Collusion Syndicate
Encyclopedia
The Collusion Syndicate, formerly the Collusion Group, was a Computer Security
and Internet Politics Special Interest Group (SIG) founded in 1995 and effectively disbanded around 2002.
Tex Mignog, aka the TexorcisT
(sic) in Dallas, Texas
before moving the headquarters to Austin, Texas
in 1997. Founding members included individuals that all operated anonymously using hacker pseudonyms (called "handles
" or "nym
s") including the TexorcisT, Progress, Sfear (sic), Anormal, StripE (sic) and Elvirus. The membership of this organization grew to an estimated 30+ by 1999 and was not localized to its headquarters in Austin, Texas
, with members in other states, countries and continents. The group made numerous open appearances at computer security events such as H.O.P.E.
and DefCon
and was often quoted by the media on computer related security, political and cultural issues.
The group was well known for its online publication, www.Collusion.org and also founded and financed other events such as the "irQconflict", the largest seasonal computer gaming tournament in the South-Central US.
The group was often interviewed with regard to Internet security issues by reporters for a variety of media outlets, some examples being KVUE News
,
the Austin American Statesman and Washington Post
,
and The New York Times
.
This site won awards including a Best of Austin in 2000 by the Austin Chronicle
where the site was described as "an edgy cabal of net-savvy punks and vinyl-scratching, video-gaming malcontents, laying it down in no uncertain terms with a lot of dark backgrounds and urban-toothed graphics and in-your-face-yo rants."
Collusion Syndicate research on SIPRNet
has been referenced by the SANS Institute
.
Xchicago has published tips by Collusion's founder, TexorcisT, on Google Hacking
.
The group's work and research is referenced in many books including
Steal This Computer Book 4.0: What They Won't Tell You about the Internet,
Mac OS X Maximum Security
and Anarchitexts: Voices from the Global Digital Resistance.
The group may have been tied to Assassination Politics
as evidenced by declassified documents.
-in-a-Box" and designed to facilitate quick network deployments. With CAT III 50-pin telco cable and break-out "harmonicas" to quickly deploy a 160 node network at a previously unwired location in less than one hour. (Developed prior to the advent of WiFi
popularity.)
,
the largest seasonal computer gaming tournament in the South-Central US. These events were different in that they were very large for LAN party
standards (100-200 gamer
s) and included a rave
like atmosphere with DJs, club lighting and projectors showing computer animation and machinima
. They took place in various venues in Austin, Texas, utilized Port-A-LAN technology and, due to its size, required the re-engineering of the venues' electrical wiring. These events drew attendance from all over Texas and surrounding states.
The Collusion Group took the show on the road in 1999, taking the irQconflict to DefCon 7
and in 2000 was invited to do their thing in conjunction with SXSW Interactive
and COnduit 2K electronic film festival
and was where some machinima
films chose to debut
, during the gaming.
which are manual DDoS attacks created by hundreds of protesters attempting to overload the servers of the organization they are protesting by repeatedly requesting data, manually.
SecurityTraq credits this site as providing an early introduction to the concept of Hacktivism
and
they are referenced in The Internet and Democracy, a paper by Roger Clarke Prepared for IPAA/NOIE and included in a NOIE publication in September 2004.
They explanation of Hactivism was published in the Hacktivist and credited in the Ashville Global Report as lately as 2007.
Computer security
Computer security is a branch of computer technology known as information security as applied to computers and networks. The objective of computer security includes protection of information and property from theft, corruption, or natural disaster, while allowing the information and property to...
and Internet Politics Special Interest Group (SIG) founded in 1995 and effectively disbanded around 2002.
Collusion Group
The Collusion Group was founded in 1995 by technologistTechnology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
Tex Mignog, aka the TexorcisT
TexorcisT
TexorcisT is the nym for Tex Mignog and a punk rock band he led by the same name.- Tex Mignog :Technologist Tex Mignog , aka the TexoricsT , is the founder and 'Chief Subversion Officer' of the Collusion Syndicate hacker group.As the spokesperson for the Collusion Syndicate, the TexoricisT made...
(sic) in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
before moving the headquarters to Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
in 1997. Founding members included individuals that all operated anonymously using hacker pseudonyms (called "handles
User (computing)
A user is an agent, either a human agent or software agent, who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified by a username , screen name , nickname , or handle, which is derived from the identical Citizen's Band radio term.Users are...
" or "nym
Nym
NYM or Nym may refer to:*New York Mets*New York Magic, an American women’s soccer team*IATA code for Nadym Airport*Pseudonym, especially in the context of Internet pseudonyms*Nym server, a pseudonym server which provides untraceable email addresses...
s") including the TexorcisT, Progress, Sfear (sic), Anormal, StripE (sic) and Elvirus. The membership of this organization grew to an estimated 30+ by 1999 and was not localized to its headquarters in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, with members in other states, countries and continents. The group made numerous open appearances at computer security events such as H.O.P.E.
H.O.P.E.
HOPE is a conference series sponsored by the hacker magazine 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. Held biennially in the summer, there have been eight conferences to date with the next scheduled for 13 - 15 July 2012.- HOPE: Hackers On...
and DefCon
DEFCON
A defense readiness condition is an alert posture used by the United States Armed Forces. The DEFCON system was developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and unified and specified combatant commands. It prescribes five graduated levels of readiness for the U.S...
and was often quoted by the media on computer related security, political and cultural issues.
The group was well known for its online publication, www.Collusion.org and also founded and financed other events such as the "irQconflict", the largest seasonal computer gaming tournament in the South-Central US.
The group was often interviewed with regard to Internet security issues by reporters for a variety of media outlets, some examples being KVUE News
,
the Austin American Statesman and Washington Post
,
and The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
.
www.Collusion.org
The Collusion Syndicate began publishing articles written by its members and others that submitted articles in 1997 on their site, www.Collusion.org, their stated mission being to "Learn all that is Learnable".This site won awards including a Best of Austin in 2000 by the Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle
The Austin Chronicle is an alternative weekly, tabloid-style newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demographic...
where the site was described as "an edgy cabal of net-savvy punks and vinyl-scratching, video-gaming malcontents, laying it down in no uncertain terms with a lot of dark backgrounds and urban-toothed graphics and in-your-face-yo rants."
Collusion Syndicate research on SIPRNet
SIPRNet
The Secret Internet Protocol Router Network is "a system of interconnected computer networks used by the United States Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of State to transmit classified information by packet switching over the TCP/IP protocols in a 'completely secure' environment"...
has been referenced by the SANS Institute
SANS Institute
The SANS Institute is a private US company that specializes in internet security training. It was founded in 1989, provides computer security training, professional certification through Global Information Assurance Certification , and a research archive - the SANS Reading Room...
.
Xchicago has published tips by Collusion's founder, TexorcisT, on Google Hacking
Google Hacking
Google hacking is a computer hacking technique that uses Google Search and other Google applications to find security holes in the configuration and computer code that websites use.- Basics :...
.
The group's work and research is referenced in many books including
Steal This Computer Book 4.0: What They Won't Tell You about the Internet,
Mac OS X Maximum Security
and Anarchitexts: Voices from the Global Digital Resistance.
The group may have been tied to Assassination Politics
Assassination market
An assassination market or market for assassinations is a prediction market where any party can place a bet on the date of death of a given individual, and collect a payoff if they "guess" the date accurately...
as evidenced by declassified documents.
AnonyMailer
1995 - An application developed to point out security issues with the SMTP protocol.Port-A-LAN
1998 - The Port-A-LAN is described as a "LANLän
Län and lääni refer to the administrative divisions used in Sweden and previously in Finland. The provinces of Finland were abolished on January 1, 2010....
-in-a-Box" and designed to facilitate quick network deployments. With CAT III 50-pin telco cable and break-out "harmonicas" to quickly deploy a 160 node network at a previously unwired location in less than one hour. (Developed prior to the advent of WiFi
WIFI
WIFI is a radio station broadcasting a brokered format. Licensed to Florence, New Jersey, USA, the station is currently operated by Florence Broadcasting Partners, LLC.This station was previously owned by Real Life Broadcasting...
popularity.)
irQconflict
1998-2001 - The Collusion Syndicate hosted the irQconflict,
the largest seasonal computer gaming tournament in the South-Central US. These events were different in that they were very large for LAN party
LAN party
A LAN party is a temporary, sometimes spontaneous, gathering of people with computers, between which they establish a local area network , primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer computer games. The size of these networks may vary from the very small to very large installations...
standards (100-200 gamer
Gamer
Historically, the term "gamer" usually referred to someone who played role-playing games and wargames. Since they became very popular, the term has included players of video games...
s) and included a rave
Rave
Rave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...
like atmosphere with DJs, club lighting and projectors showing computer animation and machinima
Machinima
Machinima is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation...
. They took place in various venues in Austin, Texas, utilized Port-A-LAN technology and, due to its size, required the re-engineering of the venues' electrical wiring. These events drew attendance from all over Texas and surrounding states.
The Collusion Group took the show on the road in 1999, taking the irQconflict to DefCon 7
DEFCON
A defense readiness condition is an alert posture used by the United States Armed Forces. The DEFCON system was developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and unified and specified combatant commands. It prescribes five graduated levels of readiness for the U.S...
and in 2000 was invited to do their thing in conjunction with SXSW Interactive
South by Southwest
South by Southwest is an Austin, Texas based company dedicated to planning conferences, trade shows, festivals and other events. Their current roster of annual events include: SXSW Music, SXSW Film, SXSW Interactive, SXSWedu, and SXSWeco and take place every spring in Austin, Texas, United States...
and COnduit 2K electronic film festival
and was where some machinima
Machinima
Machinima is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation...
films chose to debut
, during the gaming.
Virtual Sit-ins
1999 - The Collusion Syndicate promoted Virtual Sit-insVirtual sit-in
A virtual sit-in is a form of electronic civil disobedience deriving its name from the sit-ins popular during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The virtual sit-in attempts to recreate that same action digitally using a distributed denial-of-service attack. During a virtual sit-in, hundreds of...
which are manual DDoS attacks created by hundreds of protesters attempting to overload the servers of the organization they are protesting by repeatedly requesting data, manually.
SecurityTraq credits this site as providing an early introduction to the concept of Hacktivism
Hacktivism
Hacktivism is the use of computers and computer networks as a means of protest to promote political ends. The term was first coined in 1994 by a member of the Cult of the Dead Cow hacker collective named Omega...
and
they are referenced in The Internet and Democracy, a paper by Roger Clarke Prepared for IPAA/NOIE and included in a NOIE publication in September 2004.
They explanation of Hactivism was published in the Hacktivist and credited in the Ashville Global Report as lately as 2007.
Electric Dog
2000 - The Electric Dog is a remote control wireless camera robot created to demonstrate the practicality of simple robotics in routine office technical repair.See also
- 2600 The Hacker Quarterly
- PhrackPhrackPhrack is an ezine written by and for hackers first published November 17, 1985. Described by Fyodor as "the best, and by far the longest running hacker zine," the magazine is open for contributions by anyone who desires to publish remarkable works or express original ideas on the topics of interest...
- Legion of DoomLegion of Doom (hacking)The Legion of Doom was a hacker group active from the 1980s to the late 1990s and early 2000. Their name appears to be a reference to the antagonists of Challenge of the Superfriends...
- Chaos Computer ClubChaos Computer ClubThe Chaos Computer Club is an organization of hackers. The CCC is based in Germany and other German-speaking countries.The CCC describes itself as "a galactic community of life forms, independent of age, sex, race or societal orientation, which strives across borders for freedom of...
- Cult of the Dead CowCult of the Dead CowCult of the Dead Cow, also known as cDc or cDc Communications, is a computer hacker and DIY media organization founded in 1984 in Lubbock, Texas. The group maintains a weblog on its site, also titled "Cult of the Dead Cow"...
- l0phtL0phtL0pht Heavy Industries was a hacker collective active between 1992 and 2000 and located in the Boston, Massachusetts area.-Name:The second character in its name was originally a slashed zero, a symbol used by old teletypewriters and some character mode operating systems to mean zero...
- Crypto-anarchismCrypto-anarchismCrypto-anarchism expounds the use of strong public-key cryptography to bring about privacy and freedom. It was described by Vernor Vinge as a cyberspatial realization of anarchism. Crypto-anarchists aim to create cryptographic software that can be used to evade prosecution and harassment while...
- Culture jammingCulture jammingCulture jamming, coined in 1984, denotes a tactic used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. Guerrilla semiotics and night discourse are sometimes used synonymously with the term culture jamming.Culture...
- E-democracyE-democracyE-democracy refers to the use of information technologies and communication technologies and strategies in political and governance processes...
- Hacker cultureHacker cultureA hacker is a member of the computer programmer subculture originated in the 1960s in the United States academia, in particular around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 's Tech Model Railroad Club and MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory...
- Hacker ethicHacker ethicHacker ethic is the generic phrase which describes the moral values and philosophy that are standard in the hacker community. The early hacker culture and resulting philosophy originated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1950s and 1960s...
- Internet activismInternet activismInternet activism is the use of electronic communication technologies such as e-mail, the World Wide Web, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster communications by citizen movements and the delivery of local information to a large audience...