ON BOARD
PUZZLER
MYSTERY LEGEND
Here's a little something for you old timers and
historians. Who is this famous skateboarder from
the seventies? He didn't compete in contests but
was respected as one of the premiere vertical-
ists. We'll even give you a hint: GOLF. The first
person to correctly identify our mystery legend will receive an
extra-large hooded THRASHER sweatshirt. Send your answers
to: Mystery Legend, c/o THRASHER Magazine, PO Box 884570,
San Francisco, CA 94188-4570.
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ROB
ROSKOPP
HACKIN
By Drake
"The skate scene is dying." you
say. "Trendies are taking over" The
police keep harassing you. Think
that's bad? Try the underground
computer scene. Everything was
going cool and then, out of nowhere,
came the (gasp!) Secret Service!
Imagine hacking along, just making
some free phone calls and screwing
around with some university's com-
puter and then "WOMPH" six Secret
Service agents crash through your
door, wearing these glasses which
have been un-cool since '83, scar-
ing mummy and dummy, ripping
through your room and taking your
equipment.
Normally, summer is when the
hack/phreak "renaissance" takes
place, since everyone has more time.
But this July the SS busted 15 or so
hackers for everything from toll fraud
to illegal use of credit cards. Bulletin
boards, which had been the hub of
the underground, were taken down
by frightened sysops. Phone phreaks
started paying for their calls.
Monsters rummaged through down
town Tokyo. Things got worse from
there as the Secret Service con-
tinued to bust, and people dropped
out of the scene.
There are now about five main
underground computer boards and
maybe 100 active participants. A few
years ago you could have quadru
pled those figures. Of course, there
are some good bits. OSUNY, one of
the original phreak boards, is back
OFF
up and the over-the-hill hackers
(those who haven't become com-
puter security consultants) are
becoming active again. But the ques-
tions remain: How did this happen?
What can we do about it? Why
should we do anything about it?
The reason why so many busts
have been happening recently can
be pinned, like everything else, on
Big Business. Back in the old days
(pre-'85), hackers were not perceived
as any sort of threat. They were more
of a rare nuisance. And besides, they
were just kids having fun, right? Well,
as the damage done by hackers and battering rams and climbed over
phone phreaks has become exposed, fences, all for harmless 15-year-olds
the image changed to one of But hey...anything goes when
dangerous...malignant. pests. you're the SS.
After all, data has become God, and One place the Authorities aren't
if it was messed with, an entire com- doing so well in is the courts. Very
pany could crash in blindness. The few hackers have been prosecuted.
media reflects the change in public successfully or otherwise, due to the
attitude toward hackers better than laws regarding juveniles and the
anything else. When the 414s (an antiquity of those laws. Expect this
early hacker group) were busted, it to change.
was something neat. They got on the So that's what's been happening.
cover of Newsweek and they were Now, what to do? Drop out? Become
called "brainy" and "computer wiz legit? Nahhh. If THEY want to take
kids." After some recent busts, it so seriously, so can we. Bulletin
though, hackers were called boards and hackers had become
"criminals" and "destructive." Now pretty lax since they weren't worrying
that we have this tarnished image, it about informers or sting operations.
is easier for the Authorities to go after They thought that was paranoid stuff
us. The Secret Service has been But now we know of at least two
brought in and they are certainly major informers and numerous sting
doing a better job than the FBI did. BBS's set up by police forces. Ob-
bust-wise. Of course, the Secret Ser- viously, one has to be more careful.
vice has brandished guns, arrived That means not giving out your
dressed up as UPS men, brought phone number, not giving illegal
codes to people you don't know, and
not taking stupid risks.
You may be going: "Gee, let 'em
burn they're a buncha computer
nerds." Then you're an out-dated
fart. As Shark's Peer put it: "Hacker's
are lucky enough to have a grasp on
the technology and at the same time
have the attitude for throwing clogs
in the cogs. Most people in this coun-
try are lost and don't even realize the
impending control by technology.
Huge pools of information are going
to be quite handy to the authorities
a few years down the line. Stay alert
and suspicious, and you're a step
ahead... Do something to fight back
and damage the flow a bit, and
you're doing something useful."
Get out your modem and com-
puter, dial (415) 822-5630 and sign
on to the THRASHER BBS. Our
system supports 300 and 1200 baud
and operates 24 hours a day. Put
your word in edge-wise.
96
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