Contents
About this project
Page 1
Page 2
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Postscript, March 1997
Postscript, January 2000

Friday, 3 January, 1997. 6 p.m.: The second meeting

The night is positively balmy for New York City in January, so the January 2600 meeting is held outside the Citicorp Center's 53rd Street entrance. The sidewalk is littered with cigarette butts and crushed red sample boxes of a new candy, M&M Minis.

With a black UPS truck as a backdrop the meeting begins to buzz and small groups begin to gather. A man clad in a UPS uniform loads one package into the truck which then sits motionless for at least 90 minutes. Some begin to wonder out loud if the truck is a cover for some government agency trying to listen in on the meeting.

But the thought of having their conversations monitored doesn't deter them from sharing what they've learned since the last meeting. One group of boys listens intently as a well-spoken female college student details her forays into the computers of New York University. Vandal arrives with Dr. Suess, aka Doc, a 16-year-old New Jersey hacker who is nearly twice Vandal's height and 100 pounds heavier. Since school has not yet returned to session from the holiday break, the pair have been roaming the city drinking milk by the quart and smoking cigarettes.

One quiet presence at the meeting is a lean African American man, who looks to be in his mid-20s, a few years older than the rest of the 2600 crew. He gives his handle as Avirex, but says he used to be known under a different handle. He says he has been hacking since the early 1980s.

Avirex won't give his previous handle, but claims to have spent two years in a federal prison in Pennsylvania following a conviction for conspiracy to commit credit fraud and computer tampering. He got out on Dec. 19, 1994. Federal prosecutors had alleged that he had changed credit reports on computers belonging to TRW and one other credit reporting agency.

As a condition of his release, he is not hold any jobs that deal with using a computer. But he readily says that he is available as hacker for hire. "You can send me a PGP-encrypted message with a proposal, and I'll answer saying if it can be done or not, and what it will cost you," he says, referring to the "Pretty Good Privacy" encryption program designed to prevent e-mail messages from being read by anyone other than the intended recipient.

About a week after the meeting I sent a non-encrypted message (he never gave me his key) to the address he specified. Days later I received this reply:

"OK well I got your email today, just give me a day or so for me to 'check' you out and I will let you know from there whats what, no problem. I like your work and if you are who you say you are then I'm sure you will enjoy having some insight from someone that has been in the hacking game for 10 years and that has done time. So sit back and surf the net and check your e-mail daily, I will call you when things are cool and/or send you e-mail! LATER! AVIREX"

Six days later we made arrangements to meet at the Barnes and Noble Bookstore at 83rd St. and Broadway.