Title : Phrack Pro-Phile XXIV Featuring Chanda Leir
Author : Taran King
==Phrack Inc.==
Volume Two, Issue 24, File 2 of 13
==Phrack Pro-Phile XXIV==
Created and Written by Taran King
Done on February 3, 1989
Welcome to Phrack Pro-Phile XXII. Phrack Pro-Phile was created to
bring information to you, the community, about retired or highly important/
controversial people. This issue, I present one of the more rare sights in the
world of phreaking and hacking...a female! She was vaguely active and had a
few contacts with people that were largely involved with the community...
Chanda Leir
~~~~~~~~~~~
Handle: Chanda Leir
Call Her: Karen
Past Handles: None
Handle Origin: An aunt of hers as a child wanted to use this name is she ever
became famous.
Date Of Birth: May 8, 1970
Current Age: Almost 19
Height: 5' 6"
Weight: 125 lbs. (providing Freshman 15 hasn't yet hit)
Eye Color: Green/Grey
Hair Color: Blond
Computers: Her father is a real estate broker, so she began on a TI 700
terminal (an MLS Terminal)... just a modem and a keyboard and a
scroll of PAPER)... then it was dad's business computer-- the
KAYPRO II... Now she uses the Macs and the Sun systems and the
IBM RT's located at CMU.
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Karen started using BBSes in the D.C. area in 1983 (at the ripe age of 13). A
guy by the name of Hack-Man (she supposes this was the "original" H-M) was
running a board off of the dead side of the local 678 loop. Her introduction
to phone "stuff" began when she called the "board" one day and found instead 30
people on the line instead of a carrier.
She was dumbfounded, and being female, there were 30 guys on the conference
ready and willing to provide her with information as to origins of loops,
conferences, boxing, etc. Scott (Hack-Man) later filled her in on the rest,
gave her more numbers and such and that's where it all began.
The memorable phreakers or hackers that Karen has met include Cheshire Cat,
Tuc, Bioc Agent 003 and anyone else who was at the TAP meeting during
Thanksgiving of 1984.
She gained her experience by asking a LOT of questions to a lot of hard-up guys
who were willing to give her all kinds of info since she was a girl. She
attributes her information mostly to just taking in and remembering all of the
information that people gave her.
The two boards that Karen listed as memorable were both in Falls Church, VA.
which were Mobius Strip and Xevious II.
Currently she's a freshman at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh (or as
she likes to call it, COMPUTER U.). Her major is probably "Policy &
Management."
Her major accomplishment is that she was probably the youngest girl ever to
attend a TAP meeting (at the age of 14) and probably one of the only people to
attend one with Mom, Dad, and Aunt Linda (how embarrassing).
One of the reasons she quit the phreak/hack world was because of a visit from
the Secret Service in February 1985... although they didn't really come for
her... A "friend" wanted for credit card fraud called her while his line was
hooked to a pin register.
The same weekend he called Karen, was Inauguration Weekend and she and her
brother called the 456 (White House) loop something like 21 times in the 4-day
weekend period... In any case the SS wanted to catch Eric and when her number
showed up in two places, they decided to investigate. Freaked out her parents!
The real reason she quit the phreak/hack world was because she transferred high
schools in 1985 and became one of the "popular" kids and gained a social life,
thus losing time and interest for the computer.
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Chanda Lier's Interests Include: MUSIC... specifically harDCore... (that would
be punk rock from Washington, DC). Most of
her friends are or were in DC bands... The
Untouchables, Teen Idles, Minor Threat, Youth
Brigade (DC), Grey Matter, Government Issue,
etc.
HORROR... novels, movies, comics.... Clive
Barker, Arcane Comix (of which her friend
Steve is publisher of), Peter Straub, Dean
Koontz, Whitely Streiber etc... that whole
genre...
And Flannery O'Connor rules...
Her most memorable experiences include the following:
Her parents used to "make" her start conferences for them whenever it was
a relative's birthday. They would get the whole family on the line and chat
and stuff. Everyone thought it was really cool....
Other fun times were when her dad would pull out his DoD (Department of
Defense) phonebook and they would hack around for modem lines....
Tuc coming to her grandmother's house in April 1985 and then going to see
"Desperately Seeking Susan"...
Some People to Mention:
"I guess, just Taran King, for this interview, and Knight Lightning...both
of whom contacted me here at CMU.... and TUC... and ...?"
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And of course...that regular closing to the Phrack Pro-Phile... Are most of
the phreaks and hackers that you've met computer geeks? "YES... no doubt."
Thanks for your time, Karen.
Taran King