CAFFEINE Natural "smart drug;" enough of it makes you hyper. Present in chocolate, soft drinks and coffee. Gateway drug. (If you don’t know what a gateway drug is, you weren’t listening closely enough in D.A.R.E. propaganda class.) CALEA [Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act] Bill which concerns the development of a government wiretapping infrastracture; notably bans possession of "hardware or software used for altering or modifying telecommunications instruments to obtain unauthorized access to telecommunications services;" used to prosecute Bernie S. This legislation also makes most of the people reading this document criminals, as most of us have a modem or even (gasp) a cracking program of some sort. Yeah, right, like most of us hackers aren't criminals anyway, this just gives them license to lock us up for no provable reason. I wonder if CALEA is what they got Joseph K. on in _The Trial_ . . . CANDYMAN Archiver of forbidden information; administrator of CandyLand (was, rather; it was recently shut down). Computer science student. His stuff is often cited by Congress and the like as examples of why we should make the Net a police state. CAP’N CRUNCH see DRAPER, JOHN CAPTAIN BEYOND see SHADOWHAWK 1 CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT A Dallas, Texas hacker who, in 1986, cracked an HBO presentation of _The Falcon and the Snowman_ with a message decrying HBO's practice of encrypting transmissions so that they could not be picked up with a satellite dish. According to an unsubstantiated report, he later used this to ask his girlfriend to marry him, and was eventually caught. [Probably from the 1930s radio show character.] CARBON [or carbon dioxide] CHIP The 80486 or 65C02 CPU chip. The "carbon" comes from the "C," as in "CO2," (one carbon molecule, two oxygen molecules) which is the chemical formula for carbon dioxide. CARDING Using illicit credit card numbers. The underground is divided as far as the ethics of this; most think it is common thievery and does not follow the freedom of information ethic that drives other hacking. CASE [, Henry Dorsett] Anti-hero of _Neuromancer_, the William Gibson SF book; one of his few characters that only appeared in one book. Adopted as a hero by some and an allegory for the hacker; a ueberhacker who stole from his employees, has his nerves damaged so that he can not go back to cyberspace, but takes a deal with an AI to get them fixed. (The first two names are in brackets because one gets the feeling they aren’t really his name– he’s only referred to by this name once by the Turing Police, and it’s sort of assumed that he dropped the names when he became a hacker. Or at least that’s what I got out of it.) CASE, THOMAS see MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID CCC [Chaos Computer Club] see CHAOS COMPUTER CLUB [CCC] CDA [Communications Decency Act] see COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT [CDA] cDc [cult of the Dead cow] see THE CULT OF THE DEAD COW [cDc] CELINE, HAGBARD see HAGBARD CELINE CERT [Computer Emergency Response Team] see COMPUTER EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM CFP [Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference] see COMPUTERS, FREEDOM AND PRIVACY CONFERENCE CHAOS COMPUTER CLUB [CCC] Infamous West German hacking group founded in 1984 that is now trying to be kind of sort of legit. Members have included Wau Holland (leader), Steffen Wernery, Christian Wolf, Pengo, Obelix, Dob, Peter Carl, Hagbard Celine and Markus Hess (possibly). Can be reached at ccc@ccc.de. CHASIN, SCOTT see DOC HOLLIDAY CHERNOFF, ANTON see MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID CHICAGO COMPUTER FRAUD AND ABUSE TASK FORCE Possibly the first hacker tracker team, formed in 1987 by William J. Cook. A major part of the Hacker Crackdown of 1990 CHIP Shorthand for microprocessor. The hardware that runs the machine. The PowerPC and the Pentium are examples of chips CHRP see PPCP CLASS 10 TOOLS Really nasty programs that can thouroughly trash a system– if information war is coming, these would be the Stealth bombers and atom bombs. Tsutomu Shimomura built many of these, which is one of the reasons why the SDSC is such a huge target for hackers. [Term coined by Brosl Haslacher.] CLINT EASTWOOD see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN CLIPPER CHIP Encryption plan endorsed by the Clinton-Gore administration that is currently in its third incarnation (the current proposal is sometimes mockingly known as Clipper 3.1.1). The way it's supposed to work, as designed by the NSA, is that we stick this cool thing called the Clipper chip in every computer and fax machine and communications tool ever made, which would save us from commies and those evil hackers. Of course, our benevolent Big Brother the Government of the United States of America would keep the keys to these chips, so in case anyone did anything the government designated to be illegal (or someone did something a government employee wanted to find out), the government could look at all our files and every email we ever sent. Of course, the government would never abuse this, would it? Phillip Zimmermann created PGP 1.0 in response to this. C0DEZ D00DZ [sometimes K0DEZ D00DZ] The phreak equivalent of a pirate. Someone who finds out phone codes and distributes them to the electronic underground. There is also a derogatory term, "c0dez kidz." COGNITIVE DISSIDENTS The name of a "chill," or bar where people hang out, in _Virtual Light_. John Perry Barlow and some other people have taken to calling themselves "cognitive dissidents," I believe inspired by _VL_ COMMODORE A computer company which eventually bought Amiga; popular in the 1980s. People who used their computers were often berated by people with the superior (but still awful by today’s standards) Apple IIe. However, according to _The Cyberpunk Handbook (The Real Cyberpunk Fakebook)_, Phiber Optik used a Commodore. That’s sort of like turning stone to bread or feeding ten thousand people with one fish. [From the Naval wartime rank, I assume.] COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANCE FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ACT [CALEA] see CALEA [Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act] COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT [CDA] Law passed as part of the Telecommunications Bill of 1996 making indecent speech and information illegal in cyberspace in the United States, which AOL, Microsoft and CompuServe (never thought I’d be on their side), as well as the EFF and ACLU, are attempting to overturn. It sparked a day of protest on the Internet (Black Thursday), when many major sites draped their pages in black. A federal court declared the law unConstitutional 3-0, and the Supreme Court has announced that they will review the law and make a decision as to its Constitutionality soon. COMPUSERVE Very old online service that is the second biggest in America; founded in 1979 and currently owned by H & R Block. It is very conspicuous because edresses are set up with annoying numbers like 76543.1700. They created an uproar when they banned many sexually explicit newsgroups because a German user said they violated Germany obscenity laws and threatened to sue. [Name obviously comes from combination of "computer" and "serve."] COMPUTER EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM [CERT] Anti-hacking group which sets up security and tracks people; managed by Dain Gary. Reachable at cert@cert.org COMPUTER MISUSE ACT British law on the books since 1990, among other things outlawing virus writing. The Black Baron was prosecuted with this law COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY [CPSR] Group that is what it says it is; notable for vocal opposition to the "Star Wars" defense project on the grounds that it is putting too much trust in computers; and for filing suit with the US government in the 2600 case COMPUTER SYSTEM FOR MAINFRAME OPERATIONS [COSMOS] see COSMOS [COmputer System for Mainframe OperationS] COMPUTERS, FREEDOM AND PRIVACY CONFERENCE [CFP] Annual security/privacy con; in 1994, the FBI arrested Brian Merrill, an innocent man, because it was also an alias of Kevin Mitnick, there COMSEC [Computer Security] Network security firm founded by the remnants of LOD; went out of business in 1994. Replaced by the ISP LOD Communications, Inc. CON A convention; in this context, a hacker convention. Begun in the mid-1980s by such groups as LOD. Recent, high-profile Cons included Hacking at the End of the Universe and HOPE THE CONDOR see MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID "THE CONSCIENCE OF A HACKER" A legendary manifesto written by the Mentor shortly after his arrest in 1986, published in _Phrack Inc._ magazine, volume one, issue seven. It was later reprinted in _Phrack_ again and in _The Hacker Crackdown_, _Teleconnect Magazine_, the film _Hackers_, T-shirts worn at Cons, and numerous ftp sites, web pages and BBS’s CONSOLE COWBOY A hacker. From SF novels. This term has remained relatively unmolested by the media. See also COWBOY CONTROL C Infamous hacker and member of LOD who was busted by Michigan Bell and actually did get a security job from them. Also known as Phase Jitter, Master of Impact, Dual Capstan, Richo Sloppy, Cosmos Dumpster Driver, Poster Boy and Whacky Wally. Disciple of Bill From RNOC COOKBOOK Annual security/privacy con; in 1994, the FBI arrested Brian Merrill, an innocent man, because it was also an alias of Kevin Mitnick, there COOPERATING FULLY When hackers tell every illegal act and the names of all of their cohorts because they think it will save them. While this occasionally works, to many law enforcement officers, "cooperating fully" generally means you bend over CORLEY, ERIC see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN CORRUPT (1971-Present) Handle of John Lee. Member of MOD; former member of a New York gang called the Decepticons. VAXEN expert. [Handle obviously comes from the adjective for being morally bankrupt.] COSMOS [COmputer System for Mainframe OperationS] Database program used by telcos to store information; staple of the elite phreaker; or at least it was COSMOS DUMPSTER DRIVER see CONTROL C COUNT ZERO The handle of several hackers. I know of several; one who wrote an article for _Phrack_ about a lecture by John Markoff; one who said "Information yearns to be free" (quoted at Space Rogue’s Whacked Mac Archives a while back, before he changed the quotes); the guy who defined k-rad as "a thousand points of rad" (quoted in _The Cyberpunk Handbook (The Real Cyberpunk Fakebook)_); the member of cDc; the member of Phalcon/Skism mentioned in some issues of _40Hex_; and the writer for _2600_. (Some of which may be the same person.) [All handles come from the name of the protagonist of William Gibson’s second novel, also titled _Count Zero_, who also appeared in _Mona Lisa Overdrive_. The character is a cyberspace hacker with the handle Count Zero Interrupt, whose birth name is Bobby Newmark. According to the book, this comes from an old programmer term (probably related to the opening line about returning the marker to zero); however, I am not blessed with this knowledge. Wow, that’s scary. Gibson knows something about computers that I don’t.] COWBOY One of the legendary figures hackers tend to latch on to as role-models. Spawned the term "console cowboy." As a result, many hackers tend to give themselves gunfighter-type names (i.e. Datastream Cowboy, Doc Holliday) CPSR [Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility] see COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY CRACK [sometimes "krack"] (1) To remove the copy protection from a commercial program, so that the resultant program (or file) is "cracked." Also covers modifying any program illegally, such as when Netscape Navigator 2.0b4 was cracked when the expiration date was surgically removed a while back. See also HACK (2) To crack a password using a cracking program and a dictionary. Involves using crypt-and-compare; the program encrypts various words and compares the encrypted form of the words to the encrypted password. On UNIX the most commonly used crack program is Crack, on DOS it is CrackerJack, and on Mac it is MacKrak. CRACKER Term given to so-called "malicious" hackers by the original MIT hackers, hoping the media would leave the name "hacker" alone and not damage the original hackers’ pristine, snow-white reputation. Never really got picked up, probably because it sounds a lot like a wheat consumable or a derogatory term for a white hick. While (I think, at least) this is a really lame word, it is occasionally used by those wishing to seem knowledgable. (Sorry Erich Schneider. No offense.) [Comes from "cracking" into systems.] CRASHER Someone who not only hacks systems, he crashes them. Not that widely used. "CRIME AND PUZZLEMENT: THE LAW COMES TO THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER" Essay by John Perry Barlow about LOD and hackers and his relationship with Phiber Optik and Acid Phreak. [Name obviously inspired by Fyodor Dostoyevsky's _Crime and Punishment_.] CRIMSON DEATH (1970-Present) Also known as the Sorceror. Hacker/phreak who was editor of _Phrack_ for a short time. He was also the sysop of Hell Phrozen Over, Missing Link, Skull Kingdom, the Forgotten Realm and CyberWaste; disciple of the Videosmith. He was also known for having a nose ring, back when that was shocking and cool. [Handle comes from _Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual II_.] CRUNCH (1) The act of using a program such as PKZip or StuffIt to compress another program into a smaller disk space. (2) The act of re-writing sections of a program to run in a smaller memory space. CRYP Used by Rudy Rucker to refer to illegal hackers who do it for money or power in his science fiction. (Not derogatory; Rucker is one of the real scientist hackers who thankfully doesn’t look down on us obnoxious punks.) [I’m not sure where this came from, but I’d guess it comes from "Crips," as in the violent street gang, in an amalgram with "cryp[t]," as in cryptography.] _THE CUCKOO’S EGG_ Novel by Clifford Stoll about his tracking down of renegade members of the Chaos Computer Club. Disliked by many in the electronic underground because of his constant black-or-white approach to computer ethics, painting hackers as totally evil and him as totally good, ignoring the fact that some of his methods are close to being as illegal as those of the hackers he tracks. However, I haven’t read it, so I can’t comment THE CULT OF THE DEAD COW [cDc] Anarchist occult goth hacker group that writes a lot of weird text files with a lot of profanity and ASCII art. Have their own USENET newsgroup dedicated to them– alt.fan.cult-dead-cow, as well as an irc channel, #cdc, and a web page, http://www.l0pht.com/~veggie. Members have included Swamp Ratte (current leader), Count Zero, Deth Vegetable, The Nightstalker, Red Knight, Tweety Fish, Iskra and Basil CUMMINGS, EDWARD [Ed] see BERNIE S. CYBER-CHRIST see ERIK BLOODAXE CYBERDECK In cyberpunk fiction, notably Gibson (though I don’t know where it appeared first; the term has also been used in the works of Rudy Rucker and cyberpunk role-playing games) the futuristic modem that allows characters to run through cyberspace. Though descriptions vary, it is usually described as being keyboard sized, and sometimes has a plug that inserts into the character’s head (jacking in) _CYBERIA: LIFE IN THE TRENCHS OF HYPERSPACE_ Novel by Douglas Rushkoff about ravers and hackers and stuff. It was berated by many in the electronic underground, and Erik Bloodaxe said "Imagine a book about drugs written by someone who’s never inhaled. Imagine a book about raves written by someone saw a flyer once [sic]. Imagine a book about computers written by someone who thinks a mac is complex [...] and there you have Cyberia, by Douglas Rushkoff. This book should have been called 'Everything I Needed to Know About Cyber-Culture I Learned in Mondo-2000.'" Brutal, but accurate CYBERNETICS The study of the feedback loop that informs any control system of the results of its actions; communication theory. Coined by Norbert Weiner of MIT in the 1940’s when he was working on anti-aircraft guns. Often erroneously used now to refer to bionic parts. Supposedly (I got this from _The Hacker and the Ants_ by Rudy Rucker) it has meant "bullshit" from the beginning; Weiner was trying to think of what to call his paper, and a colleague suggested "cybernetics" because it didn’t mean anything and would intimidate people. [From kybernetes, Greek for "helmsman."] CYBERPUNK (1) A literary term referring to the new science fiction that was written in the 1980s; specifically, the works of the so-called "Mirrorshades Group"-- Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, Tom Maddox, Pat Cadigan, Rudy Rucker, Greg Bear, John Shirley, Lewis Shiner and others. Cyberpunk fiction is (or was, if you agree with Norman Sprinrad that cyberpunk is dead) concerned with a realistic (sometimes surrealistic), usually pessimistic future where technology is incredibly enhanced and humans are controlled by a System– huge zaibatus or a fundamentalist religion. These are all generalizations; one cyberpunk novel took place in 1855. There hasn’t really been a "classic" cyberpunk novel since 1987, with Gibson's _Mona Lisa Overdrive_; the most recent notable cyberpunk work was Neal Stephenson’s really weird, theological technological comedy _Snow Crash_ in 1992, in addition to Gibson and Sterling's most recent offerings. [From Gardner Dozois, who first coined the term to refer to science fiction. He is believed to have cribbed this from the title of a short story by Bruce Bethke, who has since proclaimed himself an "anti-cyberpunk," whatever the fuck that means.] (2) A noun for a hacker. This was used just because the media thought it sounded like a good name for a computer criminal. (3) A member of the "cyberpunk subculture." Specific people thought to be part of the subculture are hackers, phreaks, cypherpunks and ravers. _CYBERPUNK_ [2020] The first cyberpunk role-playing game, created in 1989 by R. Talsorian Games. Originally called just _Cyberpunk_, but that had the possibility of violating copyrights, so the second edition was called _Cyberpunk version 2.0.2.0_, or _Cyberpunk 2020_. [From the literary and social movements described in detail in the rest of this document.] CYBERPUNK BUST Mocking term used in the science fiction community for the bust of Steve Jackson Games where _GURPS Cyberpunk_ was seized. _CYBERPUNK: OUTLAWS AND HACKERS ON THE COMPUTER FRONTIER_ Novel by Katie Hafner and John Markoff about hackers, specifically, three case studies: Kevin Mitnick, Pengo and Robert Morris. Much better than I’d thought it would be. _CYBERPUNK VERSION 2.0.2.0_ see _CYBERPUNK_ [2020] CYBERSPACE The Internet or a virtual reality system; most often (and most correctly, in my opinion) to refer to all digital entities that can be entered, including the Internet and BBS's. Overused, but still kind of cool. Popularized by John Perry Barlow around 1990. [Invented by William Gibson in the short story "Burning Chrome;" from "cybernetic" (the science of communication and control theory) and "space" (you know what "space" is, I hope.) He got the idea from watching kids play video games.] CYBERSPACE SERIES see SPRAWL SERIES CYBORG A cybernetic organism; an android, or human with machine or computer parts. The term is also metaphorically used to refer to the modern state of technologically advanced mankind, which has figuratively if not literally fused with machinery. [From "cybernetic organism;" a term coined by Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline in 1960.] _CYBORGASM_ Really stupid CD. There are others like it, but this is the most popular. It is a recording of a bunch of people making sounds while having sex. In the words of a reviewer for _Mondo 2000_, in one of their more witty moments, "There is nothing cyber about this. It’s a fucking CD. _Literally_." CYPHERPUNK Someone who thinks that encryption should be used by all, and advocates the removal of all laws restricting cryptographic technology. They are also sometimes called crypto-anarchists, because their ideal of free encryption, many believe, would destroy the effectiveness of government. [From "cyberpunk," as in a member of the electronic underground, and "cypher," a code made up of symbols.]