575 lines
36 KiB
Plaintext
575 lines
36 KiB
Plaintext
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"ELITE" ACCESS - A TUTORIAL
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BY LORD DIGITAL AND DEAD LORD
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DOOM OF LEGIONS/H
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LORDS ANONYMOUS!
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SEPTEMBER 25, 1986 -- REVISED MAY 02,1988
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PRE-PROLGUE
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===========
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This article does not express the opinions of 2600 magazine. It's full
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of my own personal opinions which happen to bear a startling resemblance to the
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REAL BBS "underground" that so many of you readers are fascinated with.
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PROLOGUE
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========
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For reporters, brain dead media types, or anyone else reading this who
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has been blessed with a room tempeture IQ and faulty observational abilities;
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"Elite" as it's applied to the "underground" community, is a phrase that
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theoretically denotes the top 2-5% of the hacking and Phreaking world and its
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rather peculiar heirarchy. Realistically it denotes the 2-5% that spend the
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greatest amount of time polishing up their image on boards instead of doing what
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they're presumably good at (hacking).
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This article is designed to allow you (yes YOU the junior G-man; would
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be Secret Service agent; publicity whore; over-eager journalist, or just bored
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modem owner and future potential ELITE) access to almost anything you might wish
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to call; in addition to providing you with the knowledge neccesary to impress
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other ELITE's with your learned brilliance.
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CONTENT
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=======
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A tutorial for all the people too dense to figure out the quirks of human
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nature all by themselves, who also have some inane desire to have access to
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ELITE boards, containing ELITE information and ELITE users, along with ELITE
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wares, 42 seconds after they are cracked by ELITE crackers. Not to mention
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ELITE dial-ups to ELITE companies, which will work for aproximately 15 minutes
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before some idiot logs in and does something to fuck them up.
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I'm writing it because I am bored of doing all this by myself, with only
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a handful of peers to accompany me. Not that I expect to gain "peers" from
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people that need help from this text file, but I imagine it'll give ELITE Sysops
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something else to do with their time. I also hope to save you 2-5 years of
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time. 2-5 years is the average lifespan of an ELITE person, before he gets a
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life and comes to the understanding that he just wasted 2-5 years.
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Please don't misunderstand me when I say 2-5 years, there are many people
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who have been ELITE for almost 10 years and are still going strong. I wouldn't
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want to step on any ego's, or ruin anyone's life work, now would I... ELITE
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BOARDS
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============
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ELITE boards exist because the people who populate them, believe them-
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selves to be superior to the people populating all the other boards. Most
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people don't agree with them, but they agree with each other. 100-200 people
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being sufficient to set up their own personal version of the world, they gather
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together on these ELITE boards and do ELITE things like post new wares, engage
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in "rag wars" and type things up out of manuals at each other.
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SYSOPS
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======
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Seeing how you're trying to get access to an ELITE board, you should have
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a basic understand of who the Sysop is, and why he's running the board. This
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part is easy, in over 95% of all cases, the Sysop is a egotistical fool, who is
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willing to give up the use of his computer, or computers, in exchange for the
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privledge of playing god with the hopeless sots who log in.
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This is especially the case on all manner of ELITE boards that request a
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"real" telephone number, voice validation, and the donation of your first born
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male child for even higher access. All under the guise of "security".
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Requesting a "real" voice number, or even name, is nothing that unusual. Almost
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all "mainstream" non-Pirate and non-Phreak systems require it. Of course there
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is nothing stopping you from leaving them Anal Annie's phone sex service as your
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home number, and picking a random name. That will usually be the end of that.
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The only time the Sysop will ever check into your information will be if you
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happen to become a "rodent" and annoy him and/or the users of his BBS, in which
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case he'll engage you in a 20 letter conversation, each one giving a really
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sincere and heartening reason why you would feel so much better if you gave him
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your phone number, and why he just HAS to have it for reasons you wouldn't
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understand, because ALL Sysops MUST keep track of who uses their systems, don't
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ya know?
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This file won't cover "normal" Sysops, because if you aren't capable of
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bullshitting THEM, then you're hopeless and may as well find a new hobby. Like
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gardening is pretty exciting I hear, fer instance...
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"VOICE" NUMBERS
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===============
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The truth is: there is no reason on earth, why a Sysop should EVER need
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your voice number, or any information on you at all. Naturally he'll WANT it,
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because being the kind of person who runs a bbs in the first place, he's a nosy
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and prying kind of guy that want's to know everything about you. For reasons of
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"board security" of course.
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Let me tell you about "board security:" it doesn't exist! When a system
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is "secure" all that means is that the Sysop has lulled himself into a false
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sense of safety that bears little relation to the actual state of his board. But
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that's beside the point. The point being that you DON'T want to hear from the
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Sysop; EVER. One of the reasons they give for "needing" your voice number is:
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"well if there's ever something wrong with the bbs, I need to be able to let you
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know, or ask you what commands you used if you were the last user before it
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crashed". Isn't that nice... How many Sysop's notify their users when their
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board goes down "for repairs"? NOT ONE. As for problems, well what do I care?
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The last thing I want is Melvin Sysop calling me up when I'm watching Miami Vice
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and trying to have a 5 hour conversation with me because he has nothing else to
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do with his time. Or better still, having my phone number embedded in his
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software when the Secret Service busts down his door because he carded 50 hard
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drives to his home address.
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I know many Sysops, some of them are even my friends. These are the
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kinds of things Sysops do with their userlists. Of course ALL of them will
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CLAIM that other Sysops might do that, but THEY never would, god no, not them!
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FAVORITE SYSOP USES FOR USERS TELEPHONE NUMBERS
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===============================================
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I. When any "new ware" is released (and he happens to be a Pirate kind of
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guy), Sysops go through every name on the userlist, call them up and
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ask for the new ware. If you don't have the new ware, or just say you
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don't in the hopes that he will fuck off, he will then proceed to bug
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the hell out of you by asking for 50 other wares that he just has to
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have.
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II. If he's an ELITE PHREAK kinda guy and some national emergency takes
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place such as his favorite 800 dying on him; he does the same thing
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as the Pirate type Sysop and calls everyone on the userlist begging
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for 800's, "any cool info", and pw's to CIS.
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III. More so with Phreaks than Pirates, but somewhat true for all of them:
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The Sysop want's an update on some latest tidbit of hot gossip that
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he will just die if he doesn't find out. He will then try to have
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another 5 hour conversation with you about whatever drivel he called
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you up to discuss.
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IV. Some people trade baseball cards, some people trade comics, some
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people trade phone numbers. Sysops LOVE to trade phone numbers,
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especially those of "influential" users. I don't know why, they
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usually lack the balls to even call them beyond the customary dial,
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wait for some person's voice, then slam the phone down and go jerk
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off because all that excitement gave them a hard-on. This is very
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much to your benefit as I'll explain a little further down.
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V. And worst of all, there is the "lonely Sysop", the guy who will call
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you every "day" at 2 in the morning and try to have an engaging
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conversation about whatever happened in his "life" that day.
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There are many other things Sysops do with your number, but as far as I'm
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concerned, those were the worst. OK, I'm going on and on about why a Sysop has
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no need for your number, and how he'll annoy you to death if he ever gets it, so
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YOU know that now, but what do you do about it?
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GETTING VALIDATED
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=================
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There is no big trick to being validated. In almost every case, the
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Sysop asking for a voice number, is just his usual hoopla and he'll never bother
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to check out anything you give him that passes as "information". If you leave a
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reasonably intelligent copy of feedback, kiss his ass in a sublime kind of way,
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and in general explain to him why having you on his bbs will make his life much
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better than it is now; you'll be validated with normal access.
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Uploading new wares or files, posting messages, and drivel along those
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lines, will get your access raised. You can also bullshit for higher access,
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but I'm assuming YOU don't know how, which is why you're reading this file to
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begin with. BULLSHITTING is an artform and I have neither the time or patience
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to type up a file on it, so I'm doing this instead.
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EXAMPLE PIRATE BOARD FEEDBACK
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=============================
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Hello, I'm the Masked Avocado. I just got your bbs #, from an
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advertisement that was posted on Capital Connection. I liked what the message
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had to say, so I called to check your board out. I can contribute new
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software, programming help, and anything that might help to enhance your bbs.
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I also distribute for Coast to Coast and Digital Gang. My latest wares include:
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MultiScribe //gs 2.1.2.4 HiggyBBS 6.2 Deluxe Paint Print Plus 2.1 By the way,
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my first name is Melvin, I'm 13^H^H19, and my system is made up of an enhanced
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//e, 212 applecat, 3.5 drive and a bunch of peripherals. Thanks for your time,
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Melvin
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Let's examine that and highlight a few points.
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I. ALWAYS use decimel points when describing new wares. Copy ][+ has a
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revision every 2 weeks that does nothing except update the parm files.
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NEW WARES! have constant updates and "Pirates" are always on the lookout
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to increase the decimel point revision of their software. Even if it
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does NOTHING different EXCEPT change the decimel point. Aside from the
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fact that feedback is just bullshit to get you validated, you can very
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easily get a sector editor up and change a few decimel points yourself.
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II. ALWAYS say you got his BBS # from some established ELITE board, in the
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case of Pirates, Capital Connection is always a good bet. In reality
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it's quite a lame board, but other board Sysops seem to feel otherwise,
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and besides instantly impressing the Sysop of the board you're logging
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into (by being a member of CapCon), he will also get a kick out of it
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that some idiot posted his board on the CapCon "BBS Ads" section.
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[Please note that "Capital Connection" was valid at this file's original
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incept date over a year ago. The average Pirate board having a lifespan
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of 6 months at best; Capital Connection no longer exists. The current
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Elite Pirate board of the next 6 months, is "Trade Center."]
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III. Among your list of "new wares" you can always list some BBS program,
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because every week some dork writes a new program, that is lousy, never
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works right, and if ever faced with "put up or shut up" you can change
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around any one of 50 different BBS programs, and upload it as the NEW
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WARE!
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[Same with software as with boards -- it doesn't stay new very long.
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I can't help you here because I haven't the slighest idea what's new in
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Apple software. However, all you need to do is invest 3 bucks in the
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latest issue of whatever magazine pertains to your particular computer,
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and list off some of the software you see advertised.]
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IV.Always say you distribute for some random collection of new wares groups.
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Nobody can prove that you don't (logging into one cat-fur and uploading
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the wares you found on it, to another cat-fur, is distributing) and it
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will make the Sysop think that you'll be uploading 20 sided GS wares to
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his board every day.
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[As you may have guessed, new wares groups also come and go. Digital Gang
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still exists, as do a slew of new groups; if you don't know of any, a safe bet
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is making up a name and saying that you're based somewhere in Europe. Europe
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being the fabled birthplace of all the best new Atari and Amiga software in
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particular.]
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V. Always list "your" first name and age. Make up an age that is over 16 so
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they won't discriminate against you. If you're under 16 and admit it in
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your feedback, you'll be instantly labeled an idiot.
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VI. Always list some of your hardware. Don't ask me why, it's just another
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item in the agenda of things that Sysops like to pry into. If you give
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them this information without them asking for it, it makes them feel
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better.
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VII. Always end the message with a "thanks for your time". Remember, he's an
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egotistical fool, and that one line makes him think you respect him,
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want to do things for him, and would be genuinely happy to be a member
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of his AWESOME board.
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VIII. ALWAYS sign it with "your" first name, this keeps the tone informal,
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and makes you seem like a less threatening type of guy.
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GENERAL TIPS
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============
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Remember that many Pirate boards have a "VOTE ON NEW USERS" feature, so
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don't say anything that you wouldn't want the entire world to read. If you
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follow those basic guidelines, you'll ALWAYS get validated if the rest of your
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information is right. The rest being your phone # if the Sysop actually calls
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new users.
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Some of you are saying to yourselves: Yeah, but if you just listed all of
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this, won't Sysops be on the lookout for this kind of feedback? Yeah, but then
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who are they going to validate? "Obvious" rodents? No, if they want new users
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then they'll be more than happy to accept you.
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EXAMPLE PHREAK BOARD FEEDBACK
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=============================
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Greetings,
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I'm Tesla Coil of The Crossbar Rapists (TC of TCR). I was told by a user
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of Metal Shoppe Private (MSP), that your bbs was worth looking into. I've been
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published in TAP, 2600, and Uncle Mel's Phone Times. My handle was listed in
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issue 12 of Security Systems of Greater Podunk (SSoGP) as a "Computer genius
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breaks into Podunk's Private Database!" I've been hacking since 1981, I was a
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member of Sherwood Forest, Securityland, The AT&T Phone Center, OSUNY, OSUNY
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when it went back up, WOPR, LOD the BBS, Cryton, COSMOS, Metal Shoppe Private,
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and OSUNY when it came back for yet another go at it.
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I had to change my handle for reasons of security when I was taken out by
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the feds in the 1983 414 busts.
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I'm an expert with Unix, RSTS, Primos, and HiggyOS. I can program in C,
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D, E, and F, Fortran 77 and 78, Basic for the Cyber, IBM, MAC, Amiga, ST, and
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Apple II. I also know assembly for the 6502, 8088, 68020, Z-80a, and TIMEX.
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I have an Apple //e, IBM AT, Mac+, and Kim-A1.
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After entering college last year, my time was seriously limited. But
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after getting some additional free time, I've decided to restart my hobby of
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hacking and exploring the phone system. My current interest centers around the
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understanding of the myriad functions associated with CLID.
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People who can reccommend me include: (Pick 4 or 5 names of people who
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aren't really ELITE, but not unknown to current ELITE Sysops either. If you
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can't think of them, pick up any issue of Phrack and take a few out of there.
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The reason you want "not really ELITE" people, is because they won't command too
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much attention. You DON'T WANT excess attention, saying that some dork who
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writes for Phrack recommends you, is less noticible than saying some "real"
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ELITE recommends you. Why say ANYONE recommends you, if it's so much trouble?
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Because it somehow flips a switch in the Sysop's mind, which makes him think
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that you must be an OK dude, if so and so recommends you. 9 out of 10 times he
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won't check. The 1 time he does check, the person he's bothering will usually
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say "yeah yeah, go away I'm doing something" and that'll be the end of it).
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[Please note that by "real elite" I don't mean anyone who is better, rather I
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mean someone who has spent tremendous amounts of time generating exposure for
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his handle.]
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Thanks for you time, Tesla Coil/The Crossbar Rapists Let's examine this one
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too.
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I. As you can see we've switched from 40 columns, to 80 columns complete
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with some form of spacing. We've also gotten a little bit more-let's
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say-"readable" than in our previous Pirate feedback example. This is
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because we're calling a different kind of system, with a different
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program than cat-fur ENHANCED 1.1!
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II. With Phreak Sysops you don't want to get too informal, because most of
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them are busy playing SECRET AGENT MAN! and if you do something normal
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like sign off with "your" first name, he'll think you're not being
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"professional". How it is in his mind that he equates "professional"
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with calling his board: I don't know, but trust me on this point. III.
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In the same vein of "professionalism", you're expected to list off your
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"accomplishments". Oddly enough, in Phreak/Hacker HIERARCHY, getting
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arrested numerous times is considered ELITE by many of it's peoples. Why
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this is, I don't know either. Personally, it says to me that the person
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who got arrested has the brains of an african bushman, but apparently,
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that's just my lone opinion. Anyhow, in line with this PROFESSIONAL
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attitude you are expected to list your life's accomplishments in the
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space of 50-100 lines, in a form that will make you sound like the best
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Hacker in the world, who is so good, that logically he wouldn't be
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caught dead calling the ELITE board you're calling, but once again
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skipping the logic and getting back to the Sysops expectations... IV.
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OK continuing with the thought we started...III: list off a bunch of
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languages, knowing them is optional, because the Sysop doesn't know them
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either. Reading the dust jacket and index on a book covering any of
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those subjects will enable you to APPEAR to know what you're doing,
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which is all that the Sysop is doing, so don't worry about it, because
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he doesn't know vi from cd, and couldn't INFILTRATE a Unix if he had the
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root account. If you don't want to spend $5000 stocking up on ELITE
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TECHNICAL MANUALS, go down to the library and xerox a bunch of index's.
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Or better yet, just check out the books and never return them (if your
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library lets you check out reference manuals. Most don't, but you can
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always rip out that little magnetic sensor in the card on the book and
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walk out with it anyway, but I digress...).
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V.After you've done that, list a bunch of micro-specific assembly langauges
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that you "know," and in general just make up things until you've filled
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up around 2 paragraphs or so. 95% of ELITE PHREAKING/HACKING is just
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posing anyway, so don't feel guilty about it or let it worry you too much
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because that's the same way 9/10th of the board got access. Unless they
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were ELITE, which is just posing to a higher degree than most bother to
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go with.
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VI. Remember to say WHERE YOU GOT THE # FROM! This is because like I said
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before, most Phreaks are busy playing SECRET AGENT MAN and will get an
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ulcer and lay awake at night thinking that CABLE PAIR is infiltrating
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their board. You know it isn't true, but the Sysop will wet his pants
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anyway, so just put his mind at rest and make up some place where you
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got the number from. Metal Shoppe is always a safe bet, because it's
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the Phreak dumping ground of ELITENESS, much like CapCon is the
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Pirate's equivalent. Be sure to use vague terms like "I was told by a
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user of..." and things of that nature that can't be readily verified,
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but still sound plausible.
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[Ahem, sorry to interrupt again, but as you may have guessed, MSP is down
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at this time. MSP's new replacement is the Legion of Doom base BBS that
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goes by the name of "Digital Logic." A large percentage of the users
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there are under phony handles that gained entry by exactly the type of
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bullshitting I'm writing about in this article. The remaining phony
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accounts got access by threatening the Sysop with "Phreak retaliation" and
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having him cave into demands; which for a LOD board is about par for
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course.]
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VII. Next make up your "writing credits" and "media credits". Select a few
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random issues of random magazines that you either wrote for, or had your
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alias' mentioned in. Make sure they're of the small circulation type and
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the issue is at least 2 years old. Nobody will ever check or even have a
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way of checking if they wanted to. Most people who "wrote" things just
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rephrased tech manuals and copied the illustrations. If you're ever
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pressured to come up with something YOU wrote, just do the same thing
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because that's what all the other ELITES are busy doing. Be sure to run
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it through a spelling checker so it looks PROFESSIONAL as ELITE PHREAKS
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are fond of looking and thinking of themselves.
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VIII. Next list off a bunch of ELITE BOARDS you've been a member of. Listing
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those that I just listed are a safe bet, because they're famous or as the
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case may be: infamous, to such a degree that the Sysop will have heard of
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them. He wouldn't have been on them, so he won't be able to verify that
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either. The reason he wouldn't have been on them, is because he hasn't
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been ELITE longer than 2 years, otherwise he wouldn't be running a board
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If he HAS been ELITE for longer than two years, and IS still running a
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board, then he's an idiot and you can safely assume that he wouldn't
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have been on them anyway. Not that being an idiot disqualifies anyone
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from being a member of anything, but APPEARING to be an idiot will do
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that. COSMOS is ALWAYS a great bet, because it just sounds so PHONESY!
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Plus there have been half a dozen COSMOS' in the last year alone, so he
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won't know which one, even if none of them have ever been FAMOUS! IX.
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If you're such a swell guy, and have been around so long, he might wonder
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what you've been doing with yourself for the last 6 months - 1 year. So
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just make up some half-witted excuse like the one I listed. Then include
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something about your current "interests." All you need to remember about
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that is include "CLID" (Calling Line ID), "BLV" (Busy Line Verify), or
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any other semi-interesting acronym out of a USO coding manual. Obviously
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you don't need to know anything about it beyond the fact that such an
|
|
acronym actually exists and you know about its existence. If questioned
|
|
further, just bring down the "veil of secrecy" and become mysterious and
|
|
evasive about it. This will instantly go great lengths towards improving
|
|
your status on a board.
|
|
|
|
X. References have been covered in the parenthesis in the feedback itself,
|
|
so I hope I don't need to get into it again here.
|
|
|
|
XI. ELITE Phreak/Hacker boards also expect "freebies" from you the potential
|
|
user, to the Sysop. Both as a "test" of your "skill" and as a kind of
|
|
ass kissing. Freebies can include COSMOS PW'S! which are easy, because
|
|
there are like 10 of them which people have been listing for the last 5
|
|
years, which haven't worked for 4 1/2 years, but people still list them.
|
|
Which makes me conclude that people never use them, they just write them
|
|
down and repost them every 6 months. Or CIS accounts, or some good 800's
|
|
or anything of "value". You don't really need to include any of this,
|
|
but if you can it makes you look "better". NEVER, EVER give the Sysop
|
|
ANYTHING of any value that you might want to use in the future, because
|
|
if it's of any worth he will immediately do something stupid to make it
|
|
stop working. That you can COUNT ON!
|
|
|
|
XII. Close it up with the ususal "Thanks for your time", but sign it with
|
|
your full handle, followed by group. PROFESSIONAL! [Giggle] <STOP
|
|
THAT! I'M SERIOUS NOW!> <slap>
|
|
|
|
GENERAL TIPS
|
|
============
|
|
OK, now that I've got you psyched at how easy it is: the bad news. The
|
|
bad news is like this: In order to be an ELITE Pirate, you don't have to know
|
|
ANYTHING, PERIOD, AT ALL, EVER. All you need to be able to do is operate your
|
|
copy of cat-fur with reasonable dexterity and spend 2-5 hours of each day calling
|
|
things and uploading NEW WARES. If you can program, so much the better because
|
|
then it's eaisier to join the ELITEST ELITE of piracy: the Cracker's. Now I know
|
|
you're thinking it's stupid to have ELITE people who aren't good at anything, but
|
|
I never claimed the world was a sensible place.
|
|
With PHREAKING (let me just say that when I say PHREAKING I also mean to
|
|
include HACKING) you are expected to APPEAR to know how things work. Now that is
|
|
a little tricky. It's tricky because ELITE boards like to have FILTER'S. A kind
|
|
of "front door/quiz" combination. The trouble with that is, that the Sysop
|
|
doesn't really know what he's doing either and will take the questions out of an
|
|
ELITE FILE. The problem is that the ELITE FILE might not have been accurate, so
|
|
even if you know the answer, you might not know the answer that the Sysop is
|
|
expecting, and-as far as the Sysop is concerned-is the "RIGHT" answer. This
|
|
means that you had better stop laughing at those stupid files and deleating them,
|
|
because if you want to get access someplace, you might need them for something
|
|
besides "god, is he stupid!" jokes!
|
|
|
|
"HOME" PHONE NUMBERS - AND HOW TO DEFEAT THEM
|
|
=============================================
|
|
OK, so now you know how to get validated, what to say and how to act. Let
|
|
me get you past the last and only "real" hurdle to access to everything you
|
|
desire.
|
|
Let me say it right now: Voice validation is a load of crap. It doesn't
|
|
work, it never has worked and it never will work. But is sure makes
|
|
Sysop's feel good, and being the egotistical fools that they are, they're going
|
|
to make you go through this bullshit to get access.
|
|
I would NOT suggest leaving an infinite busy as your home number. This
|
|
works on legitimate boards, but I don't know any underground board Sysops that
|
|
are THAT stupid.
|
|
|
|
METHOD 1
|
|
======== Leave a telephone number of a random person from your
|
|
"computer buddy!" phone list. When the Sysop calls, he'll get a human voice
|
|
that will say HELLO in a annoyed kind of tone. Confirming the existence of a
|
|
human being at the other end of the telephone number you just gave him, the
|
|
Sysop will assume no reason to doubt you, and slam down the phone because he's
|
|
not good at starting conversations with people he's never talked to before.
|
|
|
|
METHOD 2
|
|
========
|
|
Find a kid at school who you're friends with. Explain the general idea of
|
|
"boards" to him, tell him you need his help in breaking into some secret FBI
|
|
computer system. All he has to do is say "yes" to the questions you're going to
|
|
write down for him, and claim to be the person on the piece of paper you're
|
|
giving him.
|
|
This is really almost ideal if your friend isn't the stupid type that
|
|
stutters and can't lie. If he can lie and doesn't care, then you're all set for
|
|
the rest of your modem existence!
|
|
|
|
METHOD 3
|
|
========
|
|
TODO- | INSERT CALL-FORWARDING # TO # PROCEDURE USING SCCS |
|
|
|
|
METHOD 4
|
|
========
|
|
TODO- | VOICE MAIL / ANSWERING SERVICES |
|
|
|
|
YOUR NEW PERSONNA -- HOLDING IT TOGETHER AND MAKING IT WORK
|
|
===========================================================
|
|
This is really basic. It's so basic that almost nobody I know ever
|
|
bothers to sketch in the details and can be tripped up when you ask an off-
|
|
handed question that in theory has no significance, but in actuality causes him
|
|
to say "uh, well" and pause for a few seconds while he tries to think of
|
|
something. Only very good bullshit artists can glibly pull it off when you
|
|
"catch them off guard" but even then they will frequently forget what they told
|
|
you in the past if you bring it up again a few days later.
|
|
What I'm talking about is the "new you" complete with name, address, tn,
|
|
state, zip code, street number, general weather of the area, brothers, sisters,
|
|
physical description, SS#, job, marital status, birthday, age, education,
|
|
"underground" history, etc... In short, you are creating an entire new person
|
|
who should have a real life entirely seperate from your own. In order to pull
|
|
this off you need to think of all these things before-hand, and if you're new at
|
|
this, don't get carried away by pretending to be 20 people all at once. Just
|
|
make up ONE concrete personality whose existence you can justify, and then type
|
|
it up, print it out, and tape it to the wall in front of you so it's ALWAYS
|
|
there, because the time when you least expect it, is the time you're going to
|
|
need it the most. As you get better you'll find you can juggle an almost
|
|
infinite number of these alter-ego's in your head, but don't get over-confident
|
|
too fast or you WILL blow something that you're working hard at right now.
|
|
|
|
IMPERSONATING OTHER PEOPLE
|
|
==========================
|
|
Every year the "underground" community mirrors the legitimate modem world
|
|
and gets exponentially larger. Instead of everybody knowing everyone else,
|
|
there is now a huge collection of people who don't know anything about anyone who
|
|
existed 5 years ago; last year; or even last month. This works greatly to your
|
|
advantage because it saves you the effort of slapping together your own files.
|
|
All you need to do is log some handle into the system you wish to access; upload
|
|
a few files written by the person or persons you are about to impersonate; wait a
|
|
few days; now login the person whose identity you wish to assume. Quite simple.
|
|
In the past few months I have actually passed myself off as BIOC Agent
|
|
003, Lord Digital, Lex Luthor and assorted past and present members of LOD,
|
|
Apple Bandit and various other Apple Pirates of yore, and several dozen other
|
|
people. Two years ago I could never have gotten away with this unless I was
|
|
calling some board in the middle of nowhere. Nowadays it's possible, even easy,
|
|
to impersonate almost anyone who has ever made some kind of mark on the history
|
|
of the underground in the past; simply because the people you're going to be
|
|
dealing with were NOT around a few years ago and have no idea who any of these
|
|
people are. When confronted with a "famous" user, they will never in their
|
|
wildest dreams assume that he's a fake; the only thing they will be thinking is
|
|
how neat it is to have him on their BBS once you let them know who he is.
|
|
You can easily make up a new character who never existed outside of your profile
|
|
of him, but this requires more work on your part when it's much simpler to just
|
|
pretend being someone else. NONE of those people will EVER turn up on that
|
|
particular board, and even if they did you should be able to convince the Sysop
|
|
that YOU are him and he is the fake. Amusing to say the least.
|
|
In case you're letting some last vestiges of morality creep in, remember
|
|
that the people you're going to be impersonating are not hallowed icons. They
|
|
are just guys who spent an inordinate amount of time building up their image to
|
|
such a degree that countless little kids think they're cool and a few misguided
|
|
-- and blessedly free of intellect -- security people, think they're dangerous.
|
|
Not to forget the fact that aside from LODdies, none of them will ever be seen on
|
|
a board again, so if you fear "Phreak retaliation;" don't worry about it. Nobody
|
|
can do anything to you if they don't know who you are. The previous
|
|
paragraph exists solely to galvanize otherwise recaltricent and cowardly
|
|
pre-teens into taking some kind of action and having fun.
|
|
|
|
SAFETY - GETTING BUSTED!
|
|
========================
|
|
People who get caught for doing something they shouldn't have been doing,
|
|
are apprehended for one of two reasons: They are either cretins, which covers
|
|
the vast majority of those "busted," or they are not good judges of character and
|
|
spend their time associating with "friends" who do stupid things, and will drag
|
|
you down with them when they really fuck up. Which WILL happen at some point to
|
|
most of the people who convince themselves "it's just fun."
|
|
The "underground" IS fun, but looking at it from the eyes of those whose
|
|
job it is to keep track of you, it stops being fun and you should realize that
|
|
many of the things you take for granted -- be they free calls, free software,
|
|
whatever, -- are against the law. And if you give people the oppurtunity to hurt
|
|
you -- ESPECIALLY when they are placed in such a position that by busting you
|
|
they increase their own status in whatever field they are employed in -- then you
|
|
are going to get hurt!
|
|
Many of you hate all the "narcs" and "sting boards" and whatever new
|
|
bullshit the people arrayed against you come up with. You SHOULDN'T! Cable Pair
|
|
and the rest are nothing more than the underground's personal garbage collection
|
|
agency. Rather then thinking of them as people who are some kind of hinderence
|
|
to you, it's far more logical to think of them as glorified trash collectors;
|
|
which is about all they are. Every so often some new sting is exposed, and the
|
|
underground is rid of a boardfull of annoying kids that were stupid enough to
|
|
login someplace with real names, numbers, and addresses. Are you really going to
|
|
miss this kind of genius?
|
|
If you ALWAYS use the methods outlined in this article, then your chances
|
|
of getting caught for anything will dramatically decrease. Who are they going to
|
|
find when every single piece of information you gave them is a lie. None of your
|
|
modem friends can take you down with them, if they don't know who you are. It's
|
|
as simple as that.
|
|
Naturally this is more difficult than it sounds due to the fact that many
|
|
of you will want to make friends with people, and that's hard to do when
|
|
everything the other person knows about you is a lie. At this point you just
|
|
have to use your best judgement concerning your further actions.
|
|
Personally I find it best to associate with a small group of friends who really
|
|
are "friends" not just "computer buddies." Because if you pick your friends well
|
|
they will never fuck you over. Meanwhile when some kid you know only over the
|
|
phone, who lives in another state, gets caught... He is going to be more than
|
|
happy to throw them anyone and anything he can think of just to get off himself;
|
|
and that will include YOU. The "Hacker ethic" is a nice joke that I personally
|
|
DO NOT subscribe to, and even those that pay lip service to such a concept, will
|
|
throw their ideals away pretty fast when it's their neck on the line instead of
|
|
some hallowed principle thought up by aging hippies.
|
|
|
|
THE END
|
|
=======
|
|
What can I say? I hope you have a good time if this is the way in which
|
|
you choose to waste your time. And a great big "I love you" to the media dudes
|
|
who actually called up 2600 magazine asking about "Marbles BBS." Where would we
|
|
be without you? Youz guys are just so funny!
|
|
...so after the 198th level of security I hadda boot up my DES-descrambler
|
|
and really get serious because the 48th digit in the alphanumeric random code was
|
|
giving me some trouble and the system was about to nerve gas all of greater Utah
|
|
-- no great loss but anyway, besides I was still kinda shaken up from the
|
|
automatic phone-line voltage induction infinite baud device modem-fry they tried
|
|
to get me with last time, but all ya gotta do at the prompt that changes but is
|
|
usually "):YA?:" you type "-*8tmx$qptL0DISG0D" and the system turns you into the
|
|
remote Sysop and lets you destory the credit rating of any person ya want!
|
|
Have a nice day and a really, really nice life! |