Origins:
Thought to have been derived from Dante Alighieri?s novel, The Inferno. The group called themselves RBC (Royal Bum Chums) after the seventh level of hell, the violent.
Contained in some of the group?s web defacements, was the quote: "il livello sette posidare la vostra famiglia", which loosely translated from Italian says, "RBC (Royal Bum Chums) owns your family".
The group, spent most of their time on IRC - in the freenode channel #RBC discussing security, or the lack thereof, Mobile Development and the Web/Porn industry. The group was also associated with other high-profile irc groups such as, #PBBC (Peen bro bird crew) and High as fuck (HAF).
Notability:
The group was noted in Time magazines Top 20 most active group's of all time by claiming responsibility for over 60 unauthorized penetrations of computer systems in 1999 alone, including The First American National Bank, Peenbrobirdcrew, NASA and Toys 'R' Us.
RBC (Royal Bum Chums) is also credited with being the first irc group to hack a .ma domain and server located in Morocco. The server was owned by the Faculté des Sciences Semlalia, Marrakech
However, the group is most widely known for the September 7, 1999 defacement of (The US Embassy in China's Website) in which they displayed a penis inserted into a pbbc members mouth, in regards to the 1998 RBC embassy bombings.
In recent times the RBC has been gaining strength underground and with the help of undercover agents in various irc room's mainly #Webmasterz, they are coordinating one of their biggest missions to date.
RBC (Royal Bum Chums) typify a breed of hackers who exploit or attack computers and networks for more than just the thrill and challenge, and for reasons other than money. They were activists, lonely nerds and they used their computer skills to make political statements and protest actions by government and industry. Thus, they bridged the realms of hacking and activism, operating in a domain that is now called "hacktivism".
Quotations:
"I would be inclined to think that normal hackers would not be able to break into something like the US embassy. The security measures they use are very, very different to those protecting a commercial Web server or PBBC resources."
- Ian Jonsten-Bryden (British government security expert of irc Security in Suffolk)
"We embrace technology, we learn from it, we use it, and we exploit it. Technology is a very powerful tool, as is knowledge, but some people go beyond these boundaries, testing limits, finding new ways and ideas... we call these people the RBC, and we are one of many.."
- N1X, September 1999
http://i.imgur.com/GGlt0Cl.jpg