Level Seven
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Level Seven Crew Logo |
|
| Origin | North, New Jersey |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Years active | 1994–2000 |
| Category | Hacker groups hacker |
| Founder(s) | foil vent |
| Affiliated Group(s) | globalHell (gH), HFG |
The Level Seven Crew, also known as Level Seven, Level 7 or L7, was a hacking group during the mid to late 90's. Eventually dispersing in early 2000 when nominal head 'vent' was raided by the FBI on February 25, 2000.
Contents |
[edit] Origins
Thought to have been derived from Dante Alighieri’s novel, The Inferno. The group called themselves Level Seven after the seventh level of hell, the violent.
Contained in all of the group’s web defacements, was the quote: "il livello sette posidare la vostra famiglia", which loosely translated from Italian says, "Level Seven owns your family".
The group, spent most of their time on IRC - in the EFNet channel #LevelSeven discussing security, or the lack there of. The group was also associated with other high-profile hacking groups such as, Global Hell (gH) and Hacking for Girliez (HFG).
[edit] Notability
The hacking group was noted in Attrition's Top 20 most active group's of all time by claiming responsibility for over 60 unauthorized penetrations of computer systems in 1999 alone, including The First American National Bank, The Federal Geographic Data Committee, NASA and Sheraton Hotels.[1]
Level Seven is also credited with being the first group to hack a .ma domain and server located in Morocco. The server was owned by the Faculté des Sciences Semlalia, Marrakech
However, the group is most widely known for the September 7, 1999 defacement of (The US Embassy in China's Website), in regards to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings.
Level Seven typify a breed of hackers who exploit or attack computers and networks for more than just the thrill and challenge, and for reasons other than money. They were activists, and they used their computer skills to make political statements and protest actions by government and industry. Thus, they bridged the realms of hacking and activism, operating in a domain that is now called "hacktivism".[2]
[edit] Quotations
"I would be inclined to think that normal hackers would not be able to break into something like the US embassy. The security measures they use are very, very different to those protecting a commercial Web server."
- Ian Jonsten-Bryden (British government security expert of Oceanus Security in Suffolk)
"we embrace technology, we learn from it, we use it, and we exploit it. technology is a very powerful tool, as is knowledge, but some people go beyond these boundaries, testing limits, finding new ways and ideas... we call these people hackers, and we are one of many.."
- vent, September 1999
[edit] References
- ^ Attrition (January, 2000). "Feds, Felons and Flakes: Reflections on the Attrition Mirror" (ppt).
- ^ Denning, Dorothy (September, 2000). "Hacktivism: An Emerging Threat to Diplomacy" (doc).
[edit] External links
- Level Seven. Complete List of Defacements. Attrition. Retrieved on 2005-02-06.
- Hackers put racist, anti-government slogans on embassy site. Insurgency on the Internet. CNN (1999-09-07). Retrieved on 2005-07-06.
- Embassy site hackers aimed to show its vulnerability. Insurgency on the Internet. CNN (1999-09-08). Retrieved on 2005-07-06.
- Will Knight (1999-09-10). Embassy cracker may be playing government's game. The response to crackers invading a US embassy site: It's just what the US wants.. ZDNet UK. Retrieved on 2006-03-05.
