Hacker Perspective: Screamer Chaotix
Most people are scared of the unknown.
Hackers, however, embrace the unknown. What waits for you out there on that seemingly infinite computer network? What strange sounds can you hear by just dialing the right digits on a telephone? Where can you go and what can you do without ever leaving home? It's that curiosity that drives us. The wonder of virtually traveling the world via computer, phone, or radio. The fun of creating, building, exploring.
I was maybe four or five when I first played around on the phone. My mom would be on the line and I learned that if I picked up another extension in the house, I could cut into the call. Naturally, being a rambunctious little brat, I would use the most nasally voice I could to impersonate an operator. No, Mom didn't buy it for one second, but at least she played along. I'm pretty sure my aunt on the other end was a bit confused, but oh well, that was all part of the fun. Later, I realized that by actually spinning that rotary dial I could call places. Some near, some far. Mom had to give me a toy phone to prevent me from dialing Japan or Australia.
Years passed, and after watching films like Weird Science and WarGames, I absolutely needed my own computer. After scrounging up money via random tag sales, I purchased one from my uncle, who had his own computer shop. The machine cost exactly the amount I had saved - which was well below the actual retail price. Imagine that. I immediately fired it up and started learning all I could, which usually meant throwing random commands at it until the machine finally did something. In time, I learned that I could actually connect one computer to another somewhere out there in the world through the use of a modem. How did I learn this? Easy. The guy who used to live across the street from me had recently been arrested for modifying road signs in Connecticut back in 1993 or 1994 (you can hear more about him as reported on Off The Hook). It was the first time I realized that two of my interests - computers and telephones - could actually be combined. It was all over from there.
I had to get a modem. I had to get online. I had to dial numbers and find all that I could. Soon the web came along, and everyone was talking about that movie Hackers. I watched it, and while many panned its shoddy graphics, I actually enjoyed the story as I could really relate to it. The kids in the movie were just like me. Corny or not, I could relate every time Dade Murphy shut his eyes and imagined traveling through the phone network. That was how I felt. I felt like it was me who was traveling through that connection to some unknown destination. The joy of seeing login as: was enthralling. Who knew what awaited me behind that door?
Of course, this was also around the time I first encountered real hackers... and man did they annoy me.
"FREE KEVIN" was all it said. All I wanted to do was get to a site I frequented, but all I got was this big, yellow sign reading FREE KEVIN. Well, who in the hell was Kevin and why should I want him freed? I can't believe I'm typing this now, but at the time, 2600 was nothing but a nuisance. Sure, it wasn't actually 2600 that cracked that site and posted that pic, but they were the ones behind the movement. It wouldn't be until years later, after seeing those words "Free Kevin" for the first time, that I really came to appreciate 2600 and what they stood for. It was then I was thankful for that hacked site, if only because it enlightened me to the true story behind all the bullshit produced by the mass media.
I began to meet like-minded individuals, virtually all of whom had some crazy name like the kids in the Hackers movie. Fair enough, I guess I could create a name of my own. Most of my time was spent in #2600 on irc.2600.net, chatting away the late night hours about computers, phones, and - well, it's IRC, so there was lots of bullshit too. It was the first time I really got to interact with people who thought the way I did. People who enjoyed exploring the unknown, creating things that had never been created, and going places they maybe weren't supposed to go. While keeping those mIRC chats open on some old-school Win98 box, I would fire up a Linux machine and Nmap any network I could find (my cheap computers and low resolutions didn't lend themselves well to multiple open windows). I would just scan and explore. But really, the fun was in seeing what was out there and where I could go. Like most hackers, it was only out of curiosity I was poking around out there. My interest in committing a crime on the net was exactly as strong as my interest in committing one in real life. In other words, not strong at all. The hours would pass by, the IRC chats would continue and I would keep shooting the shit, while maybe opening another console to play around with a little shell scripting, Perl, or C. I knew I'd never be one of those Phrack coders, but it was fun and I was learning. Late night would become early morning, and I'd still be sitting there at my computers. Typing, thinking, reading, logging in, logging out, coding... Before I knew it, I'd be squinting through one eye as the sun peaked through the window. That was when I knew it was time for bed.
It went on like that, only I made newer, closer friends. This led to one of the greatest times of my life.
Over ten years ago, in a modest attempt to mimic the likes of Off The Hook, my friend Dash Interrupt and I created an online radio show (something I imagine people refer to as a "podcast" today - whatever the hell that is) called Hackermind. It wasn't much, but it gave us a chance to voice our opinions about technology, politics, and whatever else we felt the need to vent about. Like the show we aped, we would call operators, cable companies, department stores, hotlines, wrong numbers, etc. We would show people how they could dial around the world to hear a delay one payphone over. We would show how it was possible to make all payphones on a college campus ring at exactly the same moment. We also showed how ANI may or may not be forwarded when you made a phone call - leading to all sorts of interesting possibilities. Many people enjoyed the fun of the show, and the innocent curiosity and exploration that came along with it. Sadly, it wasn't all fun and games. After all, not everyone appreciates the fun and joviality of the hacker community. Many, including law enforcement, fear the unknown.
In 2001, Dash was arrested and sentenced to a week in juvenile hall and two weeks in a mental institution (Off The Hook, May 15, 2001) for the terrifying offense of drawing an animation depicting two stick figures shooting, and eventually throwing pies, at a third. Since he was not yet 18, he had no rights and no chance to defend himself. He was carted off to a place where he was forced to sleep on a mattress on the floor due to overcrowding. It was, as far as I remember, one of the most hellish moments of his young life. I don't speak for him in any way, but my opinion of the situation was that the authorities saw that technology was involved and panicked. Had this been a stick figure drawing done on paper, I'm willing to bet he might have gotten a detention, or been spoken to by a guidance counselor. But because it was on the Internet, again in my opinion, he got the short end of the stick (pun intended). Dash was eventually released, and while his was no Kevin Mitnick story, it showed us both how easily the world can freak out when something happens in that dreaded, confusing, and downright scary world known as "online."
In the end, we had the last laugh. Using our show, ezines, and other such media, we were able to spread the word and share the information others would never get. Like the banner reading "FREE KEVIN," I hope we were able to spread at least a morsel of the harsh realities people face every single day. It was a tough time, but we all came out stronger on the other side.
This brought me, and my friends, more in touch with the world of hackers than ever before. Dash and I attended H2K2 and The Fifth HOPE, where we met Emmanuel and had a few of the greatest times of our lives. We watched as more and more of the hacker community emerged from the shadows, all thanks to 2600 Magazine and Off The Hook. This was no IRC chat. This was the real world; a world full of people full of curiosity; a world full of those who welcomed the unknown. It was a place that really felt like home.
Ah reality, how I loathe it. Soon the late nights of coding and exploring had to change, replaced instead by the need to turn in early so as not to be late for work the next day. I'd taken a job in IT and after several years I'm sorry to say my love of computers faded. Spending my days troubleshooting other peoples' problems while getting yelled at and/or threatened took a lot out of me ("Have you tried turning it off and on again?!"). Some days I'd get home and have zero interest in sitting in front of a computer, much less trying to troubleshoot one. The old thrill of getting a program to properly compile or routing a connection through a dozen different computers was all but gone, replaced instead by the dread of what miseries the next day might have in store for me. This went on for over five years.
Something had to change. By this time I'd met the girl who would later become my wife and I'd moved away, beginning a new job far removed from computers. For four years I enjoyed my new profession, grunt work though it might have been. Still, I avoided computers for the most part, unless I was reading an email from Mom, or had some masochistic need to check Facebook. Computers, I believed, were in my past. Of course, the hacker spirit never really dies, no matter how much the harsh realities of life try to squash it. Whether I was making a phone call and wondering what hitting "0" might do, or curious about how exactly a particular network might have been set up, the urge to explore was always there. It was only a matter of time.
And in time, a new job presented itself and I'm back in IT. This job is mercifully friendlier than my previous rendezvous in the world of corporate computer work. A school. A tech friendly school that encourages kids to learn all they can about computers. To play, to explore, to not be afraid of the unknown. This place is a diamond in the rough. It's run by people who think like hackers and act like hackers - because they are hackers. And here, we show kids the wonders of technology and all it has to offer. We teach them, boys and girls alike, to code. We hand them computers and let them take them apart and put them back together. Sure, it's still a job, but it's a job that's allowed me to go home with my head held high.
Will I ever get rich here? No. Are there boring meetings, deadlines, stupid questions ("I say again, have you tried turning it off and on again?!"), worries, and stress? Yes. If nothing else, it's nice to know all those years I dedicated to teaching myself about computers, and the years I spent in school, have not gone to waste. I'm back to being regular old me during the day, and Screamer Chaotix at night. Sure, the monitors are a bit flatter, the computers a bit faster, but things are back to the way they always should have been.
From a little kid playing on the phone for fun, to a married man sitting in a room surrounded by computers, things really have come full circle. My wife and I attended HOPE X in 2014 and had an absolute blast. We can't wait to go back (she had really been pushing for the name "HOPE Prime" for 2016 and still refuses to refer to it as anything else). As for the friends I made in the hacker community, they're still around and we're hoping to get our old crew back together. Maybe our radio show - err, excuse me, podcast, can make a return someday.
Who knows, the future is one great big unknown. And as the kids say, we ain't scared.
Screamer Chaotix is a married, 35-year-old network tech and former host of Hackermind. When not participating in CTF wargames, he enjoys coding things that barely work, playing with the telephone, and giving obnoxious shout outs in 2600 articles (Dash Interrupt, W1nt3rmut3, Stankdawg, Dual_Parallel, Nimbus, and of course, Moxie).