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The Legion of Doom (LOD) was a hacker group active from the 1980s to the late 1990s and early 2000. During its heyday from around 1984-1991 Legion of Doom was widely considered to be the most capable hacking group in the world. To this day, LOD ranks as one of the most influential hacking groups in the history of technology. Their name appears to be a reference to the antagonists of Challenge of the Super Friends. LOD was founded by the hacker Lex Luthor, after a rift with his previous group the Knights of Shadow.

At different points in the group's history, LOD was split into LOD and LOD/LOH (Legion of Doom/Legion of Hackers) for the members that were more skilled at hacking than pure phreaking. The overall beliefs of LOD and MOD (Masters of Deception) were different, but it can be difficult to untangle the actions of the members since there was a cross-over between the two groups.

Unlike the hacking group MOD, there were different opinions regarding what the Legion of Doom was. LOD published the Legion of Doom Technical Journals and contributed to the overall pool of hacking knowledge. They considered themselves not causing any direct harm to the phone systems and computer networks they took over. Still, many LOD members were raided and prosecuted for causing alleged damage to systems (Grant, Darden and Riggs, etc.).

History

During the summer of 1984 an idea was formulated that would ultimately change the face of the computer underground forever. This particular summer, a huge surge of interest in computer telecommunications placed an incredibly large number of new enthusiasts on the national computer scene. This crowd of people all seeking to learn as much as possible began to put a strain on the nation's bulletin board scene, as the novices stormed the phonelines in search of knowledge. From out of this chaos came a need for learned instructors to help pass on their store of information to the new throngs.

In 1984, one of the most popular bulletin boards of the day was a system in New York state called Plover-NET, which was run by a person who called himself Quasi-Moto. This BBS was so heavily trafficked that a major long distance company began blocking all calls to its number (516-935-2481). The co-sysop of Plovernet was a person known as Lex Luthor. At the time there were a few hacking groups in existence, such as Fargo 4A and Knights of Shadow, however the Legion of Doom was by far the most vaunted, and feared hacking group in the world at the time. Lex was admitted into KOS in early 1984, but after making a few suggestions about new members, and having them rejected, Lex decided to put up an invitation-only BBS and to start forming a new group. Starting around May 1984, Lex began to contact those people who he had seen on BBSes such as Plover-NET and the people that he knew personally who possessed the kind of superior knowledge that the group he envisioned should have. Many phone calls and Alliance Teleconferences later, the group of individuals who made up the original Legion of Doom were compiled. They were: Lex Luthor, Karl Marx, Mark Tabas, Agrajag the Prolonged, King Blotto, Blue Archer, EBA, The Dragyn, and Unknown Soldier.^[1]

Members of LOD

1991 Legion of Doom T-shirt created by Chris Goggans "Erik Bloodaxe"

As of 2012 what has happened to each individual member of the Legion of Doom is unknown. A small handful of the higher-profile LOD members who are accounted for includes: "Lex Luthor", "Erik Bloodaxe", "Mark Tabas", "Karl Marx", "Agrajag the Prolonged", "Automatic Jack", "Bill From RNOC", "Lord Digital", "The Mentor", "Doctor Who", "Dead Lord", "Phiber Optik", who was a member of both LOD and Masters of Deception (MOD), and "Terminus".^[2]

Internal and external battles of LOD

LOD was against wanton destruction of computers which had been hacked. Gary Cohen "Terminal Man" was dismissed from the group for this reason.^{[citation needed]} Other disagreements led to bad blood between Erik Bloodaxe and Mark Tabas. A war with MOD was undertaken, and Erik Bloodaxe led as LOD's general. While Bloodaxe was active in this regard, other LOD members were less so.

Projects of LOD

In 1992, several members of LOD came together and founded LODCOM, Inc.,^{[citation needed]} which collected old hacker bulletin board messages for an archive, which was to be sold. Most, if not all, of this material later ended up on textfiles.com. Marauder formed LOD.COM as a consulting company, and several ex-LOD members had accounts on the system. In the late 1990s, a root DNS server had an illicit new TLD of .LOD for over a year. The business name "LOD Communications" arose sometime in the late 80's when Frank Carson (aka Basketball Jones - one of the few "Unknown to the public" LOD Members) registered the name & applied for a CT Tax ID to enable Marauder to get on the Bellcore technical document mailing list.

See also

• Great Hacker War


• The Hacker Crackdown


• Masters of Deception

References

Public access legal records and transcripts

• US Government's Sentencing Memorandum, US v. Grant, Darden and Riggs, Criminal Action Number 1:90-CR-31, December 1990. (US Government v. "Legion of Doom")


• LOD Technical Manuals and source


• The Legion of Doom/Hackers Technical Journal