From: staff_rs@phrack.org To: Oleg Chebeneev Cc: knights@lists.phrack.org; phrackstaff@phrack.org Subject: Re: [PHRACKREPLY] Re: Phrack story in "Hacker" magazine Hi Oleg, I'll CC this reply to knights@, shall they correct me wherever i'm wrong :> staff_rs > spo> We dont have tarans or KL's email but we might manage to forward > spo> your questions to them. We stay in good contact with some oldieas > spo> and phrack editors/helpers from 1987..today. > > I would be VERY thankful if u do it for me. Those questions are to > people, who gave birth to Phrack: > > - What were the goals of Phrack appearing? To publich hacker information for free (not just for 0$ but also in the sense of freedom to publish that kind of information). > - Who were the people, who made the first issue? (list of all people, who > helped Phrack to appear) here is a short timeline: 2001-08-11 us (p57..p60..) 1997-09-01 route (p51..p56) 1997-04-09 route, Datastream Cowboy (p50) 1996-11-08 route, Datastream Cowboy, Voyager (p49) 1996-09-01 Voyager, ReDragon, route (p48) 1993-03-01 Erik Bloodaxe (p42..p47) 1991-09-15 Dispater (p33..p41) 1990-05-28 Crimson Death (p31..p32) 1989-02-24 Taran King (p24..p30) 1989-01-25 Knight Lightning (p23) 1988-10-12 Taran King (p20..p22) 1988-06-07 Crimson Death (p18..p19) 1988-04-07 Shooting Shark (p17) 1987-11-01 Elric of Imrryr (p16) 1987-07-28 Knight Ligthninga + Taran King (p14) 1985-11-17 Taran King (p01..p13) 'the people' were Taran King and KL. > - How did the first ezine spread? What were the first places it might > be downloaded from (except Metal Shop)? > - How many approximately people read phrack in '85? > - How many time it took to make an issue (the first and others)? For 57..59 it took more time than the reader might think. Most of the time is spend to correct articles. Beside the magazine itself is there also some other work to be done. Like the webpages, maintaining the server(s), special events like tshirts print or hardcover editor, ... > - What computers Phrack was written on? (what machines did KL and TK > have that time?) > - Where did Phrack editors get articles and news for their ezine? >From the community. I use to say 'that im just the webadmin. The magazine is done by the authors'. > - How did computer and real world react on first issues of Phrack? Demanding a second one :> > - Were there any publications in mass media after Phrack appearing? A phrack release sometimes causes some 'disturbance' in come high profit organisations or some 3letter agencies. The appearing of the E911 document in phrack 24 lead Operation Sundevil, the largest bust in the hacker community every happened. > If so, what periodicals spoke about it? And what were their thoughts? > - Were there any problems with Secret Services (or smth like this) > after Phrack release? see above. > - Were there any print versions of Phrack ever? If so, what was the > prize and how one could get it? p57 hardcover edition. Release on HAL2001. Price: 0$. Hell has to freeze over first before you have to pay for phrack. > - What were the main probles during the early days of Phrack (relating > to ezine topic)? > - Who, besides chief editors, were the most important characters in Phrack > history (email would be great)? > > TO BE CONTINUED after replies. > > If possible, ask Knight Lightning and Tarant King to answer my > questions directly to my email address. I hope the guys from knights@ can help you there. > spo> What kind of information are you interested in? Best is if send me > spo> the questions or we meet on irc. can answer your questions. > > The best would be email interview, made by several parts. > > Questions below are to current editors of Phrack. I'd like to hear detailed > and sincere answers, without smth like: "sure", "nope", etc. You may always do > comments, which weren't asked for and seems have no relation to the question, > but which u think are pertinent and interesting. So, lets start!: > > - What are the handles of current Phrack editors? The current phrack editors prefer to stay anonymous. > - How current editors became current editors? :) Once upon a time a group of people realized a sellout that was going on. We saw the largest hackers news networks (HNN) turning into some 'Security News' controlled by a large high profit organisation. We could not let the same thing happen to phrack. We started to think about an takeover 10 month before we released our first issue, p57. We started to set up a server, got our hands on the domain phrack.org [dont ask how] and put the webpage online (phrack.com has been down for 6 month then). The webpage is a complete rewrite. Everything is SQL driven now which makes maintainance much easier etc. We invited close friends of us to our idea. We received good feedback and it took not long until we had the first article ready. After this we confronted the old editor in chief with our undertaking and kindly ask him to support us. > - Where Phrack is made? Do u have an office or the work is done at > home? What tools/equipment u need to make ezine? Phrack does not have an office. Phrack will not have an office. We are all around the world, everone sitting in front of his own laptop. This also gives us a lot of advantages (unbustable unless the feds can obtain a search warrant for 8 different countries on 4 different continents, no burnrate/cost, very flexible and always moving). > - What are the Phrack relations with computer security community (CERT, > SS, hacker hunters)? It's a coexistence. We dont work together with them but we also do not actively fight them. > - How did Phrack change with time? What are the best achievements u've > got during the years. I need your opinion. Phrack these days is read by a much larger audience. Phrack focueses more on technical and computer related stuff. The anarchy thingie (building bombs etc) has not found a place in phrack for a long time. We forgott to adress the political aspect (freedom of speech, ..) for a to long time. > - How many people do work in Phrack now? Those, who are Phrack stuff, not > freelancers. There are currently 12 people on the mailinglist of which i wold consider 3-4 the core. > - What role u think Phrack plays in computer underground and "upground"? > - Have you ever thought about making Phrack in GUI? Looking like HUGI, > with music, photos. BTW, why there are no photos till nowadays? Pure 7bit clean ascii is all that is needed to bring our word out there. Instead of wasting our time to choose nice pictures we spend the time of what really matters: good articles. > - Is there enought good aricles coming from authors or you have > problems with it? We have good support from the community and the best articles make it into phrack. > - What kind of articles do u publish? What article must be to be > published in Phrack? http://www.phrack.org/howto/ > - Is there in Internet any story about the history of Phrack? Mabbe written > by one of the old scene hackers or tech journlist. Haven't seen smth > like that? 'The Hacker crackdown' by Bruce sterling tells the story of the hacker community up to 1995 which is also the history of phrack. > - Does Phrack stuff consists of hackers only? There are no pussies on the mailinglist. Everyone is known to the community and 'has done stuff'. > - What are your plans about ezine for future? To publish an independent magazine about matters of interest for the hacking community for free. > /ps: thanks for your help. And sorry for my dirty eng :) > ________________ > Oleg Chebeneev, > mindw0rk@mail.ru staff_rs