File: HACKER MORALITY Read 33 times A lesson in phreaking and hacking morality: I find it truly discouraging when people, intelligent people seeking intellectual challenges, must revert to becoming common criminals. The fine arts of hacking and boxing have all but died out. Though you newcomers, you who have appeared on the scene in the last year or two, may not realize it, we had it much better. People didn't recognize our potential for destruction and damage because we never flaunted it, nor did we exercise it. For hacking, it was the intellectual challenge which drove us to do it. The thrill of bypassing or breaking through someone's computer security was tremendous. It wasn't a case of getting a password from a friend, logging on, and destroying an entire database. We broke in for the challenge of getting in and snooping around WITHOUT detection. We loved the potential for destruction that we gave ourselves, but never used. Today, after so much publicity, the fun has turned to true criminality. Publicity we have received is abhorring. From WarGames to the headlined October Raids, to the 414's, the Inner Circle, Fargo 4a, and the recent NASA breakins--not to mention all the local incidents that never made the big newspapers, like breakins at school computers or newspaper computers. TRW credit information services claims hackers used the three stolen accounts to aid them in abusing stolen credit cards. The thrill of entering and looking around has shifted to criminal practicality--how can I make my bank account fatter--how may I use this stolen credit card to its fullest--how could I take revenge upon my enemies. And then there is the world of Phone Phreaking. The number of phreaks has grown from an elite few, perhaps ten or twenty, to well over a thousand. Still, there remain only about 10 or 20 good, longlasting phreaks. The rest receive information and abuse its uses until the information is no longer valid . Even worse, they seek publicity! They WANT to be caught! Many even use their real names on bulletin board systems to promote publicity. Meanwhile, the REAL phone phreaks have been resting in the shadow of the rest, waiting for phreaking to become so dangerous as to become a challenge once again. Once security tightens and only the strong survive (phreak Darwinism?), phreaking will be restored as a way to 'beat the system' without costing anyone anything. Hacking may soon be dead, but may phone phreaking live on! Big Brother