HACKER CULTURE This page intentionally left blank HACKER CULTURE Douglas Thomas m University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis London Copyright 2002 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520 http://www.upress.umn.edu Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Thomas, Douglas, 1966– Hacker culture / Douglas Thomas p cm ISBN 0-8166-3345-2 Computer programming – Moral and ethical aspects hackers I Title QA76.9.M65 T456 2002 306.1 – dc21 Computer 2001005377 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 10 Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction ix Part I The Evolution of the Hacker 1 Hacking Culture Hacking as the Performance of Technology: Reading the “Hacker Manifesto” 47 Hacking in the 1990s 81 Part II Hacking Representation 111 Representing Hacker Culture: Reading Phrack 115 (Not) Hackers: Subculture, Style, and Media Incorporation 141 Part III Hacking Law 173 Technology and Punishment: The Juridical Construction of the Hacker 177 Epilogue: Kevin Mitnick and Chris Lamprecht 220 Notes 239 Index 251 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments This book was written with the help of a great number of people, many of whom I met only in passing, either at conventions and court hearings or in IRC chat and LISTSERV discussions They contributed to the book in ways that are impossible to measure or account for here Equally important are the people who have been a part of hacker culture or who have thought long and hard about it and took the time to share their insights I especially want to thank Katie Hafner, John Perry Barlow, Jonathan Littman, John Markoff, Jericho, Mike Godwin, Wendy Grossman, Bruce Sterling, Chris Painter, David Schindler, Kevin Poulsen, Eric Corley, Don Randolph, Lewis Payne, Greg Vinson, Evian S Sim, Michelle Wood, Kimberly Tracey, Mudge, The Deth Vegetable, Oxblood Ruffin, and many other members of the cDc and the L0pht for their help I also owe a debt of thanks to my colleagues at the Annenberg School for Communication, particularly Bill Dutton and Sandra Ball-Rokeach, who have been remarkably helpful and who have supported my work in countless ways Lynn Spigel and Marsha Kinder both offered me help and insight in critical areas My friends Peggy Kamuf, Philippa Levine, and Curt Aldstadt have offered their support, insight, and ideas throughout the writing of the book I am grateful to the Online Journalism Program at the University of Southern California, especially Larry Pryor and Joshua Fouts, who always gave me free rein to explore and write about hacking for the Online Journalism Review The essays I wrote for the review allowed me to think through some difficult and complex questions, and their editorial style made that work much easier than I had any right to expect James Glave, at Wired News, also provided an outlet for stories when they seemed to matter the most The Southern California Studies Center helped fund a portion of the research through vii viii / Acknowledgments a junior faculty grant For that I thank the center’s director, Michael Dear The writing of this book was greatly assisted by Doug Armato and Will Murphy as well as by the comments from the reviewers at the University of Minnesota Press, who offered creative and constructive advice I benefited enormously from the careful readings offered by my friends Marita Sturken and Dana Polan I thank them for their help and their friendship A special debt of gratitude goes to Kevin Mitnick and Chris Lamprecht, who shared their stories with me and helped me understand, in ways I had never imagined, what it meant to be a hacker in the 1990s Finally, I want to thank Ann Chisholm, who is the love of my life, who provides me with my inspiration, and who suggested, so long ago, that I might want to think about a “hacker project.” Introduction Since the 1983 release of the movie WarGames, the figure of the computer hacker has been inextricably linked to the cultural, social, and political history of the computer That history, however, is fraught with complexity and contradictions that involve mainstream media representations and cultural anxieties about technology Moreover, hacking has its own history, which is itself as complex as it is interesting In tracing out these intricate, intertwining narratives, this book is an effort to understand both who hackers are as well as how mainstream culture sees them Part of the complexity is a result of the fact that these two constructions, hacker identity and mainstream representation, often reflect on each other, blurring the lines between fact and fiction The term “hacker” has its own historical trajectory, meaning different things to different generations.1 Computer programmers from the 1950s and 1960s, who saw their work as breaking new ground by challenging old paradigms of computer science, think of hacking as an intellectual exercise that has little or nothing to with the exploits of their 1980s and 1990s counterparts Indeed, this older generation of hackers prefer to call their progeny “crackers” in order to differentiate themselves from what they perceive as their younger criminal counterparts The younger generation take umbrage at such distinctions, arguing that today’s hackers are doing the real work of exploration, made necessary by the earlier generation’s selling out In some ways, these younger hackers argue, they have managed to stay true to the most fundamental tenets of the original hacker ethic Accordingly, the very definition of the term “hacker” is widely and fiercely disputed by both critics of and participants in the computer underground Indeed, because the term is so highly contested, it gives a clue to both the significance and the mercurial nature of the subculture itself Moreover, there seems to be little agreement within ix Index / metaphors of, 177, 193 military, 27 playing with, 145 remediation of, 147– 48 user-friendly, 49, 50 Computer underground, 94, 95, 211 changes for, 140 computer industry/media and, 170 –71 emergence of, 141 politics and, 96 secrecy and, 130 Computer Underground Digest See CuD COMSEC, 208 Condor See Mitnick, Kevin D “Conscience of a Hacker, The” (The Mentor), xxiv, 72, 245n40 Conservative Party, hacking, 228–29 Constitutive, performative and, 186 –87 Control, xvi, 240n12 Control C, 92 “Control Office Administration of Enhanced 911 Service.” See E911 document Conventions, 2, 82, 92–93, 119 Copyright, 40, 123 –30, 247n17 secrecy and, 128, 129 Corley, Eric (Emmanuel Goldstein), 60, 116, 119, 157, 249n34, 250n1 on knowledge/freedom/power, 120 on Markoff, 230 –31 Corporate culture, 34 hackers and, 154, 158, 164, 165 COSMOS, 191 photo of, 165 Counterculture, 16, 166 C++, 235 Crackers, ix, 11 Cracking, 68, 69 Crash Override See Murphy, Dade “Creating Kevin: The Darkside Hacker and the Southern California Media (From Los Angeles to New York and Back Again),” 201 Credit card fraud, 66, 67 “Crime and Puzzlement” (Barlow), 33 Criminality, xxvi, 7, 51, 52, 79, 81 body and, 190 hacker, xiii–xii, 31, 78, 94, 175, 176, 178, 185 253 social understandings of, 182 technology and, 219 Criminal justice, 9, 185 Criminals, xxi, 79, 81, 163 cyber, 195, 200, 206, 231 master, 213 noncorporeal, 175 Cringely, Robert: on Apple, 64 Critical theory, technology and, 240n16 Cryptography, 12, 30, 38–39, 248n14 Cuckoo’s Egg, The (Stoll), xiii, CuD (Computer Underground Digest), 35 Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc), xxv, 44 Back Orifice and, 89, 97 Hong Kong Blondes and, 96 –97 Microsoft hacking and, 94 –104 Cultural codes, 150, 151 Cultural values, 74, 76 Culture, 10 alienation from, 79 hacker, xv, xx, xxi, xxvii, 3, 40 hacking and, xxiv, 37–38, 55, 56, 113 media and, xviii online, 142, 143 operation of, 179 sharing/disseminating, xvii, xxii, xxv social, xxvi, 41 technology and, xvii, xx, xxi, 9, 37, 40, 74, 75, 79 understanding, xxi, 55, 182 Cummings, Ed (Bernie S.): charges against, 178 Cyberbody, rethinking, 190 –96 Cyberdyne Technologies, 51 Cybernetics, 32 Cyberpunk, xii, 11, 19 –23, 31, 167 dystopian, 22, 32 literature, xv, 20, 21–22, 190, 243nn4–7 Cyberpunk (Hafner and Markoff), xiii, 47, 203 Cyberspace, xiii, 36, 166, 243n4 characterizations of, 194 –95 defined, xii, threat of, 219 three hunts in, 196 –216 Cyberterrorism, 43 Cyberthrillers, 166 – 67 Cyborgs, 71, 245n39 254 / Index Dan The Operator, 92 Dark Dante See Poulsen, Kevin Lee Darkside hacker, 56, 201, 202, 203, 206, 249n34 “ ‘Dark Side’ Hacker Seen as Electronic Terrorist” (Los Angeles Times), 202 Dark Tangent See Moss, Jeff Darth Vader, 202, 206 Data, 21, 55, 162, 226 Database management, 65 Data Line, 92 Decentralization, 10, 32 “Declaration of Digital Independence” (Internet), 22 Decoding, 55 Decomposition, 59, 60 Decryption, 68 DEC VMS, 125, 198 DefCon, 92, 93, 97, 168 Denial-of-service attacks, 139 Department of Defense, 13 ARPA and, 14 hackers and, 101 secure communications for, 15 Department of Justice Web page, hacking, 228 DePayne, Lewis, 223, 249n34 Derivative hacks, 43 – 44, 45 true hacks and, 43 Derrida, Jacques, 241n26, 242n56 Devious Xevious, Software Blue Box and, 134 Dick, Philip K., 20 Dickens, Charles, 70 “Digital Declaration of Independence” (Internet), 23 Dijkstra, Edsger W.: Greenblatt and, 145 Disch, Thomas M.: on pop despair, xii–xiii Discipline and Punish (Foucault), 181 Discourse, 59, 190 cultural, 142, 151 decomposition/recomposition of, 61 hacker, xx, xxvi, 73, 188, 201, 216 –17 incitement to, 188 juridical, 201 oppositional, 74, 75 social, 77, 142 technology, xx, 61 Disk Jockey, The, 92 Doom Prophet, 92 DOS (Disk Operating System), 49, 84, 153 Dragging and dropping, 49 Draper, John, 18 Drives, password-protected, 100 Drugs power/nature of, 193, 194 technology and, 194 Dummies series, 50 Dumpster diving, 62 Dystopia, xii, 20, 22, 23, 32, 104 E911 document, xxvi, 123 –30, 131 contents of, 123 value of, 125–26 Eavesdropper, The, 123 Eavesdropping devices, 224 E-commerce, 66, 67 Edwards, Paul, 243n3 EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), 33, 194 Ellison, Harlan, 20 E-mail, xxiv, 65, 118, 141 Emmanuel Goldstein See Corley, Eric Encryption, xxiii, 40, 97, 245n35 breaking routines of, xxv challenging, 225–26 one-way, 68 password, 67 End-users, 18, 64, 85, 89, 100 –101, 109, 145 commodification of, 154 culture of, 170 experts and, 82, 153 hackers and, 66, 100, 151, 152 outsmarting, 71 philosophy of, 65 Enigma Machine, 12–13 Erik Bloodaxe See Goggans, Chris Espionage, xiii, Esquire, on blue boxing, 18 Ethic, 22 hacker, 21, 29, 34, 35, 51, 83, 101–2, 110 old-school, xxii, 11, 120 Ethos, 4, 122 Experts, 89 commodification of, 154 end-users and, 82 Index / Falken, Joshua (WarGames), 25 Falken, Stephen (WarGames), 24, 25, 27 Fantasy, 19 –20 Farmer, Dan, Fashion, hacker, 160 – 65 FBI, 166, 167 hacking of, 198, 214 investigation of, 213 Mitnick and, 199, 203, 229 Peterson and, 185 Poulsen and, 214, 215 T-shirts, 187 wiretaps by, 214 Federal Correctional Institution, Lamprecht at, 232 Fiery, Dennis (Knightmare), 69, 243n9 on “brute force” attacks, 71 on social engineering, 62, 244n26 Files, 89, 118, 119 Flaws, 7, 46, 86, 87, 88, 89, 99, 110 FOD, 91 Foley, Agent, 189, 190 Forest Ranger, 92 Foucault, Michel, xix, xxi, 58, 180, 188 on author disappearance, 135 methodological premises of, 181–82 on technology/punishment, 181–82 411 directory assistance, 47, 197 Fox News, 35 Freedom, 76 secrecy and, 15, 33 Freeh, Louis, 227 “Free Kevin” movement, 221, 222, 223, 231–32 Freud, Sigmund: on expectant anxiety, 217 Fry Guy, Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick, The (Littman), 200 Games boy, 206 hacker, 93 knowledge, 61– 67 language, 56 – 61 simulation, 147 video, 157, 218 Gang war, 206, 208, 209 –10, 211, 212, 213 Garbage files, 31, 62 255 Gary Seven, 60, 91 Gates, Bill, 19, 93, 102, 146 Altair and, 39 BASIC and, 39 hackers and, 17, 100 GECOS field, 67, 69 GenXers, 31 “Gibson,” hacking, 164 (photo) Gibson, William, xiii, 53, 55, 158, 243n4 on Case, 190 –91 on cyberspace, xii, 5, 52 dystopia of, 20, 104 Gill, Richard, 157, 161, 177 Gin Fizz, 121 Global Domination Update, 94 Globalization, 97, 110, 164, 169, 170 “Glossary Terminology for Enhanced 911 Service.” See E911 document Godwin, Mike: on hackers/addiction, 194 Goggans, Chris (Erik Bloodaxe), 26, 133, 244n13 boy culture and, 211 copyright and, 126 –27, 128, 129 –30 on federal agents, 185 on information, 130 on LOD, 208, 210 Phrack and, 129, 244n13 pirated software and, 134 raid on, 189 –90 on reps, 207 on 2600, 61 Gotti, John, 212 G-philes, 91, 208 Graphical user interface (gui), 84, 85, 99, 108 Greenblatt, Richard, 145, 148 Group/club memberships, 130 Grusin, Richard, 147, 243n2 GTE Corp, 199 gui See Graphical user interface H2K, 72, 119 –20 Hacker community, 121, 122, 140, 163 defining, 244n13 Mitnick and, 228 Phrack Pro-Philes and, 134 –35 Hacker Crackdown, The (Sterling), 123, 244n12, 247n14 256 / Index Hacker culture, xix–xxii, – 4, 12, 18, 35, 37, 41, 72, 109, 151, 155–56, 171 complexities/subtleties of, emergence of, xxiii, 17, 56, 148 incorporation and, 153 narrative of, 136 online presence for, 117 reading, 117–20 secrets and, 38 technology and, xxiii, 4, 40 threats to, 170 tracing, xxvii, 237 understanding, xxvi, 82, 92, 117, 149, 157, 163, 171 Hacker groups, catalogued, 90 –91 Hacker Jeopardy, xxv, 93 “Hacker Manifesto, The” (The Mentor), xxiv, 71–80, 245n40 Hacker New Network, 140 Hackers arrest of, 134 –35, 191, 211–12 chronicles of, 216 cultural function of, 71–72, 73, 157–58 depersonalization of, 77–78 disappearance of, xvi, 135, 136 elite, 71, 81, 86, 93, 117, 130 emergence of, 15–17, 90 –94, 115 grievances of, 77, 230 hacking and, 4, 10 –12, 187–88 language of, 63 metaphors of, 177 real, 169 (photo) regulation of, 218–19 technology and, xxi, xxiii, xxiv, xxv– xxvi, 11, 12, 73, 75, 78, 113, 155 threat from, 32–33, 154, 212, 219 understanding, ix–x, xxi, 3, 18, 36, 141, 165, 220 vilification of, 148 virtual, 182, 218–19 white-hat/black-hat, 42 Hackers (movie), xv, xxvi, 31, 51, 53, 104, 141, 164, 169 characters from, 163 described, 156, 166, 167 fashion in, 161– 63 hacking, 156 – 60 quote from, 177 stereotypes in, 165 stills from, 162 (photo), 163 (photo), 164 (photo) Web page images of, 168 (photo) Hackers for Girlies, hacking by, 228 Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution (Levy), 10, 56 Hacker’s Jargon Dictionary, 61, 244n25 Hacker underground, x, xxvii, 92, 123, 140 boy culture and, 210 literature of, 115–16 Microsoft and, 87 roots of, 15–16 Hacking, 36, 42– 46, 69, 188 chronicles of, 216 fascination with, 179 fear of, 224 hackers and, 4, 10 –12, 187–88 history of, xvi, xx, 12, 26, 59 holy grail of, 67–71 information and, 37 narratives of, 81 public nature of, 81–82 as question of technology, 53 –56 responses to, significance of, 52 as social/cultural phenomenon, spread of, 46 technology and, xxi, 11, 37, 52, 52–53, 71, 179 –80 threat of, 179 Hacking contests, 159 – 60 Hacking the planet, 156, 169 –70 Hacks, 113, 116 high-profile, 81–82 lame, 168 Hafner, Katie, xiii, 29, 47 on hackers/magicians, 179 on Mitnick, 192, 202, 203, 249n34 Handles, 58, 130, 135 Happy Hacker, The (Meinel), 228 Haraway, Donna J.: on cyborgs, 71, 245n39 Hardware, 34, 101, 105, 143 Harper’s, 36 Harsh Realm (television show), xv Hathor, 95 Hawkes, T.: on bricolage, 149 –50 Index / Hebdige, Dick, 154 –55 on cultural form, 148 on incorporation, 143 – 44 on subculture, 142 Heidegger, Martin, 55, 56, 57 Heller, Joseph, 125 High-tech thrillers, 166 – 67 “History of LOD/H, The,” 207 Hobbyists, 19, 39, 145, 146 Hoffman, Abbie, 16 HoHoCon, 92 Holes, xxiv, 8, 28, 43, 44, 85–86, 89, 235 “Hollywood Hacker” (Fox News), 35 Homebrew Computer Club, 19, 39, 100, 146 Hong Kong Blondes, xxv, 103, 246n16 cDc and, 96 –97 hackers and, 104 social change and, 97 HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth), 92, 119 –20 HTML code, 230 Human relationship, 177–78, 182 hacker exploitation of, xxiii–xxiv technology and, –10, 48, 62, 183 Human rights, 97, 102, 103 Hunted, hunter and, 175, 195–96, 200 Hyperbole, hacker, 36 IBM, 154 corporate computer model, 34 MCI and, 136 PCs, 153, 178 security features by, 155 Ideas, 14, 115 Identity, xviii, xix, xxvii, 171, 186, 191 body and, 187 crime of, 201 cyberpunk literature and, 243n7 group, 89 hacker, xxi, 51, 113, 141, 169, 170 hiding, 162, 248n13 subcultural, 94, 141, 170 user, 68 verification of, 66, 186, 187 virtual, 186, 201, 219 Imagination, hacker, 5, 19 –23, 37, 90, 91 Implants, 52 257 Incorporation, 150, 156 – 60 commodification and, 154 –55 ideological, 143 – 44, 153 –56 Independence, 74, 76, 80 Information, 38, 53, 91, 187, 195 access to, 33, 62, 67, 89, 130 commodification of, 22–23, 81 culture of, 33, 149 embezzlement of, 213 free, 10, 13 –14, 17, 33, 120 hacking and, 37 ownership of, 126, 128 password, 108 politics and, 96 regulation of, 110 repackaging of, 60 – 61, 177 secrecy and, 38, 130, 131, 188 sharing, xxii, xxv, 19, 21, 90, 115, 122 InfoWar (Schwartau), 93 Intel, 101 Internet, xvii, xxii, 3, 22, 85, 100, 117, 142, 154, 232 accessing, 89 accounts, 67 banning from, xxvi, 234 –37 culture, 19 –20 growth of, 81, 89, 152, 188, 204 older hackers and, 167 shut down of, 27 software on, xviii, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), 139, 152, 153 Java, 235 Jobs, Steven Apple II and, 17, 64 blue boxing and, 18 Johnny Mnemonic (movie), xv, 53 Jolie, Angelina (Hackers), 161 Jones, Jim, 168 Journals, electronic, 16, 94, 120 –21, 122 Juvenile delinquency, 32, 218 Kafka, Franz, 125 Kapor, Mitchell: on computer crime, 178 Karl Marx, 133, 134 Kemeny, John, 19 Kerrang Khan, 91 King, Randy (Taran King), 92, 118, 121 Phrack and, 120 258 / Index King Blotto, 91 Knight Lightning See Neidorf, Craig Knightmare See Fiery, Dennis Knights of the Shadow, The, 210 Knowledge, xviii coded, xx, 63 – 64 freedom/power and, 120 games, 61– 67 liberation of, 170 production/consumption of, 150 Kuhn, Robert: Lamprecht and, 236 Kurtz, Thomas, 19 L0pht, 44, 89, 104 –10 hackers and, 109 –10 rewriting by, 108 L0phtCrack, 89, 104 –10 Labor, politics/capital and, 82 Labour Party, hacking, 228–29 Lamers, 167 Lamprecht, Chris (Minor Threat), 176, 220, 250n1 banning of, xxvi, 233 –37 havoc by, 158 movie by, 158–59, 162, 163 – 64, 165 retaliation by, 233, 234 sentence for, 232–37 ToneLoc and, 234 –35 Web page of, 236, 237 Language, 54, 146 coded, 41 games, 56 – 61 technology and, 40, 41, 57, 58 LANMAN, 106 Las Vegas, hacking in, 93 Law hackers and, 113, 175, 185–86 human relations and, 182 technology and, 178–79, 181 Law enforcement, 9, 157, 171, 177, 178, 181–82, 187, 190 hackers and, 138, 185, 188, 248n19 hunting by, 200 secrecy and, 132 surveillance technology for, 216 taunting, 179 virtual identity and, 219 “Laws of Robotics” (Asimov), 11 Lee, John: LOD and, 209 –10 Leftist, The, 92 Legion of Doom (LOD), xxvi, 36, 56, 72, 90, 91, 94, 124 BBS, 91 boy culture and, 207, 210, 212 disbandment of, 208 g-philes by, 208 MOD vs., 197, 205–12 origins of, 249n43 Phrack on, 208 pursuit/capture of, 176 Legion of Doom/Hackers (LOD/H), 90 –91, 249n43 Legion Of Hackers, 91 Levy, Steven, 17, 34, 56 on computer revolution, 14 on free exchange, 13 –14 on hackers, 10 –11, 15 on moral code, 10 Lex Luthor, 60, 91, 92, 207, 210 LOD/H and, 90 Libby, Kate (Acid Burn) (Hackers), 166, 167 hacking contest and, 159 – 60 photo of, 160 technology and, 161 Library of Congress, Phrack and, 129 Lightman, David (WarGames), xxii, 24, 25, 26 –27, 30 Linux, xxiv, 82, 85, 94 operating system by, 83 –84 security and, 86 Li Peng, 102 Literature, underground, 115–16 Littman, Jonathan Poulsen and, 214 –15 on Shimomura, 200 on Unsolved Mysteries airing, 215–16 Local area network (LAN), 87 LOD See Legion of Doom LOD/H See Legion of Doom/Hackers LOKI, 92 Long-distance service, 18, 36 –37 Lord Nikon (Hackers), 167 Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), Mitnick at, 205, 222, 225 Index / Los Angeles Times on Mitnick, 202 on SATAN, Lotus, 146 Lucifer 666, 92 Lysias, 58, 244n19 Mack, Jennifer (WarGames), 25 Maclean’s Magazine, 7, 54, 55 Mainstream culture, xiii, xxiii, xxvi, 4, 144, 150 –51 hackers and, xiv, xviii, 72 technology and, xxvii Manhunts, 194, 197 “Manifesto for Cyborgs, A” (Haraway), 71 Marauder, The, 91 Marcos, Ferdinand, 213, 214 Marcus, Kevin, 137 Markoff, John, xiii, 29, 196 on hackers/magicians, 179 on Mitnick, 192, 199, 200, 202, 203, 204, 229, 230, 231 quote of, 47, 201 Mass High Tech, on hackers/L0pht, 109 Mastering Word Perfect 7.0, 49 Master of Impact, 91 Masters of Deception (MOD), xxvi, 33, 36, 56, 90 formation of, 208 LOD vs., 197, 205–12 national security threats and, 217 pursuit/capture of, 176 virtual violence of, 212 Masters of Deception: The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace (Slatalla and Quittner), 209 Mastery, xvi, xvii, 240n12 Matrix, The (movie), xv MCI Telecommunications, IBM and, 136 MDC See Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center Meaning, cultural/technological, 75 Media, xxiii, 7, 23, 37, 45, 55, 96, 117 culture and, xviii hackers and, 6, 33, 36, 73, 113, 197, 205, 222 information management by, 22 proliferation of, 35 259 representation by, ix, xv, xxii, 58 underground and, 170 –71 Mediascapes, 96 Megahee, Kim: on E911 document, 125 Meinel, Carolyn: hacker infighting and, 228 Memory, 184 body and, 182–87 Mentor, The, 72, 75, 245n40 on computers, 76 on hackers, 73, 77 on refuge, 78 Metal Shop AE, 118, 120 MGM Web page, xvi on Hackers, 166, 168– 69 MIC See Military-industrial complex Microbionics, 52 Microsoft, 4, 146 Apple and, 82 Back Orifice and, 98–99 cDc and, 99 computer culture and, 101 features of, 88, 89 growth/dominance of, 84, 93 hackers and, 87, 94 –104, 109, 155 Internet and, 87 on L0phtcrack, 107 operating system by, 98 public relations problems for, 107–8 security and, 88, 89, 99 –100 software by, 93 –94 Microsoft NT, Back Office and, 97 Military-industrial complex (MIC), 14, 15, 16, 18 Miller, Johnny Lee, 161 Milton, John, 230 Minor Threat See Lamprecht, Chris Miramax Mitnick and, 202, 204, 221, 231 protestors at, 221 (photo) mIRC, 153 MIT, lab at, 13, 16, 17 Mitnick, Kevin D (Condor), xiii, 6, 36, 220, 233 addiction of, 191–92 arrest of, 176, 191, 197–201, 203, 204, 223 bail hearing and, 205, 222–23, 231 charges against, 196, 203, 225, 226 –27 260 / Index Mitnick, Kevin D (Condor), continued computer of, 223 –28 conviction of, xxvi–xvii, 191, 192–93, 194, 227 defense by, 223, 224, 225–26, 228 hunt for, 197–205 legacy of, 201–2, 203, 232, 237 media and, 202, 205, 222, 229 pretrial detainment of, 205, 220 –23, 231 publicity/visibility for, 202–3, 221 social engineering/phreaking of, 198 web site of, 231 Mizrach, Steve on hackers, 31–32 on Jobs/Wozniak, 34 Mnemotechnics, 184 MocroModen II, 133 MOD See Masters of Deception Morris, Bob, 28, 67– 68 Morris, Robert (son), xiii, xxii, xxiii, 23 –31, 36, 37 worm and, 27–28, 29, 68, 86 Moss, Jeff (Dark Tangent): DefCon and, 93 Mudge buffer overflow and, 105 code breaking by, 110 on L0pht, 109 Multinationalism, 12, 93, 158, 164, 169 Mungo, Paul, 5, 123 on E911 document, 124, 125 on hackers, Murphy, Dade (Zero Cool, Crash Override), 161, 162, 166, 167 hacking contest and, 159 – 60 photo of, 160 Muscle grafts, 52 National Computer Security Center (National Security Agency), 28 Naturalization, 154, 155 Neidorf, Craig (Knight Lightning), 92, 121, 136 E911 document and, 123 interrogation of, 124, 125 Phrack and, 120, 123, 124 Net, The (movie), xv, 31, 51, 53 Netanyahu, Benjamin, 45 Netcom, 66, 67, 199, 200 Network Associates, hackers and, 154 Networks, 16, 87 technological, 97 viruses and, 42 Neuromancer (Gibson), 5, 20 –21, 52, 190 –91 New-school hackers, x–xi, xii, xvii, 24, 31–32, 34, 167 emergence of, xxii old-school hackers and, xxii, 29 “News II” (Knight Lightning), 136 Newsletters, underground, 115–16 New York Times, 138, 196 on Mitnick, 192, 199, 202, 203, 204, 229 Stoll and, xiii New York Times Web page, hacking, 222, 228–32 Nietzsche, Friedrich, 180, 184 on punishment/technology, 183 1984 (Orwell), 60, 95 Ninja NYC, 92, 121 NORAD (North American Air Defense command), 25, 30 NSCA, 197 Oakland Tribune, Office of Prisons, 205 “Off the Hook” (radio show), 120 Old-school hackers, x–xi, xxi–xxiii, 17, 24, 27, 32, 34, 81, 82–83, 104, 150 hobbyists and, 19 motto of, 11 new-school hackers and, xxii, 29 One china, two policies doctrine, 97 On the Genealogy of Morals (Nietzsche), 183 “Open Letter to Hobbyists” (Gates), 39 Open-source software movement, xi Operating systems, 44, 82, 83 –89, 98, 104 commands/codes and, 106 rewriting, 108 UNIX-based, 105 VMS, 125 Organized crime, hackers and, 211, 212 “Origins in Phreak/Hack BBSes,” 133 “Origins in the Phreak/Hack World,” 132 Orwell, George, 60, 95 Index / Other, hackers and, 77–78 Overlord 313, 137 Ownership, xvi, 39 Oxblood Ruffin on applications hackers, 44 on Hong Kong Blondes, 97 on politics/hacking, 96 Pacific Bell, hacking, 213, 214 Palm Pilot, 105, 109 Panopticon, hacking, 187–90, 248n13 Parental culture, 142– 43, 149, 171 Party Line (newsletter), 16 Passwords, xi, 28, 41, 42, 61, 62, 63, 88, 89, 98, 99, 105, 187 acceptable, 107 cracking, 68– 69, 70, 71, 155, 186 encryption of, 67, 68, 69, 245n35 files, 67, 68 guessable, 70 –71 secrets and, 69 trading, 188 UNIX, 70 Windows NT, 106 –7 Patents, 40 PCs See Personal computers Penetration, metaphors of, 177 Pengo, xiii, 244n14 Pentagon, hacking, 43, 44, 45, 46 Performative, constitutive and, 186 –87 Personal computers (PCs), 37, 81, 105, 204, 217 evolution of, 39 – 40 hacking and, 17, 86 introduction to, xi, 3, 18, 218 mass marketing, 145 success of, 64 ubiquity of, 42– 46 user-friendly, 64, 65 youth culture and, xvii Peterson, Justin Tanner (Agent Steal), 185, 187 Pfaelzer, Marianne: Mitnick case and, 193, 205, 222–23, 224, 226 Phaedrus (Plato), 57, 58, 244n19 Phalken, Professor, 60 Phantom Phreaker, 92 Phear, provoking, xvi Phiber Optik See Abene, Mark 261 Philes, 122 Phone system, crashing, 59, 77–78, 117, 165 (photo) Phrack (journal), xxv–xxvi, 90, 91, 92, 113, 124 BBS of, 122 changes for, 138, 139 – 40 computer underground and, 141 copyright and, 126 –27, 128, 129 –30 culture and, 121, 140 described, 116, 121, 139, 140, 244n13 E911 document and, 125 Goggans and, 126 –27, 129 “Hacker Manifesto” and, 72 information from, 119, 122, 130 Lamprecht and, 233, 236 on LOD, 208 Mentor in, xxiv, 245n40 Prophet in, 123 reading, xxvi, 120 –22 secrecy/technology and, 130 Phrack Pro-Philes, 92, 121, 140 cultural functions of, 132–33 on Erik Bloodaxe, 26 reading, 130 –36 sense of community and, 132, 134 –35 “Phrack World News,” 121, 122, 130, 136 – 40 “Phreak/Hack BBSes,” 132 Phreaking, 60, 116, 121, 198 Phreaks, 113, 167 phone, 18, 116 Phucked Agent 4, 91 Pi (movie), xv Pirate-80, 134 Pivot of Evil, 95 Plague, The, 157, 160, 166 Plato, 193, 244n19 Platt, Charles: on Mitnick, 202 Politics, 89, 97, 101, 102–3, 229 capital/labor and, 82 globalized, 83 hackers and, 82, 96, 104, 115, 116, 120 information and, 96 technology and, 96 Popular culture, 151, 171 hackers and, xi–xv, xx, 26, 113, 156, 170 technology and, 262 / Index Pornographic images, x, 152, 228 POSIX, 83 Postmodernism, xviii technology and, xvii–xix, 240nn12, 13 “Post-punk” generation, 31 Poulsen, Kevin Lee (Dark Dante), xxvi, 6, 36, 217, 233 case of, 176, 212–16, 244n21 hunting for, 197 as national security threat, 215 probation for, 191–92 secrets and, 215 Pranks, xiii, 37, 47– 48, 197, 206, 231 Prince of Hackers, 195, 203 Prisoner, The (Branwyn), 53 Privacy, xxiii, 93, 110, 247n17 Programmers, ix, 14, 65, 144 Programming, 3, 14, 19, 145, 235 Programs, 43 – 44, 118 cracking, 69 Prophet, The See Riggs, Robert Protovision, 24, 30 Pseudonyms, 130, 130 –31 Publicity, 202–3 PumpCon, 92 Punishment as political tactic, 182 as social function, 181 technology and, 175, 180 –85, 196 –97, 220 –22 Pynchon, Thomas, 125 Quittner, Joshua on gang war, 209 –10 on hacker underground, 211 on LOD, 210 on Mitnick, 192 Radio call-in contests, fixing, 191 Randolph, Don, 205, 227, 250n1 Reagan, Ronald, 95, 193 Rebellion, xiv, 80, 158, 206 Red boxes, 178 Redford, Robert (Sneakers), xv Reno, Janet: cyberterrorism and, 43 Representations, 96 codes/systems of, 149 hacker, xiii–xiv, xx, 5, 72–74, 90, 138, 150 –51, 175, 194, 200, 205– 6, 212–13, 219 media, 220 popular culture, 220 Reputation, 91, 207 Resistance globalization of, 97 hacking as, 187–90 primary/secondary strategy of, 149 styles of, 153 –56, 170 Rhoades, Steve, 47 on technology/human relationship, 48 Riggs, Robert (The Prophet), 123, 125 RISKS Digest, postings at, 45 Ross, Andrew: on hacker underground, x Rossetto, Harriet, 192 Rotundo, Anthony, xvi, 47, 158, 206 on boy culture, x Rubin, Jerry, 16 San Diego Supercomputer Center, 198 San Fernando Valley Daily News, Mitnick and, 202 San Jose Mercury News, SATAN (Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks), 7, Schindler, David, 227, 250n1 Schwader, Warren: hieroglyphics of, 40 Schwartau, Winn: Hacker Jeopardy and, 93 Science fiction, 19 –23 Scorpion, MOD and, 208 Scott, LOD and, 210 Script kiddies, 43, 167 Scripts, 43 – 44, 46, 167 Secrecy, xxv, 14, 40, 116, 179, 215, 220 body and, 188, 190 code sharing and, 15 corporate, 81, 220 culture of, xi–xii, xvii, xxi, 3, 12, 31, 35, 52, 113, 122, 123 –30, 126, 180, 188 genealogy of, 12–15 importance of, 13, 31, 33, 130 institutions of, 128, 129 issues of, – 4, 15, 188 Index / language of, 49 –50 need for, 39 – 40, 109, 126 notion of, 13, 110, 179, 189 ownership and, 39 producing, 38, 127 regulation of, 189 technology and, 3, 30, 130, 131–32, 221 violating, 13, 19, 23, 110, 130, 131, 133 –34, 140, 187, 217, 221, 225 Secret Service, 161, 189 –90 Secrets of Windows 95, 50 Security, xi–xii, xxiii, 99 –100, 110, 127, 155, 212 as add-on application, 154 enhancing, 44, 63, 86, 87, 109 flaws in, 7, 8, 28, 44, 46, 85–86, 88, 89, 235 hardware/software, 89 high-end, 62– 63 network, 7, 86, 87 obscurity and, 88, 108 system, 61, 245n35 threats to, 44, 66, 68, 105, 216, 217 UNIX, 67 Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks See SATAN Security professionals, xxiii, 109, 139, 157, 158, 159 hackers and, 43, 87, 235 Serial hackers, 206 SETEC ASTRONOMY (Sneakers), 30 SF-LOVERS, 20 Sheedy, Ally (War Games), 25 Sherman, Richard, 223, 250n1 Shimomura, Tsutomu, 197, 231 Markoff and, 230 Mitnick and, 198, 199 –200, 201, 204, 229, 227 Shockwave Rider (Brunner), 29, 53, 139 Shooting Shark, 26 Silicon Valley, xi, xxii, xxiv, 24, 196 boom in, 42 old school at, 17 Silver Spy (Sysop of Catch 22), 91 Sim, Evian S., 250n1 Sir Francis Drake, 92 6502 CPU, 167, 168 263 SkyNet, 51 Slatalla, Michelle on gang war, 209 –10 on hacker underground, 211 on LOD, 210 Sneakers (movie), xv, 30, 51, 53 Social engineering, xxiii, 61– 67, 159, 165–70, 198 Socialist Review, Haraway in, 71 Social life, hacker, xxiv–xxv Social movements, 115, 120 Social order, disruption of, 179, 180 Socrates, 58, 244n19 Softley, Iain, 166 Software, 9, 87 copying, xviii, xxvii, 134 developing, xvii, 143, 235 free, 8, 11, 118 hacking, 81, 105, 147, 225 Microsoft, 93 –94 proprietary, 34, 225 remote control, 98, 99 Software Blue Box, 134 Sokol, Dan, 39 Sol System, 20 Southwestern Bell circuit boards, theft/sale of, 232 Sparks, Sam, 236 Speech recognition, 14 Speed dialer, 178 Spinrad, Norman, 20 Spot the Fed (game), xxv, 93 Starr, Ken, 222, 228 Star Trek (movie), 60, 70, 202 Stereotypes, hacker, 81, 165 Sterling, Bruce, 243n4, 244n12 on anarchy of convenience, 116 on computer bulletin boards, 118 on hacker underground, 15–16 on Phrack, 122 on WarGames, 26 on youth culture, xiii Stoll, Clifford, xiii, 6, 34 Stone, Sandy, x Style computer, 143, 144 – 48 documentation of, 158 electronic, 149 hacker, 148–53, 160 – 61, 162 264 / Index Style, continued meaning of, 142, 156 – 60 of resistance, 153 –56, 170 subcultural, 142, 148, 149, 150, 157 Subcultural style, 142, 148, 149 cultural codes and, 150 transformation of, 157 Subculture, xxiii, xxv, 141, 148 coding, 144 complex/varied, computer, ix–x, 166 fluidity of, 142 formation, xi, xii, 171 hacker, xx, xxi, xxvi, 3, 113, 147, 149, 151, 152, 153, 155 parent culture and, 143 Substitutions, 12, 56, 57 SummerCon, 92 Sun, 101 Superman I (movie), 207 Surveillance, 14, 93, 189, 214 development/deployment of, 216 mechanisms of, 219 Synthetic Slug, 92 SysOp, 152 Systems administrators, hackers and, 43 crashes, resisting/interrupting, xii See also Operating systems Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America’s Most Wanted Computer Outlaw–by the Man Who Did It (Shimomura and Markoff), 199 –200, 202, 204 TAP See Technical Assistance Program Tapeworms, 29 Taran King See King, Randy Technical, technology and, –10, 61 Technical Assistance Program (TAP), 16, 59, 120, 121, 122 early literature of, 115–16 Techno-fetishism, 157, 159 Technological, xvi, 51, 53, 54, 63, 78, 143 hackers/hacking and, 55 technology and, 61 Technology access to, xxii, 53, 115, 191, 193 challenge to, 218 changes in, 67, 110 complexity of, x, culture and, xvii, xx, xxi, 9, 37, 40, 74, 75, 79 demand for, 60 – 61, 66 deployment of, 82, 216 hackers and, xxi, xxiii, xxiv, xxv–xxvi, 11, 12, 73, 75, 78, 113, 155 hacking and, xxi, 11, 37, 52–53, 71, 179 –80 mastering/controlling, xvi, 48, 49 –51, 54, 75, 188 meaning of, 56, 63, 76, 79 memory as, 183 –84 performance of, xx, 50, 77, 79 question of, 57, 79 relationship to, 45, 48–50, 52, 55, 58, 63, 69, 73, 75–78, 127, 175, 183, 196, 237 secrecy and, 3, 30, 130, 131–32, 221 separation of, 177–78 social dimensions of, xxvi, 75, 182, 188, 193 threat of, 58, 179, 217 Technophobia, 8, 32, 52, 53, 55, 180, 216, 217 Technoscapes, 82, 83, 96 Telcos, 124 Telecommunications, 127, 178, 200 –201 Telenet, 133 Terminals, photo of, 165 Terminator films, 51 Terminus, 60 Terrorists, xxii, 43, 176, 177, 212, 231 Tips and Tricks for Java 1.1, 50 Tom Edison, 16, 60, 116 ToneLoc, 234 –35 Torvalds, Linus, 83 Tracking, xxvi, 194, 195, 198, 199, 201 Trade relations, hacker intervention in, 102–3 Transformation, 58, 149, 161 Translations, laws governing, 57 Transmitters, making, 224 Transparent interfaces, 151 Index / Trashing, 62 Trojan (UNIX patch), 167 TRON (movie), xiv TRS-80s, 133 True hacks, 44 derivative hacks and, 43 “Truth about ’Back Orifice,’ The” (Microsoft), 98 TRW, 33, 35 T-shirts, xxiv, xxv, 93 FBI, 187 Free Kevin, 228 Tuc, 92 Turing, Alan: Enigma Machine and, 13 Turkle, Sherry, 243n2 on bricolage, 146 – 47 on Greenblatt/Dijkstra, 145 2600: The Hacker Quarterly, 90, 121, 122, 157, 230 –31 described, 116, 119 –20, 141 forbidden knowledge from, 119 Tymnet, B T.: proprietary structure of, 127 Überhackers, 197 Ubik (Dick), 20 Ulrich, Skeet (Takedown), 204 Unauthorized access devices, 187, 188, 211 Underground, xx, 6, 90, 157, 244n25 culture, 157 documenting, 136 – 40 hacker culture and, 148 reputations in, 207 roots of, 15, 16 See also Computer underground; Hacker underground United Nations Commission on Human Rights, 102 University of California computer system, hacking, UNIX, xxiv, 44, 87, 167 bugs in, 105, 106 clones, 85 IRC and, 153 machines, 29, 37, 67, 245n35 security and, 86 shell navigation, 130 265 Unleashing HTML, 49 Unsolved Mysteries (television show), 219 Poulsen on, 197, 214, 215–16 USA Today, on Mitnick, 202 VAXstation II, 125 Venema, Wieste, Video games, 157, 218 Videosmith, The, 91 Violence metaphors of, 175 virtual, 212 Virilio, Paul: on commodification, 22–23, 38–39 Virtual, 181 anxiety and, 218 Virtual/corporeal split, 201 Virtual space, 175, 201, 212, 216, 218 Viruses, 6, 7, 157, 177, 224 biological/computer, 41– 42 maliciousness of, 29 networks and, 42 Visibility, 148, 202–3 VISICALC, 146 Voice hacker, 74, 75 institutional, 74 –75 VR5 (television show), xv VT100, 37 Walker, Kent: Mitnick and, 197 Wannabes, 167 WarGames (movie), xv, xxii, xxiii, 23 –31, 45, 51, 53, 60, 118, 156, 164, 168, 170, 235 hacker culture and, ix, 26 WarGames Dialers, 118 War Operations Planned Response See WOPR Web pages, xxiv, 72, 104, 141, 166 addresses, 46 on hackers, hacking, 165– 66, 167, 228–29 Well, The, 198–99, 200 Wetware, 61 Wetwired, 52 “Why Should The CU Care?,” 35–36 266 / Index Windows, 82, 84 –85, 87, 98 bugs/holes in, 89 file sharing features of, 88 functions, 152 operating system of, 104 Windows 95, 85, 87, 88, 97, 98 L0phtcrack 2.0 and, 108 security features of, 99, 100 Windows 98, 97, 98, 153 security features of, 99, 100 Windows for Dummies, 50 Windows NT, 104 L0phtcrack 2.0 and, 108 password system of, 106 –7 security and, 100 Wing, MOD and, 208 winhack.c, 88 Winkler, Ira: on breaking into computers, 46 Wired News, 45, 210 Wiretapping, 198, 211, 213, 214 Wizard programs, 49 Wong, Blondie, 97, 246n16 on human rights/trade policy, 102–3 on intervention, 103 on publicity, 103 Wood, Michele, 236, 250n1 WOPR (War Operations Planned Response), 24, 25, 27, 60 Word Perfect for Dummies, 50 World Wide Web, 42, 166 Worms, 23 –31, 68, 86 Wozniak, Steven “Woz,” 17, 64, 101 blue boxing and, 18 PC and, 18 Write, 85 Writing, technology and, 57, 58, 61 www.kevinmitnick.com, 231 Xerox, 29 X-Files (television show), xv YIP See Youth International Party YIPL See Youth International Party Line Yippies, 16, 59, 116 Youth culture, xi, xvi, 73, 103, 205, 239n11 documentation of, 158 hackers and, xiv, 141 interest in, xiii, xvii online, 141– 44 subcultural identity and, 142 technology and, 72 Youth International Party (YIP), 16 Youth International Party Line (YIPL), 59 Youth rebellion, xiv, 80, 206 Zero Cool See Murphy, Dade Zines, 239n11 Zizek, Slavoj, x Douglas Thomas is associate professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles ... of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Thomas, Douglas, 1966– Hacker culture / Douglas Thomas p cm ISBN 0-8 16 6-3 34 5-2 Computer programming – Moral and ethical aspects hackers I Title QA76.9.M65... explores the manner in which hacker culture negotiates technology, culture, and subculture, beginning with a discussion of the relationship between hackers and technology Hackers’ discourse demonstrates... of the Hacker 1 Hacking Culture Hacking as the Performance of Technology: Reading the Hacker Manifesto” 47 Hacking in the 1990s 81 Part II Hacking Representation 111 Representing Hacker Culture: