The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998

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==Phrack Inc.== Volume Four, Issue Thirty-Eight, File 4 of 15 Pirates' Cove Issue Two By Rambone Welcome to Issue Two of Pirate's Cove. There is a lot going on in the Pirate community, busts of pirates in the USA and Canada, and new software and operating systems like IBM's OS/2. So sit back and absorb the news. First on the agenda is to discuss the over-talked about, and hopefully dead issue of the carding scam initiated by The Grim Reaper and The Not So Humble Babe. The reason Phrack Magazine delayed publishing anything about this bust was because we refused to publish any third party rumors and idle gossip. Now that I have personally spoken with the Grim Reaper, we can shed some light on this subject. Mike "The Grim Reaper" obviously regrets what has transpired and would like to put this part of his life behind him. At this point in time, he still does not know what is going to happen, and is taking his arrest very seriously. Mike asked me just to use the letter he has written. Some of you may have seen this before, some may not. ******************************************************************************* Statement by The Grim Reaper ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Lamer Pirate Magazines, Etc..." By THE GRIM REAPER This was originally going to be an article for iNSANITY Magazine #4 called "Lamer Pirate Mags, Etc." to straighten out the complete bullshit and lies in Badnews #7, but seeing as there are so many rumors floating around, and the future of iNSANITY is undecided, I decided to just put out this text file to explain what is really going on, less a few lamers out there spread all kinds of bullshit and lies, as they seem to do so often. Pretty much everything in Badnews #7 was a complete lie, as most of you already know by now. They didn't have any backdoors to ViSiON-X, and there aren't and weren't any that allowed someone to get the user list. What happened on Showdown was the Sysop PW was given out to the wrong person, and they used it, so again, nothing but B.S. and hype on their end. While I think the FiRM overhyped themselves, they didn't deserve the ragging they got by BaD, and BaD having failed in their own attempt at a pirate group has no right to criticize ANYONE until they've accomplished the same. Perhaps a few of the other groups could have said something to them (and many talked about it) but they didn't deserve the 3rd Degree from a lamer mag. The main reason for this article was that while many found the BaD Mag to be so completely full of shit to the point that it was hilarious, some got to thinking that down the line, someone might actually believe some of the B.S. They claimed to be the group that caused the downfall of THG, PE and others, which was a complete joke... They had absolutely nothing to do with any of that. USA had killed off THG, etc... What else was there to straighten up? "Did they shoot your Dog????" - Anonymous Lamer So what's up? Well, to make it short and blunt, The NotSoHumble Babe and I were involved in a carding incident. She most likely was being watched by certain people since she had been using false corporations and fake Tax ID Numbers to order games and for suppliers for USA. The Secret Service either stumbled across us that way, from one of the orders gone bad, or from the illegal cash and hardware coming in to Enterprize. The NSH Babe (Amy) had a cash flow from Dist Sites and other hot hardware from USA Sites totalling about $3500-$5000 a month. She had sent one of her hot laptops she gets every month to Optical Illusion in Canada, and asked him to sell it for her. He wanted to be nice and tried to sell it. A local from his 416 area wanted to buy the laptop. He went to sell it, and was busted by a plainclothes police officer for possession of stolen property of over a $1000. I found some CC #'s, she had a lot of experience with UPS and FedEx from ordering games, and she thought of a way to pick up the packages. We both placed orders (I placed about 2/3rds since she was picking up, and she placed about a 1/3rd). Most of the stuff wasn't for myself, and was meant for other people (trying to be nice, eh?). In any case, we shouldn't have done it. TNSH Babe wanted to order a A LOT of stuff because, over time, she owed people in USA a lot of hardware they had paid her for, and she had never sent any to them. We ordered a bit too much, more than I thought we should have. "They had Bulletproof Vests and Grenades??" - Another |<-Rad D00D!! So then what? Well, they found out the packages were coming and were waiting for TNSH Babe to pick them up. They went back to her place and she gave them permission to come in and search (dunno what happened in between then). She talked to them and they wanted to have her give some of the stuff to me that she got when we were supposed to meet for the first time at a Meijers parking lot. There were some weird things going on at the time, and an alarm was flashing in the back of my mind, but I decided to ignore it. Anyhow, she handed me a hard drive or something, then, basically, they moved in. I saw a car pulling up, and figured what was going on. One guy said, "Secret Service" (about 6 people), and it kinda went downhill from there. But seriously, they weren't that bad and I cooperated with them. They wanted to go back to my house and look around, and wanted permission. They said they would have gotten a search warrant, and it was in my best interest to cooperate, so I let them come in. Basically there wasn't anything in the house, I always throw everything out when I am done with it. As far as the computer went, I didn't even have anything Unzipped on the Hard Drive that I hadn't paid for. They wanted to look further on the computer and in the end did take it, but gave me a receipt. I paid for my entire system, so don't listen to some of the lamer textfiles floating around. There wasn't anything on my system, so I might get lucky and they'll give it back. They also took 3 or 4 computers from Amy's place, but left Static with his. This was the first time either of us had done anything like this. There had been a few attempts in the past, but nothing that had ever been followed through, or had worked. No no, I've never been busted for this before, or anything. I've never been arrested for anything before. "I formatted my Hard Drive 3 Times!!" - Local 313 Sysop I don't know if it was overreacting, but our dumb situation seemed to affect a lot of other people. The locals over here went apeshit, and many of them formatted their drives and deleted files (20+), and took their boards down temporarily. Many of the major pirate boards decided to power down for a while. Unfortunately many of the truly good boards in the world have gone down, possibly forever. BBS-A-Holic has gone down, Enterprize is now PD Only, many INC boards, LSD2 possibly for related reasons, The VOID of course, and many others. Many big names are considering quitting the pirate scene because they think it's not worth it, and they're right. Some of the boards may come back. BBS-A-Holic was one of my favorites. Many considered The VOID one of the Top 10 Boards in the world as far as quality went, and I appreciate the users and the support. I worked hard to try to make it the best, and put my heart into it. As are many others, Black Spyrit might be retiring, so I don't know if another iNSANITY Issue will be coming out. It was truly a great mag if you never saw it. The best. "I heard they were thrown in jail, and fined $72 Million Dollars!!" - Another Neverending Lamer No matter what or who the issue, this never stops, eh? I wouldn't believe any of the bullshit text files, mostly from jealous people and the few enemies you get when you end up getting towards the top, especially the anonymous (surprise) text file taken off of OOFNet (surprise again, huh? Heh). All are, as always, complete B.S. Try not to be a lamer. There are too many of 'em, and they do nothing for the pirate world. If you are going to do anything, do SOMETHING. Organize a group of some type, coordinate couriers, do some VGA or ANSI work, or get in a group, but don't be a lamer. Call LD, establish a rep, and see what you are missing. All locals aren't lamers, but 90% are. A Lamer - A person who calls only local boards, does nothing but leeches files, and doesn't contribute to groups in any ways. Neither BaD, any locals, or Socrates had anything to do with us getting into trouble in any way. "Don't try this at home kids." - Grim '92 All things considered, I wish it wouldn't have ended this way. I don't think any of this was good for anyone in the pirate or BBS world. USA is now pretty much a dead group. Many of the best boards have gone down, and others are considering calling it quits because it just isn't worth it. INC never was a for-profit group, and had no illegitimate cash flow, unlike USA. ******************************************************************************* Rambone's Remarks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well that's the real story, straight from the horse's mouth. I've read at least a dozen text file's after this one, and I tend to believe what Mike has written. Now Amy (NotSoHumble Babe) tells a different story. According to her text file, she had seldom carded or phreaked before, but no one seems to be able to corroborate this information, and people that know her tend to say she was in deeper than she cares to admit. It's also been brought to my attention that Amy may be volunteering information to the feds about other people. What she has done before or after the bust may or may not be true, but here is her story. ******************************************************************************* Statement by The Not So Humble Babe ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well, I am sure you have all heard that I had a small legal problem today, and I know how stuff gets blown out of proportion, so I thought I'd explain the story myself. Here goes... I have carded a few items in the past 3 days, and I have NEVER done this before. The Grim Reaper got CBI accounts and placed orders, and I picked them up. Well, one of the places Grim ordered from was Paradise Computers. They knew it was a bogus order, but told us the package was shipped. Then they called the FEDS. Anyhow, the Feds must have been watching the pickup spot, then following me around until I met up with Grim to deliver his share of the stuff. As soon as we went to make the exchange, the Secret Service, FBI, state police, and local police were running at us with bulletproof vests and automatic guns. They handcuffed us, separated us, and took each of us back to our homes for them to search. I haven't talked to Grim Reaper since I saw him lying next to me on the ground being arrested. But here's my story. About 20 agents came to my apartment and grabbed all computer equipment without a receipt. So we still have 1 modem, and this computer system. Anyhow, they grabbed every piece of paper they could find. Unfortunately, I am a very organized person, and had "the who's who in the pirate world" written down for my use. So if you ever gave me your real name, number, or address, it is now in the hands of the Secret Service and FBI. This list was quite large, as it took 2 years to compile. These boys did their homework. They knew Enterprize was USA HQ and they knew my handle, and they knew I supplied the group with software. They weren't going for just anyone here guys; they knew they needed to bust a group leader. Well, they did. Got me on carding, pirating, and a ton of other legal terms having to do with both of these. I was charged with 6 different counts, each holding a 5-30 year prison sentence. It doesn't look good for me at all. I'll post a file as soon as I get arraigned and let you guys know what is going on. But I will say this now, and I MEAN it. I love the groups, the software, and the competition. But regardless of what happens to me, I am done forever. No more NotSoHumble Babe, no more USA. I hate to do this to everyone, but I really don't have a choice. And regardless of who I am that got busted, be strong and support what you believe in your hearts: PIRACY. Don't let them win. You guys can all go on without me. Just promise me you won't give up and throw in the towel. If anyone wants to contact me, you can leave e-mail on Enterprize for me, or call voice AT YOUR OWN RISK. They told me they were tapping the phone lines. ******************************************************************************* News Flash: Mutli-Media Aggravation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mutli-Media games (CD-Rom) are being played on the hard drive. There seems to be a trend of starting to send out huge CD-Rom games electronically through BBSes, the first one being Battle Chess I, and taking as much as 30 megs of hard-drive space. Soon after, Steller 7, and Wing Commander I started to show up. One of the reason for the start of this was a lack of programs coming down the pike, and one group decided to send Battle Chess out. I haven't seen anything lately, and hope programs meant for the CD-Rom will stay that way. ******************************************************************************* Another News Flash: OS/2 2.0 GA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IBM has released the long anticipated OS/2 (Operating System 2) 2.0 GA. OS/2 2.0 is an alternative to DOS 3.3, 4.01, or the latest, 5.0, and implements true 32 bit technology. There are several ways of using this operating system. OS/2, implementing it's own version of FAT, Dual Boot (which will allow you to be able to use DOS if necessary), and a Multi-Boot, brings up a prompt a when booting up which allows you to choose which operating system you would like to use (similar to Vpix for Unix and Xenix). I had the opportunity to view a preview of OS/2 2.0 GA at our local IBM Corporate Building, and to say the least, I was impressed. One of the points stressed at the meeting was the diverse control over many programs at the same time. OS/2 comes with its own operating system, along with a clone of sorts of both DOS and Windows. This feature will enable a user to access a DOS emulation without having to actually boot up DOS on the machine. It also has a Windows emulation which will eradicate the need for a full blown version. The one shortcoming of this is that it is Version 3.0, but I have been informed that 3.1 is right around the corner, and actually saw a demonstration of it. The true strong point of OS/2 is the mutli-tasking. After witnessing 15 windows open at the same time, all with programs running concurrently, I truly can say this is a step into the future, and it is here now. My personal experience running 2.0 is very impressive. Being able to properly run a program with the BBS in the background is a welcome treat, and I see no reason to ever support another operating system, until I get my hands on Windows NT. ******************************************************************************* Industry News ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The long awaited A-10 Avenger by Spectrum Holybyte has now been pushed back till early next year. This was the next in a series of interactive programs put out by SH to be played over the modem, the first being Falcon 3.0, a 256VGA jet game. UT (Ultra-Tech) and EMC (Electro-Magnetic Crackers) have now merged. This merger will be beneficial to both groups, bringing lacking talents together to form one of the largest cracking groups in the world, one with strong software connections, and the other with cracking resources and existing software support sites. Captain Tom of UT and Cyborg of EMC brought the whole thing together as a reality, and this merger may point them in the same direction as when INC formed their group from several smaller groups. ******************************************************************************* BBS Bust in Canada ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Federal Investigations Section of the RCMP seized components of an electronic bulletin board system (BBS) "90 North" at a West Island residence. This is believed to be the first execution of a search warrant under the Copyright Act of Canada against an electronic bulletin board system. The seizure included 10 micro computers, seven modems and the software present on these systems (approximate value of $25,000). An electronic bulletin board is a service which allows personal computer users to exchange messages and to exchange or receive computer files including software, text and digitized images over telephone lines via a modem. During a four-month investigation, it was established that the 90 North BBS enabled users to obtain software in exchange for other files or for an annual fee of $49.00. While some of the programs consisted of "shareware" which may legally be distributed in this way, much of the available material was protected under the Copyright Act including beta versions of commercial software packages which have not yet been released on the market. More than 3,000 software programs were available to users of this BBS including WordPerfect 5.0, Microsoft DOS 5.0, Windows 3.0, Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows, Borland C++ 2.0, Quattro Pro 3.0, d-Base IV 1.1, SCO Xenix for DOS, Netware 3.11 and Clipper 5.0. Charges of commercial distribution of pirated software are planned against the owner and operator of 90 North. Paragraph 42 (1)(c) of the Copyright Act states that "every person who knowingly distributes, infringes, copies of any work in which copyright subsists either for the purpose of trade or to such intent as to affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright, is guilty of an offense and liable on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding $25,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both, or on conviction on indictment, or a fine not exceeding $1 million or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both." _______________________________________________________________________________ More Details On The Canadian BBS Bust ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has, for the first time under the Copyright Act of Canada, seized all the components of an electronic bulletin board (BBS), for providing illegal copies of copyrighted software to its subscribers. According to Allen Reynolds of the secretariat of the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft (CAAST), the Federal Investigations Section of the RCMP has not laid formal charges against the West Island, Quebec owner and operator of the BBS. Charges of commercial distribution of pirated software are planned against the owner of 90 NORTH, he said. CAAST is a Canadian organization made up of ASHTON-TATE CANADA, LOTUS DEVELOMENT CANADA, MICROSOFT CANADA, NOVELL CANADA, and QUARTERDECK OFFICE SYSTEMS CANADA. Its main objective is to educate the public and business about the hazards of software piracy. In the raid, the RCMP seized 10 Micro computers, seven modems, and about $25,000 worth of software which was allegedly being distributed to users of the 90 NORTH BBS for an annual $49.00 fee, Reynolds said. Some of the seized software packages were Wordperfect 5.0, MS-DOS 5.0, Windows 3.0, Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows, dBase IV, Netware 3.11, and Qemm. If charged and convicted on a summary conviction, the 90 NORTH owner could face either a penalty or a fine not exceeding $25,000 or a jail term not exceeding six months or both. If the 90 NORTH owner is convicted on indictment, the penalty is a fine not exceeding $1 million or imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both. "I don't know how long it will take to lay charges," Reynolds said. He would not speculate when the RCMP would charge the owner of 90 NORTH, but he did say that the users of the 90 NORTH BBS will not be investigated by by the RCMP. He added that there is reason to believe that a number of BBSes across Canada are supplying beta test versions of products which can be dangerous to a user's system because they are usually laced with bugs. ******************************************************************************* Rambone's Remarks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have been informed that there are several more bulletin boards, especially those in the 416 NPA, that are under investigation right now. Most of the sysops being busted are ones that charge for download credits, which is a violation of the Copyright Act for reselling software. ******************************************************************************* New Release ~~~~~~~~~~~ Ultima UnderWorld by Origin Name: The Stygian Abyss Company: Origin Graphics: 256VGA Sound: SB/SB-Pro/Adlib/Roland Rating: 10/10 Supplier: High Pockets/Red Runner Copy Protection: None Date: 3/26/92 Looking for virtual reality in a game? Didn't think you could find it? Welcome to Origin's Ultima UnderWorld, "The Stygian Abyss." Don't let the name fool you, this game does not have any attributes from the Ultima 1-6 series. You start out in a dark room looking out into what would be called a 3-D perspective. Picking up the bag in front of you would be your best bet -- it may have things that you need. Once you are on your way, you will notice how realistic the walls, ground, and ceiling look, almost like you are there. Along the way in your adventure, you will encounter many items that will help you along the way and some that may not, but you will have to decide. There are also many cultures down below that will be friendly and not-so-friendly; use your best judgement. Learn all your abilities. They will come in handy down the road. Practice your magic, it may save your life, or help you walk across water (hint). Learning how to jump correctly is important. You'll have to be able to leap across flaming, volcanic ravines to be able to finish the game. When you see writing on the wall or in a scroll with words and telling you to chant this to the Mantra, you better copy them down: They build up your attributes. All in all, there are 7 levels, and one unexplored level, sporting true 256VGA graphics, SB-Pro support, and a riveting sound-track. This is this closest thing to virtual reality graphics in the game market today, and it'll be a while before you play anything else like it. _______________________________________________________________________________