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ARRoGANT CoURiERS WiTH ESSaYS
Grade Level: Type of Work Subject/Topic is on:
[ ]6-8 [ ]Class Notes [The computer underground]
[ ]9-10 [ ]Cliff Notes [including hackers and ]
[ ]11-12 [ ]Essay/Report [pirates. ]
[x]College [x]Misc [ ]
Dizzed:7/94 # of Words:10928 School: ? State: ?
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THE BAUDY WORLD OF THE BYTE BANDIT:
A POSTMODERNIST INTERPRETATION OF THE COMPUTER UNDERGROUND
Gordon Meyer and Jim Thomas
Department of Sociology
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL 60115
(5 March, 1990)
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the American
Society of Criminology annual meetings, Reno (November 9, 1989). Authors
are listed in alphabetical order. Address correspondence to Jim Thomas. We
are indebted to the numerous anonymous computer underground participants
who provided information. Special acknowledgement goes to Hatchet Molly,
Jedi, The Mentor, Knight Lightning, and Taran King.
ABSTRACT
The criminalization of "deviant acts" transforms social meanings
into legal ones. Yet, legal meanings are not necessari- ly social
meanings. The legitimacy of statutory social control generally requires
that one accept the realist textual readings of those with the power to
interpret and stigmatize behaviors as inappropriate. "Moral crusades"
that lead to definitions of criminalized deviance tend to reduce the
meanings of polysemic acts to unidimensional ones that limit
understanding of both the nature of the acts and their broader
relationship to the culture in which they occur. This has occured with
the criminalization of computer phreaking and hacking. In this paper, we
examine the computer underground as a cultural, rather than a deviant,
phe- nomenon. Our data reveal the computer underground as an invisi- ble
community with a complex and interconnected culture, depen- dent for
survival on information sharing, norms of reciprocity, sophisticated
socialization rituals, and an explicit value sys- tem. We suggest that
the dominant image of the computer under- ground as one of criminal
deviance results in a failure to appre- ciate cultural meaning. We
conclude by arguing that there are characteristics of underground activity
that embrace a postmoder- nist rejection of conventional culture.
- ii -
THE BAUDY WORLD OF THE BYTE BANDIT:
A POSTMODERNIST INTERPRETATION OF THE COMPUTER UNDERGROUND Hackers are
"nothing more than high-tech street gangs" (Federal Prosecutor, Chicago).
Transgression is not immoral. Quite to the contrary, it reconciles the law
with what it forbids; it is the dia- lectical game of good and evil
(Baudrillard, 1987: 81). There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue.
There's just stuff people do. It's all part of the nice, but that's as
far as any man got a right to say (Steinbeck, 1939:31-32).
The criminalization of "deviant acts" transforms and reduces social
meanings to legal ones. Legal meanings are not necessari- ly social
meanings. Most deviancy research tends to reproduce conventional social
ideology and operative definitions of normal- ity within its concepts and
theories. On occasion, these mean- ings represent a form of "class
politics" that protect the power and privilege of one group from the
challenge of another:
Divorcing moral crusades from status group competition while denying
that cultures are linked to social class- es has undermined attempts
to link lifestyle politics to group struggles (Beisel, 1990: 45).
Once a category of behaviors has become defined by statute as
sanctionably deviant, the behaviors so-defined assume a new set of
meanings that may obscure ones possessed by those who en- gage in such
behaviors. "Computer deviants" provide one example of a criminalized type
of "lifestyle politics."
The proliferation of computer technology has been accompa- nied by
the growth of a computer underground (CU), often mistak- enly labeled
"hackers," that is perceived as criminally deviant by the media, law
enforcement officials, and researchers. Draw- ing from ethnographic data,
we offer a cultural rather than a criminological analysis of the
underground by suggesting that it reflects an attempt to recast,
re-appropriate, and reconstruct the power-knowledge relationship that
increasingly dominates the ideology and actions of modern society. Our
data reveal the com- puter underground as an invisible community with a
complex and interconnected cultural lifestyle, an inchoate
anti-authoritarian political consciousness, and dependent on norms of
reciprocity, sophisticated socialization rituals, networks of
information sharing, and an explicit value system. We interpret the CU
cul- ture as a challenge to and parody of conventional culture, as a
playful attempt to reject the seriousness of technocracy, and as an ironic
substitution of rational technological control of the present for an
anarchic and playful future.
Stigmatizing the Computer Underground
The computer underground refers to persons engaged in one or more of
several activities, including pirating, anarchy, hacking, and phreaking[1].
Because computer underground participants freely share information and
often are involved collectively in a single incident, media definitions
invoke the generalized meta- phors of "conspiracies" and "criminal rings,"
(e.g., Camper, 1989; Zablit, 1989), "modem macho" evil-doers
(Bloombecker,
1988), moral bankruptcy (Schwartz, 1988), "electronic trespas- sers"
(Parker: 1983), "crazy kids dedicated to making mischief" (Sandza, 1984:
17), "electronic vandals" (Bequai: 1987), a new "threat" (Van, 1989),
saboteurs ("Computer Sabateur," 1988), se- cret societies of criminals
(WMAQ, 1990), and "high-tech street gangs" ("Hacker, 18," 1989). These
images have prompted calls for community and law enforcement vigilance
(Conly and McEwen, 1990: 2) and for application of the Racketeer
Influenced and Cor- rupt Organizations (RICO) Act to prosecute and control
the "crim- inals" (Cooley, 1984). These images fail to distinguish under-
ground "hobbyists," who may infringe on legal norms but have no intention
of pillaging, from felonious predators, who use tech- nology to loot[2].
Such terminology provides a common stock of knowledge that formats
interpretations of CU activity in ways pre-patterned as requiring social
control to protect the common- weal (e.g., Altheide, 1985).
As Hollinger and Lanza-Kaduce (1988: 119), Kane (1989), and Pfuhl
(1987) observed, the stigmatization of hackers has emerged primarily
through value-laden media depictions. When in 1990 a Cornell University
graduate student inadvertently infected an in- ternational computer network
by planting a self-reproducing "vi- rus," or "rogue program," the news
media followed the story with considerable detail about the dangers of
computer abuse (e.g., Allman, 1990; Winter, 1988). Five years earlier, in
May of 1983, a group of hackers known as "The 414's" received equal media
at- tention when they broke into the computer system of the Sloan
Kettering Cancer research center. Between these dramatic and a-
typical events, the media have dramatized the dangers of computer
renegades, and media anecdotes presented during Congressional legislative
debates to curtail "computer abuse" dramatized the "computer hacking
problem" (Hollinger and Lanza-Kaduce, 1988: 107). Although the accuracy
and objectivity of the evidence has since been challenged (Hollinger and
Lanza-Kaduce 1988: 105), the media continue to format CU activity by
suggesting that any com- puter-related felony can be attributed to hacking.
Additionally, media stories are taken from the accounts of police blotters,
se- curity personnel, and apprehended hackers, each of whom have dif-
ferent perspectives and definitions. This creates a self-rein- forcing
imagery in which extreme examples and cursively circulated data are
discretely adduced to substantiate the claim of criminality by those with
a vested interest in creating and maintaining such definitions. For
example, Conly and McEwen (1990) list examples of law enforcement
jurisdictions in which special units to fight "computer crime," very
broadly defined, have been created. These broad definitions serve to
expand the scope of authority and resources of the units. Nonetheless,
de- spite criminalization, there is little evidence to support the
contention that computer hacking has been sufficiently abusive or pervasive
to warrant prosecution (Michalowski and Pfuhl, forth- coming).
As an antidote to the conventional meanings of CU activity as simply
one of deviance, we shift the social meaning of CU behavior from one of
stigma to one of culture creation and meaning. Our work is tentative, in
part because of the lack of previous substantive literature and in part
because of the complexity of the data, which indicate a multiplicity of
subcultures within the CU. This paper examines of two distinct CU
subcultures, phreaks and hackers, and challenges the Manichean view that
hackers can be understood simply as profaners of a sacred moral and
economic order. The Computer Underground and Postmodernism The computer
underground is a culture of persons who call computer bulletin board
systems (BBSs, or just "boards"), and share the interests fostered by the
BBS.
In conceptualizing the computer underground as a distinct culture, we
draw from Geertz's (1973: 5) definition of culture as a system of meanings
that give significance to shared behaviors that must be interpreted from
the perspective of those engaged in them. A culture provides not only the
"systems of standards for perceiving, believing, evalu- ating, and acting"
(Goodenough, 1981: 110), but includes the rules and symbols of
interpretation and discourse for partici- pants: In crude relief, culture
can be understood as a set of solutions devised by a group of people to
meet specific problems posed by situations they face in com- mon. . .
This notion of culture as a living, historical product of group problem
solving allows an approach to cultural study that is applicable to any
group, be it a society, a neighborhood, a family, a dance band, or an
organization and its segments (Van Maanen and Barley, 1985: 33).
Creating and maintaining a culture requires continuous indi- vidual or
group processes of sustaining an identity through the coherence gained by
a consistent aesthetic point of view, a moral conception of self, and a
lifestyle that expresses those concep- tions in one's immediate existence
and tastes (Bell, 1976: 36). These behavioral expressions signify a
variety of meanings, and as signifiers they reflect a type of code that
can be interpreted semiotically, or as a sign system amenable to readings
indepen- dent of either participants or of those imposed by the super-or-
dinate culture:
All aspects of culture possess a semiotic value, and the most
taken-for-granted phenomena can function as signs: as elements in
communication systems governed by semantic rules and codes which are
not themselves directly apprehended in experience. These signs are,
then, as opaque as the social relations which produce them and which
they re-present (Hebdige, 1982: 13).
It is this symbolic cultural ethos, by which we mean the style,
world view, and mood (Hebdige, 1979), that reflects the postmodernist
elements of the CU and separates it from modernism. Modernist culture is
characterized especially by rationality, technological enhancement,
deference to centralized control, and mass communication. The emergence
of computer technology has created dramatic changes in social
communication, economic trans- actions, and information processing and
sharing, while simultane- ously introducing new forms of surveillance,
social control, and intrusions on privacy (Marx, 1988a: 208-211; Marx and
Reichman, 1985). This has contributed to a:
. . . richly confused and hugely verbal age, energized by a multitude
of competing discourses, the very pro- liferation and plasticity of
which increasingly determine what we defensively refer to as our
reality (New- man, 1985: 15).
By Postmodernism we mean a reaction against "cultural moder- nity" and
a destruction of the constraints of the present "maxi- mum security
society" (Marx, 1988b) that reflect an attempt to gain control of an
alternative future. In the CU world, this con- stitutes a conscious
resistance to the domination of but not the fact of technological
encroachment into all realms of our social existence. The CU represents a
reaction against modernism by of- fering an ironic response to the primacy
of a master technocratic language, the incursion of computers into realms
once considered private, the politics of techno-society, and the sanctity
of es- tablished civil and state authority. Postmodernism is character-
ized not so much by a single definition as by a number of inter- related
characteristics, including, but not limited to:
1. Dissent for dissent's sake (Lyotard, 1988).
2. The collapse of the hierarchical distinction between mass
and popular culture (Featherstone, 1988: 203).
3. A stylistic promiscuity favoring eclecticism and the mix-
ing of codes (Featherstone, 1988: 203).
4. Parody, pastiche, irony, playfulness and the celebration
of the surface "depthlessness" of culture (Featherstone,
1988: 203).
5. The decline of the originality/genius of the artistic pro-
ducer and the assumption that art can only be repetitious
(Featherstone 1988: 203).
6. The stripping away of social and perceptual coordinates
that let one "know where one is" (Latimer, 1984: 121).
7. A search for new ways to make the unpresentable presenta-
ble, and break down the barriers that keep the profane out
of everyday life (Denzin, 1988: 471).
8. The introduction of new moves into old games or inventing
new games that are evaluated pragmatically rather than
from some uniform stand point of "truth" or philosophical
discourse (Callinicos, 1985: 86).
9. Emphasis on the visual over the literary (Lash, 1988:
314).
10. Devaluation of formalism and juxtaposition of signifiers
taken from the banalities of everyday life (Lash, 1988:
314).
11. Contesting of rationalist and/or didactive views of cul-
ture (Lash, 1988: 314).
12. Asking not what a cultural text means, but what it does
(Lash, 1988: 314).
13. Operation through the spectator's immersion, the relative-
ly unmediated investment of his/her desire in the cultural
object (Lash, 1988: 314).
14. Acknowledgement of the decenteredness of modern life and
"plays with the apparent emptiness of modern life as well
as the lack of coherence in modern symbol systems" (Man-
ning, 1989: 8).
"Post-Modernism" in its positive form constitutes an intel- lectual
attack upon the atomized, passive and indifferent mass culture which,
through the saturation of electronic technology, has reached its zenith in
Post-War American (Newman, 1985: 5). It is this style of playful
rebellion, irreverent subversion, and juxtaposition of fantasy with
high-tech reality that impels us to interpret the computer underground as a
postmodernist culture.
Data and Method
Obtaining data from any underground culture requires tact. BBS
operators protect the privacy of users and access to elite boards, or at
least to their relevant security levels, virtually always requires
completion of a preliminary questionnaire, a screening process, and
occasional voice verification. Research- ers generally do not themselves
violate laws or dominant norms, so they depend on their informants for
potentially "dirty infor- mation" (Thomas and Marquart, 1988). Our own
data are no excep- tion and derive from several sources.
First, the bulk of our data come from computer bulletin board
systems. BBSs are personal computers (PCs) that have been equipped with a
telephone modem and special software that con- nects users to other PCs by
telephone. After "logging in" by supplying a valid user name and
password, the user can receive and leave messages to other users of the
system. These messages are rarely private and anyone calling the BBS can
freely read and respond to them. There is usually the capacity to receive
(down- load) or send (upload) text files ("G-philes") or software pro-
grams between the caller and host system.
We logged the message section of CU BBSs to compile documen- tary
evidence of the issues deemed important for discussion by participants.
Logs are "captured" (recorded using the computer buffer) messages left on
the board by users. Calculating the quantity of logged data is difficult
because of formatting vari- ance, but we estimate that our logs exceed
10,000 printed pages. The logs cited here are verbatim with the exception
of minor editing changes in format and extreme typographical errors.
Identifying underground BBSs can be difficult, and to the
uninitiated they may appear to be licit chat or shareware boards. For
callers with sufficient access, however, there exist back- stage realms
in which "cracking" information is exchanged and private text or
software files made available. With current technology, establishing a
BBS requires little initial skill. Most boards are short-lived and serve
only local or regional callers. Because of the generally poor quality
and amateur na- ture of these systems, we focused on national elite boards.
We considered a board "elite" if it met all of the following charac-
teristics: At least one quarter of the users were registered out- side the
state of the board called; the phone line were exclu- sively for BBS use
and available 24 hours a day; and the information and files/warez were
current "state of the field." Elite CU members argue that there are less
than ten "truly elite" p/hacker boards nationally.
We obtained the names and numbers of BBSs from the first boards we
called, and used a snowball technique to supplement the list. We obtained
additional numbers from CU periodicals, and, as we became more familiar
with the culture, users also added to the list. Our aggregate data
include no less than 300 Bulletin board systems, of which at least 50
attract phreaks and hackers, and voice or on-line interviews with no less
than 45 sysops (op- erators of BBS systems) and other active CU
participants.
A second data source included open-ended voice and on-line interviews
with hackers, phreaks and pirates. The data include no less than 25
face-to-face, 25 telephone, and 60 on-line inter- views obtained as we
became familiar with our informants.
Third, data acquisition included as much participation as legally
possible in CU activities[3]. This served to justify our presence in the
culture and provided information about the mun- dane activity of the CU.
Finally, we obtained back and current issues of the primary
underground computerized magazines, which are distributed on na- tional
BBSs as text files. These contain information relevant to the particular
subculture, and included PHRACK, Activist Times Incorporated (ATI),
P/Hun, 2600 Magazine, PIRATE, TAP, and Legion of Doom (LoD/H). We also
draw data from national and interna- tional electronic mail (e-mail)
systems on which an active infor- mation-sharing CU network has developed
and spread.
Assessing the validity and reliability of data obtained in this
manner creates special problems. One is that of sampling. The number of
boards, their often ephemeral existence, and the problem of obtaining
access makes conventional sampling impossible. We focused on national
boards and engaged in theoretical sampling (Glaser and Strauss, 1967:
45-77). We consider our sam- ple representative, and accept Bordieu's
observation that:
If, following the canon dictated by orthodox methodology, you take a
random sample, you mutilate the very ob- ject you have set out to
construct. If, in a study of the field of lawyers, for instance, you
do not draw the President of the Supreme Court, or if, in an inquiry
into the French intellectual field of the 1950s, you leave out
Jean-Paul Sartre, or Princeton University in a study of American
academics, your field is destroyed, insofar as these personas or
institutions alone mark a crucial position--there are positions in a
field which command the whole structure (Bordieu, interviewed in
Wacquant, 1989: 38).
We judge our sample of participants adequate for several reasons.
First, we presume that the members with whom we have had contact comprise
the elite members of the culture, as deter- mined by the nature of the
boards they were on, references to them on national boards, the level of
expertise displayed in their messages, and their appearance in the "user
lists" of elite boards. We consider the BBSs to be "typical exemplars"
because of their status in the culture, because of the level of sophisti-
cation both of users and of message content, and because of ref- erences
to these boards as "elite" in CU periodicals.
The Computer Underground
The computer underground is both a life style and a social network.
As a lifestyle, it provides identity and roles, an op- erational ideology,
and guides daily routine. As a social net- work, it functions as a
communications channel between persons engaged in one of three basic
activities: Hacking, phreaking, and pirating[4]. Each subgroup
possesses an explicit style that includes an ethic and "code of honor,"
cohesive norms, career paths, and other characteristics that typify a
culture (Meyer, 1989a, 1989b;; Meyer and Thomas, 1989).
Hebdige (1982: 113-117) used the concept of homology to de- scribe
the structural unity that binds participants and provides the "symbolic
fit between the values and life-styles of a group" and how it expresses or
reinforces its focal concerns. Homology refers to the affinity and
similarities members of a group share that give it the particular cultural
identity. These shared al- ternative values and actions connect CU
members to each other and their culture, and create a celebration of
"otherness" from the broader culture.
Hackers
(Tune: "Put Another Nickel in")
Put another password in,
Bomb it out, and try again,
Try to get past logging in,
Were hacking, hacking, hacking.
Try his first wife's maiden name,
This is more than just a game,
It's real fun, but just the same
It's hacking, hacking, hacking.
Sys-call, let's try sys-call.
Remember, that great bug from Version 3,
Of R S X, It's here! Whoopee!
Put another sys-call in,
Run those passwords out and then,
Dial back up, we're logging on,
We're hacking, hacking, hacking.
(The Hacker Anthem, by Chesire Catalyst)
Hacking broadly refers to attempts to gain access to comput- ers to
which one does not possess authorization. The term "hack- ers" first came
into use in the early 1960's when it was applied to a group of pioneering
computer aficionados at MIT (Levy, 1984). Through the 1970s, a hacker
was viewed as someone obs- essed with understanding and mastering computer
systems (Levy 1984). But, in the early 1980's, stimulated by the release of
the movie "War Games" and the much publicized arrest of a "hacker gang"
known as "The 414s", hackers were seen as young whiz-kids capable of
breaking into corporate and government computer sys- tems (Landreth
1985:34). The imprecise media definition and the lack of any clear
understanding of what it means to be a hacker results in the
mis-application of the label to all forms of com- puter malfeasance.
Despite the inter-relationship between phreaks and hackers, the label
of "hacker" is generally reserved for those engaged in computer system
trespassing. For CU participants, hacking can mean either attempting to
gain access to a computer system, or the more refined goals of exploring
in, experimenting with, or testing a computer system. In the first
connotation, hacking re- quires skills to obtain valid user accounts on
computer systems that would otherwise be unavailable, and the term
connotes the repetitive nature of break-in attempts. Once successful entry
is made, the illicit accounts are often shared among associates and
described as being "freshly (or newly) hacked."
The second connotation refers to someone possessing the knowledge,
ability, and desire to fully explore a computer sys- tem. For elite
hackers, the mere act of gaining entry is not enough to warrant the
"hacker" label; there must be a desire to master and skill to use the
system after access has been achieved:
It's Sunday night, and I'm in my room, deep into a hack. My eyes
are on the monitor, and my hands are on the keyboard, but my mind is
really on the operating system of a super-minicomputer a thousand
miles away - a super-mini with an operating systems that does a good
job of tracking users, and that will show my activities in its user
logs, unless I can outwit it in the few hours before the Monday
morning staff arrives for work.....Eighteen hours ago, I managed to
hack a pass- word for the PDP 11/44. Now, I have only an hour or so
left to alter the user logs. If I don't the logs will lead the system
operators to my secret account, and the hours of work it took me to
get this account will be wasted (Landreth, 1985: 57-58).
An elite hacker must experiment with command structures and explore
the many files available in order to understand and ef- fectively use the
system. This is sometimes called "hacking around" or simply "hacking a
system". This distinction is neces- sary because not all trespassers are
necessarily skilled at hack- ing out passwords, and not all hackers retain
interest in a sys- tem once the challenge of gaining entry has been
surmounted. Further, passwords and accounts are often traded, allowing
even an unskilled intruder to erroneously claim the title of "hacker."
Our data indicate that, contrary to their media image, hack- ers avoid
deliberately destroying data or otherwise damaging the system. Doing so
would conflict with their instrumental goal of blending in with the average
user to conceal their presence and prevent the deletion of the account.
After spending what may be a substantial amount of time obtaining a high
access account, the hacker places a high priority on not being discovered
using it, and hackers share considerable contempt for media stories that
portray them as "criminals." The leading CU periodicals (e.g., PHRACK,
PIRATE) and several CU "home boards" reprint and disseminate media
stories, adding ironic commentary. The percep- tion of media distortion
also provides grist for message sec- tions:
A1: I myself hate newspaper reporters who do stories on hackers,
piraters, phreaks, etc...because they always make us sound like these
incred. %sic% smart people (which isn't too bad) who are the biggest
threat to to- days community. Shit...the BEST hackers/phreaks/etc
will tell you that they only do it to gain information on those
systems, etc...(Freedom - That's what they call it...right?) (grin)
A2: Good point...never met a "real p/h type yet who was into ripping
off. To rip of a line from the Steve Good- man song (loosely), the
game's the thing. Even those who allegedly fly the jolly rodger
%pirates%, the true ones, don't do it for the rip-off, but, like
monopoly, to see if they can get Boardwalk and Park Place without
losing any railroads. Fun of the latter is to start on a board with a
single good game or util %software util- ity% and see what it can be
turned into, so I'm told. Fuck the press (DS message log, 1989).
One elite hacker, a member of a loose-knit organization re- cently in
the national news when some participants were indicted for hacking,
responded to media distortions of the group by is- sueing an underground
press release:
My name is %deleted%, but to the computer world, I am %deleted%. I
have been a member of the group known as Legion of Doom since its
creation, and admittedly I have not been the most legitimate computer
user around, but when people start hinting at my supposed Communist-
backed actions, and say that I am involved in a world- wide
conspiracy to destroy the nation's computer and/or 911 network, I
have to speak up and hope that people will take what I have to say
seriously. . . .
People just can't seem to grasp the fact that a group of 20 year old
kids just might know a little more than they do, and rather than
make good use of us, they would rather just lock us away and keep
on letting things pass by them. I've said this before, you can't
stop burglars from robbing you when you leave the doors unlocked and
merely bash them in the head with baseball bats when they walk in.
You need to lock the door. But when you leave the doors open, but
lock up the peo- ple who can close them for you another burglar will
just walk right in ("EB," 1990).
Although skirting the law, hackers possess an explicit ethic and their
primary goal is knowledge acquisition. Levy (1984: 26-36) identifies six
"planks" of the original hacker ethic, and these continue to guide modern
hackers:
1. First, access to computers should be unlimited and total:
"Always yield to the Hands-On Imperative!"
2. Second, all information should be free.
3. Third, mistrust authority and promote decentralization.
4. Fourth, hackers should be judged by their prowess as hack-
ers rather than by formal organizational or other irrele-
vant criteria.
5. Fifth, one can create art and beauty on a computer.
6. Finally, computers can change lives for the better.
PHRACK, recognized as the "official" p/hacker newsletter, expanded
on this creed with a rationale that can be summarized in three principles
("Doctor Crash," 1986). First, hackers reject the notion that
"businesses" are the only groups entitled to ac- cess and use of modern
technology. Second, hacking is a major weapon in the fight against
encroaching computer technology. Fi- nally, the high cost of equipment
is beyond the means of most hackers, which results in the perception that
hacking and phreak- ing are the only recourse to spreading computer
literacy to the masses:
Hacking. It is a full time hobby, taking countless hours per week
to learn, experiment, and execute the art of penetrating multi-user
computers: Why do hack- ers spend a good portion of their time
hacking? Some might say it is scientific curiosity, others that it
is for mental stimulation. But the true roots of hacker motives run
much deeper than that. In this file I will describe the underlying
motives of the aware hackers, make known the connections between
Hacking, Phreaking, Carding, and Anarchy, and make known the
"techno-revo- lution" which is laying seeds in the mind of every
hacker. . . .If you need a tutorial on how to perform any of the
above stated methods %of hacking%, please read a %PHRACK% file on
it. And whatever you do, con- tinue the fight. Whether you know it
or not, if you are a hacker, you are a revolutionary. Don't worry,
you're on the right side ("Doctor Crash," 1986).
Computer software, such as auto-dialers popularized in the film War
Games, provides a means for inexperienced hackers to search out other
computers. Auto-dialers randomly dial numbers and save the "hits" for
manual testing later. Some users self-i- dentify has hackers simply on
the basis of successfully collect- ing computer numbers or passwords, but
these users are considered "lamerz," because they do not possess sufficient
knowledge to ob- tain access or move about in the system once access is
obtained. Lamerz are readily identified by their message content:
Sub ->numbers
From -> (#538)
To ->all
Date ->02/21/xx 06:10:00 PM
Does anyone know any numbers for hotels, schools, busi- nesses,
etc..and passwords if you do please leave a bulletin with the number
and the password and/or logon id.
Sub ->phun
From -> (#138)
To ->all
Date ->02/22/xx 12:21:00 AM
Anyone out there got some good 800 dial up that are fairly safe to
hack? If so could ya leave me em in e- mail or post em with the
formats.....any help would%be appreciated......
thanx
- 18 -
Sub ->NUMBERS
From -> (#538)
To ->ALL
Date ->02/24/xx 03:12:00 PM
Does anyone have any 1-800 numbers with id, logon and passwords?
Sub ->Credit Card's for Codez
From -> (#134)
To ->All
Date ->01/26/xx 07:43:00 AM
Tell ya what. I will exchange any amount of credit cards for a code
or two. You name the credit limit you want on the credit card and I
will get it for you. I do this cause I to janitorial work at night
INSIDE the bank when no one is there..... heheheheheh
Sub ->Codes..
From -> (#660)
To ->All
Date ->01/31/xx 01:29:00 AM
Well, instead of leaving codes, could you leave us "uninformed"
people with a few 800 dialups and formats? I don't need codes, I just
want dialups! Is that so much to ask? I would be willing to trade
CC's %credit cards% for dialups. Lemme know..
Sub ->0266 Codez
From -> (#134)
To ->All
Date ->01/31/xx 06:56:00 AM
Anyone, What is the full dial up for 0266 codez? Such requests are
considered amateurish, rarely generate the requested information, and
elicit predictable "flamez" (severe criticism) or even potentially
dangerous pseudo-assistance:
Sub ->Reply to: 0266 Codez
From -> (#124)
To ->C-Poo
Date ->01/31/xx 09:02:00 AM
Okay, here's the full info, Chris: Dial
1-900-(pause)-%xxx%-REAL. When it answers, hit
#*9876321233456534323545766764 Got it? Okay, here's a 800 number to
try: 1-800-426-%xxxx%. Give the opera- tor your zip,and fake it
from there! Enjoy, you hack- meister, you!
Sub ->Reply to: 0266 Codez
From -> (#448)
To -> #38
Date ->01/31/xx 03:43:00 PM
What the fuck kind of question is that? Are you that stupid? what
is the full dial up for an 0266? Give me a break! Call back when you
learn not when you want to leech!
Sub ->CC-ING
From -> (#393)
To -> #38
Date ->02/05/xx 01:41:00 AM
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU? PROBABLY A NARC, AREN'T YA! NO ONE IN HIS
RIGHT MIND ASKS FOR CARDS. (AND NARCS AREN'T IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS) AND
GIVE OUT CARDS, WHAT DO YOU THINK WE ARE, SHLONGS?! PERSONALLY I GET
MY OWN ON THE JOB, PUMPING GAS PAYS A LOT MORE THAN YOU THINK,
THEREFORE I DON'T NEED ANY. THINK ABOUT IT, IF YOU ARE A GOOD HACKER,
WHICH I CAN SEE YOU'RE NOT, THEN YOU CAN HACK OUT YOUR OWN CODEZ.
PEOPLE WHO NEED CCS CAN CALL CC-VMBS. I HAVE ONE, BUT DON'T ASK FOR
IT. IF YOU DON'T KNOW MY CC-VMB LINE THEN YOU'RE NOT TO WELL
KNOWN. A LOT OF KNOWN HACKERS KNOW MY CC-VMB LINE. WELL, IF YOU'RE
A NARC, YOU'VE JUST BEEN FOUND OUT, IF NOT YOU MIGHT WANT TO GET A
JOB AS ONE CUZ YOU ACT JUST LIKE ONE %In BBS protocol, upper case
letters indicate emphasis, anger, or shouting%.
Although hackers freely acknowledge that their activities may be
occasionally illegal, considerable emphasis is placed on limiting
violations only to those required to obtain access and learn a system, and
they display hostility toward those who transgress beyond beyond these
limits. Most experienced CU mem- bers are suspicious of young novices who
are often entranced with what they perceive to be the "romance" of hacking.
Elite hackers complain continuously that novices are at an increased risk
of apprehension and also can "trash" accounts on which experienced hackers
have gained and hidden their access. Nonetheless, experienced hackers
take pride in their ethic of mentoring promis- ing newcomers, both through
their BBSs and newsletters:
As %my% reputation grew, answering such requests [from novice hackers
wanting help] became a matter of pride. No matter how difficult the
question happened to be, I would sit at the terminal for five, ten,
twenty hours at a time, until I had the answer (Landreth, 1985: 16).
The nation's top elite p/hacker board was particularly nurturing of
promising novices before it voluntarily closed in early 1990, and its
sysop's handle means "teacher." PHRACK, begun in 1985, normally
contained 10-12 educational articles (or "phi- les"), most of which
provided explicit sophisticated technical information about computer
networks and telecommunications sys- tems[5]. Boundary socialization
occurs in message bases and newsletters that either discourage such
activity or provide guidelines for concealing access once obtained:
Welcome to the world of hacking! We, the people who live outside of
the normal rules, and have been scorned and even arrested by those
from the 'civilized world', are becoming scarcer every day. This is
due to the greater fear of what a good hacker (skill wise, no mor- al
judgements here) can do nowadays, thus causing anti- hacker sentiment
in the masses. Also, few hackers seem to actually know about the
computer systems they hack, or what equipment they will run into on
the front end, or what they could do wrong on a system to alert the
'higher' authorities who monitor the system. This arti- cle is
intended to tell you about some things not to do, even before you
get on the system. We will tell you about the new wave of front end
security devices that are beginning to be used on computers. We will
attempt to instill in you a second identity, to be brought up at time
of great need, to pull you out of trouble. (p/hacker newsletter,
1987).
Elite hacking requires highly sophisticated technical skills to enter
the maze of protective barriers, recognize the computer type, and move
about at the highest system levels. As a conse- quence, information
sharing becomes the sine qua non of the hack- er culture. "Main message"
sections are generally open to all users, but only general information,
gossip, and casual commen- tary is posted. Elite users, those with higher
security privileg- es and access to the "backstage" regions, share
technical infor- mation and problems, of which the following is typical:
89Mar11
From ***** ** * ***>
Help! Anyone familiar with a system that responds:
A2: SELECT : DISPLAY:
1=TRUNK,2=SXS;INPUT:3=TRUNK,4=SXS,5=DELETE;7=MSG <and
then it gives you a prompt> If you chose 1... ENTER
OLD#,(R=RETURN)
At this point I know you can enter 7 digits, the 8th
will give you an INVALID ENTRY type message. Some num-
bers don't work however. (1,2,7,8 I know will)
Anybody?
89Mar10
From *********>
I was hacking around on telenet (415 area code) and got a few things
that I am stuck-o on if ya can help, I'd be greatly happy. First of
all, I got one that is called RCC PALO ALTO and I can't figure it
out. Second (and this looks pretty fun) is the ESPRIT COMMAIL and I
know that a user name is SYSTEM because it asked for a password on
ONLY that account (pretty obvious eh?) a few primnet and geonet
nodes and a bunch of TELENET ASYYNC to 3270 SERVICE. It asks for
TERMINAL TYPE, my LU NUMBER and on numbers higher than 0 and lower
that 22 it asks for a password. Is it an outdial? What are some
common passwords? then I got a sushi-primnet sys- tem. And a dELUT
system. And at 206174 there is JUST a : prompt. help! (P/h
message log, 1988).
Rebelliousness also permeates the hacker culture and is re- flected
in actions, messages, and symbolic identities. Like oth- er CU
participants, hackers employ handles (aliases) intended to display an
aspect of one's personality and interests, and a han- dle can often reveal
whether its owner is a "lamer" (an incompe- tent) or sophisticated.
Hackers take pride in their assumed names, and one of the greatest taboos
is to use the handle of an- other or to use multiple handles. Handles are
borrowed liberally from the anti-heros of science fiction, adventure
fantasy, and heavy metal rock lyrics, particularly among younger users,
and from word plays on technology, nihilism, and violence. The CU handle
reflects a stylistic identity heavily influenced by meta- phors reflecting
color (especially red and black), supernatural power (e.g., "Ultimate
Warrior, "Dragon Lord"), and chaos ("Death Stalker," "Black Avenger"), or
ironic twists on technology, fan- tasy, or symbols of mass culture (e.g.,
Epeios, Phelix the Hack, Ellis Dea, Rambo Pacifist, Hitch Hacker).
This anti-establishment ethos also provides an ideological unity for
collective action. Hackers have been known to use their collective
skills in retaliation for acts against the cul- ture that the perceive as
unfair by, for example, changing credit data or "revoking" driver's
licenses (Sandza, 1984; "Yes, you Sound very Sexy," 1989). Following a
bust of a national hacker group, the message section of the "home board"
contained a lively debate on the desireability of a retaliatory response,
and the moderates prevailed. Influenced especially by such science fan-
tasy as William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984), John Brunner's The Shockwave
Rider (1975), and cyber-punk, which is a fusion of ele- ments of electronic
communication technology and the "punk" sub- culture, the hacker ethic
promotes resistance to the very forms that create it. Suggestive of
Frazer's (1922) The Golden Bough, power is challenged and supplanted by
rituals combining both de- struction and rejuvenation. From this emerges
a shared ethos of opposition against perceived Orwellian domination by an
informa- tion-controlling elite:
(Hackers will) always be necessary, especially in the technological
oppression of the future. Just imagine an information system that
systematically filters out certain obscene words. Then it will move
on to phras- es, and then entire ideas will be replaced by comput-
ers! Anyway, there will always be people tripping out on paper and
trying to keep it to themselves, and it's up to us to at least loosen
their grasp (P.A. Message Log 1988).
Another hacker summarized the near-anarchist ethic characterized
the CU style:
Lookit, we're here as criminal hobbyists, peeping toms, and looters.
I am in it for the fun. Not providing the public what it has a right
to know, or keeping big brother in check. I couldn't care less. I
am sick of the old journalistic hackers nonsense about or (oops! OUR)
computerized ego...I make no attempt to justify what I am doing.
Because it doesn't matter. As long as we live in this goddamn welfare
state I might as well have some fun taking what isn't mine, and I am
better off than those welfare-assholes who justify their stealing.
At least I am smart enough to know that the free lunch can't go on
forever (U.U. message log 1988).
In sum, the hacker style reflects well-defined goals, commu- nication
networks, values, and an ethos of resistance to authori- ty. Because
hacking requires a broader range of knowledge than does phreaking, and
because such knowledge can be acquired only through experience, hackers
tend to be both older and more knowl- edgeable than phreaks. In addition,
despite some overlap, the goals of the two are somewhat dissimilar. As a
consequence, each group constitutes a separate analytic category. Phreaks.
Running numbers is not only fun; it's a moral impera- tive! (Phreak
credo).
Phreaking broadly refers to the practice of using either technology
or telephone credit card numbers (called "codez") to avoid long distance
charges. Phreaking attained public visibili- ty with the revelation of
the exploits of John "Cap'n Crunch" Draper, the "father of phreaking"
(Rosenbaum, 1971). Although phreaking and hacking each require different
skills, phreaks and hackers tend to associate on same boards. Unlike
hackers, who attempt to master a computer system and its command and
security structure, phreaks struggle to master telecom (tele-communica-
tions) technology:
The phone system is the most interesting, fascinating thing that I
know of. There is so much to know. Even phreaks have their own areas
of knowledge. There is so much to know that one phreak could know
something fair- ly important and the next phreak not. The next phreak
might know 10 things that the first phreak doesn't though. It all
depends upon where and how they get their info. I myself would like
to work for the telco, doing something interesting, like programming a
switch. Something that isn't slave labor bullshit. Something that
you enjoy, but have to take risks in order to par- ticipate unless you
are lucky enough to work for Bell/ AT&T/any telco. To have legal
access to telco things, manuals, etc. would be great (message log,
1988).
Early phreaking methods involved electro-mechanical devices that
generated key tones or altered phone line voltages to trick the mechanical
switches of the phone company into connecting calls without charging, but
the advent of computerized telephone- switching systems largely made these
devices obsolete. In order to continue their practice, phreaks have had
to learn hacking skills in order to obtain access to telephone company
computers and software.
Access to telecom information takes several forms, and the possesion
of numbers for "loops" and "bridges," while lying in a grey area of law,
further enhances the reputation and status of a phreak. P/hackers can
utilize "loop lines" to limit the number of eavesdroppers on their
conversations. Unlike bridges, which connect an unlimited number of
callers simultaneously, loops are limited to just two people at a time[6].
A "bridge" is a techni- cal name for what is commonly known as a "chat
line" or "confer- ence system." Bridges are familiar to the public as the
pay-per- minute group conversation systems advertised on late night
television. Many bridge systems are owned by large corporations that
maintain them for business use during the day. While the numbers to
these systems are not public knowledge, many of them have been discovered
by phreaks who then utilize the systems at night. Phreaks are skilled at
arranging for a temporary, pri- vate bridge to be created via ATT's
conference calling facili- ties. This provides a helpful information
sharing technique among a self-selected group of phreak/hackers:
Bridges can be extremely useful means of distributing information as
long as the %phone% number is not known, and you don't have a bunch
of children online testing out their DTMF. The last great discussion
I partici- pated with over a bridge occurred about 2 months ago on an
AT&T Quorum where all we did was engineer 3/way %calls% and
restrict ourselves to purely technical in- formation. We could have
convinced the Quorum operators that we were AT&T technicians had the
need occurred. Don't let the kids ruin all the fun and convenience of
bridges. Lameness is one thing, practicality is an- other (DC,
message log, 1988).
Phreaks recognize their precarious legal position, but see no other
way to "play the game:"
Phreaking involves having the dedication to commit yourself to
learning as much about the phone system/ network as possible. Since
most of this information is not made public, phreaks have to resort
to legally questionable means to obtain the knowledge they want
(TP2, message log, 1988).
Little sympathy exists among experienced phreaks for "teleco ripoff."
"Carding," or the use of fraudulent credit cards, is anathema to phreaks,
and not only violates the phreaking ethic, but is simply not the goal of
phreaking:
Credit card fraud truly gives hacking a bad name. Snooping around a
VAX is just electronic voyeurism. . .carding a new modem is just
flat out blue-collar crime. It's just as bad as breaking into a
house or kicking a puppy! %This phreak% does everything he can (even
up to turning off a number) to get credit infor- mation taken off a
BBS. %This phreak% also tries to remove codes from BBSes. He
doesn't see code abuse in the same light as credit card fraud,
(although the law does), but posted codes are the quickest way to
get your board busted, and your computer confiscated. Peo- ple should
just find a local outdial to wherever they want to call and use
that. If you only make local calls from an outdial, it will never
die, you will keep out of trouble, and everyone will be happy
(PHRACK, 3(28): Phile 2).
Experienced phreaks become easily angered at novices and "lamerz"
who engage in fraud or are interested only in "leeching" (obtaining
something for nothing):
Sub ->Carding
From ->JB (#208)
To ->ALL
Date ->02/10/xx 02:22:00 PM
What do you people think about using a parents card number for
carding? For instance, if I had a friend order and receive via next
day air on my parents card, and receive it at my parents house while
we were on va- cation. Do you think that would work? Cuz then, all
that we have to do is to leave the note, and have the bud pick up the
packages, and when the bill came for over $1500, then we just say...
'Fuck you! We were on vacation! Look at our airline tickets!' I
hope it does... Its such a great plan!
Sub ->Reply to: Carding
From -> (xxx)
To -> X
Date ->02/11xx 03: 16:00 AM
NO IT'S NOT A GREAT IDEA! WHERE'S YOUR SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY TO
YOUR FAMILY? ARE THEY ALL IN AGREEMENT WITH YOU? WOULD YOU WANT
ANYONE TO USE YOUR PRIVATE STUFF IN ILLEGAL (AND IMMORAL)
ACTIVITIES WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE? DIDJA EVER HEAR ABOUT TRUST
BETWEEN FAMILY MEMBERS? IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE A THIEF (AND THAT'S
NOT NEAT LIKE JAMES BOND IN THE MOVIES), TAKE THE RISKS ONLY UPON
YOURSELF!
Sub ->Carding
From -> (#208)
To -> (#47)
Date ->02/12/xx 11: 18:00 AM
Why not? We have a law that says that we have the right to refuse
payment to credit cards if there are fraudulent charges. All we do
and it is settled.... what is so bad about it? I'm going for it!
Sub ->Reply to: Carding
From -> (xxx)
To ->J.B.
Date ->02/13/xx 02:08:00 AM
APPARENTLY YOU MISSED THE MAIN POINTS I TRIED TO MAKE TO YOU . . .
YOU'RE A THIEF AND A LIAR, AND ARE BETRAYING THE TRUST OF YOUR
FAMILY AS WELL AS INVOLVING THEM IN YOUR RISK WITHOUT THEIR KNOWLEDGE.
THAT MEANS YOU ARE A FAIRLY SCUMMY INDIVIDUAL IF YOU GO THROUGH WITH
IT! NOW AS TO YOUR "DEFENCE" ABOUT $50 MAXIMUMS AND ERRONEOUS
BILLINGS.. LAW MAKES A CLEAR DISTINCTION ABOUT THEFT BY FRAUD (OF
WHICH YOU WOULD BE GUILTY). AND IN A LARGER SENSE, YOUR THEFT JUST
MAKES IT MORE COSTLY FOR YOU YOU AND EVERYBODY ELSE TO GET CREDIT,
AND DO BUSINESS WITH CREDIT CARDS. YOU'RE GOING TO DO WHATEVER YOU
DO ANYWAY.....DON'T LOOK FOR ANY APPROVAL IN THIS DIRECTION.
Ironically, experienced phreaks are not only offended by such
disregard of law, but also feel that "rip-off artists" have no information
to share and only increase the risk for the "tech- no-junkies." Message
boards reflect hostility toward apprehended "lamerz" with such comments as
"I hope they burn him," or "the lamer probably narked %turned informant%
to the pheds %law en- forcement agents%." Experienced phreaks also post
continual re- minders that some actions, because of their illegality, are
sim- ply unacceptable:
It should be pointed out however, that should any of you crack any
WATS EXTENDER access codes and attempt to use them, you are guilty
of Theft of communications services from the company who owns it, and
Bell is very willing and able to help nail you! WATS EXTENDERS can
get you in every bit as much trouble as a Blue Box should you be
caught.
Ex-phreaks, especially those who are no longer defined by law as
juveniles, often attempt to caution younger phreaks from pursuing
phreaking:
ZA1: One thing to consider, also, is that the phone co. knows where
the junction box is for all of the lines that you are messing with
and if they get enough com- plaints about the bills, they may start
to check things out (I hope your work is neat). I would guess that
the odds are probably against this from happening though, because
when each of the people call to complain, they'll probably get a
different person from the oth- ers. This means that someone at Ma
Bell has to notice that all of the complaints are coming from the
same area...I don't think anybody there really cares that much about
their job to really start noticing things like that...anyway,
enjoy!!! My guess is that you're under-age. Anyway, so if they
catch you, they won't do anything to you anyway.
ZB1: Yeah I am a minor (17 years old) I just hope that they don't
cause I would like to not have a criminal or juvenile record when I
apply to college. Also if they do come as I said in the other
message if there are no wires they can't prove shit. Also as I said I
only hook up after 6 p.m. The phone company doesn't service peo- ple
after 6 p.m. Just recently (today) I hooked up to an empty line.
No wires were leading from the two plugs to somebody house but I got
a dial tone. How great. Don't have to worry about billing somebody
else. But I still have to disconnect cause the phone bills should be
coming to the other people pretty soon. HEHEHEHE
ZX1: Be cool on that, especially if you're calling oth- er boards.
Easiest way for telecom security to catch you is match the number
called to the time called, call the board, look at users log or
messages for hints of identity, then work from there. If you do it
too much to a pirate board, they can (and have successfully)
pressured the sysop to reveal the identity under threat of
prosecution. They may or may not be able to always trace it back,
but remember: Yesterday's phreaks are today's telecom security folk.
AND: IT'S NOT COOL TO PHREAK TO A PIRATE BOARD...draws attention to
that board and screws it up for everybody. So, be cool
phreaking....there's safer ways.
ZC2: Be cool, Wormburger. They can use all sorts of stuff for
evidence. Here's what they'd do in Ill. If they suspected you,
they'd flag the phone lines, send somebody out during the time you're
on (or they suspect you're on) and nail you. Don't want to squelch a
bud- ding phreak, but you're really taking an unnecessary chance.
Most of us have been doing stuff for some time, and just don't want
to see you get nailed for something. There's some good boards with
tips on how to phreak, and if you want the numbers, let me know. We've
survived to warn you because we know the dangers. If you don't know
what ESS is, best do some quick research (P/h message log, 1988).
In sum, the attraction of phreaking and its attendant life- style
appear to center on three fundamental characteristics: The quest for
knowledge, the belief in a higher ideological purpose of opposition to
potentially dangerous technological control, and the enjoyment of
risk-taking. In a sense, CU participants con- sciously create dissonance
as a means of creating social meaning in what is perceived as an
increasingly meaningless world (Milo- vanovic and Thomas, 1989).
Together, phreaks and hackers have created an overlapping culture that,
whatever the legality, is seen by participants as a legitimate enterprise
in the new "tech- no-society."
Conclusion
The transition to an information-oriented society dependent on
computer technology brings with it new symbolic metaphors and behaviors.
Baudrillard (1987: 15) observed that our private sphere now ceases to be
the stage where the drama of subjects at odds with their objects and with
their image is played out, and we no longer exist as playwrites or actors,
but as terminals of multiple networks. The public space of the social
arena is re- duced to the private space of the computer desk, which in
turn creates a new semi-public, but restricted, public realm to which
dissonance seekers retreat. To participate in the computer un- derground
is to engage in what Baudrillard (1987: 15) describes as private
telematics, in which individuals, to extend Baudril- lard's fantasy
metaphor, are transported from their mundane com- puter system to the
controls of a hypothetical machine, isolated in a position of perfect
sovereignty, at an infinite distance from the original universe. There,
identity is created through symbolic strategies and collective beliefs
(Bordieu, cited in Wacquant, 1989: 35).
We have argued that the symbolic identity of the computer
underground creates a rich and diverse culture comprised of jus-
tifications, highly specialized skills, information-sharing net- works,
norms, status hierarchies, language, and unifying symbolic meanings. The
stylistic elements of CU identity and activity serve what Denzin (1988:
471) sees as the primary characteristic of postmodern behavior, which is
to make fun of the past while keeping it alive and the search for new
ways to present the un- presentable in order to break down the barriers
that keep the profane out of the everyday.
The risks entailed by acting on the fringes of legality and
substituting definitions of acceptable behavior with their own, the
playful parodying of mass culture, and the challenge to au- thority
constitute an exploration of the limits of techno-culture while resisting
the legal meanings that would control such ac- tions. The celebration
of anti-heros, re-enacted through forays into the world of computer
programs and software, reflects the stylistic promiscuity, eclecticism
and code-mixing that typifies the postmodern experience (Featherstone,
1988: 202). Rather than attempt to fit within modern culture and adapt to
values and def- initions imposed on them, CU participants mediate it by
mixing art, science, and resistance to create a culture with an alterna-
tive meaning both to the dominant one and to those that observers would
impose on them and on their enterprise.
Pfuhl (1987) cogently argued that criminalization of comput- er abuse
tends to polarize definitions of behavior. As a conse- quence, To view
the CU as simply another form of deviance, or as little more than
"high-tech street gangs" obscures the ironic, mythic, and subversive
element, the Nieztschean "will to power," reflected in the attempt to
master technology while challenging those forces that control it. The
"new society" spawned by com- puter technology is in its infancy, and, as
Sennet (1970: xvii) observed, the passage of societies through adolescence
to maturi- ty requires acceptance of disorder and painful dislocation.
Instead of embracing the dominant culture, the CU has creat- ed an
irreducible cultural alternative, one that cannot be under- stood without
locating its place within the dialectic of social change. Especially in
counter-cultures, as Hebdige (1983: 3) ob- serves, "objects are made to
mean and mean again," often ending:
. . .in the construction of a style, in a gesture of defiance or
contempt, in a smile or a sneer. It sig- nals a Refusal. I would
like to think that this Reusal is worth making, that these gestures
have a meaning, that the smiles and the sneers have some subversive
value. . . (Hebdige, 1982: 3).
Footnotes
[1] Participants in the computer underground engage in considera- ble word
play that includes juxtaposition of letters. For ex- ample, commonly
used words beginning with "f" are customarily spelled with a "ph."
The CU spelling conventions are re- tained throughout this paper.
[2] Conly and McEwen (1990: 3) classify "software piracy" in the same
category as theft of computers and trade secrets, and grossly confuse
both the concept and definition of computer crime by conflating any
illicit activity involving computers under a definition so broad that
embezzlement and bulletin boards all fall within it. However, the
label of "computer criminal" should be reserved for those who
manipulate comput- erized records in order to defraud or damage, a
point implied by Bequai (1978: 4) and Parker (1983: 106).
[3] One author has been active in the computer underground since 1984 and
participated in Summercon-88 in St. Louis, a nation- al conference of
elite hackers. The other began researching p/hackers and pirates in
1988. Both authors have had sysop experience with national CU boards.
As do virtually all CU participants, we used pseudonyms but, as we
became more fully immersed in the culture, our true identities were
sometimes revealed.
[4] Although we consider software pirates an integral part of the computer
underground, we have excluded them from this analy- sis both for
parsimony and because their actions are suffi- ciently different to
warrant separate analysis (Thomas and Meyer, 1990). We also have
excluded anarchist boards, which tend to be utilized by teenagers who
use BBSs to exchange in- formation relating to social disruption, such
as making home- made explosives, sabotaging equipment, and other less
dramat- ic pranks. These boards are largely symbolic, and despite the
name, are devoid of political intent. However, our data sug- gest that
many hackers began their careers because of the an- archist influence.
[5] In January, 1990, the co-editor of the magazine was indicted for
allegedly "transporting" stolen property across state lines.
According to the Secret Service agent in charge of the case in Atlanta
(personal communication), the offender was apprehended for receiving
copies of E911 ("enhanced" 911 emergency system) documents by
electronic mail, but added that there was no evidence that those
involved were motivated by, or received, material gain.
[6] "Loop lines" are telephone company test lines installed for two
separate telephone numbers that connect only to each oth- er. Each end
has a separate phone number, and when each per- son calls one end, they
are connected to each other automati- cally. A loop consists of "Dual
Tone Multi-Frequency," which is the touch tone sounds used to dial
phone numbers. These test lines are discovered by phreaks and hackers
by program- ming their home computer to dial numbers at random and
"lis- ten" for the distinctive tone that an answering loop makes, by
asking sympathetic telephone company employees, or through information
contained on internal company computers.
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