Word: hackers
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Rosenfeld -- known on computer networks by the code name Storm Shadow -- is a hacker who went to extremes, a cyberpunk who surfed right off the edge. Authorities say he was just one of many bandits stalking the electronic highways. In recent years, individual outlaws and entire "gangs" have broken / into computers all over the U.S., using their wits and wiles to pilfer and destroy data...
Though barely of drinking age, Rosenfeld is a veteran hacker. He says he invaded his first computer -- a low-level NASA system -- at age 15 as a member of a cyberpunk gang called Force Hackers. Before long, he was devising electronic schemes to swipe cash from Western Union, phone service from the Baby Bells and valuable credit information wherever it could be found. "We once pulled the credit reports of a whole town in Oregon," Storm Shadow recalls...
Could MOD have been stupid enough to leave behind such a confession? One member says the gang was framed by a rival hacker who liquidated the Learning Link himself. The defendants' court-appointed lawyers claim the feds have built an elaborate Mafia-like case against rebellious yet relatively harmless kids. "Being arrogant and obnoxious is not a crime," argues attorney Michael Godwin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group that defends exploratory hacking. As for Masters of Disaster, he adds, "it's just a way-cool name. Teenagers aren't going to call themselves the Electronic Birdwatchers Society." While most...
...Rosenfeld, the alleged MODsters and their ilk do not fit the standard image of a hacker: the wealthy, suburban geek who trespasses on computers just for fun. These cyberpunks are ethnically mixed (from blacks and Hispanics to Italians and Lithuanians), favor close-cropped hip-hop haircuts and live in urban, blue-collar neighborhoods. They fight rival gangs with cheap computers, not sticks or knives. Some are big drug users; most are simply addicted to what Rosenfeld calls the "adrenaline rush of computer power, which is better than sex, drugs or rock 'n' roll...
...their bravado, many of the hacker hoods come from broken homes and have deep psychological problems. Rosenfeld's parents split up when he was 15, and the young man recalls brutal physical fights with his hard-drinking father. Several months ago, the hacker literally hacked his wrists with a razor, in his second attempt to kill himself since 1991. "Most of my childhood is a blur, partly because of LSD and partly because I just don't want to remember," says Rosenfeld, who is open, insightful and very likable when he removes the cybermask. "I have no clue...