And that's right, call 279-0707, act now.
Greetings, this is Joe Willard of Natural Hygiene Incorporated and WBAI.
Normally, we're on every Wednesday morning at 9 a.m., but we have a special programming for fundraising.
May 14th at 7 a.m. from 7 a.m. to 9.30, bringing you the very latest information on how to get well and how to stay well.
I look forward to being with you tomorrow, Thursday, May 14th, starting at 7 a.m.
And be sure to love yourself. You are very beautiful.
And remember to show your love for WBAI New York, because it's very beautiful.
It's 9 o'clock, time for Off the Hook.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a cough.
It couldn't get much worse, but if they could, they would.
Bum, diddly, bum, for the best, expect the worst.
I hope that's understood.
Bum, diddly, bum!
Bum, diddly, bum!
Welcome to Off the Hook, the program about technology and the potential power that we all hold in our tiny little hands.
And the power that can be used against us, or the power that can be used for us.
It's all up to you, and it's what we talk about for the next hour.
And of course we'll be asking for your financial help to keep this and other programs going, and to show the value of this kind of program to the tri-state area.
My name's Emmanuel Goldstein, and as I said, I'm here until 10 o'clock.
We value things that people send in to us, and give to us, and donate to us.
And it doesn't just mean financially, there's all kinds of ways people contribute.
And somebody contributed anonymously in my mailbox and left this particular track, which I have no idea who did it, or why, or anything like that.
But I do think it's something that our listeners would definitely get a kick out of.
We've got some very interesting demonstrations coming up in the next hour.
We'll be taking phone calls a little bit later on, and of course asking for your help.
This was something that was created with the telephone, and a bit of imagination.
Take a listen.
I know.
You know, but the information is connected.
No!
I know someone's there because I can hear you.
Why don't you say something or hang up?
We're about the new advances in technological achievements that are taking place in the 1990s.
Some good, some bad, but education is the key, and that's what we are here to give you.
Here are some interesting facts that I think would be fun to spread around.
The FBI is probing.
The FBI is probing an electronic funds transfer scam that nearly cost First Interstate Bank of California $70 million.
A bogus request was made late last year to transfer the funds from one or more accounts at the First Interstate Bank of California to one or more accounts at other banks over the automated clearinghouse network.
The request was made by computer tape.
The request was made by computer tape and apparently came with authorization forms and a signature.
The signature was possibly forged from a bank client.
And the FIB of C, which is what they're known as, apparently approved the transaction without validating its legitimacy, although this is not an uncommon practice.
The bogus transaction was detected only because it caused an overdraft.
This was the largest fraud attempt in the almost 20 years of the automated clearinghouse.
The network handles transfers up to $100 million and carried about 1.7 billion transactions last year.
That comes from the San Francisco Chronicle, May 7th.
So all kinds of fun things are possible over automated networks.
This is one that almost got away but didn't.
Of course, you won't hear about the ones that do get away because they'll want to cover those up and make sure nobody ever hears about them.
Here's something that happens every now and then.
We don't know why.
The Associated Press reports from Crosby, North Dakota, Dakota rather, that farmer Harlan Johnson,
who was expecting a $31 check from the U.S. Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service,
instead received one for $4,038,277.04.
Yeah.
Dale Irie, head of the agency's office in North Dakota,
said that their computer program occasionally picks that particular amount and prints it out on something.
That's right.
They don't know what.
This was the first time that it was printed out on a check.
The farmer returned the check the day after.
Oh, yes.
There's nothing they can do about this.
It simply prints out that crazy amount of money.
Maybe somebody can figure out why it prints out that particular amount.
$4,038,277.04.
I don't know.
Maybe the computer is trying to send a message or something.
You know, the United States was on daylight savings time for about nine and a half hours,
a month before it was supposed to have been.
That's right.
Fred Laudis came in at 5 a.m. to open up TV station WKTV.
This is according to Monitoring Times.
He felt something was amiss with the clock, an ESE-NBS master clock receiver, which is locked to WWV's time signal.
Not having time to check it, however, it wasn't until a second engineer arrived and asked why the digital clock was one hour fast that it hit him.
And at about 9.15 a.m., he got in touch with an engineer at WWV, checked the computer, came back to report that, sure enough,
a three had been entered instead of a four for the month starting daylight savings time.
So daylight savings time was started a month early, according to WWV, and only about six people caught the mistake.
Okay, this is by far the most interesting here.
This is something you might have seen in the New York Post, which will tell you about how much they researched the stories that they put out.
The headline was,
Anti-Jewish Code Lurks in Popular Software.
I'll read the story, and then I'll explain the story, and hopefully people can draw their own conclusions.
One of the world's best-selling computer programs contains a secret anti-Semitic message apparently urging death to Jews in New York City.
A computer consultant discovered the diabolic message while installing Microsoft's new Windows 3.1 software for a client recently.
The consultant was testing a mailing address use of the program when he noticed that the letters NYC had been replaced by a hateful message.
A skull and crossbones, the Star of David, and an approving thumbs-up symbol.
Microsoft strongly denies any hidden message. Others disagree.
There's no way it could be a random coincidence, said Brian Young, a friend of the consultant who wisely does not wish to be named.
It's pretty scary. I was pretty shocked by the whole thing.
If you say shocked to the New York Post, guarantee they'll write a story around you.
They survive on that word.
Computer owners who use Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, or any other Microsoft program
that contains a print font called Wingdings, can duplicate the anti-Semitic message by typing the letters NYC on their screen.
Microsoft said that Wingdings was designed by Bigelow and Holmes, an outside vendor,
and denied that Microsoft intentionally designed the secret message.
Professor Charles Bigelow confirmed that his company provided the symbols,
but insisted that Microsoft made the final mapping decisions, assigning his symbols to specific keys on the keyboard.
But a senior Microsoft spokesman said the charge that the fonts contain a hidden message is outrageous.
The Wingdings font contains no letters, just 255 symbols.
Young calculated the odds of three letters of the alphabet being combined with 255 symbols
and said he found that the odds of obtaining the message were less than one in a trillion.
It's mind-blowing, said Young. Somebody's responsible for this. This is very offensive.
I found it hard to believe some of the stories about the resurgence of Nazi sympathizers,
but this puts things back into perspective.
Well, the only thing this puts back into perspective is the ranking of the New York Post as a journalistic leader in this city.
A symbolic font.
Basically, for those of you that don't play around with these kind of things,
you have different typefaces, different styles of printing.
You might notice them in some places. Some typefaces look bolder than others.
Some have more curved edges.
Some look rather Roman and crazy things like that.
But they have some that are called symbol fonts, and those simply have pictures instead of letters.
So A, for instance, might be a graphic of a television set.
B could be a telephone.
Who knows?
You can do anything you want, and it's used to illustrate in various ways without having to actually draw a picture.
So all that happened in this particular case was that three of those symbols came together.
One being a skull and crossbones, one being a star of David, and one being a thumbs-up symbol.
And the Post apparently thought, and so did this guy that reached these conclusions,
they thought that by combining these three together you could actually send a message.
And the message being, kill all Jews in New York City.
I find that incredibly poor journalism as far as showing how this is even a message in any sense.
It's not a message.
Clearly, you can merge all kinds of symbols together and make them say anything you want them to say,
but these are three fairly innocuous symbols that just happen to be typed one after the other.
And so NYC makes them show up next to each other.
Big deal.
So that's my impression of that.
I don't know if anybody else saw that story, but it certainly is insanity.
It tells you how much they know of the technical world.
Okay, we have something else which is a bit more fun.
And then we're going to be asking for some help from people at the radio station,
people calling the radio station to help us here, so we can continue with programs like that.
Now, we're always talking about how people have things written about them,
credit files and all kinds of nasty things.
You know, nasty things that tell stories that aren't necessarily true.
That give information about your credit ranking, about your lifestyle, about your values,
and you're judged based on that information.
It's been happening for years.
It's going to get even worse in the years to come.
And a lot of people feel that they have no control over the situation at all.
That's not true.
You can go out and you can grab a bit of technology for yourself,
and you can figure out how it works and make it work for you.
That's what it's all about.
That's how this kind of thing is supposed to work in the first place.
Now, what we want to do is we want to demonstrate how this works.
To do that, though, we are going to need some phone lines.
So those people calling in now on the non-pledge lines,
please don't call in because you'll just be disconnected,
and we'll take phone calls later on.
We are going to demonstrate a particular service
which can now be obtained by human beings.
Actually, it can be obtained by human beings for...
It could have been obtained by human beings for quite some time,
and only now it's starting to become affordable
so that the average person can actually use this service.
What we're going to do now is attempt to connect to it.
Okay, we have a dial tone.
We have achieved dial tone here,
and we're going to actually try to place a phone call.
This is something that we almost always have trouble with here at BAI
because our phones are not really what they could be.
But let's hope we get through on the first try.
Actually, you know what?
I think we should explain what we're doing before we actually do it.
What we are going to access is a voicemail system,
except unlike voicemail systems of the past,
this is one that we have total control over,
and we can make it do incredible things.
Now, this voicemail system is programmed to accept the message from us
and then actually call us and give us the message.
And, of course, that's only one thing that it is capable of doing.
Voicemail systems can do almost anything.
They're like sophisticated answering machines,
answering machines with different extensions.
And these things are limited only by our imagination.
Right now they're being used only in corporate settings.
So you constantly get them when you call a business,
and they say,
if you know the extension you want to dial,
enter that extension now.
If you have a touchtone phone, press 1, etc., etc.
It drives most of us crazy because it's always done in the same way.
But it doesn't have to be.
You can customize these things to do whatever you want,
and they don't take an incredible amount of space.
They can be run on a normal personal computer these days,
limited only by your phone capacity and your disk space.
And this is something we'll be seeing a lot more of in the future.
What we are now going to attempt to do
is call this particular voicemail system,
which we have customized ourselves for just this occasion,
and we will enter a particular box.
We'll call up the main number.
We'll hear a greeting message.
Then, using touchtones, we'll enter our own mailbox.
Then we'll hear a greeting that's been designed for us
that will be sent our way.
And then we will be asked to leave a message of our own,
which we will do.
And then, after we leave that message,
we will hang up,
and presumably the voicemail system will then contact us
and tell us what message that we got.
Technology like this was inconceivable only a few years ago,
but now it's becoming almost an everyday thing.
So let's see if we can actually get through the first time.
You know, I already had some difficulty with this.
Let's try that again.
You'd think that I would be able to master the phones by now,
but it doesn't always work that way.
And after that, of course, we'll be asking for your help
and a number of other things as well.
We'll be taking phone calls a bit later on.
Okay, we've completed the first part.
Let's see if we can get a dial tone now.
Okay, we've got our dial tone.
Now let's see if we can actually get through on the first attempt.
We did.
We did.
Hello, you've reached the voicemail system.
If you know the box that you want to leave a message for,
enter it using a touch-tone phone and follow it with a pound sign.
If you don't know what box you want to leave a message for,
or if you just don't want to leave a message for a box,
stay on the line and you can leave a message that will go someplace else.
Greetings, WBAI listeners.
We are now listening to a greeting that is being sent out from this particular mailbox that we entered.
And what we'll do now is record a message into this mailbox,
then that message will be forwarded to another phone number that we have programmed into this system.
Now we go back to your live announcer.
Okay, and that's me.
We are now leaving a message on this particular voicemail system.
Hopefully, that voicemail system will call us back and deliver the message.
It's a miraculous thing what technology is capable of.
Let's hope it works.
We're going to hang up now.
Okay.
Within a matter of moments, hopefully, that voicemail system should try to reach us.
Now, what's particularly interesting about this is that this voicemail system is capable of speech recognition.
In other words, it won't start sending the message until after it hears a voice.
So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to initially pick up the phone, pause for a second,
and then say hello or something like that.
And presumably, it will start talking.
Okay, I think we're getting a call now.
Hello?
Uh-oh.
Anybody there?
See, now leaving a message on this particular voicemail system,
hopefully, that voicemail system will call us back and deliver the message.
It's a miraculous thing what technology is capable of.
Let's hope it works.
We're going to hang up now.
Most incredible.
And that's only the beginning, folks.
Only the beginning.
We can shape this thing and make it do whatever we want to do.
See, when you have technology being used against people,
and I mean in the sense of storing information,
in the sense of calling people and playing recordings,
in the sense of leading people on telephone tag
and taking them on wild journeys via touchstones,
the solution is to control the technology yourself
and figure out ways of shaping it so that it can better serve your needs
rather than you shaping your lives to control,
to be controlled, rather, by it.
Okay, that's our little demonstration of voicemail systems.
And something we'll be bringing you a great deal more of
in weeks to come here on this program.
Now, as I said before, this program is unique.
It's the only one of its kind
that brings you this particular series of events,
shows you how technology works.
And it's something that, like the radio station itself, is vulnerable.
We have to get support from our listeners
in order to remain strong.
And that's why we're asking you at this time
to give us a call at 212-279-3400
and show your support by pledging to the radio station
so that we can keep this program going
and keep the radio station going as a whole.
We're off to a fairly good start
for the first part of this marathon.
Today is the first day,
but we need to have a strong showing for this particular program
because a non-strong showing will not be a good thing, obviously.
We have a special gift for those people who do call
who call for this particular program.
Anybody that pledges in the next hour,
over the next few minutes, actually,
at 212-279-3400
will receive a free copy of 2600 Magazine.
We'll simply send that out to you
just for pledging tonight.
But that's only good for this particular program.
And you have to call now.
212-279-3400.
We have one caller on the line.
Let's see if we can get the sound
of the busy tally room in there.
Oh, yeah.
Well, they're not that busy.
There's not enough commotion going on in there.
Let's make those phones ring.
212-279-3400.
Show your support for non-commercial radio.
Show your support for off the hook.
Now, you might say,
okay, you know,
we're not going to spend money on this particular program.
If it's on the air, fine.
If it's not on the air,
well, I guess I'll just have to survive.
But you've got to think of where you would be
if this program was not here.
For one thing,
this program cannot be aired
on any other radio station.
And there's a very simple reason for that.
A lot of people are very interested
in this kind of thing.
A lot of people want to know about technology.
They want to know about their TRW credit files.
They want to know about their genetic files
that are now being stored on them
with their DNA readings.
They want to know how to prevent
the telephone from abusing them.
They want to be able to maintain their privacy
in the 1990s.
A lot of people are very interested
in that kind of thing.
So why is there not a show like this
on other radio stations?
Simple reason being,
other radio stations have commitments.
Commitments to those very same commercial interests
that are abusing your privacy
and abusing technology
and then going around
and blaming it all on computer hackers.
So if this particular program,
this particular station were not around,
you would not hear this.
It's as simple as that.
It would not show up someplace else.
This is the only place
that you will get this information.
212-279-3400.
We don't say the number
because we're on an Eagle trip
or anything like that.
We're saying the number
because it's the only way
we can stay on the air.
Period.
If we did not do this,
if we went like all the other radio stations,
including quite a bit of non-commercial ones,
and went for corporate grants
and all kinds of underwriting funds,
we would have to compromise our programming.
How do you think AT&T would feel
sponsoring a program
or sponsoring any program
on a radio station
where we're constantly tearing them to pieces?
And we're constantly tearing them to pieces,
that's for sure.
212-279-3400.
We don't discriminate
against any particular company.
We don't tear apart one company
any more than another
unless they deserve it.
We don't have any special interest here.
We simply are out to find out
what is going on with technology
and how to shape it,
how to control it,
and how to keep it from being abused
by those in power.
Very few companies would feel comfortable
sponsoring a program like that
because there is no company that is immune.
For that very reason,
we would feel very uncomfortable
having anybody sponsor this program
or sponsor this radio station
because then we'd sort of feel
an affinity to them
and if something were to come up
where they were being cast in a bad light,
we might feel compelled
to back off a little bit.
And that's the worst kind of thing you can do.
That's called self-censorship.
Self-censorship, yes.
It's one of the most common ingredients
of American journalism these days.
When you have ABC owned by Capital Cities,
when you have NBC owned by General Electric,
you tend to have a bit of lack of integrity.
Not everybody, but certainly a lot of people.
A lot of people feel compelled
to back off a little bit.
And that's something we here at BAI will never do.
212-279-3400.
It's essential that you show your support now
to this radio station,
to this program,
to the very idea of talking freely about high tech.
No place else are you able to do this.
It's either presented in a very limiting scope,
like the New York Post story that we just read,
where people are actually made to think
that because symbols might mean something nasty,
that they do mean something nasty.
And it's all the fault of the evil computer.
Well, folks, computers are not evil.
People that try to manipulate them
into doing evil things,
because they are evil.
And they were the ones that
we are keeping an eye on,
on this radio program.
This is the only radio program
that does that kind of thing.
Keep that in mind.
212-279-3400.
We've had a few calls,
but not nearly enough.
We really need some more.
Let's get three more phone calls.
212-279-3400.
Then we'll be able to
get into some more material that we have here.
And we do have
quite a bit of interesting things
that we want to share.
All right, we have one call on the line.
We just need two more.
You can be one of those two calls.
212-279-3400.
Remember, everybody that calls in
gets a free copy of 2600.
2600 is the Hacker Quarterly magazine
put out by, for, and about computer hackers
and phone freaks and privacy advocates
and all kinds of other people
that have been blended together in the 1990s.
You'll get a free copy of that
as our way of saying thanks for pledging.
Again, you can pledge any amount.
It doesn't necessarily have to be a minimum amount,
although the more the better, obviously.
212-279-3400.
We have a goal that has been thrust upon us
of 10 new members here at WBAI
for this radio program.
So that's only 10 calls for the entire hour.
So you can be one of them.
212-279-3400.
Of course, we like to do even better than that
to show people that we've had enough.
We've had enough of being told
how to use our phones,
being told how to use our computers,
being told what is being stored about us.
Not being told, actually,
what's being stored about us
in various computer systems.
212-279-3400.
Join those callers on the line.
Show your outrage.
Show your quest for knowledge.
There are people that have learned
an incredible amount from this radio program
and have gone on to do amazing things as a result.
Find out bits of information
that they never thought were possible.
212-279-3400.
212-279-3400.
Let's get a couple more calls in.
Because we have a really amazing bit
that we got off a computer bulletin board
that is probably going to get
a lot of people very angry.
Well, I don't think it's going to get
very many BAI listeners angry.
It'll probably make them very happy.
But it will make some people in power
rather dismayed.
Let's put it that way.
Okay.
212-279-3400.
212-279-3400.
The program is off the hook.
This is Emmanuel Goldstein.
We're here for another half hour.
We'll be taking phone calls a little bit later on
and updating you on all kinds of
frightening Orwellian things.
But remember,
if we weren't here to do this,
nobody else would.
212-279-3400.
Join those callers on the line.
We'll be back in one minute.
We'll be back in one minute.
212-279-3400.
That's the kind of abusive technology
we're talking about.
Instead of being victimized by this,
it's better to understand it
and to manipulate it.
Here's a story that moved on a bulletin board
very recently.
No matter where you are from,
whether it's from Nassau,
Hudson River, Suffolk County, New York City,
you might have gotten a computer-dialed call
telling you that you may be eligible
for a fabulous prize.
If you have not gotten such a call yet,
cheer up.
You probably will.
The recorded message is played to you extremely fast.
You may have won a lifetime supply of amphetamines
so that you, too, may start a similar business.
Have you gotten computer-dialed calls
from Hopping Harry?
Maybe calls mentioning Reno, Nevada?
Have these calls told you to call a 540 number?
What's a 540 number?
Well, folks, if you listened to this radio program,
you'd know what a 540 number was.
It's as dangerous as crack
in the telecommunications world.
And for some people, as addictive.
Do you think that maybe the recorded messages
failed to tell you the price of the call?
Did the recording mention 540 several times?
If the recording said the call is billed at 540,
they meant that you are billed $5.40.
You were paying attention, weren't you?
Those are the bargain calls.
On some, the sky is the limit.
Was an address speed spoken so fast
that slow you missed it?
If you have multiple phone lines
and have been lucky enough
to be the recipient of multiple calls,
you may like to go pick up
your multiple prizes in person.
You may have been told to call 540-0100,
540-9900, or another 540 number.
Now, back to that address.
What this sneaky person did was
he taped one of those calls
and played back the address.
Would you like to visit the office
where the calls came from?
Are you hopping mad?
Well, here's the address.
It's called Eagleton Group Incorporated.
They're at 717 East Jericho Turnpike
in Huntington Station,
suite number 213.
That's in Huntington Station, Long Island.
If the recording tells you that you must call
within a certain amount of time
and you want to get more information by phone
without paying a hefty fee for the call,
well, guess what?
If you call 718-830-8781,
you'll get a Queen's Tie Line
or foreign exchange line
or whatever the technical term is for it
that will patch you directly
into the Huntington Station address
and you'll only be charged
for a regular local call.
Now, to demonstrate this, once again,
let's get our trusty dial tone back
and attempt to reach that particular number
and see what we get.
The call is being forwarded.
That's not a Brooklyn ring, is it?
By calling that particular 718 number,
you are forwarded into
what would be a 540 number originally
and which would charge you a hefty amount
to find out what kind of prize you won,
which is probably some kind of cutlery or something.
Who knows?
But now you have it.
You can pay them a visit.
You can call them.
And according to this,
you may have to speak to them
real slowly, like
they don't hear as fast as they talk.
However, no matter how slowly you tell them
that you want no more calls from them,
they won't stop calling you ever.
And this came from Raymond Normandu.
We want to thank him for sending that to us.
And this is exactly the kind of thing
that we mean, folks.
Exactly the kind of thing
that we need to hear.
bits of information that benefit people,
not hurt people.
The voicemail system that we called earlier
is fully capable of doing everything
that that particular business was doing.
Calling people and saying
they have won a fantastic vacation,
but they have to call back this expensive number
to find out what it is,
and they have to do it real soon,
or they'll lose everything.
It can do that,
or it can do more constructive things.
It can work for you.
It's really up to you.
It's up to your imagination
what these particular things can do.
Okay, we're going to take some phone calls now.
212-279-3407
is the number for phone calls
to go on the air.
And we're going to do that for a few minutes,
then we are going to come back
and appeal for those of you
that have not yet called
to show your support for this radio program,
for the information that we give out,
and for freedom of speech in general.
You know, we're talking about telephones
and the way they're abused,
but of course we're not even touching on computers
as much as we should.
I don't know if anybody caught Harper's Magazine
in March 1992.
They reprinted a sales brochure
and they entitled it Data About You.
This was distributed in 1990,
two years ago,
by Nationwide Electronic Tracking,
which was an information brokering company
located in Tampa, Florida.
You might have heard about this.
Last December, the FBI identified NET
as the center of a nationwide organization
that illegally obtained and sold information
stored in government computers
about private individuals.
Now, according to the FBI,
NET paid employees of federal agencies,
including the Social Security Administration
and the Secret Service,
to procure records from various computer networks
that are easily accessible
to thousands of government workers.
They access networks,
including the FBI's
National Criminal Information Center,
private credit reporting systems,
and the Social Security Administration's
computer database,
which holds personal data,
employment histories,
and salary information
on about 200 million Americans.
In our complex,
this is from the organization itself,
In our complex,
fast-moving society,
information is a constantly changing resource.
Every day,
billions of records and documents
containing information
on millions of people
must be revised and updated.
Sorting through it all
for that one particular bit
of information you need
can be time-consuming and expensive,
a frustrating series of false starts,
dead ends,
and legal barriers.
Unfortunately,
getting reliable information
and getting it quickly
can often mean the difference
between success and failure.
Nationwide electronic tracking
can get the information you need
when you need it.
NET is a high-speed,
computer-based telecommunications network
designed to gain instant access
to difficult-to-obtain
quote-unquote
confidential information
from more than 1,000 sources nationwide.
And the way they kind of
snub their noses
at the word confidential
and privacy
and all that kind of thing,
they'll get it anyway.
Credit Bureau reports,
Social Security searches,
electronic cross-directories,
and criminal,
motor vehicle,
and driving records
are just a few
of the kind of information
NET can obtain
faster than the competition.
And yes,
there's lots of competition.
Here's some of the services
they provide
and how much they charge.
Home address
provides Social Security number.
With name and address,
we'll conduct
a nationwide search
for a Social Security number.
You give them the address,
they'll give you an SSN.
Takes them about two hours
to do this,
cost $10.
You give them
a Social Security number,
they'll give you
a home address.
That takes one to two hours,
costs $7.50.
How about this?
Resident Identifier,
gives the names
of current residents
at a given address.
That takes one hour,
costs $10.
Street address
or a Post Office box.
With subject's name,
box number,
city, state,
and zip code,
we'll obtain
renter's street address.
That takes one to two weeks,
costs $50.
National Neighbor Update.
This is incredible.
If you give them
a name and address,
they'll obtain names,
phone numbers,
and addresses
of up to nine
current neighbors.
That only takes
one to two hours,
costs $10.
Many times,
you'll get unlisted numbers.
Employment Search.
Give them a name
and a Social Security number,
they'll obtain
a current place
of employment.
That takes a week,
costs $75.
Employment Histories.
With a name
and a Social Security number,
we'll obtain
recent places
of employment
and subject's earnings.
For the last three years,
it takes three to five days,
costs $100.
For the last ten years,
it also takes three to five days,
costs $175.
Workman's Compensation Check.
This only works
in Florida so far.
With subject's
Social Security number
and last known address,
we'll obtain any claims
that have been filed.
That takes 24 hours,
costs $75.
The subject's credit history,
costs $10.
They can get that to you
within two hours.
Motor Vehicle Information.
With title number,
vehicle number,
or license plate number,
we'll obtain name
and address of owner,
make of vehicle,
and license plate number.
They can do that
in Florida, Texas,
or New York
within the hour
for $10.
All other states,
two to four days,
and it costs $20.
Driver's License Record.
With a Driver's License Number,
we'll obtain home address,
traffic violations,
and driving
under the influence charges.
We can also obtain
information with
only the individual's name
and date of birth,
add three days
and $30 for this service.
Ordinarily,
it takes two days
and costs $15.
And finally,
criminal history,
with name,
date of birth,
sex,
and race,
will obtain
criminal history.
That takes a week,
costs $100.
And you figure
they have sex,
race,
and all kinds
of other things in there.
They can probably
get that information
if you're looking
for things like that as well.
All kinds of things
are in there.
All kinds of things
are being stored,
manipulated,
and sold.
Sold about you.
And you're not allowed
to look at it yourself.
It's quite shocking.
It's something
that we have to
keep a very close watch on.
Okay.
Something that I've been
keeping a close watch on
while I've been doing this,
if I sound kind of distracted,
is because I'm looking
at numbers and phone lines
and noticing that
they're just not moving
as fast as they should be.
212-279-3400.
Let's see those calls.
Come in.
Show your support
for the radio station.
Show your support
for Off the Hook.
Remember,
everybody that calls in
and pledges
will receive a free copy
of 2600 Magazine,
The Hacker Quarterly.
You'll get information
about some of the things
that we've been doing tonight
as far as obtaining
secret phone numbers,
using technology for good
instead of for evil.
And the most important thing,
though,
for you to call
is to know
that you're supporting
a station
that allows
this kind of programming
to exist.
And you can flip
all over the place.
You won't ever find
another program like this
that reveals
this kind of information
and that cares
this much about privacy
and about the individual.
212-279-3400.
Two calls on the line.
Let's make that four.
We're up to $375.
That's really not
all that great,
you know,
because, I mean,
it's great for the people
that called in already,
but our goal is $1,000
and we only have 15 minutes
to make it.
So we're going to need
a flurry of phone calls.
212-279-3400.
Please make that phone call.
Your call can make a difference.
Every individual person here
does make a difference.
It's kind of the theme
of the whole show.
You know,
we rely on the individual
for so much here
at WBAI
and now comes the time
when we rely on you
to continue.
This radio station
is always in danger
in some way.
Most recently,
I don't know if people
were reading
an article on Newsday.
Somebody actually
brought it to my attention
on this particular program
and while I don't know
the inside information
about it,
it seems that
there are some people
that are toying
with the idea
of actually changing frequencies
so that we can
make a lot of money
and sell
this particular frequency
and go to a
less desirable one
in order to
pay some of the bills
and that would be something
that hopefully
would never have to happen
because if that were
to happen,
we'd forever lose
the place in the dial
that we're at now.
Yeah,
we might gain something
short-term,
be able to pay some bills
and maybe fix up
the studio a little bit
but I think
the long-term goal
is to keep BAI
where it is
and to keep BAI strong
and to keep that programming
coming your way.
212-279-3400.
It definitely ties in
to the amount of support
that we receive.
If we receive a lackluster
show of support,
then the people
that want to do things
like that
that are looking
for short-term solutions
may actually be able
to convince people
that that's the way to go.
Hopefully that won't happen.
Hopefully we'll get
a lot of phone calls
and your phone call
will be one of them.
212-279-3400.
That's our phone number.
Good Lord.
Do we have a bingo?
Do we have every single phone line?
Let's listen to the tally room
for a second.
I think it's very active in there.
Lots of phone calls coming in.
That's very good, folks.
Very good indeed.
I'm happy to see
that it means so much
to you out there.
212-279-3400.
If you do get a busy signal,
please, please don't give up.
Every phone call adds up.
Every phone call
means something to us.
Every phone call
is a vote of support
for non-commercial radio.
True non-commercial radio.
So, you know,
it's all fine and good
to listen to some stations
that call themselves
non-commercial
but receive all kinds
of underwriting grants
from huge corporations
whose names I won't mention
because they'll just
get upset again.
And it's another thing
to look at those radio stations
that do it all
on their own
with the help
of the producers,
with the help
of the listeners,
and the people
that just literally
walk in off the street.
That is real
community radio.
That's real
non-commercial radio.
You know,
it's as simple as that.
That's what it's all about.
That's the spirit
of the alternative.
And you're not much
of an alternative
if you're just
rebroadcasting
the same news
off the Associated Press,
if you're just
doing the same
musical bits
and the same ideology.
You may not agree
with everything you hear
on WBAI.
You may not agree
with everything you hear
in this particular
radio program,
but you will not
hear it in any
other place.
Not around this town
anyway.
212-279-3400.
If that means
something to you,
please vote.
Show your support.
Vote with your telephone.
Pledge whatever you can.
Everybody that calls
in tonight will receive
a free copy
of 2600 Magazine.
That's just a deal
that we're making here
because BAI means
a lot to the producers
of this radio station
as well as to the listeners
and we want to be able
to thank them as well
by sending that
the way of various
people that call in.
212-279-3400.
212-279-3400
is our phone number.
Please give us a call
and show your support.
We've got one more item
on privacy violations.
This is regarding
the assessment
of the danger
of blindly mailing
private information
to an address
posted in a computer
bulletin board.
People have expressed
concerns about TRW
building a database
from the information
people supply
when they request
their credit report.
In other words,
you call TRW
and you request
your credit report.
They'll start a file
on you if they haven't already.
If they already have
a file on you,
they'll update it.
And there's no way
to get around this
because they won't
send you your credit report
unless you give them
information.
It's kind of a catch-22.
TRW maintains an extensive
marketing database
on individuals
from which it sells
mailing lists.
The source of this
information includes
public records,
driver's licenses,
deeds,
postal service,
change of address
information,
credit reports,
and information
that it's purchased
from mail order companies.
Names and addresses
may be selected
based on such factors
as exact age,
height,
weight,
whether or not
you wear glasses,
driver's license,
records,
information about
a home mortgage,
recording date,
and whether or not
the transaction
was a purchase
or a refinance,
whether you are a
quote-unquote
new mover,
the distance of your move
and whether it is local,
regional,
or out of state,
as well as the date.
They get that
from the post office.
Whether you're
a credit shopper,
whether you're
an active credit shopper,
your purchasing power,
which is all revealed
in your credit report,
whether you shop
by direct mail,
a multi-category buyer,
recent purchase dates,
category of purchases,
that is collectors,
crafts,
high-tech sports,
and that's information
purchased from
unspecified third parties.
TRW is not the only
company in this business.
There are a number
of large direct
marketing firms
which sell
similar types of lists.
We have to remain
educated on this.
we have to share
the information
and obtain the information
and that's something
that a lot of
computer hackers
are up to.
Of course,
you'll never guess that
by listening to
other radio stations
or watching TV news
because they are
looked upon as the threat
even though they're
the ones that are
finding out bits
of information.
Now,
I'd like to read
something that I
have somewhere
in my giant bag
of mail
that we get here.
Okay,
here we go.
This is a bit of mail
that came in from
a listener out of
Holmdel,
New Jersey.
Writes about
caller ID.
Now,
this is something
sent a clipping
from the New York
Times which I find
extremely frightening.
In the Cold War
between those who
find caller ID
appealing and those
who find it appalling,
Bell Atlantic is
marketing a service
that will disconnect
callers who try
to remain anonymous.
anonymous.
So,
now,
if you try to
remain anonymous,
hide your identity
and not say who you
are when you call
somebody,
there's a good chance
you'll just be
disconnected
and with the blessing
of the phone company.
It's really changing
pretty quickly there.
This caller ID
is being thrust upon us
and we're no longer
being given the choice
as to whether or not
we think it's a good
thing.
All right,
this person writes
a couple of questions
that I figure would
be good to address
here.
Again,
let me give out
the phone number
because you can call
and listen at the
same time.
I know I've done it
myself.
212-279-3400.
Please show your
support.
We're past the
halfway point but we
only have about six
minutes left so we
need to really get a
flurry of calls before
the hour strikes in
order for this program
to quote unquote
have done well.
Okay.
Dear Mr. Goldstein,
as a former Bell Labs
engineer, I very much
enjoy your program and
closed, you'll find an
article about caller
ID and yes, Bell
Atlantic can now make
money in three separate
ways.
Here's a bit of factual
information.
Channel 13 sends over
the auxiliary channel
known as SAP which can
be received with any
stereo, TV, or VCR.
Between noon and 6 a.m.
live BBC World Service
programs.
Between 6 a.m.
and noon, they
rebroadcast the U.S.
Weather Service
forecasts and that's a
bit of interesting
information for those of
you that are interested
in that.
Now here are a couple
of questions concerning
some topics that we've
been covering here in
this program.
Hacking on an
unauthorized system
without doing damage
just for learning.
Okay, that's the
premise.
Now he asks, if you
happen to leave your
computer on with
modem attached, would
you like to have
somebody read your
personal and business
files?
Would you like somebody
to enter your living or
bedroom during your
absence and without
doing any damage leave a
message?
I was here.
Unless you answer yes
to both questions, I
don't think you should
condone the first
activity.
It's an interesting
point.
It's a point that has
come up quite a few
times in almost every
forum that I'm in on
this particular subject
and I have to reiterate
something that is not
brought up very often
and that's that computer
hackers really are not
interested in personal
files.
They're interested in
operating systems,
learning how to get
around networks, and
huge, large, gigantic
corporations and government
institutions.
Now, if those are left
wide open, then they
are the ones leaving the
doors wide open.
It's the equivalent of
an office building being
100% completely unlocked
and then acting indignant
when people wander in
from off the street and
start exploring.
That's what it's
equivalent to.
Very seldom have I ever
heard of anybody leaving
a modem on in their
homes and having somebody
come in and go through
their personal computer.
It just doesn't work that
way.
And yes, I would feel
definitely a bad sense
if someone were to do
that, but I would feel
mostly that I was being
stupid for allowing them
to do that, for leaving
a computer on with no
security whatsoever.
Whatever kind of security
is in place when there
is an intrusion is
obviously not good enough.
Now, if it's the case of
a credit agency or some
organization that's being
entrusted with private
information, the onus is
upon them to make sure
that there is adequate
security.
And if somebody gets in,
they've got to do
something about it.
For a long time, TRW had
something like a three
character password that
people were able to very
easily figure out and
they did not really make
much of an effort to fix
that.
That's the kind of thing
that is the true invasion
of privacy, not keeping
it secure.
And that's something that
that's why I encourage
people to look for those
doors, look for those
holes, and find out what
it is that they're keeping
in those computers.
And if you have your own
personal computer, it's not
very much in danger of
being entered by any
computer hacker.
Very few computers are
able to just be accessed
on a whim.
They have to know the
phone number, then they
have to know exactly how
to get into it, and if
you have half a brain, you
won't leave it wide open
in the first place.
Okay, part two of the
question, privacy of
caller ID.
Making a phone call, I
invade somebody's privacy,
therefore I give up some
of my rights, including
anonymity.
Nobody is forcing me to
make a call.
Hiding behind a screen of
anonymity is, for me, the
same as mailing anonymous
notes, which I consider
abhorrent.
Okay, well, that might be a
personal opinion.
One person might consider
anonymous mail abhorrent,
but you can still mail
anonymous letters.
And it's something that,
until they figure out how
to outlaw it somehow, it's
something that will always
be in existence.
Not the case with phone
calls, and that's what I
find very disturbing, the
fact that this technology is
being thrust upon us without
us really having a choice in
the matter.
Okay, we're just about out of
time.
Regretfully, we didn't get to
call in program section,
call in section of the
program, and I do apologize
for that, but we need to get
some more phone calls at
212-279-3400, showing your
support for this radio program
and for this radio station.
212-279-3400, the personal
computer show is up next, and
we want to make sure they
start on time.
By calling 212-279-3400 and
showing your support for this
program, you'll be ensuring
its survival for at least the
near future anyway, and also
sending a message to a lot of
people, listeners, non-listeners,
people that never listen to this
radio station, that privacy is
important to you, that
technological education is
important to you, and that
this radio station is important
to you.
212-279-3400, we have three
calls on the line, let's make
that four, and the personal
computer show will start close
to on time.
212-279-3400, you can be the
last caller to call in.
212-279-3400, remember
everybody that calls in during
this program will receive a free
copy of 2600, the Hack
accordingly, the magazine that
gets so many organizations angry
and results in quite a bit of
private memos with yellow
underlines and all that kind of
thing.
212-279-3400, 212-279-3400.
The program is off the hook.
This is Emmanuel Goldstein, we're
back again next week.
Please make that telephone ring.
212-279-3400.
Thanks to everybody that did call
in.
I mean it.
212-279-3400.
Good night.
Bye.