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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% % T H E E M P I R E T I M E S % % ------------------------------- % % The True Hacker Magazine % % % % November 13th, 1994 Issue 6 % %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% This Issues Features: # Selection Author Size - ------------------------------- ------------- ---- X. Introduction armitage 4k 1. Dc Dirt roach 7k 2. Pumpcon Review okinawa & dc 8k 3. Hohocon '94 drunkfux 21k 4. Who is Grayarea? armitage 11k 5. Pud Tribute roach 11k 6. OSCINT Part 3 firefly 11k ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Founder: Albatross Editor: Armitage Contributors: Deker Drunkfux, Firefly, Grayarea, Okinawa, Roach Special Thanks: Northern Telcom, Sevenup, Ophie, Blackhawk, Discodan, Invalid Media, Noelle. =========================================================================== -=- The Empire Times -=- Introduction Well obviously someone must care because people keep reminding me to put empire times together. This issue I am very proud to present "DC DIRT" the new column that will be put in every issue, supported by Roach. This month Empire Times is taking a technical break. There is no great technical information in this issue. Grant it that the next issue will have pletheras of knowledge nuggets, this month we decided to take a look at the scene. Pumpcon was great, hohocon is around the corner, pud dead, and much more. Sit back and enjoy. If you want to contribute any technical pieces, please do. Keep em' coming. Till the next Empire Times, armitage@dhp.com =========================================================================== -=- The Empire Times -=- Issue 6, File 1 of 6 Dc Dirt by The Roach / aka PuD c0ur13r roach@tmok.res.wpi.edu roach@dans.dorm.umd.edu Hopefully, DC DIRT will be made with every issue of Empire Times. I cannot vouch for it, but I will try. There is always enough dirt to go around, but can I cover it in Empire Times without getting the shit beat out of me? ;) We Will See... DC Dirt is for gossiping hackers. You know who you are. I was just smart enough to admit it. If anyone has a juicy tidbit to share, and is not from DC, or is from DC, share it. If you wish to remain anonymous, I will write it anonymous. But if you wish to slander someone, I will not allow for it. I will also not be a cause for the Fedz to come at another person's door. I have *some* morals, unlike some of you crazy crackers out there. Alright then, lets start with the first issue of DC DIRT. --- Rumor #1 Roach got Busted. I have no idea where this rumor started from, but it scared me. I get a phone call at 10 pm on a Thursday, saying,"Hey, Roach, I heard you were busted". I was surprised to say the least. When I got the message, I was still getting over a major bout of influenza. I will say this: I was not busted. There were no Fedz coming to my door. Did not even get a warning from AT&T. This rumor is false. If the rumor was true, would I be writting an article right now? --- Rumor #2 Ophie is a fed. Don't make me laugh. Ophie is a fed like Roach got busted. Its not true in the slightest. For one thing, Ophie isn't old enough to be a fed. She just started college. Two, Ophie has been in the DC Scene for a long time. People know her. DC Dirt knows her. She's just another hacker/cracker like you and me. --- Rumor #3 Ophie is Dead. Nope. Old DC DIRT rumor. Not true. --- Rumor #4 The BBS Empire Will be going down. Albatross has threatened at a couple of points to take the bbs down. WWiV just doesn't cut it, he says. Albatross would like to try waffle, but the Dos version costs money. ;) If anyone would like to help Albatross with this problem, please contact him at Empire, or at root@empire.org. If Empire gets waffle, chances are it will get Usenet access. Good deal, eh? --- Rumor #5 Y-windoze got busted. I've only heard this on the IRC by Sarlo. I don't know if this rumor is false or not. Sarlo told DC Dirt that he was at a Chicago Airport when the FBI busted him for Cellular Fraud. If this rumor is true, then a collary would be that Pizza Underground Digest is dead. The conclusion would be that there wouldn't be a PuD c0ur13r much of anymore. :( Y-windoze came to the DC 2600 once. He was a nice guy, not fat and short as he used to say he was. He did get intoxicated there. How he could get drunk off of Pentagon City beer is beyond me. The beer stinks. This rumor I hope is totally false. But, sadly, hopes and dreams aren't reality. --- Rumor #6 DiscoDan has been getting death threats. DiscoDan has been getting threats about his linux box. "Someone" is going to shut down his machine. Discodan would like this someone to stop making these threats, and to get a life. --- Rumor #7 Armitage and Pat Sissions/Frenckis' Daughter are a "Thing". Hmmmmmm...Armitage has met one of Frenchkis' daughters at 2600. DC DIRT knows that Armitage would take Frenchie's daughter out for a date anytime. Frenchie said on the IRC that she wouldn't mind Armitage to be the daughters boyfriend. Pat said herself, the daughters old boyfriend had broken up with her. Let me name the daughter Cheerleader, since we don't want her real name to get out. Supposedly Cheerleader really liked what she saw in Armitage when she met him. What was holding her back was that Cheerleader already had a boyfriend at the time, and was twice shy. [editors note: she had a bf? When has that stopped anyone before? Bhahahahahahahahaaaa] Now Cheerleaders old boyfriend is now gone and hopefully, dead. If not, Armitage has muscles thick enough to beat the living crapola outta him. A true love story hacker style. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA... --- Rumor #8 Digital Anarchy Shirts are selling fast. This is not a rumor, per say. This is true fact. These shirts are almost all gone. Even the Editor of Phrack bought one. Would you like to have one? This is what it says: (Front) I quit Hacking, Phreaking, Cracking, Spoofing, Sniffing, Scanning, Boxing... (Back) It the THE WORST 15 minutes of my life! - Digital Anarchy A good shirt for any hacker to get. To try and buy one, send e-mail to armitage@dhp.com, with the Subject: DA shirts. As DC Dirt says, order one now, because they are almost gone. --- Rumor #9 Noe11e still is alive and kicking. Rumor has it that noe11e is still around in the DC area. As Armitage put it,"Noelle, aka Jill Bowyer. The fed, the woman, the partier, the myth. Who knows where she might strike next?". DC Dirt does know that 2 or 3 2600's ago, Noe11e and a fed-friend came to Pentagon City. Mainly, Ruby Tuesdays. This was the same meeting that Y-windoze, Morgen, and Das came to. Ever seemed to have a good time, and no one was hurt. Will Jill come back to the Hacker scene? DC Dirt thinks that she will never step 5 feet into the scene without some major drawbacks. Noelle the hacker is dead and gone. If she ever was one. We just hope that other hacker girls will not follow her example in the least. --- Rumor #10 DC 2600 is the best to go to. Well, see for yourself! First Friday of the month, come down to Pentagon City, and show yourself to us! There will be: Fedz Hackers Chicks galore Cute guys galore (What is a mall for? ;) Food Beer (shitty stuff though) Resturants DC DIRT DA shirts (whats left of them) Hacking/Phreaking/Carding/Cellular Material The Empire Times gang Taran King, Knight Lightning, Albatross, Okinawa, Dokk, Loki, Lgas, and the other older hackers. Anything you might want or need. Well, folks, thats it for this issue of DC DIRT. If you want to send any gossip to me, or just to pass it my way, email me at the to address' at the top of this article. Or send me a line at fine boards like Digital Anarchy or Empire. I might be on the IRC, go and check. Until next time... Dc Dirt. =========================================================================== -=- The Empire Times -=- Issue 6, File 2 of 6 Pumpcon Review & Sumup by Okinawa Pumpcon III added another chapter to hack history Saturday, bringing over 50 underworld figures together from around the world to Philadelphia. Although the Halloween con kept the fine tradition as being a disorganized social con, it was marred by the lack of any decent busts (Sorry Ixom). The pre-con party started Friday with over half of the cons participants checking into the Comfort Inn at Penns Landing. The all white con contingent blended in nicely with the hotels other guests, an all black Babtist church group from New York. Party rooms were stocked and recon parties were sent out to nearby Hooters Resturant then the group settled down for a night of socializing and partying. About midnight sirens began to wail and emergency vehicles (including police and fire boats) raced to the waterfront con site. Pumpcon partyers were disappointed though when they continued on by the hotel and surrounded the Ben Franklin Bridge, which was only meters away from the hotel. The City of Phildelphia tryed to make up for this disappointment by providing con-goers with a front row view of a bridge jumper. Anticipation streched on for hours as police tryed to talk the jumper down from his perch high above the Delaware River and were not disappointed a second time when they finally relented, allowing him to fall to his death. Saturday morning the hotel lobby began to fill the hotel staff began to look worried. The con began promptly at 1 p.m. and the afternoon included: Elite Entity, who spoke about Emmanuel Goldstien and several other subject which no one listened to; Bernie S and LudiChrist, who gave a informative up-to-date talk on new cell phone technology and Paul who gave a lock discussion. Ophie chaired the days activities. After a break for dinner the con began to re-organize in the conference room, but finally submitted to the desires of it's participants and the upstairs party rooms were reinhabited, but not before being warned by the hotel staff with threats of evection. "Pumpcon has always been mainly a social/party con with participants who don't need or want long boring lectures about things they already know," said Okinawa, this year's con organizer. "I know Ixom was bummed that we didn't get busted, but hopefully next year will be better. The Pumpcon party continued through-out the night and Ixom's contingent from 203 tryed to repay the City of Philadelphia for their previous nights suicide demonstartion by taking one of the city's street people to an all-expense payed dinner at Hooter's. (The City responded to this Sunday morning by blasting the Sears Building into a pile of rubble. Philadelphia sure knows how to party.) The rest of the evening had Sevenup passing around large bottles of beer and was filled with the normal room to room party flow associated with Pumpcon. Candy machines were hacked and several of the party rooms sported free porn movies, thanks to their inept pay-per-view system. Overall it was a kewl social con which is expected to be larger next year. Although I'm certain the Comfort Inn at Penn's Landing won't be the site, Philadelphia does seem right for Pumpcon. On a final note, MadCap has some left over Pumpcon III T-shirts. You can contact him for more on that. Welcome to my nightmare Pumpcon Attendance List: Laughing Gas Blackhawk Armitage Discodan L0ra Jazzi Dabe Grayarea Gauss Ludichrist Paul Bergmann Bernie S. Madcap Ophie Stormbringer Road Dancer Albatross Loki Wing Scourge Kluge Vaxbuster Petsounds Noelle Ixom Okinawa ReDragon C-Curve Johnny Oakley Xenophile SevenUp Technowizz Fractal Elite Entity NickO Carlcory Dark Tangent Nightstriker Moonbeam Bob Himehabu Renegade SubEthan Pumpcon Quotes. I'm NOT gonna put my tongue on that. --ophie Get off? I can do that by myself! --Ludichrist Noone ever guaranteed quality man, it's hacked. --deker We got pornos too... --armitage IFB <-- Immediately followed by Oh, Cool --vaxbuster We've seen every single porno over and over and.... --ReDragon Go jack off or something man --bh Oh, Oh, Oh! --chick on porno You know I don't wanna get laid by loki or oki --ophie Dark Tangent has teeth! --ophie I've seen this pussy before --bh Ridalin and beer don't mix very well. --kluge I'm kluge, not kludge. --kluge Did you get any l0ra quotes? Like "I'm stupid" --anonymous Why can't this girl get a date? --discodan (about girl in porn flick) Coffee Anyone? --armitage (while taking a dump) It was awesome. --armitage (every 5 seconds) Go both ways, it speeds things up. --anonymous I can't get it in! --discodan Oh dude, the sucked. --armitage That was NOT awesome --armitage I don't mind sharing a bed with someone --deker IFB As long as they don't get kinky... --armitage I'm gonna make it vibrate and put it on Dan... --armitage IFB Hey, where's Dan? --armitage I had to translate it into negro for him... --deker (after explaining something to Alby) BOOYAKKA!! --deker and lgas I don't have time to fuck around! --bh And then he bitched out a cop...Poor Cop... --armitage (about Ludichrist) If you gould get s00pern1gger drunk (it wouldn't take much) he could rule the world... --armitage I really wish I was like ManoWar --discodan I moan in my sleep. --ophie bh busted ass in the elevator... --armitage IFB No I didn't. It was somebody's Body Oder! --bh IFB No dude, you said "Sorry, I farted" --armitage I gotta stop laughing like this, I'm gonna hurt myself. --armitage We'll put him in a cage. Look it's a Yuri! --anonymous Bring that good ass over here, I'll give it some fucking breakfast. --deker She doesn't have cleavage, she has Cleveland! --Dabe I get real wet when I shower. --lgas She's got her breasts around her waist! --armitage (about ophie) If I take my nose off it'll be cool. --armitage Dude, am I in there? --gauss I feel like a burrito. --armitage Note: These quotes all have a story behind them, some people were also intoxicated, explaining the stupidity of some of them. I also didnt know they stuck me in so much, owell. We had fun. armitage =========================================================================== -=- The Empire Times -=- Issue 6, File 3 of 6 Hohocon '94 by Drunkfux "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." -- Amendment I to the Constitution of the United States ------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Nov 1, 1994] (Distribute Freely) dFx, Phrack Magazine and cDc - Cult Of The Dead Cow proudly present : The Fifth Annual 666 666 666666 666 666 666666 6666666 666666 666 666 666 666 66666666 666 666 66666666 66666666 66666666 6666 666 66! 666 66! 666 66! 666 66! 666 !66 66! 666 66!6!666 !6! 6!6 !6! 6!6 !6! 6!6 !6! 6!6 !6! !6! 6!6 !6!!6!6! 6!6!6!6! 6!6 !6! 6!6!6!6! 6!6 !6! !6! 6!6 !6! 6!6 !!6! !!!6!!!! !6! !!! !!!6!!!! !6! !!! !!! !6! !!! !6! !!! !!: !!! !!: !!! !!: !!! !!: !!! :!! !!: !!! !!: !!! :!: !:! :!: !:! :!: !:! :!: !:! :!: :!: !:! :!: !:! :: ::: ::::: :: :: ::: ::::: :: ::: ::: ::::: :: :: :: : : : : : : : : : : : : :: :: : : : : :: : "Excuse me, sir, but is the toothless gentleman with your party?" Who: All Hackers, Journalists, Security Personnel, Federal Agents, Lawyers, Authors, Cypherpunks, Virtual Realists, Modem Geeks, Phone Nerds, Telco Employees, Phreaks, K0DE Warriors, WaReZ Mongers, Alien Visitors, Government Officials, Strippers, and Other Interested Parties. Where: Red Lion Hotel 6121 North IH-35 Austin, Texas 78752 U.S.A. (512) 323-5466 When: Friday December 30, 1994 through Sunday January 1, 1995 Cost: Ten Dollars (US $10) What is HoHoCon? ---------------- HoHoCon is the largest annual gathering of those in, related to, or wishing to know more about the computer underground. Attendees generally include some of the most notable members of the "hacking" and "telecom" community, journalists, authors, security professionals, lawyers and a host of others. Previous speakers include John Draper (Cap'n Crunch), Lex Luthor (LoD), Luke Perry, Bruce Sterling, Damien Thorn (Nuts & Volts) and Chris Goggans (Erik Bloodaxe of LoD, Phrack and Teen Beat). The conference is open to the public and we encourage anyone who is interested to attend. Hotel Information ----------------- The Red Lion is located at 6121 North IH-35 on the corner of US290 and IH-35. The HoHoCon group room rate is $55 for a single or double. Rooms for the handicapped are also available. Check-in is 3:00 p.m. and check-out is 12:00 noon. Earlier check-in is based on room availability. The hotel accepts American Express, Visa, Master Card, Discover, Diner's Club, and Carte Blanche credit cards. As always, the hotel has set aside a block of rooms for the conference and we recommend making your reservations as early as possible to guarantee a room within the block, if not to just guarantee a room period. To make your reservations, call the number listed above and tell them you are with the HoHoCon conference. It is strongly suggested that you try to remember to tell them you are with HoHoCon, not only in order to receive the group rate, but also so you are placed in close proximity to the conference room and other attendees. Personally, I never wish to relive our DefCon 2 experience where we clocked about 46 miles over the weekend walking to and from the conference room. The hotel provides transportation to and from the airport at no cost. Shuttles leave every half hour from the morning until early evening. If you are arriving or leaving at an odd time, you can make arrangements with the front desk or use the courtesy phone in the airport. Directions ---------- For those of you who will be driving to the conference, the following is a list of directions provided by the hotel (complain to them if you get lost) : Traveling West on 290 : Take the Cameron Road Exit off of 290. The hotel is on the corner of I-35 and 290. Traveling West on I-10 : Take I-10 to 71 west to I-35 north. Take exit 238B and travel over 290. The hotel will be on the right hand side. Traveling East on I-10 : Exit I-35 north and turn left on to the access road. The hotel is on the corner of I-35 and 290. Traveling North on I-35 : Take exit 238B and travel over 290. The hotel will be on the right hand side. Traveling South on I-35 : Take exit 238B and u-turn under I-35 at 290. The hotel will be on the right hand side. Traveling from the FBI, SPA or in any type of Government issued vehicle : Take 290 west to I-35 south to I-10 west. Follow I-10 through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and into California. In Los Angeles, exit 5 north and travel through California and Oregon into Washington. Exit 12 east and drive about 50 miles or so until you see the Mount ST. Helens National Volcano Monument exit. Take that exit and make your way to the large fiery entrance atop the mountain. The conference is on the lower level inside the mountain. Call the hotel if these directions aren't complete enough or if you need additional information. Conference Details __________________ HoHoCon will last 3 days, with the actual conference being held on Saturday, December 31 starting at 10:00 a.m. and continuing until 5 p.m. We will release the first proposed speaker/topic list on or around December 1st. The time table will follow last year's for the most part, with a half hour break in the middle of the day followed by a raffle. We will also have smaller 'mini meetings' on Friday evening and early Sunday afternoon in a few of the hotel's meeting rooms. Details and times of these gatherings will be included in future updates. We are still taking submissions for speakers, so if you would like to speak during the conference, please contact us and include a brief outline of your topic and a rough estimate of how long you will need. We will also gladly accept any suggestions on speakers that you would like to see and hear from. Please note that not all people who request to speak will be given the chance to, so you Star Trek idiots from last year who wanted to talk about how Spock changed your life and your interplanetary, m0dem warrior, anarchist group that was planning to steal a space shuttle from NASA and take control of the galaxy via Prodigy need not submit (or attend). We would like to have people bring interesting items and videos again this year. If you have anything you think people would enjoy having the chance to see, please let us know ahead of time and tell us if you will need any help getting it to the conference. If all else fails, just bring it to the con and give it to us when you arrive. Any organization or individual that wants to bring flyers to distribute during the conference may do so. You may also send your flyers to us ahead of time if you can not make it to the conference and we will distribute them for you. Left over flyers are included with information packets and orders that we send out, so if you want to send extras, go ahead. Companies and organizations who wish to set up merchandising tables or booths need to make arrangements with us in advance. Reservations for table space in the conference room will be taken by e-mail or voice mail and those parties not confirming their attendance by December 15 will forfeit their space. Cost ---- The cost of admission this year is US$10, which includes 2 tickets for the super spiffy "Raffle From Hell" (extra tickets are available at the door). It is no surprise that there will always be people out there who will complain about paying for anything. You folks need not attend. After five years (a few more actually), we are only asking ten dollars, which is an outrageously low price compared to the suit infested industry conferences which charge hundreds of dollars in registration fees and even some of the new "Cons are k00l and trendy, I gotta do one too!" conferences that are charging up to $50 for admission alone. Plus, we've never made anyone sleep in a tent or eat next to a table of 36 Elvis impersonators (although that was kind of cool, I guess). Miscellaneous Notes ------------------- Video cameras will *NOT* be allowed inside the conference room, except for the people who have received prior consent to film. Still photos are fine as each speaker will announce whether he or she minds them being taken (although this didn't seem to stop the onslaught of flashes when Lex Luthor approached the microphone). The conference will start at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday. Keep this in mind when pondering whether or not to down yet another bottle of Mad Dog 20/20 on Friday night. For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, HoHoCon falls on New Year's Eve. Contrary to rumour, we will not be having a huge party in the conference room on Saturday night. Instead, we will all head for 6th Street, which is where 80% of Austin's nightclubs are located. We will include a list of New Year's happenings in Austin in future updates. HoHoCon shirts and videos from '92 & '93 (NARC, I Love Warez, I Love Feds, Top 10 Narc List) will be available during the conference, along with last year's big hit - I Love Cops shirts and hats ($20). The shirts are $15 and the videos are $20. We have also added XXL for all you big folks. If you are unable to attend the conference and wish to obtain any of these items, you may either mail us for more information or send a check or money order payable to O.I.S. to the address listed below. Include $3 per order (not per item) for shipping. Canadian and overseas residents should mail first for shipping prices and details. You may also mail us for a more detailed description of any of the HoHoCon products. Those of you driving from Houston that wish to join to HoHoConvoy which leaves for Austin on Friday morning should call the HoHoCon VMB and leave a message with a contact number. Traci Lords has confirmed her appearance for this year's conference. One of the reasons the cost of admission has raised from $5 to $10 is that the cost of securing a conference room on New Year's Eve is quite high, but another factor is insurance. It is almost impossible to put on a conference of this nature without running into problems, the biggest one being the slew of young, idiotic, underdeveloped, social rejects who like to play make believe and pretend they're Beavis & Butt-head while they cause unnecessary damage to the hotel and annoy the guests and staff. This is far from k-rad and is definitely not what HoHoCon is about. What you do in your own room is your own business, but what you do anywhere else on the hotel property all comes back to one person ... me. I have grown extremely tired of trying to deal with hotel managers who threaten to cancel the conference altogether because of a few, no life idiots who have no idea how to act in a public setting since they never leave their mommy's house. Holistic Hacker wrote a good editorial about this in Phrack #45 that is suggested reading for anyone who thinks they are some type of elite m0dem anarchist. It is you people that ruin everything for the other 500 attendees who actually have a grip on reality. Due to the behaviour of a few braindead morons in the past, I have decided to hire my own security this year who will only be in place in order to prevent stupid fleebs from breaking anything or causing any type of damage or unnecessary disturbance to the hotel. It is unfortunate that I have to do this, but I do not wish to accept the financial burden of having to pay for other people's stupidity and destruction. If you have a problem with this, stay home. By attending the conference, you are consenting to being filmed and photographed and having your ugly likeness used in any fashion I deem appropriate. Birkenstocks are strictly prohibited at HoHoCon. Anyone caught wearing them will be severely beaten with a bat. Correspondence -------------- If anyone requires any additional information, needs to ask any questions, wants to RSVP, wants to order anything, or would like to be added to the mailing list to receive the HoHoCon updates, you may mail us at: dfx@usis.com drunkfux@usis.com dfx@nuchat.sccsi.com hohocon@cypher.com drunkfux@cypher.com cDc@cypher.com drunkfux@5285 (WWIV Net) or via sluggo mail at: O.I.S. ATTN: HoHoCon 1310 Tulane Houston, Texas 77008-4106 Freeside Communications is the official HoHoCon FTP site. FTP to fc.net and check out /pub/hohocon. Those of you without net access, can call the HoHoCon whirrled HQ BBS, K0DE AB0DE/Metalland Southwest, at: 713.39-K0DES (713.395.0337) We also have a VMB which includes all the conference information and is probably the fastest way to get updated reports. The number is: 713-867-9544 What They're Saying ------------------- "The manager quickly summoned the Austin police and had the hotel telephone operator print the phone bills for the two rooms, anticipating that the records would be necessary evidence for the Grand Jury indictment he was envisioning. One of the boy's phone bills was eight pages long, but almost all of the calls were local. The total amount owed to the hotel was less than three dollars, and the officers determined that the account being accessed was legitimately assigned to one of the teens. A big production had been made out of nothing, fueled by the fear of the 'evil hacker' stereotype." Damien Thorn : Nuts & Volts Magazine : March 1994 ***** "At 1:00 a.m., everything was going great for me. I was taking part in an impromptu mini 'cell-con' in one of the rooms at the Hilton and was learning everything I ever wanted to know about cellular modification. I was especially excited to hear someone say that they would be showing us how to mod the new Mitsubishi phones since that is what I happened to have in my jacket pocket. Unfortunately, about three seconds later, someone kicked open the door and spastically announced the fact that there were 10 underage strippers dancing naked in a room down the hall. Two seconds later, I was alone." Peter Beardsley : Independent Journal : January 4, 1994 ***** "I knocked on the door and asked the guy who opened it if we could come in and say hi. They said yes and I spent several hours in there. We didn't talk about anything special but had a lot of fun watching Eight Ball stumble around the room drunk until he passed out." Netta Gilboa : Gray Areas Magazine : Spring 1994 ***** "HoHoCon '93 was everything I had expected and much more. I gained 5 major items during my three day stay in Austin; a better knowledge of numerous security holes across the net, a really cool NARC t-shirt, two Traci Lords videos, and the understanding that the Austin police force are a bunch of computer illiterate bozos." White Shadow : CUF Review : January 1994 ***** "People who know how to telecommunicate without calling undue attention to themselves show the interested what creative hacking is supposed to be about. We watch people demonstrate the transformation of an OKI cellular phone into a two-way tracking scanner with a computer interface, discuss the 'passive' capture of private account passwords, and explore the mathematical theories that make possible completely anonymous digital money transactions. Few are better able to explain the pros and cons of advanced programming technology than rogue hackers. They already have much of the information people like Barry Diller and Al Gore would have to steer millions into think tanks to discover. The question is how to legitimize a collection of software pirates, hippie academics, and teenage 'phone phreaks' to the point where the mainstream would be willing to employ them as consultants instead of locking them up as criminals." Carol Cooper : VIBE Magazine : June 1994 ***** "After this sellout session, I found a sign on the wall: "hoho.con.com ->" and, in room 260 someone piled up an enormous mass of equipment, including something like 4 UNIX machines, a SLIP connection, 20" screens, PET's.. Plus the room was stacked with 30-40 people, and I mean STACKED. Most people were wasting their time entering commands like "mget /warez/eleet/hot/0-day/*.*" Sick of that, I grabbed a bunch of people and we went trashing at SW-Bell around the block, and whoops! we found a diagram like this: (Europe) (Asia) (Australia) ______ ____: :____ : : : Texas o <====== Austin \ / \ / \_________/ (North America) (South America) Now we know it: South Western Bell believes that Austin, Texas is the center of the world. Well, from the 17th to the 19th of December, 1993, it was." Onkel Dittmeyer : Phrack Magazine #45 ***** "The hackers did it again. A monster party, several hundred strong, where hacking was the agenda. HoHoCon is the annual hacker's convention in Texas where all hell breaks loose. Not one person I spoke to said they wouldn't attend again next year. So there must be something to it. Even legendary phreaks like John Draper aka Captain Crunch were there, despite his tenuous hold on reality and emanating odor." Winn Schwartau : Security Insider Report : January 1994 ***** "The night went on, the beer flowed, the dopamine inhibitors kicked in full in full force, and the money changed hands faster than could be counted. By the end of the evening, everyone had received several "table dances," KevinTX had whip marks on his back, Weevil had won my complete admiration, and the girls made a small fortune. Each of the dancers walked away with over $200 in cash. The biggest winner was a really hot little 18 year-old named Cathy who raked in almost $400." Erik Bloodaxe : Phrack Magazine #45 ***** Tawk tawk tawking bout sum cyber stuff Like Demon Roach's new Monster Truck sub Matrix hoppin' we will go In search of the hex marshmallow Come now, come now, do not pace We're off to call cyberwaste The new beast known as demon seed Run over your head and make you bleed Decryption of the message I soon will start For I have the hex-ascii chart Fat, skanky dancers running all around Wonder how many STD's Dispater has now What made me sick was the one's hairy mole Did I mention that Omar looks like Cliff Stoll? Bruce taught me how to program in Unix and Hack C Omar had his picture taken with E.T. This is it.. I must go.. I may finish later.. I don't know Drunkfux : Live From HoHoCon '91 : cDc 200 ***** _ _ _ _ ((___)) ((___)) [ x x ] HoHoCon '94. New Year's Eve. Need we say more? [ x x ] \ / \ / (' ') (' ') (U) drunkfux@usis.com (U) =========================================================================== -=- The Empire Times -=- Issue 6, File 4 of 6 Interview: Grayarea by Armitage Q: What is Gray Areas? A: Gray Areas is a 148-page paper magazine about gray areas of the law and morality. We explore subjects which are illegal, immoral and/or controversial such as drugs, adult films, piracy, computer crimes, etc. While the magazine is by no means just about hackers, it is something we cover and I've been hanging around these parts for about a year and a half. Q: Do you consider yourself press, or just another face that absorbs information and later prints interesting stories? A: I wear a lot of hats and I am able to put them on and take them off as needed. I always disclose to hackers I talk to that I publish a magazine and am very upfront so they won't think I was hiding anything later. By the same token, most of the people I tell it to will never be mentioned in Gray Areas unless they agree to be interviewed and we plan a time to do it, or they submit an article they wrote to us, or unless they treat me so badly that I think my readers need to know about it. Even then, most people flatter themselves when they think they are worth wasting ink on to explain their behavior to some reader buying Gray Areas in Japan or in England. I laugh when some IRC newbie gets all nervous that I am sitting there on #virus or wherever to write about them by printing IRC logs of every word they write on IRC. It's an insult to what Gray Areas really explores and I always wonder why they think they are allowed to check their jobs at the door but I *never* can. Thank god for the few people who treat me like a person here. I hope I'm as good a friend back. Once in a great while I am sitting around socializing and the conversation leads to something that I might want to write about in Gray Areas. If so, I tell the people and they provide their input. If you've read Gray Areas you know I am very careful not to link people's nicks to crimes and that if, for example, you have spent time with me at a con and asked not to be mentioned in my review you are not. The bottom line is that Gray Areas is a quarterly not a daily and I do not need new information on hackers every day or every week to keep my job. I hang out socially because I like many people here, most of my older friends ran away when I began hanging out with hackers, and because I don't do the kind of journalism where you use people to get your story and them dump them afterwards to go get facts wrong about some other group <grin>. Q: How do you deal with elite information that you hear before the hacker society? Do you feel like going out and telling everyone? Do you ever hold back information from print? A: Yes I hear elite info. Most of it would interest other people more than it interests me. I think people tell me things sometimes because it is kind of like confessing it to a priest and because they know I will not want their hole, bug, code or passwords. I don't understand some of what I've been told and I think that's another reason people tell it to me. When I hear something, I try to sort out whether I am being told this as an individual, as a magazine off-the-record or as a magazine for publication. When people wanna stab someone in the back it's usually for publication and when I really, really wanna know more it's usually off-the-record. So, yes, I hold back lots of stuff from print. Ultimately I'm more interested in the source than the story and there are things I don't print because they would badly affect the community (like an expose of conference calls!) or because it would lead back to who told it to me and there is no other way to prove it without using their info. There are secrets I have to live with, like for example the identities of interviewees. I don't always get treated as I'd like to by these interviewees in return and it's a part of the job that I have to cope with that. I have get to have anyone not understand my position on that though from the hacker I dated to the FBI agent I spoke with. I guess that I compensate for this enormous stress in my life by being as much of a gossip as the next person in the community about everything Gray Areas is not involved in. Q: What are the advantages of being female in this field? A: Overall, it is probably a huge disadvantage. I never thought about it coming in, but I incorrectly assumed the visible hackers would be of all ages and they turned out to be mostly guys who are young enough to be scared of or inexperienced around girls. Granted, there are guys who tell me they originally talked to me only because I was female, but there are times #hack is down on girls and only the guys seem welcome too. I forget which hacker told me, correctly, that #hack is the last bastion of open displays of male chauvinism. You have to put up with a lot as a female to stick around. It's a shame too, because half the guys I /msg tell me they wish there were women hackers and women who understood their interests to talk to. But some of the hackers I know of would like to do their damndest to make sure women who try to enter the scene can't get the technical knowledge and experience they need to become sysadmins, etc. Surprisingly, there is little sexual harassment by hackers in terms of obscene phone calls and unwanted netsex /msgs. Most of them prefer to operate in a repetitive cycle of calling the girls hanging around "whore," "psycho" or "narc." Maybe if I was younger and prettier hackers would send me candy, flowers and birthday cards (January 5th!). The free stuff I get like admission to cons and hacker t-shirts is for being press not being female. If you think anybody gives me interviews because I'm a girl it's not so. However, I dated a hacker last summer and as other male hackers found out about it, a lot of them stopped calling me voice. So go figure. Q: Through the conversations you have had with hackers, those whom you have spoken with for interviews or what not, which hackers have you grown to love or respect? A: You know, friendships in this community come and go. There are people I have only spoken to once who I respect immensely. Other people get close to you for a few weeks and then they turn on you. Still other people seem like friends (Kevin Mitnick, ahem!) and then turn out not to exist but to have been someone else you know playing with you for months. Some of the people I love the most don't give a shit about me and some of the people I have put myself out the most with law enforcement for wouldn't give me the time of day. But I have friends I don't even know about too, and I never lack for someone to talk to, whatever their motivations at the time. I like everyone until they fuck with me. I like the people who have the guts to op me and to unban me, as well as those who hug me when they see me in person, the best. And everyone who has actually read my entire magazine and makes serious comments (even if they are negative) on how to improve it. I will also single out LGAS and Xenophile for inviting me to leet parties. Q: How do you go about selecting subjects for interview and people to write about? A: For the most part, they find me. A lot of the people I would like to interview most shun press, like the "malicious" hackers and the top warez people. Gail Thackery hasn't taken me up on my offer to interview her either. I gave her a magazine at Defcon and told her I was "the girl they call on conference calls right before or after" her. I meant it to imply I had a great deal of sympathy for what she has put up with, but she never got in touch and a few weeks later told my friend Merc he can't talk to me anymore. I wonder if she came away with the mistaken impression I organize those conference calls or that I have participated in any abuse of her. She couldn't be more worng, if so. I don't know whether people perceive we won't be fair to them (in a magazine that lets people speak for 18-22 pages unedited!) or whether they think it's beneath them to explain their philosophies and actions. Instead, I spend my time talking with who is willing to talk to me. It works out fine. However, it's hard to know who's going to have something special to say. Gray Areas is in a unique position as to write for most other "hacker zines" you are supposed to have some particular hacking skill or specialty you can teach others. To talk to Gray Areas it doesn't matter if you are super skilled or not, just how well you can analyze behavior. Some people must be too shy to approach us directly, which is amazing considering one can be anonymous on IRC or through E-mail. They prefer to get my attention by harassing me. If they make themselves gray by their behavior, then we might take an editorial interest in them. It's nice that when it has come to that most people don't come back for round two. Q: What do you think of the other hacker publications? A: Most people don't realize how many there are! In print (off the top of my head, apologies to whoever I forgot) alone there is: us, 2600, Nuts and Volts, Private Line, American Hacker, Iron Feather Journal, Winn's newsletter, Virus News Intl., 40-Hex, Wired, Mondo 2000, Full Disclosure, etc. There are even more ezines, depending on how broadly you define hacking. I think they're all great and I read everything anyone mails me or /dcc's me. I will say that I really love Empire Times. The piece Noelle wrote for you was both timely and witty and I was glad to see some accurate information get out publically in your last issue about my friend Merc. This issue has the first review of PumpCon III (mine will follow in the next Phrack). You have carved out a unique niche for Empire Times as having the latest scoop first. Congrats! Q: What advice do you have for anyone who'd like to publish yet another zine on hackers? A: In the fifteen months or so I have been on IRC, over two dozen hackers have some to me and said that they are working on or wish they working on an ezine. To my knowledge, not one of those people has actually published a thing. There seems to be a lot of bitching about the publications that do exist (too newbie oriented, dislike/mistrust of the publishers, etc.) but most hackers cannot cooperate enough with each other to put out their own. As you know, it is time consuming but not all that hard. My advice is as follows: if you have something to say, get it out. Consider how long term your interest in writing is too. First try the existing publications because they already have a reader base and would probably publish more frequently if they had more good articles sent to them. If none of those mags are interested in your work, then it's appropriate to launch a new mag. Gray Areas is interested in not-too-technical articles which explain *why* people do things as opposed to *how*. Although we are not interested in every subject, we explore those we do cover with more facets and in more depth than any other magazine. We focus on teaching society about hackers and cover subjects like cons, piracy, profiles, ethics, morals, busts. We also offer the unique opportunity for hackers to write about other subjects because we cover other gray areas like drugs, sex, UFOs, prank calls, and we review everything from books to movies to concerts to video games. If you'd like to talk about an idea I can be reached on IRC as "grayarea" or by E-mail at: grayarea@netaxs.com or grayarea@well.sf.ca.us Gray Areas is available at Tower Records around the world, Borders, Barnes and Noble, etc. or by mail from us at $7.00 a sample issue ($10.00 foreign, U.S. funds) at: Gray Areas, Inc. P.O. Box 808 Broomall, PA 19008 USA There are 6 issues out so far. A four issue subscription is $18.00 bulk rate or $26.00 first class. If you live abroad it's $34.00 airmail for four issues. =========================================================================== -=- The Empire Times -=- Issue 6, File 5 of x A Pud Tribute by Roach [Editors note: This article is dedicated to Y-windoze, X, the PuD crew, and to anyone who has been busted for cellular fraud. Y-windoze got busted for cell fraud, so I doubt this article will ever make it to Pizza Underground Digest. I'm putting it in Empire Times to honour PuD's memory. PuD is dead. ] How to Get On the PuD Supah Information Goat Track By The Roach AKA- Roach, r0ach, PuD C0ur13r, MacRoach, Raid Patrol, Jeffry Dalmer, MacNiggah, PuDling, X-men, Y-Aol, PuDroach, roachkill, alt.pud lover, Mrs. Manson, FINGERMAN, NSA.ORG, Willy Makit, Betty Wont, Roach Patrol. You want to be on the Supah Information Goat Track, and you don't know where to house your goat? This is the supah info you need, to be competing todays Tech- Pud-alogy! Tools: 1 dull night without nothing to do (thats right, YOU!) 1 brain. (optional) 10 fingers 1 computer, preferably a kaypro, with that tiny green screen. 1 300 baud modem A .10 blood - alcohol average. 1 bag of potatoe chips. 3 kegs of jolt 500 megs of shareware, preferably Commader Keen, or something from Apogee. 1 goat 10 buckets to milk the goat 1 lame internet account [optional (freenets do not count!)] oh, and almost forgot, THIS ARTICLE OF PUD. Now, do you have everything? - Brain, check, dull night, check, modem, check, 3 kegs of jolt, check... Good! Now lets get started! Get drunk. (1 hour later...) -Gee *hic* there is like *hic* blood in my alcohol. *hic* How many fingers am I holding? - uhhh, 3, no, 6...no, 1...uhhh.... Good, your brain is functioning! Now where is your computer? - Over here, uh, no *hic* over there...Woah, what the heck is that? * Baaah, Baaaah!! Its your goat, the key to access the supah info goat track, like we said. - Whats this "we" shit white man?!? I thought *hic* we were going out to get - girls! You moron, shut up and sit down. - I won't I won't *hic* I won't I *hic* won't.!!!!! Ouch, stop, your hurting - me!! Stop, no, not your shoe...!!! <little later> Modem? - yhea, I *ouch* got it. Potatoe chips? - d00d, i have to go to the *hic* bathroom... You got your animal ready to milk? - yeah, 'SPuD the Goat' is right here. * BAAAAAAH, BAAAAAAH, BAAAAAH. Down SPuD, down...HEY, I AM NOT SOMETHING TO EAT! GET OFF MY SHIRT!!! * BAAAAH, BAAAAH, -munch- -munch- - huh, huhuhuh, huhuh, thats kewl. *hic* GET THE FUCK OFF, YOU STUPID GOAT!@#$ CAN WE GET ON WITH THIS LESSON, PLEASE?!?! <another bit later...> Now, try and call 1-800-PuD-Roks atdt 1-800-PuD-roks <modem noise, goat bleating> See that prompt? USDA.ORG LOGIN: -yhea, so? Type in 'PuD_Guest'. - yes, Bwanna. USDA.ORG LOGIN: PuD_Guest PASSWD: -uhh, d00d, it needs a password. Yes, I know. The Password is 'BoWsucks' - *hic* gotcha. USDA.ORG LOGIN: PuD_guest PASSWD: Last login: Sun Aug 21 17:14:51 from FBI.GOV pudOS 3.141592654 (PuD_SERVER) #1 Tue Feb 8 14:50:25 EST 1994 At the request of Hymie, NC, and Squinky, you can now read PuD in /Users/USDA/PuD. The whole collection of PuD is there now, read for your reading enjoyment! The Management. You have new mail. USDA> Now, try... - d00d, i need to go to the bathroom! * Bleet, BaaaaAAAAAaaaaah, moooooOOOOOooooo - please! I need one of those buckets! ...and do a 'supah info' command. - d00d, please! It Hurts! *hic* USDA> How come i don't see any typing?!? - >wiiiiiz< Aaahhhh... *burp* ...Great, next time, i will put "1 bag of diapers" on the list. * Baaaaah. <30 minutes later, after clean up of floor...> Will you please type 'supah info'? USDA> supah info g0d console Aug 20 09:04 hymie ttyp1 Aug 22 19:25 (pud.org) y ttyq3 Aug 21 11:22 (mcdonalds.com) g0d ttyp2 Aug 20 12:23 g0d ttypc Aug 20 11:14 squinky sd8g Aug 22 15:16 (155.212.1.2) PuD rsd9a Aug 21 11:03 (LAT_OQE184328AD) PuD_guest fuk Aug 22 21:01 (LAT_OWE173403BC) USDA> -yhea *hic*, now what do I do? Now do a 'last pud' USDA> last pud PuD_guest fuk Tue Aug 22 21:01 still logged in hymie ttyp1 Tue Aug 22 19:25 still logged in NSA_guest ttyp4 Tue Aug 22 18:00 19:02 (01:57) squinky sd8g Tue Aug 22 15:16 still logged in y ttyq3 Mon Aug 21 11:22 still logged in PuD rsd9a Mon Aug 21 11:03 still logged in g0d ttyp2 Sun Aug 20 12:23 still logged in g0d ttyq3 Sun Aug 20 11:14 still logged in g0d ttyw4 Sun Aug 20 10:56 11:03 (07:07) g0d console Sun Aug 20 09:04 still logged in reboot ~ Sun Aug 20 09:02 shutdown ~ Sat Aug 19 12:45 USDA> Hmmm, thats wierd...try a 'finger NSA_guest'. USDA> finger NSA_guest Login name: NSA_guest In real life: <no comment> Directory: /Users/NSA_guest Shell: /bin/csh Last login Tue Aug 22 18:00:02 on ttyp4 Plan: <no comment> USDA> I have never seen an NSA_guest. Wierd. Ok, lets mail g0d. - d00d, i don't want to type anymore. I'm sleepy n stuph. * baaaaa-aaaAAAAaaa-aaaah...Beeeecuuuuzzz IIIIIIIII'm BAAAAAAAAAAD to the Boooooone...ba ba ba ba Baaaaaad, ba ba ba ba Baaaaaad... Just listen to your goat, he's bleating some good music. I'll write the letter. USDA> mail g0d Subject: Who is NSA_guest? g0d sometimes you just don't come through, g0d sometimes you just don't come through... Do you need a woman to look after you? g0d sometimes you just come...through... There is my Tori Amos sacrifice, now g0d, I will ask you a question: Dear g0d, You are the mightiest and knowingest "person" on this paradise called earth. Well, maybe not the smartest g-d, but you come in close. My personal favorite is Thor. No, it could be Zeus. No, I do like Minerva, she's a smart gal... But anyways, this is not the point. Nor my question. My question is, who is this NSA_guest charater? We only need one guest account, and that is PuD_guest. So like, g0d, could you tell me? Amen. Cc: Santa USDA> - d00d, who is *hic* Santa? Santa is a backup for g0d on the weekends. Santa always needs a break from wrapping up presents, and Mrs. Santa. Especially since the affair with that penguin. Talk about desperate. * Saaaaaaantaaaaaaaah Klaaaaaauusss... - oh. Ok, here is the part where we truly get on the Supah Goat Track. - spiffy!@#$ *hic* Ok, well, lets get on the Supah info goat track. SPuD are you ready? * baah. Ok, then, type in 'supah goat track'. USDA> supah goat track ) hello! i'm what they call "baaah, baah bah bah bah, baah bahh, ba, be bop, ) be bop" or more humane laguange, 'Helper of SIFGT, crowned king of all goat ) information, teacher of much goat talk, the gossip of the runty legged ) little manure makers.' But call me anything but late for dinner! lets get ) started! do you have your goat? ) type in [yes] or [no] USDA> yes ) good! about how old is your goat? USDA> - How old is my goat? How should I know?!? Its your goat! - *hic* thats right. Uhm, lemme see...Sarah gave me a dog in August 1989, - then Katy gave me a Cat in Sept of the same year...Oh, and then traded - my dog for a lizard, with purple spots in '90...the cow came into my life - after the Cat died, so that was about 1992-93... HOW OLD IS THE GOAT?!? WHY ALL THIS CRAP ABOUT ANIMALS? - and then...huh? HOW OLD IS THE GOAT?!? - The goat is 5 years old. I told you that already. <Sigh.> * baaaah, be bop. - you hungry SPuD? USDA> 5 ) Five years old? That is a tough goat you have there! How many gallons of ) milk does your goat supplie a day? USDA> - lesseee...10 buckets...10 gallons? USDA> 10 ) Information noted. Now, take your goat, and sit on it. ) type in 'ready' when you are done. USDA> - Sit on my goat?!? uhm, thats going to hurt n stuph. It won't hurt, regulations says so. * Baaah, bah!@$!@#$ bahh!@#$!@#$!@#$ SPuD, you sound upset! <smile> Its going to be ok! * Beeee bop, baaah bee bahh!!@ booop, baaah bah bawp. - Surely you can't be translating goat talk? I am not translating goat talk, and my name is not 'Shirley'. - uhhhhh, yhea d00d. <contestant sits on SPuD the goat> USDA> READY ) now, for the ride of your life! lets go on the supah info goat track! ) good luck, and remember: Once a goat, always a goat! ) I am now initiating the sequence...done. Computer is complete. - AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!@#$ * BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!@#$!@#$ Wooooaaaah, eyem running for cover! <Magically, the contestant and his goat, SPuD, gets sucked into the computer screen. Are they really on the Supah information goat track?!?> <Suddenly, 5 minutes later, the contestant and SPuD reappear out of the computer screen...> How was your ride? - What the hell was that? * baaaah, baah bee baaawp! [translation: that was a bumpy ride!] That was the supah information goat track. Tell me, how many goat licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop? - Zero, the goat will eat it whole...hey, I've never known that! How many goats does it take to screw in a light bulb? - Five! One to eat the light bulb, one to regurgitate it...hey, now, I've never - known this stuff before. Is that what the supah information goat track is? - Information about goats? I don't really know. They just pay me to do this. I've never been on it myself . * baaah, bee bop bee baah bawp. [Translation: Watermelon is in the fridge.] - The last time I checked the fridge...w3rd, I can even translate what SPuD is - saying! - Wait, lemme see something. USDA> goat milk Apps/ Library/ Mailboxes/ News/ USDA> - Oh my gawd! I know everything in Goat and in English now! Amazing. Isn't it? Well, I have to get going, I've got another person waiting to get on the 'Supah Information Goat Track'. - Goodbye! <A door closes, and the contestant is now alone with his goat> You have new mail USDA> mail >N 1 PuD_guest Sun Aug 28 00:02 12/274 "Minerva is smarter?" & x - I'm going to bed, i sick of this... * baah, bee boop. - You need food? Hold on... USDA> logout NO COURIER PuDEmpireTimesYwindozeXPuDc0ur13rSquinkyVbbsPuDEmpireTimeYwindozeXPuDCour13r Ok, shoutout time. Squinky: This serial killer is for you. X: *smewch* Y-windoze: Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. Dammitdammitdammit. Armitage: We need a group for Empire Times. Like LoD for Phrack. Firefly: Just keep on juggin out those articles. ;) Ophie: I do forgive you. Thats what lil sis' is for. ============================================================================= -=- The Empire Times -=- Issue 6, File 6 of 6 Open Source Intelligence --- A Success Story Part 3 of a Series. by Firefly Well, folks, here is the conclusion to my opening remarks on open source intelligence. I'd appreciate your comments, feedback, and thoughts on where I should focus on. OSINT is the new type of intelligence, and anyone can be a collector. Let me know. Next month I'll be talking about this conference I'm at this week that is run by Robert Steele, whom I mention so prominently writing about in this article. There's a few of us hackers here, and we're being tapped for knowledge and opinions by international audiences at this conference. Firefly Resident OSINT Advocate firefly@dans.dorm.umd.edu OSCINT -- A Success Story Part 3 (Conclusion) Everyone is an OSINT collector, and people with specific interests are OSINT specialists. Assume for a moment someone is interested in Anti- Submarine Warfare (ASW) and sonar detection methods used by the American Navy to detect enemy submarines. This person reads the newspaper to discover new trends in ASW technology; he talks with naval officers onboard Navy ships during a public tour when ships put in for liberty at his hometown port; he reads Proceedings; he reads Popular Science and Naval Mechanics; he visits the Library of Congress and does hard-copy research on the topic; he goes to technical seminars and conventions on naval electronics; he interviews naval officers in the ASW field on naval tactics against enemy submarines. Ultimately, he compiles a sizable amount of research on the topic. His finished product, released in 1986, was entitled The Hunt For Red October, and his name was Tom Clancy, one of the boldest and most successful OSINT operatives in modern times. The exacting detail incorporated in his book was not surprising to the intelligence community. However, the relative ease by which Clancy obtained the large amount of unclassified but sensitive information for his book was the cause of heated controversy within the intelligence community over what constituted "sensitive-but-open" data that, while unclassified and available for research, is directly related to national security programs. (In retrospect, some of the material Clancy obtained for this book was indeed classified by the Navy). "It was there for the taking, you just had to know where to look," Clancy told a student audience in Pennsylvania in 1991, "You had to know how to find it, take your time, have patience, and ask the right people." The naval admiral (whose name escapes me, unfortunately) helped Clancy in his search for open material on American ASW tactics. "The thing that struck me funny was that all the information he needed was there. Unclassified and free, he just had to take the time to look for it." Through open sources, Clancy obtained sensitive but unclassified information to meet his requirements in a relatively short period of time. The Information Age has led to an Information Overload, where "intelligence" is less a matter of penetrating classified secrets and more a matter of separating useful information from the flood of open information that is available legally and cheaply. To that extent, computers have proven invaluable and have led to greater flexibility in the tailoring of intelligence to specific audiences, one of the recurring themes in Toffler's new War and Anti-War: Survival at the Dawn of the 21st Century. What if Clancy had been a foreign spy intent on discovering the latest American ASW techniques? The ability to discover sensitive-but-open information on these "touchy" subjects exists in the spectrum of open sources as Clancy has illustrated in recent years. Libraries and databases exist to serve the public and are used daily for academic, professional, and personal research. The ease by which Clancy obtained this information is a result of the openness of American society. Unlike the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc nations, however, the American ideals of democracy, freedom, and censorship forbid rigid state control of information except for national security reasons. Yet, inside the former Soviet Union, the state regulated the content of public libraries and publications available to its citizens. Regarding the veracity and relevance of Cold War OSINT activities aimed at former-Soviet periodicals, a former KGB Colonel I met last year at a quasi- hacker conference joked that "In all my years in [the] KGB...I never saw anything worth reporting to either side in Communist newspapers." Since OSINT operations are hindered by a closed society such as the former Soviet state or a well-organized counter-intelligence (CI) program, clandestine intelligence- gathering operations are the only way to discover secrets that, in America, are accessible to the public. Essentially, the information warrior is a collector who locates and uses information about his target just as an academic researches and utilizes references for his thesis. In today's high-tech world, international borders are an artificial reality. These borders can be crossed without passport, visa, or even leaving home. This raises the question of what constitutes a denied area -- or a region that is forbidden to enter, such as the current situation in North Korea. The age of computers and high-speed communication allows information on any topic from any nation to be instantly flashed to a consumer at a desktop workstation thousands of miles away. Discreet border penetrations are now possible via electronic data lines, eliminating the need for a human spy to covertly squirm his way into a nation. Most anything this spy would secretly search for in person is now available on a networked computer database somewhere around the world. Instead of disguises, wigs, and dead drops, the intelligence operative must now use his ingenuity in the new electronic global environment -- with a new set of tradecraft -- to pursue his target and complete his collection mission. The definitions and impact of power, intelligence, and sovereignty as traditionally understood have become transformed and much more complex. Most industrial nations are prepared only to deal with the powerful enemy on the military battlefield and little else. The Information Age has paved the way for an Information War. "Intelligence", Steele notes, "is no longer limited to penetrating specific targets to obtain specific bits of sensitive information." Intelligence must now be redefined to encompass all information -- mostly from unclassified sources -- tailored to assist commanders, policy makers, and corporate executives with decisions when they need it and at a reasonable cost. It is now possible to obtain secrets before they are even known to exist, obtain sensitive corporate marketing plans before other firms, and identify weaknesses in other nations through open source information. By dedicated library research, subscriptions to technical journals, interviews, and some gray-area collection activities -- all of which are completely legal -- secrets can be discovered through the analysis of disjointed and perhaps seemingly-unrelated data. The intelligence community must examine this new area and develop methods to utilize this data if it wishes to remain effective and competitive in producing accurate intelligence estimates. Perhaps the greatest problem facing the intelligence community is the relative ease that vast amounts of information can be exchanged, especially with the aid of computers. Man created computer databases to store this information, much of which is easily- and publiclly-available on global computer networks. Cyberspace, or the "virtual frontier," is a new variable in today's political equations and definitions affecting national borders, communication, security, and hostility. To say "government must monitor or control the flow of all information" would transform academia and personal research into a collective product created by the authorization of the government and available only to whomever the government deems "not a threat". An interesting issue is the ongoing debate of whether information should be free versus censoring sensitive issues. Certainly, the arguement for open source information as a potential danger to society is a viable one, but will not be discussed in-depth here. An intelligence operation/information war waged in cyberspace is primarily a CI challenge, as there are no concrete identities to these electronic warriors -- no faces to the names behind the glowing computer screen. If a target believes he has been discovered, he simply modifies his name and electronic signature. Unlike a human spy who cannot easily change identity in a foreign nation, an information warrior in cyberspace can instantly do so and force CI officers to begin a new trace on a new target signature. National boundaries are rapidly becoming electronic "virtual frontiers" that cannot be controlled by a border patrol. Steele told a collection of French military leaders that "I can destroy any major nation in 24 hours with one platoon of knowledge warriors and make billions of dollars on the international market by doing so, because I will know when this is going to happen and invest accordingly." The face of the intelligence battle has changed; physical laws are now subordinate to the laws of computers and cybernetics. Knowledge is power and information power is the ultimate power. Information warfare brings a new challenge to the intelligence community. Intelligence gatherers must adapt their list of collection techniques to include overt sources that are easily-available to the public. Counterintelligence specialists have always had the task of protecting national intelligence interests by tracking tangible human targets. They must now realize the potential and threat of open sources, and take steps to deal with this issue. Furthermore, counter-intelligence officers must develop their security methods of dealing with a hostile pentetration of computer resources in the shadowy realm of cyberspace by targets who can change identities at will. Technology has made society vulnerable by allowing vast quantities of data to effortlessly move around the world. Information is the new enemy. He who controls it wields the ultimate power. In summary, policymakers must redefine their perceptions of national security and intelligence, while our intelligence organizations should re-examine their missions, consider all available sources, and eliminate the Cold War groupthink that emphasizes secret methods as the single greatest indicator of enemy information. The Information Explosion has created an Intelligence Explosion. It is up to the intelligence community to exploit the wealth of open material to support its covert sources in providing timely and accurate estimates for its consumers. firefly@dans.dorm.umd.edu ============================================================================= The Empire Times Q & A Section. Where can I get The Empire Times? Via BBS This is provided that you are on these systems, none accept many new callers, so the #'s arnt listed. [NPA] [#] [System Name] [System Operator] ----- ------------- ---------------------- ----------------- (301) PRIVATE Empire Albatross (703) PRIVATE Digital Anarchy Armitage (602) PRIVATE Unphamiliar Territory Invalid Media (+49) XXXXXXXXX Secret Techtonics Sevenup Via Anonymous FTP etext.archive.umich.edu (ftp.etext.org) /pub/Zines/Emptimes fc.net /pub/defcon/EMPIRE Via The Empire Times Mailinglist Mail armitage@dhp.com with "subscribe emptimes <your mail address>" in the context of the message. 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