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H-Net Magazine Vol 1 Issue 1 File 17
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HWN H - N e t W o r l d N e w s HWN
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HWN Volume One, Issue 1, File #17 of 20 HWN
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HWN Created, Written, and Edited HWN
HWN by Bauderline, Hackernet BBS HWN
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HWN Special Thanks to The Caretaker. HWN
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United Kingdom :-
Crackdown on BBS Piracy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April, 1990
There were recently 13 arrests in the UK relating to bulletin boards and piracy.
From what i can gather it looks like the sysop of a multi-line bbs had put a
'Black Box' onto one of the phone lines so that people could ring in for free
and download for hours without incurring any telephone charges.
It looks like a big percentage of the files available for download were com-
pressed pirate copies of Amiga and other software.
The BBS was raided by the Police on the Black Box premise = but also took FAST
[Federation Against Software Theft] along for a ride and they found all the
pirate files.
I do not know whether or not the other twelve were downloaders from the bbs or
other sysops on a sort of 'network'.
A number of things can be learnt from this :-
1) Don't use a Black Box.
2) Don't put copyright warez on your bbs.
3) Don't get caught.
4) Move to the USA - they seem a lot more liberal.
5) Don't eat Mars Bars on a Tuesday.
National Press 'Reveals' the Tone Dialler Trick [May, 1990.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This month the Daily Mirror has managed to wangle at least two front page
stories about the Tone Dialler/DTMF Encoder phreak!
Although this has been going on to my knowledge for at least 2 years the Press
has eventually tagged on to it.
What is this phreak I hear you ask?
Well the way it works is that you get yourself a Tone Dialler/DTMF Encoder and
go down to your local payphone which will accept tone dialling. Pick up the
receiver and dial the number you want on the tone-pad/encoder NOT the actual
payphone, then immediately dial a special number on the actual payphone itself.
If all has gone as to plan you have got through for free! According to the
Daily Mirror article you can call anywhere in the world for free using this
method! Again, according to the article in the Daily Mirror a British Telecom
spokesman was quoted as saying that the losses would be in the region of 'ten
million pounds'.
Personally I do not see how this can be the case if it has been going on for
more than two years! On the one hand, how can they be so sure that they have
lost 10 million pounds? Would the people who have been using this freak have
made the calls that they did make if they knew that they would be paying the
full charges for them? I think not! If this is the case they have just lost the
cost of the electrical pulses that made the actual physical connection at the
exchange.
On the other hand, if the amount of losses was calculated by the full value of
the calls made then it would be many times more than the quoted 10 million
pounds.
The background to this phreak is that it was a foreign student studying in
London who worked it out. He got his tone dialler when he opened a new account
with one of the big Building Societies. They were intended to be used for
people to be able to check the balance of their accounts by typing their PIN
number and the required commands using tones once connected to the Building
Societies service. They can also be used as remote control interrogators for
telphone answering machines. He and his other student friends were all veteran
phone phreakers. In the UK and probably the USA too it is usually the foreign
students who find out the new phreaking methods. Why is that? Well in this case
it was because he simply could not afford to ring his family and friends back
home by normal methods. He came across the method by accident. He was about to
check his account, he was in the phonebox, he picked up the receiver and
then put the tone dialler over the mouthpiece. Then he accidentally pressed one
of the buttons on the tone dialler and noticed that the dial tone had cleared
and that he had actually dialled a number. So he hung up and repeated the pro-
cess, but this time he tone dialled a working phone number - he got through.
He was intrigued by this and thought that he could make more of it.
He could!, after many frustrating attempts and he managed to work out the phreak
and has been using the method ever since to call family friends and anyone he
can think of on different payphones in different locations. I wonder how long it
will take him to work out the next phreak when BT have prevented this one from
working anymore?
But the most ironic part of this story is that these Tone-Diallers/DTMF Encoders
were actually approved for use by British Telecom!
I someone has had a rollicking for that one!
British Telecom Gets Hacked [May, 1990.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the middle of January this year British Telecom got well and truly Hacked, if
you wanted to find out how when and where then make sure that you get issue #2
of H-Net Magazine!
British Hacker Found Guilty [May 26th, 1990.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A british hacker has been found guilty of hacking to systems over the JANET
network.
Evidently he had repeatedly logged into the Essex Uni/Poly computers on the
JANET network and 'dumped' the system after being refused a legitimate account
on the system. He had also left messages to the system manager claiming to be
mad.
He was caught because he had stayed on the line too long allowing BT to trace
him from the Essex computer to the Janet Pad and back to his computer and phone
line at his home.
I my opinion this person cannot and should not be called a hacker in the true
sense of the word.
What he did by crashing the system and wiping files was intensely crass and
stupid. Anybody can crash a system - but it's only usually a complete idiot
that does.
USA :-
Phantom Bulletin Board Dupes Hackers and Pirates
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have heard on the grapevine that a bbs in the USA was running for over a year
and turned out to be run by the Authorities, not before many hackers and
pirates had revealed over a period of time their true identities.
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BAUDERLINE.
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