The History of the CyberCrime International Network

                Subtitle: Underground Networks, the Unfortunate
                     Migration of BBSes and BBSers onto the
                      Internet, and the So-Called "Death"
                         of the Underground BBS Scene.

                 Written by Mitchel Waas, aka Midnight Sorrow.

     December 4th, 1989.  I decided to start up a small message network, as a
simple link for local warez and h/p/a message bases, between my system
(Infinite Darkness) and one other local board, HaloúTree.

     Soon afterward, a few other local boards asked to get in, so we expanded,
and decided to call the network "InfiNet" (said fast, it vaguely sounded like
"Infinite," as in Infinite Darkness, my BBS).  The net started showing modest
activity (there were about ten netted bases, each received upwards of ten
posts a day).  At the time, I had about 20 or 30 LD callers on my board, due
to ansi ads posted mainly on FelonyNet (one of the larger pirate nets of the
time).  One of my California users, who went by the handle Motorhead, saw the
net, and said, "Hey, mind if I pick this up?  It looks cool."  His board was
Metal Church.  Then another user, Pazuzu, asked to run it on his board, Motel
666.  At that point, I pretty much gave up on keeping the net small and
discreet.  I decided to start advertising for it, primarily on TCSnet,
CelerityNet and FelonyNet (The "Big Three" of underground networks in the
early nineties).  Then, in June of 1990, Infernal Majesty of Altars of Madness
(416, Toronto, Ontario, at that time, one of the largest warez boards in all
of Canada) called up, and wanted in.  Thus, an international network was born.

     The net grew at a slow but steady rate until, in June of 1991, I noticed
there was another InfiNet, based primarily in 914 (NY) and 717 (PA).  I then
contacted them, inquiring about the possibility of them changing their name.
They refused, and because their network was considerably larger (they had
around 40 or 50 nodes, while I only had about 20), I decided it'd be best to
change the name of my network.  After a long, lengthy, arduous process, I
finally arrived at the name CCi, or CyberCrime International (The name was
partially suggested by one of my sysops, who wanted "CyberNet," and partially
derived from my love of Queensryche's 1988 album Operation:Mindcrime).  After
creating the first CyberCrime text ad, I went and posted it on the nets.  The
response was simply amazing.  I must have gotten at least five applicants a
day for almost a month.  By the beginning of 1992, the net had about fifty
active nodes.  In hindsight, choosing the name CyberCrime was quite the good
career move.  The net grew steadily and rapidly, until, at the end of 1993,
there were well over 300 systems in the nodelist, making it FAR and away the
world's largest underground network. 

     February, 1994.  Something had happened.  I began noticing how very
childish much of the scene was.  CyberCrime had degenerated into a lot of
squabbling between the various "scenes" - the warez people hated the art
types, the art people hated the warez types, and the h/p'ers basically hated
everyone.  So, I took a poll, and found that well over half of the sysops
were in favor of kicking out all the "kiddies," and reforming  CyberCrime
into a network devoted solely to intelligent, quality discussion.  So, on
March 14, 1994, CyberCrime was reformed.  This new network was later renamed
to InfiNet; this time with an acronym, making it the International Freedom of
Information Network.  (The old InfiNet had disbanded long ago, many of the
systems having since, coincidentally enough, joined CyberCrime.)

     InfiNet, at that time, had only about 130 member nodes.  So I then began
a major recruiting campaign, on both the underground nets, and the peedee/
shareware nets.  Thus, the new InfiNet continued growing, though it never once
reached the 300 node mark that was surpassed by the old CyberCrime.  It was a
nice net, if a bit ungainly (having well over 150 bases in it's echolist),
running at about 100k-200k of compressed mail per day, making it a very active
network.  Things progressed, with InfiNet continually generating a good amount
of activity, leaving me with little to do but sit back and watch the net grow.
Thus, due to my inherent need to be continually working on some "big project,"
and out of my desire to gain more recognition in the computer underground, I
decided to restart CyberCrime.

     July 1st, 1994.  The new CyberCrime was underway, with many of the
original CCi member boards, and a lot of new systems.  Unfortunately, I had
very little idea of where to proceed with the network, and was basically only
running it for the "social" aspect of it - not out of any desire to help the
scene, or to create a quality underground network.  So, it grew very slowly,
generating decent amounts of activity, but nothing that could even remotely
be termed "quality."

     October, 1995.  I had been spending the last few months dialing out to
international BBSes, trying to recruit them into CyberCrime, in some mad
desperate attempt to regain the 'title' of "world's largest net."  Sadly, I
was also experiencing financial problems at that time, and had accumulated a
TREMENDOUS number of past-due bills, eventually totaling almost ten thousand
dollars.  Thus, at the end of October 1995, I was forced to quit the scene,
take my board down, and sell off all my equipment.  I passed both InfiNet and
CyberCrime down to my co-moderators, and sadly, resignedly, left the scene.

     Footnote:  InfiNet eventually split up into two separate networks:

     1) InfiNet, a tightly run 'fortress' of a net run by Gemini of The File
        Room BBS, which died in early 1997 when he took his board down.

     2) InfiNet ][, a devoted "Free Speech" network, which still exists
        today, run by Heretic of The Burning Times, and Rocketman of The
        Launching Pad, both CyberCrime members.

        CyberCrime, unfortunately, languished and died a slow, painful death,
        eventually disbanding completely in early 1996.

     December 1996.  For the past several months, I had been hanging out on
the Internet, thanks to a new computer I had purchased, after working hard and
accumulating some money over the past year.  The BBS scene in my area was all
but dead, all the former sysops whimpering about how the "Internet had killed
the scene."  So I began spending my evenings on the Internet, scouring it for
signs of activity, searching for a clue as to why all the die-hard BBSers
would, over the course of a year, virtually cease calling BBSes, to spend all
their time on the Internet.  And, in all honesty, I'm still seaching today,
still unconvinced that the Internet offers ANYTHING to surpass a BBS that is
run by a devoted, attentive and interested sysop.

     What I found on the Internet was this:  The IRC - a vast, disorganized,
teeming mass of children, grown mighty through the power of ops, running their
channels like penny-ante dictators, making them invite-only, and kick-banning
people for the slightest offense or disagreement.  Not at all a "meeting
ground for the underground", more of a limited resource for people who know
which channels to linger in.  UseNet - an excellent, well-organized system of
message bases, with a tremendous potential; continually abused, and basically
ruined, by endless spammers and cross-posters.  The Web - The highly-touted,
miraculous cure-for-anything, World Wide Web.  A vast, chaotic, mishmash of
disparate, widely-incompatible technologies and bandwidth-wasting multimedia
gimmickry.  Possibly the best information source in the world, but nearly
impossible to know, with any certainty, that you've located THE BEST possible
resources, without spending an afternoon scouring each and EVERY search
engine.  Mailing Lists - at present, the ONLY Internet-based resource which
can approximate the closeness and camaraderie possible on a BBS.  Hampered by
the necessity of storing all the messages on one's own hard drive, making it
difficult to subscribe to a large number of mailing lists.  Similarly to the
web, also handicapped by the lack of a reference point, a single central
database to research available mailing lists.

     Needless to say, I was highly disillusioned.  So, I began thinking.  And
eventually, on one of my treks through my mountain of old backup tapes, found
an archive containing my old BBS, Infinite Darkness.  Happily, eagerly, I
restored it, and brought Infinite Darkness back to the world of BBSing in
South Florida, bound and determined to show the spoiled little Internet brats
of today what a REAL, well-run BBS is like.  Boy did I ever.  Averaging
between 30 and 70 calls per day, running with four nodes and 20 gigs online,
my board rocked the South Florida scene, bigtime, and created a "new
revolution," where a lot of the kids who were formerly devout Internet-
worshipers, are now putting up BBSes, and spending their days vegging out
locally, instead of contributing to the distended global mass of the 'net.

     Having accomplished that task, I once again began hanging out on EFnet
IRC, this time seeking out the more underground/scene-related areas - #iCE,
#Ansi, #FX, #BBS, etc. - whereas previously I had devoted my time to staying
in the channels devoted to my favorite musical groups - #Depeche, #Orbital,
#KMFDM,  etc.  I began talking to my old friends in the scene, noticing how
the formerly incredibly diverse world of underground message networks had
seriously died out, leaving only five or six small networks, the largest
containing only around 30 nodes, the most active barely seeing 10k a day in
compressed message activity.  The saddest thing of all about the current state
of underground networking?  The people who run and read these nets are
seemingly SATISFIED with their quality, complacent in their attitude that the
BBS scene is indeed "dead," happy to be getting what little bit of activity
they already are receiving.  I began discussing the idea of restarting
CyberCrime, and how great it would be to have a network for the computer
underground again, a place for the scene to congregate, one that isn't run
like some third-world dictatorship, a single focal point for this highly
altered underground scene.

     So it began.  On June 20th of 1997, I began planning the new CyberCrime.
I decided to create an unusual echolist; large by today's standards (where
most underground networks have 5, MAYBE 10 echoes), but small by yesterday's
standards (where most underground networks had bases supporting every major
group, BBS software, and topic, sometimes reaching 50 or even a hundred
echoes).  I started contacting all the old BBSes that used to be in
CyberCrime, and began a ruthless, sometimes abrasive ad campaign on IRC, then
posted ads on the various underground networks, to begin soliciting pre-
applications for the new CCi.  Thus is was, that on July 1st, starting day
for the new CCi, there were already 28 member boards.  But things didn't stop
there - I continued recruiting, and spreading the word.  I called out-of-
state, sometimes even out-of-country BBSes, uploading the infopack and posting
ads on every local base and message net I could find.  It is now Sunday, a
very lucky 13th of July, and there are 43 member boards, in 27 area codes and
seven countries, currently receiving or setting up CyberCrime.

     And to think... this is only the beginning.  :)

lateron

Mitch
Midnight Sorrow