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U.S. Computer Investigation Targets Austinites
By Kyle Pope (%cr% Austin-American Statesman)
(March 17, 1990: Pp A-1, A-12)
The U.S. Secret Service has seized computer equipment from two Austin homes
and a local business in the past month as part of a federal investigation
into electronic tampering with the nation's 911 emergency network.
Armed Secret Service agents, accompanied by officers from the Austin Police
Department, took the equipment in three March 1 raids that sources say are
linked to a nation wide federal inquiry coordinated by the Secret Service
and the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago.
While federal official have declined to comment on the investigation --
which focuses on a bizarre mix of science fiction allegations of high-tech
thievery -- the AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN has learned that the raids
targeted Steve Jackson Games, a South Austin publisher of role-playing
games, and the home of Loyd Blankenship, managing editor at the company.
A second Austin home, whose resident was acquainted with Jackson officials,
also was raided.
Jackson said there is no reason for the company to be investigated. Steve
Jackson Games is a book and game publisher of fiction, he said, and is not
involved in any computer-related thefts.
The agents, executing search warrants now sealed by a judge from public
view, took computer equipment, including modems, printers, and monitors,
as well as manuals, instruction books and other documents. The equipment
has been forwarded to federal officials in Chicago.
The Secret Service, best-known for protecting the president, has
jurisdiction in the case, government officials say, because damage to the
nation's telephone system could harm the public's welfare. In addition, the
system is run by American Telephone & Telegraph Co., a company involved in
the nation's defense.
The 911 investigation already has resulted in the indictment of two
computer "hackers" in Illinois and sources say federal authorities are now
focusing on Austin's ties to a shadowy underground computer user's group
known as the Legion of Doom.
The hackers, who live in Georgia and Missouri, were indicted in Chicago.
They are believed to be members of the Legion of Doom
%See Secret, A12/%page break%%
%continued from A1% and are charged with seven counts, including interstate
transportation of stolen property, wire fraud, and violations of the
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986.
The government alleges that the defendants stole a computerized copy of
Bell South's system that controls 911 emergency calls in nine states. The
information was then transferred to a computer bulletin board and published
in a hacker publication known as PHRACK.
A trial in the case is scheduled to begin in June.
U.S. agents also have seized the final drafts of a science fiction game
written by the Austin-based game company. Sources say the agents are trying
to determine whether the game--a dark, futuristic account of a world where
technology has gone awry--is being used as a handbook for computer crime.
Steve Jackson, the owner of the local company and a well-known figure in
the role-playing game industry, said neither he nor his company has been
involved in tampering with the 911 system.
No one in Austin has been indicted or arrested as a result of the
investigation.
"It is an on-going investigation. That is all I can say," said Steve
Beauchamp, special agent-in-charge of the Secret Service Austin field
office.
"Until we can put it all together, we just do not comment, he said.
Bob Rogers, Jackson's Dallas attorney, said federal agents have assured him
that neither Jackson nor Jackson Games is the target of the probe. The
authorities would not tell Rogers whether the inquiry focused on other
company employees.
"It's not a manual for computer crime any more than a READER'S DIGEST story
on how to burglar-proof your house is a manual for burglars," said Jackson,
36. "It's kind of like the hints you get on safe-cracking from a James Bond
Movie."
Blankenship, the author of the book, said his attorney has advised him not
to comment on the book or the Secret Service investigation.
Jackson said he guesses his company was linked to the 911 probe by its use
of a computer bulletin board system, called Usenet.
The board, one of hundreds throughout the country, is a sort of electronic
Town Square, where personal computer users from throughout the world can
tap into the system via phone lines and a modem.
The network, free and relatively unregulated, is an information exchange
where users can post information, exchange electronic messages and debate
with keyboard everything from poetry and politics to nuclear war.
One of the world's largest networks--boasting more than 600,000
users--Usenet was tapped by Chinese students in North America to organize
support for students during the pro-democracy demonstrations last year. The
network also was infected in 1988 by a now-famous computer "virus"
unleashed by college student Robert Morris.
Jackson said his company has maintained a bulletin board on the Usenet
network on which it posts advanced copies of its role-playing games. The
firm posts the games and requests that the users of the network comment on
the text and propose improvements.
The Jackson bulletin board, called Illuminati, greets users with the
company's logo and a message that states: "Welcome to the World's Oldest
and Largest Secret Conspiracy."
Over the past several months, the company has been posting drafts of
Cyberpunk for review.
The resident of the second Austin home raided by the Secret Service was
acquainted with Jackson and had made comments about the game on Usenet. He
asked to remain anonymous.
Typical of Cyberpunk literature, the game is set in a bleak future, much
like the world portrayed in MAX HEADROOM, formerly a network television
program.
Computers and technology control people's thoughts and actions and are
viewed both as a means of oppression and as a method of escape.
Portions of Jackson's Cyberpunk viewed by the AMERICAN-STATESMAN include a
detailed discussion on penetrating government computer networks and a list
of fictitious programs used to break into closed networks.
Bruce Sterling, an Austin science fiction writer and one of the world's
best-known Cyberpunk writers, said Jackson's game and its computer-related
discussions are hardly unusual for the genre.
"Cyberpunk is thriller fiction," Sterling said. "It deals to a great extent
with the romance of crime in the same way that mysteries or
techno-thrillers do."
He said the detailed discussions in the Jackson games are what draws people
to them.
"That's the charm of simulation games," he said. "You're simulating
something that's supposed to be accurate. If it's cooked up out of thin
air, the people who play these games are going to lose interest."
Jackson, though, said he has been told by Secret Service agents that they
view the game as a user's guide to computer mischief.
He said they made the comments when he went to the agency's Austin office
in an unsuccessful attempt to reclaim some of his seized equipment.
"As they were reding over it, they kept making outraged comments," Jackson
said. "When they read it, they became very, very upset.
"I said, 'This is science fiction.' They said, 'No. This is real.'"
The text of the Cyberpunk games, as well as other computer equipment taken
from Jackson's office, still has not been returned. The company now is
working to rewrite portions of the book and is hoping to have it printed
next month.
In addition to reviewing Cyberpunk, sources say federal authorities
currently are investigating any links between local computer hackers and
the Legion of Doom. The sources say some of the 911 information that is the
subject of the Chicago indictments has been traced to Austin computers.
Jackson's attorney said federal officials have told him that the 911
information pilfered from Bell South has surfaced on a computer bulletin
board used at Steve Jackson games. But the information apparently has not
been traced to a user.
Jackson said that neither he nor any of his employees is a member of the
Legion of Doom.
Blankenship, however, did consult with the group in the course of
researching and writing the Cyberpunk game, Jackson said. Further, the
group is listed in the game's acknowledgments for its aid in providing
technical information used in Cyberpunk.
For these reasons, Jackson said he believes Blankenship is a local target
of the federal probe, though none of the investigators has yet confirmed
this suspicion.
"My opinion is that he is (being investigated)," Jackson said. "If that's
the case, that's gross.
"He had been doing research for what he hoped would be a mass-market book
on the computer underground," Jackson said.
The other Austin resident raided by the authorities, who asked to remain
anonymous, acknowledged that he is a founding member of the Legion of Doom
and that copies of the 911 system had surfaced on the group's local
bulletin board.
The 20-year-old college student said the information hardly posed any
threat to the 911 system.
"It was nothing," he said. "It was garbage, and it was boring."
In the Chicago indictment, federal officials say the information
distributed by the group could have allowed hackers to access the 911 system
and disrupt 911 service in the United States.
In addition, the indictment accused the group of a litany of electronic
abuses, including: disrupting telephone service by changing the routing of
telephone calls; stealing and modifying individual credit histories;
stealing money and property from companies by altering computer information;
and disseminating information about attacking computers to other computer
hackers.
"For the most part, that's all we do," he said. "No one's out ripping off
people's credit cards. No one's out to make any money.
"We're just out to have fun."
The group member said the fact that the legion is shrouded in mystery adds
to its mystique--and to the interest law enforcement agents have in cracking
the ring.
"It's an entirely different world," the student said. "It's a very strange
little counter-culture.
"Everybody who exists in that world is familiar with the Legion of Doom,"
he said. "Most people are in awe or are intimidated by it."
Jackson said that until the case is revolved, his company is at a near
stand-still.
Half of his 17-member staff has been laid of and he said the firm is losing
$10,000 a week in revenue because of the Cyberpunk delay.
Worse, Jackson said, the game's hold-up comes amid some of the worst
financial difficulties in the company's recent history.
But in a letter to employees, Jackson said he did not plan to close the
company or cancel Cyberpunk.
"This company has not been involved in any illegal activities and has
absolutely nothing to hide," Jackson wrote. "It is embarrassing for us to
be invaded by the Secret Service, but it's not dishonorable, and we're not
going to lie about it."
"Now please try to get back to work. Apologies for the disruption."
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