Bruce Sterling
bruces@well.com
Literary Freeware -- Not For Commercial Use
They called it "CyberView '91." Actually, it was
another "SummerCon" -- the traditional summer gathering
of the American hacker underground. The organizer, 21
year old "Knight Lightning," had recently beaten a
Computer Fraud and Abuse rap that might have put him in
jail for thirty years. A little discretion seemed in
order.
The convention hotel, a seedy but accommodating
motor-inn outside the airport in St Louis, had hosted
SummerCons before. Changing the name had been a good
idea. If the staff were alert, and actually recognized
that these were the same kids back again, things might
get hairy.
The SummerCon '88 hotel was definitely out of bounds.
The US Secret Service had set up shop in an informant's
room that year, and videotaped the drunken antics of the
now globally notorious "Legion of Doom" through a one-way
mirror. The running of SummerCon '88 had constituted a
major count of criminal conspiracy against young Knight
Lightning, during his 1990 federal trial.
That hotel inspired sour memories. Besides, people
already got plenty nervous playing "hunt the fed" at
SummerCon gigs. SummerCons generally featured at least
one active federal informant. Hackers and phone phreaks
like to talk a lot. They talk about phones and computers
-- and about each other.
For insiders, the world of computer hacking is a lot
like Mexico. There's no middle class. There's a million
little kids screwing around with their modems, trying to
snitch long-distance phone-codes, trying to swipe pirated
software -- the "kodez kidz" and "warez doodz." They're
peons, "rodents." Then there's a few earnest wannabes,
up-and-comers, pupils. Not many. Less of 'em every year,
lately.
And then there's the heavy dudes. The players.
The Legion of Doom are definitely heavy. Germany's Chaos
Computer Club are very heavy, and already back out on
parole after their dire flirtation with the KGB. The
Masters of Destruction in New York are a pain in the ass
to their rivals in the underground, but ya gotta admit
