But the impetus for Operation Sundevil--the Dark Side sting--only provided the authorities with a limited insight into the computer underworld. Reams of gossip and electronic messages were collected, but investigators were still no nearer to getting a fix on the extent of hacking or the identities of the key players. They decided on another trick: they enlisted the Dictator's help in penetrating the forthcoming SummerCon '88, the event that would launch the Phoenix Project.
Less a conference and more a hacker party, SummerCon '88 was held in a dingy motel not far from the Saint Louis airport. Delegates, usually adolescent hackers, popped in and out of one another's rooms to gossip and play with computers.
The Dictator stayed in a special room, courtesy of the Secret Service. Agents next door filmed the proceedings in the room through a two-way mirror, recording over 150 hours of videotape. Just what was captured in this film has never been revealed (the Secret Service has declined all requests to view the tapes), but cynics have suggested that it may be the most boring movie ever made--a six-day epic featuring kids drinking Coke, eating pizzas, and gossiping.
Nonetheless, the intelligence gathered at SummerCon and through the Dark Side had somehow convinced the Feds that they were dealing with a national conspiracy, a fraud that was costing the country more than $50 million in telecom costs alone. And that, said Gail Thackeray (boo hiss bitch!), was "just the tip of the iceberg."
Then the Phoenix Secret Service had a lucky break.
In May 1989, just a year after ousting the Dictator, police investigating the abuse of a Phoenix hotel's private telephone exchange stumbled across another hacker. He was no small-time operator. Questioned by the Secret Service, he admitted that he had access to Black ICE. He wasn't an LoD member, he added, merely one of the few non-Legionnaires allowed to use the gang's board. Under pressure from the Secret Service, who reminded him of the penalties for hacking into a private telephone exchange and stealing services, he, too, agreed to become an informant. He would be referred to only as Hacker 1.
A month later the Secret Service learned about the anonymous call to the Indiana Bell security manager and the threat to the telephone switches. At this stage there was still no evidence of an attack. Similar hoax calls are received every day by the phone companies. But then, on July 3rd, four days after the anonymous call, the Bellcore task force discovered that this wasn't just an idle threat. Three computer bombs were found, just hours before the Fourth of July public holiday. The bombs, as the caller had warned, were spread across the country: one was discovered in a switch in BellSouth in Atlanta, Georgia; another in Mountain Bell's system in Denver, Colorado; and the third in Newark, New Jersey. The devices were described by the Secret Service as "time bomb[s] .
which if left undetected, would have compromised these computers (for an unknown period) and effectively shut down the compromised computer telephone systems in Denver, Atlanta. and New Jersey." In ~lainer language, had the bombs not been discovered and defused, they could have created local disasters.
In the Secret Service offices in Phoenix, the interrogation of Hacker 1 acquired more urgency. The agents now knew that somewhere out there was a computer freak--or perhaps a gang of freaks--with the ability and inclination to plant bombs in the telephone system. It could happen again, and the next time there might not be any warning. The agents probed Hacker I about his contacts in the Legion of Doom, particularly those Legionnaires who might have access to the compromised phone companies.
He told them about the Urvile, the Leftist, and the Prophet, three members who had the expertise to plant bombs, and were all based in Atlanta, the home of BellSouth.
This information was enough for the Georgia courts to authorize the placing of Dialed Number Recorders (DNRs) on the three hackers' phone lines.
For ten days the Secret Service monitored every call and recorded the hackers looping around the country to gain free telephone service and to avoid detection. The Atlanta hackers often started their loops by dialing into the computer system at Georgia Tech, using IDs and passwords provided by the Urvile, a student there. From Georgia Tech they could tour the world, if they felt the inclination, hopping from one network to another, wherever lax security or their own expertise permitted. With the evidence from the DNRs, the Secret Service executed search warrants on the three LoD members, and eventually raided their homes.
