Freaks Macintosh Archive/Freaks Macintosh Archive.bin/Freaks Macintosh Archives/Textfiles/zines/DNA/DNAV1I3.sit/DNAV1I3/ARTICLE.005

Text File | 1993-06-28 | 13KB | 236 lines

PUBLISHER'S NOTES: (Pazuzu) This is the unedited text of a term paper written
by a user named "Tao", which is basically about myself, Arclight, and even
DnA Itself. The actual text has not been changed, but comments have been
inserted and are enclosed in square brackets ("[" and "]").



     Ever since I managed to learn how to operate my modem I have
been calling out to local Bulletin Board Systems and explore from
the comfort of my home.  Bulletin Board Systems are usually home
computers that people leave on 24 hours a day running a particular
software that allows other modem users to call in and leave
messages to other users who call that board or send and receive
files.  This is one form of telecommunication, an industry that is
growing exponentially as more and more people purchase home PCs and
use the modem.

     One day while I was doing a daily message run I ran into a new
vocabulary word that I have never heard before.  The word is phreak
(MOTOWN L.A.).  What the heck is a phreak?  I asked around and
found out that it is a form of abuse that certain pcs' users,
particularly cyberpunks/hackers, do to get free long distance phone
calls.  I was also introduce to a whole new field of crimes.  I
found out just how rampant and destructive it is to companies that
works in these industries such as software and telecommunications.
I found out about a small group of anarchist out to change the
[                   ^^^^^ Small? Far from it my friend, we number in the
thousands!]

whole industries.

     I looked around for more information on this phreaking thing
and discovered that phreaking is a federal crime that the phone
industries say that it is causing them millions of dollars in
damages each years.  Phreaking is also closely relate to other
computer crimes such as software piracy, cellular phone crimes, and
[                                ^^^^^^ Piracy a crime? Hardly.]

stealing secret information for other criminals.  "Phones are to
hackers what blood vessels are to Dracula" (Flanagan).  Since most
of these other crimes rely calling long distance that cost quite a
that bundle to the criminals, phreakers who know how to get free
calls or develop devices to get free, untraceable, phone calls are
in hot demand.

     Software pirates also phreak.  To get copyrighted software
around quickly to other pirates they must do modem transfer.  Many
couriers who ship these "new warez" around compete with one another
to see who can get something on a Bulletin Board System first.
This would require making many long distances calls to get a warez
across country.  Only by phreaking and depriving the phone
companies of their payments for their services would these pirates
[                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Excuse me, but since when
does the phone company provide any "services"?]

be able to avoid the extravagant costs that they would have paid
normally.

     The Cellular phones services that companies such as AT&T offer
is also harm by phreakers.  These phreakers would get phone codes,
mobile identification numbers (MIN) or electronic serial numbers
(ESN) (Flanagan), from insiders who work for the companies and
reprogram a cellular so that they can use that phone while the
owners get billed.  Then sell it to others such as drug dealers for
a large sum.  The drug dealers benefit because they would be able
to call internationally to nations such as Colombia and pay less
than they would normally be charge.  The cellular phones are also
very appealing to the dealers because their calls would be
untraceable (Flanagan) by federal agencies because they never had
to release their identity to the telephone companies.

     Phreaking also allows cyberpunks to get onto networks either
look around or crash the system and cause the networks to lose
business, money, and time in trying to repair the damages.  Private
systems could also be hack and secret information copied and sold
to others.  An example of this is a hacker stealing an East German
Stasi bomb recipe and selling it to a Turkish Mafia in 1989
(Flanagan).  Another example is when a hacker from West Germany who
broke into the US computer systems and stole vital secrets and sold
it to the Soviet.  Other cyberpunks crash academic networks such as
the Internet that have access to Universities records and change
their grades.

     This makes me wonder if these cyberpunks ever have any feeling
of guilt and regret about their destructive actions.  With their
intelligence minds they must also realize the destructive effect
that they do to the telecommunication industries.  I then conduct
a few interviews to determine their motives and thoughts.  Two of
them I got from a Bulletin Board System, Digital Decay, set up as
a central information center for other cyberpunks in this area.
Using aliases to conceal their true identity they replied to my
message in the same day I wrote it.

     The first person that I interviewed goes by the handle Pazuzu.
Pazuzu is a 22 year old programmer who has been modeming since 10.
Pazuzu also is an old hand at phreaking.  I then asked him if he
feels guilty about ripping off the corporations.  Damages to these
corporations usually go up to the tens of thousands and sometime
even millions.  Pazuzu wrote, "No, not ever.  Reason is that I am
not hurting ANYONE.  Sure it's true that maybe, somewhere, sometime
I have a cut into the profits of some huge, nameless, faceless,
emotionless corporation, but that's not the same as hurting a HUMAN
BEING."  With this attitude in mind Pazuzu continues to phreak
without his conscious bothering him.

     The next person that I interviewed goes by the handle of The
Stainless Steel Rat.  He is a hacker for 5 years since 7th grade.
I also asked him if he feels uncomfortable after a phreaking spree.
The Stainless Steel Rat replied, "Nope.  Every thing is covered.
The person I'm abusing loses nothing, as the phone company or
insurance company covers it.  My actions are of little value.  GTE
making billions for instance can easily brush off $1000 over a YEAR
time span.  Same goes with most LD carriers."  This statement is
similar to that of Pazuzu.  The Stainless Steel Rat believes that
he is not doing any damages to these companies because they are so
big.  He believes that he is helping people all over because the
long distance charges are too high and if they were lower then
phreaking would not exist.

     The third person I asked was Arclight.  He is the System
Operator of Digital Decay.  This person is more into anarchy and
explosives but also phreak because he lacks funds to support his
modeming hobby.  Arclight hack to "satisfy my curiosity.  Nothing
angers me more than having things kept from me, the old 'You don't
need to know that' crap.  I feel that I do need to know, that's
it's my duty to find out."  The search for knowledge requires many
long distance calls and phreaking become a necessary to avoid the
bills..

     These three cyberpunks have established a group called DnA
[                                              ^^^^^ We are not a group.]

that stands for Death and Anarchy.  They release computer text
files in volumes like magazines.  In it they described their goals
to revived the hacking scene and get more people into phreaking.
A field that went down a while ago when the government staged a
series of bust that scared much cyberpunks underground.  This
magazine gives information on how to make different devices to
phreak, rob a house, make bombs, ect (DnA).  The phrase "Screw the
Fedz" was written throughout the articles that included the
opinions of the writers.  One such type of devices to help
phreaking is a red box.  To make the red box you need to buy an
auto dialer and a crystal with a certain type of tone.  You then
replace the crystal in the auto dialer with the new crystal, go to
a pay phone and use the box on the receiver.  The pay phone works
by sending in different tones to the telephone company whenever a
nickel, dime, or quarter are place into the coin receiver.  The red
box reproduces the same tone as the phone would if you were to drop
a quarter.  Play the same tone over and over for a minute or so
would give the operator the impression that you have spent several
dollars and enable you to make a long distance call for a while
(Redbox.txt).  To protect themselves from being trace even after
they hang up, these cyberpunks also developed a way to send a surge
of electricity into the phone lines to eradicate stop the tracer.

     These cyberpunks usually have an anti-institution attitude and
always looking for ways to disrupt it.  This goes from phreaking to
making bombs and threatening to blow up buildings.  Some even
believe that they can disable up an entire area code by sending in
a large charge of electricity into the connections.  They always
want to learn new tricks on how to bypass security and the
government.  The telephone system becomes a tool for them to use to
tap other computers therefor making phreaking a require tactic to
avoid the cost that goes with this type of hobby.

     These three cyberpunks that I have interviewed envision
themselves as modern day Robin Hood out to crush the oligopoly that
phone companies have.  There are many companies not in the
telecommunication industries that get hurt also.  An example is a
company subscribe a PBX code so that it's workers can call on
company's business without having to pay the extravagant rates.
The cost to the company is usually acceptable.  However, cyberpunks
would hack the PBX systems and steal the codes.  These codes would
sometimes be pass around or sold to others.  These people would use
this code to make calls all over the world.  The company that
subscribed to the code would get a bill that goes up to the
millions as Toshiba got in 1991 (Barron's).  While it is true that,
by an act of Congress (Barron's), the company is not require to pay
for these fraudulent bills, the cost and time wasted with all the
paper works and sometime even lawsuits harm the company.  This is
devastating to a small, growing company with a low profit margin.
[Nope. All they have to do is say "fuck you, I ain't payin' it."]


These types of damages are usually overlook by phreakers because
they still believe that they are only hurting the large phone
companies.

     The FBI and security forces of corporations such as AT&T is
trying to crack down on these high tech criminals without much
success at curving the crime rate in this field(Brennan).
[Yep. And they more they tighten their reins, the more of us that will slip
through their fingers.]

Computer crimes are growing rapidly as we enter the information age
and many turns to phreaking to solve their financial needs when
they use the modem.  This result in raids on computer users and
Bulletin Systems and the confiscation of all computer equipment
found.  The agents did not return the computer equipment but kept
as a warning to the cyberpunks and his friends.  This strategy has
many loop holes.  A few innocent computer users that have not
broken the law also suffer at the FBI ruthlessness.  They suffer
the loss of thousands of dollars of computer equipment.  The FBI
usually does not return the equipment unless these people take
court actions against them and when the equipment is return it is
usually at such a later date that it becomes out of date and quite
useless.  One such example is the Rusty & Eddie BBS bust.  This
board has been up for a few years and has over 100 phone lines and
thousands of registered users.  This board was raid because
copyrighted software was found on the board.  The System Operator
and his assistance usually do not have time to check all programs
that get uploaded by their users and sometimes illegal software
gets overlooked for a short time before it is found and removed
(Fedbust.txt).  This bust result in the confiscation of almost half
a million dollar of computer equipment and deprived the users who
paid the registration fee access to the system until the operators
finally brought court actions down and regain their equipment.  The
fight against computer crimes has escalated and the law has
exercise their power excessively.  This only gives the cyberpunks
and anarchist more reason to fight the government and other large
institution and seek ways to circumvent it.

     A new age of information is approaching.  Many believe that by
the year 2000 computers will have infiltrate almost all American
homes and telecommunication would become common.  Banking and other
business transaction would be done at home more frequently and even
little children would be computer literate enough to use their as
windows to the world.  This new age also brings new crimes.  The
war on computer crimes is escalating and many innocent people, both
the users and companies, are suffering.  The software and the phone
[                            ^^^^^^^^^ Bullshit. Know your rights, or else
you won't have any.]

companies lower the cost to the consumers or there would
always be people willing to phreak and pirate.