ONE - EIGHT - TWO : Issue 1
SECTION 182 PRESENTS
ONE - EIGHT - TWO
Information For The Information Society
Section 182 is pleased to bring you ONE - EIGHT - TWO, a magazine in and about the happenings of CU, The Information Age, and daily blurbs thereof.
Comments, suggestions, opposing viewpoints, hate mail, correspondence, etc., are always welcome. Please send all mail via Internet to wil@fiver.UUCP.
FROM THE FRINGE - What's in this issue
This month, ONE EIGHT TWO looks into airline crashes, possible new round of investigations into hacking activities, an elaborate hoax, the phreak/hack scene in Europe, and a small long distance carrier taking on code abusers.
NEW EVIDENCE IN LAUDA CRASH
Computer Error, Not Terrorism, Suspected
Taken from The Times, London. June 3, 1991
Reprinted in RISKS Forum 11.78 by Paul Leyland <pcl@convex.oxford.ac.uk>
New evidence that the crash of a Lauda Air Boeing 767-300 in Thailand had been caused by in-flight reversal of the thrust on one engine has stunned the aviation industry.
Niki Lauda, owner of Lauda Air, made the claim in Vienna, after returning from Washington, where the flight data and cockpit voice recorders of the jet were being analyzed. The Austrian transport ministry supported the assertion. If the diagnosis were confirmed, the accident would be unprecedented, Herr Lauda said. The crash investigators have yet to comment.
The computerized airliner's systems have the capacity for self analysis and should have corrected such a basic error. Reverse thrust is normally locked out during flight and only used on the ground. It is thought to be virtually impossible for reverse thrust to be deployed when the engine is pushing maximum, as the jet would have been. The incident happened about 16 minutes after takeoff.
Investigators for Boeing, which manufactured the thrust reversers, were allowed access to the crash sight for the first time on Friday. Herr Lauda said the flight data recorder was damaged and could not be used to analyze the crash. He said the cockpit voice recorder indicated an advisory light had come on second before the crash and that a voice was heard saying that the light was glowing intermittently. Seconds later, First Officer Josef Thurner was heard saying: "It deployed".
Herr Lauda took that to mean the reverse thrust was engaged. The entire incident, from the moment of the first warning light until the plane broke up, took no more than a minute. Last night a spokesman for the Civil Avaiation Authority said that no checks were to be ordered immediately on 767s owned by British airlines.
ANOTHER HACKER SNARED BY FEDS
Government May Be Gearing Up For Another Round Of Investigations
Ed. Note: Due to the sensitive nature of this subject, the names of the sources will be withheld. This is to protect the innocent parties who gave us this information from repercussions by certain government agencies and law enforcement officials.
Another hacker has been caught by federal agents, and in a statement left by him, it's feared that a new round of investigations may be in the works.
Damaged Sectorz was brought in on charges of hacking a government computer, 635, 433, and 426 systems, fraudulent use of Tymnet accounts, and possible charges of credit card fraud.
In a post that ONE EIGHT TWO has retrieved from an anonymous source, Damaged Sectorz indicated that the government is indeed keeping tabs on hackers and hacker groups. "I have been questioned.", says Damaged. "LoL-Phuck was mentioned, Everlast was mentioned, Touchtone, NPA, Deceptionist, and a lot more people are going down."
It is not known if Damaged Sectorz is out on bail or his own recognisance. In the same statement, he advises anyone who wants to find out anything more about his arrest and detention to not call. "Anyone with my number, please destroy it, for there is a DNR on my line, and they are just waiting for you to call."
Damaged Sectorz has advised all SysOp's who have his account on their boards to delete them immediately, and in a move to protect others from repercussions of his arrest, he is retiring permanently from the phreak/ hack scene. "To ease tensions, I will not narc on anyone. No one has done it to me, so why should I do it to them?", says Damaged.
THE JOKE'S ON YOU -- CREATORS ADMIT UNIX, C IS A HOAX
Reprinted from The Vogon News Service
In an announcement that has stunned the computer industry, Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan admitted that the UNIX operating system and C programming language created by them is an elaborate April Fools prank kept alive for over twenty years. Speaking at the recent UnixWorld Software Development Forum, Thompson revealed the following:
"In 1969, AT&T had just terminated their work with the GE/Honeywell/AT&T Multics project, Brian and I had just started working with an early release of Pascal from Professor Niklaus Wirth's ETH labs in Switzerland and we were impressed with it's elegant simplicity and power. Dennis had just finished reading 'Bored Of The Rings', a hilarious National Lampoon parody the great Tolkien 'Lord of The Rings' trilogy. As a lark, we decided to do parodies of the Multics environment and Pascal. Dennis and I were responsible for the operating environment. We looked at Multics and designed the new system to be as simple and cryptic as possible to maximize casual users' frustration levels, calling it Unix as a parody of Multics, as well as other more risque allusions. Then Dennis and Brian worked on a truly warped version of Pascal, called 'A'. When we found others were actually trying to create real programs with A, we quickly added additional cryptic features and evolved into B, BCPL and finally C. We stopped when we got a clean compile on the following syntax:
for(;p("\n"),R-P("|"))for(e=C;e-;P("_"+(*u++/8)%2))P("| "+(*u/4)%2);To think that modern programmers would try to use a language that allowed such a statement was beyond our comprehension! We actually thought of selling this to the Soviets to set their computer science progress back 20 or more years. Imagine our surprise when AT&T and other US corporations actually began trying to use Unix and C! It has taken them them 20 years to develop enough expertise to generate even a marginally useful applications using this 1960's technology parody, but were impressed with the tenacity (if not common sense) of the general Unix and C programmer. In any event, Brian, Dennis and I have been working exclusively in Pascal on the Apple Macintosh for the past few years and feel really guilty about the chaos, confusion and truly bad programming that have resulted from our silly prank so long ago."
Major UNIX and C vendors and customers, including AT&T, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, GTE, NCR, and DEC have refused comment at this time. Borland International, a leading vendor of Pascal and C tools, including the popular Turbo Pascal, Turbo C, and Turbo C++, stated that they had suspected this for a number of years adn would continue to enhance their Pascal products and halt further efforts to develop C. An IBM spokesman broke out into uncontrolled laughter and had to postpone a hastily convened news conference concerning the fate of the RS-6000, merely stating that 'VM will be available Real Soon Now'. In a cryptic statement, Professor Wirth of the ETH Insititute and father of the Pascal, Modula 2, and Oberon structured languages, merely stated that P.T. Barnum was correct.
In a related late-breaking story, usually realiable sources are stating that a similar confession may be forthcoming from Will Gates concerning the MS-DOS and Windows operating environments. And IBM spokesmen have begun denying that the VM product is an internal prank gone awry.
THE STATE OF THE HACK(AND MOSTLY PHREAK) - EUROPEAN STYLE
A Holland phreaker speaks about novices, the Bundespost, and cutting edge technology in Europe.
The hack/phreak scene, for the most part, is a dying institution in the United States. Repressive, ignorant government law enforcement agencies make life difficult, if not hell, for the hacker at large. But what about other parts of the world? How about Europe?
182 recently spoke to Billsf, an American ex-patriate who moved to Holland last year, after a long probation stemming from his arrest in December of 1987 in a counterfeiting BART card scam. His arrest also involved John Draper (a.k.a. Cap'n Crunch, the now legendary phone phreaker whose blue box technology made the likes of Wozniak and Jobs famous) and Perry Forcier (whose bragging about the operation was leaked by him to BART police by telling them that Cap'n Crunch was the mastermind behind the operation).
On January 6, 1990, when Billsf's probation officer informed him that he was going to jail on a technical violation, he promptly hopped on the next flight out of America, ending up in Holland, where he continues to utilize the blue box technology that has long since become outdated by American phreaker standards.
182: Where did you live before you moved to Holland?
Billsf: San Francisco. Sunset district, out by..a couple of blocks away from the ocean.
182: Could you tell me why you renounced your U.S. citizenship?
Billsf: Okay. One thing I want to make perfectly clear at this point is that I haven't renounced my citizenship [in the US], contrary to what people think. I have not done anything official at that point. I have made, threatened, many times that should US law apply to me when I was outside the country, then and only then would I renounce my citizenship. That advice has been checked out with my brother who is a lawyer, and he feels, as a lawyer, that would be the only reasonable reason to do it.
182: So you're leaving the option of renouncing your citizenship open should they decide to try you outside the US?
Billsf: Yes, I don't think the United States is that bad of a place, but it could get a lot better. It's been declining for the last 10 to 20 years and I don't think it's hopeless, I just feel that the political climate at this time is too repressive. War on Drugs, War on Hackers, all that related. Making crimes out of something that isn't a crime. You name it.
182: What did you expect from a country that mentions rockets and bombs right in the national anthem?
Billsf: Hehehe...That's a very good point. A lot of people I know in the States are very much for changing "The Star Spangled Banner", which glorifies war, to "America The Beautiful", which glorifies the natural beauty in America, which is unmistakebly very true. It is a very beautiful piece of land.
182: Could you tell us the details of your leaving America for Holland?
Billsf: Actually, I'm here because I want to be here. I came out here about a year ago, and I was told by my probation officer that I should call and let her know where I was, who I was staying with, and how I could be reached. I got on the phone, I talked to this person (Rop here witnessed it) [Ed note: Rop is a personal friend of Billsf, and is the editor of Hack-Tic magazine, a publication about hackers written exclusively in Dutch.] and I was never asked for the information [where I was]. So, when I came back, I got it for a technical violation [for leaving California] because I didn't tell her the information she asked me to tell her, and all she had to do was ask for the information while I was on the phone.
182: When did this take place?
Billsf: The date was January 6, 1990. I'm pretty sure it was the date in the court reports and all, and it did say in the reports that I did call, which was amazing, being a technical violation and all. Usually, a probation officer is supposed to help you not get into that type of trouble, I don't she was doing her job by simply not asking me for the information she wanted and then calling it a technical violation. And she thought it was very funny that I was going to Santa Rita, and I told her at that point I'm not going to Santa Rita, that I'm getting on a plane and that there was nothing she could legally do about it.
182: What exactly was the charge levelled against you that got you on probation in the first place?
Billsf: In December of 87, I got busted for making counterfeit BART tickets.
182: Oh yeah, Draper told me about that.
Billsf: Yeah, he got busted, too, because he was assumed to be the ring- leader. So it was very obvious to everybody that we were set up. We just did it for the hack of it, and what I mean by that is that is it was a totally interesting to do intellectual activity. The only complication that came up is that the BART police saw that we were able to do it, so they set us up with the crime.
182: Draper told me that Perry Forcier was responsible for you and he being arrested. Do you have any ill feelings towards Perry?
Billsf: We all still talk to each other. I still talk to both of them, but Draper doesn't talk to Perry much. He [Forcier] talked too much.
182: Draper sounded pretty bitter.
Billsf: I could imagine. They took all his equipment away because of it.
182: Let's go on to phreaking, shall we?
Billsf: Okay.
182: There have been a lot of bad vibes about the blue box here in the States. How would you describe being not only the only phreaker in Holland, but the only phreaker who can route calls at a whim with a blue box?
Billsf: How do I feel able to slave the phone like that?
182: Yes.
Billsf: Oh, it's a kick...hehehe..Uh, it's interesting to find new ways to play with the network. It's just out there to be played with.
182: So you have virtual control over Holland's phone lines?
Billsf: No, I don't have control of Holland's phone lines. That was only a brief 16-18 hour period a couple of months ago, and since then the phone company here has taken care of that.
182: So how do you get around now?
Billsf: In this case, I called to Brazil and in Brazil I told them to do a transit call to you.
182: When we first spoke, you demonstrated to me the different trunks you were able to call through. How was this accomplished?
Billsf: Like, for this, all I have to do is get access to the trunk by doing a "clear forward" signal, which is 2400 and 2600 hz. After you do that, you hit 2400 which siezes it, which actually gets the line ready to take numbers. Clear forward only erases what was last there.
182: Europe's phone network, so I've been told, is a series of redundancies that forces the user to go either by satellite or cable, depending on the traffic of the lines, leaving them with no choice. How do you get around these redundancies?
Billsf: Certain countries have what they call "discriminating" digits, which comes after the country code. And with that digit, you can either specify whether or not you can take what they give you, or you can specify a cable connection that is suitable for data traffic. With other systems, there are a lot of other options available, like lack of echo supressor and situations like that. You really don't want echo supressor, which makes the call one way, when you're transmitting from the modem.
182: Apart from the blue box, which by American phreak standards is outdated and worthless as an effective phreaking tool, what other forms of technology are out there to gain control of the lines?
Billsf: That is the only thing that works here, for that matter anywhere else in the world. As far as payphones go, they work on metering pulses, and metering pulses are 25 cents, and 20 cents for each additional minutes. So what happens is you put in two quarters, the meter registers 50 cents. The central office then sends out a metering pulse which then the meter deducts 20 cents, and then the meter shows 25 cents. If it's a local call, several minutes later the central office will send out another metering pulse, and then it will register as not having enough money to cover the call and a beep tone will sound in the handset, which warns you to put in more money.
182: So every time you feed the phone, a tone is sounded at the phone company?
Billsf: No, it just tells the payphone. All the accounting is handled at the payphone.
182: There's no outside influence on the payphone?
Billsf: No, no. Strictly within the phone.
182: How would one go about faking out the payphone?
Billsf: Oh, there have been several tricks here and there. One of them is to unscrew the mouthpiece and a clip a wire from one of the mouthpiece leads to ground, which will cause a mute in the metering pulses, causing a buzz in the phone.
0 182: I'm familiar with that. It was demonstrated in the oh-so-technically accurate movie "War Games"...hehehehe.
Billsf: Yes, which is one of the most regretable things that they did, because a lot of people didn't know that trick before. But what you're doing in the States is allowing the phone to dial by grounding it, taking care of it at the C.O. Here it's taken care of at the phone, so the trick is preventing the phone from getting metering pulses. Another way of doing that is lifting the ground. The pulses are latteral: 50 volts is put on the phone line simultaneously. 50 volts and 50 hz for a few 100 ms or so is a pulse.
182: Before the interview, you said you had the means to copy BART tickets, which is why you're in Holland today. Could you explain that technology?
Billsf: It was just a simple homemade device that had two full track card reader heads that were slanted seven and a half degrees, because that's what it was on the tickets. It was kind of like a tape dubbing situation. I put a real ticket on one side and a blank ticket on the other and moved the tickets by hand across the heads and it would read it directly on one side and write it directly on the other.
182: How long were you doing this?
Billsf: Oh, a couple of weeks or so.
182: So, if Forcier hadn't said anything, how long do you think you could have gotten away with it?
Billsf: I would have never been caught.
182: And BART would have been none the wiser?
Billsf: No, because what we do is take $7.95 tickets and take the copied $7.95 and add 5 cents to make it $8.00, which was the maximum that you could have on your fare, and push the "Issue New Ticket" button that would have given you a $8.00 ticket that only cost you 5 cents to make.
182: Hehehe. It seems like everyone was roommates with Draper. How did you get hooked up with him?
Billsf: Hehehe...I don't know about that. I met up with him when I was 16, which would be about 1973. And then I later met up with him when I was 18, which was 75 to 76.
182: Did he teach you anything?
Billsf: No, I was never associated with him when he was active with the phones.
182: So, where did you learn?
Billsf: I knew it was possible, with the tones and all, but I got the frequencies from Djinni(sp?) was his name. He wrote the frequencies for it. He was believed to be the one who got Draper into it.
182: My next question concerns Wozniak, Jobs, and Gates. How well did you know them?
Billsf: Just acquaintences. I met them in various places.
182: So you're not really friends with them?
Billsf: Not really. Just casual acquaintences. I never really did anything with them.
182: Did you help Wozniak and Jobs with blue box technology at all? Who was responsible for that?
Billsf: Ah, probably John. I remember one time I stayed up with Wozniak all night and helped him put together a blue box. Very possibly I was the one behind that first blue box. We built the device out of seven twin T oscillators, 2600 plus 700,900,1100 up to 1700. We did a very simple dial matrix for the keyboard. They were just single contact keys. Then we tuned the thing up with a frequency counter and it worked. Back then, all you had to do was hit 2600 then let up on it. It would confirm that it got it. When the 2700 was on, it would act as a clear forward, and then when the 2600 was off it would recieve and go "pleek" back to you, and then you just dialed your number manually.
182: For my readers who don't anything about it, how exactly did the 2600 fake out the phone company?
Billsf: It would think that when you sent 2600 up the line, you ended your call. When the 2600 was stopped, it would think that someone else siezed the line, which you were still there but it would think someone else came by and wanted to make a call off the other end, which of course would wait for the number and wait for the connection.
182: So if I called a local number and played the magic frequency through it, the billing office would think that I was only calling that number?
Billsf: Yeah, the billing equipment would still think you're calling that local number, but you would have cleared the line and on that local number, you could make your call. Once you fool your local CO, the concept of billing doesn't really exist on the long distance network. It does now, in the US, because they expect to receive billing information on long distance calls.
182: I'd like to shift attention now to the state of hacking in Europe. Holland and Europe, mostly. How does it differ from the US. Is it just as repressive?
Billsf: In no way, shape or form. There are a few countries here: Germany, England, and France that have laws placed against it. Otherwise, it's a more open activity.
182: So hackers are pretty much free to pursue their exploring?
Billsf: Yeah, but you have to be really careful, as in Germany, because you're right on the edge of legality.
182: Is the Bundespost different from the Holland phone company, and if so, how? How are they the same in some respects?
Billsf: It's similar, but the Bundespost...well, perhaps if I put Rop on, he can explain to you the differences much better.
182: Sure, put him on.
[Ed. note: At this point, Rop from Hack-Tic took the line to talk to me about the Bundespost and the Holland phone company.]
Rop: Ah, hello there!
182: Hello.
Rop: You're into a publication very much like Phrack, I hear.
182: Yes.[Ed. note: Well, hot damn! Our first issue and already we're being compared to Phrack. Not that we could do any better, but we don't think we could do worse. :-)]
Rop: It's a disk based news letter?
182: Yes, it is.
Rop: What's it called?
182: One eight two.
Rop: 182. You have floppy archives or anything?
182: Actually, this is the first issue.
Rop: It's the first issue? I see..
182: Yes, you guys are in the first issue.
Rop: Be sure to send it by.
182: Oh, most definitely you'll get a copy.
Rop: Okay. Um...I was thinking about the German situation. It's tricky there, because the German state is..is..well, let me put it this way: if the German police doesn't understand something, they'll bust you first and ask questions later.
182: Much like the FBI and Secret Service here...
Rop: Much like the FBI and the Secret Service, that's true. And the Dutch police would make a good attempt to understand it first, then bust you, probably.
182: That's good! I would hope, someday, that our law enforcement agencies would try to understand technology and hacking, or at least make a righteous effort to. If they come to understanding what it's really all about, there wouldn't be so many people getting arrested, nor would it be such repressive tirade against hackers, per se.
Rop: It's basically the same thing it was in the 60's, only now it's more with high technology. It's a movement that basically consists of pranksters, and a government that consists of people that do not understand pranks.
182: Which comes down to plain ignorance. So, would you say that the Bundespost is a lot different from the Holland phone company?
Rop: In Europe, there's a lot of big differences. France is completely different from that, too. In Germany, not only the Bundespost, but the entire government structure is very strict.
182: Yes, I was I told that you can't get an answering machine without approval from the Bundespost because the government is so centralized.
Rop: Well, you can't, officially, I don't think you can get a light bulb without approval from the Bundespost. In a way, it's not a very good situation. It's politically very strange situation. There's a lot of misunderstanding between different groups in society. Politically, it's not a very healthy situation.
182: Okay, well, thank you.
[ At this point, Rop turned the phone back over to Billsf.]
Billsf: I hope that was helpful.
182: Oh, yes, thank you. It was. My next question: my sources tell me that hacking in England is a very serious offence. Could you expound on this?
Billsf: I wouldn't say that, but what Rop said was very true. The cops in England don't understand, so they'll bust you first and ask questions later.
182: Like the States, they're just as ignorant.
Billsf: Yeah, the authorities don't know too much about it.
182: Europe is going to become an open border continent with the coming of EC 92. How do you think this will have an impact on hacking laws?
Billsf: Uh, what that's likely to do, and it's negative, is that it's likely to bring about a uniform hacking law which will, in effect, make hacking illegal here, too. But the places that are really strict, like England and Germany, might have to back down on the punishment aspects.
182: So it will be a win/lose situation?
Billsf: There will be a lot of in-fighting that will have to come down. Holland doesn't like guns, but a lot of other countries allow them. A lot of other countries don't like hash, but Holland allows it. Like Germany, it's quite illegal. There has to be some degree of compromise.
182: Have there been any laws to make hacking a crime in Holland, and has there been any resistance from any groups to allow such laws to be passed?
Billsf: There has been quite bitter resistance. Parliament is moving very slow on this. We expected it to be unlawful by the beginning of this year, but it hasn't happened as of yet.
182: Are there any organised pro-hacker groups, such as our Electronic Frontier Foundation?
Billsf: There's no group like that yet, but it's very likely something like that may come up should there be laws against it. But, it's all very loosely associated here, there's no real organised group of hackers.
182: Everyone is out for themselves?
Billsf: Pretty much. At this time, there isn't really any in-fighting between hackers. The only time that ever happens is against lamers, "Amiga kids" who just mainly copy games and occasionally pirate software for phreaking.
182: I have yet to find one "Elite" board that righteously held forums on hacking and phreaking, and didn't traffic in warez. The one's who just hoard warez are all over the place. Is it like that in Holland?
Billsf: Yes, it is, and warez boards, per se among the reasonable people, are frowned upon, and we don't want people who just want useless warez, like games. We don't want these people confused with real hackers. Hackers do not go out of their way to do illegal things.
182: There's no software piracy among hackers?
Billsf: No, but there is a lot of software that is shared that is written by hackers.
182: So, any and all software that is shared was written by someone else and not copyrighted?
Billsf: Oh, there's a lot of that here, too, but with few exceptions. No one would think twice about pirating something from Microsoft.
182: While on the subject of "requisitioned" things, you told me before the interview that you knew the real story behind the theft of Apple's ROM code by the Nu Promethius League. Care to share that one?
Billsf: What was allegedly stolen was a part of the source listing for the original Macintosh.
182: So, it wasn't the whole system?
Billsf: As far as I know, it wasn't the complete system, but it was enough that would allow part of the Macintosh stuff to be ported to another machine.
182: Any hacker worth his trade could figure out enough of it to make a viable clone, if such a project were thought to be enough to go through all the trouble of pursuing?
Billsf: Yeah, if you knew how to program. It's my understanding that some kids got into a dumpster behind Apple computer, just looking for interesting stuff. I used to do it when I was younger.
182: Oh yes, "dumpster diving"...a time honored tradition. Glad to see it's still alive.
Billsf: Yeah, "trashing". And this leech of this code was nothing more than a virtual lack of security, and someone just tossed it out. However, Apple got the FBI involved on this because they just wanted them to listen, and as far as I know, it totally backfired.
182: So, Bill, do you consider yourself a hacker?
Billsf: I would say so. I don't really try breaking into computers because I don't really see that much to be gained. But, I'm intrigued by it. I do more things with hardware.
182: So, you're a phone hacker.
Billsf: Pretty much, although when ISDN comes in there will be more hacking with the computer.
182: Speaking of which, what do you expect things to be like with ISDN technology, and could you explain what it is to our readers?
Billsf: In a nutshell, there are two forms of ISDN: primary rate interface, which allows 24 talk channels, 2 way channels at 64 kilobits and 2 "d" channels, which is 16 kilohertz channels used for signaling. The basic rate interface, which will be a consumer line, will allow one or two 64 kilobit lines for regular phone and one 64 kilobit line for signaling. The whole system runs at 196 bits per second, and therefore the remaining segments that are not used are used to separate the talk channel from the "d" channel.
182: How will this affect telecommunications within the next ten years?
Billsf: It will allow direct connection to the phone network to send digital data, and you'll have to use modems that are digital sends.
182: Would you consider this technology superior to what we have now?
Billsf: I would say for data it's quite superior, where for normal voice communication it's no improvement over the current POTS. It will just cost you twice as much.
182: Last question. What do you have to say to the beginners who are curious about phreaking?
Billsf: Basically, I think you should understand it before you dive into it. You should educate yourself as to why things work the way they do. Be as educated as possible before you get on, and a certain amount of experimentation is in order once you have educated yourself to help you better understand it.
182: And your parting words to the "lamers?"
Billsf: As far as I'm concerned, the best way to send programs is the post office. It's the most efficient and cheap way to do it. The big boys do it, so can the little babes.
182: In other words, they should stay the hell off the line?
Billsf: They shouldn't tie up the phone lines for getting the software out.
FIGHTING THE CODE ABUSERS
Little phone company on the hacker attack.
Reprinted from RISKS Digest
Letter printed and edited by Mark Secoff <marks@capnet.latimes.com>
Taken from Los Angeles Times, May 17, 1991: page E1
In the last seven months, Thrifty Tel's security chief has put seven hackers in jail. And she has made 48 others atone for their sins with hard cash and hardware. The case that Security Chief Bigley calls her biggest coup -- involving a 16 year old Buena Park boy whose alleged theft of computer data cost Thrifty Tel millions of dollars -- is pending in Orange County Superior Court.
Thrifty Tel has become one of the most aggressive hacker fighters in California, according to Jim Smith, president of the California Association of Telephone Cos.(Caltel). "Bigley is tough", he says. "I would not want to be a hacker on her network." So far, the company has collected more that $200,000 dollars in penalties and reimbursements from hackers.
"We do not have a hacking problem anymore because we have stood up and punched them in the face", Bigley proclaims. "These kids think that what they're doing is no big deal -- they're not murdering anyone", Bigley says. "They think we're terrible for calling them on it. Their attitude is extremely arrogant. But these are not just kids having some fun. The are using their intellect to devise ways to steal. And these are not kids who need to stal. They come from white-collar families."
For Thrifty-Tel Inc., the battle of wits started a year ago. "The first quarter of 1990 we came in with half a million dollars net profit, and everything was going great." Bigley says. "Then the next quarter, all of a sudden we were lopsided. We were getting bigger bills from our carriers than we were billing out to our customers." With a little investigation, the company pinpointed the culprits: hackers who were eating up as much as ten hours a "conversation". Because hackers exchange information and solve secret codes via long distance modem connections, circumventing expensive telephone charges has become their mainstay. "It was so frustrating to sit here and watch these hackers burn through our lines" says Bigley, a 33 year old San Fernando valley resident. She has been vice president of operations at Thrifty Tel for four years. "I had technicians out changing customers' codes that they'd just changed a few weeks before."
But Bigley is not the sort to throw in the towel. First, she devoted a couple of months educating herself about hacking. She monitored Thrifty Tel's computers for unusual activity -- telephone calls coming into the switching facility from non-customers. "They believe that because they're sitting in a room with a computer they're safe", Bigley says. "The problem is, they're using their telephone, we can watch them in the act. It's a lot easier to catch a hacker than a bank robber. Bigley started making a few calls of her own. If the infiltrator seemed major-league, like the Buena Park boy, she contacted the Garden Grove Police Department, whose fraud investigators went into homes with search warrants. If the hacker seemes relatively small, however, Bigley took matters into her own hands, telephoned the suspect and presented an ultimatum: either pay up or face criminal charges.
A non-negotiable condition of Bigley's out-of-court settlement provided that the guilty party relinquish his (or infrequently, her) computer and modem. Thrifty Tel donates the confiscated weapons(?) to law enforcement agencies.
Teen-age hackers tend to be "very intelligent and somewhat introverted", says Garden Grove Police Detective Richard Harrison, a fraud investigator who has arrested many of Thrifty Tel's suspects. Most of the parents he has dealt with were oblivious to their children's secret lives. He suggests that parents educate themselves about their children's computers. "If a kid is spending a lot of time on his computer and it's hooked up to a modem, he's not just running his software. What is he doing on that computer? Does he really need a modem?"
Not all hackers are young computer fanatics testing their limits. "The hacking problem is two-fold, says Caltel president Smith, also president of the Sacrament-based company Execuline. "First, we have Information Age fraud, which is an outgrowth of the proliferation of computers in households. We have all these kids who want to talk to each other on BBS's, and if mom and dad had to pay for all those phone calls, the cost would be prohibitive. Then we have professional fraud -- adults as well as kids who attempt to gain access to our codes for the purpose of selling the codes. They have made a big business out of hacking." Smith's company has waged a more low-key defense against hackers than Thrifty-Tel. "I wish I had the time to devote to hacker fraud that she [Bigley] has been able to devote," he says.
Therein lies the reason that many telephone companies decline to file charges against hackers, says Roy Costello, a fraud investigator for GTE. "Smaller carriers don't have the time to allow their people to do the investigations and carry it through the court system", he says.
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Rebuttal from the Editor:
While I applaud Chief Bigley for her concerted efforts in trying to save her company from virtual theft, I cringe at her policy of her non-negotiable, wholesale seizure of computer technology from these so-called "hackers".
Granted, I don't condone in any way, shape, or form code abuse or telephone fraud. People who engage in this kind of activity are not hackers at all, they're no better than the average hoodlum who would roll you in an alley for your wallet. Hackers, *real* hackers, aren't interested in devising ways to rip you off.
Imagine for a moment that you lifted an apple from the neighborhood grocery store, and were caught doing it. Naturally, you would have to either a) put it back, or b) if you already ate it, you would have to reemburse the store owner. This is a fair policy which no one would really have a good argument against. If your personal property was taken from you, you would either want it all back or total reparations for the items you lost.
Now, let's run back to the store scene again. You've lifted the apple, you've eaten it, and now you're sitting in front of the store owner who wants his apple back. Well, you can't very well regurgitate it on him, now can you? You'll have to pay for it.
So you hand him the money. Now, if this store owner had Chief Bigley's attitude on theft, the exchange would go something like this: "Alright, you've paid me for it. Now I'll take your watch and that nice leather jacket you're wearing, too."
Chief Bigley deserves support, sure. She has to contend with a multi million dollar company and has to somehow keep it afloat, but adding insult to injury isn't the best way to handle it. Making someone pay a substantial fine for theft of services, especially the services of Thrifty Tel which add up in the tens of thousands of dollars, but taking the personal effects of the perpetrator as well doesn't fit my description, or definition, of reimbursement. It goes without saying that the eye for an eye policy only satisfies a motive of revenge.
About ONE-EIGHT-TWO
ONE EIGHT TWO is a one man operation. Yup, I edited and conceived this whole project from the very start. I'd like to thank the Risks Digest and all the gang on the Internet for supplying me with all my stories, and the people I've talked to (and will talk to) for granting me interviews with them.
This magazine is dedicated to all those hackers out there who got caught up in the sweep of Operation Sun Devil, and from the looks of things, to the hackers that will get caught up in the sweep when the next round of investigations begin, which will be Real Soon Now.
ONE EIGHT TWO is for the dissemination of informative articles and educating the public at large about what hacking is really all about. For some time, the public has felt that hackers are a threat to society, that they're out to destroy data, sink credit ratings, plunder millions from the S&L's of America (hey, they don't need us for that...), and start a nuclear war.
Oh yes, giggle if you must. Sure, the public has some far fetched ideas about hackers, but you have to understand that the public is being spoon fed this information from our government, a majority of people who not only don't understand computing, but have the power to institute policies to justify their ignorance.
I got tired of the ignorance. We're supposed to be living in the Information Age. This is an age that, thanks to the progress of generations before them, have almost wiped out illiteracy, cured diseases that would have otherwise killed us surely, improved the quality of life for almost everyone, and made great strides in technological advances. If everyone is so smart and "better informed", why is it that they don't know jack shit about hackers?
The answer isn't so easy, but there must be something done about it, and soon. If we don't start informing people of what hacking, and hackers, are really all about, the people who are ignorant of us will do their damndest to stamp us out. They did in Salem, when anything less than what they felt to be "pure" thought and deed got you burned at the stake. They did when Hitler was in power, where six million Jews went to their deaths in the concentration camps. They did when McCarthy set up his Commitee on Anti-American Affairs, where people who didn't live up to a set of "standards" were dragged in front a comittee and asked if they were communists. If you said yes, you were screwed, and if you said no, you were screwed.
The time has come to decide whether or not you want to be free. The time has come to decide whether or not you want to put an end to a repressive society. Everyday, our basic freedoms and civil liberties are being stripped. Instead of being innocent until proven guilty, we're now guilty until we can prove our innocence, and even then they have rules around that.
Instead of being garanteed by the Fourth Amendment that we will not be unreasonably searched and seized, our homes are being raided and our property is being taken in the name of "justice".
When they speak of justice, they mean "just us".
Sincerely,
Doktor Avalanche
wil@fiver.UUCP
Smeared Across the Universe by:
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