Preface
This essay uses Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) documents to illustrate one of the earliest recorded remote operations against a major US Government agency. Special thanks to the employees of Los Alamos National Labs who were responsive to my FOIA request and even reached out after my initial thread on the topic.
June, 1983 — The Cold War was raging, leg warmers were in and a movie called WarGames was premiering in theaters. WarGames introduced the public to a subculture that had been thriving long before the fearsome ideas the movie’s plot dealt with. It showed the public a glimpse of something that wasn’t fully understood by the public, or even the hackers of the time. It showed a future where young, technically talented people could inadvertantly shape geopolitics.
1983 turned out to be a banner year in the history of technology. Mobile phones were hitting the consumer market for the first time ever, Microsoft Word was first released, causing perpetual headaches for countless generations of suffering Americans and ARPANET began using TCP/IP which would pave the way for the Internet that we all know and hate today.
It was just after working hours on May 9th. John F. Davis, an employee at Los Alamos National Laboratory (or ‘LANL’ for short) was working from home when something unusual happened. Davis (operating under the computer account ‘087061') was connected to the LANL network through a cutting edge VAX/VMS terminal when he received a system mail message (a more localized form of email) from a user with an odd username. This mysterious user messaged Davis directly looking for games that could be played on the network. A dumbstruck Davis, who was probably not used to being asked about games on a nuclear research network, continued the conversation
As the discussion between Davis and the unknown-but-oddly-named account proceeded, Davis began to question the professionalism of those on the other end of the communication.
After an hour, it became clear to Davis that he was dealing with someone who wasn’t authorized to be on the network.
Ten minutes later, Davis had lost his patience with the interloper using the ‘DEMO’ account.
The next morning, Davis sent a system message to supervisors about the interaction that he had the previous night.
Although it’s hard to read, the message Davis sent from his 087061 account on the LANL network says: “Two users were on G last evening who didn’t even know what state they were in???? They repeatedly sent me mail asking questions about games, etc. The user names were GATE and DEMO. How did they gain access to this machine? Via Telenet???? I left additional details in mail to 089207 (another user account) last evening.”
An investigation was opened into the discussions Davis had with the mystery accounts, and details about the source of the attack were quickly discovered. A group of kids from Wisconsin calling themselves the “414s” had used home computing terminals to “war dial” numbers they had found in online “phreak” forums.
In 1983, government entities were in the early days of migrating services and critical information to computer-based platforms. In many cases, networks like the Los Alamos National Laboratory network had been connected to the internet to facilitate this new computing effort. At the time, the general public had not yet been introduced to the dangers this would present to the country’s most sensitive information.
This temporary innocence would be broken less than a month from Davis’ first conversation with the kids from Wisconsin.
The details of the LANL breach wouldn’t be made public until after the release of WarGames starring Matthew Broderick. The effect that WarGames would have on the psyche and confidence of US officials was profound. It would compel military commanders to turn to younger generations with their questions about how possible it would be for teens like the ones Broderick’s character represented to get access to real missile control systems.
The May, 1983 breach of LANL would not be the last time the 414s would gain unauthorized access to the lab network. Investigations into this breach would take years and include public testimony which shook the US government to the highest levels.
In part II of this series, we will look at the investigative effort and learn how the government handled one of the earliest government network breaches.
