SummerCon 1992
                              by Holistic Hacker

Phrack's SummerCon 1992 turned out great.  Unforunately neither of our editors
could attend due to pesky problems like work, school, and an extreme lack of
cash.  Never fear though, our on-the-spot reporter Holistic Hacker gives us the
low-down on this year's summer bash.

/*

     From June 26 through June 28, the Executive International Inn in St.
Louis, MO, was overrun by the participants of SummerCon '92.  This year's Con
was one of the largest in attendance - Knight Lightning estimates that over 75
people showed up for the activities this year.

Friday - June 26

     Doc Cypher and I arrived around 4:30 PM and found the hotel already full
of action.  The much-ballyhooed Phrack SummerCon t-shirts had already sold out
by the time we had arrived (although Dispater is making another print run of
them).  Alcohol was already in presence, and people stood in the halls
acquainting themselves with one another.

     Friday night was dominated by 'Batman Returns.' Many hackers went to see
the movie throughout the night, leaving pockets of other hackers scattered
around the hotel.  Some people contented themselves by exploring the hotel, the
parking garage, and the adjoining Mark Twain Bank.  After a brief trip to the
Radisson for the free buffet of mini tacos (umm-umm) and a stop by a local
liquor shop, the remaining hackers were ready to party.  Led by the
always-partying Hunter, we staked out the pool as hacker turf.  This is were we
found the infamous hacker groupies of SummerCon, but more about them later.

     After bullshitting and drinking by the pool for a while, some peopl went
out trashing, others went to the bar, and some sat around talking about various
systems and hacks.  Constant cries of 'Let's go get some women!' were heard
throughout the night.

     The majority of the people at the hotel eventually made it to the RDT room
located at one end of the hotel.  Everyone sat around and amused themselves
with the antics of the previously-mentioned Cyber Nymphs, a seventeen-year-old
and her fourteen-year-old-friend.  The seventeen-year-old eventually
disappeared, never to be seen again, while the fourteen-year-old tried to hug
everyone who came near her.  Rumor has it they were both done by several
hackers that night...

     Around 2:00 AM, most people started to crash in preparation for the actual
conference on Saturday.

Saturday - June 27

     Due to many late-risers and conflicting times, the conference was
rescheduled from 12 noon to 1:00 PM.  About 60 hackers filled the conference
room on the second floor of the hotel.  Sample copies of Cybertek and Security
Insider Report were available, as was an ad for Intertek.  Copies of Erik
Bloodaxe's Computerworld article and a story from The Boston Business Journal
were present as well.  Emmanuel Goldstein was present hawking back issues of
2600.

     Knight Lightning started off the conference with the banging of a
linesman's set on the table.  He expressed appreciation for the number of
people who showed up, roughly two or three times as many as had showed up at
past SummerCons.  Rambone made a quick note of how the activites couldn't get
any worse than the previous night's, with much joking about the hacker chicks
coming from all.  Dispater welcomed everyone to the Con.  He also expressed his
gratitude for RDT's help wit Phrack over the last few months.  Dispater then
made mention in passing that the government had recently purchased the hotel.
Buttons from RDT and h0d were mentioned, along with the Phrack SummerCon
t-shirts and the 2600 t-shirts.

     Gatsby was the first speaker of the Con, discussing the San Diego
'1000-member hacker ring' that many people have heard tale in the last few
months.  A hacker by the name of Prisoner from Long Island flew to San Diego to
see a girl, supposedly on a carded ticket.  While there, he broke into a Zale's
jewelry store and pulled credit card info from their point-of-sales system.  He
soon left his rented room, leaving behind the credit card printouts which his
landlord reported to the San Diego Police Department.  He was soon met at the
Sleepy Time Motel in San Diego by the police.  The FBI was soon brought into
the case, and he was kept at the Marriot Hotel for two weeks.  While there, he
called several systems, including Scantronics.  In the case of the
investigation, a guy going by The Crypt Keeper was intereviewed.  When told by
Barry Sadler of the San Diego PD that he was interfering with the
investigation, he soon opened his mouth and used Gatsby's account to give the
feds info on Scantronics.  Bufferings from Scantronics were used as probable
cause to get a search warrant for the board.  Kludge now has a couple of
charges against him, thanks to the narc efforts of The Crypt Keeper.

     Emmanuel Goldstein of 2600 Magazine was the next to speak.  He related how
2600, in eight years of existence, had never been directly harassed by the
government.  Emmanuel also mentioned how 2600 was in good legal shape since it
was a printed publication, unlike Phrack.  He told us how 2600 is in need of
articles, and how 2600 will print anything leaked and/or sent to them.
Emmanuel mentioned that 2600 had never been sued, although they have been
threatened with legal action before.  It was noted that 2600 currently has a
mailing list of 1500 members with newstand circulation of 3000.  He talked a
little bit about how 2600 issues press releases and information in order to
alert people about unsecure systems, but that the information is never acted
upon until something happens.  People would always blame the magazine for
giving the details on how to do something (such as opening Fed Ex drop boxes),
but never took action to correct the problem.

     Ctrl-C was the next speaker of the Con.  He discussed being caught by
Michigan Bell security and how he started working in security for Michigan
Bell.  After some shake-ups in the management, the new manager fired Ctrl-C.
The Secret Service then decided to investigate and dragged him down to the
local office.  A year-and-a-half later, he has not heard anything else from the
Secret Service and considers himself in the clear He doesn't do anything with
computers anymore, 'that's his story and he' sticking to it.'

     Signal Surfer spoke next of some beta-test software that he had available
at the Con.  It was a Usenet news reader 'easy enough for your mother' that was
being developed by the company he works for.  He also talked about how hackers
are some of the best talent in the computer world and that they can make some
great employees.  Signal Surfer said that he'd be happy to talk to anyone who
was interested in getting a legitimate job in the computer industry.

     The sysop of Blitzkrieg BBS (sorry d00d, didn't catch yer name!) spoke
next about a friend and him getting busted for carding a laptop, and the
subsequent investigation.  This is the same guy who also puts out the new
incarnation of TAP magazine.  He related how the feds tried to pressure him
into giving them the subscriber's list.  He also talked about how a portion of
his mail comes to him opened.  Some great legal manueverings there.  The feds
also tried to get him to turn narc on a computer fencing ring in the area.  He
mentioned how he still has the TAP membership logs and everyone will get the
issues they have paid for.

     The staff from Cybertek spoke next about the delays in the new issue of
their zine.  They mentioned that they have more time to work on it now, and
that there will hopefully be no more delays in the publication of the new
issue.

     Somewhere amidst all the talks, Agent Steal gave a very informative talk
about his dealings with Kevin Poulson, aka Dark Dante.  If you weren't there,
you missed quite a story.  Agent Steal related how Kevin was breaking into CO's
on an almost daily basis and some of the equipmen he had set up in his
apartment to prevent traces.  He related how he is now out of prison and is
looking forward to something different.  He may have been talking about the
Ozzy concert later that night...

     Erik Bloodaxe took the podium next to talk about what happened to Comsec,
the MOD mess, and other topics in general.  Doc Holiday spoke up occasionally
from his seat towards the back of the room.  ErikB said that the main problem
Comsec faced was the debt they ran up trying to start the business.  This was
mainly caused by one of their partners not putting up the money he promised and
not having many paying clients.  Erik then explained how MOD affected Comsec
and the lives of some of his and Doc Holliday's family members.  Erik also
related some documents he had brought with him, including the termination
letter of the president of Comsec and his article in a past Computerworld,
among other item.  A debate then started over what a
'hacker-turned-businessman' can do when another hacker starts attacking them.
The debate over this and other topics lasted over half-an-hour until we moved
on to the final talk.

     Drunkfux talked a bit about some of the shit that happened at the the
hotel after the last HoHoCon.  Bascically, the management tried to charge him
for a hole knocked in a wall due to the conference room door being knocked into
it.  After he refuted this charge, the hotel then had several holes knocked in
the walls of the conference room and tried to charge him for these as well.
They also complained about a mysterious fire which they could not locate.  dFx
contacted a lawyer who soon had the hotel in his firm grip.  A few days later,
the hotel sent two agents out to his house to apologize and give him some free
travel vouchers for the Hilton of his choice.  With this, the official
conference was over and activities soon got underway again.

     After the official conference talks, many people left the hotel to eat,
trash, or explore the city.  Frosty and some of the other GCMS - MechWarriors
started a game of Hacker in the conference room.  Many people soon made it over
to the Northwest Plaza, home of some of the shittiest dress codes in the
Midwest.  About ten of us were sitting around when a security guard informed a
few of us that we couldn't wear our hats backwards and pointed out the cryptic
Rule 4 - 'All clothing must be worn in the way it was meant to be worn.' Go
figure - I always thought hats were worn on your head.  After a bit of this,
Emmanuel Goldstein went to the local Sears store and bought a few of us St.
Louis baseball caps.  With a few more backwards-hats, we strolled around the
mall, soon catching the eye of another always-alert security guard.  After
telling us to turn our hats around and dropping her walkie-talkie trying to
call for backup, Emmanuel and a few of the guards began to discuss this Rule 4.
One of the guards mumbled about how a case about this matter has gone to
appellate court, but I haven't been able to find out anything certain of this.
After being told that this policy was in fact posted at all entrances, we were
kindly told to leave the store.  On our walk around the mall, we saw the
mysterious rule board in two out of approximately 12 entrances.  One more
thing, Rule 6 mentioned that there was to be no playing of cellular phones - I
think ErikB broke this rule when he played 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' on the
keypad of Signal Surfer's cellular phone.  We then drove back to the Con and
related the story to the people we saw there.

     With nightfall, the activites once again began to happen around the hotel.
Many trashing expeditions went out that night, some coming back with most el1te
info.  We showed some videos in my room (and later Dispater's), including a
re-run of 'Rudolph the Heavy-Metal Reindeer,' some news programs, including the
'Unsolved Mysteries' report on Kevin Poulson, and a screening of 'ESS Phun,' a
trek inside a CO and the fun that can result.  After 10:00 many people began to
split up.  Doc Cypher and I took off to pick up my girlfriend from Illinois and
when we got back around 1:00, there had been some definite going-ons.  We heard
reports about firecrackers being set off in the pool and a smoke bomb being set
off on the second floor of C-block.  It was much later that John Frazel,
security guard supreme, began making his famous 'Get back in your rooms, or
you're going to jail' speech.  Most people congregated in the hall near the RDT
room once again and engaged in swapping stories once again.  Bags of discarded
trashing treasure started piling up in the stairwell as the night went on.
Hacking of various systems continued to take place in the so-called SummerCon
HQ.

Sunday - June 28

     I took off again to Illinois about 4:30 in the morning, with most of the
hotel finally at rest.  When I returned about 6:00, I returned to my room to
find all my stuff packed and Doc Cypher ready to get the hell out of there.  A
report that there were '4000 cops' outside the hotel was floating around the
buildings.  As we had planned to leave at 8:00 AM, this was no big deal for us.
After checking out and retrieving my VCR from Dispater, we left the hotel to
find no cops, just a few Navy officers scattered here and there.  We then hit
the road and said goodbye to SummerCon '92.