Computersight -

While researching the subject notorious hacking incidents, the first thing I observed is the lack of details on hacking incidents.  Is this due to companies hiding the fact that individuals were able to gain access to their computer systems without authorization or is it from the hacker trying to cover their tracks to keep from getting caught?  Another thing I observed while doing my research was the lack of the female gender in the lists of notorious hackers.  For a hacker to become notorious to the general public means only one thing the authorities have issued a warrant, APB or arrested someone involved in a computer crime.

 Which raises the question, Is the lack of females listed as known hackers because so few females are techie enough to hack into a computer system or are the females that have these talents to smart to arouse the authorities suspicions to try find and stop them?  In reference to this subject I found several articles theorizing about why so few women have been involved in this particular activity.  One theory stated girls mature intellectually earlier than boys and do not have the same motivations that boys do for pursuing the art of hacking.  Also women are raised to multi-task, feed the baby while making dinner for the rest of the family, answer the phone while making lunches and starting the days laundry, where men go to work at a single task job, be it programming, roofing, CEO or whatever profession is chosen.

The most notorious female hacker went by the handle Susan Thunder[i]; she was an expert in foot printing her victims before penetrating their network system.  She used her skills as a former prostitute to gain access to military passwords and information.  She was abused as a child, became a prostitute in LA brothels in her early teens. And spent her time off as a rock groupie which is how she acquired her skills for getting backstage passes by pretending to be a secretary at a record company. 

She became active as a phreaker[ii] in the late 70’s and hooked up with a couple of guys by the name of Ron and Kevin Mitnick.  She was romantically involved with Roscoe, who was a member of Kevin Mitnick’s group; until she found out he was also engaged to another woman.  After being jilted she was out for revenge and was partly responsible for Mitnick prosecution and incarceration.  Thunder put taps on Kevin, Roscoe and his girlfriend’s phones to gather evidence against the gang when she felt she had enough evidence she turned over her findings to the investigation department and gave the reason that she was concerned about national security for turning evidence on her former lover.  She was given immunity in the trial against Kevin Mitnick because, she was a key witness and also helped the prosecution by explaining the computer technology used.  Her former lover was sentenced to 15 months of detention. 

After her revenge vendetta she gave up her hacking activities to become a security advisor and two years later was asked to join in at a hearing with the U.S. Senate in Washington where she spoke about national security and demonstrated her knowledge.  When given a computer, a modem, and the name of the system to hack, it took her less than twenty minutes to show a screen full of secret data on the screen.  She used all her skills into play including persuading someone to give out a password over the phone, which proved to the Senate that the weakest link in national security and the business world is the human factor.  After that demonstration Thunder gave up her hacking career to be a professional poker player, which she is said to be quite good at surviving on a more legal career.

The first and only female that was actually charged by the federal government for hacking voice-mail systems and trafficking in access devices was Leslie Doucette[iii], she was said to have over one hundred or more adolescent Oliver Twist types in her ring.  She operated a scheme dealing in stolen credit cards; access codes, telephone cards as well as corporate PBX telephone access codes, computer passwords, and codes for voice-mail computers. 

The voice-mail boxes were used to relay the stolen information to Doucette.  Her accomplices were known to buy Western Union Money Orders with stolen cards to transfer funds to her.  The owner of the voice-mail computer notice an over abundance of usage and called in the authorities to investigate. 

The authorities that ended up arresting her and seven of her gang members consisted of the Secret Service, FBI, Illinois State Police, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, the Chicago Police Department, the Columbus Ohio Police Department, The Cobb County Sheriffs Office (Georgia), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Ontario Provincial Police with technical support provided by security agents from MCI, Sprint, AT&T, and nine Bell phone companies.

When the raid on Doucette’s Chicago apartment went down among the items confiscated Were 171 AT&T, ITT, and other telephone cards, as Well as authorization codes for 39 PBXs.  The agents also found numbers for 118 Visa cards, 150 Master Cards, and 2 American Express cards.

She was charged with fraud and faced with the possibility of a sentence of ninety-nine years in prison, a $69,000 fine and $1.6 million in restitution.  Damages were estimated

Between $200,000 and $1.6 million by the corporations telephone service providers.  The government decided to make an example of Doucette. The case was plea-bargained, Doucette plead guilty to one charge; the other charges were dismissed.  On Aug. 17, 1990, Doucette, then 36, was sentenced to 27 months in prison. It was one of the most severe sentences ever given to a computer hacker in the United States.

[i]  CDNE Chapter 14 – Female Hackers?  Retrieved 8/19/2005, from http://home.e2i.net/nirgendqo/ch14web.html

[ii]  Women Hackers – Research, Cornelia Sollfrank, Rotterdam, 1999. First published in ‘next Cyberfeminist International”, 1999 from pgs. 8-9 from http://www.obn.org/hackers/test1.html.

[iii] Paul Mungo & Bryan Glough (1992) originally released in hardcover by Random House, Approaching zero – The Extraordinary Underworld of Hackers, Pheakers, Virus Writers, And Keyboard Criminals republish electronically at http://casl.csa.iisc.ernet.in/HackingAnd Phreaking/approaching_ero.html