hacking

	==Phrack Classic==

	Volume Three, Issue 32, File #2 of 12


	==Phrack Classic Spotlight==

	Knight Lightning
	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

	Personal
	~~~~~~~
	Handle: Knight Lightning
	Call him: Craig Neidorf
	Past handles: None
	Handle origin: Cross between character "Lightning Lad" from DC Comics'
	Legion of Superheros and Michael Knight from the NBC
	television series "Knight Rider".
	Date of Birth: I doubt you're sending me a birthday card so skip it.
	Age at current date: 21 years old
	Height: 5'10" or so (give or take an inch)
	Weight: 135-140 lbs.
	Eye color: Brown
	Hair Color: Dark Brown
	Computers: Apple IIc (Do you believe this?)
	Co-Sysop of: Metal Shop Private, The Brewery, Quick Shop/Metal Shop
	AE, Whackoland, The Dark Tower, Digital ITS (yay!),
	Stronghold East and probably a few more I've forgotten
	about.
	Net address: C483307@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU (Yes, they actually gave
	C483307@UMCVMB.BITNET me my account back!)
	knight@well.sf.ca.us

	------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	For several years I had been a die hard fan of video games, both arcade
	and home versions. It was really the Atari 2600 video game Adventure that led
	me into the world of computers and hacking. As many people might know there
	was a secret locked within this game concerning a "magic" dot. It was not
	mentioned in any instruction manuals for the game, but if you could find it and
	bring it to the right place in the game, you could enter a room that didn't
	officially exist. In this room was a message flashing in gold and black. It
	said "Created by Warren Robinet". From that point on I experimented with every
	Atari cartridge I had. I tried screwing around with the connections, the
	components on the system itself, and I attempted bizarre tactics within the
	games, just to see what might happen. During that period of time I found
	several more secretly implanted messages and developed new ways of playing the
	games. Atari played on this idea quite a bit when they created a four game
	saga called Swordquest, but by then the fun was taken out of it because you
	knew already that something was waiting to be found. Eventually I upgraded to
	ColecoVision, but before too long this bored me as well. It is sort of
	interesting to see the new surge of home videogames of Nintendo, NEC, and Sega.
	It makes me wonder if this cycle is permanent.
	I was first introduced to the world of computers by a friend who had a
	Commodore 64. He showed me what bulletin boards were and then took me on a
	tour of the ARPAnet. Later that year, my long-time and best friend, known to
	most of you as Taran King obtained the use of his father's IBM PC. Together we
	explored various bulletin boards in the St. Louis area, always looking for new
	places to visit.
	In August of 1983 I received an Apple IIc as a birthday gift from my
	parents. It was real basic -- no monitor (I had a black and white television
	for that), no extra disk drive, no printer, no joystick, and no modem. Those
	items I would have to earn. So instead of playing with faraway computer
	systems, I was introduced to programming and a community of people who
	considered themselves to be software pirates. These people seemed to be able
	to get software before the companies even began to sell it. However, I was
	content to play games like Ultima III and Wizardry and hack the game itself by
	altering character values. This enabled me to move my characters through
	different places, some of which I never might have realized existed. Later, I
	was able to redesign the game itself to create an endless world of new
	possibilities for intellectual stimulation.
	Finally in March of 1984, my parents purchased me a modem. It was a sad
	little piece of plastic made by Volksmodem, 300 baud and battery operated, but
	it worked and now Knight Lightning was ready to take to the wires. By this
	time I already knew a lot about the bulletin board community through Taran
	King. Even so, it was relatively odd how fast I became co-sysop of the
	ancestor to Metal Shop known as The Dark Tower. TDT was operated by a "hacker"
	with the truly unoriginal name of David Lightman. Before I knew it, I was in
	remote command of his system with full power over user validation and BBS
	maintenance. Although the system went down after about six months, it did
	attract a few out of state users and it was here that my notoriety began. It
	was almost funny, but even as early as then Taran King, Forest Ranger, and I
	became known as the top hacker/phreakers in the St. Louis area. To this day I
	still don't understand why.
	By July of 1985 most of the hacker bulletin boards in St. Louis had
	disappeared, but The Dark Tower program lived again when Taran King created
	Metal Shop: The Dark Tower Phase II. He took the name from a popular
	afternoon rock'n roll program (KSHE FM radio) that centered on heavy metal.
	Both of us had visited systems around the country and we were able to
	effectively advertise MS. At one point we had over 500 registered users so we
	switched to a general password system for security reasons and eventually in
	January of 1986 the board became Metal Shop Private and we cut 4/5ths of the
	users.
	During the late Spring and early Summer of 1985 Taran King and I created
	the 2600 Club. It was just a group name to stick behind our handles since
	everybody was doing it, but it only took use a few months to realize just
	how ignorant hacker groups really are. However, the 2600 Club had one
	great legacy -- it gave birth to Phrack. If you go back and look, you'll
	notice that the first issue of Phrack was a product of the 2600 Club. The idea
	for doing Phrack came from Forest Ranger. Taran King provided the arena and
	would be the editor and I came up with the name.
	When I used to call bulletin boards like the Twilight Zone (sysoped by The
	Marauder) I would data capture the message bases and save them in text files.
	The messages from the hacking subboard would be saved in a file called HACKMESS
	(which stood for hack messages), the messages from the phone phreak subboard
	were saved as PHREAKMESS, but when there was a subboard where both these types
	of messages appeared together, I simply merged the two names and came up with
	PHRACKMESS. Since the newsletter would contain information on both topics and
	more, I felt the name Phrack was applicable. So where did the "Inc." come
	from? Actually it came from another DC Comics series called Infinity Inc.
	Kind of silly now since we never intended to actually incorporate. The first
	issue of Phrack was distributed on November 17, 1985.
	In Phrack issue 2 I began the ongoing series of Phrack World News. I
	followed every story I could and it was fun. The first issue was sort of lame,
	but eventually I learned that PWN was the most popular segment of Phrack. The
	greatest thing about PWN was that it was an original concept for a hacker
	newsletter -- lots of people had tried to write "how-to files, but no one had
	ever tried news before. Who was getting busted? What did they do? How can I
	make sure it doesn't happen to me? Lots of the stories were exaggerated or in
	the case of Oryan QUEST, fabricated (by QUEST himself).
	Outside of Phrack World News I wrote files about Videoconferencing,
	Private Branch eXchanges, and a few others here and there. Prior to Phrack
	I had released a huge glossary of telecommunications terms and files about the
	divestiture of AT&T and its aftermath. Taran King and I also wrote a joke file
	about "Real Phreaks" that was echoed by a continuation of that file in the
	Phrack parody issue number 13 that was released on April 1, 1987.
	Throughout my years I have met many people who call themselves hackers
	and/or phone phreaks:

	Android Pope - I wonder how married life is treating him.
	Aristotle - Sporty! He is the former editor of the New TAP.
	Bad Subscript - Right hand man to Control C and an expert at disco dancing
	in high speed Camaros.
	Bill from RNOC - How have your phone bills been? High? Have they been!?
	He is also known as "the most dangerous man in New York."
	Beer Wolf - Former sysop of the (Metal Shop) Brewery.
	Blue Buccaneer - Lost track of him over the years.
	Cat Man - How about a nice Hawaiian Punch?
	Cheap Shades - Now a Computer Science graduate of University of
	Missouri-Rolla. Former sysop of Metal Shop AE and
	QuickShop.
	Control C - A man with serious problems right now. Hope you get those
	videotapes and best of luck!
	Crimson Death - The one in 618 NPA. Very un-original name, but definitely
	one of a kind.
	Cryptic Fist - Kinda warm for that leather jacket, isn't it? (90 degrees)
	Cutthroat - So what McDonalds do you work at?
	Dan The Operator - An informant for John Maxfield (SummerCon '87).
	Data Line - Now a government agent, but hardly a hacker tracker.
	David Lightman - The sysop of The Dark Tower in 314 NPA.
	The Dictator - Not-so secret agent of Gail Thackeray, the assistant
	Arizona state attorney behind Operation Sun-Devil.
	In a past life, Dale was the creator of Candid Camera.
	What a surprise that was this summer.
	Disk Jockey - I thought he was a great guy until he started to backstab
	me on Lunitic Labs while I was under indictment.
	Doc Holiday (901) - The original!
	Dr. Cypher - Knowledgeable person who remains local.
	Dr. Forbin - Last seen at SummerCon '89.
	Dr. Ripco - Well haven't met him yet, but in a couple of weeks.
	Doom Prophet - A friend who seems to have disappeared.
	Epsilon - Must have lost my number I guess.
	Emmanuel Goldstein - Also known as Eric Corley, the editor of 2600 Magazine.
	Erik Bloodaxe - He is a wildcard... totally unpredictable... hacks by the
	seat of his pants. Still active, but he'd better not have
	a squirt gun next to his bed or he may be sorry.{SS}
	Forest Ranger - The man who introduced me to the hacker elite way back
	when. Former editor of TeleComputist Newsletter.
	Gary Seven - Don't remember much about him. Met him with Lex in Fla.
	Hatchet Molly - You know him as Computer Underground Digest's Gordon
	Meyer. He used a hacker alias to better enable him to
	write his famous thesis.
	Jester Sluggo - A mystery man who is still a legend in the Zantigo
	restroom and a better than average drunk driver.
	Kleptic Wizard - Was he BJ or the Bear?
	Lex Luthor - One time great legend of LOD, now secret BellSouth
	Security (at least until I hear otherwise).
	The Leftist - I wonder what he was going to say about me at my trial.
	He gave me a nod the day they dropped the charges against
	me. The US Attorney's office tells me that he was going
	to claim he learned all he knew about hacking from reading
	Phrack.
	Loki - Lost track of him over the years.
	Lucifer 666 - Lights, Camera, Action!
	The Mad Hacker - Sysop of The Private Connection in 219 NPA.
	Mad Hatter - Still don't know what to make of him, but I wonder if he
	still thinks table salt and baking soda are cocaine.
	The Mentor - Author of GURPS CyberPunk and former sysop of The Phoenix
	Project bulletin board.
	The Noid - Important enough for Southwestern Bell to question me
	about him so important enough to be mentioned here.
	Par - Hans.
	Phantom Phreaker - A friend.
	Phil Phree - Sort of spaced out character and right hand man to The
	Ur-vile.
	Phrozen Ghost - Lost track of him.
	Predat0r - Anarchistic editor of the New TAP.
	The Prophet - Didn't actually "meet" him, but I did see him and hear him
	speak... as a witness for the prosecution at my trial. I
	don't hold a grudge. His testimony helped clear me.
	Rabbit - Franz.
	The Renegade - Thinks he is part of the Illuminati.
	Reverend Enge - Not that religious.
	Sir Francis Drake - A great guy with an odd taste in jewelry. The editor of
	the now defunct WORM. Duck!
	Sir William - Never did hear the whole story of his problems with the
	University of Michigan computing staff.
	Surfer Bob - Lost track of him, but he enjoyed a tan at SummerCon'88.
	Synthetic Slug - Surfs up!
	Taran King - My best friend of over 11 years.
	TWCB Inc. - Two brothers who attempted to resurrect TAP, but failed.
	Tuc - Hey! He's TUC!
	The Ur-Vile - Don't know how I feel about him. He needs a real handle.

	Some of the memorable bulletin boards I was on include:

	Alliance - By Phantom Phreaker
	Brainstorm Elite - Where I met Phantom Phreaker and recruited him to Metal
	Shop Private.
	Broadway Show - By Broadway Hacker. Changed its name to The Radio
	Station.
	Catch-22 - By Silver Spy. Only 22 users on this system.
	Chamas - By Terra (Chaos Computer Club) in Germany.
	Dark Tower - By David Lightman 314
	Digital ITS - By Oryan QUEST. BBS Commands were in Spanish.
	DUNE - Secret system imbedded on the Dartmouth University
	mainframe operated remotely by Apollo Phoebus.
	Flying Circus - By Monty Python
	FreeWorld II - By Major Havoc
	Hell Phrozen Over - By the original Crimson Death. Inspiration for the
	first Phrack Pro-Phile.
	Intergalactic Dismantling, Inc. - By Aiken Drum
	Lost City of Atlantis - By The Lineman
	Lunatic Labs UnLtd. - By The Mad Alchemist. Great system!
	Matrix - By Dr. Stangelove
	Metal Shop AE - By Cheap Shades when he lived in St. Louis, Missouri.
	Metal Shop Brewery - By Beer Wolf who now denies that it ever happened.
	Metal Shop Private - Greatest bulletin board of all time.
	MetroMedia - By Dr. Doom. System became Danger Zone Private.
	NetSys - By Terminus. NetSys is now in possession of US Secret
	Service and Terminus' life is in a shambles. They set
	him up and shut him down. You know him as Len Rose.
	Pearly Gates - First real out of state bulletin board that I called.
	It had a secret section of the board for all of the
	really good information. It was operated by Simon
	Templar.
	Phoenix Project - By The Mentor. Great center of learning.
	Phreak Klass 2600 - By The Egyptian Lover. Preceded The Phoenix Project as
	a great center of learning.
	Pipeline - Another early bbs I visited.
	Pirate-80 - A codes board run by Scan Man that has been up for
	almost 10 years. This system was NOT a target in
	Operation Sun-Devil. Odd?
	Private Connection - By The Mad Hacker
	Private Sector - Legendary system.
	QuickShop - By Cheap Shades when he lived in Rolla, Missouri.
	RACS III - By Tuc
	Radio Station - See The Broadway Show.
	Ripco - By Dr. Ripco - Shut down in Operation Sun-Devil, but
	its back up now.
	Septic Tank - By The Safecracker. Second generation of The Twilight
	Zone.
	ShadowSpawn - By Psychic Warlord. Great debate about the use of
	handles and real name/telephone/etc. "We're Not
	ELITE, We're Just Cool As Hell!" Taran King thought
	they were elite in the negative sense of the word.
	Great system though.
	Speed Demon Elite - By The Radical Rocker and home base to MetaliBashers,
	Inc.
	Stronghold East Elite - The "real" sysop was Slave Driver, but the board was
	run from the home of The Equalizer.
	Twilight Zone - By The Marauder. Great system for knowledge from my
	early days.
	Zyolog - By Byte Rider in Hawaii.

	There are probably a few others that I have forgotten to mention. My
	greatest computer learning experiences came from people like Bill From RNOC,
	RNOC, Phantom Phreaker, Forest Ranger, and the authors of the multitude of
	Phrack files and other technical journals.
	In general I see computers as the communications medium of the 21st
	Century so I devoted a lot of time to mastering their use. I do not advocate
	the illegal breaking in to computer systems, but there are certain types of
	information that I feel should be available to everyone equally and not just
	the rich or the well connected.
	Through my experiences on the Internet, I have had legitimate access to
	IBM VM/CMS, Unix, and VAX/VMS systems. For the most part I am content with my
	VM/CMS account, but will accept invitations from system managers to join their
	systems as well.
	With Forest Ranger and Taran King, I organized and attended SummerCon '87,
	SummerCon '88, and SummerCon '89. I did not attend SummerCon '90 since I was
	in Chicago at the time. I helped in organizing and attended PartyCon '87 and
	most recently I appeared and spoke at the 13th Annual National Computer
	Security Conference in Washington D.C.
	I had been a part of TeleComputist Newsletter, which inadvertently led to
	my first real media appearance (Detroit Free Press) and prior to that I was
	helping TWCB Inc. to create a NEW TAP. However, when I learned that they were
	just pulling a fraud, I exposed them. For 5 years I devoted myself to Phrack
	with absolutely no compensation save knowledge and experiences gained.

	===============================================================================

	Interests: Racquetball (varsity team in high school and a bookshelf full
	of trophies), Telecommunications, Computers, Music (classic
	rock and pop music... NO RAP!), Fraternity life (well at least
	up until the trustees suspended me for being indicted), Women
	(sexy and smart over just good looks any day), Driving at warp
	speed on the interstate.

	Craig's Favorite Things
	-----------------------
	Women: I've got it, but don't flaunt it.
	Cars: Ford Mustang, Eagle Talon, Nissan 300 ZX, and Porsche 911 Carrera!
	Foods: No Curry in a hurry-Blecch! American, Italian, Mexican, and Chinese!
	Music: Genesis, Rush, Yes, Chicago, Eagles, Def Leppard, The Police, Styx...
	Leisure: Sleeping, working out, racquetball, writing, computing.
	Alcohol: Bacardi, Smirnoff, Jack Daniels, Pat O'Briens, Hard Rock Cafe.

	Most Memorable Experiences
	--------------------------
	All of the SummerCons, having an assistant U.S. Attorney lie to my face and
	tell me I wasn't in trouble five days after he went to the grand jury to have
	me indicted, football game with Sluggo in the Zantigo parking lot, road trip to
	Chicago for PartyCon '87, my time in a St. Louis Federal holding facility
	after I turned myself over to the U.S. Federal Marshalls (E911 Incident),
	Taran King and Cheap Shades out of jail when they were caught trashing,
	summer Alliance teleconferences with the PhoneLine Phantoms, the first time I
	heard Frank & The Funny Phone Call, watching Control C bother some girl
	in the airport and then seeing Erik Bloodaxe fall in love with her.


	Some Other People To Mention
	----------------------------
	Sheldon Zenner - The greatest attorney practicing today. He turned
	everything around and saved my future from a legal system
	gone awry. Thanks also to Kliebard, Dunlop, Berkowitz,
	and Kaufman.

	John Perry Barlow - Lyricist for the Grateful Dead and amazing writer, John
	also participated a great deal in generating publicity
	about my case and helped found the Electronic Frontier
	Foundation.
	Dr. Dorothy Denning - A lady who not only helped with my defense, but invited
	me to the 13th Annual National Computer Security
	Conference and is a good friend.
	Peter Denning - Senior editor of the Communications of the ACM and an
	interesting fellow in his own right.
	Scott Ellentuch - Mentioned earlier as Tuc, Scott is the president of the
	Telecom Computer Security Group and a close friend. Tuc
	assisted the defense team by locating the Bellcore public
	catalog and the 911 documents found within. Thanks Tuc!
	Terry Gross - Attorney with Rabinowitz & Boundin in New York City who
	was hired by the EFF to work on court motions dealing
	with the First Amendment.
	Mike Godwin - Don't know Mike very well yet, but he was very outspoken
	in Computer Underground Digest while I was under
	indictment and now he is in-house counsel to the
	Electronic Frontier Foundation.
	Katie Hafner - Author of a book coming soon about Pengo, Kevin Mitnick,
	and Robert Morris, Jr. I met Katie at the NCSConference.
	Steve Jackson - Founder of Steve Jackson Games. I haven't yet had the
	pleasure of meeting Steve, but we may be running into
	each other in the near future.
	Mitch Kapor - Industry wizard and creator of the Lotus 1-2-3 program,
	Mitch is a founding member of the Electronic Frontier
	Foundation that provided legal assistance in my case. I
	hope to meet him face-to-face in the near future.
	Gordon Meyer - Gordon has been a tremendous help with Phrack and a
	friend throughout my entire trial ordeal.
	John Nagle - Inventor who gave technical assistance to my defense team
	and located some very important public documents.
	Marc Rotenberg - Director of the Computer Professionals For Social
	Responsibility in Washington D.C. CPSR is an
	organization lobbying Congress for reforms in the
	Computer Fraud & Abuse Act and other legislation. I hope
	to be working with him in the future.
	Jim Thomas - Creator and editor of Computer Underground Digest, he
	brought the details and evidence in my trial to the
	public eye which helped me gain support.
	Steve Wozniak - Never had any contact with him, but since he had a hand
	in EFF, I thought I would mention him. Incidentally I'm
	ready to upgrade computers if someone has a Macintosh on
	hand.

	- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

	David Lightman - The one in 214. See Oryan QUEST.
	Magic Hasan - Totally freaked out when I contacted him this semester. It
	was like he thought I had the plague or something.
	Olorin The White - He couldn't seem to understand that I did not want to join
	his group.
	Oryan QUEST - A hacker who made up news for PWN just to boost his
	reputation. Unleash with full force on this!
	Sally Ride - Also known as Space Cadet, SR co-wrote one of the most
	interesting PWN articles ever printed.
	===============================================================================

	Private Jokes
	~~~~~~~~~~~~
	There are far too many to go through and most of them have been previously
	written by Taran King in a Phrack Prophile that appeared in issue 20 of Phrack.
	My private jokes shall remain private between those involved or at least until
	I publish a book covering the topic.

	===============================================================================

	Phrack is a part of my life that is now over. I hope that Phrack Classic
	which appears to be a second generation Phrack will learn from its predecessor
	and not allow any articles that advocate the illegal entry into computer
	systems. On the other hand, I hope they will continue to bring interesting
	information and news to light every issue.
	For the record, I am not the editor of Phrack Classic. In fact I am not
	even a part of their staff. I would ask that no one send me any articles for
	that publication because they will not be forwarded. I take no responsibility
	for the actions taken by Phrack Classic, but I have faith that they shall stay
	on the path of honesty and integrity.
	I also have a few words to say about some other issues. My case and
	prosecution had absolutely nothing to do with Operation Sun-Devil, with a
	possible exception being the secret video-taping done by the United States
	Secret Service at the Ramada Inn-Westport (Maryland Heights, Missouri) during
	July 22-24, 1988 (i.e., SummerCon '88). Operation Sun-Devil was an attempt to
	crack down on credit card and calling card abusers and NOT hackers. Yes, there
	are some hackers that abuse these items, but the mere abuse of such does not
	make someone a hacker and it is about time that mainstream reporters,
	government agents, and prosecutors began to understand the difference.
	I feel that the abuse of "cards" is very immature and should be met with
	stern punishment. I myself have been the victim of credit card fraud and I can
	tell you that it is not pleasant to open your bill and see expensive charges
	from QVC Home Shopping Network. For the younger readers, it may take them a
	few years to understand this... perhaps when they have credit cards and bills
	of their own to deal with.
	As you may guess there is MUCH MORE to my story especially concerning the
	last 10 issues of Phrack, the Internet, and the E911 incident, but now is not
	the time or the place to tell it. Sometime in the future I hope to assemble
	the tales of all my adventures in the computer underground and publish them in
	a real book.
	Finally, Hackers are NOT criminals! Quoting from the brochure for this
	year's Hackers Conference in Saratoga, California, a Hacker is "someone who
	enjoys pushing the envelope, bypassing limits, discovering knowledge, inventing
	solutions, <and> adventuring into uncharted areas."

	:Craig Neidorf

	===============================================================================

	...And now for the regularly taken poll from all interviewees.

	Of the general population of phreaks you have met, would you consider most
	phreaks, if any, to be computer geeks?

	"I would not consider most of the hackers or phone phreaks I have met to
	be computer geeks, however over the years I have run into people whose goal in
	life is to pirate every piece of software in existence and of those people I
	feel that a strong percentage are 'geeks'."

	Thanks for your time, Craig. "No problem."

	Crimson Death
	_______________________________________________________________________________