278 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
278 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
This article appeared in the August 22,1990 Wall Street Journal
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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
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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
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ATLANTA- Frank Darden got his first computer at the age of 16, a
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Christmas present from his parents. Sitting on a desk in his bedroom,
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it opened a window on a world he found so consuming that he quit high
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school and spent most days and nights at the keyboard.
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His parents often wondered what their son found so compelling in the
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endless hours he spent alone in his room. Then one afternoon last
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summer, a dozen Secret Service agents burst into the family's suburban
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home. Agents held Edward and Lou Darden at gunpoint as they swarmed
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into their son's room, seizing scores of disks mloads of files and
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three computers.
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When Frank got home an hour later, the terrified young man confessed
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that he had used his home computer to break into BellSouth Corp.'s
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telephone network. In February, Mr. Darden and two others were
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indicted on felony charges of conspiracy and wire fraud.
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"I guess now my parents know what I was doing in my room." says a
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remorseful Mr. Darden, a bright, impatient 24-year-old with
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shoulder-length hair and a tie-dyed T-shirt.
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Just Passing Through
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Mr. Darden thus became another of the growing number of "hackers"
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nabbed by federal agents. For a long time, these high-tech trespassers
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operated in relative obscurity, using their computers and phone lines
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to go where few people were meant to go. But lately, in a string of
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highly publicized cases, hacking has moved towards the forefront of
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white-collar crime. Increasingly, banks, businesses, credit bureaus and
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telephone companies are discovering that someone, often in the dead of
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night, has wandered into their computer systems- and left his mark.
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As Mr. Darden's experience reveals, hacking has developed its own
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subculture, rich with literature and legend and peopled by electronic
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vandals, voyeurs and explorers known by fanciful code names. "Any
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business that has a computer hooked to a phone is vulnerable," warns
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Mr. Darden, who calls himself the "The Leftist." Before the bust, he
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was one of the best.
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Starting Early
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An early target in the crackdown was the Legion of Doom, an elite
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clique of hackers that included Mr. Darden and was targeted by the
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Secret Service because of its members' notable skills. "The Legion of
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Doom had the power to jeopardize the entire phonetwork," says Kent B.
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Alexander, an assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting Mr. Darden's case in
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Atlanta.
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In a Secret Service affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta,
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BellSouth investigators call the Legion of Doom "a severe threat to
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U.S. financial and telecommunications industries." Federal agents
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suspect the Legion was responsible for software " time bombs" -
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destructive programs designed to shut down major switching hubs-planted
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in telephone company computers in Denver, Atlanta and New Jersy last
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year. The programs were defused before causing damage, investigators
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say, but the intrusions, which weren't disclosed by the phone
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companies, could have knocked out service to hundreds of thousands of
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customer phone lines.
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The government sweep so far has bagged a motley band, mostly loners and
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young rebels in their teens or early twenties. In past cases, many of
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the hackers who have admitted breaking into computers have insisted
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that they didn't damage the systems they penetrated. They did it for
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sport.
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"There's no thrill quite the same as getting into your first system,"
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says Phrack, an electronic magazine run out of a University of Missouri
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dorm and accessed by computer. Before it was shutdown in the latest
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sweep, Phrack (for phone-freak hacking) published tips on cracking
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computer security. One issue offers a "hacker's code of ethics," which
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advises, "Do not intentionally damage any system" or alter files "other
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than the ones you need to ensure your escape." Another rule: "Don't be
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afraid to be paranoid. Remember, you are braking the law." Mr. Darden
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says he strictly adhered to the code.
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But the hackers' creed means nothing in court. There, hacking is
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treated much like any other form of criminal trespass under a law
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Congress passed in 1988. The law persuaded many hackers to end their
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illicit forays. But it turned other hobbyists into criminals.
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During his hacker days, Mr. Darden's world was an oddly solitary one.
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For hours on end he sat in front of the computer screen, finding his
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only human contact in the words and arcane code that arrived via
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computer from other hackers. "Once he got into ubject, there was no
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stopping," recalls his mother. "he was always studying up on
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something. He read encyclopedias as a pastime."
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Geography was meaningless; friends from around the world were just a
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few keystrokes away, thanks to modems that connect computers through
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the phone lines. Mr. Darden says he has struck up many lasting
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friendships on-line with people he has never met in person.
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In this silent, cerebral world, age is also irrelevant. Only computer
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skills count. Once on-line, a hacker can be anyone he or she wants to
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be. "No one knows if you're fat, pimply, or scared to talk to girls,"
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says Sheldon Zenner, a Chicago attorney w recently defended an editor
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of Phrack on felony wire-fraud charges. "Suddenly you're no longer
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just the shy adolescent, but Knight Lightning or The Prophet."
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Tough Choice
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"It's a compulsion for some of these people," adds Mr. Alexander, the
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Atlanta prosecutor. "I'm convinced that if Lotus 1-2-3 was behind Door
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No. 1, and Cheryl Tiegs was standing behind Door No. 2, a hacker would
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go for the software.
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Mr. Darden recounts his hacking days with disapproval- and just a touch
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of pride. He broke into his first system at the age of 17, dialing his
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way into a big computer at Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc., in
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Norcross, Ga., and nosing around the system I didn't take anything, I
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was just trying to see if it could be done," he says now. Hayes
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uncovered the breach and quickly tightened security, he says.
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Hacking sessions often stretched into the early morning hours. He would
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start by checking lists of computer phone numbers collected by his
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computer the night before through an automatic process called "war
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dialing." That's the brute force approach to king, when the computer
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runs through the night, methodically dialing every number in a
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telephone exchange. It records the number whenever it hits a "carrier
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tone" signaling a computer is on the other end.
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In a typical night of war dialing, in which the computer might check
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thousands of numbers, perhaps 100 computer carrier tones would be
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unearthed, "each one a potential treasure chest," Mr. Darden says. He
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would then begin calling down the "hit list" with his computer, each
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time trying to determine what kind of system was on the other end. Fax
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machines were a problem, because they emit a tone that sounds like a
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computer, so he wrote software that ignored them.
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Hello, Are You There?
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Each kind of computer had a distinctive response to his call, so he
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would tailor his approach to the type of system he encountered.
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Computers that used the Unix software operating system were especially
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easy to break into, while Digital Equipment Corp.'s VAX computers,
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which have multiple levels of security, presented a bigger challenge.
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But he says he was fond of the VAX because of its widely used software.
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"For a hacker, the VAX is like putting on an old Jimi Hendrix record in
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a bar- it's a real clasic." Using purloined telephone credit-card
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numbers, which his computer generated through a trial and error, he got
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into computers all over the world, including an encounter with a VAX
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that spoke Finnish.
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He devised password-cracking programs that automated the hacking
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process. He also devised a program that let him capture legitimate
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users' passwords as they logged onto the system. When he found a
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password the target computer recognized, his screen wo typically
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respond with a prompt, such as a sign. "Once you get that, you have an
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open door," he says. Often he would play "cat-and-mouse games" with a
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company's computer operators. "I'd send a little greeting to their
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printer, to let them know I was there. It drove them crazy."
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Credit bureaus were a favorite target. And, despite the warnings of
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other hackers that it might give him away, his first move was to look
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up his own credit report. "Naturally, I didn't have one," he says. He
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found his parents' report, and looked up ot s for friends.
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To make the process more efficient, and to show off, Mr. Darden and
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other hackers traded phone numbers and system-cracking tips on pirate
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"bulletin boards"- computer systems that store and forward text and
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electronic mail over phone lines. "Black Ice" is one such board.
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Access was tightly limited to an elite circle.
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No Busy Signal Here
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Mr. Darden's biggest thrill as a hacker- and ultimately his downfall-
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came when he broke into a big BellSouth computer in Atlanta used by
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technicians to maintain and control the phone system. He learned how to
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navigate within the system by asking questions of BellSouth's own
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on-line "help" program. Once inside, he found he had the ability to
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reroute telephone calls or bring down switching centers, neither of
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which he says he did. Mr. Darden did, however, listen in on a few phone
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lines, but only those of other hackers, he insists, and only to prove
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his prowess.
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"If we wanted to, we could have knocked out service across the
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Southeastern U.S.," he says. "The fact that I could get into the
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system amazed me. But we were careful not to damage anything."
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Not surprisingly, when BellSouth discovered hackers were rummaging
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through its computer, it reacted swiftly. It put 42 investigators on
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the task of tracking the intruders down, and spent $1.5 million on the
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effort. Once it found the source of the intrusions, it called the
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Secret Service, which enforces computer-crime laws.
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In the indictment, Mr. Darden and two co-defendants, Robert J. Riggs,
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21, a.k.a. The Prophet, and Adam E. Grant, 22, a.k.a. The Urvile, were
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charged with taking copies of proprietary software from BellSouth
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during their ramblings in the system, and with unauthorized intrusion,
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possessing illegal phone credit-card numbers with intent to defraud,
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and conspiracy. Messrs. Darden and Riggs pleaded guilty to conspiracy
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and face a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Mr.
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Grant pleaded guilty to possessing BellSouth computer access codes with
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the intent to defraud and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a
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$250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 14.
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The only good thing to come out of the whole experience, Mr. Darden
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muses, is that after he was indicted, his high-school sweetheart- whom
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he often spurned in favor of his computer- saw his picture on the
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front page of the local paper and got back in ch.
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Mr. Darden, who now works installing systems for a local computer
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company, views himself as a purist, hacking for the thrill of exploring
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the forbidden. He looks down on those who use their skills simply to
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steal phone and credit-card numbers. But in thi s game, information is
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everything, and not even Mr. Darden can control its spread. During
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their sweep, federal agents have found some hackers using code-cracking
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information dug up by the Legion of Doom to perpetrate their own
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practical jokes and fraud.
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For a few days last year, for example, phone calls to the Delray
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Beach, Fla., probation office were mysteriously rerouted to a
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dial-a-porn line in New York. Secret Service agents say it's the kind
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of thing the Legion might have done.
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And in Elwood, Ind., a 15-year-old calling himself Fry Guy allegedly
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used information he got from the Legion to carry out an elaborate
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fraud. Secret Service agents say he used his computer to break into a
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credit rating service in Maryland to pilfer VISA and MasterCard credit
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information. He then entered BellSouth's control network and altered a
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pay phone on a street corner in nearby Paducah, Ky., to residential
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status. Next, he called Western Union and had cash wired out of
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credit-card accounts to the Pa ducah Western Union office. When Western
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Union called the credit-card holders to verify the transactions, the
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calls were forwarded to the pay phone and then to the youth's home
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phone, where he posed as the credit-card holders and gave approval. The
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cash w as then picked up at the Western Union window, investigators
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say.
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In all, Fry Guy siphoned more than $10,000 in cash and purchases from
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credit-card accounts, alleges William M. Gleason, the Secret Service
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investigator. He also found evidence that Fry Guy, whose name hasn't
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been released, hacked his way into a payrol computer for a local
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McDonalds Corp. outlet, giving pay raises to his friends working at
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the restaurant.
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Fry Guy's case is being handled by state and federal juvenile
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authorities and, because of his age, it is unclear what punishment he
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might get. At the very least, his parents are likely to watch the
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family phone bill more closely. In a recent meeting w federal
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prosecutors, Fry Guy's exasperated father wore a baseball cap bearing
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the legend "Kids: They'll drive you crazy."
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Federal agents admit that, when they detect an intruder inside a
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computer, there isn't any way of telling if it's a precocious teenager
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or a crook out to commit fraud. So they simply execute the law.
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"When a hacker gets into a system, it's no different from a burglar
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breaking into your home or office," says Secret Service agent James
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Cool. If the door is open, the law treats a trespasser differently, he
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adds. But if a hacker cracks a password to g into a system, "it's the
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same as kicking in a locked door- and we're going to come after them."
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Ed Darden wishes he had known all of this before he gave his son that
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Apple II for Christmas eight years ago. "I'd have thought twice about
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it," he says. "Maybe we should have given him a bicycle."
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*end of file*
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