.net: a hacker's story

“You got a name, Son?” The old man asked with an air of kindliness.
“Lyæus.” Was the reply. “And you?”
“James Monroe. What brings you out here?”
“I´m looking for a job.” Lyæus answered.
“Well, it just so happens that I´m hiring.” James said.
“What are you hiring for?” Lyæus asked.
“Manual labor, lifting crates, loading trucks, etc. Interested?”
“Yeah, sure.” Lyæus´s mind was going through a series of calculated motions. If he could get a job to support himself, then he could hack at the database and do the unthinkable: make a fourth attempt. It seemed like sentencing himself to ten years, for a matter of pride, but pride was all Lyæus had. Besides, he had one weapon he didn´t have before: he wasn´t in the same place. The father west he went, the harder it would be for the police to catch him. “How far are we going?” he asked.
“Wyoming.” Monroe replied. Several hours later, the sunlight was just coming over the horizon. It had been a long night, and Lyæus was exhausted. He closed his eyes and dosed off into a light but fulfilling sleep. When he awoke, the bus was stopped, and his watch revealed that is was about three in the afternoon. He stepped down out of the bus and was met by James. “Well, let´s get to work!” They started walking towards a huge warehouse, with Lyæus behind. He threw open its rusty metal doors and revealed thousands of crates, boxes, and packages.
Several months later, Monroe was helping Lyæus lift a particularly heavy crate of apple sauce into a semi-truck, and James looked at Lyæus and asked, “ What´s up with your name?” as if the question had just occurred to him.
“It´s Latin.”
“I could have guessed that. But is it your real name?”
“No.”
“Do you have a real name, then?”
“Actually, yes.” Lyæus replied, becoming exasperated.
“What is it?” Monroe persisted.
“If I told you that, then I´d have to kill you.” He laughed darkly, struggled with the crate, and then finally hoisted it up onto the truck.
In a cheap motel room, Lyæus was preparing to launch his final attack on the database. After several hours of typing, Lyæus was waiting patiently for his password recovery software to give him access to the first level of security when the beep sounded for him to continue. The rest of the security wasn´t so lax. He quickly assimilated most of the obstacles, and finally reached the point where he had been previously interrupted. The hairs on the back of his neck raised in anticipation. He pressed the enter key, typed a few lines into an open window in the familiar green text, and began to work. He raised his hand occasionally to wipe the sweat from his furrowed brow, but the room was still except for the tapping of the keyboard. He almost didn´t realize that he was there until the fateful moment when he typed the command to enter the network. It wasn´t until too late that he realized the watchdog program monitoring his every move. He could do nothing but stare. He had finally been caught. He had never allowed himself to slip up thus in all 200 or so previous hacks. No. He wasn´t caught until the police knocked on the door and handcuffed him. As he hurried to pack his things, the familiar knock he had heard on so many occasions sounded at the door. But this time, the police weren´t tired from a 12 hour shift or groggy from just waking up. They had just had a refreshing dinner, and they were on their toes. Lyæus was half way out the window when a powerful hand grasped his wrist, and as he looked up, he saw the creased face of Chief White. “Good afternoon, Mr. Einstein.” Lyæus, or Eric, as he was now to be known, simply smiled at the chief, and then pulled a fountain pen he had found in the room´s desk drawer out of his pocket, and, still smiling, stabbed it deep into Chief White´s hand. Screaming in pain, he dropped Lyæus to the ground, nearly 20 feet below. Lyæus´s stared blankly upward and watched the window grow smaller until, with a sickening crunch, he hit the hard pavement. He gasped in pain, and then saw a rather pudgy policeman struggle to fit out the window. Chuckling to himself, he passed out from the immense pain that doctors would later say was three broken bones and 8 bruised ribs.
On November 21, 1993, Eric H. Einstein sat in court, facing the bailiff. “Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?”
“Yes, I do”
The judge entered, and every one rose, sitting only after she sat. Turning to face him, she asked, “Eric Einstein, did you or did you not hack into and damage over 200 government networking systems under the hacker alias Lyæus?”
“Excuse me, Ma´am, but it´s pronounced with a silent “y.””
With a tired tone, Judge Rosenburg repeated her question. “Did you?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Well then. I am going to give you a choice. You can either do 25 years at a state penitentiary and be banned from computer usage for 30, or you can go on probation and hack for our side for 15 years. You won´t, of course, be paid well, but at least you are free.”
“I choose...” but as he spoke, a short, balding man with thick, square rimmed glasses burst through the door, and apologized for his tardiness, explaining that he was the appointed county lawyer, and that his last case had run late.
“If, I may, judge...”
“McLeod.” The judge replied.
“McLeod. Police Chief White´s warrant is not authorized for the type of surveillance that he performed. A stake out of that nature would require special authorization that he did not have.”
Staring down at the Chief over her red, circular spectacles, the judge pointedly asked “Is this true?”
Sputtering, Chief White´s eyes shifted wildly, as he struggled to come up with an answer. “No, No!!! I worked too long, too hard, for this kid to be off the hook now!”
“Well, you should have thought of that before you caught me.” Eric answered.
Sighing, Judge McLeod took off her glasses and set them on the desk. “You are free to go.” As the bailiff strode over to unlock the handcuffs, Eric took one last look at the tired, wrinkled face of Chief White, and shouted to him. “Maybe next time!” Ignoring his glaring eyes, he walked through the door to freedom, to once again become Lyæus.