The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998/hackers_encyclopedia.iso/zines/phrack2/phrack44.017

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                              ==Phrack Magazine==

                 Volume Four, Issue Forty-Four, File 17 of 27

****************************************************************************



[Editor's commentary:

 What you are about to read is a file that everyone's friend
 Pat (Visionary / Traxxter) had written some time ago and is
 currently being spreading around the net.  Bear in mind that
 this file is exactly as he wrote it.  (IE: no spell-checking
 or other editing has been done.)

 I want to add something from my own personal experience with
 Traxxter.  At Comsec one evening, we received a phone call from
 Pat.  Scott and I took the call and listened to Pat for nearly
 an hour.  During this call Pat continually over-stressed the
 point about how much he hated being called a narc.  He said
 "I know you guys understand about turning people in, now that
 you are doing Comsec."  In his thinking that by our new charter
 as security consultants we were suddenly policemen as well,
 he went into a big spiel about his involvement with security
 officers at long distance carriers and how he regularly provided
 information to them.

 Now, you may feel that whatever transgressed between Pat and
 the locals causing him and his family so many problems
 may or may not warrant the action that was taken by them.
 I personally follow a simple rule regarding such things:
 If you mess with me at home it's just a pissing match and I'll
 insult you back night and day, but if you try to come between me
 and my livelihood or my ability to work or put food on my table
 I'm gonna put you in jail.  Obviously I'm not the only one
 who feels that way.

 In all honesty, I could care less about this, but since Pat
 submitted this file to Phrack, I am going to give it fair
 treatment and publish it for him.]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                      Visionary The Story About Him.


This file is beeing published due to the wide spread rumors about a hacker known
as The Visionary.  The reason behind the distribution of the file is to clear up
a lot of misconseptionspeople have about this individual.  Those reading it are
asked to keep an open mind.  Encluded in the file will be buffers from people
who know The Visionary.  After reading it there is hope the rumors come to an
end.


     There have been a number of stories that people have brought up in relation
to The Visionary.  So you will hear the truth in relation to each story.  Many
have been spreading rumors without getting the facts first, so therefore a lot
of stories going around were either overdramatised or without foundation.


     The first thing that originally started the rumor was an event which
happened in the mid 1980s.  The Visionary had been modeming for just over a year
back then.  He as well as several other people had become associated with some
other local hackers.  The local hackers in question were, Oedipus Rex who ran a
board known as The Apple Tree in 305.  The other two were known as Unknown
Soldier of LOD and a guy known as The Technician.  There were a couple others
involved with them but the identity is not known.  Anyway they became angery at
the other hackers I knew and started unnecessary problems.  Unknown Soldier
giving out the number to his other friends in order to harass a kid known as The
Insider.  Every time Insider had his number changed to a nonpublished one,
Unknown Soldier loged into Cosmosand using his knowledge obtained the new number
At the same time Oedipus Rex along with his friends were pulling other serious
things on me as well as the local people I knew.  1.  He would harass me and my
parentsall times of the night.  On two ocations he was seen driving in my
neighborhood on the same night someone shot my front windows out.  It was shown
the Unknown had logged on TRW and obtained the credit history belonging to my pa
parents as well as otherpeople's parents.  On one ocation Oedipus Rex with a few
others had convinced a few of my friends to meet them at a remote location
after a hacker meeting.  When this happened OedipusRex sprayed the people with a
substance known as mace.  This amoung other things like, property damage, credit
information being changed and other acts of anarchy were performed against us.
I The Visionary don't know why they started on me as well when I did nothing to
diserve this.  Things come to ahead when The Unknown Soldier bragged to one of
us that he could get confidential information on their parents.  The kid he was
bragging to went to his parents because there was already problems.  His father
got the local Bell operating company involved and things progressed from there.
Inside five months Unknown Soldier was busted and charged with illegal entry
into Suthern Bell's computer and CBI credit bureau.  He had to pay $1,500 to
both Bell and CBI indamages.  It's not known how much the state fined him.  It
was shown that The Visionary's parents credit history was effected in a negative
way by this guy.  After the bust the local authorities spoke to The Visionary in
regards to this guy.  Now any hacker out therewith any common sense can
understand why Visionary did not hold back when asked about these guys.  As any
hacker knows nobody should use their knowledge against someone else.  Especially
if they are going to use the parents as the target.  Visionary was more than in
his rights to do what he did.  And due to the fact this story was told without
the entire facts known it has been twisted into a gross rumor.


     For about two years after that Visionary dropped out of the seen due to
person reasons.  In late 1987 he returned back in the seen as The Traxster.  At
there were no rumors until Lex Luthor of The Legion of Doom found out about him.
Than the rumors started again.  "I don't know why people brought up the event
which happened years ago when it was long and forgoten," is one thing The
Visionary said.  From 1987 throughout 1988 a lot of people always spoke of
Visionary back than known as The Traxster.


     In the last four years certain things have been brought to light regarding
Visionary.  These events were generally recordings of Visionary either admitting
to being a narc, or one was of him talking to a suposed MCI Security agent.


     When you read the following accounts, remember logic will play a big part
in not onlyunderstanding the truth behind them, but you will find out that
Visionary's side is a lot more credible than of the rumors.


     The following is Visionary's own account in relation to the MCI tape that
a lot heard but don't know the facts behind.  "It was during the early of sumer
of 1988 when I had an interesting incounter with a hacker posing as an MCI
Security agent.  I didn't know it at the time but someone was oviously playing a
large trick on me as it was recorded either by the hacker or a person on his
threeway.  Those reading this keep in mind I am going from memory and I may not
be able to recall every small detail.  I will say this much, I have the
tape of the event that I obtained and anyone who listens to it will know that
is no MCI agent I am talking to.  I had one ocation where I was due to meet
someone on a loop.  Which loop and who I was supose to meet I don't recall.
Anyways I had been on a loop waiting for another hacker.  After a minute a guy
comes on the loop.  Upon asking his handle he said he was from MCI Security.
At first I laughed and asked who he was kidding.  I mean people MCI isn't going
to call a loop and identify themselves as such.  Well I decided after he
insisted very sincerely he was MCI, I decided to play along.  I made up the
story that I was someone that delt with telco security and wouldn't mind talking
to him.  We started talking about things like ANI and different services.  Keep
keep in mind I know he wasn't MCI at all.  The conversation lasted around thirty
to fourty-five minutes.  I am able to give some idea of time beings I have the
tape and have listened to it.


     After the event I forgot about the entire thing.  It wasn't until a few
months later when I heard about the recording with me talking to MCI.  At first
I was extremely puzzeled by this news.  Than I heard samples of the recording
and instantly knew what it was about.


     Now when listening to the tape you will find a couple things very strange
about it.  When people told me about it, I was told that someone had remobed my
line, someone had used LMOS and other outlandish things.  When listening to the
tape the first thing that is ovious is the suposed MCI guy I am talking to is
much louder than me.  I mean you can hear him booming compared to my side of the
conversation.  The second thing is you hear music in the background.  The last
fact mentioned is not important but could be if you listen to it.


     This tape caused a lot of people to have second thoughts of associating
with me.  When one hears it, usually it sounds pretty real if you make a quick
judgement.  People such as Phiber Optic, Zod of MOD and even a local friend of
mine who knew me for a long while were convinced by it.  I feel that either
someone had either played a bad trick on me, or it was a situation where two
people happened to find me and I become an unfortunate victom.  At the time the
rumors had pretty much stopped and if the tape hadn't come about I suspect
things would have blown over.


     The second event involving me on tape, was with me and Doc Haliday.  It was
in the fall of 1990, during the time of the 404 bridge.  The rumor about me had
still been going on due to the MCI tape.  One of the hackers that happened to
call the bridge was Doc Haliday.  Doc Haliday is a somewhat wellknown hacker who
associates with people in the Texas area.  He was known to frequent a HP board
known as Unholy Temple, and he has also written for Phrack.  One particular
ocation, Visionary was on the 404 bridge he met Doc Haliday.  Doc Haliday called
him shortly after they met on the bridge.  The first conversation was about the
rumors he heard about Visionary and his thoughts on them.  Haliday than related
to Visionary that he didn't aprove of a lot of hacker activity now a day.  He
said in so many words the stuff hackers seemed to do was extremely wrong.  This
statement didn't hit Visionary quite right, due to the fact Doc Haliday had been
into hacking a long time.  Doc Haliday's next statement made Visionary feel
there was more  to him than met the eye.  "I don't aprove of those who use
access devices," stated Doc Haliday to Visionary.  Now anyone reading this may
know it, but the term access devices or access codes is the legal term the
authorities use in court cases.  When Visionary heard this, the first signs of
dout about Doc Haliday began.  "When he used the term access devices, an allarm
bell went off in my head," was Visionary's words.  The next day, again him and
Doc Haliday had another conversation.  This is when Visionary had his douts
confirmed.  Haliday started out by informing The Visionary of an investigation
on the 404 bridge.  He said a friend of his from The Secret Service had warned
him, due to an inpending bust of a number of people.  This news shocked
Visionary like a slap in the face, and things started getting stranger.  Doc
Haliday explained there was a lot of monitoring of the bridge, as well as a
pending investigation on Super Niggar.  At this point Vision made a decision to
play his Trump card.  Slowly Visionary was able to get Haliday to admit that he
did next to nothing illegal any more.  When asked Haliday gave an impression he
was not against informents but was open to it himself.  This is when Visionary
began to lead Haliday to the belief that he was an informent.  Haliday bought
the bate hook line and sinker.  He told Visionary all about the dealings with
Secret Service in the past, and how he had made six federal cases for them thus
far.  Visionary made up a story to the effect of him beeing involved in simular
activities.  The entire thing on Visionary's part was to confirm his own douts
regarding Haliday.  However one thing happened which screwed up Visionary.
Doc Haliday had been recording the entire conversation.  After he hung up from
Visionary, he proceded to play it to everybody.  His reason for saying what he
said was to bolshit Visionary into admitting to narcing.


    All of y     The people that heard the tape were not able to hear the entire
thing.  Haliday only played segments and made himself the big social enginer.
Some of you out there may ask, who should believe?  Well look at it this way.
if you hear the tape or hear Haliday's side it sounds like he is bolshitting
Visionary.  However again like the other time to many things don't tigh
together.  First off Visionary, if he was an informent would not admit to
anybody as such.  It may seem to some that a confidents was built but Visionary
would not be that stupid.  Remember people he has a lot of rumors go around
about him.  A couple other things come into play here.  Doc Haliday was a very
smart and carful individual.  He didn't associate with any of the normal crouds,
nor did he even associate with most better hackers.  So, ask yourself, why did
he go to such length to expose what he thought was a narc?  Visionary didn't
even talk to anyone Haliday knew nore did Visionary pose a threat to Haliday.
A major thing all of you will remember, is Doc Haliday is part of the security
firm known as Comceck in Texas.  This is not mean much on one hand, but Haliday
is involved with computer security.  Visionary was bolshitting Haliday and when
looking at the situation the truth speaks for itself.  Any of the higher up
hackers don't concern themselves with such matters of a narc.  They don't give
two shits about lamers, yet Haliday tried to convince all of them with his
tape.


     Thus far you have read the main three reasons Visionary has had the
constant rumor which persists about him.  Now we will cover some of the little
reasons that, may not deal with tape recordings, can be misunderstood as fact.
One must take into consideration that Visionary had to put up with a lot of shit
due to the rumors, and he had to do some interesting stuff to get by.  One
thing he did, was to let certain hackers think he was a narc.  All of you out
there will ask why would he do this?  Well it's simple.  Visionary ran acrossed
some people that it was to his advantage to let them believe anything.  One
case with the members of a group known as MOD.  MOD was known by many to harass
a lot of people.  They had heard about Visionary, and believed that to harass
someone in his line of work would be the death of them.  Anotherwords, if you
are a neighborhood vandle, your less likely to bother an authority figure.  To
them Visionary was an authority figure.


     That was not the only ocation Visionary had let people believe he was
an informent of some kind.  Visionary found it was easier in some instances
if certain people were set on believing the rumors, that they were better off
deceived in that way.  Certain people, Visionary found would trust him more if
they thought he worked for a certain ld service.  One particular instance,
involved a local friend of Visionary's.  The kid, had heard a lot of rumors.
Visionary had got him started in the shit, but what convinced the kid was the
famous MCI tape.  Visionary, finally told the kid he worked for MCI, and no
government agency.  When the kid in question heard this he was able to talk
to Visionary easier.  The logic here, is the kid didn't know what Visionary did.
If he did work for the FBI or Secret Service, he felt in danger by that.  But
As the local kid didn't use MCI it made him trust Visionary.  See people there
was the same reason Visionary told several people that.  People, like that kid
as well as others didn't care what Visionary did.  Also Visionary at times
would bolshit someone into thinking he was a government narc to get a reaction.
"You would be suprised as to the number of people who actually wanted to narc,"
was Visionary's statement.


     Over the years Visionary has been the target of many a accuation.  Many
of those who know Visionary, know he is no narc, and never has been.  Visionary,
feels that people have been to quick to judge him, and he asks to just keep
an open mind.  The rumors about him are bolshit, as a number of facts will show.
The facts which are a lot more credible stand a lot stronger than the rumors.
1.  Many people Visionary has associated with have not been busted.  This
statement may not mean a thing, but it's going to be ovious if he is a narc a
lot of his friends would go down.  Visionary talks to everybody, therefore  you
know that he will know some who have been busted.  But the number are few, and
when you talk to several who have known him, they will admit no Secret Service
or FBI have shown up to get them.  Logic to some may not dictate reality, but
it makes sense and has proven to be true.  Take a look at people like, Fourth
Reich, Gandalf, Lord Sigath, Hellmaster, The Phlaw, Renegade and Weirdo.
All the people have been around for a long time, and associated with Visionary.
So ask yourself, why, if Visionary is a narc are they not busted?  The answer
is plane as day.

     There is one major thing that needs to be covered in this file.  The event
I am refering to happened during the sumer of 1990.  It waa around the time of
the 702 bridge.  There was a guy going by the handle of Storm Shadow around.
Storm Shadow lives in the New York area and Storm ShadowVisionary first knew
Storm Shadow in late 1989.  Some people that knew this guy would say he was a
bolshit artist, who didn't come through.  Storm Shadow had aproached several
people he knew with a deal involving information providers.  The deal was he
worked for a private investigator.  The type of work Storm Shadow clamed to be
doing was nonhacker related cases.  He clamed it was just people he needed to
obtain records on various things such as, Social Security records, local usage
dialing records, CBI and TRW records, LD records as well as other things.  He
made offers to a number of people like Visionary, Toxic Roadkill, Code of Honor,
Nemesis, Joe Friday, Billy The Kid as well as others to work for him.
When he tried to get Visionary involved, he didn't have a lot for it.  Storm
Shadow asked Visionary to find people to help him out.  Visionary introduced
Storm Shadow to a few people explaining what Storm Shadow's problem.  At this
point Visionary just left it up to the people.  One thing that should be
understood, is Visionary had no notion that Storm Shadow wasn't anything beyond
what he said.  Some of the people like Toxic Roadkill, Joe Friday and Code of
Honor did do some work for Storm Shadow.  This thing went on for a few months
ooff and on from late 1990 into 1991.


     Recently certain things came to light regarding Storm Shadow.  In the fall
of 91, there were a few people busted in the New York area.  Storm Shadow and
a guy known as Renegade Hacker were among the people.  It appears Storm Shadow
is a witness for the government against some of the others busted.  It's
been thought by a couple, that Storm Shadow was gathering evidence against the
people he tried to get working for him.  This in itself didn't make Visionary
look very good, as he introduced Storm Shadow to a number of people.  You see
once again, Visionary is going to get blamed wrongfully for something not in
his control.


     Gentleman, after reading the accounts above you may understand Visinary's
anger when someone calls him a narc.  Rather by his own falt, or just the
manor of things, Visinary has not been treated fairly by the HP communinity.
It's not fair that people look at him differently.  Just because he may not be
like everyone else is no excuse.


     Recently, people have been spreading a lot of rumors without hearing
Visionary's side.  Recently, people will produce what they call evidence without
allowing him to explain.


     A lot of statements, and information have been passed among people, that
when you look at it means nothing.  People say they've got Visionary on tape
admitting he's a narc.  Visionary has bolshited people before, and the plane
fact is someone was taping him.  People will bring up the fact Visionary has not
been busted.  Just because the guy hasn't been busted doesn't mean anything.
Visionary is not always active, therefore isn't always at risk.  Some people t
will wonder why someone Visionary's age, 27 years old is in this stuff.  Some of
the most wellknown hackers are in their twentys, and some are even in the
early thirtys.


     One major fact, that has been brought up about Visionary will be addressed
now.  Some people, with good reason, may want to know the reason behind this
major fact regarding Visionary.  One question, that has come up from time to
time, is what does Visionary specialize in relation to hacking.  Some wonder
what Visionary does in the hack/phreak world.  Gentleman remember Visionary is
handicapped as well as visually impaired.  Being blind kind of makes his
resources kind of limited in reading files.  He uses an Echo Speach Card with
limited software.  Not just any program will work with the speach card.  The
Echo takes text and speaks it OK to a point.  But when reading stuff from a
text file, the words are not spoken properly.  Some symbols aren't pronounced
therefore making things even harder.  When on a Unix system it's rough because
the commands aren't spoken like they should be.  The main thing Visionary is
good at is the social enginering aspect.


     Let's keep in mind no matter how someone goes about learning, it does make
them any different different.  Visionary should be looked upon as a shady
character just because he may be curious.  He has to learn by asking questions,
where all of us take the ability of reading for granted.


    The reason this file is being widely spread, is in hopes some of the
slandering of Visionary's name can stop.  "The computer and the telephone are
my best sources of entertainment.  I enjoy hacking as a hoby and do not
appreciate the continuing rumors people spread."  fter


    The main thing here, is every time some strange event happens in the seen,
people point the finger at Visionary.  Let's stop the shit, let's stop assuming
he's the guilty one.  Recently Visionary was blamed for a bunch of people being
on Alliance Teleconferencing.