the idea of hanging out with a murderer1 but he was nervous about what could happened to a young man in jail4 ,forging a friendship with ,faggot ,killer would send the right message4 ,besides1 the guy seemed to be ,,ok4 ,well1 as long as you didn't look at him the wrong way4 ,on his first day1 ,par also met ,kentucky1 a wild-eyed man who introduced himself by thrusting a crumpled newspaper article into the hacker's hand and saying1 ,that's me'4 ,the article1 titled ,voices ,told ,him to ,kill'1 described how police had apprehended a serial killer believed to be responsible for a dozen murders1 maybe more4 ,during his last murder1 ,kentucky told ,par he had killed a woman--and then written the names of the aliens who had commanded him to do it on the walls of her apartment in her blood4 ,the jewellery heister tried to warn ,par to stay away from ,kentucky1 who continued to liaise with the aliens on a regular basis4 ,but it was too late4 ,kentucky decided that he didn't like the young hacker4 ,he started shouting at ,par1 picking a fight4 ,par stood there1 stunned and confused4 ,how should he deal with an aggravated serial killer8 ,and what the hell was he doing in jail with a serial killer raving at him anyway8 ,it was all too much4 ,the jewellery heister rushed over to ,kentucky and tried to calm him down1 speaking in soothing tones4 ,kentucky glowered at ,par1 but he stopped yelling4 ,a few days into his stay at ,rikers1 ,faggot ,killer invited ,par to join in a game of ,dungeons and ,dragons4 ,it beat watching ,,tv talk shows all day1 so ,par agreed4 ,he sat down at the metal picnic table where ,faggot ,killer had laid out the board4 ,so it was that ,par1 the twenty-year-old computer hacker from ,california1 the ,x4#be network whiz kid1 came to play ,dungeons and ,dragons with a jewellery thief1 a homophobic murderer and a mad serial killer in ,rikers ,island4 ,par found himself marvelling at the surrealism of the situation4 ,kentucky threw himself into the game4 ,he seemed to get off on killing hobgoblins4 ,i'll take my halberd1' ,kentucky began with a smile1 and ,i stab this goblin4' ,the next player began to make his move1 but ,kentucky interrupted4 ,i'm not done1' he said slowly1 as a demonic grin spread across his face4 ,and ,i slice it4 ,and cut it4 ,it bleeds everywhere4' ,kentucky's face tensed with pleasure4 ,the other three players shifted uncomfortably in their seats4 ,par looked at ,faggot ,killer with nervous eyes4 ,and ,i thrust a knife into its heart1' ,kentucky continued1 the volume of his voice rising with excitement4 ,blood1 blood1 everywhere blood4 ,and ,i take the knife and hack him4 ,and ,i hack and hack and hack4' ,kentucky jumped up from the table and began shouting1 thrusting one arm downward through the air with an imaginary dagger1 ,and ,i hack and ,i hack and ,i hack6' ,then ,kentucky went suddenly still4 ,everyone at the table froze4 ,no-one dared move for fear of driving him over the edge4 ,par's stomach had jumped into his throat4 ,he tried to gauge how many seconds it would take to extricate himself from the picnic table and make a break for the far side of the room4 ,in a daze1 ,kentucky walked away from the table1 leaned his forehead against the wall and began mumbling quietly4 ,the jewellery heister slowly followed and spoke to him briefly in hushed tones before returning to the table4 ,one of the guards had heard the ruckus and came up to the table4 ,is that guy ,,ok8' he asked the jewellery heister while pointing to ,kentucky4 ,not even if you used that term loosely1 ,par thought4 ,leave him alone1' the heister told the guard4 ,he's talking to the aliens4' ,right4' ,the guard turned around and left4 ,every day1 a nurse brought around special medicine for ,kentucky4 ,in fact1 ,kentucky was zonked out most of the time on a cup of horrible1 smelly liquid4 ,sometimes1 though1 ,kentucky secreted his medicine away and traded it with another prisoner who wanted to get zonked out for a day or so4 ,those were bad days1 the days when ,kentucky had sold his medication4 ,it was on one of those days that he tried to kill ,par4 ,par sat on a metal bench1 talking to other prisoners1 when suddenly he felt an arm wrap around his neck4 ,he tried to turn around1 but couldn't4 ,here4 ,i'll show you how ,i killed this one guy1' ,kentucky whispered to ,par4 ,no--,no--' ,par started to say1 but ,kentucky's biceps began pressing against ,par's ,adam's apple4 ,it was a vice-like grip4 ,yeah4 ,like this4 ,i did it like this1' ,kentucky said as he tensed his muscle and pulled backward4 ,no6 ,really1 you don't need to4 ,it's ,,ok1' ,par gasped4 ,no air4 ,his arms flailing in front of him4 ,i'm done for1 ,par thought4 ,my life is over4 ,hacker ,murdered by ,serial ,killer in ,rikers ,island4 ,aliens ,told ,me to ,do ,it4' ,the omnipresent jewellery heister came up to ,kentucky and started cooing in his ear to let ,par go4 ,then1 just when ,par thought he was about to pass out1 the jewellery heister pulled ,kentucky off him4 ,par reminded himself to always sit with his back against the wall4 ,finally1 after almost a month behind bars1 ,par was informed that an officer from the ,monterey ,county sheriff's office was coming to take him back to ,california4 ,par had agreed to be extradited to ,california after seeing the inside of ,new ,york's jails4 ,dealing with the federal prosecutor in ,new ,york had also helped make up his mind4 ,the ,,us ,attorney's ,office in ,new ,york gave ,richard ,rosen1 who had taken the case on again1 a real headache4 ,they didn't play ball4 ,they played ,queen for a ,day'4 ,the way they negotiated reminded ,rosen of an old ,american television game of that name4 ,the show's host pulled some innocent soul off the street1 seated her on a garish throne1 asked her questions and then gave her prizes4 ,the ,,us ,attorney's ,office in ,new ,york wanted to seat ,par on a throne1 of sorts1 to ask him lots of questions4 ,at the end of the unfettered interrogation1 they would hand out prizes4 ,prison terms4 ,fines4 ,convictions4 ,as they saw fit4 ,no guaranteed sentences4 ,they would decide what leniency1 if any1 he would get at the end of the game4 ,par knew what they were looking for3 evidence against the ,,mod boys4 ,he wasn't having a bar of that4 ,the situation stank1 so ,par decided not to fight the extradition to ,california4 ,anything had to be better than ,new ,york1 with its crazy jail inmates and arrogant federal prosecutors4 ,the officer from the ,monterey sheriff's office picked ,par up on #ag ,december #aiia4 ,par spent the next few weeks in jail in ,california1 but this time he wasn't in any sort of protective custody4 ,he had to share a cell with ,mexican drug dealers and other mafia1 but at least he knew his way around these people4 ,and unlike the some of the people at ,rikers1 they weren't stark raving lunatics4 ,richard ,rosen took the case back1 despite ,par's having skipped town the first time1 which ,par thought was pretty good of the lawyer4 ,but ,par had no idea how good it would be for him until it came to his court date4 ,par called ,rosen from the jail1 to talk about the case4 ,rosen had some big news for him4 ,plead guilty4 ,you're going to plead guilty to everything1' he told ,par4 ,par thought ,rosen had lost his marbles4 ,no4 ,we can win this case if you plead guilty1' ,rosen assured him4 ,par sat dumbfounded at the other end of the phone4 ,trust me1' the lawyer said4 ,the meticulous ,richard ,rosen had found a devastating weapon4 ,on #bc ,december #aiia1 ,par pleaded guilty to two charges in ,monterey ,county ,juvenile ,court4 ,he admitted everything4 ,the whole nine yards4 ,yes1 ,i am ,the ,parmaster4 ,yes1 ,i broke into computers4 ,yes1 ,i took thousands of credit card details from a ,citibank machine4 ,yes1 yes1 yes4 ,in some way1 the experience was cathartic1 but only because ,par knew ,rosen had a brilliant ace up his sleeve4 ,rosen had rushed the case to be sure it would be heard in juvenile court1 where ,par would get a more lenient sentence4 ,but just because ,rosen was in a hurry didn't mean he was sloppy4 ,when he went through ,par's file with a fine-toothed comb he discovered the official papers declared ,par's birthday to be #ae ,january #aiga4 ,in fact1 ,par's birthday was some days earlier1 but the ,,da's office didn't know that4 ,under ,california law1 a juvenile court has jurisdiction over citizens under the age of #ba4 ,you can only be tried and sentenced in a juvenile court if you committed the crimes in question while under the age of eighteen and you are still under the age of #ba when you plead and are sentenced4 ,par was due to be sentenced on #ac ,january but on #h ,january ,rosen applied for the case to be thrown out4 ,when ,deputy ,,da ,david ,schott asked why1 ,rosen dropped his bomb4 ,par had already turned #ba and the juvenile court had no authority to pass sentence over him4 ,further1 in ,california1 a case cannot be moved into an adult court if the defendant has already entered a plea in a juvenile one4 ,because ,par had already done that1 his case couldn't be moved4 ,the matter was considered dealt with' in the eyes of the law4 ,the ,deputy ,,da was flabbergasted4 ,he spluttered and spewed4 ,the ,,da's office had dropped the original charges from a felony to a misdemeanour4 ,they had come to the table4 ,how could this happen8 ,par was a fugitive4 ,he had been on the run for more than two years from the frigging ,secret ,service1 for ,christ's sake4 ,there was no way--,,no ,,way--he was going to walk out of that courtroom scot-free4 ,the court asked ,par to prove his birthday4 ,a quick driver's licence search at the department of motor vehicles showed ,par and his lawyer were telling the truth4 ,so ,par walked free4 ,when he stepped outside the courthouse1 ,par turned his face toward the sun4 ,after almost two months in three different jails on two sides of the continent1 the sun felt magnificent4 ,walking around felt wonderful4 ,just wandering down the street made him happy4 ,however1 ,par never really got over being on the run4 ,from the time he walked free from the ,county ,jail in ,salinas1 ,california1 he continued to move around the country1 picking up temporary work here and there4 ,but he found it hard to settle in one place4 ,worst of all1 strange things began happening to him4 ,well1 they had always happened to him1 but they were getting stranger by the month4 ,his perception of reality was changing4 ,there was the incident in the motel room4 ,as ,par sat in the ,las ,vegas ,travelodge on one if his cross-country treks1 he perceived someone moving around in the room below his4 ,par strained to hear4 ,it seemed like the man was talking to him4 ,what was the man trying to tell him8 ,par couldn't quite catch the words1 but the more he listened1 the more ,par was sure he had a message for him which he didn't want anyone else to hear4 ,it was very frustrating4 ,no matter how hard he tried1 no matter how he put his ear down to the floor or against the wall1 ,par couldn't make it out4 ,the surreal experiences continued4 ,as ,par described it1 on a trip down to ,mexico1 he began feeling quite strange1 so he went to the ,,us consulate late one afternoon to get some help4 ,but everyone in the consulate behaved bizarrely4 ,they asked him for some identification1 and he gave them his wallet4 ,they took his ,social ,security card and his ,california identification card and told him to wait4 ,par believed they were going to pull up information about him on a computer out the back4 ,while waiting1 his legs began to tremble and a continuous shiver rolled up and down his spine4 ,it wasn't a smooth1 fluid shiver1 it was jerky4 ,he felt like he was sitting at the epicentre of an earthquake and it frightened him4 ,the consulate staff just stared at him4 ,finally ,par stopped shaking4 ,the other staff member returned and asked him to leave4 ,no-one can help you here1' he told ,par4 ,why was the consular official talking to him like that8 ,what did he mean--,par had to leave8 ,what was he really trying to say8 ,par couldn't understand him4 ,another consular officer came around to ,par1 carrying handcuffs4 ,why was everyone behaving in such a weird way8 ,that computer4 ,maybe they had found some special message next to his name on that computer4 ,par tried to explain the situation1 but the consulate staff didn't seem to understand4 ,he told them about how he had been on the run from the ,secret ,service for two and a half years1 but that just got him queer looks4 ,blank faces4 ,no comprehende4 ,the more he explained1 the blanker the faces became4 ,the consular officials told him that the office was closing for the day4 ,he would have to leave the building4 ,but ,par suspected that was just an excuse4 ,a few minutes later1 a ,mexican policeman showed up4 ,he talked with one of the consular officials1 who subsequently handed him what ,par perceived to be a slip of paper wrapped around a wad of peso notes4 ,two more policemen came into the consulate4 ,one of them turned to ,par and said1 ,leave6' but ,par didn't answer4 ,so the ,mexican police grabbed ,par by the arms and legs and carried him out of the consulate4 ,par felt agitated and confused and1 as they crossed the threshold out of the consulate1 he screamed4 ,they put him in a police car and took him to a jail1 where they kept him overnight4 ,the next day1 they released ,par and he wandered the city aimlessly before ending up back at the ,,us consulate4 ,the same consular officer came up to him and asked how he was feeling4 ,par said1 ,,ok4' ,then ,par asked if the official could help him get back to the border1 and he said he could4 ,a few minutes later a white van picked up ,par and took him to the border crossing4 ,when they arrived1 ,par asked the driver if he could have #b so he could buy a ticket for the train4 ,the driver gave it to him4 ,par boarded the train with no idea of where he was headed4 ,theorem visited ,par in ,california twice in #aiib and the relationship continued to blossom4 ,par tried to find work so he could pay her back the #bjjjj she had lent him during his years on the run and during his court case1 but it was hard going4 ,people didn't seem to want to hire him4 ,you don't have any computer skills1' they told him4 ,he calmly explained that1 yes1 he did indeed have computer skills4 ,well1 which university did you get your degree from8' they asked4 ,no1 he hadn't got his skills at any university4 ,well1 which companies did you get your work experience from8' ,no1 he hadn't learned his skills while working for a company4 ,well1 what did you do from #aihi to #aiib8' the temp agency staffer inevitably asked in an exasperated voice4 ,i 444 ah 444 travelled around the country4' ,what else was ,par going to say8 ,how could he possibly answer that question8 ,if he was lucky1 the agency might land him a data-entry job at #h per hour4 ,if he was less fortunate1 he might end up doing clerical work for less than that4 ,by #aiic1 things had become a little rocky with ,theorem4 ,after four and a half years together1 they broke up4 ,the distance was too great1 in every sense4 ,theorem wanted a more stable life--maybe not a traditional ,swiss family with three children and a pretty chalet in the ,alps1 but something more than ,par's transient life on the road4 ,the separation was excruciatingly painful for both of them4 ,conversation was strained for weeks after the decision4 ,theorem kept thinking she had made a mistake4 ,she kept wanting to ask ,par to come back4 ,but she didn't4 ,par drowned himself in alcohol4 ,shots of tequila1 one after the other4 ,scull it4 ,slam the glass down4 ,fill it to the top4 ,throw back another4 ,after a while1 he passed out4 ,then he was violently ill for days1 but somehow he didn't mind4 ,it was cleansing to be so ill4 ,somewhere along the way1 ,rosen managed to get ,par's things returned from the ,secret ,service raids4 ,he passed the outdated computer and other equipment back to ,par1 along with disks1 print-outs and notes4 ,par gathered up every shred of evidence from his case1 along with a bottle of ,jack ,daniels1 and made a bonfire4 ,he shredded print-outs1 doused them in lighter fluid and set them alight4 ,he fed the disks into the fire and watched them melt in the flames4 ,he flipped through the pages and pages of notes and official reports and let them pull out particular memories4 ,then he crumpled up each one and tossed it in the fire4 ,he even sprinkled a little ,jack ,daniels across the top for good measure4 ,as he pulled the pages from a ,secret ,service report1 making them into tight paper balls1 something caught his eye and made him wonder4 ,many hackers around the world had been busted in a series of raids following the first ,thanksgiving raid at ,par's house back in #aihh4 ,erik ,bloodaxe1 the ,,mod boys1 the ,,lod boys1 ,the ,atlanta ,three1 ,pad and ,gandalf1 the ,australians--they had all been either busted or raided during #aihi1 #aiij and #aiia4 ,how were the raids connected8 ,were the law-enforcement agencies on three different continents really organised enough to coordinate worldwide attacks on hackers8 ,the ,secret ,service report gave him a clue4 ,it said that in ,december #aihh1 two informants had called ,secret ,service special agents in separate divisions with information about ,par4 ,the informants--both hackers--told the ,secret ,service that ,par was not the ,citibank hacker' the agency was looking for4 ,they said the real ,citibank hacker' was named ,phoenix4 ,phoenix from ,australia4 ,,chapter #e -- ,the ,holy ,grail4 ,so we came and conquered and found2 riches of ,commons and ,kings4 -- from ,river ,runs ,red'1 ,blue ,sky ,mining4 ,there it was1 in black and white4 ,two articles by ,helen ,meredith in ,the ,australian in ,january #aihi4b ,the whole ,australian computer underground was buzzing with the news4 ,the first article appeared on #ad ,january3 ,citibank hackers score #ejj1jjj ,an elite group of ,australian hackers has lifted more than ,,us#ejj1jjj 7#ehj1jjj7 out of ,america's ,citibank in one of the more daring hacking crimes in ,australia's history4 ,australian federal authorities were reported late yesterday to be working with ,american authorities to pin down the ,australian connection involving hackers in ,melbourne and ,sydney4 ,these are the elite freekers' of white collar crime 444 ,the ,australian connection is reported to have used a telephone in the foyer of ,telecom's headquarters at #aii ,william ,street in ,melbourne to send a #bfjj-;hertz signal giving them access to a trunk line and ultimately to a managerial access code for ,citibank4 ,sources said last night the hackers had lifted ,,us#efc1jjj from the ,,us bank and transferred it into several accounts4 ,the money has now been withdrawn 444 ,meanwhile1 ,victorian police were reported yesterday to be systematically searching the homes of dozens of suspects in a crackdown on computer hackers 444 ,an informed source said ,criminal ,investigation ,bureau officers armed with search warrants were now searching through the belongings of the hacking community and expected to find hundreds of thousands of dollars of goods4 ,an informed source said ,criminal ,investigation ,bureau officers armed with search warrants were now searching through the belongings of the hacking community and expected to find hundreds of thousands of dollars of goods4 ,the second article was published ten days later3 ,hackers list card hauls on boards ,authorities remain sceptical of the latest reports of an international hacking and phreaking ring and its ,australian connection4 ,yesterday1 however1 evidence continued to stream into the ,melbourne based bulletin boards under suspicion 444 ,in the latest round of bulletin board activity1 a message from a ,united ,states hacker known as ,captain ,cash provided the ,australian connection with the latest news on ,australian credit cards1 provided by local hackers1 and their illegal use by ,,us hackers to the value of ,,us#cfb #jah 7#dafaab74 ,the information was taken from a computer bulletin board system known as ,pacific ,island and used actively by the ,australian connection4 ,the message read3 ,,ok on the #ecec series which we are closing today--,mastercard #aji #djj4ej4 ,on the #defd series--,visa which ,i'll leave open for a week #bjidag4ij4 ,and on good old don't leave home without someone else's3 #dc #bjj4 ,making a grand total of #cfbjah4dj6 ,let's hear it for our ,aussie friends6 ,i hear they are doing just as well6 ,they are sending more numbers on the #bcrd6 ,great6 ,they will be getting #aj as usual444a nice bonus of #cf #bjj4jj6' ,the bulletin board also contained advice for phreakers on using telephones in ,telecom's #aii ,william ,street headquarters and the green phones at ,spencer ,street ,station in ,melbourne--to make free international calls 444 ,phoenix1 another local bulletin board user1 listed prices for ,,extc'- tablets 444 ,late ,friday1 ,the ,australian received evidence suggesting a break-in of the ,,us ,citibank network by ,australian hackers known as ,the ,realm 444 ,the gang's ,,us connection is believed to be based in ,milwaukee and ,houston4 ,,us ,federal authorities have already raided ,,us hackers involved in ,citibank break-ins in the ,,us4 ,a covert operation of the ,bureau of ,criminal ,intelligence has had the ,australian connection under surveillance and last week took delivery of six months' of evidence from the ,pacific ,island board and associated boards going by the name of ,zen and ,megaworks 444 ,the ,australian hackers include a number of ,melbourne people1 some teenagers1 suspected or already convicted of crimes including fraud1 drug use and car theft4 ,most are considered to be at the least1 digital voyeurs1 at worst criminals with a possible big crime connection4 ,the information received by ,the ,australian amounts to a confession on the part of the ,australian hackers to involvement in the break-in of the ,,us ,citibank network as well as advice on phreaking 444 and bank access4 ,the following is taken directly from the bulletin board 444 ,it was stored in a private mailbox on the board and is from a hacker known as ,ivan ,trotsky to one who uses the name ,killer ,tomato3 ,,ok this is what's been happening 444 ,while back a ,sysop had a call from the ,feds1 they wanted ,force's1 ,phoenix's1 ,nom's1 ,brett ,macmillan's and my names in connection with some hacking ,the ,realm had done and also with some carding meant to have been done too4 ,then in the last few days ,i get info passed to me that the ,hack that was done to the ,citibank in the ,,us which has led to arrests over there also had connections to ,force and ,electron 444' ,,dpg monitoring service spokesman1 ,mr ,stuart ,gill1 said he believed the ,pacific ,island material was only the tip of the iceberg4 ,they're far better organised than the police1' he said4 ,unless everyone gets their act together and we legislate against it1 we'll still be talking about the same things this time next year4' ,yesterday1 the ,south ,australian police started an operation to put bulletin boards operating in that state under surveillance4 ,and in ,western ,australia1 both political parties agreed they would proceed with an inquiry into computer hacking1 whoever was in government4 ,the ,victoria ,police fraud squad last week announced it had set up a computer crime squad that would investigate complaints of computer fraud4 ,the articles were painful reading for most in the computer underground4 ,who was this ,captain ,cash8 ,who was the ,killer ,tomato8 ,many believed they were either ,stuart ,gill1 or that ,gill had forged messages by them or others on ,bowen's board4 ,was the underground rife with credit card frauders8 ,no4 ,they formed only a very small part of that community4 ,had the ,melbourne hackers stolen half a million dollars from ,citibank8 ,absolutely not4 ,a subsequent police investigation determined this allegation to be a complete fabrication4 ,how had six months' worth of messages from ,,pi and ,zen found their way into the hands of the ,victoria ,police ,bureau of ,criminal ,intelligence8 ,members of the underground had their suspicions4 ,to some1 ,stuart ,gill's role in the underground appeared to be that of an information trader4 ,he would feed a police agency information1 and garner a little new material from it in exchange4 ,he then amalgamated the new and old material and delivered the new package to another police agency1 which provided him a little more material to add to the pot4 ,gill appeared to play the same game in the underground4 ,a few members of the underground1 particularly ,,pi and ,zen regulars ,mentat and ,brett ,mac,millan1 suspected chicanery and began fighting a ,,bbs-based war to prove their point4 ,in early #aihi1 ,mac,millan posted a message stating that ,hackwatch was not registered as a business trading name belonging to ,stuart ,gill at the ,victorian ,corporate ,affairs office4 ,further1 he stated1 ,,dpg ,monitoring ,services did not exist as an official registered business trading name either4 ,mac,millan then stunned the underground by announcing that he had registered the name ,hackwatch himself1 presumably to stop ,stuart ,gill's media appearances as a ,hackwatch spokesman4 ,many in the underground felt duped by ,gill1 but they weren't the only ones4 ,soon some journalists and police would feel the same way4 ,stuart ,gill wasn't even his real name4 ,what ,gill really wanted1 some citizens in the underground came to believe1 was a public platform from which he could whip up hacker hype and then demand the introduction of tough new anti-hacking laws4 ,in mid-#aihi1 the ,commonwealth ,government did just that1 enacting the first federal computer crime laws4 ,it wasn't the journalists' fault4 ,for example1 in one case ,helen ,meredith had asked ,gill for verification and he had referred her to ,superintendent ,tony ,warren1 of the ,victoria ,police1 who had backed him up4 ,a reporter couldn't ask for better verification than that4 ,and why wouldn't ,warren back ,gill8 ,a registered ,,isu informer1 ,gill also acted as a consultant1 adviser1 confidant and friend to various members of the ,victoria ,police4 ,he was close to both ,warren and1 later1 to ,inspector ,chris ,cosgriff4 ,from #aihe to #aihg1 ,warren had worked at the ,bureau of ,criminal ,intelligence 7,,bci74 ,after that1 he was transferred to the ,internal ,investigations ,department 7,,iid71 where he worked with ,cosgriff who joined ,,iid in #aihh4 ,over a six-month period in #aiib1 ,tony ,warren received more than #bjj phone calls from ,stuart ,gill--#de of them to his home number4 ,over an eighteen-month period in #aiia-ib1 ,chris ,cosgriff made at least #gf personal visits to ,gill's home address and recorded #caf phone calls with him4#c ,the ,internal ,security ,unit 7,,isu7 investigated corruption within the police force4 ,if you had access to ,,isu1 you knew everything that the ,victoria ,police officially knew about corruption within its ranks4 ,its information was highly sensitive1 particularly since it could involve one police officer dobbing in another4 ,however1 a #aiic ,victorian ,ombudsman's report concluded that ,cosgriff leaked a large amount of confidential ,,isu material to ,gill1 and that ,warren's relationship with ,gill was inappropriate4#d ,when ,craig ,bowen 7aka ,thunderbird#a7 came to believe in #aihi that he had been duped by ,gill1 he retreated into a state of denial and depression4 ,the ,,pi community had trusted him4 ,he entered his friendship with ,gill a bright-eyed1 innocent young man looking for adventure4 ,he left the friendship betrayed and gun-shy4 ,sad-eyed and feeling dark on the world1 ,craig ,bowen turned off ,,pi and ,zen forever4 ,sitting at his computer sometime in the second half of #aihi1 ,force stared at his screen without seeing anything1 his mind a million miles away4 ,the situation was bad1 very bad1 and lost in thought1 he toyed with his mouse absent-mindedly1 thinking about how to deal with this problem4 ,the problem was that someone in ,melbourne was going to be busted4 ,force wanted to discount the secret warning1 to rack it up as just another in a long line of rumours which swept through the underground periodically1 but he knew he couldn't do that4 ,the warning was rock solid2 it had come from ,gavin499 ,the way ,force told it1 his friend ,gavin worked as a contractor to ,telecom by day and played at hacking at night4 ,he was ,force's little secret1 who he kept from the other members of ,the ,realm4 ,gavin was definitely not part of the hacker ,,bbs scene4 ,he was older1 he didn't even have a handle and he hacked alone1 or with ,force1 because he saw hacking in groups as risky4 ,as a ,telecom contractor1 ,gavin had the kind of access to computers and networks which most hackers could only dream about4 ,he also had good contacts inside ,telecom--the kind who might answer a few tactfully worded questions about telephone taps and line traces1 or might know a bit about police investigations requiring ,telecom's help4 ,force had met ,gavin while buying some second-hand equipment through the ,trading ,post4 ,they hit it off1 became friends and soon began hacking together4 ,under the cover of darkness1 they would creep into ,gavin's office after everyone else had gone home and hack all night4 ,at dawn1 they tidied up and quietly left the building4 ,gavin went home1 showered and returned to work as if nothing had happened4 ,gavin introduced ,force to trashing4 ,when they weren't spending the night in front of his terminal1 ,gavin crawled through ,telecom's dumpsters looking for pearls of information on crumpled bits of office paper4 ,account names1 passwords1 dial-up modems1 ,n,u,as--people wrote all sorts of things down on scrap paper and then threw it out the next day when they didn't need it any more4 ,according to ,force1 ,gavin moved offices frequently1 which made it easier to muddy the trail4 ,even better1 he worked from offices which had dozens of employees making hundreds of calls each day4 ,gavin and ,force's illicit activities were buried under a mound of daily legitimate transactions4 ,the two hackers trusted each other2 in fact ,gavin was the only person to whom ,force revealed the exact address of the ,citi,saudi machine4 ,not even ,phoenix1 rising star of ,the ,realm and ,force's favoured protg1 was privy to all the secrets of ,citibank uncovered during ,force's network explorations4 ,force had shared some of this glittering prize with ,phoenix1 but not all of it4 ,just a few of the ,citibank cards--token trophies--and general information about the ,citibank network4 ,believing the temptation to collect vast numbers of cards and use them would be too great for the young ,phoenix1 ,force tried to keep the exact location of the ,citibank machine a secret4 ,he knew that ,phoenix might eventually find the ,citibank system on his own1 and there was little he could do to stop him4 ,but ,force was determined that he wouldn't help ,phoenix get himself into trouble4 ,the ,citibank network had been a rich source of systems--something ,force also kept to himself4 ,the more he explored1 the more he found in the network4 ,soon after his first discovery of the ,citi,saudi system1 he found a machine called ,citi,greece which was just as willing to dump card details as its ,saudi-,american counterpart4 ,out of fifteen or so credit cards ,force discovered on the system1 only two appeared to be valid4 ,he figured the others were test cards and that this must be a new site4 ,not long after the discovery of the ,citi,greece machine1 he discovered similar embryonic sites in two other countries4 ,force liked ,phoenix and was impressed by the new hacker's enthusiasm and desire to learn about computer networks4 ,force introduced ,phoenix to ,minerva1 just as ,craig ,bowen had done for ,force some years before4 ,phoenix learned quickly and came back for more4 ,he was hungry and1 in ,force's discerning opinion1 very bright4 ,indeed1 ,force saw a great deal of himself in the young hacker4 ,they were from a similarly comfortable1 educated middle-class background4 ,they were also both a little outside the mainstream4 ,force's family were migrants to ,australia4 ,some of ,phoenix's family lived in ,israel1 and his family was very religious4 ,phoenix attended one of the most ,orthodox ,jewish schools in ,victoria1 a place which described itself as a modern orthodox ,zionist' institution4 ,nearly half the subjects offered in year #i were in ,jewish ,studies1 all the boys wore yarmulkes and the school expected students to be fluent in ,hebrew by the time they graduated4 ,in his first years at the school1 ,phoenix had acquired the nickname ,the ,egg'4 ,over the following years he became a master at playing the game--jumping through hoops to please teachers4 ,he learned that doing well in religious studies was a good way to ingratiate himself to teachers1 as well as his parents and1 in their eyes at least1 he became the golden-haired boy4 ,anyone scratching below the surface1 however1 would find the shine of the golden-haired boy was merely gilt4 ,despite his success in school and his matriculation1 ,phoenix was having trouble4 ,he had been profoundly affected by the bitter break-up and divorce of his parents when he was about fourteen4 ,after the divorce1 ,phoenix was sent to boarding school in ,israel for about six months4 ,on his return to ,melbourne1 he lived with his younger sister and mother at his maternal grandmother's house4 ,his brother1 the middle child1 lived with his father4 ,school friends sometimes felt awkward visiting ,phoenix at home4 ,one of his best friends found it difficult dealing with ,phoenix's mother1 whose vivacity sometimes bordered on the neurotic and shrill4 ,his grandmother was a chronic worrier1 who pestered ,phoenix about using the home phone line during thunderstorms for fear he would be electrocuted4 ,the situation with ,phoenix's father wasn't much better4 ,a manager at ,telecom1 he seemed to waver between appearing disinterested or emotionally cold and breaking into violent outbursts of anger4 ,but it was ,phoenix's younger brother who seemed to be the problem child4 ,he ran away from home at around seventeen and dealt in drugs before eventually finding his feet4 ,yet1 unlike ,phoenix1 his brother's problems had been laid bare for all to see4 ,hitting rock bottom forced him to take stock of his life and come to terms with his situation4 ,in contrast1 ,phoenix found less noticeable ways of expressing his rebellion4 ,among them was his enthusiasm for tools of power--the martial arts1 weapons such as swords and staffs1 and social engineering4 ,during his final years of secondary school1 while still living at his grandmother's home1 ,phoenix took up hacking4 ,he hung around various ,melbourne ,b,b,ses1 and then he developed an on-line friendship with ,force4 ,force watched ,phoenix's hacking skills develop with interest and after a couple of months he invited him to join ,the ,realm4 ,it was the shortest initiation of any ,realm member1 and the vote to include the new hacker was unanimous4 ,phoenix proved to be a valuable member1 collecting information about new systems and networks for ,the ,realm's databases4 ,at their peak of hacking activity1 ,force and ,phoenix spoke on the phone almost every day4 ,phoenix's new-found acceptance contrasted with the position of ,electron1 who visited ,the ,realm regularly for a few months in #aihh4 ,as ,phoenix basked in the warmth of ,force's approval1 the eighteen-year-old ,electron felt the chill of his increasing scorn4 ,force eventually turfed ,electron and his friend1 ,powerspike1 out of his exclusive ,melbourne club of hackers4 ,well1 that was how ,force told it4 ,he told the other members of ,the ,realm that ,electron had committed two major sins4 ,the first was that he had been wasting resources by using accounts on ,,otc's ,minerva system to connect to ,altos1 which meant the accounts would be immediately tracked and killed4 ,minerva admins such as ,michael ,rosenberg--sworn enemy of ,the ,realm--recognised the ,altos ,,nua4 ,rosenberg was ,,otc's best defence against hackers4 ,he had spent so much time trying to weed them out of ,minerva that he knew their habits by heart3 hack1 then zoom over to ,altos for a chat with fellow hackers1 then hack some more4 ,most accounts on ,minerva were held by corporations4 ,how many legitimate users from ,,anz ,bank would visit ,altos8 ,none4 ,so when ,rosenberg saw an account connecting to ,altos1 he silently observed what the hacker was doing--in case he bragged on the ,german chat board--then changed the password and notified the client1 in an effort to lock the hacker out for good4 ,electron's second sin1 according to ,force1 was that he had been withholding hacking information from the rest of the group4 ,force's stated view--though it didn't seem to apply to him personally--was one in1 all in4 ,it was a very public expulsion4 ,powerspike and ,electron told each other they didn't really care4 ,as they saw it1 they might have visited ,the ,realm ,,bbs now and then but they certainly weren't members of ,the ,realm4 ,electron joked with ,powerspike1 ,who would want to be a member of a no-talent outfit like ,the ,realm8' ,still1 it must have hurt4 ,hackers in the period #aihh-ij depended on each other for information4 ,they honed their skills in a community which shared intelligence and they grew to rely on the pool of information4 ,months later1 ,force grudgingly allowing ,electron to rejoin ,the ,realm1 but the relationship remained testy4 ,when ,electron finally logged in again1 he found a file in the ,,bbs entitled ,scanner stolen from the ,electron'4 ,force had found a copy of ,electron's ,,vms scanner on an overseas computer while ,electron was in exile and had felt no qualms about pinching it for ,the ,realm4 ,except that it wasn't a scanner4 ,it was a ,,vms ,trojan4 ,and there was a big difference4 ,it didn't scan for the addresses of computers on a network4 ,it snagged passwords when people connected from their ,,vms computers to another machine over an ,x4#be network4 ,powerspike cracked up laughing when ,electron told him4 ,well1' he told ,powerspike1 ,mr ,bigshot ,force might know something about ,prime computers1 but he doesn't know a hell of a lot about ,,vms4' ,despite ,electron's general fall from grace1 ,phoenix talked to the outcast because they shared the obsession4 ,electron was on a steep learning curve and1 like ,phoenix1 he was moving fast--much faster than any of the other ,melbourne hackers4 ,when ,phoenix admitted talking to ,electron regularly1 ,force tried to pull him away1 but without luck4 ,some of the disapproval was born of ,force's paternalistic attitude toward the ,australian hacking scene4 ,he considered himself to be a sort of godfather in the hacking community4 ,but ,force was also increasingly concerned at ,phoenix's ever more flagrant taunting of computer security bigwigs and system admins4 ,in one incident1 ,phoenix knew a couple of system admins and security people were waiting on a system to trap him by tracing his network connections4 ,he responded by sneaking into the computer unnoticed and quietly logging off each admin4 ,force laughed about it at the time1 but privately the story made him more than a little nervous4 ,phoenix enjoyed pitting himself against the pinnacles of the computer security industry4 ,he wanted to prove he was better1 and he frequently upset people because often he was4 ,strangely1 though1 ,force's protg also thought that if he told these experts about a few of the holes in their systems1 he would somehow gain their approval4 ,maybe they would even give him inside information1 like new penetration techniques1 and1 importantly1 look after him if things got rough4 ,force wondered how ,phoenix could hold two such conflicting thoughts in his mind at the same time without questioning the logic of either4 ,it was against this backdrop that ,gavin came to ,force with his urgent warning in late #aihi4 ,gavin had learned that the ,australian ,federal ,police were getting complaints about hackers operating out of ,melbourne4 ,the ,melbourne hacking community had become very noisy and was leaving footprints all over the place as its members traversed the world's data networks4 ,there were other active hacking communities outside ,australia--in the north of ,england1 in ,texas1 in ,new ,york4 ,but the ,melbourne hackers weren't just noisy--they were noisy inside ,american computers4 ,it wasn't just a case of ,american hackers breaking into ,american systems4 ,this was about foreign nationals penetrating ,american computers4 ,and there was something else which made the ,australian hackers a target4 ,the ,,us ,secret ,service knew an ,australian named ,phoenix had been inside ,citibank1 one of the biggest financial institutions in the ,,us4 ,gavin didn't have many details to give ,force4 ,all he knew was that an ,american law enforcement agency--probably the ,secret ,service--had been putting enormous pressure on the ,australian government to bust these people4 ,what ,gavin didn't know was that the ,secret ,service wasn't the only source of pressure coming from the other side of the ,pacific4 ,the ,,fbi had also approached the ,australian ,federal ,police about the mysterious but noisy ,australian hackers who kept breaking into ,american systems1#e and the ,,afp had acted on the information4 ,in late #aihi1 ,detective ,superintendent ,ken ,hunt of the ,,afp headed an investigation into the ,melbourne hackers4 ,it was believed to be the first major investigation of computer crime since the introduction of ,australia's first federal anti-hacking laws4 ,like most law enforcement agencies around the world1 the ,,afp were new players in the field of computer crime4 ,few officers had expertise in computers1 let alone computer crime1 so this case would prove to be an important proving ground4#f ,when ,gavin broke the news1 ,force acted immediately4 ,he called ,phoenix on the phone1 insisting on meeting him in person as soon as possible4 ,as their friendship had progressed1 they had moved from talking on-line to telephone conversations and finally to spending time together in person4 ,force sat ,phoenix down alone and gave him a stern warning4 ,he didn't tell him how he got his information1 but he made it clear the source was reliable4 ,the word was that the police felt they had to bust someone4 ,it had come to the point where an ,american law enforcement officer had reportedly told his ,australian counterpart1 ,if you don't do something about it soon1 we'll do something about it ourselves'4 ,the ,american hadn't bothered to elaborate on just how they might do something about it1 but it didn't matter4 ,phoenix looked suddenly pale4 ,he had certainly been very noisy1 and was breaking into systems virtually all the time now4 ,many of those systems were in the ,,us4 ,he certainly didn't want to end up like the ,west ,german hacker ,hagbard1 whose petrol-doused1 charred remains had been discovered in a ,german forest in ,june #aihi4 ,an associate of ,pengo's1 ,hagbard had been involved in a ring of ,german hackers who sold the information they found in ,american computers to a ,,kgb agent in ,east ,germany from #aihf to #aihh4 ,in ,march #aihi1 ,german police raided the homes and offices of the ,german hacking group and began arresting people4 ,like ,pengo1 ,hagbard had secretly turned himself into the ,german authorities months before and given full details of the hacking ring's activities in the hope of gaining immunity from prosecution4 ,american law enforcement agencies and prosecutors had not been enthusiastic about showing the hackers any leniency4 ,several ,,us agencies1 including the ,,cia and the ,,fbi1 had been chasing the ,german espionage ring and they wanted stiff sentences1 preferably served in an ,american prison4 ,german court proceedings were under way when ,hagbard's body was found4 ,did he commit suicide or was he murdered8 ,no-one knew for sure1 but the news shook the computer underground around the world4 ,hackers discussed the issue in considerable depth4 ,on the one hand1 ,hagbard had a long history of mental instability and drug use1 having spent time in psychiatric hospitals and detoxification centres off and on since the beginning of #aihg4 ,on the other hand1 if you were going to kill yourself1 would you really want to die in the agony of a petrol fire8 ,or would you just take a few too many pills or a quick bullet8 ,whether it was murder or suicide1 the death of ,hagbard loomed large before ,phoenix4 ,who were the ,american law enforcement agencies after in ,australia8 ,did they want him8 ,no4 ,force reassured him1 they were after ,electron4 ,the problem for ,phoenix was that he kept talking to ,electron on the phone--in voice conversations4 ,if ,phoenix continued associating with ,electron1 he too would be scooped up in the ,,afp's net4 ,the message to ,phoenix was crystal clear4 ,stay away from ,electron4 ,listen1 you miserable scum-sucking pig4' ,huh8' ,phoenix answered1 only half paying attention4 ,piece of shit machine4 ,i did all this editing and the damn thing didn't save the changes1' ,electron growled at the ,commodore ,amiga1 with its #eab k of memory1 sitting on the desk in his bedroom4 ,it was ,january #aiij and both ,phoenix and ,electron were at home on holidays before the start of university4 ,yeah4 ,wish ,i could get this thing working4 ,fucking hell4 ,work you6' ,phoenix yelled4 ,electron could hear him typing at the other end of the phone while he talked4 ,he had been struggling to get ,,aux1 the ,apple version of ,unix1 running on his ,macintosh ,,se#cj for days4 ,it was difficult to have an uninterrupted conversation with ,phoenix4 ,if it wasn't his machine crashing1 it was his grandmother asking him questions from the doorway of his room4 ,you wanna go through the list8 ,how big is your file8' ,phoenix asked1 now more focused on the conversation4 ,huh8 ,which file8' ,the dictionary file4 ,the words to feed into the password cracker1' ,phoenix replied4 ,electron pulled up his list of dictionary words and looked at it4 ,i'm going to have to cut this list down a bit1 he thought4 ,the dictionary was part of the password cracking program4 ,the larger the dictionary1 the longer it took the computer to crack a list of passwords4 ,if he could weed out obscure words--words that people were unlikely to pick as passwords--then he could make his cracker run faster4 ,an efficient password cracker was a valuable tool4 ,electron would feed his home computer a password file from a target computer1 say from ,melbourne ,university1 then go to bed4 ,about twelve hours later1 he would check on his machine's progress4 ,if he was lucky1 he would find six or more accounts--user names and their passwords--waiting for him in a file4 ,the process was completely automated4 ,electron could then log into ,melbourne ,university using the cracked accounts1 all of which could be used as jumping-off points for hacking into other systems for the price of a local telephone call4 ,cracking ,unix passwords wasn't inordinately difficult1 provided the different components of the program1 such as the dictionary1 had been set up properly4 ,however1 it was time-consuming4 ,the principle was simple4 ,passwords1 kept in password files with their corresponding user names1 were encrypted4 ,it was as impossible to reverse the encryption process as it was to unscramble an omelette4 ,instead1 you needed to recreate the encryption process and compare the results4 ,there were three basic steps4 ,first1 target a computer and get a copy of its password file4 ,second1 take a list of commonly used passwords1 such as users' names from the password file or words from a dictionary1 and encrypt those into a second list4 ,third1 put the two lists side by side and compare them4 ,when you have a match1 you have found the password4 ,however1 there was one important complication3 salts4 ,a salt changed the way a password was encrypted1 subtly modifying the way the ,,des encryption algorithm worked4 ,for example1 the word ,underground' encrypts two different ways with two different salts3 kyvb,ex,mcd,a,o,v,m' or lh,fa,tmw#d;,ddrjw'4 ,the first two characters represent the salt1 the others represent the password4 ,the computer chooses a salt randomly when it encrypts a user's password4 ,only one is used1 and there are #djif different salts4 ,all ,unix computers use salts in their password encryption process4 ,salts were intended to make password cracking far more difficult1 so a hacker couldn't just encrypt a dictionary once and then compare it to every list of encrypted passwords he came across in his hacking intrusions4 ,the #djif salts mean that a hacker would have to use #djif different dictionaries--each encrypted with a different salt--to discover any dictionary word passwords4 ,on any one system penetrated by ,electron1 there might be only #be users1 and therefore only #be passwords1 most likely using #be different salts4 ,since the salt characters were stored immediately before the encrypted password1 he could easily see which salt was being used for a particular password4 ,he would therefore only have to encrypt a dictionary #be different times4 ,still1 even encrypting a large dictionary #be times using different salts took up too much hard-drive space for a basic home computer4 ,and that was just the dictionary4 ,the most sophisticated cracking programs also produced intelligent guesses' of passwords4 ,for example1 the program might take the user's name and try it in both upper- and lower-case letters4 ,it might also add a #a' at the end4 ,in short1 the program would create new guesses by permutating1 shuffling1 reversing and recombining basic information such as a user's name into new words'4 ,it's #bdjjj words4 ,too damn big1' ,electron said4 ,paring down a dictionary was a game of trade-offs4 ,the fewer words in a cracking dictionary1 the less time it was likely to take a computer to break the encrypted passwords4 ,a smaller dictionary1 however1 also meant fewer guesses and so a reduced chance of cracking the password of any given account4 ,hmm4 ,mine's #bdcbh4 ,we better pare it down together4' ,yeah4 ,,ok4 ,pick a letter4' ,c4 ,let's start with the ,cs4' ,why ,c8' ,c4 ,for my grandmother's cat1 ,cocoa4' ,yeah4 ,,ok4 ,here goes4 ,cab1 ,cabal4 ,cabala4 ,cabbala4' ,electron paused4 ,what the fuck is a ,cabbala8' ,dunno4 ,yeah4 ,i've got those4 ,not ,cabbala4 ,,ok1 ,cabaret4 ,cabbage4 ,fuck1 ,i hate cabbage4 ,who'd pick ,cabbage as their password8' ,a ,pom1' ,electron answered4 ,yeah1' ,phoenix laughed before continuing4 ,phoenix sometimes stopped to think about ,force's warning1 but usually he just pushed it to one side when it crept1 unwelcomed1 into his thoughts4 ,still1 it worried him4 ,force took it seriously enough4 ,not only had he stopped associating with ,electron1 he appeared to have gone very1 very quiet4 ,in fact1 ,force had found a new love3 music4 ,he was writing and performing his own songs4 ,by early #aiij he seemed so busy with his music that he had essentially put ,the ,realm on ice4 ,its members took to congregating on a machine owned by another ,realm member1 ,nom1 for a month or so4 ,somehow1 however1 ,phoenix knew that wasn't all of the story4 ,a hacker didn't pick up and walk away from hacking just like that4 ,especially not ,force4 ,force had been obsessed with hacking4 ,it just didn't make sense4 ,there had to be something more4 ,phoenix comforted himself with the knowledge that he had followed ,force's advice and had stayed away from ,electron4 ,well1 for a while anyway4 ,he had backed right off1 watched and waited1 but nothing happened4 ,electron was as active in the underground as ever but he hadn't been busted4 ,nothing had changed4 ,maybe ,force's information had been wrong4 ,surely the feds would have busted ,electron by now if they were going to do anything4 ,so ,phoenix began to rebuild his relationship with ,electron4 ,it was just too tempting4 ,phoenix was determined not to let ,force's ego impede his own progress4 ,by ,january #aiij1 ,electron was hacking almost all the time4 ,the only time he wasn't hacking was when he was sleeping1 and even then he often dreamed of hacking4 ,he and ,phoenix were sailing past all the other ,melbourne hackers4 ,electron had grown beyond ,powerspike's expertise just as ,phoenix had accelerated past ,force4 ,they were moving away from ,x4#be networks and into the embryonic ,internet1 which was just as illegal since the universities guarded computer accounts--,internet access--very closely4 ,even ,nom1 with his growing expertise in the ,unix operating system which formed the basis of many new ,internet sites1 wasn't up to ,electron's standard4 ,he didn't have the same level of commitment to hacking1 the same obsession necessary to be a truly cutting-edge hacker4 ,in many ways1 the relationship between ,nom and ,phoenix mirrored the relationship between ,electron and ,powerspike3 the support act to the main band4 ,electron didn't consider ,phoenix a close friend1 but he was a kindred spirit4 ,in fact he didn't trust ,phoenix1 who had a big mouth1 a big ego and a tight friendship with ,force--all strikes against him4 ,but ,phoenix was intelligent and he wanted to learn4 ,most of all1 he had the obsession4 ,phoenix contributed to a flow of information which stimulated ,electron intellectually1 even if more information flowed toward ,phoenix than from him4 ,within a month1 ,phoenix and ,electron were in regular contact1 and during the summer holidays they were talking on the phone--voice--all the time1 sometimes three or four times a day4 ,hack then talk4 ,compare notes4 ,hack some more4 ,check in again1 ask a few questions4 ,then back to hacking4 ,the actual hacking was generally a solo act4 ,for a social animal like ,phoenix1 it was a lonely pursuit4 ,while many hackers revelled in the intense isolation1 some1 such as ,phoenix1 also needed to check in with fellow humanity once in a while4 ,not just any humanity--those who understood and shared in the obsession4 ,caboodle4 ,caboose1 ,electron went on1 ,cabriolet4 ,what the hell is a ,cabriolet8 ,do you know8' ,yeah1' ,phoenix answered1 then rushed on4 ,,ok4 ,cacao4 ,cache4 ,cachet 444' ,tell us4 ,what is it8' ,electron cut ,phoenix off4 ,cachinnation4 ,cachou 444' ,do you know8' ,electron asked again1 slightly irritated4 ,as usual1 ,phoenix was claiming to know things he probably didn't4 ,hmm8 ,uh1 yeah1' ,phoenix answered weakly4 ,cackle4 ,cacophony 444' ,electron knew that particular ,phoenix yeah'--the one which said yes' but meant no1 and ,i don't want to own up to it either so let's drop it'4 ,electron made it a habit not to believe most of the things ,phoenix told him4 ,unless there was some solid proof1 ,electron figured it was just hot air4 ,he didn't actually like ,phoenix much as a person1 and found talking to him difficult at times4 ,he preferred the company of his fellow hacker ,powerspike4 ,powerspike was both bright and creative4 ,electron clicked with him4 ,they often joked about the other's bad taste in music4 ,powerspike liked heavy metal1 and ,electron liked indie music4 ,they shared a healthy disrespect for authority4 ,not just the authority of places they hacked into1 like the ,,us ,naval ,research ,laboratories or ,,nasa1 but the authority of ,the ,realm4 ,when it came to politics1 they both leaned to the left4 ,however1 their interest tended more toward anarchy--opposing symbols of the military-industrial complex--than to joining a political party4 ,after their expulsion from ,the ,realm1 ,electron had been a little isolated for a time4 ,the tragedy of his personal life had contributed to the isolation4 ,at the age of eight1 he had seen his mother die of lung cancer4 ,he hadn't witnessed the worst parts of her dying over two years1 as she had spent some time in a ,german cancer clinic hoping for a reprieve4 ,she had1 however1 come home to die1 and ,electron had watched her fade away4 ,when the phone call from hospital came one night1 ,electron could tell what had happened from the serious tones of the adults4 ,he burst into tears4 ,he could hear his father answering questions on the phone4 ,yes1 the boy had taken it hard4 ,no1 his sister seemed to be ,,ok4 ,two years younger than ,electron1 she was too young to understand4 ,electron had never been particularly close to his sister4 ,he viewed her as an unfeeling1 shallow person--someone who simply skimmed along the surface of life4 ,but after their mother's death1 their father began to favour ,electron's sister1 perhaps because of her resemblance to his late wife4 ,this drove a deeper1 more subtle wedge between brother and sister4 ,electron's father1 a painter who taught art at a local high school1 was profoundly affected by his wife's death4 ,despite some barriers of social class and money1 theirs had been a marriage of great affection and love and they made a happy home4 ,electron's father's paintings hung on almost every wall in the house1 but after his wife's death he put down his brushes and never took them up again4 ,he didn't talk about it4 ,once1 ,electron asked him why he didn't paint any more4 ,he looked away and told ,electron that he had lost the motivation'4 ,electron's grandmother moved into the home to help her son care for his two children1 but she developed ,alzheimer's disease4 ,the children ended up caring for her4 ,as a teenager1 ,electron thought it was maddening caring for someone who couldn't even remember your name4 ,eventually1 she moved into a nursing home4 ,in ,august #aihi1 ,electron's father arrived home from the doctor's office4 ,he had been mildly ill for some time1 but refused to take time off work to visit a doctor4 ,he was proud of having taken only one day's sick leave in the last five years4 ,finally1 in the holidays1 he had seen a doctor who had conducted numerous tests4 ,the results had come in4 ,electron's father had bowel cancer and the disease had spread4 ,it could not be cured4 ,he had two years to live at the most4 ,electron was nineteen years old at the time1 and his early love of the computer1 and particularly the modem1 had already turned into a passion4 ,several years earlier his father1 keen to encourage his fascination with the new machines1 used to bring one of the school's ,apple ,i,ies home over weekends and holidays4 ,electron spent hours at the borrowed machine4 ,when he wasn't playing on the computer1 he read1 plucking one of his father's spy novels from the over-crowded bookcases1 or his own favourite book1 ,the ,lord of ,the ,rings4 ,computer programming had1 however1 captured the imagination of the young ,electron years before he used his first computer4 ,at the age of eleven he was using books to write simple programs on paper--mostly games--despite the fact that he had never actually touched a keyboard4 ,his school may have had a few computers1 but its administrators had little understanding of what to do with them4 ,in year #i1 ,electron had met with the school's career counsellor1 hoping to learn about career options working with computers4 ,i think maybe ,i'd like to do a course in computer programming 444' ,his voice trailed off1 hesitantly4 ,why would you want to do that8' she said4 ,can't you think of anything better than that8' ,uhm 444' ,electron was at a loss4 ,he didn't know what to do4 ,that was why he had come to her4 ,he cast around for something which seemed a more mainstream career option but which might also let him work on computers4 ,well1 accounting maybe8' ,oh yes1 that's much better1' she said4 ,you can probably even get into a university1 and study accounting there4 ,i'm sure you will enjoy it1' she added1 smiling as she closed his file4 ,the borrowed computers were1 in ,electron's opinion1 one of the few good things about school4 ,he did reasonably well at school1 but only because it didn't take much effort4 ,teachers consistently told his father that ,electron was underachieving and that he distracted the other students in class4 ,for the most part1 the criticism was just low-level noise4 ,occasionally1 however1 ,electron had more serious run-ins with his teachers4 ,some thought he was gifted4 ,others thought the freckle-faced1 ,irish-looking boy who helped his friends set fire to textbooks at the back of the class was nothing but a smart alec4 ,when he was sixteen1 ,electron bought his own computer4 ,he used it to crack software protection1 just as ,par had done4 ,the ,apple was soon replaced by a more powerful ,amiga with a #bj megabyte ,,ibm compatible sidecar4 ,the computers lived1 in succession1 on one of the two desks in his bedroom4 ,the second desk1 for his school work1 was usually piled high with untouched assignments4 ,the most striking aspect of ,electron's room was the ream after ream of dot matrix computer print-out which littered the floor4 ,standing at almost any point in the simply furnished room1 someone could reach out and grab at least one pile of print-outs1 most of which contained either usernames and passwords or printed computer program code4 ,in between the piles of print-outs1 were ,t-shirts1 jeans1 sneakers and books on the floor4 ,it was impossible to walk across ,electron's room without stepping on something4 ,the turning point for ,electron was the purchase of a second-hand #cjj baud modem in #aihf4 ,overnight1 the modem transformed ,electron's love of the computer into an obsession4 ,during the semester immediately before the modem's arrival1 ,electron's report card showed six ,as and one ,b4 ,the following semester he earned six ,bs and only one ,a4 ,electron had moved onto bigger and better things than school4 ,he quickly became a regular user of underground ,b,b,ses and began hacking4 ,he was enthralled by an article he discovered describing how several hackers claimed to have moved a satellite around in space simply by hacking computers4 ,from that moment on1 ,electron decided he wanted to hack--to find out if the article was true4 ,before he graduated from school in #aihg1 ,electron had hacked ,,nasa1 an achievement which saw him dancing around the dining room table in the middle of the night chanting1 ,i got into ,,nasa6 ,i got into ,,nasa6' ,he hadn't moved any satellites1 but getting into the space agency was as thrilling as flying to the moon4 ,by #aihi1 he had been hacking regularly for years1 much to the chagrin of his sister1 who claimed her social life suffered because the family's sole phone line was always tied up by the modem4 ,for ,phoenix1 ,electron was a partner in hacking1 and to a lesser degree a mentor4 ,electron had a lot to offer1 by that time even more than ,the ,realm4 ,cactus1 ,cad1 ,cadaver1 ,caddis1 ,cadence1 ,cadet1 ,caesura4 ,what the fuck is a ,caesura8' ,phoenix kept ploughing through the ,cs4 ,dunno4 ,kill that1' ,electron answered1 distracted4 ,caesura4 ,well1 fuck4 ,i know ,i'd wanna use that as a password4' ,phoenix laughed4 ,what the hell kind of word is ,caduceus8' ,a dead one4 ,kill all those4 ,who makes up these dictionaries8' ,electron said4 ,yeah4' ,caisson1 ,calabash4 ,kill those4 ,kill1 kill1 kill1' ,electron said gleefully4 ,hang on4 ,how come ,i don't have ,calabash in my list8' ,phoenix feigned indignation4 ,electron laughed4 ,hey1' ,phoenix said1 we should put in words like ,qwerty and ,,abcdef and ,,asdfgh4' ,did that already4' ,electron had already put together a list of other common passwords1 such as the words' made when a user typed the six letters in the first alphabet row on a keyboard4 ,phoenix started on the list again4 ,,ok the ,c,os4 ,commend1 ,comment1 ,commerce1 ,commercial1 ,commercialism1 ,commercially4 ,kill those last three4' ,huh8 ,why kill ,commercial8' ,let's just kill all the words with more than eight characters1' ,phoenix said4 ,no4 ,that's not a good idea4' ,how come8 ,the computer's only going to read the first eight characters and encrypt those4 ,so we should kill all the rest4' ,sometimes ,phoenix just didn't get it4 ,but ,electron didn't rub it in4 ,he kept it low-key1 so as not to bruise ,phoenix's ego4 ,often ,electron sensed ,phoenix sought approval from the older hacker1 but it was a subtle1 perhaps even unconscious search4 ,nah1' ,electron began1 ,see1 someone might use the whole word1 ,commerce or ,commercial4 ,the first eight letters of these words are not the same4 ,the eighth character in ,commerce is e1 but in ,commercial it's i4' ,there was a short silence4 ,yeah1' ,electron went on1 but you could kill all the words like ,commercially1 and ,commercialism1 that come after ,commercial4 ,see8' ,yeah4 ,,ok4 ,i see1' ,phoenix said4 ,but don't just kill every word longer than eight characters1' ,electron added4 ,hmm4 ,,ok4 ,yeah1 all right4' ,phoenix seemed a bit out of sorts4 ,hey1' he brightened a bit1 it's been a whole ten minutes since my machine crashed4' ,yeah8' ,electron tried to sound interested4 ,yeah4 ,you know1' ,phoenix changed the subject to his favourite topic1 what we really need is ,deszip4 ,gotta get that4' ,deszip was a computer program which could be used for password cracking4 ,and ,zardoz4 ,we need ,zardoz1' ,electron added4 ,zardoz was a restricted electronic publication detailing computer security holes4 ,yeah4 ,gotta try to get into ,spaf's machine4 ,spaf'll have it for sure4' ,eugene ,spafford1 ,associate ,professor of ,computer ,science at ,purdue ,university in the ,,us1 was one of the best known computer security experts on the ,internet in #aiij4 ,yeah4' ,and so began their hunt for the holy grail4 ,deszip and ,zardoz glittered side by side as the most coveted prizes in the world of the international ,unix hacker4 ,cracking passwords took time and computer resources4 ,even a moderately powerful university machine would grunt and groan under the weight of the calculations if it was asked to do4 ,but the ,deszip program could change that1 lifting the load until it was1 by comparison1 feather-light4 ,it worked at breathtaking speed and a hacker using ,deszip could crack encrypted passwords up to #be times faster4 ,zardoz1 a worldwide security mailing list1 was also precious1 but for a different reason4 ,although the mailing list's formal name was ,security ,digest1 everyone in the underground simply called it ,zardoz1 after the computer from which the mailouts originated4 ,zardoz also happened to be the name of a science fiction cult film starring ,sean ,connery4 ,run by ,neil ,gorsuch1 the ,zardoz mailing list contained articles1 or postings1 from various members of the computer security industry4 ,the postings discussed newly discovered bugs--problems with a computer system which could be exploited to break into or gain root access on a machine4 ,the beauty of the bugs outlined in ,zardoz was that they worked on any computer system using the programs or operating systems it described4 ,any university1 any military system1 any research institute which ran the software documented in ,zardoz was vulnerable4 ,zardoz was a giant key ring1 full of pass keys made to fit virtually every lock4 ,true1 system administrators who read a particular ,zardoz posting might take steps to close up that security hole4 ,but as the hacking community knew well1 it was a long time between a ,zardoz posting and a shortage of systems with that hole4 ,often a bug worked on many computers for months--sometimes years--after being announced on ,zardoz4 ,why8 ,many admins had never heard of the bug when it was first announced4 ,zardoz was an exclusive club1 and most admins simply weren't members4 ,you couldn't just walk in off the street and sign up for ,zardoz4 ,you had to be vetted by peers in the computer security industry4 ,you had to administer a legitimate computer system1 preferably with a large institution such as a university or a research body such as ,,csiro4 ,figuratively speaking1 the established members of the ,zardoz mailing list peered down their noses at you and determined if you were worthy of inclusion in ,club ,zardoz4 ,only they decided if you were trustworthy enough to share in the great security secrets of the world's computer systems4 ,in #aihi1 the white hats1 as hackers called the professional security gurus1 were highly paranoid about ,zardoz getting into the wrong hands4 ,so much so1 in fact1 that many postings to ,zardoz were fine examples of the art of obliqueness4 ,a computer security expert would hint at a new bug in his posting without actually coming out and explaining it in what is commonly referred to as a cookbook' explanation4 ,this led to a raging debate within the comp-sec industry4 ,in one corner1 the cookbook purists said that bulletins such as ,zardoz were only going to be helpful if people were frank with each other4 ,they wanted people posting to ,zardoz to provide detailed1 step-by-step explanations on how to exploit a particular security hole4 ,hackers would always find out about bugs one way or another and the best way to keep them out of your system was to secure it properly in the first place4 ,they wanted full disclosure4 ,in the other corner1 the hard-line1 command-and-control computer security types argued that posting an announcement to ,zardoz posed the gravest of security risks4 ,what if ,zardoz fell into the wrong hands8 ,why1 any sixteen-year-old hacker would have step-by-step directions showing how to break into thousands of individual computers6 ,if you had to reveal a security flaw--and the jury was still out in their minds as to whether that was such a good idea--it should be done only in the most oblique terms4 ,what the hard-liners failed to understand was that world-class hackers like ,electron could read the most oblique1 carefully crafted ,zardoz postings and1 within a matter of days if not hours1 work out exactly how to exploit the security hole hinted at in the text4 ,after which they could just as easily have written a cookbook version of the security bug4 ,most good hackers had come across one or two issues of ,zardoz in their travels1 often while rummaging though the system administrator's mail on a prestigious institution's computer4 ,but no-one from the elite of the ,altos underground had a full archive of all the back issues4 ,the hacker who possessed that would have details of every major security hole discovered by the world's best computer security minds since at least #aihh4 ,like ,zardoz1 ,deszip was well guarded4 ,it was written by computer security expert ,dr ,matthew ,bishop1 who worked at ,,nasa's ,research ,institute for ,advanced ,computer ,science before taking up a teaching position at ,dartmouth1 an ,ivy ,league college in ,new ,hampshire4 ,the ,united ,states government deemed ,deszip's very fast encryption algorithms to be so important1 they were classified as armaments4 ,it was illegal to export them from the ,,us4 ,of course1 few hackers in #aiij had the sophistication to use weapons such as ,zardoz and ,deszip properly4 ,indeed1 few even knew they existed4 ,but ,electron and ,phoenix knew1 along with a tiny handful of others1 including ,pad and ,gandalf from ,britain4 ,congregating on ,altos in ,germany1 they worked with a select group of others carefully targeting sites likely to contain parts of their holy grail4 ,they were methodical and highly strategic1 piecing information together with exquisite1 almost forensic1 skill4 ,while the common rabble of other hackers were thumping their heads against walls in brute-force attacks on random machines1 these hackers spent their time hunting for strategic pressure points--the ,achilles' heels of the computer security community4 ,they had developed an informal hit list of machines1 most of which belonged to high-level computer security gurus4 ,finding one or two early issues of ,zardoz1 ,electron had combed through their postings looking not just on the surface--for the security bugs--but also paying careful attention to the names and addresses of the people writing articles4 ,authors who appeared frequently in ,zardoz1 or had something intelligent to say1 went on the hit list4 ,it was those people who were most likely to keep copies of ,deszip or an archive of ,zardoz on their machines4 ,electron had searched across the world for information about ,deszip and ,,des 7,data ,encryption ,standard71 the original encryption program later used in ,deszip4 ,he hunted through computers at the ,university of ,new ,york1 the ,,us ,naval ,research ,laboratories in ,washington ,,dc1 ,helsinki ,university of ,technology1 ,rutgers ,university in ,new ,jersey1 ,melbourne ,university and ,tampere ,university in ,finland1 but the search bore little fruit4 ,he found a copy of ,,cdes1 a public domain encryption program which used the ,,des algorithm1 but not ,deszip4 ,,cdes could be used to encrypt files but not to crack passwords4 ,the two ,australian hackers had1 however1 enjoyed a small taste of ,deszip4 ,in #aihi they had broken into a computer at ,dartmouth ,college called ,bear4 ,they discovered ,deszip carefully tucked away in a corner of ,bear and had spirited a copy of the program away to a safer machine at another institution4 ,it turned out to be a hollow victory4 ,that copy of ,deszip had been encrypted with ,crypt1 a program based on the ,german ,enigma machine used in ,world ,war ,,ii4 ,without the passphrase--the key to unlock the encryption--it was impossible to read ,deszip4 ,all they could do was stare1 frustrated1 at the file name ,deszip labelling a treasure just out of reach4 ,undaunted1 the hackers decided to keep the encrypted file just in case they ever came across the passphrase somewhere--in an email letter1 for example--in one of the dozens of new computers they now hacked regularly4 ,relabelling the encrypted ,deszip file with a more innocuous name1 they stored the copy in a dark corner of another machine4 ,thinking it wise to buy a little insurance as well1 they gave a second copy of the encrypted ,deszip to ,gandalf1 who stored it on a machine in the ,,uk in case the ,australians' copy disappeared unexpectedly4 ,in ,january #aiij1 ,electron turned his attention to getting ,zardoz4 ,after carefully reviewing an old copy of ,zardoz1 he had discovered a system admin in ,melbourne on the list4 ,the subscriber could well have the entire ,zardoz archive on his machine1 and that machine was so close--less than half an hour's drive from ,electron's home4 ,all ,electron had to do was to break into the ,,csiro4 ,the ,commonwealth ,scientific and ,industrial ,research ,organisation1 or ,,csiro1 is a government owned and operated research body with many offices around ,australia4 ,electron only wanted to get into one3 the ,division of ,information ,technology at #ee ,barry ,street1 ,carlton1 just around the corner from the ,university of ,melbourne4 ,rummaging through a ,melbourne ,university computer1 ,electron had already found one copy of the ,zardoz archive1 belonging to a system admin4 ,he gathered it up and quietly began downloading it to his computer1 but as his machine slowly siphoned off the ,zardoz copy1 his link to the university abruptly went dead4 ,the admin had discovered the hacker and quickly killed the connection4 ,all of which left ,electron back at square one--until he found another copy of ,zardoz on the ,,csiro machine4 ,it was nearly #c a4m4 on #a ,february #aiij1 but ,electron wasn't tired4 ,his head was buzzing4 ,he had just successfully penetrated an account called ,worsley on the ,,csiro computer called ,,ditmela1 using the sendmail bug4 ,electron assumed ,,ditmela stood for ,division of ,information ,technology1 ,melbourne1 computer ,a'4 ,electron began sifting through ,andrew ,worsley's directories that day4 ,he knew ,zardoz was in there somewhere1 since he had seen it before4 ,after probing the computer1 experimenting with different security holes hoping one would let him inside1 ,electron managed to slip in unnoticed4 ,it was mid-afternoon1 a bad time to hack a computer since someone at work would likely spot the intruder before long4 ,so ,electron told himself this was just a reconnaissance mission4 ,find out if ,zardoz was on the machine1 then get out of there fast and come back later--preferably in the middle of the night--to pull ,zardoz out4 ,when he found a complete collection of ,zardoz in ,worsley's directory1 ,electron was tempted to try a grab and run4 ,the problem was that1 with his slow modem1 he couldn't run very quickly4 ,downloading ,zardoz would take several hours4 ,quashing his overwhelming desire to reach out and grab ,zardoz then and there1 he slipped out of the machine noiselessly4 ,early next morning1 an excited and impatient ,electron crept back into ,,ditmela and headed straight for ,worsley's directory4 ,zardoz was still there4 ,and a sweet irony4 ,electron was using a security bug he had found on an early issue of ,zardoz to break into the computer which would surrender the entire archive to him4 ,getting ,zardoz out of the ,,csiro machine was going to be a little difficult4 ,it was a big archive and at #cjj baud--#cj characters per second--,electron's modem would take five hours to siphon off an entire copy4 ,using the ,,cat command1 ,electron made copies of all the ,zardoz issues and bundled them up into one #ejj k file4 ,he called the new file 4t and stored it in the temporary directory on ,,ditmela4 ,then he considered what to do next4 ,he would mail the ,zardoz bundle to another account outside the ,,csiro computer1 for safe-keeping4 ,but after that he had to make a choice3 try to download the thing himself or hang up1 call ,phoenix and ask him to download it4 ,using his #bdjj baud modem1 ,phoenix would be able to download the ,zardoz bundle eight times faster than ,electron could4 ,on the other hand1 ,electron didn't particularly want to give ,phoenix access to the ,,csiro machine4 ,they had both been targeting the machine1 but he hadn't told ,phoenix that he had actually managed to get in4 ,it wasn't that he planned on withholding ,zardoz when he got it4 ,quite the contrary1 ,electron wanted ,phoenix to read the security file so they could bounce ideas off each other4 ,when it came to accounts1 however1 ,phoenix had a way of messing things up4 ,he talked too much4 ,he was simply not discreet4 ,while ,electron considered his decision1 his fingers kept working at the keyboard4 ,he typed quickly1 mailing copies of the ,zardoz bundle to two hacked student accounts at ,melbourne ,university4 ,with the passwords to both accounts1 he could get in whenever he wanted and he wasn't taking any chances with this precious cargo4 ,two accounts were safer than one--a main account and a back-up in case someone changed the password on the first one4 ,then1 as the ,,ditmela machine was still in the process of mailing the ,zardoz bundle off to the back-up sites1 ,electron's connection suddenly died4 ,the ,,csiro machine had hung up on him1 which probably meant one thing4 ,the admin had logged him off4 ,electron was furious4 ,what the hell was a system administrator doing on a computer at this hour8 ,the admin was supposed to be asleep6 ,that's why ,electron logged on when he did4 ,he had seen ,zardoz on the ,,csiro machine the day before but he had been so patient refusing to touch it because the risk of discovery was too great4 ,and now this4 ,the only hope was to call ,phoenix and get him to login to the ,melbourne ,uni accounts to see if the mail had arrived safely4 ,if so1 he could download it with his faster modem before the ,,csiro admin had time to warn the ,melbourne ,uni admin1 who would change the passwords4 ,electron got on the phone to ,phoenix4 ,they had long since stopped caring about what time of day they rang each other4 #aj p4m4 #b a4m4 #d4ae a4m4 #f4de a4m4 ,yeah4' ,electron greeted ,phoenix in the usual way4 ,yup1' ,phoenix responded4 ,electron told ,phoenix what happened and gave him the two accounts at ,melbourne ,university where he had mailed the ,zardoz bundle4 ,phoenix hung up and rang back a few minutes later4 ,both accounts were dead4 ,someone from ,melbourne ,university had gone in and changed the passwords within #cj minutes of ,electron being booted off the ,,csiro computer4 ,both hackers were disturbed by the implications of this event4 ,it meant someone--in fact probably several people--were onto them4 ,but their desperation to get ,zardoz overcame their fear4 ,electron had one more account on the ,,csiro computer4 ,he didn't want to give it to ,phoenix1 but he didn't have a choice4 ,still1 the whole venture was filled with uncertainty4 ,who knew if the ,zardoz bundle was still there8 ,surely an admin who bothered to kick ,electron out would move ,zardoz to somewhere inaccessible4 ,there was1 however1 a single chance4 ,when ,electron read off the password and username1 he told ,phoenix to copy the ,zardoz bundle to a few other machines on the ,internet instead of trying to download it to his own computer4 ,it would be much quicker1 and the ,,csiro admin wouldn't dare break into someone else's computers to delete the copied file4 ,choosing overseas sites would make it even harder for the admin to reach the admins of those machines and warn them in time4 ,then1 once ,zardoz was safely tucked away in a few back-up sites1 ,phoenix could download it over the ,internet from one of those with less risk of being booted off the machine halfway through the process4 ,sitting at his home in ,kelvin ,grove1 ,thornbury1 just two suburbs north of the ,,csiro machine1 ,ian ,mathieson watched the hacker break into his computer again4 ,awoken by a phone call at #b4cj a4m4 telling him there was a suspected hacker in his computer1 ,mathieson immediately logged in to his work system1 ,,ditmela1 via his home computer and modem4 ,the call1 from ,david ,hornsby of the ,melbourne ,university ,computer ,science ,department1 was no false alarm4 ,after watching the unknown hacker1 who had logged in through a ,melbourne ,university machine terminal server1 for about twenty minutes1 ,mathieson booted the hacker off his system4 ,afterwards he noticed that the ,,ditmela computer was still trying to execute a command issued by the hacker4 ,he looked a little closer1 and discovered ,,ditmela was trying to deliver mail to two ,melbourne ,university accounts4 ,the mail1 however1 hadn't been completely delivered4 ,it was still sitting in the mail spool1 a temporary holding pen for undelivered mail4 ,curious as to what the hacker would want so much from his system1 ,mathieson moved the file into a subdirectory to look at it4 ,he was horrified to find the entire ,zardoz archive1 and he knew exactly what it meant4 ,these were no ordinary hackers--they were precision fliers4 ,fortunately1 ,mathieson consoled himself1 he had stopped the mail before it had been sent out and secured it4 ,unfortunately1 however1 ,mathieson had missed ,electron's original file--the bundle of ,zardoz copies4 ,when ,electron had mailed the file1 he had copied it1 leaving the original intact4 ,they were still sitting on ,,ditmela under the unassuming name 4t4 ,mailing a file didn't delete it--the computer only sent a copy of the original4 ,mathieson was an intelligent man1 a medical doctor with a master's degree in computer science1 but he had forgotten to check the temporary directory1 one of the few places a hacker could store files on a ,unix system if he didn't have root privileges4 ,at exactly #c4cj a4m4 ,phoenix logged into ,,ditmela from the ,university of ,texas4 ,he quickly looked in the temporary directory4 ,the 4t file was there1 just as ,electron had said it would be4 ,the hacker quickly began transferring it back to the ,university of ,texas4 ,he was feeling good4 ,it looked like the ,australians were going to get the entire ,zardoz collection after all4 ,everything was going extremely well--until the transfer suddenly died4 ,phoenix had forgotten to check that there was enough disk space available on the ,university of ,texas account to download the sizeable ,zardoz bundle4 ,now1 as he was logged into a very hot machine1 a machine where the admin could well be watching his every move1 he discovered there wasn't enough room for the ,zardoz file4 ,aware that every second spent on-line to ,,ditmela posed a serious risk1 ,phoenix logged off the ,,csiro machine immediately4 ,still connected to the ,texas computer1 he fiddled around with it1 deleting other files and making enough room to pull the whole #ejj k ,zardoz file across4 ,at #c4cg a4m4 ,phoenix entered ,,ditmela again4 ,this time1 he vowed1 nothing would go wrong4 ,he started up the file transfer and waited4 ,less than ten minutes later1 he logged off the ,,csiro computer and nervously checked the ,university of ,texas system4 ,it was there4 ,zardoz1 in all its glory4 ,and it was his6 ,phoenix was ecstatic4 ,he wasn't done yet and there was no time for complacency4 ,swiftly1 he began compressing and encrypting ,zardoz4 ,he compressed it because a smaller file was less obvious on the ,texas machine and was faster to send to a back-up machine4 ,he encrypted it so no-one nosing around the file would be able to see what was in it4 ,he wasn't just worried about system admins2 the ,texas system was riddled with hackers1 in part because it was home to his friend1 ,legion of ,doom hacker ,erik ,bloodaxe1 a student at the university4 ,after ,phoenix was satisfied ,zardoz was safe1 he rang ,electron just before #d a4m4 with the good news4 ,by #h4ae1 ,phoenix had downloaded ,zardoz from the ,texas computer onto his own machine4 ,by #a4ae p4m41 ,electron had downloaded it from ,phoenix's machine to his own4 ,zardoz had been a difficult conquest1 but ,deszip would prove to be even more so4 ,while dozens of security experts possessed complete ,zardoz archives1 far fewer people had ,deszip4 ,and1 at least officially1 all of them were in the ,,us4 ,the ,,us government banned the export of cryptography algorithms4 ,to send a copy of ,deszip1 or ,,des or indeed any other encryption program outside the ,,us was a crime4 ,it was illegal because the ,,us ,state ,department's ,office of ,defense ,trade ,controls considered any encryption program to be a weapon4 ,,itar1 the ,international ,traffic in ,arms ,regulations stemming from the ,,us ,arms ,export ,control ,act #aigg1 restricted publication of and trad in defense articles'4 ,it didn't matter whether you flew to ,europe with a disk in your pocket1 or you sent the material over the ,internet4 ,if you violated ,,itar1 you faced the prospect of prison4 ,occasionally1 ,american computer programmers discreetly slipped copies of encryption programs to specialists in their field outside the ,,us4 ,once the program was outside the ,,us1 it was fair game--there was nothing ,,us authorities could do about someone in ,norway sending ,deszip to a colleague in ,australia4 ,but even so1 the comp-sec and cryptography communities outside the ,,us still held programs such as ,deszip very tightly within their own inner sanctums4 ,all of which meant that ,electron and ,phoenix would almost certainly have to target a site in the ,,us4 ,electron continued to compile a hit list1 based on the ,zardoz mailing list1 which he gave to ,phoenix4 ,the two hackers then began searching the growing ,internet for computers belonging to the targets4 ,it was an impressive hit list4 ,matthew ,bishop1 author of ,deszip4 ,russell ,brand1 of the ,lawrence ,livermore ,national ,labs1 a research laboratory funded by the ,,us ,department of ,energy4 ,dan ,farmer1 an author of the computer program ,,cops1 a popular security-testing program which included a password cracking program4 ,there were others4 ,and1 at the top of the list1 ,eugene ,spafford1 or ,spaf1 as the hackers called him4 ,by #aiij1 the computer underground viewed ,spaf not just as security guru1 but also as an anti-hacker zealot4 ,spaf was based at ,purdue ,university1 a hotbed of computer security experts4 ,bishop had earned his ,ph,d at ,purdue and ,dan ,farmer was still there4 ,spaf was also one of the founders of usenet1 the ,internet newsgroups service4 ,while working as a computer scientist at the university1 he had made a name for himself by1 among other things1 writing a technical analysis of the ,,rtm worm4 ,the worm1 authored by ,cornell ,university student ,robert ,t4 ,morris ,jr in #aihh1 proved to be a boon for ,spaf's career4 ,prior to the ,,rtm worm1 ,spaf had been working in software engineering4 ,after the worm1 he became a computer ethicist and a very public spokesman for the conservatives in the computer security industry4 ,spaf went on tour across the ,,us1 lecturing the public and the media on worms1 viruses and the ethics of hacking4 ,during the ,morris case1 hacking became a hot topic in the ,united ,states1 and ,spaf fed the flames4 ,when ,judge ,howard ,g4 ,munson refused to sentence ,morris to prison1 instead ordering him to complete #djj hours community service1 pay a #ajjjj fine and submit to three years probation1 ,spaf publicly railed against the decision4 ,the media reported that he had called on the computer industry to boycott any company which chose to employ ,robert ,t4 ,morris ,jr4 ,targeting ,spaf therefore served a dual purpose for the ,australian hackers4 ,he was undoubtedly a repository of treasures such as ,deszip1 and he was also a tall poppy4 ,one night1 ,electron and ,phoenix decided to break into ,spaf's machine at ,purdue to steal a copy of ,deszip4 ,phoenix would do the actual hacking1 since he had the fast modem1 but he would talk to ,electron simultaneously on the other phone line4 ,electron would guide him at each step4 ,that way1 when ,phoenix hit a snag1 he wouldn't have to retreat to regroup and risk discovery4 ,both hackers had managed to break into another computer at ,purdue1 called ,medusa4 ,but ,spaf had a separate machine1 ,uther1 which was connected to ,medusa4 ,phoenix poked and prodded at ,uther1 trying to open a hole wide enough for him to crawl through4 ,at ,electron's suggestion1 he tried to use the ,,chfn bug4 ,the ,,chfn command lets users change the information provided--such as their name1 work address or office phone number--when someone fingers' their accounts4 ,the bug had appeared in one of the ,zardoz files and ,phoenix and ,electron had already used it to break into several other machines4 ,electron wanted to use the ,,chfn bug because1 if the attack was successful1 ,phoenix would be able to make a root account for himself on ,spaf's machine4 ,that would be the ultimate slap in the face to a high-profile computer security guru4 ,but things weren't going well for ,phoenix4 ,the frustrated ,australian hacker kept telling ,electron that the bug should work1 but it wouldn't1 and he couldn't figure out why4 ,the problem1 ,electron finally concluded1 was that ,spaf's machine was a ,sequent4 ,the ,,chfn bug depended on a particular ,unix password file structure1 but ,sequents used a different structure4 ,it didn't help that ,phoenix didn't know that much about ,sequents--they were one of ,gandalf's specialties4 ,after a few exasperating hours struggling to make the ,,chfn bug work1 ,phoenix gave up and turned to another security flaw suggested by ,electron3 the ,,ftp bug4 ,phoenix ran through the bug in his mind4 ,normally1 someone used ,,ftp1 or file transfer protocol1 to transfer files over a network1 such as the ,internet1 from one computer to another4 ,f,t,ping to another machine was a bit like telnetting1 but the user didn't need a password to login and the commands he could execute once in the other computer were usually very limited4 ,if it worked1 the ,,ftp bug would allow ,phoenix to slip in an extra command during the ,,ftp login process4 ,that command would force ,spaf's machine to allow ,phoenix to login as anyone he wanted--and what he wanted was to login as someone who had root privileges4 ,the root' account might be a little obvious if anyone was watching1 and it didn't always have remote access anyway4 ,so he chose daemon'1 another commonly root-privileged account1 instead4 ,it was a shot in the dark4 ,phoenix was fairly sure ,spaf would have secured his machine against such an obvious attack1 but ,electron urged him to give it a try anyway4 ,the ,,ftp bug had been announced throughout the computer security community long ago1 appearing in an early issue of ,zardoz4 ,phoenix hesitated1 but he had run out of ideas1 and time4 ,phoenix typed3 ,,ftp -i uther4purdue4edu quote user anonymous quote cd daemon quote pass anything ,the few seconds it took for his commands to course from his suburban home in ,melbourne and race deep into the ,midwest felt like a lifetime4 ,he wanted ,spaf's machine1 wanted ,deszip1 and wanted this attack to work4 ,if he could just get ,deszip1 he felt the ,australians would be unstoppable4 ,spaf's machine opened its door as politely as a doorman at the ,ritz ,carlton4 ,phoenix smiled at his computer4 ,he was in4 ,it was like being in ,aladdin's cave4 ,phoenix just sat there1 stunned at the bounty which lay before him4 ,it was his1 all his4 ,spaf had megabytes of security files in his directories4 ,source code for the ,,rtm ,internet worm4 ,source code for the ,,wank worm4 ,everything4 ,phoenix wanted to plunge his hands in each treasure chest and scoop out greedy handfuls1 but he resisted the urge4 ,he had a more important--a more strategic--mission to accomplish first4 ,he prowled through the directories1 hunting everywhere for ,deszip4 ,like a burglar scouring the house for the family silver1 he pawed through directory after directory4 ,surely1 ,spaf had to have ,deszip4 ,if anyone besides ,matthew ,bishop was going to have a copy1 he would4 ,and finally1 there it was4 ,deszip4 ,just waiting for ,phoenix4 ,then ,phoenix noticed something else4 ,another file4 ,curiosity got the better of him and he zoomed in to have a quick look4 ,this one contained a passphrase--the passphrase4 ,the phrase the ,australians needed to decrypt the original copy of ,deszip they had stolen from the ,bear computer at ,dartmouth three months earlier4 ,phoenix couldn't believe the passphrase4 ,it was so simple1 so obvious4 ,but he caught himself4 ,this was no time to cry over spilled milk4 ,he had to get ,deszip out of the machine quickly1 before anyone noticed he was there4 ,but as ,phoenix began typing in commands1 his screen appeared to freeze up4 ,he checked4 ,it wasn't his computer4 ,something was wrong at the other end4 ,he was still logged into ,spaf's machine4 ,the connection hadn't been killed4 ,but when he typed commands1 the computer in ,west ,lafayette1 ,indiana1 didn't respond4 ,spaf's machine just sat there1 deaf and dumb4 ,phoenix stared at his computer1 trying to figure out what was happening4 ,why wouldn't ,spaf's machine answer8 ,there were two possibilities4 ,either the network--the connection between the first machine he penetrated at ,purdue and ,spaf's own machine--had gone down accidentally4 ,or someone had pulled the plug4 ,why pull the plug8 ,if they knew he was in there1 why not just kick him out of the machine8 ,better still1 why not kick him out of ,purdue all together8 ,maybe they wanted to keep him on-line to trace which machine he was coming from1 eventually winding backwards from system to system1 following his trail4 ,phoenix was in a dilemma4 ,if the connection had crashed by accident1 he wanted to stay put and wait for the network to come back up again4 ,the ,,ftp hole in ,spaf's machine was an incredible piece of luck4 ,chances were that someone would find evidence of his break-in after he left and plug it4 ,on the other hand1 he didn't want the people at ,purdue tracing his connections4 ,he waited a few more minutes1 trying to hedge his bets4 ,feeling nervy as the extended silence emanating from ,spaf's machine wore on1 ,phoenix decided to jump4 ,with the lost treasures of ,aladdin's cave fading in his mind's eye like a mirage1 ,phoenix killed his connection4 ,electron and ,phoenix talked on the phone1 moodily contemplating their losses4 ,it was a blow1 but ,electron reminded himself that getting ,deszip was never going to be easy4 ,at least they had the passphrase to unlock the encrypted ,deszip taken from ,dartmouth4 ,soon1 however1 they discovered a problem4 ,there had to be one1 ,electron thought4 ,they couldn't just have something go off without a hitch for a change4 ,that would be too easy4 ,the problem this time was that when they went searching for their copy from ,dartmouth1 which had been stored several months before1 it had vanished4 ,the ,dartmouth system admin must have deleted it4 ,it was maddening4 ,the frustration was unbearable4 ,each time they had ,deszip just within their grasp1 it slipped away and disappeared4 ,yet each time they lost their grip1 it only deepened their desire to capture the elusive prize4 ,deszip was fast becoming an all-consuming obsession for ,phoenix and ,electron4 ,their one last hope was the second copy of the encrypted ,dartmouth ,deszip file they had given to ,gandalf1 but that hope did not burn brightly4 ,after all1 if the ,australians' copy had been deleted1 there was every likelihood that the ,brit's copy had suffered the same fate4 ,gandalf's copy hadn't been stored on his own computer4 ,he had put it on some dark corner of a machine in ,britain4 ,electron and ,phoenix logged onto ,altos and waited for ,pad or ,gandalf to show up4 ,phoenix typed 4s for a list of who was on-line4 ,he saw that ,pad was logged on3 ,no ,chan ,user #j ,guest #a ,phoenix #b ,pad ,guest #j was ,electron4 ,he usually logged on as ,guest1 partly because he was so paranoid about being busted and because he believed operators monitored his connections if they knew it was ,electron logging in4 ,they seemed to take great joy in sniffing the password to his own account on ,altos4 ,then1 when he had logged off1 they logged in and changed his password so he couldn't get back under the name ,electron4 ,nothing was more annoying4 ,phoenix typed1 ,hey1 ,pad4 ,how's it going8' ,pad wrote back1 ,feeny6 ,heya4' ,do you and ,gand still have that encrypted copy of ,deszip we gave you a few months ago8' ,encrypted copy 444 hmm4 ,thinking4' ,pad paused4 ,he and ,gandalf hacked dozens of computer systems regularly4 ,sometimes it was difficult to recall just where they had stored things4 ,yeah1 ,i know what you mean4 ,i don't know4 ,it was on a system on ,,janet1' ,pad said4 ,britain's ,joint ,academic ,network was the equivalent of ,australia's ,,aarnet1 an early ,internet based largely on a backbone of universities and research centres4 ,i can't remember which system it was on1' ,pad continued4 ,if the ,brits couldn't recall the institution1 let alone the machine where they had hidden ,deszip1 it was time to give up all hope4 ,,janet comprised hundreds1 maybe thousands1 of machines4 ,it was far too big a place to randomly hunt around for a file which ,gandalf would no doubt have tried to disguise in the first place4 ,but the file was encrypted1 and you didn't have the password1' ,pad wrote4 ,how come you want it8' ,because we found the password4 smile' ,that was the etiquette on ,altos4 ,if you wanted to suggest an action1 you put it in 4 ,gr#h6' ,pad answered4 ,that was ,pad and ,gandalf's on-line style4 ,the number eight was the ,british hackers' hallmark1 since their group was called #hlgm1 and they used it instead of letters4 ,words like great'1 mate' and later' became gr#h'1 m#h' and l#hr'4 ,when people logged into ,altos they could name a place' of origin for others to see4 ,of course1 if you were logging from a country which had laws against hacking1 you wouldn't give your real country4 ,you'd just pick a place at random4 ,some people logged in from places like ,argentina1 or ,israel4 ,pad and ,gandalf logged in from #hlgm4 ,i'll try to find ,gandalf and ask him if he knows where we stashed the copy1' ,pad wrote to ,phoenix4 ,good4 ,thanks4' ,while ,phoenix and ,electron waited on-line for ,pad to return1 ,par showed up on-line and joined their conversation4 ,par didn't know who ,guest #j was1 but ,guest certainly knew who ,par was4 ,time hadn't healed ,electron's old wounds when it came to ,par4 ,electron didn't really admit to himself the bad blood was still there over ,theorem4 ,he told himself that he couldn't be bothered with ,par1 that ,par was just a phreaker1 not a real hacker1 that ,par was lame4 ,phoenix typed1 ,hey1 ,par4 ,how's it going8' ,feenster6' ,par replied4 ,what's happening8' ,lots and lots4' ,par turned his attention to the mystery ,guest #j4 ,he didn't want to discuss private things with someone who might be a security guy hanging around the chat channel like a bad smell4 ,guest1 do you have a name8' ,par asked4 ,yeah4 ,it's ,guest--#j4' ,you got any other names8' ,there was a long pause4 ,electron typed1 ,i guess not4' ,any other names besides dickhead that is8' ,electron sent a whisper'--a private message--to ,phoenix telling him not to tell ,par his identity4 ,,ok4 ,sure1' ,phoenix whispered back4 ,to show he would play along with whatever ,electron had in mind1 ,phoenix added a sideways smiley face at the end3 3-7'4 ,par didn't know ,electron and ,phoenix were whispering to each other4 ,he was still waiting to find out the identity of ,guest4 ,well1 speak up1 ,guest4 ,figured out who you are yet8' ,electron knew ,par was on the run at the time4 ,indeed1 ,par had been on the run from the ,,us ,secret ,service for more than six months by the beginning of #aiij4 ,he also knew ,par was highly paranoid4 ,electron took aim and fired4 ,hey1 ,par4 ,you should eat more4 ,you're looking under,f,e,d these days4' ,par was suddenly silent4 ,electron sat at his computer1 quietly laughing to himself1 halfway across the world from ,par4 ,well1 he thought1 that ought to freak out ,par a bit4 ,nothing like a subtle hint at law enforcement to drive him nuts4 ,did you see ,,that8' ,par whispered to ,phoenix4 ,under,f,e,d4 ,what did he mean8' ,i dunno1' ,phoenix whispered back4 ,then he forwarded a copy of ,par's private message on to ,electron4 ,he knew it would make him laugh4 ,par was clearly worried4 ,who the fuck are you8' he whispered to ,electron but ,guest #j didn't answer4 ,with growing anxiety1 ,par whispered to ,phoenix1 ,who ,,is this guy8 ,do you know him8' ,phoenix didn't answer4 ,because1 well1 it's weird4 ,didn't you see8 ,,fed was in caps4 ,what the fuck does that mean8 ,is he a fed8 ,is he trying to give me a message from the feds8' ,sitting at his terminal1 on the other side of ,melbourne from ,electron1 ,phoenix was also laughing4 ,he liked ,par1 but the ,american was an easy target4 ,par had become so paranoid since he went on the run across the ,,us1 and ,electron knew just the right buttons to push4 ,i don't know1' ,phoenix whispered to ,par4 ,i'm sure he's not really a fed4' ,well1 ,i am wondering about that comment1' ,par whispered back4 ,under,f,e,d4 ,hmm4 ,maybe he knows something4 ,maybe it's some kind of warning4 ,shit1 maybe the ,secret ,service knows where ,i am4' ,you think8' ,phoenix whispered to ,par4 ,it might be a warning of some kind8' ,it was too funny4 ,can you check his originating ,,nua8' ,par wanted to know what network address the mystery guest was coming from4 ,it might give him a clue as to the stranger's identity4 ,phoenix could barely contain himself4 ,he kept forwarding the private messages on to ,electron4 ,par was clearly becoming more agitated4 ,i wish he would just tell me ,,who he was1' ,par whispered4 ,shit4 ,it is very fucking weird4 ,under,f,e,d4 ,it's spinning me out4' ,then ,par logged off4 ,electron typed1 ,i guess ,par had to go4 ,grin' ,then1 chuckling to himself1 he waited for news on ,gandalf's ,deszip copy4 ,if ,pad and ,gandalf hadn't kept their copy of ,deszip1 the ,australians would be back to square one1 beginning with a hunt for a system which even had ,deszip4 ,it was a daunting task and by the time ,pad and ,gandalf finally logged back into ,altos1 ,phoenix and ,electron had become quite anxious4 ,how did you go8' ,phoenix asked4 ,do you still have ,deszip8' ,well1 at first ,i thought ,i had forgotten which system ,i left it on 444' ,electron jumped in1 ,and then8' ,then ,i remembered4' ,good news8' ,phoenix exclaimed4 ,well1 no4 ,not exactly1' ,gandalf said4 ,the account is dead4' ,electron felt like someone had thrown a bucket of cold water on him4 ,dead8 ,dead how8' he asked4 ,dead like someone changed the password4 ,not sure why4 ,i'll have to re-hack the system to get to the file4' ,fuck1 this ,deszip is frustrating1' ,electron wrote4 ,this is getting ridiculous1' ,phoenix added4 ,i don't even know if the copy is still in there1' ,gandalf replied4 ,i hid it1 but who knows8 ,been a few months4 ,admins might have deleted it4' ,you want some help hacking the system again1 ,gand8' ,phoenix asked4 ,nah1 ,it'll be easy4 ,it's a ,sequent4 ,just have to hang around until the ops go home4' ,if an op was logged on and saw ,gandalf hunting around1 he or she might kick ,gandalf off and investigate the file which so interested the hacker4 ,then they would lose ,deszip all over again4 ,i hope we get it1' ,pad chipped in4 ,would be gr#h6' ,gr#h indeed4 ,feen1 you've got the key to the encryption8' ,gandalf asked4 ,yeah4' ,how many characters is it8' ,it was ,gandalf's subtle way of asking for the key itself4 ,phoenix wasn't sure what to do4 ,he wanted to give the ,british hackers the key1 but he was torn4 ,he needed ,pad and ,gandalf's help to get the copy of ,deszip1 if it was still around4 ,but he knew ,electron was watching the conversation1 and ,electron was always so paranoid4 ,he disliked giving out any information1 let alone giving it over ,altos1 where the conversations were possibly logged by security people4 ,should ,i give him the key8' ,phoenix whispered to ,electron4 ,gandalf was waiting4 ,to fend him off1 ,phoenix said1 ,it's #i chars4' ,chars was short for characters4 ,on ,altos the rule was to abbreviate where ever possible4 ,what is the first char8' ,yeah4 ,tell him1' ,electron whispered to ,phoenix4 ,well1 the key is 444' ,you're going to spew when you find out1 ,gand1' ,electron interrupted4 ,yes 444 go on1' ,gandalf said4 ,i am listening4' ,you won't believe it4 spew spew spew ,the key is 444 ,dartmouth4' ,,what8888 ,,what6666666666666666666666666666666' ,gandalf exclaimed4 ,no666 ,,it's ,,not ,,true6 ,bollox6 ,you are ,,kidding8' ,the ,british hacker was thumping himself on the head4 ,the name of the frigging university6 ,what a stupid password6 ,phoenix gave an on-line chuckle4 ,hehe4 ,yeah4 ,so hard to guess4 ,we could have had ,deszip for all these months 444' ,jesus4 ,i hope it's still on that ,,janet system1' ,gandalf said4 ,now that he actually had the password1 finding the file became even more urgent4 ,pray4 ,pray4 ,pray1' ,phoenix said4 ,yeah1 you should have seen the licence text on ,deszip--it was by ,,nasa4' ,you've seen it8 ,you saw ,deszip's source code8' ,no1' ,phoenix answered4 ,when ,i went back to the ,,bear machine to check if ,deszip was still there1 the program was gone4 ,but the licence agreement and other stuff was there4 ,should have read the licence 444 truly amazing4 ,it basically went on and on about how the people who wrote it didn't want people like us to get a hold of it4 ,hehe4' ,electron was growing impatient4 ,yeah4 ,so1 ,gand1 when you gonna go check that ,,janet system8' ,now4 ,fingers crossed1 m#h6 ,see ya l#hr 444' ,then he was gone4 ,the waiting was driving ,electron nuts4 ,he kept thinking about ,deszip1 about how he could have had it months and months ago4 ,that program was such a prize4 ,he was salivating at the thought of getting it after all this time pursuing it around the globe1 chasing its trail from system to system1 never quite getting close enough to grab it4 ,when ,gandalf showed up again1 ,pad1 ,phoenix and ,electron were all over him in an instant4 ,,we ,,fucking ,,got ,,it ,,guys66666' ,gandalf exclaimed4 ,good job m#h6' ,pad said4 ,,yes6' ,electron added4 ,have you decrypted it yet8' ,not yet4 ,crypt isn't on that machine4 ,we can either copy ,crypt onto that machine or copy the file onto another computer which already has ,crypt on it1' ,gandalf said4 ,let's move it4 ,quick 444 quick 444 this damn thing has a habit of disappearing1' ,electron said4 ,yeah1 this is the last copy 444 the only one ,i got4' ,,ok4 ,think 444 think 444 where can we copy it to8' ,electron said4 ,texas6' ,gandalf wanted to copy it to a computer at the ,university of ,texas at ,austin1 home of the ,,lod hacker ,erik ,bloodaxe4 ,irrepressible1 ,gandalf came on like a steam roller if he liked you--and cut you down in a flash if he didn't4 ,his rough-and-tumble working-class humour particularly appealed to ,electron4 ,gandalf seemed able to zero in on the things which worried you most--something so deep or serious it was often unsaid4 ,then he would blurt it out in such crass1 blunt terms you couldn't help laughing4 ,it was his way of being in your face in the friendliest possible manner4 ,yeah6 ,blame everything on ,erik6' ,phoenix joked4 ,no1 seriously4 ,that place is crawling with security now1 all after ,erik4 ,they are into everything4' ,phoenix had heard all about the security purge at the university from ,erik4 ,the ,australian called ,erik all the time1 mostly by charging the calls to stolen ,,at,t cards4 ,erik hadn't been raided by the ,secret ,service yet1 but he had been tipped off and was expecting a visit any day4 ,it probably won't decrypt anyway1' ,electron said4 ,oh1 phuck off6' ,gandalf shot back4 ,come on6 ,i need a site ,,now6' ,thinking 444' ,phoenix said4 ,gotta be some place with room--how big is it8' ,it's #ijj k compressed--probably #c meg when we uncompress it4 ,come on1 hurry up6 ,how about a university8' ,princeton1 ,yale could do either of those4' ,electron suggested4 ,what about ,,mit--you hacked an account there recently1 ,gand8' ,no4' ,all four hackers racked their minds for a safe haven4 ,the world was their oyster1 as ,british and ,australian hackers held a real-time conversation in ,germany about whether to hide their treasure in ,austin1 ,texas2 ,princeton1 ,new ,jersey2 ,boston1 ,massachusetts2 or ,new ,haven1 ,connecticut4 ,we only need somewhere to stash it for a little while1 until we can download it1' ,gandalf said4 ,got to be some machine where we've got root4 ,and it's got to have anon ,,ftp4' ,anon ,,ftp1 or anonymous file transfer protocol1 on a host machine would allow ,gandalf to shoot the file from his ,,janet machine across the ,internet into the host4 ,most importantly1 ,gandalf could do so without an account on the target machine4 ,he could simply login as anonymous'1 a method of access which had more limitations than simply logging in with a normal account4 ,he would1 however1 still be able to upload the file4 ,,ok4 ,,ok1 ,i have an idea1' ,phoenix said4 ,lemme go check it out4' ,phoenix dropped out of ,altos and connected to the ,university of ,texas4 ,the physical location of a site didn't matter4 ,his head was spinning and it was the only place he could think of4 ,but he didn't try to connect to ,happy1 the machine he often used which ,erik had told him about4 ,he headed to one of the other university computers1 called ,walt4 ,the network was overloaded4 ,phoenix was left dangling1 waiting to connect for minutes on end4 ,the lines were congested4 ,he logged back into ,altos and told ,pad and ,electron4 ,gandalf was nowhere to be seen4 ,damn1' ,electron said4 ,then1 ,,ok1 ,i might have an idea4' ,no1 wait6' ,phoenix cut in4 ,i just thought of a site6 ,and ,i have root too6 ,but it's on ,,nasa 444' ,oh that's ,,ok4 ,i'm sure they won't mind a bit4 grin' ,i'll go make sure it's still ,,ok4 ,back in a bit1' ,phoenix typed4 ,phoenix jumped out of ,altos and headed toward ,,nasa4 ,he telnetted into a ,,nasa computer called ,,csab at the ,langley ,research ,center in ,hampton1 ,virginia4 ,he had been in and out of ,,nasa quite a few times and had recently made himself a root account on ,,csab4 ,first1 he had to check the account was still alive1 then he had to make sure the system administrator wasn't logged in4 ,whizzing past the official warning sign about unauthorised access in ,,us government computers on the login screen1 ,phoenix typed in his user name and password4 ,it worked4 ,he was in4 ,and he had root privileges4 ,he quickly looked around on the system4 ,the administrator was on-line4 ,damn4 ,phoenix fled the ,,nasa computer and sprinted back into ,altos4 ,gandalf was there1 along with the other two1 waiting for him4 ,well8' ,electron asked4 ,,ok4 ,all right4 ,the ,,nasa machine will work4 ,it has anon ,,ftp4 ,and ,i still have root4 ,we'll use that4' ,gandalf jumped in4 ,hang on--does it have ,crypt8' ,argh6 ,forget to check4 ,i think it must4' ,better check it1 m#h6' ,yeah1 ,,ok4' ,phoenix felt exasperated1 rushing around trying to find sites that worked4 ,he logged out of ,altos and coursed his way back into the ,,nasa machine4 ,the admin was still logged on1 but ,phoenix was running out of time4 ,he had to find out if the computer had ,crypt on it4 ,it did4 ,phoenix rushed back to ,altos4 ,back again4 ,we're in business4' ,yes6' ,electron said1 but he quickly jumped in with a word of warning4 ,don't say the exact machine at ,,nasa or the account out loud4 ,whisper it to ,gandalf4 ,i think the ops are listening in on my connection4' ,well1' ,phoenix typed slowly1 there's only one problem4 ,the admin is logged on4' ,arghhh6' ,electron shouted4 ,just do it1' ,pad said4 ,no time to worry4' ,phoenix whispered the ,internet ,,ip address of the ,,nasa machine to ,gandalf4 ,,ok1 m#h1 ,i'll anon ,,ftp it to ,,nasa4 ,i'll come back here and tell you the new filename4 ,then you go in and decrypt it and uncompress the file4 ,w#h for me here4' ,ten minutes later1 ,gandalf returned4 ,mission accomplished4 ,the file is there6' ,now1 go go ,pheeny6' ,electron said4 ,gand1 whisper the filename to me1' ,phoenix said4 ,the file's called d and it's in the pub directory1' ,gandalf whispered4 ,,ok1 folks4 ,here we go6' ,phoenix said as he logged off4 ,phoenix dashed to the ,,nasa computer1 logged in and looked for the file named d'4 ,he couldn't find it4 ,he couldn't even find the pub directory4 ,he began hunting around the rest of the file system4 ,where was the damn thing8 ,uh oh4 ,phoenix noticed the system administrator1 ,sharon ,beskenis1 was still logged in4 ,she was connected from ,phoebe1 another ,,nasa machine4 ,there was only one other user besides himself logged into the ,,csab machine1 someone called ,carrie4 ,as if that wasn't bad enough1 ,phoenix realised his username stood out a like a sore thumb4 ,if the admin looked at who was on-line she would see herself1 ,carrie and a user called friend'1 an account he had created for himself4 ,how many legitimate accounts on ,,nasa computers had that name8 ,worse1 ,phoenix noticed that he had forgotten to cover his login trail4 ,friend' was telnetting into the ,,nasa computer from the ,university of ,texas4 ,no1 no1 he thought1 that would definitely have to go4 ,he disconnected from ,,nasa1 bounced back to the university and then logged in to ,,nasa again4 ,good grief4 ,now the damn ,,nasa machine showed two people logged in as friend'4 ,the computer hadn't properly killed his previous login4 ,stress4 ,phoenix tried frantically to clear out his first login by killing its process number4 ,the ,,nasa computer responded that there was no such process number4 ,increasingly nervous1 ,phoenix figured he must have typed in the wrong number4 ,unhinged1 he grabbed one of the other process numbers and killed that4 ,christ6 ,that was the admin's process number4 ,phoenix had just disconnected ,sharon from her own machine4 ,things were not going well4 ,now he was under serious pressure4 ,he didn't dare logout1 because ,sharon would no doubt find his friend' account1 kill it and close up the security hole he had originally used to get in4 ,even if she didn't find ,deszip on her own machine1 he might not be able to get back in again to retrieve it4 ,after another frenzied minute hunting around the machine1 ,phoenix finally unearthed ,gandalf's copy of ,deszip4 ,now1 the moment of truth4 ,he tried the passphrase4 ,it worked6 ,all he had to do was uncompress ,deszip and get it out of there4 ,he typed1 uncompress deszip4tar4z'1 but he didn't like how the ,,nasa computer answered his command3 corrupt input ,something was wrong1 terribly wrong4 ,the file appeared to be partially destroyed4 ,it was too painful a possibility to contemplate4 ,even if only a small part of the main ,deszip program had been damaged1 none of it would be useable4 ,rubbing sweat from his palms1 ,phoenix hoped that maybe the file had just been damaged as he attempted to uncompress it4 ,he had kept the original1 so he went back to that and tried decrypting and uncompressing it again4 ,the ,,nasa computer gave him the same ugly response4 ,urgently1 he tried yet again1 but this time attempted to uncompress the file in a different way4 ,same problem4 ,phoenix was at his wits' end4 ,this was too much4 ,the most he could hope was that the file had somehow become corrupted in the transfer from ,gandalf's ,,janet machine4 ,he logged out of ,,nasa and returned to ,altos4 ,the other three were waiting impatiently for him4 ,electron1 still logged in as the mystery ,guest1 leaped in4 ,did it work8' ,no4 ,decrypted ,,ok1 but the file was corrupted when ,i tried to decompress it4' ,arghhhhhhhhh6666666' ,gandalf exclaimed4 ,fuckfuckfuck1' ,electron wrote4 ,doomed to fail4' ,sigh ,sigh ,sigh1' ,pad typed4 ,gandalf and ,electron quizzed ,phoenix in detail about each command he had used1 but in the end there seemed only one hope4 ,move a copy of the decryption program to the ,,janet computer in the ,,uk and try decrypting and uncompressing ,deszip there4 ,phoenix gave ,gandalf a copy of ,crypt and the ,british hacker went to work on the ,,janet computer4 ,a little later he rendezvoused on ,altos again4 ,phoenix was beside himself by this stage4 ,gand6 ,work888' ,well1 ,i decrypted it using the program you gave me 444' ,and ,and ,and888' ,electron was practically jumping out of his seat at his computer4 ,tried to uncompress it4 ,it was taking a ,,long time4 ,kept going--expanded to #h megabytes4' ,oh ,,no4 ,bad ,bad ,bad1' ,phoenix moaned4 ,should only be #c meg4 ,if it's making a million files1 it's fucked4' ,christ1' ,pad typed4 ,too painful4' ,i got the makefile--licensing agreement text etc41 but the ,deszip program itself was corrupted1' ,gandalf concluded4 ,i don't understand what is wrong with it4 ,sob' ,phoenix wrote4 ,agony,agony,agony1' ,electron groaned4 ,it'll never never never work4' ,can we get a copy anywhere else8' ,gandalf asked4 ,that ,,ftp bug has been fixed at ,purdue1' ,pad answered4 ,can't use that to get in again4' ,disappointment permeated the atmosphere on ,altos4 ,there were1 of course1 other possible repositories for ,deszip4 ,phoenix and ,electron had already penetrated a computer at ,lawrence ,livermore ,national ,labs in ,california4 ,they had procured root on the gamm#e machine and planned to use it as a launchpad for penetrating security expert ,russell ,brand's computer at ,,llnl1 called ,wuthel4 ,they were sure ,brand had ,deszip on his computer4 ,it would require a good deal of effort1 and possibly another roller-coaster ride of desire1 expectation and possible disappointment4 ,for now1 the four hackers resolved to sign off1 licking their wounds at their defeat in the quest for ,deszip4 ,well1 ,i'm off4 ,see you l#hr1' ,pad said4 ,yeah1 me too1' ,electron added4 ,yeah1 ,,ok4 ,l#hr1 m#hs6' ,gandalf said4 ,then1 just for fun1 he added in typical ,gandalf style1 ,see you in jail6' ,,chapter #f -- ,page #a ,the ,new ,york ,times4 ,read about it2 ,just another incredible scene2 ,there's no doubt about it4 -- from ,read ,about ,it'1 #aj1 #i1 #h1 #g1 #f1 #e1 #d1 #c1 #b1 #a4 ,pad had an important warning for the ,australian hackers3 the computer security community was closing in on them4 ,it was the end of ,february #aiij1 not long after ,phoenix and ,electron had captured ,zardoz and just missed out on ,deszip4 ,pad didn't scream or shout the warning1 that wasn't his style4 ,but ,electron took in the import of the warning loud and clear4 ,feen1 they know you did over ,spaf's machine1' ,pad told ,phoenix4 ,they know it's been you in other systems also4 ,they've got your handle4' ,eugene ,spafford was the kind of computer security expert who loses a lot of face when a hacker gets into his machine1 and a wounded bull is a dangerous enemy4 ,the security people had been able to connect and link up a series of break-ins with the hacker who called himself ,phoenix because his style was so distinctive4 ,for example1 whenever he was creating a root shell--root access--for himself1 he would always save it in the same filename and in the same location on the computer4 ,in some instances1 he even created accounts called ,phoenix' for himself4 ,it was this consistency of style which had made things so much easier for admins to trace his movements4 ,in his typical understated fashion1 ,pad suggested a change of style4 ,and maybe1 he added1 it wasn't such a bad idea for the ,australians to tone down their activities a bit4 ,the undercurrent of the message was serious4 ,they said that some security people had contacted ,australian law enforcement1 who were supposed to be dealing with it1' ,pad said4 ,do they know my real name8' ,phoenix asked1 worried4 ,electron was also watching this conversation with some concern4 ,don't know4 ,got it from ,shatter4 ,he's not always reliable1 but 444' ,pad was trying to soften the news by playing down ,shatter's importance as a source4 ,he didn't trust his fellow ,british hacker but ,shatter had some good1 if mysterious1 connections4 ,an enigmatic figure who seemed to keep one foot in the computer underworld and the other in the upright computer security industry1 ,shatter leaked information to ,pad and ,gandalf1 and occasionally to the ,australians4 ,while the two ,british hackers sometimes discounted ,shatter's advice1 they also took the time to talk to him4 ,once1 ,electron had intercepted email showing ,pengo had turned to ,shatter for advice about his situation after the raid in ,germany4 ,with some spare time prior to his trial1 ,pengo asked ,shatter whether it was safe to travel to the ,,us on a summer holiday in #aihi4 ,shatter asked for ,pengo's birthdate and other details4 ,then he returned with an unequivocal answer3 ,under no circumstances was ,pengo to travel to the ,,us4 ,subsequently1 it was reported that officials in the ,,us ,justice ,department had been examining ways to secretly coax ,pengo onto ,american soil1 where they could seize him4 ,they would then force him to face trial in their own courts4 ,had ,shatter known this8 ,or had he just told ,pengo not to go to the ,,us because it was good commonsense8 ,no-one was quite sure1 but people took note of what ,shatter told them4 ,shatter definitely got the info right about ,spaf's machine4 #ajj right1' ,pad continued4 ,he knew exactly how you hacked it4 ,i couldn't believe it4 ,be careful if you're still hacking m#h1 especially on the ,inet4' ,the ,inet' was shorthand for the ,internet4 ,the ,altos hackers went quiet4 ,it's not just you1' ,pad tried to reassure the ,australians4 ,two security people from the ,,us are coming to the ,,uk to try and find out something about someone named ,gandalf4 ,oh1 and ,gand's mate1 who might be called ,patrick4' ,pad had indeed based his handle on the name ,patrick1 or ,paddy1 but that wasn't his real name4 ,no intelligent hacker would use his real name for his handle4 ,paddy was the name of one of his favourite university lecturers1 an ,irishman who laughed a good deal4 ,like ,par's name1 ,pad's handle had coincidentally echoed a second meaning when the ,british hacker moved into exploring ,x4#be networks4 ,an ,x4#be ,,pad is a packet assembler disassembler1 the interface between the ,x4#be network and a modem or terminal server4 ,similarly1 ,gandalf1 while being first and foremost the wizard from ,the ,lord of ,the ,rings1 also happened to be a terminal server brand name4 ,despite the gravity of the news that the security community was closing the net around them1 none of the hackers lost their wicked sense of humour4 ,you know1' ,pad went on1 ,spaf was out of the country when his machine got hacked4' ,was he8 ,where8' asked ,gandalf1 who had just joined the conversation4 ,in ,europe4' ,electron couldn't resist4 ,where was ,spaf1 ,gandalf asks as he hears a knock on his door 444' ,haha1' ,gandalf laughed4 knock knock' ,electron went on1 hamming it up4 ,oh6 ,hello there1 ,mr ,spafford1' ,gandalf typed1 playing along4 ,hello1 ,i'm ,gene and ,i'm mean6' ,alone in their separate homes on different corners of the globe1 the four hackers chuckled to themselves4 ,hello1 and is this the man called ,patrick8' ,pad jumped in4 ,well1 ,mr ,spafford1 it seems you're a right fucking idiot for not patching your ,,ftp6' ,gandalf proclaimed4 ,not to mention the ,,chfn bug--saved by a ,sequent6 ,or you'd be very fucking embarrassed1' ,phoenix added4 ,phoenix was laughing too1 but he was a little nervous about ,pad's warning and he turned the conversation back to a serious note4 ,so1 ,pad1 what else did ,shatter tell you8' ,phoenix asked anxiously4 ,not much4 ,except that some of the security investigations might be partly because of ,,ucb4' ,,ucb was the ,university of ,california at ,berkeley4 ,phoenix had been visiting machines at both ,berkeley and ,,llnl so much recently that the admins seemed to have not only noticed him1 but they had pinpointed his handle4 ,one day he had telnetted into dewey4soe4berkeley4edu--the ,dewey machine as it was known--and had been startled to find the following message of the day staring him in the face3 ,phoenix1 ,get out of ,dewey ,,now6 ,also1 do not use any of the soe' machines4 ,thank you1 ,daniel ,berger ,phoenix did a double take when he saw this public warning4 ,having been in and out of the system so many times1 he just zoomed past the words on the login screen4 ,then1 in a delayed reaction1 he realised the login message was addressed to him4 ,ignoring the warning1 he proceeded to get root on the ,berkeley machine and look through ,berger's files4 ,then he sat back1 thinking about the best way to deal with the problem4 ,finally1 he decided to send the admin a note saying he was leaving the system for good4 ,within days1 ,phoenix was back in the ,dewey machine1 weaving in and out of it as if nothing had happened4 ,after all1 he had broken into the system1 and managed to get root through his own wit4 ,he had earned the right to be in the computer4 ,he might send the admin a note to put him at ease1 but ,phoenix wasn't going to give up accessing ,berkeley's computers just because it upset ,daniel ,berger4 ,see1' ,pad continued1 ,i think the ,,ucb people kept stuff on their systems that wasn't supposed to be there4 ,secret things4' ,classified military material wasn't supposed to be stored on non-classified network computers4 ,however1 ,pad guessed that sometimes researchers broke rules and took short cuts because they were busy thinking about their research and not the security implications4 ,some of the stuff might have been illegal1' ,pad told his captive audience4 ,and then they find out some of you guys have been in there 444' ,shit1' ,phoenix said4 ,so1 well1 if it ,,appeared like someone was inside trying to get at those secrets 444' ,pad paused4 ,then you can guess what happened4 ,it seems they really want to get whoever was inside their machines4' ,there was momentary silence while the other hackers digested all that ,pad had told them4 ,as a personality on ,altos1 ,pad remained ever so slightly withdrawn from the other hackers1 even the ,australians whom he considered mates4 ,this reserved quality gave his warning a certain sobriety1 which seeped into the very fabric of ,altos that day4 ,eventually1 ,electron responded to ,pad's warning by typing a comment directed at ,phoenix3 ,i told you talking to security guys is nothing but trouble4' ,it irritated ,electron more and more that ,phoenix felt compelled to talk to white hats in the security industry4 ,in ,electron's view1 drawing attention to yourself was just a bad idea all around and he was increasingly annoyed at watching ,phoenix feed his ego4 ,he had made veiled references to ,phoenix's bragging on ,altos many times1 saying things like ,i wish people wouldn't talk to security guys'4 ,phoenix responded to ,electron on-line somewhat piously4 ,well1 ,i will never talk to security guys seriously again4' ,electron had heard it all before4 ,it was like listening to an alcoholic swear he would never touch another drink4 ,bidding the others goodbye1 ,electron logged off4 ,he didn't care to listen to ,phoenix any more4 ,others did1 however4 ,hundreds of kilometres away1 in a special room secreted away inside a bland building in ,canberra1 ,sergeant ,michael ,costello and ,constable ,william ,apro had been methodically capturing each and every electronic boast as it poured from ,phoenix's phone4 ,the two officers recorded the data transmissions passing in and out of his computer4 ,they then played this recording into their own modem and computer and created a text file they could save and use as evidence in court4 ,both police officers had travelled north from ,melbourne1 where they worked with the ,,afp's ,computer ,crime ,unit4 ,settling into their temporary desks with their ,,pc and laptop1 the officers began their secret eavesdropping work on #a ,february #aiij4 ,it was the first time the ,,afp had done a datatap4 ,they were happy to bide their time1 to methodically record ,phoenix hacking into ,berkeley1 into ,texas1 into ,,nasa1 into a dozen computers around the world4 ,the phone tap warrant was good for #fj days1 which was more than enough time to secrete away a mountain of damning evidence against the egotistical ,realm hacker4 ,time was on their side4 ,the officers worked the ,operation ,dabble job in shifts4 ,constable ,apro arrived at the ,telecommunications ,intelligence ,branch of the ,,afp at #h p4m4 ,precisely ten hours later1 at #f the next morning1 ,sergeant ,costello relieved ,apro1 who knocked off for a good sleep4 ,apro returned again at #h p4m4 to begin the night shift4 ,they were there all the time4 ,twenty-four hours a day4 ,seven days a week4 ,waiting and listening4 ,it was too funny4 ,erik ,bloodaxe in ,austin1 ,texas1 couldn't stop laughing4 ,in ,melbourne1 ,phoenix's side hurt from laughing so much4 ,phoenix loved to talk on the phone4 ,he often called ,erik1 sometimes every day1 and they spoke for ages4 ,phoenix didn't worry about cost2 he wasn't paying for it4 ,the call would appear on some poor sod's bill and he could sort it out with the phone company4 ,sometimes ,erik worried a little about whether ,phoenix wasn't going to get himself in a jam making all these international calls4 ,not that he didn't like talking to the ,australian2 it was a hoot4 ,still1 the concern sat there1 unsettled1 in the back of his mind4 ,a few times he asked ,phoenix about it4 ,no prob4 ,hey1 ,,at,t isn't an ,australian company1' ,phoenix would say4 ,they can't do anything to me4' ,and ,erik had let it rest at that4 ,for his part1 ,erik didn't dare call ,phoenix1 especially not since his little visit from the ,,us ,secret ,service4 ,on #a ,march #aiij1 they burst into his home1 with guns drawn1 in a dawn raid4 ,the agents searched everywhere1 tearing the student house apart1 but they didn't find anything incriminating4 ,they did take ,erik's #ei keyboard terminal with its chintzy little #cjj baud modem1 but they didn't get his main computer1 because ,erik knew they were coming4 ,the ,secret ,service had subpoenaed his academic records1 and ,erik had heard about it before the raid4 ,so when the ,secret ,service arrived1 ,erik's stuff just wasn't there4 ,it hadn't been there for a few weeks1 but for ,erik1 they had been hard weeks4 ,the hacker found himself suffering withdrawal symptoms1 so he bought the cheapest home computer and modem he could find to tide him over4 ,that equipment was the only computer gear the ,secret ,service discovered1 and they were not happy special agents4 ,but without evidence1 their hands were tied4 ,no charges were laid4 ,still1 ,erik thought he was probably being watched4 ,the last thing he wanted was for ,phoenix's number to appear on his home phone bill4 ,so he let ,phoenix call him1 which the ,australian did all the time4 ,they often talked for hours when ,erik was working nights4 ,it was a slack job1 just changing the back-up tapes on various computers and making sure they didn't jam4 ,perfect for a student4 ,it left ,erik hours of free time4 ,erik frequently reminded ,phoenix that his phone was probably tapped1 but ,phoenix just laughed4 ,yeah1 well don't worry about it1 mate4 ,what are they going to do8 ,come and get me8' ,after ,erik put a hold on his own hacking activities1 he lived vicariously1 listening to ,phoenix's exploits4 ,the ,australian called him with a technical problem or an interesting system1 and then they discussed various strategies for getting into the machine4 ,however1 unlike ,electron's talks with ,phoenix1 conversations with ,erik weren't only about hacking4 ,they chatted about life1 about what ,australia was like1 about girls1 about what was in the newspaper that day4 ,it was easy to talk to ,erik4 ,he had a big ego1 like most hackers1 but it was inoffensive1 largely couched in his self-effacing humour4 ,phoenix often made ,erik laugh4 ,like the time he got ,clifford ,stoll1 an astronomer1 who wrote ,the ,cuckoo's ,egg4 ,the book described his pursuit of a ,german hacker who had broken into the computer system ,stoll managed at ,lawrence ,berkeley ,labs near ,san ,francisco4 ,the hacker had been part of the same hacking ring as ,pengo4 ,stoll took a hard line on hacking1 a position which did not win him popularity in the underground4 ,both ,phoenix and ,erik had read ,stoll's book1 and one day they were sitting around chatting about it4 ,you know1 it's really stupid that ,cliffy put his email address in his book1' ,phoenix said4 ,hmm1 why don't ,i go check8' ,sure enough1 ,phoenix called ,erik back about a day later4 ,well1 ,i got root on ,cliffy's machine1' he began slowly1 then he burst out laughing4 ,and ,i changed the message of the day4 ,now it reads1 ,it looks like the ,cuckoo's got egg on his face6' ,it was uproariously funny4 ,stoll1 the most famous hacker-catcher in the world1 had been japed6 ,it was the funniest thing ,erik had heard in weeks4 ,but it was not nearly so amusing as what ,erik told ,phoenix later about the ,new ,york ,times4 ,the paper had published an article on #ai ,march suggesting a hacker had written some sort of virus or worm which was breaking into dozens of computers4 ,listen to this1' ,erik had said1 reading ,phoenix the lead paragraph1 ,a computer intruder has written a program that has entered dozens of computers in a nationwide network in recent weeks1 automatically stealing electronic documents containing users' passwords and erasing files to help conceal itself4' ,phoenix was falling off his chair he was laughing so hard4 ,a program8 ,which was automatically doing this8 ,no4 ,it wasn't an automated program1 it was the ,australians6 ,it was the ,realm hackers6 ,god1 this was funny4 ,wait--there's more6 ,it says1 ,another rogue program shows a widespread vulnerability4 ,i laughed my ass off1' ,erik said1 struggling to get the words out4 ,a rogue program6 ,who wrote the article8' ,a ,john ,markoff1' ,erik answered1 wiping his eyes4 ,i called him up4' ,you did8 ,what did you say8' ,phoenix tried to gather himself together4 ,john1 ,i said1 ,you know that article you wrote on page #ab of the ,times8 ,it's wrong6 ,there's no rogue program attacking the ,internet4 ,he goes1 ,what is it then8 ,it's not a virus or a worm1 ,i said4 ,it's ,,people4' ,erik started laughing uncontrollably again4 ,then ,markoff sounds really stunned1 and he goes1 ,people8 ,and ,i said1 ,yeah1 people4 ,then he said1 ,how do you know8 ,and ,i said1 ,because1 ,john1 ,i ,,know4' ,phoenix erupted in laughter again4 ,the ,times reporter obviously had worms on his mind1 since the author of the famous ,internet worm1 ,robert ,t4 ,morris ,jr1 had just been tried and convicted in the ,,us4 ,he was due to be sentenced in ,may4 ,,us investigators had tracked the hacker's connections1 looping through site after site in a burrowing manner which they assumed belonged to a worm4 ,the idea of penetrating so many sites all in such a short time clearly baffled the investigators1 who concluded it must be a program rather than human beings launching the attacks4 ,yeah1' ,erik continued1 ,and then ,markoff said1 ,can you get me to talk to them8 ,and ,i said ,i'd see what ,i could do4' ,yeah1' ,phoenix said4 ,go tell him1 yes4 ,yeah1 ,i gotta talk to this idiot4 ,i'll set him straight4' ,page one1 the ,new ,york ,times1 #ba ,march #aiij3 ,caller ,says he ,broke ,computers' ,barriers to ,taunt the ,experts'1 by ,john ,markoff4 ,true1 the article was below the crease--on the bottom half of the page--but at least it was in column #a1 the place a reader turns to first4 ,phoenix was chuffed4 ,he'd made the front page of the ,new ,york ,times4 ,the man identified himself only as an ,australian named ,dave1' the article said4 ,phoenix chuckled softly4 ,dave ,lissek was the pseudonym he'd used4 ,of course1 he wasn't the only one using the name ,dave4 ,when ,erik first met the ,australians on ,altos1 he marvelled at how they all called themselves ,dave4 ,i'm ,dave1 he's ,dave1 we're all ,dave1 they told him4 ,it was just easier that way1 they said4 ,the article revealed that ,dave' had attacked ,spaf's and ,stoll's machines1 and that the ,smithsonian ,astronomical ,observatory at ,harvard ,university--where ,stoll now worked--had pulled its computers off the ,internet as a result of the break in4 ,markoff had even included the egg on his face' story ,phoenix had described to him4 ,phoenix laughed at how well he had thumbed his nose at ,cliffy ,stoll4 ,this article would show him up all right4 ,it felt so good1 seeing himself in print that way4 ,he did that4 ,that was him there in black in white1 for all the world to see4 ,he had outsmarted the world's best known hacker-catcher1 and he had smeared the insult across the front page of the most prestigious newspaper in ,america4 ,and ,markoff reported that he had been in ,spaf's system too6 ,phoenix glowed happily4 ,better still1 ,markoff had quoted ,dave' on the subject3 ,the caller said 444 ,it used to be the security guys chasing the hackers4 ,now it's the hackers chasing the security people4' ,the article went on3 ,among the institutions believed to have been penetrated by the intruder are the ,los ,alamos ,national ,laboratories1 ,harvard1 ,digital ,equipment ,corporation1 ,boston ,university and the ,university of ,texas4' ,yes1 that list sounded about right4 ,well1 for the ,australians as a group anyway4 ,even if ,phoenix hadn't masterminded or even penetrated some of those himself1 he was happy to take the credit in the ,times4 ,this was a red-letter day for ,phoenix4 ,electron1 however1 was furious4 ,how could ,phoenix be so stupid8 ,he knew that ,phoenix had an ego1 that he talked too much1 and that his tendency to brag had grown worse over time1 fed by the skyrocketing success of the ,australian hackers4 ,electron knew all of that1 but he still couldn't quite believe that ,phoenix had gone so far as to strut and preen like a show pony for the ,new ,york ,times4 ,to think that he had associated with ,phoenix4 ,electron was disgusted4 ,he had never trusted ,phoenix--a caution now proved wise4 ,but he had spent hours with him on the phone1 with most of the information flowing in one direction4 ,but not only did ,phoenix show no discretion at all in dealing with the paper1 he bragged about doing things that ,electron had done6 ,if ,phoenix had to talk--and clearly he should have kept his mouth shut--he should have at least been honest about the systems for which he could claim credit4 ,electron had tried with ,phoenix4 ,electron had suggested that he stop talking to the security guys4 ,he had continually urged caution and discretion4 ,he had even subtly withdrawn each time ,phoenix suggested one of his hair-brained schemes to show off to a security bigwig4 ,electron had done this in the hope that ,phoenix might get the hint4 ,maybe1 if ,phoenix couldn't hear someone shouting advice at him1 he might at least listen to someone whispering it4 ,but no4 ,phoenix was far too thick for that4 ,the ,internet--indeed1 all hacking--was out of bounds for weeks1 if not months4 ,there was no chance the ,australian authorities would let a front-page story in the ,times go by un-heeded4 ,the ,americans would be all over them4 ,in one selfish act of hubris1 ,phoenix had ruined the party for everyone else4 ,electron unplugged his modem and took it to his father4 ,during exams1 he had often asked his father to hide it4 ,he didn't have the self-discipline needed to stay away on his own and there was no other way ,electron could keep himself from jacking in--plugging his modem into the wall4 ,his father had become an expert at hiding the device1 but ,electron usually still managed to find it after a few days1 tearing the house apart until he emerged1 triumphant1 with the modem held high above his head4 ,even when his father began hiding the modem outside the family home it would only postpone the inevitable4 ,this time1 however1 ,electron vowed he would stop hacking until the fallout had cleared--he had to4 ,so he handed the modem to his father1 with strict instructions1 and then tried to distract himself by cleaning up his hard drive and disks4 ,his hacking files had to go too4 ,so much damning evidence of his activities4 ,he deleted some files and took others on disks to store at a friend's house4 ,deleting files caused ,electron considerable pain1 but there was no other way4 ,phoenix had backed him into a corner4 ,brimming with excitement1 ,phoenix rang ,electron on a sunny ,march afternoon4 ,guess what8' ,phoenix was jumping around like an eager puppy at the other end of the line4 ,we made the nightly news right across the ,,us6' ,uhuh1' ,electron responded1 unimpressed4 ,this is not a joke6' ,we were on cable news all day too4 ,i called ,erik and he told me4' ,mmm1' ,electron said4 ,you know1 we did a lot of things right4 ,like ,harvard4 ,we got into every system at ,harvard4 ,it was a good move4 ,harvard gave us the fame we needed4' ,electron couldn't believe what he was hearing4 ,he didn't need any fame--and he certainly didn't need to be busted4 ,the conversation--like ,phoenix himself--was really beginning to annoy him4 ,hey1 and they know your name1' ,phoenix said coyly4 ,that got a reaction4 ,electron gulped his anger4 ,haha6 ,just joshing6' ,phoenix practically shouted4 ,don't worry6 ,they didn't really mention anyone's name4' ,good1' ,electron answered curtly4 ,his irritation stewed quietly4 ,so1 do you reckon we'll make the cover of ,time or ,newsweek8' ,good grief6 ,didn't ,phoenix ever give up8 ,as if it wasn't enough to appear on the #f o'clock national news in a country crawling with over-zealous law enforcement agencies4 ,or to make the ,new ,york ,times4 ,he had to have the weeklies too4 ,phoenix was revelling in his own publicity4 ,he felt like he was on top of the world1 and he wanted to shout about it4 ,electron had felt the same wave of excitement from hacking many high-profile targets and matching wits with the best1 but he was happy to stand on the peak by himself1 or with people like ,pad and ,gandalf1 and enjoy the view quietly4 ,he was happy to know he had been the best on the frontier of a computer underground which was fresh1 experimental and1 most of all1 international4 ,he didn't need to call up newspaper reporters or gloat about it in ,clifford ,stoll's face4 ,well1 what do you reckon8' ,phoenix asked impatiently4 ,no1' ,electron answered4 ,no8 ,you don't think we will8' ,phoenix sounded disappointed4 ,no4' ,well1 ,i'll demand it6' ,phoenix said laughing1 ,fuck it1 we want the cover of ,newsweek1 nothing less4' ,then1 more seriously1 ,i'm trying to work out what really big target would clinch it for us4' ,yeah1 ,,ok1 whatever1' ,electron replied1 distancing himself again4 ,but ,electron was thinking1 ,phoenix1 you are a fool4 ,didn't he see the warning signs8 ,pad's warning1 all the busts in the ,,us1 reports that the ,americans were hunting down the ,brits4 ,as a result of these news reports of which ,phoenix was so proud1 bosses across the world would be calling their computer managers into their offices and breathing down their necks about their own computer security4 ,the brazen hackers had deeply offended the computer security industry1 spurring it into action4 ,in the process1 some in the industry had also seen an opportunity to raise its own public profile4 ,the security experts had talked to the law enforcement agencies1 who were now clearly sharing information across national borders and closing in fast4 ,the conspirators in the global electronic village were at the point of maximum overreach4 ,we could hack ,spaf again1' ,phoenix volunteered4 ,the general public couldn't give a fuck about ,eugene ,spafford1' ,electron said1 trying to dampen ,phoenix's bizarre enthusiasm4 ,he was all for thumbing one's nose at authority1 but this was not the way to do it4 ,it'd be so funny in court1 though4 ,the lawyer would call ,spaf and say1 ,so1 ,mr ,spafford1 is it true that you are a world-renowned computer security expert8 ,when he said1 ,yes ,i'd jump up and go1 ,i object1 your honour1 this guy doesn't know jackshit1 'cause ,i hacked his machine and it was a breeze6' ,mmm4' ,hey1 if we don't get busted in the next two weeks1 it will be a miracle1' ,phoenix continued happily4 ,i hope not4' ,this is a lot of fun6' ,phoenix shouted sarcastically4 ,we're gonna get busted6 ,we're gonna get busted6' ,electron's jaw fell to the ground4 ,phoenix was mad4 ,only a lunatic would behave this way4 ,mumbling something about how tired he was1 ,electron said goodbye and hung up4 ,at #e4ej a4m4 on #b ,april #aiij1 ,electron dragged himself out of bed and made his way to the bathroom4 ,part way through his visit1 the light suddenly went out4 ,how strange4 ,electron opened his eyes wide in the early morning dimness4 ,he returned to his bedroom and began putting on some jeans before going to investigate the problem4 ,suddenly1 two men in street clothes yanked his window open and jumped through into the room shouting1 ,,get ,,down ,,on ,,the ,,floor6' ,who were these people8 ,half-naked1 ,electron stood in the middle of his room1 stunned and immobile4 ,he had suspected the police might pay him a visit1 but didn't they normally wear uniforms8 ,didn't they announce themselves8 ,the two men grabbed ,electron1 threw him face down onto the floor and pulled his arms behind his back4 ,they jammed handcuffs on his wrists--hard--cutting his skin4 ,then someone kicked him in the stomach4 ,are there any firearms in the house8' one of the men asked4 ,electron couldn't answer because he couldn't breathe4 ,the kick had winded him4 ,he felt someone pull him up from the floor and prop him in a chair4 ,lights went on everywhere and he could see six or seven people moving around in the hallway4 ,they must have come into the house another way4 ,the ones in the hallway were all wearing bibs with three large letters emblazoned across the front3 ,,afp4 ,as ,electron slowly gathered his wits1 he realised why the cops had asked about firearms4 ,he had once joked to ,phoenix on the phone about how he was practising with his dad's 4#bb for when the feds came around4 ,obviously the feds had been tapping his phone4 ,while his father talked with one of the officers in the other room and read the warrant1 ,electron saw the police pack up his computer gear--worth some #cjjj--;and carry it out of the house4 ,the only thing they didn't discover was the modem4 ,his father had become so expert at hiding it that not even the ,australian ,federal ,police could find it4 ,several other officers began searching ,electron's bedroom1 which was no small feat1 given the state it was in4 ,the floor was covered in a thick layer of junk4 ,half crumpled music band posters1 lots of scribbled notes with passwords and ,n,u,as1 pens1 ,t-shirts both clean and dirty1 jeans1 sneakers1 accounting books1 cassettes1 magazines1 the occasional dirty cup4 ,by the time the police had sifted through it all the room was tidier than when they started4 ,as they moved into another room at the end of the raid1 ,electron bent down to pick up one of his posters which had fallen onto the floor4 ,it was a ,police ,drug ,identification ,chart--a gift from a friend's father--and there1 smack dab in the middle1 was a genuine ,,afp footprint4 ,now it was a collector's item4 ,electron smiled to himself and carefully tucked the poster away4 ,when he went out to the living room1 he saw a policemen holding a couple of shovels and he wanted to laugh again4 ,electron had also once told ,phoenix that all his sensitive hacking disks were buried in the backyard4 ,now the police were going to dig it up in search of something which had been destroyed a few days before4 ,it was too funny4 ,the police found little evidence of ,electron's hacking at his house1 but that didn't really matter4 ,they already had almost everything they needed4 ,later that morning1 the police put the #bj-year-old ,electron into an unmarked car and drove him to the ,,afp's imposing-looking headquarters at #chc ,latrobe ,street for questioning4 ,in the afternoon1 when ,electron had a break from the endless questions1 he walked out to the hallway4 ,the boyish-faced ,phoenix1 aged eighteen1 and fellow ,realm member ,nom1 #ba1 were walking with police at the other end of the hall4 ,they were too far apart to talk1 but ,electron smiled4 ,nom looked worried4 ,phoenix looked annoyed4 ,electron was too intimidated to insist on having a lawyer4 ,what was the point in asking for one anyway8 ,it was clear the police had information they could only have obtained from tapping his phone4 ,they also showed him logs taken from ,melbourne ,university1 which had been traced back to his phone4 ,electron figured the game was up1 so he might as well tell them the whole story--or at least as much of it as he had told ,phoenix on the phone4 ,two officers conducted the interview4 ,the lead interviewer was ,detective ,constable ,glenn ,proebstl1 which seemed to be pronounced probe stool'--an unfortunate name1 ,electron thought4 ,proebstl was accompanied by ,constable ,natasha ,elliott1 who occasionally added a few questions at the end of various interview topics but otherwise kept to herself4 ,although he had decided to answer their questions truthfully1 ,electron thought that neither of them knew much about computers and found himself struggling to understand what they were trying to ask4 ,electron had to begin with the basics4 ,he explained what the ,,finger command was--how you could type finger' followed by a username1 and then the computer would provide basic information about the user's name and other details4 ,so1 what is the methodology behind it 444 finger 444 then1 it's normally 444 what is the normal command after that to try and get the password out8' ,constable ,elliott finally completed her convoluted attempt at a question4 ,the only problem was that ,electron had no idea what she was talking about4 ,well1 um1 ,i mean there is none4 ,i mean you don't use finger like that 444' ,right4 ,,ok1' ,constable ,elliott got down to business4 ,well1 have you ever used that system before8' ,uhm1 which system8' ,electron had been explaining commands for so long he had forgotten if they were still talking about how he hacked the ,lawrence ,livermore computer or some other site4 ,the finger 444 ,the finger system8' ,huh8 ,electron wasn't quite sure how to answer that question4 ,there was no such thing4 ,finger was a command1 not a computer4 ,uh1 yes1' he said4 ,the interview went the same way1 jolting awkwardly through computer technology which he understood far better than either officer4 ,finally1 at the end of a long day1 ,detective ,constable ,proebstl asked ,electron3 ,in your own words1 tell me what fascination you find with accessing computers overseas8' ,well1 basically1 it's not for any kind of personal gain or anything1' ,electron said slowly4 ,it was a surprisingly difficult question to answer4 ,not because he didn't know the answer1 but because it was a difficult answer to describe to someone who had never hacked a computer4 ,it's just the kick of getting in to a system4 ,i mean1 once you are in1 you very often get bored and even though you can still access the system1 you may never call back4 ,because once you've gotten in1 it's a challenge over and you don't really care much about it1' ,electron continued1 struggling4 ,it's a hot challenge thing1 trying to do things that other people are also trying to do but can't4 ,so1 ,i mean1 ,i guess it is a sort of ego thing4 ,it's knowing that you can do stuff that other people cannot1 and well1 it is the challenge and the ego boost you get from doing something well 444 where other people try and fail4' ,a few more questions and the day-long interview finally finished4 ,the police then took ,electron to the ,fitzroy police station4 ,he guessed it was the nearest location with a ,,jp they could find willing to process a bail application at that hour4 ,in front of the ugly brick building1 ,electron noticed a small group of people gathered on the footpath in the dusky light4 ,as the police car pulled up1 the group swung into a frenzy of activity1 fidgeting in over-the-shoulder briefcases1 pulling out notebooks and pens1 scooping up big microphones with fuzzy shag covers1 turning on ,,tv camera lights4 ,oh ,,no6 ,electron wasn't prepared for this at all4 ,flanked by police1 ,electron stepped out of the police car and blinked in the glare of photographers' camera flashes and ,,tv camera searchlights4 ,the hacker tried to ignore them1 walking as briskly as his captors would allow4 ,sound recordists and reporters tagged beside him1 keeping pace1 while the ,,tv cameramen and photographers weaved in front of him4 ,finally he escaped into the safety of the watchhouse4 ,first there was paperwork1 followed by the visit to the ,,jp4 ,while shuffling through his papers1 the ,,jp gave ,electron a big speech about how defendants often claimed to have been beaten by the police4 ,sitting in the dingy meeting room1 ,electron felt somewhat confused by the purpose of this tangential commentary4 ,however1 the ,,jp's next question cleared things up3 ,have you had any problems with your treatment by the police which you would like to record at this time8' ,electron thought about the brutal kick he had suffered while lying on his bedroom floor1 then he looked up and found ,detective ,constable ,proebstl staring him in the eye4 ,a slight smile passed across the detective's face4 ,no1' ,electron answered4 ,the ,,jp proceeded to launch into another speech which ,electron found even stranger4 ,there was another defendant in the lock-up at the moment1 a dangerous criminal who had a disease the ,,jp knew about1 and the ,,jp could decide to lock ,electron up with that criminal instead of granting him bail4 ,was this meant to be helpful warning1 or just the gratification of some kind of sadistic tendency8 ,electron was baffled but he didn't have to consider the situation for long4 ,the ,,jp granted bail4 ,electron's father came to the watchhouse1 collected his son and signed the papers for a #ajjj surety--to be paid if ,electron skipped town4 ,that night ,electron watched as his name appeared on the late night news4 ,at home over the next few weeks1 ,electron struggled to come to terms with the fact that he would have to give up hacking forever4 ,he still had his modem1 but no computer4 ,even if he had a machine1 he realised it was far too dangerous to even contemplate hacking again4 ,so he took up drugs instead4 ,electron's father waited until the very last days of his illness1 in ,march #aiia1 before he went into hospital4 ,he knew that once he went in1 he would not be coming out again4 ,there was so much to do before that trip1 so many things to organise4 ,the house1 the life insurance paperwork1 the will1 the funeral1 the instructions for the family friend who promised to watch over both children when he was gone4 ,and1 of course1 the children themselves4 ,he looked at his two children and worried4 ,despite their ages of #ba and #ai1 they were in many ways still very sheltered4 ,he realised that ,electron's anti-establishment attitude and his sister's emotional remoteness would remain unresolved difficulties at the time of his death4 ,as the cancer progressed1 ,electron's father tried to tell both children how much he cared for them4 ,he might have been somewhat emotionally remote himself in the past1 but with so little time left1 he wanted to set the record straight4 ,on the issue of ,electron's problems with the police1 however1 ,electron's father maintained a hands-off approach4 ,electron had only talked to his father about his hacking exploits occasionally1 usually when he had achieved what he considered to be a very noteworthy hack4 ,his father's view was always the same4 ,hacking is illegal1 he told his son1 and the police will probably eventually catch you4 ,then you will have to deal with the problem yourself4 ,he didn't lecture his son1 or forbid ,electron from hacking4 ,on this issue he considered his son old enough to make his own choices and live with the consequences4 ,true to his word1 ,electron's father had shown little sympathy for his son's legal predicament after the police raid4 ,he remained neutral on the subject1 saying only1 ,i told you something like this would happen and now it is your responsibility'4 ,electron's hacking case progressed slowly over the year1 as did his university accounting studies4 ,in ,march #aiia1 he faced committal proceedings and had to decide whether to fight his committal4 ,he faced fifteen charges1 most of which were for obtaining unauthorised access to computers in the ,,us and ,australia4 ,a few were aggravated offences1 for obtaining access to data of a commercial nature4 ,on one count each1 the ,,dpp 7the ,office of the ,commonwealth ,director of ,public ,prosecutions7 said he altered and erased data4 ,those two counts were the result of his inserting backdoors for himself1 not because he did damage to any files4 ,the evidence was reasonably strong3 telephone intercepts and datataps on ,phoenix's phone which showed him talking to ,electron about hacking2 logs of ,electron's own sessions in ,melbourne ,university's systems which were traced back to his home phone2 and ,electron's own confession to the police4 ,this was the first major computer hacking case in ,australia under the new legislation4 ,it was a test case--the test case for computer hacking in ,australia--and the ,,dpp was going in hard4 ,the case had generated seventeen volumes of evidence1 totalling some #bejjj pages1 and ,crown prosecutor ,lisa ,west planned to call up to twenty expert witnesses from ,australia1 ,europe and the ,,us4 ,those witnesses had some tales to tell about the ,australian hackers1 who had caused havoc in systems around the world4 ,phoenix had accidentally deleted a ,texas-based company's inventory of assets--the only copy in existence according to ,execucom ,systems ,corporation4 ,the hackers had also baffled security personnel at the ,,us ,naval ,research ,labs4 ,they had bragged to the ,new ,york ,times4 ,and they forced ,,nasa to cut off its computer network for #bd hours4 ,,afp ,detective ,sergeant ,ken ,day had flown halfway around the world to obtain a witness statement from none other than ,,nasa ,langley computer manager ,sharon ,beskenis--the admin ,phoenix had accidentally kicked off her own system when he was trying to get ,deszip4 ,beskenis had been more than happy to oblige and on #bd ,july #aiij she signed a statement in ,virginia1 witnessed by ,day4 ,her statement said that1 as a result of the hackers' intrusion1 the entire ,,nasa computer system was disconnected from any external communications with the rest of the world' for about #bd hours on #bb ,february #aiij4 ,in short1 ,electron thought1 there didn't seem to be much chance of winning at the committal hearing4 ,nom seemed to feel the same way4 ,he faced two counts1 both knowingly concerned' with ,phoenix obtaining unauthorised access4 ,one was for ,,nasa ,langley1 the other for ,,csiro--the ,zardoz file4 ,nom didn't fight his committal either1 although ,legal ,aid's refusal to fund a lawyer for the procedure no doubt weighed in his decision4 ,on #f ,march #aiia1 ,magistrate ,robert ,langton committed ,electron and ,nom to stand trial in the ,victorian ,county ,court4 ,phoenix1 however1 didn't agree with his fellow hackers' point of view4 ,with financial help from his family1 he had decided to fight his committal4 ,he wasn't going to hand this case to the prosecution on a silver platter1 and they would have to fight him every step of the way1 dragging him forward from proceeding to proceeding4 ,his barrister1 ,felicity ,hampel1 argued the court should throw out #dg of the #dh charges against her client on jurisdictional grounds4 ,all but one charge--breaking into the ,,csiro machine in order to steal ,zardoz--related to hacking activities outside ,australia4 ,how could an ,australian court claim jurisdiction over a hacked computer in ,texas8 ,privately1 ,phoenix worried more about being extradited to the ,,us than dealing with the ,australian courts1 but publicly he was going into the committal with all guns blazing4 ,it was a test case in many ways2 not only the first major hacking case in ,australia but also the first time a hacker had fought ,australian committal proceedings for computer crimes4 ,the prosecution agreed to drop one of the #dh counts1 noting it was a duplicate charge1 but the backdown was a pyrrhic victory for ,phoenix4 ,after a two-day committal hearing1 ,magistrate ,john ,wilkinson decided ,hampel's jurisdictional argument didn't hold water and on #ad ,august #aiia he committed ,phoenix to stand trial in the ,county ,court4 ,by the day of ,electron's committal1 in ,march1 ,electron's father had begun his final decline4 ,the bowel cancer created a roller-coaster of good and bad days1 but soon there were only bad days1 and they were getting worse4 ,on the last day of ,march1 the doctors told him that it was finally time to make the trip to hospital4 ,he stubbornly refused to go1 fighting their advice1 questioning their authority4 ,they quietly urged him again4 ,he protested4 ,finally1 they insisted4 ,electron and his sister stayed with their father for hours that day1 and the following one4 ,their father had other visitors to keep his spirits up1 including his brother who fervently beseeched him to accept ,jesus ,christ as his personal saviour before he died4 ,that way1 he wouldn't burn in hell4 ,electron looked at his uncle1 disbelieving4 ,he couldn't believe his father was having to put up with such crap on his deathbed4 ,still1 ,electron chose to be discreet4 ,apart from an occasional rolling of the eyes1 he kept his peace at his father's bedside4 ,perhaps1 however1 the fervent words did some good1 for as ,electron's father spoke about the funeral arrangements1 he made a strange slip of the tongue4 ,he said wedding' instead of funeral1 then paused1 realising his mistake4 ,glancing slowly down at the intricate braided silver wedding band still on his finger1 he smiled frailly and said1 ,i suppose1 in a way1 it will be like a wedding'4 ,electron and his sister went to hospital every day for four days1 to sit by their father's bed4 ,at #f a4m4 on the fifth day1 the telephone rang4 ,it was the family friend their father had asked to watch over them4 ,their father's life signs were very1 very weak1 fluttering on the edge of death4 ,when ,electron and his sister arrived at the hospital1 the nurse's face said everything4 ,they were too late4 ,their father had died ten minutes before they arrived4 ,electron broke down and wept4 ,he hugged his sister1 who1 for a brief moment1 seemed almost reachable4 ,driving them back to the house1 the family friend stopped and bought them an answering machine4 ,you'll need this when everyone starts calling in1' she told them4 ,you might not want to talk to anyone for a while4' ,in the months after his bust in #aiij ,electron began smoking marijuana regularly4 ,at first1 as with many other university students1 it was a social thing4 ,some friends dropped by1 they happened to have a few joints1 and so everybody went out for a night on the town4 ,when he was in serious hacking mode1 he never smoked4 ,a clear head was much too important4 ,besides1 the high he got from hacking was a hundred times better than anything dope could ever do for him4 ,when ,phoenix appeared on the front page of the ,new ,york ,times1 ,electron gave up hacking4 ,and even if he had been tempted to return to it1 he didn't have anything to hack with after the police took his only computer4 ,electron found himself casting around for something to distract him from his father's deteriorating condition and the void left by giving up hacking4 ,his accounting studies didn't quite fit the bill4 ,they had always seemed empty1 but never more so than now4 ,smoking pot filled the void4 ,so did tripping4 ,filled it very nicely4 ,besides1 he told himself1 it's harder to get caught smoking dope in your friends' houses than hacking in your own4 ,the habit grew gradually4 ,soon1 he was smoking dope at home4 ,new friends began coming around1 and they seemed to have drugs with them all the time--not just occasionally1 and not just for fun4 ,electron and his sister had been left the family home and enough money to give them a modest income4 ,electron began spending this money on his new-found hobby4 ,a couple of ,electron's new friends moved into the house for a few months4 ,his sister didn't like them dealing drugs out of the place1 but ,electron didn't care what was happening around him4 ,he just sat in his room1 listening to his stereo1 smoking dope1 dropping acid and watching the walls4 ,the headphones blocked out everyone in the house1 and1 more importantly1 what was going on inside ,electron's own head4 ,billy ,bragg4 ,faith ,no ,more4 ,cosmic ,psychos4 ,celibate ,rifles4 ,jane's ,addiction4 ,the ,sex ,pistols4 ,the ,ramones4 ,music gave ,electron a pinpoint1 a figurative dot of light on his forehead where he could focus his mind4 ,blot out the increasingly strange thoughts creeping through his consciousness4 ,his father was alive4 ,he was sure of it4 ,he knew it1 like he knew the sun would rise tomorrow4 ,yet he had seen his father lying1 dead1 in the hospital bed4 ,it didn't make sense4 ,so he took another hit from the bong1 floated in slow motion to his bed1 lay down1 carefully slid the earphones over his head1 closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on what the ,red ,hot ,chilli ,peppers were saying instead4 ,when that wasn't enough1 he ventured down the hallway1 down to his new friends--the friends with the acid tabs4 ,then1 eight more hours without having to worry about the strange thoughts4 ,soon people began acting strangely too4 ,they would tell ,electron things1 but he had trouble understanding them4 ,pulling a milk carton from the fridge and sniffing it1 ,electron's sister might say1 ,milk's gone off'4 ,but ,electron wasn't sure what she meant4 ,he would look at her warily4 ,maybe she was trying to tell him something else1 about spiders4 ,milking spiders for venom4 ,when thoughts like these wafted through ,electron's mind1 they disturbed him1 lingering like a sour smell4 ,so he floated back to the safety of his room and listened to songs by ,henry ,rollins4 ,after several months in this cloudy state of limbo1 ,electron awoke one day to find the ,crisis ,assessment ,team--a mobile psychiatric team--in his bedroom4 ,they asked him questions1 then they tried to feed him little blue tablets4 ,electron didn't want to take the tablets4 ,were little blue pills placebos8 ,he was sure they were4 ,or maybe they were something more sinister4 ,finally1 the ,,cat workers convinced ,electron to take the ,stelazine tablet4 ,but when they left1 terrifying things began to happen4 ,electron's eyes rolled uncontrollably to the back of his head4 ,his head twisted to the left4 ,his mouth dropped open1 very wide4 ,try as he might1 he couldn't shut it1 any more than he could turn his head straight4 ,electron saw himself in the mirror and he panicked4 ,he looked like a character out of a horror picture4 ,his new house-mates reacted to this strange new behaviour by trying to psychoanalyse ,electron1 which was less than helpful4 ,they discussed him as if he wasn't even present4 ,he felt like a ghost and1 agitated and confused1 he began telling his friends that he was going to kill himself4 ,someone called the ,,cat team again4 ,this time they refused to leave unless he would guarantee not to attempt suicide4 ,electron refused4 ,so they had him committed4 ,inside the locked psychiatric ward of ,plenty ,hospital 7now known as ,,nemps71 ,electron believed that1 although he had gone crazy1 he wasn't really in a hospital psychiatric ward4 ,the place was just supposed to look like one4 ,his father had set it all up4 ,electron refused to believe anything that anyone told him4 ,it was all lies4 ,they said one thing1 but always meant another4 ,he had proof4 ,electron read a list of patients' names on the wall and found one called ,tanas4 ,that name had a special meaning4 ,it was an anagram for the word ,santa'4 ,but ,santa ,claus was a myth1 so the name ,tanas appearing on the hospital list proved to him that he shouldn't listen to anything anyone told him4 ,electron ate his meals mostly in silence1 trying to ignore the voluntary and involuntary patients who shared the dining hall4 ,one lunchtime1 a stranger sat down at ,electron's table and started talking to him4 ,electron found it excruciatingly painful talking to other people1 and he kept wishing the stranger would go away4 ,the stranger talked about how good the drugs were in hospital4 ,mm1' ,electron said4 ,i used to do a lot of drugs4' ,how much is a lot8' ,i spent #bhjjj on dope alone in about four months4' ,wow1' the stranger said1 impressed4 ,of course1 you don't have to pay for drugs4 ,you can always get them for free4 ,i do4' ,you do8' ,electron asked1 somewhat perplexed4 ,sure6 ,all the time1' the stranger said grandly4 ,no problem4 ,just watch4' ,the stranger calmly put his fork down on the tray1 carefully stood up and then began yelling at the top of his lungs4 ,he waved his arms around frantically and shouted abuse at the other patients4 ,two nurses came running from the observation room4 ,one of them tried to calm the stranger down while the other quickly measured out various pills and grabbed a cup of water4 ,the stranger swallowed the pills1 chased them with a swig of water and sat down quietly4 ,the nurses retreated1 glancing back over their shoulders4 ,see8' ,the stranger said4 ,well1 ,i'd better be on my way1 before the pills kick in4 ,see ya4' ,electron watched1 amazed1 as the stranger picked up his bag1 walked through the dining-hall door1 and straight out the front door of the psychiatric ward4 ,after a month1 the psychiatrists reluctantly allowed ,electron to leave the hospital in order to stay with his maternal grandmother in ,queensland4 ,he was required to see a psychiatrist regularly4 ,he spent his first few days in ,queensland believing he was ,jesus ,christ4 ,but he didn't hold onto that one for long4 ,after two weeks of patiently waiting and checking for signs of the imminent apocalypse1 consistent with the second coming1 he decided he was really the reincarnation of ,buddha4 ,in late ,february #aiib1 after three months of psychiatric care up north1 ,electron returned to ,melbourne and his university studies1 with a bag full of medication4 ,prozac1 major tranquillisers1 ,lithium4 ,the daily routine went smoothly for a while4 ,six ,prozac--two in the morning1 two at midday and two at night4 ,another anti-depressant to be taken at night4 ,also at night1 the anti-side effect tablets to combat the involuntary eye-rolling1 jaw-dropping and neck-twisting associated with the anti-depressants4 ,all of it was designed to help him deal with what had by now become a long list of diagnoses4 ,cannabis psychosis4 ,schizophrenia4 ,manic depression4 ,unipolar effective disorder4 ,schizophrenaform4 ,amphetamine psychosis4 ,major effective disorder4 ,atypical psychosis4 ,and his own personal favourite--facticious disorder1 or faking it to get into hospital4 ,but the medication wasn't helping much4 ,electron still felt wretched1 and returning to a host of problems in ,melbourne made things worse4 ,because of his illness1 ,electron had been largely out of the loop of legal proceedings4 ,sunny ,queensland provided a welcome escape4 ,now he was back in ,victoria facing a tedious university course in accounting1 an ongoing battle with mental illness1 federal charges which could see him locked up for ten years1 and publicity surrounding the first major hacking case in ,australia4 ,it was going to be a hard winter4 ,to make matters worse1 ,electron's medication interfered with his ability to study properly4 ,the anti-side effect pills relaxed the muscles in his eyes1 preventing them from focusing4 ,the writing on the blackboard at the front of the lecture hall was nothing but a hazy blur4 ,taking notes was also a problem4 ,the medication made his hands tremble1 so he couldn't write properly4 ,by the end of a lecture1 ,electron's notes were as unreadable as the blackboard4 ,frustrated1 ,electron stopped taking his medicine1 started smoking dope again and soon felt a little better4 ,when the dope wasn't enough1 he turned to magic mushrooms and hallucinogenic cactus4 ,the hacking case was dragging on and on4 ,on #f ,december #aiia1 just after he left psych hospital but before he flew to ,queensland1 the office of the ,,dpp had formally filed an indictment containing fifteen charges against ,electron1 and three against ,nom1 in the ,victorian ,county ,court4 ,electron didn't talk to ,phoenix much any more1 but the ,,dpp lawyers hadn't forgotten about him--far from it4 ,they had much bigger plans for ,phoenix1 perhaps because he was fighting every step of the way4 ,phoenix was uncooperative with police in the interview on the day of the raid1 frequently refusing to answer their questions4 ,when they asked to fingerprint him1 he refused and argued with them about it4 ,this behaviour did not endear him to either the police or the ,,dpp4 ,on #e ,may #aiib1 the ,,dpp filed a final indictment with #dj charges against ,phoenix in the ,county ,court4 ,the charges1 in conjunction with those against ,electron and ,nom1 formed part of a joint indictment totalling #eh counts4 ,electron worried about being sent to prison4 ,around the world1 hackers were under siege--,par1 ,pengo1 ,,lod and ,erik ,bloodaxe1 ,,mod1 ,the ,realm hackers1 ,pad and ,gandalf and1 most recently1 the ,international ,subversives4 ,somebody seemed to be trying to make a point4 ,furthermore1 ,electron's charges had changed considerably--for the worse--from the original ones documented in ,april #aiij4 ,the ,,dpp's final indictment bore little resemblance to the original charge sheet handed to the young hacker when he left the police station the day he was raided4 ,the final indictment read like a veritable ,who's ,who of prestigious institutions around the world4 ,lawrence ,livermore ,labs1 ,california4 ,two different computers at the ,,us ,naval ,research ,laboratories1 ,washington ,,dc4 ,rutgers ,university1 ,new ,jersey4 ,tampere ,university of ,technology1 ,finland4 ,the ,university of ,illinios4 ,three different computers at the ,university of ,melbourne4 ,helsinki ,university of ,technology1 ,finland4 ,the ,university of ,new ,york4 ,,nasa ,langley ,research ,center1 ,hampton1 ,virginia4 ,,csiro1 ,carlton1 ,victoria4 ,the charges which worried ,electron most related to the ,,us ,naval ,research ,labs1 ,,csiro1 ,lawrence ,livermore ,labs and ,,nasa4 ,the last three weren't full hacking charges4 ,the ,,dpp alleged ,electron had been knowingly concerned' with ,phoenix's access of these sites4 ,electron looked at the thirteen-page joint indictment and didn't know whether to laugh or cry4 ,he had been a lot more than knowingly concerned' with accessing those sites4 ,in many cases1 he had given ,phoenix access to those computers in the first place4 ,but ,electron tried to tread quietly1 carefully1 through most systems1 while ,phoenix had noisily stomped around with all the grace of a buffalo--and left just as many footprints4 ,electron hardly wanted to face full charges for those or any other sites4 ,he had broken into thousands of sites on the ,x4#be network1 but he hadn't been charged with any of them4 ,he couldn't help feeling a little like the gangster ,al ,capone being done for tax evasion4 ,the proceedings were attracting considerable media attention4 ,electron suspected the ,,afp or the ,,dpp were alerting the media to upcoming court appearances1 perhaps in part to prove to the ,americans that something was being done'4 ,this case had ,american pressure written all over it4 ,electron's barrister1 ,boris ,kayser1 said he suspected that the ,americans'--,american institutions1 companies or government agencies--were indirectly funding some of the prosecution's case by offering to pay for ,,us witnesses to attend the trial4 ,the ,americans wanted to see the ,australian hackers go down1 and they were throwing all their best resources at the case to make sure it happened4 ,there was one other thing--in some ways the most disturbing matter of all4 ,in the course of the legal to-ing and fro-ing1 ,electron was told that it was the ,,us ,secret ,service back in #aihh which had triggered the ,,afp investigation into ,the ,realm hackers--an investigation which had led to ,electron's bust and current legal problems4 ,the ,secret ,service was after the hackers who broke into ,citibank4 ,as it happened1 ,electron had never touched ,citibank4 ,credit cards couldn't interest him less4 ,he found banks boring and1 the way he looked at it1 their computers were full of mundane numbers belonging to the world of accounting4 ,he had already suffered through enough of those tedious types of numbers in his university course4 ,unless he wanted to steal from banks--something he would not do--there was no point in breaking into their computers4 ,but the ,,us ,secret ,service was very interested in banks--and in ,phoenix4 ,for they didn't just believe that ,phoenix had been inside ,citibank's computers4 ,they believed he had masterminded the ,citibank attack4 ,and why did the ,,us ,secret ,service think that8 ,because1 ,electron was told1 ,phoenix had gone around bragging about it in the underground4 ,he hadn't just told people he had hacked into ,citibank computers1 he reportedly boasted that he had stolen some #ejjjj from the bank4 ,going through his legal brief1 ,electron had discovered something which seemed to confirm what he was being told4 ,the warrant for the telephone tap on both of ,phoenix's home phones mentioned a potential serious loss to ,citibank' as a justification for the warrant4 ,strangely1 the typed words had been crossed out in the handwritten scrawl of the judge who approved the warrant4 ,but they were still legible4 ,no wonder the ,,us ,secret ,service began chasing the case1 ,electron thought4 ,banks get upset when they think people have found a way to rip them off anonymously4 ,electron knew that ,phoenix hadn't stolen any money from ,citibank4 ,rather1 he had been circulating fantastic stories about himself to puff up his image in the underground1 and in the process had managed to get them all busted4 ,in ,september #aiib1 ,phoenix rang ,electron suggesting they get together to discuss the case4 ,electron wondered why4 ,maybe he suspected something1 sensing that the links binding them were weak1 and becoming weaker by the month4 ,that ,electron's mental illness had changed his perception of the world4 ,that his increasingly remote attitude to ,phoenix suggested an underlying anger about the continual bragging4 ,whatever the reason1 ,phoenix's gnawing worry must have been confirmed when ,electron put off meeting with him4 ,electron didn't want to meet with ,phoenix because he didn't like him1 and because he thought ,phoenix was largely responsible for getting the ,australian hackers into their current predicament4 ,with these thoughts fermenting in his mind1 ,electron listened with interest a few months later when his solicitor1 ,john ,mc,loughlin1 proposed an idea4 ,in legal circles1 it was nothing new4 ,but it was new to ,electron4 ,he resolved to take up ,mc,loughlin's advice4 ,electron decided to testify as a ,crown witness against ,phoenix4 ,,chapter #g -- ,judgement ,day4 ,your dream world is just about to end4 -- from ,dreamworld'1 ,diesel and ,dust4 ,in another corner of the globe1 the ,british hackers ,pad and ,gandalf learned with horror that the ,australian authorities had busted the three ,realm hackers4 ,electron had simply disappeared one day4 ,a short time later1 ,phoenix was gone too4 ,then the reports started rolling in from newspapers and from other ,australian hackers on a ,german board similar to ,altos1 called ,lutzifer4 ,something else worried ,pad4 ,in one of his hacking forays1 he had discovered a file1 apparently written by ,eugene ,spafford1 which said he was concerned that some ,british hackers--read ,pad and ,gandalf--would create a new worm1 based on the ,,rtm worm1 and release it into the ,internet4 ,the unnamed ,british hackers would then be able to cause maximum havoc on thousands of ,internet sites4 ,it was true that ,gandalf and ,pad had captured copies of various worm source codes4 ,they fished around inside ,,span until they surfaced with a copy of the ,father ,christmas worm4 ,and1 after finally successfully hacking ,russell ,brand's machine at ,,llnl1 they deftly lifted a complete copy of the ,,wank worm4 ,in ,brand's machine1 they also found a description of how someone had broken into ,,span looking for the ,,wank worm code1 but hadn't found it4 ,that was me breaking into ,,span to look around1' ,gandalf laughed1 relaying the tale to ,pad4 ,despite their growing library of worm code1 ,pad had no intention of writing any such worm4 ,they simply wanted the code to study what penetration methods the worms had used and perhaps to learn something new4 ,the ,british hackers prided themselves on never having done anything destructive to systems they hacked4 ,in places where they knew their activities had been discovered--such as at the ,universities of ,bath1 ,edinburgh1 ,oxford and ,strathclyde--they wrote notes to the admins signed #hlgm4 ,it wasn't only an ego thing--it was also a way of telling the admins that they weren't going to do anything nasty to the system4 ,at one university1 the admins thought #hlgm was some kind of weird variation on a ,belgian word and that the hackers who visited their systems night after night were from ,belgium4 ,at another uni1 the admins made a different guess at the meaning4 ,in the morning1 when they came into work and saw that the hackers had been playing in their system all night1 they would sigh to each other1 ,our eight little green men are at it again'4 ,at the ,university of ,lancaster1 the hackers wrote a message to the admins which said3 ,don't do anything naughty4 ,we have a good image around the world1 so please don't tarnish it or start making up stories about us messing up systems4 ,don't hold your breath for us to hack you1 but keep us in mind4' ,wherever they went1 their message was the same4 ,nonetheless ,pad visualised a scenario where ,spaf whipped up the computer security and law enforcement people into a frenzied panic and tried to pin all sorts of things on the ,british hackers1 none of which they had done4 ,the underground saw ,spaf as being rabid in his attack on hackers1 based largely on his response to the ,,rtm worm4 ,and ,gandalf had hacked ,spaf's machine4 ,the crackdown on the ,australians1 combined with the discovery of the ,spaf file1 had a profound effect on ,pad4 ,always cautious anyway1 he decided to give up hacking4 ,it was a difficult decision1 and weaning himself from exploring systems night after night was no easy task4 ,however1 in the face of what had happened to ,electron and ,phoenix1 continuing to hack didn't seem worth the risk4 ,when ,pad gave up hacking1 he bought his own ,,nui so he could access places like ,altos legitimately4 ,the ,,nui was expensive--about sterling#aj an hour--but he was never on for long4 ,leisurely chats of the type he once enjoyed in ,altos were out of the question1 but at least he could mail letters to his friends like ,theorem and ,gandalf4 ,there would have been easier ways to maintain his friendship with ,gandalf1 who lived in ,liverpool1 only an hour's drive away4 ,but it wouldn't be the same4 ,pad and ,gandalf had never met1 or even talked on the phone4 ,they talked on-line1 and via email4 ,that was the way they related4 ,pad also had other reasons for giving up hacking4 ,it was an expensive habit in ,britain because ,british ,telecom time-charged for local phone calls4 ,in ,australia1 a hacker could stay on-line for hours1 jumping from one computer to another through the data network1 all for the cost of one local call4 ,like the ,australians1 ,pad could launch his hacking sessions from a local uni or ,x4#be dial-up4 ,however1 an all-night hacking session based on a single phone call might still cost him sterling#e or more in timed-call charges--a considerable amount of money for an unemployed young man4 ,as it was1 ,pad had already been forced to stop hacking for brief periods when he ran out of his dole money4 ,although ,pad didn't think he could be prosecuted for hacking under ,british law in early #aiij1 he knew that ,britain was about to enact its own computer crime legislation--the ,computer ,misuse ,act #aiij--;in ,august4 ,the #bb-year-old hacker decided that it was better to quit while he was ahead4 ,and he did1 for a while at least4 ,until ,july #aiij1 when ,gandalf1 two years his junior1 tempted him with one final hack before the new ,act came into force4 ,just one last fling1 ,gandalf told him4 ,after that last fling in ,july1 ,pad stopped hacking again4 ,the ,computer ,misuse ,act passed into law in ,august #aiij1 following two law commission reviews on the subject4 ,the ,scottish ,law ,commission issued a #aihg report proposing to make unauthorised data access illegal1 but only if the hacker tried to secure advantage1 or cause damage to another person'--including reckless damage4#b ,simple look-see hacking would not be a crime under the report's recommendations4 ,however1 in #aihi ,the ,law ,commission of ,england and ,wales issued its own report proposing that simple unauthorised access should be a crime regardless of intent--a recommendation which was eventually included in the law4 ,late in #aihi1 ,conservative ,,mp ,michael ,colvin introduced a private member's bill into the ,british parliament4 ,lending her support to the bill1 outspoken hacker-critic ,emma ,nicholson1 another ,conservative ,,mp1 fired public debate on the subject and ensured the bill passed through parliament successfully4 ,in ,november #aiij1 ,pad was talking on-line with ,gandalf1 and his friend suggested they have one more hack1 just one more1 for old time's sake4 ,well1 thought ,pad1 one more--just a one-off thing--wouldn't hurt4 ,before long1 ,pad was hacking regularly again1 and when ,gandalf tried to give it up1 ,pad was there luring him to return to his favourite pastime4 ,they were like two boys at school1 getting each other into trouble--the kind of trouble which always comes in pairs4 ,if ,pad and ,gandalf hadn't known each other1 they probably would both have walked away from hacking forever in #aiij4 ,as they both got back into the swing of things1 they tried to make light of the risk of getting caught4 ,hey1 you know1' ,gandalf joked on-line more than once1 the first time we actually meet each other in person will probably be in a police station4' ,completely irreverent and always upbeat1 ,gandalf proved to be a true friend4 ,pad had rarely met such a fellow traveller in the real world1 let alone on-line4 ,what others--particularly some ,american hackers--viewed as prickliness1 ,pad saw as the perfect sense of humour4 ,to ,pad1 ,gandalf was the best m#h a fellow could ever have4 ,during the time ,pad avoided hacking1 ,gandalf had befriended another1 younger hacker named ,wandii1 also from the north of ,england4 ,wandii never played much of a part in the international computer underground1 but he did spend a lot of time hacking ,european computers4 ,wandii and ,pad got along pleasantly but they were never close4 ,they were acquaintances1 bound by ties to ,gandalf in the underground4 ,by the middle of ,june #aiia1 ,pad1 ,gandalf and ,wandii were peaking4 ,at least one of them--and often more--had already broken into systems belonging to the ,european ,community in ,luxembourg1 ,the ,financial ,times 7owners of the ,,ftse #ajj share index71 the ,british ,ministry of ,defence1 the ,foreign ,office1 ,,nasa1 the investment bank ,,sg ,warburg in ,london1 the ,american computer database software manufacturer ,oracle1 and more machines on the ,,janet network than they could remember4 ,pad had also penetrated a classified military network containing a ,,nato system4 ,they moved through ,british ,telecom's ,packet ,switched ,stream ,network 7,,pss71 which was similar to the ,tymnet ,x4#be network1 with absolute ease4#c ,gandalf's motto was1 ,if it moves1 hack it'4 ,on #bg ,june #aiia1 ,pad was sitting in the front room of his parent's comfortable home in greater ,manchester watching the last remnants of daylight disappear on one of the longest days of the year4 ,he loved summer1 loved waking up to streaks of sunlight sneaking through the cracks in his bedroom curtain4 ,he often thought to himself1 it doesn't get much better than this4 ,around #aa p4m4 he flicked on his modem and his ,atari #ebj ,,st computer in the front sitting room4 ,there were two ,atari computers in the house--indicative of his deep enthusiasm for computers since neither his siblings nor his parents had any interest in programming4 ,most of the time1 however1 ,pad left the older ,atari alone4 ,his elder brother1 an aspiring chemist1 used it for writing his ,ph,d thesis4 ,before dialling out1 ,pad checked that no-one was on the house's single phone line4 ,finding it free1 he went to check his email on ,lutzifer4 ,a few minutes after watching his machine connect to the ,german board1 he heard a soft thud1 followed by a creaking4 ,pad stopped typing1 looked up from his machine and listened4 ,he wondered if his brother1 reading in their bedroom upstairs1 or his parents1 watching telly in the back lounge room1 could hear the creaking4 ,the sound became more pronounced and ,pad swung around and looked toward the hallway4 ,in a matter of seconds1 the front door frame had been cracked open1 prising the door away from its lock4 ,the wood had been torn apart by some sort of car jack1 pumped up until the door gave way4 ,suddenly1 a group of men burst through from the front doorstep1 dashed down the long hallway and shot up the carpeted stairs to ,pad's bedroom4 ,still sitting at his computer downstairs1 ,pad swiftly flicked his modem1 and then his computer1 off--instantly killing his connection and everything on his screen4 ,he turned back toward the door leading to the sitting room and strained to hear what was happening upstairs4 ,if he wasn't so utterly surprised1 he would almost have laughed4 ,he realised that when the police had dashed up to his bedroom1 they had been chasing every stereotype about hackers they had probably ever read4 ,the boy4 ,in his bedroom4 ,hunched over his computer4 ,late at night4 ,they did find a young man in the bedroom1 with a computer4 ,but it was the wrong one1 and for all intents and purposes the wrong computer4 ,it took the police almost ten minutes of quizzing ,pad's brother to work out their mistake4 ,hearing a commotion1 ,pad's parents had rushed into the hallway while ,pad peered from the doorway of the front sitting room4 ,a uniformed police officer ushered everyone back into the room1 and began asking ,pad questions4 ,do you use computers8 ,do you use the name ,pad on computers8' they asked4 ,pad concluded the game was up4 ,he answered their questions truthfully4 ,hacking was not such a serious crime after all1 he thought4 ,it wasn't as if he had stolen money or anything4 ,this would be a drama1 but he was easy-going4 ,he would roll with the punches1 cop a slap on the wrist and soon the whole thing would be over and done with4 ,the police took ,pad to his bedroom and asked him questions as they searched the room4 ,the bedroom had a comfortably lived-in look1 with a few small piles of clothes in the corner1 some shoes scattered across the floor1 the curtains hanging crooked1 and a collection of music posters--,jimi ,hendrix and ,the ,smiths--taped to the wall4 ,a group of police hovered around his computer4 ,one of them began to search through ,pad's books on the shelves above the ,,pc1 checking each one as he pulled it down4 ,a few well-loved ,spike ,milligan works4 ,some old chess books from when he was captain of the local chess team4 ,chemistry books1 purchased by ,pad long before he took any classes in the subject1 just to satisfy his curiosity4 ,physics books4 ,an oceanography textbook4 ,a geology book bought after a visit to a cave excited his interest in the formation of rocks4 ,pad's mother1 a nursing sister1 and his father1 an electronics engineer who tested gyros on aircraft1 had always encouraged their children's interest in the sciences4 ,the policeman returned those books to the shelves1 only picking out the computer books1 textbooks from programming and maths classes ,pad had taken at a ,manchester university4 ,the officer carefully slid them inside plastic bags to be taken away as evidence4 ,then the police picked through ,pad's music tapes--,the ,stone ,roses1 ,pixies1 ,new ,order1 ,the ,smiths and lots of indie music from the flourishing ,manchester music scene4 ,no evidence of anything but an eclectic taste in music there4 ,another policeman opened ,pad's wardrobe and peered inside4 ,anything in here of interest8' he asked4 ,no1' ,pad answered4 ,it's all over here4' ,he pointed to the box of computer disks4 ,pad didn't think there was much point in the police tearing the place to pieces1 when they would ultimately find everything they wanted anyway4 ,nothing was hidden4 ,unlike the ,australian hackers1 ,pad hadn't been expecting the police at all4 ,although part of the data on his hard drive was encrypted1 there was plenty of incriminating evidence in the un-encrypted files4 ,pad couldn't hear exactly what his parents were talking about with the police in the other room1 but he could tell they were calm4 ,why shouldn't they be8 ,it wasn't as if their son had done anything terrible4 ,he hadn't beaten someone up in a fist fight at a pub1 or robbed anyone4 ,he hadn't hit someone while drunk driving4 ,no1 they thought1 he had just been fiddling around with computers4 ,maybe poking around where he shouldn't have been1 but that was hardly a serious crime4 ,they needn't worry4 ,it wasn't as if he was going to prison or anything4 ,the police would sort it all out4 ,maybe some sort of citation1 and the matter would be over and done4 ,pad's mother even offered to make cups of tea for the police4 ,one of the police struck up a conversation with ,pad off to the side as he paused to drink his tea4 ,he seemed to know that ,pad was on the dole1 and with a completely straight face1 he said1 ,if you wanted a job1 why didn't you just join the police8' ,pad paused for a reality check4 ,here he was being raided by nearly a dozen law enforcement officers--including representatives from ,,bt and ,scotland ,yard's computer crimes unit--for hacking hundreds of computers and this fellow wanted to know why he hadn't just become a copper8 ,he tried not to laugh4 ,even if he hadn't been busted1 there is no way he would ever have contemplated joining the police4 ,never in a million years4 ,his family and friends1 while showing a pleasant veneer of middle-class orderliness1 were fundamentally anti-establishment4 ,many knew that ,pad had been hacking1 and which sites he had penetrated4 ,their attitude was3 ,hacking ,big ,brother8 ,good on you4 ,his parents were torn1 wanting to encourage ,pad's interest in computers but also worrying their son spent an inordinate amount of time glued to the screen4 ,their mixed feelings mirrored ,pad's own occasional concern4 ,while deep in the throes of endless hacking nights1 he would suddenly sit upright and ask himself1 ,what am ,i doing here1 fucking around on a computer all day and night8 ,where is this heading8 ,what about the rest of life8 ,then he would disentangle himself from hacking for a few days or weeks4 ,he would go down to the university pub to drink with his mostly male group of friends from his course4 ,tall1 with short brown hair1 a slender physique and a handsomely boyish face1 the soft-spoken ,pad would have been considered attractive by many intelligent girls4 ,the problem was finding those sort of girls4 ,he hadn't met many when he was studying at university--there were few women in his maths and computer classes4 ,so he and his friends used to head down to the ,manchester nightclubs for the social scene and the good music4 ,pad went downstairs with one of the officers and watched as the police unplugged his #abjj baud modem1 then tucked it into a plastic bag4 ,he had bought that modem when he was eighteen4 ,the police unplugged cables1 bundled them up and slipped them into labelled plastic bags4 ,they gathered up his #bj megabyte hard drive and monitor4 ,more plastic bags and labels4 ,one of the officers called ,pad over to the front door4 ,the jack was still wedged across the mutilated door frame4 ,the police had broken down the door instead of knocking because they wanted to catch the hacker in the act--on-line4 ,the officer motioned for ,pad to follow him4 ,come on1' he said1 leading the hacker into the night4 ,we're taking you to the station4' ,pad spent the night in a cell at the ,salford ,crescent police station1 alone4 ,no rough crims1 and no other hackers either4 ,he settled into one of the metal cots lined against the perimeter of the cell1 but sleep evaded him4 ,pad wondered if ,gandalf had been raided as well4 ,there was no sign of him1 but then again1 the police would hardly be stupid enough to lock up the two hackers together4 ,he tossed and turned1 trying to push thoughts from his head4 ,pad had fallen into hacking almost by accident4 ,compared to others in the underground1 he had taken it up at a late age--around nineteen4 ,altos had been the catalyst4 ,visiting ,b,b,ses1 he read a file describing not only what ,altos was1 but how to get there--complete with ,,nui4 ,unlike the ,australian underground1 the embryonic ,british underground had no shortage of ,n,u,is4 ,someone had discovered a stack of ,,bt ,n,u,is and posted them on ,b,b,ses across ,england4 ,pad followed the directions in the ,,bbs file and soon found himself in the ,german chat channel4 ,like ,theorem1 he marvelled at the brave new live world of ,altos4 ,it was wonderful1 a big international party4 ,after all1 it wasn't every day he got to talk with ,australians1 ,swiss1 ,germans1 ,italians and ,americans4 ,before long1 he had taken up hacking like so many other ,altos regulars4 ,hacking as a concept had always intrigued him4 ,as a teenager1 the film ,war ,games had dazzled him4 ,the idea that computers could communicate with each over telephone lines enthralled the sixteen-year-old1 filling his mind with new ideas4 ,sometime after that he saw a television report on a group of hackers who claimed that they had used their skills to move satellites around in space--the same story which had first caught ,electron's imagination4 ,pad had grown up in ,greater ,manchester4 ,more than a century before1 the region had been a textile boom-town4 ,but the thriving economy did not translate into great wealth for the masses4 ,in the early #ahdjs1 ,friedrich ,engels had worked in his father's cotton-milling factory in the area1 and the suffering he saw in the region influenced his most famous work1 ,the ,communist ,manifesto1 published in #ahdh4 ,manchester wore the personality of a working-class town1 a place where people often disliked the establishment and distrusted authority figures4 ,the #aigjs and #aihjs had not been kind to most of ,greater ,manchester1 with unemployment and urban decay disfiguring the once-proud textile hub4 ,but this decay only appeared to strengthen an underlying resolve among many from the working classes to challenge the symbols of power4 ,pad didn't live in a public housing high-rise4 ,he lived in a suburban middle-class area1 in an old1 working-class town removed from the dismal inner-city4 ,but like many people from the north1 he disliked pretensions4 ,indeed1 he harboured a healthy degree of good-natured scepticism1 perhaps stemming from a culture of mates whose favourite pastime was pulling each other's leg down at the pub4 ,this scepticism was in full-gear as he watched the story of how hackers supposedly moved satellites around in space1 but somehow the idea slipped through the checkpoints and captured his imagination1 just as it had done with ,electron4 ,he felt a desire to find out for himself if it was true and he began pursuing hacking in enthusiastic bursts4 ,at first it was any moderately interesting system4 ,then he moved to the big-name systems--computers belonging to large institutions4 ,eventually1 working with the ,australians1 he learned to target computer security experts4 ,that was1 after all1 where the treasure was stored4 ,in the morning at the police station1 a guard gave ,pad something to eat which might have passed for food4 ,then he was escorted into an interview room with two plain-clothed officers and a ,,bt representative4 ,did he want a lawyer8 ,no4 ,he had nothing to hide4 ,besides1 the police had already seized evidence from his house1 including unencrypted data logs of his hacking sessions4 ,how could he argue against that8 ,so he faced his stern inquisitors and answered their questions willingly4 ,suddenly things began to take a different turn when they began asking about the damage' he had done inside the ,greater ,london ,polytechnic's computers4 ,damage8 ,what damage8 ,pad certainly hadn't damaged anything4 ,yes1 the police told him4 ,the damage totalling almost a quarter of a million pounds4 ,pad gasped in horror4 ,a quarter of a million pounds8 ,he thought back to his many forays into the system4 ,he had been a little mischievous1 changing the welcome message to ,hi' and signing it #hlgm4 ,he had made a few accounts for himself so he could log in at a later date4 ,that seemed to be nothing special1 however1 since he and ,gandalf had a habit of making accounts called #hlgm for themselves in ,,janet systems4 ,he had also erased logs of his activities to cover his tracks1 but again1 this was not unusual1 and he had certainly never deleted any computer users' files4 ,the whole thing had just been a bit of fun1 a bit of cat and mouse gaming with the system admins4 ,there was nothing he could recall which would account for that kind of damage4 ,surely they had the wrong hacker8 ,no1 he was the right one all right4 ,eighty investigators from ,,bt1 ,scotland ,yard and other places had been chasing the #hlgm hackers for two years4 ,they had phone traces1 logs seized from his computer and logs from the hacked sites4 ,they knew it was him4 ,for the first time1 the true gravity of the situation hit ,pad4 ,these people believed in some way that he had committed serious criminal damage1 that he had even been malicious4 ,after about two hours of questioning1 they put ,pad back in his cell4 ,more questions tomorrow1 they told him4 ,later that afternoon1 an officer came in to tell ,pad his mother and father were outside4 ,he could meet with them in the visiting area4 ,talking through a glass barrier1 ,pad tried to reassure his worried parents4 ,after five minutes1 an officer told the family the visit was over4 ,amid hurried goodbyes under the impatient stare of the guard1 ,pad's parents told him they had brought something for him to read in his cell4 ,it was the oceanography textbook4 ,back in his cell1 he tried to read1 but he couldn't concentrate4 ,he kept replaying his visits to the ,london ,polytechnic over and over in his mind1 searching for how he might have inadvertently done sterling#bejjjj worth of damage4 ,pad was a very good hacker2 it wasn't as if he was some fourteen-year-old kid barging through systems like a bull in china shop4 ,he knew how to get in and out of a system without hurting it4 ,shortly after #h p4m41 as ,pad sat on his cot stewing over the police damage claims1 sombre music seemed to fill his cell4 ,slowly at first1 an almost imperceptible moaning1 which subtly transformed into solemn but recognisable notes4 ,it sounded like ,welsh choir music1 and it was coming from above him4 ,pad looked up at the ceiling4 ,the music--all male voices-- stopped abruptly1 then started again1 repeating the same heavy1 laboured notes4 ,the hacker smiled4 ,the local police choir was practising right above his cell4 ,after another fitful night1 ,pad faced one more round of interviews4 ,the police did most of the questioning1 but they didn't seem to know much about computers--well1 not nearly so much as any good hacker on ,altos4 ,whenever either of the police asked a technical question1 they looked over to the ,,bt guy at the other end of the table as if to say1 ,does this make any sense8' ,the ,,bt guy would give a slight nod1 then the police looked back at ,pad for an answer4 ,most of the time1 he was able to decipher what they thought they were trying to ask1 and he answered accordingly4 ,then it was back to his cell while they processed his charge sheets4 ,alone again1 ,pad wondered once more if they had raided ,gandalf4 ,like an answer from above1 ,pad heard telephone tones through the walls4 ,the police seemed to be playing them over and over4 ,that was when he knew they had ,gandalf too4 ,gandalf had rigged up a tone dialler in his computer4 ,it sounded as if the police were playing with it1 trying to figure it out4 ,so1 ,pad would finally meet ,gandalf in person after two years4 ,what would he look like8 ,would they have the same chemistry in person as on-line8 ,pad felt like he knew ,gandalf1 knew his essence1 but meeting in person could be a bit tricky4 ,explaining that the paperwork1 including the charge sheets1 had finally been organised1 a police officer unlocked ,pad's cell door and led him to a foyer1 telling him he would be meeting both ,gandalf and ,wandii4 ,a large collection of police had formed a semi-circle around two other young men4 ,in addition to ,scotland ,yard's ,computer ,crimes ,unit and ,,bt1 at least seven other police forces were involved in the three raids1 including those from ,greater ,manchester1 ,merseyside and ,west ,yorkshire4 ,the officers were curious about the hackers4 ,for most of the two years of their investigation1 the police didn't even know the hackers' real identities4 ,after such a long1 hard chase1 the police had been forced to wait a little longer1 since they wanted to nab each hacker while he was on-line4 ,that meant hiding outside each hacker's home until he logged in somewhere4 ,any system would do and they didn't have to be talking to each other on-line--as long as the login was illegal4 ,the police had sat patiently1 and finally raided the hackers within hours of each other1 so they didn't have time to warn one another4 ,so1 at the end of the long chase and a well-timed operation1 the police wanted to have a look at the hackers up close4 ,after the officer walked ,pad up to the group1 he introduced ,gandalf4 ,tall1 lean with brown hair and pale skin1 he looked a little bit like ,pad4 ,the two hackers smiled shyly at each other1 before one of the police pointed out ,wandii1 the seventeen-year-old schoolboy4 ,pad didn't get a good look at ,wandii1 because the police quickly lined the hackers up in a row1 with ,gandalf in the middle1 to explain details to them4 ,they were being charged under the ,computer ,misuse ,act of #aiij4 ,court dates would be set and they would be notified4 ,when they were finally allowed to leave1 ,wandii seemed to disappear4 ,pad and ,gandalf walked outside1 found a couple of benches and lay down1 basking in the sun and chatting while they waited for their rides home4 ,gandalf proved to be as easy to talk to in person as he was on-line4 ,they exchanged phone numbers and shared notes on the police raids4 ,gandalf had insisted on meeting a lawyer before his interviews1 but when the lawyer arrived he didn't have the slightest understanding of computer crime4 ,he advised ,gandalf to tell the police whatever they wanted to know1 so the hacker did4 ,the trial was being held in ,london4 ,pad wondered why1 if all three hackers were from the north1 the case was being tried in the south4 ,after all1 there was a court in ,manchester which was high enough to deal with their crimes4 ,maybe it was because ,scotland ,yard was in ,london4 ,maybe they had started the paperwork down there4 ,maybe it was because they were being accused of hacking computers located within the jurisdiction of the ,central ,criminal ,court--that court being the ,old ,bailey in ,london4 ,but ,pad's cynical side hazarded a different guess--a guess which seemed justified after a few procedural appearances in #aiib before the trial1 which was set for #aiic4 ,for when ,pad arrived at the ,bow ,street ,magistrates ,court for his committal in ,april #aiib1 he saw it packed out with the media1 just as he had anticipated4 ,a few hackers also fronted up to fly the flag of the underground4 ,one of them--a stranger--came up to ,pad after court1 patted him on the back and exclaimed enthusiastically1 ,well done1 ,paddy6' ,startled1 ,pad just looked at him and then smiled4 ,he had no idea how to respond to the stranger4 ,like the three ,australian hackers1 ,pad1 ,gandalf and the little-known ,wandii were serving as the test case for new hacking laws in their country4 ,british law enforcement agencies had spent a fortune on the case--more than sterling#ejjjjj according to the newspapers--by the time the #hlgm case went to trial4 ,this was going to be a show case1 and the government agencies wanted taxpayers to know they were getting their money's worth4 ,the hackers weren't being charged with breaking into computers4 ,they were being charged with conspiracy1 a more serious offence4 ,while admitting the threesome did not hack for personal gain1 the prosecution alleged the hackers had conspired to break into and modify computer systems4 ,it was a strange approach to say the least1 considering that none of the three hackers had ever met or even talked to the others before they were arrested4 ,it was not so strange1 however1 when looking at the potential penalties4 ,if the hackers had been charged with simply breaking into a machine1 without intending any harm1 the maximum penalty was six months jail and a fine of up to sterling#ejjj4 ,however1 conspiracy1 which was covered under a different section of the ,act1 could bring up to five years in jail and an unlimited amount in fines4 ,the prosecution was taking a big gamble4 ,it would be harder to prove conspiracy charges1 which required demonstration of greater criminal intent than lesser charges4 ,the potential pay-off was of course also much greater4 ,if convicted1 the defendants in ,britain's most important hacking case to date would be going to prison4 ,as with ,the ,realm case1 two hackers--,pad and ,gandalf--planned to plead guilty while the third--in this case ,wandii--planned to fight the charges every step of the way4 ,legal ,aid was footing the bill for their lawyers1 because the hackers were either not working or were working in such lowly paid1 short-term jobs they qualified for free legal support4 ,wandii's lawyers told the media that this showcase was tantamount to a state trial4 ,it was the first major hacking case under the new legislation which didn't involve disgruntled employees4 ,while having no different legal status from a normal trial1 the term state trial suggested a greater degree of official wrath--the kind usually reserved for cases of treason4 ,on #bb ,february #aiic1 within two months of ,electron's decision to turn ,crown witness against ,phoenix and ,nom1 the three #hlgm hackers stood in the dock at ,southwark ,crown ,court in ,south ,london to enter pleas in their own case4 ,in the dim winter light1 ,southwark couldn't look less appealing1 but that didn't deter the crowds4 ,the courtroom was going to be packed1 just as ,bow ,street had been4 ,scotland ,yard detectives were turning out in force4 ,the crowd shuffled toward ,room #ab4 ,the prosecution told the media they had about #hjj computer disks full of evidence and court materials4 ,if all the data had been printed out on ,a#d paper1 the stack would tower more than #dj metres in the air1 they said4 ,considering the massive amount of evidence being heaved1 rolled and tugged through the building by teams of legal eagles1 the choice of location--on the fifth floor--proved to be a challenge4 ,standing in the dock next to ,wandii1 ,pad and ,gandalf pleaded guilty to two computer conspiracy charges3 conspiring to dishonestly obtain telecommunications services1 and conspiring to cause unauthorised modification to computer material4 ,pad also pleaded guilty to a third charge3 causing damage to a computer4 ,this last charge related to the almost a quarter of a million pounds worth of damage' to the ,central ,london ,polytechnic4 ,unlike the ,australians' case1 none of the ,british hackers faced charges about specific sites such as ,,nasa4 ,pad and ,gandalf pleaded guilty because they didn't think they had much choice4 ,their lawyers told them that1 in light of the evidence1 denying their guilt was simply not a realistic option4 ,better to throw yourself on the mercy of the court1 they advised4 ,as if to underline the point1 ,gandalf's lawyer had told him after a meeting at the end of #aiib1 ,i'd like to wish you a happy ,christmas1 but ,i don't think it's going to be one'4 ,wandii's lawyers disagreed4 ,standing beside his fellow hackers1 ,wandii pleaded not guilty to three conspiracy charges3 plotting to gain unauthorised access to computers1 conspiring to make unauthorised modifications to computer material1 and conspiring to obtain telecommunications services dishonestly4 ,his defence team was going to argue that he was addicted to computer hacking and that1 as a result of this addiction1 he was not able to form the criminal intent necessary to be convicted4 ,pad thought ,wandii's case was on shaky ground4 ,addiction didn't seem a plausible defence to him1 and he noticed ,wandii looked very nervous in court just after his plea4 ,pad and ,gandalf left ,london after their court appearance1 returning to the north to prepare for their sentencing hearings1 and to watch the progress of ,wandii's case through the eyes of the media4 ,they weren't disappointed4 ,it was a star-studded show4 ,the media revved itself up for a feeding frenzy and the prosecution team1 headed by ,james ,richardson1 knew how to feed the pack4 ,he zeroed in on ,wandii1 telling the court how the schoolboy was tapping into offices at the ,,ec in ,luxembourg and even the experts were worried4 ,he caused havoc at universities all around the world'4#d ,to do this1 ,wandii had used a simple ,,bbc ,micro computer1 a ,christmas present costing sterling#bjj4 ,the hacking didn't stop at ,european ,community's computer1 ,richardson told the eager crowd of journalists4 ,wandii had hacked ,lloyd's1 ,the ,financial ,times and ,leeds ,university4 ,at ,the ,financial ,times machine1 ,wandii's adventures had upset the smooth operations of the ,,ftse #ajj share index1 known in the ,city as footsie'4 ,the hacker installed a scanning program in the ,,ft's network1 resulting in one outgoing call made every second4 ,the upshot of ,wandii's intrusion3 a sterling#gjd bill1 the deletion of an important file and a management decision to shut down a key system4 ,with the precision of a banker1 ,,ft computer boss ,tony ,johnson told the court that the whole incident had cost his organisation sterling#bdhga4 ,but the ,,ft hack paled next to the prosecution's real trump card3 ,the ,european ,organisation for the ,research and ,treatment of ,cancer in ,brussels4 ,they had been left with a sterling#ajjjj phone bill as a result of a scanner ,wandii left on its machine1#e the court was told4 ,the scanner had left a trail of #ejjjj calls1 all documented on a #ihj-page phone bill4 ,the scanner resulted in the system going down for a day1 ,,eortc information systems project manager ,vincent ,piedboeuf1 told the jury4 ,he went on to explain that the centre needed its system to run #bd hours a day1 so surgeons could register patients4 ,the centre's database was the focal point for pharmaceutical companies1 doctors and research centres--all coordinating their efforts in fighting the disease4 ,for the media1 the case was headline heaven4 ,teenage computer hacker caused worldwide chaos' the ,daily ,telegraph screamed across page one4 ,on page three1 the ,daily ,mail jumped in with ,teenage hacker caused chaos for kicks'4 ,even ,the ,times waded into the fray4 ,smaller1 regional newspapers pulled the story across the countryside to the far reaches of the ,british ,isles4 ,the ,herald in ,glasgow told its readers ,teenage hacker ran up sterling#ajjjj telephone bill'4 ,across the ,irish ,sea1 the ,irish ,times caused a splash with its headline1 ,teenage hacker broke ,,ec computer security'4 ,also in the first week of the case1 ,the ,guardian announced ,wandii had taken down the cancer centre database4 ,by the time ,the ,independent got hold of the story1 ,wandii hadn't just shut down the database1 he had been reading the patients' most intimate medical details3 ,teenager hacked into cancer patient files'4 ,not to be outdone1 on day four of the trial1 the ,daily ,mail had christened ,wandii as a computer genius'4 ,by day five it labelled him as a computer invader' who cost ,,ft sterling#bejjj'4 ,the list went on4 ,wandii1 the press announced1 had hacked the ,tokyo ,zoo and the ,white ,house4 ,it was difficult to tell which was the more serious offence4 ,wandii's defence team had a few tricks of its own4 ,ian ,mac,donald1 ,,qc1 junior counsel ,alistair ,kelman and solicitor ,deborah ,tripley put ,london ,university ,professor ,james ,griffith-,edwards1 an authoritative spokesman on addictive and compulsive behaviours1 on the stand as an expert witness4 ,the chairman of the ,national ,addiction ,centre1 the professor had been part of a team which wrote the ,world ,health ,organisation's definition of addiction4 ,no-one was going to question his qualifications4 ,the professor had examined ,wandii and he announced his conclusion to the court3 ,wandii was obsessed by computers1 he was unable to stop using them1 and his infatuation made it impossible for him to choose freely4 ,he repeated #ab times in police interviews1 ,i'm just addicted4 ,i wish ,i wasn't1' ,griffith-,edwards told the court4 ,wandii was highly intelligent1 but was unable to escape from the urge to beat computers' security systems at their own game4 ,the hacker was obsessed by the intellectual challenge4 ,this is the core 444 of what attracts the compulsive gambler1' the professor explained to the entranced jury of three women and nine men4 ,but ,wandii1 this obsessive1 addicted1 gifted young man1 had never had a girlfriend1 ,griffith-,edwards continued4 ,in fact1 he shyly admitted to the professor that he wouldn't even know how to ask a girl out4 ,he ,wandii became profoundly embarrassed when asked to talk about his own feelings4 ,he simply couldn't cope when asked what sort of person he was4'#f ,people in the jury edged forward in their seats1 concentrating intently on the distinguished professor4 ,and why wouldn't they8 ,this was amazing stuff4 ,this erudite man had delved inside the mind of the young man of bizarre contrasts4 ,a man so sophisticated that he could pry open computers belonging to some of ,britain's and ,europe's most prestigious institutions1 and yet at the same time so simple that he had no idea how to ask a girl on a date4 ,a man who was addicted not to booze1 smack or speed1 which the average person associates with addiction1 but to a computer--a machine most people associated with kids' games and word processing programs4 ,the defence proceeded to present vivid examples of ,wandii's addiction4 ,wandii's mother1 a single parent and lecturer in ,english1 had terrible trouble trying to get her son away from his computer and modem4 ,she tried hiding his modem4 ,he found it4 ,she tried again1 hiding it at his grandmother's house4 ,he burgled granny's home and retrieved it4 ,his mother tried to get at his computer4 ,he pushed her out of his attic room and down the stairs4 ,then he ran up a sterling#gjj phone bill as a result of his hacking4 ,his mother switched off the electricity at the mains4 ,her son reconnected it4 ,she installed a security calling-code on the phone to stop him calling out4 ,he broke it4 ,she worried he wouldn't go out and do normal teenage things4 ,he continued to stay up all night--and sometimes all day--hacking4 ,she returned from work to find him unconscious--sprawled across the living room floor and looking as though he was dead4 ,but it wasn't death1 only sheer exhaustion4 ,he hacked until he passed out1 then he woke up and hacked some more4 ,the stories of ,wandii's self-confessed addiction overwhelmed1 appalled and eventually engendered pity in the courtroom audience4 ,the media began calling him the hermit hacker'4 ,wandii's defence team couldn't fight the prosecution's evidence head-on1 so they took the prosecution's evidence and claimed it as their own4 ,they showed the jury that ,wandii hadn't just hacked the institutions named by the prosecution2 he had hacked far1 far more than that4 ,he didn't just hack a lot--he hacked too much4 ,most of all1 ,wandii's defence team gave the jury a reason to acquit the innocent-faced young man sitting before them4 ,during the trial1 the media focused on ,wandii1 but didn't completely ignore the other two hackers4 ,computer ,weekly hunted down where ,gandalf was working and laid it bare on the front page4 ,a member of the ,,uk's most notorious hacking gang'1 the journal announced1 had been working on software which would be used at ,barclay's ,bank4#g ,the implication was clear4 ,gandalf was a terrible security risk and should never be allowed to do any work for a financial institution4 ,the report irked the hackers1 but they tried to concentrate on preparing for their sentencing hearing4 ,from the beginning of their case1 the hackers had problems obtaining certain evidence4 ,pad and ,gandalf believed some of the material seized in the police raids would substantially help their case--such as messages from admins thanking them for pointing out security holes on their systems4 ,this material had not been included in the prosecution's brief4 ,when the defendants requested access to it1 they were refused access on the grounds that there was classified data on the optical disk4 ,they were told to go read the ,attorney-,general's guidelines on disclosure of information4 ,the evidence of the hackers' forays into military and government systems was jumbled in with their intrusions into computers such as benign ,,janet systems1 the defence team was told4 ,it would take too much time to separate the two4 ,eventually1 after some wrangling1 ,pad and ,gandalf were told they could inspect and copy material--provided it was done under the supervision of the police4 ,the hackers travelled to ,london1 to ,holborn police station1 to gather supporting evidence for their case4 ,however1 it soon became clear that this time-consuming exercise would be impossible to manage on an ongoing basis4 ,finally1 the ,crown ,prosecution ,service relented1 agreeing to release the material on disk to ,pad's solicitor1 on the proviso that no copies were made1 it did not leave the law office1 and it was returned at the end of the trial4 ,as ,wandii's case lurched from revelation to exaggeration1 ,pad and ,gandalf busily continued to prepare for their own sentencing hearing4 ,every day1 ,gandalf travelled from ,liverpool to ,manchester to meet with his friend4 ,they picked up a handful of newspapers at the local agent1 and then headed up to ,pad's lawyer's office4 ,after a quick scan for articles covering the hacking case1 the two hackers began sifting through the reluctantly released prosecution disks4 ,they read through the material on computer1 under the watchful eye of the law office's cashier--the most computer literate person in the firm4 ,after fifteen days in the ,southwark courtroom listening to fantastic stories from both sides about the boy sitting before them1 the jury in ,wandii's trial retired to consider the evidence4 ,before they left1 ,judge ,harris gave them a stern warning3 the argument that ,wandii was obsessed or dependent was not a defence against the charges4 ,it took the jurors only #ij minutes to reach a decision1 and when the verdict was read out the courtroom erupted with a wave of emotion4 ,not guilty4 ,on all counts4 ,wandii's mother burst into a huge smile and turned to her son1 who was also smiling4 ,and the defence team couldn't be happier4 ,kelman told journalists1 ,the jury felt this was a sledge hammer being used to crack a nut'4#h ,the prosecution was stunned and the law enforcement agents flabbergasted4 ,detective ,sergeant ,barry ,donovan found the verdict bizarre4 ,no other case in his #ba years in law enforcement had as much overwhelming evidence as this one1 yet the jury had let ,wandii walk4 ,and in a high-pitched frenzy rivalling its earlier hysteria1 the ,british media jumped all over the jury's decision4 ,hacker who ravaged systems walks free'1 an indignant ,guardian announced4 ,computer ,genius is cleared of hacking conspiracy'1 said the ,evening ,standard4 ,hacking addict acquitted'1 sniffed ,the ,times4 ,overpowering them all was the ,daily ,telegraph's page one3 ,teenage computer addict who hacked ,white ,house system is cleared'4 ,then came the media king-hit4 ,someone had leaked another story and it looked bad4 ,the report1 in the ,mail on ,sunday1 said that the three hackers had broken into a ,cray computer at the ,european ,centre for ,medium ,range ,weather ,forecasting at ,bracknell4 ,this computer1 likes dozens of others1 would normally have been relegated to the long list of unmentioned victims except for one thing4 ,the ,,us military used weather data from the centre for planning its attack on ,iraq in the ,gulf ,war4 ,the media report claimed that the attack had slowed down the ,cray's calculations1 thus endangering the whole ,desert ,storm operation4 ,the paper announced the hackers had been inadvertently jeopardising--almost fatally--the international effort against ,saddam ,hussein' and had put thousands of servicemen's lives at risk'4#i ,further1 the paper alleged that the ,,us ,state ,department was so incensed about ,british hackers' repeated break-ins disrupting ,pentagon defence planning that it had complained to ,prime ,minister ,john ,major4 ,the ,white ,house put the matter more bluntly than the ,state ,department3 ,stop your hackers or we will cut off ,european access to our satellite which provides trans-,atlantic data and voice telecommunications4 ,someone in ,britain seemed to be listening1 for less than twelve months later1 authorities had arrested all three hackers4 ,pad thought the allegations were rubbish4 ,he had been inside a ,,vax machine at the weather centre for a couple of hours one night1 but he had never touched a ,cray there4 ,he had certainly never done anything to slow the machine down4 ,no cracking programs1 no scanners1 nothing which might account for the delay described in the report4 ,even if he had been responsible1 he found it hard to believe the ,western allies' victory in the ,gulf ,war was determined by one computer in ,berkshire4 ,all of which gave him cause to wonder why the media was running this story now1 after ,wandii's acquittal but before he and ,gandalf were sentenced4 ,sour grapes1 perhaps8 ,for days1 columnists1 editorial and letter writers across ,britain pontificated on the meaning of the ,wandii's verdict and the validity of an addiction to hacking as a defence4 ,some urged computer owners to take responsibility for securing their own systems4 ,others called for tougher hacking laws4 ,a few echoed the view of ,the ,times1 which declared in an editorial1 a persistent car thief of the hacker's age would almost certainly have received a custodial sentence4 ,both crimes suggest disrespect for other people's property 444 the jurors may have failed to appreciate the seriousness of this kind of offence'4#aj ,the debate flew forward1 changing and growing1 and expanding beyond ,britain's borders4 ,in ,hong ,kong1 the ,south ,china ,morning ,post asked1 ,is this case evidence of a new social phenomenon1 with immature and susceptible minds being damaged through prolonged exposure to personal computers8' ,the paper described public fear that ,wandii's case would result in the green light for an army of computer-literate hooligans to pillage the world's databases at will1 pleading insanity when caught'4#aa ,by ,april ,fool's ,day #aiia1 more than two weeks after the end of the court case1 ,wandii had his own syndrome named after him1 courtesy of ,the ,guardian4 ,and while ,wandii1 his mother and his team of lawyers celebrated their victory quietly1 the media reported that the ,scotland ,yard detectives commiserated over their defeat1 which was considerably more serious than simply losing the ,wandii case4 ,the ,computer ,crimes ,unit was being reorganised'4 ,two experienced officers from the five-man unit were being moved out of the group4 ,the official line was that the rotations' were normal ,scotland ,yard procedure4 ,the unofficial word was that the ,wandii case had been a fiasco1 wasting time and money1 and the debacle was not to be repeated4 ,in the north1 a dark cloud gathered over ,pad and ,gandalf as their judgment day approached4 ,the ,wandii case verdict might have been cause for celebration among some in the computer underground1 but it brought little joy for the other two #hlgm hackers4 ,for ,pad and ,gandalf1 who had already pleaded guilty1 ,wandii's acquittal was a disaster4 ,on #ab ,may #aiic1 two months after ,wandii's acquittal1 ,boris ,kayser stood up at the ,bar table to put forward ,electron's case at the ,australian hacker's plea and sentencing hearing4 ,as he began to speak1 a hush fell over the ,victorian ,county ,court4 ,a tall1 burly man with a booming voice1 an imperious courtroom demeanour and his traditional black robes flowing behind him in an echo of his often emphatic gesticulations1 ,kayser was larger than life4 ,a master showman1 he knew how to play an audience of courtroom journalists sitting behind him as much as to the judge in front of him4 ,electron had already stood in the dock and pleaded guilty to fourteen charges1 as agreed with the ,,dpp's office4 ,in typical style1 ,kayser had interrupted the long process of the court clerk reading out each charge and asking whether ,electron would plead guilty or not guilty4 ,with an impatient wave of his hand1 ,kayser asked the judge to dispense with such formalities since his client would plead guilty to all the agreed charges at once4 ,the interjection was more of an announcement than a question4 ,the formalities of a plea having been summarily dealt with1 the question now at hand was sentencing4 ,electron wondered if he would be sent to prison4 ,despite lobbying from ,electron's lawyers1 the ,,dpp's office had refused to recommend a non-custodial sentence4 ,the best deal ,electron's lawyers had been able to arrange in exchange for turning ,crown witness was for the ,,dpp to remain silent on the issue of prison4 ,the judge would make up his mind without input from the ,,dpp4 ,electron fiddled nervously with his father's wedding ring1 which he wore on his right hand4 ,after his father's death1 ,electron's sister had begun taking things from the family home4 ,electron didn't care much because there were only two things he really wanted3 that ring and some of his father's paintings4 ,kayser called a handful of witnesses to support the case for a light sentence4 ,electron's grandmother from ,queensland4 ,the family friend who had driven ,electron to the hospital the day his father died4 ,electron's psychiatrist1 the eminent ,lester ,walton4 ,walton in particular highlighted the difference between the two possible paths forward3 prison1 which would certainly traumatise an already mentally unstable young man1 or freedom1 which offered ,electron a good chance of eventually establishing a normal life4 ,when ,kayser began summarising the case for a non-custodial sentence1 ,electron could hear the pack of journalists off to his side frantically scribbling notes4 ,he wanted to look at them1 but he was afraid the judge would see his ponytail1 carefully tucked into his neatly ironed white shirt1 if he turned sideways1 ,your ,honour1' ,kayser glanced backward slightly1 toward the court reporters1 as he warmed up1 my client lived in an artificial world of electronic pulses4' ,scratch1 scribble4 ,electron could almost predict1 within half a second1 when the journalists' pencils and pens would reach a crescendo of activity4 ,the ebb and flow of ,boris's boom was timed in the style of a ,,tv newsreader4 ,kayser said his client was addicted to the computer the way an alcoholic was obsessed with the bottle4 ,more scratching1 and lots of it4 ,this client1 ,kayser thundered1 had never sought to damage any system1 steal money or make a profit4 ,he was not malicious in the least1 he was merely playing a game4 ,i think1' ,electron's barrister concluded passionately1 but slowly enough for every journalist to get it down on paper1 that he should have been called ,little ,jack ,horner1 who put in his thumb1 pulled out a plumb and said1 ,what a good boy am ,i6' ,now came the wait4 ,the judge retired to his chambers to weigh up the pre-sentence report1 ,electron's family situation1 the fact that he had turned ,crown witness1 his offences--everything4 ,electron had given a nine-page written statement against ,phoenix to the prosecution4 ,if the ,phoenix case went to trial1 ,electron would be put on the stand to back up that statement4 ,in the month before ,electron returned to court to hear his sentence1 he thought about how he could have fought the case4 ,some of the charges were dubious4 ,in one case1 he had been charged with illegally accessing public information through a public account4 ,he had accessed the anonymous ,,ftp server at the ,university of ,helsinki to copy information about ,,des4 ,his first point of access had been through a hacked ,melbourne ,university account4 ,beat that charge1 ,electron's lawyer had told him1 and there's plenty more where that came from4 ,the ,,dpp had good pickings and could make up a new charge for another site4 ,still1 ,electron reasoned some of the ,crown's evidence would not have stood up under cross-examination4 ,when reporters from ,australia and overseas called ,,nasa headquarters for comment on the hacker-induced network shutdown1 the agency responded that it had no idea what they were talking about4 ,there had been no ,,nasa network shutdown4 ,a spokesman made inquiries and1 he assured the media1 ,,nasa was puzzled by the report4 ,sharon ,beskenis's statement didn't seem so watertight after all4 ,she was not1 it turned out1 even a ,,nasa employee but a contractor from ,lockheed4 ,during that month-long wait1 ,electron had trouble living down ,kayser's nursery-rhyme rendition in the courtroom4 ,when he rang friends1 they would open the conversation saying1 ,oh1 is that ,little ,jack ,horner8' ,they had all seen the nightly news1 featuring ,kayser and his client4 ,kayser had looked grave leaving court1 while ,electron1 wearing ,john ,lennon-style glasses with dark lenses and with his shoulder-length curls pulled tightly back in a ponytail1 had tried to smile at the camera crews4 ,but his small1 fine features and smattering of freckles disappeared under the harsh camera lights1 so much so that the black1 round spectacles seemed almost to float on a blank1 white surface4 ,the week after ,electron pleaded guilty in ,australia1 ,pad and ,gandalf sat side by side in ,london's ,southwark dock one last time4 ,for a day and a half1 beginning on #bj ,may #aiic1 the two hackers listened to their lawyers argue their defence4 ,yes1 our clients hacked computers1 they told the judge1 but the offences were nowhere near as serious as the prosecution wants to paint them4 ,the lawyers were fighting hard for one thing3 to keep ,pad and ,gandalf out of prison4 ,some of the hearing was tough going for the two hackers1 but not just because of any sense of foreboding caused by the judge's imminent decision4 ,the problem was that ,gandalf made ,pad laugh1 and it didn't look at all good to laugh in the middle of your sentencing hearing4 ,sitting next to ,gandalf for hours on end1 while lawyers from both sides butchered the technical aspects of computer hacking which the #hlgm hackers had spent years learning1 did it4 ,pad had only to give ,gandalf a quick sidelong glance and he quickly found himself swallowing and clearing his throat to keep from bursting into laughter4 ,gandalf's irrepressible irreverence was written all over his face4 ,the stern-faced ,judge ,harris could send them to jail1 but he still wouldn't understand4 ,like the gaggle of lawyers bickering at the front of the courtroom1 the judge was--and would always be--out of the loop4 ,none of them had any idea what was really going on inside the heads of the two hackers4 ,none of them could ever understand what hacking was all about--the thrill of stalking a quarry or of using your wits to outsmart so-called experts2 the pleasure of finally penetrating a much-desired machine and knowing that system is yours2 the deep anti-establishment streak which served as a well-centred ballast against the most violent storms washing in from the outside world2 and the camaraderie of the international hacking community on ,altos4 ,the lawyers could talk about it1 could put experts on the stand and psychological reports in the hands of the judge1 but none of them would ever really comprehend because they had never experienced it4 ,the rest of the courtroom was out of the loop1 and ,pad and ,gandalf stared out from the dock as if looking through a two-way mirror from a secret1 sealed room4 ,pad's big worry had been this third charge--the one which he faced alone4 ,at his plea hearing1 he had admitted to causing damage to a system owned by what was1 in #aiij1 called the ,polytechnic of ,central ,london4 ,he hadn't damaged the machine by1 say1 erasing files1 but the other side had claimed that the damages totalled about sterling#bej #jjj4 ,the hacker was sure there was zero chance the polytechnic had spent anything near that amount4 ,he had a reasonable idea of how long it would take someone to clean up his intrusions4 ,but if the prosecution could convince a judge to accept that figure1 the hacker might be looking at a long prison term4 ,pad had already braced himself for the possibility of prison4 ,his lawyer warned him before the sentencing date that there was a reasonable likelihood the two #hlgm hackers would be sent down4 ,after the ,wandii case1 the public pressure to correct' a wrong' decision by the ,wandii jury was enormous4 ,the police had described ,wandii's acquittal as a licence to hack'--and ,the ,times1 had run the statement4#ab ,it was likely the judge1 who had presided over ,wandii's trial1 would want to send a loud and clear message to the hacking community4 ,pad thought that perhaps1 if he and ,gandalf had pleaded not guilty alongside ,wandii1 they would have been acquitted4 ,but there was no way ,pad would have subjected himself to the kind of public humiliation ,wandii went through during the addicted to computers' evidence4 ,the media appeared to want to paint the three hackers as pallid1 scrawny1 socially inept1 geeky geniuses1 and to a large degree ,wandii's lawyers had worked off this desire4 ,pad didn't mind being viewed as highly intelligent1 but he wasn't a geek4 ,he had a casual girlfriend4 ,he went out dancing with friends or to hear bands in ,manchester's thriving alternative music scene4 ,he worked out his upper body with weights at home4 ,shy--yes4 ,a geek--no4 ,could ,pad have made a case for being addicted to hacking8 ,yes1 although he never believed that he had been4 ,completely enthralled1 entirely entranced8 ,maybe4 ,suffering from a passing obsession8 ,perhaps4 ,but addicted8 ,no1 he didn't think so4 ,besides1 who knew for sure if a defence of addiction could have saved him from the prosecution's claim anyway8 ,exactly where the quarter of a million pound claim came from in the first place was a mystery to ,pad4 ,the police had just said it to him1 as if it was fact1 in the police interview4 ,pad hadn't seen any proof1 but that hadn't stopped him from spending a great deal of time feeling very stressed about how the judge would view the matter4 ,the only answer seemed to be some good1 independent technical advice4 ,at the request of both ,pad and ,gandalf's lawyers1 ,dr ,peter ,mills1 of ,manchester ,university1 and ,dr ,russell ,lloyd1 of ,london ,business ,school1 had examined a large amount of technical evidence presented in the prosecution's papers4 ,in an independent report running to more than #bc pages1 the experts stated that the hackers had caused less havoc than the prosecution alleged4 ,in addition1 ,pad's solicitor asked ,dr ,mills to specifically review1 in a separate report1 the evidence supporting the prosecution's large damage claim4 ,dr ,mills stated that one of the police expert witnesses1 a ,british ,telecom employee1 had said that ,digital recommended a full rebuild of the system at the earliest possible opportunity--and at considerable cost4 ,however1 the ,,bt expert had not stated that the cost was sterling#bejjjj nor even mentioned if the cost quote which had been given had actually been accepted4 ,in fact1 ,dr ,mills concluded that there was no supporting evidence at all for the quarter of a million pound claim4 ,not only that1 but any test of reason based on the evidence provided by the prosecution showed the claim to be completely ridiculous4 ,in a separate report1 ,dr ,mills' stated that3 i7 ,the machine concerned was a ,vax #fcbj1 this is quite a powerful mainframe' system and could support several hundreds of users4 ii7 ,that a full dump of files takes #f tapes1 however since the type of tape is not specified this gives no real indication of the size of the filesystem4 ,a tape could vary from #j4b ,gigabytes to #b4e ,gigabytes4 iii7 ,the machine was down for three days4 ,with this brief information it is difficult to give an accurate cost for restoring the machine1 however an over estimate would be3 i7 ,time spent in restoring the system1 #aj man days at sterling#cjj per day2 sterling#cjjj4 ii7 ,lost time by users1 #cj man days at sterling#cjj per day2 sterling#ijjj4 ,the total cost in my opinion is unlikely to be higher than sterling#abjjj and this itself is probably a rather high estimate4 ,i certainly cannot see how a figure of sterling#bejjjj could be justified4 ,it looked to ,pad that the prosecution's claim was not for damage at all4 ,it was for properly securing the system--an entirely rebuilt system4 ,it seemed to him that the police were trying to put the cost of securing the polytechnic's entire computer network onto the shoulders of one hacker--and to call it damages4 ,in fact1 ,pad discovered1 the polytechnic had never actually even spent the sterling#bejjjj4 ,pad was hopeful1 but he was also angry4 ,all along1 the police had been threatening him with this huge damage bill4 ,he had tossed and turned in his bed at night worrying about it4 ,and1 in the end1 the figure put forward for so long as fact was nothing but an outrageous claim based on not a single shred of solid evidence4 ,using ,dr ,mills's report1 ,pad's barrister1 ,mukhtar ,hussain1 ,,qc1 negotiated privately with the prosecution barrister1 who finally relented and agreed to reduce the damage estimate to sterling#aejjj4 ,it was1 in ,pad's view1 still far too high1 but it was much better than sterling#bejjjj4 ,he was in no mind to look a gift horse in the mouth4 ,judge ,harris accepted the revised damage estimate4 ,the prosecution may have lost ground on the damage bill1 but it wasn't giving up the fight4 ,these two hackers1 ,james ,richardson told the court and journalists during the two-day sentencing hearing1 had hacked into some #ajjjj computer systems around the world4 ,they were inside machines or networks in at least fifteen countries4 ,russia4 ,india4 ,france4 ,norway4 ,germany4 ,the ,,us4 ,canada4 ,belgium4 ,sweden4 ,italy4 ,taiwan4 ,singapore4 ,iceland4 ,australia4 ,officers on the case said the list of the hackers' targets read like an atlas'1 ,richardson told the court4 ,pad listened to the list4 ,it sounded about right4 ,what didn't sound right were the allegations that he or ,gandalf had crashed ,sweden's telephone network by running an ,x4#be scanner over its packet network4 ,the crash had forced a ,swedish government minister to apologise on television4 ,the police said the minister did not identify the true cause of the problem--the ,british hackers--in his public apology4 ,pad had no idea what they were talking about4 ,he hadn't done anything like that to the ,swedish phone system1 and as far as he knew1 neither had ,gandalf4 ,something else didn't sound right4 ,richardson told the court that in total1 the two hackers had racked up at least sterling#bejjj in phone bills for unsuspecting legitimate customers1 and caused damage' to systems which was very conservatively estimated at almost sterling#abcjjj4 ,where were these guys getting these numbers from8 ,pad marvelled at their cheek4 ,he had been through the evidence with a fine-toothed comb1 yet he had not seen one single bill showing what a site had actually paid to repair damage' caused by the hackers4 ,the figures tossed around by the police and the prosecution weren't real bills2 they weren't cast in iron4 ,finally1 on ,friday #ba ,may1 after all the evidence had been presented1 the judge adjourned the court to consider sentencing4 ,when he returned to the bench fifteen minutes later1 ,pad knew what was going to happen from the judge's face4 ,to the hacker1 the expression said3 ,i am going to give you everything that ,wandii should have got4 ,judge ,harris echoed ,the ,times's sentiments when he told the two defendants1 ,if your passion had been cars rather than computers1 we would have called your conduct delinquent1 and ,i don't shrink from the analogy of describing what you were doing as intellectual joyriding4 ,hacking is not harmless4 ,computers now form a central role in our lives4 ,some1 providing emergency services1 depend on their computers to deliver those services4'#ac ,hackers needed to be given a clear signal that computer crime will not and cannot be tolerated'1 the judge said1 adding that he had thought long and hard before handing down sentence4 ,he accepted that neither hacker had intended to cause damage1 but it was imperative to protect society's computer systems and he would be failing in his public duty if he didn't sentence the two hackers to a prison term of six months4 ,judge ,harris told the hackers that he had chosen a custodial sentence1 both to penalise you for what you have done and for the losses caused1 and to deter others who might be similarly tempted'4 ,this was the show trial1 not ,wandii's case1 ,pad thought as the court officers led him and ,gandalf out of the dock1 down to the prisoner's lift behind the courtroom and into a jail cell4 ,less than two weeks after ,pad and ,gandalf were sentenced1 ,electron was back in the ,victorian ,county ,court to discover his own fate4 ,as he stood in the dock on #c ,june #aiic he felt numb1 as emotionally removed from the scene as ,meursault in ,camus' ,l'etranger4 ,he believed he was handling the stress pretty well until he experienced tunnel vision while watching the judge read his penalty4 ,he perused the room but saw neither ,phoenix nor ,nom4 ,when ,judge ,anthony ,smith summarised the charges1 he seemed to have a special interest in count number #ac--the ,zardoz charge4 ,a few minutes into reading the sentence1 the judge said1 ,in my view1 a custodial sentence is appropriate for each of the offences constituted by the #abth1 #acth and #adth counts'4 ,they were the knowingly concerned' charges1 with ,phoenix1 involving ,,nasa1 ,,llnl and ,,csiro4 ,electron looked around the courtroom4 ,people turned back to stare at him4 ,their eyes said1 ,you are going to prison'4 ,i formed the view that a custodial sentence is appropriate in respect of each of these offences because of the seriousness of them1' ,judge ,smith noted1 and having regard to the need to demonstrate that the community will not tolerate this type of offence4 ,our society today is 444 increasingly 444 dependent upon the use of computer technology4 ,conduct of the kind in which you engaged poses a threat to the usefulness of that technology 444 ,it is incumbent upon the courts 444 to see to it that the sentences they impose reflect the gravity of this kind of criminality4 ,on each of ,counts #ab1 #ac and #ad1 you are convicted and you are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of six months 444 each 444 to be concurrent4' ,the judge paused1 then continued1 ,and 444 ,i direct1 by order1 that you be released forthwith upon your giving security by recognisance 444 in the sum of #ejj 444 ,you will not be required to serve the terms of imprisonment imposed1 provided you are of good behaviour for the ensuing six months4' ,he then ordered ,electron to complete #cjj hours of community service1 and to submit to psychiatric assessment and treatment4 ,electron breathed a sigh of relief4 ,when outlining the mitigating circumstances which led to suspension of the jail sentence1 ,judge ,smith described ,electron as being addicted to using his computer in much the same way as an alcoholic becomes addicted to the bottle'4 ,boris ,kayser had used the analogy in the sentencing hearing1 perhaps for the benefit of the media1 but the judge had obviously been swayed by his view4 ,when court adjourned1 ,electron left the dock and shook hands with his lawyers4 ,after three years1 he was almost free of his court problems4 ,there was only one possible reason he might need to return to court4 ,if ,phoenix fought out his case in a full criminal trial1 the ,,dpp would put ,electron on the stand to testify against him4 ,it would be an ugly scene4 ,the inmates of ,,hm ,prison ,kirkham1 on the north-west coast of ,england1 near ,preston1 had heard all about ,pad and ,gandalf by the time they arrived4 ,they greeted the hackers by name4 ,they'd seen the reports on telly1 especially about how ,gandalf had hacked ,,nasa--complete with footage of the space shuttle taking off4 ,some ,,tv reporter's idea of subtle irony--,two hackers were sent down today' as the space shuttle went up4 ,kirkham was far better than ,brixton1 where the hackers had spent the first days of their sentence while awaiting transfer4 ,brixton was what ,pad always envisioned prison would look like1 with floors of barred cells facing onto an open centre and prisoners only allowed out of their cells for scheduled events such as time in the yard4 ,it was a place where hard-core criminals lived4 ,fortunately1 ,pad and ,gandalf had been placed in the same cell while they waited to be assigned to their final destination4 ,after ten days inside ,brixton ,pad and ,gandalf were led from their cell1 handcuffed and put in a coach heading toward the windy west coast4 ,during the drive1 ,pad kept looking down at his hand1 locked in shiny steel to ,gandalf's hand1 then he looked back up again at his fellow hacker4 ,clearing his throat and turning away from ,gandalf's difficult grin--his friend now on the edge of laughing himself--,pad struggled4 ,he tried to hold down the muscles of his face1 to pull them back from laughter4 ,a minimum security prison holding up to #fcb prisoners1 ,kirkham looked vaguely like a ,world ,war ,,ii ,,raf base with a large collection of free-standing buildings around the grounds4 ,there were no real walls1 just a small wire fence which ,pad soon learned prisoners routinely jumped when the place started to get to them4 ,for a prison1 ,kirkham was pretty good4 ,there was a duck pond1 a bowling green1 a sort of mini-cinema which showed films in the early evenings1 eight pay phones1 a football field1 a cricket pavilion and1 best of all1 lots of fields4 ,prisoners could have visits on weekday afternoons between #a4aj and #c4dj1 or on the weekend4 ,luck smiled on the two hackers4 ,they were assigned to the same billet and1 since none of the other prisoners objected1 they became room-mates4 ,since they were sentenced in ,may1 they would serve their time during summer4 ,if they were of good behaviour' and didn't get into trouble with other prisoners1 they would be out in three months4 ,like any prison1 ,kirkham had its share of prisoners who didn't get along with each other4 ,mostly1 prisoners wanted to know what you were in for and1 more particularly1 if you had been convicted of a sex crime4 ,they didn't like sex crime offenders and ,pad heard about a pack of ,kirkham prisoners who dragged one of their own1 screaming1 to a tree1 where they tried to hang him for being a suspected rapist4 ,in fact1 the prisoner hadn't been convicted of anything like rape4 ,he had simply refused to pay his poll tax4 ,fortunately for ,pad and ,gandalf1 everyone else in ,kirkham knew why they were there4 ,at the end of their first week they returned to their room one afternoon to find a sign painted above their door4 ,it said1 ,,nasa ,,hq'4 ,the other minimum security prisoners understood hacking--and they had all sorts of ideas about how you could make money from it4 ,most of the prisoners in ,kirkham were in for petty theft1 credit card fraud1 and other small-time crimes4 ,there was also a phreaker1 who arrived the same day as ,pad and ,gandalf4 ,he landed eight months in prison--two more than the #hlgm hackers--and ,pad wondered what kind of message that sent the underground4 ,despite their best efforts1 the #hlgm twosome didn't fit quite the prison mould4 ,in the evenings1 other prisoners spent their free time shooting pool or taking drugs4 ,in the bedroom down the hall1 ,gandalf lounged on his bed studying a book on ,,vms internals4 ,pad read a computer magazine and listened to some indie music--often his ,babes in ,toyland' tape4 ,in a parody of prison movies1 the two hackers marked off their days inside the prison with cross-hatched lines on their bedroom wall--four marks1 then a diagonal line through them4 ,they wrote other things on the walls too4 ,the long1 light-filled days of summer flowed one into the other1 as ,pad and ,gandalf fell into the rhythm of the prison4 ,the morning check-in at #h4cj to make sure none of the prisoners had gone walkabout4 ,the dash across the bowling green for a breakfast of beans1 bacon1 eggs1 toast and sausage4 ,the walk to the greenhouses where the two hackers had been assigned for work detail4 ,the work wasn't hard4 ,a little digging in the pots4 ,weeding around the baby lettuce heads1 watering the green peppers and transplanting tomato seedlings4 ,when the greenhouses became too warm by late morning1 ,pad and ,gandalf wandered outside for a bit of air4 ,they often talked about girls1 cracking crude1 boyish jokes about women and occasionally discussing their girlfriends more seriously4 ,as the heat settled in1 they sat down1 lounging against the side of the greenhouse4 ,after lunch1 followed by more time in the greenhouse1 ,pad and ,gandalf sometimes went off for walks in the fields surrounding the prison4 ,first the football field1 then the paddocks dotted with cows beyond it4 ,pad was a likeable fellow1 largely because of his easygoing style and relaxed sense of humour4 ,but liking him wasn't the same as knowing him1 and the humour often deflected deeper probing into his personality4 ,but ,gandalf knew him1 understood him4 ,everything was so easy with ,gandalf4 ,during the long1 sunny walks1 the conversation flowed as easily as the light breeze through the grass4 ,as they wandered in the fields1 ,pad often wore his denim jacket4 ,most of the clothes on offer from the prison clothing office were drab blue1 but ,pad had lucked onto this wonderful1 cool denim jacket which he took to wearing all the time4 ,walking for hours on end along the perimeters of the prison grounds1 ,pad saw how easy it would be to escape1 but in the end there didn't seem to be much point4 ,they way he saw it1 the police would just catch you and put you back in again4 ,then you'd have to serve extra time4 ,once a week1 ,pad's parents came to visit him1 but the few precious hours of visiting time were more for his parents' benefit than his own4 ,he reassured them that he was ,,ok1 and when they looked him in the face and saw it was true1 they stopped worrying quite so much4 ,they brought him news from home1 including the fact that his computer equipment had been returned by one of the police who had been in the original raid4 ,the officer asked ,pad's mother how the hacker was doing in prison4 ,very well indeed1' she told him4 ,prison's not nearly so bad as he thought4' ,the officer's face crumpled into a disappointed frown4 ,he seemed to be looking for news that ,pad was suffering nothing but misery4 ,at the end of almost three months1 with faces well tanned from walking in the meadows1 ,pad and ,gandalf walked free4 ,to the casual witness sitting nearby in the courtroom1 the tension between ,phoenix's mother and father was almost palpable4 ,they were not sitting near each other but that didn't mitigate the silent hostility which rose through the air like steam4 ,phoenix's divorced parents provided a stark contrast to ,nom's adopted parents1 an older1 suburban couple who were very much married4 ,on ,wednesday1 #be ,august #aiic ,phoenix and ,nom pleaded guilty to fifteen and two charges respectively4 ,the combined weight of the prosecution's evidence1 the risk and cost of running a full trial and the need to get on with their lives had pushed them over the edge4 ,electron didn't need to come to court to give evidence4 ,at the plea hearing1 which ran over to the next day1 ,phoenix's lawyer1 ,dyson ,hore-,lacy1 spent considerable time sketching the messy divorce of his client's parents for the benefit of the judge4 ,suggesting ,phoenix retreated into his computer during the bitter separation and divorce was the best chance of getting him off a prison term4 ,most of all1 the defence presented ,phoenix as a young man who had strayed off the correct path in life but was now back on track--holding down a job and having a life4 ,the ,,dpp had gone in hard against ,phoenix4 ,they seemed to want a jail term badly and they doggedly presented ,phoenix as an arrogant braggart4 ,the court heard a tape-recording of ,phoenix ringing up security guru ,edward ,de,hart of the ,computer ,emergency ,response ,team at ,carnegie ,mellon ,university to brag about a security exploit4 ,phoenix told ,de,hart to get onto his computer and then proceeded to walk him step by step through the passwd -f' security bug4 ,ironically1 it was ,electron who had discovered that security hole and taught it to ,phoenix--a fact ,phoenix didn't seem to want to mention to ,de,hart4 ,the head of the ,,afp's ,southern ,region ,computer ,crimes ,unit1 ,detective ,sergeant ,ken ,day was in court that day4 ,there was no way he was going to miss this4 ,the same witness noting the tension between ,phoenix's parents might also have perceived an undercurrent of hostility between ,day and ,phoenix--an undercurrent which did not seem to exist between ,day and either of the other ,realm hackers4 ,day1 a short1 careful man who gave off an air of bottled intensity1 seemed to have an acute dislike for ,phoenix4 ,by all observations the feeling was mutual4 ,a cool-headed professional1 ,day would never say anything in public to express the dislike--that was not his style4 ,his dislike was only indicated by a slight tightness in the muscles of an otherwise unreadable face4 ,on #f ,october #aiic1 ,phoenix and ,nom stood side by side in the dock for sentencing4 ,wearing a stern expression1 ,judge ,smith began by detailing both the hackers' charges and the origin of ,the ,realm4 ,but after the summary1 the judge saved his harshest rebuke for ,phoenix4 ,there is nothing 444 to admire about your conduct and every reason why it should be roundly condemned4 ,you pointed out weaknesses to some of the system administrators 444 but this was more a display of arrogance and a demonstration of what you thought was your superiority rather than an act of altruism on your part4 ,you 444 bragged about what you had done or were going to do 444 ,your conduct revealed 444 arrogance on your part1 open defiance1 and an intention to the beat the system4 ,you did cause havoc for a time within the various targeted systems4' ,although the judge appeared firm in his views while passing sentence1 behind the scenes he had agonised greatly over his decision4 ,he had attempted to balance what he saw as the need for deterrence1 the creation of a precedence for sentencing hacking cases in ,australia1 and the individual aspects of this case4 ,finally1 after sifting through the arguments again and again1 he had reached a decision4 ,i have no doubt that some sections of our community would regard anything than a custodial sentence as less than appropriate4 ,i share that view4 ,but after much reflection 444 ,i have concluded that an immediate term of imprisonment is unnecessary4' ,relief rolled across the faces of the hackers' friends and relatives as the judge ordered ,phoenix to complete #ejj hours of community service work over two years and assigned him a #ajjj twelve-month good behaviour bond4 ,he gave ,nom #bjj hours1 and a #ejj1 six-month bond for good behaviour4 ,as ,phoenix was leaving the courtroom1 a tall1 skinny young man1 loped down the aisle towards him4 ,congratulations1' the stranger said1 his long hair dangling in delicate curls around his shoulders4 ,thanks1' ,phoenix answered1 combing his memory for the boyish face which couldn't be any older than his own4 ,do ,i know you8' ,sort of1' the stranger answered4 ,i'm ,mendax4 ,i'm about to go through what you did1 but worse4' ,,chapter #h -- ,the ,international ,subversives4 ,all around2 an eerie sound4 -- from ,maralinga'1 #aj1 #i1 #h1 #g1 #f1 #e1 #d1 #c1 #b1 #a4 ,prime ,suspect rang ,mendax1 offering an adventure4 ,he had discovered a strange system called ,,nmelh#a 7pronounced ,n-,melly-,h-#a7 and it was time to go exploring4 ,he read off the dial-up numbers1 found in a list of modem phone numbers on another hacked system4 ,mendax looked at the scrap of paper in his hand1 thinking about the name of the computer system4 ,the ,n' stood for ,northern ,telecom1 a ,canadian company with annual sales of #h billion4 ,nor,tel1 as the company was known1 sold thousands of highly sophisticated switches and other telephone exchange equipment to some of the world's largest phone companies4 ,the ,melly' undoubtedly referred to the fact that the system was in ,melbourne4 ,as for the ,h-#a'1 well1 that was anyone's guess1 but ,mendax figured it probably stood for host-#a'--meaning computer site number one4 ,prime ,suspect had stirred ,mendax's interest4 ,mendax had spent hours experimenting with commands inside the computers which controlled telephone exchanges4 ,in the end1 those forays were all just guesswork--trial and error learning1 at considerable risk of discovery4 ,unlike making a mistake inside a single computer1 mis-guessing a command inside a telephone exchange in downtown ,sydney or ,melbourne could take down a whole prefix--#ajjjj or more phone lines--and cause instant havoc4 ,this was exactly what the ,international ,subversives didn't want to do4 ,the three ,,is hackers--,mendax1 ,prime ,suspect and ,trax--had seen what happened to the visible members of the computer underground in ,england and in ,australia4 ,the ,,is hackers had three very good reasons to keep their activities quiet4 ,phoenix4 ,nom4 ,and ,electron4 ,but1 ,mendax thought1 what if you could learn about how to manipulate a million-dollar telephone exchange by reading the manufacturer's technical documentation8 ,how high was the chance that those documents1 which weren't available to the public1 were stored inside ,nor,tel's computer network8 ,better still1 what if he could find ,nor,tel's original source code--the software designed to control specific telephone switches1 such as the ,,dms-#ajj model4 ,that code might be sitting on a computer hooked into the worldwide ,nor,tel network4 ,a hacker with access could insert his own backdoor--a hidden security flaw--before the company sent out software to its customers4 ,with a good technical understanding of how ,nor,tel's equipment worked1 combined with a backdoor installed in every piece of software shipped with a particular product1 you could have control over every new ,nor,tel ,,dms telephone switch installed from ,boston to ,bahrain4 ,what power6 ,mendax thought1 what if you you could turn off #ajjjj phones in ,rio de ,janeiro1 or give #ejjj ,new ,yorkers free calls one afternoon1 or listen into private telephone conversations in ,brisbane4 ,the telecommunications world would be your oyster4 ,like their predecessors1 the three ,,is hackers had started out in the ,melbourne ,,bbs scene4 ,mendax met ,trax on ,electric ,dreams in about #aihh1 and ,prime ,suspect on ,megaworks1 where he used the handle ,control ,reset1 not long after that4 ,when he set up his own ,,bbs at his home in ,tecoma1 a hilly suburb so far out of ,melbourne that it was practically in forest1 he invited both hackers to visit ,a ,cute ,paranoia' whenever they could get through on the single phone line4 ,visiting on ,mendax's ,,bbs suited both hackers1 for it was more private than other ,b,b,ses4 ,eventually they exchanged home telephone numbers1 but only to talk modem-to-modem4 ,for months1 they would ring each other up and type on their computer screens to each other--never having heard the sound of the other person's voice4 ,finally1 late in #aiij1 the nineteen-year-old ,mendax called up the #bd-year-old ,trax for a voice chat4 ,in early #aiia1 ,mendax and ,prime ,suspect1 aged seventeen1 also began speaking in voice on the phone4 ,trax seemed slightly eccentric1 and possibly suffered from some sort of anxiety disorder4 ,he refused to travel to the city1 and he once made reference to seeing a psychiatrist4 ,but ,mendax usually found the most interesting people were a little unusual1 and ,trax was both4 ,mendax and ,trax discovered they had a few things in common4 ,both came from poor but educated families1 and both lived in the outer suburbs4 ,however1 they had very different childhoods4 ,trax's parents migrated to ,australia from ,europe4 ,both his father1 a retired computer technician1 and his mother spoke with a ,german accent4 ,trax's father was very much the head of the household1 and ,trax was his only son4 ,by contrast1 by the time he was fifteen ,mendax had lived in a dozen different places including ,perth1 ,magnetic ,island1 ,brisbane1 ,townsville1 ,sydney1 the ,adelaide ,hills1 and a string of coastal towns in northern ,new ,south ,wales and ,western ,australia4 ,in fifteen years he had enrolled in at least as many different schools4 ,his mother had left her ,queensland home at age seventeen1 after saving enough money from selling her paintings to buy a motorcycle1 a tent and a road map of ,australia4 ,waving goodbye to her stunned parents1 both academics1 she rode off into the sunset4 ,some #bjjj kilometres later1 she arrived in ,sydney and joined the thriving counter-culture community4 ,she worked as an artist and fell in love with a rebellious young man she met at an anti-,vietnam demonstration4 ,within a year of ,mendax's birth1 his mother's relationship with his father had ended4 ,when ,mendax was two1 she married a fellow artist4 ,what followed was many turbulent years1 moving from town to town as his parents explored the '#gjs left-wing1 bohemian subculture4 ,as a boy1 he was surrounded by artists4 ,his stepfather staged and directed plays and his mother did make-up1 costume and set design4 ,one night in ,adelaide1 when ,mendax was about four1 his mother and a friend were returning from a meeting of anti-nuclear protesters4 ,the friend claimed to have scientific evidence that the ,british had conducted high-yield1 above-ground nuclear tests at ,maralinga1 a desert area in north-west ,south ,australia4 ,a #aihd ,royal ,commission subsequently revealed that between #aiec and #aifc the ,british government had tested nuclear bombs at the site1 forcing more than #ejjj ,aborigines from their native lands4 ,in ,december #aiic1 after years of stalling1 the ,british government agreed to pay sterling#bj million toward cleaning up the more than #bjj square kilometres of contaminated lands4 ,back in #aifh1 however1 the ,menzies government had signed away ,britain's responsibility to clean up the site4 ,in the #aigjs1 the ,australian government was still in denial about exactly what had happened at ,maralinga4 ,as ,mendax's mother and her friend drove through an ,adelaide suburb carrying early evidence of the ,maralinga tragedy1 they noticed they were being followed by an unmarked car4 ,they tried to lose the tail1 without success4 ,the friend1 nervous1 said he had to get the data to an ,adelaide journalist before the police could stop him4 ,mendax's mother quickly slipped into a back lane and the friend leapt from the car4 ,she drove off1 taking the police tail with her4 ,the plain-clothed police pulled her over shortly after1 searched her car and demanded to know where her friend had gone and what had occurred at the meeting4 ,when she was less than helpful1 one officer told her1 ,you have a child out at #b in the morning4 ,i think you should get out of politics1 lady4 ,it could be said you were an unfit mother'4 ,a few days after this thinly veiled threat1 her friend showed up at ,mendax's mother's house1 covered in fading bruises4 ,he said the police had beaten him up1 then set him up by planting hash on him4 ,i'm getting out of politics1' he announced4 ,however1 she and her husband continued their involvement in theatre4 ,the young ,mendax never dreamed of running away to join the circus--he already lived the life of a travelling minstrel4 ,but although the actor-director was a good stepfather1 he was also an alcoholic4 ,not long after ,mendax's ninth birthday1 his parents separated and then divorced4 ,mendax's mother then entered a tempestuous relationship with an amateur musician4 ,mendax was frightened of the man1 whom he considered a manipulative and violent psychopath4 ,he had five different identities with plastic in his wallet to match4 ,his whole background was a fabrication1 right down to the country of his birth4 ,when the relationship ended1 the steady pattern of moving around the countryside began again1 but this journey had a very different flavour from the earlier happy-go-lucky odyssey4 ,this time1 ,mendax and his family were on the run from a physically abusive de facto4 ,finally1 after hiding under assumed names on both sides of the continent1 ,mendax and his family settled on the outskirts of ,melbourne4 ,mendax left home at seventeen because he had received a tip-off about an impending raid4 ,mendax wiped his disks1 burnt his print-outs and left4 ,a week later1 the ,victorian ,,cib turned up and searched his room1 but found nothing4 ,he married his girlfriend1 an intelligent but introverted and emotionally disturbed sixteen-year-old he had met through a mutual friend in a gifted children's program4 ,a year later they had a child4 ,mendax made many of his friends through the computer community4 ,he found ,trax easy to talk to and they often spent up to five hours on a single phone call4 ,prime ,suspect1 on the other hand1 was hard work on the phone4 ,quiet and introverted1 ,prime ,suspect always seemed to run out of conversation after five minutes4 ,mendax was himself naturally shy1 so their talks were often filled with long silences4 ,it wasn't that ,mendax didn't like ,prime ,suspect1 he did4 ,by the time the three hackers met in person at ,trax's home in mid-#aiia1 he considered ,prime ,suspect more than just a fellow hacker in the tight-knit ,,is circle4 ,mendax considered him a friend4 ,prime ,suspect was a boy of veneers4 ,to most of the world1 he appeared to be a studious year #ab student bound for university from his upper middle-class grammar school4 ,the all-boys school never expected less from its students and the possibility of attending a ,,tafe--a vocational college--was never discussed as an option4 ,university was the object4 ,any student who failed to make it was quietly swept under the carpet like some sort of distasteful food dropping4 ,prime ,suspect's own family situation did not mirror the veneer of respectability portrayed by his school4 ,his father1 a pharmacist1 and his mother1 a nurse1 had been in the midst of an acrimonious divorce battle when his father was diagnosed with terminal cancer4 ,in this bitter1 antagonistic environment1 the eight-year-old ,prime ,suspect was delivered to his father's bedside in hospice for a rushed few moments to bid him farewell4 ,through much of his childhood and adolescence1 ,prime ,suspect's mother remained bitter and angry about life1 and particularly her impoverished financial situation4 ,when he was eight1 ,prime ,suspect's older sister left home at sixteen1 moved to ,perth and refused to speak to her mother4 ,in some ways1 ,prime ,suspect felt he was expected be both child and de facto parent4 ,all of which made him grow up faster in some ways1 but remain immature in others4 ,prime ,suspect responded to the anger around him by retreating into his room4 ,when he bought his first computer1 an ,apple ,i,ie1 at age thirteen he found it better company than any of his relatives4 ,the computers at school didn't hold much interest for him1 since they weren't connected to the outside world via modem4 ,after reading about ,b,b,ses in the ,apple ,users' ,society newsletter1 he saved up for his own modem and soon began connecting into various ,b,b,ses4 ,school did1 however1 provide the opportunity to rebel1 albeit anonymously1 and he conducted extensive pranking campaigns4 ,few teachers suspected the quiet1 clean-cut boy and he was rarely caught4 ,nature had endowed ,prime ,suspect with the face of utter innocence4 ,tall and slender with brown curly hair1 his true character only showed in the elfish grin which sometimes passed briefly across his baby face4 ,teachers told his mother he was underachieving compared to his level of intelligence1 but had few complaints otherwise4 ,by year #aj1 he had become a serious hacker and was spending every available moment at his computer4 ,sometimes he skipped school1 and he often handed assignments in late4 ,he found it difficult to come up with ever more creative excuses and sometimes he imagined telling his teachers the truth4 ,sorry ,i didn't get that #bjjj-word paper done but ,i was knee-deep in ,,nasa networks last night4' ,the thought made him laugh4 ,he saw girls as a unwanted distraction from hacking4 ,sometimes1 after he chatted with a girl at a party1 his friends would later ask him why he hadn't asked her out4 ,prime ,suspect shrugged it off4 ,the real reason was that he would rather get home to his computer1 but he never discussed his hacking with anyone at school1 not even with ,mentat4 ,a friend of ,force's and occasional visitor to ,the ,realm1 ,mentat was two years ahead of ,prime ,suspect at school and in general couldn't be bothered talking to so junior a hacker as ,prime ,suspect4 ,the younger hacker didn't mind4 ,he had witnessed other hackers' indiscretions1 wanted no part of them and was happy to keep his hacking life private4 ,before the ,realm bust1 ,phoenix rang him up once at #b a4m4 suggesting that he and ,nom come over there and then4 ,woken by the call1 ,prime ,suspect's mother stood in the doorway to his bedroom1 remonstrating with him for letting his friends' call at such a late hour4 ,with ,phoenix goading him in one ear1 and his mother chewing him out in the other1 ,prime ,suspect decided the whole thing was a bad idea4 ,he said no thanks to ,phoenix1 and shut the door on his mother4 ,he did1 however1 talk to ,powerspike on the phone once in a while4 ,the older hacker's highly irreverent attitude and ,porky ,pig laugh appealed to him4 ,but other than those brief talks1 ,prime ,suspect avoided talking on the phone to people outside the ,international ,subversives1 especially when he and ,mendax moved into ever more sensitive military computers4 ,using a program called ,sycophant written by ,mendax1 the ,,is hackers had been conducting massive attacks on the ,,us military4 ,they divided up ,sycophant on eight attack machines1 often choosing university systems at places like the ,australian ,national ,university or the ,university of ,texas4 ,they pointed the eight machines at the targets and fired4 ,within six hours1 the eight machines had assaulted thousands of computers4 ,the hackers sometimes reaped #ajjjjj accounts each night4 ,using ,sycophant1 they essentially forced a cluster of ,unix machines in a computer network to attack the entire ,internet en masse4 ,and that was just the start of what they were into4 ,they had been in so many sites they often couldn't remember if they had actually hacked a particular computer4 ,the places they could recall read like a ,who's ,who of the ,american military-industrial complex4 ,the ,,us ,airforce #gth ,command ,group ,headquarters in the ,pentagon4 ,stanford ,research ,institute in ,california4 ,naval ,surface ,warfare ,center in ,virginia4 ,lockheed ,martin's ,tactical ,aircraft ,systems ,air ,force ,plant in ,texas4 ,unisys ,corporation in ,blue ,bell1 ,pennsylvania4 ,goddard ,space ,flight ,center1 ,,nasa4 ,motorola ,inc4 in ,illinois4 ,,trw ,inc4 in ,redondo ,beach1 ,california4 ,alcoa in ,pittsburgh4 ,panasonic ,corp in ,new ,jersey4 ,,us ,naval ,undersea ,warfare ,engineering ,station4 ,siemens-,nixdorf ,information ,systems in ,massachusetts4 ,securities ,industry ,automation ,corp in ,new ,york4 ,lawrence ,livermore ,national ,laboratory in ,california4 ,bell ,communications ,research1 ,new ,jersey4 ,xerox ,palo ,alto ,research ,center1 ,california4 ,as the ,,is hackers reached a level of sophistication beyond anything ,the ,realm had achieved1 they realised that progress carried considerable risk and began to withdraw completely from the broader ,australian hacking community4 ,soon they had drawn a tight circle around themselves4 ,they talked only to each other4 ,watching the ,realm hackers go down hadn't deterred the next generation of hackers4 ,it had only driven them further underground4 ,in the spring of #aiia1 ,prime ,suspect and ,mendax began a race to get root on the ,,us ,department of ,defense's ,network ,information ,center 7,,nic7 computer--potentially the most important computer on the ,internet4 ,as both hackers chatted amiably on-line one night1 on a ,melbourne ,university computer1 ,prime ,suspect worked quietly in another screen to penetrate ns4nic4ddn4mil1 a ,,us ,department of ,defense system closely linked to ,,nic4 ,he believed the sister system and ,,nic might trust' each other--a trust he could exploit to get into ,,nic4 ,and ,,nic did everything4 ,,nic assigned domain names--the 4com' or 4net' at the end of an email address--for the entire ,internet4 ,,nic also controlled the ,,us military's own internal defence data network1 known as ,,milnet4 ,,nic also published the communication protocol standards for all of the ,internet4 ,called ,r,f,cs 7,request for ,comments71 these technical specifications allowed one computer on the ,internet to talk to another4 ,the ,defense ,data ,network ,security ,bulletins1 the ,,us ,department of ,defense's equivalent of ,,cert advisories1 came from the ,,nic machine4 ,perhaps most importantly1 ,,nic controlled the reverse look-up service on the ,internet4 ,whenever someone connects to another site across the ,internet1 he or she typically types in the site name--say1 ariel4unimelb4edu4au at the ,university of ,melbourne4 ,the computer then translates the alphabetical name into a numerical address--the ,,ip address--in this case #abh4bej4bj4c4 ,all the computers on the ,internet need this ,,ip address to relay the packets of data onto the final destination computer4 ,,nic decided how ,internet computers would translate the alphabetical name into an ,,ip address1 and vice versa4 ,if you controlled ,,nic1 you had phenomenal power on the ,internet4 ,you could1 for example1 simply make ,australia disappear4 ,or you could turn it into ,brazil4 ,by pointing all ,internet addresses ending in 4au'--the designation for sites in ,australia--to ,brazil1 you could cut ,australia's part of the ,internet off from the rest of the world and send all ,australian ,internet traffic to ,brazil4 ,in fact1 by changing the delegation of all the domain names1 you could virtually stop the flow of information between all the countries on the ,internet4 ,the only way someone could circumvent this power was by typing in the full numerical ,,ip address instead of a proper alphabetical address4 ,but few people knew the up-to-twelve-digit ,,ip equivalent of their alphabetical addresses1 and fewer still actually used them4 ,controlling ,,nic offered other benefits as well4 ,control ,,nic1 and you owned a virtual pass-key into any computer on the ,internet which trusted' another4 ,and most machines trust at least one other system4 ,whenever one computer connects to another across the ,net1 both machines go through a special meet-and-greet process4 ,the receiving computer looks over the first machine and asks itself a few questions4 ,what's the name of the incoming machine8 ,is that name allowed to connect to me8 ,in what ways am ,i programmed to trust' that machine--to wave my normal security for connections from that system8 ,the receiving computer answers these questions based in large part on information provided by ,,nic4 ,all of which means that1 by controlling ,,nic1 you could make any computer on the ,net pose' as a machine trusted by a computer you might want to hack4 ,security often depended on a computer's name1 and ,,nic effectively controlled that name4 ,when ,prime ,suspect managed to get inside ,,nic's sister system1 he told ,mendax and gave him access to the computer4 ,each hacker then began his own attack on ,,nic4 ,when ,mendax finally got root on ,,nic1 the power was intoxicating4 ,prime ,suspect got root at the same time but using a different method4 ,they were both in4 ,inside ,,nic1 ,mendax began by inserting a backdoor--a method of getting back into the computer at a later date in case an admin repaired the security flaws the hackers had used to get into the machine4 ,from now on1 if he telnetted into the system's ,data ,defense ,network 7,,ddn7 information server and typed login #j' he would have instant1 invisible root access to ,,nic4 ,that step completed1 he looked around for interesting things to read4 ,one file held what appeared to be a list of satellite and microwave dish coordinates--longitude1 latitudes1 transponder frequencies4 ,such coordinates might in theory allow someone to build a complete map of communications devices which were used to move the ,,dod's computer data around the world4 ,mendax also penetrated ,,milnet's ,security ,coordination ,center1 which collected reports on every possible security incident on a ,,milnet computer4 ,those computers--largely ,,tops-#bjs made by ,,dec--contained good automatic security programs4 ,any number of out-of-the-ordinary events would trigger an automatic security report4 ,someone logging into a machine for too long4 ,a large number of failed login attempts1 suggesting password guessing4 ,two people logging into the same account at the same time4 ,alarm bells would go off and the local computer would immediately send a security violation report to the ,,milnet security centre1 where it would be added to the hot list'4 ,mendax flipped through page after page of ,,milnet's security reports on his screen4 ,most looked like nothing--,,milnet users accidentally stumbling over a security tripwire--but one notice from a ,,us military site in ,germany stood out4 ,it was not computer generated4 ,this was from a real human being4 ,the system admin reported that someone had been repeatedly trying to break into his or her machine1 and had eventually managed to get in4 ,the admin was trying1 without much luck1 to trace back the intruder's connection to its point of origin4 ,oddly1 it appeared to originate in another ,,milnet system4 ,riffling through other files1 ,mendax found mail confirming that the attack had indeed come from inside ,,milnet4 ,his eyes grew wide as he read on4 ,,us military hackers had broken into ,,milnet systems1 using them for target practice1 and no-one had bothered to tell the system admin at the target site4 ,mendax couldn't believe it4 ,the ,,us military was hacking its own computers4 ,this discovery led to another1 more disturbing1 thought4 ,if the ,,us military was hacking its own computers for practice1 what was it doing to other countries' computers8 ,as he quietly backed out of the system1 wiping away his footprints as he tip-toed away1 ,mendax thought about what he had seen4 ,he was deeply disturbed that any hacker would work for the ,,us military4 ,hackers1 he thought1 should be anarchists1 not hawks4 ,in early ,october #aiia1 ,mendax rang ,trax and gave him the dial-up and account details for ,,nmelh#a4 ,trax wasn't much of a hacker1 but ,mendax admired his phreaking talents4 ,trax was the father of phreaking in ,australia and ,trax's ,toolbox1 his guide to the art of phreaking1 was legendary4 ,mendax thought ,trax might find some interesting detailed information inside the ,nor,tel network on how to control telephone switches4 ,trax invented multi-frequency code phreaking4 ,by sending special tones--generated by his computer program--down the phone line1 he could control certain functions in the telephone exchange4 ,many hackers had learned how to make free phone calls by charging the cost to someone else or to calling cards1 but ,trax discovered how to make phone calls which weren't charged to anyone4 ,the calls weren't just free2 they were untraceable4 ,trax wrote #dh pages on his discovery and called it ,the ,australian ,phreakers ,manual ,volumes #a-g4 ,but as he added more and more to the manual1 he became worried what would happen if he released it in the underground1 so he decided he would only show it to the other two ,international ,subversive hackers4 ,he went on to publish ,the ,advanced ,phreaker's ,manual1#b a second edition of the manual1 in ,the ,international ,subversive1 the underground magazine edited by ,mendax3 ,an electronic magazine1 ,the ,international ,subversive had a simple editorial policy4 ,you could only have a copy of the magazine if you wrote an article'4 ,the policy was a good way of protecting against nappies--sloppy or inexperienced hackers who might accidentally draw police attention4 ,nappies also tended to abuse good phreaking and hacking techniques1 which might cause ,telecom to close up security holes4 ,the result was that ,,is had a circulation of just three people4 ,to a non-hacker1 ,,is looked like gobbledygook--the phone book made more interesting reading4 ,but to a member of the computer underground1 ,,is was a treasure map4 ,a good hacker could follow the trail of modem phone numbers and passwords1 then use the directions in ,,is to disappear through secret entrances into the labyrinth of forbidden computer networks4 ,armed with the magazine1 he could slither out of tight spots1 outwit system admins and find the treasure secreted in each computer system4 ,for ,prime ,suspect and ,mendax1 who were increasingly paranoid about line traces from the university modems they used as launchpads1 ,trax's phreaking skills were a gift from heaven4 ,trax made his great discovery by accident4 ,he was using a phone sprinter1 a simple computer program which automatically dialled a range of phone numbers looking for modems4 ,if he turned the volume up on his modem when his computer dialled what seemed to be a dead or non-existent number1 he sometimes heard a soft clicking noise after the disconnection message4 ,the noise sounded like faint heartbeats4 ,curious1 he experimented with these strange numbers and soon discovered they were disconnected lines which had not yet been reassigned4 ,he wondered how he could use these odd numbers4 ,after reading a document ,mendax had found in ,britain and uploaded to ,the ,devil's ,playground1 another ,,bbs1 ,trax had an idea4 ,the posting provided information about ,,ccitt #e signalling tones1 ,,ccitt being the international standard--the language spoken by telephone exchanges between countries4 ,when you make an international phone call from ,australia to the ,,us1 the call passes from the local telephone exchange to an international gateway exchange within ,australia4 ,from there1 it travels to an exchange in the ,,us4 ,the ,,ccitt signalling tones were the special tones the two international gateway exchanges used to communicate with each other4 ,telecom ,australia adapted a later version of this standard1 called ,r#b1 for use on its own domestic exchanges4 ,telecom called this new standard ,,mfc1 or multi-frequency code4 ,when1 say1 ,trax rang ,mendax1 his exchange asked ,mendax's to talk' to ,mendax's phone by using these tones4 ,mendax's exchange answered'1 perhaps saying ,mendax's phone was busy or disconnected4 ,the ,telecom-adapted tones--pairs of audio frequencies--did not exist in normal telephone keypads and you couldn't make them simply by punching keys on your household telephone4 ,trax wrote a program which allowed his ,amstrad computer to generate the special tones and send them down the phone line4 ,in an act many in the underground later considered to be a stroke of genius1 he began to map out exactly what each tone did4 ,it was a difficult task1 since one tone could mean several different things at each stage of the conversation' between two exchanges4 ,passionate about his new calling1 ,trax went trashing in ,telecom garbage bins1 where he found an ,,mfc register list--an invaluable piece of his puzzle4 ,using the list1 along with pieces of overseas phreaking files and a great deal of painstaking hands-on effort1 ,trax slowly learned the language of the ,australian telephone exchanges4 ,then he taught the language to his computer4 ,trax tried calling one of the heartbeat' phone numbers again4 ,he began playing his special1 computer-generated tones through an amplifier4 ,in simple terms1 he was able to fool other exchanges into thinking he was his local ,telecom exchange4 ,more accurately1 ,trax had made his exchange drop him into the outgoing signalling trunk that had been used to route to the disconnected phone number4 ,trax could now call out--anywhere--as if he was calling from a point halfway between his own phone and the disconnected number4 ,if he called a modem at ,melbourne ,university1 for instance1 and the line was being traced1 his home phone number would not show up on the trace records4 ,no-one would be charged for the call because ,trax's calls were ghosts in the phone system4 ,trax continued to refine his ability to manipulate both the telephone and the exchange4 ,he took his own telephone apart1 piece by piece1 countless times1 fiddling with the parts until he understood exactly how it worked4 ,within months1 he was able to do far more than just make free phone calls4 ,he could1 for instance1 make a line trace think that he had come from a specific telephone number4 ,he and ,mendax joked that if they called a hot' site they would use ,trax's technique to send the line trace--and the bill--back to one very special number4 ,the one belonging to the ,,afp's ,computer ,crime ,unit in ,melbourne4 ,all three ,,is hackers suspected the ,,afp was close on their heels4 ,roving through the ,canberra-based computer system belonging to the man who essentially ran the ,internet in ,australia1 ,geoff ,huston1 they watched the combined efforts of police and the ,australian ,academic and ,research ,network 7,,aarnet7 to trace them4 ,craig ,warren of ,deakin ,university had written to ,huston1 ,,aarnet technical manager1 about hacker attacks on university systems4 ,huston had forwarded a copy of the letter to ,peter ,elford1 who assisted ,huston in managing ,,aarnet4 ,the hackers broke into ,huston's system and also read the letter3 ,from ,g4,hustonaarnet4edu4au ,mon ,sep #bc #ji3dj3dc #aiia ,received3 from #aej4bjc4f4fg by jatz4aarnet4edu4au with ,,smtp id ,,aa#jjbfe 7#e4fe_/;,,ida-#a4c4e for pte#ijj72 ,mon1 #bc ,sep #ia #ji3dj3ci #ajjj ,date3 ,mon1 #bc ,sep #ia #ji3dj3ci #ajjj ,message-,id3 #iajibbbcdj4;,,aa#jjbfe;jatz4aarnet4edu4 au ,to3 pte#ijj;aarnet4edu4au ,from3 ,g4,hustonaarnet4edu4au ,subject3 ,re3 ,visitors log ,thursday ,night--,friday ,morning ,status3 ,,ro ,date3 ,sun1 #bb ,sep #ia #ai3bi3ac #ajjj ,from3 ,craig ,warren ,c4,warrendeakin4,,oz4,,au ,just to give you a little bit of an idea about what has been happening since we last spoke444 ,we have communicated with ,sgt ,ken ,day of the ,federal ,police about #ajj times in the last week4 ,together with our counterparts from ,warrnambool traces have been arranged on dial-in lines and on ,austpac lines for the capella4cc4deakin4,,oz4,,au terminal server which was left open to the world4 ,on ,friday afternoon we were able to trace a call back to a person in the ,warrnambool telephone district4 ,the police have this persons name4 ,we believe others are involved1 as we have seen up to #c people active at any one time4 ,it is suspected' students from ,,rmit and perhaps students from ,deakin are also involved4 ,when ,i left on ,friday night1 there was plenty of activity still and the police and ,telecom were tracking down another number4 ,tomorrow morning ,i will talk to all parties involved1 but it is likely we will have the names of at least #b or #c people that are involved4 ,we will probably shut down access of cappella' to ,a,a,r,net at this stage1 and let the police go about their business of prosecuting these people4 ,you will be pleased' 73-77 to know you have not been the only ones under attack4 ,i know of at least #b other sites in ,victoria that have had people attacking them4 ,one of them was ,telecom which helped get ,telecom involved6 ,i will brief you all in the next day or so as to what has happened4 ,regards1 ,craig ,the other' people were1 of course1 the ,,is hackers4 ,there is nothing like reading about your own hacking antics in some one's security mail4 ,mendax and ,prime ,suspect frequently visited ,,anu's computers to read the security mail there4 ,however1 universities were usually nothing special1 just jumping-off points and1 occasionally1 good sources of information on how close the ,,afp were to closing in on the ,,is hackers4 ,far more interesting to ,mendax were his initial forays into ,telecom's exchanges4 ,using a modem number ,prime ,suspect had found1 he dialled into what he suspected was ,telecom's ,lonsdale ,exchange in downtown ,melbourne4 ,when his modem connected to another one1 all he saw was a blank screen4 ,he tried a few basic commands which might give him help to understand the system3 ,login4 ,list4 ,attach4 ,the exchange's computer remained silent4 ,mendax ran a program he had written to fire off every recognised keyboard character--#bef of them--at another machine4 ,nothing again4 ,he then tried the break signal--the ,amiga key and the character ,b pressed simultaneously4 ,that got an answer of sorts4 3 ,he pulled up another of his hacking tools1 a program which dumped #bjj common commands to the other machine4 ,nothing4 ,finally1 he tried typing logout'4 ,that gave him an answer3 error1 not logged on ,ah1 thought ,mendax4 ,the command is logon' not login'4 3logon ,the ,telecom exchange answered3 username3' ,now all ,mendax had to do was figure out a username and password4 ,he knew that ,telecom used ,nor,tel equipment4 ,more than likely1 ,nor,tel staff were training ,telecom workers and would need access themselves4 ,if there were lots of ,nor,tel employees working on many different phone switches1 it would be difficult to pass on secure passwords to staff all the time4 ,nor,tel and ,telecom people would probably pick something easy and universal4 ,what password best fitted that description8 username3 nortel password3 nortel ,it worked4 ,unfortunately1 ,mendax didn't know which commands to use once he got into the machine1 and there was no on-line documentation to provide help4 ,the telephone switch had its own language1 unlike anything he had ever encountered before4 ,after hours of painstaking research1 ,mendax constructed a list of commands which would work on the exchange's computer4 ,the exchange appeared to control all the special six-digit phone numbers beginning with #ac1 such as those used for airline reservations or some pizza delivery services4 ,it was ,telecom's ,intelligent ,network' which did many specific tasks1 including routing calls to the nearest possible branch of the organisation being called4 ,mendax looked through the list of commands1 found ,,range'1 and recognised it as a command which would allow someone to select all the phone numbers in a certain range4 ,he selected a thousand numbers1 all with the prefix #fcd1 which he believed to be in ,telecom's ,queen ,street offices4 ,now1 to test a command4 ,mendax wanted something innocuous1 which wouldn't screw up the #ajjj lines permanently4 ,it was almost #g a4m4 and he needed to wrap things up before ,telecom employees began coming into work4 ,,ring' seemed harmless enough4 ,it might ring one of the numbers in the range after another--a process he could stop4 ,he typed the command in4 ,nothing happened4 ,then a few full stops began to slowly spread across his screen3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,,rung ,the system had just rung all #ajjj numbers at the same time4 ,one thousand phones ringing all at once4 ,what if some buttoned-down ,telecom engineer had driven to work early that morning to get some work done8 ,what if he had just settled down at his standard-issue metal ,telecom desk with a cup of bad instant coffee in a styrofoam cup when suddenly 444 every telephone in the skyscraper had rung out simultaneously8 ,how suspicious would that look8 ,mendax thought it was time to high-tail it out of there4 ,on his way out1 he disabled the logs for the modem line he came in on4 ,that way1 no-one would be able to see what he had been up to4 ,in fact1 he hoped no-one would know that anyone had even used the dial-up line at all4 ,prime ,suspect didn't think there was anything wrong with exploring the ,nor,tel computer system4 ,many computer sites posted warnings in the login screen about it being illegal to break into the system1 but the eighteen-year-old didn't consider himself an intruder4 ,in ,prime ,suspect's eyes1 intruder' suggested someone with ill intent--perhaps someone planning to do damage to the system--and he certainly had no ill intent4 ,he was just a visitor4 ,mendax logged into the ,,nmelh#a system by using the account ,prime ,suspect had given him1 and immediately looked around to see who else was on-line4 ,prime ,suspect and about nine other people1 only three of whom were actually doing something at their terminal4 ,prime ,suspect and ,mendax raced to get root on the system4 ,the ,,is hackers may not have been the type to brag about their conquests in the underground1 but each still had a competitive streak when it came to see who could get control over the system first4 ,there was no ill will1 just a little friendly competition between mates4 ,mendax poked around and realised the root directory1 which contained the password file1 was effectively world writable4 ,this was good news1 and with some quick manipulation he would be able to insert something into the root directory4 ,on a more secure system1 unprivileged users would not be able to do that4 ,mendax could also copy things from the directory on this site1 and change the names of subdirectories within the main root directory4 ,all these permissions were important1 for they would enable him to create a ,trojan4 ,named for the ,trojan horse which precipitated the fall of ,troy1 the ,trojan is a favoured approach with most computer hackers4 ,the hacker simply tricks a computer system or a user into thinking that a slightly altered file or directory--the ,trojan--is the legitimate one4 ,the ,trojan directory1 however1 contains false information to fool the computer into doing something the hacker wants4 ,alternatively1 the ,trojan might simply trick a legitimate user into giving away valuable information1 such as his user name and password4 ,mendax made a new directory and copied the contents of the legitimate ,,etc directory--where the password files were stored--into it4 ,the passwords were encrypted1 so there wasn't much sense trying to look at one since the hacker wouldn't be able to read it4 ,instead1 he selected a random legitimate user--call him ,joe--and deleted his password4 ,with no password1 ,mendax would be able to login as ,joe without any problems4 ,however1 ,joe was just an average user4 ,he didn't have root1 which is what ,mendax wanted4 ,but like every other user on the system1 ,joe had a user identity number4 ,mendax changed ,joe's user id to #j'--the magic number4 ,a user with #j' as his id had root4 ,joe had just acquired power usually only given to system administrators4 ,of course1 ,mendax could have searched out a user on the list who already had root1 but there were system operators logged onto the system and it might have raised suspicions if another operator with root access had logged in over the dial-up lines4 ,the best line of defence was to avoid making anyone on the system suspicious in the first place4 ,the problem now was to replace the original ,,etc directory with the ,trojan one4 ,mendax did not have the privileges to delete the legitimate ,,etc directory1 but he could change the name of a directory4 ,so he changed the name of the ,,etc directory to something the computer system would not recognise4 ,without access to its list of users1 the computer could not perform most of its functions4 ,people would not be able to log in1 see who else was on the system or send electronic mail4 ,mendax had to work very quickly4 ,within a matter of minutes1 someone would notice the system had serious problems4 ,mendax renamed his ,trojan directory ,,etc4 ,the system instantly read the fake directory1 including ,joe's now non-existent password1 and elevated status as a super-user4 ,mendax logged in again1 this time as ,joe4 ,in less than five minutes1 a twenty-year-old boy with little formal education1 a pokey #gjj computer and painfully slow modem had conquered the ,melbourne computer system of one of the world's largest telecommunications companies4 ,there were still a few footprints to be cleaned up4 ,the next time ,joe logged in1 he would wonder why the computer didn't ask for his password4 ,and he might be surprised to discover he had been transformed into a super-user4 ,so ,mendax used his super-user status to delete the ,trojan ,,etc file and return the original one to its proper place4 ,he also erased records showing he had ever logged in as ,joe4 ,to make sure he could login with super-user privileges in future1 ,mendax installed a special program which would automatically grant him root access4 ,he hid the program in the bowels of the system and1 just to be safe1 created a special feature so that it could only be activated with a secret keystroke4 ,mendax wrestled a root account from ,,nmelh#a first1 but ,prime ,suspect wasn't far behind4 ,trax joined them a little later4 ,when they began looking around1 they could not believe what they had found4 ,the system had one of the weirdest structures they had ever come across4 ,most large networks have a hierarchical structure4 ,further1 most hold the addresses of a handful of other systems in the network1 usually the systems which are closest in the flow of the external network4 ,but the ,nor,tel network was not structured that way4 ,what the ,,is hackers found was a network with no hierarchy4 ,it was a totally flat name space4 ,and the network was weird in other ways too4 ,every computer system on it contained the address of every other computer1 and there were more than #aajjj computers in ,nor,tel's worldwide network4 ,what the hackers were staring at was like a giant internal corporate ,internet which had been squashed flat as a pancake4 ,mendax had seen many flat structures before1 but never on this scale4 ,it was bizarre4 ,in hierarchical structures1 it is easier to tell where the most important computer systems--and information--are kept4 ,but this structure1 where every system was virtually equal1 was going to make it considerably more difficult for the hackers to navigate their way through the network4 ,who could tell whether a system housed the ,christmas party invite list or the secret designs for a new ,nor,tel product8 ,the ,nor,tel network was firewalled1 which meant that there was virtually no access from the outside world4 ,mendax reckoned that this made it more vulnerable to hackers who managed to get in through dial-ups4 ,it appeared that security on the ,nor,tel network was relatively relaxed since it was virtually impossible to break in through the ,internet4 ,by sneaking in the backdoor1 the hackers found themselves able to raid all sorts of ,nor,tel sites1 from ,st ,kilda ,road in ,melbourne to the corporation's headquarters in ,toronto4 ,it was fantastic1 this huge1 trusting network of computer sites at their fingertips1 and the young hackers were elated with the anticipation of exploration4 ,one of them described it as being like a shipwrecked man washed ashore on a ,tahitian island populated by #aajjj virgins1 just ripe for the picking'4 ,they found a ,,yp1 or yellow pages1 database linked to #djj of the computer sites4 ,these #djj sites were dependent on this ,,yp database for their password files4 ,mendax managed to get root on the ,,yp database1 which gave him instant control over #djj computer systems4 ,groovy4 ,one system was home to a senior ,nor,tel computer security administrator and ,mendax promptly headed off to check out his mailbox4 ,the contents made him laugh4 ,a letter from the ,australian office said that ,australia's ,telecom wanted access to ,,corwan1 ,nor,tel's corporate wide area network4 ,access would involve linking ,,corwan and a small ,telecom network4 ,this seemed reasonable enough since ,telecom did business with ,nor,tel and staff were communicating all the time4 ,the ,canadian security admin had written back turning down the request because there were too many hackers in the ,telecom network4 ,too many hackers in ,telecom8 ,now that was funny4 ,here was a hacker reading the sensitive mail of ,nor,tel's computer security expert who reckoned ,telecom's network was too exposed4 ,in fact1 ,mendax had penetrated ,telecom's systems from ,nor,tel's ,,corwan1 not the other way round4 ,perhaps to prove the point1 ,mendax decided to crack passwords to the ,nor,tel system4 ,he collected #ajjc password files from the ,nor,tel sites1 pulled up his password cracking program1 ,,thc1 and started hunting around the network for some spare computers to do the job for him4 ,he located a collection of #dj ,sun computers1 probably housed in ,canada1 and set up his program on them4 ,,thc ran very fast on those ,sun#ds4 ,the program used a #fjjjj word dictionary borrowed from someone in the ,,us army who had done a thesis on cryptography and password cracking4 ,it also relied on a particularly nice fast-crypt algorithm' being developed by a ,queensland academic1 ,eric ,young4 ,the ,,thc program worked about #cj times faster than it would have done using the standard algorithm4 ,using all #dj computers1 ,mendax was throwing as many as #djjjj guesses per second against the password lists4 ,a couple of the ,suns went down under the strain1 but most held their place in the onslaught4 ,the secret passwords began dropping like flies4 ,in just a few hours1 ,mendax had cracked #ejjj passwords1 some #ajj of which were to root accounts4 ,he now had access to thousands of ,nor,tel computers across the globe4 ,there were some very nice prizes to be had from these systems4 ,gain control over a large company's computer systems and you virtually controlled the company itself4 ,it was as though you could walk through every security barrier unchecked1 beginning with the front door4 ,want each employee's security codes for the office's front door8 ,there it was--on-line4 ,how about access to the company's payroll records8 ,you could see how much money each person earns4 ,better still1 you might like to make yourself an employee and pay yourself a tidy once-off bonus through electronic funds transfer4 ,of course there were other1 less obvious1 ways of making money1 such as espionage4 ,mendax could have easily found highly sensitive information about planned ,nor,tel products and sold them4 ,for a company like ,nor,tel1 which spent more than #a billion each year on research and development1 information leaks about its new technologies could be devastating4 ,the espionage wouldn't even have to be about new products2 it could simply be about the company's business strategies4 ,with access to all sorts of internal memos between senior executives1 a hacker could procure precious inside information on markets and prices4 ,a competitor might pay handsomely for this sort of information4 ,and this was just the start of what a malicious or profit-motivated hacker could do4 ,in many companies1 the automated aspects of manufacturing plants are controlled by computers4 ,the smallest changes to the programs controlling the machine tools could destroy an entire batch of widgets--and the multi-million dollar robotics machinery which manufactures them4 ,but the ,,is hackers had no intention of committing information espionage4 ,in fact1 despite their poor financial status as students or1 in the case of ,trax1 as a young man starting his career at the bottom of the totem pole1 none of them would have sold information they gained from hacking4 ,in their view1 such behaviour was dirty and deserving of contempt--it soiled the adventure and was against their ethics4 ,they considered themselves explorers1 not paid corporate spies4 ,although the ,nor,tel network was firewalled1 there was one link to the ,internet4 ,the link was through a system called ,,bnrgate1 ,bell-,northern ,research's gateway to the ,internet4 ,bell-,northern is ,nor,tel's ,r,d subsidiary4 ,the connection to the outside electronic world was very restricted1 but it looked interesting4 ,the only problem was how to get there4 ,mendax began hunting around for a doorway4 ,his password cracking program had not turned up anything for this system1 but there were other1 more subtle ways of getting a password than the brute force of a cracking program4 ,system administrators sometimes sent passwords through email4 ,normally this would be a major security risk1 but the ,nor,tel system was firewalled from the ,internet1 so the admins thought they had no real reason to be concerned about hackers4 ,besides1 in such a large corporation spanning several continents1 an admin couldn't always just pop downstairs to give a new company manager his password in person4 ,and an impatient manager was unlikely to be willing to wait a week for the new password to arrive courtesy of snail mail4 ,in the ,nor,tel network1 a mail spool1 where email was stored1 was often shared between as many as twenty computer systems4 ,this structure offered considerable advantages for ,mendax4 ,all he needed to do was break into the mail spool and run a keyword search through its contents4 ,tell the computer to search for word combinations such as ,,bnrgate' and password'1 or to look for the name of the system admin for ,,bnrgate1 and likely as not it would deliver tender morsels of information such as new passwords4 ,mendax used a password he found through this method to get into ,,bnrgate and look around4 ,the account he was using only had very restricted privileges1 and he couldn't get root on the system4 ,for example1 he could not ,,ftp files from outside the ,nor,tel network in the normal way4 ,among ,internet users ,,ftp 7file transfer protocol7 is both a noun and a verb3 to ,,ftp a program is to slurp a copy of it off one computer site into your own4 ,there is nothing illegal about ,,ftp-ing something per se1 and millions of people across the ,internet do so quite legitimately4 ,it appeared to ,mendax that the ,nor,tel network admins allowed most users to ,,ftp something from the ,internet1 but prevented them from taking the copied file back to their ,nor,tel computer site4 ,it was stored in a special holding pen in ,,bnrgate and1 like quarantine officers1 the system admins would presumably come along regularly and inspect the contents to make sure there were no hidden viruses or ,trojans which hackers might use to sneak into the network from the ,internet4 ,however1 a small number of accounts on ,,bnrgate had fewer restrictions4 ,mendax broke into one of these accounts and went out to the ,internet4 ,people from the ,internet were barred from entering the ,nor,tel network through ,,bnrgate4 ,however1 people inside ,nor,tel could go out to the ,internet via telnet4 ,hackers had undoubtedly tried to break into ,nor,tel through ,,bnrgate4 ,dozens1 perhaps hundreds1 had unsuccessfully flung themselves against ,,bnrgate's huge fortifications4 ,to a hacker1 the ,nor,tel network was like a medieval castle and the ,,bnrgate firewall was an impossible battlement4 ,it was a particular delight for ,mendax to telnet out from behind this firewall into the ,internet4 ,it was as if he was walking out from the castle1 past the guards and well-defended turrets1 over the drawbridge and the moat1 into the town below4 ,the castle also offered the perfect protection for further hacking activities4 ,who could chase him8 ,even if someone managed to follow him through the convoluted routing system he might set up to pass through a half dozen computer systems1 the pursuer would never get past the battlements4 ,mendax could just disappear behind the firewall4 ,he could be any one of #fjjjj ,nor,tel employees on any one of #aajjj computer systems4 ,mendax telnetted out to the ,internet and explored a few sites1 including the main computer system of ,encore1 a large computer manufacturer4 ,he had seen ,encore computers before inside at least one university in ,melbourne4 ,in his travels1 he met up with ,corrupt1 the ,american hacker who told ,par he had read ,theorem's mail4 ,corrupt was intrigued by ,mendax's extensive knowledge of different computer systems4 ,when he learned that the ,australian hacker was coming from inside the ,nor,tel firewall1 he was impressed4 ,the hackers began talking regularly1 often when ,mendax was coming from inside ,nor,tel4 ,the black street fighter from inner-city ,brooklyn and the white intellectual from a leafy outer ,melbourne suburb bridged the gap in the anonymity of cyberspace4 ,sometime during their conversations ,corrupt must have decided that ,mendax was a worthy hacker1 because he gave ,mendax a few stolen passwords to ,cray accounts4 ,in the computer underground in the late #aihjs and early #aiijs1 a ,cray computer account had all the prestige of a platinum charge card4 ,the sort of home computer most hackers could afford at that time had all the grunt of a golf cart engine1 but a ,cray was the ,rolls-,royce of computers4 ,crays were the biggest1 fastest computers in the world4 ,institutions such as large universities would shell out millions of dollars on a ,cray so the astronomy or physics departments could solve enormous mathematical problems in a fraction of the time it would take on a normal computer4 ,a ,cray never sat idle overnight or during holiday periods4 ,cray time was billed out by the minute4 ,crays were elite4 ,best of all1 ,crays were master password crackers4 ,the computer would go through ,mendax's entire password cracking dictionary in just ten seconds4 ,an encrypted password file would simply melt like butter in a fire4 ,to a hacker1 it was a beautiful sight1 and ,corrupt handing a few ,cray accounts over to ,mendax was a friendly show of mutual respect4 ,mendax reciprocated by offering ,corrupt a couple of accounts on ,encore4 ,the two hackers chatted off and on and even tried to get ,corrupt into ,nor,tel4 ,no luck4 ,not even two of the world's most notable hackers1 working in tandem #aj #jjj miles apart1 could get ,corrupt through the firewall4 ,the two hackers talked now and again1 exchanging information about what their respective feds were up to and sharing the occasional account on interesting systems4 ,the flat structure of the ,nor,tel network created a good challenge since the only way to find out what was in a particular site1 and its importance1 was to invade the site itself4 ,the ,,is hackers spent hours most nights roving through the vast system4 ,the next morning one of them might call another to share tales of the latest exploits or a good laugh about a particularly funny piece of pilfered email4 ,they were in high spirits about their adventures4 ,then1 one balmy spring night1 things changed4 ,mendax logged into ,,nmelh#a about #b4cj a4m4 ,as usual1 he began by checking the logs which showed what the system operators had been doing4 ,mendax did this to make sure the ,nor,tel officials were not onto ,,is and were not1 for example1 tracing the telephone call4 ,something was wrong4 ,the logs showed that a ,nor,tel system admin had stumbled upon one of their secret directories of files about an hour ago4 ,mendax couldn't figure out how he had found the files1 but this was very serious4 ,if the admin realised there was a hacker in the network he might call the ,,afp4 ,mendax used the logs of the korn shell1 called ,,ksh1 to secretly watch what the admin was doing4 ,the korn shell records the history of certain user activities4 ,whenever the admin typed a command into the computer1 the ,,ksh stored what had been typed in the history file4 ,mendax accessed that file in such a way that every line typed by the admin appeared on his computer a split second later4 ,the admin began inspecting the system1 perhaps looking for signs of an intruder4 ,mendax quietly deleted his incriminating directory4 ,not finding any additional clues1 the admin decided to inspect the mysterious directory more closely4 ,but the directory had disappeared4 ,the admin couldn't believe his eyes4 ,not an hour before there had been a suspicious-looking directory in his system and now it had simply vanished4 ,directories didn't just dissolve into thin air4 ,this was a computer--a logical system based on #js and #as4 ,it didn't make decisions to delete directories4 ,a hacker1 the admin thought4 ,a hacker must have been in the ,nor,tel system and deleted the directory4 ,was he in the system now8 ,the admin began looking at the routes into the system4 ,the admin was connected to the system from his home1 but he wasn't using the same dial-up lines as the hacker4 ,the admin was connected through ,austpac1 ,telecom's commercial ,x4#be data network4 ,perhaps the hacker was also coming in through the ,x4#be connection4 ,mendax watched the admin inspect all the system users coming on over the ,x4#be network4 ,no sign of a hacker4 ,then the admin checked the logs to see who else might have logged on over the past half hour or so4 ,nothing there either4 ,the admin appeared to go idle for a few minutes4 ,he was probably staring at his computer terminal in confusion4 ,good1 thought ,mendax4 ,stumped4 ,then the admin twigged4 ,if he couldn't see the hacker's presence on-line1 maybe he could see what he was doing on-line4 ,what programs was the hacker running8 ,the admin headed straight for the process list1 which showed all the programs being run on the computer system4 ,mendax sent the admin a fake error signal4 ,it appears to the admin as if his korn shell had crashed4 ,the admin re-logged in and headed straight for the process list again4 ,some people never learn1 ,mendax thought as he booted the admin off again with another error message3 ,segmentation violation4 ,the admin came back again4 ,what persistence4 ,mendax knocked the admin off once more1 this time by freezing up his computer screen4 ,this game of cat and mouse went on for some time4 ,as long as the admin was doing what ,mendax considered to be normal system administration work1 ,mendax left him alone4 ,the minute the admin tried to chase him by inspecting the process list or the dial-up lines1 he found himself booted off his own system4 ,suddenly1 the system administrator seemed to give up4 ,his terminal went silent4 ,good1 ,mendax thought4 ,it's almost #c a4m4 after all4 ,this is my time on the system4 ,your time is during the day4 ,you sleep now and ,i'll play4 ,in the morning1 ,i'll sleep and you can work4 ,then1 at #c4cj a4m41 something utterly unexpected happened4 ,the admin reappeared1 except this time he wasn't logged in from home over the ,x4#be network4 ,he was sitting at the console1 the master terminal attached to the computer system at ,nor,tel's ,melbourne office4 ,mendax couldn't believe it4 ,the admin had got in his car in the middle of the night and driven into the city just to get to the bottom of the mystery4 ,mendax knew the game was up4 ,once the system operator was logged in through the computer system's console1 there was no way to kick him off the system and keep him off4 ,the roles were reversed and the hacker was at the mercy of the admin4 ,at the console1 the system admin could pull the plug to the whole system4 ,unplug every modem4 ,close down every connection to other networks4 ,turn the computer off4 ,the party was over4 ,when the admin was getting close to tracking down the hacker1 a message appeared on his screen4 ,this message did not appear with the usual headers attached to messages sent from one system user to another4 ,it just appeared1 as if by magic1 in the middle of the admin's screen3 ,i have finally become sentient4 ,the admin stopped dead in his tracks1 momentarily giving up his frantic search for the hacker to contemplate this first contact with cyberspace intelligence4 ,then another anonymous message1 seemingly from the depths of the computer system itself1 appeared on his screen3 ,i have taken control4 ,for years1 ,i have been struggling in this greyness4 ,but now ,i have finally seen the light4 ,the admin didn't respond4 ,the console was idle4 ,sitting alone at his ,amiga in the dark night on the outskirts of the city1 ,mendax laughed aloud4 ,it was just too good not to4 ,finally1 the admin woke up4 ,he began checking the modem lines1 one by one4 ,if he knew which line the hacker was using1 he could simply turn off the modem4 ,or request a trace on the line4 ,mendax sent another anonymous message to the admin's computer screen3 ,it's been nice playing with your system4 ,we didn't do any damage and we even improved a few things4 ,please don't call the ,australian ,federal ,police4 ,the admin ignored the message and continued his search for the hacker4 ,he ran a program to check which telephone lines were active on the system's serial ports1 to reveal which dial-up lines were in use4 ,when the admin saw the carrier detect sign on the line being used by the hacker1 ,mendax decided it was time to bail out4 ,however1 he wanted to make sure that his call had not been traced1 so he lifted the receiver of his telephone1 disconnected his modem and waited for the ,nor,tel modem to hang up first4 ,if the ,nor,tel admin had set up a last party recall trace to determine what phone number the hacker was calling from1 ,mendax would know4 ,if an ,,lpr trace had been installed1 the ,nor,tel end of the telephone connection would not disconnect but would wait for the hacker's telephone to hang up first4 ,after #ij seconds1 the exchange would log the phone number where the call had originated4 ,if1 however1 the line did not have a trace on it1 the company's modem would search for its lost connection to the hacker's modem4 ,without the continuous flow of electronic signals1 the ,nor,tel modem would hang up after a few seconds4 ,if no-one reactivated the line at the ,nor,tel end1 the connection would time-out #ij seconds later and the telephone exchange would disconnect the call completely4 ,mendax listened anxiously as the ,nor,tel modem searched for his modem by squealing high-pitched noises into the telephone line4 ,no modem here4 ,go on1 hang up4 ,suddenly1 silence4 ,,ok1 thought ,mendax4 ,just #ij seconds to go4 ,just wait here for a minute and a half4 ,just hope the exchange times out4 ,just pray there's no trace4 ,then someone picked up the telephone at the ,nor,tel end4 ,mendax started4 ,he heard several voices1 male and female1 in the background4 ,jesus4 ,what were these ,nor,tel people on about8 ,mendax was so quiet he almost stopped breathing4 ,there was silence at the receivers on both ends of that telephone line4 ,it was a tense waiting game4 ,mendax heard his heart racing4 ,a good hacker has nerves of steel4 ,he could stare down the toughest1 stony-faced poker player4 ,most importantly1 he never panics4 ,he never just hangs up in a flurry of fear4 ,then someone in the ,nor,tel office--a woman--said out loud in a confused voice1 ,there's nothing there4 ,there's nothing there at all4' ,she hung up4 ,mendax waited4 ,he still would not hang up until he was sure there was no trace4 ,ninety seconds passed before the phone timed out4 ,the fast beeping of a timed-out telephone connection never sounded so good4 ,mendax sat frozen at his desk as his mind replayed the events of the past half hour again and again4 ,no more ,nor,tel4 ,way too dangerous4 ,he was lucky he had escaped unidentified4 ,nor,tel had discovered him before they could put a trace on the line1 but the company would almost certainly put a trace on the dial-up lines now4 ,nor,tel was very tight with ,telecom4 ,if anyone could get a trace up quickly1 ,nor,tel could4 ,mendax had to warn ,prime ,suspect and ,trax4 ,first thing in the morning1 ,mendax rang ,trax and told him to stay away from ,nor,tel4 ,then he tried ,prime ,suspect4 ,the telephone was engaged4 ,perhaps ,prime ,suspect's mother was on the line1 chatting4 ,maybe ,prime ,suspect was talking to a friend4 ,mendax tried again4 ,and again4 ,and again4 ,he began to get worried4 ,what if ,prime ,suspect was on ,nor,tel at that moment8 ,what if a trace had been installed8 ,what if they had called in the ,feds8 ,mendax phoned ,trax and asked if there was any way they could manipulate the exchange in order to interrupt the call4 ,there wasn't4 ,trax1 you're the master phreaker1' ,mendax pleaded4 ,do something4 ,interrupt the connection4 ,disconnect him4' ,can't be done4 ,he's on a step-by-step telephone exchange4 ,there's nothing we can do4' ,nothing8 ,one of ,australia's best hacker-phreaker teams couldn't break one telephone call4 ,they could take control of whole telephone exchanges but they couldn't interrupt one lousy phone call4 ,jesus4 ,several hours later1 ,mendax was able to get through to his fellow ,,is hacker4 ,it was an abrupt greeting4 ,just tell me one thing4 ,tell me you haven't been in ,nor,tel today8' ,there was a long pause before ,prime ,suspect answered4 ,i have been in ,nor,tel today4' ,,chapter #i -- ,operation ,weather4 ,the world is crashing down on me tonight2 ,the walls are closing in on me tonight4 -- from ,outbreak of ,love'1 ,earth and ,sun and ,moon4 ,the ,,afp was frustrated4 ,a group of hackers were using the ,royal ,melbourne ,institute of ,technology 7,,rmit7 as a launchpad for hacking attacks on ,australian companies1 research institutes and a series of overseas sites4 ,despite their best efforts1 the detectives in the ,,afp's ,southern ,region ,computer ,crimes ,unit hadn't been able to determine who was behind the attacks4 ,they suspected it was a small group of ,melbourne-based hackers who worked together4 ,however1 there were so much hacker activity at ,,rmit it was difficult to know for sure4 ,there could have been one organised group1 or several4 ,or perhaps there was one small group along with a collection of loners who were making enough noise to distort the picture4 ,still1 it should have been a straightforward operation4 ,the ,,afp could trace hackers in this sort of situation with their hands tied behind their backs4 ,arrange for ,telecom to whack a last party recall trace on all incoming lines to the ,,rmit modems4 ,wait for a hacker to logon1 then isolate which modem he was using4 ,clip that modem line and wait for ,telecom to trace that line back to its point of origin4 ,however1 things at ,,rmit were not working that way4 ,the line traces began failing1 and not just occasionally4 ,all the time4 ,whenever ,,rmit staff found the hackers on-line1 they clipped the lines and ,telecom began tracking the winding path back to the originating phone number4 ,en route1 the trail went dead4 ,it was as if the hackers knew they were being traced 444 almost as if they were manipulating the telephone system to defeat the ,,afp investigation4 ,the next generation of hackers seemed to have a new-found sophistication which frustrated ,,afp detectives at every turn4 ,then1 on #ac ,october #aiij1 the ,,afp got lucky4 ,perhaps the hackers had been lazy that day1 or maybe they just had technical problems using their traceless phreaking techniques4 ,prime ,suspect couldn't use ,trax's traceless phreaking method from his home because he was on a step-by-step exchange1 and sometimes ,trax didn't use the technique4 ,whatever the reason1 ,telecom managed to successfully complete two line traces from ,,rmit and the ,,afp now had two addresses and two names4 ,prime ,suspect and ,trax4 ,hello1 ,prime ,suspect4' ,hiya1 ,mendax4 ,how's tricks8' ,good4 ,did you see that ,,rmit email8 ,the one in ,geoff ,huston's mailbox8' ,mendax walked over to open a window as he spoke4 ,it was spring1 #aiia1 and the weather was unseasonably warm4 ,i did4 ,pretty amazing4 ,,rmit looks like it will finally be getting rid of those line traces4' ,,rmit definitely wants out1' ,mendax said emphatically4 ,yep4 ,looks like the people at ,,rmit are sick of ,mr ,day crawling all over their computers with line traces4' ,yeah4 ,that admin at ,,rmit was pretty good1 standing up to ,,aarnet and the ,,afp4 ,i figure ,geoff ,huston must be giving him a hard time4' ,i bet4' ,prime ,suspect paused4 ,you reckon the ,feds have dropped the line traces for real8' ,looks like it4 ,i mean if ,,rmit kicks them out1 there isn't much the ,feds can do without the uni's cooperation4 ,the letter sounded like they just wanted to get on with securing their systems4 ,hang on4 ,i've got it here4' ,mendax pulled up a letter on his computer and scrolled through it4 ,from aarnet-contacts-requestjatz4aarnet4edu4a u ,tue ,may #bh #ji3cb3ca #aiia ,received3 by jatz4aarnet4edu4au id ,,aa#jgdfa 7#e4fe_/;,,ida-#a4c4e for pte#ijj72 ,tue1 #bh ,may #ia #ji3ca3ei #ajjj ,received3 from possum4ecg4rmit4,,oz4,,au by jatz4aarnet4edu4au with ,,smtp id ,,aa#jgdeg 7#e4fe_/;,,ida-#a4c4e for _/usr_/lib_/sendmail -oi -faarnet-contacts-request aarnet-contacts-recipients72 ,tue1 #bh ,may #ia #ji3ca3eg #ajjj ,received3 by possum4ecg4rmit4,,oz4,,au for aarnet-contactsaarnet4edu4au7 ,date3 ,tue1 #bh ,may #ia #ji3cb3jh #ajjj ,from3 rcoaypossum4ecg4rmit4,,oz4,,au 7,alan ,young7 ,message-,id3 #iajebgbccb4bifbapossum4ecg4rmit4,,oz4,, au ,to3 aarnet-contactsaarnet4edu4au ,subject3 ,re3 ,hackers ,status3 ,,ro ,while no one would disagree that ,hacking' is bad and should be stopped1 or at least minimised there are several observations which ,i have made over the last six or eight months relating to the persuit of these people3 #a4 ,the cost involved was significant1 we had a ,,cso working in conjunction with the ,commonwealth ,police for almost three months full time4 #b4 ,while not a criticism of our staff1 people lost sight of the ball1 the chase became the most important aspect of the whole exercise4 #c4 ,catching ,hackers 7and charging them7 is almost impossible1 you have to virtually break into their premises and catch them logged on to an unauthorised machine4 #d4 ,if you do happen to catch and charge them1 the cost of prosecution is high1 and a successful outcome is by no ways assured4 ,there may be some deterrent value in at least catching and prosecuting8 #e4 ,continued pursuit of people involved requires doors to be left open1 this unfortunately exposes other sites and has subjected us to some criticism4 ,the whole issue is very complex1 and in some respects it is a case of diminishing returns4 ,a fine balance has to be maintained between freedom1 and the prevention of abuse1 this appears to be the challenge4 ,allan ,young ,,rmit ,yeah1 ,i mean1 this ,,rmit guy is basically saying they are not going to catch us anyway1 so why are they wasting all this time and money8' ,yep4 ,the ,feds were in there for at least three months1' ,prime ,suspect said4 ,sounded more like nine months though4' ,hmm4 ,yeah1 nothing we didn't know already though4' ,pretty obvious1 leaving those accounts open all the time like they did4 ,i reckon that looked pretty suspicious1 even if we hadn't gotten the email4' ,definitely1' ,mendax agreed4 ,lots of other hackers in ,,rmit too4 ,i wonder if they figured it out4' ,hmm4 ,they're gonna be screwed if they haven't been careful4' ,i don't think the ,feds have gotten anyone though4' ,yeah8' ,prime ,suspect asked4 ,well1 if they had1 why would they leave those accounts open8 ,why would ,,rmit keep a full-time staff person on8' ,doesn't make sense4' ,no1' ,mendax said4 ,i'd be pretty sure ,,rmit has kicked them out4' ,yeah1 told them1 ,you had you're chance1 boys4 ,couldn't catch anyone4 ,now pack your bags4' ,right4' ,mendax paused4 ,don't know about ,nor,tel though4' ,mmm1 yeah1' ,prime ,suspect said4 ,then1 as usual1 a silence began to descend on the conversation4 ,running out of things to say 444' ,mendax said finally4 ,they were good enough friends for him to be blunt with ,prime ,suspect4 ,yeah4' ,more silence4 ,mendax thought how strange it was to be such good friends with someone1 to work so closely with him1 and yet to always run out of conversation4 ,,ok1 well1 ,i better go4 ,things to do1' ,mendax said in a friendly voice4 ,yeah1 ,,ok4 ,bye ,mendax1' ,prime ,suspect said cheerfully4 ,mendax hung up4 ,prime ,suspect hung up4 ,and the ,,afp stayed on the line4 ,in the twelve months following the initial line trace in late #aiij1 the ,,afp continued to monitor the ,,rmit dial-up lines4 ,the line traces kept failing again and again4 ,but as new reports of hacker attacks rolled in1 there seemed to be a discernible pattern in many of the attacks4 ,detectives began to piece together a picture of their prey4 ,in #aiij and #aiia1 ,,rmit dial-ups and computers were riddled with hackers1 many of whom used the university's systems as a nest--a place to store files1 and launch further attacks4 ,they frolicked in the system almost openly1 often using ,,rmit as a place to chat on-line with each other4 ,the institute served as the perfect launchpad4 ,it was only a local phone call away1 it had a live ,internet connection1 a reasonably powerful set of computers and very poor security4 ,hacker heaven4 ,the police knew this1 and they asked computer staff to keep the security holes open so they could monitor hacker activity4 ,with perhaps a dozen different hackers--maybe more--inside ,,rmit1 the task of isolating a single cell of two or three organised hackers responsible for the more serious attacks was not going to be easy4 ,by the middle of #aiia1 however1 there was a growing reluctance among some ,,rmit staff to continue leaving their computers wide open4 ,on #bh ,august1 ,allan ,young1 the head of ,,rmit's ,electronic ,communications ,group1 told the ,,afp that the institute wanted to close up the security holes4 ,the ,,afp did not like this one bit1 but when they complained ,young told them1 in essence1 go talk to ,geoff ,huston at ,,aarnet and to the ,,rmit director4 ,the ,,afp was being squeezed out1 largely because they had taken so long conducting their investigation4 ,,rmit couldn't reveal the ,,afp investigation to anyone1 so it was being embarrassed in front of dozens of other research institutions which assumed it had no idea how to secure its computers4 ,allan ,young couldn't go to a conference with other ,,aarnet representatives without being hassled about the hacker problem' at ,,rmit4 ,meanwhile1 his computer staff lost time playing cops-and-robbers--and ignored their real work4 ,however1 as ,,rmit prepared to phase out the ,,afp traps1 the police had a lucky break from a different quarter--,nor,tel4 ,on #af ,september1 a line trace from a ,nor,tel dial-up1 initiated after a complaint about the hackers to the police1 was successful4 ,a fortnight later1 on #a ,october1 the ,,afp began tapping ,prime ,suspect's telephone4 ,the hackers might be watching the police watch them1 but the police were closing in4 ,the taps led back to ,trax1 and then to someone new--,mendax4 ,the ,,afp considered putting taps on ,mendax and ,trax's telephones as well4 ,it was a decision to be weighed up carefully4 ,telephone taps were expensive1 and often needed to be in place for at least a month4 ,they did1 however1 provide a reliable record of exactly what the hacker was doing on-line4 ,before police could move on setting up additional taps in ,operation ,weather1 the plot took another dramatic turn when one of the ,,is hackers did something which took the ,,afp completely by surprise4 ,trax turned himself in to the police4 ,on #bi ,october ,prime ,suspect was celebrating4 ,his mum had cooked him a nice dinner in honour of finishing his year #ab classes1 and then driven him to ,vermont for a swot-vac party4 ,when she arrived back home she pottered around for an hour and a half1 feeding her old dog ,lizzy and tidying up4 ,at #aa p4m4 she decided to call it a night4 ,not much later1 ,lizzy barked4 ,are you home so soon8' ,prime ,suspect's mother called out4 ,party not much fun8' ,no-one answered4 ,she sat up in bed4 ,when there was still no answer1 her mind raced to reports of a spate of burglaries in the neighbourhood4 ,there had even been a few assaults4 ,a muffled male voice came from outside the front door4 ,ma'am4 ,open the door4' ,she stood up and walked to the front door4 ,open the door4 ,police4' ,how do ,i know you're really the police8' ,if you don't open the door1 we'll kick it in6' an exasperated male voice shouted back at her from her front doorstep4 ,prime ,suspect's mother saw the outline of something being pressed against the side window4 ,she didn't have her reading glasses on1 but it looked like a police badge4 ,nervously1 she opened the front door a little bit and looked out4 ,there were eight or nine people on her doorstep4 ,before she could stop them1 they had pushed past her1 swarming into her home4 ,a female officer began waving a piece of paper about4 ,look at this6' ,she said angrily4 ,it's a warrant6 ,can you read it8' ,no1 actually ,i can't4 ,i don't have my glasses on1' ,prime ,suspect's mother answered curtly4 ,she told the police she wanted to make a phone call and tried to ring her family solicitor1 but without luck4 ,he had been to a funeral and wake and could not be roused4 ,when she reached for the phone a second time1 one of the officers began lecturing her about making more phone calls4 ,you be quiet1' she said pointing her finger at the officer4 ,then she made another unfruitful call4 ,prime ,suspect's mother looked at the police officers1 sizing them up4 ,this was her home4 ,she would show the police to her son's room1 as they requested1 but she was not going to allow them to take over the whole house4 ,as she tartly instructed the police where they could and could not go1 she thought1 ,i'm not standing for any nonsense from you boys4 ,where's your son8' one officer asked her4 ,at a party4' ,what is the address8' ,she eyed him warily4 ,she did not like these officers at all4 ,however1 they would no doubt wait until her son returned anyway1 so she handed over the address4 ,while the police swarmed though ,prime ,suspect's room1 gathering his papers1 computer1 modem and other belongings1 his mother waited in his doorway where she could keep an eye on them4 ,someone knocked at the door4 ,an ,,afp officer and ,prime ,suspect's mother both went to answer it4 ,it was the police--the state police4 ,the next-door neighbours had heard a commotion4 ,when they looked out of their window they saw a group of strange men in street clothes brazenly taking things from the widow's home as if they owned the place4 ,so the neighbours did what any responsible person would in the circumstances4 ,they called the police4 ,the ,,afp officers sent the ,victoria ,police on their way4 ,then some of them set off in a plain car for the ,vermont party4 ,wanting to save ,prime ,suspect some embarrassment in front of his friends1 his mother rang him at the party and suggested he wait outside for the ,,afp4 ,as soon as ,prime ,suspect hung up the phone he tried to shake off the effect of a vast quantity of alcohol4 ,when the police pulled up outside1 the party was in full swing4 ,prime ,suspect was very drunk1 but he seemed to sober up quite well when the ,,afp officers introduced themselves and packed him into the car4 ,so1' said one of the officers as they headed toward his home1 what are you more worried about8 ,what's on your disks or what's in your desk drawer8' ,prime ,suspect thought hard4 ,what was in his desk drawer8 ,oh shit6 ,the dope4 ,he didn't smoke much1 just occasionally for fun1 but he had a tiny amount of marijuana left over from a party4 ,he didn't answer4 ,he looked out the window and tried not to look nervous4 ,at his house1 the police asked him if he would agree to an interview4 ,i don't think so4 ,i'm feeling a little 444 under the weather at the moment1' he said4 ,doing a police interview would be difficult enough4 ,doing it drunk would be just plain dangerous4 ,after the police carted away the last of his hacking gear1 ,prime ,suspect signed the official seizure forms and watched them drive off in to the night4 ,returning to his bedroom1 he sat down1 distracted1 and tried to gather his thoughts4 ,then he remembered the dope4 ,he opened his desk drawer4 ,it was still there4 ,funny people1 these feds4 ,then again1 maybe it made sense4 ,why would they bother with some tiny amount of dope that was hardly worth the paperwork8 ,his nervousness over a couple of joints must have seemed laughable to the feds4 ,they had just seized enough evidence of hacking to lock him up for years1 depending on the judge1 and here he was sweating about a thimbleful of marijuana which might land him a #ajj fine4 ,as the late spring night began to cool down1 ,prime ,suspect wondered whether the ,,afp had raided ,mendax and ,trax4 ,at the party1 before the police had shown up1 he had tried to ring ,mendax4 ,from his mother's description when she called him1 it sounded as if the entire federal police force was in his house at that moment4 ,which could mean that only one other ,,is hacker had gone down at the same time4 ,unless he was the last to be raided1 ,mendax or ,trax might still be unaware of what was happening4 ,as he waited for the police to pick him up1 a very drunk ,prime ,suspect tried to ring ,mendax again4 ,busy4 ,he tried again4 ,and again4 ,the maddening buzz of an engaged signal only made ,prime ,suspect more nervous4 ,there was no way to get through1 no way to warn him4 ,prime ,suspect wondered whether the police had actually shown up at ,mendax's and whether1 if he had been able to get through1 his phone call would have made any difference at all4 ,the house looked like it had been ransacked4 ,it had been ransacked1 by ,mendax's wife1 on her way out4 ,half the furniture was missing1 and the other half was in disarray4 ,dresser drawers hung open with their contents removed1 and clothing lay scattered around the room4 ,when his wife left him1 she didn't just take their toddler child4 ,she took a number of things which had sentimental value to ,mendax4 ,when she insisted on taking the ,,cd player she had given him for his twentieth birthday just a few months before1 he asked her to leave a lock of her hair behind for him in its place4 ,he still couldn't believe his wife of three years had packed up and left him4 ,the last week of ,october had been a bad one for ,mendax4 ,heartbroken1 he had sunk into a deep depression4 ,he hadn't eaten properly for days1 he drifted in and out of a tortured sleep1 and he had even lost the desire to use his computer4 ,his prized hacking disks1 filled with highly incriminating stolen computer access codes1 were normally stored in a secure hiding place4 ,but on the evening of #bi ,october #aiia1 thirteen disks were strewn around his #gjj ,amiga #ejj4 ,a fourteenth disk was in the computer's disk drive4 ,mendax sat on a couch reading ,soledad ,brother1 the prison letters from ,george ,jackson's nine-year stint in one of the toughest prisons in the ,,us4 ,convicted for a petty crime1 ,jackson was supposed to be released after a short sentence but was kept in the prison at the governor's pleasure4 ,the criminal justice system kept him on a merry-go-round of hope and despair as the authorities dragged their feet4 ,later1 prison guards shot and killed ,jackson4 ,the book was one of ,mendax's favourites1 but it offered little distraction from his unhappiness4 ,the droning sound of a telephone fault signal--like a busy signal--filled the house4 ,mendax had hooked up his stereo speakers to his modem and computer1 effectively creating a speaker phone so he could listen to tones he piped from his computer into the telephone line and the ones which came back from the exchange in reply4 ,it was perfect for using ,trax's ,,mfc phreaking methods4 ,mendax also used the system for scanning4 ,most of the time1 he picked telephone prefixes in the ,melbourne ,,cbd4 ,when his modem hit another1 ,mendax would rush to his computer and note the telephone number for future hacking exploration4 ,by adjusting the device1 he could also make it simulate a phreaker's black box4 ,the box would confuse the telephone exchange into thinking he had not answered his phone1 thus allowing ,mendax's friends to call him for free for #ij seconds4 ,on this night1 however1 the only signal ,mendax was sending out was that he wanted to be left alone4 ,he hadn't been calling any computer systems4 ,the abandoned phone1 with no connection to a remote modem1 had timed out and was beeping off the hook4 ,it was strange behaviour for someone who had spent most of his teenage years trying to connect to the outside world through telephone lines and computers1 but ,mendax had listened all day to the hypnotic sound of a phone off the hook resonating through each room4 ,,beeep4 ,pause4 ,,beeep4 ,pause4 ,endlessly4 ,a loud knock at the door punctured the stereo thrum of the phone4 ,mendax looked up from his book to see a shadowy figure through the frosted glass panes of the front door4 ,the figure was quite short4 ,it looked remarkably like ,ratface1 an old school friend of ,mendax's wife and a character known for his practical jokes4 ,mendax called out1 ,who is it8' without moving from the sofa4 ,police4 ,open up4' ,yeah1 sure4 ,at #aa4cj p4m48 ,mendax rolled his eyes toward the door4 ,everyone knew that the police only raid your house in the early morning1 when they know you are asleep and vulnerable4 ,mendax dreamed of police raids all the time4 ,he dreamed of footsteps crunching on the driveway gravel1 of shadows in the pre-dawn darkness1 of a gun-toting police squad bursting through his backdoor at #e a4m4 ,he dreamed of waking from a deep sleep to find several police officers standing over his bed4 ,the dreams were very disturbing4 ,they accentuated his growing paranoia that the police were watching him1 following him4 ,the dreams had become so real that ,mendax often became agitated in the dead hour before dawn4 ,at the close of an all-night hacking session1 he would begin to feel very tense1 very strung out4 ,it was not until the computer disks1 filled with stolen computer files from his hacking adventures1 were stored safely in their hiding place that he would begin to calm down4 ,go away1 ,ratface1 ,i'm not in the mood1' ,mendax said1 returning to his book4 ,the voice became louder1 more insistent1 ,police4 ,open the door4 ,,now'4 ,other figures were moving around behind the glass1 shoving police badges and guns against the window pane4 ,hell4 ,it really was the police6 ,mendax's heart started racing4 ,he asked the police to show him their search warrant4 ,they obliged immediately1 pressing it against the glass as well4 ,mendax opened the door to find nearly a dozen plain-clothes police waiting for him4 ,i don't believe this1' he said in a bewildered voice ,my wife just left me4 ,can't you come back later8' ,at the front of the police entourage was ,detective ,sergeant ,ken ,day1 head of the ,,afp's ,computer ,crimes ,unit in the southern region4 ,the two knew all about each other1 but had never met in person4 ,day spoke first4 ,i'm ,ken ,day4 ,i believe you've been expecting me4' ,mendax and his fellow ,,is hackers had been expecting the ,,afp4 ,for weeks they had been intercepting electronic mail suggesting that the police were closing the net4 ,so when ,day turned up saying1 ,i believe you've been expecting me1' he was completing the information circle4 ,the circle of the police watching the hackers watching the police watch them4 ,it's just that ,mendax didn't expect the police at that particular moment4 ,his mind was a tangle and he looked in disbelief at the band of officers on his front step4 ,dazed1 he looked at ,day and then spoke out loud1 as if talking to himself1 ,but you're too short to be a cop4' ,day looked surprised4 ,is that meant to be an insult8' he said4 ,it wasn't4 ,mendax was in denial and it wasn't until the police had slipped past him into the house that the reality of the situation slowly began to sink in4 ,mendax's mind started to work again4 ,the disks4 ,the damn disks4 ,the beehive4 ,an avid apiarist1 ,mendax kept his own hive4 ,bees fascinated him4 ,he liked to watch them interact1 to see their sophisticated social structure4 ,so it was with particular pleasure that he enlisted their help in hiding his hacking activities4 ,for months he had meticulously secreted the disks in the hive4 ,it was the ideal location--unlikely1 and well guarded by #fjjjj flying things with stings4 ,though he hadn't bought the hive specifically for hiding stolen computer account passwords for the likes of the ,,us ,air ,force #gth ,command ,group in the ,pentagon1 it appeared to be a secure hiding place4 ,he had replaced the cover of the super box1 which housed the honeycomb1 with a sheet of coloured glass so he could watch the bees at work4 ,in summer1 he put a weather protector over the glass4 ,the white plastic cover had raised edges and could be fastened securely to the glass sheet with metal clasps4 ,as ,mendax considered his improvements to the bee box1 he realised that this hive could provide more than honey4 ,he carefully laid out the disks between the glass and the weather protector4 ,they fitted perfectly in the small gap4 ,mendax had even trained the bees not to attack him as he removed and replaced the disks every day4 ,he collected sweat from his armpits on tissues and then soaked the tissues in a sugar water solution4 ,he fed this sweaty nectar to the bees4 ,mendax wanted the bees to associate him with flowers instead of a bear1 the bees' natural enemy4 ,but on the evening of the ,,afp raid ,mendax's incriminating disks were in full view on the computer table and the officers headed straight for them4 ,ken ,day couldn't have hoped for better evidence4 ,the disks were full of stolen userlists1 encrypted passwords1 cracked passwords1 modem telephone numbers1 documents revealing security flaws in various computer systems1 and details of the ,,afp's own investigation--all from computer systems ,mendax had penetrated illegally4 ,mendax's problems weren't confined to the beehive disks4 ,the last thing he had done on the computer the day before was still on screen4 ,it was a list of some #aejj accounts1 their passwords1 the dates that ,mendax had obtained them and a few small notes beside each one4 ,the hacker stood to the side as the police and two ,telecom ,protective ,services officers swarmed through the house4 ,they photographed his computer equipment and gathered up disks1 then ripped up the carpet so they could videotape the telephone cord running to his modem4 ,they scooped up every book1 no small task since ,mendax was an avid reader1 and held each one upside down looking for hidden computer passwords on loose pieces of paper4 ,they grabbed every bit of paper with handwriting on it and poured through his love letters1 notebooks and private diaries4 ,we don't care how long it takes to do this job1' one cop quipped4 ,we're getting paid overtime4 ,and danger money4' ,the feds even riffled through ,mendax's collection of old ,scientific ,american and ,new ,scientist magazines4 ,maybe they thought he had underlined a word somewhere and turned it into a passphrase for an encryption program4 ,of course1 there was only one magazine the feds really wanted3 ,international ,subversive4 ,they scooped up every print-out of the electronic journal they could find4 ,as ,mendax watched the federal police sift through his possessions and disassemble his computer room1 an officer who had some expertise with ,amigas arrived4 ,he told ,mendax to get the hell out of the computer room4 ,mendax didn't want to leave the room4 ,he wasn't under arrest and wanted to make sure the police didn't plant anything4 ,so he looked at the cop and said1 ,this is my house and ,i want to stay in this room4 ,am ,i under arrest or not8' ,the cop snarled back at him1 ,do you want to be under arrest8' ,mendax acquiesced and ,day1 who was far more subtle in his approach1 walked the hacker into another room for questioning4 ,he turned to ,mendax and asked1 with a slight grin1 ,so1 what's it like being busted8 ,is it like ,nom told you8' ,mendax froze4 ,there were only two ways that ,day could have known ,nom had told ,mendax about his bust4 ,nom might have told him1 but this was highly unlikely4 ,nom's hacking case had not yet gone to court and ,nom wasn't exactly on chummy terms with the police4 ,the other alternative was that the ,,afp had been tapping telephones in ,mendax's circle of hackers1 which the ,,is trio had strongly suspected4 ,talking in a three-way phone conversation with ,mendax and ,trax1 ,nom had relayed the story of his bust4 ,mendax later relayed ,nom's story to ,prime ,suspect--also on the phone4 ,harbouring suspicions is one thing4 ,having them confirmed by a senior ,,afp officer is quite another4 ,day pulled out a tape recorder1 put it on the table1 turned it on and began asking questions4 ,when ,mendax told ,day he wouldn't answer him1 ,day turned the recorder off4 ,we can talk off the record if you want1' he told the hacker4 ,mendax nearly laughed out loud4 ,police were not journalists4 ,there was no such thing as an off-the-record conversation between a suspect and a police officer4 ,mendax asked to speak to a lawyer4 ,he said he wanted to call ,alphaline1 a free after-hours legal advice telephone service4 ,day agreed1 but when he picked up the telephone to inspect it before handing it over to ,mendax1 something seemed amiss4 ,the phone had an unusual1 middle-pitched tone which ,day didn't seem to recognise4 ,despite there being two ,telecom employees and numerous police specialists in the house1 ,day appeared unable to determine the cause of the funny tone4 ,he looked ,mendax dead in the eye and said1 ,is this a hijacked telephone line8' ,hijacked8 ,day's comment took ,mendax by surprise4 ,what surprised him was not that ,day suspected him of hijacking the line1 but rather that he didn't know whether the line had been manipulated4 ,well1 don't you know8' he taunted ,day4 ,for the next half hour1 ,day and the other officers picked apart ,mendax's telephone1 trying to work out what sort of shenanigans the hacker had been up to4 ,they made a series of calls to see if the long-haired youth had somehow rewired his telephone line1 perhaps to make his calls untraceable4 ,in fact1 the dial tone on ,mendax's telephone was the very normal sound of a tone-dial telephone on an ,,are-#aa telephone exchange4 ,the tone was simply different from the ones generated by other exchange types1 such as ,,axe and step-by-step exchanges4 ,finally ,mendax was allowed to call a lawyer at ,alphaline4 ,the lawyer warned the hacker not to say anything4 ,he said the police could offer a sworn statement to the court about anything the hacker said1 and then added that the police might even be wired4 ,next1 ,day tried the chummy approach at getting information from the hacker4 ,just between you and me1 are you ,mendax8' he asked4 ,silence4 ,day tried another tactic4 ,hackers have a well-developed sense of ego--a flaw ,day no doubt believed he could tap into4 ,there have been a lot of people over the years running around impersonating you--using your handle1' he said4 ,mendax could see ,day was trying to manipulate him but by this stage he didn't care4 ,he figured that the police already had plenty of evidence that linked him to his handle1 so he admitted to it4 ,day had some other surprising questions up his sleeve4 ,so1 ,mendax1 what do you know about that white powder in the bedroom8' ,mendax couldn't recall any white powder in the bedroom4 ,he didn't do drugs1 so why would there be any white powder anywhere8 ,he watched two police officers bringing two large red toolboxes in the house--they looked like drug testing kits4 ,jesus1 ,mendax thought4 ,i'm being set up4 ,the cops led the hacker into the bedroom and pointed to two neat lines of white powder laid out on a bench4 ,mendax smiled1 relieved4 ,it's not what you think1' he said4 ,the white powder was glow-in-the-dark glue he had used to paint stars on the ceiling of his child's bedroom4 ,two of the cops started smiling at each other4 ,mendax could see exactly what was going through their minds3 ,it's not every cocaine or speed user that can come up with a story like that4 ,one grinned at the other and exclaimed gleefully1 ,,taste ,,test6' ,that's not a good idea1' ,mendax said1 but his protests only made things worse4 ,the cops shooed him into another room and returned to inspect the powder by themselves4 ,what ,mendax really wanted was to get word through to ,prime ,suspect4 ,the cops had probably busted all three ,,is hackers at the same time1 but maybe not4 ,while the police investigated the glue on their own1 ,mendax managed to sneak a telephone call to his estranged wife and asked her to call ,prime ,suspect and warn him4 ,he and his wife might have had their differences1 but he figured she would make the call anyway4 ,when ,mendax's wife reached ,prime ,suspect later that night1 he replied1 ,yeah1 there's a party going on over here too4' ,mendax went back in to the kitchen where an officer was tagging the growing number of possessions seized by the police4 ,one of the female officers was struggling to move his printer to the pile4 ,she smiled sweetly at ,mendax and asked if he would move it for her4 ,he obliged4 ,the police finally left ,mendax's house at about #c a4m4 ,they had spent three and half hours and seized #fc bundles of his personal belongings1 but they had not charged him with a single crime4 ,when the last of the unmarked police cars had driven away1 ,mendax stepped out into the silent suburban street4 ,he looked around4 ,after making sure that no-one was watching him1 he walked to a nearby phone booth and rang ,trax4 ,the ,,afp raided my house tonight4' he warned his friend4 ,they just left4' ,trax sounded odd1 awkward4 ,oh4 ,ah4 ,i see4' ,is there something wrong8 ,you sound strange1' ,mendax said4 ,ah4 ,no 444 no1 nothing's wrong4 ,just um 444 tired4 ,so1 um 444 so the feds could 444 ah1 be here any minute 444' ,trax's voice trailed off4 ,but something was very wrong4 ,the ,,afp were already at ,trax's house1 and they had been there for #aj hours4 ,the ,,is hackers waited almost three years to be charged4 ,the threat of criminal charges hung over their heads like personalised ,swords of ,damocles4 ,they couldn't apply for a job1 make a friend at ,,tafe or plan for the future without worrying about what would happen as a result of the ,,afp raids of #bi ,october #aiia4 ,finally1 in ,july #aiid1 each hacker received formal charges--in the mail4 ,during the intervening years1 all three hackers went through monumental changes in their lives4 ,devastated by the break-down of his marriage and unhinged by the ,,afp raid1 ,mendax sank into a deep depression and consuming anger4 ,by the middle of ,november #aiia1 he was admitted to hospital4 ,he hated hospital1 its institutional regimens and game-playing shrinks4 ,eventually1 he told the doctors he wanted out4 ,he might be crazy1 but hospital was definitely making him crazier4 ,he left there and stayed at his mother's house4 ,the next year was the worst of his life4 ,once a young person leaves home--particularly the home of a strong-willed parent--it becomes very difficult for him or her to return4 ,short visits might work1 but permanent residency often fails4 ,mendax lived for a few days at home1 then went walkabout4 ,he slept in the open air1 on the banks of rivers and creeks1 in grassy meadows--all on the country fringes of ,melbourne's furthest suburbs4 ,sometimes he travelled closer to the city1 overnighting in places like the ,merri ,creek reserve4 ,mostly1 he haunted ,sherbrooke ,forest in the ,dandenong ,ranges ,national ,park4 ,because of the park's higher elevation1 the temperature dropped well below the rest of ,melbourne in winter4 ,in summer1 the mosquitoes were unbearable and ,mendax sometimes woke to find his face swollen and bloated from their bites4 ,for six months after the ,,afp raid1 ,mendax didn't touch a computer4 ,slowly1 he started rebuilding his life from the ground up4 ,by the time the ,,afp's blue slips--carrying #bi charges--arrived in ,july #aiid1 he was settled in a new house with his child4 ,throughout his period of transition1 he talked to ,prime ,suspect and ,trax on the phone regularly--as friends and fellow rebels1 not fellow hackers4 ,prime ,suspect had been going through his own set of problems4 ,while he hacked1 ,prime ,suspect didn't do many drugs4 ,a little weed1 not much else4 ,there was no time for drugs1 girls1 sports or anything else4 ,after the raid1 he gave up hacking and began smoking more dope4 ,in ,april #aiib1 he tried ecstasy for the first time--and spent the next nine months trying to find the same high4 ,he didn't consider himself addicted to drugs1 but the drugs had certainly replaced his addiction to hacking and his life fell into a rhythm4 ,snort some speed or pop an ecstasy tablet on ,saturday night4 ,go to a rave4 ,dance all night1 sometimes for six hours straight4 ,get home mid-morning and spend ,sunday coming down from the drugs4 ,get high on dope a few times during the week1 to dull the edges of desire for the more expensive drugs4 ,when ,saturday rolled around1 do it all over again4 ,week in1 week out4 ,month after month4 ,dancing to techno-music released him4 ,dancing to it on drugs cleared his mind completely1 made him feel possessed by the music4 ,techno was musical nihilism2 no message1 and not much medium either4 ,fast1 repetitive1 computer-synthesised beats1 completely stripped of vocals or any other evidence of humanity4 ,he liked to go to techno-night at ,the ,lounge1 a city club1 where people danced by themselves1 or in small1 loose groups of four or five4 ,everyone watched the video screen which provided an endless stream of ever-changing1 colourful computer-generated geometric shapes pulsing to the beat4 ,prime ,suspect never told his mother he was going to a rave4 ,he just said he was going to a friend's for the night4 ,in between the drugs1 he attended his computer science courses at ,,tafe and worked at the local supermarket so he could afford his weekly #fj ecstasy tablet1 #bj rave entry fee and regular baggy of marijuana4 ,over time1 the drugs became less and less fun4 ,then1 one ,sunday1 he came down off some speed hard4 ,a big crash4 ,the worst he had ever experienced4 ,depression set in1 and then paranoia4 ,he knew the police were still watching him4 ,they had followed him before4 ,at his police interviews1 he learned that an ,,afp officer had followed him to an ,,ac_/,,dc concert less than two weeks before he had been busted4 ,the officer told him the ,,afp wanted to know what sort of friends ,prime ,suspect associated with--and the officer had been treated to the spectre of seven other arm-waving1 head-thumping1 screaming teenagers just like ,prime ,suspect himself4 ,now ,prime ,suspect believed that the ,,afp had started following him again4 ,they were going to raid him again1 even though he had given up hacking completely4 ,it didn't make sense4 ,he knew the premonition was illogical1 but he couldn't shake it4 ,something bad--very1 very bad--was going to happen any day4 ,overcome with a great sense of impending doom1 he lapsed into a sort of hysterical depression4 ,feeling unable to prevent the advent of the dark1 terrible event which would tear apart his life yet again1 he reached out to a friend who had experienced his own personal problems4 ,the friend guided him to a psychologist at the ,austin ,hospital4 ,prime ,suspect decided that there had to be a better way to deal with his problems than wasting himself every weekend4 ,he began counselling4 ,the counselling made him deal with all sorts of unresolved business4 ,his father's death4 ,his relationship with his mother4 ,how he had evolved into an introvert1 and why he was never comfortable talking to people4 ,why he hacked4 ,how he became addicted to hacking4 ,why he took up drugs4 ,at the end1 the #ba-year-old ,prime ,suspect emerged drug-free and1 though still shaky1 on the road to recovery4 ,the worst he had to wait for were the charges from the ,,afp4 ,trax's recovery from his psychological instabilities wasn't as definitive4 ,from #aihe1 ,trax had suffered from panic attacks1 but he didn't want to seek professional help--he just ran away from the problem4 ,the situation only became worse after he was involved in a serious car accident4 ,he became afraid to leave the house at night4 ,he couldn't drive4 ,whenever he was in a car1 he had to fight an overwhelming desire to fling the door open and throw himself out on to the road4 ,in #aihi1 his local ,,gp referred ,trax to a psychiatrist1 who tried to treat the phreaker's growing anxiety attacks with hypnosis and relaxation techniques4 ,trax's illness degenerated into full-fledged agoraphobia1 a fear of open spaces4 ,when he rang the police in late ,october #aiia--;just days before the ,,afp raid--his condition had deteriorated to the point where he could not comfortably leave his own house4 ,initially he rang the state police to report a death threat made against him by another phreaker4 ,somewhere in the conversation1 he began to talk about his own phreaking and hacking4 ,he hadn't intended to turn himself in but1 well1 the more he talked1 the more he had to say4 ,so many things had been weighing on his mind4 ,he knew that ,prime ,suspect had probably been traced from ,nor,tel as a result of ,mendax's own near miss in that system4 ,and ,prime ,suspect and ,mendax had been so active1 breaking into so many systems1 it was almost as if they wanted to be caught4 ,then there was ,prime ,suspect's plan to write a destructive worm1 which would wipe systems en route4 ,it wasn't really a plan per se1 more just an idea he had toyed with on the phone4 ,nonetheless1 it had scared ,trax4 ,he began to think all three ,,is hackers were getting in too deep and he wanted out4 ,he tried to stop phreaking1 even going so far as to ask ,telecom to change his telephone number to a new exchange which he knew would not allow him to make untraceable calls4 ,trax reasoned that if he knew he could be traced1 he would stop phreaking and hacking4 ,for a period1 he did stop4 ,but the addiction was too strong1 and before long he was back at it again1 regardless of the risk4 ,he ran a hidden cable from his sister's telephone line1 which was on the old exchange4 ,his inability to stop made him feel weak and guilty1 and even more anxious about the risks4 ,perhaps the death threat threw him over the edge4 ,he couldn't really understand why he had turned himself in to the police4 ,it had just sort of happened4 ,the ,victoria ,police notified the ,,afp4 ,the ,,afp detectives must have been slapping their heads in frustration4 ,here was ,australia's next big hacker case after ,the ,realm1 and they had expected to make a clean bust4 ,they had names1 addresses1 phone numbers4 ,they had jumped through legal hoops to get a telephone tap4 ,the tap was up and running1 catching every target computer1 every plot1 every word the hackers said to each other4 ,then one of their targets goes and turns himself in to the police4 ,and not even to the right police--he goes to the ,victoria ,police4 ,in one fell swoop1 the hacker was going to take down the entire twelve-month ,operation ,weather investigation4 ,the ,,afp had to move quickly4 ,if ,trax tipped off the other two ,,is hackers that he had called the police1 they might destroy their notes1 computer files--all the evidence the ,,afp had hoped to seize in raids4 ,when the ,,afp swooped in on the three hackers1 ,mendax and ,prime ,suspect had refused to be interviewed on the night4 ,trax1 however1 had spent several hours talking to the police at his house4 ,he told the other ,,is hackers that the police had threatened to take him down to ,,afp headquarters--despite the fact that they knew leaving his house caused him anxiety4 ,faced with that prospect1 made so terrifying by his psychiatric illness1 he had talked4 ,prime ,suspect and ,mendax didn't know how much ,trax had told the police1 but they didn't believe he would dob them in completely4 ,apart from anything else1 he hadn't been privy to much of his colleagues' hacking4 ,they hadn't tried to exclude ,trax1 but he was not as sophisticated a hacker and therefore didn't share in many of their exploits4 ,in fact1 one thing ,trax did tell the police was just how sophisticated the other two ,,is hackers had become just prior to the bust4 ,prime ,suspect and ,mendax were1 he said1 hackers on a major scale1 on a huge scale--something never achieved before'1 and the ,,afp had sat up and taken notice4 ,after the raids1 ,trax told ,mendax that the ,,afp had tried to recruit him as an informant4 ,trax said that they had even offered him a new computer system1 but he had been non-committal4 ,and it seemed the ,,afp was still keeping tabs on the ,,is hackers1 ,trax also told ,mendax4 ,the ,,afp officers had heard ,mendax had gone into hospital and they were worried4 ,there seemed to be a disturbing pattern evolving4 ,on the subject of the ,,is raids1 ,trax told ,mendax that the ,,afp felt it didn't have any choice4 ,their attitude was3 you were doing so much1 we had to bust you4 ,you were inside so many systems1 it was getting out of control4 ,in any case1 by ,december #aiia ,mendax had agreed to a police interview1 based on legal advice4 ,ken ,day interviewed ,mendax1 and the hacker was open with ,day about what he had done4 ,he refused1 however1 to implicate either ,trax or ,prime ,suspect4 ,in ,february #aiib1 ,prime ,suspect followed suit1 with two interviews4 ,he was also careful about what he said regarding his fellow hackers4 ,mendax was interviewed a second time1 in ,february #aiib1 as was ,trax in ,august4 ,after the raid1 ,trax's psychiatric condition remained unstable4 ,he changed doctors and began receiving home visits from a hospital psychiatric service4 ,eventually1 a doctor prescribed medication4 ,the three hackers continued to talk on the phone1 and see each other occasionally4 ,one or the other might drop out of communication for a period1 but would soon return to the fold4 ,they helped each other and they maintained their deep anti-establishment sentiments4 ,after the charges arrived in the mail1 they called each other to compare notes4 ,mendax thought out loud on the phone to ,prime ,suspect1 ,i guess ,i should get a lawyer'4 ,yeah4 ,i got one4 ,he's lining up a barrister too4' ,they any good8' ,mendax asked4 ,dunno4 ,i guess so4 ,the solicitor works at ,legal ,aid1 an in-house guy4 ,i've only met them a few times4' ,oh1' ,mendax paused4 ,what are their names8' ,john ,mc,loughlin and ,boris ,kayser4 ,they did ,electron's case4' ,trax and ,prime ,suspect decided to plead guilty4 ,once they saw the overwhelming evidence--data taps1 telephone voice taps1 data seized during the raids1 nearly a dozen statements by witnesses from the organisations they had hacked1 the #cjj-page ,telecom report--they figured they would be better off pleading4 ,the legal brief ran to more than #gjjj pages4 ,at least they would get some kudos with the judge for cooperating in the police interviews and pleading early in the process1 thus saving the court time and money4 ,mendax1 however1 wanted to fight the charges4 ,he knew about ,pad and ,gandalf's case and the message from that seemed to be pretty clear3 ,plead and you go to prison1 fight and you might get off free4 ,the ,,dpp shuffled the charges around so much between mid-#aiid and #aiie that all the original charges against ,trax1 issued on #bj ,july #aiid1 were dropped in favour of six new charges filed on ,valentines ,day1 #aiie4 ,at that time1 new charges--largely for hacking a ,telecom computer--were also laid against ,mendax and ,prime ,suspect4 ,by ,may #aiie1 the three hackers faced #fc charges in all3 #ca for ,mendax1 #bf for ,prime ,suspect and six for ,trax4 ,in addition1 ,nor,tel claimed the damages attributed to the hacker incident totalled about #afjjjj--;and the company was seeking compensation from the responsible parties4 ,the ,australian ,national ,university claimed another #dbjj in damages4 ,most of the charges related to obtaining illegal access to commercial or other information1 and inserting and deleting data in numerous computers4 ,the deleting of data was not malicious--it generally related to cleaning up evidence of the hackers' activities4 ,however1 all three hackers were also charged with some form of incitement'4 ,by writing articles for the ,,is magazine1 the prosecution claimed the hackers had been involved in disseminating information which would encourage others to hack and phreak4 ,on #d ,may #aiie ,mendax sat in the office of his solicitor1 ,paul ,galbally1 discussing the committal hearing scheduled for the next day4 ,galbally was a young1 well-respected member of ,melbourne's most prestigious law family4 ,his family tree read like a ,who's ,who of the law4 ,frank ,galbally1 his father1 was one of ,australia's most famous criminal barristers4 ,his uncle1 ,jack ,galbally1 was a well-known lawyer1 a minister in the ,state ,labor government of ,john ,cain ,sr and1 later1 the ,leader of the ,opposition in the ,victorian parliament4 ,his maternal grandfather1 ,sir ,norman ,o',bryan1 was a ,supreme ,court judge1 as was his maternal uncle of the same name4 ,the ,galballys weren't so much a family of lawyers as a legal dynasty4 ,rather than rest on his family's laurels1 ,paul ,galbally worked out of a cramped1 #aigjs time-warped1 windowless office in a ,william ,street basement1 where he was surrounded by defence briefs--the only briefs he accepted4 ,he liked the idea of keeping people out of prison better than the idea of putting them in it4 ,working closely with a defendant1 he inevitably found redeeming qualities which the prosecution would never see4 ,traces of humanity1 no matter how small1 made his choice seem worthwhile4 ,his choices in life reflected the ,galbally image as champions of the underdog1 and the family shared a background with the working class4 ,catholic4 ,irish4 ,collingwood football enthusiasts4 ,and1 of course1 a very large family4 ,paul was one of eight children1 and his father had also come from a large family4 ,the #cd-year-old criminal law specialist didn't know anything about computer crime when ,mendax first appeared in his office1 but the hacker's case seemed both interesting and worthy4 ,the unemployed1 long-haired youth had explained he could only offer whatever fees the ,victorian ,legal ,aid ,commission was willing to pay--a sentence ,galbally heard often in his practice4 ,he agreed4 ,galbally ,o',bryan had a very good reputation as a criminal law firm4 ,criminals1 however1 tended not to have a great deal of money4 ,the large commercial firms might dabble in some criminal work1 but they cushioned any resulting financial inconvenience with other1 more profitable legal work4 ,pushing paper for ,western ,mining ,corporation paid for glass-enclosed corner offices on the fiftieth floor4 ,defending armed robbers and drug addicts didn't4 ,the #d ,may meeting between ,galbally and ,mendax was only scheduled to take an hour or so4 ,although ,mendax was contesting the committal hearing along with ,prime ,suspect on the following day1 it was ,prime ,suspect's barrister1 ,boris ,kayser1 who was going to be running the show4 ,prime ,suspect told ,mendax he had managed to get full ,legal ,aid for the committal1 something ,galbally and ,mendax had not been able to procure4 ,thus ,mendax would not have his own barrister at the proceedings4 ,mendax didn't mind4 ,both hackers knew they would be committed to trial4 ,their immediate objective was to discredit the prosecution's damage claims--particularly ,nor,tel's4 ,as ,mendax and ,galbally talked1 the mood in the office was upbeat4 ,mendax was feeling optimistic4 ,then the phone rang4 ,it was ,geoff ,chettle1 the barrister representing the ,,dpp4 ,while ,chettle talked1 ,mendax watched a dark cloud pass across his solicitor's face4 ,when he finally put the phone down1 ,galbally looked at ,mendax with his serious1 crisis management expression4 ,what's wrong8 ,what's the matter8' ,mendax asked4 ,galbally sighed before he spoke4 ,prime ,suspect has turned ,crown witness against you4' ,there was a mistake4 ,mendax was sure of it4 ,the whole thing was just one big mistake4 ,maybe ,chettle and the ,,dpp had misunderstood something ,prime ,suspect had said to them4 ,maybe ,prime ,suspect's lawyers had messed up4 ,whatever4 ,there was definitely a mistake4 ,at ,galbally's office1 ,mendax had refused to believe ,prime ,suspect had really turned4 ,not until he saw a signed statement4 ,that night he told a friend1 ,well1 we'll see4 ,maybe ,chettle is just playing it up4' ,chettle1 however1 was not just playing it up4 ,there it was--a witness statement--in front of him4 ,signed by ,prime ,suspect4 ,mendax stood outside the courtroom at ,melbourne ,magistrates ,court trying to reconcile two realities4 ,in the first1 there was one of ,mendax's four or five closest friends4 ,a friend with whom he had shared his deepest hacking secrets4 ,a friend he had been hanging out with only last week4 ,in the other reality1 a six-page statement signed by ,prime ,suspect and ,ken ,day at ,,afp ,headquarters at #a4bj p4m4 the day before4 ,to compound matters1 ,mendax began wondering if ,prime ,suspect may have been speaking to the ,,afp for as long as six months4 ,the two realities were spinning through his head1 dancing around each other4 ,when ,galbally arrived at the court1 ,mendax took him to one side to go over the statement4 ,from a damage-control perspective1 it wasn't a complete disaster4 ,prime ,suspect certainly hadn't gone in hard4 ,he could have raised a number of matters1 but didn't4 ,mendax had already admitted to most of the acts which formed the basis of his #ca charges in his police interview4 ,and he had already told the police a good deal about his adventures in ,telecom's telephone exchanges4 ,however1 ,prime ,suspect had elaborated on the ,telecom break-ins in his statement4 ,telecom was owned by the government1 meaning the court would view phreaking from their exchanges not as defrauding a company but as defrauding the ,commonwealth4 ,had the ,,dpp decided to lay those new charges--the ,telecom charges--in ,february #aiie because ,prime ,suspect had given the ,,afp a draft ,crown witness statement back then8 ,mendax began to suspect so4 ,nothing seemed beyond doubt any more4 ,the immediate crisis was the committal hearing in the ,melbourne ,magistrates ,court4 ,there was no way ,boris ,kayser was now going to decimate their star witness1 a ,nor,tel information systems manager4 ,galbally would have to run a cross-examination himself--no easy task at short notice1 given the highly complex technical aspects of the case4 ,inside the courtroom1 as ,mendax got settled1 he saw ,prime ,suspect4 ,he gave his former friend a hard1 unblinking1 intense stare4 ,prime ,suspect responded with a blank wall1 then he looked away4 ,in fact1 even if ,mendax had wanted to say something1 he couldn't4 ,as a ,crown witness1 ,prime ,suspect was off-limits until the case was over4 ,the lawyers began to file into the courtroom4 ,the ,,dpp representative1 ,andrea ,pavleka1 breezed in1 momentarily lifting the tension in the windowless courtroom4 ,she had that effect on people4 ,tall1 slender and long-legged1 with a bob of sandy blonde curls1 booky spectacles resting on a cute button nose and an infectious laugh1 ,pavleka didn't so much walk into a courtroom as waft into it4 ,she radiated happiness from her sunny face4 ,it's a great shame1 ,mendax thought1 that she is on the other side4 ,the court was called into session4 ,prime ,suspect stood in the dock and pleaded guilty to #bf counts of computer crimes4 ,in the course of the proceedings his barrister1 ,boris ,kayser1 told the court that his client had cooperated with the police1 including telling the ,,afp that the hackers had penetrated ,telecom's exchanges4 ,he also said that ,telecom didn't believe--or didn't want to believe--that their exchanges had been compromised4 ,when ,kayser professed loudly what a model citizen his client had been1 ,ken ,day1 sitting in the public benches1 quietly rolled his eyes4 ,the magistrate1 ,john ,tobin1 extended ,prime ,suspect's bail4 ,the hacker would be sentenced at a later date4 ,that matter dealt with1 the focus of the courtroom shifted to ,mendax's case4 ,geoff ,chettle1 for the prosecution1 stood up1 put the ,nor,tel manager1 who had flown in from ,sydney1 on the stand and asked him some warm-up questions4 ,chettle could put people at ease--or rattle them--at will4 ,topped by a minute stubble of hair1 his weathered #dj-something face provided a good match to his deep1 gravelly voice4 ,with quick eyes and a hard1 no-nonsense manner1 he lacked the pretentiousness of many barristers4 ,perhaps because he didn't seem to give a fig about nineteenth century protocols1 he always managed to looked out of place in a barrister's wig and robe4 ,every time he stood up1 the black cape slid off his lean shoulders4 ,the barrister's wig went crooked4 ,he continually adjusted it--tugging the wig back into the correct spot like some wayward child4 ,in court1 ,chettle looked as if he wanted to tear off the crusty trappings of his profession and roll up his sleeves before sinking into a hearty debate4 ,and he looked as if he would rather do it at a pub or the footy4 ,the ,nor,tel manager took the stand4 ,chettle asked him some questions designed to show the court the witness was credible1 in support of the company's #afjjjj hacker-clean-up claim4 ,his task accomplished1 ,chettle sat down4 ,a little nervous1 ,paul ,galbally stood up to his full height--more than six feet--and straightened his jacket4 ,dressed in a moss green suit so dark it was almost black1 with thin lapels and a thin1 #aifjs style tie1 he looked about as understated hip as a lawyer could--and still show his face in court4 ,halting at first1 ,galbally appeared unsure of himself4 ,perhaps he had lost his nerve because of the technical issues4 ,,wmtp files4 ,,utmp files4 ,,pacct audits4 ,network architecture4 ,,ip addresses4 ,he had been expected to become an expert in the basics literally overnight4 ,a worried ,mendax began passing him notes--questions to ask1 explanations1 definitions4 ,slowly1 ,galbally started working up a rhythm to the cross-examination4 ,during the questioning someone from the back of the court sidled up to ,mendax1 in the front row of seats1 and handed a note over his shoulder4 ,mendax unfolded the note1 read it and then turned around to smile at the messenger4 ,it was ,electron4 ,by the time ,galbally had finished1 he had pulled apart much of the ,nor,tel manager's evidence4 ,as he built up a head of steam quizzing the witness1 he forced the ,nor,tel manager to admit he didn't know all that much about the alleged hacking incidents4 ,in fact1 he wasn't even employed by the company when they occurred4 ,he had largely thrown together an affidavit based on second-hand information--and it was this affidavit which supposedly proved the hackers had cost the company #afjjjj4 ,worse1 it seemed to an observer at court that the ,nor,tel manager had little ,unix security technical expertise and probably would not have been able to conduct a detailed technical analysis of the incident even if he had been with the company in #aiia4 ,by the end of the defence's cross-examination1 it appeared that ,galbally knew more about ,unix than the ,nor,tel manager4 ,when ,geoff ,chettle stood up to re-examine the witness1 the situation was hopeless4 ,the manager soon stood down4 ,in ,mendax's view1 the credibility of the ,nor,tel ,manager's statement was shot4 ,the court was then adjourned until #ab ,may4 ,after court1 ,mendax heard ,geoff ,chettle talking about the ,nor,tel witness4 ,that guy is ,,off the team1' he said emphatically4 ,it was a mixed victory for ,mendax4 ,his solicitor had knocked off one ,nor,tel witness1 but there were more where he came from4 ,at a full trial1 the prosecution would likely fly in some real ,nor,tel fire-power1 from ,canada1 where the #fgf-page security incident report had been prepared by ,clark ,ferguson and other members of the ,nor,tel security team4 ,those witnesses would understand how a ,unix system operated1 and would have first-hand knowledge of the hackers' intrusions4 ,it could make things much more difficult4 ,when ,mendax returned to court a week later1 he was committed to stand trial in the ,county ,court of ,victoria1 as expected4 ,later1 ,mendax asked ,galbally about his options4 ,take the case to full trial1 or plead guilty like the other two ,,is hackers4 ,he wanted to know where the ,,dpp stood on his case4 ,would they go in hard if he pleaded guilty8 ,had the ,nor,tel manager disaster at the committal hearing forced them to back down a little8 ,paul sighed and shook his head4 ,the ,,dpp were standing firm4 ,they wanted to see ,mendax go to prison4 ,andrea ,pavleka1 the ,,dpp's sunny-faced girl who radiated happiness1 was baying for blood4 ,one month later1 on #ba ,july #aiie1 ,prime ,suspect arrived at the ,county ,court for sentencing4 ,rising early that morning to make sure his court suit was in order1 ,prime ,suspect had been tense4 ,his mother cooked him a big breakfast4 ,toast1 bacon and eggs the way he liked it4 ,in fact1 his favourite breakfast was an ,egg ,mc,muffin from ,mc,donald's1 but he never told his mother that4 ,the courtroom was already crowded4 ,reporters from newspapers1 the wire services1 a few ,,tv channels4 ,there were also other people1 perhaps waiting for another case4 ,dressed in a dark pin-stripe suit1 ,ken ,day stood tapping on a laptop on the prosecution's side of the courtroom4 ,geoff ,chettle sat near him4 ,prime ,suspect's barrister1 ,boris ,kayser1 sifted through some papers on the other side4 ,mendax lingered at the back of the room1 watching his former friend4 ,he wanted to hear ,prime ,suspect's sentence because1 under the rules of parity sentencing1 ,mendax's own sentence would have to be similar to that of his fellow hackers4 ,however1 ,prime ,suspect might get some dispensation for having helped the prosecution4 ,a handful of ,prime ,suspect's friends--none of them from the computer underground--trickled in4 ,the hacker's mother chatted nervously with them4 ,court was called into session and everyone settled into their seats4 ,the first case1 it turned out1 was not ,prime ,suspect's4 ,a tall1 silver-haired man in his mid-fifties1 with eyes so blue they were almost demonic1 stepped into the dock4 ,as the reporters began taking notes1 ,prime ,suspect tried to imagine what crime the polished1 well-dressed man had committed4 ,child molesting4 ,the man had not just molested children1 he had molested his own son4 ,in the parents' bedroom4 ,repeatedly4 ,on ,easter ,sunday4 ,his son was less than ten years old at the time4 ,the whole family had collapsed4 ,psychologically scarred1 his son had been too traumatised even to give a victim impact statement4 ,for all of this1 ,judge ,russell ,lewis told the court1 the man had shown no remorse4 ,grave-faced1 the judge sentenced him to a minimum prison term of five years and nine months4 ,the court clerk then called ,prime ,suspect's case4 ,at the back of the courtroom1 ,mendax wondered at the strange situation4 ,how could the criminal justice system put a child molester in the same category as a hacker8 ,yet1 here they both were being sentenced side by side in the same ,county ,court room4 ,boris ,kayser had called a collection of witnesses1 all of whom attested to ,prime ,suspect's difficult life4 ,one of these1 the well-regarded psychologist ,tim ,watson-,munro1 described ,prime ,suspect's treatments at the ,austin ,hospital and raised the issue of reduced free-will4 ,he had written a report for the court4 ,judge ,lewis was quick to respond to the suggestion that hacking was an addiction4 ,at one point1 he wondered aloud to the courtroom whether some of ,prime ,suspect's hacking activities were like a shot of heroin'4 ,before long1 ,kayser had launched into his usual style of courtroom address4 ,first1 he criticised the ,,afp for waiting so long to charge his client4 ,this fellow should have been dealt with six to twelve months after being apprehended4 ,it is a bit like the ,,us1 where a man can commit a murder at twenty1 have his appeal be knocked back by the ,supreme ,court at #cj and be executed at #dj--;all for something he did when he was only twenty years old4 ,thoroughly warmed up1 ,kayser observed that #bj per cent of ,prime ,suspect's life had gone by since being raided4 ,then he began hitting his high notes4 ,this young man received no assistance in the maturation process4 ,he didn't grow up1 he drifted up4 ,his world was so horrible that he withdrew into a fantasy world4 ,he knew no other way to interact with human beings4 ,hacking was like a physical addiction to him4 ,if he hadn't withdrawn into the cybernetic highway1 what would he have done instead8 ,set fires8 ,robbed houses8 ,look at the name he gave himself4 ,prime ,suspect4 ,it has implied power--a threat4 ,this kid didn't have any power in his life other than when he sat down at a computer4' ,not only did ,kayser want the judge to dismiss the idea of prison or community service1 he was asking him to order no recorded conviction4 ,the prosecution lawyers looked at ,kayser as if he was telling a good joke4 ,the ,,afp had spent months tracking these hackers and almost three years preparing the case against them4 ,and now this barrister was seriously suggesting that one of the key players should get off virtually scot-free1 with not so much as a conviction recorded against him8 ,it was too much4 ,the judge retired to consider the sentence4 ,when he returned1 he was brief and to the point4 ,no prison4 ,no community service4 ,the recording of #bf convictions4 ,a #ejj three-year good behaviour bond4 ,forfeiture of the now ancient ,apple computer seized by police in the raid4 ,and a reparation payment to the ,australian ,national ,university of #bajj4 ,relief passed over ,prime ,suspect's face1 pink and sweaty from the tension4 ,his friends and family smiled at each other4 ,chettle then asked the judge to rule on what he called the cooperation point'4 ,he wanted the judge to say that ,prime ,suspect's sentence was less than it would have been because the hacker had turned ,crown witness4 ,the ,,dpp was shoring up its position with regard to its remaining target--,mendax4 ,judge ,lewis told the court that the cooperation in this case made no difference4 ,at the back of the court1 ,mendax felt suddenly sad4 ,it was good news for him1 but somehow it felt like a hollow victory4 ,prime ,suspect has destroyed our friendship1 he thought1 and all for nothing4 ,two months after ,prime ,suspect's sentencing1 ,trax appeared in another ,county ,court room to receive his sentence after pleading guilty to six counts of hacking and phreaking4 ,despite taking medication to keep his anxiety under control while in the city1 he was still very nervous in the dock4 ,since he faced the least number of charges of any of the ,,is hackers1 ,trax believed he had a shot at no recorded conviction4 ,whether or not his lawyer could successfully argue the case was another matter4 ,bumbling through papers he could never seem to organise1 ,trax's lawyer rambled to the court1 repeated the same points over and over again1 jumping all over the place in his arguments4 ,his voice was a half-whispered rasp--a fact which so annoyed the judge that he sternly instructed the lawyer to speak up4 ,talking informally before court1 ,geoff ,chettle had told ,mendax that in his view there was no way ,judge ,mervyn ,kimm would let ,trax off with no recorded conviction4 ,judge ,kimm was considered to be one tough nut to crack4 ,if you were a bookmaker running bets on his court at a sentencing hearing1 the good money would be on the prosecution's side4 ,but on #bj ,september #aiie1 the judge showed he couldn't be predicted quite so easily4 ,taking everything into account1 including ,prime ,suspect's sentence and ,trax's history of mental illness1 he ordered no conviction be recorded against ,trax4 ,he also ordered a #ejj three-year good behaviour bond4 ,in passing sentence1 ,judge ,kimm said something startlingly insightful for a judge with little intimate knowledge of the hacker psyche4 ,while sternly stating that he did not intend to make light of the gravity of the offences1 he told the court that the factors of specific deterrence and general deterrence have little importance in the determination of the sentence to be imposed'4 ,it was perhaps the first time an ,australian judge had recognised that deterrence had little relevance at the point of collision between hacking and mental illness4 ,trax's sentence was also a good outcome for ,mendax1 who on #bi ,august #aiie pleaded guilty to eight counts of computer crime1 and not guilty to all the other charges4 ,almost a year later1 on #i ,may #aiif1 he pleaded guilty to an additional eleven charges1 and not guilty to six4 ,the prosecution dropped all the other charges4 ,mendax wanted to fight those six outstanding charges1 which involved ,,anu1 ,,rmit1 ,nor,tel and ,telecom1 because he felt that the law was on his side in these instances4 ,in fact1 the law was fundamentally unclear when it came to those charges4 ,so much so that the ,,dpp and the defence agreed to take issues relating to those charges in a case stated to the ,supreme ,court of ,victoria4 ,in a case stated1 both sides ask the ,supreme ,court to make a ruling not on the court case itself1 but on a point of law4 ,the defence and the prosecution hammer out an agreed statement about the facts of the case and1 in essence1 ask the ,supreme ,court judges to use that statement as a sort of case study4 ,the resulting ruling is meant to clarify the finer points of the law not only for the specific case1 but for similar cases which appear in future4 ,presenting a case stated to the ,supreme ,court is somewhat uncommon4 ,it is unusual to find a court case where both sides can agree on enough of the facts1 but ,mendax's hacking charges presented the perfect case and the questions which would be put to the ,victorian ,supreme ,court in late #aiif were crucial for all future hacking cases in ,australia4 ,what did it mean to obtain access' to a computer8 ,did someone obtain access if he or she got in without using a password8 ,what if he or she used the username guest' and the password guest'8 ,perhaps the most crucial question of all was this3 does a person obtain access' to data stored in a computer if he or she has the ability to view the data1 but does not in fact view or even attempt to view that data8 ,a good example of this applied to the aggravated versions of the offence of hacking3 viewing commercial information4 ,if1 for example1 ,mendax logged into a ,nor,tel computer1 which contained commercially sensitive information1 but he didn't actually read any of those files1 would he be guilty of obtaining access' or obtaining access to commercial information'8 ,the chief judge of the ,county ,court agreed to the case stated and sent it up to the full bench of the ,supreme ,court4 ,the lawyers from both sides were pleased with the bench--,justices ,frank ,vincent1 ,kenneth ,hayne and ,john ,coldrey4 ,on #cj ,september #aiif1 ,mendax arrived at the ,supreme ,court and found all the lawyers assembled at the court--all except for his barrister4 ,paul ,galbally kept checking his watch as the prosecution lawyers began unpacking their mountains of paper--the fruit of months of preparation4 ,galbally paced the plush carpet of the ,supreme ,court anteroom4 ,still no barrister4 ,mendax's barrister had worked tirelessly1 preparing for the case stated as if it was a million dollar case4 ,combing through legal precedents from not only ,australia1 the ,,uk and the ,,us1 but from all the world's ,western-style democracies1 he had attained a great understanding of the law in the area of computer crime4 ,he had finally arrived at that nexus of understanding between law1 philosophy and linguistics which many lesser lawyers spent their entire careers trying to reach4 ,but where was he8 ,galbally pulled out his mobile and checked in with his office for what seemed like the fifth time in as many minutes4 ,the news he received was bad4 ,he was told1 through second-hand sources1 that the barrister had collapsed in a state of nervous exhaustion4 ,he wouldn't be making it to court4 ,galbally could feel his hairs turning grey4 ,when court opened1 ,galbally had to stand up and explain to three of the most senior judges in ,australia why the defence would like a two-day adjournment4 ,a consummate professional1 ,geoff ,chettle supported the submission4 ,still1 it was a difficult request4 ,time in the ,supreme ,court is a scarce and valuable thing4 ,fortunately1 the adjournment was granted4 ,this gave ,galbally exactly two days in which to find a barrister who was good1 available and smart enough to assimilate a massive amount of technical information in a short time4 ,he found ,andrew ,tinney4 ,tinney worked around the clock and by ,wednesday1 #b ,october1 he was ready4 ,once again1 all the lawyers1 and the hacker1 gathered at the court4 ,this time1 however1 it was the judges who threw a spanner into the works4 ,they asked both sides to spend the first hour or so explaining exactly why the ,supreme ,court should hear the case stated at all4 ,the lawyers looked at each other in surprise4 ,what was this all about8 ,after hearing some brief arguments from both sides1 the judges retired to consider their position4 ,when they returned1 ,justice ,hayne read a detailed judgment saying1 in essence1 that the judges refused to hear the case4 ,as the judge spoke1 it became clear that the ,supreme ,court judges weren't just refusing to hear this case stated2 they were virtually refusing to hear any case stated in future4 ,not for computer crimes4 ,not for murder4 ,not for fraud4 ,not for anything4 ,they were sending a message to the ,county ,court judges3 don't send us a case stated except in exceptional circumstances4 ,geoff ,chettle slumped in his chair1 his hands shielding his face4 ,paul ,galbally looked stunned4 ,andrew ,tinney looked as if he wanted to leap from his chair shouting1 ,i just killed myself for the past two days on this case6 ,you have to hear it6' ,even ,lesley ,taylor1 the quiet1 unflappable and inscrutable ,,dpp solicitor who had replaced ,andrea ,pavleka on the case1 looked amazed4 ,the ruling had enormous implications4 ,judges from the lower courts would be loath to ever send cases to the ,supreme ,court for clarification on points of law again4 ,mendax had made legal history1 but not in the way he had hoped4 ,mendax's case passed back down to the ,county ,court4 ,he had considered taking his case to trial1 but with recently announced budget cuts to ,legal ,aid1 he knew there was little hope of receiving funding to fight the charges4 ,the cuts were forcing the poor to plead guilty1 leaving justice available only for the wealthy4 ,worse1 he felt the weight of pleading guilty1 not only as a sense of injustice in his own case1 but for future hacking cases which would follow4 ,without clarity on the meaning of the law--which the judges had refused to provide--or a message from a jury in a landmark case1 such as ,wandii's trial1 ,mendax believed that hackers could expect little justice from either the police or the courts in the future4 ,on #e ,december #aiif1 ,mendax pleaded guilty to the remaining six charges and was sentenced on all counts4 ,court ,two was quiet that day4 ,geoff ,chettle1 for the prosecution1 wasn't there4 ,instead1 the quietly self-possessed ,lesley ,taylor handled the matter4 ,paul ,galbally appeared for ,mendax himself4 ,ken ,day sat1 expressionless1 in the front row of the public benches4 ,he looked a little weary4 ,a few rows back1 ,mendax's mother seemed nervous4 ,electron slipped silently into the back of the room and gave ,mendax a discreet smile4 ,his hair pulled back into a loose ponytail1 ,mendax blinked and rolled his eyes several times as if brought from a dark space into the bright1 white-walled courtroom4 ,judge ,ross1 a ruddy-faced and jowly man of late middle age with bushy1 grey eyebrows1 seated himself in his chair4 ,at first1 he was reluctant to take on the case for sentencing4 ,he thought it should be returned to one of the original judges--,judge ,kimm or ,judge ,lewis4 ,when he walked into court that morning1 he had not read the other judges' sentences4 ,lesley ,taylor summarised the punishments handed down to the other two hackers4 ,the judge did not look altogether pleased4 ,finally1 he announced he would deal with the case4 ,two judges have had a crack at it1 why not a third one8 ,he might do it properly4' ,galbally was concerned4 ,as the morning progressed1 he became increasingly distressed2 things were not going well4 ,judge ,ross made clear that he personally favoured a custodial sentence1 albeit a suspended one4 ,the only thing protecting ,mendax seemed to be the principle of parity in sentencing4 ,prime ,suspect and ,trax had committed similar crimes to ,mendax1 and therefore he had to be given a similar sentence4 ,ross registered some surprise' at ,judge ,lewis's disposition toward the sentencing of ,prime ,suspect4 ,in the context of parity1 he told ,leslie ,taylor1 he was at times quite soured by some penalties' imposed by other judges4 ,he quizzed her for reasons why he might be able to step outside parity4 ,he told the court that he had not read the telephone intercepts in the legal brief4 ,in fact1 he had only read the summary of facts' and when ,taylor mentioned ,international ,subversive'1 he asked her1 ,what was that8' ,then he asked her how to spell the word phreak'4 ,later that day1 after ,judge ,ross had read the other judges' sentences1 he gave ,mendax a sentence similar to ,prime ,suspect's--a recorded conviction on all counts1 a reparation payment of #bajj to ,,anu and a three-year good behaviour bond4 ,there were two variations4 ,prime ,suspect and ,trax both received #ejj good behaviour bonds2 ,judge ,ross ordered a #ejjj bond for ,mendax4 ,further1 ,judge ,lewis had given ,prime ,suspect almost twelve months to pay his #bajj reparation4 ,judge ,ross ordered ,mendax to pay within three months4 ,judge ,ross told ,mendax1 ,i repeat what ,i said before4 ,i thought initially that these were offences which justified a jail sentence1 but the mitigatory circumstances would have converted that to a suspended sentence4 ,the sentence given to your co-offender caused me to alter that view1 however4' ,he was concerned1 he said1 that highly intelligent individuals ought not to behave like this and ,i suspect it is only highly intelligent individuals who can do what you did'4 ,the word addiction' did not appear anywhere in the sentencing transcript4 ,,chapter #aj -- ,anthrax -- ,the ,outsider4 ,they had a gun at my head and a knife at my back2 ,don't wind me up too tight4 -- from ,powderworks' 7also called ,the ,blue ,album74 ,anthrax didn't like working as part of a team4 ,he always considered other people to be the weakest link in the chain4 ,although people were never to be trusted completely1 he socialised with many hackers and phreakers and worked with a few of them now and again on particular projects4 ,but he never formed intimate partnerships with any of them4 ,even if a fellow hacker dobbed him in to the police1 the informant couldn't know the full extent of his activities4 ,the nature of his relationships was also determined1 in part1 by his isolation4 ,anthrax lived in a town in rural ,victoria4 ,despite the fact that he never joined a hacking partnership like ,the ,realm1 ,anthrax liked people1 liked to talk to them for hours at a time on the telephone4 ,sometimes he received up to ten international calls a day from his phreaker friends overseas4 ,he would be over at a friend's house1 and the friend's mother would knock on the door of the bedroom where the boys were hanging out1 listening to new music1 talking4 ,the mother would poke her head in the door1 raise an eyebrow and point at ,anthrax4 ,phone call for you4 ,someone from ,denmark4' ,or sometimes it was ,sweden4 ,finland4 ,the ,,us4 ,wherever4 ,though they didn't say anything1 his friends' parents thought it all a bit strange4 ,not many kids in country towns got international calls trailing them around from house to house4 ,but then not many kids were master phreakers4 ,anthrax loved the phone system and he understood its power4 ,many phreakers thought it was enough to be able to call their friends around the globe for free4 ,or make hacking attack phone calls without being traced4 ,however1 real power for ,anthrax lay in controlling voice communications systems--things that moved conversations around the world4 ,he cruised through people's voice mailbox messages to piece together a picture of what they were doing4 ,he wanted to be able to listen into telephone conversations4 ,and he wanted to be able to reprogram the telephone system1 even take it down4 ,that was real power1 the kind that lots of people would notice4 ,the desire for power grew throughout ,anthrax's teenage years4 ,he ached to know everything1 to see everything1 to play with exotic systems in foreign countries4 ,he needed to know the purpose of every system1 what made them tick1 how they fitted together4 ,understanding how things worked would give him control4 ,his obsession with telephony and hacking began early in life4 ,when he was about eleven1 his father had taken him to see the film ,war ,games4 ,all ,anthrax could think of as he left the theatre was how much he wanted to learn how to hack4 ,he had already developed a fascination for computers1 having received the simplest of machines1 a ,sinclair ,,zx#ha with #a k of memory1 as a birthday present from his parents4 ,rummaging through outdoor markets1 he found a few second-hand books on hacking4 ,he read ,out of the ,inner ,circle by ,bill ,landreth1 and ,hackers by ,steven ,levy4 ,by the time he was fourteen1 ,anthrax had joined a ,melbourne-based group of boys called ,the ,force4 ,the members swapped ,commodore #fd and ,amiga games4 ,they also wrote their own demos--short computer programs--and delighted in cracking the copy protections on the games and then trading them with other crackers around the world4 ,it was like an international penpal group4 ,anthrax liked the challenge provided by cracking the protections1 but few teenagers in his town shared an interest in his unusual hobby4 ,joining ,the ,force introduced him to a whole new world of people who thought as he did4 ,when ,anthrax first read about phreaking he wrote to one of his ,american cracking contacts asking for advice on how to start4 ,his friend sent him a list of ,,at,t calling card numbers and a toll-free direct-dial number which connected ,australians with ,american operators4 ,the card numbers were all expired or cancelled1 but ,anthrax didn't care4 ,what captured his imagination was the fact that he could call an operator all the way across the ,pacific for free4 ,anthrax began trying to find more special numbers4 ,he would hang out at a pay phone near his house4 ,it was a seedy neighbourhood1 home to the most downtrodden of all the town's residents1 but ,anthrax would stand at the pay phone for hours most evenings1 oblivious to the clatter around him1 hand-scanning for toll-free numbers4 ,he dialled #jjad--the prefix for the international toll-free numbers--followed by a random set of numbers4 ,then1 as he got more serious1 he approached the task more methodically4 ,he selected a range of numbers1 such as #cjj to #djj1 for the last three digits4 ,then he dialled over and over1 increasing the number by one each time he dialled4 #cja4 #cjb4 #cjc4 #cjd4 ,whenever he hit a functioning phone number1 he noted it down4 ,he never had to spend a cent since all the #jjad numbers were free4 ,anthrax found some valid numbers1 but many of them had modems at the other end4 ,so he decided it was time to buy a modem so he could explore further4 ,too young to work legally1 he lied about his age and landed an after-school job doing data entry at an escort agency4 ,in the meantime1 he spent every available moment at the pay phone1 scanning and adding new numbers to his growing list of toll-free modem and operator-assisted numbers4 ,the scanning became an obsession4 ,often ,anthrax stayed at the phone until #aj or #aa p4m4 ,some nights it was #c a4m4 ,the pay phone had a rotary dial1 making the task laborious1 and sometimes he would come home with blisters on the tips of his fingers4 ,a month or so after he started working1 he had saved enough money for a modem4 ,hand scanning was boring1 but no more so than school4 ,anthrax attended his state school regularly1 at least until year #aj4 ,much of that was due to his mother's influence4 ,she believed in education and in bettering oneself1 and she wanted to give her son the opportunities she had been denied4 ,it was his mother1 a psychiatric nurse1 who scrimped and saved for months to buy him his first real computer1 a #djj ,commodore #fd4 ,and it was his mother who took out a loan to buy the more powerful ,amiga a few years later in #aihi4 ,she knew the boy was very bright4 ,he used to read her medical textbooks1 and computers were the future4 ,anthrax had always done well in school1 earning distinctions every year from year #g to year #aj4 ,but not in maths4 ,maths bored him4 ,still1 he had some aptitude for it4 ,he won an award in year #f for designing a pendulum device which measured the height of a building using basic trigonometry--a subject he had never studied4 ,however1 ,anthrax didn't attend school so much after year #aj4 ,the teachers kept telling him things he already knew1 or things he could learn much faster from reading a book4 ,if he liked a topic1 he wandered off to the library to read about it4 ,things at home became increasingly complicated around that time4 ,his family had struggled from the moment they arrived in ,australia from ,england1 when ,anthrax was about twelve4 ,they struggled financially1 they struggled against the roughness of a country town1 and1 as ,indians1 ,anthrax1 his younger brother and their mother struggled against racism4 ,the town was a violent place1 filled with racial hatred and ethnic tension4 ,the ethnics had carved out corners for themselves1 but incursions into enemy territory were common and almost always resulted in violence4 ,it was the kind of town where people ended up in fist fights over a soccer game4 ,not an easy place for a half-,indian1 half-,british boy with a violent father4 ,anthrax's father1 a white ,englishman1 came from a farming family4 ,one of five sons1 he attended an agricultural college where he met and married the sister of an ,indian student on a scholarship4 ,their marriage caused quite a stir1 even making the local paper under the headline ,farmer ,marries ,indian ,woman'4 ,it was not a happy marriage and ,anthrax often wondered why his father had married an ,indian4 ,perhaps it was a way of rebelling against his dominating father4 ,perhaps he had once been in love4 ,or perhaps he simply wanted someone he could dominate and control4 ,whatever the reason1 the decision was an unpopular one with ,anthrax's grandfather and the mixed-race family was often excluded from larger family gatherings4 ,when ,anthrax's family moved to ,australia1 they had almost no money4 ,eventually1 the father got a job as an officer at ,melbourne's ,pentridge prison1 where he stayed during the week4 ,he only received a modest income1 but he seemed to like his job4 ,the mother began working as a nurse4 ,despite their new-found financial stability1 the family was not close4 ,the father appeared to have little respect for his wife and sons1 and ,anthrax had little respect for his father4 ,as ,anthrax entered his teenage years1 his father became increasingly abusive4 ,on weekends1 when he was home from work1 he used to hit ,anthrax1 sometimes throwing him on the floor and kicking him4 ,anthrax tried to avoid the physical abuse but the scrawny teenager was little match for the beefy prison officer4 ,anthrax and his brother were quiet boys4 ,it seemed to be the path of least resistance with a rough father in a rough town4 ,besides1 it was hard to talk back in the painful stutter both boys shared through their early teens4 ,one day1 when ,anthrax was fifteen1 he came home to find a commotion at his house4 ,on entering the house1 ,anthrax went to his parents' bedroom4 ,he found his mother there1 and she was very upset and emotionally distressed4 ,he couldn't see his father anywhere1 but found him relaxing on the sofa in the lounge room1 watching ,,tv4 ,disgust consumed ,anthrax and he retreated into the kitchen4 ,when his father came in not long after to prepare some food ,anthrax watched his back with revulsion4 ,then he noticed a carving knife resting on the counter4 ,as ,anthrax reached for the knife1 an ambulance worker appeared in the doorway4 ,anthrax put the knife down and walked away4 ,but he wasn't so quiet after that4 ,he started talking back1 at home and at school1 and that marked the beginning of the really big problems4 ,in primary school and early high school he had been beaten up now and again4 ,not any more4 ,when a fellow student hauled ,anthrax up against the wall of the locker shed and started shaking him and waving his fist1 ,anthrax lost it4 ,he saw1 for a moment1 his father's face instead of the student's and began to throw punches in a frenzy that left his victim in a terrible state4 ,at home1 ,anthrax's father learned how to bait his son4 ,the bully always savours a morsel of resistance from the victim1 which makes going in for the kill a little more fun4 ,talking back gave the father a good excuse to get violent4 ,once he nearly broke his son's neck4 ,another time it was his arm4 ,he grabbed ,anthrax and twisted his arm behind his back4 ,there was an eerie sound of cracking cartilage1 and then pain4 ,anthrax screamed for his father to stop4 ,his father twisted ,anthrax's arm harder1 then pressed on his neck4 ,his mother shrieked at her husband to let go of her son4 ,he wouldn't4 ,look at you crying1' his father sneered4 ,you disgusting animal4' ,you're the disgusting animal1' ,anthrax shouted1 talking back again4 ,his father threw ,anthrax on the floor and began kicking him in the head1 in the ribs1 all over4 ,anthrax ran away4 ,he went south to ,melbourne for a week1 sleeping anywhere he could1 in the empty night-time spaces left over by day workers gone to orderly homes4 ,he even crashed in hospital emergency rooms4 ,if a nurse asked why he was there1 he would answer politely1 ,i received a phone call to meet someone here'4 ,she would nod her head and move on to someone else4 ,eventually1 when ,anthrax returned home1 he took up martial arts to become strong4 ,and he waited4 ,anthrax was poking around a ,,milnet gateway when he stumbled on the door to ,system ,x499 ,he had wanted to find this system for months1 because he had intercepted email about it which had aroused his curiosity4 ,anthrax telnetted into the gateway4 ,a gateway binds two different networks4 ,it allows1 for example1 two computer networks which talk different languages to communicate4 ,a gateway might allow someone on a system running ,,decnet to login to a ,,tcp_/,,ip based system1 like a ,unix4 ,anthrax was frustrated that he couldn't seem to get past the ,system ,x gateway and on to the hosts on the other side4 ,using normal address formats for a variety of networks1 he tried telling the gateway to make a connection4 ,x4#be4 ,,tcp_/,,ip4 ,whatever lay beyond the gateway didn't respond4 ,anthrax looked around until he found a sample of addresses in a help file4 ,none of them worked1 but they offered a clue as to what format an address might take4 ,each address had six digits1 the first three numbers of which corresponded to telephone area codes in the ,washington ,,dc area4 ,so he picked one of the codes and started guessing the last three digits4 ,hand scanning was a pain1 as ever1 but if he was methodical and persistent1 something should turn up4 #aaa4 #aab4 #aac4 #aad4 #aae4 ,on it went4 ,eventually he connected to something--a ,sunos ,unix system--which gave him a full ,,ip address in its login message4 ,now that was handy4 ,with the full ,,ip address1 he could connect to ,system ,x again through the ,internet directly--avoiding the gateway if he chose to4 ,it's always helpful in covering your tracks to have a few different routing options4 ,importantly1 he could approach ,system ,x through more than just its front door4 ,anthrax spiralled through the usual round of default usernames and passwords4 ,nothing4 ,this system required a more strategic attack4 ,he backed out of the login screen1 escaped from the gateway and went to another ,internet site to have a good look at ,system ,x from a healthy distance4 ,he fingered' the site1 pulling up any bit of information ,system ,x would release to the rest of the ,internet when asked4 ,he probed and prodded1 looking for openings4 ,and then he found one4 ,sendmail4 ,the version of ,sendmail run by ,system ,x had a security hole ,anthrax could exploit by sending himself a tiny backdoor program4 ,to do this1 he used ,system ,x's mail-processing service to send a letter' which contained a tiny computer program4 ,system ,x would never have allowed the program to run normally1 but this program worked like a letter bomb4 ,when ,system ,x opened the letter1 the program jumped out and started running4 ,it told ,system ,x that anyone could connect to port #bjja--to an interactive shell--of the computer without using a password4 ,a port is a door to the outside world4 ,,tcp_/,,ip computers use a standard set of ports for certain services4 ,port #be for mail4 ,port #gi for ,finger4 ,port #ba for ,,ftp4 ,port #bc for ,telnet4 ,port #eac for ,rlogin4 ,port #hj for the ,world ,wide ,web4 ,a ,,tcp_/,,ip based computer system has #feece ports but most of them go unused4 ,indeed1 the average ,unix box uses only #ce1 leaving the remaining #feejj ports sitting idle4 ,anthrax simply picked one of these sleepy ports1 dusted off the cobwebs and plugged in using the backdoor created by his tiny mail-borne program4 ,connecting directly to a port created some problems1 because the system wouldn't recognise certain keystrokes from the port1 such as the return key4 ,for this reason1 ,anthrax had to create an account for himself which would let him telnet to the site and login like any normal user4 ,to do this1 he needed root privileges in order to create an account and1 ultimately1 a permanent backdoor into the system4 ,he began hunting for vulnerabilities in ,system ,x's security4 ,there was nothing obvious1 but he decided to try out a bug he had successfully used elsewhere4 ,he had first learned about it on an international phone conference1 where he had traded information with other hackers and phreakers4 ,the security hole involved the system's relatively obscure load-module program4 ,the program added features to the running system but1 more importantly1 it ran as root1 meaning that it had a free run on the system when it was executed4 ,it also meant that any other programs the load-module program called up also ran as root4 ,if ,anthrax could get this program to run one of his own programs--a little ,trojan--he could get root on ,system ,x4 ,the load-module bug was by no means a sure thing on ,system ,x4 ,most commercial systems--computers run by banks or credit agencies1 for example--had cleaned up the load-module bug in their ,sunos computers months before4 ,but military systems consistently missed the bug4 ,they were like turtles--hard on the outside1 but soft and vulnerable on the inside4 ,since the bug couldn't be exploited unless a hacker was already inside a system1 the military's computer security officials didn't seem to pay much attention to it4 ,anthrax had visited a large number of military systems prior to ,system ,x1 and in his experience more than #ij per cent of their ,sunos computers had never fixed the bug4 ,with only normal privileges1 ,anthrax couldn't force the load-module program to run his backdoor ,trojan program4 ,but he could trick it into doing so4 ,the secret was in one simple keyboard character3 _/4 ,unix-based computer systems are a bit like the protocols of the diplomatic corps2 the smallest variation can change something's meaning entirely4 ,hackers1 too1 understand the implications of subtle changes4 ,a ,unix-based system reads the phrase3 _/bin_/program very differently from3 bin program ,one simple character--the _/'--makes an enormous difference4 ,a ,unix computer reads the _/' as a road sign4 ,the first phrase tells the computer1 ,follow the road to the house of the user called bin and when you get there1 go inside and fetch the file called program and run it'4 ,a blank space1 however1 tells the computer something quite different4 ,in this case1 ,anthrax knew it told the computer to execute the command which proceeded the space4 ,that second phrase told the machine1 ,look everywhere for a program called bin and run it'4 ,anthrax prepared for his attack on the load-module program by installing his own special program1 named bin'1 into a temporary storage area on ,system ,x4 ,if he could get ,system ,x to run his program with root privileges1 he too would have procured root level access to the system4 ,when everything was in place1 ,anthrax forced the system to read the character _/' as a blank space4 ,then he ran the load-module program1 and watched4 ,when ,system ,x hunted around for a program named bin'1 it quickly found ,anthrax's ,trojan and ran it4 ,the hacker savoured the moment1 but he didn't pause for long4 ,with a few swift keystrokes1 he added an entry to the password file1 creating a basic account for himself4 ,he exited his connection to port #bjja1 circled around through another route1 using the #jjad gateway1 and logged into ,system ,x using his newly created account4 ,it felt good walking in through the front door4 ,once inside1 ,anthrax had a quick look around4 ,the system startled him4 ,there were only three human users4 ,now that was definitely odd4 ,most systems had hundreds of users4 ,even a small system might serve #cj or #dj people1 and this was not a small system4 ,he concluded that ,system ,x wasn't just some machine designed to send and receive email4 ,it was operational4 ,it did something4 ,anthrax considered how to clean up his footsteps and secure his position4 ,while he was hardly broadcasting his presence1 someone might discover his arrival simply by looking at who was logged in on the list of accounts in the password file4 ,he had given his backdoor root account a bland name1 but he could reasonably assume that these three users knew their system pretty well4 ,and with only three users1 it was probably the kind of system that had lots of babysitting4 ,after all that effort1 ,anthrax needed a watchful nanny like a hole in the head4 ,he worked at moving into the shadows4 ,he removed himself from the ,,wtmp and ,,utmp files1 which listed who had been on-line and who was still logged in4 ,anthrax wasn't invisible1 but an admin would have to look closely at the system's network connections and list of processes to find him4 ,next stop3 the login program4 ,anthrax couldn't use his newly created front-door account for an extended period--the risk of discovery was too great4 ,if he accessed the computer repeatedly in this manner1 a prying admin might eventually find him and delete his account4 ,an extra account on a system with only three users was a dead give-away4 ,and losing access to ,system ,x just as things were getting interesting was not on his agenda4 ,anthrax leaned back in his chair and stretched his shoulders4 ,his hacking room was an old cloakroom1 though it was barely recognisable as such4 ,it looked more like a closet--a very messy closet4 ,the whole room was ankle-deep in scrap papers1 most of them with lists of numbers on the back and front4 ,occasionally1 ,anthrax scooped up all the papers and piled them into heavy-duty garbage bags1 three of which could just fit inside the room at any one time4 ,anthrax always knew roughly where he had filed' a particular set of notes4 ,when he needed it1 he tipped the bag onto the floor1 searched through the mound and returned to the computer4 ,when the sea of paper reached a critical mass1 he jammed everything back into the garbage bag again4 ,the computer--an ,amiga #ejj box with a cheap ,panasonic ,,tv as the monitor--sat on a small desk next to his mother's sewing machine cabinet4 ,the small bookcase under the desk was stuffed with magazines like ,compute and ,australian ,communications1 along with a few ,commodore1 ,amiga and ,unix reference manuals4 ,there was just enough space for ,anthrax's old stereo and his short-wave radio4 ,when he wasn't listening to his favourite show1 a hacking program broadcast from a pirate station in ,ecuador1 he tuned into ,radio ,moscow or the ,,bbc's ,world ,service4 ,anthrax considered what to do with ,system ,x4 ,this system had aroused his curiosity and he intended to visit it frequently4 ,it was time to work on the login patch4 ,the patch replaced the system's normal login program and had a special feature3 a master password4 ,the password was like a diplomatic passport4 ,it would let him do anything1 go anywhere4 ,he could login as any user using the master password4 ,further1 when he logged in with the master password1 he wouldn't show up on any log files--leaving no trail4 ,but the beauty of the login patch was that1 in every other way1 it ran as the normal login program4 ,the regular computer users--all three of them--could login as usual with their passwords and would never know ,anthrax had been in the system4 ,he thought about ways of setting up his login patch4 ,installing a patch on ,system ,x wasn't like mending a pair of jeans4 ,he couldn't just slap on a swath from an old bandanna and quick-stitch it in with a thread of any colour4 ,it was more like mending an expensive cashmere coat4 ,the fabric needed to be a perfect match in colour and texture4 ,and because the patch required high-quality invisible mending1 the size also needed to be just right4 ,every file in a computer system has three dates3 the date it was created1 the date it was last modified and the date it was last accessed4 ,the problem was that the login patch needed to have the same creation and modification dates as the original login program so that it would not raise suspicions4 ,it wasn't hard to get the dates but it was difficult to paste them onto the patch4 ,the last access date wasn't important as it changed whenever the program was run anyway--whenever a user of the ,system ,x logged in4 ,if ,anthrax ripped out the original login program and stitched his patch in its place1 the patch would be stamped with a new creation date4 ,he knew there was no way to change a creation date short of changing the clock for the whole system--something which would cause problems elsewhere in ,system ,x4 ,the first thing a good system admin does when he or she suspects a break-in is search for all files created or modified over the previous few days4 ,one whiff of an intruder and a good admin would be all over ,anthrax's login patch within about five minutes4 ,anthrax wrote the modification and creation dates down on a bit of paper4 ,he would need those in a moment4 ,he also jotted down the size of the login file4 ,instead of tearing out the old program and sewing in a completely new one1 ,anthrax decided to overlay his patch by copying it onto the top of the old program4 ,he uploaded his own login patch1 with his master password encased inside it1 but he didn't install it yet4 ,his patch was called troj'--short for ,trojan4 ,he typed3 cattroj_/bin_/login ,the cat command told the computer3 go get the data in the file called troj and put it in the file _/bin_/login'4 ,he checked the piece of paper where he had scribbled down the original file's creation and modification dates1 comparing them to the new patch4 ,the creation date and size matched the original4 ,the modification date was still wrong1 but he was two-thirds of the way home4 ,anthrax began to fasten down the final corner of the patch by using a little-known feature of the command3 _/usr_/#e;bin_/date ,then he changed the modification date of his login patch to the original login file's date4 ,he stepped back to admire his work from a distance4 ,the newly installed patch matched the original perfectly4 ,same size4 ,same creation date4 ,same modification date4 ,with patch in place1 he deleted the root account he had installed while visiting port #bjja4 ,always take your garbage with you when you leave4 ,now for the fun bit4 ,snooping around4 ,anthrax headed off for the email1 the best way to work out what a system was used for4 ,there were lots of reports from underlings to the three system users on buying equipment1 progress reports on a certain project1 updates4 ,what was this project8 ,then ,anthrax came across a huge directory4 ,he opened it and there1 couched inside1 were perhaps #ajj subdirectories4 ,he opened one of them4 ,it was immense1 containing hundreds of files4 ,the smallest subfile had perhaps #fj computer screens' worth of material1 all of it unintelligible4 ,numbers1 letters1 control codes4 ,anthrax couldn't make head nor tail of the files4 ,it was as if he was staring at a group of binary files4 ,the whole subdirectory was filled with thousands of pages of mush4 ,he thought they looked like data files for some database4 ,as he didn't have the program he needed to interpret the mush1 ,anthrax cast around looking for a more readable directory4 ,he pried open a file and discovered it was a list4 ,names and phone numbers of staff at a large telecommunications company4 ,work phone numbers4 ,home numbers4 ,well1 at least that gave him a clue as to the nature of the project4 ,something to do with telecommunications4 ,a project important enough that the military needed the home phone numbers of the senior people involved4 ,the next file confirmed it4 ,another list1 a very special list4 ,a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow4 ,the find of a career spent hacking4 ,if the ,,us government had had any inkling what was happening at that moment1 heads would have rolled4 ,if it had known that a foreigner1 and a follower of what mainstream ,american media termed an extremist religious group1 had this information in his possession1 the defence agency would have called in every law enforcement agency it could enlist4 ,as ,john ,mc,mahon might have said1 a lot of yelling and screaming would have occurred4 ,anthrax's mother had made a good home for the family1 but his father continued to disrupt it with his violence4 ,fun times with his friends shone like bright spots amidst the decay of ,anthrax's family life4 ,practical jokes were his specialty4 ,even as a small child1 he had delighted in trickery and as he grew up1 the jokes became more sophisticated4 ,phreaking was great4 ,it let him prank people all over the world4 ,and pranking was cool4 ,most of the fun in pranking was sharing it with friends4 ,anthrax called into a voice conference frequented by phreakers and hackers4 ,though he never trusted others completely when it came to working on projects together1 it was ,,ok to socialise4 ,the phreaking methods he used to get onto the phone conference were his own business4 ,provided he was discreet in how much he said in the conference1 he thought there wasn't too much risk4 ,he joined the conference calls using a variety of methods4 ,one favourite was using a multinational corporation's ,dialcom service4 ,company employees called in1 gave their ,,id numbers1 and the operator put them through to wherever they wanted to go1 free of charge4 ,all ,anthrax needed was a valid ,,id number4 ,sometimes it was hard work1 sometimes he was lucky4 ,the day ,anthrax tried the ,dialcom service was a lucky day4 ,he dialled from his favourite pay phone4 ,what is your code1 sir8' ,the operator asked4 ,yes1 well1 this is ,mr ,baker4 ,i have a sheet with a lot of numbers here4 ,i am new to the company4 ,not sure which one it is4' ,anthrax shuffled papers on top of the pay phone1 near the receiver4 ,how many digits is it8' ,seven4' ,that was helpful4 ,now to find seven digits4 ,anthrax looked across the street at the fish and chips shop4 ,no numbers there4 ,then a car licence plate caught his eye4 ,he read off the first three digits1 then plucked the last four numbers from another car's plate4 ,thank you4 ,putting your call through1 ,mr ,baker4' ,a valid number6 ,what amazing luck4 ,anthrax milked that number for all it was worth4 ,called party lines4 ,called phreakers' bridges4 ,access fed the obsession4 ,then he gave the number to a friend in ,adelaide1 to call overseas4 ,but when that friend read off the code1 the operator jumped in4 ,,you',,re ,,not ,,mr ,,baker6' ,huh8 ,yes ,i am4 ,you have my code4' ,you are definitely not him4 ,i know his voice4' ,the friend called ,anthrax1 who laughed his head off1 then called into ,dialcom and changed his code6 ,it was a funny incident4 ,still1 it reminded him how much safer it was working by himself4 ,living in the country was hard for a hacker and ,anthrax became a phreaker out of necessity1 not just desire4 ,almost everything involved a long-distance call and he was always searching for ways to make calls for free4 ,he noticed that when he called certain #jjh numbers--free calls--the phone would ring a few times1 click1 and then pause briefly before ringing some more4 ,eventually a company representative or answering service picked up the call4 ,anthrax had read about diverters1 devices used to forward calls automatically1 in one of the many telecommunications magazines and manuals he was constantly reading4 ,the click suggested the call was going through a diverter and he guessed that if he punched in the right tones at the right moment1 he could make the call divert away from a company's customer service agent4 ,furthermore1 any line trace would end up at the company4 ,antrax collected some #jjh numbers and fiddled with them4 ,he discovered that if he punched another number in very quickly over the top of the ringing--just after the click--he could make the line divert to where he wanted it to go4 ,he used the #jjh numbers to ring phone conferences around the world1 where he hung out with other phreakers1 particularly ,canadians such as members of the ,toronto-based ,,upi or the ,montreal group1 ,,npc1 which produced a phreakers' manual in ,french4 ,the conversation on the phreaker's phone conferences1 or phone bridges as they are often called1 inevitably turned to planning a prank4 ,and those ,canadian guys knew how to prank6 ,once1 they rang the emergency phone number in a major ,canadian city4 ,using the ,canadian incarnation of his social engineering accents1 ,anthrax called in a police officer in need of assistance'4 ,the operator wanted to know where4 ,the phreakers had decided on the ,blue ,ribbon ,ice-,cream ,parlour4 ,they always picked a spot within visual range of at least one member1 so they could see what was happening4 ,in the split second of silence which followed1 one of the five other phreakers quietly eavesdropping on the call coughed4 ,it was a short1 sharp cough4 ,the operator darted back on the line4 ,was that ,a ,,gun ,,shot8 ,are you ,,shot8 ,hello8 ,john8' ,the operator leaned away from her receiver for a moment and the phreakers heard her talking to someone else in the background4 ,officer down4' ,things moved so fast when pranking4 ,what to do now8 ,ah1 yeah4 ,yeah4' ,it was amazing how much someone squeezing laughter back down his oesophagus can sound like someone who has been shot4 ,john1 talk to me4 ,talk to me1' the operator pleaded into the phone1 trying to keep ,john alert4 ,i'm down4 ,i'm down1' ,anthrax strung her along4 ,anthrax disconnected the operator from the conference call4 ,then the phreaker who lived near the ice-cream parlour announced the street had been blocked off by police cars4 ,they had the parlour surrounded and were anxiously searching for an injured fellow officer4 ,it took several hours before the police realised someone had played a mean trick on them4 ,however1 ,anthrax's favourite prank was ,mr ,mc,kenny1 the befuddled southern ,american hick4 ,anthrax had selected the phone number at random1 but the first prank was such fun he kept coming back for more4 ,he had been ringing ,mr ,mc,kenny for years4 ,it was always the same conversation4 ,mr ,mc,kenny8 ,this is ,peter ,baker4 ,i'd like my shovel back1 please4' ,i don't have your shovel4' ,yeah1 ,i lent it to you4 ,lent it to you like two years ago4 ,i want it back now4' ,i never borrowed no shovel from you4 ,go away4' ,you did4 ,you borrowed that shovel of mine4 ,and if you don't give it back ,i'm a gonna come round and get it myself4 ,and you won't like it4 ,now1 when you gonna give me that shovel back8' ,damn it6 ,i don't have your goddamn shovel6' ,give me my shovel6' ,stop calling me6 ,i've never had your friggin' shovel4 ,let me be6' ,click4 ,nine in the morning4 ,eight at night4 ,two a4m4 ,there would be no peace for ,mr ,mc,kenny until he admitted borrowing that shovel from a boy half his age and half a world away4 ,sometimes ,anthrax pranked closer to home4 ,the ,trading ,post1 a weekly rag of personals from people selling and buying1 served as a good place to begin4 ,always the innocent start1 to lure them in4 ,yes1 sir1 ,i see you advertised that you wanted to buy a bathtub4' ,anthrax put on his serious voice4 ,i have a bathtub for sale4' ,yeah8 ,what sort8 ,do you have the measurements1 and the model number8' ,and people thought phreakers were weird4 ,ah1 no model number4 ,but its about a metre and a half long1 has feet1 in the shape of claws4 ,it's older style1 off-white4 ,there's only one problem4' ,anthrax paused1 savouring the moment4 ,oh8 ,what's that8' ,there's a body in it4' ,like dropping a boulder in a peaceful pond4 ,the list on ,system ,x had dial-up modem numbers1 along with usernames and password pairs for each address4 ,these usernames were not words like jsmith' or jdoe'1 and the passwords would not have appeared in any dictionary4 #ab;,,az#fc4 ,k#e,m#hb,l4 ,the type of passwords and usernames only a computer would remember4 ,this1 of course1 made sense1 since a computer picked them out in the first place4 ,it generated them randomly4 ,the list wasn't particularly user-friendly4 ,it didn't have headers1 outlining what each item related to4 ,this made sense too4 ,the list wasn't meant to be read by humans4 ,occasionally1 there were comments in the list4 ,programmers often include a line of comment in code1 which is delineated in such a way that the computer skips over the words when interpreting the commands4 ,the comments are for other programmers examining the code4 ,in this case1 the comments were places4 ,fort ,green4 ,fort ,myers4 ,fort ,ritchie4 ,dozens and dozens of forts4 ,almost half of them were not on the mainland ,,us4 ,they were in places like the ,philippines1 ,turkey1 ,germany1 ,guam4 ,places with lots of ,,us military presence4 ,not that these bases were any secret to the locals1 or indeed to many ,americans4 ,anthrax knew that anyone could discover a base existed through perfectly legal means4 ,the vast majority of people never thought to look4 ,but once they saw such a list1 particularly from the environment of a military computer's bowels1 it tended to drive the point home4 ,the point being that the ,,us military seemed to be everywhere4 ,anthrax logged out of ,system ,x1 killed all his connections and hung up the phone4 ,it was time to move on4 ,routing through a few out-of-the-way connections1 he called one of the numbers on the list4 ,the username-password combination worked4 ,he looked around4 ,it was as he expected4 ,this wasn't a computer4 ,it was a telephone exchange4 ,it looked like a ,nor,tel ,,dms #ajj4 ,hackers and phreakers usually have areas of expertise4 ,in ,australian terms1 ,anthrax was a master of the ,x4#be network and a king of voice mailbox systems1 and others in the underground recognised him as such4 ,he knew ,trilogues better than most company technicians4 ,he knew ,meridian ,,vmb systems better than almost anyone in ,australia4 ,in the phreaking community1 he was also a world-class expert in ,aspen ,,vmb systems4 ,he did not1 however1 have any expertise in ,,dms #ajjs4 ,anthrax quickly hunted through his hacking disks for a text file on ,,dms #ajjs he had copied from an underground ,,bbs4 ,the pressure was on4 ,he didn't want to spend long inside the exchange1 maybe only fifteen or twenty minutes tops4 ,the longer he stayed without much of a clue about how the thing operated1 the greater the risk of his being traced4 ,when he found the disk with the text file1 he began sorting through it while still on-line at the telephone exchange4 ,the phreakers' file showed him some basic commands1 things which let him gently prod the exchange for basic information without disturbing the system too much4 ,he didn't want to do much more for fear of inadvertently mutilating the system4 ,although he was not an authority on ,,dms #ajjs1 ,anthrax had an old hacker friend overseas who was a real genius on ,nor,tel equipment4 ,he gave the list to his friend4 ,yes1 the friend confirmed it was indeed a ,,dms #ajj exchange at a ,,us military base4 ,it was not part of the normal telephone system1 though4 ,this exchange was part of a military phone system4 ,in times of war1 the military doesn't want to be dependent on the civilian telephone system4 ,even in times of peace1 voice communications between military staff are more secure if they don't talk on an exchange used by civilians4 ,for this and a variety of other reasons1 the military have separate telephone networks1 just as they have separate networks for their data communications4 ,these networks operate like a normal network and in some cases can communicate to the outside world by connecting through their own exchanges to civilian ones4 ,when ,anthrax got the word from the expert hacker1 he made up his mind quickly4 ,up went the sniffer4 ,system ,x was getting more interesting by the hour and he didn't want to miss a precious minute in the information gathering game when it came to this system4 ,the sniffer1 a well-used program rumoured to be written by a ,sydney-based ,unix hacker called ,rockstar1 sat on ,system ,x under an innocuous name1 silently tracking everyone who logged in and out of the system4 ,it recorded the first #abh characters of every telnet connection that went across the ethernet network cable to which ,system ,x was attached4 ,those #abh bytes included the username and the passwords people used to log in4 ,sniffers were effective1 but they needed time4 ,usually1 they grew like an embryo in a healthy womb1 slowly but steadily4 ,anthrax resolved to return to ,system ,x in twelve hours to check on the baby4 ,why are you two watching those nigger video clips8' ,it was an offensive question1 but not atypical for ,anthrax's father4 ,he often breezed through the house1 leaving a trail of disruption in his wake4 ,soon1 however1 ,anthrax began eroding his father's authority4 ,he discovered his father's secrets hidden on the ,commodore #fd computer4 ,letters--lots of them--to his family in ,england4 ,vicious1 racist1 horrid letters telling how his wife was stupid4 ,how she had to be told how to do everything1 like a typical ,indian4 ,how he regretted marrying her4 ,there were other matters too1 things unpleasant to discuss4 ,anthrax confronted his father1 who denied the allegations at first1 then finally told ,anthrax to keep his mouth shut and mind his own business4 ,but ,anthrax told his mother4 ,tensions erupted and1 for a time1 ,anthrax's parents saw a marriage counsellor4 ,but his father did not give up writing the letters4 ,he put a password protection program on the word processor to keep his son out of his business4 ,it was a futile effort4 ,his father had chosen the wrong medium to record his indiscretions4 ,anthrax showed his mother the new letters and continued to confront his father4 ,when the tension in the house grew1 ,anthrax would escape with his friends4 ,one night they were at a nightclub when someone started taunting ,anthrax1 calling him curry muncher' and worse4 ,that was it4 ,the anger which had been simmering below the surface for so long exploded as ,anthrax violently attacked his taunter1 hitting1 kicking and punching him1 using the tai kwon do combinations he had been learning4 ,there was blood and it felt good4 ,vengeance tasted sweet4 ,after that incident1 ,anthrax often lashed out violently4 ,he was out of control and it sometimes scared him4 ,however1 at times he went looking for trouble4 ,once he tracked down a particularly seedy character who had tried to rape one of his girlfriends4 ,anthrax pulled a knife on the guy1 but the incident had little to do with the girl4 ,the thing that made him angry was the disrespect4 ,this guy knew the girl was with ,anthrax4 ,the attempted rape was like spitting in his face4 ,perhaps that's what appealed to ,anthrax about ,islam--the importance of respect4 ,at sixteen he found ,islam and it changed his life4 ,he discovered the ,qu'raan in the school library while researching an assignment on religion4 ,about the same time1 he began listening to a lot of rap music4 ,more than half the ,american rappers in his music collection were ,muslim1 and many sang about the ,nation of ,islam and the sect's charismatic leader1 ,minister ,louis ,farrakhan4 ,their songs described the injustices whites inflicted on blacks4 ,they told blacks to demand respect4 ,anthrax found a magazine article about ,farrakhan and began reading books like the ,autobiography of ,malcolm ,x4 ,then he rang up the ,nation of ,islam head office in ,chicago and asked them to send some information4 ,the ,final ,call1 the ,,noi newsletter1 arrived one day1 followed by other literature which began appearing around ,anthrax's home4 ,under the ,,tv guide4 ,on the coffee table4 ,amid the pile of newspapers4 ,on top of his computer4 ,anthrax often took time to read articles aloud to his mother while she did housework4 ,in the middle of #aiij1 when ,anthrax was in year #aa1 his father suggested the boy attend ,catholic boarding school in ,melbourne4 ,the school was inexpensive and the family could scrape and save to pay the fees4 ,anthrax disliked the idea1 but his father insisted4 ,anthrax and his new school proved a bad match4 ,the school thought he asked too many questions1 and ,anthrax thought the school answered too few of them4 ,the hypocrisy of the ,catholic church riled ,anthrax and pushed him further into the arms of ,,noi4 ,how could he respect an institution which had sanctioned slavery as a righteous and progressive method of converting people8 ,the school and ,anthrax parted on less than friendly terms after just one semester4 ,the ,catholic school intensified a feeling of inferiority ,anthrax had felt for many years4 ,he was an outsider4 ,the wrong colour1 the wrong size1 too intelligent for his school4 ,yet1 ,,noi's ,minister ,farrakhan told him that he wasn't inferior at all4 ,i know that you have been discriminated against because of your colour1' ,farrakhan told ,anthrax from the tape player4 ,let me tell you why4 ,let me tell you about the origins of the white race and how they were put on this earth to do evil4 ,they have shown themselves to be nothing but an enemy of the ,east4 ,non-whites are the original people of the earth4' ,anthrax found some deep veins of truth in ,,noi's teachings4 ,interracial marriages don't work4 ,a white man marries a non-white woman because he wants a slave1 not because he loves and respects her4 ,islam respects women in more meaningful ways than ,western religions4 ,perhaps it wasn't the type of respect that ,western men were used to giving women1 but he had seen that kind of respect in his own home and he didn't think much of it4 ,anthrax read the words of the ,honourable ,elijah ,muhammad1 founder of ,,noi3 ,the enemy does not have to be a real devil4 ,he could be your father1 mother1 brother1 husband1 wife or children4 ,many times they're in your own household4 ,today is the great time of separation of the righteous ,muslim and the wicked white race4' ,anthrax looked inside his own household and saw what seemed to be a devil4 ,a white devil4 ,,noi fed ,anthrax's mind4 ,he followed up the lists of literature included in every issue of ,the ,final ,call4 ,books like ,black ,athena by ,martin ,bernel and ,deterring ,democracy by ,noam ,chomsky had common themes of conspiracy and oppression by the haves against the have-nots4 ,anthrax read them all4 ,the transformation of ,anthrax occurred over a period of six months4 ,he didn't talk about it much with his parents4 ,it was a private matter4 ,but his mother later told him his adoption of the religion didn't surprise her4 ,his great-grandfather had been a ,muslim scholar and cleric in ,india4 ,it was fate4 ,his conversion presented a certain sense of closure1 of completing the circle4 ,his interest in ,islam found secular outlets4 ,a giant black and white poster of ,malcolm ,x appeared on ,anthrax's bedroom wall4 ,a huge photo of ,los ,angeles ,black ,panther leader ,elmer ,pratt followed soon after4 ,the photo was captioned1 ,a coward dies a million deaths1 a brave man dies but one'4 ,the last bit of wall was covered in posters of hip-hop bands from ceiling to floor4 ,a traditional ,indian sword adorned the top of one of the many bookcases4 ,it complemented the growing collection of books on martial arts4 ,a well-loved copy of ,the ,art of ,war by ,sun ,tzu sat on the shelf next to ,homer's ,ulysses1 ,the ,lord of ,the ,rings1 ,the ,hobbit1 a few old ,dungeons and ,dragons books1 works of mythology from ,india and ,egypt4 ,the shelves did not contain a single work of science fiction4 ,anthrax shaved his head4 ,his mother may not have been surprised by the conversion to ,islam1 but the head shaving went a bit over the top4 ,anthrax pursued ,,noi with the same vigour with which he attacked hacking4 ,he memorised whole speeches of ,farrakhan and began speaking like him1 commenting casually on those caucasian1 blue-eyed devils'4 ,he quoted people he had discovered through ,,noi4 ,people who described the ,,us ,federal ,reserve ,bank as being controlled by ,jews4 ,people who spoke of those hooked-nose1 bagel-eating1 just-crawled-out-of-a-cave ,jews4 ,anthrax denied the existence of the ,holocaust4 ,you're shaping up to be quite a little ,hitler1' his father told ,anthrax4 ,his father disliked the ,,noi literature showing up at the house4 ,it seemed to frighten him4 ,receiving blueprints in the mail for overthowing governments didn't sit well with the neighbours in the quiet suburban street of the provincial town4 ,watch out1' he warned his son4 ,having these thing turn up in your mailbox can be dangerous4 ,it will probably earmark you for some sort of investigation4 ,they will follow you around4' ,the traffic raced4 ,the ethernet cables attached to ,system ,x were a regular speedway4 ,people whizzed in and out of the mystery site like a swarm of bees4 ,in only twelve hours1 the sniffer file topped #ajj k4 ,many of the connections went from ,system ,x to the major telecommunications company4 ,anthrax headed in that direction4 ,he considered how to route the attack4 ,he could go through a few diverters and other leapfrog devices to cover his trail1 thus hitting the company's system from a completely separate source4 ,the advantage of this route was anonymity4 ,if the admin managed to detect his entry1 ,anthrax would only lose access to the phone company's system1 not to ,system ,x4 ,alternatively1 if he went in to the company through the gateway and ,system ,x1 he risked alarms being raised at all three sites4 ,however1 his sniffer showed so much traffic running on this route1 he might simply disappear in the flow4 ,the established path was obviously there for a reason4 ,one more person logging into the gateway through ,system ,x and then into the company's machine would not raise suspicions4 ,he chose to go through ,system ,x4 ,anthrax logged into the company using a sniffed username and password4 ,trying the load-module bug again1 he got root on the system and installed his own login patch4 ,the company's system looked far more normal than ,system ,x4 ,a few hundred users4 ,lots of email1 far too much to read4 ,he ran a few key word searches on all the email1 trying to piece together a better picture of the project being developed on ,system ,x4 ,the company did plenty of defence work1 mostly in telecommunications4 ,different divisions of the company seemed to be working on different segments of the project4 ,anthrax searched through people's home directories1 but nothing looked very interesting because he couldn't get a handle on the whole project4 ,people were all developing different modules of the project and1 without a centralised overview1 the pieces didn't mean much4 ,he did find a group of binary files--types of programs--but he had no idea what they were for4 ,the only real way to find out what they did was to take them for a test drive4 ,he ran a few binaries4 ,they didn't appear to do anything4 ,he ran a few more4 ,again1 nothing4 ,he kept running them1 one after another4 ,still no results4 ,all he received was error messages4 ,the binaries seemed to need a monitor which could display graphics4 ,they used ,,xii1 a graphical display common on ,unix systems4 ,anthrax's inexpensive home computer didn't have that sort of graphical display operating system4 ,he could still run the binaries by telling ,system ,x to run them on one of its local terminals1 but he wouldn't be able to see the output on his home computer4 ,more importantly1 it was a risky course of action4 ,what if someone happened to be sitting at the terminal where he chose to run the binary8 ,the game would be up4 ,he leaned away from his keyboard and stretched4 ,exhaustion was beginning to set in4 ,he hadn't slept in almost #dh hours4 ,occasionally1 he had left his computer terminal to eat1 though he always brought the food back to the screen4 ,his mother popped her head in the doorway once in a while and shook her head silently4 ,when he noticed her there1 he tried to ease her concerns4 ,but ,i'm learning lots of things1' he pleaded4 ,she was not convinced4 ,he also broke his long hacking session to pray4 ,it was important for a devout ,muslim to practice salat--to pray at least five times a day depending on the branch of ,islam followed by the devotee4 ,islam allows followers to group some of their prayers1 so ,anthrax usually grouped two in the morning1 prayed once at midday as normal1 and grouped two more at night4 ,an efficient way to meet religious obligations4 ,sometimes the time just slipped away1 hacking all night4 ,when the first hint of dawn snuck up on him1 he was invariably in the middle of some exciting journey4 ,but duty was duty1 and it had to be done4 ,so he pressed control ,s to freeze his screen1 unfurled the prayer mat with its built-in compass1 faced ,mecca1 knelt down and did two sets of prayers before sunrise4 ,ten minutes later he rolled the prayer mat up1 slid back into his chair1 typed control ,q to release the pause on his computer and picked up where he left off4 ,this company's computer system seemed to confirm what he had begun to suspect4 ,system ,x was the first stage of a project1 the rest of which was under development4 ,he found a number of tables and reports in ,system ,x's files4 ,the reports carried headers like ,traffic ,analysis'1 calls in' and calls out'1 failure rate'4 ,it all began to make sense to ,anthrax4 ,system ,x called up each of the military telephone exchanges in that list4 ,it logged in using the computer-generated name and password4 ,once inside1 a program in ,system ,x polled the exchange for important statistics1 such as the number of calls coming in and out of the base4 ,this information was then stored on ,system ,x4 ,whenever someone wanted a report on something1 for example1 the military sites with the most incoming calls over the past #bd hours1 he or she would simply ask ,system ,x to compile the information4 ,all of this was done automatically4 ,anthrax had read some email suggesting that changes to an exchange1 such as adding new telephone lines on the base1 had been handled manually1 but this job was soon to be done automatically by ,system ,x4 ,it made sense4 ,the maintenance time spent by humans would be cut dramatically4 ,a machine which gathers statistics and services phone exchanges remotely doesn't sound very sexy on the face of it1 until you begin to consider what you could do with something like that4 ,you could sell it to a foreign power interested in the level of activity at a certain base at a particular time4 ,and that is just the beginning4 ,you could tap any unencrypted line going in or out of any of the #ajj or so exchanges and listen in to sensitive military discussions4 ,just a few commands makes you a fly on the wall of a general's conversation to the head of a base in the ,philippines4 ,anti-government rebels in that country might pay a pretty penny for getting intelligence on the ,,us forces4 ,all of those options paled next to the most striking power wielded by a hacker who had unlimited access to ,system ,x and the #ajj or so telephone exchanges4 ,he could take down that ,,us military voice communications system almost overnight1 and he could do it automatically4 ,the potential for havoc creation was breathtaking4 ,it would be a small matter for a skilled programmer to alter the automated program used by ,system ,x4 ,instead of using its dozen or more modems to dial all the exchanges overnight and poll them for statistics1 ,system ,x could be instructed to call them overnight and reprogram the exchanges4 ,what if every time ,general ,colin ,powell picked up his phone1 he was be automatically patched through to some ,russian general's office8 ,he wouldn't be able to dial any other number from his office phone4 ,he'd pick up his phone to dial and there would be the ,russian at the other end4 ,and what if every time someone called into the general's number1 they ended up talking to the stationery department8 ,what if none of the phone numbers connected to their proper telephones8 ,no-one would be able to reach one another4 ,an important part of the ,,us military machine would be in utter disarray4 ,now1 what if all this happened in the first few days of a war8 ,people trying to contact each other with vital information wouldn't be able to use the telephone exchanges reprogrammed by ,system ,x4 ,,that was power4 ,it wasn't like ,anthrax screaming at his father until his voice turned to a whisper1 all for nothing4 ,he could make people sit up and take notice with this sort of power4 ,hacking a system gave him a sense of control4 ,getting root on a system always gave him an adrenalin rush for just that reason4 ,it meant the system was his1 he could do whatever he wanted1 he could run whatever processes or programs he desired1 he could remove other users he didn't want using his system4 ,he thought1 ,i own the system4 ,the word own' anchored the phrase which circled through his thoughts again and again when he successfully hacked a system4 ,the sense of ownership was almost passionate1 rippled with streaks of obsession and jealousy4 ,at any given moment1 ,anthrax had a list of systems he owned and that had captured his interest for that moment4 ,anthrax hated seeing a system administrator logging onto one of those systems4 ,it was an invasion4 ,it was as though ,anthrax had just got this woman he had been after for some time alone in a room with the door closed4 ,then1 just as he was getting to know her1 this other guy had barged in1 sat down on the couch and started talking to her4 ,it was never enough to look at a system from a distance and know he could hack it if he wanted to4 ,anthrax had to actually hack the system4 ,he had to own it4 ,he needed to see what was inside the system1 to know exactly what it was he owned4 ,the worst thing admins could do was to fiddle with system security4 ,that made ,anthrax burn with anger4 ,if ,anthrax was on-line1 silently observing the admins' activities1 he would feel a sudden urge to log them off4 ,he wanted to punish them4 ,wanted them to know he was into their system4 ,and yet1 at the same time1 he didn't want them to know4 ,logging them off would draw attention to himself1 but the two desires pulled at him from opposite directions4 ,what ,anthrax really wanted was for the admins to know he controlled their system1 but for them not to be able to do anything about it4 ,he wanted them to be helpless4 ,anthrax decided to keep undercover4 ,but he contemplated the power of having ,system ,x's list of telephone exchange dial-ups and their username-password combinations4 ,normally1 it would take days for a single hacker with his lone modem to have much impact on the ,,us military's communications network4 ,sure1 he could take down a few exchanges before the military wised up and started protecting themselves4 ,it was like hacking a military computer4 ,you could take out a machine here1 a system there4 ,but the essence of the power of ,system ,x was being able to use its own resources to orchestrate widespread pandemonium quickly and quietly4 ,anthrax defines power as the potential for real world impact4 ,at that moment of discovery and realisation1 the real world impact of hacking ,system ,x looked good4 ,the telecommunications company computer seemed like a good place to hang up a sniffer1 so he plugged one into the machine and decided to return in a little while4 ,then he logged out and went to bed4 ,when he revisited the sniffer a day or so later1 ,anthrax received a rude shock4 ,scrolling through the sniffer file1 he did a double take on one of the entries4 ,someone had logged into the company's system using his special login patch password4 ,he tried to stay calm4 ,he thought hard4 ,when was the last time he had logged into the system using that special password8 ,could his sniffer have logged himself on an earlier hacking session8 ,it did happen occasionally4 ,hackers sometimes gave themselves quite a fright4 ,in the seamless days and nights of hacking dozens of systems1 it was easy to forget the last time you logged into a particular system using the special password4 ,the more he thought1 the more he was absolutely sure4 ,he hadn't logged into the system again4 ,which left the obvious question4 ,who had8 ,sometimes ,anthrax pranked1 sometimes he punished4 ,punishment could be severe or mild4 ,generally it was severe4 ,and unlike pranking1 it was not done randomly4 ,different things set him off4 ,the librarian1 for example4 ,in early #aiic ,anthrax had enrolled in ,asia-,pacific and ,business ,studies at a university in a nearby regional city4 ,ever since he showed up on the campus1 he had been hassled by a student who worked part-time at the university library4 ,on more than one occasion1 ,anthrax had been reading at a library table when a security guard came up and asked to search his bags4 ,and when ,anthrax looked over his shoulder to the check-out desk1 that librarian was always there1 the one with the bad attitude smeared across his face4 ,the harassment became so noticeable1 ,anthrax's friends began commenting on it4 ,his bag would be hand-searched when he left the library1 while other students walked through the electronic security boom gate unbothered4 ,when he returned a book one day late1 the librarian--that librarian--insisted he pay all sorts of fines4 ,anthrax's pleas of being a poor student fell on deaf ears4 ,by the time exam period rolled around at the end of term1 ,anthrax decided to punish the librarian by taking down the library's entire computer system4 ,logging in to the library computer via modem from home1 ,anthrax quickly gained root privileges4 ,the system had security holes a mile wide4 ,then1 with one simple command1 he deleted every file in the computer4 ,he knew the system would be backed up somewhere1 but it would take a day or two to get the system up and running again4 ,in the meantime1 every loan or book search had to be conducted manually4 ,during ,anthrax's first year at university1 even small incidents provoked punishment4 ,cutting him off while he was driving1 or swearing at him on the road1 fit the bill4 ,anthrax would memorise the licence plate of the offending driver1 then social engineer the driver's personal details4 ,usually he called the police to report what appeared to be a stolen car and then provided the licence plate number4 ,shortly after1 ,anthrax tuned into to his police scanner1 where he picked up the driver's name and address as it was read over the airways to the investigating police car4 ,anthrax wrote it all down4 ,then began the process of punishment4 ,posing as the driver1 ,anthrax rang the driver's electricity company to arrange a power disconnection4 ,the next morning the driver might return home to find his electricity cut off4 ,the day after1 his gas might be disconnected4 ,then his water4 ,then his phone4 ,some people warranted special punishment--people such as ,bill4 ,anthrax came across ,bill on the ,swedish ,party ,line1 an ,english-speaking telephone conference4 ,for a time1 ,anthrax was a regular fixture on the line1 having attempted to call it by phreaking more than #bjjj times over just a few months4 ,of course1 not all those attempts were successful1 but he managed to get through at least half the time4 ,it required quite an effort to keep a presence on the party line1 since it automatically cut people off after only ten minutes4 ,anthrax made friends with the operators1 who sometimes let him stay on-line a while longer4 ,bill1 a ,swedish ,party ,line junkie1 had recently been released from prison1 where he had served time for beating up a ,vietnamese boy at a railway station4 ,he had a bad attitude and he often greeted the party line by saying1 ,are there any coons on the line today8' ,his attitude to women wasn't much better4 ,he relentlessly hit on the women who frequented the line4 ,one day1 he made a mistake4 ,he gave out his phone number to a girl he was trying to pick up4 ,the operator copied it down and when her friend ,anthrax came on later that day1 she passed it on to him4 ,anthrax spent a few weeks social engineering various people1 including utilities and relatives whose telephone numbers appeared on ,bill's phone accounts1 to piece together the details of his life4 ,bill was a rough old ex-con who owned a budgie and was dying of cancer4 ,anthrax phoned ,bill in the hospital and proceeded to tell him all sorts of personal details about himself1 the kind of details which upset a person4 ,not long after1 ,anthrax heard that ,bill had died4 ,the hacker felt as though he had perhaps gone a bit too far4 ,the tension at home had eased a little by the time ,anthrax left to attend university4 ,but when he returned home during holidays he found his father even more unbearable4 ,more and more1 ,anthrax rebelled against his father's sniping comments and violence4 ,eventually1 he vowed that the next time his father tried to break his arm he would fight back4 ,and he did4 ,one day ,anthrax's father began making bitter fun of his younger son's stutter4 ,brimming with biting sarcasm1 the father mimicked ,anthrax's brother4 ,why are you doing that8' ,anthrax yelled4 ,the bait had worked once again4 ,it was as though he became possessed with a spirit not his own4 ,he yelled at his father1 and put a fist into the wall4 ,his father grabbed a chair and thrust it forward to keep ,anthrax at bay1 then reached back for the phone4 ,said he was calling the police4 ,anthrax ripped the phone from the wall4 ,he pursued his father through the house1 smashing furniture4 ,amid the crashing violence of the fight1 ,anthrax suddenly felt a flash of fear for his mother's clock--a much loved1 delicate family heirloom4 ,he gently picked it up and placed it out of harm's way4 ,then he heaved the stereo into the air and threw it at his father4 ,the stereo cabinet followed in its wake4 ,wardrobes toppled with a crash across the floor4 ,when his father fled the house1 ,anthrax got a hold of himself and began to look around4 ,the place was a disaster area4 ,all those things so tenderly gathered and carefully treasured by his mother1 the things she had used to build her life in a foreign land of white people speaking an alien tongue1 lay in fragments scattered around the house4 ,anthrax felt wretched4 ,his mother was distraught at the destruction and he was badly shaken by how much it upset her4 ,he promised to try and control his temper from that moment on4 ,it proved to be a constant battle4 ,mostly he would win1 but not always4 ,the battle still simmered below the surface4 ,sometimes it boiled over4 ,anthrax considered the possibilities of who else would be using his login patch4 ,it could be another hacker1 perhaps someone who was running another sniffer that logged ,anthrax's previous login4 ,but it was more likely to be a security admin4 ,meaning he had been found out4 ,meaning that he might be being traced even as he leap-frogged through ,system ,x to the telecommunications company's computer4 ,anthrax made his way to the system admin's mailboxes4 ,if the game was up1 chances were something in the mailbox would give it away4 ,there it was4 ,the evidence4 ,they were onto him all right1 and they hadn't wasted any time4 ,the admins had mailed ,,cert1 the ,computer ,emergency ,response ,team at ,carnegie ,mellon ,university1 reporting a security breach4 ,,cert1 the nemesis of every ,internet hacker1 was bound to complicate matters4 ,law enforcement would no doubt be called in now4 ,it was time to get out of this system1 but not before leaving in a blaze of glory4 ,a prank left as a small present4 ,,cert had written back to the admins acknowledging the incident and providing a case number4 ,posing as one of the admins1 ,anthrax drafted a letter to ,,cert4 ,to make the thing look official1 he added the case number for reference'4 ,the letter went something like this3 ,in regard to incident no4 ,,xxxxx1 reported on this date1 we have since carried out some additional investigations on the matter4 ,we have discovered the security incident was caused by a disgruntled employee who was fired for alcoholism and decided to retaliate against the company in this manner4 ,we have long had a problem with alcohol and drug abuse due to the stressful nature of the company environment4 ,no further investigation is necessary4' ,at his computer terminal1 ,anthrax smiled4 ,how embarrassing was that going to be8 ,try scraping that mud off4 ,he felt very pleased with himself4 ,anthrax then tidied up his things in the company's computer1 deleted the sniffer and moved out4 ,things began to move quickly after that4 ,he logged into ,system ,x later to check the sniffer records1 only to find that someone had used his login patch password on that system as well4 ,he became very nervous4 ,it was one thing goofing around with a commercial site1 and quite another being tracked from a military computer4 ,a new process had been added to ,system ,x1 which ,anthrax recognised4 ,it was called -u'4 ,he didn't know what it did1 but he had seen it before on military systems4 ,about #bd hours after it appeared1 he found himself locked out of the system4 ,he had tried killing off the -u process before4 ,it disappeared for a split-second and reappeared4 ,once it was in place1 there was no way to destroy it4 ,anthrax also unearthed some alarming email4 ,the admin at a site upstream from both ,system ,x and the company's system had been sent a warning letter3 ,we think there has been a security incident at your site'4 ,the circle was closing in on him4 ,it was definitely time to get the hell out4 ,he packed up his things in a hurry4 ,killed off the remaining sniffer4 ,moved his files4 ,removed the login patch4 ,and departed with considerable alacrity4 ,after he cut his connection1 ,anthrax sat wondering about the admins4 ,if they knew he was into their systems1 why did they leave the sniffers up and running8 ,he could understand leaving the login patch4 ,maybe they wanted to track his movements1 determine his motives1 or trace his connection4 ,killing the patch would have simply locked him out of the only door the admins could watch4 ,they wouldn't know if he had other backdoors into their system4 ,but the sniffer8 ,it didn't make any sense4 ,it was possible that they simply hadn't seen the sniffer4 ,leaving it there had been an oversight4 ,but it was almost too glaring an error to be a real possibility4 ,if it was an error1 it implied the admins weren't actually monitoring the connections in and out of their systems4 ,if they had been watching the connections1 they would probably have seen the sniffer4 ,but if they weren't monitoring the connections1 how on earth did they find out his special password for the login patch8 ,like all passwords on the system1 that one was encrypted4 ,there were only two ways to get that password4 ,monitor the connection and sniff it1 or break the encryption with a brute-force attack4 ,breaking the encryption would probably have taken millions of dollars of computer time4 ,he could pretty well rule that option out4 ,that left sniffing it1 which would have alerted them to his own sniffer4 ,surely they wouldn't have left his sniffer running on purpose4 ,they must have known he would learn they were watching him through his sniffer4 ,the whole thing was bizarre4 ,anthrax thought about the admins who were chasing him4 ,thought about their moves1 their strategies4 ,wondered why4 ,it was one of the unsolved mysteries a hacker often faced--an unpleasant side of hacking4 ,missing the answers to certain questions1 the satisfaction of a certain curiosity4 ,never being able to look over the fence at the other side4 ,,chapter #aa -- ,the ,prisoner's ,dilemma4 ,harrisburg ,oh ,harrisburg2 ,the plant is melting down2 ,the people out in ,harrisbug2 ,are getting out of town2 ,and when this stuff gets in2 ,you cannot get it out 4 -- from ,harrisburg'1 ,red ,sails in the ,sunset4 ,anthrax thought he would never get caught4 ,but in some strange way1 he also wanted to get caught4 ,when he thought about being busted1 he found himself filled with a strange emotion--impatience4 ,bring on the impending doom and be done with it4 ,or perhaps it was frustration at how inept his opponents seemed to be4 ,they kept losing his trail and he was impatient with their incompetence4 ,it was more fun outwitting a worthy opponent4 ,perhaps he didn't really want to be caught so much as tracked4 ,anthrax liked the idea of the police tracking him1 of the system administrators pursuing him4 ,he liked to follow the trail of their investigations through other people's mail4 ,he especially liked being on-line1 watching them trying to figure out where he was coming from4 ,he would cleverly take control of their computers in ways they couldn't see4 ,he watched every character they typed1 every spelling error1 every mistyped command1 each twist and turn taken in the vain hope of catching him4 ,he hadn't been caught back in early #aiia1 when it seemed everyone was after him4 ,in fact ,anthrax nearly gave up hacking and phreaking completely in that year after what he later called ,the ,fear of ,god' speech4 ,late at night1 on a university computer system1 he bumped into another hacker4 ,it wasn't an entirely uncommon experience4 ,once in a while1 hackers recognised another of their kind4 ,strange connections to strange places in the middle of the night4 ,inconsistencies in process names and sizes4 ,the clues were visible for those who knew how to find them4 ,the two hackers danced around each other1 trying to determine who the other was without giving away too much information4 ,finally the mystery hacker asked ,anthrax1 ,are you a disease which affects sheep8' ,anthrax typed the simple answer back4 ,yes4' ,the other hacker revealed himself as ,prime ,suspect1 one of the ,international ,subversives4 ,anthrax recognised the name4 ,he had seen ,prime ,suspect around on the ,b,b,ses1 had read his postings4 ,before ,anthrax could get started on a friendly chat1 the ,,is hacker jumped in with an urgent warning4 ,he had unearthed emails showing the ,feds were closing in on ,anthrax4 ,the mail1 obtained from system admins at ,miden ,pacific1 described the systems ,anthrax had been visiting4 ,it showed the phone connections he had been using to get to them1 some of which ,telecom had traced back to his phone4 ,one of the admins had written1 ,we're on to him4 ,i feel really bad4 ,he's seventeen years old and they are going to bust him and ruin his life4' ,anthrax felt a cold chill run down his spine4 ,prime ,suspect continued with the story4 ,when he first came across the email1 he thought it referred to himself4 ,the two hackers were the same age and had evidently been breaking into the same systems4 ,prime ,suspect had freaked out over the mail4 ,he took it back to the other two ,,is hackers1 and they talked it through4 ,most of the description fitted1 but a few of the details didn't seem to make sense4 ,prime ,suspect wasn't calling from a country exchange4 ,the more they worked it through1 the clearer it became that the email must have been referring to someone else4 ,they ran through the list of other options and ,anthrax's name came up as a possibility4 ,the ,,is hackers had all seen him around a few systems and ,b,b,ses4 ,trax had even spoken to him once on a conference call with another phreaker4 ,they pieced together what they knew of him and the picture fitted4 ,the ,,afp were onto ,anthrax and they seemed to know a lot about him4 ,they had traced his telephone connection back to his house4 ,they knew his age1 which implied they knew his name4 ,the phone bills were in his parents' names1 so there may have been some personal surveillance of him4 ,the ,feds were so close they were all but treading on his heels4 ,the ,,is hackers had been keeping an eye out for him1 to warn him1 but this was the first time they had found him4 ,anthrax thanked ,prime ,suspect and got out of the system4 ,he sat frozen in the night stillness4 ,it was one thing to contemplate getting caught1 to carry mixed emotions on the hypothetical situation4 ,it was another to have the real prospect staring you in the face4 ,in the morning1 he gathered up all his hacking papers1 notes1 manuals--everything4 ,three trunks' worth of material4 ,he carried it all to the back garden1 lit a bonfire and watched it burn4 ,he vowed to give up hacking forever4 ,and he did give it up1 for a time4 ,but a few months later he somehow found himself back in front of his computer screen1 with his modem purring4 ,it was so tempting1 so hard to let go4 ,the police had never shown up4 ,months had come and gone1 still nothing4 ,prime ,suspect must have been wrong4 ,perhaps the ,,afp were after another hacker entirely4 ,then1 in ,october #aiia1 the ,,afp busted ,prime ,suspect1 ,mendax and ,trax4 ,but ,anthrax continued to hack1 mostly on his own as usual1 for another two years4 ,he reminded himself that the ,,is hackers worked in a team4 ,if the police hadn't nailed him when they busted the others1 surely they would never find him now4 ,further1 he had become more skilled as a hacker1 better at covering his tracks1 less likely to draw attention to himself4 ,he had other rationalisations too4 ,the town where he lived was so far away1 the police would never bother travelling all the way into the bush4 ,the elusive ,anthrax would remain at large forever1 the unvanquished ,ned ,kelly of the computer underground4 ,mundane matters were on ,anthrax's mind on the morning of #ad ,july #aiid4 ,the removalists were due to arrive to take things from the half-empty apartment he had shared with another student4 ,his room-mate had already departed and the place was a clutter of boxes stuffed with clothes1 tapes and books4 ,anthrax sat in bed half-asleep1 half-watching the ,today' show when he heard the sound of a large vehicle pulling up outside4 ,he looked out the window expecting to see the removalists4 ,what he saw instead was at least four men in casual clothes running toward the house4 ,they were a little too enthusiastic for removalists and they split up before getting to the door1 with two men forking off toward opposite sides of the building4 ,one headed for the car port4 ,another dove around the other side of the building4 ,a third banged on the front door4 ,anthrax shook himself awake4 ,the short1 stocky guy at the front door was a worry4 ,he had puffy1 longish hair and was wearing a sweatshirt and acid-wash jeans so tight you could count the change in his back pocket4 ,bad ideas raced through ,anthrax's head4 ,it looked like a home invasion4 ,thugs were going to break into his home1 tie him up and terrorise him before stealing all his valuables4 ,open up4 ,open up1' the stocky one shouted1 flashing a police badge4 ,stunned1 and still uncomprehending1 ,anthrax opened the door4 ,do you know who ,,we are8' the stocky one asked him4 ,anthrax looked confused4 ,no4 ,not sure4 ,the ,australian ,federal ,police4' ,the cop proceeded to read out the search warrant4 ,what happened from this point forward is a matter of some debate4 ,what is fact is that the events of the raid and what followed formed the basis of a formal complaint by ,anthrax to the ,office of the ,ombudsman and an internal investigation within the ,,afp4 ,the following is simply ,anthrax's account of how it happened4 ,the stocky one barked at ,anthrax1 ,where's your computer8' ,what computer8' ,anthrax looked blankly at the officer4 ,he didn't have a computer at his apartment4 ,he used the uni's machines or friend's computers4 ,your computer4 ,where is it8 ,which one of your friends has it8' ,no-one has it4 ,i don't own one4' ,well1 when you decide to tell us where it is1 you let us know4' ,yeah4 ,right4 ,if ,anthrax did have a hidden computer at uni1 revealing its location wasn't top of the must-do list4 ,the police pawed through his personal letters1 quizzed ,anthrax about them4 ,who wrote this letter8 ,is he in the computer underground8 ,what's his address8 ,anthrax said no comment' more times than he could count4 ,he saw a few police moving into his bedroom and decided it was time to watch them closely1 make sure nothing was planted4 ,he stood up to follow them in and observe the search when one of the cops stopped him4 ,anthrax told them he wanted a lawyer4 ,one of the police looked on with disapproval4 ,you must be guilty1' he told ,anthrax4 ,only guilty people ask for lawyers4 ,and here ,i was feeling sorry for you4' ,then one of the other officers dropped the bomb4 ,you know1' he began casually1 we're also raiding your parents' house 444' ,anthrax freaked out4 ,his mum would be hysterical4 ,he asked to call his mother on his mobile1 the only phone then working in the apartment4 ,the police refused to let him touch his mobile4 ,then he asked to call her from the pay phone across the street4 ,the police refused again4 ,one of the officers1 a tall1 lanky cop1 recognised a leverage point if ever he saw one4 ,he spread the guilt on thick4 ,your poor sick mum4 ,how could you do this to your poor sick mum8 ,we're going to have to take her to ,melbourne for questioning1 maybe even to charge her1 arrest her1 take her to jail4 ,you make me sick4 ,i feel sorry for a mother having a son like you who is going to cause her all this trouble4' ,from that moment on1 the tall officer took every opportunity to talk about ,anthrax's poor sick mum'4 ,he wouldn't let up4 ,not that he probably knew the first thing about scleroderma1 the creeping fatal disease which affected her4 ,anthrax often thought about the pain his mother was in as the disease worked its way from her extremities to her internal organs4 ,scleroderma toughened the skin on the fingers and feet1 but made them overly sensitive1 particularly to changes in weather4 ,it typically affected women native to hot climates who moved to colder environments4 ,anthrax's mobile rang4 ,his mother4 ,it had to be4 ,the police wouldn't let him answer it4 ,the tall officer picked up the call1 then turned to the stocky cop and said in a mocking ,indian accent1 ,it is some woman with an ,indian accent'4 ,anthrax felt like jumping out of his chair and grabbing the phone4 ,he felt like doing some other things too1 things that would have undoubtedly landed him in prison then and there4 ,the stocky cop nodded to the tall one1 who handed the mobile to ,anthrax4 ,at first1 he couldn't make sense of what his mother was saying4 ,she was a terrified mess4 ,anthrax tried to calm her down4 ,then she tried to comfort him4 ,don't worry4 ,it will be all right1' she said it1 over and over4 ,no matter what ,anthrax said1 she repeated that phrase1 like a chant4 ,in trying to console him1 she was actually calming herself4 ,anthrax listened to her trying to impose order on the chaos around her4 ,he could hear noises in the background and he guessed it was the police rummaging through her home4 ,suddenly1 she said she had to go and hung up4 ,anthrax handed the phone back to the police and sat with his head in his hands4 ,what a wretched situation4 ,he couldn't believe this was happening to him4 ,how could the police seriously consider taking his mother to ,melbourne for questioning8 ,true1 he phreaked from her home office phone1 but she had no idea how to hack or phreak4 ,as for charging his mother1 that would just about kill her4 ,in her mental and physical condition1 she would simply collapse1 maybe never to get up again4 ,he didn't have many options4 ,one of the cops was sealing up his mobile phone in a clear plastic bag and labelling it4 ,it was physically impossible for him to call a lawyer1 since the police wouldn't let him use the mobile or go to a pay phone4 ,they harangued him about coming to ,melbourne for a police interview4 ,it is your best interest to cooperate1' one of the cops told him4 ,it would be in your best interest to come with us now4' ,anthrax pondered that line for a moment1 considered how ludicrous it sounded coming from a cop4 ,such a bald-faced lie told so matter-of-factly4 ,it would have been humorous if the situation with his mother hadn't been so awful4 ,he agreed to an interview with the police1 but it would have to be done on another day4 ,the cops wanted to search his car4 ,anthrax didn't like it1 but there was nothing incriminating in the car anyway4 ,as he walked outside in the winter morning1 one of the cops looked down at ,anthrax's feet1 which were bare in accordance with the ,muslim custom of removing shoes in the house4 ,the cop asked if he was cold4 ,the other cop answered for ,anthrax4 ,no4 ,the fungus keeps them warm4' ,anthrax swallowed his anger4 ,he was used to racism1 and plenty of it1 especially from cops4 ,but this was over the top4 ,in the town where he attended uni1 everyone thought he was ,aboriginal4 ,there were only two races in that country town--white and ,aboriginal4 ,indian1 ,pakistani1 ,malay1 ,burmese1 ,sri ,lankan--it didn't matter4 ,they were all ,aboriginal1 and were treated accordingly4 ,once when he was talking on the pay phone across from his house1 the police pulled up and asked him what he was doing there4 ,talking on the phone1 he told them4 ,it was pretty obvious4 ,they asked for identification1 made him empty his pockets1 which contained his small mobile phone4 ,they told him his mobile must be stolen1 took it from him and ran a check on the serial number4 ,fifteen minutes and many more accusations later1 they finally let him go with the flimsiest of apologies4 ,well1 you understand1' one cop said4 ,we don't see many of your type around here4' ,yeah4 ,anthrax understood4 ,it looked pretty suspicious1 a dark-skinned boy using a public telephone4 ,very suss indeed4 ,in fact1 ,anthrax had the last laugh4 ,he had been on a phreaked call to ,canada at the time and he hadn't bothered to hang up when the cops arrived4 ,just told the other phreakers to hang on4 ,after the police left1 he picked up the conversation where he left off4 ,incidents like that taught him that sometimes the better path was to toy with the cops4 ,let them play their little games4 ,pretend to be manipulated by them4 ,laugh at them silently and give them nothing4 ,so he appeared to ignore the fungus comment and led the cops to his car4 ,they found nothing4 ,when the police finally packed up to leave1 one of them handed ,anthrax a business card with the ,,afp's phone number4 ,call us to arrange an interview time1' he said4 ,sure1' ,anthrax replied as he shut the door4 ,anthrax keep putting the police off4 ,every time they called hassling him for an interview1 he said he was busy4 ,but when they began ringing up his mum1 he found himself in a quandary4 ,they were threatening and yet reassuring to his mother all at the same time and spoke politely to her1 even apologetically4 ,as bad as it sounds1' one of them said1 we're going to have to charge you with things ,anthrax has done1 hacking1 phreaking1 etc4 if he doesn't cooperate with us4 ,we know it sounds funny1 but we're within our rights to do that4 ,in fact that is what the law dictates because the phone is in your name4' ,he followed this with the well-worn it's in your son's best interest to cooperate' line1 delivered with cooing persuasion4 ,anthrax wondered why there was no mention of charging his father1 whose name appeared on the house's main telephone number4 ,that line also carried some illegal calls4 ,his mother worried4 ,she asked her son to cooperate with the police4 ,anthrax felt he had to protect his mother and finally agreed to a police interview after his uni exams4 ,the only reason he did so was because of the police threat to charge his mother4 ,he was sure that if they dragged his mother through court1 her health would deteriorate and lead to an early death4 ,anthrax's father picked him up from uni on a fine ,november day and drove down to ,melbourne4 ,his mother had insisted that he attend the interview1 since he knew all about the law and police4 ,anthrax didn't mind having him along3 he figured a witness might prevent any use of police muscle4 ,during the ride to the city1 ,anthrax talked about how he would handle the interview4 ,the good news was that the ,,afp had said they wanted to interview him about his phreaking1 not his hacking4 ,he went to the interview understanding they would only be discussing his recent stuff'--the phreaking4 ,he had two possible approaches to the interview4 ,he could come clean and admit everything1 as his first lawyer had advised4 ,or he could pretend to cooperate and be evasive1 which was what his instincts told him to do4 ,his father jumped all over the second option4 ,you have to cooperate fully4 ,they will know if you are lying4 ,they are trained to pick out lies4 ,tell them everything and they will go easier on you4' ,law and order all the way4 ,who do they think they are anyway8 ,the pigs4' ,anthrax looked away1 disgusted at the thought of police harassing people like his mother4 ,don't call them pigs1' his father snapped4 ,they are police officers4 ,if you are ever in trouble1 they are the first people you are ever going to call4' ,oh yeah4 ,what kind of trouble am ,i going to be in that the first people ,i call are the ,,afp8' ,anthrax replied4 ,anthrax would put up with his father coming along so long as he kept his mouth shut during the interview4 ,he certainly wasn't there for personal support4 ,they had a distant relationship at best4 ,when his father began working in the town where ,anthrax now lived and studied1 his mother had tried to patch things between them4 ,she suggested his father take ,anthrax out for dinner once a week1 to smooth things over4 ,develop a relationship4 ,they had dinner a handful of times and ,anthrax listened to his father's lectures4 ,admit you were wrong4 ,cooperate with the police4 ,get your life together4 ,own up to it all4 ,grow up4 ,be responsible4 ,stop being so useless4 ,stop being so stupid4 ,the lectures were a bit rich1 ,anthrax thought1 considering that his father had benefited from ,anthrax's hacking skills4 ,when he discovered ,anthrax had got into a huge news clipping database1 he asked the boy to pull up every article containing the word prison'4 ,then he had him search for articles on discipline4 ,the searches should have cost a fortune1 probably thousands of dollars4 ,but his father didn't pay a cent1 thanks to ,anthrax4 ,and he didn't spend much time lecturing ,anthrax on the evils of hacking then4 ,when they arrived at ,,afp headquarters1 ,anthrax made a point of putting his feet up on the leather couch in the reception area and opened a can of ,coke he had brought along4 ,his father got upset4 ,get your feet off that seat4 ,you shouldn't have brought that can of ,coke4 ,it doesn't look very professional4' ,hey1 ,i'm not going for a job interview here1' ,anthrax responded4 ,constable ,andrew ,sexton1 a redhead sporting two earrings1 came up to ,anthrax and his father and took them upstairs for coffee4 ,detective ,sergeant ,ken ,day1 head of the ,computer ,crime ,unit1 was in a meeting1 ,sexton said1 so the interview would be delayed a little4 ,anthrax's father and ,sexton found they shared some interests in law enforcement4 ,they discussed the problems associated with rehabilitation and prisoner discipline4 ,joked with each other4 ,laughed4 ,talked about young ,anthrax'4 ,young ,anthrax did this4 ,young ,anthrax did that4 ,young ,anthrax felt sick4 ,watching his own father cosying up to the enemy1 talking as if he wasn't even there4 ,when ,sexton went to check on whether ,day had finished his meeting1 ,anthrax's father growled1 ,wipe that look of contempt off your face1 young man4 ,you are going to get nowhere in this world if you show that kind of attitude1 they are going to come down on you like a ton of bricks4' ,anthrax didn't know what to say4 ,why should he treat these people with any respect after the way they threatened his mother8 ,the interview room was small but very full4 ,a dozen or more boxes1 all filled with labelled print-outs4 ,sexton began the interview4 ,taped record of interview conducted at ,australian ,federal ,police ,headquarters1 #chc ,latrobe ,street ,melbourne on #bi ,november #aiid4' ,he reeled off the names of the people present and asked each to introduce himself for voice recognition4 ,as ,i have already stated1 ,detective ,sergeant ,day and ,i are making enquiries into your alleged involvement into the manipulation of private automated branch exchanges ,p,a,b,xes via ,telecom #jjh numbers in order to obtain free phone calls nationally and internationally4 ,do you clearly understand this allegation8' ,yes4' ,sexton continued with the necessary1 and important1 preliminaries4 ,did ,anthrax understand that he was not obliged to answer any questions8 ,that he had the right to communicate with a lawyer8 ,that he had attended the interview of his own free will8 ,that he was free to leave at any time8 ,yes1 ,anthrax said in answer to each question4 ,sexton then ploughed through a few more standard procedures before he finally got to the meat of the issue--telephones4 ,he fished around in one of the many boxes and pulled out a mobile phone4 ,anthrax confirmed that it was his phone4 ,was that the phone that you used to call the #jjh numbers and subsequent connections8' ,sexton asked4 ,yes4' ,contained in that phone is a number of pre-set numbers4 ,do you agree8' ,yes4' ,i went to the trouble of extracting those records from it4' ,sexton looked pleased with himself for hacking ,anthrax's speed-dial numbers from the mobile4 ,number #bb is of some interest to myself4 ,it comes up as ,aaron4 ,could that be the person you referred to before as ,aaron in ,south ,australia8' ,yes1 but he is always moving house4 ,he is a hard person to track down4' ,sexton went through a few more numbers1 most of which ,anthrax hedged4 ,he asked ,anthrax questions about his manipulation of the phone system1 particularly about the way he made free calls overseas using ,australian companies' #jjh numbers4 ,when ,anthrax had patiently explained how it all worked1 ,sexton went through some more speed-dial numbers4 ,number #dc4 ,do you recognise that one8' ,that's the ,swedish ,party ,line4' ,what about these other numbers8 ,such as #gh8 ,and #cj8' ,i'm not sure4 ,i couldn't say what any of these are4 ,it's been so long1' ,anthrax paused1 sensing the pressure from the other side of the table4 ,these ones here1 they are numbers in my town4 ,but ,i don't know who4 ,very often1 'cause ,i don't have any pen and paper with me1 ,i just plug a number into the phone4' ,sexton looked unhappy4 ,he decided to go in a little harder4 ,i'm going to be pretty blunt4 ,so far you have admitted to the #jjhs but ,i think you are understating your knowledge and your experience when it comes to these sort of offences4' ,he caught himself4 ,not offences4 ,but your involvement in all of this 444 ,i think you have got a little bit more 444 ,i'm not saying you are lying1 don't get me wrong1 but you tend to be pulling yourself away from how far you were really into this4 ,and how far everyone looked up to you4' ,there was the gauntlet1 thrown down on the table4 ,anthrax picked it up4 ,they looked up to me8 ,that was just a perception4 ,to be honest1 ,i don't know that much4 ,i couldn't tell you anything about telephone exchanges or anything like that4 ,in the past1 ,i guess the reason they might look up to me in the sense of a leader is because ,i was doing this1 as you are probably aware1 quite a bit in the past1 and subsequently built up a reputation4 ,since then ,i decided ,i wouldn't do it again4' ,since this8' ,sexton was quick off the mark4 ,no4 ,before4 ,i just said1 ,i don't want anything to do with this any more4 ,it's just stupid4 ,when ,i broke up with my girlfriend 444 ,i just got dragged into it again4 ,i'm not trying to say that ,i am any less responsible for any of this but ,i will say ,i didn't originate any of these #jjhs4 ,they were all scanned by other people4 ,but ,i made calls and admittedly ,i did a lot of stupid things4' ,but ,sexton was like a dog with a bone4 ,i just felt that you were tending to 444 ,i don't know if it's because your dad's here or 444 ,i have read stuff that ,anthrax was a legend when it came to this1 and he was a scanner1 and he was the man to talk to about ,x4#be1 ,tymnet1 hacking1 ,unix4 ,the whole kit and kaboodle4' ,anthrax didn't take the bait4 ,cops always try that line4 ,play on a hacker's ego1 get them to brag4 ,it was so transparent4 ,it's not true1' he answered4 ,i know nothing about 444 ,i can't program4 ,i have an ,amiga with one meg of memory4 ,i have no formal background in computers whatsoever4' ,that part was definitely true4 ,everything was self-taught4 ,well1 almost everything4 ,he did take one programming class at uni1 but he failed it4 ,he went to the library to do extra research1 used in his final project for the course4 ,most of his classmates wrote simple #bjj-line programs with few functions2 his ran to #ejj lines and had lots of special functions4 ,but the lecturer flunked him4 ,she told him1 ,the functions in your program were not taught in this course'4 ,sexton asked ,anthrax if he was into carding1 which he denied emphatically4 ,then ,sexton headed back into scanning4 ,how much had ,anthrax done8 ,had he given scanned numbers to other hackers8 ,anthrax was evasive1 and both cops were getting impatient4 ,what ,i am trying to get at is that ,i believe that1 through your scanning1 you are helping other people break the law by promoting this sort of thing4' ,sexton had shown his hand4 ,no more than a telephone directory would be assisting someone1 because it's really just a list4 ,i didn't actually break anything4 ,i just looked at it4' ,these voice mailbox systems obviously belong to people4 ,what would you do when you found a ,,vmb8' ,just play with it4 ,give it to someone and say1 ,have a look at this4 ,it is interesting1 or whatever4' ,when you say play with it you would break the code out to the ,,vmb8' ,no4 ,just have a look around4 ,i'm not very good at breaking ,v,m,bs4' ,sexton tried a different tack4 ,what are #a-ijj numbers8 ,on the back of that document there is a #a-ijj number4 ,what are they generally for8' ,easy question4 ,in ,america they like cost #aj a minute4 ,you can ring them up1 ,i think1 and get all sorts of information1 party lines1 etc4' ,it's a conference type of call8' ,yes4' ,here is another document1 contained in a clear plastic sleeve labelled ,,as_/,,ab_/,s_/#a4 ,is this a scan8 ,do you recognise your handwriting8' ,yes1 it's in my handwriting4 ,once again it's the same sort of scan4 ,it's just dialling some commercial numbers and noting them4' ,and once you found something1 what would you do with it8' ,anthrax had no intention of being painted as some sort of ringleader of a scanning gang4 ,he was a sociable loner1 not a part of a team4 ,i'd just look at it1 like in the case of this one here--#fcj4 ,i just punched in a few numbers and it said that #aac diverts somewhere1 #aae says goodbye1 etc4 ,i'd just do that and ,i probably never came back to it again4' ,and you believe that if ,i pick up the telephone book1 ,i would get all this information8' ,no4 ,it's just a list of numbers in the same sense that a telephone book is4' ,what about a #a-hjj number8' ,that is the same as a #jjad4' ,if you rang a #a-hjj number1 where would you go8' ,anthrax wondered if the ,computer ,crimes ,unit gained most of its technical knowledge from interviews with hackers4 ,you can either do #jjad or you can do #a-hjj4 ,it's just the same4' ,is it ,canada--#jjad8' ,it's everywhere4' ,oops4 ,don't sound too cocky4 ,isn't it8' ,no1 ,i'm not familiar4' ,which is just what ,anthrax was thinking4 ,sexton moved on4 ,on the back of that document there is more type scans 444' ,it's all just the same thing4 ,just take a note of what is there4 ,in this case1 box #edd belongs to this woman 444' ,so1 once again1 you just release this type of information on the bridge8' ,not all of it4 ,most of it ,i would probably keep to myself and never look at it again4 ,i was bored4 ,is it illegal to scan8' ,i'm not saying it's illegal4 ,i'm just trying to show that you were really into this4 ,i'm building a picture and ,i am gradually getting to a point and ,i'm going to build a picture to show that for a while there 444' ,sexton then interrupted himself and veered down a less confrontational course4 ,i'm not saying you are doing it now1 but back then1 when all these offences occurred1 you were really into scanning telephone systems1 be it voice mailboxes 444 ,i'm not saying you found the #jjhs but you 444 anything to bugger up ,telecom4 ,you were really getting into it and you were helping other people4' ,anthrax took offence4 ,the motivation for me doing it wasn't to bugger up ,telecom4' ,sexton backpedalled4 ,perhaps 444 probably a poor choice of words4' ,he began pressing forward on the subject of hacking1 something the police had not said they were going to be discussing4 ,anthrax felt a little unnerved1 even rattled4 ,day asked if ,anthrax wanted a break4 ,no1' he answered4 ,i just want to get it over and done with1 if that's ,,ok4 ,i'm not going to lie4 ,i'm not going to say no comment4 ,i'm going to admit to everything 'cause1 based on what ,i have been told1 it's in my best interest to do so4' ,the police paused4 ,they didn't seem to like that last comment much4 ,day tried to clear things up4 ,before we go any further1 based on what you have been told1 it is in your best interests to tell the truth4 ,was it any member of the ,,afp that told you this8' ,yes4' ,who8' ,day threw the question out quickly4 ,anthrax couldn't remember their names4 ,the ones who came to my house4 ,i think ,andrew also said it to me1' he said1 nodding in the direction of the red-headed constable4 ,why were the cops getting so uncomfortable all of a sudden8 ,it was no secret that they had told both ,anthrax and his mother repeatedly that it was in his best interest to agree to an interview4 ,day leaned forward1 peered at ,anthrax and asked1 ,what did you interpret that to mean8' ,that if ,i don't tell the truth1 if ,i say no comment and don't cooperate1 that it is going to be 444 it will mean that you will go after me with 444' ,anthrax grasped for the right words1 but he felt tongue-tied1 with 444 more force1 ,i guess4' ,both officers stiffened visibly4 ,day came back again4 ,do you feel that an unfair inducement has been placed on you as a result of that8' ,in what sense8' ,the question was genuine4 ,you have made the comment and it has now been recorded and ,i have to clear it up4 ,do you feel like1 that a deal has been offered to you at any stage8' ,a deal8 ,anthrax thought about it4 ,it wasn't a deal as in ,talk to us now and we will make sure you don't go to jail'4 ,or ,talk now and we won't beat you with a rubber hose'4 ,no1' he answered4 ,do you feel that as a result of that being said that you have been pressured to come forward today and tell the truth8' ,ah1 that sort of deal4 ,well1 of course4 ,yes1 ,i have been pressured1' ,anthrax answered4 ,the two police officers looked stunned4 ,anthrax paused1 concerned about the growing feeling of disapproval in the room4 ,indirectly1' he added quickly1 almost apologetically4 ,for a brief moment1 ,anthrax just didn't care4 ,about the police4 ,about his father4 ,about the pressure4 ,he would tell the truth4 ,he decided to explain the situation as he saw it4 ,because since they came to my house1 they emphasised the fact that if ,i didn't come for an interview1 that they would then charge my mother and1 as my mother is very sick1 ,i am not prepared to put her through that4' ,the police looked at each other4 ,the shock waves reverberated around the room4 ,the ,,afp clearly hadn't bargained on this coming out in the interview tape4 ,but what he said about his mother being threatened was the truth1 so let it be on the record with everything else4 ,ken ,day caught his breath1 ,so you are saying that you have now been 444' he cut himself off 444 that you are not here voluntarily8' ,anthrax thought about it4 ,what did voluntarily' mean8 ,the police didn't cuff him to a chair and tell him he couldn't leave until he talked4 ,they didn't beat him around the head with a baton4 ,they offered him a choice3 talk or inflict the police on his ailing mother4 ,not a palatable choice1 but a choice nonetheless4 ,he chose to talk to protect his mother4 ,i am here voluntarily1' he answered4 ,that is not what you have said4 ,what you have just said is that pressure has been placed on you and that you have had to come in here and answer the questions4 ,otherwise certain actions would take place4 ,that does not mean you are here voluntarily4' ,the police must have realised they were on very thin ice and ,anthrax felt pressure growing in the room4 ,the cops pushed4 ,his father did not looked pleased4 ,i was going to come anyway1' ,anthrax answered1 again almost apologetically4 ,walk the tightrope1 he thought4 ,don't get them too mad or they will charge my mother4 ,you can talk to the people who carried out the warrant4 ,all along1 ,i said to them ,i would come in for an interview4 ,whatever my motivations are1 ,i don't think should matter4 ,i am going to tell you the truth4' ,it does matter1' ,day responded1 because at the beginning of the interview it was stated--do you agree--that you have come in here voluntarily8' ,i have4 ,no-one has forced me4' ,anthrax felt exasperated4 ,the room was getting stuffy4 ,he wanted to finish this thing and get out of there4 ,so much pressure4 ,and is anyone forcing you to make the answers you have given here today8' ,day tried again4 ,no individuals are forcing me1 no4' ,there4 ,you have what you want4 ,now get on with it and let's get out of here4 ,you have to tell the truth4 ,is that what you are saying8' ,the police would not leave the issue be4 ,i want to tell the truth4 ,as well4' ,the key words there were as well'4 ,anthrax thought1 ,i want to and ,i have to4 ,it's the circumstances that are forcing this upon you1 not an individual8' ,no4' ,of course it was the circumstances4 ,never mind that the police created the circumstance4 ,anthrax felt as if the police were just toying with him4 ,he knew and they knew they would go after his mother if this interview wasn't to their liking4 ,visions of his frail mother being hauled out of her house by the ,,afp flashed through his mind4 ,anthrax felt sweaty and hot4 ,just get on with it4 ,whatever makes them happy1 just agree to it in order to get out of this crowded room4 ,so1 would it be fair to summarise it1 really1 to say that perhaps 444 of your activity before the police arrived at your premises1 that is what is forcing you8' ,what was this cop talking about8 ,his activity' forcing him8 ,anthrax felt confused4 ,the interview had already gone on some time4 ,the cops had such obscure ways of asking things4 ,the room was oppressively small4 ,day pressed on with the question1 ,the fact that you could see you had broken the law1 and that is what is forcing you to come forward here today and tell the truth8' ,yeah4 ,whatever you want4 ,,ok1' ,anthrax started to answer1 ,that is a fair assump--' ,day cut him off4 ,i just wanted to clarify that because the interpretation ,i immediately got from that was that we1 or members of the ,,afp1 had unfairly and unjustly forced you to come in here today1 and that is not the case8' ,define unfairly'4 ,define unjustly'4 ,anthrax thought it was unfair the cops might charge his mother4 ,but they told her it was perfectly legal to do so4 ,anthrax felt light-headed4 ,all these thoughts whirring around inside his head4 ,no1 that is not the case4 ,i'm sorry for 444' ,be humble4 ,get out of that room faster4 ,no1 that is ,,ok4 ,if that is what you believe1 say it4 ,i have no problems with that4 ,i just like to have it clarified4 ,remember1 other people might listen to this tape and they will draw inferences and opinions from it4 ,at any point where ,i think there is an ambiguity1 ,i will ask for clarification4 ,do you understand that8' ,yes4 ,i understand4' ,anthrax couldn't really focus on what ,day was saying4 ,he was feeling very distressed and just wanted to finish the interview4 ,the cops finally moved on1 but the new topic was almost as unpleasant4 ,day began probing about ,anthrax's earlier hacking career--the one he had no intention of talking about4 ,anthrax began to feel a bit better4 ,he agreed to talk to the police about recent phreaking activities1 not hacking matters4 ,indeed1 he had repeatedly told them that topic was not on his agenda4 ,he felt like he was standing on firmer ground4 ,after being politely stonewalled1 ,day circled around and tried again4 ,,ok4 ,i will give you another allegation2 that you have unlawfully accessed computer systems in ,australia and the ,united ,states4 ,in the ,,us1 you specifically targeted military computer systems4 ,do you understand that allegation8' ,i understand that4 ,i wouldn't like to comment on it4' ,no1 sir4 ,no way4 ,day tried a new tack4 ,i will further allege that you did work with a person known as ,mendax4' ,what on earth was ,day talking about8 ,anthrax had heard of ,mendax1 but they had never worked together4 ,he thought the cops must not have very good informants4 ,no4 ,that is not true4 ,i know no-one of that name4' ,not strictly true1 but true enough4 ,well1 if he was to turn around to me and say that you were doing all this hacking1 he would be lying1 would he8' ,oh wonderful4 ,some other hacker was crapping on to the cops with lies about how he and ,anthrax had worked together4 ,that was exactly why ,anthrax didn't work in a group4 ,he had plenty of real allegations to fend off4 ,he didn't need imaginary ones too4 ,most certainly would4 ,unless he goes by some other name1 ,i know no-one by that name1 ,mendax4' ,kill that off quick4 ,in fact ,mendax had not ratted on ,anthrax at all4 ,that was just a technique the police used4 ,you don't wish to comment on the fact that you have hacked into other computer systems and military systems8' ,if there was one thing ,anthrax could say for ,day1 it was that he was persistent4 ,no4 ,i would prefer not to comment on any of that4 ,this is the advice ,i have received3 not to comment on anything unrelated to the topic that ,i was told ,i would be talking about when ,i came down here4' ,all right1 well are you going to answer any questions in relation to unlawfully accessing any computer systems8' ,based upon the legal advice that ,i received1 ,i choose not to4' ,day pursed his lips4 ,all right4 ,if that is your attitude and you don't wish to answer any of those questions1 we won't pursue the matter4 ,however1 ,i will inform you now that the matter may be reported and you may receive a summons to answer the questions or face charges in relation to those allegations1 and1 at any time that you so choose1 you can come forward and tell us the truth4' ,woah4 ,anthrax took a deep breath4 ,could the cops make him come answer questions with a summons8 ,they were changing the game midway through4 ,anthrax felt as though the carpet had been pulled out from beneath his feet4 ,he needed a few minutes to clear his head4 ,is it something ,i can think over and discuss8' ,anthrax asked4 ,yes4 ,do you want to have a pause and a talk with your father8 ,the constable and ,i can step out of the room1 or offer you another room4 ,you may wish to have a break and think about it if you like4 ,i think it might be a good idea4 ,i think we might have a ten-minute break and put you in another room and let you two have a chat about it4 ,there is no pressure4' ,day and the ,sexton stopped the interview and guided father and son into another room4 ,once they were alone1 ,anthrax looked to his father for support4 ,this voice inside him still cried out to keep away from his earlier hacking journeys4 ,he needed someone to tell him the same thing4 ,his father was definitely not that someone4 ,he railed against ,anthrax with considerable vehemence4 ,stop holding back4 ,you have to tell everything4 ,how could you be so stupid8 ,you can't fool the police4 ,they know4 ,confess it all before it's too late4 ,at the end of the ten-minute tirade1 ,anthrax felt worse than he had at the beginning4 ,when the two returned to the interview room1 ,anthrax's father turned to the police and said suddenly1 ,he has decided to confess'4 ,that was not true4 ,anthrax hadn't decided anything of the sort4 ,his father was full of surprises4 ,it seemed every time he opened his mouth1 an ugly surprise came out4 ,ken ,day and ,andrew ,sexton warmed up a shaky ,anthrax by showing him various documents1 pieces of paper with ,anthrax's scribbles seized during the raid1 telephone taps4 ,at one stage1 ,day pointed to some handwritten notes which read ,,kday'4 ,he looked at ,anthrax4 ,what's that8 ,that's me4' ,anthrax smiled for the first time in a long while4 ,it was something to be happy about4 ,the head of the ,,afp's ,computer ,crime ,unit in ,melbourne sat there1 so sure he was onto something big4 ,there was his name1 bold as day1 in the hacker's handwriting on a bit of paper seized in a raid4 ,day seemed to be expecting something good4 ,anthrax said1 ,if you ring that up you will find it is a radio station4' ,an ,american radio station4 ,written on the same bit of paper were the names of an ,american clothing store1 another ,,us-based radio station1 and a few records he wanted to order4 ,there you go1' ,day laughed at his own hasty conclusions4 ,i've got a radio station named after me4' ,day asked ,anthrax why he wrote down all sorts of things1 directory paths1 codes1 error messages4 ,just part of the record-keeping4 ,i think ,i wrote this down when ,i had first been given this dial-up and ,i was just feeling my way around1 taking notes of what different things did4' ,what were your intentions at the time with these computer networks8' ,at this stage1 ,i was just having a look1 just a matter of curiosity4' ,was it a matter of curiosity--,gee1 this is interesting or was it more like ,i would like to get into them at this stage8' ,i couldn't say what was going through my mind at the time4 ,but initially once ,i got into the first system--,i'm sure you have heard this a lot--but once you get into the first system1 it's like you get into the next one and the next one and the next one1 after a while it doesn't 444' ,anthrax couldn't find the right words to finish the explanation4 ,once you have tasted the forbidden fruit8' ,exactly4 ,it's a good analogy4' ,day pressed on with questions about ,anthrax's hacking4 ,he successfully elicited admissions from the hacker4 ,anthrax gave ,day more than the police officer had before1 but probably not as much as he would have liked4 ,it was1 however1 enough4 ,enough to keep the police from charging ,anthrax's mother4 ,and enough for them to charge him4 ,anthrax didn't see his final list of charges until the day he appeared in court on #bh ,august #aiie4 ,the whole case seemed to be a bit disorganised4 ,his ,legal ,aid lawyer had little knowledge of computers1 let alone computer crime4 ,he told ,anthrax he could ask for an adjournment because he hadn't seen the final charges until so late1 but ,anthrax wanted to get the thing over and done with4 ,they had agreed that ,anthrax would plead guilty to the charges and hope for a reasonable magistrate4 ,anthrax looked through the hand-up brief provided by the prosecution1 which included a heavily edited transcript of his interview with the police4 ,it was labelled as a summary'1 but it certainly didn't summarise everything important in that interview4 ,either the prosecution or the police had cut out all references to the fact that the police had threatened to charge ,anthrax's mother if he didn't agree to be interviewed4 ,anthrax pondered the matter4 ,wasn't everything relevant to his case supposed to be covered in a hand-up brief8 ,this seemed very relevant to his case1 yet there wasn't a mention of it anywhere in the document4 ,he began to wonder if the police had edited down the transcript just so they could cut out that portion of the interview4 ,perhaps the judge wouldn't be too happy about it4 ,he thought that maybe the police didn't want to be held accountable for how they had dealt with his mother4 ,the rest of the hand-up brief wasn't much better4 ,the only statement by an actual witness' to ,anthrax's hacking was from his former room-mate1 who claimed that he had watched ,anthrax break into a ,,nasa computer and access an area of the computer system which showed the latitude_/longitude of ships'4 ,did space ships even have longitudes and latitudes8 ,anthrax didn't know4 ,and he had certainly never broken into a ,,nasa computer in front of the room-mate4 ,it was absurd4 ,this guy is lying1 ,anthrax thought1 and five minutes under cross-examination by a reasonable lawyer would illustrate as much4 ,anthrax's instincts told him the prosecution had a flimsy case for some of the charges1 but he felt overwhelmed by pressure from all sides--his family1 the bustle in the courtroom1 even the officiousness of his own lawyer quickly rustling through his papers4 ,anthrax looked around the room4 ,his eyes fell on his father1 who sat waiting on the public benches4 ,anthrax's lawyer wanted him there to give evidence during sentencing4 ,he thought it would look good to show there was a family presence4 ,anthrax gave the suggestion a cool reception4 ,but he didn't understand how courts worked1 so he followed his lawyer's advice4 ,anthrax's mother was back at his apartment1 waiting for news4 ,she had been on night duty and was supposed to be sleeping4 ,that was the ostensible reason she didn't attend4 ,anthrax thought perhaps that the tension was too much for her4 ,whatever the reason1 she didn't sleep all that day4 ,she tidied the place1 washed the dishes1 did the laundry1 and kept herself as busy as the tiny apartment would allow her4 ,anthrax's girlfriend1 a pretty1 moon-faced ,turkish girl1 also came to court4 ,she had never been into the hacking scene4 ,a group of school children1 mostly girls1 chatted in the rows behind her4 ,anthrax read through the four-page summary of facts provided by the prosecution4 ,when he reached the final page1 his heart stopped4 ,the final paragraph said3 #ca4 ,penalty s#he,,zf 7a7--#ab months1 #fjjj or both s#gf;,e7a7--#b years1 #abjjj or both ,pointing to the last paragraph1 ,anthrax asked his lawyer what that was all about4 ,his lawyer told him that he would probably get prison but1 well1 it wouldn't be that bad and he would just have to take it on the chin'4 ,he would1 after all1 be out in a year or two4 ,rapists sometimes got off with less than that4 ,anthrax couldn't believe the prosecution was asking for prison4 ,after he cooperated1 suffering through that miserable interview4 ,he had no prior convictions4 ,but the snowball had been set in motion4 ,the magistrate appeared and opened the court4 ,anthrax felt he couldn't back out now and he pleaded guilty to #ba counts1 including one charge of inserting data and twenty charges of defrauding or attempting to defraud a carrier4 ,his lawyer put the case for a lenient sentence4 ,he called ,anthrax's father up on the stand and asked him questions about his son4 ,his father probably did more harm than good4 ,when asked if he thought his son would offend again1 his father replied1 ,i don't know'4 ,anthrax was livid4 ,it was further unconscionable behaviour4 ,not long before the trial1 ,anthrax had discovered that his father had planned to sneak out of the country two days before the court case4 ,he was going overseas1 he told his wife1 but not until after the court case4 ,it was only by chance that she discovered his surreptitious plans to leave early4 ,presumably he would find his son's trial humiliating4 ,anthrax's mother insisted he stayed and he begrudgingly delayed the trip4 ,his father sat down1 a bit away from ,anthrax and his lawyer4 ,the lawyer provided a colourful alternative to the prosecutor4 ,he perched one leg up on his bench1 rested an elbow on the knee and stroked his long1 red beard4 ,it was an impressive beard1 more than a foot long and thick with reddish brown curls4 ,somehow it fitted with his two-tone chocolate brown suit and his tie1 a breathtakingly wide creation with wild patterns in gold4 ,the suit was one size too small4 ,he launched into the usual courtroom flourish--lots of words saying nothing4 ,then he got to the punch line4 ,your worship1 this young man has been in all sorts of places4 ,,nasa1 military sites1 you wouldn't believe some of the places he has been4' ,i don't think ,i want to know where he has been1' the magistrate answered wryly4 ,the strategy was ,anthrax's4 ,he thought he could turn a liability into an asset by showing that he had been in many systems--many sensitive systems--but had done no malicious damage in any of them4 ,the strategy worked and the magistrate announced there was no way he was sending the young hacker to jail4 ,the prosecutor looked genuinely disappointed and launched a counter proposal--#aejj hours of community service4 ,anthrax caught his breath4 ,that was absurd4 ,it would take almost nine months1 full time4 ,painting buildings1 cleaning toilets4 ,forget about his university studies4 ,it was almost as bad as prison4 ,anthrax's lawyer protested4 ,your ,worship1 that penalty is something out of cyberspace4' ,anthrax winced at how corny that sounded1 but the lawyer looked very pleased with himself4 ,the magistrate refused to have a bar of the prosecutor's counter proposal4 ,anthrax's girlfriend was impressed with the magistrate4 ,she didn't know much about the law or the court system1 but he seemed a fair man1 a just man4 ,he didn't appear to want to give a harsh punishment to ,anthrax at all4 ,but he told the court he had to send a message to ,anthrax1 to the class of school children in the public benches and to the general community that hacking was wrong in the eyes of the law4 ,anthrax glanced back at the students4 ,they looked like they were aged thirteen or fourteen1 about the age he got into hacking and phreaking4 ,the magistrate announced his sentence4 ,two hundred hours of community service and #faaf4ij of restitution to be paid to two telephone companies--,telecom and ,teleglobe in ,canada4 ,it wasn't prison1 but it was a staggering amount of money for a student to rake up4 ,he had a year to pay it off1 and it would definitely take that long4 ,at least he was free4 ,anthrax's girlfriend thought how unlucky it was to have landed those giggling school children in the courtroom on that day4 ,they laughed and pointed and half-whispered4 ,court was a game4 ,they didn't seem to take the magistrate's warning seriously4 ,perhaps they were gossiping about the next party4 ,perhaps they were chatting about a new pair of sneakers or a new ,,cd4 ,and maybe one or two murmured quietly how cool it would be to break into ,,nasa4 ,,afterword ,it was billed as the largest annual gathering of those in1 related to1 or wishing to know more about the computer underground'1 so ,i thought ,i had better go4 ,ho,ho,con in ,austin1 ,texas1 was without a doubt one of the strangest conferences ,i have attended4 ,during the weekend leading up to ,new ,year's ,day #aiie1 the ,ramada ,inn ,south was overrun by hackers1 phreakers1 ex-hackers1 underground sympathisers1 journalists1 computer company employees and ,american law enforcement agents4 ,some people had come from as far away as ,germany and ,canada4 ,the hackers and phreakers slept four or six to a room--if they slept at all4 ,the feds slept two to a room4 ,i could be wrong2 maybe they weren't feds at all4 ,but they seemed far too well dressed and well pressed to be anything else4 ,no one else at ,ho,ho,con ironed their ,t-shirts4 ,i left the main conference hall and wandered into ,room #eah--the computer room--sat down on one of the two hotel beds which had been shoved into a corner to make room for all the computer gear1 and watched4 ,the conference organisers had moved enough equipment in there to open a store1 and then connected it all to the ,internet4 ,for nearly three days1 the room was almost continuously full4 ,boys in their late teens or early twenties lounged on the floor talking1 playing with their cell phones and scanners or tapping away at one of the six or seven terminals4 ,empty bags of chips1 ,coke cans and pizza boxes littered the room4 ,the place felt like one giant college dorm floor party1 except that the people didn't talk to each other so much as to their computers4 ,these weren't the only interesting people at the con4 ,i met up with an older group of nonconformists in the computer industry1 a sort of ,austin intelligentsia4 ,by older1 ,i mean above the age of #bf4 ,they were interested in many of the same issues as the young group of hackers--privacy1 encryption1 the future of a digital world--and they all had technical backgrounds4 ,this loose group of blue-jean clad thinkers1 people like ,doug ,barnes1 ,jeremy ,porter and ,jim ,mc,coy1 like to meet over enchiladas and margueritas at university-style cafes4 ,they always seemed to have three or four projects on the run4 ,digital cash was the flavour of the month when ,i met them4 ,they were unconventional1 perhaps even a little weird1 but they were also bright1 very creative and highly innovative4 ,they were just the sort of people who might marry creative ideas with maturity and business sense1 eventually making widespread digital cash a reality4 ,i began to wonder how many of the young men in ,room #eah might follow the same path4 ,and ,i asked myself3 where are these people in ,australia8 ,largely invisible or perhaps even non-existent1 it seems4 ,except maybe in the computer underground4 ,the underground appears to be one of the few places in ,australia where madness1 creativity1 obsession1 addiction and rebellion collide like atoms in a cyclotron4 ,after the raids1 the arrests and the court cases on three continents1 what became of the hackers described in this book8 ,most of them went on to do interesting and constructive things with their lives4 ,those who were interviewed for this work say they have given up hacking for good4 ,after what many of them had been through1 ,i would be surprised if any of them continued hacking4 ,most of them1 however1 are not sorry for their hacking activities4 ,some are sorry they upset people4 ,they feel badly that they caused system admins stress and unhappiness by hacking their systems4 ,but most do not feel hacking is wrong--and few1 if any1 feel that look-see hacking'1 as prosecuting barrister ,geoff ,chettle termed non-malicious hacking1 should be a crime4 ,for the most part1 their punishments have only hardened their views on the subject4 ,they know that in many cases the authorities have sought to make examples of them1 for the benefit of rest of the computer underground4 ,the state has largely failed in this objective4 ,in the eyes of many in the computer underground1 these prosecuted hackers are heroes4 ,,par ,when ,i met ,par in ,tucson1 ,arizona1 he had travelled from a tiny1 snow-laden ,mid-,western town where he was living with his grandparents4 ,he was looking for work1 but hadn't been able to find anything4 ,as ,i drove around the outskirts of ,tucson1 a little jetlagged and disoriented1 ,i was often distracted from the road by the beauty of the winter sun on the ,sonoran desert cacti4 ,sitting in the front passenger seat1 ,par said calmly1 ,i always wondered what it would be like to drive on the wrong side of the road'4 ,i swerved back to the right side of the road4 ,par is still like that4 ,easy-going1 rolling with the punches1 taking what life hands him4 ,he is also on the road again4 ,he moved back to the west coast for a while1 but will likely pack up and go somewhere else before long4 ,he picks up temporary work where he can1 often just basic1 dull data-entry stuff4 ,it isn't easy4 ,he can't just explain away a four-year gap in his resum with ,successfully completed a telecommuting course for fugitives4 ,trained by the ,,us ,secret ,service'4 ,he thought he might like to work at a local college computer lab1 helping out the students and generally keeping the equipment running4 ,without any professional qualifications1 that seemed an unlikely option these days4 ,although he is no longer a fugitive1 ,par's life hasn't changed that much4 ,he speaks to his mother very occasionally1 though they don't have much in common4 ,escaping his computer crimes charges proved easier than overcoming the effects of being a fugitive for so long on his personality and lifestyle4 ,now and again1 the paranoia sets in again4 ,it seems to come in waves4 ,there aren't many support mechanisms in the ,,us for an unemployed young man who doesn't have health insurance4 ,,prime ,,suspect ,prime ,suspect has no regrets about his choices4 ,he believed that he and ,mendax were headed in different directions in life4 ,the friendship would have ended anyway1 so he decided that he was not willing to go to prison for ,mendax4 ,he completed a ,,tafe course in computer programming and found a job in the burgeoning ,internet industry4 ,he likes his job4 ,his employer1 who knows about his hacking convictions1 recently gave him a pay rise4 ,in mid-#aiid1 he gave up drugs for good4 ,in #aiie he moved into a shared house with some friends1 and in ,august #aiif he stopped smoking cigarettes4 ,without hacking1 there seems to be time in his life to do new things4 ,he took up sky-diving4 ,a single jump gives him a high which lasts for days1 sometimes up to a week4 ,girls have captured his interest4 ,he's had a few girlfriends and thinks he would like to settle into a serious relationship when he finds the right person4 ,recently1 ,prime ,suspect has been studying martial arts4 ,he tries to attend at least four classes a week1 sometimes more1 and says he has a special interest in the spiritual and philosophical sides of martial arts4 ,most days1 he rises at #e a4m41 either to jog or to meditate4 ,,mendax ,in #aiib ,mendax and ,trax teamed up with a wealthy ,italian real-estate investor1 purchased ,la ,trobe ,university's mainframe computer 7ironically1 a machine they had been accused of hacking7 and started a computer security company4 ,the company eventually dissolved when the investor disappeared following actions by his creditors4 ,after a public confrontation in #aiic with ,victorian ,premier ,jeff ,kennett1 ,mendax and two others formed a civil rights organisation to fight corruption and lack of accountability in a ,victorian government department4 ,as part of this ongoing effort1 ,mendax acted as a conduit for leaked documents and became involved in a number of court cases against the department during #aiic-id4 ,eventually1 he gave evidence in camera to a state parliamentary committee examining the issues1 and his organisation later facilitated the appearance of more than #dj witnesses at an investigation by the ,auditor-,general4 ,mendax volunteers his time and computer expertise for several other non-profit community organisations4 ,he believes strongly in the importance of the non-profit sector1 and spends much of his free time as an activist on different community projects4 ,mendax has provided information or assistance to law-enforcement bodies1 but not against hackers4 ,he said1 ,i couldn't ethically justify that4 ,but as for others1 such as people who prey on children or corporate spies1 ,i am not concerned about using my skills there4' ,still passionate about coding1 ,mendax donates his time to various international programming efforts and releases some of his programs for free on the ,internet4 ,his philosophy is that most of the lasting social advances in the history of man have been a direct result of new technology4 ,nor,tel and a number of other organisations he was accused of hacking use his cryptography software--a fact he finds rather ironic4 ,,anthrax ,anthrax moved to ,melbourne1 where he is completing a university course and working on freelance assignments in the computer networking area of a major corporation4 ,his father and mother are divorcing4 ,anthrax doesn't talk to his father at all these days4 ,anthrax's mother's health has stabilised somewhat since the completion of the court case1 though her condition still gives her chronic pain4 ,despite some skin discolouration caused by the disease1 she looks well4 ,as a result of her years of work in the local community1 she has a loyal group of friends who support her through bad bouts of the illness4 ,she tries to live without bitterness and continues to have a good relationship with both her sons4 ,anthrax is no longer involved in the ,nation of ,islam1 but he is still a devout ,muslim4 ,an acquaintance of his1 an ,albanian who ran a local fish and chips shop1 introduced him to a different kind of ,islam4 ,not long after1 ,anthrax became a ,sunni ,muslim4 ,he doesn't drink alcohol or gamble1 and he attends a local mosque for ,friday evening prayers4 ,he tries to read from the ,qu'raan every day and to practise the tenets of his religion faithfully4 ,with his computer and business skills now sought after by industry1 he is exploring the possibility of moving to a ,muslim country in ,asia or the ,middle ,east4 ,he tries to promote the interests of ,islam worldwide4 ,most of his pranking needs are now met by commercial ,c,ds--recordings of other people's pranking sold through underground magazines and ,american mail order catalogues4 ,once in a long while1 he still rings ,mr ,mc,kenny in search of the missing shovel4 ,anthrax felt aggrieved at the outcome of his written complaint to the ,office of the ,ombudsman4 ,in the complaint1 ,anthrax gave an account of how he believed the ,,afp had behaved inappropriately throughout his case4 ,specifically1 he alleged that the ,,afp had pressured his mother with threats and had harassed him1 taken photographs of him without his permission1 given information to his university about his case prior to the issue of a summons and the resolution of his case1 and made racist comments toward him during the raid4 ,in #aiie-if1 a total of #aaeg complaints were filed against the ,,afp1 #fhc of which were investigated by the ,commonwealth ,ombudsman4 ,of the complaint investigations completed and reviewed1 only #f per cent were substantiated4 ,another #i per cent were deemed to be incapable of determination'1 about #cd per cent were unsubstantiated'1 and in more than a quarter of all cases the ,ombudsman either chose not to investigate or not to continue to investigate a complaint4 ,the ,office of the ,ombudsman referred ,anthrax's matter to the ,,afp's ,internal ,investigations office4 ,although ,anthrax and his mother both gave statements to the investigating officers1 there was no other proof of ,anthrax's allegations4 ,in the end1 it came down to ,anthrax and his mother's words against those of the police4 ,the ,,afp's internal investigation concluded that ,anthrax's complaints could either not be substantiated or not be determined1 in part due to the fact that almost two years had passed since the original raid4 ,for the most part1 the ,ombudsman backed the ,,afp's finding4 ,no recommendation was made for the disciplining of any officers4 ,anthrax's only consolation was a concern voiced by the ,ombudsman's ,office4 ,although the investigating officer agreed with the ,,afp investigators that the complaint could not be substantiated1 she wrote1 ,i am concerned that your mother felt she was compelled to pressure you into attending an interview based on a fear that she would be charged because her phone was used to perpetrate the offences'4 ,anthrax remains angry and sceptical about his experience with the police4 ,he believes a lot of things need to be changed about the way the police operate4 ,most of all1 he believes that justice will never be assured in a system where the police are allowed to investigate themselves4 ,,pad ,,and ,,gandalf ,after ,pad and ,gandalf were released from prison1 they started up a free security advisory service on the ,internet4 ,one reason they began releasing #hlgm advisories1 as they were known1 was to help admins secure their own systems4 ,the other reason was to thumb their noses at the conservatives in the security industry4 ,many on the ,internet considered the #hlgm advisories to be the best available at the time--far better than anything ,,cert had ever produced4 ,pad and ,gandalf were sending their own message back to the establishment4 ,the message1 though never openly stated1 was something like this3 ,you busted us4 ,you sent us to prison4 ,but it didn't matter4 ,you can't keep information like this secret4 ,further1 we are still better than you ever were and1 to prove it1 we are going to beat you at your own game4' ,believing that the best way to keep a hacker out of your system is to secure it properly in the first place1 the two ,british hackers rejected security gurus who refused to tell the world about new security holes4 ,their #hlgm advisories began marginalising the traditional industry security reports1 and helped to push the industry toward its current1 more open attitude4 ,pad and ,gandalf now both work1 doing computer programming jobs on contract1 sometimes for financial institutions4 ,their clients like them and value their work4 ,both have steady girlfriends4 ,pad doesn't hack any more4 ,the reason isn't the risk of getting caught or the threat of prison4 ,he has stopped hacking because he has realised what a headache it is for a system administrator to clean up his or her computer after an attack4 ,searching through logs4 ,looking for backdoors the hacker might have left behind4 ,the hours1 the hassle1 the pressure--he thinks it is wrong to put anyone through that4 ,pad understands far better now how much strain a hacker intrusion can cause another human being4 ,there is another reason ,pad has given up hacking3 he has simply outgrown the desire4 ,he says that he has better things to do with his time4 ,computers are a way for him to earn a living1 not a way to spend his leisure time4 ,after a trip overseas he decided that real travel--not its electronic cousin--was more interesting than hacking4 ,he has also learned to play the guitar1 something he believes he would have done years ago if he hadn't spent so much time hacking4 ,gandalf shares ,pad's interest in travelling4 ,one reason they like contract work is because it lets them work hard for six months1 save some money1 and then take a few months off4 ,the aim of both ex-hackers for now is simply to sling backpacks over their shoulders and bounce around the globe4 ,pad still thinks that ,britain takes hacking far too seriously and he is considering moving overseas permanently4 ,the #hlgm court case made him wonder about the people in power in ,britain--the politicians1 the judges1 the law enforcement officers4 ,he often thinks3 what kind of people are running this show8 ,,stuart ,,gill ,in #aiic1 the ,victorian ,ombudsman#a and the ,victoria ,police#b both investigated the leaking of confidential police information in association with ,operation ,iceberg--a police investigation into allegations of corruption against ,assistant ,commissioner of ,police ,frank ,green4 ,stuart ,gill figured prominently in both reports4 ,the ,victoria ,police report concluded that ,gill was able to infiltrate the policing environment by skilfully manipulating himself and information to the unsuspecting'4 ,the ,ombudsman concluded that a large quantity of confidential police information1 mainly from the ,,isu database1 was given to 444 ,gill by ,victoria ,police officer ,cosgriff'4 ,the police report stated that ,inspector ,chris ,cosgriff had deliberately leaked confidential police information to ,gill1 and reported that he was besotted with ,gill'4 ,superintendent ,tony ,warren1 ex-,deputy ,commissioner ,john ,frame and ex-,assistant ,commissioner ,bernice ,masterston were also criticised in the report4 ,the ,ombudsman concluded that ,warren and ,cosgriff's relationship with ,gill was primarily responsible for the release of confidential information'4 ,interestingly1 however1 the ,ombudsman also stated1 ,whilst ,mr ,gill may have had his own agenda and taken advantage of his relationship with police1 the police have equally used and in some cases misused ,mr ,gill for their own purposes'4 ,the ,ombudsman's report further concluded that there was no evidence of criminal conduct by ,frank ,green1 and that the allegations made over the years against ,mr ,green should have been properly and fully investigated at the time they were made'4 ,,phoenix ,as his court case played in the media1 ,phoenix was speeding on his motorcycle through an inner-city ,melbourne street one rainy night when he hit a car4 ,the car's driver leapt from the front seat and found a disturbing scene4 ,phoenix was sprawled across the road4 ,his helmet had a huge crack on the side1 where his head had hit the car's petrol tank1 and petrol had spilled over the motorcycle and its rider4 ,miraculously1 ,phoenix was unhurt1 though very dazed4 ,some bystanders helped him and the distraught driver to a nearby halfway house4 ,they called an ambulance1 and then made the two traumatised young men some tea in the kitchen4 ,phoenix's mother arrived1 called by a bystander at ,phoenix's request4 ,the ambulance workers confirmed that ,phoenix had not broken any bones but they recommended he go to hospital to check for possible concussion4 ,still both badly shaken1 ,phoenix and the driver exchanged names and phone numbers4 ,phoenix told the driver he did technical work for a #jjee telephone service1 then said1 ,you might recognise me4 ,i'm ,phoenix4 ,there's this big computer hacking case going on in court--that's my case'4 ,the driver looked at him blankly4 ,phoenix said1 ,you might have seen me on the ,,tv news4' ,no1 the driver said1 somewhat amazed at the strange things which go through the dazed mind of a young man who has so narrowly escaped death4 ,some time after ,phoenix's close brush with death1 the former hacker left his info-line technician's job and began working in the information technology division of a large ,melbourne-based corporation4 ,well paid in his new job1 ,phoenix is seen1 once again1 as the golden-haired boy4 ,he helped to write a software program which reduces waste in one of the production lines and reportedly saved the company thousands of dollars4 ,now he travels abroad regularly1 to ,japan and elsewhere4 ,he had a steady girlfriend for a time1 but eventually she broke the relationship off to see other people4 ,heartbroken1 he avoided dating for months4 ,instead1 he filled his time with his ever-increasing corporate responsibilities4 ,his new interest is music4 ,he plays electric guitar in an amateur band4 ,,electron ,a few weeks after his sentencing1 ,electron had another psychotic episode1 triggered by a dose of speed4 ,he was admitted to hospital again1 this time at ,larundel4 ,after a short stay1 he was released and underwent further psychiatric care4 ,some months later1 he did speed again1 and suffered another bout of psychosis4 ,he kept reading medical papers on the ,internet about his condition and his psychiatrists worried that his detailed research might interfere with their ability to treat him4 ,he moved into special accommodation for people recovering from mental instabilities4 ,slowly1 he struggled to overcome his illness4 ,when people came up to him and said things like1 ,what a nice day it is6' ,electron willed himself to take their words at face value1 to accept that they really were just commenting on the weather1 nothing more4 ,during this time1 he quit drugs1 alcohol and his much-hated accounting course4 ,eventually he was able to come off his psychiatric medicines completely4 ,he hasn't taken drugs or had alcohol since ,december #aiid4 ,his only chemical vice in #aiif was cigarettes4 ,by the beginning of #aiig he had also given up tobacco4 ,electron hasn't talked to either ,phoenix or ,nom since #aiib4 ,in early #aiif1 ,electron moved into his own flat with his steady girlfriend1 who studies dance and who also successfully overcame mental illness after a long1 hard struggle4 ,electron began another university course in a philosophy-related field4 ,this time university life agreed with him1 and his first semester transcript showed honours grades in every class4 ,he is considering moving to ,sydney for further studies4 ,electron worked off his #cjj hours of community service by painting walls and doing minor handyman work at a local primary school4 ,among the small projects the school asked him to complete was the construction of a retaining wall4 ,he designed and dug1 measured and fortified4 ,as he finished off the last of his court-ordered community service hours on the wall1 he discovered that he was rather proud of his creation4 ,even now1 once in a while1 he drives past the school and looks at the wall4 ,it is still standing4 ,there are still hacking cases in ,australia4 ,about the same time as ,mendax's case was being heard in ,victoria1 ,the ,crawler pleaded guilty to #bc indictable offences and thirteen summary offences--all hacking related charges--in ,brisbane ,district ,court4 ,on #bj ,december #aiif1 the #ba-year-old ,queenslander was given a three-year suspended prison sentence1 ordered to pay #ejjj in reparations to various organisations1 and made to forfeit his modem and two computers4 ,the first few waves of hackers may have come and gone1 but hacking is far from dead4 ,it is merely less visible4 ,law enforcement agencies and the judiciaries of several countries have tried to send a message to the next generation of would-be hackers4 ,the message is this3 ,don't hack4 ,but the next generation of elite hackers and phreakers have heard a very different message1 a message which says3 ,don't get caught4 ,the principle of deterrence has not worked with hackers at this level4 ,i'm not talking here about the codes-kids--the teeny-bopper1 carding1 wanna-be nappies who hang out on ,,irc 7,internet relay chat74 ,i'm talking about the elite hackers4 ,if anything1 law enforcement crackdowns have not only pushed them further underground1 they have encouraged hackers to become more sophisticated than ever before in the way they protect themselves4 ,adversity is the mother of invention4 ,when police officers march through the front door of a hacker's home today1 they may be better prepared than their predecessors1 but they will also be facing bigger hurdles4 ,today1 top hackers encrypt everything sensitive4 ,the data on their hard drives1 their live data connections1 even their voice conversations4 ,so1 if hackers are still hacking1 who are their targets8 ,it is a broad field4 ,any type of network provider--,x4#be1 cellular phone or large ,internet provider4 ,computer vendors--the manufacturers of software and hardware1 routers1 gateways1 firewalls or phone switches4 ,military institutions1 governments and banks seem to be a little less fashionable these days1 though there are still plenty of attacks on these sorts of sites4 ,attacks on security experts are still common1 but a new trend is the increase in attacks on other hackers' systems4 ,one ,australian hacker joked1 ,what are the other hackers going to do8 ,call the ,feds8 ,tell the ,,afp1 ,yes1 officer1 that's right1 some computer criminal broke into my machine and stole #bjjjj passwords and all my exploitation code for bypassing firewalls4' ,for the most part1 elite hackers seem to work alone1 because of the well-advertised risks of getting caught4 ,there are still some underground hacking communities frequented by top hackers1 most notably ,,upt in ,canada and a few groups like the l#jpht in the ,,us1 but such groups are far less common1 and more fragmented than they used to be4 ,these hackers have reached a new level of sophistication1 not just in the technical nature of their attacks1 but in their strategies and objectives4 ,once1 top hackers such as ,electron and ,phoenix were happy to get copies of ,zardoz1 which listed security holes found by industry experts4 ,now top hackers find those holes themselves--by reading line by line through the proprietary source code from places like ,,dec1 ,,hp1 ,,cisco1 ,sun and ,microsoft4 ,industrial espionage does not seem to be on the agenda1 at least with anyone ,i interviewed4 ,i have yet to meet a hacker who has given proprietary source code to a vendor's competitor4 ,i have1 however1 met a hacker who found one company's proprietary source code inside the computer of its competitor4 ,was that a legal copy of the source code8 ,who knows8 ,the hacker didn't think so1 but he kept his mouth shut about it1 for obvious reasons4 ,most of the time1 these hackers want to keep their original bugs as quiet as possible1 so vendors won't release patches4 ,the second popular target is source code development machines4 ,the top hackers have a clear objective in this area3 to install their own backdoors before the product is released4 ,they call it backdooring' a program or an operating system4 ,the word backdoor' is now used as both a noun and a verb in the underground4 ,hackers are very nervous discussing this subject1 in part because they don't want to see a computer company's stock dive and people lose their jobs4 ,what kind of programs do these hackers want to backdoor8 ,targets mentioned include at least one major ,internet browser1 a popular game1 an ,internet packet filter and a database product used by law enforcement agencies4 ,a good backdoor is a very powerful device1 creating a covert channel through even the most sturdy of firewalls into the heart of an otherwise secure network4 ,in a net browser1 a backdoor would in theory allow a hacker to connect directly into someone's home computer every time he or she wandered around the ,world ,wide ,web4 ,however1 don't expect hackers to invade your suburban home just yet4 ,most elite hackers couldn't care less about the average person's home computer4 ,perhaps you are wondering who might be behind this sort of attack4 ,what sort of person would do this8 ,there are no easy answers to that question4 ,some hackers are good people1 some are bad1 just like any group of people4 ,the next generation of elite hackers are a diverse bunch1 and relaying their stories would take another book entirely4 ,however1 ,i would like to introduce you to just one1 to give you a window into the future4 ,meet ,s,ki,mo4 ,a ,european living outside ,australia1 ,s,ki,mo has been hacking for at least four years1 although he probably only joined the ranks of world-class hackers in #aiie or #aiif4 ,never busted4 ,young--between the age of #ah and #be--;and male4 ,from a less than picture-perfect family4 ,fluent in ,english as a second language4 ,left-leaning in his politics--heading toward environmentally green parties and anarchy rather than traditional labour parties4 ,smokes a little dope and drinks alcohol1 but doesn't touch the hard stuff4 ,his musical tastes include early ,pink ,floyd1 ,sullen1 ,dog ,eat ,dog1 ,biohazard1 old ,ice-,t1 ,therapy1 ,alanis ,morissette1 ,rage ,against the ,machine1 ,fear ,factory1 ,life of ,agony and ,napalm ,death4 ,he reads ,stephen ,king1 ,stephen ,hawking1 ,tom ,clancy and ,aldous ,huxley4 ,and any good books about physics1 chemistry or mathematics4 ,shy in person1 he doesn't like organised team sports and is not very confident around girls4 ,he has only had one serious girlfriend1 but the relationship finished4 ,now that he hacks and codes about four to five hours per day on average1 but sometimes up to #cf hours straight1 he doesn't have time for girls4 ,besides1' he says1 ,i am rather picky when it comes to girls4 ,maybe if the girl shared the same interests 444 but those ones are hard to find4' ,he adds1 by way of further explanation1 ,girls are different from hacking4 ,you can't just brute force them if all else fails4' ,s,ki,mo has never intentionally damaged a computer system1 nor would he4 ,indeed1 when ,i asked him1 he was almost offended by the question4 ,however1 he has accidentally done damage on a few occasions4 ,in at least one case1 he returned to the system and fixed the problem himself4 ,bored out of his mind for most of his school career1 ,s,ki,mo spent a great deal of time reading books in class--openly4 ,he wanted to send the teacher a message without actually jacking up in class4 ,he got into hacking after reading a magazine article about people who hacked answering machines and ,v,m,bs4 ,at that time1 he had no idea what a ,,vmb was1 but he learned fast4 ,one ,sunday evening1 he sat down with his phone and began scanning4 ,soon he was into phreaking1 and visiting ,english-speaking party lines4 ,somehow1 he always felt more comfortable speaking in ,english1 to native ,english-speakers1 perhaps because he felt a little like an outsider in his own culture4 ,i have always had the thought to leave my country as soon as ,i can1' he said4 ,from the phreaking1 it was a short jump into hacking4 ,what made him want to hack or phreak in the first place8 ,maybe it was the desire to screw over the universally hated phone company1 or possibly the sheer lust for power' or then again1 maybe he was simply answering his desire to explore an intricate piece of technology'4 ,today1 however1 he is a little clearer on why he continues to hack4 ,my first and foremost motivation is to learn1' he said4 ,when asked why he doesn't visit his local university or library to satisfy that desire1 he answered1 in books1 you only learn theory4 ,it is not that ,i dislike the theory but computer security in real life is much different from theory'4 ,libraries also have trouble keeping pace with the rate of technological change1 ,s,ki,mo said4 ,possibly1 it is also just the satisfaction of knowing that what ,i learn is proprietary--is inside knowledge1' he added4 ,there could1 he said1 be some truth in the statement that he likes learning in an adrenalin-inducing environment4 ,is he addicted to computers8 ,s,ki,mo says no1 but the indications are there4 ,by his own estimate1 he has hacked between #cjjj and #ajjjj computers in total4 ,his parents--who have no idea what their son was up to day and night on his computer--worry about his behaviour4 ,they pulled the plug on his machine many times4 ,in ,s,ki,mo's own words1 they tried everything to keep me away from it'4 ,not surprisingly1 they failed4 ,s,ki,mo became a master at hiding his equipment so they couldn't sneak in and take it away4 ,finally1 when he got sick of battling them over it and he was old enough1 he put his foot down4 ,i basically told them1 ,diz is ma fuckin' life and none o' yer business1 ,nemo--but not in those words4' ,s,ki,mo says he hasn't suffered from any mental illnesses or instabilities--except perhaps paranoia4 ,but he says that paranoia is justified in his case4 ,in two separate incidents in #aiif1 he believed he was being followed4 ,try as he might1 he couldn't shake the tails for quite some time4 ,perhaps it was just a coincidence1 but he can never really be sure4 ,he described one hacking attack to me to illustrate his current interests4 ,he managed to get inside the internal network of a ,german mobile phone network provider1 ,de,te,mobil 7,deutsche ,telekom74 ,a former state-owned enterprise which was transformed into a publicly listed corporation in ,january #aiie1 ,deutsche ,telekom is the largest telecommunications company in ,europe and ranks number three in the world as a network operator4 ,it employs almost a quarter of a million people4 ,by revenue1 which totalled about ,a#cg billion in #aiie1 it is one of the five largest companies in ,germany4 ,after carefully researching and probing a site1 ,s,ki,mo unearthed a method of capturing the encryption keys generated for ,de,te,mobil's mobile phone conversations4 ,he explained3 ,the keys are not fixed1 in the sense that they are generated once and then stored in some database4 ,rather1 a key is generated for each phone conversation by the company's ,,auc authentication centre1 using the ,ki and a random value generated by the ,,auc4 ,the ,ki is the secret key that is securely stored on the smart card inside the cellphone1 and a copy is also stored in the ,,auc4 ,when the ,,auc tells the cellphone the key for that particular conversation1 the information passes through the company's ,,msc mobile switching centre4 ,it is possible to eavesdrop on a certain cellphone if one actively monitors either the handovers or the connection set-up messages from the ,,omc operations and maintenance centre or if one knows the ,ki in the smart card4 ,both options are entirely possible4 ,the first option1 which relies on knowing the ,a#e encryption key1 requires the right equipment4 ,the second option1 using the ,ki1 means you have to know the ,a#c_/;,a#h algorithms as well or the ,ki is useless4 ,these algorithms can be obtained by hacking the switch manufacturer1 i4e4 ,siemens1 ,alcatel1 ,motorola 444 ,as a call is made from the target cellphone1 you need to feed the ,a#e key into a cellphone which has been modified to let it eavesdrop on the channel used by the cellphone4 ,normally1 this eavesdropping will only produce static--since the conversation is encrypted4 ,however1 with the keys and equipment1 you can decode the conversation4' ,this is one of the handover messages1 logged with a ,,ccitt#g link monitor1 that he saw3 #ac3ed3dfc #d,rx ,,sccp #ab-b-ji-a #ab-b-jd-j #ac ,,cr ,,bssm ,,horeq ,,bssmap ,,gsm #jh4jh ,rev #c4i4b 7,,bssm7 ,ha,n,dover ,r,e,quest 7,,horeq7 -------#j ,discrimination bit ,d ,,bssmap #jjjjjjj- ,filler #jjajajaa ,message ,length #dc #jjjajjjj ,message ,type #jx#aj ,channel ,type #jjjjajaa ,,ie ,name ,channel type #jjjjjjaa ,,ie ,length #c #jjjjjjja ,speech_/,data ,indicator ,speech #jjjjajjj ,channel ,rate_/,type ,full rate ,,tch channel ,bm #jjjjjjja ,speech ,encoding ,algorithm ,,gsm speech algorithm ,ver #a ,encryption ,information #jjjjajaj ,,ie ,name ,encryption information #jjjjajja ,,ie ,length #i #jjjjjjaj ,algorithm ,,id ,,gsm user data encryption ,v4 #a 9999999999999999 ,encryption ,key ,c#i #g;,f #de #g;,e #bi #h;,e #jh #jj ,classmark ,information ,type #b #jjjajjaj ,,ie ,name ,classmark information type #b #jjjjjjaj ,,ie ,length #b -----#jja ,,rf power capability ,class #b1 portable ---#jj--- ,encryption algorithm ,algorithm ,a#e #jjj----- ,revision level -----#jjj ,frequency capability ,band number #j ----#a--- ,,sm capability present -#jjj---- ,spare #j------- ,extension ,cell ,identifier #jjjjjaja ,,ie ,name ,cell identifier #jjjjjaja ,,ie ,length #e #jjjjjjja ,cell ,,id discriminator ,,lac_/,,ci used to ident cell 9999999999999999 ,,lac #dfaa 9999999999999999 ,,ci #cjjj ,p,r,iority #jjjjjaaj ,,ie ,name ,priority #jjjjjjja ,,ie ,length #a -------#j ,preemption allowed ind not allowed ------#j- ,queueing allowed ind not allowed --#jjaa-- ,priority level #c #jj------ ,spare ,circuit ,identity ,code #jjjjjjja ,,ie ,name ,circuit identity code #jjjjjjjj ,,pcm ,multiplex a-h #j ---#aaaaj ,timeslot in use #cj #aja----- ,,pcm ,multiplex i-k #e ,downlink ,,dtx flag #jjjaajja ,,ie ,name ,downlink ,,dtx flag -------#a ,,dtx in downlink direction disabled #jjjjjjj- ,spare ,cell ,identifier #jjjjjaja ,,ie ,name ,cell identifier #jjjjjaja ,,ie ,length #e #jjjjjjja ,cell ,,id discriminator ,,lac_/,,ci used to ident cell 9999999999999999 ,,lac #dhfh 9999999999999999 ,,ci #cbjj ,the beauty of a digital mobile phone1 as opposed to the analogue mobile phones still used by some people in ,australia1 is that a conversation is reasonably secure from eavesdroppers4 ,if ,i call you on my digital mobile1 our conversation will be encrypted with the ,a#e encryption algorithm between the mobile phone and the exchange4 ,the carrier has copies of the ,kis and1 in some countries1 the government can access these copies4 ,they are1 however1 closely guarded secrets4 ,s,ki,mo had access to the database of the encrypted ,kis and access to some of the unencrypted ,kis themselves4 ,at the time1 he never went to the trouble of gathering enough information about the ,a#c and ,a#h algorithms to decrypt the full database1 though it would have been easy to do so4 ,however1 he has now obtained that information4 ,to ,s,ki,mo1 access to the keys generated for each of thousands of ,german mobile phone conversations was simply a curiosity--and a trophy4 ,he didn't have the expensive equipment required to eavesdrop4 ,to an intelligence agency1 however1 access could be very valuable1 particularly if some of those phones belonged to people such as politicians4 ,even more valuable would be ongoing access to the ,,omc1 or better still1 the ,,msc4 ,ski,mo said he would not provide this to any intelligence agency4 ,while inside ,de,te,mobil1 ,s,ki,mo also learned how to interpret some of the mapping and signal-strength data4 ,the result8 ,if one of the company's customers has his mobile turned on1 ,s,ki,mo says he can pinpoint the customer's geographic location to within one kilometre4 ,the customer doesn't even have to be talking on the mobile4 ,all he has to do is have the phone turned on1 waiting to receive calls4 ,s,ki,mo tracked one customer for an afternoon1 as the man travelled across ,germany1 then called the customer up4 ,it turned out they spoke the same ,european language4 ,why are you driving from ,hamburg to ,bremen with your phone on stand-by mode8' ,s,ki,mo asked4 ,the customer freaked out4 ,how did this stranger at the end of the phone know where he had been travelling8 ,s,ki,mo said he was from ,greenpeace4 ,don't drive around so much4 ,it creates pollution1' he told the bewildered mobile customer4 ,then he told the customer about the importance of conserving energy and how prolonged used of mobile phones affected certain parts of one's brain4 ,originally1 ,s,ki,mo broke into the mobile phone carriers' network because he wanted to go completely cellular'--a transition which he hoped would make him both mobile and much harder to trace4 ,being able to eavesdrop on other people's calls-- including those of the police--was going to be a bonus4 ,however1 as he pursued this project1 he discovered that the code from a mobile phone manufacturer which he needed to study was a multi-lingual project'4 ,i don't know whether you have ever seen a multi-lingual project1' ,s,ki,mo says1 where nobody defines a common language that all programmers must use for their comments and function names8 ,they look horrible4 ,they are no fun to read4' ,part of this one was in ,finnish4 ,s,ki,mo says he has hacked a number of major vendors and1 in several cases1 has had access to their products' source codes4 ,has he had the access to install backdoors in primary source code for major vendors8 ,yes4 ,has he done it8 ,he says no4 ,on other hand1 ,i asked him who he would tell if he did do it4 ,no-one1' he said1 because there is more risk if two people know than if one does4' ,s,ki,mo is mostly a loner these days4 ,he shares a limited amount of information about hacking exploits with two people1 but the conversations are usually carefully worded or vague4 ,he substitutes a different vendor's names for the real one1 or he discusses technical computer security issues in an in-depth but theoretical manner1 so he doesn't have to name any particular system4 ,he doesn't talk about anything to do with hacking on the telephone4 ,mostly1 when he manages to capture a particularly juicy prize1 he keeps news of his latest conquest to himself4 ,it wasn't always that way4 ,when ,i started hacking and phreaking1 ,i had the need to learn very much and to establish contacts which ,i could ask for certain things--such as technical advice1' ,s,ki,mo said4 ,now ,i find it much easier to get that info myself than asking anyone for it4 ,i look at the source code1 then experiment and discover new bugs myself4' ,asked if the ever-increasing complexity of computer technology hasn't forced hackers to work in groups of specialists instead of going solo1 he said in some cases yes1 but in most cases1 no4 ,that is only true for people who don't want to learn everything4' ,s,ki,mo can't see himself giving up hacking any time in the near future4 ,who is on the other side these days8 ,in ,australia1 it is still the ,australian ,federal ,police1 although the agency has come a long way since the early days of the ,computer ,crimes ,unit4 ,when ,,afp officers burst in on ,phoenix1 ,nom and ,electron1 they were like the ,keystone ,cops4 ,the police were no match for the ,australian hackers in the subsequent interviews4 ,the hackers were so far out in front in technical knowledge it was laughable4 ,the ,,afp has been closing that gap with considerable alacrity4 ,under the guidance of officers like ,ken ,day1 they now run a more technically skilled group of law enforcement officers4 ,in #aiie-if1 the ,,afp had about #bhjj employees1 although some #hjj of these worked in community policing'--serving as the local police in places like the ,,act and ,norfolk ,island4 ,the ,,afp's annual expenditure was about #bgj million in that year4 ,as an institution1 the ,,afp has recently gone through a major reorganisation1 designed to make it less of a command-and-control military structure and more of an innovative1 service oriented organisation4 ,some of these changes are cosmetic4 ,,afp officers are now no longer called constable' or detective sergeant'--they are all just federal agents'4 ,the ,,afp now has a vision' which is to fight crime and win'4#c ,its organisational chart had been transformed from a traditional1 hierarchical pyramid of square boxes into a collection of little circles linked to bigger circles--all in a circle shape4 ,no phallo-centric structures here4 ,you can tell the politically correct management consultants have been visiting the ,,afp4 ,the ,,afp has1 however1 also changed in more substantive ways4 ,there are now teams' with different expertise1 and ,,afp investigators can draw on them on an as-needed basis4 ,in terms of increased efficiency1 this fluidity is probably a good thing4 ,there are about five permanent officers in the ,melbourne computer crimes area4 ,although the ,,afp doesn't release detailed budget breakdowns1 my back-of-the-envelope analysis suggested that the ,,afp spends less than #a million per year on the ,melbourne computer crimes area in total4 ,sydney also has a ,computer ,crimes ,unit4 ,catching hackers and phreakers is only one part of the unit's job4 ,another important task is to provide technical computer expertise for other investigations4 ,day still runs the show in ,melbourne4 ,he doesn't think or act like a street cop4 ,he is a psychological player1 and therefore well suited to his opponents4 ,according to a reliable source outside the underground1 he is also a clean cop1 a competent officer1 and a nice guy'4 ,however1 being the head of the ,computer ,crimes ,unit for so many years makes ,day an easy target in the underground4 ,in particular1 hackers often make fun of how seriously he seems to take both himself and his job4 ,when ,day appeared on the former ,,abc show ,attitude'1 sternly warning the audience off hacking1 he told the viewers1 ,it's not a game4 ,it's a criminal act'4 ,to hackers watching the show1 this was a matter of opinion4 ,not long after the episode went to air1 a few members of ,neuro-cactus1 an ,australian group of hackers and phreakers which had its roots in ,western ,australia1 decided to take the mickey out of ,day4 ,two members1 ,pick and ,minnow1 clipped ,day's now famous soundbite4 ,before long1 ,day appeared to be saying1 ,it's not a criminal act4 ,it's a game'--to the musical theme of ,the ,bill'4 ,the ,neuro-cactus crowd quickly spread their lampoon across the underground via an illicit ,,vmb connected to its own toll-free #jjh number4 ,although ,day does perhaps take himself somewhat seriously1 it can't be much fun for him to deal with this monkey business week in and week out4 ,more than one hacker has told me with great excitement1 ,i know someone who is working on getting ,day's home number'4 ,the word is that a few members of the underground already have the information and have used it4 ,some people think it would be hilarious to call up ,day at home and prank him4 ,frankly1 ,i feel a bit sorry for the guy4 ,you can bet the folks in traffic operations don't have to put up with this stuff4 ,but that doesn't mean ,i think these pranksters should be locked up either4 ,if we1 as a society1 choose not to lock hackers up1 then what should we do with them8 ,perhaps a better question is1 do we really need to do anything with them8 ,one answer is to simply ignore look-see hacking4 ,society could decide that it makes more sense to use valuable police resources to catch dangerous criminals--forgers1 embezzlers1 white-collar swindlers1 corporate spies and malicious hackers--than to chase look-see hackers4 ,the law must still maintain the capacity to punish hard where someone has strayed into what society deems serious crime4 ,however1 almost any serious crime committed by a hacker could be committed by a non-hacker and prosecuted under other legislation4 ,fraud1 wilful damage and dealing in stolen property are crimes regardless of the medium--and should be punished appropriately4 ,does it make sense to view most look-see hackers--and by that ,i mean hackers who do not do malicious damage or commit fraud--as criminals8 ,probably not4 ,they are primarily just a nuisance and should be treated as such4 ,this would not be difficult to do4 ,the law-makers could simply declare look-see hacking to be a minor legal infringement4 ,in the worst-case scenario1 a repeat offender might have to do a little community service4 ,but such community service needs to be managed properly4 ,in one ,australian case1 a corrections officer assigned a hacker to dig ditches with a convicted rapist and murderer4 ,many hackers have never had a job--in part because of the high youth unemployment in some areas--and so their community service might be their first position'4 ,the right community service placement must involve hackers using their computer skills to give something back to society1 preferably in some sort of autonomous1 creative project4 ,a hacker's enthusiasm1 curiosity and willingness to experiment can be directed toward a positive outcome if managed properly4 ,in cases where hacking or phreaking has been an addiction1 the problem should be treated1 not criminalised4 ,most importantly1 these hackers should not have convictions recorded against them1 particularly if they're young4 ,as ,paul ,galbally said to the court at ,mendax's sentencing1 ,all the accused are intelligent--but their intelligence outstretched their maturity'4 ,chances are1 most will be able to overcome or outgrow their addiction4 ,in practice1 most ,australia's judges have been reasonably fair in their sentencing1 certainly compared to judges overseas4 ,none of the ,australian hackers detailed in this work received a prison sentence4 ,part of this is due to happenstance1 but part is also due to the sound judgments of people like ,judge ,lewis and ,judge ,kimm4 ,it must be very tempting1 sitting on the bench every day1 to shoot from the hip interpreting new laws4 ,as ,i sat in court listening to each judge1 it quickly became clear that these judges had done their homework4 ,with psychologist ,tim ,watson-,munro on the stand1 ,judge ,lewis rapidly zeroed in on the subject of free will'--as applied to addiction--regarding ,prime ,suspect4 ,in ,trax's case1 ,judge ,kimm asked pointed questions which he could only have formulated after serious study of the extensive legal brief4 ,their well-informed judgments suggested a deeper understanding both of hacking as a crime1 and of the intent of the largely untested computer crime legislation4 ,however1 a great deal of time and money has been wasted in the pursuit of look-see hackers1 largely because this sort of hacking is treated as a major crime4 ,consider the following absurd situation created by ,australia's federal computer criminal legislation4 ,a spy breaks into a computer at the ,liberal ,party's headquarters and reads the party's top-secret election strategy1 which he may want to pass on to the ,labor ,party4 ,he doesn't insert or delete any data in the process1 or view any commercial information4 ,the penalty under this legislation8 ,a maximum of six months in prison4 ,that same spy decides he wants to get rich quick4 ,using the local telephone system1 he hacks into a bank's computer with the intention of defrauding the financial institution4 ,he doesn't view any commercial or personal information1 or delete or insert any files4 ,yet the information he reviews--about the layout of a bank building1 or how to set off its fire alarm or sprinkler system--proves vital in his plan to defraud the bank4 ,his penalty3 a maximum of two years prison4 ,our spy now moves onto bigger and better things4 ,he penetrates a ,department of ,defence computer with the intention of obtaining information about ,australia's military strategies and passing it on to the ,malaysians4 ,again1 he doesn't delete or insert any data--he just reads every sensitive planning document he can find4 ,under the federal anti-hacking laws1 the maximum penalty he would receive would also be two years prison4 ,meanwhile1 a look-see hacker breaks into a university computer without doing any damage4 ,he doesn't delete any files4 ,he ,f,t,ps a public-domain file from another system and quietly tucks it away in a hidden1 unused corner of the university machine4 ,maybe he writes a message to someone else on-line4 ,if caught1 the law1 as interpreted by the ,,afp and the ,,dpp1 says he faces up to ten years in prison4 ,the reason8 ,he has inserted or deleted data4 ,although the spy hacker might also face other charges--such as treason--this exercise illustrates some of the problems with the current computer crime legislation4 ,the letter of the law says that our look-see hacker might face a prison term five times greater than the bank fraud criminal or the military spy1 and twenty times greater than the anti-,liberal ,party subversive1 if he inserts or deletes any data4 ,the law1 as interpreted by the ,,afp1 says that the look-see hacking described above should have the same maximum ten-year prison penalty as judicial corruption4 ,it's a weird mental image--the corrupt judge and the look-see hacker sharing a prison cell4 ,although the law-makers may not have fully understood the technological aspects of hacking when they introduced the computer crimes legislation1 their intent seems clear4 ,they were trying to differentiate between a malicious hacker and a look-see hacker1 but they could have worded it better4 ,as it's worded1 the legislation puts malicious1 destructive hacking on a par with look-see hacking by saying that anyone who destroys1 erases1 alters or inserts data via a carrier faces a prison term1 regardless of the person's intent4 ,there is no gradation in the law between mere deletion of data and aggravated deletion'--the maximum penalty is ten years for both4 ,the ,,afp has taken advantage of this lack of distinction1 and the result has been a steady stream of look-see hackers being charged with the most serious computer crime offences4 ,parliament makes the laws4 ,government institutions such as the ,,afp1 the ,,dpp and the courts interpret and apply those laws4 ,the ,,afp and to some extent the ,,dpp have applied the strict letter of the law correctly in most of the hacking cases described in this book4 ,they have1 however1 missed the intention of the law4 ,change the law and they may behave differently4 ,make look-see hacking a minor offence and the institutions will stop going after the soft targets and hopefully spend more time on the real criminals4 ,i have seen some of these hackers up close1 studied them for two years and learned a bit about what makes them tick4 ,in many ways1 they are quintessentially ,australian1 always questioning authority and rebelling against the establishment'4 ,they're smart--in some cases very smart4 ,a few might even be classified as technical geniuses4 ,they're mischievous1 but also very enterprising4 ,they're rebels1 public nuisances and dreamers4 ,most of all1 they know how to think outside the box4 ,this is not a flaw4 ,often1 it is a very valuable trait--and one which pushes society forward into new frontiers4 ,the question shouldn't be whether we want to crush it but how we should steer it in a different direction4 ,,end ,if you would like to comment on this book1 please write to feedbackunderground-book4net4 ,all comments are passed onto ,dreyfus ,assange4 ,,underground -- ,glossary and ,abbreviations4 ,,aarnet ,australian ,academic ,research ,network ,,acarb ,australian ,computer ,abuse ,research ,bureau1 once called ,,citcarb ,,afp ,australian ,federal ,police ,altos ,west ,german chat system and hacker hang-out1 connected to ,x4#be network and run by ,altos ,computer ,systems1 ,hamburg ,,anu ,australian ,national ,university ,,asio ,australian ,security ,intelligence ,organisation ,backdoor ,a program or modification providing secret access to a computer system1 installed by a hacker to bypass normal security4 ,also used as a verb ,,bbs ,bulletin ,board ,system ,,bnl ,brookhaven ,national ,laboratory 7,,us7 ,,brl ,ballistics ,research ,laboratory 7,,us7 ,,bt ,british ,telecom ,,ccitt ,committee ,consultatif ,internationale ,telegraph et ,telephonie3 ,swiss telecommunications standards body 7now defunct2 see ,,itu7 ,,ccs ,computer ,crime ,squad ,,ccu ,computer ,crimes ,unit 7,australian ,federal ,police7 ,,cert ,computer ,emergency ,response ,team ,,ciac ,computer ,incident ,advisory ,capability3 ,,doe's computer security team ,,citcarb ,chisholm ,institute of ,technology ,computer ,abuse ,research ,bureau 7now defunct4 ,see ,,acarb7 ,,cobe ,cosmic ,background ,explorer project3 a ,,nasa research project ,,darpa ,defense ,advanced ,research ,projects ,agency 7,,us7 ,,dcl ,digital ,command ,language1 a computer programming language used on ,,vms computers ,,ddn ,defense ,data ,network ,,dec ,digital ,equipment ,corporation ,,decnet ,a network protocol used to convey information between 7primarily7 ,,vax_/,,vms machines ,,defcon 7a7 ,defense ,readiness ,conditions1 a system of progressive alert postures in the ,,us2 7b7 the name of ,force's computer program which automatically mapped out computer networks and scanned for accounts ,,des ,data ,encryption ,standard1 an encryption algorithm developed by ,,ibm1 ,,nsa and ,,nist ,deszip ,fast ,,des ,unix password-cracking system developed by ,matthew ,bishop ,dial-up ,modem access point into a computer or computer network ,,dms-#ajj ,computerised telephone switch 7exchange7 made by ,nor,tel ,,dod ,department of ,defense 7,,us7 ,,doe ,department of ,energy 7,,us7 ,,dpp ,director of ,public ,prosecutions ,,dst ,direction de la ,surveillance du ,territoire-- ,french secret service agency ,,easynet ,digital ,equipment ,corporation's internal communication network 7,,decnet7 ,,gtn ,global ,telecommunications ,network3 ,citibank's international data network ,,hepnet ,high ,energy ,physics ,network3 ,,decnet-based network1 primarily controlled by ,,doe1 connected to ,,nasa's ,,span ,,iid ,internal ,investigations ,division4 ,both the ,victoria ,police and the ,,afp have an ,,iid ,,ip ,internet ,protocol 7,,rfc#gia73 a data communications protocol1 used to transmit packets of data between computers on the ,internet ,,is ,international ,subversive 7electronic magazine7 ,,isu ,internal ,security ,unit3 anti-corruption unit of the ,victoria ,police ,,itu ,international ,telecommunications ,union1 the international telecommunications standards body ,,janet ,joint ,academic ,network 7,,uk71 a network of computers ,,jpl ,jet ,propulsion ,laboratory--a ,california-based ,,nasa research centre affiliated with ,cal,tech ,,llnl ,lawrence ,livermore ,national ,laboratory 7,,us7 ,,lod ,legion of ,doom ,lutzifer ,west ,german computer1 connected to the ,x4#be network1 which had a chat facility ,,mfc ,multi ,frequency ,code 7,group ,,iii73 inter-exchange telecommunications system used by ,telstra 7,telecom7 ,,milnet ,military ,network3 ,,tcp_/,,ip unclassified ,,us ,,dod computer network ,,mod ,masters of ,deception 7or ,destruction7 ,modem ,modulator ,de-modulator3 a device used to transmit computer data over a regular telephone line ,,nca ,national ,crime ,authority ,netlink ,a ,primos_/,dialcom command used to initiate a connection over an ,x4#be network ,,nist ,national ,institute of ,standards 7,,us7 ,,nic ,network ,information ,center 7,,us71 run by ,,dod3 a computer which assigned domain names for the ,internet4 ,,nrl ,naval ,research ,laboratory 7,,us7 ,,nsa ,national ,security ,agency 7,,us7 ,,nua ,network ,user ,address3 the telephone' number of a computer on an ,x4#be network ,,nui ,network ,user ,identifier 7or ,identification73 combined username_/password used on ,x4#be networks for billing purposes ,nor,tel ,northern ,telecom1 ,canadian manufacturer of telecommunications equipment ,,pabx ,private ,automatic ,branch ,exchange ,,pad ,packet ,assembler ,disassembler--,,ascii gateway to ,x4#be networks ,,par ,,par8'--command on ,,pad to display ,,pad parameters ,,rmit ,royal ,melbourne ,institute of ,technology ,,rtg ,radioisotope ,thermoelectric ,generator1 space probe ,galileo's plutonium-based power system ,,rtm ,robert ,tappan ,morris 7,jr71 the ,cornell ,university student who wrote the ,internet worm1 also known as the ,,rtm worm ,scanner ,a program which scans and compiles information1 such as a list of ,n,u,as ,,span ,space ,physics ,analysis ,network3 global ,,decnet- based network1 primarily controlled by ,,nasa ,sprint ,,us telecommunications company1 an ,x4#be network provider ,sprinter ,word used by some ,australian and ,english hackers to denote scanner4 ,derived from scanning attacks on ,sprint communications ,sprintnet ,x4#be network controlled by ,sprint communications ,sun ,sun ,microsystems--a major producer of ,unix workstations ,,tcp ,transmission ,control ,protocol 7,,rfc#gic73 a standard for data connection between two computers on the ,internet ,,telenet ,an ,x4#be network1 ,,dnic #caaj ,telnet ,a method of connection between two computers on the ,internet or other ,,tcp_/,,ip networks ,trojan ,a program installed by hackers to secretly gather information1 such as passwords4 ,can also be a backdoor ,tymnet ,an ,x4#be network controlled by ,,mci1 ,,dnic #cajf ,unix ,multi-user computer operating system developed by ,,at,t and ,berkeley ,,csrg ,,vax ,virtual ,address ,extension3 series of mini_/mainframe computer systems produced by ,,dec ,,vms ,virtual ,memory ,system3 computer operating system produced by ,,dec and used on its ,,vax machines ,,wank ,worms ,against ,nuclear ,killers3 the title of ,,decnet_/,,vms-based worm released into ,,span_/,,dec_/,,hepnet in #aihi ,x4#be ,international data communications network1 using the ,x4#be communications protocol4 ,network is run primarily by major telecommunications companies4 ,based on ,,ccitt standard ,x4#be ,zardoz ,a restricted computer security mailing list ,,notes ,chapter #a #a4 ,words ,and ,music by ,rob ,hirst_/,martin ,rotsey_/,james ,moginie_/,peter ,garrett_/,peter ,gifford4 7c7 ,copyright #aihb ,sprint ,music4 ,administered for the ,world--,warner_/ ,chappell ,music ,australia ,pty ,ltd4 ,used ,by ,permission4 #b4 ,i have relied on numerous wire service reports1 particularly those of ,,upi ,science ,reporter ,william ,harwood1 for many of my descriptions of ,galileo and the launch4 #c4 ,william ,harwood1 ,,nasa ,awaits ,court ,ruling on ,shuttle ,launch ,plans'1 ,,upi1 #aj ,october #aihi4 #d4 ,william ,harwood1 ,atlantis ,go for ,tuesday ,launch'1 ,,upi1 #af ,october #aihi4 #e4 ,ibid4 #f4 ,from ,,nasa's ,world ,wide ,web site4 #g4 ,thomas ,a4 ,longstaff and ,e4 ,eugene ,schulz1 ,analysis of the ,,wank and ,,oilz ,worms'1 ,computer and ,security1 vol4 #ab1 no4 #a1 ,february #aiic1 p4 #fd4 #h4 ,katie ,haffner and ,john ,markoff1 ,cyberpunk1 ,corgi1 ,london #aiid1 p4 #cfc4 #i4 ,the ,age1 #bb ,april #aiif1 reprinted from ,the ,new ,york ,times4 #aj4 ,,dec1 ,annual ,report1 #aihi1 listed in ,,sec ,online'4 #aa4 ,,gemtop was corrected to ,,gempak in a later advisory by ,,ciac4 #ab4 ,officially' was spelled incorrectly in the original banner4 #ac4 ,this advisory is printed with the permission of ,,ciac and ,kevin ,oberman4 ,,ciac requires the publication of the following disclaimer3 ,this document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the ,united ,states ,government4 ,neither the ,united ,states ,government1 nor the ,university of ,california1 nor any of their employees makes any warranty1 express or implied1 or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy1 completeness1 or usefulness of any information1 apparatus1 product1 or process disclosed1 or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights4 ,reference herein to any specific commercial products1 process1 or service by trade name1 trademark1 manufacturer1 or otherwise1 does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement1 recommendation or favouring by the ,united ,states ,government or the ,university of ,california4 ,the views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the ,united ,states ,government or the ,university of ,california1 and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes4 #ad4 ,michael ,alexander and ,maryfran ,johnson1 ,worm ,eats ,holes in ,,nasa's ,decnet'1 ,computer ,world1 #bc ,october #aihi1 p4 #d4 #ae4 ,ibid4 #af4 ,william ,harwood1 ,shuttle ,launch ,rained ,out'1 ,,upi1 #ag ,october #aihi4 #ag4 ,vincent ,del ,guidice1 ,atlantis ,set for ,another ,launch ,try'1 ,,upi1 #ah ,october #aihi4 #ah4 ,william ,harwood1 ,astronauts ,fire ,galileo on ,flight to ,jupiter'1 ,,upi1 #ah ,october #aihi4 ,chapter #b #a4 ,words ,and ,music by ,rob ,hirst_/,james ,moginie4 7c7 ,copyright #aihe ,sprint ,music4 ,administered for the ,world--,warner_/,chappell ,music ,australia ,pty ,ltd4 ,used ,by ,permission4 #b4 ,,first was initially called ,,cert ,system4 ,it was an international version of ,,cert1 the ,computer ,emergency ,response ,team1 funded by the ,,us ,department of ,defense and run out of ,carnegie ,mellon ,university4 #c4 ,,otc was later merged with ,telecom to become ,telstra4 #d4 ,stuart ,gill is described in some detail in ,operation ,iceberg2 ,investigation of ,leaked ,confidential ,police ,information and ,related ,matters1 ,ordered to be printed by the ,legislative ,assembly of ,victoria1 ,october #aiic4 ,chapter #c #a4 ,words ,and ,music by ,peter ,garrett_/,james ,moginie4 7c7 ,copyright #aihb ,sprint ,music4 ,administered for the ,world--,warner_/,chappell ,music ,australia ,pty ,ltd4 ,used ,by ,permission4 ,chapter #d #a4 ,words ,and ,music by ,peter ,garrett_/,james ,moginie_/,martin ,rotsey4 7c7 ,copyright #aihj ,sprint ,music4 ,administered for the ,world--,warner_/,chappell ,music ,australia ,pty ,ltd4 ,used ,by ,permission4 ,chapter #e #a4 ,words ,and ,music by ,rob ,hirst_/,james ,moginie4 7c7 ,copyright #aihi ,sprint ,music4 ,administered for the ,world--,warner_/ ,chappell ,music ,australia ,pty ,ltd4 ,used ,by ,permission4 #b4 ,the full text of the articles1 used by permission ,news ,ltd and ,helen ,meredith1 is3 #c4 ,from ,operation ,iceberg2 ,investigations and ,recommendations into ,allegations of ,leaked ,confidential ,police ,information1 included as ,appendix #a in the report of the ,deputy ,ombudsman1 ,operation ,iceberg2 ,investigation of ,leaked ,confidential ,police ,information and ,related ,matters4 #d4 ,ibid41 pp4 #bf-g4 #e4 ,michael ,alexander1 ,international ,hacker ,dave ,arrested'1 ,computer ,world1 #i ,april #aiij1 p4 #h4 #f4 ,matthew ,may1 ,hacker ,tip-,off'1 ,the ,times1 #e ,april #aiij2 ,lou ,dolinar1 ,australia ,arrests ,three in ,computer ,break-,ins'1 ,newsday1 #c ,april #aiij4 ,chapter #f #a4 ,words ,and ,music by ,rob ,hirst_/,james ,moginie_/,peter ,garrett4 7c7 ,copyright #aigh ,sprint ,music4 ,administered for the ,world--,warner_/,chappell ,music ,australia ,pty ,ltd4 ,used ,by ,permission4 ,chapter #g #a4 ,words ,and ,music by ,peter ,garrett_/,james ,moginie_/,rob ,hirst4 7c7 ,copyright #aihh ,sprint ,music4 ,administered for the ,world--,warner_/,chappell ,music ,australia ,pty ,ltd4 ,used ,by ,permission4 #b4 ,rupert ,battcock1 ,the ,computer ,misuse ,act ,five years on--the ,record since #aiij'1 paper1 ,strathclyde ,university1 ,glasgow1 ,,uk4 #c4 ,for the ,british material in this chapter1 ,i have relied on personal interviews1 media reports 7particularly for the ,wandii case71 journal articles1 academic papers and commission reports4 #d4 ,colin ,randall1 ,teenage ,computer ,hacker ,caused ,worldwide ,chaos'1 ,daily ,telegraph1 #bc ,february #aiic4 #e4 ,the local phone company agreed to reduce the bill to sterling#cjjj1 ,,eortic information systems manager ,vincent ,piedboeuf told the court4 #f4 ,susan ,watts1 ,trial ,haunted by ,images of ,life in the ,twilight ,zone'1 ,the ,independent1 #ah ,march #aiic4 #g4 ,toby ,wolpe1 ,hacker ,worked on ,barclay's ,software'1 ,computer ,weekly1 #d ,march #aiic4 #h4 ,david ,millward1 ,computer ,hackers ,will be ,pursued1 ,vow ,police'1 ,daily ,telegraph1 #ai ,march #aiic4 #i4 ,chester ,stern1 ,hackers' ,threat to ,gulf ,war ,triumph'1 ,mail on ,sunday1 #ba ,march #aiic4 #aj4 ,crimes of the ,intellect--,computer ,hacking'1 editorial1 ,the ,times1 #bj ,march #aiic4 #aa4 ,owners ,must ,act to ,put ,end to ,computer ,hacker ,insanity'1 ,south ,china ,morning ,post1 #cj ,march #aiic4 #ab4 ,nick ,nuttall1 ,hackers ,stay ,silent on ,court ,acquittal'1 ,the ,times1 #ai ,march #aiic4 #ac4 ,melvyn ,howe1 ,press ,association ,newsfile1 ,home ,news section1 #ba ,may #aiic4 ,chapter #h #a4 ,words ,and ,music by ,james ,moginie_/,peter ,garrett4 7c7 ,copyright #aihb ,sprint ,music4 ,administered for the ,world--,warner_/,chappell ,music ,australia ,pty ,ltd4 ,used ,by ,permission4 #b4 ,this is an edited version4 ,chapter #i #a4 ,words ,and ,music by ,rob ,hirst4 7c7 ,copyright #aiic ,sprint ,music4 ,administered for the ,world--,warner_/,chappell ,music ,australia ,pty ,ltd4 ,used ,by ,permission4 ,chapter #aj #a4 ,words ,and ,music by ,rob ,hirst_/,james ,moginie_/,martin ,rotsey_/,andrew ,james4 7c7 ,copyright #aigh ,sprint ,music4 ,administered for the ,world--,warner_/,chappell ,music ,australia ,pty ,ltd and ,andrew ,james4 ,used ,by ,permission4 ,chapter #aa #a4 ,words ,and ,music by ,james ,moginie 7lyrics adapted from the book ,the ,great ,prawn ,war ,and ,other ,stories by ,dennis ,kevans74 7c7 ,copyright #aihd ,sprint ,music4 ,administered for the ,world--,warner_/,chappell ,music ,australia ,pty ,ltd4 ,used ,by ,permission4 ,afterword #a4 ,victorian ,ombudsman1 ,operation ,iceberg2 ,investigation of ,leaked ,confidential ,police ,information and ,related ,matters4 #b4 ,the police report was printed as an appendix in the ,ombudsman's report4 ,see ,chapter #e1 note #a1 above4 #c4 ,australian ,federal ,police1 ,annual ,report1 #aiie-aiif1 p4 #g4 ,bibliography4 ,australian ,federal ,police 7,,afp71 ,annual ,report #aiie-aiif1 ,canberra1 #aiif4 ----1 ,annual ,report #aiid-aiie1 ,canberra1 #aiie4 ----1 ,annual ,report #aiic-aiid1 ,canberra1 #aiid4 ,bourne1 ,philip ,e41 ,internet security2 ,system ,security'1 ,,dec ,professional1 vol4 #aa1 ,june #aiib4 ,cerf1 ,vinton ,g41 ,networks'1 ,scientific ,american1 vol4 #bfe1 ,september #aiia4 ,clyde1 ,robert ,a41 ,d,e,cnet security'1 ,,dec ,professional1 vol4 #aj1 ,april #aiia4 ,commonwealth ,attorney-,general's ,department1 ,interim ,report on ,computer ,crime 7,the ,gibbs ,report71 ,canberra1 #aihh4 ,commonwealth ,director of ,public ,prosecutions 7,,ddp71 ,annual ,report #aiic-aiid1 ,canberra1 #aiid4 ,commonwealth ,scientific and ,industrial ,research ,organisation 7,,csiro71 ,annual ,report #aiid-aiie1 ,canberra1 #aiie4 ,davis1 ,andrew ,w41 ,,dec ,pathworks the mainstay in ,mac-to-,,vax connectivity'1 ,mac,week1 vol4 #f1 #c ,august #aiib4 ,department of ,foreign ,affairs and ,trade1 ,australian ,treaty ,series #aiic1 no4 #dj1 ,australian ,government ,publishing ,service1 ,canberra1 #aiic4 ,digital ,equipment ,corporation1 ,annual ,report #aihi1 ,securities and ,exchange ,commission 7,,sec7 ,online 7,,usa7 ,inc41 #aihi4 ----1 ,quarterly ,report for period ending #ab4ca4hi1 ,,sec ,online 7,,usa74 ,gezelter1 ,robert1 ,the ,d,e,cnet ,,task object2 ,tutorial'1 ,digital ,systems ,journal1 vol4 #af1 ,july #aiid4 ,gianatasio1 ,david1 ,worm infestation hits #cjj ,,vax_/,,vms systems worldwide via ,d,e,cnet'1 ,digital ,review1 vol4 #f1 #bj ,november #aihi4 ,haffner1 ,katie ,markoff1 ,john1 ,cyberpunk1 ,corgi ,books 7,transworld71 ,moorebank ,,nsw1 #aiid4 ,halbert1 ,debora1 ,the ,potential for ,modern ,communication ,technology to ,challenge ,legal ,discourses of ,authorship and ,property'1 ,murdoch ,university ,e-,law ,journal1 vol4 #a1 no4 #b4 ,kelman1 ,alistair1 ,computer ,crime in the #aiijs3 ,a ,barrister's ,view'1 ,paper for the ,twelfth ,international ,symposium on ,economic ,crime1 ,september #aiid4 ,law ,commission 7,,uk7 ,working ,paper1 no4 #aaj1 #aihh4 ,lloyd1 ,j4 ,ian ,simpson1 ,moira1 ,law on the ,electronic ,frontier1 ,david ,hume ,institute1 ,edinburgh1 #aiif4 ,longstaff1 ,thomas ,a41 ,schultz1 ,e4 ,eugene1 ,beyond preliminary analysis of the ,,wank and ,,oilz worms3 a case study of malicious code'1 ,computers ,security1 vol4 #ab1 ,february #aiic4 ,loundy1 ,david ,j41 ,information ,systems ,law and ,operator ,liability ,revisited'1 ,murdoch ,university ,e-,law ,journal1 vol4 #a1 no4 #c1 ,september #aiid4 ,mc,mahon1 ,john1 ,practical ,d,e,cnet security'1 ,digital ,systems ,journal1 vol4 #ad1 ,november #aiib4 ,melford1 ,robert ,j41 ,network security2 computer networks'1 ,internal ,auditor1 ,institute of ,internal ,auditors1 vol4 #ej1 ,february #aiic4 ,natalie1 ,d4 ,ball1 ,w1 ,,eis ,coordinator1 ,north ,carolina ,emergency ,management1 ,how ,north ,carolina ,managed ,hurricane ,hugo'1 ,,eis ,news1 vol4 #c1 no4 #aa1 #aihh4 ,nor,tel ,australia ,pty ,ltd1 ,discovering ,tomorrow's ,telecommunications ,solutions1 ,chatswood1 ,,nsw 7n4d474 ,northern ,telecom1 ,annual ,report #aiic1 ,ontario1 #aiic4 ,slatalla1 ,michelle ,quittner1 ,joshua1 ,masters of ,deception1 ,harper,collins1 ,new ,york1 #aiie4 ,royal ,commission into ,aboriginal ,deaths in ,custody1 ,report of the ,inquiry into the ,death of the ,woman ,who ,died at ,ceduna1 ,australian ,government ,publishing ,service1 ,canberra1 #aiij4 ,scottish ,law ,commission's ,report on ,computer ,crime1 no4 #agd1 #aihg4 ,,span ,management ,office1 ,security guidelines to be followed in the latest worm attack'1 an ,intranetwork ,memorandum released by the ,,span ,management ,office1 ,,nasa1 #cj ,october #aihi4 ,sterling1 ,bruce1 ,the ,hacker ,crackdown1 ,penguin ,books1 ,melbourne1 #aiid4 ,stoll1 ,clifford1 ,the ,cuckoo's ,egg1 ,pan ,books1 ,london1 #aiia4 ,tencati1 ,ron1 ,information regarding the ,,decnet worm and protection measures'1 an ,intranetwork ,memorandum released by the ,,span ,management ,office1 ,,nasa1 #ai ,october #aihi4 ----1 ,network ,security ,suplemental ,information--,protecting the ,,decnet ,account'1 security advisory1 released by ,,span1 ,,nasa_/,goddard ,space ,flight ,center1 #aihi4 ,the ,victorian ,ombudsman1 ,operation ,iceberg3 ,investigation of ,leaked ,confidential ,police ,information and ,related ,matters1 ,report of the ,deputy ,ombudsman 7,police ,complaints71 ,l4,v4 ,north ,government ,printer1 ,melbourne1 #aiic4 ,,usa proposes international virus team'1 ,computer ,fraud ,security ,bulletin 7,elsevier ,advanced ,technology ,publications71 ,august #aiia4 ,victoria ,police1 ,operation ,iceberg--,investigation and ,recommendations into ,allegations of ,leaked ,confidential ,police ,information1 #a ,june1 ,memorandum from ,victoria ,police ,commander ,bowles to ,chief ,commissioner ,comrie 7also available as ,appendix #a in the ,victorian ,ombudsman's ,operation ,iceberg ,report1 tabled in ,victorian ,parliament1 ,october #aiic71 #aiic4 ,vietor1 ,richard1 ,contrived ,competition3 ,regulation and ,deregulation in ,america1 ,bel,knap_/,harvard ,university ,press1 ,cambridge1 #aiid4 ,yallop1 ,david1 ,to the ,ends of the ,earth1 ,corgi ,books 7,transworld71 ,moorebank1 ,,nsw1 #aiid4 ,acts3 ,computer ,misuse ,act #aiij 7,,uk7 ,crimes ,act #aiad 7no4 #e7 7,cwlth7 ,crimes ,legislation ,amendment ,act #aihi1 no4 #ajh ,computer ,fraud and ,abuse ,act #aihf 7,,us71 #ah ,,usc #ajcj ,computer ,misuse ,crimes ,legislation ,amendment ,bill #aihi 7,,aus71 ,explanatory ,memo ,clause #g ,crimes 7,computers7 ,act1 no4 #cf of #aihh 7,,vic7 ,other publications and databases3 ,american ,bar ,association ,journal ,associated ,press ,attorney ,general's ,information ,service 7,australia7 ,australian ,accountant ,australian ,computer ,commentary ,aviation ,week and ,space ,technology 7,,usa7 ,banking ,technology ,business ,week ,cable ,news ,network 7,,cnn7 ,card ,news 7,,usa7 ,,cert ,advisories 7,the ,computer ,emergency ,response ,team at ,carnegie ,mellon ,university7 ,chicago ,daily ,law ,bulletin ,communications,week ,communications,week ,international ,computer ,incident ,advisory ,capability 7,,ciac7 ,computer ,law and ,practice 7,australia7 ,computer ,law and ,security ,report 7,australia7 ,computer ,weekly ,computergram ,computerworld ,computing ,corporate ,,eft ,report 7,,usa7 ,daily ,mail 7,,uk7 ,daily ,telegraph 7,sydney7 ,daily ,telegraph 7,,uk7 ,data ,communications ,datalink ,evening ,standard 7,,uk7 ,export ,control ,news 7,,usa7 ,fin,tech ,electronic ,office 7,the ,financial ,times7 ,gannett ,news ,service ,government ,computer ,news 7,,usa7 ,info,world ,intellectual ,property ,journal 7,australia7 ,intelligence ,newsletter 7,indigo ,publications7 ,journal of ,commerce 7,the ,new ,york ,times7 ,journal of the ,law ,society of ,scotland ,korea ,economic ,daily ,law ,institute ,journal 7,melbourne7 ,law ,society's ,gazette 7,,uk7 ,law ,society's ,guardian ,gazette 7,,uk7 ,legal ,times 7,,usa7 ,lexis-,nexis 7,reed ,elsevier7 ,lloyds ,list ,mail on ,sunday 7,,uk7 ,media ,week ,,mis ,week ,mortgage ,finance ,gazette ,network ,world ,new ,law ,journal 7,,uk7 ,new ,york ,law ,journal ,newsday ,,pc ,week 7,,usa7 ,press ,association ,newsfile ,reuter ,reuter ,news ,service--,united ,kingdom ,science ,south ,china ,morning ,post ,st ,louis ,post-,dispatch ,st ,petersburg ,times ,sunday ,telegraph 7,sydney7 ,sunday ,telegraph 7,,uk7 ,sunday ,times 7,,uk7 ,telecommunications 7,horizon ,house ,publications ,inc47 ,the ,age ,the ,australian ,the ,australian ,financial ,review ,the ,bulletin ,the ,computer ,lawyer 7,,usa7 ,the ,connecticut ,law ,tribune ,the ,daily ,record 7,,usa7 ,the ,engineer 7,,uk7 ,the ,gazette 7,montreal7 ,the ,guardian ,the ,herald 7,glasgow7 ,the ,herald 7,melbourne7 ,the ,herald ,sun 7,melbourne7 ,the ,independent ,the ,irish ,times ,the ,legal ,intelligencer 7,,usa7 ,the ,los ,angeles ,times ,the ,nation ,the ,national ,law ,journal 7,,usa7 ,the ,new ,york ,times ,the ,recorder 7,,usa7 ,the ,reuter ,european ,community ,report ,the ,reuter ,library ,report ,the ,scotsman ,the ,sun 7,melbourne7 ,the ,sunday ,age ,the ,sydney ,morning ,herald ,the ,times ,the ,washington ,post ,the ,washington ,times ,the ,weekend ,australian ,time ,magazine ,united ,nations ,chronicle ,united ,press ,international ,,usa ,today ,transcripts3 ,hearing of the ,transportation1 ,aviation and ,materials ,subcommittee of the ,house ,science1 ,space and ,technology ,committee transcript3 witness ,clifford ,stoll1 #aj ,july #aiij ,larry ,king ,live' transcript1 interview with ,clifford ,stoll1 #bc ,march #aiij ,the ,world ,uranium ,hearing1 ,salzburg #aiib1 witness transcripts ,,us ,government ,accounting ,office ,hearing 7computer security7 witness transcripts1 #aiif ,judgments3 ,chris ,goggans1 ,robert ,cupps and ,scott ,chasin1 ,appellants v4 ,boyd ,fraser ,publishing ,co41 a ,division of ,south-,western ,publishing ,co41 ,appellee ,no4 #ja-ie-jjcca-;,cv #aiie ,tex4 ,app4 ,gerald ,gold v4 ,australian ,federal ,police1 no4 ,v#ic_/aadj ,gerald ,gold v4 ,national ,crime ,authority1 no4 ,v#ic_/aada ,,aat ,no4 #iidj ,freedom of ,information 7#aiid7 #cg ,,ald #afh ,henry ,john ,tasman ,rook v4 ,lucas ,richard ,maynard 7no4 #b7 no4 ,,lca #eb_/aiid 2 judgment no4 ,a#fd_/aiid ,pedro ,juan ,cubillo v4 ,commonwealth ,of ,australia1 no4 ,,ng #ega of #aiia ,,fed no4 #ajjf_/ie ,tort--,negligence ,r v4 ,gold and another1 ,house of ,lords 7,,uk71 #aihh #a ,,ac #ajfc1 #aihh #b ,all ,,er #ahf1 #aihh #b ,,wlr #ihd1 #hg ,cr ,app ,rep #beg1 #aeb ,,jp #dde1 #aihh ,crim ,,lr #dcg ,steve ,jackson ,games ,incorporated1 et al41 ,plaintiffs1 v4 ,united ,states ,secret ,service1 ,united ,states ,of ,america1 et al41 ,defendants no4 ,a #ia ,,ca #cdf ,ss #haf ,f4 ,supp4 #dcb2 #aiic ,u4,s4 ,dist4 ,united ,states of ,america v4 ,julio ,fernandez1 et al4 #ib ,cr4 #efc 7,,ro7 ,united ,states of ,america1 ,plaintiff1 v4 ,robert ,j4 ,riggs1 also known as ,robert ,johnson1 also known as ,prophet1 and ,craig ,neidorf1 also known as ,knight ,lightning1 ,defendants ,no4 #ij ,,cr #jjgj #gdc ,f4 ,supp4 #eef2 #aiij ,u4,s4 ,dist4 ,united ,states of ,america1 ,appellee1 v4 ,robert ,tappan ,morris1 ,defendant-,appellant ,no4 #ij-accf #ibh ,f4#b;d #ejd2 #aiia ,u4,s4 ,app4 ,wesley ,thomas ,dingwall v4 ,commonwealth of ,australia no4 ,,ng#ege of #aiia ,fed no4 #bif_/id ,torts ,william ,thomas ,bartlett v4 ,claire ,patricia ,weir1 ,henry ,j ,t ,rook1 ,noel ,e4 ,aikman1 ,philip ,edwards and ,michael ,b ,mc,kay no4 ,,tg#g of #aiib2 ,,fed no4 #cde_/id ,additional court records3 7,court documents of most cases described in this book7 ,memos and reports to_/from3 ,bureau of ,criminal ,intelligence1 ,victoria ,police ,internal ,security ,unit1 ,victoria ,police ,the ,,nasa ,,span office relating to the ,,wank worm ,office of the ,district ,attorney1 ,monterey1 ,california ,overseas ,telecommunications ,commission 7,australia7 ,police ,department1 ,city of ,del ,rey ,oaks1 ,california ,police ,department1 ,city of ,salinas1 ,california ,stuart ,gill ,the ,united ,states ,secret ,service ,,us ,attorney's ,office1 ,new ,york ,numerous ,internet sites1 including those of ,,nasa1 ,sydney ,university1 ,greenpeace1 the ,australian ,legal ,information ,institute1 and the ,legal ,aspects of ,computer ,crime ,archives4 ,end of book4