321 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
321 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
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< The United Phreaker's Incorporated Proudly Presents >
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< >
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< The Phreaker's Bag Of High Tech Tricks >
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< By: The Lost Avenger >
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< An Upi Production 1990 >
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< >
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Reprinted In File Form On January 17, 1990
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Orignally Publised In Toronto Star Sunday January 7, 1990
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===============================================================================
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PIRATES RING UP MILLIONS IN ILLEGAL CALLS
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By Leslie Papp
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TORONTO STAR
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A New breed of pirate is plundering Canadian companies armed with a
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telephone instead of a cutlass.
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They're called "fone phreakers" the telephone equivalent of computer
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hackers and they're costing companies millions of dollars.
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Phreakers charged $1 millions worth of illegal calls to Toronto's
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Call-Net Telecommunications Ltd., a private telephone network, over a six month
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period last year.
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And Call-Net isn't their only victimm.
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A Metro finacial services company was hit for $30,000 in a single day,
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telecommunications security sources said. A travel business recently lost
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$100,000 in illegal calls and a major entertainment company was stung for
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$100,000 over about three months.
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"It becomes pretty mind boggling" says Jack Cloutte, head of Bell
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Canada security in Ontario.
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"More than 100 cases of suspected telephone fraud go to his department
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monthly. And that's only a fraction of the actual abuse going on.
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"It's A big concern of ours." Cloutte said, nothing that Bell is a
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frequent victim.
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Phreaker's have repeatedly palnted listening devices in the company's
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vital Adelaide Street switiching center, seeking access to secret Bell Canada
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codes and other data, he said.
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Although new technology is being developed to make it harder to raid
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telephone networks, phreaker's remain a step ahead of the authorities, he
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admitted.
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Canada has thousands of fone phreakers, ranging from clumsy tennages to
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experts with years of experience. And they boast a long list of shady
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successes, including:
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o Unauthorized use of companies' long distance services to reach
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friends anywhere in the world.
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o Free calls with homemade electronic "boxes" that beam signals along a
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phone line to fool Bell Canada operators and equipment.
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o Use of telephone company test loops as a phreaker chat line.
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o Eavesdropping on private messages of executives and lawyers after
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cracking the code of their voice mailboxes, answering machines that
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play messages back over the telephone.
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o Listening to the cellukar phone conversations of insuspecting
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business people.
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o Tapping telephone wires leading into a company to obtain codes for
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voice mailboxes and long distance services.
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o Charging conversations to calling card numbers obtained by fraud.
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"The amount of abuse is well beyond what we expected," said Sergeant
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Val King, head of the RCMP's computer and telecommunications crime section in
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Ottawa. Oftern companies being defrauded dob't even know they're victims. And
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telephone raiders are proving extremely difficult to catch.
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"They're have so many mehtods of covering their trail," King lamented.
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"They're can jump through 50 different (telephone) systems before they access
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the one next door."
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Phreakers are formidable opponents, agreed Ros Morley owner of
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Commmunications Systems, a Toronto telecommunications consulting firm.
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"Some of the kids doing this are 14 to 16 years old," he said. "They
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start working with computers in Grade 2 and they're building computers by Grade
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6.
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"They're practically electrically engineers when they reach Grade 10."
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Older than most is the Wizard, a Toronto phreaker who boasts about
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$2,000 in unpayed bills every month.
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"I'm screwing Ma Bell out of her money," the Wizard notes with pride.
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"That's the glory of it. That what unifies phreakers."
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In his mid 20's, but looking younger in a paisley tie and dapper pale
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gray suit, The Wizard said he's been phreaking for about eight years.
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Inside Information
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"It's just a knowledge thing," he said, adjusting his glasses. "The
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whole thrill is manipulating Bell to do what you want."
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Having inside information is a big help in cracking phone systems.
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And salting Bell Canada with listening devices is one way to get useful
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secrets, he said.
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Posing as electrical engineering students, several ohreakers, himslef
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included, have taken tours of Bell's main Adelaide St. switching center, he
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said. and they planted miniature microphones, wired to tiny transmitters
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broadcasting on a high end FM frequency.
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"You just take a tour and drop a bug." the Wizard said. "Then you
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listen across the street, on a Walkman, as the technicians user their codes."
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Now the Adelaide St. center is electronically "swept" for bugs on a
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routine basis, he said. "If we didn't learn from history we'd have to have our
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heads read."
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Bell recognizes phreaking as a serious problem, Cloutte sais, but most
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businesses don't know how exposed they are to a phone line invasion.
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Call-Net was badly burned, said the firm's president Mike Kedar, adding
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he opposed publication of new that $1 million in illegal calls was charged to
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the company.
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"It's nobody's business," he said. "We had to pay for it. It's over
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and done."
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Silence is the best response to fone phreaking, Kedar said. "It's a
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story that should not be told."
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Consultant Morley said that sttitude is widespread among firms that
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have been stung.
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"A lot of these companies are just plain embarrassed," he said. "And
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corporations that haven't experienced (a phreaker raid) don't believe it can
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happen."
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Not Noticed
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Large businesses, with six figure monthly phone bills, ofter don't
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notice when phreakers add a few thousand dollars to the telephone tab, said
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King of The Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
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Sergeant Dave Hodgson of the Metro police fraud squad has specialized
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in computer and telephone communications crime since last spring and has
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investigated about 10 cases.
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How many resulted in charges?
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"None," he said with a bitter laugh. "As far as getting anything for
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court, you're just blowing again the wind."
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Bell Canada does better than police in nabbing phreakers, Cloutte said.
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The company's Ontario Investigator, Walter Heapy, handles about six cases
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monthly. And almost all result in criminal charges, civil charges or an out of
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court settlement.
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"There's always an electronic trail." said Heapy. "A call can always
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be traced back to its orgins. It's a function of time."
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Heapy's most publicized case was the conviction of Leslie Lynee
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Doucette, 35, formerly of Toronto, in 1987. She was arrested in her Rhodes
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Avenue home after stealing $12,211 worth of long distance call over a two month
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period.
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She was again charged last May, after being arrested by U.S. federal
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agents in Chicago in connection with a conspiracy involving dozens of phreakers
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and as much stealing $1.8 million worth of long distance calls over a two month
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period.
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But the possibility of arrest doesn't worry the Wizard.
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"The ones they catch are kids who don't know what's going on," he said,
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"I know what I'm doing. if I'm doing anything slightly risky I'll use a pay
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phone or a string of numbers it can only be traced back so far."
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===============================================================================
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THE PHREAKERS' BAG OF HIGH-TECH TRICKS
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By Leslie Papp
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TORONTO STAR
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How do they do it?
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How do teenages crack sophisticated telecommunications networks, steal
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missions worth of long distance calls and escape scot-free?
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One secret is a big bad of hightech tricks shared by "fone phreakers"
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across North America And Europe.
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It provides basic weapons and strategics used to attack telephone
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systems. In the hands of a phreaker with special genius, these tricks can be
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used to invade virtually any phone networks, experts say.
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"Eventually, any system can be cracked," noted Corporal Brian Binnie,
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the RCMP's telecommunications fraud expert in Toronto. "If you have a phone
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line you're vulnerable."
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Businesses risk huge telephone charges when a phreakerpenetrates their
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in house communications network and plunders long distance calls.
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It's complicated, but here's how it's done:
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Many firms operate WATS lines, or 1-800 numbers, allowing staff to dial
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long distance calls automatically billed to the company. Often there are two
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such line: an INWATS paying for calls going into the office, and an OUTWATS,
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covering calls going out.
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Electronic Pipeline
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With such systems, exectives can make long distance calls from anywhere
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in the the world by dialing the INWATS number and punching in a code
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automatically passing them to the OUTWATS.
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Phreakers call this set up an "extender," says the Wizard, a
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telecommunications pirate with eight years of experience. "They're real
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treasures. You call a 1-800 number and punch in the code - usually seven
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digits - and then you dial anywhere in the world."
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Codes can be broken with a "demon dialler," a computer trying number
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after number on the target system until it finds and records the right one, he
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said.
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Homemade wiretaps also prove helpful, the Wizard noted, pulling one
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from his pocket.
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Phreakers like to link extender, using one to reach another creating a
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pipeline of illegal calls streacting through several countries before reaching
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the person they want.
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Basic Weapon
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"The longer the trail you set the harder it is them to get you," the
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Wizard said.
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Cracked codes are shared and often listed on computer bulletin boards
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around the world. That results in a deluge of long distance charges within a
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few days or weeks, sometimes totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.
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Electronic "boxes" are another basic weapon in a phreaker's armory.
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Scores of these have been developed, said Ross Morley, head of a Toronto
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telecommunications consulting firm. All generate signals to mislead phone
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companies and include the:
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o "Red Box." It creates the electronics pulses that an operator hears
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when change is loaded into a pay phone.
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o "Blue Box." It signals Bell Canada that a call is finshed stopping
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charges even though a phreaker's is still on the line.
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o "Black Box." It emits an electronic pulse telling Bell equipment
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that a call did not go through, even though it really did.
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Countermeasures haven been developed to foil blue and black boxes, said
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Jack Cloutte, head of Bell Canada security in Ontario.
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Butt these defences are not used everywhere.
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"There are a ton of other boxes," Morley notes. "Phreakers come up
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with them faster than the phone company can counter them."
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Telephone test loops are another phreakers target, Cloutte said. These
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are reached through two numbers used by Bell lineman to test phone circuits.
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Callers dialing one test loop numbers can speak free of charge to anyone
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dialing the other.
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"We do have a means of preventing that," said Walter heapy, one of
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Bell's top investigators. "But the door's not always closed."
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Another door left leads to exectives' voice, or electronic, mailboxes,
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the Wizard said.
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To demostrate, he picked up a phone and quickly punched in a telephone
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number and four digit code.
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At the receiving end, the answering machine of a multinational
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accounting firm's vice president played back confidential message of its owner.
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Nothing much there this time the Wizard said with a disappointed sniff.
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Just a few appointments scheduled and a meeting cancelled.
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But a few months ago there was news of a company merger, he said. "We
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know about it before it hit the papers."
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Voice mailbox codes are easy to "hack out" he noted. Oftern they're
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obvious, based on the owner's name, or run in an easy to remember series like
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1-2-3-4.
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Business secrets also leak to phreakers through cellular phones, the
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Wizard said.
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Calling Cards
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A cellular message is really a radio transmission that is easily picked
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up with a scanner. A phreaker can eavesdrop on long sections of conversations,
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especially in a central Toronto location at rush hour, when traffic is slow,
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he said.
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"I've heard brokers talking about stock tips." the Wizard chuckled.
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"There guys don't know how easy it is to listen in. They talk about what
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mergers are coming up, and so on.
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Phreakers, however must weed through a jungle of 823 frequencies used
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by cellular companies. As a caller travels, the conversation is constantly
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switched to a different frequency, usually allowing an eavesdropper to hear
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only bits of a message.
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Phreakers can overcome this problem with a device that can track a
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specific call as it is passed from one frequency to another.
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Among the simplest of phreaker scams is misuse of calling card numbers.
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Card numbers are easily obtained, sometimes by peaking over a user's
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shoulder at a busy location, like an airport.
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Once taken, numbers are listed on computer bulletin boards. That
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results in long distance charges far excess of a card's allowable limite as it
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is used simultaneously by phreakers in the United States, Canada and Europe,
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Cloutte said.
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International data bases, used by major credit card companies to keep
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track of stolen numbers, do not yet exist for calling cards, he said.
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"All countries aren't in one pool," he said.
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===============================================================================
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CULPRITIS GET A THRILL IN SNUBBING AUTHORITY
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By Leslie Papp
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TORONTO STAR
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Youth, electronics genius and an obsessive need to thumb a nose at
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authority bind "fone phreakers" throughout North America and Europe, expects
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say.
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"It's almost like a disease," said Jack Cloutte, head of Bell Canada
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security in Ontario. "It can be addictive.
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Computer and electronics whiz kids get a deep psychological thrill out
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of stealing telecommunications (Yeah right, I phreak because I get my jolies
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out of doing it, yeah right! If the fucking cost of calling long distance
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were lower they wouldn't have such a problem! -Tla), he said. It is a way of
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realizing a Dungeons And Dragons style fantasy, matching their powers against
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police and Bell investigators in a secret battle of wits.
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"Some are good," Cloutte said with a hint of admiration. But most are
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not quite normal.
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"A lot of people into this are kind of strange," (Ok, this is another
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stupid statement said made by this guy. He's starting to piss me off! -Tla)
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he said. They're very bright, but somehow out of sync with society.
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"They get a charge of beating the system. You can compare it to an
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athlete who gets a charge out of winning a big game." Cloutte said.
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"It can be become a real obsession. Sometimes they can't stop."
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Most phreakers don't see themselves as criminals. Usually they gain no
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profit from what they do and consider their invasions a game of high tech hide
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and seek, hurting only Bell and fat cat corporations.
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But phreakers aren't simply pranksters, said John Kuhn, a CNCP
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Telecommunications strategic planner.
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They are twisted individuals, he said. "There's a criminal element to
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their psyche making them want to wreck something that's orderly." (Oh no, this
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guy is stupid he doesn't know a slightest thing why we are doing it. I think
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Bell and the other corporations deserve to get ripped! -Tla)
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You may distrubute this file freely but may not change any part of this file in
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whole or part without the written or verbal concent of the author.
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===============================================================================
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Call These Great Upi Boards!
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===============================================================================
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Node Number Board Name Sysop Baud
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===============================================================================
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Hq 416-Upi-Home The Northern Phreaker's Alliance The Lost Avenger 12/24
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1 416-Upi-Nde1 The Shining Realm FrosT BitE 12/24
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2 514-Upi-Nde2 The Order Of Kamikaze Tomcat 12/24
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===============================================================================
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01-17-90/001 Copywrite 1990 By The Lost Avenger-All Rights Reserved
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Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253 12yrs+
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