Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession from the Electronic Frontier

http://www.underground-book.com/

Hacking, madness and obsession on the electronic frontier

‘Gripping, eminently readable.. Dreyfus has uncovered one of this country’s best kept secrets and in doing so has created a highly intense and enjoyable read’ -- Rolling Stone By Suelette Dreyfus with

Research by Julian Assange

First Published 1997 by Mandarin

a part of Reed Books Australia

35 Cotham Road, Kew 3101

a subsidiary of Random House books Australia a division of Random House International Pty Limited Copyright (c) 1997, 2001 Suelette Dreyfus & Julian Assange All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher.

Typeset in New Baskerville by J&M Typesetting Printed and bound in Australia by Australian Print Group National Library of Australia

cataloguing-in-publication data:

Dreyfus, Suelette.

Underground: tales of hacking, madness & obsession on the electronic frontier

Bibliography.

ISBN 1 86330 595 5

1. Computer hackers--Australia--Biography.

2. Computer crimes--Australia.

3. Computer security--Australia.

I. Assange, Julian. II. Title.

364.1680922

Why would an author give away an unlimited number of copies of her book for free?

That’s a good question. When ‘Underground’’s researcher, Julian Assange, first suggested releasing an electronic version of the book on the Net for free, I had to stop and think about just that question.

I’d spent nearly three years researching, writing and editing the nearly 500 pages of ‘Underground’. Julian had worked thousands of hours doing painstaking research; discovering and cultivating sources, digging with great resourcefulness into obscure databases and legal papers, not to mention providing valuable editorial advice.

So why would I give away this carefully ripened fruit for free?

Because part of the joy of creating a piece of art is in knowing that many people can - and are - enjoying it. Particularly people who can’t otherwise afford to pay $11 USD for a book. People such as cash strapped hackers. This book is about them, their lives and obsessions. It rubs clear a small circle in the frosted glass so the reader can peer into that hazy world. ‘Underground’ belongs on the Net, in their ephemeral landscape.

The critics have been good to ‘Underground’, for which I am very grateful. But the best praise came from two of the hackers detailed in the book. Surprising praise, because while the text is free of the narrative moralising that plague other works, the selection of material is often very personal and evokes mixed sympathies. One of the hackers, Anthrax dropped by my office to say ‘Hi’. Out of the blue, he said with a note of amazement, ‘When I read those chapters, it was so real, as if you had been right there inside my head’. Not long after Par, half a world away, and with a real tone of bewildered incredulity in his voice made exactly the same observation. For a writer, it just doesn’t get any better than that.

By releasing this book for free on the Net, I’m hoping more people will not only enjoy the story of how the international computer underground rose to power, but also make the journey into the minds of hackers involved. When I first began sketching out the book’s structure, I decided to go with depth. I wanted the reader to think, ’NOW I understand, because I too was there.’ I hope those words will enter your thoughts as you read this electronic book.

Michael Hall, a supersmart lawyer on the book’s legal team, told me in July last year he saw a young man in Sydney reading a copy of

‘Underground’ beside him on the #380 bus to North Bondi. Michael said he wanted to lean over and proclaim proudly, ‘I legalled that book!’. Instead, he chose to watch the young man’s reactions.

The young man was completely absorbed, reading hungrily through his well-worn copy, which he had completely personalised. The pages were covered in highlighter, scrawled margin writing and post-it notes. He had underlined sections and dog-eared pages. If the bus had detoured to Brisbane, he probably wouldn’t have noticed.

I like that. Call me subversive, but I’m chuffed ‘Underground’ is engaging enough to make people miss bus stops. It makes me happy, and happy people usually want to share.

There are other reasons for releasing ‘Underground’ in this format. The electronic version is being donated to the visionary Project Gutenburg, a collection of free electronic books run with missionary zeal by Michael Hart.

Project Gutenburg promises to keep old out-of-print books in free

‘‘electronic’’ print forever, to bring literature to those who can’t afford books, and to brighten the world of the visually impaired. ‘Underground’ isn’t out of print -- and long may it remain that way -- but those are laudable goals. I wrote in the ‘Introduction’

to the printed edition about my great aunt, a diver and artist who pioneered underwater painting in the 1940s. She provided me with a kind of inspiration for this book. What I didn’t mention is that as a result of macular degeneration in both eyes, she is now blind. She can no longer paint or dive. But she does read - avidly - through ‘talking books’. She is another reason I decided to release ‘Underground’ in this format.

So, now you can download and read the electronic version of

‘Underground’ for free. You can also send the work to your friends for free. Or your enemies. At around a megabyte of plain text each, a few dozen copies of ‘Underground’ make an extremely effective mail bomb.

That’s a joke, folks, not a suggestion. ;-) Like many of the people in this book, I’m not big on rules. Fortunately, there aren’t many that come with this electronic version. Don’t print the work on paper, CD or any other format, except for your own personal reading pleasure. This includes using the work as teaching material in institutions. You must not alter or truncate the work in any way. You must not redistribute the work for any sort of payment, including selling it on its own or as part of a package. Random House is a friendly place, but as one of the world’s largest publishers it has a collection of equally large lawyers. Messing with them will leave you with scars in places that could be hard to explain to any future partner.

If you want to do any of these things, please contact me or my literary agents Curtis Brown & Co first. I retain the copyright on the work. Julian Assange designed the elegant layout of this electronic edition, and he retains ownership of this design and layout.

If you like the electronic version of the book, do buy the paper version. Why? For starters, it’s not only much easier to read on the bus, its much easier to read full stop. It’s also easier to thumb through, highlight, scribble on, dribble on, and show off. It never needs batteries. It can run on solar power and candles. It looks sexy on your bookshelf, by your bed and in your bed. If you are a male geek, the book comes with a girl-magnet guarantee. The paper version is much easier to lend to a prospective girlfriend. When she’s finished reading the book, ask her which hacker thrilled her to pieces. Then nod knowingly, and say coyly ‘Well, I’ve never admitted this to anyone except the author and the Feds, but ..’

And the most important reason to purchase a paper copy? Because buying the printed edition of the book lets the author continue to write more fine books like this one.

Enjoy!

Suelette Dreyfus

January 2001

[email protected]

___________________________________________________________________

Literary Freeware: Not for Commercial Use.

Copyright (c) 1997, 2001 Suelette Dreyfus & Julian Assange This HTML and text electronic version was arranged by Julian Assange

and is based on the printed paper edition.

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this publication provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies and distribution is without fee.

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"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth" -- Oscar Wilde

"What is essential is invisible to the eye" -- Antoine De Saint-Exupery

"But, how do you *know* it happened like that?" -- Reader Due of the seamless nature of ‘Underground’ this is a reasonable question to ask, although hints can be found at the back of the book in the Bibliography and Endnotes. The simple answer to this question is that we conducted over a hundred interviews and collected around 40,000

pages of primary documentation; telephone intercepts, data intercepts, log-files, witness statements, confessions, judgements. Telephone dialog and on-line discussions are drawn directly from the latter. Every significant hacking incident mentioned in this book has reams of primary documentation behind it. System X included.

The non-simple answer goes more like this:

In chapter 4, Par, one of the principle subjects of this book, is being watched by the Secret Service. He’s on the run. He’s a wanted fugitive. He’s hiding out with another hacker, Nibbler in a motel chalet, Black Mountain, North Carolina. The Secret Service move in.

The incident is vital in explaining Par’s life on the run and the nature of his interaction with the Secret Service. Yet, just before the final edits of this book were to go the publisher, all the pages relating to the Block Mountain incident were about to be pulled. Why?

Suelette had flown to Tuscon Az where she spent three days interviewing Par. I had spent dozens of hours interviewing Par on the phone and on-line. Par gave both of us extraordinary access to his life. While Par displayed a high degree of paranoia about why events had unfolded in the manner they had, he was consistent, detailed and believable as to the events themselves. He showed very little blurring of these two realities, but we needed to show none at all.

During Par’s time on the run, the international computer underground was a small and strongly connected place. We had already co-incidentally interviewed half a dozen hackers he had communicated with at various times during his zig-zag flight across America. Suelette also spoke at length to his lead lawyer Richard Rosen, who, after getting the all-clear from Par, was kind enough to send us a copy of the legal brief. We had logs of messages Par had written on underground BBS’s. We had data intercepts of other hackers in conversation with Par. We had obtained various Secret Service documents and propriety security reports relating to Par’s activities. I had extensively interviewed his Swiss girlfriend Theorem (who had also been involved with Electron and Pengo), and yes, she did have a melting French accent.

Altogether we had an enormous amount of material on Par’s activities, all of which was consistent with what Par had said during his interviews, but none of it, including Rosen’s file, contained any reference to Black Mountain, NC. Rosen, Theorem and others had heard about a SS raid on the run, yet when the story was traced back, it always led to one source. To Par.

Was Par having us on? Par had said that he had made a telephone call to Theorem in Switzerland from a phone booth outside the motel a day or two before the Secret Service raid. During a storm. Not just any storm. Hurricane Hugo. But archival news reports on Hugo discussed it hitting South Carolina, not North Carolina. And not Black Mountain. Theorem remembered Par calling once during a storm. But not Hugo. And she didn’t remember it in relation to the Black Mountain raid.

Par had destroyed most of his legal documents, in circumstances that become clear in the book, but of the hundreds of pages of documentary material we had obtained from other sources there was wasn’t a single mention of Black Mountain. The Black Mountain Motel didn’t seem to exist. Par said Nibbler had moved and couldn’t be located. Dozens of calls by Suelette to the Secret Service told us what we didn’t want to hear. The agents we thought most likely to have been involved in the the hypothetical Black Mountain incident had either left the Secret Service or were otherwise unreachable. The Secret Service had no idea who would have been involved, because while Par was still listed in the Secret Service central database, his profile, contained three significant annotations: