If you haven’t read part 1 of this two parter, you can find it here, I’d recommend reading it first.

In part 1 we talked about the Nihilist Order, who they were in a general sense and what they were up to. In this part I’ll be talking about the advent of the “sting BBS”, how they operated and why they were an obvious tactic for computer savvy US authorities and vigilante “hacker trackers”.

What is a BBS?

With no cheap or easily accessible equivalent to the internet as we know it today a lot of social interaction for early home computer users was conducted via BBSes. A bulletin board system or BBS is a single computer running software that allows users to connect to the system using a dial up terminal program and a modem. BBS users could then perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with other users through message boards or sometimes via direct chats.

BBSes were where a lot of hackers of this era exchanged information, learned new hacking techniques, made friends, impressed their competition, started feuds and of course relentlessly chased clout. Hacker BBSes often had rules governing who could join, and had their own hierarchies, from the sysop who owned and ran the system the BBS resided on to password protected areas.

These BBSes frequently had separate boards to discuss phreaking and hacking with “anarchy” (bomb making and practical jokes, mostly), viruses and carding also hot topics.

Police officers who were interested in technology in the early 80s were exposed to BBS culture, sometimes as part of their job, sometimes as part of investigations and sometimes in their private lives and some of these officers made some logical connections in their minds. Why not start their own hacking BBS to lure in local kids who would then post incriminating information that would lead to slam dunk cases?

“Sting”, The Tribune, March 6th, 1986

Thus Sgt. Dan Pasquale of the Fremont Police in California decided to take on the identity of aspiring teenage hacker “Speedy Da Mouse” and joined every hacking related BBS he could find in 1985. Once Dan felt comfortable that he understood what made a hacker BBS function and seem real he created a new identity, “the Revenger” and in September of 1985 he opened the BBS “Phreaker’s Phortress”, with sections for hacking, carding and phreaking. This is one point that I find a little confusing though, as media reports at the time have the name of this sting BBS as “Phoenix Fortress”, though maybe this was a misunderstanding between reporters and Sgt Dan?

As Dan notes in an Oakland Tribune article from March 6th, 1986

“We started getting calls almost immediately, I made my first case three days after the board went up. We had taken the unlisted phone number under the name “Al Davis”, in six days these kids had the name on the bulletin board. I would have needed a search warrant to get that information.”

Sgt Dan Pasquale, “Sting”, The Tribune, March 6th, 1986

Regardless of the name of the BBS, this sting operation was what put the authorities on to the Nihilist Order, although as I covered in part 1 members of the Order were also having deliveries of carded merchandise made to their actual home addresses

“They would post credit card numbers they had taken from carbons and knew to be good and they would use these numbers to make a phone order for Ninja suits or battle stars”

Sgt Dan Pasquale, “Sting”, The Tribune, March 6th, 1986

The most 80s of crimes

In another article it is noted that Sgt Dan was fearful of retribution for his successful sting BBS operation, “the word is out that the hacker underworld may seek revenge. The technique could be anything from sending 100 toilet seats to the Fremont police station to trying to ruin Pasquale’s credit.”

“Gang uses computers for crime”, Miami Herald, April 4th, 1986

The article “Gang uses computers for crime” from April 4th 1986 goes on to discuss the phenomenon of “teletrials”, a sort of hacker court case held on a BBS to judge people who have been seen to wrong the hacking community. It’s at this point in the article that perennial 80s hacking scene boogey man and self appointed “hacker tracker” vigilante John Maxfield is quoted in the article. John Maxfield made a career, and a Detroit based company “Boardscan”, out of setting up his own sting BBSes and monitoring BBSes across the US for information on hackers and phreaks that he could collect, collate and monetise.

Maxfield said Pasquale has been tried in a kangaroo court (a “teletrial”) by the hackers. He was declared to be “dog meat,” said Maxfield, who added that a “a man deep in the hacker underground, a convicted hacker who would know about it,” told him of the trial.

Even a death threat was mentioned.

“Gang uses computers for crime”, Miami Herald, April 4th, 1986

I plan on making a video and writing more about Maxfield, his meteoric rise as a commentator on the computer underground in the US media, his often fabulist and alarmist takes on the 80s hacking scene and his company at some future date.

You can find screenshots of the various articles from 1986 I used to put this blog together here on archive.org.

https://realhackhistory.org/2023/02/02/the-nihilist-order-part-2/

#1980s #BBS #California #carding #computer #fraud #hacker #hackers #hacking #history #JohnMaxfield #NihilistOrder #teletrial