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% REVENGE OF THE HACKERS %
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% By: Richard Sandza %
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% Typed by %
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% --==**>>THE REFLEX<<**==-- %
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% [Member: Omnipotent, Inc.] %
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% %
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% This is the follow-up to the %
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% article 'Night of the Hackers'. %
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% It caused a lot of havok for the %
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% author. This originally %
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% appeared in NEWSWEEK. %
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% %
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'Conference!' someone yelled as I put the phone to my ear. Then came a
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mind-piercing 'beep,' and suddenly my kitchen seemed full of hyperactive 15-
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year-olds. 'You the guy that wrote the article in NEWSWEEK?' someone shouted
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from the depths of static, chatter and giggles. 'We're gonna disconnect your
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phone,' one shrieked. 'We're going to blow up your house,' called another. I
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hung up.
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Some irate readers write letters to the editor. A few call their lawyers.
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Hackers, however, use the computer and telephone, and for more than simple
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comment. Within days, computer 'bulletin boards' around the country were lit
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up with attacks on NEWSWEEK'S 'Montana Wildhack' (a name I took from a Kurt
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Vonnegut character), questioning everything from my manhood to my prose style.
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'Until we get real good revenge ,' said one message from the Unknown Warrior,
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'I would like to suggest that everyone with an auto-dial modem call Montana
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Butthack then hang up when he answers.' Since then the hackers of America have
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called my home at least 200 times. My harshest critics communicate on
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Dragonfire, a Gainesville, Texas, bulletin board where I'm on tele-trial, a
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video-game lynching in which a computer user with a grievance dials the board
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and presses charges against an offending party. Other hackers - including the
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defedant - post concurences or rebuttals. Despite the mealtime interruptions,
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all of this was at most a minor nuisance; some was amusing, even fun.
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Fraud: The fun stopped with a call from a man who identified himself only
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as Joe. 'I'm calling to warn you,' he said. When I barked back, he
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said, 'Wait, I'm on your side. Someone has broken into TRW and obtained a list
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of all your credit-card numbers, your home address, social security number and
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wife's name and is posting it on bulletin boards around the country.' He named
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the charge cards in my wallet.
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Credit-card numbers are a very hot commodity among hackers. To get one
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from a computer system and post it is the equivilant of making the team. After
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hearing from Joe I visited the local office of the TRW credit bureau and got a
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copy of my credit record. Sure enough, it showed a Nov. 13 inquiry by the
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Lenox (Mass.) Savings Bank, an institution with no reason whatever to ask about
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me. Cleary some hacker had used Lenox's password to the TRW computers to get
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to my files (the bank had since changed its password).
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It wasn't long before I found out what was being done with my credit-card
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numbers, thanks to another friendly hacker who tipped me to Pirate-80, a
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bulletin board in Charleston, W. Va., where I found this: 'I'm sure you have
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heard about Richard Standza [sic] or Montana Wildhack. He's the guy who wrote
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the obscene story about phreaking in NewsWeek [sic]. Well, my friend did a
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credit card check on TRW...try this number, it's a VISA...Please nail this guy
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bad...Captain Quieg [sic].'
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Captain Quieg may himself be nailed. He has violated the Credit Card
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Fraud Act of 1984, signed by President Reagan on Oct. 12. The law provides a
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$10,000 fine and up to a 15-year prison term for 'trafficking' in illegally
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obtained credit-card account numbers. His 'friend' has commited a felony
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violation of the California computer-crime law. TRW Spokeswoman Delia Fernandz
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said that TRW would 'be more than happy to prosecute' both of them.
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TRW has good reason for concern. Its computers contain the credit
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histories of 120 million people. Last year TRW sold 50 million credit reports
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to agencies seeking information on their customers. But these highly
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confidential personal records are so poorly guarded that computerized teenagers
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can ransack the files and depart undetected. TRW passwords -- unlike many
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others -- often print out when entered by TRW's customers. Hackers then look
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for discarded printouts. A good source: The trash of banks and automobile
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dealerships, which routinely do credit checks. 'Everybody hacks TRW,' says
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Cleveland hacker King Blotto, whose bulletin board has a security system the
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Pentagon would envy, 'It's the easiest.' For her part, Fernandez insists that
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TRW 'does everything it can do to keep the system secure.'
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In my case, however, that was not enough. My credit limits would hardly
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support many big-time fraud, but victimization takes many forms. Another
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hacker said it was likely mechandise would be ordered in my name and shipped to
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me -- just to harass me. 'I used to use [credit-card numbers] against someone
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I didn't like,' the hacker said. 'I'd call Sear's and have a dozen toilets
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shipped to his house.'
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Meanwhile, back on Dragonfire, my teletrial was going strong. The
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charges, as pressed by the Unknown Warrior, include 'endangering all phreaks
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and hacks.' The judge in this case is a hacker with the apt name of Axe
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Murderer. Possible sentences range from 'life exile from the entire planet' to
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'kill the dude.' King Blotto has taken up my defense, using hacker power to
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make his first pleading: he dialed up Dragonfire, broke into its operating
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system and 'crashed' the bulletin board, destroying all messages damning me.
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The board is back up now, with a retrial in full swing. But then, exile from
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the electronic underground looks better all the time.
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