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Computer Hacking: A New Breed of Crime is Born
by
Jon Hogg
College Composition, mod 3
Instructor: Mr. Gorsuch
May 17, 1991
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Thesis: The computer revolution has given birth to a whole new class of
crime: the computer hacker.
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I. What hacking is
A. Definition - "To hack...at someting means to work on it
without any ... hope of success..."
B. The word "hacker" has taken on a negative connotation
1) There was a time when hacking was thought of mainly as a
constructive activity
a. Brought us the innovation of the home computer in
the '70s
b. Steve Wozniak's invention of the Apple computer
2) Even today there are still "good" hackers who do no harm
to anyone
C. Terminology
1) Definition of a cyberpunk
2) Defintion of a cracker
3) Phone phreaking
a. Definition
b. How it is done
4) Worm - "A self-contained program that spreads through
computer networks"
5) Time bomb - a program that does something, either benign
or destructive, on a certain date
6) Virus - program that attaches itself onto existing
computer files & "reproduces"
7) Social engineering
8) Cracker - two types
a. "...breaks illegally into computer systems and
creates mischief..."
b. One who "cracks" the copy-protection scheme on a
piece of commercial software and then possibly
pirates the software
9) Pirate - One who illegally distributes copies of
commercially available software
II. Hackers - what they are like
A. Mark Koi
1) What got him interested in computers
2) Mark's obscession with his Commodore 64
3) Mark wasn't a superachiever or underachiever
4) Description of Mark's bedroom
5) Mark's "trashing" missions
B. A couple of hackers I talked to last summer
1) Fiber Optic G0D
2) "Eagle" - chatted with him on Freenet, then talked
voice with him
a. His friend on the 3-way line high on drugs
b. Both into heavy metal music
3) Joe - chatted with him on Freenet, then talked voice
a. Had a prepubescent eigth grader on his 3-way line
b. Called an operator while we were on the phone
c. Tried to see if I was "elite"
C. Description of a hacker BBS
III. Hackers - their motivations and attitudes
A. Reasons for breaking into computers
1) To bolster their ego
2) For fun
3) The challenge of defeating computer security
B. Two camps of computer users
1) Hackers
2) People in "business, science, and national security"
who couldn't live without their computers to do their
work--hate hackers
C. Breaking computer security - nothing wrong in doing it,
"if you're accomplishing somthing useful"
D. Cyberpunks seeing "cracking supposedly impenetrable
networks as a challenging rite of passage"
E. "Hackers...are doers, take-things-in-handers...Their
arguments are their actions"
IV. Hackers are criminals
A. Cost of Hacking Activities
1) Phone phreaking - $500 million annually
2) Ripped off data & software piracy - $4 million annually
B. "..'predators on society'"
C. "...data on crackers..." showing "...they are either
juvenile delinquents or plain criminals"
V. Ease of doing damage via computer
A. The ability of a kid to go out and buy "...the elec-
tronic equivalent of a Saturday night special"
B. The ability of anyone with grey matter, computer and
modem to break into almost any system he/she dials into
VI. Legal aspects of hacking
A. Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986
B. The Electronic Frontier Foundation
1) Founded by a number of prominent people in the
computer field
2) Sticks up for computer users who are victims of un-
warranted searches and/or seizures
3) "fight for computer users' rights"
D. Robert Morris case
1) Tell what Morris did
2) Morris shouldn't go to jail, says one writer
E. Prior restraint illegally practiced by law enforcement
when Craig Neidorf was shut down
F. Computer technology so new that society must catch up
with it
Our society, in the past fifteen years, has undergone a
massive revolution. The revolution I am referring to is that of
the computer becoming a major part of the lives of Americans.
The computer has permanently changed the way Americans live. For
many of us, the use of ATM's is a part of our banking routine.
Computer microprocessors rear their heads in various household
appliances such as VCR's and TV's. Many business people depend
on personal computers to do their work. But one undesirable
aspect of society has undergone a revolution because of computers
as well: crime. The computer revolution has given birth to a
whole new class of criminal: the computer hacker.
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First off, let me give an idea as to what the term "hacker"
means and how the term has changed its meaning throughout about the
past fifteen years. The textbook that I use in my Pascal programming
class gives this definition for hacking:
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To hack on or at something means to work on it without any
great hope of success...Simply hacking something means to
explore it for no particular reason, usually late at night.
(Cooper & Clancy, 570)
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It was in this spirit of hacking that the hackers of the 1970's made
having a computer in one's very own home possible at an affordable
price. Steve Wozniak, back in 1975, slapped together some chips and
wires and dubbed his creation "Apple I." (the Apple II, which actually
has a keyboard and a case, succeeded the Apple I about a year later.)
Lee Felsenstein, hacker and inventor of the Osborne I personal
computer, brought us "the first keyboard- and display-equipped
microcomputer and designed the first portable computer." (Steinburg
157). Even today there are people who like to tinker with electronics
and computer hardware. These people who tinker with the insides of
their computers try to get their computers to perform beyond the limits
imposed by the manufacturer of their computers. These people are the
Henry Ford's and the Thomas Edison's of our day. These people enjoy
tinkering with computers as a hobby to occupy their free time and do no
harm. But in about the past ten years, the word "hacker" has taken on
a negative connotation, thanks in part to the news media and the movie
War Games. A more appropriate term to describe someone who breaks into
other computers and causes discomfort and damage via computer is
"rodent," "cracker," "cyberpunk," or "worm."
Because there are people who are involved in the dark side of
computing, a whole crop of new jargon terms have sprung up in the past
few years-- allow me to define a few. Cyberpunks are "computer hackers
who create harmful programs." A worm (not to be confused with the
above mentioning of a "worm") is "a self-contained program that spreads
through computer networks." A time bomb is a program that is triggered
to performed some action when the computer's system clock reaches a
certain date, like wiping out a PC's hard disk or printing a Christmas
message on the screen. A virus is "a rogue computer program that
copies itself into other programs and diskettes" which is either benign
or does something nasty such as wiping out the data on a computer's
hard disk. (Allman 25) Social engineering occurs when a hacker dupes a
system operator into divulging passwords and access codes by fibbing to
the system operator and telling him or her that he (the hacker) needs
the password or access code for such-and-such a reason. (Hitt & Tough
48) A cracker is 1) one "...who breaks illegally into computer systems
and creates mischief...," and 2) someone who "cracks" the copy-
protection scheme on a piece of commercially-available software so the
software can be copied for friends/buddies/acquaintances or uploaded to
a computer bulletin-board system. (Hitt & Tough 48).
There have been times when one has gotten his or her long
distance bill from Sprint, MCI or other non-AT&T long distance carrier
and has found on the bill a call that he or she never made to
California that costs some outrageous amount (the farthest west the
person has made a call in recent years is Missouri and the highest one-
call charge the person has ever run up was about $5.) The reason for
the call? He or she has been the victim of a phone phreaker. Some
hackers (I will use the term instead of "rodent," "worm," "cracker," or
"cyberpunk") just can't stand the thought of actually paying for the
long distance calls they make with their computers. So they use ill-
gotten access codes to illegally place free long-distance calls,
stealing long-distance service. This is known as "phone phreaking."
Sometimes, phreakers use "black boxes" and other gadgets to aid them in
their crime.
By now, one has to be wondering just what these computer
miscreants are like personally. I hope I can enlighten on this by
giving a profile of four Cleveland-area hackers. I will name two of
the hackers profiled by the "handle" they use on the computer bulletin-
board systems and computer networks they call, to add color.
First of all, let's start with The Fiber Optic G0D (note the
unusual spelling of "god"!) The Fiber Optic G0D's original parents
divorced several years back; his mother then invited another man (whom
I'm not sure whether or not she married) to live with her. The FOG
and I used to fight each other, but then we were somewhat buddies as
well. Once I went to the library near where we lived with him and paid
him a dollar or two to copy a disk of Apple // graphics. Later I
realized that he had ripped me off by making me pay him money to simply
copy a diskette for me. When FOG came of high school age, he spent the
ninth grade in alternate school. Throughout his high school career he
was suspended and had poor grades. Finally, last month, he dropped out
of school in the eleventh grade. His mother recently kicked him out of
her house because FOG was caught drinking for the fifth time.
Last summer, while I was logged onto the Cleveland Free-Net
public-access computer system, I "chatted" with Eagle. While we were
chatting, he asked me to disconnect from Freenet and have a voice
conversation with him. So I did. He had a three-way line. On the
third branch of the line was his friend, who was high on drugs. The
three of us talked some, then Eagle put a heavy metal CD in his CD
player. Soon after I ended the conversation with them.
Also last summer on Freenet I encountered a hacker/phreaker
named Joe, who also asked me to have a voice conversation. Joe also
had a three-way line. On the other branch of the three-way line was
his immature, prepubescent, eighth-grade friend. While the three of us
were online, he called an operator (probably using some phreaker's
"black box".) Joe and his friend tried to determine if I was "elite"
(which is an adjective that computer miscreants like to described as.)
The deeds of these hackers (from what I know about them-- but I
could be mistaken about them) are innocent when compared to those of
the notorious Rocky River hacker Mark Koi, who was "busted" for his
misdeeds back in 1986. Koi broke into a Congressional system and also
broke into business and college systems as well (Sawicki 86). Why did
Koi get himself into so much trouble? It all stems from his interest
in computers. Mark became interested in computers when he played
around on a friend's Commodore 64. Because Mark was now interested in
computers, he asked for and got a Commodore 64 for Christmas from his
parents. He later purchased a modem to go with it. Mark then began
hacking on his computer and became addicted to it. Brian Gesing, a
friend of Mark Koi, described Koi's hacking as "a full-time job." Koi
had "computer-hacker fever...like you're addicted to drugs," according
to another one of his friends. (Sawicki 158, 162, 163)
Mark's misdeeds didn't stop at hacking on his Commodore 64. He
and some of his friends would visit Great Northern, Westgate, or an
Ohio Bell office. At the two shopping malls, Koi and his cronies would
haul off credit card carbons to get credit card numbers which Koi used
to illegally order computer parts. Koi and his friends would also take
printouts of passwords and access codes from businesses' garbage
dumpsters. Also, they would steal "a manual here, a line set there" from
an Ohio Bell truck. (Sawicki 161)
Now, what was Mark really like personally? Mark wasn't a
superachiever or an underachiever, but somewhere in between. Mark's
friends are just average kids too, "not particularly known as athletes"
or "as top scholars." Mark made decent grades in "math and computers"
but didn't make such good grades in his humanities classes. Mark
joined the school wrestling team, but wasn't very good at wrestling.
(Sawicki 89)
Mark Koi's room "was a true hacker's dream," loaded with books
about phone systems, computers, and hacking. Mark's room was almost a
jungle of wires. Mark's room wasn't anything like a normal teenager's
room. (Sawicki 86)
Hackers such as Mark Koi use what are known as computer
bulletin board systems (BBS's), run on their personal computers, to
exchange information on how to break into various computer systems.
The BBS is somewhat like an electronic representation of a bulletin
board one would find in a grocery store or other public place-- a place
to leave messages and to read the messages left by other people, but in
somewhat the format of a memorandum. Below is what one will encounter
when he calls a typical hacker computer bulletin board system. The
name of the imaginary system in this discussion will be The Hacker's
Den. A user calls The Hacker's Den by instructing the modem connected
to his computer to dial the phone number of The Hacker's Den. When a
connection to The Hacker's Den is finally made, he is greeted by the
sysop (short for "system operator"-- he's the guy that owns and
operates the BBS.) The sysop (short for "system operator") asks the
user who he (there are almost no female hackers) is. If the user is
new, the sysop pelts him with various questions about hacking and
related illegal acts. Once the sysop has determined that the user is
"elite" (skilled in hacking) enough, the sysop grants the user access
to the BBS. When the user looks at the files in the file section of
this BBS, he sees various pirated (illegally copied) computer games.
Also in the file section are pornographic graphic files. When he
visits the message areas on this BBS, one will encounter a "war" base
where the users who call this BBS do nothing but spill out hatred
toward each other with messages laden with profanity and sexual
innuendos. Also in the message section are message areas where users
exchange information on how to break into various systems, phreak
codes, and possibly credit card numbers of innocent victims. There are
also message areas that deal with various general subjects such as
sports and music, along with an area for miscellaneous conversation.
All of this leads one to be curious as to what motivates
hackers to do what they do. There are several reasons why a hacker
breaks into computer systems. One is to bolster his ego. One hacker
says this: "Don't forget ego. People break into computers because it's
fun and it makes them look powerful." (Hitt & Tough 47) Another
reason is already mentioned by the hacker quoted above: for fun.
Finally, many hackers enjoy the challenge of defeating computer
security. Another hacker feels this way:
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But there's nothing wrong with breaking security if you're
accomplishing something useful. It's like picking a lock on a
tool cabinet to get a screwdriver to fix your radio. As long as
you put the screwdriver back, what harm does it do? (Hitt & Tough
48)
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One source I consulted had this to say about cyberpunks:
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Cyberpunks, the second generation of computer hackers, subscribe
to an arcane code of honor and look upon cracking supposedly
impenetrable networks as a challenging rite of passage. (Marsa &
Ray, 96)
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A user of who participated in the electronic discussion on the Well
BBS, moderated by two editors of Harper's Magazine, described hackers in
the following manner:
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Hackers are not sloganeers. They are doers, take-things-in-
handers. They are the opposite of philosophers: they can't wait
for the language to catch up to them. Their arguments are their
actions. (Hitt & Tough 55)
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The author of one source I consulted divided computer users
into two camps. In one camp are people "in business, science, and
national security" who can't live without their computers to do their
work. In the other camp are hackers. These two groups are at odds
against each other. The business, science, and national security users
hate hackers because they can't afford to have hackers break into their
computers. But hackers feel that by finding flaws in systems, they are
contributing to making systems better.
This attitude that hackers have seems noble enough, but
still, hackers are criminals who cause damage and discomfort. Phone
phreaking costs long-distance companies about $500 million annually.
The long-distance companies probably don't raise their rates to make up
for this loss, but that $500 million loss is money that isn't re-
invested in more, newer, and better equipment and in new technology
research for better long-distance service to the honest consumer. The
stealing of computer data and software piracy costs companies about $4
million annually. (Marsa & Ray 100) Some law enforcement people
describe hackers as "predators on society." (Wallich 34) A user named
Mandel, who participated in the discussion on the Well BBS moderated by
Harper's Magazine, says that "the data on crackers suggests that they
are either juvenile delinquents or plain criminals." (Hitt & Tough 49)
Causing such damage is rather easy. Lance Hoffman, electrical
engineering and computer science professor at George Washington
University, tells just how easy it is:
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Any kid can go out and, for less than a thousand dollars, buy the
electronic equivalent of a Saturday night special. With the right
computer equipment, he can hook up to international networks and
do a lot of damage. (Marsa & Ray 100)
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Just how vulnerable are computer systems? Anybody who has a computer
(even a cheap modem), a modem (a gadget that allows one's personal
computer to connect to other computers via the phone system), some grey
matter, and persistence can break into almost any system he dials into.
(Marsa & Ray 98)
Since computer hacking is such a new type of crime, society is
still figuring out how to deal with it and trying to pass laws that
govern computing.
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The Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1986 made it a crime
to own 'any electronic, mechanical, or other device {whose design}
renders it primarily useful for the purpose of the surreptitious
interception of wire, oral or electronic communication'."
(Hitt & Tough 56)
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A number of prominent people in the computer field have formed the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is a group that sticks up for
"computer freaks" who are victims of unwarranted searches, seizures,
and other "incursions" by the government. The group's mission is to
"fight for computer users' rights" (Lawren 17) Robert Morris, who was
a graduate student at Cornell University, was indicted in 1988 for
breaking into federal computer systems and letting a computer worm
loose on a computer network. The worm did damage to the tune of $96
million (estimated.) ("Terminal Case" 11) The author of one article I
consulted feels that Morris shouldn't be sent to jail for his computer
worm that hosed up Internet, since Morris didn't actually destroy and
data and didn't have criminal intentions when he turned his worm loose
on Internet. (Hafner 15-16) About a year ago, law enforcement agencies
shut down the computer bulletin-board system run by software publisher
Craig Neidorf because an issue of the electronic newsletter he carried
on the BBS contained illegal information which Neidorf didn't know was
illegally gotten by another hacker. Neidorf's lawyer contended that
the law-enforcement agency exercised prior restraint on his electronic
newsletter.
In short, computer technology is so new that society still must
catch up with it and establish "...effective rules of behavior for
cyberspace..." The author of the article goes on to say that these
rules "...will have to wait until the electronic [frontier] has been
settled..." (Wallich 38). In the same article, Kapor says that when
"the technology becomes more familiar and...secure,...society will be
better able to make decisions about how (or whether) access to
[computers] should be controlled." (Wallich 38)
The computer revolution has brought with it the wonderful
innovation of personal computers. Personal computers have enabled many
a business person to be more productive, have revolutionized the way
papers are written, music is composed, and the way businesses do their
accounting. Computers have changed our way of living. But along with
this revolution has come a necessity to use these systems responsibly
and to set "rules...for cyberspace."
WORKS CITED
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Allman, William F. "Computer Hacking Goes on Trial." U. S.
News & World Report. January 22, 1990: 25.
Cooper, Doug and Michael Clancy. Oh! Pascal! New York: W. W.
Norton & Co., 1985.
Hafner, Katie. "Morris Code." The New Republic. February 18,
1990: 16-18.
Hitt, Jack and Paul Tough, eds. "Is Computer Hacking a Crime?"
Harper's Magazine. March 1990: 45-56 (57?).
Lawren, Bill. "Breaking and Entering." Omni. December 1990:
17.
Marsa, Linda and Don Ray. "Crime Bytes Back." Omni. August
1990: 35-38, 96-102.
Sawicki, Stephen. "Hacker fever." Cleveland Magazine. October
1986: 86-89, 158-164.
Steinberg, Don. "Lee Felsenstein." PC-Computing. December
1989: 157.
"Terminal Case." U. S. News & World Report. August 7, 1989: 11.
Wallich, Paul. "Digital Desparados." Scientific American.
September 1990: 34-38.