Rogue Hackers Gallery
by Daryl Lindsey
Sep 4/98.
The investigation into Kevin Mitnick's alleged
hacking crimes is just one recent example of
the FBI cranking up its computer crimes
investigations.
In the wake of recent Pentagon network
break-ins, which forced the hand of the US
Justice Department and defense advisers to do
serious network security soul searching, the
feds are intensifying their efforts to halt
computer crime. The number of pending FBI
investigations into computer intrusions in 1998
has grown to 480, a 133 percent increase over
1997.
Despite the hurdles investigators face tracking
bit bandits, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
has taken down some of the country's most
notorious. Here's a rundown of memorable
convictions in the past decade:
ROBERT TAPPAN MORRIS
Convicted in 1990
Sentence: three years probation, community
service, fine
Robert Morris' worm virus wrought such havoc
on the Internet when it was unfurled on 2
November 1988 that curators at the Boston
Computer Museum keep a copy in its historical
collection. Morris, a scrappy 24-year-old Cornell
University grad student, cited two inspirations
behind his mischievous keying: Shockwave
Rider by John Brunner -- a book about a
gearhead warrior who tries to overthrow a
network-dependent government by infesting its
autocratic information arteries with a program
called a "worm" -- and his own computer
research.
Reproducing like mosquitoes on a bayou in
summer, Morris' worm caused millions of dollars
in damage at infected universities, NASA, the
military, and other federal government agencies,
and choked about 10 percent of Internet traffic.
One of the first big trials held after the passage
of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986,
Morris was convicted in 1990 and sentenced to
three years probation and 400 hours of
community service. He was also fined
US$10,000, and suspended from Cornell.
LEGION OF DOOM
Convicted in 1990
Sentences: 14 to 21 months in prison
"Basically, they wanted to own 'Ma Bell,'" said
Assistant US Attorney Kent Alexander,
describing the hacking ambitions of the Atlanta
branch of Legion of Doom to a Newsday reporter.
The group, taking its cue from the villains of the
popular Superfriends cartoon, turned BellSouth
into their own Hall of Doom, hacking and
copying the telco's 911 network.
BellSouth sniffed out the group in 1990 and
turned them over to the FBI. The Legion was
also known for marginally less nefarious hacks:
breaking into phone company computers,
seizing phone lines, and eavesdropping on
phone conversations. Two Legion members were
convicted of conspiracy and another for
possession of illegal access devices and intent
to defraud. Franklin Darden, 24, and Adam
Grant, 22, both got 14-month prison sentences;
Robert Riggs, 22, got 21 months. The
network-menacing triumvirate were also forced
to pay US$223,000 in restitution.
KEVIN POULSEN
Convicted in 1991
Sentence: four years in prison, three-year ban
from computer use, fine
Armed with the "Trash-80" his parents gave him,
Dark Dante (Kevin Poulsen) was adept at
trespassing ARPANET and other government
and private networks. Still a teen when first
caught in 1983, Poulsen was offered the typical
post-hacker glam job as a security expert with
hush-hush government-contractor SRI
International in Menlo Park, California.
Poulsen spent his evenings hacking and
breaking into Pacific Bell's innermost nodes.
Unlike most of his contemporaries, Poulsen was
a bit of a cheater -- he was an ace at picking
locks, and would break into phone company
offices and steal gear and manuals that would
provide guides to the network once he hacked it.
He was charged with computer crimes,
espionage (a charge later dropped), and
telephone fraud in 1990, but taunted prosecutors
with his hacking prowess and evaded arrest for
17 months.
On the lam, Poulsen seized control of the phone
lines at a Los Angeles radio station to win a
convertible Porsche and trips to Hawaii. The
feds extinguished Dark Dante's inferno in 1991.
Poulsen was tried and convicted of computer
crimes in relation to his new-found Porsche
fetish and given the harshest hacker sentence
ever: four years in prison, a US $58,000 fine,
and a ban from using computers for three years
after his release.
MASTERS OF DECEPTION
Convicted in 1992
Sentences: six months to one year in prison,
community service, probation
Operating out of Brooklyn and Queens in New
York, the ethnically diverse Masters of
Deception sought empowerment and street cred
by hacking the networks of blue-chip
corporations (including AT&T, Bank of America,
and TRW) and the National Security Agency,
using disarmingly primitive tools, like
Commodore 64 computers.
Five members of MOD were tried for computer
intrusions and stealing confidential information
from credit reports. Convicted in 1992,
celebrated Phiber Optik (Mark Abene) was
sentenced to one year in jail. Acid Phreak (Eli
Ladopoulos) and Scorpion (Paul Stira), were
given six-month sentences, community
services, and probation. Corrupt (John Lee) was
sent to prison for a year. Outlaw (Julio
Fernandez) avoided jail time by cooperating with
investigators.
All were under 22 at the time of their indictment.
New York city gave Phiber Optik a homecoming
worthy of king when he got released from jail:
fellow hackers feted him, and New York
magazine named him one of the city's 100
smartest people.
JUSTIN TANNER PETERSEN
Convicted in 1995
Sentence: 3.5 years in prison, restricted use of
computers for three years, fine
Agent Steal, as the fast-car and bondage-loving
scammer Justin Petersen was known in the
hacker community, was arrested in 1993. He
pleaded guilty to computer fraud charges for his
efforts in rigging the same "Win a Porsche by
Friday" radio contest as Kevin Poulsen, and
digitally pickpocketing US$150,000 from a
Glendale, California, financial services company.
Petersen, then 32, agreed to rat on Poulsen and
help prosecutors hunt other hackers in
exchange for lenient treatment. He even helped
agents bust Kevin Mitnick on a parole violation.
But Petersen fled when the FBI caught him
hacking again -- he was illegally tapping into
banks while working with prosecutors.
When he was finally convicted in 1995, he was
sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison,
three years probation that allowed him to use
computers only at work, and ordered to pay
more than US$40,000 restitution. Petersen
returned to jail this summer for parole violations.
Taken from Wired online