By mid-month, Moore was able to get court authorization to attach a dialed-number recorder (DNR), to Doucette's phone. A DNR monitors outgoing calls, recording the number accessed and any codes used. From the surveillance, agents were able to detect a large volume of calls to various voice-mail systems and PBX networks.
The authorities traced the other compromised voice-mail systems to Long Beach, California, and Mobile, Alabama. They discovered that Kyrie was operating code lines on both networks. It's not unusual for hackers to work more than one system; sometimes Hacker A will leave codes for Hacker B on a voicemail computer in, say, Florida, while Hacker B might leave his messages for Hacker A on a system in New York. By rotating through voice-mail computers in different states, hackers ensure that local law enforcement officials who stumble upon their activities see only part of the picture.
The agents also realized that Kyrie was running a gang. From other sources they heard tapes on which she gave tutorials to neophyte hackers on the techniques of credit card fraud. Over the period of the investigation they identified 152 separate contacts from all over the country, all used as sources for stolen codes. Of the gang, the agents noted seven in particular, whom they identified as "major hackers" within the ring: Little Silence in Los Angeles; the ironically named FBI Agent in Michigan; Outsider, also in Michigan; Stingray from Massachusetts; EG in Columbus, Ohio; Navoronne, also from Columbus; and Game Warden in Georgia.4 DNRs were also attached to their telephones.
The agents assigned to the case described the group, imaginatively, as "a high-tech street gang." By then the Secret Service had turned the enquiry into a nationwide investigation involving the FBI, the Illinois State Police, the Arizona Attorney General's Office, the Chicago Police Department, the Columbus (Ohio) Police Department, the Cobb County (Georgia) Sherifrs Office, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Ontario Provincial Police. Security agents from MCI, Sprint, AT&T, and nine Bell phone companies provided technical assistance.
On May 24th the Secret Service asked local authorities in six cities for assistance to mount raids on Doucette's Chicago apartment and the addresses of the five other major hackers in the ring. Prior to the raids the authorities compiled a list of equipment that was to be seized: telephones and speed-dialing devices; computers and peripherals; diskettes; cassette tapes; videotapes; records and documents; computer or data-processing literature; bills, letters invoices, or any other material relating to occupancy; informa- tion pertaining to access device codes; and "degaussing" equipment.
The raid on Doucette's Chicago apartment produced a lode of access codes. Moore found a book listing the numbers for 171 AT&T, ITT, and other telephone cards, as well as authorization codes for 39 PBXs. In addition, the agents found numbers for 118 Visa cards, 150 MasterCards, and 2 American Express cards.
Doucette admitted that she was Kyrie. Later in the Secret Service offices, she confessed to operating code lines, trafficking stolen numbers, and receiving unauthorized Western Union money orders. She was held in custody without bond and indicted on seventeen counts of violating rederal computer, access device, and telecom fraud laws between January 1988 and May 1989.
Estimates of the costs of Doucette's activities varied. On the day of her arrest, she was accused of causing "$200,000 in losses . . . by corporations and telephone service providers." Later it was announced that "substantially more than $1.6 million in losses were suffered" by credit card companies and telephone carriers.
Doucette's was a high-profile arrest, the first federal prosecution for hacking voice-mail systems and trafficking in access devices. The prosecution was determined that she would be made an example of; her case, the authorities said, would reflect "a new reality for hackers" in the 1990s--the certainty of "meaningful punishment." If convicted of all charges, Doucette faced eightynine years' imprisonment, a $69,000 fine, and $1.6 million in restitution charges.
The case was plea-bargained. Doucette admitted to one count; the other charges were dismissed. On August 17, 1990, Doucette, then aged thirty-six, was sentenced to twenty-seven months in prison. It was one of the most severe sentences ever given to a computer hacker in the United States.
Willie Sutton, a U.S. gangster, was once asked why he robbed banks. "Because that's where the money is," he replied.
