188 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
188 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
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" U.S. computer investigation targets Austinites "
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[ The above caption high-lighted the Saturday March 17, 1990 edition
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of the Austin American-Statesman [ Austin, Texas ]. The article has
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been copied in its entirety, and the main point for typing this up
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was because of the involvement of the LOD/H throughout the article. ]
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The U.S. Secret Service has seized computer equipment from two
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Austin homes and a local business in the past month as part of a federal
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investigation into electronic tampering with the nation's 911 emergency
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network.
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Armed Secret Service agents, accompanied by officers from the Austin
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Police Department, took the equipment in three March 1 raids that sources
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say are linked to a nationwide federal inquiry coordinated by the Secret
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Service and the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago.
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While federal officials have declined to comment on the investigation
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- which focuses on a bizarre mix of science fiction and allegations of
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high-tech thievery - the Austin American-Statesman has learned that the
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raids targeted Steve Jackson Games, a South Austin publisher of role-
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playing games, and the home of Loyd Blankenship, managing editor at the
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company.
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A second Austin home, whose resident was acquainted with Jackson
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officials, also was raided.
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Jackson said there is no reason for the company to be investigated
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. Steve Jackson Games is a book and game publisher of fiction, he said,
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and it is not involved in any computer-related thefts.
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The agents, executing search warrants now sealed by a judge from
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public view, took computer equipment, including modems, printers, and
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monitors, as well as manuals, instruction books and other documents. The
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equipment has been forwarded to federal officials in Chicago.
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The Secret Service, best-known for protecting the president, has
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jurisdiction in the case, government officials say, because damage to
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the nation's telephone system could harm the public's welfare. In
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addition, the system is run by American Telephone & Telegraph Co., a
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company involved in the nation's defense.
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The 911 investigation already has resulted in the indictment of
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two computer "hackers" in Illinois and sources say federal authorities
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now are focusing on Austin's ties to a shadowy underground computer
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user's group known as the Legion of Doom.
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The hackers, who live in Georgia and Missouri, where indicted in
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Chicago. they are believed to be members of the Legion of Doom and
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are charged with seven counts, including interstate transportation of
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stolen property, wire fraud, and violations of the Computer Fraud and
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Abuse Act of 1986.
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The government alleges that the defendants stole a computerized
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copy of Bell South's system that controls 911 emergency calls in nine
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states. The information was then transferred to a computer bulletin
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board and published in a hacker publication known as Phrack!
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A trial in the case is scheduled to begin in June.
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U.S. agents also have seized the final drafts of a science
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fiction game written by the Austin-based game company. Sources say
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the agents are trying to determine whether the game - a dark, futur-
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istic account of a world where technology has gone awry - is being
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used as a handbook for computer crime. Steve Jackson, the owner of
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the local company and a well-known figure in the role-playing game
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industry, said neither he nor his company has been involved in
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tampering with the 911 system.
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No one in Austin has been indicted or arrested as a result of
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the investigation. "It is an on-going investigation. That is all
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I can say," said Steve Beauchamp, special agent-in-charge of the
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Secret Service Austin field office. "Until we can put it all
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together, we just do not comment," he said.
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Bob Rogers, Jackson's Dallas attorney, said federal officials
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have assured him that neither Jackson nor Jackson Games is the tar-
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get of the probe. The authorities would not tell Rogers whether the
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inquiry focused on other company employees. As for the science fiction
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game, called Cyberpunk, Jackson said federal authorities have mistaken
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a fictional work for a technical manual [E.N. Why does this sound all
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too familiar?] .
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"It's not a manual for computer crime any more than a Reader's
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Digest story on how to burglar-proof your house is a manual for
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burglars," said Jackson, 36. "It's kind of like the hints you get
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on safe-cracking from a James Bond movie."
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Blankenship, the author of the book, said his attorney has advised
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him not to comment on the book or the Secret Service investigation.
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Jackson said he guesses his company was linked to the 911 probe
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by its use of a computer bulletin board system, called Usenet. The
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board, one of hundreds throughout the country, is a sort of electronic
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Town Square, where personal computer users from throughout the world
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can tap into the system via phone lines and a modem.
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The network, free and relatively unregulated, is an information
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exchange where users can post information, exchange electronic messages
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and debate with keyboards everything from poetry and politics to nuclear
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war.
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One of the world's largest networks - boasting more than 600,000
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users - Usenet was tapped by Chinese students in North America to
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organize support for students during the pro-democracy demonstrations
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last year. The network also was infected in 1988 by a now-famous
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computer "virus" unleashed by college student Robert Morris.
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Jackson said his company has maintained a bulletin board on
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the Usenet network on which it posts advanced copies of its role-
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playing games. The firm posts the games and requests that the users
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of the network comment on the text and propose improvements.
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The Jackson bulletin board, called Illuminati, greets users with
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the company's logo and a message that states: "Welcome to the World's
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Oldest and Largest Secret Conspiracy."
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Over the past several months, the company has been posting drafts
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of Cyberpunk for review.
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The resident of the second Austin home raided by the Secret Service
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was acquainted with Jackson and had made comments about the game on
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Usenet. He asked to remain anonymous.
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Typical of Cyberpunk literature, the game is set in a bleak future,
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much like the world portrayed in Max Headroom, formerly a network
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television program. Computers and technology control people's thoughts
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and actions and are viewed both as a means of oppression and as a method
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of escape. Portions of Jackson's Cyberpunk viewed by the Austin American
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Statesman include a detailed discussion on penetrating government computer
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networks and a list of fictitious programs used to break into closed
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networks. Bruce Sterling, an Austin science fiction writer and one of
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the world's best-known Cyberpunk writers, said Jackson's game and its
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computer-related discussions are hardly unusual for the genre.
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"Cyberpunk is thriller fiction." Sterling said. "It deals to a
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great extent with the romance of crime in the same way that mysteries
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or techno-thrillers do." He said the detailed technical discussions
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in the Jackson games are what draws people to them. "That's the
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charm of simulating something that's supposed to be accurate. If
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it's cooked up out of thin air, the people who play these games are
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going to lose interest."
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Jackson, though, said he has been told by Secret Service agents
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that they view the game as a user's guide to computer mischief. He
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said they made the comments where he went to the agency's Austin
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office in an unsuccessful attempt to reclaim some of his seized
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equipment. "As they were reading over it, they kept making outraged
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comments," Jackson said. "When they read it, they became very, very
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upset. "I said, 'This is science fiction.' They said, 'No. This
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is real.'"
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The text of the Cyberpunk games, as well as other computer
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equipment taken from Jackson's office, still has not been returned.
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The company now is working to rewrite portions of the book and is
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hoping to have it printed next month. In addition to reviewing
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Cyberpunk, sources say federal authorities currently are investigating
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any links between local computer hackers and the Legion of Doom. The
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sources say some of the 911 information that is the subject of Chicago
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indictments has been traced to Austin computers.
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Jackson's attorney said federal officials have told him that
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the 911 information pilfered from Bell South has surfaced on a computer
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bulletin board used at Steve Jackson games. But the information
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apparently has not been traced to a user. Jackson said that neither
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he nor any of his employees is a member of the Legion of Doom.
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Blankenship, however, did consult with the group in the
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course of researching the writing the Cyberpunk game, Jackson said.
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Further, the group is listed in the game's acknowledgments for its
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aid in providing technical information used in Cyberpunk. For these
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reasons he believes Blankenship is a local target of the federal probe,
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though none of the investigators has yet confirmed his suspicion.
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"My opinion is that he is (being investigated)," Jackson said,
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"If that's the case, that's gross.
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"he had been doing research for what he hoped would be a mass-
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market book on the computer underground," Jackson said.
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The other Austin resident raided by the authorities, who asked
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to remain anonymous, acknowledged that he is the founding member of
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the Legion of Doom and that copies of the 911 system had surfaced on
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the group's local bulletin board. The 20-year-old college student
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said the information hardly posed any threat to the 911 system.
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"It was nothing," he said. "It was garbage, and it was boring."
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In the Chicago indictment accuses the group of a litany of
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electronic abuses, including: disrupting telephone service by
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changing the routing of telephone calls; stealing and modifying
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individual credit histories; stealing money and property from
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companies by altering computer information; and disseminating
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information about attacking computers to other computer hackers.
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The Austin Legion of Doom member said his group's worst
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crime is snooping through other people's computers. "For the
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most part, that's all we do," he said. "No one's out ripping
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off people's credit cards. No one's out to make any money.
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"We're just out to have fun."
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The group member said the fact that the legion is shrouded
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in mystery adds to its mystique - and to the interest law
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enforcement agents have in cracking the ring. "It's an entirely
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different world," the student said. "It's a very strange little
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counter-culture. "Everybody who exists in that world is familiar
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with the Legion of Doom," he said. "Most people are in awe or are
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intimidated by it."
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(C)opied by Pizzia Man
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03/18/9
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