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| Robbert Morris |
ConvectionThe wormMorris created the worm while he was a graduate student at Cornell University. The original intent, according to him, was to gauge the size of the Internet. He released the worm from MIT to conceal the fact that it actually originated from Cornell. The worm exploited several vulnerabilities to gain entry to targeted systems, including:
- a buffer overrun hole in the fingerd network service,
- the transitive trust enabled by people setting up rexec/rsh network logins without password requirements.
However, the worm had a design flaw. The worm was programmed to check each computer it found to determine if the infection was already present. However, Morris believed that some administrators might try to defeat his worm by instructing the computer to report a false positive. To compensate for this possibility, Morris directed the worm to copy itself anyway, 14% of the time, no matter the response to the infection-status interrogation. This level of replication created system loads that not only brought it to the attention of system administrators, but also disrupted the target computers. It was guessed that the cost in "potential loss in productivity" caused by the worm and efforts to remove it ranged at each system from $200 to more than $53,000.
Robert Morris was convicted of violating United States Code: Title 18 the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. and in December, 1990, was sentenced to three years of probation, 400 hours of community service, a fine of $10,050, and the costs of his supervision. His appeal was rejected the following March.
Master of Deception
MOD's initial membership grew from meetings on Loop-Around Test Lines that led to legendary collaborations to hack RBOC phone switches and the various minicomputers andmainframes used to administer the telephone network. They successfully remained underground using alternative handles to hide even their true hacker identities.
Acid Phreak founded the Masters of Deception with Scorpion and HAC. The name itself was, among other things, a mockery of LoD, as 'M' is one letter up in the alphabet from 'L', although the name originally was a flexible acronym that could be used to identify membership in situations where anonymity would be the best course of action. It could stand for "Millions of Dollars" just as easily as "Masters of Deception."
It is claimed that the mockery of the LOD name was a statement to the underground that LOD had lost its direction. Several LOD members were close friends of MOD who had been raided and indicted by the government, causing the majority of those who remained to drop out of the underground for safety reasons. In their absence, LOD largely fell into disarray causing the disagreement and disillusionment that led Phiber Optik to align himself with MOD in an effort to restore the direction of the spirit of underground hacking.
Member of Mod
The original Masters of Deception included: Mark Abene ("Phiber Optik"), Paul Stira ("Scorpion"), Eli Ladopoulos ("Acid Phreak"), HAC, John Lee ("Corrupt" a.k.a. "Netw1z") and Julio Fernandez ("Outlaw").
Additional members whose real names are unknown include: Supernigger (also of DPAK), Wing, Nynex Phreak, Billy_The_Kid, Crazy Eddie, The Plague, ZOD, Seeker, Red Knight (who was also a member of Cult of the Dead Cow), Lord Micro, n00gie and peaboy (aka, MCI Sprinter)
Mark Adane
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| John Lee |
Philosopy
Masters of Deception operated differently in many respects to previous hacking groups. Although they openly shared information with each other, they took a controversial view on sharing information outside the group. It was believed that access to MOD's knowledge should be earned via degrees of initiation and a proven respect for the craft, rather than releasing powerful information into the wild where it could be used for nefarious purposes. A demonstration of responsibility on the part of the initiate was required. This informal compartmentalized protection of more sensitive knowledge was a structure originally employed by LOD in the 1980s, rather successfully. According to Lex Luthor, "I realized early on that only certain people can be trusted with certain information, and certain types of information can be trusted to no one. Giving out useful things to irresponsible people would inevitably lead to whatever thing it was being abused and no longer useful. I was very possessive of my information and frequently withheld things from my articles." --Phrack #40 interview, 1/8/1992.
As a result of a major nationwide investigation by a joint FBI/Secret Service task force, five of MOD's members were indicted in 1992 in federal court. Within the next six months (in 1993), all five pleaded guilty and were sentenced to either probation or prison.
Legion of Doom
The Legion of Doom (LOD) was a very influential hacker group that was active from the 1980s to the late 1990s and early 2000. Their name appears to be a reference to the main antagonists of Challenge of the Superfriends.
LOD was founded by the hacker Lex Luthor, after a rift with his previous group theKnights of Shadow (much as the Masters of Deception would later be founded after Phiber Optik had a rift with Chris Goggans and LOD, eventually leading to the Great Hacker War and disbanding of both groups).
At different points in the group's history, LOD was split into LOD and LOD/LOH (Legion of Doom/Legion of Hackers) for the members that were more skilled at hacking than pure phone phreaking.
Unlike Masters of Deception there were different opinions regarding what the Legion of Doom was. LOD published the Legion of Doom Technical Journals and regularly contributed to the overall pool of hacking knowledge and information, while causing no direct harm to the phone systems and computer networks they took over. On the other hand, many LOD members were raided, charged and in some cases successfully prosecuted for causing damage to systems and reprogramming phone company computers (Grant, Darden and Riggs, etc). While the "Bellsouth" case could be construed as exploration of the phone system, with claims that noreal d amage was done, there are other former LOD members such as Corey A. Lindsly (a.k.a. Mark Tabas) who were clearly interested in for-profit computer crime, with no goal except personal gain
Although the overall expressed beliefs and behavior of LOD and MOD were different, it can be difficult to untangle the individual actions of any given member. In many cases there seems to be cross-over between the two groups or collaboration between LOD and MOD members, even in the midst of The Great Hacker War.As of 2009 what has happened to each individual member of the Legion of Doom is unknown. A small handful of the higher-profile LOD members who are accounted for includes: Chris Goggans "Erik Bloodaxe", Dave Buchwald "Bill From RNOC", Patrick K. Kroupa "Lord Digital", Loyd Blankenship "The Mentor", Bruce Fancher "Dead Lord" and Mark Abene "Phiber Optik", who was a member of both LOD and Masters of Deception (MOD).
Other members included: Leonard Rose "Terminus"Steven Nygard "The Dragyn", Steven G. Steinberg "Frank Drake", Corey A. Lindsly "Mark Tabas", Peter Jay Salzman "Thomas Covenant", Kenton Clark "Monster X", Adam Grant "The Urvile", Frank Darden "The Leftist", Robert Riggs "The Prophet", Todd Lawrence "The Marauder", Scott Chasin "Doc Holiday", Dan Karon "Control-C" aka "Phase Jitter", and Robert Keyes "Dr. Who" aka "Skinny Puppy".
Former LOD people whose legal names are unknown include: Agrajag The Prolonged, King Blotto, Blue Archer, Unknown Soldier, Sharp Razor, Paul Muad'Dib (deceased), Phucked Agent 04, Randy Smith, Steve Dahl, The Warlock, Terminal Man, Silver Spy, The Videosmith, Kerrang Khan, Gary Seven, Carrier Culprit, Phantom Phreaker, Doom Prophet, Prime Suspect, Professor Falken, and Compu-Phreak.
