Slashdot Mirror
Hacker Group L0pht Making a Comeback
angry tapir writes "The news report begins with shots of a tense space shuttle launch. Engineers hunch over computer banks and techno music pounds in the background. There is a countdown, a lift-off, and then you see a young man in a black T-shirt and sunglasses, apparently reporting from 'space.' This is the Hacker News Network, and after a decade offline it is lifting off again, this time with a quirky brand of video reports about security. Hacker News Network is one of the side projects of the Boston-based hacker collective known as L0pht Heavy Industries. They're the guys who famously told the US Congress that they could take down the Internet in about 30 minutes, and who helped invent the way that security bugs are reported to computer companies."
Once upon a time these guys were the baddest of the badasses. But nowadays Russia, China, and North Korea have become real threats.
What can a group of guys in Boston do that could rival Russian hackers?
Assuming these guys are 'white hats', and they are not _necessarily_ the most able or l337 hax0rs out there, then why has someone not already attempted to take the internet down in 30 minutes already? For, say, 1 million dollars? I call hubris..
Those guys also were probably among the first to make it publically obvious that computer skills were not simply vehicles for the personal amusement of the socially inept. The press at the time always discussed how they had one apartment for themselves, and one next door for their gear. They made money being hackers, (in the old sense of the word -- not crackers.) I imagine that a substantial part of the sudden increase in society's respect for geeks, (maybe mostly their potential incomes,) was due to the glamorous press exposure l0pht received at that time. Perhaps Slashdot should thank them -- I'm not really sure. It will be interesting to see what this new l0pht is like.
Since I like history and dead-tree, anyone have a suggestion for a good book covering the history of these 1990s hacking/security/blackhat/whitehat/grayhat groups, and what you might call the fragmentation/dissolution of the underground? There's good material on the 80s, but much less on the 90s, it seems, despite a decade having passed.
The only one I know of with more than a passing mention is a 20-page overview in Ch. 3 ("Hacking in the 1990s") of the book Hacker Culture (2003). Others?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
But you -do- have that right, you just don't feel like using it. That is what happens with freedom, even though I have pretty much every right to fill this post with random links to Goatse, penis jokes and conspiracy theories about how 9/11 was planed by Jewish people, I choose not to. Same with you, you have, and should have every right to publish it, you just choose not to.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
I watched the last news video of them. Here is my impression:
* They recreated the feel of the 80's hacker optic mixed with matrix in an endless loop
(no, that was not a compliment)
* 20 % of the show was advertisement (maybe more)
* The news are mostly a summary on what you read here on security.slashdot.com
* The tone of the show gets boring.. well, immediately
The basic idea is nice, but the actual show is not that impressive. Could get better though..
L0pht Heavy Industries went corporate in 2000, and became "@Stake", which was acquired by Symantec in 2004, and disappeared into the Symantec empire.
L0pht, founded in 1992, was itself a descendant of the Cult of the Dead Cow, founded in 1984 and still around, more or less.
There have been various spinoffs and buybacks along the way, but it's been a while since cutting edge work came from that crowd.