This pattern of communication was intercepted, and even then, electronic gumshoes only looked
at about 80 characters surrounding the telltales to see if the hacker was a source of the communication.
Ardita's crime is not one of those covered by the U.S. extradition agreement with Argentina,
which means that they can't even arrest him and bring him into this country, which I don't
really understand why all the big fuss if they're going to have this huge press conference
and talk about all of this.
They can't even prosecute the person, so why bring it up in the first place?
Seems kind of weird.
Also, one thing that is unclear in all this, yes, he gained access, supposedly gained access
to all of these computer systems, but again, what was done?
Was anything damaged?
Was anything copied?
Were things altered in any particular way?
That's not really being mentioned.
They're saying that he wasn't charged with obtaining any classified information relating
to national security, but he gained access.
Again, you know, it's very nebulous, it's very vague.
We don't know exactly what it is that he's up to, and we may never know, but what we
do get out of this is that we need to wiretap the internet.
We need to always be watching what people do, and that just adds to a sense of paranoia,
and I don't know, it's rather typical of some of the things we've seen in the past.
We had something happening on April 2nd, actually before that, a couple of days before
that, from St. Louis and Philadelphia, a case involving, I guess, another hacker who is
being looked upon as the next Kevin Mitnick, apparently.
A St. Louis man is a computer genius responsible for a threat of computer violence against
the NBC television network and capable of seizing control of virtually any computer.
Christopher Chanot's potential for mischief is so great that prosecutors said they want
him held in jail without bail so he can't get near a computer terminal.
We wanted him away from a computer to prevent him from causing any damage or loss to any
computer system.
That's according to a prosecutor in St. Louis.
And get this, the prosecutor has asked to remain unidentified out of fear of retaliation
from computer hackers who might try to use her name, we've narrowed it down so far, to
view or alter her personal computer records.
We'll find you.
Yes, we will.
It can't be a prosecutor in St. Louis and remain anonymous, that's just ridiculous.
It's like, you know, the president saying something and wanting to be anonymous.
The prosecutor is, that's really all we have on the prosecutor, actually, no more information.
But if we get more information, we'll certainly let people know about it.
Yes.
Now, meanwhile, they're giving out this guy's name and his age and his address and virtually
everything else that we can find.
And they're saying that he lived in High Ridge, which I guess is in Missouri.
And he was being held Monday on $150,000 bail in Philadelphia, where FBI agents arrested
him last week on charges of computer fraud.
A five-count federal indictment returned in St. Louis on March 14th accuses Shanott of
hacking into the computers of Southwestern Bell Telephone, Bell Communications Research,
Sprint, and SRI International, a research and development contractor with government
contracts.
Authorities allege that Southwestern Bell had to spend $500,000 to repair damage and
plug a computer security leak that Shanott had exploited.
The computer break-ins took place between October 23, 1994 and April 23, 1995, the indictment
alleges.
At the time, Shanott was a student at Vianney High School.
In a memorandum filed in federal court in Philadelphia, Assistant US Attorney Joan Markman
said investigators have linked him to hackers known as the Internet Liberation Front.
The group has decried commercialization of the internet, which in its early days linked
computers of universities and large companies doing research.
Made public Monday, Markman's memo and other court records give this account three weeks
after Shanott, I'm really sorry if I'm mispronouncing his name, if that even is his name in the
first place, but Shanott, or whatever it is, graduated from Vianney three weeks after he
did that.
He abruptly left St. Louis by train for Philadelphia.
His father, Mike Shanott, turned over his, get this, turned over his son's personal computer
to FBI agents.
Nice guy, dad, turning over a guy's computer to FBI agents.
And that's apparently what started this whole thing.
They were able to retrieve all kinds of files from there, including a message headed,
Greetings from the Internet Liberation Front.
The message was saved to the suspect's computer on Thanksgiving Day, 1994, the day of the
computerized break-in at NBC.
The message said, the group has now declared war on any company suspected of contributing
to the final demise of the internet.
Big boys in the telecommunication industry have turned the internet into another overflowing
cesspool of greed, the message added.
We are capable of penetrating virtually any network linked to the internet, any network.
Shanott's computer also contained hundreds of passwords to various multinational corporations,
military contractors, and credit reporting agencies.
The machine held hundreds of credit card numbers and AT&T calling card numbers.
Shanott was intent on infiltrating computer systems of some of the largest companies and
entities in the country and compromising the security of those systems, enabling him
to seize control of those computers.
Large-scale computer hacking has been detected here before, in 1993, authorities accused
a computer science student from another part of Missouri that I cannot pronounce of computerized
access to many internal files at the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The student there got a suspended sentence.
In this particular case, though, some excerpts from the ILF manifesto, as it was stated at
the time, the only thing we enjoy is increasing our power in any way we can, according to
the person who said that.
In its message left on an NBC computer, the group suggested that the network, quote, take
an axe, unquote, to its firewall machine before we do.
A firewall is computer jargon for a security mechanism.
The prosecutor in St. Louis said a determined and knowledgeable hacker can get into any
computer system.
No computer is ultimately 100 percent safe, the prosecutor said.
It looks like they're both saying the same thing, they're just saying it in slightly
different tones.
But here you have a situation where somebody in Philadelphia, St. Louis, I think he's in
St. Louis right now, is being held in prison, $150,000 bail, and basically this is for possession
of passwords, this is for posting something onto the internet that was kind of rude and
obnoxious, and I guess basically this is somebody that they don't want to see ever let out again.
We don't really know all that much about the person in particular, what exactly he was
up to, what he was doing, things like that, but we do know what the intent is behind locking
people like that up.
We've seen it with Kevin Mitnick, we've seen it with Bernie S., and is this Bernie S. yes
or no?
Oh, it's him!
We don't know about that.
...calls from...
Bernie Hall.
...at the Bucks County Correctional Facility.
To refuse this call, hang up.
If you accept this call, do not use three-way or call waiting features, or you will be disconnected.
To accept this call, dial 1 now.
Thank you.
Hello?
Bernie, are you there?
Can you hear me?
I'm here.
I'm very sorry about all those hang-ups.
This prison telephone system is not working.
It's not working.
Is this text, Emanuel, is this text any smaller than the microprinting that they put around
the portraits in previous bills?
I think it is.
It's very difficult to see even without knowing it's text.
But if we had a microscope, we'd be able to look at it a lot better.
Which circle is it?
The outermost circle?
Yeah, I think it's the outermost one.
It's the one going right around his head.
There's like several different levels.
It's the one furthest out.
You'll see it.
I think it says 100 or maybe United States of America or something like that.
It still has the little strip going down through the sheet itself.
I don't suppose anyone has an old $100 bill.
What kind of people are you anyway?
You know, but I'm thinking, they've introduced this bill now to, I guess, counterfeiting.
Which is countering fitting or whatever it is.
I don't know quite what it is.
But the thing is, this is supposed to be harder to duplicate.
So somebody hands you this $100 bill.
This is real.
But you've never seen it before.
No one has ever seen these before.
So you could go out now with your own version of a $100 bill.
It looks anything remotely like this.
And someone's bound to accept it because they're told that these new bills exist.
And they don't have anything to compare it to yet.
Worse than that, you could take it to a store and no one will take it.
We found another United States of America.
It does say United States of America underneath his collar, right over there.
I wish this was TV because things would be a lot easier to point out.
But I'm sure there's all kinds of other hidden things in here.
We'll get to work finding them.
I heard a couple of the other features that were added to this new bill were,
It has a small amount of metal content in it.
So if you have a briefcase or a suitcase full of these things,
and you try to go through a metal detector, it'll send off alarms
and alert people at U.S. Customs that they should look in the bag
and then they'll find all this money if you were trying to escape the country
with $100,000 or something like that.
Well, you see, I would try that, except every time I go through U.S. Customs,
something goes off.
So I'm not the good person to try that with.
But on the way out, I've never checked on the way out.
One of the other interesting aspects of this new bill I've read,
again, I have no independent confirmation of this,
but I've heard that the serial numbers are printed with an ink that has magnetic content,
not unlike the ink that's on the bottom of checks, which is also magnetically encoded.
And these bills are actually machine-readable by serial number.
And a company called Branch, B-R-A-N-D-T,
which makes money-counting machines that you frequently see behind bank counters,
is putting out a machine that will scan these bills and not only count them
but register in a computer the serial numbers of those bills.
I guess the strategy of the government behind that is that they'll be able to track these bills
as far as where they're going in the vast underground cash economy from person to person,
and essentially I can envision them putting these bill scanners in retail establishments as well as banks
so that whenever you pay any business man or merchant with this $100 bill,
it'll be recorded that you're the person who had it and this is what you bought with it,
and the next government will know who the next person was who got this bill.
And they can actually track them from cradle to grave.
Technology is embedded in the bill now, apparently, for those future plans.
I just found the raised lettering.
There's a little green 100 on the bottom right, and if you rub your finger along that, that is raised.
Also, the serial number, I guess I can give out my serial number.
What's the harm?
It's A-B-1-2-2-0-1-6-0-2-A, and that's on the lower right and upper left as I believe it is now.
However, on the upper left, there are two extra numbers on one line below it, B-2,
and I guess the B-2 probably, since I don't have that little circular thing that says what bank it came from
or what city it came from.
B is New York.
B is New York, but it doesn't say that anymore.
Instead, it looks like it's photocopied.
It says United States Federal Reserve System.
It's not green.
It's like black, and B-2 is written in green right underneath the serial number,
so that's pretty much where that stands.
Well, I hope that thin strip in there isn't one of these tracking aids.
Well, there's only one way to find out.
It has to be tracked, and I'm sure we will be.
Razor has something.
He has some inside knowledge on this.
What do you got?
Yeah, well, just as a note for all these different things,
when they sent out tax refunds, they sent out a little card introducing this new $100 bill,
and it listed nine different features that the bill has different from the new one,
and there are nine different security countermeasures.
There was the micro-printing, the raised, the change in ink somehow.
Hey, I just discovered something.
If you hold this thing up, you see Ben Franklin's head on the right-hand side as well.
A watermark.
Yeah, there's a watermark on the right-hand side.
But they also said that they're going to honor these bills, the old bills, for an indefinite period.
So I don't know where that puts it all.
Well, there's Russians in Moscow panicking right now because they think that the $100 bill,
like the ruble and things in the past, is going to be devalued now that it's being changed.
But, of course, that's not the case.
It's kind of funny, though, how people in foreign countries are panicking more than we are.
We don't really care about this at all,
probably because so few of us ever see a $100 bill in the first place.
The United States of America, by the way, is like this sort of commercial gimmicky type font.
It looks like we have some sort of a sale or something going on.
And I'm told the $100, which is at the bottom right, is color-shifting ink,
which means if you hold it up to different lights, it becomes different colors.
So all kinds of neat little contraptions going on here.
All right, so Bernie, are you still with us?
Is Bernie still with us?
I'm still here.
Okay, great.
We're going to take another phone call and see if anybody else has any weird money out there.
I think the $100 is the only one being remodeled right now, although I think the others are due for it.
I hear there are plans in the works to work on successively lower denominations.
Uh-huh.
You know, if you ever want to have a lot of fun, go to any bank, and you can do this.
Go to any bank and get a bunch of $2 bills, okay, because they do exist.
And then you go around to various fast food places and you pay in $2 bills.
Now, that's a lot.
You know, you can have fun with this $100 bill, but it's harder to get a hold of.
But the $2 bills are easy to get a hold of, and people are confused.
They don't know how to deal with it.
They don't know where to put it in the cash register drawer, for one thing.
And a lot of people don't think it's real currency.
So you can have all kinds of interesting arguments.
Sometimes they call the cops.
Sometimes they don't, you know.
In any case, it's a way to pass time.
Let us not forget the Susan B. Anthony dollar, either.
Oh, no, the ones that look like quarters.
That's true.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Good evening, Emanuel.
How are you doing?
Concerning the microtext, the United States of America has appeared in these bills.
That started back in 1990, as well as the aluminized mylar strip that's fed into the pulp as it's being rolled.
Now, the way they create the microgram is, from what I heard, a friend of mine was involved with the Bureau of Engraving a while back.
It's a machine made by a company called Linotype Hell.
Yes, H-E-L-L.
You know what?
I have seen a building that says Linotype Hell in Hopcroft, New York.
Hopcroft, Port Washington.
We're based in Port Washington.
They moved into Melville.
Wow.
The machine is called the, I believe it's called a Chromacom DC3500.
It's like a number of generations after their first machine, the DC350, which used a Siemens-type mainframe.
But these units can scan, I believe, something like 7,200 dots per inch.
This is a chroma-defractive laser process where they use a red laser, which is based on helium-neon,
and they use an argon laser, which generates cyan, which is split into blue and green.
These lasers are aimed at—they're low-intensity, obviously.
They're just for optical purposes, for generating color separations.
They're aimed at the object as it's being scanned on this drum.
The information is passed into various filters and detectors, and like I said,
this is not your ordinary Logitech or hand scanner or flatbed,
but it's the only way that they can actually generate these images.
And they use Linotype, huh?
Well, yeah, it's been known for years.
That's interesting.
It's the only kind of machine that would have the capability of generating that.
When I was over in England, I met some guy from Slovenia, which used to be part of Yugoslavia,
and he had a new Slovenian bill of some sort.
And it turns out that in Slovenia, they design their bills through CorelDRAW.
Did you know that?
That opens up a whole world of possibilities.
Oh, boy.
I mean, I haven't read a MAD magazine in years, and when I opened it up,
they said this thing suffered from CorelDRAW syndrome.
Wow.
GILSOM, BOLD, well, EuroStyle's been around for years,
but all the type of fonts you'd expect to see with CorelDRAW versions like 3 and up.
Is that CorelDRAW file available on the Internet yet?
Well, we're negotiating. Let's put it that way.
Okay.
Yeah, can't really give out details here, but yeah,
if you come from a certain country and you have access to your money,
the particular file that makes it, contact us.
We'll be happy to talk to you.
Or come to the meeting on Friday,
because that's where we conspire to do all kinds of evil things.
That's CityCore between 5 and 8 p.m.
Let's take another phone call.
Good evening. You're on the air.
Hi, guys. I have a comment and a question.
Okay.
First, I thought it being ironic,
you high-tech people talking about the new $100 bill,
while simultaneously on BAI,
there was a man who has a classical music show
who just took a trip to Micronesia,
and he's been talking for like a month
about the social and economic customs
where they use money made out of stone.
Isn't that sort of ironic?
Money made out of stone?
Yeah, I forget the name.
It's like one of the Samoan islands or something.
It's Chris Wenchow,
and he's playing recordings of the natives there,
and he's talking about the evolution of the currency and barter
and how it's really quite sophisticated,
and they use other forms of currency, too.
So I just thought that would be a little poetic irony.
Now I just have a question.
You know, hackers...
I don't know if Fiber is jealous,
because these days we have 12-year-olds,
you know, breaking into every place,
and that's like so 10 minutes ago.
And plus the security measures for, you know,
credit cards and accounts and major things like that.
I'm sure I've been tightened.
So I have a new spin on it.
Sort of like, you know, in Star Trek,
the way they defeated the Borg,
they sort of went to a low-level, low-priority system to sabotage it.
What do you guys think of going into the files of certain undesirables
that can be interpreted any way
and not doing anything with their credit history or anything like that,
but sort of doing something maybe on their mental health record?
Well, boy, that sure sounds like a fun thing to do.
Is that, you know, is there a future in that for creative people?
Well, there's a future for that for some people,
but I don't think people like us.
Well, what about, you know...
We'll be the people to figure it out and to show you that it's being done,
and we'll probably take the blame for it,
but we're not the people that are out there doing things like that.
I'm also curious, has the esteemed...
I forget what they're called, the parent company of the SAT,
have they ever been violated or, you know...
Educational testing services?
Yeah.
Has anyone ever done anything to those guys?
I guess nobody here has, but...
I read once that one of their boxes of tests
that were being shipped to a high school,
the college boards or SATs, was stolen,
and they had to recall the whole test for the country
because this got out the night before.
It was stolen the night before,
and they were worried that a telephone network
would be set up overnight.
Everybody would exchange answers real quick
and get 1,600 on their SATs the next day.
Bernie, I just want to wish you well.
I want to say have vigilance.
I don't know, you know, what you're into,
if you're into, like, affirmations or crystals
or, you know, anything that'll, you know, get you through, but...
Well, actually, I am into crystals,
and that's what got me into trouble in the first place.
Yeah, I know, but...
Well, you know, the way things are going,
even meditation crystals will be outlawed someday
by the official religion of the country.
But anyway, I'm glad you're in good spirits
and take care of your tuberculosis and everything, and...
He doesn't really have that, but...
Let's call that rumor right now.
I tested negative.
Oh, cool.
And I want you to know that besides the hacker community,
the B.A.I. community,
you also have, such as me,
a large contingent of the WACO community behind you,
so stay well.
And as soon as you get out,
Fiber will take you to that pizza place in Queens that he went to.
Yes, that'll be the traditional after-prison place.
Take care, guys.
All right, thanks for calling.
A message from a self-aware WACO there.
That's...
And I'm sure the WACOs who don't claim to be WACOs
are supporting you as well.
All right, we have time for one more phone call.
Good evening, you're on.
Hello.
How you doing?
I'm fine, thank you very much.
I'm glad I got through,
because I want to really say thank you very much to Bernie.
Due to him, I heard the name of the lawyer that defended him
and kind of recommended him to another friend that's in trouble,
and he might pick up his case.
I wanted to ask him something.
He says that anything that is reading material
can be sent through the regular mail?
Well, yes, regular mail can be sent to me here at the prison,
but do you still have the address I gave on the air a little while ago?
I didn't get the zip code.
I got almost Doylestown, and then I didn't get the last.
Doylestown, PA, 1-8-9-0-1.
And the only caveat is you should write the words
reading materials on the outside of the package
if you're mailing books or magazines, that's all.
Okay, because where my friend is, which is in New Jersey,
across the way, everything has to come from the publishers itself.
They don't let anything else that is, you know...
So this friend of yours is in federal prison?
No, it's county jail.
Can I ask which county jail it is?
Camden, New Jersey.
Okay, I'm familiar with that.
I've met several people who've been in and out of there over the past year.
It's an interesting, I guess you could call it a railroad system of sorts.
You run into people who've been shifted
through different prisons across the country,
and you start to get familiar with other institutions,
characteristics, without ever having been there.
But yes, many prisons have a rule that any reading materials
must be sent directly to the publisher.
It's quite inconvenient, but you just have to send a letter
to the publisher with payment saying,
please send this book or magazine to this address
and hope that it gets there.
We're just about out of time now.
By the way, Bernie, I should tell you that the book
that we were talking about, speaking of publishers last week,
we were able to track down a copy.
We don't have it here yet, but the book on the Secret Service.
Inside the White House?
Yeah, inside the White House, I believe.
There's a lot of interesting Secret Service information in it.
So we got a copy of that, and we will be talking to people
in the very near future concerning that book.
Anyway, I want to thank you for being a part of the show again.
I want to wish you luck for the week ahead,
and I guess we'll talk to you next Tuesday.
Okay.
Emotional supporters...
The telephone keeps ringing
So I ripped it off the walls
I cut myself while shaving
Now I can't make a call
It could be that much worse
But if it could, it would
So did Le Bon, for the best, expect the worst
I'm a cop, I'm a cop
Expect the worst
I hope that's understood
Bundy, no!
I hope that's understood
our sponsored dial
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