Susan Headley

Last updated
Susan Headley
Born
Susan Headley

(1959-12-31) December 31, 1959 (age 65) (approximate)
Altona, Illinois, United States
Other namesSusy Thunder, Susan Thunder
Occupation(s)Former phreaker, hacker, social engineer, City clerk
Years active1977–1983 (hacking/phreaking)
Known forHacking the U.S. phone system, testifying before U.S. Governmental Affairs oversight committee

Susan Headley (born 1959, also known as Susy Thunder or Susan Thunder) is an American former phreaker and early computer hacker during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Headley specialized in a type of hacking which uses pretexting and misrepresentation of oneself in contact with targeted organizations in order to elicit information vital to hacking those organizations. [1] She called this "psychological subversion"; it is also called social engineering. [2]

Contents

Biography

Born in Altona, Illinois, in 1959, Headley said she dropped out of school in the eighth grade after a difficult childhood. [3] She later moved to Los Angeles, California, where she worked as a sex worker and was a rock 'n' roll groupie. [4] [2] For a while, she collaborated with computer hacker Kevin Mitnick (also known as Condor) and phone phreaker Lewis de Payne (also known as Roscoe), but later testified against them. [5] In The Hacker's Handbook , Headley is referred to as "one of the earliest of the present generation of hackers" and described her as successfully hacking the US phone system as a 17-year-old in 1977. [6]

On October 25, 1983, Headley testified in front of the Governmental Affairs oversight committee as to the technical capabilities and possible motivations of hackers and phone phreaks. [7] [8] At various times in the 1980s, she worked as a security consultant and a professional poker player. [9] [10] Journalists Katie Hafner and John Markoff wrote a book, Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier (1991), about Headley, Mitnick, de Payne, and other hackers. [11] In 1995, Headley presented a talk at DEF CON about "Social Engineering and Psychological Subversion of Trusted Systems". [12]

Public service

Headley was elected to public office in California in 1994, as City Clerk of California City. [2]

Personal life

Headley is married and lives in the Midwest. She is a coin collector. [2]

References

  1. ↑ Bradley Barth (10 July 2017). "Female blackhats". SC Media. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Evans, Claire L. (26 January 2022). "Searching for Susy Thunder". The Verge. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
  3. ↑ Thorton, Mary (21 May 1984). "Hackers Ignore Consequences Of Their High-Tech Joy Rides". The Washington Post . Retrieved 15 November 2025.
  4. ↑ Hafner, Katie; Markoff, John (1991). Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier . New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN   0-671-68322-5.
  5. ↑ Hafner, Katie (August 1995). "Kevin Mitnick, unplugged". Esquire. 124 (2): 80(9).
  6. ↑ Hugo Cornwall's New Hacker's Handbook 4th Ed. Century 1990
  7. ↑ United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management (1983). Computer Security in the Federal Government and the Private Sector.
  8. ↑ Len, Ackland (1983-10-30). "Lawmakers hear tales of computerized capones". Chicago Tribune. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-11-15.
  9. ↑ Day, John S. (1983-10-26). "'Hackers' crack secret data banks". The Bangor Daily News. p. 25. Retrieved 2025-11-15.
  10. ↑ Rosenfeld, Megan (1989-12-18). "At Surveillance Expo, Sneak Peeks at the Sweet Spy and Buy". The Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2025-11-15.
  11. ↑ Mosley, Walter (August 11, 1991). "All the Bright Young Criminals". The New York Times. Retrieved 2025-11-15.
  12. ↑ "DEF CON III Archives". DEF CON. Retrieved 2025-11-15.
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