320 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
320 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
#######################################
|
|
# #
|
|
# #
|
|
# ======== =\ = ====== #
|
|
# == = \ = = #
|
|
# == = \ = ====== #
|
|
# == = \ = = #
|
|
# == = \= ====== #
|
|
# #
|
|
# #
|
|
# <Tolmes News Service> #
|
|
# ''''''''''''''''''''' #
|
|
# #
|
|
# #
|
|
# > Written by Dr. Hugo P. Tolmes < #
|
|
# #
|
|
# #
|
|
#######################################
|
|
|
|
|
|
Issue Number: 09
|
|
Release Date: November 19, 1987
|
|
|
|
|
|
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
|
|
|
|
|
|
TITLE: The National Guards
|
|
FROM: Omni
|
|
DATE: August 1987
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you liked 1984, you're gonna love what the military has planed.
|
|
|
|
Americans get much of their information through forms of electronic
|
|
communications, from the telephone, television and radio, and information
|
|
printed in many newspapers. Banks send important financial data, businesses
|
|
their spreadsheets, and stockbrokers their investment portfolios, all over
|
|
the same channels, from satelite signals to computer hookups carried on
|
|
long-distance telephone lines. To make sure that the federal government helped
|
|
promote and protect the efficient use of this advancing technology, Congress
|
|
pass the massive Communications Act of 1934. It outlined the role and laws of
|
|
communications structure in the United States.
|
|
The powers of the president are set out in Section 606 of that
|
|
law;basically it states that he has the authority to take control of ANY
|
|
communications facilities that he believes "essential to national
|
|
defense."
|
|
In the language of the trade this is known as a 606 emergency. On the
|
|
second floor of the DCA's four-story headquarters is a new addition called
|
|
the National Coordinating Center (NCC). Operated by the Pentagon, it is
|
|
virtually unknown outside of a handful of the industry and government
|
|
officials. The NCC is staffed around the clock by representatives of a dozen
|
|
of the nation's largest commercial communications companies- the so-called
|
|
"common carriers"- including AT&T, MCI, GTE, Comsat, and ITT. Also on hand
|
|
are officials from the State Department, the CIA, the FAA, and a
|
|
number of other agencies. During a 606 Emergency the Pentagon can order the
|
|
companies that make up the National Coordinating Center to turn over their
|
|
satellite, fiberoptic, and land-line facilities to the government.
|
|
|
|
|
|
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
|
|
|
|
NOTA:
|
|
|
|
Big Brother is coming. In the event of a national emergency, all communications
|
|
would be controlled by the government. Long-distance companies would hand over
|
|
telecommunications control to the government.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
|
|
|
|
|
|
TITLE: The Caller that Isn't Long-Winded
|
|
FROM: The Chicago Tribune
|
|
DATE: August 20, 1987
|
|
|
|
|
|
You may remember our story last month about Kathy and John Riedy of
|
|
Raleigh, who received a long-distance bill for $24,129.99. The Riedys never
|
|
were unduly alarmed. "It's easy to prove you dls," Kathy Riedy said, "but imagin
|
|
e the trouble we would have had if the
|
|
bill had been for $200."
|
|
Lorraine Gregory of Glenview a US Sprint customer, does not have to
|
|
imagine. "Needless to say, when I saw my phone bill I was in total shock,"
|
|
Gregory said in a letter to the company last January about her bill for
|
|
$293.30. "On my call to Boise, Idaho, on 11/15/86, you show that I talked a
|
|
total of 1,441 minutes. If you divide that by 60 you get exactly 24 hours and
|
|
1 minute. I don't remember exactly how long I talked, but it was apporximately
|
|
2 1/2 hours."
|
|
Gregory inquired again on March 9: "I would like to know when you are
|
|
going to get my previous unpaid balance of $293.90 corrected." And again May
|
|
21: "Until I get a corrected statement, I do not intend to pay this bill." And
|
|
yet again on Aug. 6: "In January of this year I wrote a letter to you, and
|
|
to date I have not yet received an answer from someone at US Sprint."
|
|
"Each month when I received my bill," Gregory said, "I would send a check for
|
|
my current charges with a copy of my letter(s) and still no response from
|
|
anyone at US Sprint acknowledging my letters.... "Just recently I received a
|
|
letter from US Sprint to call 1-700-555-4141 from each of my phones
|
|
to make sure I was connected with US Sprint's Dial "1" Service. I have been
|
|
connected to Dial "1" service for almost a year now." "Of course, I don't
|
|
know what they're talking about; so I call Customer Service availiable '24
|
|
hours a day, 7 days a week' at 1-800-531-4646. Ha,ha,ha. All you get
|
|
is busy, busy, busy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."
|
|
We attempted to call the number in Gregory's behalf. It was, as she said,
|
|
busy, busy, busy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
-Clarence Peterson
|
|
|
|
|
|
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
|
|
|
|
NOTA:
|
|
|
|
The earlier article that was mentioned can be read in TNS Issue #2. This error
|
|
seems to be due to the people at Sprint.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
|
|
|
|
|
|
TITLE: A Call to Stop Long-Distace Scam
|
|
FROM: The Ann Landers Syndicated Advice Column
|
|
DATE:
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dear Ann Landers:
|
|
|
|
Please suggest to your readers to memorize their long-distance
|
|
charge-card numbers and make sure that they are alone when making such calls.
|
|
Anyone who gets hold of a charge-card number can call anywhere in the world.
|
|
When my son was in Korea on field duty, someone broke into his locker and
|
|
stole his wallet. Although the wallet was returned with his calling card
|
|
intact, someone copied the code number. The phone company took note of the
|
|
large amount charged to our phone and alerted me. When I told the woman at
|
|
AT&T that my son's wallet had been stolen, she canceled the card
|
|
immediately. At that time the charges amounted to $485. When the bill arrived
|
|
10 days later, it was $3,594. Almost all the calls were placed within 13
|
|
days. Whoever stole my son's wallet had either given out the code or sold it.
|
|
Calls had been made from Korea to all over the United States. There were also
|
|
calls from Brooklyn and the Bronx to Florida and Californleans and one from Nash
|
|
ville to Korea. Isn't it sad that someone
|
|
would do this to a young man who is serving his country?
|
|
|
|
C.M. in Lancaster
|
|
|
|
|
|
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
|
|
|
|
NOTA:
|
|
|
|
A standard case of phone fraud... just something I had.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
|
|
|
|
|
|
TITLE: Online Junkies- Artificial Intelligence
|
|
FROM: Omni
|
|
DATE:
|
|
|
|
|
|
Artifical intelligence guru Marvin Minsky recently wasted three CO-2
|
|
cartidges before taking apart the seltzer bottle he was trying to
|
|
recharge and finding that the culprint was a faulty O-ring, a discovery that
|
|
turned his thoughts toward the space shuttle. I know this because Minsky
|
|
told me about it one night, though he was probably already asleep at the
|
|
time. Minsky's thoughts about O-rings, as well as his detailed message about
|
|
the design of space telescopes, were carried across the continent to my home
|
|
computer terminal courtesy of the Department of Defense (DoD).
|
|
Conceptualized at MIT in the late Sixties and put online in the early
|
|
Seventies, DoD's computer network ARPAnet (for Advanced Research Projects
|
|
Agency) was created to provide electronic mail service between the
|
|
universities and research centers that received department funding for
|
|
computer science, robotics, and other high-technology projects. But over the
|
|
years it has been linked to a series of other online services and is now,
|
|
according to many of its users, almost as addictive as it is informative. DoD
|
|
could hardly have imagined what would happen when some of the finest minds in
|
|
the country's most prestigious universities and research labs began
|
|
conversing with one another on ARPAnet.
|
|
When a technicalquestion is raised on one of its bulletin boards, you can
|
|
sit back and watch the responses pour in from the science departments of
|
|
schools like MIT, Carnegie-Mellon, Stanford, Cornell, Yale, and Caltech
|
|
and from research centers such as NASA's Ames Research Center, the Jet
|
|
Propulsions Laboratory, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and Bell Labs.
|
|
Almost always intriguing, the postings are exceedingly well researched and
|
|
carefully presented.
|
|
In part this is because the jury of peers reading tthe boards is highly
|
|
critical and well-informed. A posting about a new theory of technology might
|
|
bring a correction or rebuttal from the scientist who did the work under
|
|
discussion. "You can't just gush blood all over the network," says one user.
|
|
"It will come back to haunt you." But there is room for irreverence.
|
|
|
|
|
|
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
|
|
|
|
NOTA:
|
|
|
|
The actual article went on for several pages... it has been edited for the more
|
|
interesting parts.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
|
|
|
|
|
|
TITLE: Hacking Through NASA: A threat- or only an embarrassment
|
|
FROM: Newsweek
|
|
DATE:
|
|
|
|
|
|
In late July computer specialists at NASA headquarters in Washington
|
|
noticed signs of tampering with their system's software. S
|
|
computer hackers had penetrated the hub of a worldwide network known as the
|
|
Space Physics Analysis Network, or SPAN. NASA tightened its security and
|
|
kept the incidents quiet. But last week in Hamburg, West Germany, the culprits
|
|
themselves came forward.
|
|
A band of hackers affiliated with the Chaos Computer Club in Hamburg
|
|
claimed to have tapped into 135 computers around the world, extracting
|
|
a wealth of sensitive information about the space shuttle, Star Wars and other
|
|
topics.
|
|
"The whole system was open to our friends," said Wau Holland, a spokesman
|
|
for the club. "They found such explosive material that we had to go
|
|
[public]." It was an empty boast, according to NASA. The space agency
|
|
acknowledged the break-ins but said the hackers uncovered no classified
|
|
information: "It really wasn't a very important system," said spokesman
|
|
William Marshall. NASA said the network, one of several it operates,
|
|
did not contain secrets about Star Wars or anything else; it was simply a
|
|
"worldwide library" of space-related information available to perhaps 4,000
|
|
authorized researchers on various NASA projects. SPAN is also an electronic
|
|
medium for scientific discussion. Classified information about the
|
|
shuttle and military launches, Marshal says, is restricted to more secure
|
|
computers not linked to SPAN.
|
|
The SPAN system proved an easy target. The machines at NASA
|
|
headquarters were Digital Equipments Corp.'s VAX computers, which use
|
|
software known by the initials VMS-an operating system that has become a
|
|
hacker favorite because of its wide use at universities and scientific-research
|
|
centers.
|
|
One veteran American hackers has even written a series of tutorials
|
|
entitled "Hacking VMS". The West German group-which reportedly included two
|
|
computer maintenance workers at major European research centers that belonged
|
|
to the SPAN network-apparently exploited a flaw in the VMS system,
|
|
which DEC has subsequently fixed. The hackers gained entry in Europe, then
|
|
"network-hopped" their way to the VAX 11/785 computer system at the NASA hub.
|
|
The group was able to roam through the system at will for nearly three
|
|
months before their initial discovery by systems manager Roy Omund at the
|
|
European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelburg, West Germany. By then
|
|
they had surreptitiously planted a "Trojan horse" software program, which
|
|
subtly overrode the computer's operating instructions and made it
|
|
easier for others to gain access.
|
|
The Trojan horse multiplied, as one computer after another on the
|
|
network automatically copied the profram. (NASA says it defused the
|
|
program once it was discovered, but last week the OSUNY computer bulletin
|
|
board in New York was carrying instructions for breaking into SPAN.)
|
|
The group also discovered that many of the passwords used to restricted access
|
|
on SPAN were easy to figure out; some could even be found in the
|
|
manufacturer's instruction manual. The casual attitude toward security is not
|
|
surprising.
|
|
Like many networks that essentially function as data banks and
|
|
bulletin boards, SPAN was desig and communication. "Because
|
|
the data is not sensitive, you always sacrifice security for ease of use,"
|
|
says U.S. computer-security consultant Robert Courtney.
|
|
While some managers of large computer centers worry about hackers
|
|
and have tightened security, most consider them an unavoidable nuisance.
|
|
Authorized computer users -not hackers- still commit most of the theft and
|
|
other computer crimes. "[The hackers] haven't done real damage to anything,"
|
|
he says. "The harm is embarrassment, but that's all."
|
|
|
|
|
|
- WILLIAM D. MARBACH with ANDREW NAGORSKI in Bonn and RICHARD SANDZA in
|
|
Washington
|
|
|
|
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
|
|
|
|
NOTA:
|
|
|
|
As noted by the credits at the end of the article, Richard Sandza was one of
|
|
the writers. For those who do not know of Mr. Sandza, in the past he has
|
|
written several articles for Newsweek that are on the subject of phone fraud
|
|
and hackers. He is best known for an article entitled: "The Night of the
|
|
Hackers." Another article on hackers was "Revenge of the Hackers" which
|
|
detailed the living hell that he was put through for writing the first
|
|
article.
|
|
|
|
It should be noted that the German hackers were not arrested. They turned
|
|
themselves in. They most likely came forward for one of the following reasons:
|
|
|
|
- they were afraid that sooner or later they would get busted
|
|
|
|
But why didn't they just quit then? Why come forward?
|
|
|
|
|
|
- they wanted to be K-rad d00dz and get their names in the papers
|
|
|
|
This could be a possibility. They said that they found such "explosive
|
|
material".. but in reality their boast is believed to be empty.
|
|
|
|
|
|
- they wanted to warn NASA about their break-in
|
|
|
|
Another possibility. They thought that they had "explosive material" and they
|
|
might have decided to be nice.
|
|
|
|
|
|
- they thought that if they came forward, NASA wouldn't prosecute them
|
|
|
|
They were on the SPAN network for several months. Perhaps they knew that
|
|
someone would eventually find out and they wanted to be nice.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Richard Sandza mentioned a file entitled "Hacking VMS." Actually, there
|
|
are probably many such files out there. One of the most well-known is a series
|
|
by Lex Luthor (I think?).
|
|
|
|
The OSUNY bulletin board was also
|
|
mentioned. This BBS was mentioned in another article by Richard Sandza
|