138 lines
8.0 KiB
Plaintext
138 lines
8.0 KiB
Plaintext
==Phrack Inc.==
|
|
|
|
Volume Two, Issue 23, File 10 of 12
|
|
|
|
In The Spirit Of The Vicious Circle Trilogy...
|
|
Phrack Inc. Presents
|
|
|
|
*****************************************
|
|
*** ***
|
|
*** Big Brother Online ***
|
|
*** ***
|
|
*** by Thumpr Of ChicagoLand ***
|
|
*** ***
|
|
*** June 6, 1988 ***
|
|
*** ***
|
|
*** Special Thanks To Hatchet Molly ***
|
|
*** ***
|
|
*****************************************
|
|
|
|
The United States Government is monitoring the message activity on several
|
|
bulletin boards across the country. This is the claim put forth by Glen L.
|
|
Roberts, author of "The FBI and Your BBS." The manuscript, published by The
|
|
FBI Project, covers a wide ground of FBI/BBS related topics, but unfortunately
|
|
it discusses none of them in depth.
|
|
|
|
It begins with a general history of the information gathering activities of the
|
|
FBI. It seems that that the FBI began collecting massive amounts of
|
|
information on citizens that were involved with "radical political" movements.
|
|
This not begin during the 1960's as one might expect, but rather during the
|
|
1920's! Since then the FBI has amassed a HUGE amount of information on
|
|
everyday citizens... citizens convicted of no crime other than being active in
|
|
some regard that the FBI considers potentially dangerous.
|
|
|
|
After discussing the activities of the FBI Roberts jumps into a discussion of
|
|
why FBI snooping on BBS systems is illegal. He indicates that such snooping
|
|
violates the First, Fourth, and Fifth amendments to the Constitution. But he
|
|
makes his strongest case when discussing the Electronic Communications Privacy
|
|
Act of 1987. This act was amended to the Federal Wiretapping Law of 1968 and
|
|
was intended to protect business computer systems from invasion by "hackers."
|
|
But as with all good laws, it was written in such broad language that it can,
|
|
and does, apply to privately owned systems such as Bulletin Boards. Roberts
|
|
(briefly) discusses how this act can be applied in protecting *your* bulletin
|
|
board from snooping by the Feds.
|
|
|
|
How to protect your BBS: Do NOT keep messages for more than 180 days. Because
|
|
the way the law is written, messages less then 180 days old are afforded more
|
|
protection then older messages. Therefore, to best protect your system purge,
|
|
archive, or reload your message base about every 150 days or so. This seems
|
|
silly but will make it harder (more red tape) for the government to issue a
|
|
search warrant and inform the operator/subscriber of the service that a search
|
|
will take place. Roberts is not clear on this issue, but his message is stated
|
|
emphatically... you will be better protected if you roll over your message base
|
|
sooner.
|
|
|
|
Perhaps the best way to protect your BBS is to make it a private system. This
|
|
means that you can not give "instant access" to callers (I know of very few
|
|
underground boards that do this anyway) and you can not allow just anyone to be
|
|
a member of your system. In other words, even if you make callers wait 24
|
|
hours to be validated before having access you need to make some distinctions
|
|
about who you validate and who you do not. Your BBS needs to be a PRIVATE
|
|
system and you need to take steps to enforce and proclaim this EXPECTED
|
|
PRIVACY. One of the ways Roberts suggests doing so is placing a message like
|
|
this in your welcome screen:
|
|
|
|
"This BBS is a private system. Only private citizens who are not
|
|
involved in government or law enforcement activities are authorized
|
|
to use it. The users are not authorized to divulge any information
|
|
gained from this system to any government agency or employee."
|
|
|
|
Using this message, or one like it, will make it a criminal offense (under the
|
|
ECPA) for an FBI Agent or other government snoop to use your BBS.
|
|
|
|
The manuscript concludes with a discussion of how to verify users and what to
|
|
do when you find an FBI agent using your board. Overall, I found Roberts book
|
|
to be moderately useful. It really just whetted my appetite for more
|
|
information instead of answering all my questions. If you would like a copy of
|
|
the book it sells for $5.00 (including postage etc). Contact;
|
|
|
|
THE FBI PROJECT
|
|
Box 8275
|
|
Ann Arbor, MI 48107
|
|
|
|
Visa/MC orders at (313) 747-7027. Personally I would use a pseudonym when
|
|
dealing with this organization. Ask for a catalog with your order and you will
|
|
see the plethora of anti-FBI books this organization publishes. Undoubtedly
|
|
the FBI would be interested in knowing who is doing business with this place.
|
|
The manuscript, by the way, is about 20 pages long and offers references to
|
|
other FBI expose' information. The full citation of the EPCA, if you want to
|
|
look it up, is 18 USC 2701.
|
|
|
|
Additional Comments: The biggest weakness, and it's very apparent, is that
|
|
Roberts offers no evidence of the FBI monitoring BBS systems. He claims that
|
|
they do, but he does not give any known examples. His claims do make sense
|
|
however. As he states, BBS's offer a type of "publication" that is not read by
|
|
any editors before it is "published." It offers an instant form of news and
|
|
one that may make the FBI very nervous. Roberts would do well to include some
|
|
supportive evidence in his book. To help him out, I will offer some here.
|
|
|
|
* One of the Ten Commandments of Phreaking (as published in the
|
|
famous TAP Magazine) is that every third phreaker is an FBI agent.
|
|
This type of folklore knowledge does not arise without some kind of
|
|
justification. The FBI is interested in the activities of phreakers
|
|
and is going to be looking for the BBS systems that cater to them. If
|
|
your system does not, but it looks like it may, the FBI may monitor it
|
|
just to be sure.
|
|
|
|
* On April 26, 1988 the United States Attorney's Office arrested 19
|
|
people for using MCI and Sprint credit card numbers illegally. These
|
|
numbers were, of course, "stolen" by phreakers using computers to hack
|
|
them out. The Secret Service was able to arrest this people by posing
|
|
as phone phreaks! In this case the government has admitted to placing
|
|
agents in the field who pretend to be one of us. Watch yourself out
|
|
there, the success of this "sting" will only mean that they will try
|
|
it again. Be wary of people offering you codes.
|
|
|
|
* In the famous bust of the Inner Circle and the 414s, the FBI monitored
|
|
electronic mail for several months before moving in for the kill.
|
|
While it is true that the owners of the systems being hacked (Western
|
|
Union for one) invited the FBI to snoop through their files, it does
|
|
establish that the FBI is no stranger to the use of electronic
|
|
snooping in investigating crimes.
|
|
|
|
Conclusion: There is no reason to believe that the government is *not*
|
|
monitoring your bulletin board system. There are many good reasons to believe
|
|
that they are! Learn how to protect yourself. There are laws and regulations
|
|
in place that can protect your freedom of speech if you use them. You should
|
|
take every step to protect your rights whether or not you run an underground
|
|
system or not. There is no justification for the government to violate your
|
|
rights, and you should take every step you can to protect yourself.
|
|
|
|
I have no connections with Roberts, his book, or The FBI Project other then
|
|
being a mostly-satisfied customer. I'm not a lawyer and neither is Roberts.
|
|
No warranty is offered with this text file. Read and use it for what you think
|
|
it is worth. You suffer the consequences or reap the benefits. The choice is
|
|
yours, but above all stay free.
|
|
|
|
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\*///////////////////////////////////////
|