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trend now is to work alone – it’s safer that way – though gangs still exist.

After the Operation Sundevil busts in 1990, the Legion of Doom rapidly reformed for its fourth incarnation. But the LoD may have finally been overtaken by new American gangs like Rabid or NEUA (the National Elite Underground Association) or Legion of Lucifers, which combine hacking with viruses. They don’t necessarily hack into sites and drop viruses – the nightmare scenario – but fight their own hacker wars with computer bugs. The rival gangs now lob the viruses at each other’s systems, trying to wipe out valuable data. It’s become tit-for-tat: one gang receives one from a rival group and sends one back, and then it escalates. The Global Village has degenerated into a Cyberpunk battleground.

Rabid is particularly keen on viruses. Zodiac is one of the gang’s more prolific virus writers and the creator of DataRape! – the name combining just the right notes of topicality, menace and PR to suggest that Zodiac is a boy to watch.

Rabid is locked in a particularly nasty battle with the Legion of Lucifers – whom they refer to scathingly as the Legion of Lamers. The Datarape! virus is targeted specifically at LoL files (those including an LoL ‘copyright’ notice). As Zodiac explained to the Rabid crew:

A feature that I know we were all looking forward to was finally implemented. Whenever any Legion of Lamer files are located, the FAT table destruction [command] is automatically issued. This is due to the spite Rabid holds towards one Michael T – who runs a BBS in the 213 area code called HMS Queen Mary’s Revenge. It is believed he is 15 years old and attends Le Lycée, a PRIVATE school in the Beverly Hills area. This information will be verified and released . . . with the Militia Virus and the T-Virus . . . , now under development.

A word now to Rabid members. Keep up the good work, and make sure this spreads. We could totally ruin the image of a certain egotistical pirate group, featuring our good friend Ken S –.

Zodiac also explained his reasons for producing the virus:

I’m not a particularly malicious person, and I do not have a ‘ven-

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