Hackers Underworld 2: Forbidden Knowledge/Hackers Underworld 2: Forbidden Knowledge.iso/PHREAK/COLLAGE1.TXT

Text File | 1994-07-17 | 24KB | 440 lines

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||                  The Telecommunications Collage  Vol. I                  ||
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         *Miscellaneous Techniques for the Telecommunications Hobbyist*


                         Written exclusively for

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                          P R O D U C T I O N S

                             By: The Cruiser
_______________________________________________________________________________

        The purpose of this text-file is to explain the ethics and purpose of
phone phreaking and hacking to the ones that don't know or that think they do
but really don't.  Also I will report on a few odd developments in the hack
and phreak worlds, so this file is by no means just reserved to the newcomers.
But most of it, however, is on the basic level.  In later volumes I will get
into more in-depth subjects.  For the beginner, I will not get into basic
telephony, switching systems and explaining basics such as loops, divertors,
etc., but for those that need that information I highly recommend reading BIOC
Agent's gem of a series, "The Basics of Communications".  Though the earliest
ones date back to 1983, they are very informative and well written.  At the end
of this file I'll put a little bibliography with a list of text-files and books
that are recommended reading.  Now on to the rest of the file, which will be
roughly divided into sections.

I. Elitism.             (This is the only section devoted entirely to newcomers.
                        Others can go ahead to section II).

     It's funny listening to some of the new "phreaks" nowadays.

     ALL NEW HACKERS/PHREAKS. . .LISTEN!

     What hackers/phreaks do is illegal!  Sort of like the mafia - if you turn
someone in you can expect to get hurt!  So, for all you people out there who
cannot handle it, I suggest that you had better stop right away before you
get yourself in trouble.  There's too many kids out there today who think that
they're big shit because they can make long distance calls for free... WHOOPIE!
A phreak is not a person that makes long distance calls for nothing.  Get that
through your heads!  A phreak is a person that experiments with the phone
company, and tries to manipulate it and see what it can do!  It only curtails
20% of long distance calls.  That 20% is the final chapter of the phreak, once
they crack the Bell system they can make calls for nothing.
HOW CAN ANYONE READ THE LAST CHAPTER AND KNOW WHAT THE BOOK CONTAINS?

     Phreaking is illegal and you can get busted for it.  No, the FBI won't
bust you for sending someone a $2,000.00 phone bill, the FBI has nothing to do
with that at all!  And enough about MCI and tracing... 800 numbers always ANI!
950's are routed in a different way, otherwise they're the SAME as other
prefixes!  ANY number can trace, so there isn't one safe method or long
distance company to make free calls.  So if you are scared of getting caught,
SIMPLY DO NOT DO IT!  People who break into computer systems to crash and
destroy them or use long distance codes for the mere sake of running up
someone's bill should be caught.  It's vandalism.

     Also, a note about boxing.  The blue box is the first and one of the few
"boxes" [which is contradictory to the pirates and others that have a rainbow
assortment of them], although I would also classify the black box as a "box".
Others are just tools of the phone phreak.  A beige box is nothing more than
a lineman's handset, and a clear box is just a tone dialer.  Also, boxing is
not completely extinct, like some say.  And YES, there ARE ways around ESS!
One just has to look for them.  Not everything one learns can be attained from
a text-file.  Phreaking is not a passive activity, one must go places, do
things, and experiment.  Although I am not saying that boxing is in it's prime,
either.  [I wasn't a phreak when boxing was in its prime, which was way back in
the early 70's].  Phreaks still have blue boxes, some for sentimental reasons,
and others still use them.  A lot of the "boxes", such as the yellow, urine,
lunch, super, cereal, plaid, brown, et. al., don't exist.  They were "invented"
by intelligent people for the plain idiots and "new breed" of what I call
"c0mpyooter kidz" to toy with (and try to build and use!)  Oh, and then
there's boxes like the red box.  The red box exists, but it's just a few of
the tones in a blue box.  So if you have a blue box, you also have a red box.

     What else... Oh, yeah, something about codes.  For your own saftey, never
use codes posted on a BBS.  Who knows how many people are using it.  And,
contradictory to the pirate's favorite little saying, "There's safety in
numbers," it's actually more dangerous to use a code posted around the nation.
All you have to do it put your code hacker on one night, and if you get about
4 codes, that should last you two months if you use one code every two weeks,
and don't give any to anyone.



II. Trashing

     Trashing, if done correctly, can be a very profitable and enjoyable part
of a phreak's activities.  After trashing local Bell and AT&T sites for over
two years, I've gained a bit of experience on the subject, and have a few
fairly good guidelines for trashing:

1)First of all, you need a place to trash.  The best places are your local
central office, business office, AT&T service branch, or communications
center.  To find out where these are located, just open up the good ol' white
pages to "American Telephone and Telegraph" or "Bell Systems" and you will
find several local addresses.  When you pick one out that you think will be
profitable, jot down the address and take a few drives out there;one during
a weekday business hour, one on a Sunday, and another at night.  This will
give you an idea of how heavily populated it is at certain times.  Don't
get out of the car during these surveillance trips, but just make a note of
security, etc.  Some telco installations keep their trash locked up, others
have it guarded, but most of them just have a plain old dumpster.  During
these trips you also have to watch when the trash is collected, so that you
can arrange a day when the trash will be at its peak.

2)Once you have a site picked out, and a good time and date to go, drive out
with a friend or two.  Sometimes it's better to park your car and walk when it
is guarded, so you will have a smaller chance of being detected, but most of
the time you can just drive right up.  Always do it at night, Fridays,
Saturdays and Sundays being the best.  Once you are at the dumpster, grab all
the bags and put them in the trunk.  If you walked, then take them out and
leave as soon as possible.  Not only is this safer (no worry about getting
caught by the cops) than going in the dumpster and sorting the trash there,
but it assures you that you don't miss anything.  And what's nice about telco
trash is that the worst it gets is coffee grounds or an apple core, so you
won't have to worry about smelly garbage.

3)Drive off to your house and sort it in your garage, backyard, or whatever.
Have some trash bags nearby to put the real trash in.  The good trash you can
then keep, and dispose of the rest.

     There are many good things you can find in telco trash.  There are always
abundances of printouts, from loop tests to miscellaneous reports.  Depending
on exactly what kind of building you trashed, you coul