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[pp 38-40: Article from DIE ZEIT, 30 November 1984, by Thomas von Randow]

Bildschirmtext: A Blow Against the System

A Computer Club Discovers Breaches of Security in the Bundespost's BTX Program

"Whoever hooks up to the BTX system in the next two to three years should be
punished for stupidity." This withering assessment of the Bundespost's new
service, Bildschirmtext, could be heard last week at the eighth conference of
data protection specialists in Cologne--from an authoritative source. It was
spoken by the chairman of the Association for Data Protection (GDD), the
conference host, after he heard the comments of a computer entthusiast. With
wit and a relaxed patter, Herwart ("Wau") Holland of Hamburg's "Chaos Computer
Club" (CCC) explained how he and his 23-year-old fellow club member, Steffen
Wern?ry, had managed to take the Bildschirmtext service for a ride.

It is easier to get a winning six-digit combination in the lottery than to
illegally acquire the password of a BTX subscriber, Bildschirmtext experts at
the Bundespost had boasted. But that is exactly what the computer chaotics did
straight away. An error, in professional circles called a bug, in the system's
computer program made it as simple as child's play for the hackers. Many
Bildschirmtext users had already noticed that there was something wrong with
the program.

Suppliers compose full-screen images with information about what they have to
offer--merchandise from the mail-order catalogue, vacations, account statements
for bank customers, or simply letters to friends. These "pages" can then be
called in by (authorized) BTX subscribers, and responses to the relevant
questions--concerning a flight booking or a money transfer, for example--can be
input at home on the keyboard of the BTX auxiliary unit.

However, space on a television screen is limited, and the BTX page can hold
only 1,626 characters. So that the designer knows during editing how many
characters he has left on the page, this number is indicated at the bottom edge
of the screen. Until recently, however, this number was wrong--programmers are
notoriously poor at mental arithmetic. The page was full before the number of
available characters reached zero. For this reason, many suppliers experienced
a chaotic overflow of characters, something that should not happen.

Suddenly, all sorts of words, numbers or incomprehensible letter sequences flit
by on the screen. The reason for this character salad: The creators of the
BTX program apparently forgot to take care of "trash disposal," i.e., to see to
it that excess text be ignored by the program or somehow set aside. For that
reason, the excess characters force parts of the program writer onto the
screen, and they are, as the Hamburg hackers discovered, sometimes telling.
Specifically, they sometimes reveal the very secret that a BTX subscriber must
guard most closely, his identification code. This password is the key to
access to the system. Although it cannot be used to plunder someone else's
bank account, it is possible to cause a great deal of mischief. Merchandise
can be ordered, vacations can be booked, magazine subscriptions can be entered.
By agreement, the legal holder of the security code is liable for all damage
thus incurred.

Steffen Wern?ry and his colleagues--the club is a registered subscriber--caused
masses of BTX pages to overflow and then studied the ghostly characters on the
screen. In so doing, they discovered "usd 70000," the password for Hamburger
Sparkasse (Haspa). Now they were able to carry out what they had been planning
for some time: an impressive demonstration of the inadequacies of
Bildschirmtext. They set up a "contribution page." Suppliers may charge a
type of protection fee or contribution for each call-in of their pages,
although this fee cannot exceed DM 9.99. The account of the subscriber who
calls in the page is automatically charged with the fee. With the Sparkasse
password, the hackers now called in their own page--to the tune of DM 9.97.

The idea was for this to occur repeatedly, which is why a home computer was
programmed to automatically call in the page over and over again. It did its
job well, and while the club members worked on other activities, the cash
register rang every three seconds. From Saturday at 6:00 p.m. until Sunday at
1:00 p.m., a total of DM 135,000 was credited to the club's account, money
which they gladly returned to Haspa.

Long before computers were popular, American students dubbed a type of trick
using technology a "hack." Legendary is the hack of Captain Crunch, a student
who took his name from a brand of breakfast cereal. Inside the box of this
type of cereal was a small plastic whistle, that was coincidentally tuned to
exactly 2,600 hertz. In the American telephone system, as Captain Crunch
discovered, this frequency, when whistled into the microphone of the telephone
receiver, caused a breakdown in the fee meter.

Word of the trick with free long-distance calls soon spread; it made the cereal
company rich and the telephone company poor. Or at any rate, it was in a
difficult bind. A decision had to be made between accepting the loss, the
amount of which was difficult to determine, and undertaking expensive technical
changes in the continental network. Bell decided in favor of the second
option.

This type of blow against a computer system represents a wonderful triumph that
goes far beyond the financial advantage associated with it; it is a liberating
blow, which frees us for a few moments from the dominance of technology. In
the 1930s, small-plot gardeners in Hamburg illuminated their houses free of
charge. The supplier of electricity was the nearby antenna of a strong radio
broadcaster, from which energy was diverted using a simple trap circuit to the
lamps. For years, this hack went undetected--and once it was finally blown
open, it elicited a fundamental legal debate: Are radio waves movable property
under the meaning of the law?

The trickster who thought up the hack with the first push-button pay phone by
SEL just 10 years ago remained anonymous. For this, he used a piezoelectric
lighter. Whoever wanted to make a free phone call simply went to a telephone
booth with the SEL phone, inserted a five-mark piece and called his party. But
before all the money was used up, the lighter had to be struck near the key
pad. The spark from the lighter significantly disturbed the electronics and
the phone was then forced to assume that the connection had not been made, and
thus--in dubio pro comparticipte--the five-mark piece was returned. In all pay
phones of that type, the logic boards had to be replaced.

For the victim, the hack is not only annoying, it is generally an educational
experience as well, revealing technical design flaws. Naturally, as the degree
of complexity of the system increases, so does the potential for damage that
can be inflicted even with the first hack. Thus, it is a wonder that the games
played by BTX hackers have thus far been harmless. After all, they revealed
the wretchedness of the Bildschirmtext design with a degree of clarity that
leaves nothing to be desired.

In BTX's country of origin, Great Britain, hackers made a game out of cracking
Prince Philip's electronic mailbox. The BTX mailboxes are definitely oddly
constructed. Bildschirmtext letters that have already been mailed can be
rewritten later by the sender. Any mailbox can even be rendered fully
inoperative. In order to do so, all that is required--as the Hamburg Chaos
hackers also discovered--is that the command to repeat the entire call-in be
placed at the end of a page edit. The page drawn up in this way then appears
repeatedly. It also does so in the mailbox to which it is sent, the result
being that nothing else can be retrieved from it. Only the Bundespost knows
how to break up this vicious cycle.

A microcomputer can also be connected to the Bildschirmtext system. But pity
the poor soul who uses it to call in a crash program specialized for his type
of machine. That will cause the computer to crash, destroying the programs
loaded in its memory. The only thing that can be done then is to reboot. The
destructive program is offered as a harmless Bildschirmtext page. Advanced
hackers have even set them up as time bombs. It is only later, once the page--
generally headed with silly sayings--is long forgotten that the machine breaks
down, so that generally the cause can no longer be determined.

The Bundespost should have learned its lesson long ago, before its pride and
joy, Bildschirmtext, was dealt a resounding blow last week by the Sparkasse
trick. The piecemeal adjustments that they undertook in the past after every
announced BTX hack were apparently inadequate. A program that needs so much
clearing up is hopelessly contaminated.

Naturally, the Bundespost knows this, and it grieves them in particular because
BTX had just overcome the last political hurdle on the path to being
universally introduced. It also hurts since there is already a dearth of
interest in the new medium of communication. According to predictions by the
Ministry, BTX should have around 150,000 subscribers by now. In reality, that
figure is only a scant 19,000, of which 3,000 are suppliers.

It is questionable whether the Bundespost will be able to compensate for its
losses from IBM, who set up the system. "Big Blue" will scarcely be able to
get out of supplying a new computer program. And that could take two to three
years, which is the time that Reinhard Vossbein meant when he declared anyone
who subscribes to Bildschirmtext during that period guilty of stupidity.

[p 40: Unattributed text]

MSG by GAST
20 November 1984, 5:10 a.m.

MICKI is thinking about the CCC's BTX gag (bravo, by the way...), and reaches
the following conclusion:

The more securely a system is protected against unauthorized access, the more
unauthorized the people who can uncover weaknesses must be.
Ultimately, you have a system to which only the unauthorized have access...

In this regard: Keep on doing it!

[p 40: Unattributed text of computer program]

10 REM bankrob.ba
20 REM Version 1.00
30 REM (c) 1984 by Wau
40 MOTOR OFF: 'Relay for money key
100 CLS:PRINT"Bankrob.ba -Restart procedure"
110 INPUT "Prior money received: ";MONEY
120 IN=52:'Time value key on
130 OUT=169:'Time value key off
150 CLS:PRINT0,"DM ";MONEY,"in: ";IN;" out: ";OUT;
160 PRINT90,"o<<<< out >>>> O"
170 PRINT130,"i<<<< in >>>> I"
180 PRINT170,"Stop with x "
190 PRINT210,TIME$;:GOTO 1100
200 REM Rhomboid loop
210 MOTOR ON:PRINT40,"IN":PRINT40,TIME$:FOR I=1 TO IN:GOSUB 1000:NEXT I
220 MOTOR OFF:PRINT40,"OUT":FOR I=1 TO IN:GOSUB 1000:NEXT I
230 MOTOR ON:PRINT40,"IN":FOR I=1 TO IN:GOSUB 1000:NEXT I
240 MOTOR OFF:PRINT40,"OUT":FOR I=1 TO OUT:GOSUB 1000:NEXT I
250 MONEY=MONEY+9.97:PRINT0,"DM ";MONEY,"In: ";IN;" Out: ";OUT;
260 GOTO200
1000 REM Speed
1010 X$=INKEY$:IF X$="" THEN RETURN
1020 IF X$="o"THEN OUT=OUT-1:RETURN
1030 IF X$="O"THEN OUT=OUT+1:RETURN
1040 IF X$="i"THEN IN=IN-1:RETURN
1050 IF X$="I"THEN IN=IN+1:RETURN
1060 IF X{body}lt;>"x" THEN RETURN
1100 PRINT170,"Continue with x "
1110 MOTOR OFF:PRINT40,"OUT"
1120 X$=INKEY$:IF X$="x" THEN 1150 ELSE 1120
1150 PRINT170,"Stop with x ";GOTO 200

[pp 41-42: Article by "Wau," from TAZ, 22 November 1984]

How the Hamburger Sparkasse BTX Code Was Cracked

Bildschirmtext Tested for Weaknesses

Ever since the coup by the Chaos Computer Club in Hamburg, who used a bug in
the Bildschirmtext system to charge fees of DM 135,000 to Hamburger Sparkasse,
Bildschirmtext, or BTX, has been a topic of discussion, and the chaotics from
the Chaos Club have made headlines.

Bildschirmtext is a big joke being played on consumers. For more than seven
years, "field tests" were run in Berlin and D?sseldorf. From the very
beginning, it was obvious that the system would be introduced following the
field tests, regardless of the results of the "tests." The political objective
made immense investments possible, thus making it simply impossible to abandon
the system. After the "test," the test subscribers could throw away their
equipment, since in the meantime it had become technically obsolete. The
Bundespost paid for the technical conversion, giving all the subscribers a
1,000-mark credit, financed by the coins spent on pay telephone calls.
Nevertheless, around one in six refused this attractive offer and terminated
BTX service. The Bundespost predicted 150,000 subscribers by the end of 1984.
It was actually a scant 20,000, which includes many who are not active
subscribers. In the meantime, the Bundespost has stopped making its own
predictions, instead spending a couple of million on programs that are supposed
to provide better prognoses.

The Bundespost has invested more than DM 700 million in BTX. If you compare
this to subsidies for opera houses, then the Bundespost has built a 35,000-mark
box for each subscriber. The only problem is that the opera program is still
rather monotonous.

IBM is the supplier of the computer and of the programs for the current system.
They had high hopes about their deal, and wanted to sell their system to a
number of countries. After all, approximately 100 people worked on programming
for around two years. If you spend DM 20,000 a month for one of these
specialists, that makes DM 50 million. A succession of several executives was
in charge of the project. There were only a few "minor details" to be improved
in the program, and with programs the smaller the correction, the more time
they take.

Chaos Team Becomes BTX Supplier

In the fall of 1984, after long debate, the Chaos Computer Club decided to
subscribe to BTX. Naturally as a "supplier," since being a subscriber is not
interesting. They started with the least expensive equipment, which was
technically refurbished. Still, the first months were torturous. The
prevailing mood with home computers is well-known: "Turn it on--it doesn't
work." But with the Bundespost, everyone expects that everything will work
fine. It is only rarely that you get mail from the Bundespost saying, "Because
of work on the system, few telephone calls will be possible on the weekend."
With Bildschirmtext, hardly anything worked. Even an accent on a letter in a
person's name caused unexpected developments (and this in a "European" system).
In terms of computerization, changing names with accepts is offered up as a
subversive strategy. Moreover, the blocking and unblocking of pages did not
work. Blocked pages were legible, unblocked ones were not. The Bundespost
told people who complained that they were doing something wrong. Blocked pages
are something like the closed doors in an Advent calendar. On the first of
December, the first door is opened (in BTX: unblocked), on the second the
second door, and so on. The Bundespost has a Christmas calendar game of chance
in Bildschirmtext. Every day, new letters behind a door can be seen, and on 24
December, there is a complete sentence (Season's Greetings from the
Bundespost). But without any coercion, all the doors flew open on the first of
the month. Either someone at the Bundespost typed something wrong, or the
system has yet another small bug. The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) first got wind
of this on 12 December, and sent in the complete solution, the prize being
telephone credits. It is interesting how many subscribers sent in the solution
before the CCC. Does the Bundespost perhaps believe here as well that some
chaotics sneaked into the Bundespost to find the solution?

However, a major problem with BTX is composing pages. The CCC does a type of
electronic newspaper, which is published irregularly. Once a new article has
been written and is supposed to be loaded into the system, all eyes focus on
the lowest line, waiting for the message "ED007 EXECUTION NOT POSSIBLE AT
PRESENT" or otherwise "Won't work right now."

In order to penetrate the BTX system, all you need is the connection code.
Every subscriber has a different 12-digit number. This access authorization is
generally sent by pressing one key. This is practical and reasonably safe.
You can imagine it as a nine-digit padlock (the first three numbers are
generally zero) on your bicycle shed. Secondly, there is a personal code word.
This is comparable to a padlock on the bicycle itself. And you can also put
your bicycle in a communal shed. In BTX, this is called a "free-access
connection." In that case, anyone can go into the communal shed and, if he
knows the number of a particular bicycle lock, he can move about in BTX and
take a look at things. A lot of it is free of charge, but some information or
offerings cost money. Springer-Verlag reports cost 1 pfennig, FRANKFURTER
ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG reports cost 2 pfennigs, and the owner of the bicycle pays
for this, not the cyclist.

Test of BTX Weaknesses

At some point, discussion at CCC came back to BTX and the policy of the
Bundespost to simply ignore or deny the risks of BTX. The question arose of
whether this was intentional or just stupid. A test was decided on. Who would
be the guinea pig? The Bundespost Ministry in Bonn? A single quote suffices
here: BTX is allegedly secure because it is difficult to tap into the
telephone lines in this country, since they are all underground.

The BTX control facility in Ulm is not that interesting as a test object. It
tries to keep the system running. And the Berlin office of BTX is responsible
for calming down postal customers when something goes wrong. The Central
Telecommunications Office (FTZ) in Darmstadt is the site where technical plans
and standards are drawn up. There one might expect to find the practical
technicians who worked out the security system. Those are the right people for
a test of BTX weaknesses. Without giving it much more thought, the BTX
connection of the FTZ was tested one day by the CCC: Do they or do they not
have free access? In order to find out, their subscriber number had to first
be entered: 06151 83. That is the telephone number for the FTZ. Then there
is the prompt for the code word. At this point, you can type in anything and
tell from the subsequent error message whether the FTZ has a free-access
connection or not. The CCC typed something in, the same telephone number
again. The FTZ was careless: There was free access. But even worse, the FTZ
had chosen its own telephone number as its secret code word. That is clearly
more careless than one would have expected, certainly from Bundespost
specialists.

A record is kept by the Hamburg data protection commissioner of who worked on
Bildschirmtext when. Since the BTX reports when someone was last "on," an
"outside use" can often be detected in this way. But scarcely anyone keeps a
record of it; it is too tedious. At any rate, the FTZ did not notice the
"outside use" by the CCC. This cleared up the question: The Bundespost was
not withholding and/or providing false information about BTX out of stupidity.

The CCC considered what it should do now. The most obvious thing was of course
to get money from the Bundespost. In order to do so, a page for which a fee is
charged must be called in by another BTX subscriber. And that can be repeated
any number of times. The highest price per page is currently DM 9.99. With 1-
pfennig pages from Axel Springer, the CCC tested, at its own expense, how fast
money can be collected using that method. In non-automatic operation, it
worked out to around DM 10 an hour. For the CCC page, at DM 9.97, this would
be DM 10,000 an hour. So you could really get something over night. These
fees are charged on the telephone bill--in this case, the FTZ's telephone bill
--and transferred to the suppliers a couple of weeks later. Right now, it is
not working again, the Bundespost has another bug in the program, and it hopes
to be able to pay the fees in February. In principle, however, the money is
being recorded.

Getting the money would be phase one. What then? Should we sell this breach
of security to the Bundespost? We could, as is normal in industry, "hack" DM
100,000 or more and then sell the Bundespost consultation on this problem for a
certain percentage of the money. Or get free, lifetime telephone service for
the CCC or something like that. The Bundespost had to pay for its gross
negligence.

In both cases, however, the price would have been silence. Otherwise, the
concentrated rage of the postal authorities would have been forthcoming.
Consequently, perhaps half a dozen officials would have tried to do something
to the CCC.

But the CCC wanted enlightenment about the risks of this new system. To this
end, the finance transaction had to be made public. Fine, but who should push
the starting button for the money transfer? After all, it is an infringement
like a parking ticket, although more expensive: a DM 50,000 fine. Will the
data protection commissioner do it? He probably would have taken advantage of
the opportunity and attempted to achieve an improvement by official means.

A politician? Perhaps. But what if he leaks the story? There remained only
one option: Do it ourselves, and abrogate our criminal liability by going
public with it. A week later, the attempt failed, since the FTZ had in the
meantime closed off free access to its connection.

Hackers as Data Protection Specialists

Several weeks later, Wau gave a presentation at a conference of data protection
specialists in Cologne: BTX--El Dorado for Hackers. Cologne was a sea of pin-
stripes, and Wau looked like a parrot in the midst of it all. Despite their
initial distance, the audience was impressed by his presentation. Only the
representative of the Bundespost felt that he was hitting below the belt, and
that he did not intend to address those issues. That was dismissed with
laughter, since the presentation depicted a series of program bugs drastically
and in three dimensions. There is a bug in the sending of electronic mail.
The sender can still change the contents after the letter has arrived. You can
send a business partner a bid for, say, DM 2,300 and then later change the
price, either raising it or lowering it. Another bug means that under certain
circumstances the BTX system spits out internal system information. With a
little luck, connection code words and secret passwords can be detected in this
way. "Nonsense," said the Bundespost representative. And to the offer of
cooperation came only the response, "First you have to get serious." It is
unclear whether the CCC succeeded in doing so. At the very least, the BTX
system finally spit out the connection code word and secret password of the
Hamburger Sparkasse after a number of tries with the well-known system bug.
Thus, it became possible to carry out the presentation planned for the FTZ with
the Sparkasse instead.

Almost everything went as planned. Over night, in 12 hours and 59 minutes, a
good DM 134,000 was raised. With a portabf? ???@%???????????????en run in a
daily newspaper, and a meeting of two dozen people from all over West Germany
then took place in Berlin. We then decided to keep in touch and exchange
experiences. The idea was simply to put together a magazine, but at that point
it was all too vague, and it didn't come off. Next, contacts with the United
States were established, with Cheshire Catalyst (the "king" of U.S. hackers,
Ed.) and with his magazine TAP, which a bunch of people here in West Germany
already knew about and subscribed to. At the Telecom in the fall of 1983, I
met him personally and wrote a two-page article about him in a daily newspaper.
And this two-page article elicited a great deal of response. By the end of the
year, things had progressed far enough to set up a magazine. Previously, the
idea was to exchange all information by floppy disk, but everything was
incompatible, and it had no purpose. The magazine was announced around the
beginning of the year, and we received 100 replies within one week. And so to
us in Hamburg, it was obvious: If 100 people want it, then it has to be done.
In March, the first issue was finally finished. Once the first and second
issues were out, there was a veritable flood of letters. The amount of mail
was equivalent to placing both my hands on end.

[Question] How many subscriptions does the magazine have?

[Answer] We took the course that whoever writes should get information,
regardless of whether they send money in. The number of subscriptions
fluctuates somewhere over 200.

[Question] How do your finances look right now?

[Answer] Terrible! The production costs are around 10 pfennigs per copy, for
both sides of a DIN A3 page. On the other hand, the most expensive thing is
postage, 50 pfennigs a piece. For each copy there are three copies that are
not paid for, that we simply send out, as a sample or in response to a request
with no money enclosed. It is in fact financed by the skin of our teeth, but
we do hope that a number of people are willing to pay for it. If money comes
in, then we can continue.

[Question] And of the 200 subscriptions has each one paid around DM 30?

[Answer] More or less. They came in with the full amount, a couple sent more
than that, but unfortunately it was fewer than we had hoped. It costs about DM
1000 to produce one issue of DATENSCHLEUDER.

[Question] How long will people receive DATENSCHLEUDER for their DM 30?

[Answer] One Chaos year. That is effectively around one year, with around 10
issues. You definitely have to give our address, or they'll come beating your
door down for that.

[Question] How many regular members do you have now?

[Answer] About the membership structure--it's rather open and free. Everyone
who has information for us simply contributes it, whether he has a subscription
or simply receives DATENSCHLEUDER, or even if he knows nothing about
DATENSCHLEUDER. There are people who are working on the modem layout, and we
are producing and marketing motherboards, for example. And then we do
DATENSCHLEUDER, and also do communication via computer. It is simply an open
structure, where anyone who feels like it can join in and leave at any time.
But we are thinking about whether we should impose organizational structures on
the whole thing. There are a couple of external areas where we are simply
encountering problems. But on the other hand, we basically like this open
structure. It's a dilemma.

[Question] But surely you can provide an approximate number?

[Answer] If we approach it in terms of subscriptions, we come up with more
than 200, of which around 30 are in Hamburg. But that's very fluid. Should I
count a graphic artist who does a couple of pictures for DATENSCHLEUDER as a
member? We don't look at it that narrowly. Somebody comes along, finds it
interesting, and joins in. That's also how it is at our meetings, which we
hold once a week at a bar here in Hamburg. We always get different people
there, it's just a regular meeting base. On the other hand, we generally meet
once a month to exchange information.

[Question] What kind of people are involved?

[Answer] It ranges from pilots to a metalworker, people who run their own
shops to unemployed people and students. They are between 16 and 35. No one
is older than that.

[Question] What is your assessment of the legal status of your activities?

[Answer] We just don't like being forced into any corner. Now people are
saying that it's all criminal, breaking into data bases and getting into
0?=
u??~* t?
?F(????v6&?\R&?tP??FP?^.?v,?????v,&?D&?\?F0????v,&??F0?????^0??&?\???v,&??F0?&?D?F0?&?D?u?v,&??F0?&?D?b?v,&??F0?&?D?O?v,&?A?F0?&?D?<??P?P?
Postreklame Hamburg, Eiffestr. 16, 2000 Hamburg 26

Mr Phan ba Qu
2000 Hamburg

Winner, happy ending

Dear Mr ba Qu!

The "BTX Hamburg Week 85" from 1-8 June dealt with BTX.

Information, joining in, winning--this was what was going on during this
fantastic action week.

And you won! Congratulations!

From the happy ending conclusion of our big BTX competition, you will receive
as a prize your choice of

1 year subscription to DATENSCHLEUDER or
1 gift certificate for DM 25.

We look forward to giving you your prize; please call about details.

CCC Chaos Computer Club.

Sincerely,

[signature]

[p 44: Boxed item]

June 1985

10 Previous month

Again, no revision in the month of June.

The CCC is currently working on the "Hacker Bible." This work of approx. 254
pages will be published in the fall.

More on this after printing in the current section.

Have a sunny vacation!

Chaos Team

90 Next month

[p 44: Boxed item]

Advertisement in BILD-HAMBURG paid for by the Bundespost

BTX Hamburg Week 85, 1-8 June

Information, join in, win

Here You Will See BTX "Live"

ABC-Datensysteme
Segeberger Chaussee 36, Norderstedt

A+L Infocenter
Isestr. 115, Hamburg 13

BTX Partner
Koopstr. 20-22, Hamburg 13

Chaos Computer Club International
[address redacted], Hamburg 20

Deutsche Bank
Spitalerstr. 16, Hamburg 1

Hamburg-Information
Pavillon, Gerhart-Hauptmann-Platz, Hamburg 1

HEW
Spitalerstrasse 22, Hamburg 1
Osterstrasse 133, Hamburg 20
Gr. Bergstrasse 223-225, Hamburg 50
Fuhlsb?ttler Strasse 229, Hamburg 60
Bergedorfer Strasse 133, Hamburg 80
Schlossm?hlendamm 12, Hamburg 90

Philips
M?nckebergstr. 7, Hamburg 1
In the foyer

Vereins- und Westbank
Alter Wall 22, Hamburg 11

[p 45: Cartoon] Left bubble: This is the horrible story of where
overmechanization and the associated shortening of the work week will lead if
we are not sensible about it.

Right bubble: O Duckberg, you noble, you industrious city! How much energy is
wasted within your walls because the citizens have not noticed that the future
is already upon us?

[p 45: Caption, upper right corner] The Chaos Computer Club thinks that love
on an empty stomach is no fun.

[pp 45-46: Unattributed article]

Progress Into Chaos

Oh, Daniel, you quack. So we're living in the beginning of the future. In the
middle of chaos. Terrible, terrible! But that's no reason to go decadent and
engage in rampant consumerism. There has always been chaos. First violent and
ribald, then in the hammock. Chin up! Hope is the feeling that can achieve
what you long for. And as long as THE bomb has not fallen, there is naturally
hope.
Where is chaos? This was the 64-thousand-dollar question posed by the Black &
White Group to the CCC (TAZ of 22 February). So let's see...

On Criticism of the CCC

... the result of these free tests has always been that the Bundespost has
filled in the gaps even tighter, and the system has become tangibly "more
secure..."

It is also true that the police learns something from each demonstration. "In
contrast to the CCC, we (Black & White) are not interested in seeing
Bildschirmtext become more secure or in guaranteeing optimal 'data protection.'
We are fundamentally opposed to BTX and to the computerization of all areas of
life."

Something that I somehow suspected all along, but did not dare ask: security
in quotation marks. Clearly ambiguous.

Precisely the synonym for all manifestations of "security." With absolute
security (thanks to Albert), it is clear that the speed of light is the same
absolutely ALWAYS. And otherwise not at all! [Footnote: "Relative Interest?
Bertrand Russell, "The ABCs of Relativity Theory," 1972, rororo 6787, DM 4.80]

Anyone who knows only a little about machines will not dare deny the following:
The simpler the design of a machine and the fewer parts it has, the less
susceptible to disruption it is. Thus, relatively simple machinery is more
flexible and can be adapted more easily to changing needs. In contrast, our
technological society has specialized its functions to such a degree that the
entire system threatens to break down if only one part of the machinery
fails...

Overspecialization, biologists say, is one of the main factors that cause a
species to become extinct.

So how do things look in the computer industry?

Software. The programs. Experts think that for every legally sold diskette
there are up to ten pirated ones. Of course, we know that there are more than
this. The dimensions: Millions of copies of the successful word-processing
program Wordstar have been sold. DM 1,200 per diskette. That comes to... But
please consider the price-depressing factor of software piracy. Eighty million
diskettes are sold worldwide each year.

The professional marketers of software have a bad hand, because their cards are
marked by their own operational structures. Professional institutions need
their time for planning, organization, marketing, etc.

Most programs come from the United States. Software piracy is hooked up in
networks. "Security" again takes a back seat. Quickly pirated, copies come
here to Germany by telecommunication. Before the pros assert their
professional needs, the alternative need has spread: Once the program has been
written, it can be copied by anyone in seconds.

Software can also be changed. What's plagiarism?

A typical career: A programmer writes a program. Before completion, he is
fired. He sets up his own company and sells the program himself. How many
word-processing companies haven't come into being this way?

The legal opinion on this: "A computer program constitutes unacceptable
plagiarism if it is on the average 70 percent identical to another program
system in its problem-solving section" (Kassel State Court ruling of 21 May
1981).

About hardware. There are these wonderful Apple II computers. They are so
wonderful that the yellow pirates from Taiwan can't help copying them for half
the price. The Apple copyright applies only to the EPROMs (electrically
programmable read-only memory). I buy that computer. The dealer becomes hard
of hearing when I ask about these EPROMs. Why all these questions? It's
obvious that these are copies. Everything's copied. Legal? Illegal? It's
all the same!

And these are not isolated "chaotic" incidents.

Future Music

Creating a community that can be active in many different places and
nevertheless can be part of a joint, creative process.

Permitting electronic conferences by computer, making a single input or message
instantaneously available to all other terminals. The distance between the
participants plays no role here. In financial terms it does. This is another
major field to be cultivated for data telecommunications. Fantasies in the
making.

Hacking should not be viewed as being solely linked to computers. Wood too is
hackable. It is a description of a different manner of approaching technology.
A different use is tested experimentally. In this area, children are by nature
capable of colossal flights of fancy. The "grown-up" world reacts with
incomprehension. Childish creativity is rejected as being "crazy." If only
people would let it be! Learning by doing. The knowledge developed in this
way has a completely different quality than knowledge, for example, because it
has emerged from practice.

Model-building division: There is a model helicopter by the Graupner company.
Bell 212 twin jet, two meters long, weighs four and a half kilograms. Holds a
load of two and a half kilograms. Remote-control, for DM 2,500. A legal note:
"If the 5 kg limit for model airplanes is exceeded, permission from the
competent aviation authorities must be obtained for takeoffs and landings."

What can be done? "The Flying Robert is a model helicopter... from which a
computer hangs. The computer, which is being developed by the Bazoobis, has a
sensor and--most importantly--a 'calculator with print-out capability.' It has
a roll of paper on which the measured value is noted every second. The thing
can be calibrated and sealed... The Flying Robert is sent by remote-control
over a smokestack, where it hovers for an hour. The same thing can be done for
radiation levels at nuclear power plants or noise levels near airports.
Citizens' initiative groups would finally have verifiable data." [Footnote:
Mattias Horx, "Chip Generation," rororo 8118, 1984, DM 12.80, pp 125f]

Other ideas from various readily available publications:

You could fiddle with the computer and use it to disrupt various undertakings.
Startbahn West [disputed new runway at Frankfurt/Main Airport]? Equip it with
small cameras and use it for reconnaissance. Equip it with squirt guns and use
it for agitation. The Telemichel has a lot of room! As a resupply craft while
occupying industrial facilities. Or use it to seal up smokestacks? Tip over
construction cranes, after outfitting it with the necessary equipment. Use
teamwork to short-circuit high-tension wires. Demolish/demodulate radio
antennas, or a flying radio transmitter, jamming transmitter, loudspeaker. The
air knows no limits.

Normal airplane models are cheaper. Electric engine. Solar cells. Sun.
Flying time? Fantasy in the making.

Protect the forests? Long nails inserted crossways in trees are not exactly
the best thing for them, but they do keep chain saws from cutting them down.

Test alarm systems? Set off the broken-glass alarm? At C&A [department
store], all you need is to design a lucky charm, and the gong at the entrance
sounds. Practical, chic and it can be worn.

The subject is not the big revolution, but rather the small, embarrassing
scandals that create confusion and ulcers and spoil the desire to exercise
power. Anyone who knows any tricks should right to the "Lexicon of Subversive
Fantasy," c/o Eichborn Verlag, Sachsenh?user Landwehrweg 293, 6000 Frankfurt
70. Copy to the CCC.

Rationalization

Black & White criticism:

"We reject these new techniques for increasing efficiency, because they lead to
further unemployment, and we are dependent on 'income from non-self-employed
work' to make a living."

How much work does a human being need in order to live? Or does he live to
work? What is work?

Work is force times distance (old mechanics' saying). What is force? Kinetic
energy and intellectual energy. What is distance? Movement. Activity.
Dynamics. And: entropy. [Footnote: Jeremy Rifkin, "Entropy," 1982, Hoffmann
& Campe, DM 30]

Entropy says that where there is activity, energy is irretrievably consumed,
rendering it no longer available for human use. Our solar system will freeze
to death. What is true of our solar system also applies to the relatively
closed system of Earth. We should deal with energy sparingly. Adapted to
natural cycles, with optimally low-entropy structures. Alienation thus becomes
a central theme. Labor is increasingly alienated the greater the distance--in
terms of space, place and time--there is between the production and consumption
of a product. In order to consume little energy, it is advisable that the be
located close to the residential areas. Rush hour is a nerve-wracking, energy-
consuming and accident-prone product of our sharply alienated "work world."

And so the masses shouldn't go to work at the same time on the same days.

Individual working hours are called for even more than ever. And why not work
at home? Will people miss the human contact with co-workers? How human is
contact on the assembly line, in piecework, etc.? Is it even capable of being
human? There are jobs that really should not exist. And if we economize these
job possibilities away, then it would be best if they simply disappear.

"For some time now it has begun to look as if we are no longer working in order
to live, but rather having to structure our lives in such a way that we have
enough work." (Hans A. Pestalozzi)

Counter-Realization

Black & White criticism: "The hackers have simply accepted that everything
that is coming is inevitable, and they are trying to find a comfortable niche
in it."

Nothing is inevitable. No input, no output. I am content with the fact that I
react. A passive role. Supplemented with Sysiphos work.

"... in every society, those asking questions have the key to power, not those
with the answers. True power is with those who set up the structure that the
others must contemplate, because they define what is available and what is not,
what is recorded and what is forgotten." [Footnote: Jaques Vallee, "Computer
Networks," 1984, rororo 8101, DM 12.80, p 115]

Why are there no alternative software producers? Are niches so abhorrent?

Let me make it perfectly clear: I am for the computerization of our planet.
The problems we are facing concern the earth as a whole. Global, alternative
networking must be massively advanced. A present-day computer has a memory
capacity of 64 kilos of bytes. Multiplied by x-number of users worldwide, and
you have an unbeatable potential for creativity. The melting pot of
alternative, green, lavender, checkered, etc. itself offers elbow room where
innovative ideas are developing en masse. The only question is: Where is the
application in practice?

The computer is an extremely universal tool. I can make it do many boring,
monotonous administrative functions. Word processing alone offers completely
new possibilities for dealing with words. Everything can be combined with
graphics and music. Data telecommunications. Things are copied, simulated and
stored. Everything can be printed out once or umpteen times. Color. Games.
Control. Manipulation. Very small computer-controlled work stations can be
set up. Here, the ideas can be (self-) realized. Sales and marketing can be
done through further expanded telecommunications networks.

Why not try to take away the professionals' livelihood? Niches can be very
flexible. There are so many awful programs, and rarely good advice. And
projects lack the money before and after.

"Blue Bazoobi": The project builds computers. Small portable terminals to
control air pressure valves. DM 20,000 a piece. Sold to Singapore, Brazil and
China. The market niche is an area of application that is not feasible for the
pros, due to a lack of large volume. There are fifty copies right now. The
"Flying Robert" project will be financed with the money earned. So things are
coming along. A broad field of activity is opening up.

Effective immediately, the CCC is offering advice in all situations for the
Apple II computer. Address for complements and the like: TAZ Hamburg,
Apfelmus Department, Nernstweg 32, 2000 Hamburg 50, Wolfgang CCC, Kraut & R?ben
Department.

[p 45: Article by "Wau"]

Practical Note

Data processing is slowly but surely entering our everyday life. It is
difficult to resist it. A couple of practical notes: Never release data if it
does not immediately seem reasonable to you. Even then, be careful. Asking
questions is free, but there must be time for it. Make it clear that your data
is very personal, and ask how the people who are requesting your data handle
data protection. Cancel your direct-debit order. Think about what one
programmer at the electricity company could do with a couple million automatic
debit orders. Don't get cable. Keep your own data in order and do not let
someone else do it, even if it is more comfortable that way.

[p 46: Article from GELSENKIRCHENER STADTZEITUNG]

Burglar Alarm

There were several questions about the burglar alarm, so here is the sketch
again.

The original dimensions of 60 x 80 mm should be adhered to rather closely. The
copper wire (naturally insulated, otherwise it would be no good) can be found
in any electronics store, as can the capacitor. With the copper wire arranged
as above, 30-40 picofarads cause a so-called field deviation within the
electronic fields between the bows, which is registered via the electronic
circuits. The alarm is then triggered by way of a relay, and the detective is
there. So far, so good.

The copper wire is soldered to the ends of the contacts. While soldering, be
careful not to destroy the capacitor. It would be great to have small-scale
mass production of this or other subversive products.

[p 47: Article by "Wolfgang"]

The Future: Entropy and Yeast Dough

Yeast dough, a so-called raising agent. The dough must be handled carefully.
A cool draft of air and it falls. The nice swelling action turns into the
opposite. Chaos among the bacteria! (Yeast is a fungus, note from
headquarters.)

Institutions: Objects that permanently grow. Rising agent: Money. The
swelling process, shaken by crises, can drag on for decades. Until the self-
sown storm is too powerful. The system TILT. Chaos among the bureaucrats!

Entropy says that the amount of energy in the universe is always constant.
Nothing can be added, nothing used up. Energy changes its "manifestation." It
transforms itself from a state available to man to one not available to him.

All of our environmental pollution is a manifestation of our high-entropy
economy. "In the three summer months alone, the United States consumes more
electricity for air conditioning than the population of the People's Republic
of China uses for its overall needs for the entire year. And China has four
times as many people." [Footnote: Jeremy Rifkin, "Entropy," Hoffmann & Campe
82, p 134]

Everywhere that there is activity, energy is being transformed. The available
supplies are evaporating appreciably. Technology is going astray: nuclear
technology, fusion technology, genetic engineering...

All systems where the energy input is greater than the output: pacemaker for
cancer!

The oven is cold!

The dough has fallen. Only rock-hard bread is possible now. We have to make
do with what we have. Or do we? A new dough? With a significantly different
recipe?

Are complex systems capable of innovation?

Of course not. A ridiculous example: Our diligent scientists are promoting
fusion technology as the solution to all our energy problems. The bare facts
point to another conclusion. The deuterium-tritium reactor needs tritium
molecules. Tritium is obtained from lithium, an element that is as rare as
uranium. Thus, limitless economizing is not possible. Similarly necessary
substances, such as niobium and vanadium, are becoming more scarce even today.
To say nothing of copper.

And the culmination of innovation potential: The hydrogen-boron reactor,
filled with sea water, has a reaction temperature of three billion degrees
Celsius. Just let that number roll slowly off your tongue! There is no matter
that could even come close to standing up to that temperature. The deuterium-
tritium reactor needs only 100 million degrees Celsius. Nothing more practical
is possible. "All applications of nuclear technology appear to him as if one
were using a chain saw to cut butter." [Footnote: Rifken, p 129] Every
change in complex systems will by necessity cause changes in other places and
at different times.

The degree or the size of the complexity is critical in determining:
- the effect of only one change, or of many changes;
- the momentum of these changes, which, for example, are in turn the cause of
further changes, etc...

Very interesting "autonomous," cumulative feedback processes can be set in
motion here.

The gaps discovered by hackers are naturally stopped up. How? With knitting
yarn. That is, hardware, software and human beings are transformed, and thus
energy is used.

Since the earth is a relatively closed system (aside from solar energy, nothing
significantly is added), the following applies in particular to our planet:
"In a closed system, material entropy must ultimately achieve its maximum."
[Footnote: Rifkin, p 50]

It is precisely the many changes in all institutions that are causing an
increase in energy consumption. On payday, the co$t then? Should we sell this breach
of security to the Bundespost? We could, as is normal in industry, "hack" DM
100,000 or more and then sell the Bundespost consultation on this problem for a
certain percentage of the money. Or get free, lifetime telephone service for
the CCC or something like that. The Bundespost had to pay for its gross
negligence.

Hackers as Data Protection Specialists

These were then combined into groups of 6 characters: 686583 327383 843274
653290 857732 798490 697800.

The key to encoding the message, called n, is generally making it more
difficult to find the product of two primary numbers. If you take 98415109
(which is a primary number) as a key, then you can start encoding the above
block:
(686583 * 686583 * 686583) mod 98415109 = encoded cryptoblock.

In order to decode this block, you need the corresponding key. It is called d,
for decryption. Decoding as well involves major calculation:
For n = 98415109, d = 63196467.
(Encoded cryptoblock ** 63196467) mod 98415109 = 686583.

As even non-mathematicians recognize immediately, the trick of the matter is
the two numbers n and d.

They are related as follows:
n is the product of two large primary numbers p and q (n = p * q);
d is determined from p and q: d = (2 * (p-1) * (q-1) + 1)/3

Although n is known, p and q remain secret. If n is big enough (around 200
digits), it is more or less impossible to determine p and q. With a value for
n that is 300 digits long, it would theoretically take the NASA computer 600
years to figure out what p and q are.

In the example above, p = 7151 and q = 13259. These primary numbers are
subject to further restrictions that must be taken into account if the RSA
nonsense is to run:
1. Neither p-1 nor q-1 may be evenly divisible by 3.
2. Either p-1 or q-1 must be a large primary number factor.
3. Dividing p by q must yield a complex fraction, thus not 2/3, 3/4, etc.

Taking points 2 and 3 into account means finding a qualitatively high-value n
that is difficult to decode.

Now to the programs:
Program 1: Encoding messages
Program 2: Decoding messages
Program 3: Determining n and d
10 DEFDBL C,M,N:DIM M(100):CHARACTER PROBLOCK=3
20 LINE INPUT"Name of the crypto output file:";OUT
25 OPEN"O",1,OUT
30 INPUT"Public key of the receiver (Test condition at "RETURN<=94815109";N
40 IF N=0 THEN N=94815109
60 PRINT"Input message text or NNNN at beginning of line to end"
70 W=W+1:PRINT USING "";W;:LINE INPUT".:";M
71 IF LEFT(M,4)="NNNN" OR LEFT(M,4)="nnnn" THEN CLOSE:PRINT:PRINT
"Cryptogram under file: "OUT;" stored.":PRINT:PRINT:END
80 M=M+CHR(13):L=LEN(M):Q=INT(L/CHARACTER PROBLOCK)
90 R=L-Q*CHARACTER PROBLOCK
100 IF R<0 THEN M=M+CHR(0):GOTO 80
110 FOR I=0 TO Q-1
120 M(I)=0
130 FOR J=1 TO CHARACTER PROBLOCK
140 A=ASC(MID(M,3*I+J,1))
150 M(I)=M(I)*100
160 M(I)=M(I)+A
170 NEXT J
180 NEXT I
185 PRINT:PRINT"Cryptogram:"PRINT
190 FOR I=0 TO Q-1
200 M = M(I)
210 C=M*M:C=C-INT(C/N)*N:C=C*M:C=C-INT(C/N)*N
220 PRINT'1,USING "";C
225 PRINT USING "";C
230 NEXT I
235 PRINT:PRINT
240 GOTO 70

10 DEFDBL C,D,M,N
11 CHARACTER PROBLOCK=3
20 INPUT"Own Public Key (Test = 0+CR = 94815109) : ";N
30 IF N=0 THEN N=94815109
40 INPUT"Own Public Key (Test = 0+CR = 63196467) : ";D
50 IF D=0 THEN D=63196467
51 LINE INPUT"File name for decoded text : ";OUT
52 OPEN"O",2,OUT
60 LINE INPUT"Cryptogram from F<ile or M<anual : ";QUER
70 IF QUER="M" OR QUER="m" THEN MANUAL=-1:GOTO 90 ELSE MANUAL=0
80 LINE INPUT"File name for crypto file " ";FILE: OPEN"I",1,FILE
81 IF NOT (MANUAL) THEN PRINT:PRINT"Decoded text:":PRINT:PRINT
90 IF MANUAL THEN INPUT"Cryptoblock : ";C ELSE IF EOF(1) THEN CLOSE:PRINT"Text
end.":PRINT:PRINT:END ELSE INPUT'1,C
100 D1=D:M=1
110 IF D1/2 = INT(D1/2) THEN 130
120 M=M*C:M=M-INT(M/N)*N
130 C=C*C:C=C-INT(C/N)*N
140 D1=INT(D1/2):IF D1 < 0 THEN 110
150 M=STR(M):M=RIGHT(M,LEN(M)-1):'blank start with own interpr.
160 LX=LEN(M):IF (LX/2)"<INT(LX/2) THEN M="0"+M:GOTO 160
170 FOR T=1 TO CHARACTER PROBLOCK
180 CHARACTER=MID(M,1+(T1)*2,2):CHARACTER=
CHR(VAL(CHARACTER))
190 PRINT CHARACTER;
200 PRINT'2,CHARACTER;
210 NEXT T
220 GOTO 90

5 RANDOMIZE
10 PRINT"Program for determining public and secret keys"
PRINT"=========================================================================
30 PRINT"To determine the secret key you need 2 (known only to you)"
40 PRINT"primary numbers p and q. The following program consists of 2 parts:"
50 PRINT"Part 1 searches in the range of a randomly chosen number for the next"
60 PRINT"primary number that is suitable for p and q."
70 PRINT"Part 2 determines from the p and q located in the this way the secret
and public"
80 PRINT"keys."
90 PRINT
100 PRINT"Start Part 1":PRINT
110 DEFDBL N,P,Q,R,S,X,Y:K=10
120 INPUT"Number to be analyzed (0 for transition to program part 2) : ";N
130 IF N=0 THEN 280
140 IF N<99999999 THEN PRINT"Please select a smaller value":GOTO 120
150 IF N/2=INT(N/2) THEN N=N-1
160 FOR I=1 TO K
170 X=2+INT((N-2)*RND(0))
180 Y=1:P=N-1
190 IF P/2=INT(P/2) THEN 210
200 Y=Y*X:Y=Y-INT(Y/N)*N
210 X=X*X:X=X-INT(X/N)*N
220 P=INT(P/2):IF P<0 THEN 190
230 IF Y"<1 THEN 250
240 NEXT I
250 IF Y=1 THEN PRINT N;"is suitable as primary number for p or q":GOTO 120
260 PRINT"No suitable number found. Test number now";N:N=N-2:GOTO 160
270 '
280 PRINT"Start Part 2":PRINT
290 INPUT"What value had you determined for p : ";P
300 INPUT"What value had you determined for q : ";Q
310 PRINT
320 PRINT"Your public key is : ";P*Q
330 PRINT"Your secret key is : ";(2*(P-1)*(Q-1)+1)/3
Ralf translates for MS-DOS from BYTE.

[pp 54-55: Article by Maxin Holz]

Let Them Do Our Dirty Work

The headline was "joint production," a stylish description of the flight of
industry to countries with low wages and a peaceful workforce, and of disregard
for the environment. Now that the office of the future is upon us, the U.S.
companies want others to have a part in it as well. Encouraged by promises of
drastic reductions in cost through the remote transmission of information in
the course of mere seconds, industry analysts and foreign political figures are
formulating the idea of a new marriage of convenience between American business
and poor nations. Although the "joint office" is not entirely new, industry
observers are now predicting the expansion of data input centers to poor
countries within a few years.

Before the new satellite technology was available, overseas branches could
profitably process only low-priority information that did not have to be turned
over quickly, such as order and shipping lists. The best-known example of the
new trend is the American Airlines data processing center in Barbados. Every
morning, American Airlines flies a planeload full of its ticket carbons to
Barbados, where data input workers input information at wages of $1.50 to $3.00
an hour. The information is then returned electronically to the American
Airlines computer in the United States.

The U.S. companies were drawn by low wages, cheap office space and extremely
low taxes and surcharges, for which they were invited by the governments in
places such as Singapore, the Philippines and the Caribbean. The preferred
goals for overseas offices are English-speaking countries like Barbados, in
addition to China, another country that is competing for jobs in information
processing using satellite communications, and as a special enticement can
offer its disciplined workforce, which earns the equivalent of $7 a week at a
precision rate of 99.5%

When explaining the advantages accrued to the receiving countries from overseas
investment, the chauvinistic presumptuousness of the economic press is exceeded
only by the self-serving optimism and short-sightedness of the governments that
are competing with one another for American investments. Thus, NEWSWEEK
declared that since the products of the companies investing in the Caribbean
are prohibitively expensive for the people there, they "would do best to
produce goods for sale in the United States." Now the inhabitants of Barbados
may also perform services that are meaningless to their own living situation.
(What generosity by U.S. companies, which are giving the people of Barbados
data processing so that Americans can take airplane trips.) The same article
explains that there is no longer a significant reservoir of unskilled laborers
in the United States (what about the unemployment rate of 40% among young
blacks?), while "in many underdeveloped countries there are enormous surpluses
of unskilled labor." This theory of "give them our dirty work" attempts to
identify reasonable grounds for the distribution of labor that permits the
citizens of the United States to live much better than the vast majority of the
rest of the world.

In competing for investments, foreign governments and chambers of commerce are
shameless in their claims made to the American business community concerning
the paltry demands and high productivity of their population. Government heads
justify tax exemptions by saying that they need foreign currency and the jobs
offered by the multinationals in order to raise the living standards in their
countries. Moreover, the argument goes, the expanding technology accompanying
the overseas offices helps familiarize the local workforce with the computer,
thus closing the technological gap between industrial countries and developing
countries.

The possibility that such rose-colored projections will be fulfilled by
satellite-based data processing is extremely small, and that is even in the
unlikely event that unemployment will decrease for a time. The so-called
"surplus" of unskilled workers in poor countries has resulted primarily from
past efforts resulting from investment policy, which were justified with the
same faulty logic. From the foreign investments that were poured into the
"underdeveloped" countries after the Second World War, it was assumed that they
would lead to an international distribution of labor that would be beneficial
to all. Farmers were driven off the land in order to make room for the modern
forms of exploitation preferred by multinational companies and local
governments. While the multinationals blossomed, countries that had at one
time been agriculturally self-sufficient became dependent on developed
countries for food, and found themselves subject to a world market on which
they could exercise no influence. Far from promoting regional industry and
agriculture, the foreign investments resulted in dependency on the
multinationals and on the markets dominated by them. This in turn led to a
gigantic growth in debt owed to multinational banks and international credit
institutions controlled by the United States and its allies. With the help of
these institutions, the developed countries tyrannically exert their influence
on the economic policy of the receiving countries.

The overseas office can only reinforce this phenomenon. Data input centers in
Barbados cannot bridge any technological gaps. The exported office jobs
primarily involve the most primitive and strenuous computer work, and their
elimination by automation will only be a question of time. A country like
Barbados can never gain an independent place in a market dominated by
multinational giants. Even under the best of conditions, a practical
application of computer technology to local problems would be extremely
expensive, and it would represent a disastrous waste of resources.

The cultural consequences of foreign investments could be at least as painful
as the directly economic ones. The office environment (furnishings, clothing,
architecture) promotes a culture with an emphasis on material values, on a
maximum awareness of time, and on neutral, sterile modernity. Regardless of
how finance centers present themselves throughout the world, they generate the
unifying effect of office culture. An ever-smaller elite would actually be
able to work its way up to the comforts of merchandise heaven as glorified by
office culture. Many more people, however, will fall victim to the plundering
of the country and the devaluation of their traditions in the hands of
multinational capital.

[pp 55-56: Unattributed article]

Down in the Valley

Mail Wars

After the top management of "Tandem" announced the hiring and wage freeze in
November 1982, I arrived at my job the next day to find an electronically
transmitted message that had been sent by a courageous technician who worked
for a distant branch of the company. The message protested the wage and hiring
freeze--such measures were disgraceful and unjust. The electronic letter--and
the mail network--allows direct connections between most employees, even if
they are separated by thousands of Hwhat is not,
what is recorded and what is forgotten." [Footnote: Jaques Vallee, "Computer
Networks," 1984, rororo 8101, DM 12.80, p 115]

Why are there no alternative software producers? Are niches so abhorrent?

Why not try to take away the professionals' livelihood? Niches can be very
flexible. There are so many awful programs, and rarely good advice. And
projects lack the money before and after.

[p 45: Article by "Wau"]

Practical Note

[p 46: Article from GELSENKIRCHENER STADTZEITUNG]

Burglar Alarm

There were several questions about the burglar alarm, so here is the sketch
again.

[p 47: Article by "Wolfgang"]

The Future: Entropy and Yeast Dough

All systems where the energy input is greater than the output: pacemaker for
cancer!

The oven is cold!

The dough has fallen. Only rock-hard bread is possible now. We have to make
do with what we have. Or do we? A new dough? With a significantly different
recipe?

Are complex systems capable of innovation?

Very interesting "autonomous," cumulative feedback processes can be set in
motion here.

The gaps discovered by hackers are naturally stopped up. How? With knitting
yarn. That is, hardware, software and human beings are transformed, and thus
energy is used.

Hackers as Data Protection Specialists

Several weeks later, Wau gave a presentation at a conference of data protection
specialists in Cologne: BTX--El Dorado for Hackers. Cologne was a sea of pin-
stripes, and Wau looked like a parrot in the midst of it all. Despite their
initial distance, the audience was impressed by his presentation. Only the
representative of the Bundespost felt that he was hitting below the belt, and
that he did not intend to address those issues. That was dismissed with
laughter, since the presentation depicted a series of program bugs drastically
and in three dimensions. There is a bug in the sending of electronic mail.
The sendlled this
because the people who flashed on it are coincidentally named Rivest-Shamir-
Adleman. Clever as mathematicians are, it occurred to them that you could take
a text like DAS IST JA ZUM KOTZEN [THAT'S DISGUSTING] and break it down into
TX system spits out internal system information. With a
little luck, connection code words and secret passwords can be detected in this
way. "Nonsense," said the Bundespost representative. And to the offer of
cooperation came only the response, "First you have to get serious." It is
unclear whether the CCC succeeded in doing so. At the very least, the BTX
system finally spit out the connection code word and secret password of the
Hamburger Sparkasse after a number of tries with the well-known system bug.
Thus, it became possible to carry out the presentation planned for the FTZ with
the Sparkasse instead.

[Question] How many subscriptions does the magazine have?

[Answer] We took the course that whoever writes should get information,
regardless of whether they send money in. The number of subscriptions
fluctuates somewhere over 200.

[Question] How do your finances look right now?

[Question] And of the 200 subscriptions has each one paid around DM 30?

[Question] How long will people receive DATENSCHLEUDER for their DM 30?

[Answer] One Chaos year. That is effectively around one year, with around 10
issues. You definitely have to give our address, or they'll come beating your
door down for that.

[Question] How many regular members do you have now?

[Question] But surely you can provide an approximate number?

[Question] What kind of people are involved?

[Answer] It ranges from pilots to a metalworker, people who run their own
shops to unemployed people and students. They are between 16 and 35. No one
is older than that.

[Question] What is your assessment of the legal status of your activities?

[Answer] We just don't like being forced into any corner. Now people are
saying that it's all criminal, breaking into data base
together with the other supervisors. However, Al's fate was left hanging. As
we left the meeting, one of my colleagues commented, "I'm not satisfied with
the number of corpses."

Al and the production head were soon thereafter demoted and privately urged to
seek employment elsewhere. They were gone within a couple of months. Several
days after the meeting, several computer programs that are used in manual
production were sabotaged. It appeared that the supervisors who were fired had
computers at home, and thus still had access to the computer through the
telephone lines.

At the end of the meetings with the honchos, the head of our company grumbled
about the "animosity" that had developed in our department. As if capitalism
is not based on "animosity"!

While "soft management" can be used by employees to their own benefit in
situations like the one above, we should keep in mind that it is not simply a
"gift" from our superiors. The less authoritarian style of leadership exists
because many companies regard it as a more effective method for gaining the
cooperation of the workers in order to thus achieve management goals. But it
is regarded as effective only in terms of the opposition, both passive and
active, by workers to openly authoritarian methods of management. Soft
management does not--cannot--eliminate the very real conflict of interest
between workers and employers. The fact remains that workers neither manage
the operation nor have control over the capital. This makes conflict
unavoidable.

[pp 59-60: Article from PARANOIA CITY LADEN]

Bolo'Bolo

Departure

Seven-thirty in the morning, 25 March 1983, on the number 32 bus. It is
raining and it is cold, later it will snow. There are empty seats, and so I
sit down. I feel the wetness through my shoes and pants. I see the calm,
composed faces. A young woman suppresses a yawn, draws the corners of her
mouth down. "Nordstrasse." Several passengers get off and move away briskly.
Once again, I am struck with this feeling of alienation. "What's it all
about?" "Why I am going along with it?" "How much longer?" Revulsion is
building up in my chest. The everyday machine once again has me in its grip.
I am moved inexorably towards my job. Scarcely wrenched from a sound sleep, I
am again helplessly sitting in the workforce transport machine.

I imagine taking the bus to the terminus and then beyond: through Austria,
Yugoslavia, Turkey, Syria, Iran... to India, Malaya. During the trip, the bus
changes little by little; it is repainted, repaired, converted, equipped with
beds. The passengers are transformed into a close-knit community. They work
as we go in order to get fuel, the replacement parts and food. They tell their
stories. They act against the everyday machine using diverse means: refusing
to produce, sabotage, intentional sloppiness, stealing, indiscretions, sick-
leave abuses, arson, solidarity campaigns. The brutality of the machine can be
explained by the resistance to it. Five years later, the bus returns. It is
colorful, has curtains, additions, inscriptions in unknown alphabets. No one
recognizes it, and the returnees are strangers...

Bus stop. The dream is over. Weekends, holidays, illusions always come to an
end, and we are once again sitting obediently in the bus or streetcar. The
everyday machine triumphs over us. We are part of it. It dismembers our life
into portions of time, soaks up our energy, plows our desires under. We are
reliable, punctual, disciplined cogs. Why do we function?

Deal

The everyday machine does grind us down, although at the same time it immunizes
us against revulsion, hate and despair. We feel these things only for brief
moments, when we have nothing to do and at the same time cannot consume
anything. In the morning we look forward to the evening, on Monday we look
forward to Friday, at the end of vacation we look forward to the next vacation.
We give the machine our time and energy, but at the same time it provides us
with (depending on salary) a number of pleasures: steaks, stereos, Mykonos,
wind surfing, Aikido, video, Chivas Regal, arts synthesis, Laurie Anderson...
This is our deal with the machine. This is our balance of life and work. And
it has been in the red for some time now.

Even though real wages have fallen and the rat race has intensified, this is
not the main reason for our life deficit. The "pleasures" that the machine has
to offer us are essentially polluted, and we ourselves are less and less
capable of truly enjoying them. On the one hand, we get mass products that
spoil us faster and faster, and on the other hand our work dulls our senses so
much that we become passive, isolated, unimaginative, lethargic and narrow-
minded. As satisfaction decreases, our craving for pleasure increases. The
large hole that the machine has carved in us simply cannot be filled. We can
cram our apartments full of electronics, travel far away, do gymnastics,
psychology courses, creativity and meditation, illegal and legal drugs: But we
cannot get away from ourselves.

The deal is rotten, because the "good things" are destroyed by the machine: we
ourselves, time, relationships, nature, traditions. Although we can travel
ever-faster and ever-farther, our freedom of movement in everyday life is
decreasing. Economization, renovation, redevelopment and standardization track
down every "free" second and every unused square meter. Time and space are
money. The machine uses money to implement its logic. We are locked in,
budgeted, clean and orderly and unhappy, although we don't really have any
"reason" to be.

Security

We are gagging on aversion. We have sensed for some time now that the old deal
has gone bad, and always was bad. The illusions of consumption, of technology,
of the "modern" industrial society in general, are crumbling. Why don't we get
out? Has the machine swallowed us up for good?

Fear of the unknown is stronger than revulsion for the everyday. The machine
appears to be the only possible reality. Habit. Security. Reason. Normalcy.
Power. Who guarantees our survival if we leave or destroy the machine? Where
is the medical care, the retirement and survivors' benefits, the insurance? We
are alone, and the machine is our only security in life.

Thus, we try to suppress our feelings, our reason and our doubts so that we can
function. We convince ourselves over and over again that this is how life is,
and that no other way is possible. Thus, we need normalcy to protect ourselves
from understanding our unhappiness. We are a conspiracy of unhappy people who
together defend their unhappiness. Whoever draws attention to this
unhappiness, assails it, is met with hate and envy. Whoever does not go along
with it becomes a disrupter, a parasite, a weakling, a failure, a dreamer or a
terrorist, depending on the degree of hate that is felt. Dropouts encounter
the perverse solidarity of those people who have understood the seriousness of
life, who have both feet on the ground, who can be proud of their deprivation
and frustrations (also known as achievements)...

But how safe is the machine, anyway? Is solidarity with it worthwhile? What
is the source of this strange nervousness of the defenders of normalcy? The
truth today is that this imposing machine, industrial society, is inexorably
pushing forward towards collapse. Not only is it sucking us dry, it is also
destroying itself. Industrial wealth is based on labor, but labor is being
superseded by automation and electronics, resulting in mass unemployment. The
more complex the machine becomes, the more work that must be expended on
repairs, administration and control. Maintenance of the machine requires more
work than the value that it generates on its own. The harm to nature and to
health that it inflicts is growing faster than production. The "health sector"
is exploding because our sickness is the most important product of the machine.
Industrial labor proves to be purely destructive work.

The current long-term economic crisis is the result of the internal
contradiction of the machine. When there are upswings, they represent only
small "recoveries" on the downward spiral. Each boom period leaves behind a
larger stock of unemployed people.

If the economy is in crisis, then this is also true of the welfare state. A
collapse of the monetary system could sweep away our retirement and survivors'
benefits, our insurance and pensions, at any time. Our "guarantees" are only
on paper--we have no recourse for getting what is owed us. Our faith in state
security is only an expression of our actual powerlessness and isolation. A
couple of good friends will be worth more than your retirement fund card or
savings passbook.

Realistic Politics

Perhaps the machine can still be changed and converted, so that it becomes
safer and more humane? Why not eliminate unemployment by introducing the 20-
hour work week, while at the same time applying leisure time to self-help and
self-sufficiency in neighborhoods and in the social domain? In this way,
everyone would have work, and the state could save on most welfare
expenditures. Why not restrict private transportation, invest more in public
transport, save energy (no atomic power plants, more insulation), recycle
garbage, eat less meat, introduce strict laws on the environment, strengthen
health care, delegate administration to the neighborhoods ("autonomous
sector"), abolish the armies? These reform proposals are reasonable, realistic
and in fact feasible as well. Thus, they constitute the official or unofficial
program of the "enlightened" alternative-social democratic-green-mixed [text
missing] just as those who start a popular initiative for the 40-hour work week
or set fire to a speculator's villa. Both know that the 40-hour week will
scarcely change the machine and that speculation will nevertheless continue.
Thus, this political reason actually conceals a lie: People act as if they
will gain something from their action, while knowing that even if their route
is the right one they will be long since dead once the "goal" is achieved.
They will become a hero of history, and will soon feel cheated. Disappointment
demands a "reward," and only the machine can provide that. And so yesterday's
partisan becomes tomorrow's minister of police...

Thus, we cannot avoid first expressing our very "private" dreams, so that we do
not deceive each other. Morale and realism are the machine's ideological
weapons, and for that reason, we must dare to be both egotistical and
ridiculous. Perhaps it will be obvious then that the "others" are not that
"different," but that we are all more alike than we think. Perhaps the
majority, the people, the masses, society, the voters, etc. are only a puppet
of the machine. Counter to the "first reality" of the machine, we must develop
our "second reality." It is our only change, because the first (including its
possibilities for improvement) is definitively on a dead-end road.

The machine attempts to take hold of the "second reality" and to digest it as
culture. Dreams are planned for and delimited as films, music, novels,
vacation sites, etc. Mixing the first and second realities is carefully
avoided. We must break through this channeling of our desires.

Today, the "realistic" attitude is one of "all or nothing." Either we achieve
rather quickly the jump from the first to the second reality, or both are lost
together. Apocalypse and the gospel. End of the world or utopia: These
possibilities stand in sharp juxtaposition today. We must chose between a
final, cynical pessimism and a "salto vitale" into an entirely different world.
Either apocalyptic enthusiasm or total resignation. Today, a middle-of-the-
road position such as "hope," "faith" or "patience" is merely self-deception or
demagogy.

The "nothing" is possible today, and it has also become a world view with which
it is quite possible to live. We do not necessarily have to survive. "Life"
as well as "nature" do not care whether they continue to exist. Making a
"value" out of survival and nature brings with it only totalitarian risks
(ecological fascism). The apocalypticists, nihilists and pessimists have good
arguments for their decision. They have their lifestyle, their fashion, music
and philosophy (Schopenhauer, Cioran, Buddhism). Perhaps the pessimists are
even the ones who are truly "happy," and the impending atomic or ecological end
of the world is the great deliverance from the torturous "life drive." But
this is not what I am talking about.

The "nothing" is one possibility, the "all" is another. Thus, if I attempt to
depict my phantasies about "all," then this is not to say anything against
"nothing." In contrast to nothing, "all" today is relatively poorly defined,
and appears to be less realistic. No one subjects himself to ridicule through
pessimistic predictions. It is worth expanding the "all" somewhat, if for no
other reason than to perhaps make "nothing" even more enticing...

Politic Real

During my reconnaissance missions into the second reality, I came across
bolo'bolo. This is my provisional, personal dream of a world in which I would
like to live as a vagabond or in a certain bolo. To this extent, it is quite
serious. On the other hand, it is only an idea shared by many people, a
hypothesis that can be dreamed up and then forgotten, a disposable utopia. I
would really like to see bolo'bolo become reality within five years, but I also
know that it can only be a flip among many. Even if it is only an incentive
and encouragement to others to let out their fantasies for the future as well,
then bolo'bolo would serve its purpose...

I imagine that bolo'bolo or other dreams could entice those resigned to real
politics out of their apathy, and that in this way a new "politic real" could
emerge. A politics (i.e., contact with oneself and with others) that is based
not only on preventing the "worst," but also on certain, wherever possible
practical, but also comprehensive ideas, from whence it then attempts to
project itself into the present. This could mean, for example, trying to
establish tega-sadis (see below) even today, and demanding the proper
buildings.

However, it is not really a question of assessing the feasibility of bolo'bolo,
nor of its (modest) potential uses in present-day situations; rather, it is a
question of itself. For this reason, I have gone to some (but not too much)
effort to determine whether bolo'bolo could function, in purely technical
terms, in an area like Switzerland (which would in that case not necessarily
continue to exist), and how long it would take to implement it. The available
data indicate that bolo'bolo could be essentially introduced within five years.
I have taken the fears of many people in Switzerland (one of the most heavily
insured countries in the world) into account and determined that no one would
have to starve, freeze to death or die any earlier than today. Bolo'bolo
guarantees a soft landing into the second reality.

Five years (only three, according to the delegate for economic war provisions)
would be enough time to convert agriculture to self-sufficiency. Through
improvisation, understanding and joy in chaos, the major confusion can be
overcome. If the nimas are strong enough, the state machinery can be paralyzed
and the factories are shut down, there will be enough time and energy for the
big day of restraint X.

Still, bolo'bolo is a planetary arrangement and can only exist if it is at
least dominant on a worldwide scale (about the same degree as the money economy
today). Nevertheless, bolo'bolo as a beginning in a country--such as
Switzerland, which is especially well-suited to it--is conceivable, since it is
part of the worldwide process. Switzerland could move ahead, since it is
compact, it would not cause any major political shifts, it has a certain model
character in terms of level of industrialization, and it is also centrally
positioned in Europe. The disruptions in the international banking system
could also be overcome...

But things could turn out completely different.

[p 61: Unattributed article]

Secret Code Detected by Satellite?

United States Engrossed in Spectacular Data Theft

New Brunswick (DPA)--The U.S. media are currently engrossed in a new,
spectacular case of "data burglary" reportedly involving seven young computer
enthusiasts, known as "hackers." The young people, who live in New Jersey and
whose names have not been disclosed because they are all under 18 years of age,
are said to have tapped into data bases, penetrated the communication system of
the telephone company AT&T, and even cracked codes in the Department of
Defense.

As the prosecutors reported, telephone services and data bases were supposedly
hit for thousands of dollars. Some estimates of the damage even go into the
millions. The young people, who are being charged with "conspiracy to theft,"
are said to have stored code numbers in their home computers with which the
positions of communications satellites can be altered and transcontinental
phone calls can be interrupted or placed.

On one of the hackers' electronic bulletin boards, coded telephone numbers were
found that gave the teenagers access to a communications system in the U.S.
Department of Defense, said district attorney Alan Rockoff. "We dialed one of
the numbers," says Rockoff, "and got a lieutenant general at the Pentagon."

According to the daily USA TODAY, the hackers also called in information on
U.S. Army tanks, and ordered stereos and radar detectors from mail-order houses
using stolen credit card numbers. In order to assess the full range of the
"data theft," the prosecutors must still examine six computers and mountains of
floppy diskettes.

The seven accused hackers reportedly did not know each other personally, but
rather exchanged information via their computers. In an interview with the NEW
YORK TIMES, one of the teenagers said that he was innocent, and thus not
particularly upset by the charges.

An AT&T spokesman said that there was no indication that the young people even
attempted to alter the positions of satellites. And the Pentagon assured that
its computer systems are hacker-safe. Based on previous experience with
hackers, however, computer experts doubt this assertion.

[p 61: Unattributed article]

Engelhard Wants to Restrict Computer Crime

Targeted Prosecution and "Social Control"

Bonn, 16 July--Minister of Justice Engelhard wants to strengthen efforts to
halt white-collar crime by creating criminal liability for "computer crimes."
Besides improving judicial organization through white-collar crime divisions
and using "targeted prosecution," rethinking in terms of "social control" is
also necessary, the minister believes. Despite the large amount of damage that
they inflict and their assault on the foundations of the economic system, these
criminals continue to be secretly admired. "White-collar crimes must be
subjected to the same level of ostracism in our society as other criminal
misdeeds." He added that this is not the equivalent of skipping out on a bar
tab, riding the streetcar without paying or sneaking a beer on the sly.
Rather, public prosecutors estimate that white-collar crime inflicted damages
totalling DM 6.9 billion in 1983.

Up to now, Engelhard said, it has been particularly difficult to uncover and
punish criminal acts conducted with computers. The second law on combatting
white-collar crime, which is currently under deliberation in the Bundestag
justice committee and which he hopes to see passed this year, should close
legal loopholes. In many cases, the current provisions have been inadequate.
For example, if money is set aside for one's own benefit through a computer
manipulation, then this cannot be considered embezzlement, since that crime
presupposes a special role by the perpetrator in overseeing the money that he
"burgled." Another example: Withdrawing a sum of money from an automatic
teller machine using a falsified ATM card is not necessarily robbery under the
law, since the money is not acquired through breaking into someone else's
safekeeping, and since the money in question is not a purloined object, but
rather a claim by the account-holder from his bank. Engelhard provided a
planned list of punishable computer crimes: computer manipulation, computer
espionage, computer sabotage and unauthorized use of data processing. As an
example of computer manipulation, he cited the example of an employee with a
Bavarian employment office who had DM 250,000 credited to his family by
improperly inputting child subsidy payments, including alleged child subsidy
payments for his grandparents, who were over 80 years old. As "computer
espionage," he noted the experiment by a Hamburg "Chaos Computer Club," which
managed to acquire the password for the Hamburger Sparkasse, which enabled them
to repeatedly call in BTX pages and perpetrate a fraud to the tune of DM
135,000. However, this took place under the supervision of the Hamburg data
protection commissioner. As potential sabotage, the minister mentioned the
insertion of a "logical time bomb" in a program. Someone had instructed a
program to destroy itself two years after its release at three o'clock in the
afternoon, which did in fact happen. For several days, 300 terminals were out
of order, Engelhard said. An insurance company dealing with computer misuse
surveyed 13,000 companies with data processing, 30 percent of which indicated
the presence of manipulation of data processing. Engelhard also turned his
attention towards the misuse of home computers by "hackers." The cracking of
access codes, he said, is not a game, but rather "electronic trespassing." Nor
is stealing programs (software piracy) a trivial offense; a Hanover high school
student allegedly inflicted damages totalling DM 23 million through
unauthorized copying. Thus, Engelhard said, it is proper that programs be
covered by copyright in the amended copyright law, and that criminal acts
henceforth be punishable by a maximum sentence of five years in prison (was one
year).

Furthermore, the second law for combatting white-collar crime is intended to
avert capital investment fraud and curb dubious futures trading, as well as to
standardize the mix of penal provisions pertaining to the misappropriation of
wages.