The events in that article took place in 1993. Read the whole article, but here's the best bit.
Hotel security had mistakenly kicked out attendees at that conference, so they decided to get revenge by hacking their system. The is from Cringely:
***
The meeting reconvened at 9 or 10 with the topic suddenly changed to Revenge on the Sands. Gail Thackeray, then a U. S. Attorney from Arizona who at that moment had approximately half the room under indictment, rose to offer her services representing the kids against the hotel management.
Thackeray had been invited to speak by the very people she wanted to put in jail. I told you this was surreal.
Adult assistance might be nice, but a potentially more satisfying alternative was offered by a group that had breached the hotel phone system, gained access to the computer network, obtained root level access to the VAX minicomputer that ran the Sands casino, and were ready at any moment to shut the sucker down. It came to a vote: accept Thackeray’s offer of assistance or shut down the casino.
There was no real contest: they voted to nuke the casino. Not one to be a party pooper, I voted with the majority.
Gail Thackeray, feeling her lawyer’s oats, was perfectly willing to be a party pooper, though. She explained with remarkable patience that opting en masse to commit a felony was a move that we might just want to reconsider, especially given the three strikes implications for some of the older participants.
We could accept her help or accept a date with the FBI that afternoon. The Sands (now the Venetian), which was ironically owned by the same folks who used to run Comdex, never knew how close it came to being dark.
It was a thrilling moment like you’d never see today. Everyone who was in that room shares a pirates’ bond. And though I can’t defend what we almost did, I don’t regret it.
And like the others, I wish Gail Thackeray had stayed in Arizona and we’d shut the sucker down.
https://www.cringely.com/2013/07/30/the-origins-of-defcon/
The events in that article took place in 1993. Read the whole article, but here's the best bit.
Hotel security had mistakenly kicked out attendees at that conference, so they decided to get revenge by hacking their system. The is from Cringely:
***
The meeting reconvened at 9 or 10 with the topic suddenly changed to Revenge on the Sands. Gail Thackeray, then a U. S. Attorney from Arizona who at that moment had approximately half the room under indictment, rose to offer her services representing the kids against the hotel management.
Thackeray had been invited to speak by the very people she wanted to put in jail. I told you this was surreal.
Adult assistance might be nice, but a potentially more satisfying alternative was offered by a group that had breached the hotel phone system, gained access to the computer network, obtained root level access to the VAX minicomputer that ran the Sands casino, and were ready at any moment to shut the sucker down. It came to a vote: accept Thackeray’s offer of assistance or shut down the casino.
There was no real contest: they voted to nuke the casino. Not one to be a party pooper, I voted with the majority.
Gail Thackeray, feeling her lawyer’s oats, was perfectly willing to be a party pooper, though. She explained with remarkable patience that opting en masse to commit a felony was a move that we might just want to reconsider, especially given the three strikes implications for some of the older participants.
We could accept her help or accept a date with the FBI that afternoon. The Sands (now the Venetian), which was ironically owned by the same folks who used to run Comdex, never knew how close it came to being dark.
It was a thrilling moment like you’d never see today. Everyone who was in that room shares a pirates’ bond. And though I can’t defend what we almost did, I don’t regret it.
And like the others, I wish Gail Thackeray had stayed in Arizona and we’d shut the sucker down.