Hacker News

On June 12^th, 1991, Len Rose (whose story was featured in our Spring issue) was sentenced to a year in prison for sending AT&T UNIX source code over the telephone.

To further intensify the witch-hunt atmosphere of this charade, the judge (U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz) ordered Rose to sell his computer equipment.

This is certainly one of the stiffest sentences ever handed down in the hacker world, no doubt to send another message to us all.  (In fact, Rose could have been ordered to pay restitution to AT&T, presumably for the trauma of having to charge him with this crime.)  What's particularly crazy here is that nobody is saying that Rose ever broke into a system or even did anything with the source code, other than examine it.  Basically, Rose got ahold of something AT&T didn't want him to see, so he was put away for a year.

If the case has to be summed up in one sentence, that would certainly suffice.  We'd like to know how many people are comfortable with a system that locks people away for just looking at programs and experimenting with them in the confines of their own home.  How many of you could resist a glance at UNIX source code if you were capable of understanding it and if it happened to be within your grasp?  It's human nature to be curious.

For ages, we've been punishing and suppressing human nature in various ways.  But it never seems to work because human nature has this way of bouncing back and surviving.  Hackers epitomize this and will also never disappear.  But they may be forced into hiding for some time to come, something that will set technology back significantly.

From: len@netsys.NETSYS.COM (Len Rose) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Farewell Message-ID: <telecom11.481.7@eecs.nwu.edu> Date: 21 Jun 91 23:27:01 GMT Just a quick note to say Goodbye to many friends and compatriots. I will be off the net for about a year I suppose. Many of you deserve more than just "Thanks" and some of you deserve utter contempt. Watch yourselves. It can happen to anyone. Len

For those interested in writing to Len Rose, his address is:

Federal Prison Camp Seymour Johnson AFB Caller Box 8004 Goldsboro, NC 27531-5000

***

While some hackers are going to jail, others are trying to sell their talents.  Former members of the Legion of Doom have teamed up to start Comsec Data Security in Houston.

Former hackers Erik Bloodaxe, Doc Holiday, and Malefactor (Jake Kenyon Shulman) started the organization this summer.  "People need us," said Holiday, whose real name is Scott Chasin.  "We're the best.  Ten years from now we'll be the leaders in data security."

According to Comsec's press release, "We feel that we are bringing a fresh approach to security consulting in the corporate marketplace.  We were all the cream of the crop of the computer underground and know precisely how systems are compromised and what actions to take to secure them."

The group estimates its success rate at penetrating systems to be 80 to 85 percent.

Many in the corporate world say, at least publicly, that they would never trust former hackers to do security for them.  Those still in the hacker world tend to look upon Comsec with a mixture of suspicion and contempt.  We will reserve any judgment until we see just what it is they do and how good they are.  We do hope, however, to see them try educating their clients on just what a hacker is, even though fueling the current paranoia would make them much richer.

Comsec can be reached at 713-721-6500.  (Except for the area code, that number is real similar to ours!)