A look at the Criminals

Today's pseudo-anarchist hackers probably don't know it, but their roots extend back to the 1960s. Specifically, the attitudes regarding information services espoused by modern-day hackers are remarkably similar to those of the Yippies of that era. Led by Abbie Hoffman, the Yippies advocated an anarchist philosophy that revolved around promiscuous sex, drug use, and the overthrow of anybody over thirty. In his book, Steal This Book, Hoffman described ways to live off the fat of the system, stealing electricity, robbing vending machines and parking meters, and, most importantly, stealing phone service, most often by using simple "slugs." [4]

Of all the ideas that the Yippies espoused during their period of activism, their philosophy of stealing from those who were too ignorant to stop them was the most long-lasting. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the most direct precursors to modern computer criminals appeared, the elusive "phone phreaks." Not necessarily concerned with "The System" or with anarchy, phreaks just liked to talk. The phreaks were the first to make use of the infamous "black box," a box that emitted a 2600 hertz signal that mimicked the phone system's own signal, giving the phreak unlimited long-distance access. Phreaks would dial through hundreds of different networks, ringing up thousands of dollars in bills, and then simply disappear. Phreaks rarely used their expertise for anything overtly criminal. They simply liked to talk, long distance, on party lines, for free. When the personal computer was invented and mated with the modem, phreaking took on a whole new dimension and the modern age of the hacker was born.[5]

When computers were first invented the terms "hacker" and "hacking" meant quite different things than they mean today. Bruce Sterling said of the practice:

The term can signify the free-wheeling intellectual exploration of the highest and deepest potential of computer systems. Hacking can describe the determination to make access to computers as free and as open as possible. Hacking can involve the heartfelt conviction that beauty can be found in computers, that the fine aesthetic in a perfect program can liberate the mind and spirit.[6]

This passage exemplifies the attitudes of the earliest people who called themselves by that name. A hacker was simply someone who knew the ins and outs of the early, 1960s and 1970s-era computers very well. In the 1980s, the name took on a new meaning: a "hacker" became somebody who was not only good with computers, but liked to use modems to break into other systems for fun. Most of them fit the same basic profile:

Most are bored, suburban misfits, whose curiosity about computers and technology has led them to spend inordinate amounts of time indoors in front of a flickering computer screen, probing the depths and limits of the information revolution. Partly for lack of a social life, they have become true explorers on the electronic frontier, a place where...how you look counts for squat. [7]

Hacking exploded in the mid-1980s. Bulletin Boards (BBS's) and networks of BBS's proliferated across the country and around the world. Many of these were so-called "pirate" boards, upon which stolen codes, system hacks, and the bible of underground computer culture, Phrack magazine (A combination of "phreak" and "hack") were posted and exchanged. At the same time, the first "generation" of hackers (those who started hacking in the late 1970s and early 1980s) were going to college. As this happened, "Phrack began to appear on mainframe machines linked to BITNET, and, through BITNET to the fledgeling Internet." [8]

The Internet, as it was in the late 1980s and early '90s, was a hacker's haven, a place where information and memory were plentiful, and security was almost nil. Hackers who were able to get access to it had a field day. There are two classic examples of this: The first is the case of Pengo, a hacker from Germany who used simple guest user accounts to steal sensitive government data and sell it to the Eastern Bloc.[9] He was caught after nearly a year-and-half by Clifford Stoll, an astronomer at Lawrence Livermore Labs. The second is Robert Morris' Internet Worm, a self-replicating virus. On November 2-3, 1988, the released Worm wreaked havoc on the Net and crashed more than six thousand computers.[10]

The Net is fertile ground for thousands of hackers, both neophyte and experienced. According to Phrack, in 1988 there were over 130 known hacker groups, both on the Internet and off.[11] Now there are likely to be ten times that many, and their mentality has changed. In the early years, hackers were in it for the game, and simply nosed around inside hacked systems without actually damaging anything. However, in recent years a subgroup, the crackers have emerged. One of the most dramatic examples of the expertise of this subgroup occurred in 1991:

[John Perry Barlow] had been arguing heatedly with Acid Phreak, then a member of a teen-age hacker gang called the Masters of Deception. While Barlow and Acid Phreak exchanged heated words, another gang member, Phiber Optik, pulled up Barlow's confidential TRW credit report and displayed it on the screen. Phiber Optik had been able to download his private file and displayed it for everyone to read as he argued with Barlow.[12]

In the last two years, the malevolence of these crackers has increased:

Instead of using the network as a transportation mechanism to get to a computer to launch an attack, as a bank robber would use a highway to get to and from the scene of a crime, the new breed of cracker is taking aim at the highway itself, the Internet.[13]

In that way, the new generation seems to be harking back to the anarchy manifesto of Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies. Not only are some crackers attempting to use their skills for credit card fraud and personal profit , but some are attempting to bring down thousands of computers at once, much in the way of the Internet Worm. Attacks in the past year alone have included "sniffer" attacks, which have "compromised security for hundreds of thousands of computer systems," [14] the overtake of several sensitive military computer systems, [15] a "mail bombing" of Joshua Quittner (who has written a book about the aforementioned Masters of Deception)[16] and the escapades of the notorious Kevin Mitnick .[17]

As things stand today, the hackers of the Internet have gone underground. Newsgroups such as alt.crackers and alt.hackers.malicious are dormant, for fear of infiltration by authorities. Traffic on the various comp.security newsgroups is heavy. The current fear is the program entitled "SATAN," which was released on April 5 to the public domain. This program "probes for hidden flaws in computer networks that could make them vulnerable to intruders."[18] The program is designed to make the flaws in security known to network administrators, but it can be used both ways. It is, essentially, a way to be a hacker or cracker without having any knowledge of how to program. The fear among administrators is that programs like these will encourage those without technical expertise to try to crack systems, and increase the number of attacks by a huge number.

Hackers and crackers are a definite threat to the sanctity of all computer systems, including the Internet. Their activities have evoked many responses. The access providers and companies on the Net are increasing security, using newly developed "firewalls" and "shadow passwords." As a result of this, the Net is becoming much less free-and-open, and more sectionalized, than in the past. Because of the constant system attacks, many places have had to shut down their "guest" accounts, and the ability to telnet from location to location on the Net without the need for a membership or password is declining.[19] Even more serious than even that, however, are the issues of privacy brought about by the government tracking and prosecution of hackers.