crackdown-1.2 [acrobat 6.0.3 (pdf 1.5, untagged)]

174 Pages·2005·1.08 MB·English

THE HACKER CRACKDOWN
Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier
Texinfo Edition (cid:0)(cid:1)(cid:2)
February (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:4)
by Bruce Sterling
Literary Freeware(cid:5) Not for Commercial Use
Copyright (cid:0)c (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:2)(cid:6) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:4) Bruce Sterling (cid:7) bruces(cid:0)well(cid:1)sf(cid:1)ca(cid:1)us
This is Texinfo edition (cid:0)(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:6) as of January (cid:2)(cid:8)(cid:6) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:4)
created by J(cid:9)org Heitk(cid:9)otter (cid:7) joke(cid:0)ls(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:1)informatik(cid:1)uni(cid:10)dortmund(cid:1)de
The original plain ASCII (cid:11)les are available electronically by
Gopher from (cid:12)tic(cid:1)com(cid:13)(cid:1)
Permission is grantedtomakeand distribute verbatimcopies ofthis booklet provided thecopyright
notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies(cid:1)
Preface to the Electronic Release (cid:0)
Preface to the Electronic Release
January (cid:0)(cid:6) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:4) (cid:7) Austin(cid:6) Texas
Hi(cid:6) I(cid:13)m Bruce Sterling(cid:6) the author of this electronic book(cid:1)
Out in the traditional world of print(cid:6) The Hacker Crackdown is ISBN (cid:14)(cid:10)(cid:15)(cid:15)(cid:8)(cid:10)(cid:14)(cid:16)(cid:14)(cid:15)(cid:16)(cid:10)X(cid:6) and is
formally catalogued by the Library of Congress as (cid:17)(cid:0)(cid:1) Computer crimes (cid:7) United States(cid:1) (cid:2)(cid:1)
Telephone (cid:7) United States (cid:7) Corrupt practices(cid:1) (cid:8)(cid:1) Programming (cid:18)Electronic computers(cid:19) (cid:7) United
States (cid:7) Corrupt practices(cid:1)(cid:20) (cid:13)Corrupt practices(cid:6)(cid:13) I always get a kick out of that description(cid:1)
Librarians are very ingenious people(cid:1)
The paperback is ISBN (cid:14)(cid:10)(cid:15)(cid:15)(cid:8)(cid:10)(cid:15)(cid:21)(cid:8)(cid:22)(cid:14)(cid:10)X(cid:1)If you go and buy a print version of The Hacker Crack(cid:0)
down(cid:1) an action I encourage heartily(cid:6) you may notice that in the front of the book(cid:6) beneath the
copyright notice (cid:7) (cid:17)Copyright (cid:0)c (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:2) by Bruce Sterling(cid:20) (cid:7) it has this little block of printed legal
boilerplate from the publisher(cid:1) It says(cid:6) and I quote(cid:5)
(cid:17)Nopartofthis bookmaybereproduced ortransmittedin anyformorbyanymeans(cid:6)electronic
or mechanical(cid:6) including photocopying(cid:6) recording(cid:6) or by any information storage and retrieval sys(cid:10)
tem(cid:6) without permission in writing from the publisher(cid:1) For information address(cid:5) Bantam Books(cid:1)(cid:20)
This is a pretty good disclaimer(cid:6) as such disclaimers go(cid:1) I collect intellectual(cid:10)property dis(cid:10)
claimers(cid:6) and I(cid:13)ve seen dozens of them(cid:6) and this one is at least pretty straightforward(cid:1) In this
narrow and particular case(cid:6) however(cid:6) it isn(cid:13)t quite accurate(cid:1) Bantam Books puts that disclaimer
on every book they publish(cid:6) but Bantam Books does not(cid:6) in fact(cid:6) own the electronic rights to this
book(cid:1) I do(cid:6) because of certain extensive contract maneuverings my agent and I went through be(cid:10)
fore this book was written(cid:1) I want to give those electronic publishing rights away through certain
not(cid:10)for(cid:10)pro(cid:11)t channels(cid:6) and I(cid:13)ve convinced Bantam that this is a good idea(cid:1)
Since Bantam has seen (cid:11)t to peacably agree to this scheme of mine(cid:6) Bantam Books is not going
to fuss about this(cid:1) Provided you don(cid:13)t try to sell the book(cid:6) they are not going to bother you for
whatyoudo with the electronic copyof this book(cid:1) If youwanttocheck this outpersonally(cid:6) you can
ask them(cid:23) they(cid:13)re at (cid:0)(cid:15)(cid:4)(cid:14)Broadway NY NY (cid:0)(cid:14)(cid:14)(cid:8)(cid:21)(cid:1) However(cid:6) if you were so foolish as to print this
book and start retailing it for money in violation of my copyright and the commercial interests of
BantamBooks(cid:6)thenBantam(cid:6)apartofthegiganticBertelsmann multinational publishing combine(cid:6)
would roust some of their heavy(cid:10)duty attorneys out of hibernation and crush you like a bug(cid:1) This
is only to be expected(cid:1) I didn(cid:13)t write this book so thatyou could makemoney out of it(cid:1) If anybody
is gonna make money out of this book(cid:6) it(cid:13)s gonna be me and my publisher(cid:1)
My publisher deserves to make money out of this book(cid:1) Not only did the folks at Bantam
Books commission me to write the book(cid:6) and pay me a hefty sum to do so(cid:6) but they bravely
printed(cid:6) in text(cid:6) an electronic document the reproduction of which was once alleged to be a federal
felony(cid:1) Bantam Books and their numerous attorneys were very brave and forthright about this
book(cid:1) Furthermore(cid:6) myformereditor atBantamBooks(cid:6)Betsy Mitchell(cid:6) genuinely cared about this
project(cid:6) and worked hard on it(cid:6) and had a lot of wise things to say about the manuscript(cid:1) Betsy
deserves genuine credit for this book(cid:6) credit that editors too rarely get(cid:1)
The critics werevery kind to The Hacker Crackdown(cid:1)and commercially the book has done well(cid:1)
On the otherhand(cid:6) I didn(cid:13)t write this book in order tosqueeze every lastnickel and dime out ofthe
mitts of impoverished sixteen(cid:10)year(cid:10)old cyberpunk high(cid:10)school(cid:10)students(cid:1) Teenagers don(cid:13)t have any
money (cid:7) (cid:18)no(cid:6) not even enough for the sixdollar Hacker Crackdown paperback(cid:6) with its attractive
bright(cid:10)red cover and useful index(cid:19)(cid:1) That(cid:13)s a major reason why teenagers sometimes succumb to
the temptation to do things they shouldn(cid:13)t(cid:6) such as swiping my books out of libraries(cid:1) Kids(cid:5) this
one is all yours(cid:6) all right(cid:24) Go give the print version back(cid:1) (cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:5)
Well(cid:10)meaning(cid:6) public(cid:10)spirited civil libertarians don(cid:13)t have much money(cid:6) either(cid:1) And it seems
almost criminal to snatch cash out of the hands of America(cid:13)s direly underpaid electronic law en(cid:10)
forcement community(cid:1)
(cid:2) The Hacker Crackdown
If you(cid:13)re a computer cop(cid:6) a hacker(cid:6) or an electronic civil liberties activist(cid:6) you are the target
audience for this book(cid:1) I wrote this book because I wanted to help you(cid:6) and help other people
understand you and your unique(cid:6) uhm(cid:6) problems(cid:1) I wrote this book to aid your activities(cid:6) and to
contribute to the public discussion of important political issues(cid:1) In giving the text away in this
fashion(cid:6) I am directly contributing to the book(cid:13)s ultimate aim(cid:5) to help civilize cyberspace(cid:1)
Information wants to be free(cid:1) And the information inside this book longs for freedom with a
peculiar intensity(cid:1) I genuinely believe that the natural habitat of this book is inside an electronic
network(cid:1) Thatmay notbe the easiest direct method togenerate revenue for the book(cid:13)sauthor(cid:6) but
thatdoesn(cid:13)tmatter(cid:23)this is where this book belongs by its nature(cid:1) I(cid:13)ve writtenother books(cid:7) plenty
of other books (cid:7) and I(cid:13)ll write more and I am writing more(cid:6) but this one is special(cid:1) I am making
The Hacker Crackdown available electronically as widely as I can conveniently manage(cid:6) and if you
like the book(cid:6) and think it is useful(cid:6) then I urge you to do the same with it(cid:1)
You cancopythis electronic book(cid:1) Copytheheck outofit(cid:6) be myguest(cid:6)andgive thosecopies to
anybody who wants them(cid:1) The nascent world of cyberspace is full of sysadmins(cid:6) teachers(cid:6) trainers(cid:6)
cybrarians(cid:6) netgurus(cid:6) and various species of cybernetic activists(cid:1) If you(cid:13)re one of those people(cid:6)
I know about you(cid:6) and I know the hassle you go through to try to help people learn about the
electronic frontier(cid:1) I hope that possessing this book in electronic form will lessen your troubles(cid:1)
Granted(cid:6) this treatment of our electronic social spectrum is not the ultimate in academic rigor(cid:1)
And politically(cid:6) it has something to o(cid:25)end and trouble almost everyone(cid:1) But hey(cid:6) I(cid:13)m told it(cid:13)s
readable(cid:6) and at least the price is right(cid:1) You can upload the book onto bulletin board systems(cid:6)
or Internet nodes(cid:6) or electronic discussion groups(cid:1) Go right ahead and do that(cid:6) I am giving you
express permission right now(cid:1) Enjoy yourself(cid:1)
You can put the book on disks and give the disks away(cid:6) as long as you don(cid:13)t take any money
for it(cid:1)
But this book is not public domain(cid:1) You can(cid:13)t copyright it in your own name(cid:1) I own the
copyright(cid:1) Attempts to pirate this book and make money from selling it may involve you in a
serious litigative snarl(cid:1) Believe me(cid:6) for the pittance you might wring out of such an action(cid:6) it(cid:13)s
really not worth it(cid:1) This book don(cid:13)t (cid:17)belong(cid:20) to you(cid:1) In an odd but very genuine way(cid:6) I feel it
doesn(cid:13)t (cid:17)belong(cid:20) to me(cid:6) either(cid:1) It(cid:13)s a book about the people of cyberspace(cid:6) and distributing it in
this way is the best way I know to actually make this information available(cid:6) freely and easily(cid:6) to
all the people of cyberspace (cid:7) including people far outside the borders of the United States(cid:6) who
otherwise may never have a chance to see any edition of the book(cid:6) and who may perhaps learn
something useful from this strange story of distant(cid:6) obscure(cid:6) but portentous events in so(cid:10)called
(cid:17)American cyberspace(cid:1)(cid:20)
Thiselectronic bookisnowliteraryfreeware(cid:1) Itnowbelongstotheemergentrealmofalternative
information economics(cid:1) You have no right to make this electronic book part of the conventional
(cid:26)ow of commerce(cid:1) Let it be part of the (cid:26)ow of knowledge(cid:5) there(cid:13)s a di(cid:25)erence(cid:1) I(cid:13)ve divided the
book into four sections(cid:6) so that it is less ungainly for upload and download(cid:23) if there(cid:13)s a section of
particular relevance to you and your colleagues(cid:6) feel free to reproduce that one and skip the rest(cid:1)
Just make more when you need them(cid:6) and give them to whoever might want them(cid:1)
Now have fun(cid:1)
Bruce Sterling (cid:7) bruces(cid:0)well(cid:1)sf(cid:1)ca(cid:1)us
Chronology of the Hacker Crackdown (cid:8)
Chronology of the Hacker Crackdown
(cid:0)(cid:16)(cid:21)(cid:15)U(cid:1)S(cid:1) Secret Service (cid:18)USSS(cid:19) founded(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:16)(cid:22)(cid:21)Alexander Graham Bell invents telephone(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:16)(cid:22)(cid:16)
First teenage males (cid:26)ung o(cid:25) phone system by enraged authorities(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:8)(cid:3) (cid:17)Futurian(cid:20) science(cid:10)(cid:11)ction
group raided by Secret Service(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:22)(cid:0)Yippie phone phreaks startYIPL(cid:27)TAP magazine(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:22)(cid:2)Ram(cid:0)
parts magazine seized in blue(cid:10)box rip(cid:10)o(cid:25) scandal(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:22)(cid:16) Ward Christenson and Randy Suess create
(cid:11)rstpersonal computerbulletin boardsystem(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:2)William Gibsoncoins term(cid:17)cyberspace(cid:1)(cid:20) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:2)
(cid:17)(cid:4)(cid:0)(cid:4) Gang(cid:20) raided(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:8)(cid:10)(cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:8) AT(cid:28)T dismantled in divestiture(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:4) Congress passes Compre(cid:10)
hensive Crime Control Act giving USSS jurisdiction over credit card fraud and computer fraud(cid:1)
(cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:4) (cid:17)Legion of Doom(cid:20) formed(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:4)(cid:1) (cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:4)(cid:5) The Hacker Quarterly founded(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:4)(cid:1) Whole Earth
Software Catalog published(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:15)(cid:1) First police (cid:17)sting(cid:20) bulletin board systems established(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:15)(cid:1)
WholeEarth(cid:13)LectronicLink computerconference (cid:18)WELL(cid:19)goeson(cid:10)line(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:21)ComputerFraudand
Abuse Act passed(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:21)Electronic Communications Privacy Actpassed(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:22)Chicagoprosecutors
form Computer Fraud and Abuse Task Force(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:16) July(cid:1) Secret Service covertly videotapes (cid:17)Sum(cid:10)
merCon(cid:20) hacker convention(cid:1) September(cid:1) (cid:17)Prophet(cid:20) cracks BellSouth AIMSX computer network
and downloads E(cid:3)(cid:0)(cid:0) Document to his own computer and to Jolnet(cid:1) September(cid:1) AT(cid:28)T Corpo(cid:10)
rate Information Security informed of Prophet(cid:13)s action(cid:1) October(cid:1) Bellcore Security informed of
Prophet(cid:13)s action(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:3) January(cid:1) Prophet uploads E(cid:3)(cid:0)(cid:0) Document to Knight Lightning(cid:1) February
(cid:2)(cid:15)(cid:1) Knight Lightning publishes E(cid:3)(cid:0)(cid:0) Document in Phrack electronic newsletter(cid:1) May(cid:1) Chicago
Task Force raids and arrests (cid:17)Kyrie(cid:1)(cid:20) June(cid:1) (cid:17)NuPrometheus League(cid:20) distributes Apple Computer
proprietary software(cid:1) June (cid:0)(cid:8)(cid:1) Florida probation o(cid:29)ce crossed with phone(cid:10)sex line in switching(cid:10)
station stunt(cid:1) July(cid:1) (cid:17)Fry Guy(cid:20) raided by USSS and Chicago Computer Fraud and Abuse Task
Force(cid:1) July(cid:1) Secret Service raids (cid:17)Prophet(cid:6)(cid:20) (cid:17)Leftist(cid:6)(cid:20) and (cid:17)Urvile(cid:20) in Georgia(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:14) January (cid:0)(cid:15)(cid:1)
Martin Luther King Day Crash strikes AT(cid:28)T long(cid:10)distance network nationwide(cid:1) January (cid:0)(cid:16)(cid:10)(cid:0)(cid:3)
Chicago Task Force raids Knight Lightning in St(cid:1) Louis(cid:1) January (cid:2)(cid:4)(cid:1) USSS and New York State
Police raid (cid:17)Phiber Optik(cid:6)(cid:20) (cid:17)Acid Phreak(cid:6)(cid:20) and (cid:17)Scorpion(cid:20) in New York City(cid:1) February (cid:0)(cid:1) USSS
raids (cid:17)Terminus(cid:20) in Maryland(cid:1) February (cid:8)(cid:1) Chicago Task Force raids Richard Andrews(cid:13) home(cid:1)
February (cid:21)(cid:1) Chicago Task Force raids Richard Andrews(cid:13) business(cid:1) February (cid:21)(cid:1) USSS arrests Ter(cid:10)
minus(cid:6) Prophet(cid:6) Leftist(cid:6) and Urvile(cid:1) February (cid:3)(cid:1) Chicago Task Force arrests Knight Lightning(cid:1)
February (cid:2)(cid:14)(cid:1) AT(cid:28)T Security shuts down public(cid:10)access (cid:17)attctc(cid:20) computer in Dallas(cid:1) February (cid:2)(cid:0)(cid:1)
Chicago Task Force raids Robert Izenberg in Austin(cid:1) March (cid:0)(cid:1) Chicago Task Force raids Steve
Jackson Games(cid:6) Inc(cid:1)(cid:6) (cid:17)Mentor(cid:6)(cid:20) and (cid:17)Erik Bloodaxe(cid:20) in Austin(cid:1) May (cid:22)(cid:6)(cid:16)(cid:6)(cid:3)(cid:1) USSS and Arizona
Organized Crime and Racketeering Bureau conduct (cid:17)Operation Sundevil(cid:20) raids in Cincinnatti(cid:6) De(cid:10)
troit(cid:6) Los Angeles(cid:6) Miami(cid:6) Newark(cid:6) Phoenix(cid:6) Pittsburgh(cid:6) Richmond(cid:6) Tucson(cid:6) San Diego(cid:6) San Jose(cid:6)
and San Francisco(cid:1) May(cid:1) FBI interviews John Perry Barlow re NuPrometheus case(cid:1) June(cid:1) Mitch
Kapor and Barlow found Electronic Frontier Foundation(cid:23) Barlow publishes Crime and Puzzlement
manifesto(cid:1) July (cid:2)(cid:4)(cid:10)(cid:2)(cid:22)(cid:1) Trial of Knight Lightning(cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:0) February(cid:1) CPSR Roundtable in Wash(cid:10)
ington(cid:6) D(cid:1)C(cid:1) March (cid:2)(cid:15)(cid:10)(cid:2)(cid:16)(cid:1) Computers(cid:6) Freedom and Privacy conference in San Francisco(cid:1) May
(cid:0)(cid:1) Electronic Frontier Foundation(cid:6) Steve Jackson(cid:6) and others (cid:11)le suit against members of Chicago
Task Force(cid:1) July (cid:0)(cid:10)(cid:2)(cid:1) Switching station phone software crash a(cid:25)ects Washington(cid:6) Los Angeles(cid:6)
Pittsburgh(cid:6) San Francisco(cid:1) September (cid:0)(cid:22)(cid:1) AT(cid:28)T phone crash a(cid:25)ects New York City and three
airports(cid:1)
(cid:4) The Hacker Crackdown
Introduction (cid:15)
Introduction
This is a book about cops(cid:6) and wild teenage whiz(cid:10)kids(cid:6) and lawyers(cid:6) and hairy(cid:10)eyed anarchists(cid:6)
and industrial technicians(cid:6) and hippies(cid:6) and high(cid:10)tech millionaires(cid:6) and game hobbyists(cid:6) and com(cid:10)
puter security experts(cid:6) and Secret Service agents(cid:6) and grifters(cid:6) and thieves(cid:1) This book is about the
electronic frontier of the (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:14)s(cid:1) It concerns activities that take place inside computers and over
telephone lines(cid:1)
A science (cid:11)ction writer coined the useful term (cid:17)cyberspace(cid:20) in (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:2)(cid:1) But the territory in
question(cid:6) theelectronic frontier(cid:6)is abouta hundred and thirtyyearsold(cid:1) Cyberspace is the (cid:17)place(cid:20)
where a telephone conversation appears to occur(cid:1) Not inside your actual phone(cid:6) the plastic device
on your desk(cid:1) Not inside the other person(cid:13)s phone(cid:6) in some other city(cid:1) The place between the
phones(cid:1) The inde(cid:11)nite place outthere(cid:1) where the twoof you(cid:6)twohuman beings(cid:6) actually meet and
communicate(cid:1)
Although it is not exactly (cid:17)real(cid:6)(cid:20) (cid:17)cyberspace(cid:20) is a genuine place(cid:1) Things happen there that
have very genuine consequences(cid:1) This (cid:17)place(cid:20) is not (cid:17)real(cid:6)(cid:20) but it is serious(cid:6) it is earnest(cid:1) Tens of
thousands of people have dedicated their lives to it(cid:6) to the public service of public communication
by wire and electronics(cid:1)
People haveworkedonthis(cid:17)frontier(cid:20)forgenerationsnow(cid:1) Somepeople becamerich andfamous
fromtheire(cid:25)ortsthere(cid:1) Some justplayed in it(cid:6)ashobbyists(cid:1) Otherssoberly pondered it(cid:6)and wrote
about it(cid:6) and regulated it(cid:6) and negotiated over it in international forums(cid:6) and sued one another
about it(cid:6) in gigantic(cid:6) epic court battles that lasted for years(cid:1) And almost since the beginning(cid:6) some
people have committed crimes in this place(cid:1)
But in the past twenty years(cid:6) this electrical (cid:17)space(cid:6)(cid:20) which was once thin and dark and one(cid:10)
dimensional (cid:7) little more than a narrowspeaking(cid:10)tube(cid:6) stretching from phone to phone (cid:7) has (cid:26)ung
itself open like a gigantic jack(cid:10)in(cid:10)the(cid:10)box(cid:1) Light has (cid:26)ooded upon it(cid:6) the eerie light of the glowing
computer screen(cid:1) This dark electric netherworld has become a vast (cid:26)owering electronic landscape(cid:1)
Since the (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:21)(cid:14)s(cid:6)the world of the telephone has cross(cid:10)bred itself with computers and television(cid:6) and
though there is still no substance to cyberspace(cid:6) nothing you can handle(cid:6) it has a strange kind of
physicality now(cid:1) It makes good sense today to talk of cyberspace as a place all its own(cid:1)
Because people live in it now(cid:1) Not just a few people(cid:6) not just a few technicians and eccentrics(cid:6)
but thousands of people(cid:6) quite normal people(cid:1) And not just for a little while(cid:6) either(cid:6) but for hours
straight(cid:6)overweeks(cid:6)andmonths(cid:6)andyears(cid:1) Cyberspacetodayisa(cid:17)Net(cid:6)(cid:20)a(cid:17)Matrix(cid:6)(cid:20)international
inscope andgrowingswiftlyandsteadily(cid:1) It(cid:13)sgrowingin size(cid:6)andwealth(cid:6)andpolitical importance(cid:1)
People are making entire careers in modern cyberspace(cid:1) Scientists and technicians(cid:6) of course(cid:23)
they(cid:13)ve been there for twentyyearsnow(cid:1) But increasingly(cid:6) cyberspace is (cid:11)lling with journalists and
doctors and lawyers and artists and clerks(cid:1) Civil servants make their careers there now(cid:6) (cid:17)on(cid:10)line(cid:20)
in vast government databanks(cid:23) and so do spies(cid:6) industrial(cid:6) political(cid:6) and just plain snoops(cid:23) and so
do police(cid:6) at least a few of them(cid:1) And there are children living there now(cid:1)
Peoplehavemetthereandbeenmarriedthere(cid:1) Thereareentirelivingcommunitiesincyberspace
today(cid:23) chattering(cid:6) gossipping(cid:6) planning(cid:6) conferring and scheming(cid:6) leaving one another voice(cid:10)mail
and electronic mail(cid:6) giving one another big weightless chunks of valuable data(cid:6) both legitimate and
illegitimate(cid:1) Theybusily passoneanothercomputersoftwareandtheoccasional festeringcomputer
virus(cid:1)
We do not really understand how to live in cyberspace yet(cid:1) We are feeling our way into it(cid:6)
blundering about(cid:1) That is not surprising(cid:1) Our lives in the physical world(cid:6) the (cid:17)real(cid:20) world(cid:6) are
also far from perfect(cid:6) despite a lot more practice(cid:1) Human lives(cid:6) real lives(cid:6) are imperfect by their
nature(cid:6) and there are human beings in cyberspace(cid:1) The way we live in cyberspace is a funhouse
mirror of the way we live in the real world(cid:1) We takeboth our advantages and our troubles with us(cid:1)
(cid:21) The Hacker Crackdown
This book is about trouble in cyberspace(cid:1) Speci(cid:11)cally(cid:6) this book is about certain strange events
in the year (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:14)(cid:6) an unprecedented and startling year for the the growing world of computerized
communications(cid:1)
In (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:14) there came a nationwide crackdown on illicit computer hackers(cid:6) with arrests(cid:6) criminal
charges(cid:6)onedramaticshow(cid:10)trial(cid:6)severalguilty pleas(cid:6) andhugecon(cid:11)scations ofdataandequipment
all over the USA(cid:1)
The HackerCrackdownof (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:14)waslarger(cid:6) better organized(cid:6) more deliberate(cid:6) and more resolute
thananyprevious e(cid:25)ortin thebravenew worldofcomputercrime(cid:1) The U(cid:1)S(cid:1)Secret Service(cid:6) private
telephone security(cid:6)andstateandlocallawenforcementgroupsacrossthecountryall joinedforcesin
a determined attempt to break the back of America(cid:13)s electronic underground(cid:1) It was a fascinating
e(cid:25)ort(cid:6) with very mixed results(cid:1)
The Hacker Crackdown had another unprecedented e(cid:25)ect(cid:23) it spurred the creation(cid:6) within (cid:17)the
computer community(cid:6)(cid:20) of the Electronic Frontier Foundation(cid:6) a new and very odd interest group(cid:6)
(cid:11)ercely dedicated totheestablishment and preservationofelectronic civil liberties(cid:1) Thecrackdown(cid:6)
remarkable in itself(cid:6) has created a melee of debate over electronic crime(cid:6) punishment(cid:6) freedom of
the press(cid:6) and issues of search and seizure(cid:1) Politics has entered cyberspace(cid:1) Where people go(cid:6)
politics follow(cid:1) This is the story of the people of cyberspace(cid:1)
Chapter (cid:0)(cid:5) Crashing The System (cid:22)
(cid:0) Crashing The System
ABriefHistoryofTelephony(cid:6)Bell(cid:7)sGoldenVaporware(cid:6)UniversalService(cid:6)WildBoys
and Wire Women(cid:6) The Electronic Communities (cid:6) The Ungentle Giant (cid:6)The Breakup
(cid:6) In Defense of the System (cid:6) The Crash PostMortem (cid:6) Landslides in Cyberspace
On January (cid:0)(cid:15)(cid:6) (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:14)(cid:6) AT(cid:28)T(cid:13)s long(cid:10)distance telephone switching system crashed(cid:1)
This was a strange(cid:6) dire(cid:6) huge event(cid:1) Sixty thousand people lost their telephone service com(cid:10)
pletely(cid:1) During the nine long hours of frantic e(cid:25)ort that it took to restore service(cid:6) some seventy
million telephone calls went uncompleted(cid:1)
Losses ofservice(cid:6) knownas(cid:17)outages(cid:20)in the telco trade(cid:6)area knownand accepted hazard ofthe
telephone business(cid:1) Hurricanes hit(cid:6) and phone cables get snapped by the thousands(cid:1) Earthquakes
wrenchthroughburied(cid:11)ber(cid:10)opticlines(cid:1) Switchingstationscatch(cid:11)reandburntotheground(cid:1) These
things do happen(cid:1) There are contingency plans forthem(cid:6) and decades of experience in dealing with
them(cid:1) But the Crash of January (cid:0)(cid:15) was unprecedented(cid:1) It was unbelievably huge(cid:6) and it occurred
for no apparent physical reason(cid:1)
ThecrashstartedonaMondayafternooninasingleswitching(cid:10)stationinManhattan(cid:1) But(cid:6)unlike
any merely physical damage(cid:6) it spread and spread(cid:1) Station after station across America collapsed
in a chain reaction(cid:6) until fully half of AT(cid:28)T(cid:13)s network had gone haywire and the remaining half
was hard(cid:10)put to handle the over(cid:26)ow(cid:1)
Withinninehours(cid:6)AT(cid:28)Tsoftwareengineersmoreorlessunderstoodwhathadcausedthecrash(cid:1)
Replicating the problem exactly(cid:6) poring over software line by line(cid:6) took them a couple of weeks(cid:1)
But because it was hard to understand technically(cid:6) the full truth of the matterand its implications
werenotwidely andthoroughlyaired and explained(cid:1) Therootcauseofthe crashremained obscure(cid:6)
surrounded by rumorandfear(cid:1) The crashwasagravecorporateembarrassment(cid:1) The(cid:17)culprit(cid:20) was
a bug in AT(cid:28)T(cid:13)s own software (cid:7) not the sort of admission the telecommunications giant wanted
to make(cid:6) especially in the face of increasing competition(cid:1) Still(cid:6) the truth was told(cid:6) in the ba(cid:30)ing
technical terms necessary to explain it(cid:1)
Somehow the explanation failed to persuade American law enforcement o(cid:29)cials and even tele(cid:10)
phone corporate security personnel(cid:1) These people were not technical experts or software wizards(cid:6)
and they had their own suspicions about the cause of this disaster(cid:1)
The police and telco security had important sources of information denied to mere software
engineers(cid:1) They had informants in the computer underground and years of experience in dealing
with high(cid:10)tech rascality that seemed to grow ever more sophisticated(cid:1) For years they had been
expecting a direct and savage attack against the American national telephone system(cid:1) And with
the Crash of January (cid:0)(cid:15) (cid:7) the (cid:11)rst month of a new(cid:6) high(cid:10)tech decade (cid:7) their predictions(cid:6) fears(cid:6) and
suspicions seemed at last to have entered the real world(cid:1) A world where the telephone system had
not merely crashed(cid:6) but(cid:6) quite likely(cid:6) been crashed (cid:7) by (cid:17)hackers(cid:1)(cid:20)
The crash created a large dark cloud of suspicion that would color certain people(cid:13)s assumptions
and actions for months(cid:1) The fact that it took place in the realm of software was suspicious on its
face(cid:1) The fact that it occurred on Martin Luther King Day(cid:6) still the most politically touchy of
American holidays(cid:6) made it more suspicious yet(cid:1)
The Crash of January (cid:0)(cid:15) gave the Hacker Crackdown its sense of edge and its sweaty urgency(cid:1)
It made people(cid:6) powerful people in positions of public authority(cid:6) willing to believe the worst(cid:1)
And(cid:6) most fatally(cid:6) it helped to give investigators a willingness to take extreme measures and the
determination to preserve almost total secrecy(cid:1) An obscure software fault in an aging switching
(cid:16) The Hacker Crackdown
system in New York was to lead to a chain reaction of legal and constitutional trouble all across
the country(cid:1)
(cid:31)
Like the crash in the telephone system(cid:6) this chain reaction was ready and waiting to happen(cid:1)
During the (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:14)s(cid:6) the American legal system was extensively patched to deal with the novel issues
of computer crime(cid:1) There was(cid:6) for instance(cid:6) the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:21)
(cid:18)eloquently described as (cid:17)astinking mess(cid:20) byaprominent law enforcemento(cid:29)cial(cid:19)(cid:1) And there was
the draconian Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of (cid:0)(cid:3)(cid:16)(cid:21)(cid:6) passed unanimously by the United States
Senate(cid:6) which later would reveal a large number of (cid:26)aws(cid:1) Extensive(cid:6) wellmeant e(cid:25)orts had been
made to keep the legal system up to date(cid:1) But in the day(cid:10)to(cid:10)day grind of the real world(cid:6) even the
most elegant software tends to crumble and suddenly reveal its hidden bugs(cid:1)
Like the advancing telephone system(cid:6) the American legal system was certainly not ruined by
its temporary crash(cid:23) but for those caught under the weight of the collapsing system(cid:6) life became a
series of blackouts and anomalies(cid:1)
In order to understand why these weird events occurred(cid:6) both in the world of technology and in
theworldoflaw(cid:6) it(cid:13)snotenoughtounderstand themerely technical problems(cid:1) Wewill gettothose(cid:23)
but (cid:11)rst and foremost(cid:6) we must try to understand the telephone(cid:6) and the business of telephones(cid:6)
and the community of human beings that telephones have created(cid:1)
(cid:31)
Technologies have life cycles(cid:6) like cities do(cid:6) like institutions do(cid:6) like laws and governments do(cid:1)
The (cid:11)rststageofany technologyis the Question Mark(cid:6)often knownasthe (cid:17)Golden Vaporware(cid:20)
stage(cid:1) At this early point(cid:6) the technology is only a phantom(cid:6) a mere gleam in the inventor(cid:13)s eye(cid:1)
One such inventor was a speech teacher and electrical tinkerer named Alexander Graham Bell(cid:1)
Bell(cid:13)s early inventions(cid:6) while ingenious(cid:6) failed to move the world(cid:1) In (cid:0)(cid:16)(cid:21)(cid:8)(cid:6) the teenage Bell and
his brother Melville made an arti(cid:11)cial talking mechanism out of wood(cid:6) rubber(cid:6) gutta(cid:10)percha(cid:6) and
tin(cid:1) This weird device had a rubber(cid:10)covered (cid:17)tongue(cid:20) made of movable wooden segments(cid:6) with
vibrating rubber (cid:17)vocal cords(cid:6)(cid:20) and rubber (cid:17)lips(cid:20) and (cid:17)cheeks(cid:1)(cid:20) While Melville pu(cid:25)ed a bellows
into a tin tube(cid:6) imitating the lungs(cid:6) young Alec Bell would manipulate the (cid:17)lips(cid:6)(cid:20) (cid:17)teeth(cid:6)(cid:20) and
(cid:17)tongue(cid:6)(cid:20) causing the thing to emit high(cid:10)pitched falsetto gibberish(cid:1)
Another would(cid:10)be technical breakthrough wasthe Bell (cid:17)phonautograph(cid:20)of (cid:0)(cid:16)(cid:22)(cid:4)(cid:6)actually made
out of a human cadaver(cid:13)s ear(cid:1) Clamped into place on a tripod(cid:6) this grisly gadget drew sound(cid:10)wave
images on smoked glass through a thin straw glued to its vibrating earbones(cid:1)
By (cid:0)(cid:16)(cid:22)(cid:15)(cid:6) Bell had learned to produce audible sounds (cid:7) ugly shrieks and squawks (cid:7) by using
magnets(cid:6) diaphragms(cid:6) and electrical current(cid:1) Most (cid:17)Golden Vaporware(cid:20) technologies go nowhere(cid:1)
But the second stage of technology is the Rising Star(cid:6) or(cid:6) the (cid:17)Goofy Prototype(cid:6)(cid:20) stage(cid:1) The
telephone(cid:6) Bell(cid:13)s most ambitious gadget yet(cid:6) reached this stage on March (cid:0)(cid:14)(cid:6) (cid:0)(cid:16)(cid:22)(cid:21)(cid:1) On that
great day(cid:6) Alexander Graham Bell became the (cid:11)rst person to transmit intelligible human speech
electrically(cid:1) As it happened(cid:6) young Professor Bell(cid:6) industriously tinkering in his Boston lab(cid:6) had
spattered his trousers with acid(cid:1) His assistant(cid:6) Mr(cid:1) Watson(cid:6) heard his cry for help (cid:7) over Bell(cid:13)s
experimental audiotelegraph(cid:1) This was an event without precedent(cid:1)
Technologies in their (cid:17)GoofyPrototype(cid:20)stagerarely workverywell(cid:1) They(cid:13)re experimental(cid:6) and
therefore halfbaked and rather frazzled(cid:1) The prototype may be attractive and novel(cid:6) and it does
look as if it ought to be good for something(cid:10)or(cid:10)other(cid:1) But nobody(cid:6) including the inventor(cid:6) is quite
sure what(cid:1) Inventors(cid:6) and speculators(cid:6) and pundits may have very (cid:11)rm ideas about its potential
use(cid:6) but those ideas are often very wrong(cid:1)