Underground: Hacking, madness and obsession on the electronic frontierDreyfus, Suelette
Science
Underground: Hacking, madness and obsession on the electronic frontier
Dreyfus, Suelette
Computer crimes -- Australia; Computer hackers -- Australia -- Biography; Computer security -- Australia
The next-door neighbours had heard a commotion. When they looked out
of their window they saw a group of strange men in street clothes
brazenly taking things from the widow's home as if they owned the
place. So the neighbours did what any responsible person would in the
circumstances. They called the police.
The AFP officers sent the Victoria Police on their way. Then some of
them set off in a plain car for the Vermont party. Wanting to save
Prime Suspect some embarrassment in front of his friends, his mother
rang him at the party and suggested he wait outside for the AFP.
As soon as Prime Suspect hung up the phone he tried to shake off the
effect of a vast quantity of alcohol. When the police pulled up
outside, the party was in full swing. Prime Suspect was very drunk,
but he seemed to sober up quite well when the AFP officers introduced
themselves and packed him into the car.
`So,' said one of the officers as they headed toward his home, `what
are you more worried about? What's on your disks or what's in your
desk drawer?'
Prime Suspect thought hard. What was in his desk drawer? Oh shit! The
dope. He didn't smoke much, just occasionally for fun, but he had a
tiny amount of marijuana left over from a party.
He didn't answer. He looked out the window and tried not to look
nervous.
At his house, the police asked him if he would agree to an interview.
`I don't think so. I'm feeling a little ... under the weather at the
moment,' he said. Doing a police interview would be difficult enough.
Doing it drunk would be just plain dangerous.
After the police carted away the last of his hacking gear, Prime
Suspect signed the official seizure forms and watched them drive off
in to the night.
Returning to his bedroom, he sat down, distracted, and tried to gather
his thoughts. Then he remembered the dope. He opened his desk drawer.
It was still there. Funny people, these feds.
Then again, maybe it made sense. Why would they bother with some tiny
amount of dope that was hardly worth the paperwork? His nervousness
over a couple of joints must have seemed laughable to the feds. They
had just seized enough evidence of hacking to lock him up for years,
depending on the judge, and here he was sweating about a thimbleful of
marijuana which might land him a $100 fine.
As the late spring night began to cool down, Prime Suspect wondered
whether the AFP had raided Mendax and Trax.
At the party, before the police had shown up, he had tried to ring
Mendax. From his mother's description when she called him, it sounded
as if the entire federal police force was in his house at that moment.
Which could mean that only one other IS hacker had gone down at the
same time. Unless he was the last to be raided, Mendax or Trax might
still be unaware of what was happening.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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