2600
January, 1984!
~~====~~~=~==== ,. '"0,,, "", m"", ,h "' "'" ,. , ,. 1:" I"" m.'" 0'"",.,.,•. _"''''''",do" VOLUME ONE. NUMBER ONE -.,,-, "" ,,,,,,,"11, ", "'''. ""' "'. M""'I,_ '.,1,,,,. " 'm.' '''0 ,·I,,",~,~,,·
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AHOY! (That's how
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/fhi' is,the very fi.... l is,ue of 1600. We will,on this p.ge, nplaiR OUr motive, and what the galli, are which we hope 10 achieve Wilh thi, publication. The id.a for 1600 wa:; born early in 1983, We saw a lremend'ou! need for 'orne form of communication between those who truly appreciate the concepl of communication' technological enthu,iasts. Of cou"". others havo different way, of describing such pe<>plt_ these rang< from word, like hacker or phreaker to strongor tonos .U<:h a. criminar or anarchi.t. Our purpo'" i' not to pass judgemont. 2600 o~i". to provide information allddenly everyono was talking ab<>ut phreakers and hackers. And while ihere were ,om'e that sort ofjumped ,nto the limelight, others were a bit more cantiow;, in fact, ,ome were quite np,et. Snre. 'he publicity was fuo. But what would be the cost? Wdl. time has passed and th. cost has been high, Phreakers and hackers have beenJorced into virtual i,olation, Raids by the FBI have b
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equipment from 15 ,ile. aCrOSS the COUn"}' un the twelfth and thirteenth of Ihe month (.pon.ored' by a grant from the folk' al GTE). many of our conlect, were los,t beca~,e they feared the consequencc, of continuing. Two organization,. the Inner Circlo and PHA LSE. """ro deeply affected by the raid,. The laUor group (whese initials signify Phreakers, Hackers. and Laundromat Service Employeo,) i' 'till in contact with i l l 00 occa.ion and has promised to comribute many articles devoted 10 just what was really going On. So iuoem, that the events of 1983 have.on.pired to actually $lung/hen the ,resolve of hack." and phreakers across,the c"uotry to put "ut thi. moMhly newslettor. We hope you will help u. contin~e by "~bscribing. ,preading the word ameng your friend', and of course contributing articles and information, Since we are non-profil, i't roally doesn't mal1orlO uS if you xer"x your copy and sond it to someone el.. -all we ~sk i. that you let u, know so thaI we can hayt a rough idea of how many people we're reaching. 2600 ha, ..veral section., SOJIle of which will appear every mon'h. others on an irregular basis. On thl" the front page. and on, page IW", you' will always fInd informative full-Ienglh foatur6 on relevant subject'. FUI~re 'opics include: "A Guide to Long Distance Telephone Service, and Their 'Villnerabililie,n. «DEC and Theil' Many Mi,tak..··. ~Phrealting in the Sixties'''' and "Tracing Methods Used by the Law~, as wclla. any la,e-broaking items. "FLASH"appears on page 3 and proviriCs a roundup of limely new, items wrineo from a lechnological e"thu,ia"', perspective. Page 4 is used for a variety of things .. _interesting stories from Ihe pa't. ,chemes and plot, that just might work. and feedback from 'nbscribe", Tho 'wo pages of 2600 are coml'ri.ed of data, Just whal 'Ort of data. we CannOt say. However. if it is ,omething [hat you ore looking for. the" you "'ill prob.bly recogni,e i" The throe hole, on eaoh page ",rvc a purpo,". We 'ugge't Ih., )'''U ohtnin a loo.. -Ieaf book '0 that ;'00 can neatly file every i"ue "f !~(lfl Y"u recei"e. Ma"y thank, [h",e of yon wl,o ,ubscrihcd wi[hout even ,eeing an i."uc A word of ad"i,,". tl"'ugh' do,,'t do it ag"in or y(llI'lI p",b"bly gel ripped "tfI Wo'd like ", [I",nk th",c wh" w"k advan'agc of n" r free i.",," "Iler. If in[cr"'ted or' '''h,,''ihiag. tho rate, and '''ldre'' ean be round a[ [he 'op "fthi' page, Welc"me [n !Mifi. Tur" the p"g~ "nd heen",e" pm' "I' """ "niqtl~ worl~1
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FBI GOES AFTER ADS HACKERS
HM must press charges before action can be taken - Feds reveal their tactics, blow source L.A. .to Denver to upstate New York. So we hovc a article entitled: ESS - Orwell" Prophecy_ A I the lasl ~nre of individuals that we are still looking at that minute, however, we recej~ed this bombShell from an are using your system and then we have this peri· anonyma",. contributor. It seems that a group of phe'al that we are not a, concerned about because had,e" wm making use of on" of IBM's ADS sy!J. they are not part of an out & out conspiracy or an lems. (Audio Dis/rib", tion Systems "Mole users with organized network, per se. I know of at least 8 or 10 touch.tone phones to send !JOIce messages baak and that are the central figures in this, the carryover forrl, If) each, other. Look {or an 'n.depth article on hom TelemaiL And we keep hearing information of them in a future is.ue.) Unfortunately, as f. all too other people who are calling in with junk message;often the case, oM of these hackers was really an there's no real substance to their messages, Now the FBI in(ormanl who was taking not'; of all of the reason I know that is that they have indudcd one of Weg/timat" users (aumnd 40 or so). Luckily for my sources of information orito their system and ,0 this pan/culer gro.tP, the '''formant was sloppy ""d he gets messagCll from the other parties. I,,(t many telltaM' clues whiCh gave them literally months of warni"!. So, whe." the, 'informant de.The Communist Connection cIded to send a mesMI1""to 'the system operator, In a way we're somewhat fortunaw that it', 16adu,.ing IBM to take actinn 'against the hackers year.olds or 26-year.olds as opposed to ,people from and to call the FBI for more inform
(C"",lm,,'" on ,,,,,'k f,age)
GTE raids still have many unanswered questions-computer owners concerned On W~dn ..day, October 12, al 6:00 AM, the FBI started to raid the hom.. of ov~r fifteen indlvidusls for allegedly breaking imo T~lemsil,. GTE Telenet's massive ele<:tronic mail service. While much of Ihe publicily"as now died down, queslions remain conceming the legality and Ibe overall implications of sucb compuler seizure•. At a December 16 meeting of ihe Long Islaod Compuler A.sociation, Ihis lopic was addressed. Some members could nol understand Ihe ralionale for taking away the compulers in Ih. firsl place. "It .ound,lik. scare tactic$ to me. .. to keep these kids off ofcomputers,~one commenled, "To hold the equipment seems like .omething tbal sbould be unlawful and it's ,omething Ihat lhe public should look at, Ifit's not justified, we should .ay Ihat we won't put up wilh it anymore and to return Ihe equipmenl." He did nol elaborate on pr""i,ely what kind of action Jl computer group such as L1CA could take. Legally, the computers can,be kepi for as .Jong a. Ihey are needed in Ihe investigalion. Ultimately, a judge wilr decide bow long Ihat can be. ' '"The aUegalion, ~ said an all ..rney familiar wilh the case, "is thallbe .ervice. of the Telemail bullelin boards were used and the theory that tbe g..vernment is proceeding under is that it was a violation of Seetion 1343, wire fraud (a .cheme wilh inlention 10 defraud someone else using either lelevision, telephone, or some olher communicalions means). They're s.ayinltbal if there was use of Ihe huUelin h04rd service, then thafWaS a 'thefl ofservice' and there w'as intention 10 defraud GTE." • One member took GTE's side. '1"hese are aU nice games these people are playing. but lhey are a theft of service, Somebody is in the busin.., ..f providing lhal service and they're deliberately interfering with thek providing Ihat service. They're trying to get ....mething for nOlhing." Another disagreed. "You may he on Iheir computer, but ii'S not costing them anything. if you're not taking up time. Unless Ihe ,,!,hole system i, fully u,ed and you were the last user on, are' you .really using any of their lime? Really and truly1" , Many hackers felt they were unju,t1y accused. One even said he'd never used the Telemail ly5tem. Others said they had looked around once or twice but had never hurt anything. Others. though, admitted I" deleting mail and playing tric,,", like sending obscene me....ges back and forth hetween Iwo innoa:ni e"",,utives. Whether ornot the Telemail S}'Item.wUU$ed fraudulently did nOI seem to he the overriding i~.allheLlCA meeting. What had memben'fhere worrlod wasthe way in whiCh the investigation wa. beillg -Carried oUI. When dealing with computers as evidence, different rule. apply, rule.·that for the most part have not heen"written yet. "Data ean he manilfactured jolt a. easily as il can he erased from a personal compltter," one member commented. "And th~ I..nger thatlhey have the'computer in lheir custody, the less likely that the informalion that lhey claim'is on it was actually U>ore. Beca",e, a. we know, you could en.ter any date, any time into the computer and have il date- and time
MeanWhile, a GTE Telenet spoke' person said that Ihe corporation atill intends to prosecute and denied thaI Ihe whole thing was being put on for Ibe deterrenteffectlbal it might have on nther people. The .pokesperson also said thaI abuse on the system. was di.cover.d in the past, but they didn't prosecute at that time. Tbi< time, though, they're ,eriou•.
AT&T Credit Cards Make Debut ""'" N.~
There's .now another way to pllce telephone calls without dime•. Th", month, lhe "tmew AT&T credit card phones are rna.king their debut in variou.,.airports around Ihe cO""lry. Th'" new phone actually take. an AT&T credit card (not tho.e wimpy ~calJjng cards" or "PIN cards." We're talking aboul a rea' hunk of plast.ic, witb a magnetic strip and everything.) - and tbere'. even a lillie viden sereen that gives you direction,. Unles, some sort of a bug can be found within tltesislem itself, phone phreaks won't accomplish very much here, unless IheX can actually get their hand. on other people'. card •. Th,s, 10 it,elf, wnuldn'l be too difficult, since large numbers ol'lhe cards would be sent out on the same day in a particular area. Slealing out of personal mailboxes. though, IS an act lPost phone plu-eaks would never SlOOp to. And the folks al AT&T are well aware of this.
Wireless phones spell trouble
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With cordle.. phones popping up all over the place, prohlems were bound to arise. lt'l not al all unC0mmon to hear another cordless conversation on ynur phone or 10hear ,the ele<:tronic pulse-beeping when you're not even dialing. Then there are cordle.. phone phteah to deal Wilh, who drive into heavily populated zones holding one of Ihe commOn cordless modeb. It's 'caUed "cruising for diallones. w ~nd some phones are nice enough 10 broadcasi your conversation on ao AM frequency. This feature iso't very good for privale conversalion,. It helped shape a recent drug bustin lhe stale of New York~ Recently... lady in the Midwest caUed up ber local electric company to teil·them that ,he w... going to he away for twn montllS. A member of the 2600 Club heard this on his radio and, being in a goO
1-984 arrives in Hong Kong '''j.oo ~""", n_
In an effort to "dilcourage people from drivmg their cars in heavily congesled are..... all 350,000 of Hong Kong" motor vehicles will be fitted with tracking devices that will let government eomputers know exactly where e.eh car hM traveled so thai the owner can he billed for road u,e. This system could he in full implementation by 1987, if lhe governmenl has its way. Such asystem would .lloaliowthe police to quickly pinpoint lhe whereabouts of any vehicle. Tampering with the 145 tracking devices will be illeg.1 and any allempt to do so will" lrigger ,treet earner., to photograph the Iicen.e plate of the ear.
THE TRUTH BEHIND THOSE 9999 NUMBERS by Mark Bluebux Once upun a time. I was talking to One of my favurite friend•. une of the natiun', uldest and most experienced telephone enthnsia"'~··some might refer to him as a phone ph reak. In this particular conversation, he mentioned to me that I might want to experiment with a ,erie, of 800 numbe", 'exchange, starting with 9, followed by Ihe suffix 9999 (800·9x.-W99). And '0 I did, and a whole new world hcgan to npen up in frOnl of me. They were mu.t1y weather and time numbe" in variou' localion, throughout the country. And, ,ince the,e were 800 numbers. there was NO CHARGE! One number ;n particular was of a great deal of interest to me and to many nthe". This .wa. 801).957-9999. which hooked up tu WWV, the radio "atiu'n operated' by the Natiunal Bureau of Standard. thaI does nuthing hnt tell the time and give .horlwave repurts. ThiU~ the.·most accurate. clock in Ihe entire world! You either have 10 lune WWV in on a ,hortwave recei,er or dial 303--499-71 I J ;n Fort Collin" Colorado, Vel, here I was withan 800acce.. ! Beinga bit ola shortwave enthusiast, 1 don't have to tell you how convenient this was for me, Unfortunately, ;t got too cunvenient for to<> many people. ' I guess I made the mistake of giving it tu a former pre.ident of a large amateur radio dub in the Dallas area. He, in lurn, printed it in the Amateur Radio NeWsbulletin where thousand. of people probably ·saw it. Another 'tatewide new. bulletin picked it up and printed it. Through an amaleur radio new. network whieh·.this bulletin was a part of, the news got as far a. California:', One day, lealled up Ihe West Link AmatelJr Radio New. Service at 2J3-768_7)33. (This is a ,ervice loe)ue
been pro.ided by the National Bureau of Standards for WWV and that number is 1_800_951_9999," Imagine my surpriscr Once again. the number had been broad all around the world. People in many, many nation. now had tbat number. Of course, the number only worked ;n,idethe
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li.teners and QS L people' ".erywhere, The number waS gelling swamped. Needle.. lOsay, il was busy much of the lime. A government official, who olso had thi, number, thinking thaI i, was legitimate, called up WWV and complained. He told them thatlhey needed 1<> add .Ome
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more lines their new 800number. Thegeneralmanagetof lhe "ation ,aid, "I don', know whm you',.., lalkingaboul. I don', know of any 800 number that gel. you WWY," The government officiat lold him what Ihe telephone number was. The ge",,,al manager called il and heard his own station. Astounded, he contacted the Mountain BeU Telephone Company in Denver. Coiorado. They said, "Vou're not paying for any 800in-WA TS number. We,how 3-O3-499-7111 for WWV, but we don't have any 800-957-
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Mountain Bell checked it out and ,ure enough, the number existed bUI not on Iheir records. No one was getting cha'1led for thisl Now, of course, you know a monopoly as well" I do-they're sure not going to let anyone havea free ride, Sn they told the WATS coordinator to find nut what happened, He finally made ·the discovery Ihat some tec~nician. had hooked that number up fnr transmission testing, [lbe...witching teehnicians are toll technician., AT&T Long Lines switching lechnician" and carrier system. technician•. In Olher word., they're the group of people who link .witching cenle" together, from New Vork to Los Angele., for example. In this ca.e, Ihe whole e.capade was a kind of group effort. The switchmen and Ihe carrier people gOt together and set up this number for testing, finding noi.y carriers, carriers with cross-talk on them, etc.) The WAT$ coordinalor told Ihem they'd bener get this number off-,-IO<> many people knew about it, He told them 10 erase every 800 test line number Ihat was on the ,ystem. Not surprisingly, someone also gOI ehewed out very '".everely. So, consequently, 800-957-9999 i. nO longel in existence, , But sin"" Ihen, Ie.. than Iwo weeks later, several ollhe 800 ; test numbers have begun to defiantly reappear, Check around, you']] probably /iod a few interesting ones. But I 'doubl if WWV', brief stint as a loll_free .e",ice will ever be ! repeated,
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Ahoy, folks! If any of you have ever used an extender that goes by the name of8006213129, you'd better give it a call now! The people running it have a: message for you.
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This her,' paKe is usualfl" a continuation ofpage 5. However, when wt' Kef a blockbuster HOlT like the one below. we have to reallocate our space. We know vou'ltimdersnmd. B.~' the Wo,l', as tong as we've got you looking up at this pari oflhe page, Whl' not take the time tosendus sumemail?Letfers.articles.informallon.oldlelephones.paintings.an.\.thinK. really. You '~ know the address (it's on thefront page). Let's hear-from YOu.
FBI VS. HACKERS rcominul''' .f'0m suon" page) Telemail. They caused fits within Telemail when they decided to get a little bit cocky and see if they could shut down accounts and change passwords of tire administrate", and things like that. From there they have moved one step further to where they are now the same individual,s communicat,ing through the ADS systems and they also. set up conference calls through the Bell System, sc they're not just attacking one particular system or one individual 'avenue of cominunication ~ they try to hit them all. It's an ~go trip for all of them.
Pen Registen
Or for ,ervice, rendered or whatever to the client company -,it stays on his r~cord for a year, he's on probation for a year and at the end of that, his record is wiped clean. Rarely do they get the maximum penalty. It just doesn't happen. Do Mea Favor Please do not disclose any geographic location because we are kind of unique in that we do not have any other,source available in any other part of the country that could supply us with information like this. ,He may 'be one of 200 people, but if you identify Michigan you identify between 2 or 3 individuals and it may hurll the source.
We wouid put a pen register On the phone,line of the individual (suspect) and it would record only the digits dialed on his telephone - We would not use ,a We'd like to make it dear' thai we don't {nlend to full blown wiretap to record hi. voice. We can Oli.ly do this'lrind of thing very often. since rumours about put a pen register On an individual's phone for Iik"" certain people being informants are uery common in thirty days before we have to go back to a judge and this bf'sin..... But this is no rumour. This, [rlends, is try to get an extension and we try to minimize the wild tact - we wouid not haue printed this story If Ulle of our electronic surveillance equipment so the I we weren't 'able to substantiate the cl4lms it makes, public does not think we're the. Big Brother of 1984. and we had no trouble at all doing that., Our intenl (laughter) It's coming. Actually, we're already in making tkis information known was not to screw there! (hearty laughter)' up ,the FBI's fun (they"re really not doing all tkat We have not utilized any pen re'g;.,ters fQl" the spe, .much out of tke ordinary anyway), bul ralher to dfic purposes of going after abusera of the ADS expose a very dangerous indiuible lation. Those are always In - a more common lessoll; dOll't trud anybody. Have fUll, Cable Poir. sentence may -ee for an adult maybe a year in jail, Enjoy yourself. Just don't -expect to see allY of us 18 months, or a fine, ,sometimes they get probation, . Oller at theChestllut Tree Cafe with )IOU. You're or agrH to pay back any fraudulent money obtained On your OWIl now.
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