phrack/issue33/11.txt

                               ==Phrack Inc.==

                Volume Three, Issue Thirty-Three, File 11 of 13

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              PWN                                             PWN
              PWN              Phrack World News              PWN
              PWN                                             PWN
              PWN           Issue XXXIII / Part One           PWN
              PWN                                             PWN
              PWN          Compiled by Crimson Death          PWN
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              PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN


Sir Hackalot Raided By Georgia State Police
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      "They were pretty pissed because they didn't find anything on me."

     Those were Sir Hackalot's remarks to Crimson Death shortly after his run
in with the authorities.  Sir Hackalot was raided by Georgia State Police in
connection with Computer Fraud.  The odd thing about it is that Sir Hackalot
has been inactive for over a year and no real evidence was shown against him.
They just came in and took his equipment.  Although Sir Hackalot was not not
arrested, he was questioned about three other locals bbs users who later found
themselves receiving a visit the same day.  Sir Hackalot is currently waiting
for his equipment to be returned.

     Could this recent raid have anything to do with the infamous seizure of
Jolnet Public Access Unix from Lockport, Illinois in connection with the Phrack
E911 case?  Sir Hackalot was a user on the system and in the mindset of today's
law enforcement community, that may well be enough for them to justify their
recent incursion of SH's civil rights.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Square Deal for Cable Pirates
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
by David Hartshorn

     National Programming Service has signed an agreement with 12 programmers
representing 18 channel for an early conversion package for consumers with
illegally modified VideoCipher II modules.  The deal will be offered only to
customers who convert their modified VideoCipher II modules to VC II Plus
Consumer Security Protection Program (CSPP) modules.  The program will be an
option to NPS' current five-service minimum purchase required for conversion
customers.

     Participating programmers have agreed to offer complimentary programming
through the end of 1991 for conversion customers.  To qualify, customers must
buy an annual subscription which will start on January 1, 1992 and run though
December 31, 1992.  Any additional programming customers want to buy will start
on the day they convert and will run for 12 consecutive months.

     NPS president Mike Schroeder said the objective of the program is to get
people paying legally for programming from the ranks of those who are not.  If
a customer keeps his modified unit, he will be spending at least $600 for a new
module in late 1992, plus programming, when he will be forced to convert due to
a loss of audio in his modified unit.  If a customer converts now to a VC II
Plus with MOM (Videopal), then the net effective cost to the customer will be
only $289.55 (figuring a $105 programming credit from Videopal and about $90
complimentary programming).

     Included in the deal are ABC, A&E, Bravo, CBS, Discovery Channel, Family
Channel, NBC, Lifetime, Prime Network, PrimeTime 24, TNN, USA Network, WPIX,
WSBK, and WWOR.  The package will retail for $179.99.

                            Details:  (800)444-3474
_______________________________________________________________________________

Clark Development Systems Gets Tough
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
by Crimson Death (Sysop of Free Speech BBS)

     Most of you have heard of PC-Board BBS software, but what you may not have
heard is what Clark Development Systems are trying to do with people running
illegal copies of his software.  The Following messages appeared on Salt Air
BBS, which is the support BBS for PC-Board registered owners.

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

Date: 08-19-91 (11:21)              Number: 88016 of 88042
  To: ALL                           Refer#: NONE
>From: FRED CLARK                      Read: HAS REPLIES
Subj: WARNING                       Status: PUBLIC MESSAGE
Conf: SUPPORT (1)                Read Type: GENERAL (A) (+)

**********************************  WARNING  **********************************

Due to the extent and nature of a number of pirate PCBoard systems which have
been identified around the US and Canada, we are now working closely with
several other software manufacturers through the SPA (Software Publisher's
Association) in order to prosecute these people.  Rather than attempting to
prosecute them solely through our office and attorney here in Salt Lake, we
will now be taking advantage of the extensive legal resources of the SPA to
investigate and shut down these systems.  Since a single copyright violation
will be prosecuted to the full extent of $50,000 per infringement, a number of
these pirates are in for a big surprise when the FBI comes knocking on their
door.  Please note that the SPA works closely with the FBI in the prosecution
of these individuals since their crimes are involved with trafficking over
state lines.

The SPA is now working closely with us and the information we have concerning
the illegal distribution of our and other software publisher's wares.  Please
do not allow yourself to become involved with these people as you may also be
brought into any suits and judgements won against them.

We are providing this information as reference only and are not pointing a
finger at any one specific person or persons who are accessing this system.
This message may be freely distributed.

Fred Clark
President
Clark Development Company, Inc.

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Date: 08-19-91 (08:28)              Number: 47213 of 47308
To: AL LAWRENCE                   Refer#: NONE
>From: DAVID TERRY                     Read: NO
Subj: BETA CODE IS NOW OFFLINE      Status: RECEIVER ONLY


PLEASE NOTE!      (This message is addressed to ALL!)

The beta code is now offline and may be offline for a couple of days. After
finding a program which cracks PCBoard's registration code I have taken the
beta code offline so that I can finish up work on the other routines I've been
working on which will not be cracked so easily.  I'm sorry if the removal
inconveniences anyone.  However, it's quite obvious that SOMEONE HERE leaked
the beta code to a hacker otherwise the hacker could not have worked on
breaking the registration code.

I'm sorry that the few inconsiderates have to make life difficult for the rest
of you (and us).  If that's the way the game is played, so be it.

P.S. -- We've found a couple of large pirate boards (who we have not notified)
        who should expect to see the FBI show up on their doorstep in the not
        too distant future.  Pass the word along.  If people want to play rough
        then we'll up the ante a bit ... getting out of jail won't be cheap!
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

     Seems to me they are trying to scare everyone.  I think the FBI has
better things to do than go around catching System Operators who didn't
purchase PC-Board.  At least I hope they do.  First they put in a key that was
needed to run the beta version of PCB and you could only get it by typing
REGISTER on Salt Air, it would then encrypt your name and give you the key so
you could register you beta.  Expiration date were also implemented into the
beta code of 14.5a,  but the first day this was released on Salt Air, pirates
already designed a program to make your own key with any name you wanted.  It
appears that with this "new" technique that Clark Systems are trying failed
too.  As it is cracked already also.  Maybe they should be more concerned on
how PC-Board functions as a BBS rather than how to make it crack-proof.  As
most pirate system don't run PC-Board anyway!
_______________________________________________________________________________

Georgia's New Area Code
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Telephone use in Georgia has increased so rapidly -- caused by increased
population and the use of services like fax machines and mobile telephones that
they are running out of telephone numbers.

     Southern <Fascist> Bell will establish a new area code -- 706 -- in
Georgia in May 1992.  The territory currently designated by the 404 area code
will be split.

     Customers in the Atlanta Metropolitan local calling area will continue to
use the 404 area code.  Customers outside the Atlanta Metropolitan toll free
calling area will use the 706 area code.  The 912 area code (South Georgia)
will not be affected by this change.

     They realize the transition to a new area code will take some getting used
to.  So, between May 3, 1992 and August 2, 1992, you can dial EITHER 706 or 404
to reach numbers in the new area.  After August 2, 1992, the use of the 706
area code is required.

     They announced the the new area code far in advance to allow customers to
plan for the change.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Unplug                                                            July 20, 1991
~~~~~~
>From AT&T Newsbriefs (and contributing sources; the San Francisco Chronicle
     (7/20/91, A5) and the Dallas Times Herald (7/20/91, A20)

     A prankster who intercepted and rerouted confidential telephone messages
from voice mail machines in City Hall <of Houston, Texas> prompted officials to
pull the plug on the phone system.  The city purchased the high-tech telephone
system in 1986 for $28 million.  But officials forget to require each worker to
use a password that allows only that worker to retrieve or transfer voice
messages from their "phone mailboxes," said AT&T spokesman Virgil Wildey.  As a
result, Wildey said, someone who understands the system can transfer messages
around, creating chaos.
_______________________________________________________________________________

The Bust For Red October
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By Stickman, Luis Cipher, Orion, Haywire, Sledge, and Kafka Kierkegaard

     At 8:00 AM on August 7, 1991 in Walnut Creek, California the house of
Steven Merenko, alias Captain Ramius, was raided by Novell attorneys
occompanied by five federal marshals.  All of his computer equipment was
confiscated by the Novell attorneys; including disks, tape backups, and all
hardware.

     Novell officials had filed an affidavit in the United States District
Court for the Northern District of California.  They charge Merenko had
illegally distributing Novell NetWare files.

     A Novell investigator logged on to Merenko's BBS as a regular user 11
times over a period of a several months.  He uploaded a piece of commercial
software from another company, with the company's permission, in order to gain
credibility and eventually download a file part of Novell NetWare 386 v3.11,
which with a full-blown installation costs more than $10,000.

     Novell issued a Civil suit against The Red October BBS, and because of
that Merenko will not go to jail if he is found guilty of letting other people
download any copyrighted or commercial software.  The maximum penalty in a
civil case as this one is $100,000 per work infringed.

     The Red October BBS was THG/TSAN/NapE Site with four nodes, 4 gigabytes of
hard drive space online and had been running for four years.

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Novell's Anti-Piracy Rampage
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Novell's raid on the Red October BBS on August 7, 1991 is the latest in a
two-year ongoing anti-piracy venture.  In the same week as the Red October
bust, the original Wishlist BBS in Redondo Beach, California was also raided.
Last April (1991), Novell sued seven resellers in five states that were accused
of illegally selling NetWare.  In the fall of last year they seized the
computer equipment of two men in Tennessee accused of reselling NetWare over
BBSs.  According to David Bradford, senior vice president and general counsel
at Novell and chairman of the Copyright Protection Fund of the Software
Publisher's Association, the crackdown on software piracy has paid off.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Lottery May Use Nintendo As Another Way To Play               September 1, 1991
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Taken from Minneapolis Star Tribune (Section B)

                  "Several kinks have yet to be worked out."

     Minnesota gamblers soon could be winning jackpots as early as 1993 from
the comfort of their own living rooms.  The state will begin testing a new
system next summer that will allow gamblers to pick numbers and buy tickets at
home by using a Nintendo control deck.  The system, to be created by the state
and Control Data Corporation, would be somewhat similar to banking with an
automated teller machine card.  Gamblers would use a Nintendo control deck and
a state lottery cartridge.  The cartridge would be connected by phone to the
lottery's computer system, allowing players to pick Lotto America, Daily 3 and
Gopher 5 numbers, and play the instant cash games.  Players would gain access
to the system by punching in personal security codes or passwords. Incorrect
passwords would be rejected.  Only adults would be allowed to play.

     A number of kinks, including setting up a pay-in-advance system for
players to draw on, computer security and adult registration, must be worked
out.  32% of Minnesota households have Nintendo units.  About half of those who
use the units are older than 18.  Those chosen to participate in the summer
experiment will be given a Nintendo control deck, phone modem and lottery
cartridge.
_______________________________________________________________________________

15,000 Cuckoo Letters                                         September 8, 1991
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reprinted from RISKS Digest
>From:  Cliff Stoll

     In 1989, I wrote, "The Cuckoo's Egg", the true story of how we tracked
down a computer intruder.  Figuring that a few people might wish to communicate
with me, I included my e-mail address in the book's forward.

     To my astonishment, it became a bestseller and I've received a tidal wave
of e-mail.  In 2 years, about 15,000 letters have arrived over four networks
(Internet, Genie, Compuserve, and AOL).  This suggests that about 1 to 3
percent of readers send e-mail.

     I've been amazed at the diversity of the questions and comments: ranging
from comments on my use of "hacker" to improved chocolate chip cookie recipes.
Surprisingly, very few flames and insulting letters arrived - a few dozen or
so.

     I've tried to answer each letter individually; lately I've created a few
macros to answer the most common questions.  About 5% of my replies bounce, I
wonder how many people don't get through.

     I'm happy to hear from people; it's a gas to realize how far the book's
reached (letters from Moscow, the South Pole, Finland, Japan, even Berkeley);
but I'm going to spend more time doing astronomy and less time answering mail.

Cheers,     Cliff Stoll      cliff@cfa.harvard.edu
                             stoll@ocf.berkeley.edu
_______________________________________________________________________________