📸

APPROACHING ZERO

At first, Chaos was just another 'information provider' on Btx. Subscribers to the service could dial up and read pages of information supplied by Chaos on their home computers. Users were charged at a premium rate for the calls, with proceeds shared between the Bundespost and Chaos. This seemed a good recipe for making money - until one of the computer wizards at Chaos discovered that security on the system was hopelessly weak. He realized that if a hacker broke into Btx he could get hold of the Chaos ID and password (used by the club to access and update the information on its pages), then dial up other services and saddle Chaos with the cost. With a minimum of DM10 for each call, the amount involved could soon become astronomical.

Chaos's founder, Wau Holland, and a younger member of the club, Steffen Wernery, then aged twenty-two, decided to go public with the discovery. The two contacted Hans Gliss, the managing editor of the computer security journal Datenschutz-Berater ('Data Security Adviser'). Gliss invited Holland and Steffen to attend an upcoming conference on data security and present their information. At the meeting the Bundespost denied the club's claims, unwisely stating that its Btx security was impenetrable. It was the cue for Chaos to demonstrate otherwise.

The Chaos team hacked into the Btx system and into the account of their local savings bank, the Hamburger Sparkasse. They then introduced a computer program they had written, causing the bank to call up the Chaos Btx pages repeatedly over a ten-hour period. The program was simple: it merely called the Chaos Btx number, waited for an answer and then hung up. Over and over again. After ten hours, the bill for the bank came to DM135,000. The bill, of course, was never presented, but the ensuing publicity - carefully orchestrated by Chaos through the German press agency - led directly to the Bundespost improving its computer security. Holland and Steffen became national heroes - though perhaps not to the Bundespost.

The publicity increased Chaos's notoriety. The club's first annual congress was organized as a result of the coverage engendered by the Btx hack. Chaos became a byword for high-tech mischief and the club's congresses became the meeting place for the German computer underworld. These congresses, organized by Steffen, were always

166

📸