P.M. BRIEFING : Hacker Threats Don’t Come True

Telephone companies reported normal operations today after bracing for a possible disruption of service somewhere in the country by computer “hackers” breaking into the phone network.

Non-specific threats had been made to invade the massive computers that control the telephone network but not to attack physical facilities, industry sources said.

The sources said the threats apparently were in connection with the sentencing, scheduled in Atlanta this afternoon, of three members of a hackers’ group called the Legion of Doom who had broken into BellSouth Corp. computers. But by late morning Eastern time, no problems had been reported.

“This has been a normal weekday, and there’s been no indication of trouble anywhere in the network,” said Herb Linnen, a spokesman for American Telephone & Telegraph.