{"id":4754,"date":"2025-06-25T22:44:30","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T05:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/?p=4754"},"modified":"2025-12-29T14:58:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T22:58:56","slug":"from-drywall-to-data-breach-my-brother-the-lab-and-the-porn-scandal-of-livermore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/2025\/06\/25\/from-drywall-to-data-breach-my-brother-the-lab-and-the-porn-scandal-of-livermore\/","title":{"rendered":"From Drywall to Data Breach: My Brother, the Lab, and the Porn Scandal of Livermore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cris Alarcon<\/p>\n

Surreal turns Real<\/h3>\n

In 1983, my older brother Scott<\/strong>\u2014ten years ahead of me in age and experience\u2014approached a new venture: he had already completed his union apprenticeship as a Journeyman Lather and Plasterer, specializing in drywall and suspended ceilings. Together, we founded American Interior Specialties (AIS)<\/strong> as equal partners. I brought my newly minted business education; Scott brought trade expertise. Our \u201cwarehouse\u201d was nothing more than our backyard garage in San Jose.<\/span><\/p>\n

To learn best practices, I secured a union job in commercial construction. We began with residential remodels, graduated to commercial jobs\u2014among them an IBM assembly plant near Campbell\u2014and even tackled a high\u2011end housing development<\/a> in Livermore. In those days, home computers were just beginning to surface, and we installed pre-wired Category\u20115 Ethernet wall ports in luxury homes.<\/span><\/p>\n

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When Business Curved into the Obscene<\/h3>\n

As Scott eased away from physical labor into office-based management, he began pronouncing everyday terms with odd affectations\u2014referring to \u201ccolumns\u201d as \u201cCol\u2011Lee\u2011Ums\u201d\u2014and gravitated toward computers. He confided he\u2019d launched a file\u2011sharing venture<\/strong>\u2014not for drywall specs or architectural diagrams\u2014but for adult pornography<\/strong>, distributing it via membership. He described learning from \u201cfriends\u201d now to set up FTP and SSH for remote access to servers.<\/span><\/p>\n

As this \u201cdirty picture\u201d business gained momentum, our drywall contracts suffered. I felt our partnership fray and our friendship fail. Without interest in porn, I focused on college, studying Business and Physics in Southern California. By then I\u2019d toured Fermilab\u2019s linear particle accelerator near Chicago and understood the research underway at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory [LLL]\u2014a DOE lab operated by UC Berkeley.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A Christmas Reunion and a Surreal Revelation<\/h3>\n

In December 1992, I received a call from my mother inviting me to spend Christmas with her, Scott, and his family in Livermore at his new place in\u00a0Livermore. My fianc\u00e9e Sherri and I drove up from Walnut; I even got lost entering Livermore until a helpful LPD officer guided us to Scott\u2019s house. We pulled up to a modest rental home and a new truck\u2014he was supporting several kids so it’s clear Scott’s side business was doing well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet there was no warm greeting. Scott abruptly said, \u201cCome\u2014gotta show you my new warehouse,\u201d and hustled me into his truck\u2019s passenger seat. He launched into a technical monologue: computer storage was expensive, ISP transfer speeds slow, but he’d found a genius workaround\u2014tap into LLNL\u2019s internet “trunk line” by<\/strong> drilling down to fiber cables, and host his porn on the lab\u2019s nearly unlimited storage. He had supposedly recruited lab friends to to do the programing at LLNL and he would drill a shaft into the conduit running beneath a rented warehouse unit at 2370 Research Dr.<\/span><\/p>\n

He took me to his unit and excitedly jumped on the asphalt floor, claiming the lab\u2019s mainline was right underneath. I feigned enthusiasm while mentally rejecting his theory\u2014the lab\u2019s classified systems were well air-gapped, I knew\u2014and chalked it up to delusion.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Truth Became Stranger Than Fiction<\/h3>\n

Fast-forward to July 1994<\/strong>, when Adam Bauman<\/strong> of the Los Angeles Times<\/em> broke the story: LLNL computers were used to store and distribute hard-core pornography<\/strong>, in what was described as \u201camong the most serious breaches of computer security\u201d at the lab<\/span> washingtonpost.com<\/span>+3<\/span><\/span>latimes.com<\/span>+3<\/span><\/span>washingtonpost.com<\/span>+3<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span>. The lab shut down the offending server after it was accessed by the reporter<\/span> . At least one employee was involved, but the lab claimed classified systems remained secure behind air gaps<\/span> latimes.com<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n

By August 18, 1994, felony charges were unveiled against technician William Allen Danforth<\/strong>\u2014alleged to have stored 90,000 pornographic images on lab tapes and shared them online<\/span> upi.com<\/span>+2<\/span><\/span>latimes.com<\/span>+2<\/span><\/span>washingtonpost.com<\/span>+2<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span>. Another employee, Michael William Lazzarini<\/strong>, faced minor charges. More than 50\u202fGB<\/strong> of pornographic content was recovered, some including child imagery<\/span> latimes.com<\/span>+2<\/span><\/span>latimes.com<\/span>+2<\/span><\/span>washingtonpost.com<\/span>+2<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span>. The lab spent over $13,000<\/strong> investigating and placed Danforth on investigatory leave; he resigned on August 15, 1994<\/strong><\/span> latimes.com<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson reported that as many as 20 collaborators<\/strong> inside and outside the lab were involved<\/span> washingtonpost.com<\/span>+2<\/span><\/span>latimes.com<\/span>+2<\/span><\/span>latimes.com<\/span>+2<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span>. The assistant district attorney noted most images were adult pornography, but about 0.04\u202f%<\/strong> were child-related<\/span> latimes.com<\/span>+1<\/span><\/span>washingtonpost.com<\/span>+1<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span>. Danforth faced up to three years in prison and $10,000 in fines per count<\/strong><\/span> latimes.com<\/span>+1<\/span><\/span>washingtonpost.com<\/span>+1<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\n

Looking Back with Authorial Clarity<\/h3>\n

I realize now that night at the warehouse was not mere fantasy\u2014it foreshadowed a real event of national significance. Scott\u2019s audacious plan echoed the audacity of Danforth\u2019s breach\u2014piggybacking illicit content on institutional infrastructure. Fortunately, when the scandal broke, I was far away in college, untainted by its fallout.<\/p>\n

This episode remains a stark contrast between my own path\u2014business and science rooted in integrity\u2014and my brother\u2019s descent into ethically dubious enterprise. It also highlights a pivotal moment in the evolution of computer security: a cautionary tale showing that even elite research labs are vulnerable when oversight lapses.<\/p>\n

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Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n