2600 Magazine - Volume 1, Number 4 


2600 April, 1984 


V 


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SYSEftRO 


VOLUME onf. number four 


WHOSE STRIKE WAS THAT ANYWAY? 


„ Contract miles were breaking down between American 
Telephone and Telegraph and ihe three major unions of 
their employees. Asa result, workers walked off their jobs at 
midnight on August 7th. The AT&T strike was on! 

We all remember the phone strike of '83. It caused us to 
bold on directory assistance for several minutes. It gave us 
many unique error messages. It made it virtually impossible 
to make any operator-assisted calls from all around the 
country. For the first time in a long while, the voices at 
AT&T were not answering the phone. 

As we all know, a strike is an organized work stoppage by 
the employees in order to compel the employer to meet some 
demand. If the workers go on strike, it stands to reason that 
the company should suffer, if, for example, the union of 
Cabbage- Patch® producers was to strike, then none would 
be made, the factories would quickly be emptied, and 
consumers would rant and rave. If the local Cabbage* 
Patch® conglomerate had anticipated a strike, they could 
step up production. Till several hundred warehouses with 
millions of the surrogate orphans and, when the strike 
occurred, they could sell the surplus. The workers would 

lose their bargaining power in this case, unless the Cahhagc- 
Patch® truckers’ union also struck, or perhaps people stopped 
adopting the cretins, however unlikely that might seem. 

This analogy leads us back to last summer when 675,000 
telephone employees went on strike. A walk-out of this 
magnitude should have devastated any company, AT&T, 
though, is the exception to the rule. What AT&T really 
depends on are phones, wires, switching systems, 
computers, electricity, some optical fibers, satellites, 
microwave towers, and other nifty 2 1 si century things that 
are all designed to run without the interference of human 
decision. The people are really just there to remove illegal 
third party phone calls from your bill, to make sure that 
your handwritten check matches the computer-read phone 
bill, or to tell you that the machine you are at cannot return 
your dime and that you will get a check for 10c in the mail, 
91% of all calls made today don't use any operator assistance 
at all. And most of the other 3% could have been dialed 
without the assistance of a human. More and more 
“services” of your phone company are becoming tompletefy 
automated. With ESS. customers can dial overseas direct. 
Android information is popping up left and right. AT&T, a 
leader in technology, doesn't need their workers all that much. 

Glen E. Watts, president of the Communications 
Workers of America, saidTJn 1 950, for example* total labor 
costs amounted to about 45% of the telephone dollar while 
in 1980 they amounted only to 29%.." John Patrick Phillips 
(author of Ma flW/'i MUiiom) says that the company 
encourages or even “maneuvers'" a strike. According to him, 
Ma Bell reaps huge rewards, from a strike Phillips, a 
disgruntled ex-employee, who at times compares the phone 
company to fascism, would have presented AT&T's 
organized scheme last August like this: 

675,000 workers strike for ahoul 3 weeks. 3 weeks out of a 
year amounts to 5,K% of it worker’s salary, IcTssaya phone 
worker made at the lime o! the strike a modest S250pcr week 
(operators made S37J. while systems technicians, the hesi 
paid workers, made S535). 


At this lime AT&T provided substandard service to the 
people for the same prices. The 3%. loss in phone usage due 
to lack of operators was probably easily made up by people 
making an extra effort to dial direct and by the fact that 
some of the calls were being handled by scabbing 
supervisory icu:I employees. And so, the company nets pure 
profit: 3 week strike x £250/ week x 675,000 workers = 
£506.250,0001 

Phillips also notes that because managers and supervisors 
were doing the dirty work of the phone company, these 
people could not work on new projects. This means that 
several hundred million dollars would not be invested in 
expenditures on new projects because there is no one to do 
the work. So AT&T would get interest on this money 
during the strike and even for some time after it was settled 
until work had resumed. This yields several million more 
dollars in profit for AT&T. 

AT&T probably made out directly wilh over half a billion 
dollars from the strike. At the same time companies like New 
York Telephone sought to delay a $160 million rate increase so 
it could ask for another increase to reflect new contracts. 

As part of the settlement 21 days later, lop craft workers 
got a 5.5% increase for the first year of their 3 year contract 
and 1, 5%. for each of the next two years. They also got a S3 1 
million training fund (£46 per employee) to help them deal 
with new technology and remain employable humans. Allof 
these “gains" are subsidized by the half a billion dollars 
gaining lots of interest which AT&T did not have to pay to 
their employees, AT&T at first offered a ridiculous 3.5%, 
increase for the first year and no increase for the next two, 
but after losing 5.8% of their salary by striking, workers got 
a 5.5% increase above the cost of living which is probably 
entirely subsidized by the strike itself and by rate increases. 

If s certainly a nifty deal for Ma Bell. Ttieir workers blow 
off steam and pay for their own raises, and stockholders 
don't have to worry one bit. 

The strike had its effect on the consumer As we all know, 
many were dialing, touchtoning®, or redialing their calls 
almost like usual and others were severely inconvenienced 
by a few managers and supervisors working as longdistance 
or directory assistance operators often for many hours of 
overtime, New installations came to a standstill and many 
were backlogged for several months. Any emergency repairs 
had to be handled by supervisory personnel. But after all 
this, the same fat phone bill came to people’s homes the next 
month, without any delay. 

In actuality, users cannot complain to or boycott the 
phone company as they could the Cabbage- Patch® 
manufacturers, in our earlier iiccnario. They cannot make 
AT&T or their local company do anything because each 
customer is as unimportant as each employee. We. as 
customers, arc all dependent on the phone. We have at least 
one in each home. We are hilled it we use it or not, and arc 
billed more to have it shut olT lor a month or two. We arc 
all so dependent oil the lines that run into our homes and on 
the one and a half million payphones that absorb our money 
that the Complaints of any one nr even thousands ol us are quite 
useless. AH of fhis utility (note the meaning of this word) was 
until recently controlled almost exclusively by itttc com pain, 
so in I he name of human spirit, roll oil with the divestiture. 


1 


THE TROUBLE WITH TELEMAIL 

GTE is practically inviting intrusions, and odds arc they’ll get plenty 


Lust month, two of our reporters took a trip to National 
Public Radio studios in New Vork to reveal a very 
interesting development. It seems that Telcmail, the 
ilectronic mail service of GTE Telenet was .uiWjust as easy 
to access as it was last year, prior to the October raids on 
computer owners who had allegedly broken into the system. 

What had happened was thfc: a directory containing 
names of users on the Tel email system was obtained by Our 
reporters— this list can be obtained from virtually any 
account on the system and, when printed out, is a couple of 
: nches thick, They decided to go through this list and see if 
Lhere were any accounts that still had the imaginative default 
password of "A" assigned to them, h had generally been 
: bought, by both the public and press, that this incredibly 
"oolish blunder had been corrected after the raids — in fact > 
new software ii'iu installed which forced a user to change 
hetr password from the default when they Logged on. All 
new passwords had to be between 6 and 8 characters in 
ength. But, in a system with many thousands of customers, 
he reporters reasoned lhat surely there must be a few who 
3 ad n’t yet Logged on since the policy was implemented. 

They decided to start their search with user names that 
rcgan with "B 11 . They'd enter Telenet through an 800 
lumber, type MAIL, and enter usernames beginningwith B 
hat were listed in their directory. For each username, they'd 
inter “A** as the password, and if it didn't work, they'd go on 
:o the next one. 

The first account they tried was named B. ALEXANDER, 
Hiey entered "A" as the password, and lo and behold* they 
■vere in! On the very first attempt! Robert Alexander of 
BUREC hadn't logged in since last summer. The ‘invaders" 
vere told by the system to change the password and they 
:omplied. Then they decided to have a look around. 

While there was no mail to speak of in Mr. Alexander^ 
jox, they were able to access bulletin boards that this 
account was allowed to look at, (Bulletin boards oh 
Tel email are simply long-term storage message bases where 
nessages of general interest to a particular group of people 
ire posted.) All kinds of internal metnoes from the 
department of the Interior were displayed. 

In other words, the same old story. Nothing had really 
hanged Nearly half a year after seizing computers from 
:oast to coast, the Telemail system was just as vulnerable to 
>uislders as it was before. Were the folks at GTE really 
rite rested in securing their system in the first place? Or did 
hey just want to put the Icar of the lord into hackers? 

At first, when this story was breaking, GTE tried to deny 
hat such a break-in was even possible. It had to bean inside 
ob, they claimed, because nothing is wrong with our system. 
rhen L when it finally started to become clear that this hreak- 
n did occur and that it was because of the default passwords 
hrtce again, GTE took the expected step of blaming the 
ustomers. “We re not responsible for maimaining the 
ecurily of the accounts," they said, "That's up to the 
ubscriber," in this case, the Department of the Interior. 

So. our two reporters came up with a plan. What i! il 
ladnT been an outside agency's mailbox, hut one belonging 
t> GTE themselves? Who could they blame Then? 

They went to the letter “IT* this time and searched for 
ccoums that were affiliated with GTE, The lirsi one was 
XCORCORAN and. once again,. they got right in. And 
>enisc Corcoran of GTE hud access to literally hundreds 
nd hundreds of bulletin boards with names like 
’AYROI.L, GOVT.AKFAI K,S, and ,f ARAN. 

Or ton of all this, il look GTE nesirlv u week lo close 


access to these accounts, even alter they were exposed on 
nal ion wide radio. 

What our reporters proved here is that Telemail ts cither 
unable or unwilling lo protect its customers. Unable? That 
hardly seems likely. After ail, mosi computer bulletin 
boards run by high school kids are able to protect their users* 
accounts from outsiders. Why can't one of the largest and 
most expensive electronic mail systems do the same? 
Apparently, what we have here is a company that has grown 
too big too soon, and is now unable to overcome the inertia 
that its size has created. 

How to Really Have Fun 

Once a hacker manages to get into a Telemail account, 
he's really set. By typing Dl R " at command mode, he can 
get a Listing of everyone that the account is allowed to sec - - 
their username, full name, company and division, and user 
number. He can see any user if he figures out their full 
username or user number. Typing DIR USERNAME or 
DIR USER NUMBER will give all of the above 
information about that person, if he exists. 

From the huge list that DIR "generates {which takes a 
couple of hours to print at 300 baud), a hacker can scan for 
passwords that are defaults, first names, Jast names, 
usernames, or company names. Some GTE test accounts, 
for instance, used to have a password of GEENOGTE- 

Teicmail allows three logon attempts per access. Telenet 
allows four accesses per call. So each call to Telenet will 
yield 12 logon attempts to Telemaii, Judging from the huge 
amount of users on the system, finding an easy password 
doesn't take all that long. 

There are all kinds of neat features within Telemail 
accounts that seem to be exclusively beneficial to hackers, If 
the account has access to the SET command, the user can 
teil the system not to print a welcome banner on logon. The 
information that's printed on the welcome banner tells the 
user when his last access was. If a hacker arranges for that 
information not to be printed, the real user won't find out 
that his account was being used at 3 in the morning. And 
odds are that he won’t really notice the absence of the 
message— if he does, he'll probably blame it on Telemail 

Then thenfs the UNREAD command. This actually 
allows a person to read through someone else J s undelivered 
maik and put it back when they’re finished without anyone 
knowing that it's been read (unless a message was sent with a 
return receipt, which is rare). Telcmail, it seems, practically 
bends over backwards to accomodate hackers 

Whal's so great about having a Telemail account? Why 
should a hacker spend all this time getting one? It's another 
means of free (or cheap) communications. All one has to 
do is call Telenet, enter Telcmail, and read or send messages 
that can be uttlinriwii in length. He can share one account 
with someone else (which is the least risky way to work 
things) or communicate with another usurped account that s 
allowed lo send to and receive from his account. This is 
naturally a bit more risky since if one account is reclaimed, 
both may end up being taken down. Transmission ol 
messages on Telemail is instant and there's never a busy 
signal. More importantly (hough, iciemati seems to he 
beckoning I he hackers (o come back home, 

(Shtwitv after this artu-le nv/.v tfis/mteheih nr nvioW 
Wtif'ii thuf Teteinaif iUfJtniget' use'**' A. its a ifefttiih . Whether 
this j_* trite <it ttff. whether they 're mti\ using a tfefiiitff uf "ii . 
or whether if fry' ft' using tfefmffis fwriutf. f.v something that 
harpers s\ ill tm iioutn finti out soon-- ftroft it fine tf y*nt 
fiiuf i*ui tin i 'thing. i 




Bell Credit Card Abuse Soars 

Hu^ge phone bills hr being sent to innocent people all over 
the country. So huge, in Tact, that they can't be sent in 
envelopes — they come in boxes. In the past month and a 
half, this scene has begun to proliferate. 

As predicted on these pages in February, the AT&T death 
s tar ca rds are creating al I kinds of pro blems . All that anyone 
has to do is glance at one of them to obtain a valid AT&T 
code. And that’s exactly what people are doing. Some of 
these folks are, in fact, so organized that the codes are used 
for practically 24 hours a day. with new calls starting as 
often as 3 times a minute from all different parts of the 
country. It’s rapidly becoming one of the easiest ways to 
make free phone call*, and best of all, it's through an old 
friend; Ma Belli 

While AT&T has put itself in a rather vulnerable position 
they are not completely without' defense. Any time that a 
credit card call is placed, the number that the call is being 
placed from is recorded and sent to the customer. Most 
phreaks know enough not to do. this kind of thing from their 
home or Local payphone. 

Meanwhile, there is a major crackdown underway in Las 
Vegas concerning unauthorized use of MCL Sprint, and 
ITT (AT&T ii rumoured to also be involved here). It seems 
that hundreds of people in that gambling town were passing 
codes around. The FBI claims that the persons involved arc 
not phone phreaks, but that phieakers and hackers may 
have been hired to do the actual code-finding. 

Electronics Create Portable Prisons 

Hit Ntn- Trtrk Time- 

Cesario Romero, a 23-year-old New Mexico truck driver, 
recently served a 30 day sentence for disobeying a police 
officer. He never had to leave his home. 

Romero was confined at home by a plastic box the size of 
a cigarette package that was strapped to h» ankle. This 
device emin radio signals which would have informed the 
authorities if Romm strayed more than 150 fwt from his 
telephone. The anklet emits a radio signal every 30 to WJ 
seconds which is picked up. by a small receiver connected to 
the telephone outlet in the wearer's home. The receiver 
relays the signal to ■ computer that is monitored by the 
authorities. The printouts indicate each time the wearer 
exceeds the J$0-foo| limit and each time he tries to remove 
the anklet or unplug the receiver. 

District Attorney Steven Schiff of the Second Judicial 
District said, “"For someone like a first -time shoplifter, it 
could be used as a mild punishment, requiring the person to 
stay home nights and weekends for * specified time." 

The U.S. Justice Department has ex pressed an interest in 
this monitoring system. 

4I4’s Plead Guilty 

11k flSHKHllJ Pnu 

Two young mert, both members of the 414 computer 
enthusiasts group, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor 
charges on March 16. 

Gerald Wondra of West Allis, Wl and Timothy D. 


Winslow of Milwaukee, both 21, broke into large computers 
in the U.S. and Canada Iasi June, simply to prove that they 
could do it. The two agreed to plead guilty to two counts 
each of making harassing telephone calls, which is the most 
they can be charged with, since the government has no law 
against computer crimes. Each count carries a maximum 
penalty of six months in jail and a £500 fine. 

The computer involved were located at: Security Pacific 
National Bank in Los Angeles, Memorial Sloan-Kettering 
Cancer Center in New York, Canada Cement LaFarge Inc. 
in Vancouver, BC, and Citadel Industries, a New Jersey 
corporation. 

Teller Machine Crime Coming 

The Ldi Aftycln lira 

The Justice Department says that automated teller 
machines and other means of electronic financial 
transactions are “potentially fertile for criminal abuse. 71 

Techniques for robbing the systems already have cropped 
up and are expected to increase. They range from the 
dynamiting of an automatic teller device to the withdrawal 
of funds by a cardholder who then claims no knowledge of 
the transaction. Because of an absence of sophisticated 
verification procedures in today's automated teller systems, 
such as fingerprints or voicepriuts, the door is wide open to 
unscrupulous cardholders committing fraud from their very 
own accounts. (Some machines, though, take a picture of 
the person as soon as he takes the cash.) 

Even though bank officials may be skeptical of a 
cardholder's disclaiming any knowledge of a withdrawal 
that had been made from his or her account, federal law 
makes it difficult for the officials to reject such a claim. If a 
bogus loss is reported within two business days, the law 
makes the cardholder responsible for only the first £50, 

Free Information in Trouble 

■ he Acuuiieed 

According to company spokesman Pic Wagner, AT&T 1 is 
probably going to propose a 50-cent fee for long distance 
information calls instead of the 75-cent fee it proposed last 
fall. Consumers currently don't pay anything for long 
distance or overseas directory assistance. 

A Word on Wiretapping 

Lung Idaikd Mfwnliv 

A recent article by Lenny Siegel, director of the Pacific 
Studies Center in Mountain View, CA, dealt with the 
subject of wiretapping. 

In this article, Siegel says, "Present law outlaws 'aural' 
(voice) wiretapping, the monitoring of telephone conver- 
sations, without judicial approval, but L nonaural h surveil- 
lance is legal. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies can 
and do record telephone dial ingin formation -who's cal ling 
whom — and digital data transmissions --messages between 
computers and other electronic devices. In fact, the General 
Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, warns 
that existing legislation may .permit listening in on the 
growing percentage of voice transmissions that have been 
converted to digital pulses within the telephone network." 






A TRUE SAGA OF TELECONFERENCING 

“Ycjih. bul hdiili'wn a lrt. 

learn l« l» ftWfiful." . , .. kuill 

“I know." I irk-d to ail cs pet kneed. “Buapnga eonfe-reniX 1 ffom ha hOOfr, 


Electric Mimui 

"(j lhJ . 1 «-iJi I had a hos. David said. “I hid sh it now. I bump oil 
Information in Wi™nw(l iinil Ert !tn emply WA IS lint 1 h) play with, I 
keypunch n few mu Infrequency operator lone*, and la da' 11 five* me a 
eonlerenLe. But l cunt in that Anyway, since I’m on ESS." 

"David." [ r^nonded. “I knowthb; sounds ulupid. but Iflon I utuleRtand 
a word of what you j ust said. Okay. this is what ] k now from (he con feren ee: 
ft iih a blue box vou make tones of certain pitches. sfllhul Ihcphonethm^ 
you're nn operator. Thai way you fan make long distance calla- for free or 
%[^r; a cnnferenre.’’ 

’'Very good," 

“Bul what's ESS?' 

“Anyway," David said, “it’s easier and s*Fer to uw an esltflilcf (O call 
long distance than id box." 

“fliii iiViei'.v I repealed. 

'■Okay i here ue go. The famous Smith beefing for beginning phreak*. 
Fasten your seal belli, ladies and gentlemen...” 

"i resent he-Lng called a beginner,” I said. 

’'In the history of our great phone system. Mb Bell has undergone many 
changes, En her Youth, she was made up or so-called siep-by-tiep systems. 
Theie were tovelv and easv to tiftiimvinL, bul noisy and slow. Alio, 
2600 Herut disconnects a step system, so you can't hox cfl of one. Mosi of 
■ hese were switched bv hand bv small-town operators. Then someone came 
up with crossbar switching, and Ma Bell made HtHc clicking noises alLday 
long as she switched almost automatically. 

“Bui. horror of horrors, Ma Bell finally got old, She grew senile and 
paranoid. Jn order not to forget things, she wrote them down. Every limta 
Lillie customer called a number he shouldn’t have known, she wrote up a 
[rouble card on him and filed it neatly away. This system wus noiseless and 
easy. Soon Ma came up with better security measure!, longer customer 
records, and tighter filing cabinets.. Sht buried - light-fiber Qhifi h Mid 
everyone knows you can't splice two light-fiber cabin iDpther. She 
changed her own phone numbers regularly, and com puieriztd everything, 
Each change came about slowly, bui the final product wai ESS- So i he 
main phono systems are Step.- crossbar, and ESS.” 

’‘which one am I onT' 1 asked. 

■i don't know. Some people tan tell by listening to the nng or the busy 
signal, but 1 cant." he ad m itted. "Tryoucati get calf waiting. youVe on ES5- 
TalL Customer Service and ask” 

We talked on conferences almost every night for two weeks Napoleon 
Bonaparte act them up. and wc talked to the Hacker, Cracker. Tom Kte'ij. 
and Mas Wilke. 

I learned a lew things, from conferences, and a lot from David. He told me 
about the Michigan loops. Apparently, if E called a certain number, some 
stranger would pick up the other end and we could talk. How stupid. Then 
David explained that the 01 her person was calling a phone FUl mber too. and 
we'd get connected somehow: A loop around here was -424-MOD and 
424-9901, If 1 called one end and someone else called the ocher, we'd be 
connected. This was useful if wfdidnt want to giw out our phone numbers. 
In Detroit, lets of people— not only phreak? — know about loop! If you call 
up one end of a Detroit loop, someone else is likely to call within five 
minutes, 

’’You. never know who you'll get,” David said. "Hacker and 1 call and 
wait, and sometimes homosexuals get on and say. 'Looking for guys?’ or 
giris get on and say, ’Guts* what color underwear t have on? But you abo 
get other people— car salesmen, teenagers, and college students — Iota of 
college students.” 

He gave me some Michigan loop numbers and I started calling them 
through extenders. I talked to a lot of weird people and a lot of normal 
people. 1 also called some pay phffllts in Berkeley and Carnegie-Mellon. 
and talked co whoever answered. 

The Phreak was my idol He was (he idol of most of ihe phreak* I knew. 
Low agreed that he was i he best phreak and hacker (okay, little did we 
know then)L He was only fourteen years old. and lived in 1 Bouton. 

One day I called up a Michigan loop and heard a k>t of static and clicking. 
3 abo heard some people talking — mainly (WO hoys. One of I hem had an 
uitmiuikibk Boston accent. Et was Steve the Phreak. 

"Hey Phreak." | said. This is Electric Moon!" 

“Hi Electric,” he said. Then he asked his friend, “Should we keep herT 
■'Yeah, what the heckf said the anonymous phreak. A beep signalled the 
departure of the Phreak. 

"Where'd Steve go T J asked. 

’'Off t o look for more leaps, the idiul/'fciirf ihe hoy. Tl’s loo Loud in here 
already.' 1 

“What's your frame?' I asked. 

“I'm Ivanhoe. I’m a Steve LOO. hut you ear call me George.” 

"What?" 

“To differentiate between me and Ph rC-lik.’" 

I'H just call you Ivan hoe/ 1 I said. “WhercTe you lotiuedT 
"I'm in California. I'm seventeen. And you’T 

‘I'm in Ohio. I'm sixteen. Cat I me Electric.” I suddenly realized I was 
yelling above the din of the Inops, The Phreak kept putting, on more and 
more. The loops themselves made clicks and stink, hot (he people on I hem 
mod e it i fven worse. '1 hey could n’t hea r u* a nd I hey cou Id n’t hcsi r t he people 
on the other loops, so they Inudlv chatted away. 

Every time Ivanhoe or I heard ike Phreak huep hvij or olF. we sc reamed at 
him to step adding Imps, hui he pretended nut t» notice, and continued al a 
rate of six Or so a minute. 

Finally 3 couldn't take the noisic, I yelled a loop nuinbcMo Ivnnhoe, and 
we ducked out. 


He still has a Long way to go. though- He has lo 


'* ‘"H^'you^drd him on A mown. i bought He’s a riol. hut I'd never do 

what he does l” 

"What docs he d I asked. 

“Hell have to show vuu,“ Jvanboe said. , . 

Click 3 "Emergency break from Ci.l. .loc. Witt you accept r asked the 

OP "No/ we said in unison, 1 smiled, imagining the shocked operator. She 
probably thought his mother w*s dying- 
“NoT she asked uncertainly. 

'•NO 1 " wc yelled, and laughed as she clicked oil again. 

-Well," IvanhPt said- 'That muot be Phreak. He probably want! mtlD 
call him' I'll tell him to stun another conference. ' 

"Okay,” I said- 1 hungupthc phone and walked into I he kitchen. I set my 
notebook and pencil on the kitchen drslt and took a cold apple from the 
refrigerator. Th* phone rang as I crunched the first bite. 

“Hello?' 

■‘Hi. Anyone yen want to add?’ asked the Phreak. 

“Sure. Add Trader Vic." 

"Okay ” he said. I heard a beep, sLknce. the people talking. 

“Qtliel down, everyone!” lvarthocsaid. 'The Phreak is gomgtoshow off. 
but what he's going to do is pretty dangerous," 

Beep-beep! Beep- beep-! The Phreak had brought Trader Vie on. 

"Hey dudes, whit's going on?" he asked. 

“Shhr we taid. , ,. . , , , 

“You wnt hang up cm them once they're a conference. sum Ivannof 
■ l |f someone auipecte what we’re doing, we'M have to hang up thr whole 

conference,” „ . „ . 

The Phreak beeped off. He was back m a rmnutc. talking ofTiciously. 
“Ye*, 1 have a Flash Override call for Location four-zero-two-niner," he 
said calmly. 

“Flaih Override ' Who it thb. sub?" aikecf a deep Southern accent. 
This is General Watt " The Phreak had to make the guy believe he was a 
Joint Chief of Staff. 

A no»l tenor c>me on the li ne, hen Idcd by an amaztng overture ol click! 
beeps, and tones. 

+ “Genera L. for whom are you placing this call? 

“For Ronald Reagan/’ said the Phreak. I felt like I had been stabbed- 
Whit an idiot! But I couldn't hang up, because t he operator would hear the 

bet pi i Listened Instead. . . . , 

"Ronald Reagan?" asked the voice diibelkvringly. “Sir. wnil n the writ 

on this sill? . . , . 

“I’m at the White House right now." said the Phrok mol y- 1 knew hewas 
suiting for time is he flipped through stolen Aut-ovon mm us-Ls, “Sergeant. 
I havt the code right here. Pm at location C-OM-four-iia-iwo-D, piscina a 
Flash Override for Timberwotf to location four-zcro-iwo-niner. The 
operation code is icro-Eiver-zcro-niner." 

“That is conrceU" the operator said, and I could have hugged ihe Phreak. 
'‘PltMe hold, sir, and I'LL put your Call through ” 

Peep! Beep!,..kCMhunk. . 

“Andrews Air Foret Base.” said a woman. “■General Hodge is out right 
now- ShDutd I sound hi! beeptr? . 

Silence. What now'.' Two people spoke at once. Trader Vic broke through 

L&udl >' ...... 

. “YEab, like, thliis a conference call, and we just. like, wanted to see how 

you «rt doing, you knmv?* 

“Escuse me?* aiked the startled woman. 

“I'm sorry,” I interrupted quietly. The time had come to try utd salvage 
thia thing- “I’m the White House internal operator, and we teem to have 
given the wrong location identifier. Thank you very much," 

The General's secretary clicked off and our nasal operator picked on. 
“What seems to be the problem. Genera L?’ he »kcd. 

"I’m sorry/ 1 Evanhoe said. 'The President decided not to make the cuLL 
after all. Thank you. though. ” 

“Yes sir, thank you.” the operator said, and clicked off. We arid our 
breaths until wc heard the final beep- beep. 

“Vic, you idiot!” I cried- 

H Wbat?’ he asked. “I thought it was pretty funny!” 

“Funny, my fool," Evanhoe staid angrily. “ llial wp* a stupid thing to say. 
And Steve, why didn’t you answer?" . 

“My mom called me and I had to go takeout the (rAsh."soid the I break. 
“Phreak, you're crazy." I said. 

■'] know,” he said in his deepest Boston accent. “But you all love ti. 

A week later, t he Software Pirate eulled me a nd said the Ph peak bad been 
caught. I called Ivanhoe, who told me that Si eve was visited that morning 
by thnw FBI and two Bell Security agents len other people were afe» 
caught. The FBI woke all the hoy-K up ul 6 AM *n they wouldn't have u 
chance to warn friend*. 

A* soon an school was over, the Phreak called Ivunhoc and told him all 
thb. He wailed an hour until iL was 4:tXJin Utah, titld eulled the Software 
Pirate, who called m L ‘. 

The news sprciid among plirCukii iilld pirates- so that unyoiiL 1 - snvolvyj 
knew about It by dinneriimc on the past t Tutsi. 

Late that night, the While Knight scl up wh,K 
uOfrfcrcnce. Ivunhoe. David, Demon EJidJi b . and 
(hey would he cuught. 

We lulled the Cruckcf and Jtskird him Jo talk. 


ft-e thought was the Iasi 
lie Cracker all expected 


“Hello?' asked u ituicl. low v^ke. 

“Hi." | named- “Thank (IlhJ we’re out nii ihai mess." 

”Yc;Lh. He'll probably have- it up lor a fc\h' days hclore they figure it mil." 
hiirtlluit NJiid. 

“H/t i* F'i t\' I™ I 


"Why nni?' he^aiel dryly. “I'nijusl sitting litre wailing lor the KKI. 1 hJLve 
iiotliiiig heltcr to do." 

I hey gut him | he nest mormng. 

fthr Uftrttw iw'rituvrs joi iff tht* vfijj'i- fmvi- ufi hi ' ivi -u* 

i fftr' r j- 1 




4 



2600 


Page 5 


I HAVE A NEW LONG" 
DISTANCE WSTCMr I 
HASS TO PkAL THE 
COPE NLWBETCr 


BETTER OFF 
DIALING more than 
FW/ING MOAE r 


£1 


*-«£l 

4 





MCI ACCESS NUMBERS 

(Courtesy of Plovernet — 5169352481) 


AARON t OHIO 

(216) 

253 

ATLANTA, CA. 

(404 i 

523 

AUSTIN, TEXAS 

(512) 

473 

BALTIMORE, MD. 

< 301 > 

321 

BOSTON, MASS. j 

CGI 7 ) 

4BZ 

CHICAGO, ILL, 

t 3 1 2 ) 

321 

CINCINNATI, OHIO 

(513) 

241 

CLEVELAND, OHIO 

■ 21 6 ) 

62 1 

COLUMBUS, OHIO 

'GJL4) 

22* 

DALLAS, TEXAS 

(214) 

742 

DAYTON, OHIO 

(513) 

228 

DENVER, COLORADO 

(303) 

S37 

DETROIT, MICH. 

(313) 

962 

FT, LAUDERDALE , FL. 

(305) 

4G2 

FT. WORTH r TEXAS 

(617) 

338 

HOUSTON, TEXAS 

(713) 

224 

I ND I ANAPOL IS, INDIANA 

C 3 1 7 ) 

S32 

KANSAS CITY, MO. 

■ <616) 

836 

LOS ANGELES, CALF. 

y 2 1 3 > 

488 

LUBBOCK, TEXAS 

f 606 J 

744 

M I DLAND/ODESS , TEXAS 

(915) 

5S1 

MILWAUKEE , WISCONSIN 

1414) 

933 

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 

*612) 

341 

NEWARK, NJ. 

(ZOl ) 

645 

NEW ORLEANS r LA. 

(504) 

5SG 

NEW YORK, NY. 

(212) 

307 

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK. <#I ) 

(405) 

525 

OMAHA, NEBRASKA 

l 402 ? 

*22 

PH I L.ADEL PH 1 A , PA, 

i ' 2 1 5 j 

561- 

PHOENIX, AZ. 

< 602) 

2*S 

PITTSBURG, PA. 

i 4! 2 ) 

291 

ST . _GUI5, MO- 


3*2 

SAN ANTON lu , TEXAS 

■CT- -r '« 

226- 

SAN DIEGO, CALF. 

<714) 

560- 

SAN FRANCISCO, CALF, 

i' A 1 j 

*95- 

SOUTH SEND, IND. 

\ 2 IS: 

232- 

STAMFORD, CT. 

(203> 

3*8- 

TOLEDO, OHIO 

« 4 1 S > 

2*3- 

TUCSON, AR T ZONA 

C602 ) 

622- 

TULSA, OKLAHOMA 

(918) 

503- 

WASH I NOTON p D . C * 

i 202 

r--j? . 


-1430 
-0003 
-2716 
-8933 
-2988 
-6591 
-l2l6 
-2371 
-0970 
-G0BB 
-0241 
-BG38 
-GSOG 
-1816 
-9004 
-8030 
-6739 
’1010 
-1871 
-B870 
-5130 
-7351 
■2635 
9040 
■0970 
■ 1 020 
GSG3 
■030B 
3 1 99 
0713 
-4905 
02 90 

0505 
i 4G5 
-2 500 
0O3G 
0929 
20 4 B 
0 212 
90 02 
1 R* 7 


Fallowing are MCI Mail local acceei 
phone number*; 

Atlanta, GA <4041 577-7363 

Balt 1 More , MO < 301 ) 563-6650 

Boston, MA .......**( 61 7 ) 2G2-G466 

Buffalo, NY (716) 847-6050 

Chicago, IL, ...(312) 05E-3OOO 

Cincinnati, OH....* (513) 651-1204 

CleueldOdr OH (216) 771-7177 

Columbus, OH (614) 221-3451 

Dal las , TX (214) 754-0461 

Denuerr CO* (303) 631-0139 

Detroit, Ml (313) 662-5300 

Ft- Worths TX * * ( B17 ) 338-4159 

Hartford, CT 203 ) 72B-1B09 
Houston/ TX 7 1 3 > B50-1005 
Indianapolis, IN..*<317> 634-2206 
Kansas City, HO*.. -(BIS) 474-31BS 
Lons Island (Garden Citv Area), NY. 

(516) 536-0404 

Los Anseles, CA*-.*(213) 620-1448 
hemphisF TN ( 901 ) 523-S314 
Milwaukee, WI , , . * - - < 41 4 ) 347-1766 
Minneapolis, MN***.(G12) B93-3462 . 

Newark f NJ ( 201) GZ3-0295 

New York Citr, NY*. (212) 245-0355 

Oakland , CA (415) 540-1114 

Philadelphia, Pa...(Zl5> G36-90G0 
Phoenix, AZ . . . - * - - . ( 602 ) 266-1148 

Pittsburgh, PA (412) ZGl'S91B 

Rochester, NY (716) 955-0650 

Sacrament a , CA (316) 442-6985 

San Diego, CA (613) 260-1708 

San Francisco, CA»*(415) 543-1560 

San Jose, CA *{40B) 995-G711 

Santa Ana, CA (714) 550-7128 

Stamford, CT (203) 325-3133 ■ 

St. Louis, MO 014) 991-1881 

Washington, DC (703> 525-9500 

- National Toll-Free Access Number ■ 

(BOO) 323-0303 

is 00 i 3 2 3—775 J 


THfT OWE W*M5J 
ittMXOUH CALL 

Yt25 tiWAL-- 



5 





Hel the On®- Plus way. 
ncney cOh tw fun. 

very erndtoy*® dt 1h * 

:ornpiny carries in klentffC*uon 
ard. W* su^ 9 «sr Uiat you r*lu» 
ccess 10 your prtn^tti (o anyone 
ifto represents iiknSflU as Irorn ttw- 
MePhone company* btrt who tihflot 
o identify hlmsell- - 

You" 1 1 ger ’faster service on 
our long distance calls by dtal- 
to the complete number in* 
luding "V' -f Area Code 
whenever and wherever pos- 
rble. 



7n* k»it «r I* fvt *n m*4 1* 
h pnnli t*lh It U ta| it 
hrwirfKWy. If * pwtrt** *"■ 
wf, VOW ^ ** JJJ 
til. hit o*l *P*d*W l™*** 

IfttpADIH pwpl* ^ 1,1,1 

law «A*h IMM W«Kf« t>«P 

ifha Ih* ^oUMt 


IF YOUR NUMBER 
HAS BEEN CHANGED 




, P . Advite friBrtdi el the chin|* — 
they'll be iblf It cell you mwf 
daily, 


■ Keep a smile in your voice. 

*Be quick to answer your tele- 
phone calls* Be slow to hang up 
when making a call. Give the 
other fellow at least one minute 
to answer. 


For Quick Reference! 


1 wn AM IHMI MTYl wnhn 

IHMV * 1*4 mttttf « a*cantf 
ST ft* wriirim I**" * r 
now/ bAm rw f"4* (»* invm 
Mr Afltf yw *** fl*f frM 
rtranoriu k> AA F#W #N*it 
eiAf puT*tfi*ri,tv ciUiflf to t* f i 
*u. etc. 


• For better service — speck di’ 
rectly into the telephone* 

hard to hear? * 




W- 


A volume control 
telephone 1$ evailable 
through your telephone 
business office. 


K®ap a ped and pencil by the 
phone. It'll come In handy 

♦Wait for dial tone. 


piet*se diet l c«re /« ily 


ttm* 


Please be Careful not to 
confuse the letter 'T' with 
Uia numeral "one. 1 * or the 
letter "0" with the itumer* 
al * + iero' T when dialing. 


WHENEVER POSSIBLE 

remain on the 
line after ypv'vo 

placed a coll 


Talk to cheap. . + wn*n yw 
call on Saturday* 


any 

questions 


If you have any questions 
about your telephone biB, calf 
your service representative at 
me business olfloe. 




False start/ 

/Tjrtiftof^UWWtJrWUfH 
■ iHit an |Mif Mm fua F r« 

mtatiw *** * tMlt 

TJM ~dlctr bad* **» MitortWt 
pJM-vp frHy (w*w* nt tN c* 
rrwn trotn? ivougb Of K*y r+*M 
M a hmi ianMr> 


GHV* 


tfrrr* 


NUMrML 

■ an Alf