ESS Explained
Information File #4
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\/\/ Information File #4 - ESS Explained \/\/
\/\/ 10-12-89 - By Zapper \/\/
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\/\/-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-\/\/ESS is the big brother of the Bell family. Its very name strikes fear and apprehension into the hearts of most phreakers, and for a very good reason. ESS (Electronic Switching System) knows the full story on every telephone hooked into it. While it may be paranoid to say that all phreaking will come to a screeching halt under ESS, It's certainly realistic to admit that any phreak whose central office turns to ESS will have to be a lot more careful. here's why.
With Electronic Switching, every single digit dialed is recorded. This is useful not only for nailing phreaks but for settling billing disputes. In the past, there has been no easy way for the phone company to show you what numbers you dialed locally. If you protested long enough and loud enough, they might have put a pen register on your line to record everything and prove it to you. Under ESS, the actual printout (which will be dug out of a vault somewhere if needed) shows every last digit dialed.
Every 800 call, every call to directory assistance, repair service, the operator, every rendition of the 1812 overture, everything! Here is an example of a typical printout, which shows time of connect, length of connect, and number called.
DATE TIME LENGTH UNITS NUMBER
0403 1517 3 1 296-6820
0403 1523 5 3 567-3211
0403 1600 1 0 921-1044
0403 1610 1 0 800-555-1212
0403 1612 10 2.35* 716-221-3184
0403 1629 1 0 000-000-0000
(TSPS)A thousand calls to "800" will show up as just that--a thousand calls to "800"! Every touch tone or pulse is kept track of and for most phreaks, this in itself won't be very pretty.
A traffic engineer did an exhaustive study of all 800 calls over the past few years, and reached the following conclusions:
- Legit made calls to 800 numbers last an average of 3 minutes or less. of the illegal (I.E.Phreakers) calls made via 800 lines, more than 80% lasted 5 minutes or longer.
- The average residential telephone subscriber makes five such calls to an 800 number per month. Whenever phreakers are being watched, that number was significantly higher. As a result of this study, one feature of ESS is a daily log called the "800 Exceptional calling report." (As Prometheus spoke of in NARC #3)
Under ESS, one simply does not place a 2600 hz tone on the line, unless of course, they want a telco security representative and a policeman at their woor within a hour! The new generics of ESS (the #5) now in production, with an operating prototype allow the system to silently detect all "FOREIGN" tones not available on the customer's phone. You have exactly 12 buttons on your touch-tone phone. ESS knows what they are, and you had best not sound any other tones on the line, since the new #5 is programmed to silently notify a human being in the central office, while continuing with your call as though nothing were wrong! Someone will just punch a few keys on their terminal, and the whole story will be right in front of them, and printed out for action by the security representatives as needed.
Tracing of calls for whatever reason (abusive calls, fraud calls, etc.) is done by merely asking the computer right from a terminal in the security department. With ESS, everything is right up front, nothing hidden or concealed in electromechanical frames, etc. It's merely a software program. And a program designed for ease in operation by the phone company.. Call tracing has become very sophisticated and immediate. There's no more running in the frames and looking for long periods of time. ROM Chips in computers work fast, and that is what ESS is all about.
Phone phreaks are not the only reason for ESS, but it was one very important one. The first and foremost reason for ESS is to provide the phone company with better control on billing and equipment records, faster handling of calls (I.E. Less equipment tied up in the off ice at any one time), & to help agencies such as the FBI keep better account of who was calling who from where, etc. When the FBI finds out that someone whose calls they want to trace is on an ESS exchange, they are thrilled because it's so much easier for them to trace it.
The United States won't be 100% ESS until sometime in the mid 1990's. But in real practice, all phone offices in almost every city are getting some of the most basic modifications brought about by ESS. "911" service is an ESS function. So is ANI (Automatic Number Identification) on long distance calls. "dial tone first" pay phones are also an ESS function. None of these things were available prior to ESS. The amount of pure fraud calling via bogus credit card, third number billing, etc. On Bell's lines led to the decision to rapidly install the ANI, for example, even if the rest of the ESS was several years away in some cases.
Depending on how you choose to look at the whole concept of ESS, it can be either one of the most advantageous innovations of all time or one of the scariest. The system is good for consumers in that it can take a lot of activity and do lots of things that older systems could never do. Features such as direct dialing overseas, call forwarding (both of which open up new worlds of phreaking which we'll discuss in future issues) and call holding are steps forward, without question. But at the same time, what do all of the nasty implications mentioned further back mean to the average person on the sidewalk? The system is perfectly capable of monitoring anyone, not just phone phreaks! What would happen if the nice friendly government we have somehow got overthrown and a mean nasty one took its place? With ESS, they wouldn't have to do too much work, just come up with some new software. Imagine a phone system that could tell authorities how many calls you placed to certain types of people I.E. Blacks communists, laundromat service employees... ESS could do it, if so programmed.
(C)opyright 1989 N.A.R.C.
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