Black Crawling Systems Archive Release 1.0/Black Crawling Systems Archive Release 1.0 (L0pht Heavy Industries, Inc.)(1997).ISO/tezcat/Big_Brother/Cable_TV_Snooping.txt

Text File | 1996-07-08 | 16KB | 558 lines

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From: FIREWALKER

Subject: Re: Re Black Boxes and Marble Memorials





>An acquaintance who is involved with telecommunications recently told me

>that the spooks have the ability to listen in ("two way interaction" is

>the way he put it) through some kind of "black box" in our television

>sets, via the cable hookups we invited into our homes. He went on to say

>that a friend of his working through television repair school was advised

>not to question the purpose of the black box in the set he was training

>on. Furthermore, he said that several former college roomates now

>specializing in telecommunications of various kinds WILL NOT allow the

>cable into their homes for just that reason. Obviously, we are way past

>George Orwell's wildest dreams as far as the spooktech goes, so my

>question is not so much "can they?" but "do they?" Is the black box

>already there, in my tv, do you suppose? Is the cable set up to carry

>reverse signals, and if so, who controls the plug at the other end? I

>just thought you might know something about these things.



First off, I can confirm this as a non-rumor, but as fact. In fact, this has

been the case for over a dozen years. The 'cable-ready' set has had this

ability since the term 'cable-ready' came to be.



I worked on a joint project, between the power company, the phone company

(Southwestern Bell), and the cable-tv company, over eleven years ago. We

discussed the 'security options' that were available AT THAT TIME. (this

subject had nothing to do with the joint project, but was just something that

we tossed around for the six months that we were together -- I made sure that

the conversation came up from time to time)



The electric company had a small unit that would fit into a standard two-plug

wall box that was basically an FM transmitter. This sent a signal out over the

power lines that could be picked up anywhere that another power line went. In

fact, it was one of the 'renegades' in that effort that joined with Radio Shack

and started what we now call 'nursery monitors' -- you know, the things that

you plug into the power line that sends a signal to 'any other power plug in

the house.' Well, mom and dad, it is also sending that signal to EVERY OTHER

power plug on the ENTIRE SYSTEM. They also had a small fish-eye that replaced

the middle screw in the plug, which could send out a visual signal, but because

of it's size and the quality of the FM signal, it was limited to motion

detection. These options were currently in use in some companies in the US,

and was marketed as a security feature in certain countries, mostly in Europe.

It could not be sold in the US, because if everyone knew the potential of this

device, they would revolt. (this comment came from the power company man,

showing me that they were already aware of this attitude, and so were keeping

the possibility quite on purpose)



They (the power companies main holding company) were, at that time, working on

a small computer-like interface that went in your power-meter, that would allow

them to monitor power usage AND CHANGE POWER CONSUMPTION from a central point.

This was needed in order to allow certain places to be uneffected by 'brown

outs' we were told -- they could reduce the amount of electricity that homes

used in order to keep 'higher priority' places at full power.



Now for the cable company. This was frightening to us, even at the time. The

cable company person would not speek to us openly about ANYTHING that he was

going to tell us, but eventually even SHOWED US HOW SOME OF IT WORKED!!! We

didn't see all of what he told us, but enough to believe what he was saying.



First, all 'cable-ready' televisions have at least two components that are not

needed for the television. First is an electronic eye, which we are told is to

adjust the brightness, and second is the 'cable-ready' unit, most likely the

thing that is being refered to as the black box.



What you need to understand right off is that it is not necessary to have your

television be ready to accept the cable signal. My circa-1979 non-cable-ready

unit has no problem with cable reception (when we had it). All you need is

that connector that the cable wire plugs into and you screw onto the back of

the unit.



Scary point one: the electronic eye is a two-way unit that is sending back a

fairly high-quality picture of what is going on. The person telling us about

this had actually seen some images from it, and described a level of clarity

(remember, this is 1983-ish, so it is probably better now) that was

frightening. (his rather crude example had something to do with counting the

zits on your butt while 'doing the nasty' on the couch)



Scary point two: the speaker is also two-way. (this is one thing that we saw --

or should I say heard)



Scary point three: both are active, even if the television is turned off. Some

of them can even remain powered on (with the set unplugged) from the signal

power coming in from the cable itself. The ONLY way to protect yourself is to

remove all cable television from your house. Physically remove the connection

to your house from outside, and remove the cable and other outside connections

to your television. This is because...



Scary point four: the signal from these cable-ready units that is sent out from

your cable-ready television goes out through the antaenna (sp?) connection, so

even if you disconnect your cable connection to the house, the (then

ungrounded) wire IN the house is transmitting a signal that can be picked up

from some distance away. (this is another thing that we saw -- we actually

went down the alley listening in on conversations going on in the houses we

were passing) I don't know if the visual signal is also being transmitted, but

I <KNOW> that the audio signal was going out bright and clear!



There are also places in Europe where these services are (were being) offered

on a commercial basis. The cable person made comments of agreement when the

power-company person talked about people not accepting these things in the US,

but said that nobody there had discussed these issues that openly.



I'll let others answer the second question...





Lee



From: FIREWALKER

Subject: Re: Re Black Boxes and Marble Memorials





>>were passing) I don't know if the visual signal is also being transmitted, but

>>I <KNOW> that the audio signal was going out bright and clear!

>

>Lee:

>    I don't doubt that this is possible, but it would help us verify it if

>you could provide a frequency. Given that, it would be a simple matter for

>many of us to independently verify it.

>

>    Ever the skeptic...



I don't doubt your skepticism, nor do I condemn it in the least. I just wish

that I could provide you with the answer. All I know is that the unit that he

was using was fairly standard issue, at least in that area.



Part of what we were doing, in the joint project, was taking records from the

three different organizations, and verifying their accuracy (part of a

requirement from the Texas Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which had a

person accompany us from time to time). We spent six months riding around in

company trucks going from place to place, checking on the accuracy of the

records for that place. Because of the requirements of the project, they used

people who were 'techies' instead of just installers, repairmen, etc. Each of

us were considered to be the experts in our fields. One week we'd be in an

electric company truck, one week in a cable company truck or car, another week

in my phone company car.



The power company person showed us some of the FM transmitters at one of the

companies while we were there, so I at least saw that piece of equipment. Now,

the power company was not in the business of supplying the security for this

company, they just had the listening devices installed that interfaces with

someone else's unit on-site. The transmitters, he said, were turned down

enough so that the signal didn't just go out over the entire electrical net.



The cable company guy took us into one of the local cable company central

sites, and programmed in some of the additional options (something that at  the

time he said not even the PUC knew about -- remember they were still not even

talking about this much within their own ranks) for both the central unit and

the cable-ready television that was in the break room there. Almost at once,

we started to hear noises coming from the built-in speaker on the control unit

that he was working on. Since nobody was in the break room at the time, he

went in and started talking to us in a whisper. We couldn't hear everything he

said, bue we heard enough to know that it was really working.



He made darn sure that he disabled everything and removed all of the options

from the menus, etc, that he had added.



Getting back to listening in on the conversations in the houses. We were in

the cable company truck while he was talking about this option. He pointed out

some of the various units and repeaters (something that takes a signal and

boosts it so that it can travel further) when he commented on the ungrounded

cable becoming a radio antenna. I could see how that could work, but the power

company person wanted something more than talk. So we went behind a rather

large apartment complex. The cable person called in for a listing of

registered users and services. These were compared with what was actually in

use (at the central connection for the building), with the unauthorized

services being disconnected (quite a lot of them, I might add). The cable

person then went to the back of the truck and took out a pole that exteneded

quite a ways (perhaps fifteen feet) with a dense antenna at the end. This got

plugged into a box with a speaker. There was a lot of static and noise and

stuff most of the time that the pole was being passed across the various

connections, but every once in a while, there came through a very clear signal.

Noises that were clearly from various parts of the apartment were being heard

-- a baby crying that sounded fairly far away, like from another room, etc.



We were then told that if the units were truly programmed properly, like was

done at the central office, then each signal <might> be heard a little better.

Also, that if the unit was programmed properly, that there was some sort of way

that they would be (in future tense) able to put them on separate frequencies,

but at that time, it was not possible. This future time was awaiting the

advent of fiber-optic cabling (then still mostly a theory).



This person, knowing that we were both as technically knowledgable as he/she

was, WOULD NOT give out more details than that (notice that I have been trying

to keep my descriptions as generic as possible), so I don't know anything more.



I <did> try to contact a cable company in one of the towns in Germany that I

had lived in to see if they were aware of these things and could give me more

details, but was never able to really make them understand what I was wanting

(I don't speak German well enough, and they either did not understand English

enough, or faked that they did not understand what I wanted).



That's all that I can provide for now. I've called around here, and none of

the cable people will give me an answer, and no matter who I call (service,

cust reps, etc), I am transfered to some glibb, slick-tonged, public relations

type who tells me that I'm not even in the same solar system as reality. Not

even when I tried to fake it by saying that I was living here on a temp visa,

and wanted the same security features that I had in Ramstein...



Lee





Subject: Re: Privacy and Cable TV





<> Bill wrote:

<>

<> I spotted this on another list and thought y'all might be interested. I do not

<> vouch for the accuracy of this info, but as a Ham and an EE, it all seems

<> technically feasable to me. Comments are invited.

<>

<>

<>

<> >An acquaintance who is involved with telecommunications recently told me

<> >that the spooks have the ability to listen in ("two way interaction" is

<> >the way he put it) through some kind of "black box" in our television

<>



[ snip ]



<> First off, I can confirm this as a non-rumor, but as fact. In fact, this has

<> been the case for over a dozen years. The 'cable-ready' set has had this

<> ability since the term 'cable-ready' came to be.

<>



I can confirm a similar practice within satellite communications products.

I have not been involved with this for several years. But, I used to work

for a company (which no longer exists) that pioneered the development of

commercial use of mobile hand-held 2-way satcom transceivers. At the time,

the hand-held models were prototype and (at least during the company's

official existence) were never completed. The system prior to the

hand-held devices were somewhat larger devices which were typically

used on big rig trucks for tracking and 2-way communications between

driver and company HQ. Anyway, to the point, I was for about 3 years

within the heart of this entire system. As it was all a big prototype

it was quite open (internally). I was involved to the link-level of

this protocol and discovered that the manufacturer of one of the transceivers

we used had built-in "master" codes that could be used to activate or

deactivate any function of the transceiver from the manufacturers HQ,

since of course, not only the customer and us, the manufacturers had

full access within our system "for diagnostic and testing purposes".



The bottom line is, the transceiver manufacturer had absolute control

of all these devices any time they wanted to use it (of course, so

did I, but I digress). Some of these devices were being used as unmanned

communications devices monitoring and controlling offshore oil rigs,

refrigeration units on trucks, whatever. In one experiment that I

was part of, we even used these devices to download and execute new

software for various computing devices that were connected at the other

end. Meaning computers that controlled whatever, in an unmanned

remote location (wherever) could be reprogrammed and executed via

this satcom transceiver. This was 1991. I'm sure if "they" wanted

to fully develop all of there capabilities it would be done by now.



The transceiver manufacturer in this case was a Japanese company.

The stated intended use of this technology was to vastly improve

air traffic control (too much control if you ask me). When I

presented the complete proof of this capability within the protocol

and demonstrated it, I was simply told "who cares."



Just another example of what goes on behind and within the scenes.

I have been intentionally vague about the details.



Bob





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