75 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
75 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
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--FEATURE ARTICLES AND REVIEWS-
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TAPPING COMPUTER DATA IS EASY, AND CLEARER THAN PHONE CALLS !
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BY RIC BLACKMON, SYSOP OF A FED BBS
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Aquired by Elric of Imrryr & Lunatic Labs UnLtd
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---------------------
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FOR SEVERAL YEARS, I ACCEPTED CERTAIN BITS OF MISINFORMA-
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TION AS TECHNICALLY ACCURATE, AND DIDN'T PROPERLY PURSUE THE
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MATTER. SEVERAL FOOLS GAVE ME FOOLISH INFORMATION, SUCH AS:
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A TAP INTERRUPTS COMPUTER DATA TRANSMISSIONS; DATA COULD BE
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PICKED UP AS RF EMANATIONS BUT IT WAS A MASS OF UNINTELLIGIBLE
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SIGNAL CAUSED BY DATA MOVING BETWEEN REGISTERS; ONE HAD TO BE IN
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'SYNC' WITH ANY SENDING COMPUTER; DATA COULDN'T BE READ UNLESS
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YOU HAD A DIRECT MATCH IN SPEED, PARITY & BIT PATTERN; AND ONLY A
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COMPUTER OF THE SAME MAKE AND MODEL COULD READ THE SENDING COM-
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PUTER. THIS IS ALL PLAIN SWILL. IT IS IN FACT, AN EASIER CHORE TO
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TAP A COMPUTER THAN A TELEPHONE. THE TECHNIQUE AND THE EQUIPMENT
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IS ALMOST THE SAME, BUT THE COMPUTER LINE WILL BE MORE ACCURATE
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(THE TWO COMPUTERS INVOLVED, HAVE ERROR CORRECTING PROCEDURES)
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AND CLEARER (DIGITAL TRANSMISSIONS HAVE MORE DISTINCT SIGNALS
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THAN ANALOG TRANSMISSIONS).
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FIRST, RECOGNIZE THAT NEARLY ALL DATA TRANSMISSIONS ARE SENT IN
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CLEARTEXT ASCII SIGNALS. THE LINES CARRYING OTHER BIT-GROUPS OR
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ENCYPHERED TEXTS ARE RARE. SECOND, THE SIGNAL APPEARS ON GREEN
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AND RED (WIRES) OF THE PHONE LINE ('TIP' AND 'RING'). THE DATA IS
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MOST LIKELY ASYSCHRONOUS SERIAL DATA MOVING AT 300 BAUD. NOW THAT
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1200 BAUD IS BECOMING MORE CHIC, YOU CAN EXPECT TO FIND A GROWING
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USE OF THE FASTER TRANSMISSION RATE. FINALLY, YOU DON'T NEED TO
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WORRY ABOUT THE PROTOCOL OR EVEN THE BAUD RATE(SPEED) UNTIL AFTER
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A TAPED COPY OF A TRANSMISSION IS OBTAINED.
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IN A SIMPLE EXPERIMENT, A TAPED COPY OF A DATA TRANSMIS-
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SION WAS MADE WITH THE CHEAPEST OF TAPE RECORDERS, TAPPING THE
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GREEN AND RED LINES BEYOND THE MODEM. THE RECORDING WAS THEN
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PLAYED INTO A MODEM AS THOUGH IT WERE AN ORIGINAL TRANSMISSION.
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AT THAT POINT, HAD IT BEEN NECESSARY, THE PROTOCOL SETTINGS ON
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RECEIVING TERMINAL COULD HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO MATCH THE TAPE. NO
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ADJUSTMENTS WERE NECESSARY AND A NICE, CLEAR ERROR-FREE DOCUMENT
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WAS RECEIVED ON THE ILLICIT VIDEO SCREEN AND A NEAT HARD-COPY OF
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THE DOCUMENT CAME OFF THE PRINTER. THE MESSAGE WAS INDEED CAP-
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TURED, BUT HAD IT BEEN AN INTERCEPTION INSTEAD OF A SIMPLE MONI-
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TORING, IT COULD HAVE BEEN ALTERED WITH A SIMPLE WORD PROCESSOR
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PROGRAM, TO SUIT ANY PURPOSE, AND PLACED BACK ON THE WIRE.
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WERE I TO HAVE AN INTEREST IN INFORMATION ORIGINATING
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FROM A PARTICULAR COMPANY, AGENCY, OR OFFICE, I THINK THAT I
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WOULD FIND IT FAR MORE PRODUCTIVE TO TAP A DATA TRANSMISSION THAN
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TO TAP A VOICE TRANSMISSION, AND EVEN MORE REWARDING THAN GETTING
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HARDCOPY DOCUMENTS.
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*SIGNIFICANT & IMPORTANT INFORMATION IS MORE CONCENTRATED
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IN A DATA TRANSMISSION. *SIGNIFICANT & IMPORTANT INFOR-
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MATION IS MORE EASILY LOCATED IN DATA TRANSMISSIONS THAN IN
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MASSES OF FILES OR PHONE CALLS. *TRANSMITTED DATA IS
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PRESUMED TRUE, AND WHEN ALTERATION IS DISCOVERED, ITS READILY
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BLAMED ON THE EQUIPMENT. *THE LAWS CONCERNING TAPS ON
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UNCLASSIFIED AND NON-FINANCIAL COMPUTER DATA ARE EITHER QUITE
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LACKING OR ABJECTLY STUPID.
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THE POINT OF ALL THIS IS THAT THE PRUDENT MANAGER REALLY OUGHT TO
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ENCRYPT ALL DATA TRANSMISSIONS. ENCRYPTION PACKAGES ARE CHEAP (A
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'DES' PROGRAM IS NOW PRICED AT $30) AND ARE EASY TO USE.
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-------------------------------
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