The Hacker Chronicles - A…the Computer Underground/The Hacker Chronicles - A Tour of the Computer Underground (P-80 Systems).iso/intro/author.txt

Text File | 1993-01-07 | 10KB | 148 lines

       Words from the author:

           Over the last 12 years I have worn many hats.  That of a
       Phone Phreak/Hacker, Sysop of one of the oldest BBS's in the
       world, and that of technical security consultant. To some there
       might seem a conflict of interest in the hats I have worn.  But,
       my belief is that the material found in the underground computer
       sub-culture of Hackers & Phone Phreaks should be considered a form
       of educational service to systems designers/administrators, as
       well as programmers, law enforcement and others involved in the
       design, improvement, and policeing of the electronic frontier.
           True, there will always be that certain percentage of people
       who would use this (or any other information) maliciously.  It
       is also my belief that these people are in the minority. These
       people while usually teenagers with more ego than intellect can
       if desired find the majority of this information in any library,
       magazine, or newsletter already in print. Most of this style of
       material doesnt originate on underground BBS's, but rather ends
       up there as a compilation of like materials. However to some,
       such as law enforcement for example, a threat is perceived and
       derived from seeing the compilation of this style material all
       in one place and accessable via computer. Just the fact that it
       comes from a computer some how makes it more ominous than if read
       from some obscure techno underground newsletter. This is nothing
       more than a perception problem.
           A case in point is the Craig Neidorf case where he was raided
       and had all of his personal computer equipment taken and charged
       with tens of thousands of damage and losses, because of releaseing
       what was at the time 'perceived' as critical 911 services
       information. Only to have the case thrown out later and discovering
       the self same 911 material was available publicly (if you knew where
       to look) for $30 dollars. While I personally have no great love
       for Craig and was badly and unjustly chastised by him once, he still
       should not have been left with the loss of thousands in personal
       property/equipment, not to mention a hundred thousand (I think that
       was the figure I heard quoted) in attorney's fees. This doesnt
       include the hundreds of thousands in lost tax payer dollars that
       were needlessly squandered on that case.
           My point is that the first thing that needs done is to clean up
       the problem, not the person. For example, my first major systems
       consulting contract was for a long distance telco who was lossing
       $450,000 a month in New York City alone. When hired, the first words
       out of my mouth were 'I'm not a head hunter', as this practice would
       only cost them 3-5 more dollars in investigative and legal fees in
       order to aquire and prosecute for every dollar they lost in fraud.
       The solution I offered was to fix the problem at its source (their
       system).
           After reviewing their setup from top to bottom It didnt
       take long to discover their billing code/PIN structure was at the
       heart of the problem. They had given a secretary a pad and pencil
       and said, we need some codes, here's how many digits they need to be
       so write down some and turn them in for use. In addition they were
       only using 4 digit codes at the time. To make matters worse the codes
       were only spaced a few digits apart thanks to the secratary who had
       no idea the significance of what she was doing. All this by a branch
       of what was then the 4th largest long distance company in the
       country. Gross negligence at best. But, who is the first to cry foul
       when their ineptitude was taken advantage of.
           From someone such as myself who bore the title of Phone Phreak
       proudly, this entire situation was nothing short of hilarious.
       However it was quite simple to fix. I needed only apply basic
       and common knowledge I had aquired from my studies around the
       computer/telecomm subculture. A task that should be promoted by the
       security powers that be, inorder to educate themselves, instead
       of going out and hiring ex-FBI and Ex-Police officers with an
       investigative/rubber hose mentality who didnt even have a true
       understanding of the problem they were hired to fix, to run their
       security departments. Who often like the very people they were
       chasing were operating on ego rather than intellect (not to mention
       authority). As potentially dangerous a combination to individual rights
       enjoyed in this country as the dangers provided by the malicious types
       within the computer underground itself. The point here is that
       there are problems within both the law enforcement and underground.
           Let me now give a couple of examples of how I used underground
       experience to fix this monumental snafu. First the obvious. Myself
       and a programmer friend (The Researcher) sat down and designed and
       wrote software to generate a new code network which was not 4 but
       but 7 digits in length, and only permitted one 'possible'
       (if assigned) good code in every 10,000 possible combinations.
       Ironically this software was written and tested and run on the very
       BBS machine that ran what was at the time (and still is) the oldest
       underground BBS in the world (P-80 Systems).
           Next, knowing that computers were used to do the majority of
       the code hacking at this time, it made the task simple to fix the
       switching equipment. Before I tell you how this was accomplished,
       a little advance training is in order. When you are dialing a number
       through any phone company local or national when you do something
       wrong (or even right for that matter) you get whats called a
       'treatment' such as a recording or a 'fast busy' signal. With
       this in mind I first had to deal with the problem of the existing
       older codes that had not been converted to my 7 digit system and
       were still highly open to to fraud (it takes awhile to assign
       thousands of customers new codes). This was done by adding 6 new
       treatment ports to the switching equipment. On the first two ports
       I put ring generators (the device that provides the sound of the
       phone ringing in your earpiece) to create a ring with no possible
       answer situation when a bad code was dialed. Since the fraudulent
       codes were being reassigned on a daily basis with new 7 digit codes
       it provided a lot confusion for people still in posession of the
       older 4 digit codes. they couldnt tell if it was a dead code or
       the person they were calling just wasnt home, while not hampering
       the legitimate customer who simply misdialed his code. On the next
       2 treatment ports I placed Hayes modems, which were like the other
       two ports in so much as they were a two in 6 chance of being aquired
       as a treatment for a bad code being dialed. This action gave the most
       effective security of the time due to the fact that people hacking via
       computer relied on a modem carrier to distinguish when they had gotten
       a good code. SO I GAVE THEM ONE. This made it almost impossible to
       distinguish a good code from a false carrier I was sending out.
       Thus making it difficult and near (but not) impossible to hack
       codes from that network. It also provided nothing more than a
       'hey I wonder what I did wrong' thought to a legit customer who just
       misdialed and simply dials again as they normally would. Also one
       of there big problems was New York City was so big, that a call to
       another part of town could be long distance. New York City alone had
       five area codes. This meant that by simply blocking any calls who's
       area code is 'local or local long distance' I.E. in the city but a
       long distance call,  which they should have been doing anyway in order
       not to be trafficing local calls (a big nono in the long distance world)
       they could stop this problem and significantly reduce the impact of the
       of the old 4 digit codes already comprimised and being used
       specifically for the purpose of local calls at the same time.
            Within 6 months their losses went from $450,000 a month to zero.
       The net cost in equipment for switch changes, and the new code network
       was about $5,000. Pennies for an operation of this size. When compared
       against the hundreds of thousands in investigative and legal fee's
       as well as tax dollars and additional taxation of the court system,
       which is already overburdoned. How many people are not in jail and
       being supported by the american tax dollar. I guess the moral to
       the story is work smart not hard. Someone took the time to
       trust me and to take a look at themselves and make the decision to use
       the underground as a tool for solving the 'real' problem rather than
       using it to track and apprehend people (which in case no one caught on,
       doesnt fix the problem in the example above).  At the risk of stating
       the obvious, many of these people could be of great benifit to society
       if properly utilized (as opposed to stigmatized). If the time was
       taken to invite them in the front door, your less likely to see them
       around at the back door. As a matter of fact they might be quite an
       appropriate individual to protect the back door. Most of these guys
       would jump at the chance.....

           In closing I would like to take time to repeat the warning voiced
       elsewhere on this disk, Please DO NOT attempt to use any material
       found on this disk unless you are certain it is both legal and safe.

                                                Scan Man