Phiber Optik “Directly To Prison” Essay, Research Paper

The Prisoner: Phiber Optik Goes Directly to Jail

January 12, 1994

Phiber Optik went to prison that week and if you ask me

and a whole lot of other people think that’s just a shame.

To some folks, of course, it’s just desert. Talk to

phone-company executives, most computer-security experts, any

number of U.S. attorneys and law-enforcement agents, or Justice

Louis Stanton of the Southern District of New York (who handed

Phiber his year-and-a-day in the federal joint at Minorsville,

Pennsylvania), and they’ll tell you the sentence is nothing more than

what the young hacker had coming to him. They’ll tell you Phiber Optik is

a remorseless, malicious invader of other people’s computers, a

drain on the economic lifeblood of our national

telecommunications infrastructure, and/or a dangerous role model

for the technoliterate youth of today.

The rest of us will tell you he’s some kind of hero. Just ask.

Ask the people like me who have come to know this

21-year-old high-school dropout from Queens over the course of

his legal travails. We’ll describe a principled and gruffly

plain-talking spokesdude whose bravado, street-smart style, and

remarkably unmanipulative accessibility have made him the object of

more media attention than any hacker since Robert Morris nearly

brought down the Internet. Or ask the on-line civil libertarians

who felt that Phiber’s commitment to nondestructive hacking and

to dialogue with the straight world made him an ideal poster boy for

their campaign against the repressive excesses of the

government’s war on hackers. You might even ask the small subset

of government warriors who have arrived at a grudging respect for Phiber’s

expertise and the purity of his obsession with the workings of

the modern computerized phone system (a respect that has at times

bordered on parental concern as it grew clear that a 1991

conviction on state charges of computer trespass had failed to

curb Phiber’s reckless explorations of the system).

But for a truly convincing glimpse of the high regard in which

Phiber Optik is held in some quarters, you’d have to pay an

on-line visit to ECHO, the liberal-minded but hardly cyberpunk New

York bulletin-board system where Phiber has worked as resident

technical maven since last spring. Forsaking the glories of

phonephreaking for the workaday pleasures of hooking the system

up to the Internet and helping users navigate its intricacies, he

moved swiftly into the heart of ECHO’s virtual community (which

took to referring to him by the name his mother gave him — Mark

– as often as by his nom de hack). So that when he was indicted

again, this time on federal charges of unauthorized access to

phone-company computers and conspiracy to commit further computer

crimes, ECHO too was drawn into the nerve-racking drama of his case.

As the coconspirators named in the indictment (a

group of Phiber’s friends and government-friendly ex-friends)

pleaded guilty one by one, there remained brave smiles and high

hopes for Phiber’s jury trial in July. By the time the trial date

arrived, however, Phiber had made an agonizing calculus of risks

and decided to plead guilty to one count each of computer

intrusion and conspiracy. ECHO was left on tenterhooks waiting

for the day of the sentencing. Given Mark’s newfound enthusiasm

for more legitimate means of working with computers and his

undisputed insistence at the time of his plea that he had never

damaged or intended to damage any of the systems he broke into,

it seemed reasonable to wish for something lenient. A long

probation, maybe, or at worst a couple months’ jail time. After

all, the infamous Morris had done considerably greater harm, and

he got off with no jail time at all.

When the news arrived, therefore, of Phiber’s 12-month prison

sentence (plus three years’ probation and 600 hours of service),

it hit like a slap in the face, and ECHO responded with a massive

outburst of dismay and sympathy. ECHO’s director, Stacy Horn,

posted the information at 3 p.m. on November 3 in the system’s

main conference area, and within 24 hours the place was flooded

with over 100 messages offering condolences, advice on

penitentiary life, and curses on Judge Stanton. Not all the

messages were what you’d want to call articulate

read the first one in its entirety; quoth another:

nor was all the advice exactly comforting

a sincere and apparently quite prison-savvy Echoid

suggested; ;Skip the country, proposed one user who

connects from abroad, inviting Phiber to join him in sunny South

Africa). But the sentiment throughout was unmistakably heartfelt, and

when Phiber Optik finally checked in, his brief response was even more so

I just finished reading all this and…I’m speechless. I

couldn’t say enough to thank all of you.

He didn’t have to thank anybody, of course. Motivated by

genuine fellow feeling as this electronic lovefest was, it was

also the last step in the long-running canonization of Phiber Optik

as the digital age’s first full-fledged outlaw hero, and making

somebody else a hero is not necessarily the most generous of

acts. For one thing, we tend to get more from our heroes than

they get from us, and for another, we tend to be heedless of

(when not morbidly fascinated by) the very high psychic overhead

often involved in becoming a hero — especially the outlaw kind.

To their credit, though, the Echoids proved themselves sensitive

to the weight of the burden Phiber had been asked to take on. As

one of them put it: ;Sorry Mark. You’ve obviously been made

a martyr for our generation.

There was some melodrama in that statement, to be sure, but

not too much exaggeration. For ironically enough, Judge Stanton

himself seemed to have endorsed its basic premise in his remarks

upon passing sentence. Not unmoved by the stacks of letters sent

him in support of Phiber Optik’s character and motivations, the

judge allowed as how a less celebrated Phiber Optik convicted of

the same crimes might not deserve the severity of the discipline

he was about to prescribe (and in Phiber’s case it could be

argued that 12 months locked up without a computer is severe

enough to rate as cruel and unusual). But since Phiber had made

of himself a very public advertisement for the ethic of the

digital underground, the judge insisted he would have to make of

the sentence an equally public countermessage. ;The defendant…stands as

a symbol here today, said Stanton, making it clear that the

defendant would therefore be punished as one too.

The judge did not make it clear when exactly it was that the

judicial system had abandoned the principle that the punishment

fits the crime and not the status of the criminal, though I

suppose that happened too long ago to be of much interest. More

frustratingly, he also didn’t go into much detail as to what it

was that Phiber Optik was to stand as a symbol of. In at

least one of his remarks, however, he did provide an ample enough

clue:

Hacking crimes, said Judge Stanton,constitute a real threat to the

expanding information highway.

That the real threat; bit was a nice dramatic touch,

but anyone well-versed in the issues of the case could see that

at this point the judge was speaking symbolically. For one thing,

even as practiced by the least scrupulous joyriders among Phiber

Optik’s subcultural peers, hacking represents about as much of a

threat to the newly rampant telecommunications juggernaut as shoplifting

does to the future of world capitalism. But more to the point, everybody

recognizes by now that all references to information highways, super

or otherwise, are increasingly just code for the corporate wet

dream of a pay-as-you-go telecom turnpike, owned by the same megabusinesses

that own our phone and cable systems today and off-limits to

anyone with a slender wallet or a bad credit rating. And that,

symbolically speaking, is what Phiber Optik’s transgressions

threaten.

For what did his crimes consist of after all? He picked the

locks on computers owned by large corporations, and he shared the

knowledge of how to do it with his friends (they had given themselves

the meaningless name MOD, more for the thrill of sounding like a

conspiracy than for the purpose of actually acting like one). In

themselves the offenses are trivial, but raised to the level of a

social principle, they do spell doom for the locks some people

want to put on our cyberspatial future. And I’m tempted,

therefore, to close with a rousing celebration of Phiber Optik as

the symbol of a spirit of anarchic resistance to the corporate

Haussmannization of our increasingly information-based lives, and

to cheer Phiber’s hero status in places like ECHO as a sign that

that spirit is thriving.

But I think I’ll pass for now. Phiber Optik has suffered

enough for having become a symbol, and in any case his symbolic

power will always be available to us, no matter where he is. Right

now, though, the man himself is going away for far too long, and

like I said, that’s nothing but a shame.

____________________________________________________________________________

The Personal side to Phiber

Handle:Phiber Optik

a.k.a.: Mark Abene

Claim to Fame:

As a founding member of the Masters of Deception, Phiber Optik inspired

thousands of teenagers around the country to “study” the internal workings

of our nation’s phone system. A federal judge attempted to “send a message”

to other hackers by sentencing Phiber to a year in federal prison, but the

message got garbled: Hundreds of well-wishers attended a welcome-home party

in Abene’s honor at an elite Manhattan Club. Soon after, New York magazine

dubbed him one of the city’s 100 smartest people.

First encountered a computer:

Hanging out in the electronics department of the A&S department store in

Queens, N.Y., where his mother worked. There he was introduced to the Apple

II, the Timex Sinclair and the Commodore 64. The first

computer he owned was a Radio Shack TRS-80 (Trash-80).

Unusual tools:

Experimented by dialing patterns on a phone receiver. Abene used the

receiver so frequently that it had to be bandaged with black electrical tape

to keep its guts from falling out.

Little-known fact:

Phiber Optik’s favorite food: mashed potatoes from Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Not real mashed potatoes. Real ones have lumps in them.

____________________________________________________________________________

A quick interveiw before going to prison

PHIBER OPTIK

But you know what I would like to see? We did this last week. We

called up local information and we heard for the last time the NY

telephone recording. Now, lets see if they have, as they said they would

on Jan 1st, changed everything… I think it’s very important that we do

some checking up here. Ok, there is our trusty dial tone..and we are

going to..No we are not going to call anywhere cause I guess we didn’t

pay our touch-tone fee…Did we?…Now, ok, lets try another line…Hey!

No, we didn’t pay the touch-tone fee on any of our lines apparently…lets

try…there we go…(dials number) lets see what happens…

Operator: New York Telephone

Emmanuel: Oh I’m sorry I thought this was NYNEX..

Operator: OK

Emmanuel: OK..so long…well apparently she didn’t know either! Wow!

Nynex what’s that? It doesn’t work on Information yet..how bout that?

Lets try 0+ calls and see if that’s any better…(dials number) lets call

ourselves…oops (dials again)

Let’s see what happens (recording: New York Telephone) Oh what is

going on here?..I mean come on – I wrote the check out to NYNEX,

I’ve been complaining about NYNEX all week! I haven’t said a single

bad thing about NY Telephone since Jan 1 because they don’t exist

anymore. Now what do I see? I see NY telephone vans, I see NY

telephone tariffs and I see NY telephone on the phone. What is a person

to do?..well Phiber this is your last show.

Phiber: Yes it is.

Emmanuel: At least for the next well how long do we estimate that

they’ll lock you up for?

Phiber: Roughly 10 months or so…

Emmanuel: Well, that’s quite a time, that should bring us to October..of

this coming year..its been..pretty crazy and pretty hectic I would

imagine..the last couple of weeks..you are actually supposed to report

when? Friday?

Phiber: Yeah that’s right.

Emmanuel: At a place called schulkill PA. Where you will be spending

time and hopefully you will be writing to us at the radio station since

you won’t actually be able to be on the air.

Phiber: Yeah, I will certainly try to write at least.

Emmanuel: Any thoughts you wanta give…? By the way good article

in the village voice.

Phiber: Yeah I was really happy to read it…I thank Julian DeBell for

writing such a nice article.

Emmanuel: It’s the one with Beevis and Butthead on the cover?..no its

not Beevis and Butthead it’s Clinton and Bush?

Phiber: No it’s supposed to be our former and current mayor..no

actually its Mayor Koch…It’s Koch and Juliani.

Emmanuel: In the form of Beevis and Butthead, so pick up the Voice

and check out the article, nice picture too..I haven’t actually seen it yet I

am just going on what other people have said to me.

Phiber: Open the page why don’t you?

Emmanuel: What page is it on?

Phiber: I don’t know.

Emmanuel: This newspaper has about a thousand pages in it so I don’t

know which page to go too..

Phiber: Page 44

Emmanuel: I hope your not just saying that…oh look look, there you

are! The byteman of Alcatrazz they are calling you, “Phiber Optic goes

directly to jail”. Wow…well that’s something…so that’s this week in the

Village Voice..

____________________________________________________________________________

Mark “Phiber” may not seem so special unless you know how truly smart

somone must be to pull off something as he did. He was so smart he used the

oldest computer you could possibly use and he about got away with it. There

are still some people who have the best computers in the world and still cant

compete with Phiber.

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