The 414s

The group accessed systems for the challenge of getting into places they weren't supposed to.

414 is the area code for Milwaukee.

It is also the name of what is considered one of the first known hacking organisations.

The 414s were a group of six teenagers who - in the early 1980s - broke into dozens of high-profile computer systems including the national laboratory of the United States Department of Energy - the Los Alamos National Laboratory which helps develop nuclear weapons.

Ranging in age from 16 to 22, they met as members of a local Scout troop.

During a nine day hacking spree, the group accessed systems for what they said was the challenge of getting into places they weren't supposed to and remaining there undetected.

Other than minor damage (ostensibly to cover their tracks) on one system, the group caused no financial damage.

It did, however, demonstrate how easy it was to hack a system.

They used inexpensive personal computers and simple hacking techniques, such as using common or default passwords and exploiting well-known, but unpatched, security holes.

Most of the members of the 414s were not prosecuted, in various agreements to stop their activities and pay restitutions. Two members pleaded guilty on two counts of "making harassing telephone calls".

As a result of news coverage including a cover story in Newsweek, members of 414 testified before the U.S. House of Representatives in September 1983 about the dangers of computer hacking, and six bills concerning computer crime were introduced in the House that year.

This was six years after the first attempt at such a law.

In 1977, Sen. Abraham A. Ribicoff (D-Conn.) introduced the Federal Computer Systems Protection Act, which sought to define "computer crimes" and recommended penalties for such crimes.

The bill did not pass.