==Phrack Inc.== Volume Three, Issue Thirty-Four, File #3 of 11 -*[ P H R A C K XXXIV P R O P H I L E ]*- -=>[ Presented by Dispater ]<=- The Disk Jockey ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Handle: The Disk Jockey (over 10 years now...) Call him: Doug Reach him: douglas@netcom.com Past handles: None Handle origin: Selected it way back in the Apple days, when it was hip to have a hardware-related name. Date of Birth: 12/29/67 Age at current date: 23 Approximate Location: Silicon Valley Height: 6'1" Weight: 220 lbs. Eye color: Green Hair Color: Blond/brown Education: Cornell, Univ of Michigan, Stanford, and a slew of others schools that I had the opportunity to attend. What started out as a strong belief in law became so jaded that I fell back on Comp Sci. Still wake up in the middle of the night yelling "NO!, NO!" Also have a wallpaper degree in Psychology. Computers: First: Apple //. Presently: several. Mac IIfx, 386/33, and several others that I can't seem to get rid of... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Story of my Hacking Career ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I was lucky enough to be able to get my hands on computers early, back in the days of the PET and the TRS-80. Although we poke fun at a Trash-80 now, at the time I was completely fascinated by it. Remember Newdos/80, LDOS, and utilities like SuperZap? Things started really rolling after a friend introduced me to the Apple. Although I never fell into the stereotype of being a computer "nerd" (don't we all like to think that?), compared to the redundancy of normal schoolwork, learning about the Apple was a new and unexplored world. Unlike most of the other computer "types", I didn't read science fiction, didn't have any social problems, and thought looking at girls was more enjoyable than talking about hardware. Well, depending on the hardware. (ha-ha!) "Cracking" Apple software was of course the next logical step. The 6502 was a wonderful chip, and easy to learn. Copy-cards and other "hacked" hardware was becoming findable and it was getting to the point that the only goal was to get your hands on pre-release software. Before I had entered the "modem" world, friends had a network of other people across the country and traded things by mail. Of course the whole world changed when I picked up a 300 baud modem. Suddenly there was the communication and knowledge that I had been hungry for. People wrote text files on just about everything imaginable. What is the president's phone number? How can I call the pope? How can I make lowercase on my Apple II? What are the routing numbers for boxing to the Eastern Bloc countries? Codes were never much of an interest. The systems that ran them, however, were quite interesting. As technology advanced, SCCs started using sophisticated AI techniques to detect any kind of abnormal usage instantly. Codes used to last several months, now they only lasted a few hours. Boxing, however, was a little more elegant and was the flashy way to call your friends. Even before I had ever heard of boxing or phreaking, I enjoyed the benefits of what we now know as a "red box". While in boarding school, I noticed that a somewhat broken phone emitted obscenely loud "beeps" when you dropped in a quarter. I took a little micro-recorder and recorded myself dropping about $5.00 into the phone. When I played this back into the telephone, the telco thought I was actually dropping change in the machine! I was able to call my girlfriend or whomever and speak for hours. Now most payphones mute those tones so they are barely audible, if at all. Local user groups were a good place to pick up software, legal and otherwise. Remember those damn "CLOAD" magazine tapes for the TRS-80? 80-Micro magazine? The early 80's was the time of the hardware hacker - anything bizarre you wanted you had to make yourself, since it wasn't available otherwise. Now you can call any of a slew of 800 numbers, give them your credit card number (!) and have it on your doorstep the next day. I think part of the problem of the "new generation" of hackers, phreakers, warez kids, etc, is that they never had the experience with low-level stuff and actually having to into the hardware to get what they wanted. Their only programming experience is coming from school, which gives a shallow and usually totally impractical background for the "real world". My eventual disgust with the pirate world came when products such as "Pirate's Friend" came out, allowing people to sector edit out my name and insert theirs. I had spent quite a lot of time trying to find new software, and enjoyed the ego stroke of having my name passed around. I had a lot of respect for book authors that were plagiarized after that... About the industry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The computer industry in general is interesting. Working in it, I hope I'm justified to speak about it. Getting a job is quite easy, since the technology is changing so much, unless it is in something that will be around for some time, you can usually pick up a job by just knowing the latest developments, the buzzwords, and having good "chemistry". In the valley many firms realize that colleges don't really teach you much in the way of practical knowledge. At best, they give you the opportunity to try different types of machines. It amazes me that HR departments in companies across the country won't even look at a resume unless the applicant has a college degree. Advanced degrees are a different matter and are usually quite applicable towards research, but your usual BA/BS variety? Nah. If you want to make a lot of money in this industry, all you need to do is get the reputation as a person who "gets things done" and have superior communication skills. You can write your ticket after that. About legal issues ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Anyone who has ever read some of my later text files (1986, 1987) knows that I had no qualms about the legalities of beating an establishment. Although my line of morals was probably beyond where others placed theirs, I could always justify to myself damage or loss to an establishment, "beating the system", rather than hurting the individual. Although I am pretty right-winged in beliefs, I have a great distrust for the policing agencies. Various memories ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Getting a call from my father while at school and being told that Control C had called him and relayed the message "Tell Doug the FBI are after The Disk Jockey. Get rid of everything and hide." To say I "cleaned house" would have been a gross understatement. I knew this was true, I, like many others, had just ridden on the false pretense that they would have better things to do then come after me. I later saw intelligence reports showing that I had been kept track of for some time. I was described as: "Involved in some type of student-loan scam through creating fictitious college applicants at his school. Very violent temper, ruthless attitude. Breaks people's legs for money (TX). Owns a motorcycle and a european sedan. Nasty hacker." Only a handful of people would know that I had a motorcycle, so it was somewhat upsetting that they had this kind of information on me. I later saw some of this same information in Michigan Bell Security's records. They also had the correct phone number for my place at Cornell, my parents number, and even the number of some of my personal non-computer related friends. SummerCon in 1987 was a fun experience. I had the opportunity to meet many of the people that I communicated with regularly, as well as wonder why people thought St. Louis was such a wonderful place. While there were a few socially "on-the-fringe" types, I was amazed that most of the other "hackers" didn't fit the usual stereotypes. They were just regular guys that had a some above average cleverness that allowed them to see the things that others couldn't. By the time I was 20 years old, I had about $40,000 worth of credit on plastic, as well as a $10,000 line of credit for "signature loans" at a local bank. The credit system was something that seemed fun to exploit, and it doesn't take long to figure out how the "system" works. With that kind of cash Aavailable, however, it's tempting to go and buy something outrageous and do things that you wouldn't normally do if you had the cash. This country is really starting to revolve around credit, and it will be very hard to survive if you don't have some form of it. If more people were aware of how the credit systems worked, they might be able to present themselves in a better light to future creditors. I don't think that credit is a difficult thing to understand, I just had an unusual interest in understanding and defeating it. Perhaps this is something that my future text files should be about. Getting busted ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On June 27, 1988 at 1:47am, I had just parked my car outside my apartment and was walking up to the door when I heard someone say "Doug?" I knew that no friend of mine would be visiting at that hour, so I knew my fate before I turned around. An FBI agent, State police detective and a local detective were walking up to me. "We have a warrant for your arrest." Interestingly, they had actually several warrants, since they weren't sure what my name was. I was being arrested for 6 counts of "conspiracy to commit fraud". After being searched to make sure I wasn't carrying a gun, they asked if they could "go into my apartment and talk about things". Although I had completely "cleaned house" and had nothing to hide in there, I wasn't about to help out an investigation on me. "Ah, I think I had better contact an attorney first." "Is there one you can call right now?" "Are you kidding? It's 2:00am!" I was handcuffed and had my legs strapped together with a belt and was thrown in the back of a car. This was one of those usual government cars that you see in the movies with the blackwalls and usual hubcaps. Interestingly enough, the armrest of the car hid quite an array of radio equipment. Although pretty freaked out, I figured the best thing to do at that point was try to get some sleep and call the best attorney money could by in the morning. Little did I know where I was being brought. I was driven all the way to a small Indiana town (population 5,000) where a 16 year-old Wheatfield Indiana boy had made the statement that he and I "agreed to devise a scam". Although nothing was ever done, merely planning it created the conspiracy charge. I figured that after my arraignment I could post bail and find an attorney. I had almost $10k in the bank and could probably find more if I needed it. I was sadly mistaken. The next day at my arraignment the charges were read and bail was set -- $150,000.00, cash only! In a strange turn of events, the FBI decided to totally drop the case against me. The federal prosecutor figured it wasn't worth wasting his time and they jumped out. However, the Indiana state police were involved in my arrest and were angry that the FBI was dropping the case after they had invested so much time and money in the case, so they decided to pursue the case themselves. There is so much friction between the FBI and state police, that the FBI didn't even answer their letters when they tried to request information and data files on me. Funny. I spent 6 months in a tiny county jail, missing the start and first semester of school. I was interrogated constantly. I never told on a sole and never made a statement about myself. I sat in jail daily, reading books and waiting for my court dates. Although I never expected it, nobody ever thanks you when you keep your mouth shut. I can't imagine that many people would sit in jail for a long time in order to save their friends. Perhaps it's a personal thing, but I always thought that although I doubt someone else would do it for me, I would never, ever tell anything on anyone else. I would never be responsible for someone else's demise. It took a lot of money, and a lot of friday nights of frustration, but I walked away from that incident without ever making a statement. It was at a time when my "roots" were deepest and I probably could have really turned in a lot of other people for my benefit, but it was at a time in my life where I could afford to miss some school and the integrity was more important to me. There were a lot of decisions that had to be made, and spending time in jail is nothing to be proud of, but I never backed down or gave in. It did provide the time for me to really re-evaluate who and what I was, and where I was going. People I've known ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Compaq Personal friend for some time now. Control C Mostly likely the craziest guy I've ever met. Really nice guy. Knight Lightning Would call me up in the middle of the night and want to discuss philosophical and social issues. Kind of guy I would probably get along with outside of computers as well. Loki Friend since high school. Made a big splash in the h/p world, then disappeared from it. He and I (and Control C) drove to SummerCon together. Shooting Shark Great guy who used to be into calling bridges and would yell "Hey, I'm paying for this!" Truly one of the only people that I ever knew that didn't do anything blatantly illegal. Most of our email was over the optimization of crypt. The Mad Alchemist Sysop of Lunatic Labs, one of the only boards that I feel is worth the telephone call anymore. He has given me a lot of slack and runs a BBS that picks up some of the most obscure information. A sysop that others should be judged by. Tom Brokaw Personal friend since childhood that stood by me through thick and thin, bailing me out of trouble time and time again. I can never thank him enough for being a true friend. BBSs ~~~ More than I could mention here. A few more recent notables -- Atlantis Although run on an Apple, the Lineman had this system so slick and customized that it became the standard that a lot of the PC based boards were created with. It was the first real "clearinghouse" for text files. Free World II Run by Major Havoc and myself, this was an incredibly robust system, and was one of the first to be run on a US Robotics HST. Although it was primarily a discussion board, the file areas offered some of the best files -- virtually no games, but about every real utility and the like. Metal AE 201-879-6668 - this was a true blue AE line that was around for like 5 or 6 years and was ALWAYS busy. Had all of the original cDc and other bizarre text files, occasionally some new Apple warez. Lunatic Labs Still up and still great. Metal Shop Private Perhaps one of the best boards of all time. Run by Taran King and had a healthy, yet secure userlog. It was a closed system, the only way to get on was to know somebody. Everyone on the system knew each other in some sense. World of Cryton One of the first boards to have a "philter" and to really push the messages as far as codes, accounts, card numbers, etc. This was also the demise, along with many of the 414 hackers. Misc ~~~ 2600 Magazine How could I not like a magazine that published articles I wrote? This really is a great magazine and anyone who is interested in computers, privacy, or cyber-issues in general should subscribe. Fame...? Was in the movie "Hoosiers" (thanks for bringing that up, Shark!), even though I'm not a basketball fan. Met Dennis Hopper, etc. Went to school with a lot of famous people's kids. Most have some pretty serious problems. Be glad you are who you are. Marriage...? I'm single and will do everything I can to stay that way. When people ask me about getting married I tell them that the idea of car payments scare me. I enjoy having girlfriends, but I've become too independent. I still run around at bars until sometimes 3:00am or so, but still manage to spend about 50 or 60 hours a week at work. Even if I cut out the bar scene, I wouldn't have much time to spend with someone else on a daily basis. Advice If you ever get into doing illegal things, make sure you do them by yourself. Your chances of getting caught when you do things solo and resist the temptation to "brag" about them is minimal. When someone else knows about what you have done, it doesn't matter how good of a friend they are. If they get into trouble, you are going to the sacrificial lamb when it comes to negotiating their freedom. Even the strongest willed individuals seem to crumble when questioned by police. Groups are bad news. There are very little advantages to being in a group and all it does is increase your personal risk by multitudes. Cracking groups aren't nearly as dangerous, but they DO bring boards down. Look to the fate of groups such as LOD for examples of group fate. Lex Luthor, perhaps one of the most elusive and private hackers of all time was the one to bring down the rest of the group. This was tough for me, as many of the members were people I talked with and could really feel for. Don't get discouraged in life if you feel that you are behind the rest because you don't come from a rich family or have the best equipment. I left home when I was 17 years old, keeping only minimal contact with my parents since then and lived life pretty well, using my abilities to "smooth talk" and pure enthusiasm to walk into about any job. Don't put people down -- everyone has something to teach you, even the bum on the street might be able to tell you how to make some free phone calls! There is a wealth of information to be found via Usenet, text files, or even your school or public library. Stay informed and well read. Email I always enjoy hearing from people. Reach me via the Internet at douglas@netcom.com, or on Lunatic Labs BBS. ________________________________________________________________________________