Acknowledgments -------(2001)------- ---------------------------- To the many programmers of hacking software everywhere, and all those who disseminate information, forbidden or otherwise. Also, I should note that a few of these entries are taken from "A Complete List of Hacker Slang and Other Things" Version 1C, by Casual, Bloodwing and Crusader; this doc started out as an unofficial update. However, there are similar versions of this document in cirulation, this is my version which I (eleven) have modified. To the original editer/distributor/writer of this document, logik bomb, thank you for giving me permission to update the document as I saw fit. I've edited, altered, re-written and otherwise raped the original document. I think the list is very well written; my only problem with it is that it came out in 1990 and was edited in 1996, which makes it somewhat outdated, and I don't believe logik will be updating it again due to him finishing high school and having better things to do. intro ----------------------------- For those of you who don't know me, I'm eleven, pleased to meet you. I'm currently a sophomore in high school. I own a 533 mhz computer with 190 mb of RAM (as well as Windows XP, and a 17 inch monitor) and I do consider myself a hacker (by definitions 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 in my entry) ----------------------------- ABENE, MARK- see PHIBER OPTIK ACID PHREAK (1970-Present)- Handle of Elias Ladopoulos. Current leader of MOD. Could be reached until recently at ap@gti.net, though I think that account may no longer exist. [Name comes from phreak, as in phone phreak, and acid, so that it is a pun on acid freak, as in someone who takes a lot of LSD. He doesn't take acid, though; he listens to acid house music.] ACTS [Automated Coin Toll System]- Used in payphones to show that you have indeed put money in, so you can now make a call. Can be fooled by a Red Box. ADMINISTRATION- One of the largest hack/phreak groups to ever exist. It also included a group called Team Hackers '86. Members included Adolf Hitler, Alpha Centauri, Author Unknown, British Bloke, Dark Priest, David Lightman 214, Dr. Pepper, Hewlett Hackard, Major Havoc, Mane Phrame, Mark Twain, Phoneline Phantom 1, Red Baron, Renegade Rebel, Sasha Kinski, The President, and Walter Mitty. ADVENTURE- An old Atari 2600 video game that Knight Lightning played when he was seven and discovered secret rooms. This led to an interest in finding secrets in computers. Interestingly, the secret room KL found (which contained the initials of a programmer) is often considered to be the first easter egg ever put in a commercial program. AGENT STEAL- Handle of Justin Tanner Peterson, alias Samuel Grossman, alias Eric Heinz. Hacker and Los Angeles club promotor who apparently worked for the FBI after being jailed for credit card fraud; gathered info on big guns like Mitnick (David) and Poulsen for the Bureau. Went on the run for 10 months before being apprehended in 1994. AGRAJAG THE PROLONGED- Former member of the Hitchhikers and the Legion of Doom. He was also a programmer for old gaming machines. AI [Artifical Intelligence]- see ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AL [Artificial Life]- see ARTIFICIAL LIFE ALLIANCE- Former AT&T Trademark referring to teleconferencing systems. ALTAIR- The very first personal computer, introduced 1975. Really pathetic by our standards, but the first computer at all available to the common person. ALT.2600- Hacking Usenet newsgroup. Great website as well. Last time I checked, David Mitnick (yes the famous David Mitnick himself) was writing for them. From the magazine, 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. There are a few variants: alt.2600.moderated, alt.2600.hackerz, alt.2600.phreakz and alt.2600hz. AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH- see AT&T AMERICA ONLINE [AOL] aka (Gay-O-L)- Very evil commercial online service that rose from the ashes of a BBS (bulletin board system) called QuantumLink in 1990, and the largest commercial service. They've had an enormous problem with hackers, and their solution is to try and stop the flow of programs they don't like and shut down any chat room involving hacking, while the child molestor rooms stay. A number of programs have been written to rip them off, most notably AOHell. ANALOG- A way of representing information that uses a continuous range of values. Opposite of digital-- while a CD is digital, a tape is analog; while a computer is digital, an abacus is analog. ANARCHY- (1) Total chaos and disorder. (2) A time in a country, usually after a revolution, where there is no government, the most recent example probably being the former Soviet Union after the breakup of the Eastern Bloc. This condition has never been prolonged for very long. (3) The tenets of the political science of anarchism, the ultimate goal of which is the removal of any rule by anyone or anything. (4) [Anarchy file] A file (usually text) that details such actions as how to brew nitroglycerin and other destructive things. AOHELL- Most famous program for hacking America Online; first coded in 1994 and contained a full suite of utilities. Now it's outdated. AOL [America Online]- see AMERICA ONLINE APPLE COMPUTER, INCORPORATED- Very large computer corporation whose main product is the Macintosh and its associated system software, the MacOS. Founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (incidentally, former phone phreaks) and created the Apple IIe in 1979, which became the standard personal computer. In 1984, they released the Macintosh (and you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984). While the second largest computer manufacturer in the world, the Mac operating system continues to lose market share. APPLEGATE, CHRISTINA- Former model and actress, notably on the television show Married With Children. Rumors were spread that Erik Bloodaxe dated her (he says they aren't true). AREA CODE- The prefix in a phone number, based on location, to add to the number of possible phone numbers. When two or more hackers have the same handle and it is in dispute as to who had it first or who deserves it, it is used to differentiate, or at least it was in the 1980s. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE [AI]- Used to refer to "smart" programs that do their jobs quickly and with minimum of user input, as well as the code written in computer games governing the actions of non-user controlled characters or enemies. Also used to refer to system software that can reason; this has not been achieved. ARTIFICIAL LIFE [AL]- Living programs or robots; viruses may be the early, primitive forms of artificial life. THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS PHIBER- see PHIBER OPTIK ASCII ART- Art done in plain text. This is fairly difficult. Portraits of people done in ASCII art usually only work if the person has some major distinguishing characteristics. AT&T [American Telephone and Telegraph]- Originally American Bell Telephone, the company that started the telephone. It was bought and, under the tutelage of another huge company, became a monopolous phone provider. Huge telco that was the Microsoft of the Seventies and Eighties. It was broken up by the justice department in 1982, which created lots of little baby RBOCS. In 1990 their phone network crashed, which got them into a lot of trouble. ATLANTA THREE- Urvile, Leftist and Prophet, members of the Atlanta chapter of LOD that were thrown in jail during the Hacker Crackdown of 1990. AUTOMATED COIN TOLL SYSTEM- see ACTS AVATAR- From a modern, Internet perspective, the term avatar was first adopted from Neal Stephenson to refer to the psychological persona people take on when they anonymously enter cyberspace. However, it is increasingly being used more literally as a term for the icons representing a user in a certain programs on the Internet. AXE- To reformat a disk or delete a file. BABBAGE, [Professor] CHARLES- Professor of mathematics at Cambridge who designed the Analytical Engine, a huge, grinding, steam-driven machine to do mathematical calculations in the 1830s. BABY- (1) Any program that is less than full-blown. A baby word processor would be a program that does just the bare essentials. (2) A hardware device that is smaller than normal. BANG- (1) To lose your temper, usually in a very violent manner. In the extreme, actual destruction of hardware may result. (2) Lots of exclamation points to add emphasis. Sometimes other weird characters are used as bangs. Also used to pronounce exclamation points; for instance, "Go to hell!!!!" would be pronounced "go to hell bang bang bang bang." BANK- Cache memory; a section of memory not normally used that is utilized for high speed operations in certain programs. BARLOW, JOHN PERRY- Grateful Dead lyricist from 1970 until the band broke up in 1995; ex-cattle rancher. Co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation; civil libertarian, "cognitive dissident" buddy of a lot of members of MOD. (After that little misunderstanding with Phiber when Barlow called Phiber a punk and compared him to a skateboarder, and Phiber ILFed Barlow's TRW credit report. Good hack, that.) Also wrote the essay "Crime and Puzzlement", as well as a declaration of the independence of cyberspace and a Time essay (notable for using the word "shit" for the first time in Time without quotes around it. Barlow later said it felt like a revolutionary act.) Currently civil libertarian and contributing writer for Wired. BASE- (1) Contraction for the word "database". (2) In most programming languages, (C, C++, Pascal, etc.) a pointer, a set of memory locations that point to the start of an array (another memory location); the pointer is the "base" from which the array starts. BASIC [Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code]- Early programming language for newbs. BAUD [rate]- Obsolete measurement of the speed of a modem; often erroneously used to refer to bits per second because at low rates they are equivalent. It really means the number of signal events per second occuring on a communications channel. BBS [Bulletin Board System]- A computer that is set up to act as a system where other people call in using phone lines to post messages; sometimes software is traded, and usually archives are kept of software on the board. The first board worthy of the name was Ward Christensen and Randy Suess's board in 1978. BEDBUG- A virus type program that another programmer inserts into an existing program, with the intention of causing havoc. Usually not serious-- it is coded so the results look like a software bug, not a true virus. May make copies of itself. See also BUG, VIRUS, TAPEWORM BEGINNER'S ALL-PURPOSE SYMBOLIC INSTRUCTION CODE- see BASIC BELL, [Professor] ALEXANDER GRAHAM- Guy who invented the telephone in 1876. The man who created cyberspace, in its early, pathetic stage when no one thought it would be anything. BELLSOUTH- Atlanta RBOC that was supposedly very easy to hack; some rumors claim they eventually spent two million dollars on security. BERNIE S.- Handle of Ed Cummings. Phreak recently released from an uncomfortable and unConstitutional imprisonment for possession of computer programs that could be used for fraud. Writer for 2600. BIG BLUE- Slang for IBM. Comes from their blue logo. BIG BROTHER- Name for a police state government that spies on every aspect of a citizen's life and commandeers their very thoughts. BINARY DIGIT- see BIT BIT [Binary Digit]- Contraction of binary digit. Smallest unit of measurement in cyberspace. A 1 or 0; representing on or off, true or false to a computer. BITS PER SECOND- see BPS THE BLACK ANGELS- see THE ELITE LEGION OF HACKERS THE BLACK BARON- Handle of Christopher Pile. British virus author who was sentenced to a jail term under the Computer Misuse Act for writing the viruses Pathogen and Queeg, which included an engine called SMEG. BLACK WIDOW- A Java applet capable of sinister acts including uploading files to the victims hard drive and consuming RAM and CPU cycles. BLADE RUNNER- 1982 Harrison Ford movie directed by Ridley Scott that many hackers just love to death. It has a great re-creation of Los Angeles in 2019 that William Gibson has said mirrors his vision of the Sprawl in Neuromancer; just about every film using a dystopian urban environment has been inspired at least in part by the one in Blade Runner. The plot concerns a former bounty hunter/cop that hunts replicants, androids designed for off-world colonies. BLANKENSHIP, LOYD- see THE MENTOR BLESSED FOLDER- Slang for the System Folder on Macintosh computers. Comes from the fact that everything is run by that folder, and you mess with at your own risk. One of the many reasons not to buy a Mac computer. BLIND FAITH- see DREW, DALE BLUE BOX- Infamous box that pretty much no longer works, but dominated in the 60s, 70s and early 80s. It is a device that plays a sound at a frequency of 2600 hertz (perhaps related to 2600 newsletter), which allows all kinds of cool things. See BOXES BOB HARDY- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN BOT- Either a benevolent search bot such as an infobot or knowbot, or a Bot which hacks IRC. BOX- A hardware device that allows abnormal telephone operation, like free calls or anti-tracing, used by phreaks. The ultimate box is the rainbow box, which combines the blue box, red box, green box, and black box. There are also a lot of weird variant boxes. Boxes, though the most pure form of phreaking, are rarely used now because of the phone company's changes to stop it, both on purpose and as a serendipitious result of the digitization of the phone system. BPS [Bits Per Second]- Measurement of the speed of a modem. Currently being replaced by kbps (kilobits per second) See also BAUD BRAND, STEWART- Editor of the Whole Earth Catalog and contributing writer for Wired; one of the hippies that decided cyberspace was pretty cool. BRIDGE- A hack into the phone company's PBX. This is often used so that many phreaks (phone hacker) can talk in a huge conference; this was a much more common practice in the 1980s, when massive party lines were held, people occasionally dropping out to go to work or school and someone else taking their place. BRUTE FORCE ATTACK/HACK- A classic hacking technique; guessing an exhaustive number of passwords to try and enter a system. A rather large dictionary is a definiterequirement. It does not work as much anymore, probably because even idiot sysadmins don't use quite so simple passwords. It was very successful about ten years ago, though. BRZEZINSKI, DIRK-OTTO- see DOB BUG- A mistake in programming or hardware design that results in unfavorable and sometimes disastrous results. Microsoft Word 6.0 was notorious for this. See also BEDBUG BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM- see BBS BUM- The act of rewriting a program or section of a program to run in a smaller memory area. May also mean changing the code to remove unused sections and try to improve on the running speed. BYTE- A sequence of adjacent bits operated on as a unit by a computer. Very small unit of virtual measurement. Usually, a byte is eight bits. (On the Internet, a byte is transferred as seven bits, which sort of fucks everything up.) CAFFEINE- Natural "smart drug"; enough of it makes you hyper. Present in chocolate, soft drinks and coffee. Gateway drug. (If you don't know what a gateway drug is, you weren't listening closely enough in health class) :) CALEA [Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act]- Bill which concerns the development of a government wiretapping infrastracture; notably bans possession of "hardware or software used for altering or modifying telecommunications instruments to obtain unauthorized access to telecommunications services;" used to prosecute Bernie S. This legislation also makes most of the people reading this document criminals, as most of us have a modem or even (gasp) a cracking program of some sort. Yeah, right, like most of us hackers aren't criminals anyway, this just gives them license to lock us up for no provable reason. CANDYMAN- Archiver of forbidden information; administrator of CandyLand (was, rather; it was recently shut down). Computer science student. His stuff is often cited by Congress and the like as examples of why we should make the Net a police state. CAP'N CRUNCH- see DRAPER, JOHN CAPTAIN BEYOND- see SHADOWHAWK 1 CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT- A Dallas, Texas hacker who, in 1986, cracked an HBO presentation of The Falcon and the Snowman with a message decrying HBO's practice of encrypting transmissions so that they could not be picked up with a satellite dish. According to an unsubstantiated report, he later used this to ask his girlfriend to marry him, and was eventually caught. CARBON [or carbon dioxide] CHIP- The 80486 or 65C02 CPU chip. CARDING- Using illicit credit card numbers. The underground is divided as far as the ethics of this; most think it is common thievery and does not follow the freedom of information ethic that drives other hacking. CASE, THOMAS- see MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID CCC [Chaos Computer Club]- see CHAOS COMPUTER CLUB [CCC] CDA [Communications Decency Act]- see COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT [CDA] cDc [cult of the Dead cow]- see THE CULT OF THE DEAD COW [cDc] CELINE, HAGBARD- see HAGBARD CELINE CERT [Computer Emergency Response Team]- see COMPUTER EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM CFP [Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference]- see COMPUTERS, FREEDOM AND PRIVACY CONFERENCE CHAOS COMPUTER CLUB [CCC]- Infamous West German hacking group founded in 1984 that is now trying to be kind of sort of legit. Members have included Wau Holland (leader), Steffen Wernery, Christian Wolf, Pengo, Obelix, Dob, Peter Carl, Hagbard Celine and Markus Hess (possibly). CHASIN, SCOTT- see DOC HOLLIDAY CHERNOFF, ANTON- see MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID CHICAGO COMPUTER FRAUD AND ABUSE TASK FORCE- Possibly the first hacker tracker team, formed in 1987 by William J. Cook. A major part of the Hacker Crackdown of 1990. CHIP- Shorthand for microprocessor. The hardware that runs the machine. The PowerPC and the Pentium are examples of chips. CHRP- see PPCP CLASS 10 TOOLS- Really nasty programs that can thouroughly trash a system- if information war is coming, these would be the Stealth bombers and atom bombs. Tsutomu Shimomura built many of these, which is one of the reasons why the SDSC is such a huge target for hackers. CLINT EASTWOOD- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN CLIPPER CHIP- Encryption plan endorsed by the Clinton-Gore administration that is currently in its third incarnation (the current proposal is sometimes mockingly known as Clipper 3.1.1). The way it's supposed to work, as designed by the NSA, is that we stick this cool thing called the Clipper chip in every computer and fax machine and communications tool ever made, which would save us from commies and those evil hackers. Of course, our benevolent Big Brother the Government of the United States of America would keep the keys to these chips, so in case anyone did anything the government designated to be illegal (or someone did something a government employee wanted to find out), the government could look at all our files and every email we ever sent. Of course, the government would never abuse this, would it? Phillip Zimmermann created PGP 1.0 in response to this. C0DEZ D00DZ [sometimes K0DEZ D00DZ]- The phreak equivalent of a pirate. Someone who finds out phone codes and distributes them to the electronic underground. There is also a derogatory term, "c0dez kidz" COMMODORE- A computer company which eventually bought Amiga; popular in the 1980s. People who used their computers were often berated by people with the superior (but still awful by today's standards) Apple IIe. However, according to The Cyberpunk Handbook (The Real Cyberpunk Fakebook), Phiber Optik used a Commodore. That's sort of like turning stone to bread or feeding ten thousand people with one fish. COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANCE FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ACT [CALEA]- see CALEA [Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act] COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT [CDA]- Law passed as part of the Telecommunications Bill of 1996 making indecent speech and information illegal in cyberspace in the United States, which AOL, Microsoft and CompuServe (never thought I'd be on their side), as well as the EFF and ACLU, are attempting to overturn. It sparked a day of protest on the Internet (Black Thursday), when many major sites draped their pages in black. A federal court declared the law unConstitutional 3-0, and the Supreme Court has announced that they will review the law and make a decision as to its Constitutionality soon. COMPUSERVE- Very old online service that is the second biggest in America; founded in 1979 and currently owned by H & R Block. It is very conspicuous because addresses are set up with annoying numbers like 76543.1700. They created an uproar when they banned many sexually explicit newsgroups because a German user said they violated Germany obscenity laws and threatened to sue. COMPUTER EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM [CERT]- Anti-hacking group which sets up security and tracks people; managed by Dain Gary. COMPUTER MISUSE ACT- British law on the books since 1990, among other things outlawing virus writing. The Black Baron was prosecuted with this law. COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY [CPSR]- Group that is what it says it is; notable for vocal opposition to the "Star Wars" defense project on the grounds that it is putting too much trust in computers; and for filing suit with the US government in the 2600 case. COMPUTER SYSTEM FOR MAINFRAME OPERATIONS [COSMOS]- see COSMOS [COmputer System for Mainframe OperationS] COMPUTERS, FREEDOM AND PRIVACY CONFERENCE [CFP]- Annual security/privacy con; in 1994, the FBI arrested Brian Merrill, an innocent man, because it was also an alias of Kevin Mitnick, lol. COMSEC [Computer Security]- Network security firm founded by the remnants of LOD; went out of business in 1994. Replaced by the ISP LOD Communications, Inc. CON- A convention; in this context, a hacker convention. Begun in the mid-1980s by such groups as LOD. Recent, high-profile Cons included Hacking at the End of the Universe and HOPE. THE CONDOR- see MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID THE CONSCIENCE OF A HACKER- A legendary manifesto written by the Mentor shortly after his arrest in 1986, published in Phrack Inc. magazine, volume one, issue seven. It was later reprinted in Phrack again and in The Hacker Crackdown, Teleconnect Magazine, the film Hackers, T-shirts worn at Cons, and numerous ftp sites, web pages and BBS's. CONSOLE COWBOY- A hacker. From SF novels. This term has remained relatively unmolested by the media. See also COWBOY CONTROL C- Infamous hacker and member of LOD who was busted by Michigan Bell and actually did get a security job from them. Also known as Phase Jitter, Master of Impact, Dual Capstan, Richo Sloppy, Cosmos Dumpster Driver, Poster Boy and Whacky Wally. COOKBOOK- A detailed document on exactly what to do when hacking a certain type of system, written by piecing together computer manuals and personal experience. COOPERATING FULLY- When hackers tell every illegal act and the names of all of their cohorts because they think it will save them. While this occasionally works, to many law enforcement officers, "cooperating fully" generally means you bend over. CORLEY, ERIC- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN CORRUPT (1971-Present)- Handle of John Lee. Member of MOD; former member of a New York gang called the Decepticons. VAXEN expert. COSMOS [COmputer System for Mainframe OperationS]- Database program used by telcos to store information; staple of the elite phreaker; or at least it was. COSMOS DUMPSTER DRIVER- see CONTROL C COUNT ZERO- The handle of several hackers. One who wrote an article for Phrack about a lecture by John Markoff; one who said "Information yearns to be free"(quoted at Space Rogue's Whacked Mac Archives a while back, before he changed the quotes);the guy who defined k-rad as "a thousand points of rad" (quoted in The Cyberpunk Handbook (The Real Cyberpunk Fakebook); the member of cDc; the member of Phalcon/Skism mentioned in some issues of 40Hex; and the writer for 2600. (Some of which may be the same person.) [All handles come from the name of the protagonist of William Gibson's second novel, also titled Count Zero, who also appeared in Mona Lisa Overdrive. The character is a cyberspace hacker with the handle Count Zero Interrupt, whose birth name is Bobby Newmark. According to the book, this comes from an old programmer term (probably related to the opening line about returning the marker to zero); however, I am not blessed with this knowledge. Wow, that's scary. Gibson knows something about computers that I don't.] COWBOY- One of the legendary figures hackers tend to latch on to as role-models. Spawned the term "console cowboy." As a result, many hackers tend to give themselves gunfighter-type names (i.e. Datastream Cowboy, Doc Holliday). CPSR [Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility]- see COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY CRACK [sometimes "krack"]- (1) To remove the copy protection from a commercial program, so that the resultant program (or file) is "cracked." Also covers modifying any program illegally, such as when Netscape Navigator 2.0b4 was cracked when the expiration date was surgically removed a while back. See also HACK (2) To crack a password using a cracking program and a rather large dictionary. Involves using crypt-and-compare; the program encrypts various words and compares the encrypted form of the words to the encrypted password. On UNIX the most commonly used crack program is Crack, on DOS it is CrackerJack, and on Mac it is MacKrak. CRACKER- (1) Term given to so-called "malicious" hackers by the original MIT hackers, hoping the media would leave the name "hacker" alone and not damage the original hackers' pristine, snow-white reputation. Never really got picked up, probably because it sounds a lot like a wheat consumable or a derogatory term for a white hick. While (I think, at least) this is a really lame word, it is occasionally used by those wishing to seem knowledgable. (2) A person who breaks into systems after understanding them and finding a hole himself. CRASHER- Someone who not only hacks systems, he crashes them. Not that widely used. CRIME AND PUZZLEMENT: THE LAW COMES TO THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER- Essay by John Perry Barlow about LOD and hackers and his relationship with Phiber Optik and Acid Phreak. CRIMSON DEATH- Also known as the Sorceror. Hacker/phreak who was editor of Phrack for a short time. He was also the sysop of Hell Phrozen Over, Missing Link, Skull Kingdom, the Forgotten Realm and CyberWaste; disciple of the Videosmith. He was also known for having a nose ring, back when that was shocking and cool lol. CRUNCH- (1) The act of using a program such as PKZip or StuffIt to compress another program into a smaller disk space. (2) The act of re-writing sections of a program to run in a smaller memory space. CRYP- Used by Rudy Rucker to refer to illegal hackers who do it for money or power in his science fiction. (Not derogatory; Rucker is one of the real scientist hackers who thankfully doesn't look down on us obnoxious punks.) THE CUCKOO'S EGG- Novel by Clifford Stoll about his tracking down of renegade members of the Chaos Computer Club. Disliked by many in the electronic underground because of his constant black-or-white approach to computer ethics, painting hackers as totally evil and him as totally good, ignoring the fact that some of his methods are close to being as illegal as those of the hackers he tracks. THE CULT OF THE DEAD COW [cDc]- Anarchist occult goth hacker group that writes a lot of weird text files with a lot of profanity and ASCII art. Have their own USENET newsgroup dedicated to them- alt.fan.cult-dead-cow, as well as an irc channel, #cdc, and a web page, http://www.l0pht.com/~veggie. Members have included Swamp Ratte (current leader), Count Zero (haha), Deth Vegetable, The Nightstalker, Red Knight, Tweety Fish, Iskra and Basil. CUMMINGS, EDWARD [Ed]- see BERNIE S. CYBER-CHRIST- see ERIK BLOODAXE CYBERDECK- In cyberpunk fiction, notably Gibson (though I don't know where it appeared first; the term has also been used in the works of Rudy Rucker and cyberpunk role-playing games) the futuristic modem that allows characters to run through cyberspace. Though descriptions vary, it is usually described as being keyboard sized, and sometimes has a plug that inserts into the character's head (jacking in). CYBERIA: LIFE IN THE TRENCHS OF HYPERSPACE- Novel by Douglas Rushkoff about ravers and hackers and stuff. It was berated by many in the electronic underground, and Erik Bloodaxe said "Imagine a book about drugs written by someone who's never inhaled. Imagine a book about raves written by someone saw a flyer once [sic]. Imagine a book about computers written by someone who thinks a mac is complex [...] and there you have Cyberia, by Douglas Rushkoff. This book should have been called 'Everything I Needed to Know About Cyber-Culture I Learned in Mondo-2000." Brutal, but accurate. CYBERNETICS- The study of the feedback loop that informs any control system of the results of its actions; communication theory. Coined by Norbert Weiner of MIT in the 1940's when he was working on anti-aircraft guns. Often erroneously used now to refer to bionic parts. Supposedly (I got this from The Hacker and the Ants by Rudy Rucker) it has meant "bullshit" from the beginning; Weiner was trying to think of what to call his paper, and a colleague suggested "cybernetics" because it didn't mean anything and would intimidate people. CYBERPUNK- 1) A literary term referring to the new science fiction that was written in the 1980s; specifically, the works of the so-called "Mirrorshades Group"-- Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, Tom Maddox, Pat Cadigan, Rudy Rucker, Greg Bear, John Shirley, Lewis Shiner and others. Cyberpunk fiction is (or was, if you agree with Norman Sprinrad that cyberpunk is dead) concerned with a realistic (sometimes surrealistic), usually pessimistic future where technology is incredibly enhanced and humans are controlled by a System- huge zaibatus or a fundamentalist religion. These are all generalizations; one cyberpunk novel took place in 1855. There hasn't really been a "classic" cyberpunk novel since 1987, with Gibson's Mona Lisa Overdrive; the most recent notable cyberpunk work was Neal Stephenson's really weird, theological technological comedy Snow Crash in 1992, in addition to Gibson and Sterling's most recent offerings. (2) A noun for a hacker. This was used just because the media thought it sounded like a good name for a computer criminal. (3) A member of the "cyberpunk subculture." Specific people thought to be part of the subculture are hackers, phreaks, cypherpunks and ravers. CYBERPUNK [2020]- The first cyberpunk role-playing game, created in 1989 by R. Talsorian Games. Originally called just Cyberpunk, but that had the possibility of violating copyrights, so the second edition was called Cyberpunk version 2.0.2.0, or Cyberpunk 2020. CYBERPUNK BUST- Mocking term used in the science fiction community for the bust of Steve Jackson Games where GURPS Cyberpunk was seized. CYBERPUNK: OUTLAWS AND HACKERS ON THE COMPUTER FRONTIER- Novel by Katie Hafner and John Markoff about hackers, specifically, three case studies: Kevin Mitnick, Pengo and Robert Morris. CYBERPUNK VERSION 2.0.2.0- see CYBERPUNK [2020] CYBERSPACE- The Internet or a virtual reality system; most often (and most correctly, in my opinion) to refer to all digital entities that can be entered, including the Internet and BBS's. Overused, but still kind of cool. Popularized by John Perry Barlow around 1990. [Invented by William Gibson in the short story Burning Chrome; from cybernetic (the science of communication and control theory) and space (you know what space is, I hope.) He got the idea from watching kids play video games.] CYBERSPACE SERIES- see SPRAWL SERIES CYBORG- A cybernetic organism; an android, or human with machine or computer parts. The term is also metaphorically used to refer to the modern state of technologically advanced mankind, which has figuratively if not literally fused with machinery. [From "cybernetic organism" a term coined by Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline in 1960.] CYBORGASM- Really stupid CD. There are others like it, but this is the most popular. It is a recording of a bunch of people making sounds while having sex. In the words of a reviewer for Mondo 2000, in one of their more witty moments, "There is nothing cyber about this. It's a fucking CD. Literally." CYPHERPUNK- Someone who thinks that encryption should be used by all, and advocates the removal of all laws restricting cryptographic technology. They are also sometimes called crypto-anarchists, because their ideal of free encryption, many believe, would destroy the effectiveness of government. DAEMON9 (1973-Present)- Also known as Route and Infinity. Member of the Guild. One of the current co-editors of Phrack Magazine. Owner of Information Nexus (infonexus.com). DANCE- The act of typing very rapidly without errors. DARK AVENGER- Bulgarian virus writer who has achieved cult hero status. His most famous virus is Eddie, AKA Dark Avenger (named after the author). He is a major heavy metal person, and many of his virii contain references to Iron Maiden. DARK DANTE- see POULSEN, KEVIN LEE DARK PHIBER [ninja.techwood.org]- Internet community grown out of a BBS created in 1991 by the White Ninja and Wild Child and shut down (temporarily) in 1994. Currently administered by Decius 6i5 and Musashi. DARK TANGENT- Handle of Jeffery Moss. Organizer of many hacker cons, including DefCon. Also occasionally writes for Wired. DATACOPS- Any agency in charge of keeping information expensive. Notable datacops include the NSA, FBI and the Secret Service, as well as independant agencies such as CERT. DATASTREAM COWBOY- British hacker noted for hacking the Royal Air Force; he was tracked when the Air Force OSI hacked the systems he was entering the RAF systems from. Currently the Phrack World News correspondent for Phrack. DATA ENCRYPTION STANDARD [DES]- see DES [Data Encryption Standard] DEAD ADDICT- Formerly known as Sugar Addict. Ex-phreaker, Def Con speaker, and Seattle resident. Currently known for his web page, Underground Propaganda DEAD LORD- Handle of Bruce Fancher. Also known as the Infiltrator, Executive Hacker [?] and Sharp Razor. Good friend of Lord Digital and co-administrator of MindVox; former member of the Chief Executive Officers and the Legion of Doom. (?) Though many press reports say he was in LOD, as well as he himself in a Phrack pro-phile, he is not listed in the official lists distributed in Phrack and LOD/H TJ, and a file in an early issue of Phrack quotes a file he supposedly wrote which insults LOD-- heh, DL probably thought no one had so little of a life they'd actually use FindText to scan for references to him in Phrack and read the files. However, that was in a rag file, and I haven't read the file it refers to, so I'm unsure of the accuracy. DEATH STAR- Term referring to AT&T. [From the post-breakup AT&T logo, which resembles the evil Death Star from Star Wars.] DEMON DIALER- see WAR DIALER DENNING, [Doctor] DOROTHY ELIZABETH DAVIS [1945-Present]- Computer security academic and author of Cryptography and Data Security. In 1990, wrote a paper (Concerning Hackers Who Break into Computers) which gained a fair amount of notoriety defending hackers and suggesting that they be worked with closely to understand their motives. She then went and spoke with some security professionals, and immediately changed her mind and decided hackers were evil after all, if not the ones she'd spoken to, then the vast majority. She became further villified by the Hacker Nation when she began supporting the Clipper initiative, which to this day she defends in the face of extreme criticism. DE PAYNE, LEWIS- Alias Sam Holliday, also known as Roscoe, also known as Lewcifer. Phreaker buddy of Kevin Mitnick, interviewed in Cyberpunk. DES [Data Encryption Standard]- The current encryption used by the United States Government. Becoming more and more obsolete. THE DESTROYER- see REDRAGON DETH VEGETABLE [sometimes shortened as Deth Veggie]- Handle of Eric Skoog. Member of the Cult of the Dead Cow. Wrote a number of anarchy files when he was 15. Interviewed by Dateline. DETH VEGGIE- see DETH VEGETABLE DeWITT, PHILIP-ELMER- Writer for TIME magazine who writes virtually all of their stories about computers. Wrote cover stories on cyberpunks, cyberspace, and cyberporn. Actually, I don't recall him writing about anything that didn't have the prefix "cyber". Also occasionally works as a correspondent for the MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour. DIALED NUMBER RECORDER [DNR]- see DNR [Dialed Number Recorder] DICE- To separate a program into two or more files to allow loading under the OS. DiCOCCO, LEONARD MITCHELL (1965-Present)- Ex-friend of Kevin Mitnick, eventually narked him to the FBI. Former employee of Voluntary Plan Administers (VPA). THE DICTATOR- see DREW, DALE DIE HARD 2 [Die Harder]- 1990 Bruce Willlis action movie that included hacker/terrorists taking over an airport. Notable because Congress held a hearing on it and its possible realism, just as they did almost ten years prior for WarGames. DIET PHRACK- see PHRACK MAGAZINE DISK OPERATING SYSTEM [DOS]- see DOS [Disk Operating System] DIVERTING- Hacking corporate PBXs and dialing out of them for free. DNR [Dialed Number Recorder]- Device that cops use to know who you call so they know who to question. Not to be confused with the TCP/IP component DNR, for Domain Name Resolver. DOB (1960-Present)- Handle of Dirk-Otto Brzezinski. Former member of the Chaos Computer Club. One of the renegade members who hacked for the KGB. DOC- Contraction for documentation or document. A file that contains information on how to use a program. Usually a plain text file, but may be in a specific, proprietary word processor format. Also the DOS suffix for a word processing file, usually Microsoft Word. DOC HOLLIDAY- Handle of Scott Chasin. Former member of LOD and good friend of Erik Bloodaxe. DOCTOR DISK- see REDRAGON DOCTOR WHO [413] (1967-Present)- Also known as Skinny Puppy and Saint Cloud. Former member of the Legion of Doom. DOS [Disk Operating System]- Usually used to refer to MS-DOS, or Microsoft Disk Operating System, which got to version 6.22 before Microsoft recently abandoned it in favor of Windows 95. Other DOS's exist or existed; besides the OS's that have long since gone away like Apple DOS and Commodore's DOS, there are the unofficial versions of MS-DOS, such as DOS 7.0 and DOS Shell. DOWNLOAD- To transmit via modem a program or file from a BBS or network to a computer. See also UPLOAD, TRANSFER, XFER DR. DISK- see REDRAGON DR. WHO- see DOCTOR WHO DRAKE, FRANK- see FRANK DRAKE DRAPER, JOHN- Birth name of Cap'n Crunch. Also known as the Pirate, also known as the Crunchmeister. One of the very early phreakers; got his handle because he once used a whistle that came with Cap'n Crunch cereal to hack the phone system lol. He currently writes custom Mac applications, but spends most of his time raving. DREW, DALE- Also known as the Dictator and Blind Faith. Paid Secret Service informant who turned in Knight Lightning and videotaped "SummerCon '88," the hacker's conference, even though it turned out no illegal activity occurred. He has remained an unrepentant bastard. DRUNKFUX- Major Con organizer and hacker. Don't know much about him other than that. DUAL CAPSTAN- see CONTROL C DUB- The act of making a backup copy of a program (or disk) in the event the original copy becomes unusable. E- see ECSTASY THE EAVESDROPPER- see THE PROPHET ECSTASY [AKA X, among other names]- Drug that's very popular with ravers, like acid without the hallucinations. It was made illegal in 1987. However, Herbal Ecstasy, an organic version, is still legal. [Technical name: MDMA- don't ask me what it stands for.] See also EPHEDRINE EDDRESS- Email address. Eddresses are usually in the format username@domain.type.country. EFF [Electronic Frontier Foundation]- see ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION [EFF] EIGHT LEGGED GROOVE MACHINE [8lgm]- see 8lgm 8lgm- English hacker group that currently runs a security mailing list. Busted in 1994. It stands for alternately Eight Legged Groove Machine and Eight Little Green Men. The members were two hackers named Pad and Gandalf. EIGHT LITTLE GREEN MEN [8lgm]- see 8lgm ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION [EFF]- A civil liberties group created in response to the unConstitutional actions of the United States Secret Service during the Hacker Crackdown of 1990. They have a newsletter, the EFFector. Some of the more notable or influential members include Bruce Sterling, Mitch Kapor, John Perry Barlow, John Gilmore (early employee of Sun) and Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple). THE ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER [EPIC]- Net civil libertarian group who handled the 2600 case for the CPSR; also vocal opposition to the Clipper chip proposal. THE ELECTRONIC UNDERGROUND- see THE UNDERGROUND ELH- see THE ELITE LEGION OF HACKERS [ELH] ELITE [or elyte or 3L33T or eleet or a million other spellings]- Adjective (over)used to describe the best hackers, because something has to separate the truly gifted from the mediocre. THE ELITE LEGION OF HACKERS [ELH]- The Elite Legion of Hackers is a second-tier group founded by Lord Nemesis in 1996. The group's current membership is made up of Lord Nemesis, Death Vegetable, Panik, Brain Freeze, Zophar, Digital Ignition, Kwantam Pozeetron, od|phreak and Cyber Toast. The group has also spawned an elite "strike team" led by Kwantam Pozeetron, made up of the best members, called the Black Angels. EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN (1961-Present)- Handle of Eric Corley. Also known as Howard Tripod, Sidney Schreiber, Bob Hardy, Gary Wilson, Clint Eastwood and 110. The editor-in-chief of and writer for 2600: The Hacker Quarterly, host of the New York phreaking radio show Off the Hook, and relentless advocate of the computer underground. Often shows up at meetings of computer companies just to unnerve people. In his honor, the film Hackers had the character Cereal Killer's real name be Emmanuel Goldstein. [Handle came from the name of the hated, possibly non-existent rebel in Orwell's 1984.] ENCRYPTION- The practice of encoding data into an unreadable form, which can only be converted with the same code. Recently, Netscape Communications built fairly strong encryption into their browser, though security errors have been discovered several times. ENGRESSIA, JOSEPH [Joe]- Blind phreak who could whistle the 2600 tone; eventually got a job at a Denver RBOC. EPIC [Electronic Privacy Information Center]- see THE ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER [EPIC] E911 DOCUMENT [Official name: Control Office Administration of Enhanced 911 Services for Special Services and Account Centers]- Document written in 1988; liberated by the Prophet and contributed to Phrack. Originally written by Richard Helms and the Society of Inpenetrable Prose. Knight Lightning almost got sent to jail for it, seeing as how the telco valued it at over $72,000. (I'm sure Knight Lightning enjoyed himself flipping through his illicitly gained thousands of telco money...) The case was dropped when it was proven that the same info could be bought for about $13. EPHEDRINE- Psychoactive drug sometimes used by ravers. Among other things, it is one of the ingredients in herbal Ecstasy and crank and (in obviously small dosages) non-prescription medicines like Nyquil. ERIK BLOODAXE- Handle of Chris Goggans. Also known as Cyber-Christ. Former member of the Legion of Doom and The Punk Mafia. Former editor of Phrack Magazine. Former employee of Dell Computers. When he took over Phrack, 3 it gained more purpose and seemed to pull together more than it had since the departure of Knight Lightning and Taran King; he left after a few issues because of lack of time and desire. He's also got a bad reputation as a nark. [Handle came from the name of a Viking king of Denmark in the 10th century; revealed to Goggans in a book entitled Vikings.] EXON, [Senator] JAMES- Democrat Senator who is freaking obsessed with techno-indecency. Sponsored the CDA. EXPERIAN- Known as TRW until late 1996 (they changed their name to get away from the negative PR surrounding their activities), Experian is an evil megacorporation that is favorite target of hackers, including MOD, in one of the more publicized incidents. It is a target in large part due to the fact that their job includes catologing the credit history of private citizens and selling it to other corporations; thus, both a tempting target for malicious hackers out to pull credit histories, and a target that most ethical hackers have no problem subverting. Supposedly sets up Tiger Teams for the government. EXTASYY ELITE- Short-lived phreak group destroyed when Poltergeist turned in everybody after he was busted for carding. Its membership included Bit Blitz, Cisban, Evil Priest, Crustaceo Mutoid, Kleptic Wizard, the Mentor (the only guy who went on to do anything with his life, hacking-wise), the Poltergeist and the Protestor. FAKEMAIL- Mail intended to trick the recipient into believing that it was sent by a person other than the actual sender. FANCHER, BRUCE- see DEAD LORD FARGO 4A- One of the earliest phreak groups, a sort of precursor to LOD. Membership included BIOC Agent 003, Tuc, Big Brother, Quasi-Moto, Video Warhead and the Wizard of ARPANET. [Name comes from a city in North Dakota they re-routed calls to; incidentally, the same town was used for the name of the 1996 drama Fargo, though most of the movie takes place in Minnesota and it has virtually nothing to do with the town, though it begins there.] FEDWORLD- The largest BBS in the world. Huge board with government info, operated by the United States government. FERNANDEZ, JULIO- see OUTLAW FEYD RAUTHA- see SHADOWHAWK 1 FIERY, DENNIS- see THE KNIGHTMARE FIREWALLS AND INTERNET SECURITY: REPELLING THE WILY HACKER- Security book outlining Net security. 5ESS- The fifth-generation electronic switching station currently used by telcos. 40HEX- Virus zine that contains source code for many virii and interviews with prominent virus writers. It is mostly staffed by members of Phalcon/Skism, and was first edited by Hellraiser, then by DecimatoR, and then sort of by nobody. I believe the magazine has become defunct; the web page no longer exists. [I don't really know what the name comes from because I'm not particularly advanced in my virus knowledge; the "hex" part comes from hexadecimal (as in hex dump), which is base sixteen, but I don't know why the number 40 is there in particular.] 414 GANG- Hacker group formed on the 414 Private BBS that gained notoriety in 1982 for intrusions on Los Alamos military bases and the Sloan-Kettering Memorial Institute. FRACTAL- Supposedly a symbol for cyberpunk (though I don't buy it-- does cyberpunk have to have a symbol, when it is concerned with outlaws and undefinable fringe elements?). A part of chaos theory, proposed by mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot in the 1960s. FRANK DRAKE- Handle of Steven G. Steinberg. Hacker and former correspondent for Phrack. Currently one of the section editors for Wired. FREED, BARRY- see HOFFMAN, ABBIE FRY GUY- Hacker, buddy of some guys in LOD, and Motley Crue fan. Busted in 1989 by the universally despised Tim Foley. He was, however, a carder and he offered to testify against LOD, things that are not really exemplary. See also TINA [Name comes from manipulations he did in the McDonald's computer system.] GAME OVER- The end. Time to give up and try something else. [From a line by Private W. Hudson in the movie Aliens, which itself came from video games.] GARFINKEL, SIMSON- Contributing writer to Wired and editor of Internet Underground; author of articles on privacy and technology issues, as well as author of a book on PGP. GARY WILSON- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN GATES, WILLIAM HENRY III "BILL"- Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft. The richest man in America, at almost 18 billion dollars. Author of The Road Ahead. And, if you haven't heard yet, the ASCII values of the letters in his name add up to 666. GIBSON, WILLIAM- Science fiction author and contributing writer for Wired who invented the term "cyberspace". Author of the anthology Burning Chrome; the Sprawl Series (Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive); one of the many scripts for what was then called Alien III; Virtual Light; the screenplay for Johnny Mnemonic, based on his short story; and, most recently, Idoru. He also co-wrote The Difference Engine with Bruce Sterling. Ironically, he didn't own a computer until he wrote Mona Lisa Overdrive, he's not at all technical, and he's not online in any form. GIGABYTE [abbreviated as gig or Gb]- Very large unit of measurement. Usually only used when referring to hard drive space. A gigabyte is one billion bytes, or roughly 1048.576 megabytes or 1.024 million kilobytes. GLOBAL KOS [GkOS]- Possibly the most influential hacker group currently in operation, GkOS claims to be the only truly international group. Current members include Shadow Hunter, Spidey, That Guy, AcidAngel, glitched and Silicon Toad. Name is pronounced chaos. GLOBAL OUTDIAL- see GOD GOD [Global OutDial]- An Internet outdial (modem connected to the Internet you can call from) that allows long distance calls. GODWIN, MICHAEL- Attourney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation; also writes articles on Net civil issues. Contributing writer for Wired. GOFFMAN, KEN- see R.U. SIRIUS GOGGANS, CHRISTOPHER- see ERIK BLOODAXE GOLDSTEIN, EMMANUEL- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN GOTH- Cyberpunk offshoot (well, not really; the net.goths are a cyberpunk offshoot; the regular, non-net goths are a punk offshoot) which is into vampires and infinite sadness and wearing black. [Okay, take a deep breath- the name of the subculture came from the name of a punk offshoot music movement pioneered by Siouxsie and the Banshees, which came from the Gothic books and movies (such as Dracula), which came from the name of the scary dark medieval architecture, which came from a derogatory name given to the Gothic architects comparing them to Goths, who were a tribe of barbarians.] GREENE, [Judge] HAROLD- The judge who busted AT&T and is now in charge of telecommunications for the government. GROSSMAN, SAMUEL- see AGENT STEAL GREY AREAS- Hacker-oriented magazine whose topic is the "gray areas" of society, such as hackers and technology, underground music and bands, drugs, etc. HACK- (1) to change a program so that is does something the original programmer either didn't want it to do or didn't plan for it. Hacking a program is not neccessarily cracking, and vise versa. See also CRACK (2) To code a program. "I hacked out version 1.0a1 last week." (3) To break into a computer. (4) To alter in a clever way the status quo. (5) What you do; if you were a pilot, you could say "I hack planes". #HACK- The hacking irc channel. THE HACKER CRACKDOWN [Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier]- Nonfiction novel by Bruce Sterling about the Hacker Crackdown of 1990. Posted to the Net in 1993 because of extensive legal maneuverings between Sterling and his publisher. THE HACKER CRACKDOWN OF 1990- Name given to the massive crackdown, of which Operation Sundevil was the largest part. HACKER- There are about 20,000 definitions of a hacker floating around. These are some of the most common: (1) Any computer user. It drives everyone else crazy when anyone refers to a novice user as a "hacker". (Am I the only one who cringed when, in Jurassic Park, that girl goes "We prefer to be called hackers"? Really, am I the only one?) (2) A computer user who spends massive amounts of time on the system with an almost fetish-like approach. Usually refers to someone who knows a lot about computers, even if they are not a programmer. (3) Any user of an online service, such as CompuServe, AOL or the Internet. That's another sort of annoying one, since just because some businessman goes on AOL to send email to grandma, that does not mean he is a hacker. (4) A programmer. (5) A computer user who uses his knowledge unlawfully in any matter, usually to "break into" another system through a network. (6) A master programmer capable of things that seem "magical". [All of these are from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's programmers in the 1960s, who called themselves "hackers", to refer to making a program better and more efficient, or making it do something it was not originally intended to do. The media overused this to an incredible extent, which added all the other definitions.] (7) A person that is interested in something more then the average expert. A person dedicated to knowledge and driven by curiosity. For example, the man who invented the wheel can be called a hacker because he thought outside of the defined "box". THE HACKER FILES- Comic book limited series published by DC Comics; gathered some press. It was well-researched and included characters based on Gail Thackeray and Robert Morris. HACKERS- 1995 film about... well, hackers. Response in the underground was mixed; many (possibly most) hated it and couldn't stand the many technical errors, while others liked it, even though it was incredibly unrealistic. (Let's face it, any movie that has someone get into a supercomputer with the password GOD and has UNIX apparently replaced by some sort of cyberspatial three dimensional GUI has some realism problems.) Also notable because "Jack Devlin", claiming to be an independant contractor from the ILF after "faking his death at the hands of Sandra Bullock" (see The Net) hacked MGM/UA's system and messed with the home page. MGM was pretty nice about it though, and even kept the page and linked it to the official page. Of course, it would have been pretty stupid and hypocritical of them to track down whoever did it and prosecute him. (While his original bravado-filled message has been widely spread on the Net, was is not so publicized is a second letter, which may have been made up to save face by the people who set up the page-- but I kind of doubt it-- apologizing and asking not to be prosecuted.) Also, Emmanuel Goldstein was one of the "hacking consultants", and Phiber Optik said that it was the most accurate movie Hollywood's made about hacking, which isn't very hard. Many members of MOD and ex-members of LOD were consulted for the original script, but most became upset with how the film actually turned out. If you want my opinion, which you probably don't, I thought it was okay despite the technical inaccuracy, because it was an entertaining movie with a cool soundtrack. I hope that the fact that it barely made back production costs shows studio executives not to try and find the next trend, make a movie on it and flaunt the small amount of knowledge they gained through research. (What was the deal with Wipeout, that video game? And, hmm... Gibson, what a sneaky reference! What in-joke could they possibly be making? And Da Vinci virus-- could that be a sly allusion to the infamous Michaelangelo virus?) The most ironic thing about the film is that at the end AT&T gets thanked. HACKERS: HEROES OF THE COMPUTER REVOLUTION- Novel by Steven Levy about the original MIT hackers. Haven't read it yet. HACKERS ON PLANET EARTH- see HOPE HACK-TIC- The Dutch equivalent of 2600. Published by Rop Gonggrijp. HAFNER, KATHERINE M.- Co-author of Cyberpunk; technology journalist for Newsweek. HAGBARD CELINE- Handle of Karl Koch, a German hacker and member of the Chaos Computer Club. Mentally unstable, in part due to his heavy use of drugs. Committed suicide (probably; murder has been suggested) by dousing himself in gasoline and setting himself on fire on the twenty-third of the month, fulfilling "The Illuminatus! Trilogy"'s quote that "All the great anarchists died on the 23rd day of some month or other", and the recurrence of the number 23. [Handle comes one of the characters in The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, a Discordian anarchist pirate; unlike most hackers who take handles from SF, Koch believed he actually was the protagonist of the novel.] HANDLE- An online alias. A pseudonym or nom de guerre. [From CB radio.] If you're having trouble thinking of your own handle here are a few of my own suggestions: equinox, alloy, sterling, chrome, caliber, phade, twelve (hehe), xero. HAPPY HARDCORE- Handle of Nicholas Ryan, a Yale University student. As programmer of AOL4Free, Hardcore commited "computer fraud" throughout 1995 and released his program to the Net, and as a result was convicted by the Secret Service and the US Justice Department in early 1997. The Secret Service and InJustice Department have become corporate whores who prosecute anyone who threatens the interests of powerful companies like AOL-- in the words of AOL's "Integrity Assurance" vice president, this case is a "legal milestone". HAQR, HAQUER, HAXOR- Variant spellings of hacker. All of them are pronounced like hacker. HARDY, BOB- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN HEADLEY, SUSAN- see SUSAN THUNDER HEINZ, ERIC- see AGENT STEAL HESS, MARKUS [1962-Present]- Alias Matthias Speer. Former member of the Chaos Computer Club. Hacked for the KGB. Currently a professional programmer. HOFFMAN, ABBIE- Alias Barry Freed. Possibly the first phreaker, a yippy who died under suspicious circumstances in the 1989. Supposedly had the largest FBI file ever. Author of Steal This Book, about how poor hippy anarchists could survive as well as Revolution For the Hell of It and Woodstock Nation. Started the infamous TAP, or Technical Assistance Program. HOLLAND- see THE NETHERLANDS HOLLAND, WAU [full name: Hewart Holland-Moritz]- Founder of the Chaos Computer Club and German hacker. HOLLAND-MORITZ, HEWART- see HOLLAND, WAU HOLLIDAY, SAM- see DE PAYNE, LOUIS HOPE [Hackers on Planet Earth]- Recent convention, sponsored by 2600. HOWARD TRIPOD- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN IBM [International Business Machines, Incorporated]- Zaibatsu that at one time completely controlled computers; really fucked up when they licensed Microsoft to market DOS (which was, by the way, a product that was acquired by them from another company). Because DOS backfired on them, they created OS/2, which was largely ignored. Most recently they've allied with Apple (previously their bitter foe) and Motorola with the PowerPC chip and have regained some of their reputation in the hardware world with the IBM ThinkPad, one of the best laptops available. IBM-PC- International Business Machines Personal Computer or compatible. Refers to one of the five gazillion machines that run Microsoft DOS or the variants; Microsoft Windows or Microsoft Windows for Workgroups; Microsoft Windows 95; LINUX or IBM's OS/2. 90% of the marketplace is taken up by these machines. These systems include many basic types of machines, usually run on Intel's chips. By the way, the term IBM-PC is becoming more and more of a misnomer; almost all are not actually made by IBM, especially since IBM is trying to challenge Microsoft and Intel with PPCP and the PowerPC chip now. IDOL, BILLY [that's not his real name, but I don't give a fuck what it really is]- Punk singer who was a success in the 1970s and '80s; former member of Generation X. Supposedly he used to be cool, but everything I've ever seen him do after Generation X was pretty lame. Jumped on the "cyber" bandwagon with his album Cyberpunk, which was a total failure as far as I can figure. IL DUCE- see PHIBER OPTIK ILF- Alternately the Internet Liberation Front, the Information Liberation Front, and Information Longs to be Free. Net "terrorist" group, possibly started as a joke. Rerouted Josh Quittner's message system and left a politically motivated message. (This incarnation probably included MOD or LOD members, because Quittner had just written a book on the MOD/LOD war) In 1995, one or more people claiming to be doing independant contracting for the ILF hacked MGM/UA's Hackers home page. It is also used as sort of an international brotherhood; when confidential or proprietary information is released to the Net, the ILF sometimes gets the credit. INDUSTRIAL- Techno's evil twin; style of music that has begun to go mainstream; considered cyberpunk or marginally so. Grew out of the late 1970s British punk scene with Genesis P. Orridge's Throbbing Gristle; was later watered down and combined with other styles of music to be more palatable. Skinny Puppy, Ministry and Nine Inch Nails are all considered industrial. Gareth Brandwyn called it the sounds our culture makes as it comes unglued. INDUSTRIAL HACKING- Industrial espionage using hackers, sometimes freelancers, though mostly corporate employees. Appears in SF more than in real life, though it does occur. INFOBAHN- see INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY INFORMATION LIBERATION FRONT- see ILF INFORMATION LONGS TO BE FREE- see ILF INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY [or Infobahn or several other cutesy phrases]- Pretty stupid metaphor for the Internet, popularized by (then) Senator Al Gore. INTEGRATED SERVICES DIGITAL NETWORK [ISDN]- see ISDN INTEGRATED SPECIAL SERVICES NETWORK [ISSN]- see ISSN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES, INCORPORATED [IBM]- see IBM [International Business Machines, Incorporated] INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES PERSONAL COMPUTER [IBM-PC]- see IBM-PC INTERNET LIBERATION FRONT [ILF]- see ILF INTERNET PROTOCOL [IP]- see TCP/IP INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER [ISP]- see ISP INTERNET WORM- The worm created by Robert Morris in 1988 that replicated out of control due to bad programming and took down a lot of computers. News stories persisted in calling it a virus, which pissed everyone off. INTERZONE- A cultural area where "the street finds its own uses for things"; from the hallucinogenic hell which appears in William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch. Also the title of a British SF magazine. INTRUSION COUNTERMEASURE ELECTRONICS [ICE]- see ICE [Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics] ISDN [Integrated Services Digital Network]- Technology to completely digitize the phone service that was abandoned after much work (it began in the early 1980s) in the early 1990s because it was too expensive. It is currently used for high-speed Internet access, slower than T1 but faster than a modem. It is just becoming widely used by phone networks. ISP [Internet Service Provider]- The local networks most normal people have to dial into to reach the Internet; ISPs, in turn, make deals with such Internet backbone owners as MCI to connect to the Internet. ISSN [Integrated Special Services Network]- In a phone system (notably AT&T), controls special user features and customer control options. Not to be confused with ISSN, the serial number used by the Library of Congress used to register magazines. JAPAN [Nippon]- Country code .ja; East Asian nation, population 125.2 million, which is the subject of many cyberpunk novels due to an odd history and its high technology. Pursued a highly hierarchal samurai society until the mid-1800s, yet retained a strong Imperial warlike spirit until 1945, when they were totally defeated in World War II by the dropping of two atom bombs. Now an extremely successful producer of consumer goods, particularly electronics. (This doesn't have too much to do with hacking, but Japan is a notable country from an electronics standpoint, as well as the fact that much of SF currently involves Japan, and its preponderance of zaibatsus.) JOHNSON, ROBERT- see THE PROPHET JOLT [Cola]- Soft drink famous for having twice the caffeine of any other major soft drink (still less per pound than coffee, though), invented and distributed by the Jolt Company, Inc. By the way, did you know you can type on average five words a minute faster than normal if you drink two bottles of MegaJolt in succession? JUDGE DREDD- British comic book character currently published by DC that has some cyberpunk concepts; it's about a semi-fascist anti-hero in the 23rd century. Sylvester Stallone made a flop movie from it that the sets and special effects were cool, but not much else. There was also a hacker in the early 1990s with this handle, as well as another one (who may be the same guy) who was a member of the 2300 Club. KRACK- see CRACK KAPOR, MITCHELL- Co-founder of the EFF. Ex-hippy, founder of Lotus, and original programmer of Lotus 1-2-3. KARL MARX- Handle of James Salsman. Phreak and ex-member of LOD. Former sysop of Farmers of Doom BBS. [Handle came from a mention in the comic strip Bloom County about Communists.] KILL- The act of deleting a file or stopping a program while it is running. KILOBYTE [abbreviated as Kb or K]- Small unit of measurement, usually used for measuring small programs and cache memory. Contrary to what the word would imply, a kilobyte is 1024 bytes not 1000 as many would think. KING BLOTTO- Former member of the Legion of Doom and the 2300 Club. Phreak who invented several variant boxes. KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS- see THE NETHERLANDS KNIGHT LIGHTNING- Handle of Craig Neidorf. Former member of the 2600 Club. Co-founder of Phrack Magazine. He was put on trial during the Hacker Crackdown of 1990 for publishing the E911 document in Phrack, a document stolen in a hacker raid. When the Electronic Frontier Foundation got the case dropped, he decided he wanted to become a lawyer. He is now working for the EFF and as a writer for 2600. (According to Lightning, handle came from a combination of the Legion of Super-Heroes comic book character Lightning Lad and the character Michael Knight from the lame television show Knight Rider.) THE KNIGHTMARE- Handle of Dennis Fiery. Author of a book on computer security entitled Secrets of a Super Hacker, and sometimes writes for 2600. I haven't read his book. Not to be confused with the Arizona hacker. KNIGHTMARE [602]- Arizona hacker and sysop of the Black Ice Private BBS who was one of the first to be busted in the Hacker Crackdown. KROUPA, PATRICK K.- see LORD DIGITAL LADOPOULOS, ELIAS- see ACID PHREAK LAMER- A jerk idiot loser. That pretty much sums it up. LASS [Local Area Signalling Services]- Special numbers, preceded by a *, which allow special operations such, which usually cost a small amount of money. Includes such services as trace (*57), callback (*69) and caller ID disable (*70). L.A. SYNDROME - Lamer behavior. Means the person doesn't support the group. Usually associated with BBS's and posting thereupon. [From a user named the L.A. Raider and his activities on several Ohio boards.] LAW ENFORCEMENT ACCESS FIELD [LEAF]- see LEAF [Law Enforcement Access Field] LEACH- Someone who copies a large amount of software and doesn't return the favor. Used by BBS's and users, but also applies to those who physically copy software. LEAF [Law Enforcement Access Field]- Major part of the encryption in Clipper. A scrambled group of numbers including the chip's serial number, a session key number and a checksum number; allows government agencies to bypass Clipper encryption. LEARY, TIMOTHY (1920-1996)- Ex-Harvard professor and West Point-graduate who turned hippy in the 1960s and encouraged students to "turn on, tune in, drop out". Popularized LSD, and was eventually imprisoned for almost ten years for marijuana possession. He became a cyberpunk about fifteen years after his dropping out, and his new sound bite became "the PC is the LSD of the 1980's". (He later updated that to the 1990s when he discovered that computers now make the Apple IIes, 386s, Mac 512ks and Commodores of the 1980s look like abacuses.) He became one of the editors of Mondo 2000. In 1992, he discovered that he had prostate cancer. Being the weird guy that he was, he thought this was great news because he was going to die; after toying with the idea of somehow killing himself over the Internet and coming up with elaborate suicide plans, he succumbed to cancer on May 30, 1996. LEE, JOHN- see CORRUPT THE LEGION OF DOOM [LOD] [Full name: The Fraternal Order of the Legion of Doom (Lambda Omega Delta)]- Legendary hacking group that existed from 1984-1990, created on a board called PLOVERNET, founded by Lex Luthor, a former member of the Knights of Shadow. Also inspired the short-lived groups Farmers of Doom and Justice League of America. It subsumed the membership of a group called the Tribunal of Knowledge. Began as a phreaking group, and when it later gained more members who were more proficient with computers, it became LOD/H (Legion of Doom/Hackers). When many members dropped out, the H migrated from the name, but their newfound ability with computers stayed. Its official membership included, at various times: Lex Luthor, Karl Marx, Mark Tabas, Agrajag the Prolonged, King Blotto, Blue Archer, The Dragyn, Unknown Soldier, Sharp Razor, Doctor Who 413, Erik Bloodaxe, Sir Francis Drake, Paul Muad'Dib, Phucked Agent 04, X-Man, Randy Smith, Steve Dahl, The Warlock, Silver Spy, Terminal Man, Videosmith, Kerrang Khan, Gary Seven, Marauder, Bill from RNOC, Leftist, Urvile, Phantom Phreaker, Doom Prophet, Jester Sluggo, Carrier Culprit, Thomas Covenant, Mentor, Control C, Prime Suspect, Prophet, Professor Falken and Phiber Optik. Some members were busted by Operation Sundevil, others created a security firm called ComSec (which went bankrupt, and eventually was reincarnated as LOD Communications, Inc), and many just disappeared. Also, in the early 1990s, a new Legion of Doom was created, because since the group was defunct, logically anybody could use the name; it was, however, pretty much looked down upon and was eventually forcefully disbanded by members of the original LOD. (Doesn't that sound creepy? Like Mark Tabas and Erik Bloodaxe had them killed or something.) [The group's name came from the Superfriends cartoon series (using characters from Superman/Justice League comic books), where the villains were the Legion of Doom.] THE LEGION OF DOOM/HACKERS- see THE LEGION OF DOOM [LOD] LEVY, STEVEN- Writer and journalist; one of the original 1960s MIT hackers who is disdainful of us latter-day hackers. Author of Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, among other things. Currently contributing writer for Wired and Newsweek. LEWCIFER- see DE PAYNE, LEWIS LEX LUTHOR- Legendary hacker/pheaker and founder of LOD. [Handle came from the comic book villain who was Superman's arch-enemy; the hacker Lex got it from the 1979 movie version with Gene Hackman.] LOA- see THE LEGION OF THE APOCALYPSE [LOA] LOCKED (1) When a computer system shuts down and stops operation, usually without the operator wanting it to happen. (2) A protected program. (3) A file that has been changed by the OS so that it cannot be changed or deleted; often very easy to unlock. (4) A floppy disk which has been physically locked to prevent accidental alteration or to prevent stupid people from modifying the contents. LOD- see THE LEGION OF DOOM [LOD] LOD/H- see THE LEGION OF DOOM [LOD] LOD/H TECHNICAL JOURNALS [LOD/H TJ]- Hacking philes written by the Legion of Doom/Hackers, beginning in 1986. Four issues were made. The form and content owed something to what was then called Phrack Inc. [Name is a parody of AT&T Technical Journals.] LOD/H TJ- see LOD/H TECHNICAL JOURNALS [LOD/H TJ] LOGIC BOMB- A program that performs a certain action when certain conditions are met, such as deleting all files on Christmas eve, although it is not necessarily malevolent. Though it is not technically a virus, it is often grouped that way. There is some speculation that the turn of the millenium will set off tons of logic bombs that lie dormant in computers. LOOMPANICS- Publishing company (in)famous for publishing such "questionable" information as bomb plans and guerrilla techniques; also published Secrets of a Super Hacker, though according to everyone I've heard from the subject, it's pretty worthless. THE LONE GUNMEN- A group of three fictious hackers (Byers, Frohike and Langly) on The X-Files; first appeared in the episode E.B.E in 1992. Editors of a paranoid publication called The Lone Gunmen. An honorary Lone Gunman was a hacker named the Thinker who eventually got killed by the government because he uncovered information on the existence of extra-terrestrials. Apparently the government keeps its files on the existence of extra-terrestrials unencrypted on an Internet connected network. [Name comes from the oxymoronic flipside of the lone gunman theory in the Kennedy assassination, which is that Oswald acted alone.] LOOPS- Phone numbers used by the telco for testing. Can be manipulated to make free calls, which are billed to the telco. L0PHT- A Boston-based group of hackers interested in free information distribution and finding alternatives to the Internet. Their web site houses the archives of the Whacked Mac Archives, Black Crawling Systems, Dr. Who's Radiophone, the Cult of the Dead Cow, and others. Current membership includes Dr. Mudge, Space Rogue, Brian Oblivion, Kingpin, Weld, Tan, Stephan Wolfenstein and Megan A. Haquer. (Entry suggested by Space Rogue.) LORD DIGITAL- Handle of Patrick K. Kroupa. Former member of the Apple Mafia, the Knights of Shadow and the Legion of Doom. (Like Dead Lord, he claims he was officially inducted in 1987, but he is not listed in any of the official lists.) Good friend of Dead Lord and co-administrator of MindVox. LSC [Laughing Skull Clan]- see LAUGHING SKULL CLAN MACINTOSH- A type of computer that currently takes up a little less than 10% of the marketplace. Sometimes called derogatorily Macintrashes or Macintoys. First made by Apple in 1984, notable for its ease of use; successor to the failed Lisa, which was the successor to the Apple II. All Macintoshes run the MacOS, which is currently in version 7.6 (however, some Macs can run Windows, DOS, MachTen and/or LINUX). Apple licensed the MacOS in 1993 so that Mac clones can be made; they have not fully caught on yet, though Power Computing, UMAX and DayStar are doing fairly good business on them. Macs run on two families of microprocessors: the Motorola 680x0 chips, and the joint Apple-IBM-Motorola PowerPC chips. MARKOFF, JOHN- Co-author of Cyberpunk and Takedown. Ex-husband of Katie Hafner, technology journalist for The New York Times. MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY CRASH- The huge crash when AT&T computers embarassingly went down on Martin Luther King Day due to a bug in UNIX System VII, though speculation existed that malicious hackers had done it. MASTER OF IMPACT- see CONTROL C MASTERS OF DECEPTION- see MOD MASTERS OF DECEPTION [The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace]- Novel by Josh Quittner and Michelle Slatella about the LOD/MOD feud. A portion was printed in Wired and really pissed off a lot of people, most vocally Erik Bloodaxe. Not that badly written, but I wonder about the accuracy and who was interviewed on some of the details. MASTERS OF DISASTER [MOD]- see MOD MAX HEADROOM- Science fiction TV show that was cancelled after one season. The concept began when a British music video station wanted to use a computer-generated host, but some American network picked it up and made a TV show. MDMA- see ECSTASY MEAT- The physical body, the bag of flesh and mud and water that we are constrained to. Derogatory. MEATSPACE- Real life, as opposed to cyberspace. MEGABYTE [abbreviated as meg or Mb]- Fairly large unit of measurement, usually used for measuring RAM or storage memory or large programs. One megabyte is roughly 1.049 million bytes or approximately 976.562 kilobytes. MEGAHERTZ [MHz]- In computer terms, a measurement of the clock speed of a CPU. For example, the 486DX2 runs at 66 megahertz. It was known in hacker slang occasionally as hurtz or warp, where a 90 megahertz computer would be called Warp 90. MENTAL CANCER- see SHADOWHAWK 1 THE MENTOR- Handle of Loyd Blankenship. Also known as the Neuromancer. Elite hacker and former member of the Legion of Doom, the PhoneLine Phantoms, the Racketeers and Extasyy Elite. Writer of the legendary Conscience of a Hacker. He also used to work for Steve Jackson Games, where he wrote GURPS Cyberpunk. He is currently a freelance game designer/electronic musician. MERRILL, BRIAN- see MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID and COMPUTERS, FREEDOM AND PRIVACY CONFERENCE [CFP] METAL COMMUNICATIONS- A short-lived hack/phreak group that created several underground BBSs and wrote many philes. Members included Cobalt 60, Crimson Pirate, Dr. Local, Red Pirate, Shadow Lord, Angel of Destiny, Apothecary, Byte, Byte Byter, Dark Wizard, Duke, Dutchman, The Man in Black, the Prophet, Pink Panther, Voice Over, the Radical Rocker, the White Knight and the Warlock Lord. It also had a smaller sister group called the Neon Knights. MEXICAN FLAG- Red grenadine, white tequila and green creme-de-menthe. Multilayered, set on fire, and sucked through straws. A favorite of the Legion of Doom at parties before they broke up. [From the colors of the Mexican flag.] MHZ- see MEGAHERTZ MICHAELANGELO VIRUS- The much over-hyped virus that erased the hard drives of several computers, named for becoming active on the Renaissance artist Michaelangelo's birthday. MICROSOFT- Software megacorporation, founded 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen; writer of MS-DOS, Windows (3.x, 95, NT and CE), Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Bookshelf, Encarta and about a zillion other programs, most of which are made for business. Possibly the most evil force on the planet. Also used by William Gibson, without permission, for the name of addictive chips that plug into character's heads in Neuromancer. [Name comes from microcomputer and software.] MINDVOX [mindvox.phantom.com]- Manhattan-based Net provider where a number of ex-LODers (and Billy Idol :( ) reside; has the domain name phantom.com. Motto: Jack in, rock out, and feel your head. Administered by Dead Lord and Lord Digital. MINOR THREAT (1972-Present)- Former member of Public Enemy (the hacker group, not the band). Co-programmer of ToneLoc (with Mucho Maas), which he began in 1990. [Handle comes from the name of an early 1980s Straight Edge punk band.] MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID (1963-Present)- Birth name of the Condor. Also known as N6NHG, alias Anton Chernoff, alias Fred Weiner, alias Lee Nussbaum, alias Brian Merrill, alias David Stanfill, alias Thomas Case. Former member of the Roscoe Gang (name given by Cyberpunk). Teenage phreak who grew up and didn't quit. First arrested at age 17. Rumors claimed that he cracked NORAD (inspiring WarGames); generally disproven, though Markoff has been trying to resurrect it. Became famous, especially when in 1995 he went on a hacking rampage that included deleting several files on the WELL, possibly because of a typing error. Tsutomu Shimomura (and a number of datacops and John Markoff, who claims he was just an observer) eventually tracked him down after Mitnick hacked Shimomura's system. When he was caught he told Shimomura "I respect your skills". John Markoff and Tsutomu Shimomura just wrote their version of the events, which will serve as the screenplay for a movie by Miramax about it, entitled Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw-- By the Man Who Did It. (Apparently, it was the longest and most grandiose title they could think of.) Jonathan Littman wrote his own version, with the help of Mitnick, entitled The Fugitive Game. Also inspired the most objective retelling, The Cyberthief and the Samurai, by Jeff Goodell. While he obviously cannot be directly reached by email as he is in federal prison, 2600 maintains a mailbox for him where they forward him interesting data and fan mail at kmitnick@2600.com. Mitnick achieved fame through his admirable genius and is the most respected man in the digital underworld. [Handle came from the 1975 Robert Redford movie Three Days of the Condor, about an ex-CIA guy who escapes the government, in part by manipulating the phone system.] MOD [Motto: "Summa Sedes Non Capit Duos", Latin, literally The Highest Does Not Seat Two, figuratively There is Only Room for One at the Top; a reference to the LOD/MOD struggle]- MOD, a New York rival of LOD, was known at various times as Masters of Deception and Masters of Disaster. Its current membership is Acid Phreak, Scorpion, Nynex Phreak, HAC, Wing, Outlaw, Corrupt, Supernigger, Red Night, Seeker, Lord Micro, Crazy Eddie, Zod, Peaboy, n00g1e, Ella Cinders and Plague, and previous members have included Thomas Covenant and Phiber Optik. (List of current members provided by Acid Phreak.) Southwestern Bell busted them and some wound up in jail. It was formed when Phiber Optik was kicked out of LOD, supposedly because of his ego. He then formed MOD and recruited some of his friends. They were a major exception to the stereotype of the hacker as a wealthy, suburban white guy. They had what was described by some as a "hacker war" with LOD until they got busted, when there was something of a truce and LOD sort of made up. Well, at least they made up with Phiber Optik. They are still around, at least according to their web page, which of course claims they are reformed. They can currently be reached at mod@gti.net. Definitely not to be confused with the Amiga sound format .mod. MODEM [MOdulator/DEModulator]- Hardware that allows digital info to be carried over analog lines. The first modems were acoustic (usually 300 bps); you had to put the phone receiver on the modem. The current standard speed is 56 kbps. (Phone lines can hold a maximum of 56 kbps.) ISDN modems are becoming more and more common. (Even though ISDN modem is an oxymoron; ISDN is already digital, and a modem by definition converts digital to analog.) MODULATOR/DEMODULATOR [MODEM]- see MODEM [MOdulator/DEModulator] MONDO 2000- Cyberpunk magazine. Successor to a short lived zine entitled Reality Hackers. Never as good as it should have been. The three major brains behind it were R.U. Sirius (AKA Ken Goffman), St. Jude (AKA Jude Milhon) and Bart Nagel, all of which have since resigned, at least as editors. Timothy Leary was one of the editors, and there's a really psychotic dude named Xandor as well. I think it's way too much style and way too little substance, but it has some good book reviews and interviews about weird technology. [From the Italian word mondo, meaning world; AD 2000 is supposedly the expiration date.] MOREU, RAFAEL- Screenwriter for Hackers; interviewed many prominent hackers for research. According to Acid Phreak, he was less than happy with how it turned out. MORRIS, ROBERT TAPPAN II- Cornell graduate student who created a worm which exploited the UNIX sendmail bug as an experiment to see how fast it would spread through the Internet; due to a programming error, it went out of control and took down hundreds of computers. MOSS, JEFFERY- see DARK TANGENT MUDGE- Leader and sysop of the L0pht. Namexro- Honorable mention. The alias of the hacker who hacked into my website and changed the front page. Also deleted all my content. NARK- (1) Someone who turns people in to law enforcement. (2) The act of turning in someone to law enforcement. NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE [NII]- see NII [National Information Infrastructure] NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY [NSA]- see NSA [National Security Agency] NECRON 99- see URVILE NEIDORF, CRAIG- see KNIGHT LIGHTNING NEON KNIGHTS- see METAL COMMUNICATIONS THE NET- Sandra Bullock's 1995 cyberthriller, in which she tries to escape from evil hackers. Can be recommended because it has Sandra Bullock in a bikini. NETCOM- I believe Netcom is the largest Internet access provider in the world. As a result, it has users of all types. [From Net (short for Internet) and commercial.] THE NETHERLANDS [Kingdom of the Netherlands]- Country code .nl, European nation, population 14.6 million, currently known for its libertarian laws regarding drugs, nudity, prostitution and notably computer hacking which, until recently, was totally legal. THE NEUROMANCER- see THE MENTOR NII- National Information Infrastructure. Hard to say. (I mean, literally, en-aye-aye? Really not phonetically friendly.) 1984- A mystical year for computers. LOD was formed; Neuromancer was published; 2600 was first published; The Whole Earth Software Review was created, which led to the WELL; the Chaos Computer Club was formed; and the Macintosh computer was released. Also, George Orwell's 1949 SF novel was titled this, and some would say it's becoming true. NODE- A big, fast, huge thing on a network; sort of a BBS on steroids. (NO SUCH AGENCY) [NSA]- see NSA [National Security Agency] NSA [National Security Agency]- Also known as (No Such Agency). The federal agency in charge of spying on the citizens of the US, as well as an international branch. N6NHG- Ham radio handle of Kevin Mitnick; last three letters supposedly stand for Nation's Hacker Great. NUPROMETHEUS LEAGUE- Group (or maybe just one guy) that liberated part of the source code to Color QuickDraw and set disks containing to prominent members of the computer community. They were never caught (well, at least not caught and publically tried. Maybe Apple had them shot and dumped in unmarked graves in Philadelphia.) NUSSBAUM, LEE- see MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID OBELIX (1976-Present)- Former member of the Chaos Computer Club; introduced Pengo to the group. [Name comes from the prominent German comic strip character.] 110- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN ON THE METAL- Term referring to programming or hardware design. The act of working directly at the computer keyboard (or hardware breadboard) without going through the normal planning stages. OPERATION SUNDEVIL- An initiative by the United States Secret Service in 1990 that was part of the Hacker Crackdown of 1990; it was originally intended to strike credit card fraud; it was 27 search warrants executed May 8; 42 computer systems were seized. Agents in charge included Tim Foley, Gail Thackeray and Barbara Golden. ORACLE- A DC Comics character; formerly Batgirl, paralyzed by the Joker. Notable in a hacking sense because she is now the main hacker character in the DC Universe. OS [Operating System]- The physical laws of a computer. OS's include DOS, Windows, MacOS, SunOS and UNIX and its many variants. Even VCRs, scientific calculators and digital watches have primitive OS's. OUTAGE- Loss of telephone service. Term used by telco employees. OUTLAW (1974-Present)- Handle of Julio Fernandez. Founding member of MOD; supposedly one of the more criminal members. PACKET SNIFFER- A program which records the first one hundred or so bits sent by a computer when connecting to a network. Supposedly used for network diagnostic purposes, but is used frequently by hackers for obvious reasons. (The first hundred bits usually include a username and password.) PAGE (1) 256 consecutive bytes of memory, starting on a even multiple of 256. (2) a screen, usually a graphics display. (3) A home page on the World Wide Web. PARM- Contraction for "parameter", which is a list of data that is given to a routine to work with, such as a list of subscribers or accounts, or even a filename on a disk. PASSWORD SHADOWING- A security system in which the encrypted password is stored in a different directory where normal users are not given access. Used in the UNIX operating system. PBX [Private Branch Exchange]- Local phone number within a corporation. Phreakers often dial into these, hack them, and use them to make long-distance calls for free. They often route through many PBXs to avoid tracing. PENET [anon.penet.fi]- Infamous Finnish anonymous remailer. Currently unbreakable (as far as anyone knows) except when the Scientologists got a warrant for the data in Penet's computers. That will probably never happen again. PENGO (1968-Present)- Handle of Hans Huebner, West German hacker and former member of the Chaos Computer Club; infamous for hacking US military systems for the KGB. [Handle comes from the name of his favorite arcade game, the protagonist of which was a penguin.] PENTIUM- The chip that runs in fairly high end IBM-PCs; manufactured and developed by the Intel Corporations. Current high-end clock speeds run up to 250 MHz. PETERS, MICHAEL B.- see POULSEN, KEVIN LEE PETERSON, JUSTIN TANNER- see AGENT STEAL PGP [Pretty Good Privacy]- Program by Phillip Zimmermann and Pretty Good Software. Encryption for the masses; it was made to counter the proposed clipper chip. Phil Zimmermann, of course, might go to jail. Other fanatical cypherpunks have taken over where he left off, making it for the Mac (MacPGP) and a utility for making your phone line secure (PGPfone.) PGP is currently in version 2.6.2. Currently some of the aforementioned cypherpunks are working on the MacPGP Kit (currently in version 1.6), the goal of which is to ultimately replace the ugly window currently in MacPGP that looks like DOS. [The name Pretty Good Privacy is because Phil Zimmermann is a fan of Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion, which mentioned a product that was "pretty good"] PHALCON/SKISM (P/S)- Hacking, phreaking and virus group; Phalcon did the H/P and Skism did the virii. The group ran the e-zine 40Hex. Members have included Hellraiser, Dark Angel, DecimatoR, Garbage Heap and Priest. The group was disbanded in late 1996. PHASE JITTER- see CONTROL C PHIBER OPTIK (1975-Present)- Handle of Mark Abene. Also known as Il Duce, also known as the Artist Formerly Known as Phiber. Former member of LOD and MOD. He was arrested in 1993 and sentenced to prison for a year and a day. When he got out, there was a huge party, and he is currently a technician for Echo and writer for 2600. PHOENIX PROJECT- BBS sysoped by the Mentor and Erik Bloodaxe. Shut down by the Secret Service; too bad, because otherwise it might have revitalized the underground. PHRACK CLASSIC- see PHRACK MAGAZINE PHRACK INC.- see PHRACK MAGAZINE PHRACK MAGAZINE- Electronic hacker 'zine founded in 1985 by Knight Lightning and Taran King for the Metal Shop BBS. It later appeared on the Broadway Show, Newsweek Elite and Kleptic Palace AE/Catfur boards. Shut down by the police once, but continued to return as the 'zine that wouldn't die. Still existing, currently in volume seven. At various times, Phrack was known as Phrack, Inc. (according to Knight Lightning, from the DC Comics series Infinity, Inc.), Phrack Classic, and Diet Phrack. It had several editors through the years: Taran King and Knight Lightning; Shooting Shark; Elric of Imrryr and Sir Francis Drake; Crimson Death; King and Lightning again; Doc Holliday; Death again; Dispater; Death and Dispater; just Dispater again; Erik Bloodaxe; and currently Daemon9, ReDragon and Voyager. (I realize the Phrack web page lists different editors and doesn't mention some, but a careful review of back issues contradicts this. Guess Bloodaxe didn't have as much spare time as I do when he compiled the list.) Since Issue 42, it has become a "real" magazine and is listed in the Library of Congress with its own ISSN. Bloodaxe came up with new rules about its distribution; while the "amateur computer hobbyist" can get it for free, the government and corporations must pay a registration fee. However, only two people actually have; in an incredible fit of hypocrisy, Gail Thackeray has said that unless it is enforced, corporations can have it for free. To use the rhetoric prosecutors have been using for years, "if a bike is unlocked and you steal it, does that mean it's okay?" This just proves the government is as corrupt as they always said hackers were. (Well, sort of.) The current staff is Daemon9, ReDragon and Voyager (editors-in-chief), Erik Bloodaxe (mailboy), and Datastream Cowboy (news). PHRACK WORLD NEWS [PWN]- Department of Phrack Magazine existing since issue two (when it was called Phreak World News.) It changed to Phrack World News in issue 5. First done by Knight Lightning, then Sir Francis Drake, then Epsilon, then Dispater and currently Datastream Cowboy. It is made up of journalism by hackers about the hacking scene and articles written by the news press about hackers; where erroroneous information is occasionally corrected. It exists to publicize busts and information about hackers. PHREAK- Someone who abuses the phone system the way a hacker abuses computer networks. Also used by Rudy Rucker in his novels to refer to hobbyists who hack systems, as opposed to cryps, who do it for money or power. #PHREAK- The phreaking irc channel. PILE, CHRISTOPHER- see THE BLACK BARON PIRATE- (1) Someone who distributes copyrighted commercial software illegally, often stripping the program of password protection or including a document that gives the passwords to defeat the protection. [From the old 18th century pirates who raided ships, though I have no idea what that has to do with ripping off software. Anyone have any ideas?] (2) A verb for illegally copying a progam. POSTER BOY- see CONTROL C POULSEN, KEVIN LEE- Birth name of Dark Dante; semi-famous hacker and Silicon Valley programmer who was caught for altering telephone systems so that he could be the 102nd caller and win a Porche, among other things. First hacker to be indicted for espionage. Alias Michael B. Peters. Sometimes referred to as "The Last Hacker." (Huh? I don't get it.) Currently on court order not to use computers; his web page, maintained by others, is at http://www.catalog.com/kevin. POWER PC- Chip that powers Apple's Power Macintoshes and high-end Performas. It is also used to power some high-end IBM-PCs that run Microsoft Windows NT. It was developed in an unprecedented partnership between Apple, IBM and Motorola. PPCP- PowerPC Platform (formerly CHRP, Common Hardware Reference Platform); recently officially christened as PowerPC Microprocessor Common Reference Platform. Initiative by Apple, IBM, and Motorola that will replace IBM's PRePs and Apple's Power Macs, supposed to begin shipping November 1996. It will run IBM's OS/2, Windows NT, AIX, MacOS, Sun Solaris and Novell NetWare. (Sometimes referred to as "the Power Computer" in rants in 1994 issues of Phrack.) PRAETORIANS- Mischievious members of the Internet Liberation Front (as well as possibly LOD) who hacked the Hackers home page. [From the villains in The Net.] PReP [PowerPC Reference Platform]- IBM's name for their PowerPC run machines, which usually run Windows NT. PRIVATE BRANCH EXCHANGE [PBX]- see PBX [Private Branch Exchange] PRODIGY- Third largest online service, owned by IBM and Sears that is the only remaining competitor to AOL and CompuServe. PROJECT EQUALIZER- KGB initiative to pay West German Chaos Computer Club members to hack United States military computers for them. Failed; the information that the hackers involved uncovered was not judged worth the expense by the KGB, and Clifford Stoll eventually got all the hackers arrested. PROPHET- Alias Robert Johnson, also known as the Eavesdropper. Former member of the Legion of Doom, the PhoneLine Phantoms and Metal Communications. One of the Atlanta Three busted in the Hacker Crackdown; was the one who actually got the E911 Document. PUNK- (1) A style of music drawing on the culture of destructive rebels, begun in the late Seventies in Britain by such bands as the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Ramones. Did stuff like put safety pins in their noses and other body parts. Led to goth, industrial and to a lesser extent grunge. I believe such groups as Green Day are considered neo-punk (or, in the words of Ron DuPlanty, "punk wannabes.") (2) The culture of destructive rebels with piercings and scary hair, often shaved. The term was later used with "cybernetics" to describe computer nerds with a little bit more attitude. [The word in this context is a perverted badge of honor coming from the insulting term punk, as in an obnoxious young person. Major insult if you apply to someone else maliciously, at least in the computer underground.] THE PUNK MAFIA (TPM)- Phreak/hack group whose membership included Arthur Dent, Creative Chaos, Erik Bloodaxe, Gin Fizz, Ninja NYC, Peter Gunn, Rudolph Smith 703 and the Godfather 703. QUALCOMM- Telecommunications company that was/is the target of many hackers, including Kevin Mitnick. Best known among casual Net users as the distributor of Eudora, the ubiquitous email program first coded by Steve Dorner. QUICKDRAW- The engine that powers the graphics in Macintoshes. It began as just QuickDraw, which was followed by Color QuickDraw, which was followed by 32-bit QuickDraw, which was followed by QuickDraw GX, which was recently followed by QuickDraw 3D. In the early 1990s a group calling itself the NuPrometheus League ILFed part of the source code to Color QuickDraw, very much angering Apple Computer. QUITTNER, JOSHUA- Co-author of Masters of Deception: The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace and contributing writer for Wired. His phone system was hacked by parties unknown (either LOD or MOD, acting on behalf of the ILF) in retaliation for his book. RAM [Random Access Memory]- The amount of active memory a computer has; the amount it can load at once. Increasing RAM increases speed because then more of the program can be loaded into active. The current standard amount of RAM is 8 to 256 megabytes. RAMPARTS- A radical hippy magazine in California in the 1970s that was seized by the cops because they published the shematics for a blue box variant. RAVERS- People who go to massive psychedelic parties or set them up. Usually have acid house, techo or industrial music, and lots of enthusiasts claim its roots are in tribal ceremonies thousands of years ago. Raves are not necessarily "cyberpunk" by any definition, however. RBOCS [Regional Bell Operating Companies]- Companies left over from when AT&T was ripped apart; "baby bells." RED BOX- Box that mimics the sound of a quarter being entered into a payphone, fooling ACTS; I believe the second box (after the blue box) to be created by phreaks. Tone is created by a 6.5536 Mhz crystal, in the pure forms; there are a number of soft boxes, tones in software for a computer. [Name comes from the box in pay phones that actually is red.] REDRAGON (1975-Present)- Also known as Dr. Disk and the Destroyer. Currently one of the co-editors of _hrack Magazine. [Handle is from a book by Thomas Harris called Red Dragon; combined the words.] REMOB [REMote OBservation]- A feature BellSouth built into their phone system that Atlanta LOD used to their advantage. RENO, JANET- Current attourney general of the United States. Currently being sued by the ACLU for the passage of the CDA. REWIND- To stop a program at a certain point and go backwards through the execution until the item of the search (usually a bug) is found. RICHO SLOPPY- see CONTROL C RONIN- A masterless samurai, popularized by Frank Miller's SF/fantasy graphic novel of the same name. This historical, nearly mythological archetype has also been adopted by many hackers and self-proclaimed cyberpunks as a role model. ROOT- God on a system. Getting root is the holy grail; allows you to control the system. ROSCOE- see DE PAYNE, LOUIS THE ROSCOE GANG- Name given to a small group of phreaks in LA by Cyberpunk. The members were Louis De Payne (Roscoe), Kevin Mitnick (the Condor), Susan Headley (Susan Thunder) and Steven Rhoades. ROSENFIELD, MORTON- see STORM SHADOW RSA [Rivest/Shamir/Adleman]- Very strong public key cryptosystem utilized by PGP; created 1977, patented 1983. Named after the MIT professors who created it- Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Len Adleman, founders of RSA Data Security. RUCKER, RUDY- Author and scientist; the only original cyberpunk who actually knows what he is talking about. Author of The Hollow Earth, Live Robots, Software, Spacetime Donuts, Transreal, White Light and The Hacker and the Ants. Also a contributing writer for Wired. R.U. SIRIUS- Handle of Ken Goffman. Former editor of Mondo 2000, contributing writer for Wired, and co-author of Mondo 2000: A User's Guide to the New Edge, The Cyberpunk Handbook (The Real Cyberpunk Fakebook) and How to Mutate and Take Over the World. RYAN, NICHOLAS- see HAPPY HARDCORE SAINT CLOUD- see DOCTOR WHO SALSMAN, JAMES- see KARL MARX SATAN [Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks]- Silicon Graphics program to detect holes in computer security, coded by Dan Farmer. It created something of a scandal at the time because it was shareware, and some were afraid it would make second-rate hackers incredibly powerful; however, it was released, and no, the world did not end. SCAN MAN- Phreak in the 1980s. Fairly old for a hacker at the time (he was in his thirties). Sysoped Pirate-80. SCANNING- To dial a huge amount of numbers, looking for "carriers" or computers connected by a modem to the phone line. Since dialing thousands of numbers by hand and hanging up is incredibly tedious, the war dialer was invented. SCHWARTAU, WINN- Security and infowar specialist; frequently attends conventions. Author of Information Warfare: Chaos on the Electronic Superhighway and Terminal Compromise. SCORPION (1970-Present)- Handle of Paul Stira. Founding member of MOD; imprisoned for a short time when MOD was arrested. [Named after the poisonous arthropod.] SECRET SERVICE- see UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE [USSS] SF- Science fiction or speculative fiction. Fiction based on scientific possibility (unless you count the many fantasy books masquerading as science fiction). The first science fiction written down was probably parts of the Holy Bible, but Greek and Hindu mythology also has echoes of SF. The first uses of science fiction as we know it was in the 1930s, when Hugo Gernsback created the Amazing Stories pulp. Some SF is considered great literature (1984, Brave New World, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Left Hand of Darkness, etc.), and some is considered crap. SF was revolutionized in the early 1980s by cyberpunk. SHADOWHAWK 1- Also known as Feyd Rautha, also known as Captain Beyond, also known as Mental Cancer. Hacker/phreak that was one of the first to be tried (for repeatedly hacking AT&T.) He had to go to prison for nine months and pay $10,000. He bragged of planning to crash AT&T, which was an unfortunate coincidence when the Martin Luther King Day Crash really happened. [Name comes from the title of an Atari 800 game.] SHADOWRUN- The second cyberpunk role-playing game; created 1989 by FASA Incorporated, specifically Jordan K. Weisman. Currently in second edition. Uses many plaigarized aspects of cyberpunk (cyberdecks, street samurai) but also uses some really weird stuff like magic and two-thirds of North America being retaken by Native American shamen. It has been criticized by many (notably Bruce Sterling) for the use of elves and magic, which is sort of blasphemy as far cyberpunk is concerned. [From the term in the game universe referring to an illegal operation, usually financed by a corporation and staffed by highly flexible freelancers; used because it sounds cool.] SHANNON, CLAUDE- Student who, in the late-1930s, hypothesized that computer circuits could use binary. SHEET- Contraction for the word "spreadsheet." SHIT-KICKIN' JIM- A character created as a joke by Dispater for Phrack; the ultimate redneck hacker. SHIMOMURA, TSUTOMU (1964-Present)- Also known as "V.T.," in a New York Times article previous to the Mitnick debacle. Computer scientist whose network was cracked by Kevin Mitnick, whom he then tracked down. (Though supposedly he plotted to catch Mitnick before the break-in, as well.) He also used to be a cellular phone phreak, which, strangely enough, never gets publicized by Markoff. Co-author of Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw-- By the Man Who Did It. Currently trying to get back to his life as a scientist. (And make a shitload of money off his book and upcoming movie.) Can currently be contacted at tsutomu@ariel.sdsc.edu. SHOOTING SHARK- Hack/phreak and UNIX hacker who was the editor of Phrack for two issues. Disciple of Elric of Imrryr. [From the title of a song by Blue Oyster Cult on the album Revolution by Night.] SHOULDER SURFING- A very low tech method of phreaking; usually practiced by unsophisticated phreaks who depend on stealing phone codes and selling them to immigrants for their livelihood. The practice of looking over someone's shoulder as they dial their phone code and then writing it down. SIDNEY SCHREIBER- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN SING- To program without errors for a long period of time. SIRIUS, R.U.- see R.U. SIRIUS SKINNY PUPPY- see DOCTOR WHO SKOOG, ERIC- see DETH VEGETABLE SLAP- The act of loading a program off of a disk device and into memory very quickly. SMART DRUGS- Designer drugs used by enthusiasts because they think they increase the information processing power of the brain or otherwise make the mind more powerful. (Don't eat any of that stuff they say will make you smarter. It will only make you poorer. -Bruce Sterling) SMASH AND GRAB- To use a copycard or other hardware device to stop the program from running and copy it from memory onto disk. [From criminal slang, meaning to break a store's window and reach in to take small valuable items quickly.] SNEAKERS- 1992 Robert Redford hacker movie. Not bad, if you keep your expectations low. [According to the press release, the name comes from the slang term for IBM's young programmers, and later was used to refer to security teams that broke into computers and found the security flaws. However, I don't think this was widely used.] SNYDER, THOMAS [Tom]- Talk show host who hosted Katie Hafner, and Mitnick called in. Judging from the transcript in The Cyberthief and the Samurai, he didn't know what he was talking about and jumped on the "hackers are evil" bandwagon. However, he wrote a pretty good introduction to Harlan Ellison's An Edge in My Voice, so how bad a guy can he be? SOCIAL ENGINEERING- Conning someone. Usually involves using what you know about someone and pushing their buttons in order to manipulate them into doing what you want them to do. SOLOMON, ALAN [Doctor]- Anti-virus "crusader;" author of Dr. Solomon's Anti Virus Toolkit. THE SORCEROR- see CRIMSON DEATH SPEER, MATTHIAS- see HESS, MARKUS SPIDER- Not very widely used at all term for an quasilegal hacker; I rather like it myself. Coined by Andrew Burt. SPOOFING- Hacking technique in which an unauthorized user comes in from another computer that is authorized access to an important system; printers have been hacked for spoofing purposes. SPOT THE FED- Popular hacker game at Cons; it involves attempting to find one of the many undercover agents attending. SPRAWL SERIES- Also known as the Cyberspace Series or Trilogy. SF classic series by William Gibson; according to Bruce Sterling, the short stories involved are Johnny Mnemonic, New Rose Hotel, and Burning Chrome; the novels are Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive. STANFILL, DAVID- see KEVIN MITNICK STEINBERG, STEVEN G.- see FRANK DRAKE STEPHENSON, NEAL- Author, programmer, and contributing writer for Wired; author of The Big U, Zodiac: An Eco-Thriller, Snow Crash and The Diamond Age, as well as several short stories. STERLING, BRUCE (1954-Present)- Also known as Vincent Omniaveritas. Journalist, literary critic, contributing writer for Wired and science fiction author. Author of The Artificial Kid, Involution Ocean, Schismatrix, Crystal Express, Islands in the Net, Globalhead and Heavy Weather, as well as the introductions to several books, and was the editor of Mirrorshades- The Cyberpunk Anthology. He also wrote the non-fiction The Hacker Crackdown, about the events of the Hacker Crackdown of 1990, and co-wrote The Difference Engine. His most recent book was Holy Fire. In his early days, he edited a weird samizdat zine that viciously railed against the SF mainstream (dragons, space operas etc.) entitled Cheap Truth under the name Vincent Omniaveritas. Cheap Truth was to SF what Phrack Magazine is to personal computers. STEVE JACKSON GAMES (SJG)- Corporation making role-playing games that was raided by the Secret Service in 1990 during the Hacker Crackdown of 1990 due to the presence of the E911 document on Illuminati, a BBS run by SJG. The fact the Mentor worked there didn't help. Their equipment was seized and Illuminati was shut down, though SJG was never charged with any crime; the Secret Service's excuse, though they later admitted it was total crap, was that GURPS Cyberpunk, the role-playing game written by the Mentor, was a manual for computer crime. The EFF later sued the US government over it. SJG went on to publish GURPS Cyberpunk and write a card game called Hackers. STIRA, PAUL WILLIAM- see SCORPION STORM SHADOW- Handle of Morty Rosenfield, a hacker and member of the short-lived group Force Hackers. Was thrown in jail in 1991, and gained semi-fame from a Time magazine article. (However, Datastream Cowboy says it's full of crap, so maybe I shouldn't believe its info.) S.266- 1991 Senate anti-crime bill that included a provision making encryption illegal in the US if the FBI (or NSA) couldn't crack it. Was one of the factors making Phil Zimmermann create PGP. SUSAN THUNDER (1959-Present)- Handle of Susan Headley, one the few female phreak/hackers; former prostitute and friend of Kevin Mitnick; protege of Louis De Payne. Appeared on 20/20. Interviewed in Cyberpunk. SYSADMIN [SYStem ADMINistrator]- Someone who runs and administers a computer network. SYSOP [SYStem OPerator]- Someone who runs and administers a computer system, usually a BBS. TAG- (1) A small piece of code or data that is added to a program as an afterthought, usually an identifier of some sort, like the time and date completed, along with the author's name. [From the clothes tag you find on shirts and pants at shopping centers.] (2) In the HTML programming language, a command issued, rather than basic text. TAKEDOWN: THE PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF KEVIN MITNICK, AMERICA'S MOST WANTED COMPUTER OUTLAW-- BY THE MAN WHO DID IT- Nonfiction (supposedly) novel by Tsutomu Shimomura and John Markoff. Originally titled Catching Kevin, which I think was a much better title. TAP [Technical Assistance Program]- Formerly the "Youth International Party Line." Phreaking newsletter among hippies. Another TAP was created in the 1990 by Predat0r, but it too is now defunct. TAPEWORM- A program that invades a computer system and changes certain data as is it becomes available. Usually benign, from the tapeworm programmer's point of view. Often used to "fix" tax forms from within the IRS computer. TARAN KING- Phreak, former editor of Phrack, former member of the 2600 Club and New 2600 Club, and former sysop of Metal Shop BBS. Knight Lightning's best friend. [Name comes from the main character in the Chronicles of Prydain by Loyd Alexander, a fantasy series] TCP/IP [Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol]- The language the Internet speaks, which computer OS's intrepret. TEAM HACKERS '86- see THE ADMINISTRATION TELCO [TELephone COmpany]- A corporation which sells a service that would be dirt cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, i.e. telephone service. The largest (and until the 1970s, only) telco is AT&T. TELEPHONE- A device that allows one to speak to someone else through wires, long distance. It was created in 1876 and gained true widespread use in 1904. It has great potential for abuse, most recently to get around the insane charges telcos put on the phone that most people pay without question. (I mean really, what the fuck is an "area code"? It doesn't cost any more to the phone company to put me through to Borneo then it does to put me through to my neighbor.) While it was originally copper wires that carried voice, it has been increasing computerized. TELETRIAL- Mock trial held by phreaks on a bridge in which someone is tried for offenses; if the offending phreak is found guilty, he may be expelled from a group or kicked off a BBS. Very inefficient. Things would be a lot easier if hack/phreaks could just execute the obnoxious ones like the Cosa Nostra does. TEMPEST [Transient ElectroMagnetic PulsE Surveillance Technology]- Military espionage technology which reads the ones and zeros emitted by a computer monitor from as much as a kilometer away. TERMINAL TECHNICIAN- see TERMINUS TERMINUS- Handle of Len Rose. Also known as Terminal Technician. Respected UNIX programmer and hacker on the side. Former sysop of Metronet. [Handle comes from his admittedly egotistical conviction that he had reached the final point of being a proficient hacker.] THACKERAY, GAIL- Secret Service administrator who was one of the driving forces behind Operation Sundevil. While is she is a vehement hacker-tracker, she has been known to socialize with them, and tries to train police not to be computer illiterate idiots. THREE-LETTER AGENCIES- The federal agencies comprised of three letters; usually refers to the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) and the NSA (National Security Agency). TIGER TEAMS- Defined in Cyberia as "specialized computer commando squads who establish security protocol in a system." I doubt it's that romantic (it conjurs up imagery of black-suited Navy SEAL computer nerds). TINA- Phone sex operator who people calling Palm Beach Probation Department got patched through to for free in due to the meddlings of a truly creative phreak, Fry Guy. TPM- see THE PUNK MAFIA [TPM] TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL/INTERNET PROTOCOL [TCP/IP]- see TCP/IP [Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol] TRASHING- Also known as dumpster diving. Going through the someone's trash looking for info; usually refers to searching through the dumpster of a corporation for thrown-away passwords or information that can be useful for social engineering. THE TRIBUNAL OF KNOWLEDGE- see THE LEGION OF DOOM [LOD] TRANSIENT ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGY [TEMPEST]- see TEMPEST [Transient ElectroMagnetic PulsE Surveillance Technology] TROJAN HORSE- A virus-like program that pretends to be something else in order to get into the system. [From The Iliad, by famous dead Greek poet Homer, when the Ithacans gained victory by hiding in a huge wood horse so they could get into Troy. The Trojans were not in the gifted program at warfare school.] TRW- see EXPERIAN TUC- Handle of Scott Jefferey Ellentuch. Former member of the Warelords, the Knights of Shadow, the Apple Mafia and Fargo 4A. Phreak (no longer in operation) known for being very likable. [Handle comes from his nickname in school, because teachers were always mispronouncing his last name; and he was always correcting them by saying "Tuc!" (Ellentuc, not Ellentouch or however the git teachers pronounced it.) Isn't that a cute story?] TURING, ALAN- British mathematician who predicted in 1950 that computers would become more intelligent than humans. In Neuromancer, the "Turing police" is the unit charged with stopping AIs from getting too powerful. In the mid-1930s Alan used Charles Babbage's ideas to make the "Turing machine," a general purpose calculator. 2600 CLUB/NEW 2600 CLUB- Group that included much of the staff of Phrack Inc. (No relation to 2600 magazine.) Its membership included Cheap Shades, Data Line, Dr. Crash, Forest Ranger, Gin Fizz, Jester Sluggo, Knight Lightning, Taran King, Monty Python, Phantom Phreaker and the Clashmaster. 2600: THE HACKER QUARTERLY- Hacker magazine edited by Emmanuel Goldstein, founded 1984. It focuses on technical data, and is a mainstay of the computer underground. It is currently in Volume 13, costs $21 for a one-year subscription, and can be reached for general mail at 2600@2600.com. Current staff is: Emmanuel Goldstein (editor-in-chief), Scott Skinner (layout), Max-q and Phiber Optik (network operations), Neon Samurai (voice mail), and Bloot and Corp (webmasters). 2600 MEETINGS- Held in major cities on the first Friday of every month in malls; discuss security, hacking and phreaking. In late 1992, young people gathering a 2600 meeting were confronted by law enforcement in a mall, where they were searched and equipment was seized. Shortly after, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility filed suit to get relevant Secret Service files under the Freedom of Information Act. In early 1996, a number of government appeals were overturned and the information was released. [From 2600 Hz, the tone used on blue boxes a long time ago to screw with the phone system.] UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS- British documentary on hackers made by Savage Productions and directed by Annaliza Savage. THE UNDERGROUND- Referred to by some Netizens as the illegal or quasilegal community that forms in Cyberspace; includes hackers, phreaks, virus authors and warez d00dz; I often refer to the Underground more specifically as the Hacker Nation. UNIX- Operating system made by AT&T in 1969 of which several variants exist, such as Berkeley UNIX. Made by programmers, for programmers. It was purchased by Novell fairly recently. It also supposedly has very little security. The perfect hacker OS, or at least that's what I hear; I haven't had very many chances to use it. Maybe when AIX is ported to PPCP... [The name is a play off of Multics, its precursor OS; supposedly UNIX would unify the previous Multics, which was apparently a mess.] UNKNOWN USER- Handle sometimes used on Phrack when a famous writer wished to write anonymously; came from the old name that appeared on Metal Shop BBS when someone posted anonymously. UPLOAD- To transfer via modem a program or file from a computer to a network, BBS or ftp site. URVILE- Also known as Necron 99. One of the Atlanta Three, imprisoned for activities with the Atlanta LOD. [Handle is from a Stephen R. Donaldson trilogy.] UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF INJUSTICE- The hacked version of the US Department of Justice web site; hackers altered it to include lots of anti-CDA propaganda, swastikas, and "obscene pictures." UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE [USSS]- Federal agency maintained by the treasury, formed in 1865, that protects the president, visiting dignitaries and a shitload of other stuff. Starting protecting the president in 1881. They (along with the FBI) are also in charge of computer crime, because of electronic funds. (Remember, they're run by the treasury, so they protect dead presidents as well as live ones.) VAPORWARE- Derogatory term for software (or hardware) that is promised but doesn't show up, either for not for a very long time or never. Windows 95 was called this by many when it was in the early stages (when it was called Windows 92.) VAXEN- Plural for VAX, Virtual Adressing eXtension. Machines made by Digital Equipment Corporation which run VMS. THE VILLAGE- In the cult 1960s TV show The Prisoner, a surreal place where an ex-secret agent is monitored constantly. Sometimes used when referring to the world today and our lack of privacy. VINCENT OMNIAVERITUS- see STERLING, BRUCE VIRTUAL REALITY- A system that completely supersedes the user's meat experiences; exists in two forms. One is the form that everyone thought would be the next big thing before the Internet in the early 1990s; represented by the bulky equipment with helmets and gloves. William Gibson has said that he believes that this fantasy is "relegated to the museum of futures we're never going to get." The newer, more likely to become interesting form is in VRML, Virtual Reality Modelling Language, which is a 3D replacement for HTML, Hyper Text Markup Language. VIRUS- A program which duplicates itself. Many viruses are malicious and contain many tricks to make them hard to detect and more destructive; even those which are not overtly destructive are not good to have around because eventually they start messing with the system. Viruses can become immense problems very rapidly, as they copy themselves into other files and disk units, and may take a very long while to make themselves known. Virus authors have obtained cult status in some cases; the underground is currently divided into two schools as far as virii; one thinks that they are lame and pointless and destructive, while the other thinks they are pretty cool. Viruses are activated when either a system is booted up with an infected extension installed, or if a malignant application is opened. [From "virus," the annoying microscopic thing that probably isn't alive but acts like it when it infects you.] VMB [Voice Mail Box]- Used by corporations for voicemail; can be hacked. Definitely not to be confused with Video Music Box, a big boom box kept in a car. VMS- Operating system used by some corporations; runs on VAX systems. VOICE MAIL BOX [VMB]- see VMB [Voice Mail Box] VOYAGER (1969-Present)- Author of the alt.2600/#hack FAQ and one of the co-editors of Phrack Magazine. Member of TNO. V.T.- see SHIMOMURA, TSUTOMU WAR DIALER- A program designed to scan phone numbers. For the IBM-PC, ToneLoc by Minor Threat and Mucho Maas is almost universally considered the best; for the Mac, it usually considered to be Assault Dialer by Crush Commander. WAREZ- Contraction for "software," plural. Often used to refer to pirated software and/or computer games. WAREZ D00DZ- Pirates. People who remove copy protection from commercial software and distribute it to the underground. WAREZ SPEAK- A WR1TTEN "LANGUAGE" DEVEL0PED BY U5ER5 0N UNDERGR0UND BB5EZ!! MANY VAR1ANT5 X15T, 5UCH A5 ALTERNAT1NG KAP1TAL5 & 0THERW15E U51NG A5C11 4 PURP05EZ 1T W5A NEVER 1NTENDED 4!! ALL 0F THE THE5E R MADE 2 L00K K00L & B XTREMELY D1FF1CULT 2 REED!! (The previous was converted from plain text with the excellent program Warez 1.1.) WAR GAMES- 1983 film about a teenage hacker who gets a hold of the US nuclear defense system. Probably the first film about hackers, and one of the first to even make people aware this was possible. Caused a huge explosion in modem purchases and newbie hackers; a number of influential hackers are embarassed to admit that this film got them to start hacking. Some fairly important hackers took their handles from this film; Professor Falken and the several David Lightmans are an example. It contains some scenes involving phreaking and scanning. Also caused Congress to investigate the possibility of it really happening. THE WELL [well.sf.ca.us]- Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link. Internet connected BBS set up by the makers of the hippy Whole Earth Catalog. Though it's rather small, it's membership includes SF writers, scientists, and hackers (Phiber Optik was on the WELL for a while.) Almost was destroyed (at least that's what the media said) by Kevin Mitnick. WERNERY, STEFFAN- German hacker, high school dropout and early member of the Chaos Computer Club; serves as recruitment officer and PR man. WHACKY WALLY- see CONTROL C WHOLE EARTH 'LECTRONIC LINK- see WELL WILSON, ALLEN- see WING WINDOWS NT- I have no idea what NT stands for (possibly network), but it's Microsoft's high-end version of Windows. It is very powerful and fast. WINDOWS 95- Microsoft's upgrade to Windows 3.11 that even further rips off the MacOS. Received lots and lots of press, much to the users of other OS's chagrin. WINDOZE- Derogatory term for Windows. Another is "Wintendo." Coined by PC users who thought that Windows was a waste of RAM and storage. Sometimes referred to as "Doze," because Doze is not deserving of Win. THE WING- Handle of Allen Wilson. Founding member of MOD. Supposedly one of the more criminal members, and was implicated in doing damage to the Internet. WINTEL- Term that refers to IBM-PC compatibles. May replace the term "IBM-PC" because that is such a misnomer. [From "Windows," the operating system most IBM-PCs use, and "Intel," the company that designs and manufactures the chips used in IBM-PCs.] WIRED- Extremely hip, glossy magazine intended for hip, glossy, young, rich professionals; the contributing writers list looks like a who's who in science fiction and computer journalism. Very uneven; I've read some pieces that were total shit, and others that were very interesting- the articles by noted SF writers are usually cool, but beyond that there is a good chance you're paying $5 for 238 pages of lame ads, pathetically ill-thought out predictions of the future and unconcealed drooling over technological innovations. WORMER- A term for illegal hackers to try and make the media leave the original word alone. Almost never used. [From "worm," the virus-like program that eats up memory and moves from computer to computer but doesn't infect programs.] WRAP- The practice of using a computer for longer than an eight hour period. The original meaning of this was to "wrap" from daytime to nighttime and then back to daytime while programming a computer, but this sort of activity is becoming more and more rare, which is why I started. X- see ECSTASY XFER- contraction for transfer. X-TACY- see ECSTASY XTC- see ECSTASY YIPPIES- From the "largely fictious" Youth International Party, whose tenets included promiscuity and frequent drug use. Group of hippies who also became some of the first phreakers. ZAIBATSU- A huge friggin' megacorporation. Usually Japanese, but not necessarily. Sony and Microsoft are zaibatsus. [Japanese for corporation. Entered the American vocabulary in large part due to William Gibson's heavy use of the term.] ZIMMERMANN, PHILLIP- Guy who invented PGP. The FBI is investigating him, and he might be in big trouble because cryptography is considered munitions and PGP was posted to USENET, which is about as international as you can get, so that violates all sorts of anachronistic outmoded export laws. Zimmermann also used RSA public keys, which is "owned" by Public Key Partners, so they weren't too happy with him either. ZIPPIES- One of the offshoots of the cyberpunk sub-culture. Basically hippies (or yippies) who discovered the laptop computer. [Zen Inspired Pagan Professionals]