DarkMarket_ Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You - Misha Glenny [36]
He found that the only way he could use the computer was to borrow software from friends and then copy it. On one occasion he discovered that the cassette would not copy. He tried everything imaginable, but his computer crashed every time. After days and nights of frustration, he finally spotted a bit of code at a specific point on the tape, which had no apparent function. And then it dawned on him: it was blocking the process! Once he had understood this, MiCe! was able to experiment by rewriting the code in different sequences until one night – bingo! – he cracked it.
Early gamers like MiCe! were inspired to crack the locks because they were addicted to gaming, not because they wanted to make money. The copies were passed from gamer to gamer, giving birth to The Scene.
It was still a laborious and time-consuming process as it involved physically copying the code onto a new cassette. Nonetheless, the gamers had taken up with gusto the challenge laid down by software manufacturers, and before long a significant subculture of cracker groups had flowered. Its members’ sole aim was to crack games and other software the minute they came onto the market and then parade their cracking skills to their peers.
The cyber underworld was born, although it would quickly start fracturing into very different communities – some good, some bad.
11
NO TURNING BACK
Almost two decades after MiCe! had cracked his first cassette, young Matrix was faced with an identical dilemma. He was addicted to games, but he could not afford them. The dilemma was the same, but the technology had advanced almost beyond recognition. Games now boasted breathtakingly sophisticated graphics, intricate storylines and mind-bending challenges.
For many gamers, their obsession had intensified correspondingly. Cassettes and floppy disks were already museum pieces and time was running out for CD-Roms, DVDs and memory sticks (before they were even invented). Increasingly games could exist merely as code on the Internet. However, you could not store very many on your domestic PC. Furthermore, these were the days of dial-up modems, when hooking up to the Internet meant keeping the phone line busy for hours. But if, with your home computer, you could access a much bigger computer, then you could store and share all the games you liked …
fXp stands for File Exchange Protocol, but all you need to know about fXp is that it enables the very swift transfer of data between two computers. It is especially useful for exchanging data between servers. It is important to spell out that a server is simply a computer that has been adapted to function as a communications hub. Thus a large company, for example, will have its own server that provides Internet access for all employees. Many servers are big and powerful and not dependent on telephone lines for their access to the Web.
The fXp message boards united a fraternity whose members hacked into servers and then used them to store and play games. Matrix was a quick learner and before long his computer was scanning for servers on the Internet.
Using an automatic program, his computer would send myriad messages onto the Web that would effectively knock on the door of servers whose physical location could have been anywhere in the world. When the server answered the door, Matrix’s computer would ask, ‘Can I come in?’ Most servers would then reply to his computer, ‘What’s the password?’ But he found a sufficient number of servers whose administrators had not bothered to set a password, in which case the server replied to Matrix’s machine, ‘Sure, come on in. I’m yours to do with as you please, you naughty master computer!’
For Matrix, administrators who left their computers vulnerable like this were beneath contempt. Anyone could walk in and steal a company’s secrets. It’s no different,