579 lines
30 KiB
Plaintext
579 lines
30 KiB
Plaintext
==Phrack Inc.==
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Volume Four, Issue Thirty-Nine, File 10 of 13
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PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN
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PWN PWN
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PWN Phrack World News PWN
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PWN PWN
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PWN Issue XXXIX / Part One of Four PWN
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PWN PWN
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PWN Compiled by Datastream Cowboy PWN
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PWN PWN
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PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN
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To Some Hackers, Right And Wrong Don't Compute May 11, 1992
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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By Bruce V. Bigelow (San Diego Union-Tribune)
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Special Thanks to Ripper of HALE
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The telephone call was anonymous, and the young, male voice was chatty and
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nonchalant. He wanted to explain a few things about hacking, the black art of
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tapping into private computers.
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He was one of several hackers to call, both frightened and intrigued by a San
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Diego police investigation into an informal network of computer criminals using
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high-tech methods to make fraudulent credit-card purchases. Detectives have
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seized a personal computer and other materials, and arrests are pending in San
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Diego and other parts of the country.
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"Half the time, it's feeding on people's stupidity," the anonymous hacker
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said, boasting that most computers can be cracked as easily as popping a beer.
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Hackers seem full of such bravado. In their electronic messages and in
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interviews, they exaggerate and swagger.
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One message traveling the clandestine network notes: "This text file contains
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extremely damaging material about the American Express account making
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algorithm. I do not commit credit card fraud. I just made up this scheme
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because I was bored.
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They form groups with names like "Legion of Doom" and "Masters of Deception,"
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and give themselves nicknames like Phiber Optik, Video Vindicator and Outlaw.
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They view themselves as members of a computer underground, rife with cat-and-
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mouse intrigue.
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For the most part, they are bring teenagers who are coming of age in a
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computer-crazy world. Perhaps a generation ago, they tested their anti-
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authoritarian moxie by shoplifting or stripping cars. But, as it has with
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just about everything else, the computer has made teenage rebellion easier.
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Nowadays, a teenager tapping on a keyboard in the comfort of his bedroom can
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trespass on faraway corporate computers, explore credit files and surf coast-
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to-coast on long-distance telephone lines.
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San Diego police say that gathering details from computerized files as credit-
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reporting agencies, hackers around the country have racked up millions of
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dollars in fraudulent charges -- a trick known as "carding."
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Conventual notions of right and wrong seem to go fuzzy in the ethereal realm
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that hackers call cyberspace, and authorities say the number of crimes
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committed by computer is exploding nationwide.
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Like many hackers, the callers says he's paranoid. He won't give his name and
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refuses to meed in person. Now a college student in San Diego, he says, he
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began hacking when he was 13, collecting data by computer like a pack rat.
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"I wanted to know how to make a bomb," he said with a laugh.
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Like other hackers, he believes their strange underground community is
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misunderstood and maligned. Small wonder.
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They speak a specialized jargon of colons, slashes and equal signs. They work
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compulsively -- sometimes obsessively -- to decipher and decode, the hacker
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equivalent of breaking and entering. They exploit loopholes and flaws so they
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can flaunt their techno-prowess.
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"The basis of worth is what you know," the hacker says. "You'll hear the term
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'lame' slung around a lot, especially if someone can't do too much."
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They exchange credit-card numbers by electronic mail and on digital bulletin
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boards set up on personal computers. They trade computer access codes,
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passwords, hacking techniques and other information.
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But it's not as if everyone is a criminal, the anonymous hacker says. What
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most people don't realize, he say, is how much information is out there --
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"and some people want things for free, you know?"
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The real question for a hacker, he says, is what you do with the information
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once you've got it. For some, restraint is a foreign concept.
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RICH IN LORE
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Barely 20 years old, the history of hacking already is rich in lore.
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For example, John Draper gained notoriety by accessing AT&T long distance
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telephone lines for free by blowing a toy whistle from a bod of Cap'n Crunch
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cereal into the telephone.
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Draper, who adopted "Captain Crunch" as his hacker nickname, improved on the
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whistle with an electronic device that duplicated the flute like, rapid-fire
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pulses of telephone tones.
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Another living legend among hackers is a New York youth known as "Phiber
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Optik."
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"The guy has got a photographic memory,' said Craig Neidorf of Washington, who
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co-founded an underground hacker magazine called Phrack. "He knows everything.
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He can get into anything."
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Phiber Optik demonstrated his skills during a conference organized by Harper's
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Magazine, which invited some of the nation's best hackers to "log on" and
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discuss hacking in an electronic forum. Harper's published a transcript of the
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11-day discussion in it's March 1990 issue.
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One of the participants, computer expert John Perry Barlow, insulted Phiber
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Optik by saying some hackers are distinguished less by their intelligence than
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by their alienation.
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"Trade their modems for skateboards and only a slight conceptual shift would
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occur," Barlow tapped out in his message.
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Phiber Optik replied 13 minutes later by transmitting a copy of Barlow's
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personal credit history, which Harper's editors noted apparently was obtained
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by hacking into TRW's computer records.
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For people like Emmanuel Goldstein, true hacking is like a high-tech game of
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chess. The game is in the mind, but the moves are played out across a vast
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electronic frontier.
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"You're not going to stop hackers from trying to find out things," said
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Goldstein, who publishes 2600 Magazine, the hacker quarterly, in Middle
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Island, New York.
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"We're going to be trying to read magnetic strips on cards," Goldstein said.
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"We're going to try to figure out how password schemes work. That's not
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going to change. What has to change is the security measures that companies
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have to take."
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ANGELHEADED HIPSTERS
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True hackers see themselves, in the words of poet Allen Ginsberg, as
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"Angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the
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starry dynamo in the machinery of night." These very words were used by Lee
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Felsenstein, designer of the Osborne-1 computer and co-founder of the Homebrew
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Computer Club.
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But security consultants and law enforcement officials say malicious hackers
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can visit havoc upon anyone with a credit card or driver's license.
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"Almost none of it, I would say less than 10 percent, has anything to do with
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intellectual exploration," said Gail Thackeray, a Phoenix prosecutor who has
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specialized in computer crimes. "It has to do with defrauding people and
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getting stuff you want without paying for it."
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Such crimes have mushroomed as personal computers have become more affordable
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and after the break up of AT&T made it more difficult to trace telephone calls,
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Thackeray said.
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Even those not motivated by financial gain show a ruthlessness to get what they
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want, Thackeray said.
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"They'll say the true hacker never damages the system he's messing with,"
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Thackeray said, "but he's willing to risk it."
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Science-fiction writer Bruce Sterling said he began getting anonymous calls
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from hackers after an article he wrote about the "CyberView 91" hacker
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convention was published in Details Magazine in October.
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The caller's were apparently displeased with Sterling's article, which noted,
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among other things, that the bustling convention stopped dead for the season's
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final episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation."
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"They were giving me some lip," Sterling said. They showered him with
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invective and chortled about details from Sterling's personal credit history,
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which they had gleaned by computer.
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They also gained access to Sterling's long distance telephone records, and
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made abusive calls to many people who has spoken to Sterling.
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"Most of the news stories I read simplify the problem to the point of saying
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that a hacker is a hacker is a hacker," said Donn Parker, a computer security
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consultant with SRI International in Menlo Park.
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"In real life, what we're dealing with is a very broad spectrum of
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individuals," Parker says. "It goes all the way from 14-year olds playing
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pranks on their friends to hardened juvenile delinquents, career criminals and
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international terrorists."
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Yet true hackers have their own code of honor, Goldstein says. Computer
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trespassing is OK, for example, but altering or damaging the system is wrong.
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Posing as a technician to flim-flam access codes and passwords out of
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unsuspecting computers users is also OK. That's called "social engineering."
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"They're simply exploring with what they've got, weather it's exploring a
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haunted house or tapping into a mainframe," Goldstein said.
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"Once we figure things out, we share the information, and of course there are
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going to be those people that abuse that information," Goldstein added.
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It is extremely easy to break into credit bureau computers, Goldstein says.
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But the privacy being violated belongs to individual Americans -- not credit
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bureaus.
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If anything, credit bureaus should be held accountable for not providing
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better computer security, Goldstein argues.
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_______________________________________________________________________________
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Companies Fall Victim To Massive PBX Fraud April 20, 1992
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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By Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen (Newsbytes)
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NEW YORK CITY -- Appearing on the WBAI radio show "Off The Hook," New York
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State Police senior investigator Donald Delaney discussed the movement of
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organized crime groups into telecommunications fraud and warned the public
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of the dangers of such practices as "shoulder surfing."
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Delaney said that corporations are being victimized to the tune of millions of
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dollars by unauthorized persons "outdialing" through their private branch
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exchanges (PBXs). He traced the case of Data Products, a computer peripheral
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firm, that did not even seem aware that calls could be routed from the outside
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through their switchboard to foreign countries. It was only, according to
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Delaney, when it received a monthly telephone bill of over $35,000 that it
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perceived a problem.
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"It was at 5:10 PM on a certain date that Liriano finally, after weeks of
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trying, was able to obtain an outside dial tone on Data Products 800 number.
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Subsequent investigation showed that thousands of calls using a 9600 baud modem
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as well as manually placed calls had been made to the 800 number. At 7:30 the
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same evening, a call using the Data Products number was placed to the Dominican
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Republic from a telephone booth near Liriano's house. Within a few hours,
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calls were placed from phones all around the neighborhood -- and, within a
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week, calls began being placed from booths all around Manhattan," Delaney
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related.
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Phiber Optik, another studio guest and a convicted computer intruder previously
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arrested by Delaney, commented, "I'm glad that Mr. Delaney didn't refer to
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these people as hackers, but identified them for what they are: Sleezy common
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criminals. What these people are doing requires no super computer knowledge
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nor desire to learn. They are simply using computers and telephones to steal."
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Delaney agreed, saying, "The people actually selling the calls, on the street
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corner, in their apartments, or, in the case of cellular phones, in parked
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cars, don't have to know anything about the technology. They are given the
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necessary PBX numbers and codes by people higher up in the group and they just
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dial the numbers and collect the money. In the case of the re-chipped or clone
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cellular phones, they don't even have to dial the numbers."
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Delaney added, "These operations have become very organized very rapidly. I
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have arrested people that have printed revenue goals for the current month,
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next six months, and entire year -- just like any other franchise operation.
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I'm also currently investigating a murder of a call-seller that I arrested last
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October. He was an independent trying to operate in a highly organized and
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controlled section of Queens. His pursuit of an independent career may well
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have been responsible for his death."
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Off The Hook host Emmanuel Goldstein asked Delaney what responsibility that the
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PBX companies bear for what seems to be rather easy use of their systems for
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such activity. Delaney responded that he thought that the companies bear at
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least an ethical and moral responsibility to their clients to insure that they
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are aware of their exposure and the means that they must take to reduce the
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exposure. "As far as criminal and civil responsibility for the security of the
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system, there are no criminal statues that I am aware of that would hold the
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PBX companies criminally liable for failure to insure proper security. On the
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civil side, I think that the decision in the AT&T suit about this very topic
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will shed some light of legal responsibility."
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Goldstein also brought up the difficulties that some independent "customer-
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owned coin-operated" telephones (COCOTs) cause for customers. "The charges are
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often exorbitant, access to AT&T via 10288 is sometimes blocked, there is not
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even the proper access to 911 on some systems, and some either block 800 calls
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or actually try to charge for the connection to the 800 numbers.
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"We've even found COCOTs that, on collect calls, put the charges through when
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an answering machine picks up and the caller hangs up after realizing that no
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one is home. They are set up to start billing if a human voice is heard and the
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caller doesn't hang up within 5 or 10 seconds."
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Delaney agreed that the COCOTS that behave in this fashion are an ongoing
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problem for unsuspecting users, but said that he has received no complaints
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about illegal behavior. He said, however, that he had received complaints
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about fraudulent operation of 540 numbers -- the local New York equivalent of a
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900 number. He said "most people don't realize that a 540 number is a
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chargeable number and these people fall victim to these scams. We had one case
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in which a person had his computer calling 8,000 phone numbers in the beeper
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blocks each night. The computer would send a 540 number to the beepers.
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People calling the number would receive some innocuous information and, at the
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end of the month a $55 charge on her/his telephone bill."
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Delaney continued, "The public has much to be worried about related to
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telephone fraud, particularly in New York City which can be called "Fraud
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Central, USA." If you go into the Port Authority Bus Terminal and look up in
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the balcony, you will see rows of people "shoulder surfing" with binoculars.
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They have binoculars or telescopes trained on the public telephones. When they
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see a person making a credit card call, they repeat the numbers into a tape
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recorder. The number is then sold and, within a few days, it is in use all
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around the city. People should always be aware of the possibility of shoulder
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surfers in the area."
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Goldstein returned to the 540 subject, pointing out that "because so many
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people don't realize that it is a billable number, they get caught by ads and
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wind up paying for scam calls. We published a picture in 2600 Magazine of a
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poster seen around New York, advertising apartment rental help by calling a
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540 number. In very tiny print, almost unreadable, it mentions a charge.
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People have to be very careful about things like this."
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Delaney agreed, saying, "The 540 service must say within the first 10 seconds
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that there is a charge, how much it is, and that the person can hang up now
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without being charged -- the guy with the beeper scam didn't do that and that
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was one of the reasons for his arrest. Many of the services give the charge so
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fast and mix it in with instructions to stay on for a free camera or another
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number to find out about the vacation that they have won that they miss the
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charges and wind up paying. The 540 person has, although he may be trying to
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defraud, complied with the letter of the law and it might be difficult to
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prosecute him. The average citizen must therefore be more aware of these scams
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and protect themselves."
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Goldstein, Phiber Optik, and Delaney spent the remainder of the show answering
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listener questions. Off The Hook is heard every Wednesday evening on New York
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City's WBAI (99.5 FM). Recent guests have included Mike Godwin, in-house
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counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and Steve Jackson, CEO of Steve
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Jackson Games.
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_______________________________________________________________________________
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Changing Aspects Of Computer Crime Discussed At NYACC May 15, 1992
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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By Barbara E. McMullen (Newbytes)
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New York City -- Donald Delaney, New York State Police senior investigator, and
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Mike Godwin, in-house counsel, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), speaking
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to the May meeting of the New York Amateur Computer Club (NYACC), agreed that
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the entrance of organized crime into telecommunications fraud has made the
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subject of computer crime far different than that discussed just a year ago at
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a similar meeting.
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Newsbytes New York bureau chief John McMullen, moderating the discussion,
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recalled that Delaney in last year's appearance had called for greater
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education of law enforcement officers in technological areas, the establishment
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of a New York State computer crime lab, outreach by law enforcement agencies to
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the public to heighten awareness of computer crime and the penalties attached
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-- items that have all come to pass in the ensuing 12 months. He also
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mentioned that issues involving PBX & cellular phone fraud, privacy concerns
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and ongoing debate over law enforcement wiretapping & decryption capabilities
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have replaced the issues that received most of the attention at last year's
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meeting.
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Delaney agreed with McMullen, saying that there has been major strides made in
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the education of law enforcement personnel and in the acquisition of important
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tools to fight computer crime. He said that the practice of "carding" -- the
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purchasing of goods, particularly computer equipment, has become a much more
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major problem than it was a year ago and that many more complaints of such
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activities are now received.
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He added that "call-selling" operations, the making of international telephone
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calls to foreign countries for a fee, through the fraudulent use of either a
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company's private branch exchange (PBX) or an innocent party's cellular phone
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account, has become so lucrative that arrested suspects have told him that
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"they are moving from drug sales to this type of crime because it is less
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dangerous and more rewarding."
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Delaney pointed out, however, that one of his 1991 arrests had recently been
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murdered, perhaps for trying to operate as an independent in an area that now
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seems to be under the control of a Columbian mob "so maybe it's not going to
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continue to be less dangerous."
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Delaney also said that PBX fraud will continue to be a problem until the
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companies using PBX systems fully understand the system capabilities and take
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all possible steps to insure security. "Many firms don't even know that their
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systems have out-dialing capabilities until they get it with additional monthly
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phone charges of upwards of $35,000. They don't realize that the system has
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default passwords that are supposed to be changed," he said, "It finally hits
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some small businesses when they are bankrupted by the fraudulent long-distance
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charges."
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Godwin, in his remarks, expressed concern that there is not sufficient
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recognition of the uniqueness of BBS and conferencing systems and that,
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therefore, legislators possibly will make decisions based on misunderstandings.
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He said "Telephone conversations, with the exception of crude conference call
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systems are 'one-to-one' communications. Newspapers and radio & telephone are
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"one-to-many" systems but BBS" are "many-to-many" and this is different. EFF
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is interested in seeing that First Amendment protection is understood as
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applying to BBSs."
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He continued "We also have a concern that law enforcement agencies will respond
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to the challenges of new technology in inappropriate ways. The FBI and Justice
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Department, through the 'Digital Telephony Initiative' have requested that the
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phone companies such at AT&T and Sprint be required to provide law enforcement
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with the a method of wire-tapping in spite of technological developments that
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make present methods less effective.
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"Such a procedure would, in effect, make the companies part of the surveillance
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system and we don't think that that is their job. We think that it is up to
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law enforcement to develop their own crime-fighting tools. When the telephone
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was first developed it made it more difficult to catch crooks. They no longer
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had to stand around together to plan foul deeds; they could do it by telephone.
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Then the government discovered wiretapping and was able to respond.
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"This ingenuity was shown again recently when law enforcement officials,
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realizing that John Gotti knew that his phones were tapped and discussed
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wrongdoings outdoors in front of his house, arranged to have the lampposts
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under which Gotti stood tapped. That, in my judgement, is a reasonable
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approach by law enforcement."
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Godwin also spoke briefly concerning the on-going debate over encryption. "The
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government, through varies agencies such as NSA, keeps attempting to restrict
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citizens from cloaking their computer files or messages in seemingly
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unbreakable coding. We think that people have rights to privacy and, should
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they wish to protect it by encoding computer messages, have a perfect right to
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do so."
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Bruce Fancher, sysop and owner of the new New York commercial BBS service,
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MindVox, and the last speaker in the program, recounted some of his experiences
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as a "hacker" and asked the audience to understand that these individuals, even
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if found attached to a computer system to which they should not legitimately
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access, are not malicious terrorists but rather explorers. Fancher was a last
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minute replaced for well-known NY hacker Phiber Optik who did not speak, on the
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advice of his attorney, because he is presently the subject of a Justice
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Department investigation.
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During the question and answer period, Delaney suggested that a method of
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resolving the encryption debate would be for third parties, such as banks and
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insurance companies, to maintain the personal encryption key for those using
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encryption. A law enforcement official would then have to obtain a judge's
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ruling to examine or "tap" the key for future use to decipher the contents of
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the file or message.
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Godwin disagreed, saying that the third party would then become a symbol for
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"crackers" and that he did not think it in the country's best interests to just
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add another level of complexity to the problem.
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The question and answer period lasted for about 45 minutes with the majority of
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questions concerning encryption and the FBI wiretap proposal.
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Couple Of Bumbling Kids April 24, 1992
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By Alfred Lubrano (Newsday)
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Two young Queens computer hackers, arrested for the electronic equivalent of
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pickpocketing credit cards and going on a computer shopping spree, will be
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facing relatively minor charges.
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Rudolph Loil, age 17, of Woodside, charged with attempted grand larceny, was
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released from police custody on a desk appearance ticket, a spokesman for the
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Queens district attorney's office said.
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A 15-year-old friend from Elmhurst who was also arrested was referred to Queens
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Family Court, whose proceedings are closed, the spokesman said. He was not
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identified because of his age.
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Law-enforcement sources said they are investigating whether the two were
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"gofers" for adults who may have engaged them in computer crime, or whether
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they acted on their own.
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But Secret Service officials, called into the matter, characterized the case as
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"just a couple of bumbling kids" playing with their computer.
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The youths were caught after allegedly ordering $1,043 in computer equipment
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with a credit card number they had filched electronically from bank records,
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officials said.
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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Hackers April 27, 1992
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~~~~~~~
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Taken from InformationWeek (Page 8)
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Two teenagers were arrested last week in New York for using computers to steal
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credit card and telephone account numbers and then charging thousands of
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dollars worth of goods and phone calls to the burgled accounts.
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The two were caught only after some equipment they had ordered was sent to the
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home of the credit card holder whose account number had been pilfered. Their
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arrests closely follow the discovery by the FBI of a nationwide ring of 1,000
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computer criminals, who charge purchases and telephone calls to credit card and
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phone account numbers stolen from the Equifax credit bureau and other sources.
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The discovery has already led to the arrest of two Ohio hackers and the seizure
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of computer equipment in three cities.
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_______________________________________________________________________________
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DOD Gets Fax Evesdroppers April 14, 1992
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By Joseph Albright (Atlanta Journal and Constitution)(Page A12)
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Washington -- The Air Force is buying a new weapon to battle leaks: A $30,000
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portable fax-tapper.
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Whenever someone transmits a fax, the fax-tapping device attached to the phone
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line will sneak an electronic copy and store it in a laptop computer's memory.
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Each of the new devices will enable an Air Force intelligence officer to
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monitor four telephones for "communications security" violations.
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Susan Hansen, a Defense Department spokeswoman, said last week that "there is
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no plan right at the moment" to install the devices in the Pentagon, whose
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top leaders have been outraged in recent weeks by leaks of classified policy
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documents to reporters.
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But she left open the possibility that some of them will be attached to
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sensitive military fax lines when the tapping devices are delivered to the Air
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Force six months to a year from now.
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"There are a lot of things that are under review here," she said after
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consulting with the Pentagon's telecommunications office.
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Plans to buy 40 of the devices were disclosed a few weeks ago in a contract
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notice from a procurement officer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near
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Dayton, Ohio. When contacted, a spokesman referred inquiries to the Air
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Force Intelligence Command at Kelly Air Force Base, Texas, which authorized the
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purchase.
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The Air Force Intelligence Command insisted that the devices will never be used
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for law enforcement purposes or even "investigations."
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"The equipment is to be used for monitoring purposes only, to evaluate the
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security of Air Force official telecommunications," said spokesman Dominick
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Cardonita. "The Air Force intelligence command does not investigate."
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Mr. Cardonita said that, for decades, Air Force personnel in sensitive
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installations have been on notice that their voice traffic on official lines is
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subject to "communications security" monitoring. The fax-tapper simply
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"enhances" the Air Force's ability to prevent "operational security"
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violations, he said.
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He estimated that the Air Force will pay $1.2 million under the contract, due
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to be let this June. That averages out to $ 30,000 for each fax-tapper, but
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Mr. Cardonita said the price includes maintenance and training.
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Douglas Lang, president of Washington's High Technology Store and an authority
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on security devices, said that, so far as he knows, the Air Force is the first
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government agency to issue an order for fax-tapping machines.
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Mr. Lang said he has heard from industry sources that 15 contractors have
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offered to sell such devices to Wright-Patterson.
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"It is one more invasion of privacy by Big Brother," declared Mr. Lang, who
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predicted that the Air Force will use the devices mainly to catch anyone trying
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to leak commercially valuable information to contractors.
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Judging from the specifications, the Air Force wants a machine that can trace
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leaks wherever they might occur.
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Mr. Cardonita said the Air Force Intelligence Command will use the devices
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only when invited onto an Air Force base by a top commander.
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900-Number Fraud Case Expected to Set a Trend April 2, 1992
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By David Thompson (Omaha <Nebraska> World-Herald)
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Civil court cases against abuses of 900-toll telephone number "will be slam
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dunks" as the result of the successful prosecution of a criminal case in Omaha
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over 900 numbers, a federal postal inspector said.
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Postal inspector Michael Jones said numerous civil actions involving 900
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numbers have been filed, including three recently in Iowa. At least one civil
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case is pending in Nebraska, he said, and there may be others.
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Jones said the mail fraud conviction of Bedford Direct Mail Service Inc. of
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Omaha and its president, Ellis B. Goodman, 52, of 1111 South 113th. Court, may
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have been the first criminal conviction involving 900 numbers.
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The conviction also figures in Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg's
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consumer protection program, which calls attention to abuses of 900 numbers, a
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staff member said.
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Among consumer complaints set to Stenberg's office, those about 900 numbers
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rank in the top five categories, said Daniel L. Parsons, senior consumer
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protection specialist.
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People are often lured by an offer of a gift or prize to dial a toll-free 800
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number, then steered to a series of 900 numbers and charged for each one,
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Parsons said.
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He said that during the last two years, state attorneys general have taken
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action against 150 organizations for allegedly abusing 900 numbers.
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