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==Phrack Inc.==
Volume Three, Issue 25, File 11 of 11
PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN
PWN PWN
PWN P h r a c k W o r l d N e w s PWN
PWN ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ PWN
PWN Issue XXV/Part 3 PWN
PWN PWN
PWN March 29, 1989 PWN
PWN PWN
PWN Created, Written, and Edited PWN
PWN by Knight Lightning PWN
PWN PWN
PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN
Southwestern Bell Vs. Bulletin Board Operators February 27, 1989
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For those of you unfamiliar with the situation, there is a major battle between
Southwestern Bell Telephone company and bulletin board operators in Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma. Southwestern Bell demands the right to charge more for phone
lines being used for the operation of bulletin boards. They claim that data
communications should be charged more to begin with and that running a bulletin
board is like a business and business lines should cost more than residential
lines.
Currently the conflict is being described as a stalemate. Southwestern Bell is
using a war-dialer in an attempt to find out what numbers are actually bulletin
board numbers. Several bulletin boards have already gone down because of this.
However, in support of the BBS community is a major television news station (a
CBS affiliate I believe) and several corporate lawyers have also taken an
interest in he BBS side. The lawyers say that a court case had come up several
years ago concerning bulletin boards and Southwestern Bell. In that case SWB
lost which meant that it is illegal for SWB to raise the rates in Oklahoma City
for bulletin board phone lines.
Southwestern Bell has been deceitfully trying to trick system operators
(sysops) into saying that they make money off of their systems. They get the
sysops to say that they run "non-profit" bulletin boards. Non-profit implies
that you are taking in income to offset your expenses, but do not make a
profit. This is simply not true for most bulletin boars; they do not take in
anything. In the meantime, these poor victims are getting their rates
increased. It has spread through the bulletin board community in Oklahoma City
like wildfire and they are just now getting wise to Southwestern Bell's fraud.
Fortunately, the bulletin board users of Oklahoma City are a very vocal bunch
of people and many of them are calling Southwestern Bell by the hundreds and
telling them that if they raise the rates of the bulletin boards, they will
have their secondary lines taken out. Many sysops have said the same. This is
the stalemate right now. Apparently, the Southwestern Bell executives are
realizing that if they do this they will actually make less money than if they
leave the bulletin boards alone. After all, their whole purpose is to make
more money. A user organization is being put together in Oklahoma City in an
attempt to stir up enough opposition to this move by Southwestern Bell for them
to reconsider. So far it is working, though they are far from a settlement.
The latest news heard from one of the leaders of this new user group was that
some major big-wig of Southwestern Bell and AT&T had flown into Oklahoma City
in an uproar about the actions taken by Southwestern Bell so far. Apparently,
they do not like what the local executives are doing. In addition, the lawyers
who have agreed to help are investigating a similar incident out in California.
This is the general manager's office. It might be useful to call this number
and indicate that the bad publicity is spreading outside of Oklahoma City;
maybe Southwestern Bell will rethink their position.
Information Provided By
Various Sources
_______________________________________________________________________________
Attention Telecommunication Fanatics March 7, 1989
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following was taken from TELECOM Digest, an Internet newsletter...
From: Red Knight
Subject: Review of Bulletin Board System
Please accept my invitation to the a Telecommunication Oriented Bulletin Board
System, located in Flushing New York.
Our main objective is to discuss about the various telephony related concepts,
for example, ESS, DMS, COSMOS, Cellular, Mobile, Satellite Communications,
Fiber Optic, PBX, Centrex, Phone Rates, Signalling Systems, World Wide
Telephone, Switching Systems, ISDN.
We are trying to get as many knowledgeable users as we possibly can.
Not only does our Bulletin Board Specialize in Telecommunication, but also has
a few conferences for Computer Security. We certainly have many experts on
board who would be willing to discuss security related material.
We have a UNIX conference were all the UNIX wizards get together. We have a
special DEC User group. We also a conference for discussions on Viruses and
how it can be written and prevented.
Other conferences are as follows: Radio Hobbies>Hacking News>LockSmithing,
Pyrotechnics>Telco Numbers>TAP>Books>
Surveillance Systems>Pascal>Generic C>
Suggestions>Mac>BBS Numbers>Phrack>Cable>
.....and many other miscellaneous
Requirements: We don't have any requirements. Anyone is welcome. Access is
given immediately. We also allow alias names if desired. We
hope you will enjoy your stay.
The Telecommunication [H.D.BBS] <-- Hackers Den
[A 2600 Magazine Bulletin Board System]
Data: (718)358/9209
300/1200
_______________________________________________________________________________
Computer Users Worry That Stanford Set Precedent February 20, 1989
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By Tom Philp (San Jose Mercury News)
"Decision to block bulletin board impedes free access to public information."
Computer scientists at Stanford fear the university has entered a never-ending
role as a moral regulator of computer bulletin boards by recently blocking
access to a list of jokes deemed to serve no "university educational purpose."
Many computer users on campus consider bulletin boards to be the libraries of
the future - and thus subject to the same free access as Stanford's library
system. Instead, Stanford apparently has become the nation's first university
to block access to part of the international bulletin network called Usenet,
which reaches 250,000 users of computers running the Unix operating system,
according to a computer scientist who helped create the network.
To some computer users, Stanford's precedent is troubling. "We get into some
very, very touchy issues when system administrators are given the authority to
simply get rid of files that they deem inappropriate on publicly available
systems," said Gary Chapman, executive director of Computer Professionals for
Social Responsibility, a Palo Alto-based organization with 2,500 members. "My
personal view is that freedom of speech should apply to computer information."
Ralph Gorin, director of Academic Information Resources at Stanford, disagrees.
"I think that it's very clear that one should be either in favor of free speech
and all of the ramifications of that or be willing to take the consequences of
saying free speech sometimes, and then having to decide when," Gorin said.
Since the jokes ban, more than 100 Stanford computer users, including a leading
researcher in artificial intelligence, have signed a protest petition. And
there is some evidence to indicate Stanford officials are looking for a way out
of the dilemma they have created.
The joke bulletin board, called "rec.humor.funny," is one of several bulletin
boards that discuss controversial topics. Stanford, for example, continues to
permit access to bulletin boards that allow students to discuss their use of
illegal drugs, sexual techniques, and tips on nude beaches. Gorin said he is
unaware of those bulletin boards.
The jokes bulletin board came to Stanford officials' attention in December,
after a report about it in a Canadian newspaper. The jokes hit a raw nerve
with campus officials, who have been plagued by a variety of racist incidents
on campus. And so they decided on January 25, 1989 to block the jokes from
passing through the university's main computer. "At a time when the university
is devoting considerable energy to suppress racism, bigotry and other forms of
prejudice, why devote computer resources to let some outside person exploit
these?" Gorin explained.
Stanford officials were troubled because the jokes bulletin board is
"moderated," meaning that one person controls everything that it publishes.
The jokes bulletin board "does not in itself provide for discussion of the
issues that it raises," Gorin said. The moderator, Brad Templeton of Waterloo,
in the Canadian province of Ontario, publishes only jokes. Comments he
receives go on a separate bulletin board, called "rec.humor.d." For Stanford,
the existence of a comment bulletin board is not enough because people who call
up the jokes will not necessarily see the comments.
The problem with "unmoderated" bulletin boards is clutter, according to Eugene
Spafford, a computer scientist at Purdue University who is one of the pioneers
of Usenet. The network accumulates the equivalent of 4,000 double-spaced,
typewritten pages every day, far too many comments for any person to read.
"People who use a network as an information resource like a more focused
approach," Spafford said. They is why another, unmoderated, bulletin board
that has many comments and fewer - but equally offensive - jokes, is far less
popular. Stanford does not block transmission of that bulletin board.
Templeton's bulletin board is the most popular of the 500 on Usenet. An
estimated 20,000 computer users pull up the jokes on their screens every day,
Spafford said.
Usenet has its own form of democracy, calling elections to determine whether a
new bulletin board should be created, and who - if anyone - should moderate it.
Templeton's jokes bulletin board was created by such a vote. Stanford's
decision to block access to it "strikes me as hypocritical," Spafford said.
"At best, it's someone who doesn't understand the situation who is trying to do
something politically correct."
John McCarthy, a Stanford computer science professor and one of the founders of
the field of artificial intelligence, has met with university President Donald
Kennedy to discuss his opposition to blocking the jokes. "No one of these
(bulletin boards) is especially important," McCarthy said. The point is that
regulating access to them "is not a business that a university should go into."
Since deciding to block access to the bulletin board, the administration has
referred the issue to the steering committee of Stanford's Faculty Senate. The
future of the bulletin board may end up in the hands of the professors. "I
think that is an entirely appropriate internal process for reaching that
decision," Gorin said.
Added McCarthy: "I should say that I am optimistic now that this ban will be
corrected. There are some people who think they made a mistake."
_______________________________________________________________________________
Outlaw Computer Hacking -- CBI March 1, 1989
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
by Peter Large (Guardian Newspaper)
"Computer hacking should be made a criminal offense, the CBI said yesterday."
The employer's organization said it was vital to secure a stable base for
computer development, since computers played a major part in the nation's
economic competitiveness and "social well-being." Computer buffs were
increasingly gaining unauthorized access to confidential information held by
banks and other companies in computer databanks, it said.
Much computer fraud is hidden by firms, but the conservative consensus estimate
is that the cost to British business is at least 30 million a year.
But computer disasters, caused by software failures, fire and power failures,
are reckoned to be cost about ten times that.
The CBI, in its response to the Law Commission's paper on computer misuse, made
six proposals:
* Hacking cases should be tried by jury;
* The concept of "criminal damage" should cover computer programs and
data and attacks by computer viruses (rogue programs that can disrupt
or destroy data);
* Laws should be harmonized internationally so that hackers cannot
operate across country boundaries;
* The offense of obtaining unauthorized access should include
non-physical access, such as computer eavesdropping;
* Even unsuccessful attempts to hack should be subject to criminal
sanctions;
* The value of confidential commercial information should be protected by
civil remedies for loss or damage caused by hackers.
The United States, Canada, Sweden, and France have outlawed hacking, but it is
not an offense in Great Britain unless damage is done, such as fraud or theft.
In February, the Jack Report on banking law proposed outlawing the hacker. The
Law Commission has produced a discussion document and is to make firm proposals
later this year.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Highest German Court Strikes Down A Telecommunications Law March 23, 1989
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The law in question reads:
Paragraph 15, Section II of the law regulating telecommunication equipment:
"Any person who installs, changes, or uses modifiable
telecommunications equipment in violation of the lending conditions
will be punished with two years imprisonment or fines."
The German Supreme Court has declared this law unconstitutional and
null-and-void in a decision of June 22, 1988. The consequence to this is that
imported modems can no longer be confiscated (according to the guidelines of
the Code of Criminal Procedures).
The German legislature has been called upon to pass a new law. However,
because there exists such strong interest and influence of industry, users, and
the European market-community against such a new prohibitive law, it is
believed that there is reason for optimism and no such prohibitive law will be
passed.
_______________________________________________________________________________
California PUC Pulls Plug On AOS March 24, 1989
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
According to a story in the San Francisco Examiner, Business Section, the
Public Utilities Commission directed TPC (Pacific Bell) to disconnect 54
privately owned pay phones in its first enforcement action against "price
gouging by some operator services".
"Privately owned pay phones can charge no more than 10 cents above Pacific Bell
and AT&T rates for local calls or calls in California".
The 54 privately owned pay phones belonged to 12 owners, and their charges were
found to be at least 90% higher than the authorized rates, and sometimes were
up to three times as high. All owners had been warned of the overcharging in
November. Under the PUC orders, Pacific Bell has sent letters to the owners
notifying them that their plug will be pulled in seven days.
The article also mentioned the FCC last month imposed some restrictions on five
AOS firms accused of egregious gouging that require the companies "to identify
themselves to each caller and disclose rates if computers asked."
_______________________________________________________________________________
PWN Quicknotes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. The University of Delaware Library System electronic card catalog (DELCAT)
is now available for access to residents throughout Delaware. In each
county within Delaware, there is now a local number which you can call to
link up. Service is provided by the Bell Atlantic Public Data Network.
The numbers are:
New Castle County (302) 366-0800
Sussex County (302) 856-7055
Kent County (302) 734-9465
Users wishing to call from out of state should call (302) 366-0800. Normal
long distance charges apply for out of state callers.
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2. Strange as it may sound, several bulletin board system operators
in the northeastern part of the country have received letters from the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) telling them to shut down their
systems or face unpleasant consequences. Two of the bulletin board systems
in question are The Edge and Ridgewood. Confirmation that these letters
were actually from the FBI has still not been achieved.
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3. Mark Tabas is currently supposed to be working on a book. He has requested
that anyone that has copies of any of his text files or news reports about
him should contact him.
Unfortunately, we are not at liberty to give out his mailing address in a
forum as public as Phrack World News.
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4. CompuServe (CIS) just announced that they will begin charging a $1.50 per
month user fee over and above whatever usage is charged. The fee will be
waived during the first three months of a new account. They will, however,
make some services free -- like looking up your charges.
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5. Unconfirmed rumors from the security side of the hacking community state
that GTE Telenet has acquired new assistance in the fight against Telenet
abusers and new security measures are already in the process of
implementation.
The alledged new assistance was in the form of personnel: People who are
regarded as "experts" not only on Telenet, but the hacking community as
well.
______________________________________________________________________________