Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Open Sesame
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In the Arcane Culture Of Computer Hackers, Few Doors Stay Closed
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Frank Darden Easily Broke Into BellSouth's Network
Trading Tips With Others
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Entering the Legion of Doom
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By John R. Wilke, staff reporter of The Wall Street Journal
ATLANTA- Frank Darden got his first computer at the age of 16, a
Christmas present from his parents. Sitting on a desk in his bedroom,
it opened a window on a world he found so consuming that he quit high
school and spent most days and nights at the keyboard.
His parents often wondered what their son found so compelling in the
endless hours he spent alone in his room. Then one afternoon last
summer, a dozen Secret Service agents burst into the family's suburban
home. Agents held Edward and Lou Darden at gunpoint as they swarmed
into their son's room, seizing scores of disks mloads of files and
three computers.
When Frank got home an hour later, the terrified young man confessed
that he had used his home computer to break into BellSouth Corp.'s
telephone network. In February, Mr. Darden and two others were
indicted on felony charges of conspiracy and wire fraud.
"I guess now my parents know what I was doing in my room." says a
remorseful Mr. Darden, a bright, impatient 24-year-old with
shoulder-length hair and a tie-dyed T-shirt.
Starting Early
The government sweep so far has bagged a motley band, mostly loners and
young rebels in their teens or early twenties. In past cases, many of
the hackers who have admitted breaking into computers have insisted
that they didn't damage the systems they penetrated. They did it for
sport.
"There's no thrill quite the same as getting into your first system,"
says Phrack, an electronic magazine run out of a University of Missouri
dorm and accessed by computer. Before it was shutdown in the latest
sweep, Phrack (for phone-freak hacking) published tips on cracking
computer security. One issue offers a "hacker's code of ethics," which
advises, "Do not intentionally damage any system" or alter files "other
than the ones you need to ensure your escape." Another rule: "Don't be
afraid to be paranoid. Remember, you are braking the law." Mr. Darden
says he strictly adhered to the code.
During his hacker days, Mr. Darden's world was an oddly solitary one.
For hours on end he sat in front of the computer screen, finding his
only human contact in the words and arcane code that arrived via
computer from other hackers. "Once he got into ubject, there was no
stopping," recalls his mother. "he was always studying up on
something. He read encyclopedias as a pastime."
Geography was meaningless; friends from around the world were just a
few keystrokes away, thanks to modems that connect computers through
the phone lines. Mr. Darden says he has struck up many lasting
friendships on-line with people he has never met in person.
Tough Choice
"It's a compulsion for some of these people," adds Mr. Alexander, the
Atlanta prosecutor. "I'm convinced that if Lotus 1-2-3 was behind Door
No. 1, and Cheryl Tiegs was standing behind Door No. 2, a hacker would
go for the software.
Mr. Darden recounts his hacking days with disapproval- and just a touch
of pride. He broke into his first system at the age of 17, dialing his
way into a big computer at Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc., in
Norcross, Ga., and nosing around the system I didn't take anything, I
was just trying to see if it could be done," he says now. Hayes
uncovered the breach and quickly tightened security, he says.
Hacking sessions often stretched into the early morning hours. He would
start by checking lists of computer phone numbers collected by his
computer the night before through an automatic process called "war
dialing." That's the brute force approach to king, when the computer
runs through the night, methodically dialing every number in a
telephone exchange. It records the number whenever it hits a "carrier
tone" signaling a computer is on the other end.
To make the process more efficient, and to show off, Mr. Darden and
other hackers traded phone numbers and system-cracking tips on pirate
"bulletin boards"- computer systems that store and forward text and
electronic mail over phone lines. "Black Ice" is one such board.
Access was tightly limited to an elite circle.
No Busy Signal Here
"If we wanted to, we could have knocked out service across the
Southeastern U.S.," he says. "The fact that I could get into the
system amazed me. But we were careful not to damage anything."
The only good thing to come out of the whole experience, Mr. Darden
muses, is that after he was indicted, his high-school sweetheart- whom
he often spurned in favor of his computer- saw his picture on the
front page of the local paper and got back in ch.
Mr. Darden, who now works installing systems for a local computer
company, views himself as a purist, hacking for the thrill of exploring
the forbidden. He looks down on those who use their skills simply to
steal phone and credit-card numbers. But in thi s game, information is
everything, and not even Mr. Darden can control its spread. During
their sweep, federal agents have found some hackers using code-cracking
information dug up by the Legion of Doom to perpetrate their own
practical jokes and fraud.
For a few days last year, for example, phone calls to the Delray
Beach, Fla., probation office were mysteriously rerouted to a
dial-a-porn line in New York. Secret Service agents say it's the kind
of thing the Legion might have done.
In all, Fry Guy siphoned more than $10,000 in cash and purchases from
credit-card accounts, alleges William M. Gleason, the Secret Service
investigator. He also found evidence that Fry Guy, whose name hasn't
been released, hacked his way into a payrol computer for a local
McDonalds Corp. outlet, giving pay raises to his friends working at
the restaurant.
Ed Darden wishes he had known all of this before he gave his son that
Apple II for Christmas eight years ago. "I'd have thought twice about
it," he says. "Maybe we should have given him a bicycle."
*end of file*