Computer Cracker Gives Some Tips

                                by Cheryl Clark

                              The San Diego Union

                                 April 21, 1985




     It was just about 18 months ago that Bill Landreth, aka "The 
Cracker," was at home in Poway babysitting his five younger sisters 
and brother when the FBI barged through the door.
     "They searched every inch of the house," the 20-year-old 
computer wizard said. "They took away every piece of electronic 
equipment they didn't understand and some pieces they did, like 
even the telephone."
     The 12 FBI men (10 to collect information, and two to take 
inventory) were serious and hostile, scaring his brother and 
sisters with courtroom style questioning, he said. They wanted to 
know how it was that an 18-year-old former Poway High School 
student could get into the computer system operated by GTE Telenet 
Communications Corp. with his simple Apple computer.

     He had done it by cracking the company's computer security 
system through a process of trial and error.
     GTE's system is used by NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, 
General Motors and many others with top secret information 
important to conceal.
     The firm had noticed unauthorized entry into its electronic 
mail system, and after months of investigation and a 13-state 
search, the FBI ended up in Poway on Landreth's doorstep.
     "They asked me how many banks had I robbed. Some of them were 
obviously angry that I wasn't a 40-year-old crime boss," he claimed.
     He and three other computer "hackers" ended up in court, 
indicted on three counts of wire fraud - using a telephone - that 
carried a federal penalty of 15 years in prison and a $3,000 fine. 
Accused of supplying secret codes that enabled fellow computer 
buffs to break into a national network of company computer files, 
Landreth ended up convicted of one count of wire fraud and is
now on probation. He also paid $87 to GTE for the cost of the three 
hours he spent on their computer.
     Today, the admittedly mediocre student who avoided studies in 
favor of his after-school pastime of computer espionage for un has 
writen a book about his forays in system crashing. It's called "Out 
of the Inner Circle, A Hacker's Guide to Computer Security," by 
"The Cracker" - "teenage computer wizard apprehended by the FBI."
     Although the book frequently reads like a how-to for the 
would-be hacker, Landreth and his editors have explained in detail 
how companies can beef up their security, an explanation of the 
working mechanisms of different computer systems, and different 
motivations for different levels of hackers.
     Some hackers have criminal intent, he said, desiring to steal 
corporate secrets that might be available in the right computer 
file. Others, and he puts himself in this category, are simply 
curious. Frequently, his book reads a lot like a 'how to' for the 
computer curious.

     "I knew I was in someone else's computer, but sometimes I had 
operator support from the company. I certainly didn't feel like a 
criminal," he explained recently.
     He writes of his fascination with the means of getting into 
various company systems, saying he was less interested in the 
information that getting into those systems might reveal.
     Landreth said he intends to go to the University of California 
at San Diego next year and hopes to become an expert in programming 
microcomputers. So far, however, Landreth is only famous, not rich. 
Nobody has offered him a corporate slot in a large Silicon Valley 
company.