Great Hacker War
Encyclopedia
The Great Hacker War was a purported 1990–1991 conflict between the Masters of Deception
(MOD) and an unsanctioned splinter faction of the older guard hacker group Legion of Doom
(LOD), and some smaller subsidiary groups. Each side attempted to hack the other's computers across Internet
, X.25
, and telephone
networks
.
In a panel debate of The Next HOPE conference, 2010, Phiber Optik re-iterated that the rumored "gang war in cyberspace" between LOD and MOD never happened, and that it was "a complete fabrication" by the U.S attorney's office and some sensationalist media . Also, Archangel, (of the PHIRM) stated on Art Bell's "Coast-to-Coast" radio show, in 1999, stated that "It never happened, at least not the way most people say", additionally two other top members of the LOD confirmed that the "Great Hacker War" never occurred and that all that existed was a typical-of-the-age competition of one-upsmanship.
, including Extasyy Elite, Fargo 4A, IBM Syndicate, Metal Communications, The Administration, The Nihilist Order, and The P.H.I.R.M.
Tensions between these groups had been building as early as 1984, and hundreds of BBS boards were involved as the events played themselves out.
under the leadership of Chris Goggans
("Erik Bloodaxe") and Loyd Blankenship
("The Mentor").
The closing of the board had been blamed on John Lee
("Corrupt") of the MOD
in a cryptic message left to users. Chris Goggans (LOD) had claimed that Lee had been distributing information that was discussed on the board. MOD had discovered that Chris Goggans and his friends had decided to use the information being posted on the board to start a security company and contact all companies being discussed about the security flaws posted on Fifth Amendment.
to the home number of the new LOD upset Goggans
and prompted him to put out a call to find the personal information of the members of the MOD
. Peacemakers intervened and a conference call was arranged on an unnamed RBOC
telephone bridge in the Midwest
. As members of the MOD silently joined the conference call, they overheard the members of the LOD using racial slurs to describe the ethnicity of members of the MOD. The peace conference quickly degenerated into threats and prank calls to members of the LOD, whose personal information had already been uncovered by the MOD.
("Phiber Optik") of MOD. Unknown to Goggans, John Lee
("Corrupt") was listening in on three-way
. Goggans became angry that Abene would not fulfill his numerous demands for the personal information of MOD members, and for the MOD's hacking information that he considered the property of LOD.
Abene refused to meet Goggans's demands, and Goggans uttered his infamous phrase that began the war in earnest - "MOD is nothing but niggers, spics, and white trash." That night, prank phone calls began to flood Abene's house.
's phone calls to determine his motives. Using the undocumented remote headset feature on a DMS-100
phone switch local to Goggans, the MOD overheard what they had suspected earlier. Goggans, Scott Chasin ("Doc Holiday"), and Jake Kenyon Shulman ("Malefactor") had decided to form a security company called ComSec.
emerged the superior hacker clan. MOD
had usurped several key assets that LOD
(represented by Goggans and his Texas associates) had a tenuous grasp on (PSN's
) and revealed skill sets that they clearly lacked (RBOC systems control). Chris Goggans decided to begin an aggressive campaign of informing
on MOD
, much to the chagrin of his business partner, Jake Kenyon Shulman. In 1991 Phiber Optik, while attending the first CFP conference in San Francisco with Craig Neidorf, was invited to join a telephone conference bridge by fellow hackers where an apologetic Shulman expressed his remorse at how the situation had been blown out of proportion and his view that Goggans had crossed the line in informing on other hackers to law enforcement in an effort to increase the prestige of ComSec. Further, it was suspected by other LOD members that Goggans had baited Phoenix
of the Australian hacker group The Realm, and was instrumental in providing evidence to Australian federal authorities. As a result Phiber, a friend of Phoenix's, received a conference call from several original LOD members now suspicious of Goggans, wondering if they had been implicated by Goggans or other informants in Abene's pending legal case, in addition to expressing their general distaste and distrust of Goggans. In 1993 at the third CFP conference, also in San Francisco, Phiber/Abene met a small handful of his old LOD friends (minus Goggans) for the first time in person despite having been friends for nearly 10 years by that point, and briefly reminisced about old times. Some years later in a public statement Goggans would show some regret that he involved Abene in his testimonials to law enforcement. Perhaps the one thing in all this that Phiber and Lex Luthor agree on is that in reality there simply was no "Great Hacker War", and that the notion of "warring hacker gangs" was an invention of overzealous law enforcement which was latched onto by irresponsible mass-media because the imagery made for good copy.
Masters of Deception
Masters of Deception was a New York-based hacker group. MOD reportedly controlled all the major telephone RBOC's and X.25 networks as well as controlling large parts of the backbone of the rapidly emerging Internet....
(MOD) and an unsanctioned splinter faction of the older guard hacker group Legion of Doom
Legion of Doom (hacking)
The Legion of Doom was a hacker group active from the 1980s to the late 1990s and early 2000. Their name appears to be a reference to the antagonists of Challenge of the Superfriends...
(LOD), and some smaller subsidiary groups. Each side attempted to hack the other's computers across Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, X.25
X.25
X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet switched wide area network communication. An X.25 WAN consists of packet-switching exchange nodes as the networking hardware, and leased lines, Plain old telephone service connections or ISDN connections as physical links...
, and telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
networks
Computer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
.
In a panel debate of The Next HOPE conference, 2010, Phiber Optik re-iterated that the rumored "gang war in cyberspace" between LOD and MOD never happened, and that it was "a complete fabrication" by the U.S attorney's office and some sensationalist media . Also, Archangel, (of the PHIRM) stated on Art Bell's "Coast-to-Coast" radio show, in 1999, stated that "It never happened, at least not the way most people say", additionally two other top members of the LOD confirmed that the "Great Hacker War" never occurred and that all that existed was a typical-of-the-age competition of one-upsmanship.
Prologue
It is important to note that the Great Hacker War was not limited to LoD and MoD, but involved twenty or so Hacker GroupsHacker groups
Hacker groups began to flourish in the early 1980s, with the advent of the home computer. Prior to that, the term hacker was simply a referral to any computer hobbyist. The hacker groups were out to make names for themselves, and were often spurred on by their own press...
, including Extasyy Elite, Fargo 4A, IBM Syndicate, Metal Communications, The Administration, The Nihilist Order, and The P.H.I.R.M.
P.H.I.R.M.
The PHIRM was an early hacking group which was founded in the early 1980s. First going by the name of "KILOBAUD", the firm was reorganized in 1985 to reflect a favorite television show of the time "Airwolf". By the mid 1980s The PHIRM was sysopping hundreds of boards...
Tensions between these groups had been building as early as 1984, and hundreds of BBS boards were involved as the events played themselves out.
Timeline
The Great Hacker War escalated in the space of only a few days with a series of four key events.Event One
The Great Hacker War began with the closing of an invite-only bulletin board called "Fifth Amendment", whose participants were some of the world's most successful hackers. It was run by members of the newly reformed LODLegion of Doom (hacking)
The Legion of Doom was a hacker group active from the 1980s to the late 1990s and early 2000. Their name appears to be a reference to the antagonists of Challenge of the Superfriends...
under the leadership of Chris Goggans
Erik Bloodaxe (hacker)
Chris Goggans, who used the name Erik Bloodaxe in honor of the Viking king Eric I of Norway, is a founding member of the Legion of Doom group, and a former editor of Phrack Magazine...
("Erik Bloodaxe") and Loyd Blankenship
Loyd Blankenship
Loyd Blankenship has been a well-known American computer hacker and writer since the 1970s, when he was a member of the hacker groups Extasyy Elite and Legion of Doom....
("The Mentor").
The closing of the board had been blamed on John Lee
John Threat
John Lee, a.k.a. John Threat used the name “Corrupt” as a member of Masters of Deception , a New York based hacker group in the early 90’s....
("Corrupt") of the MOD
Masters of Deception
Masters of Deception was a New York-based hacker group. MOD reportedly controlled all the major telephone RBOC's and X.25 networks as well as controlling large parts of the backbone of the rapidly emerging Internet....
in a cryptic message left to users. Chris Goggans (LOD) had claimed that Lee had been distributing information that was discussed on the board. MOD had discovered that Chris Goggans and his friends had decided to use the information being posted on the board to start a security company and contact all companies being discussed about the security flaws posted on Fifth Amendment.
Event Two
A few prank phone callsPrank call
A prank call is a form of practical joke committed over the telephone. Prank phone calls began to gain an America-wide following over a period of many years, as they gradually became a staple of the obscure and amusing cassette tapes traded amongst musicians, sound engineers, and media traders...
to the home number of the new LOD upset Goggans
Erik Bloodaxe (hacker)
Chris Goggans, who used the name Erik Bloodaxe in honor of the Viking king Eric I of Norway, is a founding member of the Legion of Doom group, and a former editor of Phrack Magazine...
and prompted him to put out a call to find the personal information of the members of the MOD
Masters of Deception
Masters of Deception was a New York-based hacker group. MOD reportedly controlled all the major telephone RBOC's and X.25 networks as well as controlling large parts of the backbone of the rapidly emerging Internet....
. Peacemakers intervened and a conference call was arranged on an unnamed RBOC
Regional Bell Operating Company
The Regional Bell Operating Companies are the result of United States v. AT&T, the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust suit against the former American Telephone & Telegraph Company . On January 8, 1982, AT&T Corp. settled the suit and agreed to divest its local exchange service operating...
telephone bridge in the Midwest
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
. As members of the MOD silently joined the conference call, they overheard the members of the LOD using racial slurs to describe the ethnicity of members of the MOD. The peace conference quickly degenerated into threats and prank calls to members of the LOD, whose personal information had already been uncovered by the MOD.
Event Three
A last-minute, late-night peace talk was held between Chris Goggans (LOD) and Mark AbeneMark Abene
Mark Abene , better known by his pseudonym Phiber Optik, is a computer security hacker from New York City. Phiber Optik was once a member of the hacker groups Legion of Doom and Masters of Deception....
("Phiber Optik") of MOD. Unknown to Goggans, John Lee
John Threat
John Lee, a.k.a. John Threat used the name “Corrupt” as a member of Masters of Deception , a New York based hacker group in the early 90’s....
("Corrupt") was listening in on three-way
Conference call
A conference call is a telephone call in which the calling party wishes to have more than one called party listen in to the audio portion of the call. The conference calls may be designed to allow the called party to participate during the call, or the call may be set up so that the called party...
. Goggans became angry that Abene would not fulfill his numerous demands for the personal information of MOD members, and for the MOD's hacking information that he considered the property of LOD.
Abene refused to meet Goggans's demands, and Goggans uttered his infamous phrase that began the war in earnest - "MOD is nothing but niggers, spics, and white trash." That night, prank phone calls began to flood Abene's house.
Event Four
The members of the MOD decided to eavesdrop on Chris GoggansErik Bloodaxe (hacker)
Chris Goggans, who used the name Erik Bloodaxe in honor of the Viking king Eric I of Norway, is a founding member of the Legion of Doom group, and a former editor of Phrack Magazine...
's phone calls to determine his motives. Using the undocumented remote headset feature on a DMS-100
DMS-100
The DMS-100 Switch is a line of Digital Multiplex System telephone exchange switches manufactured by Nortel Networks.The purpose of the DMS-100 Switch is to provide local service and connections to the PSTN public telephone network. It is designed to deliver services over subscribers' telephone...
phone switch local to Goggans, the MOD overheard what they had suspected earlier. Goggans, Scott Chasin ("Doc Holiday"), and Jake Kenyon Shulman ("Malefactor") had decided to form a security company called ComSec.
Epilogue
The war subsided after MODMasters of Deception
Masters of Deception was a New York-based hacker group. MOD reportedly controlled all the major telephone RBOC's and X.25 networks as well as controlling large parts of the backbone of the rapidly emerging Internet....
emerged the superior hacker clan. MOD
Masters of Deception
Masters of Deception was a New York-based hacker group. MOD reportedly controlled all the major telephone RBOC's and X.25 networks as well as controlling large parts of the backbone of the rapidly emerging Internet....
had usurped several key assets that LOD
Legion of Doom (hacking)
The Legion of Doom was a hacker group active from the 1980s to the late 1990s and early 2000. Their name appears to be a reference to the antagonists of Challenge of the Superfriends...
(represented by Goggans and his Texas associates) had a tenuous grasp on (PSN's
X.25
X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet switched wide area network communication. An X.25 WAN consists of packet-switching exchange nodes as the networking hardware, and leased lines, Plain old telephone service connections or ISDN connections as physical links...
) and revealed skill sets that they clearly lacked (RBOC systems control). Chris Goggans decided to begin an aggressive campaign of informing
Informant
An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...
on MOD
Masters of Deception
Masters of Deception was a New York-based hacker group. MOD reportedly controlled all the major telephone RBOC's and X.25 networks as well as controlling large parts of the backbone of the rapidly emerging Internet....
, much to the chagrin of his business partner, Jake Kenyon Shulman. In 1991 Phiber Optik, while attending the first CFP conference in San Francisco with Craig Neidorf, was invited to join a telephone conference bridge by fellow hackers where an apologetic Shulman expressed his remorse at how the situation had been blown out of proportion and his view that Goggans had crossed the line in informing on other hackers to law enforcement in an effort to increase the prestige of ComSec. Further, it was suspected by other LOD members that Goggans had baited Phoenix
Nahshon Even-Chaim
Nahshon Even-Chaim , aka Phoenix, was the first major computer hacker to be convicted in Australia. He was one of the most highly-skilled members of a computer hacking group called The Realm, based in Melbourne, Australia, from the late 1980s until his arrest by the Australian Federal Police in...
of the Australian hacker group The Realm, and was instrumental in providing evidence to Australian federal authorities. As a result Phiber, a friend of Phoenix's, received a conference call from several original LOD members now suspicious of Goggans, wondering if they had been implicated by Goggans or other informants in Abene's pending legal case, in addition to expressing their general distaste and distrust of Goggans. In 1993 at the third CFP conference, also in San Francisco, Phiber/Abene met a small handful of his old LOD friends (minus Goggans) for the first time in person despite having been friends for nearly 10 years by that point, and briefly reminisced about old times. Some years later in a public statement Goggans would show some regret that he involved Abene in his testimonials to law enforcement. Perhaps the one thing in all this that Phiber and Lex Luthor agree on is that in reality there simply was no "Great Hacker War", and that the notion of "warring hacker gangs" was an invention of overzealous law enforcement which was latched onto by irresponsible mass-media because the imagery made for good copy.
See also
- Masters of DeceptionMasters of DeceptionMasters of Deception was a New York-based hacker group. MOD reportedly controlled all the major telephone RBOC's and X.25 networks as well as controlling large parts of the backbone of the rapidly emerging Internet....
- One side of the Great Hacker War - Legion of DoomLegion of Doom (hacking)The Legion of Doom was a hacker group active from the 1980s to the late 1990s and early 2000. Their name appears to be a reference to the antagonists of Challenge of the Superfriends...
- Chris GoggansErik Bloodaxe (hacker)Chris Goggans, who used the name Erik Bloodaxe in honor of the Viking king Eric I of Norway, is a founding member of the Legion of Doom group, and a former editor of Phrack Magazine...
("Erik Bloodaxe") - One side of the Great Hacker War - Mark AbeneMark AbeneMark Abene , better known by his pseudonym Phiber Optik, is a computer security hacker from New York City. Phiber Optik was once a member of the hacker groups Legion of Doom and Masters of Deception....
("Phiber Optik") - Nahshon Even-ChaimNahshon Even-ChaimNahshon Even-Chaim , aka Phoenix, was the first major computer hacker to be convicted in Australia. He was one of the most highly-skilled members of a computer hacking group called The Realm, based in Melbourne, Australia, from the late 1980s until his arrest by the Australian Federal Police in...
("Phoenix")
External links
- modbook4.txt — The Book of MOD: Part Four: End of '90-'1991
- modbook3.txt — The Book of MOD: Part Three