| ==Phrack Inc.== | |
| Volume Three, Issue 28, File #12 of 12 | |
| PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN | |
| PWN PWN | |
| PWN P h r a c k W o r l d N e w s PWN | |
| PWN ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ PWN | |
| PWN Issue XXVIII/Part 4 PWN | |
| PWN PWN | |
| PWN October 7, 1989 PWN | |
| PWN PWN | |
| PWN Created, Written, and Edited PWN | |
| PWN by Knight Lightning PWN | |
| PWN PWN | |
| PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN | |
| Woman Indicted As Computer Hacker Mastermind June 21, 1989 | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| by John Camper (Chicago Tribune) | |
| A federal grand jury indicated a Chicago woman Tuesday for | |
| allegedly masterminding a nationwide ring of computer hackers | |
| that stole more than $1.6 million of telephone and computer | |
| service from various companies. | |
| The indictment charges that Leslie Lynne Doucette, 35, of 6748 | |
| North Ashland Ave, and 152 associates shared hundreds of stolen | |
| credit card numbers by breaking into corporate "voicemail" | |
| systems and turning them into computer bulletin boards. | |
| Voicemail is a computerized telephone answering machine. After a | |
| caller dials the machine's number he punches more numbers on his | |
| telephone to place messages in particular voicemail boxes or | |
| retrieve messages already there. | |
| The indictment charges that the hacker ring obtained more than | |
| $9,531.65 of merchandise and $1,453 in Western Union money orders | |
| by charging them to stolen bank credit card numbers. | |
| It says the group used stolen computer passwords to obtain | |
| $38,200 of voicemail service and stolen telephone credit card | |
| numbers to run up more than $286,362 of telephone service. | |
| But the biggest haul, more than $1,291,362, according to the | |
| indictment, represented telephone service that was stolen through | |
| the use of Private Branch eXchange (PBX) "extender codes." | |
| A PBX system provides internal telephone service within a | |
| company. If a PBX system is equipped with an extender, a person | |
| can call the PBX system, punch in a code, and dial long distance | |
| at the expense of the company that owns the | |
| system. | |
| The only corporate victims of the alleged fraud named in the | |
| indictment are August Financial Corporation of Long Beach | |
| California, and A-1 Beeper Service of Mobile, Alabama. | |
| Doucette has been held without bond in the Metropolitan | |
| Correctional Center since May 24, when she was arrested on a raid | |
| on her apartment that netted 168 telephone credit card numbers | |
| and 39 extender codes, federal authorities said. The indictment | |
| does not name any members of the alleged ring, but authorities | |
| said the investigation is continuing. | |
| United States Attorney Anton R. Valukas said the indictment is | |
| the nation's first involving abuse of voicemail. | |
| "The proliferation of computer assisted telecommunications and | |
| the increasing reliance on this equipment by American and | |
| international business create a potential for serious harm," he | |
| said. | |
| Authorities said they discovered the scheme last December after a | |
| Rolling Meadows real estate broker reported that hackers had | |
| invaded his company's voicemail system and changed passwords. | |
| Authorities said they traced the calls into the Rolling Meadows | |
| voicemail system to telephones in private homes in Chicago, | |
| Columbus, Ohio, and suburban Detroit, Atlanta and Boston. | |
| Checks on those phones led them to voicemail systems in companies | |
| around the country, they said. | |
| [For more information see Phrack World News XXVII/Part One and | |
| the article entitled, "Computer Intrusion Network in Detroit," | |
| dated as May 25, 1989 --KL] | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Phreaks Abuse East St. Louis Phone Card | |
| September 24, 1989 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ East | |
| St. Louis, IL, a dirt-poor minority suburb of the larger Missouri | |
| city by the same name was victimized for several months by | |
| phreaks without realizing it until the phone bills for a one year | |
| period were audited recently. | |
| According to a recent story in the Belleville, IL | |
| (News-Democrat), the city is being billed for phone calls to | |
| dial-a-porn services and from points as far flung as Florida and | |
| Texas. | |
| The monthly phone bill for the city of East St. Louis averages | |
| $5000, and over the past year it has included calls to nearly | |
| every state as well as to "900" area adult talk lines. City | |
| Treasurer Charlotte Moore said the number of questionable calls | |
| in each month's phone bill, which is usually two inches thick, | |
| shows the "need for better policing of phones." | |
| No kidding! The (News-Democrat) obtained copies of the phone | |
| bill for several months under the Freedom of Information Act, and | |
| set about reviewing the places and people called. For example, | |
| from March through May of this year, hundreds of dollars in calls | |
| were made from places in Texas, Florida and elsewhere, and | |
| charged to a Calling Card number assigned to the city. | |
| In one instance, a caller in northern Florida made a 288-minute | |
| call to Miami that cost East St. Louis $39.27. The | |
| (News-Democrat) called the Miami number, and reached a man named | |
| John, who refused to give his last name, and claimed he "...had | |
| never even heard of East St. Louis..." | |
| Calls from one certain number in Houston to places all over the | |
| United States accounted for more than $1000 in charges over | |
| several months. A man who answered the phone at the Houston | |
| number refused to give his name and refused to discuss the | |
| matter, or explain how his phone might have been used for the | |
| fraudulent calls. | |
| Prior to intervention by the newspaper, the city had done | |
| nothing. Apparently they were not even aware of the abuse. On | |
| notification, the local telco cancelled all outstanding PINS, and | |
| issued new ones. Meanwhile, the city of East St. Louis continues | |
| to plead poverty. They are barely able to meet payroll for city | |
| employees, and have skipped a couple of paydays at that. The | |
| city has an extremely poor tax base, and will likely file | |
| bankruptcy in the near future. | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| The Cuckoo's Egg | |
| October 1, 1989 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer | |
| Espionage by Cliff Stoll, Doubleday, 1989, ISBN | |
| 0-385-24946-2 ($19.95) | |
| Book Review by Louise Bernikow, Cosmopolitan, October | |
| 1989 | |
| Here is a first -- the true story of a man who notices a | |
| seventy-five cent discrepancy in a computer's accounting system | |
| and runs the error down until it leads to a real live spy ring. | |
| Even if you don't know a byte from a bagel, this book will grip | |
| you on page one and hold you as ferociously as the best mystery | |
| stories. | |
| It is astrophysicist-turned-systems-manager Cliff Stoll's first | |
| week on the job at a lab in Berkeley, California. The error | |
| turns up, and he tries to figure out why, partly as an exercise | |
| in learning about the computer system he's going to be working | |
| with. Almost immediately, he discovers that somebody had been | |
| breaking into the computer network using a fake password. That | |
| discovery leads him to other break-ins in other computers, | |
| including some in military installations. He alerts the FBI, | |
| which, since he has lost neither half a million dollars nor any | |
| classified information, says, "Go away, kid." | |
| Stoll presses on, sleeping under his desk at night, monitoring | |
| the system -- a hound waiting for the fox to come out in the | |
| open. There is suspense aplenty, but it's the intensely human, | |
| often funny voice of the man on the trail that makes this book so | |
| wonderful. Stoll's girlfriend, Martha, a law student, seems like | |
| one smart and delightful cookie, and she puts up with his | |
| obsession pretty well. In the end, Stoll becomes a national | |
| hero. The play-by-play is nothing short of fascinating. | |
| [I wonder if anyone got those cookies --KL] | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Hackwatch Spokesman Charged | |
| October 2, 1989 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Taken from Computing | |
| Australia | |
| Self-styled computer security expert Paul Dummett, alias Stuart | |
| Gill, has been charged with making false reports to the Victoria | |
| Police following an investigation into claims he made in the | |
| daily media late in 1988 and early this year. The articles often | |
| quoted Gill, introducing himself as a spokesman for either | |
| "Hackwatch" or the "DPG monitoring service". | |
| Gill claimed hackers in Australia had gained access codes from | |
| others in the US and lifted $500,000 (US) from the International | |
| Citibank, United States. Other claims include credit card | |
| numbers had been posted on bulletin boards for BBS users' access; | |
| drugs, including steroids, were being sold using bulletin boards; | |
| evidence of this had been given to the police by informers; and | |
| in response, the police had raided several hackers' homes. The | |
| police, including the Criminal Investigation Bureau and the Fraud | |
| Squad's Computer Section, repeatedly denied the claims. | |
| Gill had disappeared, but returned again on September 22 and was | |
| charged in the Frankston Magistrates' Court under his real name, | |
| Paul Dummett. According to court documents, police investigating | |
| Dummett's claims allegedly found Citibank's computer network had | |
| not been illegally accessed on its New York number as Dummett had | |
| claimed. When Dummett appeared in court his legal aid counsel | |
| Serge Sztrajt applied successfully to adjourn the case until | |
| October 20. Dummett did not enter a plea. | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| PWN Quicknotes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. | |
| Hire A Hacker? -- "Some very | |
| notable people in the computer | |
| industry started out as hackers tinkering around in a | |
| mischievous fashion," Ron Gruner, president of Alliant | |
| Computer Systems Corporation told Computerworld why he would | |
| probably hire Robert T. Morris Jr., of Cornell and creator of | |
| Internet worm. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2. Computer Hackers Rip | |
| Off Corporate 800 Lines -- Computer hackers pride themselves | |
| on never having to pay for long distance calls. How do they | |
| do it? Sam Daskam, president of Information Security | |
| Association (ISA), explains: Hackers call corporate numbers | |
| until they find one with an automated switchboard. The | |
| fingers do not do the walking. Automatic caller software is | |
| used. Then they link their computer to try all combinations | |
| of three or four-digit numbers until they find one which | |
| connects them to the company's outside toll or 800 line. | |
| Once they get a dial tone, they can make calls anywhere at | |
| the firm's expense. Taken from the Security Letter 1989. - | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| - - - - - - - - 3. 900 Service Considered -- There has been | |
| talk among some companies about switching from using the 800 | |
| toll free numbers to 900 numbers since the ease of use of the | |
| 900 numbers has been shown so vividly. This would save the | |
| corporations a large degree of money. - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 4. | |
| Grocery Store "Hackers" Sell Drugs And Women -- The VMB | |
| (voice mailbox) system of a wholesale grocer in Los Angeles | |
| was commandeered to a small band of "hackers," who used the | |
| system to run a prostitution ring and disseminate data about | |
| drugs. Finally, valid VMB users complained that they could | |
| not use the service since their passwords were invalidated. | |
| An investigation disclosed that the "hackers" overrode | |
| security features and acquired 200 VMBs for their own use. - | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| - - - - - - - - 5. Phone Phreaks Busted In Upstate New York | |
| -- Once again it seems that Syracuse, New York is ripe for | |
| the picking for law officials to grab hackers involved | |
| computer related crimes. In August the Federal | |
| Communications Commission (FCC) put a local area police | |
| sergeant in charge of contacting a list of local computer | |
| users that were using a local long distance service that | |
| offered national and international calling. | |
| It seems that one user of the service contacted the company | |
| about a large bill, $10,000, that he received. The company | |
| then put a trap on the code and accumulated a list of | |
| unauthorized users to that code. So far the local | |
| authorities, the state police, and the FBI have been brought | |
| in on the case. They have been interviewing those on the | |
| list and so far most have cooperated fully with the police | |
| (most offenders are underage). One user called Gunter has | |
| even allowed the police to use his computer bbs accounts. | |
| The service used by those caught (25 people) where to place | |
| long distance calls to France, Dominican Republic, Kenya, and | |
| Germany. The callers also used the service to call locally | |
| in Syracuse, as one person said that it cleaned up the line | |
| noise. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6. Bulletin Board Scanning Saves | |
| Boy (August 24, 1989) --Undercover police in San Jose, | |
| California, have been watching bulletin boards for several | |
| years, looking for computer users who boast about their | |
| criminal exploits. It was such activity that led them to | |
| Virginians Dean Ashley Lambey, 34, and Daniel T. Depew, 28, | |
| who have been accused of conspiring to kidnap a young boy to | |
| be filmed as they molested him and then killed him. (Article | |
| by Tracie L. Thompson of the San Francisco Chronicle.) - - - | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| - - - - - - 7. German Hackers Attempt To End Smoking (August | |
| 29, 1989) -- On Saturday, August 26, 1989, ZDF (the second | |
| German television station and one of the 2 nationwide | |
| television channels) asked their viewers whether they thought | |
| smoking should be banned in public areas. The viewers could | |
| reply by telephone, dialing one telephone number for "yes" | |
| and another telephone number for "no." Within a time frame | |
| slot of 14 minutes, 52,942 telephone calls came in, with a | |
| ratio of 54:46 in favor of prohibiting smoking. This means | |
| that 29,669 voted in favor of a prohibition, and 25,273 | |
| opposed it. | |
| On Monday, August 28, 1989, a group of South German hackers | |
| claimed to have manipulated the quota by dialing the "yes" | |
| number with 83 personal computers at a rate of 4 times a | |
| minute; virtually all of their calls came through so that | |
| about the maximum of 4,648 "yes" votes came from their | |
| computers. These circumstances led to new results in the | |
| poll: "Yes" = 25,021 and "No" = 25,273, giving the "no" group | |
| a small majority. | |
| Story by Klaus Brunnstein - - - - - - | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| - 8. Immigration Chief Proposes National Computer Screen (June | |
| 22, | |
| 1989) --LA JOLLA, CA, -- The Commissioner of Immigration and | |
| Naturalization, Alan C. Nelson, today proposed a nationwide | |
| computer system to verify the identities of all job | |
| applicants in order to halt the widespread use of fraudulent | |
| documents by illegal aliens seeking jobs. | |
| Mr. Nelson also suggested standardized identity cards for | |
| immigrants so as to get fuller compliance with a 1986 law | |
| prohibiting employment of illegal aliens. | |
| Creating a national identity card and other ways of checking | |
| legal status or identity have been repeatedly suggested in | |
| Congress as tools in fighting unlawful immigration, but have | |
| also been consistently rejected as potential infringements on | |
| civil liberties. | |
| The national computerized database on everybody is one bad | |
| idea that simply refuses to stay dead, no matter how many | |
| times we drive a stake through its heart -- if the INS didn't | |
| resurrect it, the drug czar or the FBI would. "Eternal | |
| vigilance..." | |
| Story by Roberto Suro (New York Times) - - - | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| - - - - 9. West German Computer Hackers Accused Of Spying For | |
| Soviets | |
| (Aug. 17, 1989) -- Associated Press (Frankfurt) -- Three | |
| computer hackers, suspected of giving the Soviet Union | |
| information from military and industrial computers worldwide, | |
| have been indicted on espionage charges, prosecutors said | |
| yesterday. The West German government called the breakup of | |
| the spy ring, which gave the KGB secret data from 12 | |
| countries, including the United States, "a major blow" to the | |
| Soviets. In a four-page statement, Kurt Rebman, the chief | |
| federal prosecutor, said it was the first time his office had | |
| prosecuted hackers for endangering national security. Taken | |
| from the Boston Globe - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 10. Challenge To | |
| Phreaks! (August 31, 1989) -- Nippon Telegraph & Telephone | |
| Corp. (Tokyo) is offering a $7,000 reward to any person or | |
| organization that can invade its FEAL-8 private communication | |
| and data system, according to an Associated Press report that | |
| NTT America Inc. officials could not confirm. The reward | |
| offer supposedly expires 8/31/91. No telephone number or | |
| other information was included. Taken from the Wall Street | |
| Journal. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 11. Shadow Stalker Loses Out | |
| (August 7, 1989) -- A 17-year-old Michigan boy has been | |
| charged with posting stolen long-distance telephone codes on | |
| a bulletin board system operated in his home. Brent G. | |
| Patrick, alias "Shadow Stalker" online, was arraigned this | |
| week on one count of stealing or retaining a financial | |
| transaction device without consent. Patrick was released on | |
| $2,500 bond, pending his hearing. The youth faces a maximum | |
| of four years in prison and a $2,000 fine if convicted. His | |
| bulletin board, Wizard Circle, has been closed. - - - - - - | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| - - - 12. Philadelphia Hackers Change Speed Limit -- Recently | |
| an unknown hacker got into the computer that controlled the | |
| speed limit on the Burlington-Bristol Bridge. He proceeded | |
| to change the speed limit from 45 m.p.h. to 75 m.p.h. A lot | |
| of people were stopped and ticketed and judges say they will | |
| not hear any appeals because, "the public should know better | |
| than that no matter what the sign says." The police claim to | |
| have leads, however this is doubtful. - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 13. | |
| Two Story Jump To Escape From Secret Service (July 26, 1989) | |
| -- Red Rebel, a known hacker in Florida was busted by the | |
| United States Secret Service and local authorities. It seems | |
| that in attempt to to escape he actually jumped out a second | |
| story window and ran for a while. The Secret Service | |
| confiscated two computers and a load of disks. | |
| To make matters worse, similar to Oryan QUEST, Red Rebel is | |
| not an American citizen and is likely to be deported. Red | |
| Rebel is charged with resisting arrest, interfering with | |
| evidence, and something concerning credit card fraud. | |
| Information provided by The Traxster. - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 14. | |
| Fraud Alert (September 1989) -- PBX fraud is busting out all | |
| over. Long distance carriers are being overwhelmed by | |
| corporate customers demanding refunds for fraud perpetrated | |
| on them. No long distance carrier covers their customer's | |
| long-term fraud. If you got fraud you got to pay. This is | |
| not like stolen credit cards. This is real serious stuff. | |
| Thieves are dialing into 800 INWATS lines and, via auto | |
| attendants, hacking their way to overseas. The big calls go | |
| to drug-related countries, especially Colombia, Pakistan, | |
| Dominican Republic, and Ecuador. But no one really knows | |
| which countries are drug-related and which aren't. Taken | |
| from Teleconnect Magazine. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 15. Motorola | |
| Introduces Network Encryption System (August 4, 1989) -- | |
| Motorola Government Equipment Group (GEG) has introduced its | |
| Network Encryption System (NES), which features the latest in | |
| security services for the protection of Local Area Networks | |
| (LANs). Designed in accordance with Secure Data Network | |
| System (SDNS) standards including SDNS electronic key | |
| management, the NES is a flexible internet security solution | |
| for Type I applications. | |
| The NES is unique in COMSEC technology because the protocol | |
| software is loaded via diskette. The NES is installed in the | |
| drop cable between the computer and the transceiver, or as a | |
| gateway device separating a LAN from a backbone network. The | |
| product supports both DoD and ISO internet standards allowing | |
| protection over wide area networks. | |
| The initial product accommodates connection to IEEE 802.3 and | |
| IEEE 802.4 medias. Motorola Inc. has a Memorandum of | |
| Agreement with the National Security Agency and anticipates | |
| product endorsement in the first quarter of next year. The | |
| LAN product represents the first of a family of SDNS products | |
| that will provide complete, interoperable system security | |
| solutions. Additional information on the NES can be obtained | |
| from Joe Marino at (602) 441-5827. - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 16. The | |
| Death of Shadow 2600: No Accident (July 6, 1989) -- The | |
| following is a message taken from The Central Office: | |
| 89Jul06 from fdg @ The Central Office | |
| MY CONDOLENCES TO DAVE FLORY'S FAMILY AND FRIENDS. Do you | |
| all realize WHY a 22 year old died? It says one thing to me. | |
| He was killed by some insane ex-CIA types. Most likely under | |
| orders from the idiots who tried to prosecute him in 1985. | |
| This kind of thing is getting more common under President | |
| Bush. He ran the CIA, and he is now encouraging the same | |
| dirty tricks to silence people who cause "problems." Abbie | |
| Hoffman was done in the same way. A small hypodermic full of | |
| prussic aced. You will hear about more ex-hippies, yippies, | |
| and hackers/phreaks dying mysteriously in the foreseeable | |
| future. | |
| You have been warned. And who am I to know all this? | |
| Believe me, friends, I am highly placed in the government. | |
| You will see more friends die. You may laugh now, but I | |
| decided to leave a public message in hopes of saving a few | |
| lives. | |
| Special Thanks to Epsilon | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| 17. Legion Of Doom Members Raided In Atlanta (July 21, 1989) -- | |
| The Leftist, The Urvile, and The Prophet, all of the world | |
| famous hacking group known as the Legion of Doom, were raided | |
| on July 21, 1989. The day in question is interesting because | |
| two years prior, that was the same day that a nationwide | |
| sweep netted over 80 hackers across the country including | |
| famous names such as Oryan QUEST, Solid State, and Bill From | |
| RNOC. | |
| The charges against the LOD members range from toll fraud to | |
| illegal entry into government computer systems, although as | |
| it is told, the government systems were entered by the Urvile | |
| and the other two had nothing to do with it. Currently, all | |
| three LOD-Atlanta members are still waiting to find out what | |
| will happen to them as charges have not yet been brought | |
| against them, very similar to what happened to the hackers in | |
| 1987. | |
| It has been said by security personnel at Michigan Bell that | |
| these LOD busts were a spinoff of the supposed arrest of Fry | |
| Guy on July 19 for his role in the Delray Beach, Florida | |
| probation officer scam (detailed last issue). It is believe | |
| that he had been working closely with LOD-Atlanta (especially | |
| The Leftist) and when caught for the probation office scam, | |
| he got scared and turned over what he knew about LOD. | |
| _____________________________________________________________________ | |