Seized! (August, 1985) ---------------------- 2600 Bulletin Board Is Implicated in Raid on Jersey Hackers On July 12, 1985, law enforcement officials seized the Private Sector BBS, the official computer bulletin board of 2600 magazine, for "complicity in computer theft," under the newly passed, and yet untested, New Jersey Statute 2C: 20-25. Police had uncovered in April a credit carding ring operated around a Middlesex County electronic bulletin board, and from there investigated other North Jersey bulletin boards. Not understanding subject matter of the Private Sector BBS, police assumed that the Sysop was involved in illegal activities. Six other computers were also seized in this investigation, including those of Store Manager who ran a BBS of his own, Beowolf, Red Barchetta, the Vampire, NJ Hack Shack, Sysop of the NJ Hack Shack BBS, and that of the Sysop of the Treasure Chest BBS. Immediately after this action, members of 2600 contacted the media, who were completely unaware of any of the raids. They began to bombard the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office with questions and a press conference was announced for July 16. The system operator of the Private Sector BBS attempted to attend along with reporters from 2600. They were effectively thrown off the premises. Threats were made to charge them with trespassing and other crimes. An officer who had at first received them civilly was threatened with the loss of his job if he didn't get them removed promptly. Then the car was chased out of the parking lot. Perhaps prosecutor Alan Rockoff was afraid that the presence of some technically literate reporters would ruin the effect of his press release on the public. As it happens, he didn't need our help. The next day the details of the press conference were reported to the public by the press. As Rockoff intended, paranoia about hackers ran rampant. Headlines got as ridiculous as hackers ordering tank parts by telephone from TRW and moving satellites with their home computers in order to make free phone calls. These and even more exotic stories were reported by otherwise respectable media sources. The news conference understandably made the front page of most of the major newspapers in the US, and was a major news item as far away as Australia and in the United Kingdom due to the sensationalism of the claims. We will try to explain why these claims may have been made in this issue. On July 18, the operator of the Private Sector was formally charged with "computer conspiracy" under the above law, and released in the custody of his parents. The next day the American Civil Liberties Union took over his defense. The ACLU commented that it would be very hard for Rockoff to prove a conspiracy just "because the same information, construed by the prosecutor to be illegal, appears on two bulletin boards," especially as Rockoff admitted that "he did not believe any of the defendants knew each other." The ACLU believes that the system operator's rights were violated, as he was assumed to be involved in an illegal activity just because of other people under investigation who happened to have posted messages on his board. In another statement, which seems to confirm Rockoff's belief in guilt by association, he announced the next day that "630 people were being investigated to determine if any used their computer equipment fraudulently." We believe this is only the user list of the NJ Hack Shack, so the actual list of those to be investigated may turn out to be almost five times that. The sheer overwhelming difficulty of this task may kill this investigation, especially as they find that many hackers simply leave false information. Computer hobbyists all across the country have already been called by the Bound Brook, New Jersey office of the FBI. They reported that the FBI agents used scare tactics in order to force confessions or to provoke them into turning in others. We would like to remind those who get called that there is nothing inherently wrong or illegal in calling any BBS, nor in talking about any activity. The FBI would not comment on the case as it is an "ongoing investigation" and in the hands of the local prosecutor. They will soon find that many on the Private Sector BBS s user list are data processing managers, telecommunications security people, and others who are interested in the subject matter of the BBS, hardly the underground community of computer criminals depicted at the news conference. The Private Sector BBS was a completely open BBS, and police and security people were even invited on in order to participate. The BBS was far from the "elite" type of underground telecom boards that Rockoff attempted to portray. Within two days, Rockoff took back almost all of the statements he made at the news conference, as AT&T and the DOD discounted the claims he made. He was understandably unable to find real proof of Private Sector s alleged illegal activity, and was faced with having to return the computer equipment with nothing to show for his effort. Rockoff panicked, and on July 31, the system operator had a new charge against him, "wiring up his computer as a blue box." Apparently this was referring to his Novation Applecat modem, which is capable of generating any hertz tone over the phone line. By this stretch of imagination an Applecat could produce a 2600 hertz tone as well as the MF, which is necessary for "blue boxing." However, each and every other owner of an Applecat or any other modem that can generate its own tones therefore has also "wired up his computer as a blue box" by merely installing the modem. This charge is so ridiculous that Rockoff probably will never bother to press it. However, the wording of wiring up the computer gives Rockoff an excuse to continue to hold onto the computer longer in his futile search for illegal activity. "We have requested that the prosecutors give us more specific information," said Arthur Miller, the lawyer for the Private Sector. "The charges are so vague that we can t really present a case at this point." Miller will appear in court on August 16 to obtain this information. He is also issuing demand for the return of the equipment and, if the prosecutors don't cooperate, will commence court proceedings against them. "They haven't been particularly cooperative," he said. Rockoff probably will soon reconsider taking Private Sector's case to court, as he will have to admit he just didn't know what he was doing when he seized the BBS. The arrest warrant listed only "computer conspiracy" against Private Sector, which is much more difficult to prosecute than the multitude of charges against some of the other defendants, which include credit card fraud, toll fraud, the unauthorized entry into computers, and numerous others. Both Rockoff and the ACLU mentioned the Supreme Court in their press releases, but he will assuredly take one of his stronger cases to test the new New Jersey computer crime law. By seizing the BBS just because of supposed activities discussed on it, Rockoff raises constitutional questions. Darrell Paster, a lawyer who centers much of his work on computer crime, says the New Jersey case is "just another example of local law enforcement getting on the bandwagon of crime that has come into vogue to prosecute, and they have proceeded with very little technical understanding, and in the process they have abused many people's constitutional rights. What we have developing is a mini witch hunt, which is analogous to some of the arrests at day care centers, where they sweep in and arrest everybody, ruin reputations, and then find that there is only one or two guilty parties." We feel that law enforcement, not understanding the information on the BBS, decided to strike first and ask questions later. 2600 magazine and the Sysops of the Private Sector BBS stand fully behind the system operator. As soon as the equipment is returned, the BBS will be back up. We ask all our readers to do their utmost to support us in our efforts, and to educate as many of the public as possible that a hacker is not a computer criminal. We are all convinced of our Sysop's innocence, and await Rockoff's dropping of the charges. [NOTE: Readers will notice that our reporting of the events are quite different than those presented in the media and by the Middlesex County Prosecutor. We can only remind you that we are much closer to the events at hand than the media is, and that we are much more technologically literate than the Middlesex County Prosecutor s Office. The Middlesex Prosecutor has already taken back many of his statements, after his contentions were disproven by AT&T and the DOD. One problem is that the media and the police tend to treat the seven cases as one case, thus the charges against and activities of some of the hackers has been extended to all of the charged. We at 2600 can only speak about the case of Private Sector.]