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THE ILLUMINATI CONSPIRACY

hacker gang – esconsed in Hannover and Berlin – who had penetrated the sites at Philips-France and SGS-Thomson. They were looking for information on megachip research, just as the KGB had requested. Surprisingly, in view of the importance the French authorities attached to the sites, Pengo remembers them as simple systems to get around in once they had been breached.

Koch and Pengo had penetrated the security at Philips-France and SGS-Thomson using the back door and the trap program they had learned about from Weihruch, the Karlsruhe student. It was understandable that the French would blame the VAXbusters: both teams used the same techniques, both having learned them from the same source.

Koch and Pengo had downloaded data from the two French companies, and it is known that a computer tape said to have included ‘important’ data from France was passed to the KGB in East Berlin. Pengo has never revealed what was on the tape, except to say it might have included details of a design program for advanced microprocessors.

Though the hackers were able to pass on the French material to their Soviet paymasters, the KGB was again demanding more. By the end of 1987 they wanted information on Western military computer networks, including the operating specifications of the interconnected machines. It appeared the KGB wanted to infiltrate the military systems. They were also asking for the VMS source code and VMS compilers. They were willing to pay well for the material – DM250,000 for the source code, DM30,000 for the compilers – but the pressure was beginning to tell on Pengo and Koch.

In addition, the two had other things on their minds. They were frightened by the arrests of the Chaos members in Hamburg; they felt it wouldn’t be long before the police stumbled over their own operation. And they had heard about Steffen’s interrogation in Paris and now knew the French were chasing them. They felt exposed.

In the summer of 1988 both Pengo and Koch, independently, approached the authorities, hoping to take advantage of an amnesty provision in German espionage legislation. This provision guaranteed lenient treatment to those who had not previously been under suspicion and now confessed, provided they co-operated fully. The two

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