The 414s

Last updated

The 414s were a group of computer hackers from Milwaukee who broke into dozens of high-profile computer systems, including ones at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and Security Pacific National Bank, in 1982 and 1983. [1] Of note, these "414s" are not affiliated with the "414" biker gang also based out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Contents

History

They were eventually identified as six teenagers, taking their name after the IBM-sponsored Explorer Post in their hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which used the telephone area code 414. They ranged in age from 16 to 22 [2] and many met in an Explorer Scout program sponsored by IBM. [3]

The 414s were described as meeting the profile of computer hackers at the time: "Young, male, intelligent, highly motivated and energetic". Neal Patrick claimed his only motivation was the challenge of getting into places he was not supposed to, and remaining there undetected. Another member, Tim Winslow, began learning computers on a teletype his math teacher brought in to school. [3]

Many saw them as harmless pranksters, sort of a real life WarGames —a film that was released earlier that year. The 414s themselves were not entirely harmless, doing $1,500 worth of damage at Sloan-Kettering during their June 3, 1983 [4] break-in by accidentally deleting billing records. [5] Patrick and the 414s did cause real concern, as experts realized that others could duplicate their techniques and do real damage. [6]

The systems they broke into were exclusively running Digital Equipment Corporation's (DEC's) VMS and RSTS/E operating systems. [2] They used inexpensive personal computers, analog modems, and simple hacking techniques, such as using common or default passwords published in DEC's manufacturer guides to log in to various timeshare systems. The 414s exploited a lack of administrative oversight and password care for systems.

Among those reporting unusual hacking activities was Chen Chui, an administrator who discovered an electronic break-in, left a message for the intruders, and contacted the FBI, who placed wiretaps and eventually traced the calls back to Milwaukee. Gerald Wondra, 22 at the time, was the first visited by the FBI. Wondra lived with his mother in West Allis, a Milwaukee suburb. Wondra said he was "curious, he was just having fun". [2]

FBI Investigation

The 414s were investigated and identified by the FBI in 1983 which included installing data-capture equipment on their phone lines. [3] Winslow (20), Wondra (21), and Patrick (17) were all visited by FBI agents. [3] Most of the members of the 414s were not prosecuted, in various agreements to stop their activities and pay restitutions. [7] Winslow, Wondra, and another defendant were charged and each pleaded guilty on two counts of "making harassing telephone calls". [8] Patrick, due to being a minor, was not at risk for prosecution and used the public attention to appear on various television shows. A Freedom of Information Act request made to the FBI on November 8, 2020, returned as "No Responsive Documents". [9]

Media

There was widespread media coverage of them at the time, [1] [5] and 17-year-old Neal Patrick, a student at Rufus King High School, emerged as their spokesman and an "instant celebrity" during the brief frenzy of interest, which included Patrick appearing on CBS Morning News , The Phil Donahue Show in August 1983, and appeared on the September 5, 1983 cover of Newsweek . [10] [6] During an appearance on NBC's The Today Show he was asked if he had regrets, to which he replied "In hindsight, I really wish that accessing those systems just wasn't so easy." [3]

As a result of news coverage, congressman Dan Glickman called for an investigation and new laws about computer hacking. [11] Neal Patrick testified before the U.S. House of Representatives on September 26, 1983, about the dangers of computer hacking, and six bills concerning computer crime were introduced in the House that year. [12]

Documentary

A documentary called The 414s: The Original Teenage Hackers premiered in competition at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was picked up for distribution by CNN. [13] The film features present-day interviews with some of the original 414s as they reflect on the early days of hacking and the media attention that followed. [14] [15]

The AMC television show Halt and Catch Fire features the Newsweek cover story of the incident, which correctly displays "414 Hacker Neal Patrick" and in a subsequent episode called "The 214s" (a Dallas area code, where the show is set), a plot point includes a character attempting to recreate the break-in. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hacker</span> Person skilled in information technology

A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hacker – someone with knowledge of bugs or exploits to break into computer systems and access data which would otherwise be inaccessible to them. In a positive connotation, though, hacking can also be utilized by legitimate figures in legal situations. For example, law enforcement agencies sometimes use hacking techniques to collect evidence on criminals and other malicious actors. This could include using anonymity tools to mask their identities online and pose as criminals.

In computing, a Trojan horse is any malware that misleads users of its true intent by disguising itself as a standard program. The term is derived from the ancient Greek story of the deceptive Trojan Horse that led to the fall of the city of Troy.

<i>WarGames</i> 1983 science-fiction film directed by John Badham

WarGames is a 1983 American techno-thriller film directed by John Badham, written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes, and starring Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood and Ally Sheedy. Broderick plays David Lightman, a young computer hacker who unwittingly accesses a United States military supercomputer programmed to simulate, predict and execute nuclear war against the Soviet Union, triggering a false alarm that threatens to start World War III.

Wardialing is a technique to automatically scan a list of telephone numbers, usually dialing every number in a local area code to search for modems, computers, bulletin board systems and fax machines. Hackers use the resulting lists for various purposes: hobbyists for exploration, and crackers—malicious hackers who specialize in breaching computer security—for guessing user accounts, or locating modems that might provide an entry-point into computer or other electronic systems. It may also be used by security personnel, for example, to detect unauthorized devices, such as modems or faxes, on a company's telephone network.

<i>The Cuckoos Egg</i> (book) 1989 nonfiction book by Clifford Stoll

The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage is a 1989 book written by Clifford Stoll. It is his first-person account of the hunt for a computer hacker who broke into a computer at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

<i>Whiz Kids</i> (TV series) American science fiction adventure television series

Whiz Kids is an American science fiction adventure television series that originally aired on CBS from October 5, 1983, to June 2, 1984. The show was created by Philip DeGuere, who had also created the detective series Simon & Simon for CBS in 1981, and Bob Shayne and produced by Universal Television. DeGuere also served as executive producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Area code 414</span> Area code for Wisconsin, United States

Area code 414 is a telephone area code of the North American Numbering Plan for the area around and including the city of Milwaukee in the state of Wisconsin.

A security hacker or security researcher is someone who explores methods for breaching defenses and exploiting weaknesses in a computer system or network. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, such as profit, protest, information gathering, challenge, recreation, or evaluation of a system weaknesses to assist in formulating defenses against potential hackers.

<i>Micro Live</i> BBC television series

Micro Live is a BBC2 TV series that was produced by David Allen as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project, and followed on from earlier series such as The Computer Programme, Computers in Control, and Making the Most of the Micro. As the name implies, the series was broadcast live.

globalHell was an American hacker group. They were one of the first hacking groups who gained notoriety for website defacements and breaches. The combined losses caused by the group were estimated to be ranged between $1.5m and $2.5m. The group was called a "cyber gang" as it had many of the same characteristics of a gang and carried out the same activities as a gang, including trafficking in stolen credit card numbers.

The Mariposa botnet, discovered December 2008, is a botnet mainly involved in cyberscamming and denial-of-service attacks. Before the botnet itself was dismantled on 23 December 2009, it consisted of up to 12 million unique IP addresses or up to 1 million individual zombie computers infected with the "Butterfly Bot", making it one of the largest known botnets.

<i>United States v. Riggs</i>

In United States v. Riggs, the government of the United States prosecuted Robert Riggs and Craig Neidorf for obtaining unauthorized access to and subsequently disseminating a file held on BellSouth's computers. The file, referred to as the E911 file, gave information regarding BellSouth's products implementing 911 emergency telephone services. Riggs and Neidorf were both indicted in the District Court of the Northern District of Illinois on numerous charges relating to the dissemination of the E911 text file. As Riggs had previously been indicted in the Northern District of Georgia in relation to the same incident, his charges from Illinois were transferred to Georgia. Riggs ultimately pleaded guilty in Georgia and was sentenced to 21 months in prison and two years' supervised release. Neidorf pleaded not guilty in Illinois and the government dropped all charges against Neidorf four days after the trial began.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LulzSec</span> Hacker group

LulzSec was a black hat computer hacking group that claimed responsibility for several high profile attacks, including the compromise of user accounts from PlayStation Network in 2011. The group also claimed responsibility for taking the CIA website offline. Some security professionals have commented that LulzSec has drawn attention to insecure systems and the dangers of password reuse. It has gained attention due to its high profile targets and the sarcastic messages it has posted in the aftermath of its attacks. One of the founders of LulzSec was computer security specialist Hector Monsegur, who used the online moniker Sabu. He later helped law enforcement track down other members of the organization as part of a plea deal. At least four associates of LulzSec were arrested in March 2012 as part of this investigation. Prior, British authorities had announced the arrests of two teenagers they alleged were LulzSec members, going by the pseudonyms T-flow and Topiary.

Teamp0ison was a computer security research group consisting of 3 to 5 core members. The group gained notoriety in 2011/2012 for its blackhat hacking activities, which included attacks on the United Nations, NASA, NATO, Facebook, Minecraft Pocket Edition Forums, and several other large corporations and government entities. TeaMp0isoN disbanded in 2012 following the arrests of some of its core members, "TriCk", and "MLT".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NullCrew</span>

NullCrew was a hacktivist group founded in 2012 that took responsibility for multiple high-profile computer attacks against corporations, educational institutions, and government agencies.

Radhe Mohan is a medical physicist who significantly advanced radiation treatment safety for oncology patients. He is a recipient of the ASTRO Gold Medal for outstanding contributions in the field of radiation oncology.

Alex Holden is the owner of Hold Security, a computer security firm. As of 2015, the firm employs 16 people.

Hack Forums is an Internet forum dedicated to discussions related to hacker culture and computer security. The website ranks as the number one website in the "Hacking" category in terms of web-traffic by the analysis company Alexa Internet. The website has been widely reported as facilitating online criminal activity, such as the case of Zachary Shames, who was arrested for selling keylogging software on Hack Forums in 2013 which was used to steal personal information.

References

  1. 1 2 "Teen tells Congress how to foil 'hackers'". Detroit Free Press . September 27, 1983.
  2. 1 2 3 Covert, Colin (August 28, 1983). "High-Tech Hijinks Seven Curious Teenagers Wreak Havoc Via Computer". Detroit Free Press . p. 1F.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Story of the 414s: The Milwaukee Teenagers Who Became Hacking Pioneers". Discover Magazine. Retrieved 2020-11-08.
  4. ↑ Franklin, Patricia (1990). Profits of Deceit: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Fraud. p. 35.
  5. 1 2 Elmer-DeWitt, Philip (August 29, 1983). "The 414 Gang Strikes Again". Time . p. 75. Archived from the original on December 2, 2007.
  6. 1 2 Enter Magazine, March 1984
  7. ↑ "Computer User Sentenced". The New York Times . Associated Press. May 1, 1984. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
  8. ↑ "TWO WHO RAIDED COMPUTERS PLEADING GUILTY". The New York Times . Associated Press. 1984-03-17.
  9. ↑ "FBI: The 414 Gang". MuckRock. 8 November 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-17.
  10. ↑ "Beware: Hackers at play". Newsweek . September 5, 1983. pp. 42–46, 48.
  11. ↑ "Timeline: The U.S. Government and Cybersecurity". The Washington Post . 16 May 2003. Retrieved 2006-04-14.
  12. ↑ Bailey, David (April 1984). "Attacks on Computers: Congressional Hearings and Pending Legislation". 1984 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy. Oakland, CA, USA: IEEE. pp. 180–186. doi:10.1109/SP.1984.10012. ISBN   978-0-8186-0532-1. S2CID   15187375.
  13. ↑ "CNN Films Acquires 'The 414s' Documentary to Launch Short Film Series – Sundance". 23 January 2015.
  14. ↑ Casey Cipriani (9 December 2014). "Sundance 2015: Short Films". Indiewire. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
  15. ↑ "Sundance Institute". sundance.org. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
  16. ↑ "Halt and Catch Fire: Some Techsplanations and Background for Episode 8, "The 214s"". tv.com. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.