The Eric Conspiracy is an alleged, shadowy group of mustached Hackers named Eric that was first pinpointed as a sinister conspiracy by an infamous posting to the talk.bizarre newsgroup in 1987 (thought to be influenced by the numerous Eric jokes by Monty Python).
In fact, while the Eric Conspiracy is considered a funny joke by most, there are a surprising number of mustached hackers named Eric; examples include Eric Allman (creator of the Allman style), Erik Fair (coauthor of NNTP), Eric S. Raymond and others, and a webpage for the Eric Conspiracy Secret Laboratories has been created at [
http://www.catb.org/~esr/ecsl/], listing more than 100 members of the Eric Conspiracy already.