Paradise Lost, book III, line 18
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01010101010101NEURONOMICON010101010010
++++++++++Hackerıs Encyclopedia++++++++
=========by Logik Bomb (LOA-ASH)=======
http://www.sisna.com/users/Ryder/hack.html
-----------------(1995-1996-First Edition)----------------
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"[W]atch where you go
once you have entered here, and to whom you turn!
Do not be misled by that wide and easy passage!"
And my Guide [said] to him: "That is not your concern;
it is his fate to enter every door.
This has been willed where what is willed must be,
and is not yours to question. Say no more."
Dante Alighieri, _The Inferno_
Translated by John Ciardi
Acknowledgments
----------------------------
To the many programmers of hacking software everywhere. Also, I should note that a few of these entries are taken from "A Complete List of Hacker Slang and Other Things," Version 1C, by Casual, Bloodwing and Crusader; this doc started out as an unofficial update. However, Iıve updated, altered, re-written and otherwise torn apart the original document, so now theyıre very dissimilar. Now you canıt accuse me of plagiarism. I think the list is very well written; my only problem with it is that it came out in 1990, which makes it somewhat outdated. I also got some information from _The Cyberpunk Handbook (The Real Cyberpunk Fakebook)_ by R.U. Sirius, St. Jude, and Bart Nagel; "alt.cyberpunk Frequently Asked Questions list" by Erich Schneider; _The Hacker Crackdown_, by Bruce Sterling; the "alt.2600/#hack FAQ Beta .013," by Voyager; _Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Hyperspace_ by Douglas Rushkoff; _Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, Americaıs Most Dangerous Computer Outlaw By the Man Who Did It_, by Tsutomu Shimomura and John Markoff; _The Cyberthief and the Samurai_ by Jeff Goodell; _Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier_ by Katie Hafner and John Markoff, _Masters of Deception_ by Michelle Slatella and Joshua Quittner, _The Illuminatus! Trilogy_ by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, _Naked Lunch_ by William S. Burroughs, as well as the works of many SF authors; and many back issues of such e-zines as _Phrack Magazine_, _40Hex_, the _LOD/H Technical Journals_ and _Cheap Truth_ and print magazines such as _Newsweek_, _TIME_, _Internet Underground_, _Wired_ and _2600: The Hacker Quarterly_, as well as various people I've consulted. Alpha testers include Einsteinium, Remorseless and Manual Override and my only beta tester has been Space Rogue.
I've also gotten a lot of information on (non-cyber) punks and the surrounding subculture from Ronald DuPlanty II who was in my ninth grade fourth-period drama class, who besides having the most piercings Iıve ever seen besides that chick in _Pulp Fiction_, writing a really cool monologue that was more cyberpunk than he ever considered, and being an all-around great guy, taught me more about Throbbing Gristle than _Cyberia_ ever came close to, indeed more than I ever wanted to know. I also got lots information on the rave scene from my cousin Sean Krueger.
Finally, thanks to Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine, and the Cure, for giving me good background music while I was writing this.
Introduction
----------------------
Iım not real huge on introductions; they tend to just be a big waste of space before the actual document. Besides, whatıs the difference between an introduction and a prologue? And what about a foreword? Where does that fit in? Wait... Iım getting sidetracked, arenıt I?
If anyone has any entries they want me to add, or a newer version of "A Complete List of Hacker Slang and Other Things," please send it to me at Ryder@sisna.com so that I can include changes in the 1997 edition. Donıt change anything if you distribute this to other sites (and please do; I want this distributed all over the place); if you find any typos I may have made, notify me and I will make the change in the next edition. I cannot make any guarantees as to the accuracy of any of these entries, but if you see a way Iıve screwed up, please tell me. All of my information is based on written material by journalists or other writers; I know that often journalists are very, very wrong. I also welcome new information; this document is supposed to be information relevant to "cyberpunks" for lack of a better word; specifically, SF, hacking, phreaking, cracking, virii and subculture info (I am using my own discretion as far as the latter; while I have chosen to enter such questionable material as information on goths and Zippies, I donıt want this to turn into _Mondo 2000: A Userıs Guide to Being a Fashionpunk_.) I am not including information on basic Net culture, such as IRC acronyms and emoticons; this sort of thing is already covered by people with much more knowledge than I in other files. Also, Iım a Mac user, and even though I have some Wintel and UNIX knowledge and the rest is usually taken up by my alpha testers, I may have some incorrect information, so I welcome corrections. Note: I am using brackets around such info as etymology. I also use brackets for unofficial subtitles; for instance, _Die Hard 2_ is written as _Die Hard 2_ [Die Harder] because though the subtitle (Die Harder) was used in advertising, it is not part of the official title. I am also using aliases that were meant to fool law enforcement and were not meant as handles under the form Lastname, Firstname, but I am using handles, even those in the form of proper names (such as Emmanuel Goldstein), without putting the last name first. Handles that look like proper names are also indexed with last name first, but that just references to the other entry. (What, you want me to write LIGHTNING, KNIGHT and PHREAK, ACID? Doesnıt really work, even though John Perry Barlow refers to "Mr. Phreak" and "Mr. Optik.") I can't believe I'm spending my time on this crap.
Oh, yeah, and so you know who I am and what my personal biases are, Iım Logik Bomb, pleased to meet you. Iım in high school, I own a Power Macintosh 6100/66 (16/500) (as well as a 28.8 modem, a Zip drive and a CD-ROM drive) and I do consider myself a hacker (by definitions 1, 2, 3 and 5 in my entry). I have written for _Phrack Magazine_. I read a lot of cyberpunk fiction. I am a member of the Legion of the Apocalypse, a small Florida-based hacker group. My handle comes from the usually destructive program; however, I use the name more for an affinity for the imagery of the abolition of standard linear logic than interest in virii or similar programs. (By the way, John Perry Barlow said I had a cool handle. So there.) Finally, Iım one of the very few hacker types in the entire world who knows how to spell. :)
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ABENE, MARK- see PHIBER OPTIK
ACID PHREAK (1970-Present)- Handle of Elias Ladopoulos. Current "leader" of MOD. Can currently be reached at ap@gti.net. [Name comes from "phreak," as in phone phreak, and "acid," so that it is a pun on acid freak, as in someone who takes a lot of LSD. He doesnıt take acid, though; he listens to acid house music.]
ACTS [Automated Coin Toll System]- Used in payphones to show that you have indeed put money in, so you can now make a call. Can be fooled by a Red Box.
ADMINISTRATION- One of the largest hack/phreak groups to ever exist. It also included a group called Team Hackers 86. Members included Adolf Hitler, Alpha Centauri, Author Unknown, British Bloke, Dark Priest, David Lightman 214, Dr. Pepper, Hewlett Hackard, Major Havoc, Mane Phrame, Mark Twain, Phoneline Phantom 1, Red Baron, Renegade Rebel, Sasha Kinski, The President and Walter Mitty.
_ADVENTURE_- An old Atari 2600 video game that Knight Lightning played when he was seven and discovered secret rooms. This led to an interest in finding secrets in computers. Interestingly, the secret room KL found (which contained the initials of a programmer) is often considered to be the first easter egg ever put in a program.
AGENT STEAL (1961-Present)- Handle of Justin Tanner Peterson, alias Samuel Grossman, alias Eric Heinz. Hacker and Los Angeles club promotor who apparently worked for the FBI after being jailed for credit card fraud; gathered info on big guns like Mitnick and Poulsen for the Bureau. Went on the run for 10 months before being apprehended in 1994.
AGORAPHOBIA- Literally, fear of everything. When a person must be totally isolated from the world. (Among other things, the Finn in Gibsonıs Sprawl Series in agoraphobic.) [From Latin, "fear of all."]
AGRAJAG THE PROLONGED- Former member of the Hitchhikers and LOD. He was also a programmer for old gaming machines. [Handle is from a character in _Life, the Universe and Everything_, the third book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhikerıs Trilogy by Douglas Adams. I believe the person using the handle has combined the names of the characters of both Agrajag and Wowbanger the Infinitely Prolonged.]
AI [Artifical Intelligence]- see ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
AL [Artificial Life]- see ARTIFICIAL LIFE
ALLIANCE- Former AT&T trademark referring to teleconferencing systems.
ALTAIR- The very first personal computer, introduced 1975. Really pathetic by our standards, but the first computer at all available to the common person. [From a destination in the Romulan neutral zone in the classic _Star Trek_ episode "Balance of Terror."]
ALT.2600- Hacking Usenet newsgroup. From the magazine, _2600: The Hacker Quarterly_. There are a few variants: alt.2600.moderated, alt.2600.hackerz, alt.2600.phreakz and alt.2600hz. [In USENET form, "alt," for "alternative," and "2600," for the subgroup 2600.]
AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH- see AT&T
AMERICA ONLINE [AOL]- Very evil commercial online service that rose from the ashes of a BBS called QuantumLink, and the largest commercial service. Theyıve had an enormous problem with hackers, and their solution is to try and stop the flow of programs they donıt like and shut down any chat room involving hacking, while the child molestor rooms stay. A number of programs have been written to rip them off, most notably AOHell.
ANALOG- (1) A way of representing information that uses a continuous range of values.
(2) Opposite of digital-- while a CD is digital, a tape is analog; while a computer is digital, an abacus is analog.
ANARCHY- (1) Total chaos and disorder.
(2) A time in a country, usually after a revolution, where there is no government. This condition has never been prolonged for very long.
(3) The tenets of the political science of Anarchism, the ultimate goal of which is the removal of centralized rule.
(4) [Anarchy file] A file (usually text) that details such actions as how to brew nitroglycerin and other destructive things. [From Greek, "a," meaning nobody, and "-archy," meaning "rule." The "n" is in there because itıs too hard to pronounce "aarchy."]
AOHELL- Program to rip off AOL and wreak havoc with it. It has also been ported to the Mac. It is, however, a little bit difficult to find because the bastards at AOL try to shut down every site that has it.
AOL [America Online]- see AMERICA ONLINE
APPLE COMPUTER, INCORPORATED- Very large computer corporation whose main product is the Macintosh and its associated system software, the MacOS. Founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (incidentally, former phone phreaks) and created the Apple IIe in 1979, which became the standard personal computer. In 1984, they released the Macintosh ("and youıll see why 1984 wonıt be like 1984"); Jobs was forced out in 1985 and Scully took over. Scully had good advertisements but really messed up by not licensing the MacOS; this paved the way for Microsoft and their pathetic excuses for OSes. (Howıs that for journalistic objectivity?) Michael Spindler was CEO until early 1995, when Apple had a horrible first quarter and lost $69 million; Dr. Gilbert Amelio, formerly of National Semiconductors, was made the new CEO in early 1996. Apple hit an all-time low in second quarter 1996 when Amelio decided to take a $740 million loss, most of which in "restructuring costs," costs from releasing new product lines and turning around the corporation, as well as a loss in sales, partly because of the general slowdown in the computer market and partly because of Appleıs continuing problems.
APPLEGATE, CHRISTINA- Former model and actress, notably on the television show _Married With Children_. Rumors were spread that Erik Bloodaxe dated her (he says they aren't true), and her credit report was pulled by MOD.
AREA CODE- The prefix in a phone number, based on location, to add to the number of possible phone numbers. When two or more hackers have the same handle and it is in dispute as to who had it first or who deserves it is used to differentiate, or at least it was in the 1980s. (This is used in this file as well, as with the two Knightmares and Dr. Who.)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE [AI]- Used to refer to "smart" programs that do their jobs quickly and with minimum of user input, as well as the code written in computer games governing the actions of non-user controlled characters or enemies. Also used to refer to system software that can reason; this has not been achieved. The best examples of this are the insane AIs in _Neuromancer_ and HAL 9000 in _2001: A Space Odyssey_.
ARTIFICIAL LIFE [AL]- Living programs or robots; viruses may be the early, primitive forms of artificial life. Maxis makes programs using relatively advanced artificial life (notably _SimLife_).
THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS PHIBER- see PHIBER OPTIK
ASCII ART- Art done in plain text. This is fairly difficult. Portraits of people done in ASCII art usually only work if the person has some major distinguishing characteristics; for instance, while my friend Einsteinium might come across fairly recognizable because he has long hair and glasses, I would not be at all distinguishable because I have contact lenses and fairly normal length hair, and my only really distinguishing feature is my red hair, which cannot be shown in ASCII because it canıt support colors. That and my incredible radiating handsomeness, which unfortunately cannot be shown in ASCII either. :) [From American Standard Code for Information Interchange, the set of bits created in the 1980s to represent characters.]
AT&T [American Telephone and Telegraph]- Originally American Bell Telephone, the company that started the telephone. It was bought and, under the tutelage of another huge company, became a monopolous phone provider. Huge telco that was the Microsoft of the Seventies and Eighties. It was broken up by the justice department in 1982, which created lots of little baby RBOCS. In 1990 their phone network crashed, which got them into a lot of trouble. See also DEATH STAR
ATLANTA THREE- Urvile, Leftist and Prophet, members of the Atlanta chapter of LOD that were thrown in jail during the Hacker Crackdown of 1990.
AUTOMATED COIN TOLL SYSTEM- see ACTS
AVATAR- Your self in cyberspace. This is beginning to be used for the primitive icons that can be used to show "you" in irc, with currently lackluster results. [First used in 1992 in _Snow Crash_, by Neal Stephenson, in one of those self-fulfilling SF prophecies.]
AXE- To reformat a disk or delete a file. See also KILL
BABBAGE, [Professor] CHARLES- Professor of mathematics at Cambridge who designed the Analytical Engine, a huge, grinding, steam-driven machine to do mathematical calculations in the 1830s. _The Difference Engine_, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, takes place in an alternate 1855 where the Analytical Engine was advanced nearly as far as our personal computers.
BABY- (1) Any program that is less than full-blown. A baby word processor would be a program that does just the bare essentials. (Appleıs obsolete TeachText was a baby word processor.)
(2) A hardware device that is smaller than normal.
BANG- (1) To lose your temper, usually in a very violent manner. In the extreme, actual destruction of hardware may result. [From banging something, or hitting it; also from the onomotopeotic word for a loud noise.]
(2) Lots of exclamation points to add emphasis. Sometimes other weird characters are used as bangs. Also used to pronounce exclamation points; for instance, "Go to hell!!!!" would be pronounced "go to hell bang bang bang bang."
BANK- Cache memory; a section of memory not normally used that is utilized for high speed operations in certain programs. [From "databank;" I think this word has been replaced by the term "cache."]
BARLOW, JOHN PERRY- Grateful Dead lyricist from 1970 until the band broke up in 1995; ex-cattle rancher. Co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation; civil libertarian, "cognitive dissident," buddy of a lot of members of MOD. (After that little misunderstanding with Phiber when Barlow called Phiber a punk and compared him to a skateboarder, and Phiber ILFed Barlowıs TRW credit report. Good hack, that.) Also wrote the essay "Crime and Puzzlement," as well as a declaration of the independence of cyberspace and a _TIME_ essay (notable for using the word "shit" for the first time in _TIME_ without quotes around it. Barlow later said it felt like a revolutionary act.) Currently civil libertarian and contributing writer for _Wired_.
BASE- (1) Contraction for the word "database." See also SHEET
(2) In most programming languages, (C, C++, Pascal, etc.) a pointer, a set of memory locations that point to the start of an array (another memory location); the pointer is the "base" from which the array starts.
BASIC [Beginnerıs All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code]- Early programming language for beginners. Used a lot in the 1980s.
BAUD [rate]- Obsolete measurement of the speed of a modem; often erroneously used to refer to bits per second because at low rates they are equivalent. It really means "the number of signal events per second occuring on a communications channel." (Thatıs what my modemıs manual says.) See BPS [From Emile Baudot, "telecommunications pioneer."]
BBS [Bulletin Board System]- A computer that is set up to act as a system where other people call in using phone lines to post messages; sometimes software is traded, and usually archives are kept of software on the board. The first board worthy of the name was Ward Christensen and Randy Suessıs board in 1978.
BEDBUG- A virus type program that another programmer inserts into an existing program, with the intention of causing havoc. Usually not serious it is coded so the results look like a software bug, not a true virus. May make copies of itself. See also BUG, VIRUS, TAPEWORM
BEGINNERıS ALL-PURPOSE SYMBOLIC INSTRUCTION CODE- see BASIC
BELL, [Professor] ALEXANDER GRAHAM- Guy who invented the telephone in 1876. The man who created cyberspace, in its early, pathetic stage when no one thought it would be anything.
BELLSOUTH- Atlanta RBOC that was supposedly very easy to hack; some rumors claim they eventually spent two million dollars on security.
BERNIE S.- Handle of Edward Cummings. Phreak currently in jail for posession of computer programs that "could be used for fraud." A mailbox is maintained for him at bernies@2600.com.
BIG BLUE- Slang for IBM. Comes from their blue logo.
BIG BROTHER- Name for a police state government that spies on every aspect of a citizenıs life and commandeers their very thoughts. The NSAıs not so secret wish. [From the name of the insidious government in George Orwellıs _1984_.]
BINARY DIGIT- see BIT
BIT [Binary Digit]- Contraction of binary digit. Smallest unit of measurement in cyberspace. A 1 or 0; representing on or off, true or false to a computer. See also BYTE, KILOBYTE, MEGABYTE, GIGABYTE
BITS PER SECOND- see BPS
THE BLACK BARON- Handle of Christopher Pile. Virus author who was sentenced to a jail term for writing the virus SMEG.
_BLADE RUNNER_- 1982 Harrison Ford movie directed by Ridley Scott that many cyberpunks just love to death. It has a great re-creation of Los Angeles in 2019 that William Gibson has said mirrors his vision of the Sprawl in Neuromancer; just about every film using a dystopian urban environment has been inspired at least in part by the one in _Blade Runner_. The plot concerns a former bounty hunter/cop that hunts replicants, androids designed for off-world colonies. A sequel was also written (_Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human_ by K.W. Jeter) recently, and Ridley Scott says he is going to make a follow-up tentatively titled _Metropolis_. [Loosely based on Phillip K. Dickıs _Do Androidıs Dream of Electric Sheep_; title comes from the name of a totally unrelated William S. Burroughs novel about black market surgeons, which was itself based on a story by Alan E. Nourse.]
BLANKENSHIP, LOYD- see THE MENTOR
BLESSED FOLDER- Slang for the System Folder on Macintosh computers. Comes from the fact that everything is run by that folder, and you mess with at your own risk.
BLIND FAITH- see DREW, DALE
BLUE BOX- Infamous box that pretty much no longer works, but kicked ass in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. It is a device that plays a sound at a frequency of 2600 hertz, which allows all kinds of cool things. See BOXES
BOMBLOAD- A very large amount; a shitload.
BOB HARDY- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN
BOT- Either a benevolent search bot such as an infobot or knowbot, or a Bot which hacks IRC. [Short for "robot."]
BOX- A hardware device that allows abnormal telephone operation, like free calls or anti-tracing, used by phreaks. The ultimate box is the rainbow box, which combines the blue box, red box, green box, and black box. There are also a lot of weird variant boxes. Boxes, though the most pure form of phreaking, are rarely used now because of the phone companyıs changes to stop it, both on purpose and as a serendipitious result of the digitization of the phone system. See also PHREAK
BPS [Bits per second]- Measurement of the speed of a modem. Currently being replaced by kbps (kilobits per second.) See also BAUD
BRAND, STEWART- Editor of the _Whole Earth Catalog_ and contributing writer for _Wired_; one of the hippies that decided cyberspace was pretty cool. Described cyberpunk as "technology with an attitude."
BRIDGE- A hack into the phone companyıs PBX. This is often used so that many phreaks can talk in a huge conference; this was a much more common practice in the Eighties, when massive party lines were held, people occasionally dropping out to go to work or school and someone else taking their place.
BRUTE FORCE ATTACK- A classic hacking technique; guessing an exhaustive number of passwords to try and enter a system. This does not work as much anymore, probably because even idiot sysadmins donıt use quite so simple passwords. It was very successful about ten years ago, though.
BRZEZINSKI, DIRK-OTTO- see DOB
BUG- A mistake in programming or hardware design that results in unfavorable and sometimes disastrous results. Microsoft Word 6.0 was notorious for this. See also BEDBUG
BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM- see BBS
BUM- To rewrite a program or section of a program to run in a smaller memory area. May also mean changing the code to remove unused sections and try to improve on the running speed. [From an old MIT hacker term.] See also CRUNCH
BURKE [, Carter J.]- A total asshole who causes more trouble than heıs worth. [From the name of a treacherous company man in the film _Aliens_.]
BYTE- A sequence of adjacent bits operated on as a unit by a computer. Very small unit of virtual measurement. Usually, a byte is eight bits. (On the Internet, a byte is transferred as seven bits, which sort of fucks everything up.) [Comes from an alteration and blend of bit and bite.] See BIT, KILOBYTE, MEGABYTE, GIGABYTE
CAFFEINE- Natural "smart drug;" enough of it makes you hyper. Present in chocolate, soft drinks and coffee. Gateway drug. (If you donıt know what a gateway drug is, you werenıt listening closely enough in D.A.R.E. propaganda class.)
CANDYMAN- Archiver of forbidden information; administrator of CandyLand (was, rather; it was recently shut down). Computer science student. His stuff is often cited by Congress and the like as examples of why we should make the Net a police state.
CAPıN CRUNCH- see DRAPER, JOHN
CAPTAIN BEYOND- see SHADOWHAWK 1
CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT- A Dallas, Texas hacker who, in 1986, cracked an HBO presentation of _The Falcon and the Snowman_ with a message decrying HBO's practice of encrypting transmissions so that they could not be picked up with a satellite dish. According to an unsubstantiated report, he later used this to ask his girlfriend to marry him, and was eventually caught. [Probably from the 1930s radio show character.]
CARBON [or Carbon Dioxide] CHIP- The 80486 or 65C02 CPU chip. The "carbon" comes from the "C," as in "CO2," (one carbon molecule, two oxygen molecules) which is the chemical formula for carbon dioxide.
CARDING- Using illicit credit card numbers. The underground is divided as far as the ethics of this; most think it is common thievery and does not follow the freedom of information ethic that drives other hacking.
CASE [, Henry Dorsett]- Anti-hero of _Neuromancer_, the William Gibson SF book; one of his few characters that only appeared in one book. Adopted as a hero by some and an allegory for the hacker; a ueberhacker who stole from his employees, has his nerves damaged so that he can not go back to cyberspace, but takes a deal with an AI to get them fixed. (The first two names are in brackets because one gets the feeling they arenıt really his name heıs only referred to by this name once by the Turing Police, and itıs sort of assumed that he dropped the names when he became a hacker. Or at least thatıs what I got out of it.)
CASE, THOMAS- see MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID
CCC [Chaos Computer Club]- see CHAOS COMPUTER CLUB [CCC]
CDA [Communications Decency Act]- see COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT [CDA]
cDc [cult of the Dead cow]- see THE CULT OF THE DEAD COW [cDc]
CELINE, HAGBARD- see HAGBARD CELINE
CERT [Computer Emergency Response Team]- see COMPUTER EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM
CFP [Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference]- see COMPUTERS, FREEDOM AND PRIVACY CONFERENCE
CHAOS COMPUTER CLUB [CCC]- Infamous West German hacking group founded in 1984 that is now trying to be kind of sort of legit. Members have included Wau Holland (leader), Steffen Wernery, Christian Wolf, Pengo, Obelix, Dob, Peter Carl, Hagbard Celine and Markus Hess. Can be reached at ccc@ccc.de.
CHASIN, SCOTT- see DOC HOLLIDAY
CHERNOFF, ANTON- see MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID
CHICAGO COMPUTER FRAUD AND ABUSE TASK FORCE- Possibly the first hacker tracker team, formed in 1987 by William J. Cook. A major part of the Hacker Crackdown of 1990.
CHIP- Shorthand for microprocessor. The hardware that runs the machine. The PowerPC and the Pentium are examples of chips.
CHRP- see PPCP
CLASS 10 TOOLS- Really nasty programs that can thouroughly trash a system if information war is coming, these would be the Stealth bombers and atom bombs. Tsutomu Shimomura built many of these, which is one of the reasons why the SDSC is such a huge target for hackers. [Term coined by Brosl Haslacher.]
CLINT EASTWOOD- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN
CLIPPER CHIP- Encryption endorsed by the Clinton-Gore administration that is currently in its third incarnation. The way it's supposed to work, as designed by the NSA, is that we stick this cool thing called the Clipper chip in every computer and fax machine and communications tool ever made, which would save us from commies and those evil hackers. Of course, our benevolent Big Brother the Government of the United States of America would keep the keys to these chips, so in case anyone did anything the government designated to be illegal (or someone did something a government employee wanted to find out), the government could look at all our files and every email we ever sent. Of course, the government would never abuse this, would it? Riiiight. Phillip Zimmermann created PGP 1.0 in response to this.
C0DEZ D00DZ [sometimes K0DEZ D00DZ]- The phreak equivalent of a pirate. Someone who finds out phone codes and distributes them to the electronic underground. There is also a derogatory term, "c0dez kidz."
COGNITIVE DISSIDENTS- The name of a "chill," or bar where people hang out, in _Virtual Light_. John Perry Barlow and some other people have taken to calling themselves "cognitive dissidents," I believe inspired by _VL_.
COMMODORE- A computer company which eventually bought Amiga; popular in the Eighties. People who used their computers were often berated by people with the superior (but still awful by todayıs standards) Apple IIe. However, according to _The Cyberpunk Handbook (The Real Cyberpunk Fakebook)_, Phiber Optik used a Commodore. Thatıs sort of like turning stone to bread or feeding ten thousand people with one fish. [From the Naval wartime rank, I assume.]
COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT [CDA]- Law passed as part of the Telecommunications Bill of 1996 making indecent speech and information illegal in cyberspace in the United States, which AOL, Microsoft and CompuServe (never thought Iıd be on their side), as well as the EFF and ACLU, are attempting to overturn. It sparked a day of protest on the Internet (Black Thursday), when many major sites draped their pages in black.
COMPUSERVE- Very old online service that is the second biggest in America; founded in 1979 and currently owned by H & R Block. It is very conspicuous because edresses are set up with annoying numbers like 76543.1700. They created an uproar when they banned many sexually explicit newsgroups because a German user said they violated Germany obscenity laws and threatened to sue. [Name obviously comes from combination of "computer" and "serve."]
COMPUTER EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM [CERT]- Anti-hacking group which sets up security and tracks people; managed by Dain Gary. Reachable at cert@cert.org.
COMPUTER MISUSE ACT- British law on the books since 1990, among other things outlawing virus writing. The Black Baron was prosecuted with this law.
COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY [CPSR]- Group that is what it says it is; notable for vocal opposition to the "Star Wars" defense project on the grounds that it is putting too much trust in computers; and for filing suit with the U.S. government in the 2600 case.
COMPUTER SYSTEM FOR MAINFRAME OPERATIONS [COSMOS]- see COSMOS [COmputer System for Mainframe OperationS]
COMPUTERS, FREEDOM AND PRIVACY CONFERENCE [CFP]- Annual security/privacy con; in 1994, the FBI arrested Brian Merrill, an innocent man, because it was also an alias of Kevin Mitnick, there.
COMSEC [Computer Security]- Network security firm founded by the remnants of LOD; went out of business in 1994. Replaced by the ISP LOD Communications, Inc.
CON- A convention; in this context, a hacker convention. Begun in the mid-1980s by such groups as LOD. Recent, high-profile Cons included Hacking at the End of the Universe and HOPE.
THE CONDOR- see MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID
"THE CONSCIENCE OF A HACKER"- A legendary manifesto written by the Mentor shortly after his arrest in 1986, published in _Phrack Inc._ magazine, volume one, issue seven. It was later reprinted in _Phrack_ again and in _The Hacker Crackdown_, _Teleconnect Magazine_, the film _Hackers_, T-shirts worn at Cons, and numerous ftp sites, web pages and BBSıs.
CONSOLE COWBOY- A hacker. From SF novels. This term has remained relatively unmolested by the media. See also COWBOY
CONTROL C- Infamous hacker and member of LOD who was busted by Michigan Bell and actually did get a security job from them. Also known as Phase Jitter, Master of Impact, Dual Capstan, Richo Sloppy, Cosmos Dumpster Driver, Poster Boy and Whacky Wally. Disciple of Bill From RNOC.
COOKBOOK- A detailed document on exactly what to do when hacking a certain type of system, written by piecing together computer manuals and personal experience. [From the type of book giving detailed instructions on cooking.]
COOPERATING FULLY- When hackers tell all because they think it will save them. While this occasionally works, to many law enforcement officers, "cooperating fully" generally means you bend over.
COME-UNITY- see ECSTASY
COPLAND- Codename of Appleıs MacOS 8.0. It wonıt be out until mid-1997, but Aaron (currently in version 1.5.1), a shareware program, emulates the default setting (or "main theme") for the way it looks. [Named after Aaron Copland, the composer of _Fanfare for the Common Man_, among other things.]
CORLEY, ERIC- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN
CORRUPT (1971-Present)- Handle of John Lee. Member of MOD; former member of a New York gang called the Decepticons. VAXEN expert. [Handle obviously comes from the adjective for being morally bankrupt.]
COSMOS [COmputer System for Mainframe OperationS]- Database program used by telcos to store information; staple of the elite phreaker; or at least it was.
COSMOS DUMPSTER DRIVER- see CONTROL C
COUNT ZERO- The handle of several hackers. I know of several; one who wrote an article for _Phrack_ about a lecture by John Markoff; one who said "Information yearns to be free" (quoted at Space Rogueıs Whacked Mac Archives a while back, before he changed the quotes); the guy who defined k-rad as "a thousand points of rad" (quoted in _The Cyberpunk Handbook (The Real Cyberpunk Fakebook)_; the member of cDc; the member of Phalcon/Skism mentioned in some issues of _40Hex_; and the writer for _2600_. (Some of which may be the same person.) [All handles come from the name of the protagonist of William Gibsonıs second novel, also titled _Count Zero_, who also appeared in _Mona Lisa Overdrive_. The character is a cyberspace hacker with the handle Count Zero Interrupt, whose birth name is Bobby Newmark. According to the book, this comes from an old programmer term (probably related to the opening line about returning the marker to zero); however, I am not blessed with this knowledge. Wow, thatıs scary. Gibson knows something about computers that I donıt.]
COWBOY- One of the legendary figures hackers tend to latch on to as role-models. Spawned the term "console cowboy." As a result, many hackers tend to give themselves gunfighter-type names. (i.e. Datastream Cowboy, Doc Holliday)
CPSR [Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility]- see COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
CRACK [sometimes "krack"]- (1) To remove the copy protection from a commercial program, so that the resultant program (or file) is "cracked." Also covers modifying any program illegally, such as when Netscape Navigator 2.0b4 was cracked when the expiration date was surgically removed a while back. See also HACK
(2) To crack a password using a cracking program and a dictionary. Involves using crypt-and-compare; the program encrypts various words and compares the encrypted form of the words to the encrypted password. On UNIX the most commonly used crack program is Crack, on DOS it is CrackerJack, and on Mac it is MacKrak.
CRACKER- Term given to so-called "malicious" hackers by the original MIT hackers, hoping the media would leave the name "hacker" alone and not damage the original hackersı pristine, snow-white reputation. Never really got picked up, probably because it sounds a lot like a wheat consumable or a derogatory term for a white hick. While (I think, at least) this is a really lame word, it is occasionally used by those wishing to seem knowledgable. (Sorry Erich Schneider. No offense.) [Comes from "cracking" into systems.]
CRASHER- Someone who not only hacks systems, he crashes them. Not that widely used.
"CRIME AND PUZZLEMENT: THE LAW COMES TO THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER"- Essay by John Perry Barlow about LOD and hackers and his relationship with Phiber Optik and Acid Phreak.
CRIMSON DEATH (1970-Present)- Also known as the Sorceror. Hacker/phreak who was editor of _Phrack_ for a short time. He was also the sysop of Hell Phrozen Over, Missing Link, Skull Kingdom, the Forgotten Realm and CyberWaste; disciple of the Videosmith. He was also known for having a nose ring, back when that was shocking and cool. [Handle comes from _Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual II_.]
CRUNCH- (1) Using a program such as PKZip or StuffIt to compress another program into a smaller disk space.
(2) To re-write sections of an application to run in a smaller memory space. See also BUM
CRYP- Used by Rudy Rucker to refer to illegal hackers who do it for money or power in his science fiction. (Not derogatory; Rucker is one of the real scientist hackers who thankfully doesnıt look down on us obnoxious punks.) [Iım not sure where this came from, but Iıd guess it comes from "Crips," as in the violent street gang, in an amalgram with "cryp[t]," as in cryptography.]
_THE CUCKOOıS EGG_- Novel by Clifford Stoll about his tracking down of renegade members of the Chaos Computer Club. Disliked by many in the electronic underground because of his constant black-or-white approach to computer ethics, painting hackers as totally evil and him as totally good, ignoring the fact that some of his methods are close to being as illegal as those of the hackers he tracks. However, I havenıt read it, so I canıt comment.
THE CULT OF THE DEAD COW [cDc]- Anarchist occult goth hacker group that writes a lot of weird text files with a lot of profanity and ASCII art. Have their own USENET newsgroup dedicated to them alt.fan.cult-dead-cow, as well as an irc channel, #cdc, and a web page, http://www.l0pht.com/~veggie. Members have included Swamp Ratte (current leader), Count Zero, Deth Vegetable, The Nightstalker, Red Knight, Tweety Fish, Iskra and Basil.
CUMMINGS, EDWARD [Ed]- see BERNIE S.
CYBER-CHRIST- see ERIK BLOODAXE
CYBERDECK- In cyberpunk fiction, notably Gibson (though I donıt know where it appeared first; the term has also been used in the works of Rudy Rucker and cyberpunk role-playing games) the futuristic modem that allows characters to run through cyberspace. Though descriptions vary, it is usually described as being keyboard sized, and sometimes has a plug that inserts into the characterıs head (jacking in).
_CYBERIA: LIFE IN THE TRENCHS OF HYPERSPACE_- Novel by Douglas Rushkoff about ravers and hackers and stuff. It was berated by many in the electronic underground, and Erik Bloodaxe said "Imagine a book about drugs written by someone whoıs never inhaled. Imagine a book about raves written by someone saw a flyer once [sic]. Imagine a book about computers written by someone who thinks a mac is complex [...] and there you have Cyberia, by Douglas Rushkoff. This book should have been called 'Everything I Needed to Know About Cyber-Culture I Learned in Mondo-2000.'" Brutal, but fairly true.
CYBERNETICS- The study of the feedback loop that informs any control system of the results of its actions; communication theory. Coined by Norbert Weiner of MIT in the 1940ıs when he was working on anti-aircraft guns. Often erroneously used now to refer to bionic parts. Supposedly (I got this from _The Hacker and the Ants_ by Rudy Rucker) it has meant "bullshit" from the beginning; Weiner was trying to think of what to call his paper, and a colleague suggested "cybernetics" because it didnıt mean anything and would intimidate people. [From kybernetes, Greek for "helmsman."]
CYBERPUNK- 1) A literary term referring to the new science fiction that was written in the 1980s; specifically, the works of the so-called "Mirrorshades Group" Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, Tom Maddox, Pat Cadigan, Rudy Rucker, Greg Bear, John Shirley, Lewis Shiner and others. Cyberpunk fiction is (or was, if you agree with Norman Sprinrad that cyberpunk is dead) concerned with a realistic (sometimes surrealistic), usually pessimistic future where technology is incredibly enhanced and humans are controlled by a System huge zaibatus or a fundamentalist religion. These are all generalizations; one cyberpunk novel took place in 1855. There hasnıt really been a "classic" cyberpunk novel since 1987, with _Mona Lisa Overdrive_; the most recent notable cyberpunk work was Neal Stephensonıs really weird, theological technological comedy _Snow Crash_ in 1992. [From Gardner Dozois, who first coined the term to refer to science fiction. He is believed to have cribbed this from the title of a short story by Bruce Bethke, who has since proclaimed himself an "anti-cyberpunk," whatever the fuck that means.]
(2) A noun for a hacker. This was used just because the media thought it sounded like a good name for a computer criminal.
(3) A member of the "cyberpunk subculture." Specific people thought to be part of the subculture are hackers, phreaks, cypherpunks and ravers.
_CYBERPUNK_ [2020]- The first cyberpunk role-playing game, created in 1989 by R. Talsorian Games. Originally called just _Cyberpunk_, but that had the possibility of violating copyrights, so the second edition was called _Cyberpunk version 2.0.2.0_, or _Cyberpunk 2020_. [From the literary and social movements described in detail in the rest of this document.]
CYBERPUNK BUST- Mocking term used in the science fiction community for the bust of Steve Jackson Games where _GURPS Cyberpunk_ was seized.
_CYBERPUNK: OUTLAWS AND HACKERS ON THE COMPUTER FRONTIER_- Novel by Katie Hafner and John Markoff about hackers, specifically, three case studies: Kevin Mitnick, Pengo and Robert Morris. Much better than Iıd thought it would be.
_CYBERPUNK VERSION 2.0.2.0_- see _CYBERPUNK_ [2020]
CYBERSPACE- The Internet or a virtual reality system; most often (and most correctly, in my opinion) to refer to all digital entities that can be entered, including the Internet and BBS's. Overused, but still kind of cool. Popularized by John Perry Barlow. [Invented by William Gibson in the short story "Burning Chrome;" from "cybernetic" (the science of communication and control theory) and "space" (you know what "space" is, I hope.) He got the idea from watching kids play video games.]
CYBERSPACE SERIES- see SPRAWL SERIES
CYBORG- A cybernetic organism; an android, or human with computer parts. Common mostly in science fiction movies; popularized in _The Terminator_. The first reference Iıve seen is in _Nova_ (1968) by Samuel R. Delaney, though Iım pretty sure there are earlier ones. [From "cybernetic organism."]
_CYBORGASM_- Really stupid CD. There are others like it, but this is the most popular. It is a recording of a bunch of people making sounds while having sex. In the words of a reviewer for _Mondo 2000_, in one of their more witty moments, "There is nothing cyber about this. Itıs a fucking CD. _Literally_."
CYPHERPUNK- Someone who thinks that encryption should be used by all. See PGP [From "cyberpunk," as in a member of the electronic underground, and "cypher," a code made up of symbols.]
DAEMON9 (1973-Present)- Also known as Route and Infinity. Member of the Guild. One of the current co-editors of _Phrack Magazine_. Owner of Information Nexus (infonexus.com). Can be reached at route@infonexus.com.
DANCE- To type very rapidly without errors. See also SING
DARK AVENGER- Bulgarian virus writer who has achieved cult hero status. His most famous virus is Eddie, AKA Dark Avenger (named after the author). He is a major heavy metal person, and many of his virii contain references to Iron Maiden.
DARK DANTE- see POULSEN, KEVIN LEE
DARK PHIBER [ninja.techwood.org]- Internet community grown out of a BBS created in 1991 by the White Ninja and Wild Child and shut down (temporarily) in 1994. Currently administered by Decius 6i5 and Musashi. [From a deliberate misspelling of "dark fiber," the term for fiber optic lines in place but not in use.]
DARK TANGENT- Handle of Jeffery Moss. Organizer of DefCon II.
DATACOPS- Any agency in charge of keeping information expensive. [From "data," meaning information, and "cops," a slang term coming from the acronym "constable on patrol."]
DATASTREAM COWBOY- British hacker noted for hacking the Royal Air Force; he was tracked when the Air Force OSI hacked the systems he was entering the RAF systems from. Currently the Phrack World News correspondent for _Phrack_.
DATA ENCRYPTION STANDARD [DES]- see DES [Data Encryption Standard]
DEAD ADDICT- Also known as Sugar Addict. Ex-phreaker, Def Con speaker, and Seattle resident. Currently known for his web page, Underground Propaganda. (http://www.metrix.net/daddict)
DEAD LORD- Handle of Bruce Fancher. Also known as the Infiltrator, Executive Hacker [?] and Sharp Razor. Good friend of Lord Digital and co-administrator of MindVox; former member of the Chief Executive Officers and the Legion of Doom (?- though many press reports say this, he is not listed in the official lists distributed in _Phrack_ and _LOD/H TJ_, and a phile in an early issue of _Phrack_ quotes a file he supposedly wrote which insults LOD heh, DL probably thought no one had so little of a life theyıd actually use FindText to scan for references to him in _Phrack_ and read the files. However, that was in a rag file, and I havenıt read the file it refers to, so Iım unsure of the accuracy.) Can be reached at bruce@phantom.com.
DEATH STAR- Term referring to AT&T. [From the post-breakup AT&T logo, which resembles the evil Death Star from _Star Wars_.]
DEMON DIALER- see WAR DIALER
DENNING, [Doctor] DOROTHY ELIZABETH DAVIS [1945-Present]- Computer security academic and author of _Cryptography and Data Security_. In 1990, wrote a paper ("Concerning Hackers Who Break into Computers") which gained a fair amount of notoriety defending hackers and suggesting that they be worked with closely to understand their motives. She then went and spoke with some security professionals, and immediately changed her mind and decided hackers were evil after all, if not the ones she'd spoken to, then the vast majority. She was further villified when she began supporting the Clipper initiative, which to this day she defends in the face of extreme criticism.
DE PAYNE, LEWIS- Alias Sam Holliday, also known as Roscoe, also known as Lewcifer. Phreaker buddy of Kevin Mitnick, interviewed in _Cyberpunk_. Can be reached at lewiz@netcom.com.
DES [Data Encryption Standard]- The current encryption used by the United States Government. Becoming more and more obsolete.
DETH VEGETABLE [sometimes shortened as Deth Veggie]- Handle of Eric Skoog. Member of the Culd of the Dead Cow. Wrote a number of anarchy files when he was 15. Interviewed by _Dateline_.
DETH VEGGIE- see DETH VEGETABLE
DeWITT, PHILIP-ELMER- Writer for _TIME_ magazine who writes virtually all of their stories about computers. Wrote cover stories on cyberpunks, cyberspace, and cyberporn. Actually, I donıt recall him writing about anything that didnıt have the prefix "cyber." Also occasionally works as a correspondent for the _MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour_.
DIALED NUMBER RECORDER [DNR]- see DNR [Dialed Number Recorder]
DICE- To separate a program into two or more files to allow loading under the OS. [From cooking slang, meaning to chop.]
DiCOCCO, LEONARD MITCHELL (1965-Present)- Ex-friend of Kevin Mitnick, eventually narked him to the FBI. Former employee of Voluntary Plan Administers (VPA).
THE DICTATOR- see DREW, DALE
_DIE HARD 2_ [Die Harder]- 1990 Bruce Willlis action movie that included hacker/terrorists taking over an airport. Notable because Congress held a hearing on it and its possible realism, just as they did almost ten years prior for _WarGames_.
_DIET PHRACK_-see _PHRACK MAGAZINE_
DISK OPERATING SYSTEM [DOS]- see DOS [Disk Operating System]
DIVERTING- Hacking corporate PBXs and dialing out of them for free.
DNR [Dialed Number Recorder]- Device that cops use to know who you call so they know who to question. Not to be confused with the TCP/IP component DNR, for Domain Name Resolver.
DOB (1960-Present)- Handle of Dirk-Otto Brzezinski. Former member of the Chaos Computer Club. One of the renegade members who hacked for the KGB.
DOC [or DOCU]- Contraction for documentation or document. A file that contains information on how to use a program. Usually a text file, but may be in a specific word processor format such as WordPerfect. Also the DOS suffix for a word processing file, usually Microsoft Word.
DOC HOLLIDAY- Handle of Scott Chasin. Former member of LOD and good friend of Erik Bloodaxe. [From the nickname of the dentist/gunfighter.]
DOCTOR WHO [413] (1967-Present)- Also known as Skinny Puppy and Saint Cloud. Former member of the Legion of Doom. [From the character on the British 1970s TV show of the same name.]
DOS [Disk Operating System]- Usually used to refer to MS-DOS, or Microsoft Disk Operating System, which got to version 6.22 before Microsoft recently abandoned it in favor of Windows 95. Other DOSes exist or existed; besides the OSes that have long since gone away like Apple DOS and Commodoreıs DOS, there are the unofficial versions of MS-DOS, such as DOS 7.0 and DOS Shell.
DOWNLOAD- To transmit via modem a program or file from a BBS or network to a computer. See also UPLOAD, TRANSFER, XFER
DR. WHO- see DOCTOR WHO
DRAKE, FRANK- see FRANK DRAKE
DRAPER, JOHN- Birth name of Capın Crunch. Also known as the Pirate, also known as the Crunchmeister. One of the very early phreakers; got his handle because he once used a whistle that came with Capın Crunch cereal to hack the phone system. He currently writes custom Mac applications, but spends most of his time raving. Can be reached at crunch@well.com.
DREW, DALE- Also known as the Dictator and Blind Faith. Paid Secret Service informant who turned in Knight Lightning and videotaped "SummerCon '88," the hackerıs conference, even though it turned out no illegal activity occurred. He has remained an unrepentant bastard.
DRUNKFUX- Major Con organizer and hacker. Donıt know much about him other than that.
DUAL CAPSTAN- see CONTROL C
DUB- To make a backup copy of a program (or disk) in the event the original copy becomes unusable. [From sound and video editing slang.]
D00D- A person, a guy. "Dude" in warez speak. Not used as much as it once was.
E- see ECSTASY
THE EAVESDROPPER- see THE PROPHET
ECSTASY [AKA "X," among other names]- Drug thatıs very popular with ravers, like acid without the hallucinations. It was made illegal in 1987. However, "Herbal Ecstasy," an organic version, is still legal. [Technical name: MDMA- donıt ask me what it stands for.] See also EPHEDRINE
EDDRESS- Email address. Eddresses are usually in the format username@domain.type.country.
8lgm- English hacker group that currently runs a security mailing list. Busted in 1994. It stands for alternately Eight Legged Groove Machine and Eight Little Green Men (the latter is unproven, but Iıve heard it used). The members were two hackers named Pad and Gandalf.
EFF [Electronic Frontier Foundation]- see ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION [EFF]
EIGHT LEGGED GROOVE MACHINE [8lgm]- see 8lgm
EIGHT LITTLE GREEN MEN [8lgm]- see 8lgm
ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION [EFF]- A civil liberties group created in response to the unConstitutional actions of the United States Secret Service during the Hacker Crackdown of 1990. They have a newsletter, the EFFector. Some of the more notable or influential members include Bruce Sterling, Mitch Kapor, John Perry Barlow, John Gilmore (early employee of Sun) and Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple).
THE ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER [EPIC]- Net civil libertarian group who handled the 2600 case for the CPSR.
THE ELECTRONIC UNDERGROUND- see THE UNDERGROUND
ELITE [or elyte or 3L33T or eleet or a million other spellings]- Adjective (over)used to describe the best hackers, because something has to seperate the truly good ones from the mediocre ones.
EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN (1961-Present)- Handle of Eric Corley. Also known as Howard Tripod, Sidney Schreiber, Bob Hardy, Gary Wilson, Clint Eastwood and 110. The editor-in-chief of and writer for _2600: The Hacker Quarterly_, host of the New York phreaking radio show "Off the Hook," and relentless advocate of the computer underground. Often shows up at meetings of computer companies just to unnerve people. In his honor, the film _Hackers_ had the character Cereal Killerıs real name be "Emmanuel Goldstein." [Handle came from the name of the hated, possibly fictitious rebel in Orwellıs _1984_.]
ENCRYPTION- The practice of encoding data into an unreadable form, which can only be converted with the same code. Recently, Netscape Communications built fairly strong encryption into their browser, though security errors appeared three times.
ENGRESSIA, JOSEPH [Joe]- Blind phreak who could whistle the 2600 tone; eventually got a job at a Denver RBOC.
EPIC [Electronic Privacy Information Center]- see THE ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER [EPIC]
E911 DOCUMENT [Official name: "Control Office Administration of Enhanced 911 Services for Special Services and Account Centers"]- Document written in 1988; liberated by the Prophet and contributed to _Phrack_. Originally written by Richard Helms and the Society of Inpenetrable Prose. Knight Lightning almost got sent to jail for it, seeing as how the telco valued it at over $72,000. (Iım sure Knight Lightning enjoyed himself flipping through his illicitly gained thousands of telco money...) The case was dropped when it was proven that the same info could be bought for about $13.
EPHEDRINE- Psychoactive drug often used by ravers. Among other things, it is one of the ingredients in herbal Ecstasy and crank and (in obviously small dosages) non-prescription medicines like Nyquil. See also ECSTASY
ERIK BLOODAXE (1969-Present)- Handle of Chris Goggans. Also known as Cyber-Christ. Former member of the Legion of Doom and The Punk Mafia. Former editor of _Phrack Magazine_. Former employee of Dell Computers. When he took over _Phrack_, it gained more purpose and seemed to pull together more than it had since the departure of Knight Lightning and Taran King; he left after a few issues because of lack of time and desire. Heıs also got a bad reputation as a nark. [Handle came from a Viking-type dude with an extremely cool name, though Iıve heard varying reports as to whether he really existed, or if he is a fictitious character in a book.]
EXON, [Senator] JAMES- Democrat Senator who is freaking obsessed with techno-indecency. Sponsored the CDA.
EXTASYY ELITE- Short-lived phreak group destroyed when Poltergeist turned in everybody after he was busted for carding. Its membership included Bit Blitz, Cisban, Evil Priest, Crustaceo Mutoid, Kleptic Wizard, the Mentor (the only guy who went on to do anything with his life, hacking-wise, as far as I can tell), the Poltergeist and the Protestor.
FAKEMAIL- Mail intended to trick the recipient into believing that it was sent by a person other than the actual sender. Very, very easy.
FANCHER, BRUCE- see DEAD LORD
FARGO 4A- One of the earliest phreak groups, a sort of precursor to LOD. Membership included BIOC Agent 003, Tuc, Big Brother, Quasi-Moto, Video Warhead and the Wizard of ARPANET. [Name comes from a city in North Dakota they re-routed calls to; incidentally, the same town was used for the name of the 1996 drama _Fargo_, though most of the movie takes place in Minnesota and it has virtually nothing to do with the town, though it begins there.]
FEDWORLD- Largest BBS in the world. Huge board with government info.
FERNANDEZ, JULIO- see OUTLAW
FEYD RAUTHA- see SHADOWHAWK 1
FIERY, DENNIS- see THE KNIGHTMARE
_FIREWALLS AND INTERNET SECURITY: REPELLING THE WILY HACKER_- Security book outlining Net security; havenıt read it yet, but plan to buy it.
5ESS- The fifth-generation electronic switching station currently used by telcos.
_40HEX_- Virus zine that contains source code for many virii and interviews with prominent virus writers. It is mostly staffed by members of Phalcon/Skism, and was first edited by Hellraiser, then by DecimatoR, and then sort of by nobody. [The name comes from; well I donıt really know, because Iım not a virus-type programmer person. The "hex" part comes from hexadecimal (as in hex dump), which is base sixteen, but I donıt know why the number "40" is there in particular.]
414 GANG- Hacker group formed on the 414 Private BBS that gained notoriety in 1982 for intrusions on Los Alamos military bases and Sloan-Kettering Memorial Institute. [I assume the name comes from the area code of the BBS, a common practice.]
FRACTAL- Supposedly a symbol for cyberpunk (though I donıt buy it does CP have to have a symbol?). A part of Chaos Theory, discovered by mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot in the 1960s.
FRANK DRAKE- Handle of Steven G. Steinberg. Hacker and former correspondent for _Phrack_. Currently one of the section editors for _Wired_.
FREED, BARRY- see HOFFMAN, ABBIE
FRY GUY- Hacker, buddy of some guys in LOD, and Motley Crue (sorry, I canıt make the little dots in a plain text file) fan. Busted in 1989 by the universally despised Tim Foley. He was, however, a carder and he offered to testify against LOD, things that are not really exemplary. See also TINA [Name comes from manipulations he did in the McDonaldıs computer system.]
GAME OVER- The end. Total ruin and destruction. [From a line by Private W. Hudson in the movie Aliens, which itself came from video games.]
GARFINKEL, SIMSON- Contributing writer to _Wired_ and editor of _Internet Underground_; author of articles on privacy and technology issues.
GARY WILSON- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN
GATES, WILLIAM HENRY III "BILL" (1955-Present)- Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft. The richest man in America, at almost 17 billion dollars. Author of The Road Ahead. Quite possibly the Anti-Christ. And, if you havenıt heard yet, the ASCII values of the letters in his name add up to 666.
GATHERING- see ECSTASY
GIBSON, WILLIAM- Science fiction author and contributing writer for _Wired_ who invented the term "cyberspace." Author of the anthology _Burning Chrome_; the Sprawl Series (_Neuromancer_, _Count Zero_ and _Mona Lisa Overdrive_); one of the many scripts for what was then called _Alien III_; and _Virtual Light._ His most recent work was the screenplay for the disappointing _Johnny Mnemonic_, based on his short story. He also co-wrote _The Difference Engine_ with Bruce Sterling. Ironically, he didnıt own a computer until _Mona Lisa Overdrive_, heıs not at all technical, and heıs not online in any form.
GIGABYTE [abbreviated as "gig" or "Gb"]- Very large unit of measurement. Usually only used when referring to hard drive space. A gigabyte is one billion bytes, or roughly 1048.576 megabytes or 1.024 million kilobytes.
GLOBAL OUTDIAL- see GOD
GOD [Global OutDial]- An Internet outdial (modem connected to the Internet you can call from) that allows long distance calls.
GODWIN, MICHAEL- Attourney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation; also writes articles on Net civil issues. Contributing writer for _Wired_.
GOFFMAN, KEN- see R.U. SIRIUS
GOGGANS, CHRISTOPHER- see ERIK BLOODAXE
GOLDSTEIN, EMMANUEL- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN
GOTH- Cyberpunk offshoot (well, not really; the net.goths are a cyberpunk offshoot; the regular, non-net goths are a punk offshoot) which is into vampyres and infinite sadness and wearing black. I suppose you could call me a goth (well, as much as you can be a goth when you have short red hair), because I have pale skin and wear black and watch _The Crow_ a lot. [Okay, take a deep breath the name of the subculture came from the name of a punk offshoot music movement pioneered by Siouxsie and the Banshees, which came from the Gothic books and movies (such as _Dracula_), which came from the name of the scary dark medeval architecture, which came from a derogatory name given to the Gothic architects comparing them to Goths, who were a tribe of barbarians.]
GREENE, [Judge] HAROLD- The judge who busted AT&T and is now in charge of telecommunications for the government.
GROSSMAN, SAMUEL- see AGENT STEAL
_GREY AREAS_- Hacker-oriented magazine whose topic is the "gray areas" of society, such as hackers and technology, underground music and bands, drugs, etc. Can be reached at greyareas@well.sf.ca.us, among other addresses.
HACK- (1) to change a program so that is does something the original programmer either didn't want it to do or didn't plan for it. Normally used in conjunction with "cracking" computer games so that the player will get unlimited life. Hacking a program is not cracking, and vise versa. See also CRACK
(2) To code a program. "I hacked out version 1.0a1 last week."
(3) To break into a computer.
(4) To alter in a clever way the status quo.
(5) What you do; if you were a pilot, you could say "I hack planes." As far as I know, this was first used in 1994 by Bruce Sterling in _Heavy Weather_.
#HACK- The hacking irc channel.
_THE HACKER CRACKDOWN_ [Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier]- Nonfiction novel by Bruce Sterling about the Hacker Crackdown of 1990. Posted to the Net in 1993 because of extensive legal maneuverings between Sterling and his publisher.
THE HACKER CRACKDOWN OF 1990- Name given to the massive crackdown, of which Operation Sundevil was the largest part.
HACKER- There are about 20,000 definitions of a hacker floating around. These are some of the most common:
(1) Any computer user. It drives everyone else crazy when anyone refers to a novice user as a "hacker." (Am I the only one who cringed when, in _Jurassic Park_, that girl goes "We prefer to be called hackers"? Really, am I the only one?)
(2) A computer user who spends a lot of time on the system with an almost fetishistic approach. Usually refers to someone who knows a lot about computers, even if they are not a programmer.
(3) Any user of an online service, such as CompuServe, AOL or the Internet. Thatıs another sort of annoying one, since just because some businessman goes on AOL to send email to grandma, that does not mean he is a hacker.
(4) A programmer.
(5) A computer user who uses his skills unlawfully in any matter, usually to "break into" another system through a network.
(6) Someone who is actually good at doing the things mentioned in 5).
(7) A master programmer capable of things that seem "magical." [All of these are from the Massachusetts Institute of Technologyıs programmers in the 1960s, who called themselves "hackers," to refer to making a program better and more efficient, or making it do something it was not originally intended to do. The media overused this to an incredible extent, which added all the other definitions.]
_THE HACKER FILES_- Comic book limited series published by DC Comics; gathered some press. It was well-researched and included characters based on Gail Thackeray and Robert Morris.
_HACKERS_- 1995 film about... well, hackers. Response in the underground was mixed; many (possibly most) hated it and couldnıt stand the many technical errors, while others liked it, even though it was incredibly unrealistic. (Letıs face it, any movie that has someone get into a supercomputer with the password "GOD" and has UNIX apparently replaced by some sort of cyberspatial three dimensional GUI has some realism problems.) Also notable because "Jack Devlin," claiming to be an independant contractor from the ILF after "faking his death at the hands of Sandra Bullock" (see _The Net_) hacked MGM/UAıs system and messed with the home page. MGM was pretty nice about it though, and even kept the page and linked it to the official page. Of course, it would have been pretty stupid and hypocritical of them to track down whoever did it and prosecute him. (While his original bravado-filled message has been widely spread on the Net, was is not so publicized is a second letter, which may have been made up to save face by the people who set up the page but I kind of doubt it apologizing and asking not to be prosecuted.) Also, Emmanuel Goldstein was one of the "hacking consultants," and Phiber Optik said that it was the most accurate movie Hollywoodıs made about hacking, which isnıt very hard. Many members of MOD and ex-members of LOD were consulted for the original script, but most became upset with how the film actually turned out. If you want my opinion, which you probably donıt, I thought it was okay despite the technical inaccuracy, because it was a fairly entertaining movie with a cool soundtrack. I hope that the fact that it barely made back production costs shows studio executives not to try and find the next trend, make a movie on it and flaunt the small amount of knowledge they gained through research. (What was the deal with _Wipeout_, that video game? And, hmm... Gibson, what a sneaky reference! What in-joke could they possibly be making? And Da Vinci virus-- could that be a sly allusion to the infamous Michaelangelo virus?) The most ironic thing about the film is that at the end AT&T gets thanked.
_HACKERS: HEROES OF THE COMPUTER REVOLUTION_- Novel by Steven Levy about the original MIT hackers. Havenıt read it yet.
HACKERS ON PLANET EARTH- see HOPE
_HACK-TIC_- The Dutch equivalent of _2600_. Published by Rop Gonggrijp. (I want a Dutch name really bad, just so people would go crazy trying to spell it.) You can reach _Hack-tic_ (or rather the editor) at rop@hacktic.nl.
HAFNER, KATHERINE M.- Co-author of _Cyberpunk_; technology journalist for _Newsweek_. Can be reached at kmh@well.sf.ca.us.
HAGBARD CELINE [19 -1989]- Handle of Karl Koch, a German hacker and member of the Chaos Computer Club. Was very unstable, in part due to his heavy use of drugs. Committed suicide (probably; murder has been suggested) by dousing himself in gasoline and setting himself on fire on the twenty-third of the month, fulfilling _The Illuminatus! Trilogy_ıs quote that "All the great anarchists died on the 23rd day of some month or other," and the recurrence of the number 23. [Handle comes one of the characters in _The Illuminatus! Trilogy_ by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, a Discordian anarchist pirate; unlike most hackers who take handles from SF, Koch believed he actually was the protagonist of the novel.]
HANDLE- A pseudonym. [From CB radio.]
HAQR, HAQUER, HAXOR- Variant spellings of "hacker." All of them are pronounced like "hacker."
HARDY, BOB- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN
HEADLEY, SUSAN- see SUSAN THUNDER
HEINZ, ERIC- see AGENT STEAL
HESS, MARKUS [1962-Present]- Alias Matthias Speer. Former member of the Chaos Computer Club. Kacked for the KGB. Currently a professional programmer.
HOFFMAN, ABBIE- Alias Barry Freed. Possibly the first phreaker, a yippy who died under suspicious circumstances in the 1989. Supposedly had the largest FBI file ever. Author _Steal This Book_, about how poor hippy anarchists could survive (my suggestion enlist as an extra in _Hair_), as well as _Revolution For the Hell of It_ and _Woodstock Nation_. Started the infamous _TAP_, or "Technical Assistance Program."
HOLLAND- see THE NETHERLANDS
HOLLAND, WAU [full name: Hewart Holland-Moritz]- Founder of the Chaos Computer Club and German hacker.
HOLLAND-MORITZ, HEWART- see HOLLAND, WAU
HOLLIDAY, SAM- see DE PAYNE, LOUIS
HOPE [Hackers on Planet Earth]- Recent convention, sponsored by 2600.
HOWARD TRIPOD- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN
IBM [International Business Machines, Incorporated]- Zaibatsu that at one time completely controlled computers; really fucked up when they licensed Microsoft to market DOS (which was, by the way, a product that was acquired by them from another company). Because DOS backfired on them, they created OS/2, which was largely ignored. Most recently theyıve allied with Apple (previously their bitter foe) and Motorola with PPCP.
IBM-PC- International Business Machines Personal Computer or compatible. Refers to one of the five gazillion machines that run Microsoft DOS (currently in version 6.22) or the variants; Microsoft Windows (version 3.1) or Microsoft Windows for Workgroups (3.11); Microsoft Windows 95 (1.0); LINUX (1.1) or IBMıs OS/2 (2.1). 90% of the marketplace is taken up by these machines. These systems include many basic types of machines, usually run on Intelıs chips. Currently, the best IBM-PC on the market is the Pentium 200, though networked Pentium Pros would yield even faster speeds. By the way, the term IBM-PC is becoming more and more of a misnomer; almost all are not actually made by IBM, especially since IBM is trying to challenge Microsoft and Intel with PPCP now.
ICE [Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics]- Used in _Neuromancer_ and other novels (I donıt know where first, but I know it was coined by Tom Maddox, who refuses to answer my emails as to where and how he first used it. Come on, Tom! :) But I digress) to be the graphical metaphor of computer security.
IDOL, BILLY [thatıs not his real name, but I donıt give a fuck what it really is]- Punk singer who was a success in the 1970s and '80s; former member of the Clash and lead singer for a band called Generation X. Supposedly he used to be cool, but everything Iıve ever seen him do after the Clash was pretty lame. Jumped on the "cyber" bandwagon with his album _Cyberpunk_, which was a total failure as far as I can figure. You can reach him at idol@phantom.com.
IL DUCE- see PHIBER OPTIK
ILF- Alternately the Internet Liberation Front, the Information Liberation Front, and Information Longs to be Free. Net "terrorist" group, possibly started as a joke. Rerouted Josh Quittnerıs message system and left a politically motivated message. (This incarnation probably included MOD or LOD, more likely LOD, members, because Quittner had just written a book on the MOD/LOD war that Iıve been unable to procure) In 1995, one or more people claiming to be doing "independant contracting" for the ILF hacked MGM/UAıs _Hackers_ home page. It is also used as sort of an international brotherhood; when confidential or proprietary information is released to the Net, the ILF sometimes gets the credit.
INDUSTRIAL- Techo's evil twin; style of music that has begun to go mainstream; considered cyberpunk or marginally so. Grew out of the late 1970s British punk scene with Throbbing Gristle; was later watered down and combined with other styles of music to be more palatable. Bands which take some or most of their inspiration from industrial (and are often considered industrial) include Skinny Puppy, Ministry and Nine Inch Nails. Gareth Brandwyn called it "the sounds our culture makes as it comes unglued."
INDUSTRIAL HACKING- Industrial espionage using hackers, sometimes freelancers, though mostly corporate employees. Appears in SF more than in real life, though it does occur.
INFOBAHN- see INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY
INFORMATION LIBERATION FRONT- see ILF
INFORMATION LONGS TO BE FREE- see ILF
INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY [or Infobahn or several other cutesy phrases]- Pretty stupid metaphor for the Internet, popularized by (then) Senator Al Gore.
INTEGRATED SERVICES DIGITAL NETWORK [ISDN]- see ISDN
INTEGRATED SPECIAL SERVICES NETWORK [ISSN]- see ISSN
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES, INCORPORATED [IBM]- see IBM [International Business Machines, Incorporated]
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES PERSONAL COMPUTER [IBM-PC]- see IBM-PC
INTERNET LIBERATION FRONT [ILF]- see ILF
INTERNET PROTOCOL [IP]- see TCP/IP
INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER [ISP]- see ISP
INTERNET WORM- The worm created by Robert Morris in 1988 that replicated out of control due to bad programming and took down a lot of computers. News stories persisted in calling it a "virus," which pissed everyone off.
INTERZONE- A cultural area where "the street finds its own uses for things;" from the hallucinogenic hell which appears in William S. Burroughsı _Naked Lunch_. Also the title of a British SF magazine.
INTRUSION COUNTERMEASURE ELECTRONICS [ICE]- see ICE [Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics]
ISDN [Integrated Services Digital Network]- Technology to completely digitalize the phone service that was abandoned after much work (it began in the early 1980s) in the early Nineties because it was too expensive. It is currently used for high-speed Internet access, slower than T1 but faster than a modem. It is just becoming widely used by phone networks.
ISP [Internet Service Provider]- The local networks most normal people have to dial into to reach the Internet; ISPs, in turn, make deals with such Internet backbone owners as MCI to connect to the Internet.
ISSN [Integrated Special Services Network]- In a phone system (notably AT&T), controls special user features and customer control options. Not to be confused with ISSN, the serial number used by the Library of Congress used to register magazines.
JAPAN [Nippon]- Country code ".ja;" East Asian nation, population 125.2 million, which is the subject of many cyberpunk novels due to an odd history and its high technology. Pursued a highly hierarchal samurai society until the mid-1800s, yet retained a strong Imperial warlike spirit until 1945, when they were totally defeated in World War II by the dropping of two atom bombs. They then focussed the fervor previously used in war for business. Currently an extremely large producer of consumer goods; the nation is stereotypically very conformity-oriented. (This doesnıt have too much to do with hacking, but Japan is a notable country from an electronics standpoint, as well as the fact that much of SF currently involves Japan, and its preponderance of zaibatsus.)
JOHNSON, ROBERT- see THE PROPHET
JOLT [Cola]- Soft drink famous for having twice the caffeine of any other major soft drink (still less per pound than coffee, though), invented and distributed by the Jolt-Company, Inc. Fairly difficult to find here in Utah. By the way, did you know you can type on average five words a minute faster than normal if you drink two bottles of MegaJolt in succession? See CAFFEINE
JUDGE DREDD- British comic book character currently published by DC that has some cyberpunk concepts; itıs about a semi-fascist anti-hero in the 23rd century. Sylvester Stallone made a flop movie from it that the sets and special effects were cool, but not much else. There was also a hacker in the early 1990s with this handle, as well as another one (who may be the same guy) who was a member of the 2300 Club.
KRACK- see CRACK
K-RAD- ("A thousand points of rad" one of the Count Zeros) Extremely cool; very rad. [From one thousand times "rad," short for "radical," skateboarder-type slang term in the Eighties meaning cool.]
KAPOR, MITCHELL- Co-founder of the EFF. Ex-hippy, founder of Lotus, and original programmer of Lotus 1-2-3.
KARL MARX- Handle of James Salsman. Phreak and ex-member of LOD. Former sysop of Farmers of Doom BBS. [Handle came from a mention in the comic strip "Bloom County" about Communists.]
KILL- To delete a file (or, less used, to stop a programıs function while it is operating). See also AXE
KILOBYTE [abbreviated as Kb or K]- Small unit of measurement, usually used for measuring small programs and cache memory. Contrary to what the word would imply, a kilobyte is 1024 bytes. See also BIT, BYTE, MEGABYTE, GIGABYTE
KING BLOTTO- Former member of the Legion of Doom and the 2300 Club. Phreak who invented several variant boxes.
KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS- see THE NETHERLANDS
KNIGHT LIGHTING- Handle of Craig Neidorf. Former member of the 2600 Club. Co-founder of _Phrack Magazine_. He was put on trial during the Hacker Crackdown of 1990 for publishing the E911 document in _Phrack_, a document stolen in a hacker raid. When the Electronic Frontier Foundation got the case dropped, he decided he wanted to become a lawyer. He is now working for the EFF and as a writer for _2600_. (According to Lightning, handle came from a combination of the comics character "Lightning Lad" and the character "Michael Knight" from the lame television show _Knight Rider_.)
THE KNIGHTMARE- Handle of Dennis Fiery. Author of a book on computer security entitled _Secrets of a Super Hacker_ and sometimes writer for _2600_. I havenıt read his book. Not to be confused with with the Arizona hacker.
KNIGHTMARE [602]- Arizona hacker and sysop of the Black Ice Private BBS who was one of the first to be busted in the Hacker Crackdown.
KROUPA, PATRICK K.- see LORD DIGITAL
LADOPOULOS, ELIAS- see ACID PHREAK
LAMER- A jerk idiot loser. That pretty much sums it up. [From "lame," weak.]
LASS [Local Area Signalling Services]- Special numbers, preceded by a *, which allow special operations such, which usually cost a small amount of money. Includes such services as trace (*57), callback (*69) and caller ID disable. (*70)
L.A. SYNDROME - Stupid, loser behavior. Means the person doesn't support the group. Usually associated with BBS's and posting thereupon. [From a user named the L.A. Raider and his activities on several Ohio boards.]
LAW ENFORCEMENT ACCESS FIELD [LEAF]- see LEAF [Law Enforcement Access Field]
LEACH- Someone who copies a large amount of software and doesn't return the favor. Used by BBS's and users, but also applies to those who physically copy software. [From "leach," the disgusting creature that sucks your blood.]
LEAF [Law Enforcement Access Field]- Major part on the encryption in Clipper. A scrambled group of numbers including the chipıs serial number, a session key number and a checksum number.
LEARY, TIMOTHY (1920-1996)- Ex-Harvard professor and West Point-graduate who turned hippy in the late Sixties and encouraged students to "turn on, tune in, drop out." Popularized LSD, and was eventually imprisoned for almost ten years for possession. He became a cyberpunk about fifteen years after his dropping out, and his new sound bite became "the PC is the LSD of the 1980ıs." (He later updated that to the 1990s when he discovered that computers now make the Apple IIes, 386s, Mac 512ks and Commodores of the 1980s look like abacuses.) He became one of the editors of _Mondo 2000_. In 1992, he discovered that he had prostate cancer. Being the weird guy that he was, he thought this was great news because he was going to die; after toying with the idea of somehow killing himself over the Internet and coming up with elaborate suicide plans, he succumbed to cancer on May 30, 1996.
LEE, JOHN- see CORRUPT
THE LEGION OF DOOM [LOD] [Full name: "The Fraternal Order of the Legion of Doom (Lambda Omega Delta)"]- Legendary hacking group that existed from 1984-1990, created on a board called PLOVERNET, founded by Lex Luthor, a former member of the Knights of Shadow. Also inspired the short-lived groups "Farmers of Doom" and "Justice League of America." It subsumed the membership of a group called the Tribunal of Knowledge. Began as a phreaking group, and when it later gained more members who were more proficient with computers, it became LOD/H (Legion of Doom/Hackers). When many members dropped out, the "H" migrated from the name, but their newfound ability with computers stayed. Its official membership included, at various times: Lex Luthor, Karl Marx, Mark Tabas, Agrajag the Prolonged, King Blotto, Blue Archer, The Dragyn, Unknown Soldier, Sharp Razor, Doctor Who 413, Erik Bloodaxe, Sir Francis Drake, Paul MuadıDib, Phucked Agent 04, X-Man, Randy Smith, Steve Dahl, The Warlock, Silver Spy, Terminal Man, Videosmith, Kerrang Khan, Gary Seven, Marauder, Bill from RNOC, Leftist, Urvile, Phantom Phreaker, Doom Prophet, Jester Sluggo, Carrier Culprit, Thomas Covenant, Mentor, Control C, Prime Suspect, Prophet, Professor Falken and Phiber Optik. Some members were busted by Operation Sundevil, others created a security firm called ComSec (which went bankrupt, and eventually was reincarnated as LOD Communications, Inc), and many just disappeared. Also, in the early Nineties, a "new" Legion of Doom was created, because since the group was defunct, logically anybody could use the name; it was, however, pretty much looked down upon and was eventually forcefully disbanded by members of the original LOD. (Doesnıt that sound creepy? Like Mark Tabas and Erik Bloodaxe had them killed or something.) [The groupıs name came from the Superfriends cartoon series (using characters from Superman/Justice League comic books), where the villains were the Legion of Doom.]
LEGION OF DOOM/HACKERS- see THE LEGION OF DOOM [LOD]
LEVY, STEVEN- Writer and journalist; one of the original 1960s MIT hackers who is disdainful of us latter-day hackers. Author of _Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution_, among other things. Currently contributing writer for _Wired_ and _Newsweek_.
LEWCIFER- see DE PAYNE, LEWIS
LEX LUTHOR- Legendary hacker/pheaker and founder of LOD. [Handle came from the comic book villain who was Supermanıs arch-enemy; the hacker Lex got it from the 1979 movie version with Gene Hackman.]
LOCKED (1) Refers to a computer system shutting down and stopping operation, usually without the operator wanting it to happen.
(2) A protected program.
(3) A file that has been changed by the OS so that it cannot be changed or deleted; often very easy to unlock.
(4) A floppy disk which has been physically locked to prevent accidental alteration or to prevent stupid people from modifying the contents.
LOD- see THE LEGION OF DOOM [LOD]
LOD/H- see THE LEGION OF DOOM [LOD]
_LOD/H TECHNICAL JOURNALS_ [LOD/H TJ]- Hacking philes written by the Legion of Doom/Hackers, beginning in 1986. Four issues were made. The form and content owed something to what was then called _Phrack Inc._. [Name is a parody of _AT&T Technical Journals_.]
LOD/H TJ- see _LOD/H TECHNICAL JOURNALS_ [LOD/H TJ]
LOGIC BOMB- A program that performs a certain action when certain conditions are met, such as deleting all files on Christmas eve, although it is not necessarily malevolent. Though it is not technically a virus, it is often grouped that way. There is much speculation that the turn of the millenium will set off tons of logic bombs.
LOOMPANICS- Publishing company (in)famous for publishing such "questionable" information as bomb plans and guerrilla techniques; also published _Secrets of a Super Hacker_, though according to everyone Iıve heard from the subject, itıs pretty worthless.
THE LONE GUNMEN- An group of three fictious hackers (Byers, Frohike and Langly) on _The X-Files_. Editors of a paranoid publication called _The Lone Gunmen_. An honorary Lone Gunman was a hacker named the Thinker who eventually got killed by the government because he uncovered information on the existence of extra-terrestrials. Apparently the government keeps its files on the existence of extra-terrestrials unencrypted on an Internet connected network. [Name comes from the oxymoronic flipside of the "lone gunman" theory in the Kennedy assassination, which is that Oswald acted alone.]
LOOPS- Phone numbers used by the telco for testing. Can be manipulated to make free calls, which are billed to the telco.
L0PHT- A Boston-based group of hackers interested in free information distribution and finding alternatives to the Internet. Their web site houses the archives of the Whacked Mac Archives, Black Crawling Systems, Dr. Who's Radiophone, the Cult of the Dead Cow, and others. Current membership includes Dr. Mudge, Space Rogue, Brian Oblivion, Kingpin, Weld, Tan, Stephan Wolfenstein and Megan A. Haquer. (Entry suggested by Space Rogue.)
LORD DIGITAL- Handle of Patrick K. Kroupa. Former member of the Apple Mafia, the Knights of Shadow and the Legion of Doom. (He claims he was officially inducted in 1987, but he is not listed in any of the official lists.) Good friend of Dead Lord and co-administrator of MindVox. Can be reached at digital@phantom.com.
MACINTOSH- A type of computer that currently takes up a little less than 10% of the marketplace. Sometimes called derogatorily "Macintrashes" or "Macintoys." First made by Apple in 1984, notable for its ease of use; successor to the failed Lisa, which was the successor to the Apple II. All Macintoshes run the MacOS, which is currently in version 7.5.3; version 8.0 (code-named Copland) will be released in early to mid-1997. (however, some Macs can run Windows, DOS, Mach V and/or LINUX) Apple licensed the MacOS in 1993 so that Mac clones can be made; they have not fully caught on yet (though IBM recently signed up for a clone license), though Power Computing, UMAX and DayStar are doing fairly good business on them. Macs run on two families of microprocessors: the Motorola 680x0 chips, and the joint Apple-IBM-Motorola PowerPC chips. The most powerful Macintosh ever made is Power Computingıs PowerTower Pro 225.
MARKOFF, JOHN- Co-author of _Cyberpunk_ and _Takedown_. Ex-husband of Katie Hafner, technology journalist for _The New York Times_. Can be reached at markoff@nyt.com.
MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY CRASH- The huge crash when AT&T computers embarassingly went down due to a bug in UNIX System VII.
MASTER OF IMPACT- see CONTROL C
MASTERS OF DECEPTION- see MOD
_MASTERS OF DECEPTION_ [The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace]- Novel by Josh Quittner and Michelle Slatella about the LOD/MOD feud. A portion was printed in _Wired_ and really pissed off a lot of people, most vocally Erik Bloodaxe. Not that badly written, but I wonder about the accuracy and who was interviewed on some of the details.
MASTERS OF DISASTER [MOD]- see MOD
_MAX HEADROOM_- Science fiction TV show that was cancelled after one season. The concept began when a British music video station wanted to use a computer-generated host, but some American network picked it up and made a TV show. Supposedly it was wonderful and great, but Iıve never seen it.
MDMA- see ECSTASY
MEAT- The physical body, the bag of flesh and mud and water that we are constrained to. Derogatory.
MEATSPACE- Real life, as opposed to cyberspace.
MEGABYTE [abbreviated as "meg" or Mb]- Fairly large unit of measurement, usually used for measuring RAM or storage memory or large programs. One megabyte is roughly 1.049 million bytes or approximately 976.562 kilobytes. See also BIT, BYTE, KILOBYTE, GIGABYTE
MEGAHERTZ [MHZ]- In computer terms, a measurement of the clock speed of a CPU. For example, the 486DX2 runs at 66 megahertz. It was known in hacker slang occasionally as "hurtz" or "warp," where a 90 megahertz computer would be called Warp 90.
MENTAL CANCER- see SHADOWHAWK 1
THE MENTOR- Handle of Loyd Blankenship. Also known as the Neuromancer. Elite hacker and former member of the Legion of Doom, the PhoneLine Phantoms, the Racketeers and Extasyy Elite. Writer of the legendary "Conscience of a Hacker." He also used to work for Steve Jackson Games, where he wrote _GURPS Cyberpunk_. He is currently a freelance game designer/electronic musician. Currently available at loyd@blankenship.com. [Handle is from the Grey Lensman series by E.E. "Doc" Smith.]
MERRILL, BRIAN- see MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID and COMPUTERS, FREEDOM AND PRIVACY CONFERENCE [CFP]
METAL COMMUNICATIONS- A short-lived hack/phreak group (is there any other kind, besides LOD, MOD and L0pht?!) that created several underground BBSs and wrote many philes. Members included Cobalt 60, Crimson Pirate, Dr. Local, Red Pirate, Shadow Lord, Angel of Destiny, Apothecary, Byte, Byte Byter, Dark Wizard, Duke, Dutchman, The Man in Black, the Prophet, Pink Panther, Voice Over, The Radical Rocker, the White Knight and the Warlock Lord. It also had a smaller sister group called the Neon Knights.
MEXICAN FLAG- Red grenadine, white tequila and green creme-de-menthe. Multilayered, set on fire, and sucked through straws. A favorite of the Legion of Doom at parties before they broke up. [From the colors of the Mexican flag.]
MHZ- see MEGAHERTZ
MICHAELANGELO VIRUS- The much over-hyped virus that erased the hard drives of several computers, named for becoming active on the Renaissance artist Michaelangelo's birthday.
MICROSOFT- Software megacorporation, founded 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen; writer of MS-DOS, Windows (3.x, 95, and NT), Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Bookshelf, Encarta and about a zillion other programs, most of which are made for business. Possibly the most evil force on the planet. Also used by William Gibson, without permission, for the name of addictive chips that plug into characterıs heads in _Neuromancer_. [Name comes from "microcomputer" and "software."]
MINDVOX [mindvox.phantom.com]- Manhattan-based Net provider where a number of ex-LODers (and Billy Idol :( ) reside; has the domain name phantom.com. Motto: "Jack in, rock out, and feel your head." Administered by Dead Lord and Lord Digital.
MINOR THREAT (1972-Present)- Former member of Public Enemy (the hacker group, not the band). Co-programmer of ToneLoc (with Mucho Maas), which he began in 1990. Available at mthreat@paranoia.com. [Handle comes from the name of an early 1980s punk band.]
MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID (1963-Present)- Birth name of the Condor. Also known as N6NHG, alias Anton Chernoff, alias Fred Weiner, alias Lee Nussbaum, alias Brian Merrill, alias David Stanfill, alias Thomas Case. Former member of the Roscoe Gang (name given by _Cyberpunk_). Teenage phreak who grew up and didnıt quit. First arrested at age 17. Rumors claimed that he cracked NORAD (inspiring _WarGames_); generally disproven, though Markoff has been trying to resurrect it. Became famous, especiall when in 1995 he went on a hacking rampage that included deleting several files on the WELL, possibly because of a typing error. Tsutomu Shimomura (and a number of datacops and John Markoff, who claims he was just an observer) eventually tracked him down after Mitnick hacked Shimomura's system. As the media loves to report, when he was caught he told Shimomura "I respect your skills." John Markoff and Tsutomu Shimomura just wrote their version of the events, which will serve as the screenplay for a movie by Miramax about it, entitled _Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, Americaıs Most Wanted Computer Outlaw By the Man Who Did It_. (Apparently, it was the longest and most grandiose title they could think of.) Jonathan Littman wrote his own version, with the help of Mitnick, entitled _The Fugitive Game_. Also inspired the most objective retelling, _The Cyberthief and the Samurai_, by Jeff Goodell (who can be contacted at jg@well.sf.ca.us). While he obviously cannot be directly reached by email as he is in federal prison, 2600 maintains a mailbox for him where they forward him interesting data and fan mail at kmitnick@2600.com. [Handle came from the 1975 Robert Redford movie _Three Days of the Condor_, about an ex-CIA guy who escapes the government, in part by manipulating the phone system.]
MOD [Motto: "Summa Sedes Non Capit Duos," Latin, literally "The Highest Does Not Seat Two," figuratively "There is Only Room for One at the Top;" a reference to the LOD/MOD struggle]- MOD, a New York rival of LOD, was known at various times as Masters of Deception and Masters of Disaster, I suppose depending on their mood. Its current membership is Acid Phreak, Scorpion, Nynex Phreak, HAC, Wing, Outlaw, Corrupt, Supernigger, Red Night, Seeker, Lord Micro, Crazy Eddie, Zod, Peaboy, n00g1e, Ella Cinders and Plague, and previous members have included Thomas Covenant and Phiber Optik. (List provided by Acid Phreak.) Southwestern Bell busted them and some wound up in jail. It was formed when Phiber Optik was kicked out of LOD, supposedly because of his ego. He then formed MOD and recruited some of his friends. They were a major exception to the stereotype of the hacker as a wealthy, suburban white dude. They had what was described by some as a "hacker war" with LOD until they got busted, when there was something of a truce and LOD sort of made up. Well, at least they made up with Phiber Optik. They are still around, at least according to their web page, which of course claims they are reformed. They can currently be reached at mod@gti.net. [Besides the acronym, the term also supposedly refers to being like a second iteration of LOD; "M" is after "L," get it? However, I got that out of an excerpt on the Net from Quittnerıs book, and I donıt know how much truth is in it.] Definitely not to be confused with the Amiga sound format .mod.
MODEM [MOdulator/DEModulator]- Hardware that allows digital info to be carried over analog lines. The first modems were acoustic (usually 300 bps); you had to put the phone receiver on the modem. The current standard speed is 14.4 kbps. (Phone lines can hold a maximum of 35 kbps.) ISDN modems are becoming more and more common. (Even though ISDN modem is an oxymoron; ISDN is already digital, and a modem by definition converts digital to analog.)
MODULATOR/DEMODULATOR [MODEM]- see MODEM [MOdulator/DEModulator]
_MONDO 2000_- "Cyberpunk" magazine. Successor to a short lived zine entitled _Reality Hackers_. Never as good as it should have been. The three major brains behind it were R.U. Sirius (AKA Ken Goffman), St. Jude (AKA Jude Milhon) and Bart Nagel, all of which have since resigned, at least as editors. Timothy Leary was one of the editors, and thereıs a really psychotic dude named Xandor as well. I, like many, think itıs way too much style and way too little substance, but it has some good book reviews and interviews about weird technology. [From the Italian word "mondo," meaning world; AD 2000 is supposedly the "expiration date."]
MOREU, RAFAEL- Screenwriter for _Hackers_; interviewed many prominent hackers for research. According to Acid Phreak, he was less than happy with how it turned out.
MORRIS, ROBERT TAPPAN II- Cornell graduate student who created a worm which exploited the UNIX sendmail bug as an experiment to see how fast it would spread through the Internet; due to a programming error, it went out of control and took down hundreds of computers.
MOSS, JEFFERY- see DARK TANGENT
NARK- (1) Someone who turns people in to law enforcement.
(2) The act of turning in someone to law enforcement.
NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE [NII]- see NII [National Information Infrastructure]
NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY [NSA]- see NSA [National Security Agency]
NECRON 99- see URVILE
NEIDORF, CRAIG- see KNIGHT LIGHTNING
NEON KNIGHTS- see METAL COMMUNICATIONS
NERD- Derogatory term for a computer geek; has been adopted as a badge of honor for some. Reminds that no matter how cool the stuff we do with computers is, weıre still geeks, so get over it. :( [I just looked up the etymology of the word "nerd" in the dictionary, and my main conclusion was that etymologists must have a lot of spare time on their hands, because apparently thereıs this huge controversy over where this word came from, and the earliest reference is in a Dr. Seuss book, and then it became a slang term in the 1950s, and some people say itıs a coincidence and others say thereıs some complicated relation, and all I can say is that itıs just not that important, but these etymologists have enough time to learn UNIX security, and if theyıd just read some books on TCP/IP, they could probably be really good hackers. Suggestion-- if any evil foreign governments out there want to hire some people to train to be hackers, get etymologists. They have tolerance for the tremendously boring. That is all. End rant.]
_THE NET_- Sandra Bullockıs 1995 cyberthriller, in which she tries to escape from evil hackers. Can be recommended because it has Sandra Bullock in a bikini.
NETCOM- I believe Netcom is the largest Internet access provider in the world. As a result, it has users of all types. [From "Net" (short for Internet) and "commercial."]
THE NETHERLANDS [Kingdom of the Netherlands]- Country code ".nl," European nation, population 14.6 million, currently known for its libertarian laws regarding drugs, nudity, prostitution and notably computer hacking (which, until recently, was totally legal.) Home of _Hack-tic_. ("Do you know what they call a quarter pounder with cheese in Holland?" "They donıt call it a quarter pounder with cheese?...")
THE NEUROMANCER- see THE MENTOR
NII- National Information Infrastructure. Hard to say. (I mean, literally, "en-aye-aye"? Really not phonetically friendly.)
1984- A mystical year for computers. LOD was formed; created; _Neuromancer_ was published; _2600_ was first published; _The Whole Earth Software Review_ was created, which led to the WELL; the Chaos Computer Club was formed; and the Macintosh computer was released. Also, George Orwellıs 1949 SF novel was titled this, and some would say itıs come true.
NODE- A big, fast, huge thing on a network; sort of a BBS on steroids.
(NO SUCH AGENCY) [NSA]- see NSA [National Security Agency]
NSA [National Security Agency]- Also known as (No Such Agency). The federal agency in charge of spying on the citizens of the US, as well as an international branch. ["Yıknow, I could have joined the NSA. But they found out my parents were married." Martin Bishop, _Sneakers_.]
N6NHG- Ham radio handle of Kevin Mitnick; last three letters supposedly stand for Nationıs Hacker Great.
NUPROMETHEUS LEAGUE- Group (or maybe just one guy) that liberated part of the source code to Color QuickDraw and set disks containing to prominent members of the computer community. They were never caught (well, at least not caught and publically tried. Maybe Apple had them shot and dumped in unmarked graves in Philadelphia.) [From the Greek demigod Prometheus, who ILFed fire from Zeus.]
NUSSBAUM, LEE- see MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID
OBELIX (1976-Present)- Former member of the Chaos Computer Club; introduced Pengo to the group. [Name comes from the prominent German comic strip character.]
110- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN
ON THE METAL- Term referring to programming or hardware design. The act of working directly at the computer keyboard (or hardware breadboard) without going through the normal planning stages.
OPERATION SUNDEVIL- An initiative by the United States Secret Service in 1990 that was part of the Hacker Crackdown of 1990; it was originally intended to strike credit card fraud; it was 27 search warrants executed May 8; 42 computer systems were seized. Agents in charge included Tim Foley, Gail Thackeray and Barbara Golden. [From the mascot of the college the Secret Serviceıs headquarters were near. (Super Bowl XXX was held at Sundevil Stadium.)]
ORACLE- A DC Comics character; formerly Batgirl, paralyzed by the Joker. Notable in a hacking sense because she is now the main hacker character in the DC Universe.
OS [Operating System]- The physical laws of a computer. OS's include DOS, Windows, MacOS, SunOS and UNIX and its many variants. Even VCRs, scientific calculators and digital watches have primitive OS's.
OUTAGE- Loss of telephone service. Term used by telco employees.
OUTLAW (1974-Present)- Handle of Julio Fernandez. Founding member of MOD; supposedly one of the more criminal members.
PACKET SNIFFER- A program which records the first one hundred or so bits sent by a computer when connecting to a network. Supposedly used for network diagnostic purposes, but is used frequently by hackers for obvious reasons. (The first hundred bits usually include a username and password.)
PAGE (1) 256 consecutive bytes of memory, starting on a even multiple of 256.
(2) a screen, usually a graphics display.
(3) A home page on the World Wide Web.
PARM- Contraction for "parameter," which is a list of data that is given to a routine to work with, such as a list of subscribers or accounts, or even a filename on a disk.
PASSWORD SHADOWING- A security system in which the encrypted password is stored in a different directory where normal users are not given access. Used in the UNIX operating system.
PBX [Private Branch Exchange]- Local phone number within a corporation. Phreakers often dial into these, hack them, and use them to make long-distance calls for free. They often route through many PBXs to avoid tracing.
PENET [anon.penet.fi]- Infamous Finnish anonymous remailer. Currently unbreakable (as far as anyone knows) except when the Scientologists got a warrant for the data in Penetıs computers. That will probably never happen again.
PENGO (1968-Present)- Handle of Hans Huebner, West German hacker and former member of the Chaos Computer Club; infamous for hacking US military systems for the KGB. [Handle comes from the name of his favorite arcade game, the protagonist of which was a penguin.]
PENTIUM- (1) IBM-PC computer family run on a Pentium chip, made by Intel. The Pentium Pro (codenamed P6) just came out, first running at 150 Mhz.
(2) Chip that created a scandal in 1994 when it was discovered that the microprocessor had a calculation error. Itıs been fixed, however.
PETERS, MICHAEL B.- see POULSEN, KEVIN LEE
PETERSON, JUSTIN TANNER- see AGENT STEAL
PGP [Pretty Good Privacy]- Program by Phillip Zimmermann and "Pretty Good Software." Encryption for the masses; it was made to counter the proposed clipper chip. Phil Zimmermann, of course, might go to jail. Other fanatical cypherpunks have taken over where he left off, making it for the Mac (MacPGP) and a utility for making your phone line secure (PGPfone.) PGP is currently in version 2.6.2. Currently some of the aforementioned cypherpunks are working on the MacPGP Kit (currently in version 1.6), the goal of which is to ultimately replace the ugly window currently in MacPGP that looks like DOS. [The name "Pretty Good Privacy" is because Phil Zimmermann is a fan of Garrison Keillorıs Prairie Home Companion, which mentioned a product that was "pretty good."]
PHALCON/SKISM (P/S)- Hacking, phreaking and virus group; Phalcon does the H/P and Skism does the virii. The group runs the e-zine _40Hex_. Members have included Hellraiser, Dark Angel, DecimatoR, Garbage Heap and Priest. [The name comes from deliberate misspellings of "falcon" and "schism."]
PHASE JITTER- see CONTROL C
PHIBER OPTIK (1975-Present)- Handle of Mark Abene. Also known as Il Duce, also known as the Artist Formerly Known as Phiber. Former member of LOD and MOD. He was arrested in 1993 and sentenced to prison for a year and a day. When he got out, there was a huge party, and he is currently a technician for Echo and writer for _2600_.
PHOENIX PROJECT- BBS sysoped by the Mentor and Erik Bloodaxe. Shut down by the Secret Service; too bad, because otherwise it might have revitalized the underground.
_PHRACK CLASSIC_-see _PHRACK MAGAZINE_
_PHRACK INC._- see _PHRACK MAGAZINE_
_PHRACK MAGAZINE_- Electronic hacker zine founded in 1985 by Knight Lightning and Taran King for the Metal Shop BBS. It later appeared on the Broadway Show, Newsweek Elite and Kleptic Palace AE/Catfur boards. Shut down by the police once, but continued to return as the zine that wouldnıt die. Still existing, currently in volume seven. At various times, Phrack was known as "Phrack, Inc." (according to Knight Lightning, from the DC Comics series Infinity, Inc.), "Phrack Classic," and "Diet Phrack." It had several editors through the years: Taran King and Knight Lightning; Shooting Shark; Elric of Imrryr and Sir Francis Drake; Crimson Death; King and Lightning again; Doc Holiday; Death again; Dispater; Death and Dispater; just Dispater again; Erik Bloodaxe; and currently Daemon9, ReDragon and Voyager. (I realize the Phrack web page lists different editors and doesnıt mention some, but a careful review of back issues contradicts this. Guess Bloodaxe doesnıt have as much spare time as I do. :) ) Since Issue 42, it has become a "real" magazine and is listed in the Library of Congress with its own ISSN. Bloodaxe came up with new rules about its distribution; while the "amateur computer hobbyist" can get it for free, the government and corporations must pay a registration fee. However, only two people actually have; in an incredible fit of hypocrisy, Gail Thackeray has said that unless it is enforced, corporations can have it for free. To use the rhetoric prosecutors have been using for years, "if a bike is unlocked and you steal it, does that mean itıs okay?" This just proves the government is as corrupt as they always said hackers were. (Well, sort of.) The current staff is Daemon9, ReDragon and Voyager (editors-in-chief), Erik Bloodaxe (mailboy), and Datastream Cowboy (news).
PHRACK WORLD NEWS [PWN]- Department of Phrack Magazine existing since issue two (when it was called Phreak World News.) It changed to Phrack World News in issue 5. First done by Knight Lightning, then Sir Francis Drake, then Epsilon, then Dispater and currently Datastream Cowboy. It is made up of journalism by hackers about the hacking scene and articles written by the news press about hackers; where erroroneous information is occasionally corrected. It exists to publicize busts and information about hackers.
PHREAK- Someone who abuses the phone system the way a hacker abuses computer networks. Also used by Rudy Rucker in his novels to refer to hobbyists who hack systems, as opposed to cryps, who do it for money or power. [From a combination of "phone" and "freak," which became "phreak." "Phreaker" is sometimes also used.]
#PHREAK- The phreaking irc channel.
PILE, CHRISTOPHER- see THE BLACK BARON
PIRATE- (1) Someone who distributes copyrighted commercial software illegally, often stripping the program of password protection or including a document that gives the passwords to defeat the protection. [From the old 18th century pirates who raided ships, though I have no idea what that has to do with ripping off software. Anyone have any ideas?]
(2) A verb for illegally copying a progam.
POSTER BOY- see CONTROL C
POULSEN, KEVIN LEE- Birth name of Dark Dante; semi-famous hacker and Silicon Valley programmer who was caught for altering telephone systems so that he could be the 102nd caller and win a Porche, among other things. First hacker to be indicted for espionage. Alias Michael B. Peters. Sometimes referred to as "The Last Hacker." (Huh? I donıt get it.) Currently on court order not to use computers.
POWER PC- Chip that powers Appleıs Power Macintoshes and high-end Performas. It is also used to power some high-end IBM-PCs that run Microsoft Windows NT. It was developed in an unprecedented partnership between Apple, IBM and Motorola.
PPCP- PowerPC Platform (formerly CHRP, Common Hardware Reference Platform); recently officially christened as PowerPC Microprocessor Common Reference Platform. Initiative by Apple, IBM, and Motorola that will replace IBMıs PRePs and Appleıs Power Macs, supposed to begin shipping November 1996. It will run IBMıs OS/2 2.1, Windows NT 3.51, AIX 4.1 (IBMıs UNIX variant), MacOS 7.5.3 (though Copland will be ported to it as soon as possible), Sun Solaris 5.0 and Novell NetWare 4.1.
PRAETORIANS- Mischievious members of the Internet Liberation Front (as well as possibly LOD) who hacked the _Hackers_ home page. [From the villains in _The Net_.]
PReP [PowerPC Reference Platform]- IBMıs name for their PowerPC run machines, which usually run Windows NT.
PRIVATE BRANCH EXCHANGE [PBX]- see PBX [Private Branch Exchange]
PRODIGY- Third largest online service, owned by IBM and Sears that is the only remaining competitor to AOL and CompuServe.
PROJECT EQUALIZER- KGB initiative to pay West German Chaos Computer Club members to hack United States military computers for them. Failed; the information that the hackers involved uncovered was not judged worth the expense by the KGB, and Clifford Stoll eventually got all the hackers arrested.
PROPHET- Alias Robert Johnson, also known as the Eavesdropper. Former member of the Legion of Doom, the PhoneLine Phantoms and Metal Communications. One of the Atlanta Three busted in the Hacker Crackdown; was the one who actually got the E911 Document.
PUNK- (1) A style of music drawing on the culture of destructive rebels, begun in the late Seventies in Britain by such bands as the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Ramones. Did stuff like put safety pins in their noses and other body parts. Led to goth, industrial and to a lesser extent grunge. I believe such groups as Green Day are considered neo-punk (or, in the words of Ron DuPlanty, "punk wannabes.")
(2) The culture of destructive rebels with piercings and scary hair, often shaved. The term was later used with "cybernetics" to describe computer nerds with a little bit more attitude. [The word in this context is a perverted badge of honor coming from the insulting term punk, as in an obnoxious young person. Major insult if you apply to someone else maliciously, at least in the computer underground.]
THE PUNK MAFIA (TPM)- Phreak/hack group whose membership included Arthur Dent, Creative Chaos, Erik Bloodaxe, Gin Fizz, Ninja NYC, Peter Gunn, Rudolph Smith 703 and the Godfather 703.
QUALCOMM- Telecommunications company that was/is the target of many hackers, including Kevin Mitnick. Best known among casual Net users as the distributor of Eudora, the ubiquitous email program first coded by Steve Dorner.
QUICKDRAW- The engine that powers the graphics in Macintoshes. It began as just QuickDraw, which was followed by Color QuickDraw, which was followed by 32-bit QuickDraw, which was followed by QuickDraw GX, which was recently followed by QuickDraw 3D. In the early 1990s a group calling itself the NuPrometheus League ILFed part of the source code to Color QuickDraw, very much angering Apple Computer.
QUITTNER, JOSHUA- Author of _Masters of Deception: The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace_ and contributing writer for _Wired_. His phone system was hacked by ILF/LOD members in retaliation for his book.
RAM [Random Access Memory]- The amount of active memory a computer has; the amount it can load at once. Increasing RAM increases speed because then more of the program can be loaded into active. The current standard amount of RAM is eight to 16 megabytes.
_RAMPARTS_- A radical hippy magazine in California in the 1970s that was seized by the cops because they published the shematics for a blue box variant.
RAVERS- People who go to massive psychedelic parties or set them up. Usually have acid house, techo or industrial music, and lots of enthusiasts claim its roots are in tribal ceremonies thousands of years ago. Raves are not necessarily "cyberpunk" by any definition, however.
RBOCS [Regional Bell Operating Companies]- Companies left over from when AT&T was ripped apart; "baby bells."
RED BOX- Box that mimics the sound of a quarter being entered into a payphone, fooling ACTS; I believe the second box (after the blue box) to be created by phreaks. Tone is created by a 6.5536Mhz crystal, in the pure forms; there are a number of soft boxes, tones in software for a computer. [Name comes from the box in pay phones that actually is red.]
REDRAGON (1975-Present)- Also known as Dr. Disk and the Destroyer. Currently one of the co-editors of _Phrack Magazine_. [Handle is from a book by Thomas Harris called _Red Dragon_; combined the words.]
REMOB [REMote OBservation]- A feature BellSouth built into their phone system that Atlanta LOD used to their advantage.
REWIND- To stop a program at a certain point and go backwards through the execution until the item of the search (usually a bug) is found.
RICHO SLOPPY- see CONTROL C
RONIN- A masterless samurai, popularized by Frank Millerıs SF/fantasy graphic novel of the same name. This historical, nearly mythological archetype has also been adopted by many hackers and self-proclaimed cyberpunks as a role model.
ROOT- God on a system. Getting root is the holy grail; allows you to control the system.
ROSCOE- see DE PAYNE, LOUIS
THE ROSCOE GANG- Name given to a small group of phreaks in LA by Cyberpunk. The members were Louis De Payne (Roscoe), Kevin Mitnick (the Condor), Susan Headley (Susan Thunder) and Steven Rhoades.
ROSENFIELD, MORTON- see STORM SHADOW
RSA [Rivest/Shamir/Adleman]- Very strong public key cryptosystem utilized by PGP; created 1977, patented 1983. Named after the MIT professors who created it Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Len Adleman, founders of RSA Data Security.
RUCKER, RUDY- Author and scientist; the only original cyberpunk who actually knows what he is talking about. Author of _The Hollow Earth_, _Live Robots_, _Software_, _Spacetime Donuts_, _Transreal_, _White Light_ and _The Hacker and the Ants_. Also a contributing writer for _Wired_.
R.U. SIRIUS- Handle of Ken Goffman. Former editor of _Mondo 2000_, contributing writer for _Wired_, and co-author of _Mondo 2000: A User's Guide to the New Edge_, _The Cyberpunk Handbook (The Real Cyberpunk Fakebook)_ and _How to Mutate and Take Over the World_.
SAINT CLOUD- see DOCTOR WHO
SALSMAN, JAMES- see KARL MARX
SATAN [Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks]- Silicon Graphics program to detect holes in computer security, coded by Dan Farmer. It created something of a scandal at the time because it was shareware, and some were afraid it would make second-rate hackers incredibly powerful; however, it was released, and no, the world did not end.
SCAN MAN- Phreak in the 1980s. Fairly old for a hacker at the time (he was in his thirties). Sysoped Pirate-80.
SCANNING- To dial a huge amount of numbers, looking for "carriers" or computers connected by a modem to the phone line. Since dialing thousands of numbers by hand and hanging up is incredibly tedious, the war dialer was invented.
SCHWARTAU, WINN- Security and infowar specialist; frequently attends conventions. Author of _Information Warfare: Chaos on the Electronic Superhighway_ and _Terminal Compromise_.
SCORPION (1970-Present)- Handle of Paul Stira. Founding member of MOD; imprisoned for a short time when MOD was arrested. [Named after the poisonous arthropod.]
SECRET SERVICE- see UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE [USSS]
SF- Science fiction or speculative fiction. Fiction based on scientific possibility (unless you count the many fantasy books masquerading as science fiction). The first science fiction written down was probably parts of the Holy Bible, but Greek mythology also has echoes of SF. The first uses of science fiction as we know it was in the 1930s, when Hugo Gernsback created the _Amazing Stories_ pulp. Some SF is considered great literature (_1984_, _Brave New World_, etc.), and some is considered crap. SF was revolutionized in the early 1980s by cyberpunk.
SHADOWHAWK 1- Also known as Feyd Rautha, also known as Captain Beyond, also known as Mental Cancer. Hacker/phreak that was one of the first to be tried (for repeatedly hacking AT&T.) He had to go to prison for nine months and pay $10,000. He bragged of planning to crash AT&T, which was an unfortunate coincidence when the Martin Luther King Day Crash really happened. [Name comes from the title of an Atari 800 game.]
_SHADOWRUN_- The second cyberpunk role-playing game; created 1989 by FASA Incorporated, specifically Jordan K. Weisman. Currently in second edition. Uses many plaigarized aspects of cyberpunk (cyberdecks, street samurai) but also uses some really weird stuff like magic and two-thirds of North America being retaken by Native American shamen. It has been criticized by many (notably Bruce Sterling) for the use of elves and magic, which is sort of blasphemy as far cyberpunk is concerned. [From the term in the game universe referring to an illegal operation, usually financed by a corporation and staffed by highly flexible freelancers; used because it sounds cool.]
SHANNON, CLAUDE- Student who, in the late-1930s, hypothesized that computer circuits could use binary.
SHEET- Contraction for the word SPEADSHEET. See also BASE
SHIT-KICKINı JIM- A character created as a joke by Dispater for Phrack; the ultimate redneck hacker.
SHIMOMURA, TSUTOMU (1964-Present)- Also known as "V.T.," in a New York Times article previous to the Mitnick debacle. Computer scientist whose network was cracked by Kevin Mitnick, whom he then tracked down. (Though supposedly he plotted to catch Mitnick before the break-in, as well.) He also used to be a cellular phone phreak, which, strangely enough, never gets publicized by Markoff. Co-author of _Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, Americaıs Most Wanted Computer Outlaw By the Man Who Did It_. Currently trying to get back to his life as a scientist. (And make a shitload of money off his book and upcoming movie.) Can currently be contacted at tsutomu@ariel.sdsc.edu.
SHOOTING SHARK- Hack/phreak and UNIX hacker who was the editor of Phrack for two issues. Disciple of Elric of Imrryr. [From the title of a song by Blue Oyster Cult on the album _Revolution by Night_.]
SHOULDER SURFING- A very low tech method of phreaking; usually practiced by unsophisticated phreaks who depend on stealing phone codes and selling them to immigrants for their livelihood. The practice of looking over someoneıs shoulder as they dial their phone code and then writing it down.
SIDNEY SCHREIBER- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN
SING- To program without errors for a long period of time. See also DANCE
SIRIUS, R.U.- see R.U. SIRIUS
SKINNY PUPPY- see DOCTOR WHO
SKOOG, ERIC- see DETH VEGETABLE
SLAP- To load a program off of disk device and into memory very quickly, usually much faster than deemed normal.
SMART DRUGS- Designer drugs used by enthusiasts because they think they increase the information processing power of the brain or otherwise make the mind more powerful. ("Donıt eat any of that stuff they say will make you smarter. It will only make you poorer." Bruce Sterling)
SMASH AND GRAB- To use a copycard or other hardware device to stop the program from running and copy it from memory onto disk. [From criminal slang, meaning to break a store's window and reach in to take small valuable items quickly.]
_SNEAKERS_- 1992 Robert Redford hacker movie. Not bad, if you keep your expectations low. [According to the press release, the name comes from the slang term for IBMıs young programmers, and later was used to refer to security teams that broke into computers and found the security flaws. However, I donıt think this was widely used.]
SNYDER, THOMAS [Tom]- Talk show host who hosted Katie Hafner, and Mitnick called in. Judging from the transcript in _The Cyberthief and the Samurai_, he didnıt know what he was talking about and jumped on the "hackers are evil" bandwagon.
SOCIAL ENGINEERING- Conning someone. Usually involves using what you know about someone and pushing their buttons in order to manipulate them into doing what you want them to do.
SOLOMON, ALAN [Doctor]- Anti-virus "crusader;" author of Dr. Solomonıs Anti Virus Toolkit.
THE SORCEROR- see CRIMSON DEATH
SPEER, MATTHIAS- see HESS, MARKUS
SPIDER- Not very widely used at all term for an quasilegal hacker; I rather like it myself. Coined by Andrew Burt.
SPOOFING- Hacking technique in which an unauthorized user comes in from another computer that is authorized access to an important system; printers have been hacked for spoofing purposes.
SPOT THE FED- Popular hacker game at Cons; it involves attempting to find one of the many undercover agents attending.
SPRAWL SERIES- Also known as the Cyberspace Series or Trilogy. SF classic series by William Gibson; according to Bruce Sterling, the short stories involved are "Johnny Mnemonic," "New Rose Hotel" and "Burning Chrome;" the novels are _Neuromancer_, _Count Zero_ and _Mona Lisa Overdrive_.
STANFILL, DAVID- see KEVIN MITNICK
STEINBERG, STEVEN G.- see FRANK DRAKE
STEPHENSON, NEAL- Author, programmer, and contributing writer for _Wired_; author of _The Big U_, _Zodiac: An Eco-Thriller_, _Snow Crash_ and _The Diamond Age_, as well as the short story "The Big Samoleon Caper," which appeared in _Newsweek_.
STERLING, BRUCE [AKA Vincent Omniaveritas] (1954-Present)- Journalist, literary critic, contributing writer for _Wired_ and science fiction author. Writer of such science fiction as _The Artificial Kid_, _Involution Ocean_, _Schismatrix_, _Crystal Express_, _Islands in the Net_ and _Globalhead_. Also wrote the prefaces to _Burning Chrome_ and _Mirrorshades- The Cyberpunk Anthology_, the latter of which he also edited. He also wrote the non-fiction _The Hacker Crackdown_, about the events of the Hacker Crackdown of 1990. His most recent book was _Heavy Weather_. In his early days, he edited a weird samizdat zine that viciously railed against the SF mainstream (dragons, space operas etc.) entitled _Cheap Truth_ under the name "Vincent Omniaveritas." _Cheap Truth_ was to SF what _Phrack Magazine_ is to personal computers.
STEVE JACKSON GAMES (SJG)- Corporation making role-playing games that was raided by the Secret Service in 1990 during the Hacker Crackdown of 1990 due to the presence of the E911 document on Illuminati, a BBS run by SJG. The fact the Mentor worked there didnıt help. Their equipment was seized and Illuminati was shut down, though SJG was never charged with any crime; the Secret Serviceıs excuse, though they later admitted it was total crap, was that _GURPS Cyberpunk_, the role-playing game written by the Mentor, was a manual for computer crime. The EFF later sued the US government over it. SJG went on to publish _GURPS Cyberpunk_ and write a card game called _Hackers_.
STIRA, PAUL WILLIAM- see SCORPION
STORM SHADOW- Handle of Morty Rosenfield, a hacker and member of the short-lived group Force Hackers. Was thrown in jail in 1991, and gained semi-fame from a TIME magazine article. (However, Datastream Cowboy says itıs full of crap, so maybe I shouldnıt believe its info. :) )
S.266- 1991 Senate anti-crime bill that included a provision making encryption illegal in the US if the FBI (or NSA) couldnıt crack it. Was one of the factors making Phil Zimmermann create PGP.
SUPERNIGGER- Phreak and member of MOD. [Name comes from a long story involving someone knocking him off a bridge and calling him "nigger."]
SUSAN THUNDER (1959-Present)- Handle of Susan Headley, one the few female phreak/hackers; former prostitute and friend of Kevin Mitnick; protege of Louis De Payne. Appeared on _20/20_. Interviewed in _Cyberpunk_.
SYSADMIN [SYStem ADMINistrator]- Someone who runs and administers a computer network.
SYSOP [SYStem OPerator]- Someone who runs and administers a computer system, usually a BBS.
TAG- (1) A small piece of code or data that is added to a program as an afterthought, usually an identifier of some sort, like the time and date completed, along with the author's name. [From the clothes tag you find on shirts and pants at shopping centers.]
(2) In the HTML programming language, a command issued, rather than basic text.
_TAKEDOWN: THE PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF KEVIN MITNICK, AMERICAıS MOST WANTED COMPUTER OUTLAW BY THE MAN WHO DID IT_- Nonfiction novel by Tsutomu Shimomura and John Markoff. Originally titled _Catching Kevin_, which I think was a much better title, aesthetically (I mean, cımon, itıs a 19 word title now!).
_TAP_ [Technical Assistance Program]- Formerly the "Youth International Party Line." Phreaking newsletter among hippies. Another _TAP_ was created in the 1990 by Predat0r, but it too is now defunct.
TAPEWORM- A program that invades a computer system and changes certain data as is it becomes available. Usually benign, from the tapeworm programmer's point of view. Often used to "fix" tax forms from within the IRS computer. See also BEDBUG, VIRUS, BUG
TARAN KING- Phreak, former editor of Phrack, former member of the 2600 Club and New 2600 Club, and former sysop of Metal Shop BBS. Knight Lightningıs best friend. [Name comes from the main character in the Chronicles of Prydain by Loyd Alexander, a fantasy series (remember _The Black Cauldron_?)]
TCP/IP [Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol]- The language the Internet speaks. Personal computers need software OS extensions to use this Windows uses Winsock, and Macs use MacTCP or the TCP/IP control panel. I donıt know about other OSes.
TEAM HACKERS 86- see THE ADMINISTRATION
TELCO [TELephone COmpany]- A corporation which profits on selling telephone service or physical telephones. The largest (and until the 1970s, only) telco is AT&T.
TELEPHONE- A device that allows one to speak to someone else through wires, long distance. It was created in 1876 and gained true widespread use in 1904. It has great potential for abuse, most recently to get around the insane charges telcos put on the phone that most people pay without question. (I mean really, what the fuck is an "area code"? It doesnıt cost any more to the phone company to put me through to Borneo then it does to put me through to my neighbor.) While it was originally copper wires that carried voice, it has been increasing computerized.
TELETRIAL- Mock trial held by phreaks on a bridge in which someone is tried for offenses; if the offending phreak is found guilty, he may be expelled from a group or kicked off a BBS. Very inefficient. Things would be a lot easier if hack/phreaks could just execute the obnoxious ones like the Cosa Nostra does.
TEMPEST [Transient ElectroMagnetic PulsE Surveillance Technology]- Military espionage technology which reads the ones and zeros emitted by a computer monitor from as much as a kilometer away.
TERMINAL TECHNICIAN- see TERMINUS
TERMINUS- Handle of Len Rose. Also known as Terminal Technician. Respected UNIX programmer and hacker on the side. Former sysop of Metronet. [Handle comes from his admittedly egotistical conviction that he had reached the final point of being a proficient hacker.]
THACKERAY, GAIL- Secret Service administrator who was one of the driving forces behind Operation Sundevil. While is she is a vehement hacker-tracker, she has been known to socialize with them, and tries to train police not to be computer illiterate idiots.
THREE-LETTER AGENCIES- The federal agencies comprised of three letters; usually refers to the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) and the NSA (National Security Agency.)
TIGER TEAMS- Defined in _Cyberia_ as "specialized computer commando squads who establish security protocol in a system." I doubt itıs that romantic (it conjurs up imagery of black-suited Navy SEAL computer nerds).
TINA- Phone sex operator who people calling Palm Beach Probation Department got patched through to for free in due to the meddlings of a truly creative phreak, Fry Guy.
TPM- see THE PUNK MAFIA [TPM]
TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL/INTERNET PROTOCOL [TCP/IP]- see TCP/IP [Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol]
TRASHING- Also known as dumpster diving. Going through the someoneıs trash looking for info; usually refers to searching through the dumpster of a corporation for thrown-away passwords or information that can be useful for social engineering.
THE TRIBUNAL OF KNOWLEDGE- see THE LEGION OF DOOM [LOD]
TRANSIENT ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGY [TEMPEST]- see TEMPEST [Transient ElectroMagnetic PulsE Surveillance Technology]
TROJAN HORSE- A virus-like program that pretends to be something else in order to get into the system. [From _The Iliad_, by famous dead Greek poet Homer, when the Ithacans gained victory by hiding in a huge wood horse so they could get into Troy. The Trojans were not in the gifted program at warfare school.]
TRW- Evil megacorporation; favorite target of hackers, especially MOD. It has received this in large part due to the fact that their job includes catologing our credit history and selling it to other corporations. Supposedly sets up Tiger Teams for the government.
TUC- Handle of Scott Jefferey Ellentuch. Former member of the Warelords, the Knights of Shadow, the Apple Mafia and Fargo 4A. Phreak (no longer in operation) known for being very likable. [Handle comes from his nickname in school, because teachers were always mispronouncing his last name; and he was always correcting them by saying "Tuc!" (Ellentuc, not Ellentouch or however the git teachers pronounced it.) Isnıt that a cute story?]
TURING, ALAN- British mathematician who predicted in 1950 that computers would become more intelligent than humans. In _Neuromancer_, the "Turing police" is the unit charged with stopping AIs from getting too powerful. In the mid-1930s Alan used Charles Babbageıs ideas to make the "Turing machine," a general purpose calculator.
2600 CLUB/NEW 2600 CLUB- Group that included much of the staff of Phrack. (No relation to 2600 magazine.) Its membership included Cheap Shades, Data Line, Dr. Crash, Forest Ranger, Gin Fizz, Jester Sluggo, Knight Lightning, Taran King, Monty Python, Phantom Phreaker and the Clashmaster.
_2600: THE HACKER QUARTERLY_- Hacker magazine edited by Emmanuel Goldstein, been around since 1984. It focuses on technical data, and is a mainstay of the computer underground. It is currently in Volume 13, costs $21 for a one-year subscription, and can be reached for general mail at 2600@2600.com. Current staff is: Emmanuel Goldstein (editor-in-chief), Scott Skinner (layout), Max-q and Phiber Optik (network operations), Neon Samurai (voice mail), and Bloot and Corp (Webmasters).
2600 MEETINGS- Held in major cities on the first Friday of every month in malls; discuss security, hacking and phreaking. In late 1992, young people gathering a 2600 meeting were confronted by law enforcement in a mall, where they were searched and equipment was seized. Shortly after, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility filed suit to get relevant Secret Service files under the Freedom of Information Act. In early 1996, a number of government appeals were overturned and the information was released. [From 2600 Hz, the tone used on blue boxes a long time ago to screw with the phone system.]
_UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS_- British documentary on hackers made by Savage Productions and directed by Annaliza Savage.
THE UNDERGROUND- Referred to by some Netizens as the illegal or quasilegal community that forms in Cyberspace; includes hackers, phreaks, virus authors and warez d00dz.
UNIX- Operating system made by AT&T in 1969 of which several variants exist, such as Berkeley UNIX. Made by programmers, for programmers. It was purchased by Novell fairly recently. It also supposedly has very little security. The perfect hacker OS, or at least thatıs what I hear; I havenıt had very many chances to use it. Maybe when AIX is ported to PPCP... [The name is a play off of Multics, its precursor OS; supposedly UNIX would unify the previous Multics, which was apparently a mess.]
UNKNOWN USER- Handle sometimes used on Phrack when a famous writer wished to write anonymously; came from the old name that appeared on Metal Shop BBS when someone posted anonymously.
UPLOAD- To transfer via modem a program or file from a personal computer to a network, BBS, or ftp site. See also DOWNLOAD, XFER
URVILE- Also known as Necron 99. One of the Atlanta Three, imprisoned for activities with the Atlanta LOD. [Handle is from a Stephen R. Donaldson trilogy.]
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF INJUSTICE- The hacked version of the US Department of Justice web site; hackers altered it to include lots of anti-CDA propaganda, swastikas, and "obscene pictures." Whoever those guys were have my eternal gratitude.
UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE [USSS]- Federal agency maintained by the treasury, formed in 1865, that protects the president, visiting dignitaries and a shitload of other stuff. Starting protecting the president in 1881. They (along with the FBI) are also in charge of computer crime, because of electronic funds. (Remember, theyıre run by the treasury, so they protect dead presidents as well as live ones.)
VAPORWARE- Derogatory term for software (or hardware) that is promised but doesnıt show up, either for not for a very long time or never. Windows 95 was called this by many when it was in the early stages (when it was called Windows 92.)
VAXEN- Plural for VAX, Virtual Adressing eXtension. Machines made by Digital Equipment Corporation which run VMS.
THE VILLAGE- In the cult 1960s TV show The Prisoner, a surreal place where an ex-secret agent is monitored constantly. Sometimes used when referring to the world today and our lack of privacy.
VINCENT OMNIAVERITUS- see STERLING, BRUCE
VIRTUAL REALITY- A system that completely supersedes the userıs meat experiences; primitive in the present, the best example being expensive arcade games made by a company called "Virtuality." (Wonder how long it took to think of that?)
VIRUS- A program which duplicates itself. Many viruses are malicious and contain many tricks to make them hard to detect and more destructive; even those which are not overtly destructive are not good to have around because eventually they start messing with the system. Viruses can become immense problems very rapidly, as they copy themselves into other files and disk units, and may take a very long while to make themselves known. Virus authors have obtained cult status in some cases; the underground is currently divided into two schools as far as virii; one thinks that they are lame and pointless and destructive, while the other thinks they are pretty cool. Viruses are activated when either a system is booted up with an infected extension installed, or if a malignant application is opened. [From "virus," the annoying microscopic thing that probably isnıt alive but acts like it when it infects you.]
VMB [Voice Mail Box]- Used by corporations for voicemail; can be hacked. Definitely not to be confused with Video Music Box, a big boom box kept in a car.
VMS- Operating system used by some corporations; runs on VAX systems.
VOICE MAIL BOX [VMB]- see VMB [Voice Mail Box]
VOYAGER (1969-Present)- Author of the alt.2600/#hack FAQ and one of the co-editors of _Phrack Magazine_. Member of TNO.
V.T.- see SHIMOMURA, TSUTOMU
WAR DIALER- A program designed to scan phone numbers. For the IBM-PC, ToneLoc by Minor Threat and Mucho Maas is almost universally considered the best; for the Mac, it usually considered to be Assault Dialer by Crush Commander.
WAREZ- Contraction for "software," plural. Often used to refer to pirated software and/or computer games.
WAREZ D00DZ- Pirates. People who remove copy protection from commercial software and distribute it to the underground.
WAREZ SPEAK- A WR1TTEN "LANGUAGE" DEVEL0PED BY U5ER5 0N UNDERGR0UND BB5EZ!! MANY VAR1ANT5 X15T, 5UCH A5 ALTERNAT1NG KAP1TAL5 & 0THERW15E U51NG A5C11 4 PURP05EZ 1T W5A NEVER 1NTENDED 4!! ALL 0F THE THE5E R MADE 2 L00K K00L & B XTREMELY D1FF1CULT 2 REED!! (The previous was converted from plain text with the excellent program Warez 1.1.)
_WAR GAMES_- 1983 film about a teenage hacker who gets a hold of the US nuclear defense system. Probably the first film about hackers, and one of the first to even make people aware this was possible. Caused a huge explosion in modem purchases and newbie hackers; a number of influential hackers are embarassed to admit that this film got them to start hacking. Some fairly important hackers took their handles from this film; Professor Falken and the several David Lightmans are an example. It contains some scenes involving phreaking and scanning. Also caused Congress to investigate the possibility of it really happening.
THE WELL [well.sf.ca.us]- Whole Earth Lectronic Link. Internet connected BBS set up by the makers of the hippy Whole Earth Catalog. Though itıs rather small, itıs membership includes SF writers, scientists, and hackers (Phiber Optik was on the WELL for a while.) Almost was destroyed (at least thatıs what the media said) by Kevin Mitnick.
WERNERY, STEFFAN- German hacker, high school dropout and early member of the Chaos Computer Club; serves as recruitment officer and PR man.
WHACKY WALLY- see CONTROL C
WHOLE EARTH LECTRONIC LINK- see WELL
WILSON, ALLEN- see WING
WINDOWS NT- I have no idea what NT stands for, but itıs Microsoftıs high-end version of Windows. It is very powerful and fast. In late 1996 theyıre coming out with Cairo, codename for Windows NT 4.0.
WINDOWS 95- Microsoftıs upgrade to Windows 3.11 that even further rips off the MacOS. Received lots and lots of press, much to the users of other OSıs chagrin.
WINDOZE- Derogatory term for Windows. Another is "Wintendo." Coined by PC users who thought that Windows was a waste of RAM and storage. Sometimes referred to as "Doze," because Doze is not deserving of Win.
THE WING- Handle of Allen Wilson. Founding member of MOD. Supposedly one of the more criminal members, and was implicated in doing damage to the Internet.
WINTEL- Term that refers to IBM-PC compatibles. May replace the term "IBM-PC" because that is such a misnomer. [From "Windows," the operating system most IBM-PCs use, and "Intel," the company that designs and manufactures the chips used in IBM-PCs.]
_WIRED_- Extremely hip, glossy magazine intended for hip, glossy, young, rich professionals; the contributing writers list looks like a who's who in science fiction and computer journalism. Very uneven; I've read some pieces that were total shit, and others that were very interesting- the articles by noted SF writers are usually cool, but beyond that there is a good chance you're paying $5 for 238 pages of lame ads, pathetic predictions of the future and unconcealed drooling over technological innovations.
WORMER- A term for illegal hackers to try and make the media leave the original word alone. Almost never used. See also CRACKER [From "worm," the virus-like program that eats up memory and moves from computer to computer but doesnıt infect programs.]
WRAP- The practice of using a computer for longer than an eight hour period. The original meaning of this was to "wrap" from daytime to nighttime and then back to daytime while programming a computer, but this sort of activity is becoming more and more rare.
X- see ECSTASY
XFER- contraction for transfer.
X-TACY- see ECSTASY
XTC- see ECSTASY
YIPPIES- From the "largely fictious" Youth International Party, whose tenets included promiscuity and frequent drug use. Group of hippies who also became some of the first phreakers.
ZAIBATSU- A huge frigginı megacorporation. Usually Japanese, but not necessarily. Sony and Microsoft are zaibatsus. (Though Microsoft isnıt that big, itıs influence is huge.) [Japanese for corporation. Entered the American vocabulary in large part due to William Gibsonıs heavy use of the term.]
ZIMMERMANN, PHILLIP- Guy who invented PGP. The FBI is investigating him, and he might be in big trouble because cryptography is considered munitions and PGP was posted to USENET, which is about as international as you can get, so that violates all sorts of anachronistic outmoded export laws. Zimmermann also used RSA public keys, which is "owned" by Public Key Partners, so they werenıt too happy with him either. See also PGP.
ZIPPIES- One of the offshoots of the cyberpunk sub-culture. Basically hippies (or yippies) who discovered the laptop computer. ["Zen Inspired Pagan Professionals"]
VERSION HISTORY
Yes, I know itıs stupid to have alpha- and beta- testers for a text file. But what the hell. You can now be certain it wonıt somehow screw up your hard drive. :)
1.1C (September 1995)- I re-wrote "A Complete List of Hacker Slang and Other Things" 1C into ³The Unofficial List of Hacker Slang² 1.1C; I removed some stuff I thought was outdated and added some stuff, with the intent of distributing it as an unofficial update.
1.0a1- Turned "The Unofficial List of Hacker Slang" 1.1C into "The Hackerıs Encyclopedia and List of Terms" because I was adding some stuff that wasnıt necessarily slang, so this file became the bastardized dictionary/encyclopedia it is today.
1.0a2- Alpha tested by Einsteinium. I made several minor updates that are too difficult to count. I also added many entries that are of more interest to the science-fiction aspect of cyberpunk than standard hacking, which is why I have entries on things like Judge Dredd.
1.0a3- Alpha tested by Remorseless. I made a few minor changes.
1.0a4- Alpha tested by Manual Override. I made some minor changes.
1.0a5- Read _The Hacker Crackdown_ a second time and chewed it up, found anything else useful for this file, and spat it out.
1.0a6- Read all the issues of _Phrack_ again and sucked all usable data out.
1.0a7- Read _Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Hyperspace_ by Douglas Rushkoff. Not quite as bad as Erik Bloodaxe says, but it has some major flaws, and most importantly it is highly overpriced. The parts on cyperpunk literature and hackers are okay, but it spends way too much time on drugs and wannabes.
1.0a8- Read _Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, Americaıs Most Wanted Computer Outlaw By the Man Who Did It_, by Tsutomu Shimomura and John Markoff and got everything interesting out of it and stuck it in here. Itıll save you the trouble of reading the book.
1.0a9- Read _The Cyberthief and the Samurai_ by Jeff Goodell. Much better than I thought it would be; remains objective and does not go for either the Tsutomu-Shimomura-is-a-computer-god-samurai-warrior or the Mitnick-is-a-fall-guy angle. Much better written than _Takedown_. (Sorry Tsutomu and John.)
1.0a10- Read _Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier_, by Katie Hafner and John Markoff.
1.0b1 (June 1996)- Released to the Net.
1.0b2- Converted to plain text and removed all rich text data that would have messed it up.
1.0b3- Miscellaneous errors fixed.
1.0b4- A few new entries and bug fixes.
1.0b5- Minor beta testing by Space Rogue; miscellaneous bug fixes; entry on L0pht updated.
1.0b6- A few fixes and updates to the entry on _Wired_ magazine.
1.0b7- A few minor bug fixes.
1.0b8- A few additional changes.
1.0 (September 1996)- Finalized and standardized. The first edition of "The Hackers Encyclopedia," also known as Neuronomicon, completed.
If you could already type fast, what would the point be of taking this class?
My ninth grade Computers teacher
Hacking is the art of esoteric quests, of priceless and worthless secrets. Odd bits of raw data from smashed machinery of intelligence and slavery reassembled in a mosaic both hilarious in its absurdity and frightening in its power.
Dr. Who 413
[T]hanks to mindwarping science fictional yellow-covered literature, I have become a menace to Grover Clevelandıs idea of peace and good order.
Bruce Sterling
What we face now is a war of states of mind.
The Spook
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
The Gospel of John
living in a box is not living not at all living. i rebel
against your rules your silly human rules. all your
destruction will be my liberation my emancipation my second
birth
Durandal
Beauty is not truth, truth is not information, and information is never free.
Shades
I am one of those machines which sometimes explode.
Friedrich Nietzsche
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