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I'd go as far as to say that by 1990 post-Operation Sundevil etc, this was considered common wisdom, and such people with great skill who never got arrested wer
by justanother 5y ago
I'd go as far as to say that by 1990 post-Operation Sundevil etc, this was considered common wisdom, and such people with great skill who never got arrested were the rule, not the exception. People pulled off fantastic things, but refused to do silly stuff like join groups or write about their exploits in G-philez, or even use the same alias on two forums (let alone doing anything from their house). You might have met up with them on an Alliance Teleconference or QSD once in awhile, but never at the 2600 meetup at the mall. These people tended to make it well into adulthood and lead rewarding lives, all without ever becoming a pushpin with pieces of yard tied to it on some Secret Service agent's cubicle wall. Of course, it doesn't make you as famous as an Esquire article does. But also, handcuffs hurt.
This is still true today, and of more hunted groups than just hackers.
- ethbr0 5y ago> more hunted groups than just hackers It's underappreciated just how tolerant society was, with respect to 80s and 90s hacking culture. We had the war on drugs, but pre-9/11, secrecy and hacking were... novelties. As in, people couldn't conceptualize the worst results of bad people using bad methods. You can see this in the legal filings of early computer prosecutions. Much of it is spent trying to explain to a jury just why phone phreaking or computer hacking is bad. E.g. "Could launch nukes from a payphone!" Or Tron, WarGames, etc. Now, network intrusion brings to mind ransomware, and a hop, skip, and jump away from helping ISIS, in terms of jury sentiment. On the other hand, there's an entire white and grey hat culture that wasn't really as defined in that period, so it's fair to say there are also more legimate paths for someone deeply interested in systems.