The first Great Hacker War lasted from 1990 to 1992, when a fight broke out between two of the most prominent hacker groups, the Legion of Doom (LOD) and the Masters of Deception (MOD). It started with “flame” attacks—basically online name calling—and later led to LOD members turning several members of MOD over to the authorities.
Both groups shared a private, invite-only message board where members could discuss. Word was passed around the message boards that a prominent member of LOD, who went by the handle, Erik Bloodaxe, was alerting companies of vulnerabilities hackers were posting to the site.
An argument broke out between the two factions, and LOD declared “That's it! It's official now. LOD declares war on MOD!" according to a MOD textfile. Other groups later joined the fray, and in 1991, Erik Bloodaxe started internet security company ComSec.
The authorities later cracked down and MOD founder “Phiber Optik” was arrested. “It was the end of an era,” according to hacker message board Hellbound Hackers.
The online battle was a microcosm of the different directions hackers would go in. Some went into the Internet security business, some went into crime, some joined the government.
Now, 20 years later, the scene has matured. Information security is on the front lines, and the U.S. government is recognizing cyberspace as a battlefield comparable to any other.
Information releasing website WikiLeaks is spurring new debate in the hacker community, and a prominent hacker stands at each front. The conflict has escalated to include some of the top names in the hacker community either applauding, condemning, or joining the conflict.
Information Ideology
The conflict began before WikiLeaks released any of its massive troves of reports on Iraq, Afghanistan, or the State Department.
Famed hacker Adrian Lamo, once referred to as “the Homeless Hacker,” was contacted by Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning.
“When he first messaged me, I really kind of wrote off what he was saying because he wasn’t entirely clear with what he wanted to say … It was a while before I really started to take him seriously,” said Lamo.
Manning said he had information on a secret operation. When Lamo asked a friend in Army counter intelligence about it, he was told to never mention it’s name again. “I knew that the information that I was getting was serious, and that the rest of it, by virtue of that, was probably credible,” said Lamo.
Concerned over the potential damage the files Mannings had could cause, Lamo turned him in. He has since received regular death threats for his action, yet maintains his stance that it was the ethical thing to do.
“I knew what I was doing and the kind of fate that I was sending Bradley to,” he said. “I know the feeling of the next 10 years of my life not going to be the way they would have been otherwise.”
What Lamo didn’t count on, however, was that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would go through with releasing secret reports allegedly provided by Manning.
Manning was originally arrested with charges regarding the release of a single video of a helicopter shooting a group of men in Iraq, later dubbed “Collateral Murder” by WikiLeaks.
Given Assange’s vow to protect its sources, Lamo believed that Assange would not release the State Department cable communications, as the trove of documents was allegedly tied directly to Manning.
“I thought, honestly, that he would never release the cables, especially not in this number, because that was the one thing in particular that was associated with Bradley Manning,” Lamo said.
Rather than hold the documents until after Manning’s case was closed, however, Assange released the reports, and Manning is now facing much harsher punishment.
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