Christmas is the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, who is considered the Son of God, and the savior of all people. With the birth of Christ, Christianity essentially begins; thus,Christmas also celebrates the beginning of Christianity.

Though Christmas is normally celebrated on the 25th of December, strong evidence suggests that Jesus may have in fact been born in the spring. Though many Christians date Christ’s birth as the end of the "Before Christ" or BC era, most believe Christ’s birth can actually be dated to 4 BC. This is a bit ironic, since the Christian era is thought to begin with the birth of Christ, but actually begins later.

ADVANCED MERRY CHRISTMAS

AND A

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Legion of Doom Hacking

1. What was the case about?

          Was a New York-based hacker group. MOD reportedly controlled all the major telephone

RBOC's and X.25 networks as well as controlling large parts of the backbone of the rapidly

emerging Internet.

2. Who were the protagonists & parties involved?

          MOD's initial membership grew from meetings on Loop-Around Test Lines that led to

legendary collaborations to hack RBOC phone switches and the various minicomputers and

mainframes used to administer the telephone network. They successfully remained underground

using alternative handles to hide even their true hacker identities.

3. Did any prosecutions result?

          According to Lex Luthor, "I realized early on that only certain people can be trusted with certain

information, and certain types of information can be trusted to no one. Giving out useful things

to irresponsible people would inevitably lead to whatever thing it was being abused and no

longer useful.

4. If so, what were their outcomes?

          As a result of a major nationwide investigation by a joint FBI/Secret Service task force

called Operation Sundevil[1], five of MOD's members were indicted in 1992 in federal court.

Within the next six months (in 1993), all five pleaded guilty and were sentenced to either

probation or prison.

5. What ethical issues are raised by this case?

          The ethical issues in this case is if you an hacker or member of some kind of hacker group. Youcannot deny that you are the hacker. And you cannot avoid the war between the two groups ofhacker

Masters of Deception

Origin of Masters of Deception

MOD's initial membership grew from meetings on Loop-Around Test Lines that led to legendary collaborations to hack RBOC phone switches and the various minicomputers and mainframesused to administer the telephone network. They successfully remained underground using alternative handles to hide even their true hacker identities.

Acid Phreak founded the Masters of Deception with Scorpion and HAC. The name itself was, among other things, a mockery of LoD, as 'M' is one letter up in the alphabet from 'L', although the name originally was a flexible acronym that could be used to identify membership in situations where anonymity would be the best course of action. It could stand for "Millions of Dollars" just as easily as "Masters of Deception."

It is claimed that the mockery of the LOD name was a statement to the underground that LOD had lost its direction. Several LOD members were close friends of MOD who had been raided and indicted by the government, causing the majority of those who remained to drop out of the underground for safety reasons. In their absence, LOD largely fell into disarray causing the disagreement and disillusionment that led Phiber Optik to align himself with MOD in an effort to restore the direction of the spirit of underground hacking.

Philosophy

Masters of Deception operated differently in many respects to previous hacking groups. Although they openly shared information with each other, they took a controversial view on sharing information outside the group. It was believed that access to MOD's knowledge should be earned via degrees of initiation and a proven respect for the craft, rather than releasing powerful information into the wild where it could be used for nefarious purposes. A demonstration of responsibility on the part of the initiate was required. This informal compartmentalized protection of more sensitive knowledge was a structure originally employed by LOD in the 1980s, rather successfully. According to Lex Luthor, "I realized early on that only certain people can be trusted with certain information, and certain types of information can be trusted to no one. Giving out useful things to irresponsible people would inevitably lead to whatever thing it was being abused and no longer useful. I was very possessive of my information and frequently withheld things from my articles." --Phrack #40 interview, 1/8/1992.