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THE SYNDICATE REPORT
Information Transmittal No. 20
(Part 1 of 2)
Released January 31, 1989
Featuring:
Editor's Note
Telenet / PC Pursuit Price Hike
Phone Fraud Techniques
Information Age Attacks
Unix Hacker Caught at LLNL
Briefs notes from The Report
Vocabulary Tonic
by The Sensei
Editor Syndicate Report Magazine
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EXPOSITION: TSR
Once again, The Report accepts outside sources. Anybody can write/provide
information to The Syndicate Report. Articles/Information may be provided
through RADIO WAVES Bulletin Board System 612-471-0060. Any info such as
Busts, Phreaking, Hacking, Data / Telecommunications, and new developments
on any the previous mentioned specialties will be: accepted, labeled, and
given full actual credit to the article/info provider(s), or writer(s). --
** All articles have been presented by me unless shown at the end of the
article as the information provider(s), or writer(s). **
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EDITOR'S NOTE: TSR
A New-Year is upon us, 1989. The final year of the decade. Only ten
more and we turn over another Century. Just think, only a few decades back
the World had no wonderful high speed Computers, no means of Telecommunications
via Computer, and not even a fraction of the amount of data being exchange over
systems - a few decades back. Technology will have multiplied 4 times by the
year 2000. I for one feel like I'm still in the Dark Ages. I'd like to be
born around the year 2100 or 2150. Around that time, computers will be as
common as the person - and probably more valuable to an extent.
One bad point though: Phreaking and Hacking in the year 2100 would be
in toto termination. In other words, suicide. Hackers, Crackers, Breakers,
Phreakers, Terrorists - whatever you want to call'em are already talking about
the end of phreaking and hacking. It's just a matter of time.
You know what I really get tired of hearing? Bad news about 2 things.
1) The United States falling apart, and 2) Phreak/Hack world crumbling. And
WHAT did I just report as an opinion? "The end of the Phreak/Hack soon." I've
tried to turned myself away from writing depressing editorial opinions, but
I've learned its basically impossible! Something that I never find myself
writing, something like: "Hackers/Phreaks break into Government Bank and get
rich...no suspects have been found." I'm babbling here, I'll have to edit half
of this out... On with the Report #20.
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TELENET / PCP PURSUIT PRICE HIKE: TSR (pc!p 1\2)
This bit of news is probably all over the nation by now, but PCP is
hanging itself - trying to get users to pay more $ CASH. Here's a transcript
from the 'C PURSUIT' Telenet accessible PCP Line:
Here is a summary of the price change:
o Monthly Charge. The new fixed charge is $30 per month.
o Cap on Free Usage. Your $30 per month will now pay for up
to 30 monthly hours of non-prime time usage. Using the full
30 hours in one month amounts to an hourly rate of only
$1.00 -- more than 85% less than you would pay with the most
popular long distance discount service. Only a small
fraction of you will even be affected by this cap.
o Over Cap Rate. Non-prime time usage, above the 30 hour cap,
will be billed at $4.50 per hour, which is about half of the
next lowest rate in the market place.
o Second Tier Rates. There will be a second level of rates
for those who use the service at business levels. When your
total monthly usage exceeds 60 hours, both prime time and
non-prime time rates will increase for those hours in excess
of 60, as follows:
PRIME TIME 2nd tier rate: $ 14.00 /hr
Non-Prime 2nd tier rate: $ 7.50 /hr
....other changes are included, although the information is
changing a lot - log into the PCP Via telenet to check all
the latest info.
The new pricing scheme goes into effect May. 1st, raises the monthly PC
Pursuit charge to 30$, with a limit of 30 hours of service per month for
that price, according to Peter Naleszkiewicz, Telenet's product manager
for outdial services. After 30 hours, the cost of service rises to 4.50$
per hour, with another jump to $7.50 per hour coming at 60 hours per
month.
A Note from Mr. Naleszkiewicz
"The service was far more popular that we ever expected it to be,"
Naleszkiewicz said. "Thirty hours per month is significantly more than the
average use of the service, so most users will see only a five dollar per
month increase. But it's not the average PC Pursuit user that concerns
Telenet, according to Phil Sih, prez of Portal Communications CO. of
Cupertino, Calif. "We have a population of heavy Pursuit users on out 10$
per month online service," Sih said. "Some of these people are using
Pursuit 200 to 300 hours per month. You didn't have to be a rocket
scientist to see this change coming."
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PHONE FRAUD TECHNIQUES: TSR (usr 1\3)
%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%
%Phone Fraud, Part III%
%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&&&%&%&%
Well in Part Three, I will discuss a part of phone fraud you
very rarely see used, The Outside line, How you can get it and where.
A very interesting thing I ran upon when I was hacking around
on a PBX. I thought, How easy would it be to get a operator to
give you an outside line from a hospital. In fact, I found it to be
very simple, this is what ya do:
You call your nearest hospital and when the switchboard
operator answers ask her to send you to Radiology, (Doesn't really
matter ask for any department) And when the department you asked for
answers, tell them that you have made a mistake and that you would
like to be transferred to the switchboard. You then will get sent
back to the main switchboard but this time once the operator
answers say, "Yes, This is Dr. Jones, I'm having trouble getting
an outside line, Could give me an outside line please". Then most
likely you will hear a Dial Tone! Now you can screw everything
up and call Alliance, or anything your heart desires.
The reason must call and get transferred to a different department
before asking for the outside line is that if you just
call up and ask for an outside line, the operator will see that
your are on a Incoming Trunk, (If you don't know what that means,
she'll simply tell you that your not in the hospital, but outside)
But you see, once you get transferred, then again transferred back
it looks like you're inside the hospital - so, it's more of a good
chance of getting the outside line.
I hope this File helps you out. Direct all questions to TSR #21/TS
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INFORMATION AGE ATTACKS: TSR (fbs 1\30)
Solicitors hit you at night with so many phone solicitations that you
shelled out the extra bucks for an unlisted numbers, among other annoying
reasons. Then they got through with random dialers. So you bought an
answering machine. And now they've invaded your computer and your fax machine
with junk mail. Is there no peace?
This is the information age that the futurists talked about, the day
when telephone technology, fax machines and electronic mail would make
communications cheap and plentiful. Too plentiful. Says Lotus Corp.,:
"It's a well-known phenomenon in large corporations that when you come back
from a long weekend you'll find 50 pieces of electronic mail in your mailbox,
spend hours going though it, and end up with most of it being stuff you don't
want to see." LOTUS protects itself at home and with an unpublished telephone
number, and opts for a public electronic mail address for his computer. Yet
the unwanted messages still come through.
WITH THIS, we have what could perhaps be called as a "War of Access",
fought on the battleground of chips and software. Everyone, it seems, is
screaming for your attention. Among the callers' weapons are electronic white
pages, power dialers that can do 20k calls a day, and systems that hunt down
unpublished fax numbers. Defensive strategies? These include PBX switchboards
with software to route unwanted calls into answering machines and call blockers
that reject calls from specific unwanted numbers. Tomorrow's strategies will
include software that filters out sales pitches from electronic mail by looking
for telltale words like "insurance" and "financial planner."
While senders are spending more to reach out, some receivers are
spending more not to be touched. Survey Sampling, a Fairfield, Conn researched
firm, says 28% of all U.S. household have an unlisted number. LA is 56%
unlisted. NEW JERSEY BELL, which already charges customers $12.50 a year for
the privilege of not having their numbers published, is offering another
defense this year, CALLER ID, in some parts of its territory. For 78.00$ a
year plus a onetime charge of 60.00$ for a readout device, a residential
customer sees the number of the caller when his phone rings. If he recognizes
the number, he pickes up; if he doesn't, he might ignore the call or maybe let
an answering machine get it. Then again, he can send it to the police or the
Bell company to follow up annoying charges. This privilege, CLID, is fast
sweeping the country...and becoming a necessity for prank/obscene phone
calls. The Northern Bell is next in line for the feature.
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UNIX HACKER CAUGHT AT LLNL: TSR (i.w 1\15)
A remote caller who had repeatedly broken through the network security
at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories has been detected and contacted by
LLNL officials.
The vulnerability of Unix networks to unauthorized intrusions has become
a serious concern at the federal level, where a number of agencies are trying
to standardize upon the use of Unix-based networks. The concern has prompted
the establishment of a national crisis center for network break-ins, called the
Computer Emergency Response Team.
According to an LLNL document obtained by TSR, the most recent LLNL
intruder gained access to the system by way of Internet computers at the
University of Washington and Stanford University. Because of the remote
accessibility of these computers through e Internet, however, it is possible
that these computers were not the point of origin. Once the intruder gained
access to the LLNL computers, he achieved "superuser" status, which permitted
access to every nonclassified file at LLNL, the document states.
This opportunity could have resulted in widespread destruction of
unclassified data, but no files are known to have been damaged, according to
officials. The intruder used a "cracker's dictionary" to obtain a small list
of old and existing passwords, the document states. He also created the
capability to reenter the system by giving himself an account number and his
own password to make it appear that he was a legitimate user.
"Our security people have been in touch with the intruder, and we have
been assured that there will be no further intrusions from that source," said
Ron Teunis, an LLNL spokesman. Teunis also said the matter had been turned
over to the FBI for further investigation, and the intruder could be prosecuted
for federal computer-security laws. Officials at LLNL said that fixes have
been created to guard against the particular methods used in the Dec 3rd to 10
intrusions.
The intruder had broken into the unclassified portion of LLNL's node of
the Internet system on at least 10 occasions between December 3 and 10,
according to a document released by LLNL. The intruder exploited one of the
known weaknesses in the Unix systems running on many LLNL's computers.
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::::::::::::::::::::::::SYNDICATE REPORT BRIEF NOTES::::::::::::::::::::::::
... TID BITS ON BELL ...
// Bell Atlantic Offers Email //
Bell Atlantic and Telenet Com Corp., the US Sprint data communications
company, have announced a strategic alliance that enables Bell Atlantic to
enter the email business, pending regulatory approval by the FCC. The
agreement is the first between a regional Bell operating co and an enhanced
service provider for email service, and capitalizes on the ability of local
exchange carriers to provide information services. Until recently, telephone
companies subject to the Modified Final Judgment, the consent decree that
resulted in the break-up of AT&T, were not allowed to provide such services.
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// AT&T, BellSouth Offer Cable TV //
AT&T and BellSouth Corp. will be ushers, of sorts, for callers who want to
order specific pay-per-view cable TV programs, reports Communications Week.
The companies will use their respective equipment to furnish order-taking
services for special pay-per-view cable broadcasts, such as first-run movies or
live
sporting events. Normally, cable TV phone operators handle the requests.
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// Phone Co's Reaching Overseas //
The lure of overseas cable investments continues to draw the interest of U.S.
cable operators and an increasing number of telephone companies. BellSouth, Bell
Atlantic and GTE are on the prowl for foreign cable holdings, Broadcasting
magazine says. Pacific Telesis and US West already have United Kingdom holdings.
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::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::VOCABULARY TONIC::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
This is the second in a series of Vocabulary Tonic sections. I decided
to do this for a few reasons. 1) If a person has an extensive vocabulary,
there are practically no limits to what he/she can learn. 2) It's a nice idea
from a Technical. book I read occasionally. And lastly, 4) It gives The Report
a bit more spice. The acronyms/words presented will relate to
Telecommunications in one way or another, and only telcom. An average of 15
acronyms/words will appear monthly - along with The Report.
ISDN - Integrated Services Digital Network: A planned hierarchy of digital
switching and transmission systems. Final phase of modern day switches.
AIS - Automatic Intercept System: System employing an audio-response unit
under control of a processor to automatically provide pertinent info to
callers routed to intercept.
ESB - Emergency Service Bureau: A centralized agency to which 911 "Universal"
emergency calls are routed.
ADU - Automatic Dialing Unix: A device which automatically generates a
predetermined set of dialing digits.
FACS - Facility Assignment and Control System: Mechanizes the service order
assignment process.
CAROT- Centralized Automatic Reporting on Trunks: This takes transmission and
trunk measurements. Does routine tests and forwards results to work
control locations.
TASC - Telecommunications Alarm Surveillance and Control: Provides centralized
surveillance of telecom equipment.
EC - Exchange Carrier: A company engaged in the business of furnishing
access service in a franchised territory. (ie; US Sprint, MCI, AT&T)
AC - Access Code: A uniform set digit code assigned by an Exchange Carrier
to an individual customer.
Gateway - A network element that permits communication between two
organizationally or technically dissimilar networks.
PJ - Phrase Jitter: The unwanted phase variations of a signal. Garble, or
Garbage online.
3TS - 3-Tone Slope: The difference in loss between 1004 Hz and 404 Hz and
2804 Hz (AKA Attenuation Distortion).
PAD - Packet Assembler/Disassembler: Information passed though an Information
Service, translated to the computer's specifications. (ie; baud
differences, computer emulations, and protocol handshaking).
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number -- also any other information on RADIO WAVES Bulletin Board System.
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This concludes this Transmittal No. 20
(Part 1 of 1)
Released January 31st, 1989
by The Sensei
Editor of The Syndicate Report
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