93 lines
5.5 KiB
Plaintext
93 lines
5.5 KiB
Plaintext
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(c)1989
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!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
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? !
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! When the World Comes Crumbling Down... ?
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? !
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! AT&T AND WORLD WAR III ?
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? !
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! by ?
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? --]> Professor Falken <[-- !
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! ?
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?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
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What will Phreaks and Hacks do without a telephone system ? Phreaks will
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not have a network to experiment with nor will Hacks have such a direct method
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of infiltrating computer systems. The communication system for the " CORRUPT "
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computer generation will be destroyed. No matter what we do, almost everything
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is directly linked to the phone system. Thats why it will be the first thing
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to go if a limitied nuclear strike is initiated.
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Laying 40 feet below the surface of Netcog New Jersey is AT&T's
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National Emergency Control Center. All that is visible from the surface is a
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Yellow brick building the size of a large garage. Visitors are buzzed in
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through two ground level doors and must walk down four flights of stairs.
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Once at the bottom they must pass through two heavy vault doors that open one
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at a time. The two-story subterranean complex was constructed during the late
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1960's. Blasting through solid granite was required to build the building,
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then concrete was poured and reinforced for the walls, and the roof and four
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feet of Earth was laid atop of that. Then entire structure is wrapped in steel
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to shield the inside from the electromagnetic pulses sent out by a nuclear
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explosion.
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During peacetime, the Netcog center is a switching relay station on the
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Boston-Miami cable. In a pre-nuclear war crisis, the center's normal staff
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will be joined by workers from the AT&T Communications operations center at
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Bedminster, New Jersey, fifteen miles away. The workers at Bedminster
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oversee the nation's AT&T long distance network. Following a nuclear attack,
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they will reroute calls around cities that have ceased to exist.
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The AT&T Communications staff will work under fluorescent lights in a
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large open room in the Netcog center. Their phones, desks, and terminals
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all waiting for them. Bell System files are stored nearby and updated
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monthly, and a phone list of sixty people to be called to the center in a
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crisis is pinned to a bulletin board.
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In another area of the complex, lined wall to wall are ESS running units
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which are attached to the ceiling by heavy steel springs and anchored to the
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floor by think elastic bands. If the building is struck by a massive shock
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wave, the elastic bands will snap and the switching units will swing, cushioned
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by the springs. All other mechanical equipment in the center is similarly
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shock mounted. The storerooms are stocked with tanks of drinking water, and
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kerosene for generators. The ventilation system is equipped with fallout
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filters and blast valves that will close if a blast wave hits. Sometimes the
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blast valves are activated by thunder, which jolts the peacetime Netcog crew.
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The desks for AT&T executives are in a large open area next to the
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operations center. The AT&T Communications crew will run what is left of the
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long distance network, with help from backup centers in Kansas and Georgia and
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seven other underground centers.
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AT&T is a nuclear prepared corporation, across the country AT&T routed
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long distance cables around target cities and buried the cables inside steel
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and concrete conduits to protect them from nuclear blast. The 4,000 miles
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transcontinental cable was built by the Bell system to withstand national
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crisises, including a nuclear blast short of a direct hit. It can take
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pressure of over 100 pounds per square inch; an overall pressure of one half-
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pound per square inch would crush the average home. All communications
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equipment associated with the cable is shockmounted in underground concrete
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buildings. The cable runs from New York to California, skirting all major
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cities and potential target areas.
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If an attack were to strike the nation and the telephone system was still
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in operable condition special FCC regulations would be put in effect to
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direct telephone usage. These regulations outline a telephone call priority.
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Sorta of like the Autovon priority system ( Priority, Immediate, Flash, and
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Flash Override ) The highest priority category is designated " FLASH
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EMERGENCY. " All other calls in progress will be interrupted to put through
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FLASH EMERGENCY calls, which will include those involving command and control
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of military forces and " conduct of diplomatic negotiations critical to the
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arresting or limiting of hostilities. " From what I can understand the normal
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telephone service will become in effect an Autovon, primarily for military
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usage.
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In any case, the phone system would probably be trashed. So lets enjoy
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it and experiment with it while we have it. It is probably the best telephone
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network in the world, and we all have AT&T to thank for it.
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Article written 12/27/88 by Professor Falken, Released 5/8/89.
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