believe that governmental agencies and large
corporations are blundering about in cyberspace like eyeless jellyfish
or cave salamanders. They feel that these large but pathetically
stupid organizations will proffer up genuine gratitude, and perhaps
even a security post and a big salary, to the hot-shot intruder who
will deign to reveal to them the supreme genius of his modus operandi.

In the case of longtime LoD member "Control-C," this actually happened,
more or less. Control-C had led Michigan Bell a merry chase, and when
captured in 1987, he turned out to be a bright and apparently
physically harmless young fanatic, fascinated by phones. There was no
chance in hell that Control-C would actually repay the enormous and
largely theoretical sums in long-distance service that he had
accumulated from Michigan Bell. He could always be indicted for fraud
or computer-intrusion, but there seemed little real point in this--he
hadn't physically damaged any computer. He'd just plead guilty, and
he'd likely get the usual slap-on-the-wrist, and in the meantime it
would be a big hassle for Michigan Bell just to bring up the case. But
if kept on the payroll, he might at least keep his fellow hackers at
bay.

There were uses for him. For instance, a contrite Control-C was
featured on Michigan Bell internal posters, sternly warning employees
to shred their trash. He'd always gotten most of his best inside info
from "trashing"--raiding telco dumpsters, for useful data indiscreetly
thrown away. He signed these posters, too. Control-C had become
something like a Michigan Bell mascot. And in fact, Control-C DID keep
other hackers at bay. Little hackers were quite scared of Control-C
and his heavy-duty Legion of Doom friends. And big hackers WERE his
friends and didn't want to screw up his cushy situation.

No matter what one might say of LoD, they did stick together. When
"Wasp," an apparently genuinely malicious New York hacker, began
crashing Bellcore machines, Control-C received swift volunteer help
from "the Mentor" and the Georgia LoD wing made up of "The Prophet,"
"Urvile," and "Leftist." Using Mentor's Phoenix Project board to
coordinate, the Doomsters helped telco security to trap Wasp, by luring
him into a machine with a tap and line-trace installed. Wasp lost.
LoD won! And my, did they brag.

Urvile, Prophet and Leftist were well-qualified for this activity,
probably more so even than the quite accomplishe