-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- = = - WELCOME TO THE TWENTY-THIRD ISSUE OF - = = - -=>PHANTASY<=- - = = - A PUBLICATION AND NEWSLETTER OF - = = - THE - = INTERNATIONAL = - INFORMATION - = RETRIEVAL = - GUILD - = = - Hacking,Phreaking,Anarchy,Survivalism,Commentary - = = -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Volume Number Seven - Issue Number Twenty-Three - Dated 11/18/96 Editor-In-Chief is Mercenary : mercenary@iirg.com iirg@l0pht.com Technical Editor is: Thomas Icom : thomas.icom@iirg.com ticom@l0pht.com --------------------- Table of Discontents: --------------------- # Selection Author - ------------------------------------ ---------------- 1. Legal Ease & IIRG Information The IIRG 2. The Return of Phantasy Magazine Mercenary/IIRG 3. Hacker's Ethics for the Nineties Mercenary/IIRG 4. Phone Line Short-Wave Antennas Saint Anarchy/IIRG 5. Survival Planning Saint Anarchy/IIRG 6. The Nazi Files (Stories of the SS) The IIRG 7. Social Engineering for the Mercenary/IIRG Beginning Hacker 8. The Rumor Mill Anonymous Sources 9. Phantasy Tidbits The IIRG 10. Attendance for Windows Hacking Mercenary/IIRG 11. Letters to the IIRG N/A 12. IIRG and Phantasy Distribution The IIRG 13. Articles We never Want to See Author Unknown -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Section [1]: Legal Ease & IIRG Information OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER... All Contents of PHANTASY Magazine are (C) Copyright by THE IIRG, all rights reserved. Nothing may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission of the The IIRG. Phantasy Magazine may also NOT be included on any CD-ROM collection without express written permission of the IIRG. All information published in PHANTASY is from USER contributed material. The Publishers and Editors of PHANTASY and THE IIRG disclaim any liability from any damages of any type that the reader or user of such information contained within this newsletter may encounter from the use of said information. All files are brought to you for entertainment purposes only! We also assume all information infringes no copyrights and hereby disclaim any liability. In the future PHANTASY Magazine will be made available quarterly to the Internet community free of charge. Any corporate, government, legal, or otherwise commercial usage or possession (electronic or otherwise) is strictly prohibited without written IIRG approval, and is in violation of applicable US Copyright laws. To subscribe to PHANTASY, send Email to subscribe@iirg.com and ask to be added to our mailing list. The IIRG (IIRG Mailing Address) 862 Farmington Avenue Suite 306 Bristol, Connecticut 06010 ftp.l0pht.com /pub/iirg (Phantasy FTP Sites) ftp.eff.org /pub/Publications/CuD/Phantasy http://l0pht.com/~oblivion/IIRG.html (Phantasy WWW Home Page) iirg@iirg.com (Phantasy E-mail Address's) iirg@l0pht.com Submissions to the IIRG Email address's may be encrypted provided you first upload your public key to our World Headquarters system: IIRG World Headquarters BBS: The Rune Stone (iirg.com) 14.4 V.32 (860).585.9638 NUP: cyberdeck Here is the IIRG's Public Key: -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.3a mQCNAjE9nrYAAAEEAKuDXqGRyCw42PStHZMLjOVZ2QhTPklKXv5NK3u0hu/EcBYM Cib6/jIDwgr3uwRo9DVptYVtGAYIY7/3OXw+B+Vxmb846weUBwcY14mBPrRtAjhI EnSzHeS477sL1MklTQ+cxmDh8TyaAG8s5n+gKHc2qCQ+FTo6L1WIQPIFCJE5AAUR tBRJSVJHIDxpaXJnQGlpcmcuY29tPg== =onlg -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Section [2]: The Return of Phantasy Magazine By: Mercenary/IIRG I know it's taken us quite some time to get off our collective ass and release this issue. But I hope it has been worth the wait. I could of course bore you with a tirade of reasons as to why the IIRG has waited to start publishing Phantasy again, but I don't feel like wasting your time (or ours), with the reasons - as they truly don't matter. But needless to say, we are back and hopefully we will maintain our self imposed quarterly publishing schedule. This issue will contain articles and news items collected by us over the entire year of 1996. I would like to take a moment to thank the numerous individuals who sent us letters and items over the last year. We will attempt to answer several of the letters in each issue. If you run a BBS or FTP site and would like to become an official Phantasy Magazine Distribution site, send e-mail to the iirg@iirg.com Hack/Phreak BBS sysops are also invited to check out the rumor mill section in this issue for information on joining IIRGnet (The IIRG's H/P Discussion Network). -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Section [3]: Hacker's Ethics For the Nineties By: Mercenary/IIRG In the 1984 book "Hackers", by Steven Levy - the "Hackers Ethic" was introduced to a whole new generation of "Hackers" and has been an argument point ever since between different Hacker factions. The original "Hackers Ethic" was formulated in the late 50's and early 60's by students in the backrooms and dusty halls of colleges on both the East and West Coast. Of course like the sands of time, all things change. What worked well for one generation can often become antiquated to another. The "Hacker's Ethic" has been in a serious need of an update (or modern revision) for years. I will attempt to examine these contention points between the generations and offer my groups personal suggestions for there modern equivalents. 1. 1958 - ALL INFORMATION SHOULD BE FREE 1996 - ACCESS TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SHOULD BE FREE "It is stupid and ludicrous to even think that companies and individuals should hand over there products for FREE." Yet among a large disillusioned segment of the underground community, they take the 1958 Ethic and distort its original meaning to that end. The original individuals who formulated the Ethic were talking about sharing their own personally written source code so that other individuals could utilize it and thus improve on it. Many of the current so called loudest supporters of supposed "Free Information For All" couldn't write a working piece of code to save their lives. This attitude would be fine if we all had the luxury of not having to support families and try to earn out a decent living, but is totally useless in the day to day doldrums we call the "real" world. My personal favorites are what I like to refer too as "The Hypocrites of Free Information". These are so called hackers who claim to follow the "Hackers Ethic" and proclaim that charging any fee or price for information is a blasphemy in one sentence, and will denounce "WaReZ DuDeZ" (software pirates) for their activities in the next sentence. If they truly believe in their own warped view of the Ethic, these Pirates would be heroes of their cause. My 1996 equivalent should be interpreted in this manner: Access to computers and the technology needed to access information should be free. Schools and public libraries should be provided with computers and Internet access in adequate enough quantities to allow those without the personal means the ability to be part of the computer revolution. This access should be unlimited and non-restrictive, individuals should be allowed the freedom of choice to access the information they desire without any imposed restrictions by the government. Placing information restrictions on individuals only leads to the desire to obtain the restricted information. My best example of this was a comment made to me by a younger hacker "Hell, I didn't want an assault rifle until the government said I couldn't own one". The last time I saw him, he confided in me that he now owned an AK-47, an SKS, and a .45 Thompson. This is a classic example of a restriction leading to the desire to obtain the restricted item. If pornography, anarchy, and hacker information are outlawed off the Internet, individuals will only be more relentless in their pursuit to obtain it. When the government finally realizes this point, it will be too late for them to reverse the effects of their bad judgment call. 2. 1958 - ACCESS TO COMPUTERS -- AND ANYTHING WHICH MIGHT TEACH YOU SOMETHING ABOUT THE WAY THE WORLD WORKS -- SHOULD BE UNLIMITED AND TOTAL. ALWAYS YIELD TO THE HANDS ON IMPERATIVE! 1996 - TECHNOLOGY FOR THE MASSES SHOULD BE MADE AFFORDABLE. DISCARDED TECHNOLOGY SHOULD BE FREE! The 1958 ethic worked on the premise that college students were working under a repressive college hierarchy. Computers were a new technology, and a lowly first year student was lucky to be able to actually see the machine let alone actually touch it. Most hackers I know of, now have a larger computing arsenal in their bedrooms than MIT had in the entire college in 1958. Most current large corporations are currently upgrading their systems about every three years. Some of these systems are given to employees or are sold to them for a nominal fee. However, most systems are simply discarded into dumpsters and destroyed as the company does not want to be bothered. Some of these discarded systems are liberated via Technology Reclamation (trashing). But far too many systems are lost to the junk mans crusher. In the commercial sector, companies are far too concerned with profit margins and stock dividends than to actually market a system at a fair and honest price. The so called "hacker businessman" of the late 70's and early 80's have sold out for BMW's and pools filled with Evian. There is no computer company in the world today that markets a computer with the slogan of "a computer for the masses at a price you can afford". 3. 1958 - MISTRUST AUTHORITY -- PROMOTE DECENTRALIZATION 1996 - MISTRUST EVERYONE -- PROMOTE DECENTRALIZATION OF GOVERNMENT Hackers of the Nineties have much more problems to contend with than the computer hierarchy that the 50's and 60's college Hackers had to deal with. In the 50's and 60's, college Hackers only had college administrators and system administrators to deal with. Today's Hacker has far more problems to contend with. Here are a few examples: 1. Hacker Informants and Wanna-be Government Agents 2. Government Entrapments 3. Renegade Law-Enforcement Agents 4. Over-Zealous Reporters 5. Telco Security I think you should get point by now: DO NOT TRUST ANYONE Hackers are perhaps the worst people in the world I've ever met when it comes to keeping a secret. The majority are also the most unfaithful individuals in the world and will crack under interrogation in seconds. Remember, there are about 5 agencies I am currently aware of that keep dossiers on hacking groups and individuals. These groups do not have your best interests in mind. Sure, it may be fun to have your picture plastered on the Internet with likes of Emmanuel Goldstein. But that JPG file is being tucked away in more than one dossier. If push ever comes to shove, utilize the media to your favor. The government is deathly afraid of what individuals may leak to the media and will often back down on matters if you tell them to read the next copy of Newsweek to find out your side of the story. However, you must exercise special care when dealing with the media (print or TV), as they will more than likely distort facts given to them to sensationalize the story. This means ratings and sales for them, and more than likely a warped or distorted version of the truth for you. 4. 1958 - HACKERS SHOULD BE JUDGED BY THEIR HACKING, NOT BOGUS CRITERIA SUCH AS DEGREES, AGE, RACE, OR POSITION. 1996 - HACKERS SHOULD BE JUDGED BY THEIR HACKING. PERIOD. Contrary to what American colleges and the Clinton Administration would have you believe. We DO NOT live in a Utopian society. In my travels I have met the full gambit of hacking society. I have met Southern Redneck Hackers and sat around to the early hours of the morning polishing of bourbon. I have club hopped in New York City with some Inner City Hackers who affectionately called me "Mercenhonky". I often travel incognito, and will not reveal my true identity. This is to allow me to see individuals as themselves, I find when I use my true identity, individuals will put on a fake persona to try and impress me otherwise. I have met Aryan Hackers, Black Militant Hackers, Female Hackers, Lesbian Hackers, Gay Hackers, K-RaD WaReZ DuDeS, So called Cyberpunks, and a few stereotypes even I can't classify. Hacking society is a full mirror of regular society, there are every type of good and bad individual that exist. To believe that there is not both types of individuals is to deny society itself. 5. 1958 - YOU CAN CREATE ART AND BEAUTY ON A COMPUTER 1996 - YOU CAN CHOOSE TO CREATE BEAUTY OR MAYHEM ON A COMPUTER, THE CHOICE IS UP TO YOU. I think this one is pretty self explanatory. Just like every day life - You can choose to either use your talents for good or for evil. Ultimately the choice is up to you. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Section [4]: Utilizing Your Phone line as a Short-wave Antenna By: Saint Anarchy/IIRG In the event of a natural disaster or national emergency, your two most valuable sources of information (television and modem communications) will most likely be disrupted or eliminated. When this occurs, your options for information will be most likely delegated to your scanner and short-wave radio. Like most hobbyists, I do not have large amounts of cash to just run out and buy equipment. So I am forced to improvise on many of my projects. When the time came to purchase a better antenna for my short-wave radio because I was displeased with the reception of the built in antenna, I was more than a little short in the cash department. I had most recently read an interesting article on the utilization of phone lines as short-wave antennas and decided to experiment. My major concern was the possibility of harmful line voltages damaging my equipment during periods of normal Telco conditions, to get around this predicament I decide to utilize a highpass filter. With a highpass filter, all phone line voltages, including ringing, are eliminated and thus will not harm your unit. I have included an ASCII-schematic diagram of a high pass filter that will filter out Broadcast Band (MW) stations. For an alternative selection of filters I would suggest you obtain the ARRL Handbook. DIAGRAM 1: Highpass Filter -------------------------- C1 C3 C2 --------||---+----||-----+----||----------- } } { CL1 { CL2 } } -------------+-----------+----------------- Capacitors C1 and C2 are 1500 pf ceramic disks. Capacitor C3 is a 820 pf ceramic disk. CL1 and CL2 are coils Each one is 2.7 uh. (a similar value will do). COIL WINDING If you can't locate the coils, you can fabricate them yourself by using this formula: L = 0.2 * B^2 * N^2 / (3B + 9A + 10C) L is inductance, in uH A is length of coil, in inches B is mean diameter of coil, in inches C is the diameter of the wire, in inches N is the number of turns For small wire, you can assume C = 0. Your reception performance will vary depending on the type of phone line you have. Overhead lines make excellent antennas, while underground lines generally offer poorer, (but passable) performance. The highpass filter should be connected to your phone line as illustrated in diagram 2. DIAGRAM 2: CONNECTIONS ---------------------- Phone line RF plug red -------- center cond. / \ or o----| |--------------------------|-o | To receiver green | | \ / | FILTER | 50 ohm coax | | | | N.C. o----| |----------------------------+ -------- shield Enjoy your short-wave listening, and have a good Winter. -Saint Anarchy/IIRG- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Saint's Article References: 1. Paul Blumstein on Hi-Pass Filters 2 Bill McFadden's Postings on Usenet 3. The ARRL Handbook -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Section [5]: Survival Planning By: Saint Anarchy/IIRG (and a host of input by other IIRG members) Coming back to my country of birth leaves me both pissed off and happy. Pissed off because the liberal assholes in this country have fucked it up beyond all recognition. Happy because my recent visit showed me that the collapse is not only inevitable, but coming very soon. Once this happens, we can clean house of all the trash that's responsible for turning the United States into a giant welfare slum, and make this country a decent place to live again; like our forefathers planned. If some of you hacker types would occasionally pry yourselves away from your computers to take a look at what I call "non-virtual" reality, you would see that even over your short life-span, the United States of Amerika has been not only been sliding steadily downward towards collapse, but that the rate of decline has increased greatly over the past year. The laws that have been passed in this country over the past 18 years, starting with the Gun Control Act of 1968, would have made a KGB general proud. 1968 was before most of you were born, so I'll tell you about some very recent ones that have occurred within your lifetimes. In 1986 we had the Electronic Communications Privacy Act; which was the first step towards eliminating the free airwaves in this country. It used to be that you could listen to whatever you damn well pleased, but the cellular industry paid off our liberal congressmen and senators so it could lie to the public easier about the privacy of cellular phone conversations. Our public servant critters, happy at having another opportunity to shaft the Amerikan people, were glad to go along and be able butt-fuck lady liberty yet again. The gun control issue has been raging on since right after World War I, despite the fact that this country owes its freedom to the virtue of a well- armed population. Over the past 10 years or so, the matter of gun control has increased in intensity. The media-inspired "threat" of drug dealers and the occasional psychotic have scared the mass of Amerikan sheeple into giving up their right to live their lives unmolested by virtue of being armed. Of course, the drug dealers and the nation's biggest criminal organization (the government) continue to have their heavy metal to play with, which is yet another reason why we are living in the People's Republic of Amerika. If you think computers are still safe, then maybe you should check out a piece of Amerikan legislation called the "Communications Decency Act", which is now law. This piece of Liberal Orwellian trash has all but gutted the first amendment when it comes to Cyberspace. Just very recently, Comrade Klinton signed what is possibly the most Socialist piece of legislation ever to come across the desk at the oval office. The "Anti-Terrorist" bill, which should be more accurately called the "Anti-Anyone Who Doesn't Like The Government's Bullshit" bill, allows for looser restrictions on wiretapping, a more totalitarian interpretation of habeaus corpus, warrantless searches, and several other laws which would seem more appropriate in former Iron Curtain countries than they would in a country which was created when its forefathers kicked the British out for doing back in 1776 what the Amerikan government is doing today. All of this would make me think that the statist dyke who's running the Injustice Department would have already opened up the Gulags and started flying a red hammer and sickle flag from the Jefferson Memorial, but she's probably still dealing with the problems that have resulted from her failed sex change operation. Don't relax yet though. There are still a few more problems which have to be contended with. Take a look at the economy lately? It sucks, and has been only getting worse since the crash of '87. I know several young sheeple who believed all the pure unadulterated shit that was fed them during the early '80s, the more fortunate ones now have $80K+ college loan bills to pay off on a minimum wage salary. The old concept of "work hard for the company and you'll be taken care of" has taken on a new meaning as corporations continue to lay off thousands of hard workers each month; the next "power move" for the lucky ones winds up to be getting the cars through the drive-through line as soon as possible. Depressed yet? If not take a look at the increase in crime; especially violent crime. Despite the fact that the "Mister Rogers" approach to crime control doesn't work, the idiots in office continue to make the same mistakes by granting criminals more rights than victims and making it impossible for victims to defend themselves. Some little guy busts a cap on a piece of sub-humanity threatening him with a sharpened screwdriver, and gets sued because his attacker is now crippled and can't victimize others anymore. Goetz's only mistake was leaving his attacker with a pulse. The real injustice in that case though was Bernie getting convicted on a "weapons charge". I think the jury should be kicked in the ass over that, especially since the same thing happened a few years before and the would-be victim didn't even have an indictment sought against him. I think though that if Goetz was of the same racial background as that earlier would-be victim, the result would have been the same; which shows you the true nature of "prejudice" and "racism" in this country. Putting Together a Decent Reference Library Without Spending a Fortune After looking at many survival books in the market, I'm convinced that most of them are trash. Two authors seem to stand out though: Kurt Saxon and Ragnar Benson. If I were a rank beginner, I'd pick up everything that they've authored, and use that as a basis for further practical training; which means getting your lazy ass out in the field and practicing. Military manuals are also useful, but the military's doctrine is based on an almost unlimited availability of personnel and material; which the survivalist won't have. The better manuals, such as the Improvised Munitions "Black Book" and the Special Forces Handbook, are reprinted in Kurt Saxon's Poor Man's James Bond book series. Old military manuals on Warsaw Pact tactics are also useful, as NWO forces from the former Soviet Bloc will be trained in those techniques, and will probably be used extensively over here as they will be less hesitant towards firing on American civilians than American troops would be (Kent State, Waco, and Ruby Ridge notwithstanding). The situation with magazines is a little better. There seem to two which are hard-core and a few others which are all right. The main two which should grace your book shelf are American Survival Guide (ASG) and Cybertek. ASG is the only magazine which exclusively covers survivalism. It usually contains good articles, but has the tendency to become a catalog for the latest expensive armchair adventurer toys. You won't go wrong with getting a subscription, but if it's available at a local book store or newsstand it might be better to check out the current issue before buying it, to see how good it is. If you live in a State or Commonwealth that has already been taken over by communists (See Kalifornia and Taxachusetts's.), then the local bleeding hearts (don't we wish) probably have had it taken off the shelves of your local bookstore, and you will probably have to get it via mail order subscription. In many places ASG is available at Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores. It also seems to crop up in newsstands frequently. Cybertek has excellent survivalist articles, but also goes into "high tech" topics such as computer hacking. All of Cybertek's articles, however, seem to have good practical utility; which is more than can be said on occasion with ASG. For most people, Cybertek is only available via mail order (there are a couple of places in the state of Connecticut where you can buy the latest copy off the shelf). It's $15 a year for a domestic (US) subscription from: Cybertek, P.O. Box 64, Brewster, NY 10509. Some people are worried that ordering "radical" books or magazines will get them put on some sort of blacklist. This might be the case, but I think the NWO Committee for State Security will probably go after your local gun dealers first. These Randy Weaver type fellows will probably lock and load everything in their inventory and go to town on the keystone bastards. The commotion generated by this, and the resulting air strike being conducted against your local sporting goods store, should give even Helen Keller plenty of advance warning. This also points out an important lesson which I hope you all will remember: Don't get into firefights; especially with attack helicopters. Because, contrary to popular movie culture, YOU WILL LOSE. By now you should be getting a mail drop, if you already don't have one. There are two ways to go with this: a U.S. Post Office Box, and a commercial mail drop service like Mailboxes Etc. A P.O. box is cheaper, but can't receive packages from UPS and Federal Express. Privacy-wise they seem about the same. Federal law, for what little it's worth, states that P.O. box holder information is private unless the boxholder is using the box to do business with the public. The commercial mailbox services I've talked to said that they will not disclose information regarding their boxholders without first being handed a court order, suponea, warrant, or similar legal paperwork. So, if you're going to run a business out of the box, or expect to have stuff shipped to you by UPS, FedEx, or other commercial delivery service, then go with the commercial mailbox service for greater flexibility and privacy. Otherwise, it's about the same. I believe, however, in doing as little business with the government as possible. I'd spend the extra money and use a commercial service. Before doing so, you might want to go down to your local blue-light district and have a good fake ID (driver's license) made up to rent the box with, or read one of Uncle Ragnar's latest books. For laughs, have the address of the local BATF office put on it. Now that you're all set up with a mail-drop, and have some money to burn, start by ordering the following: EVERYTHING by Ragnar Benson, Especially: Ragnar's Big Book of Homemade Weapons (a compilation of some of his other works) Ragnar's Homemade Detonators The Survival Retreat Survival Poaching Hard-Core Poaching Survivalist's Medicine Chest Acquiring New ID; How to Easily Use the Latest Computer Technology to Drop Out, Start Over, and Get On with Your Life David's Tool Kit; A Citizen's Guide to Taking Out Big Brother's Heavy Weapons EVERYTHING by Kurt Saxon: The Poor Man's James Bond, Vols. 1-4 The Survivor, Vols. 1-4 Granddad's Book of Chemistry OTHER USEFUL SURVIVALIST TEXTS: Life After Doomsday, by Bruce D. Clayton The Art of Throwing Weapons, by James W. Madden To Break a Tyrant's Chains, by Duncan Long The Green Beret's Guide to Outdoor Survival, by Don Paul (actually a series of four books) The Chernobyl Syndrome, by Dean Ing (Out of print. Look for it in used book stores.) Outdoor Survival Skills, by Larry Dean Olsen Boy Scout Fieldbook Living Well on Practically Nothing, by Edward H. Romney SURVIVAL MEDICINE: Emergency Medical Procedures for the Outdoors Medicine For Mountaineering, by Dr. James A. Wilkerson, MD Emergency War Surgery METAPHYSICS: The Rites of Odin, by Ed Fitch The Prose Edda The Art of War, by Sun Tzu Hagakure; The Book of the Samurai, by Yamamoto Tsunetomo Atlas Shrugged, by Ann Rand The Turner Diaries, by Andrew McDonald (For you really hardcore types who feel the "politically correct" should have been turned into fertilizer last week. All I'm going to say is that you should first read the book, and then take a long hard look at where this country is heading, before you pass judgment on it.) MAGAZINES: Cybertek ($15/year from Cybertek, P.O. Box 64, Brewster, NY 10509. Web site at American Survival Guide Backwoods Home The Backwoodsman Home Power Mother Earth News (Yes it's run by a bunch of liberals, but they often have good articles. They'd probably drop dead if they knew I recommended them. Don't know whether I'd laugh or cry if that happened.) There are probably other worthwhile books and magazines out there, but this will give you a good start. Occasionally, good reading can also be had on the Usenet group misc.survivalism, and there is also the large collection of text files and survivalist message base on the IIRG BBS, Rune Stone. Identifying Potential Threats The first step for the survivalist is to perform a hazard analysis of his locale. This should focus on his locale's disaster history, frequency of severe weather, geography, and proximity to high-risk areas. The following questions should be asked: History: Has the locale experienced past disasters? Weather Patterns: Is the locale prone to severe weather? What are the wind patterns in case of fallout or hazardous materials incident? Location: What is the geography of the locale? Is the locale near the coast or a river? Is the locale near a fault line or active volcano? Is the locale urban or rural? How large or vital is the locale? Id the locale a seat of government? Proximity to High-Risk Areas: Are there major cities or industries located nearby? How are the ethnic/race relations in the locale? Is the locale near a major military installation? Do major highways or pipelines pass through the locale? Once the survivalist completes his analysis, he can develop a list of potential survival situations that may affect him. These survival situations can be categorized as either man-made or natural disasters. Such a list might look like this: Natural Disasters Man-Made Disasters ================= ================== Weather-Related Hazardous Materials Drought Chemical Heatwave Radiological Avalanche Dam Disasters Storms Shortages Blizzard Structural Fires & Explosions Severe Thunderstorms Domestic Disturbances Hurricane Riots Tornado Terrorism Enemy Attack Non-Weather Related Transportation Disasters Earthquake Plane Crash Tsunami Train Derailment Fires Accension of Totalitarian Government Forest Range Volcanic Eruption Once the survivalist has his list of potential situations, he can begin putting together response procedures and compiling a list of equipment needed. We will discuss planning and equipment in the next part of this series. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Section [6]: The Nazi Files (Stories of the SS) Compiled By: The IIRG ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riddle of spooks in the White House - January 29, 1996 ------------------------------------------------------ New evidence has emerged that raises further questions about the death of the White House counsel Vincent Foster, the man whose "suicide" has come to haunt the Clinton administration. Official logs kept by the US Secret Service, now in the hands of The Sunday Telegraph, indicate that a top White House aide, Patsy Thomasson, met a team of secret service technicians at her office on the night of Mr. Foster's death. She was one of a group of White House staff who gained access to Mr. Foster's office later that night, rifling through his papers, and allegedly removing documents. The death of Mr. Foster, whose body was found in a Washington park, is pivotal to the whole complex of accusations made against the Clintons that have come loosely to be described as the Whitewater affair. Two key questions, are raised by his death: did he commit suicide - as the official version has it - or was he murdered? And did White House staff know of his death earlier than the time they were officially notified, giving them time to begin a cover-up. Mr. Foster was not only the Deputy White House Counsel - one of the President's key lawyers - he was the man who had guided Hillary Clinton at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, and who handled the financial affairs of the First Family at the White House. The Senate Banking Committee and the Independent Counsel investigating Whitewater, Kenneth Starr, have both spent months trying to find out exactly what was removed from Mr. Foster's office after his death. Indeed, the historic interrogation of the First Lady by a Grand Jury last Friday was provoked by the revelation that subpoenaed documents - with Foster's hand-written annotations - had made their way to the private quarters of the White House. Now it has emerged that logs kept by Secret Service staff at the White House -published in Senate documents on the death of Mr. Foster - show that a so-called "MIG Group" was checked into offices occupied by Miss Thomasson and her boss, David Watkins - on the ground floor of the West Wing - at 7.10pm on July 20, 1993. Miss Thomasson was the only member of the White House staff logged into the office at the time. She checked out at the same time as the "MIG Group" at 7.44pm, after sharing the office with them for 34 minutes (confusingly, her name is misspelt several times in the logs). The White House has failed to explain why this "MIG Group" appeared in the logs. Miss Thomasson herself slammed down the telephone before I had finished asking a question. The press spokesman for the Secret Service at first said that he had not heard of the acronym "MIG". The next day he changed his account, saying that the "MIG Group" was a team of Secret Service technicians that had gone to Miss Thomasson's office that night to conduct a routine alarm check. He said he could not divulge what the acronym MIG stood for because the unit was secret. But there is no other mention of this "MIG Group" in logs of other offices covering a two-week period in July 1993, which suggests that the visit to Miss Thomasson's office was not routine. There is another explanation. Intelligence sources have told The Sunday Telegraph that "MIG" stands for "military intelligence group". MIG groups are typically known as Technical Services Counter-Measure teams (TSCMs), highly classified units that handle high-tech counter-espionage. Their duties, for example, include sweeping for bugs at the White House. Sources say that the high-tech counter-espionage staff at the White House are controlled and operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, known as FEMA. This agency, often singled out by the anti-government militia movement as the biggest single threat to liberty in America, has enormous power and can draw freely on the capabilities of the CIA, the FBI, and the Pentagon. Miss Thomasson has admitted entering Foster's White House office on the night of his death. She testified to the Senate Whitewater Committee that she went in to look for a suicide note - she said the door was open - but she denies removing any documents. But the visit to the Foster office about which she testified took place at around 11pm. The newly-discovered Secret Service logs raise the possibility that there was some sort of "damage control" meeting going on with intelligence technicians much earlier, at 7.10pm. In themselves, the logs prove nothing. But they add to the growing weight of evidence that a tiny group at the White House was tipped off early about Foster's death, long before the official notification at 8.30pm. It would have provided a window of at least an hour to cover things up before anybody was alerted. If so, America is facing a White House scandal that is every bit as serious and nasty as Watergate. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jan 28, 1996 - ROCHESTER, N.Y. What do exploding heads and the Secret Service have in common? Daniel Burford. The 22-year-old computer artist attracted attention recently when he began "exploding" celebrity heads on his World Wide Web page. Not really, of course, but as he puts it: ''Chop out the parts of the head you want to explode, paint in some fake blood and there you go!'' Recent explosion victims include Rush Limbaugh, Boris Yeltsin and Bob Dole. And that's where the Secret Service came in. Last week two agents dropped by to discuss Mr. Burford's artistry. "They asked me if I'd ever owned a gun, how I felt about Bob Dole, if I'd ever been in a mental hospital," Burford said. "I guess they decided I wasn't a security threat." Web page at: http://www.vv.com/~gilmore/head/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Secret Service Investigates Cyberjoke Jan 28, 1996 - ROCHESTER, N.Y. Blowing up images of actors and tycoons may draw chuckles in cyberspace, but when a presidential candidate joined the list of targets, the Secret Service was not amused. When a picture of the GOP front runner (at this writing) Bob Dole was added to the gallery of images on the "Exploding Heads" page of the World Wide web, computer artist Daniel Burford was called down to headquarters for a chat. Burford selects photos of folks he feels have it coming and uses computer imagery to blow their tops. Current subjects of his virtual mayhem include Rush Limbaugh, Boris Yeltsin, Bill gates, Tom Hanks and senate majority Leader Dole. A couple of Secret service men showed up last week at Burford's workplace in Rochester, N.Y., to bring him in for an interview. "They asked me if I'd ever owned a gun, how I felt about Bob Dole, if I'd ever been in a mental hospital," Burford said. "I guess they decided I wasn't a security threat." Burford got the last word in by adding a page to his Web site featuring a picture of his inquisitor's business card and a recounting of his brush with political scrutiny. The Exploding Heads page (still featuring Bob Dole) can be visited at http://http://www.vv.com/~gilmore/head/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Keene Sentinel Nov. 16, 1996 Internet + youthful prank = hot water By: KEN AARON of The Keene Sentinel - Keene,New Hampshire Big Brother isn't watching over us. But shout loud enough, and he'll listen. About a month ago, U.S. Secret Service agents visited Keene to root out a bomb threat to the White House. It was sent to Washington, D.C., via e-mail by somebody with an account on MonadNet, -- and the presidential police force wasn't taking it lightly. George Scott, director of the Keene-based Internet service provider, rehashed the incident on Wednesday. It turns out that a 13-year-old boy sent the message. In it, he wrote that First Lady Hillary Clinton is promiscuous, he'd seen President Bill Clinton in unsavory hangouts, and "by the way, I'm going to blow up the White House." That last one got the attention of the nation's finest. Three days later, Secret Service officials asked Scott to release electronic records on the Internet account; concerned about the boy's free-speech rights, he told officers to produce a subpoena, which they did. So, with Keene police officers in tow, representatives of the Secret Service office in Concord paid a visit to the boy's home and burst in, greatly upsetting his mother, who was unaware of his letter-writing habits. The officers were set to confiscate the computer and take the boy in for questioning, but didn't. It didn't take long for them to determine "it was just a dumb kid," Scott said. Instead, they told him to stop sending threats, then took his picture and left, pledging to put it in the federal agency's files. His mother wanted to shut him off from Internet access as punishment, Scott said. But he responded, "You don't think he got enough punishment?" Until now, MonadNet has had some problems with spammers -- people who send junk e-mail to thousands at a time -- but that's about it, Scott said. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Section [7]: Social Engineering for the Beginning Hacker By: Mercenary/IIRG Every text or book that I've ever seen that contains information on social engineering are probably some of the worst pieces of literature I've ever had the misfortune of reading. The writers of these articles are usually inexperienced in any actual practicing of the subject matter or the writer will just offer a lecture on how easy it is to manipulate people and will offer no actual demonstration or method application. I hope to remedy a little bit of the misconceptions and misinformation that have been presented in these other articles and make the art of social engineering a little more comprehensible for the beginner. The first thing I'd like to do is define the meaning of the term "social engineering". Some people define it as attempting to talk a user into revealing information that will allow you to gain entry to a system. I prefer to define it as, "The art of using friendliness and guile to obtain information". There are many instances where obtaining information will not solely be restricted to computer information and having a good phone presence is always a benefit. Much of my personal observances and experience with social engineering have been in the area of obtaining information on individuals rather than trying to bullshit users out of their passwords. Some of the methods I will discuss are blatantly illegal as you will be falsely representing yourself. But it should be noted that these techniques are employed by commercial credit services and collection agencies. One of the most common situations that I am approached with is that a inexperienced beginner will have caller-id and is unable to identify the caller. The beginner is either unable to access a CNA (Customer Name & Address) service or doesn't know they exist. There are several ploys that will work in this instance, but my personal favorite is the "Television Poll". To achieve success, you must make it worthwhile for the targeted caller to be on the phone with you. This can be accomplished in several ways. The following example should illustrate what I mean. "The following is a transcript of an actual social engineering session. Only the Names and Personal Information have been changed to protect the Stupid." OUR STARS --------- HACKER -- Posing as a pollster for a television awards show or television ratings service VICTIM -- Your standard piece of cannon fodder MERCENARY TIP #1 (Please note, Prime-Time Hours are best for this scam) (7pm-9pm, any other time should be considered suspect) (for this particular scam. ) MERCENARY TIP #2 (Please remember to use caller-id blocking, should your) (victim have ACR, use a payphone. Whenever possible, ) (to simulate an actual polling service, after each ) (response by your victim you should have the sound of ) (keyboard typing in the background. Use a lap-top if ) (your forced to go porta-hacking. ) HACKER -- Good evening Sir, I'm calling on behalf of the Franklin Television Rating service. If you could take few minutes of your time to answer several questions on your favorite television shows, you could be eligible for our drawing for an all expense paid trip to Hollywood for you and your family. Would you like to participate in our survey? MERCENARY TIP #3 (Basic human nature should be all you need here. The basic ) (emotion of greed should kick in. Should your target say NO ) (give them this line : "Well that's unfortunate, because had ) (you said yes I was authorized to mail you a gift certificate) (good towards $20.00 worth of free long distance calling. ) (Would you like to change your answer?" Once again the basic ) (nature of greed should be all you need. If they still say NO) (thank them for their time and use another method ) VICTIM -- Yes, I'll answer a few questions. HACKER -- Great, Question Number 1 - What is your favorite Prime-Time TV Show? VICTIM -- Ummm.. I would have to say "Friends" HACKER -- What is your favorite Prime-Time comedy show. VICTIM -- Seinfeld HACKER -- What is your favorite daytime soap opera. VICTIM -- I really don't watch them, but I would say "Young and the Restless" HACKER -- Who is your favorite TV Talk show star? VICTIM -- Jerry Springer HACKER -- How many hours a week would you say you watch TV? VICTIM -- About 10. HACKER -- And now to be eligible for our drawing, I will need your name and address. Your Name Please. VICTIM -- BILL SMITH HACKER -- And Mr. Smith, What is your Address? VICTIM -- 22 North Lane MERCENARY TIP #4 - (Since you have the victims number ahead of time, you ) (should have already looked up the City, State and Zip) (This will make you seem more professional. ) HACKER -- And that's in Troy, New York. Zip code 12179. Is that correct? VICTIM -- Yes that's correct. HACKER -- Well, thank you for your time Mr. Smith, and good luck in our contest. The basic human emotion of greed is your most effective counter-intelligence weapon, use it to your utmost advantage. In our next issue I will be discussing manipulating Telco personnel and how to learn the art of Technobabble. Until then, Live free and look for the next IIRG Technical Journal to be released in February. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Section [8]: The Rumor Mill ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CUERVOCON 96 CUERVOCON 96 CUERVOCON 96 CUERVOCON 96 CUERVOCON 96 Tengo que hable con mi abogado. ---------------------------------------------------------------- What : A computer/telephony/security conference. (show this part to your boss.) Where: Fort Brown Hotel, Brownsville Texas. When : 28 & 29 December, 1996 Who : The usual gang of cretins. Why : It's winter, and it is 12 degrees outside. The dumpsters are frozen shut, and there are icicles on the payphones. Brownsville is at the Southern-most tip of Texas, right up against...Mexico. Yes, Mexico, land of cheap cerveza, four-dollar strippers, and liberal drinking laws. Mexico, where you too can own your very own Federal law enforcement official for a fistful of pesos. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Speakers Anybody wishing to speak at CuervoCon should send e-mail to the address at the bottom of this announcement. Currently the list includes: u4ea (by teleconference) Major Redragon Deamon9 Caffiend (About her Breasts) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Events "How Much Can You Drink?" "Fool The Lamer" "Hack The Stripper" "Hack The Web Server" "sk00l" "Ouija Board Hacking" ...as well as a variety of Technical Presentations. ---------------------------------------------------------------- General Information The Fort Brown Hotel will have available to us 125 rooms at the Holiday Inn at $55 a room, and 75 rooms at the Ramada for $45 each. The Fort Brown was previously an actual fort when it was closed down by Uncle Sam. It became one large hotel until it was recently purchased and split into the Holiday Inn and the Ramada. The Fort Brown was chosen because it is across the street from the bridge to Mexico. You can call the Fort Brown Ramada at: 210-541-2921 You can call the Fort Brown Holiday Inn at: 210-546-2201 Call for reservations, make sure to tell them your with CuervoCon. Friday and Saturday the con will be in the 'Calvary' room. While Sunday we have the 'Fortress Room' where all the big speakers will be. Friday and Saturday we will have a few speakers and activities. Friday Night mainly, so we can have people arrive on time. We hope to have the con room open 24 hours a day. Brownsville is right on the Mexican border, adjacent to the Mexican town Matamoris. The Gulf of Mexico is 25 miles away. Brownsville has a population just over 100,000. The police force includes 175 officers, and a wide variety of federal law enforcement agencies have a strong presence there as well. The climate is semi-tropical, and the RBOC is SouthWestern Bell. Matamoris is the other half of Brownsville. Home of over 1/2 a million people, it is known since the early 1900's as a pit of sin. The federale's are not to be fucked with and it is serviced by TelMex. It is known for it's bars, strip clubs and Mexican food. Matamoros also has an airport in case you live in Mexico and care to go, via AeroMexico. Directions: In Texas Driving - Go anyway you can to get to US 77 South. Take 77 South till it ends in Brownsville. From there you will turn right on International. Proceed all the way down international, right before the bridge, turn left. The Fort Brown will be on the left. For those flying in - We are going to try to have a shuttle going. Also just tell the cab driver, Fort Brown. The Con Registration Fee, AKA the pay it when you walk in our we will beat you up, is only 10$ and an additional 5$ for the 'I paid for eliteness sticker' which will let you into the special events, such as hack the stripper. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Celebrity Endorsements Here's what last years participants had to say about CuervoCon: "I attended the CuervoCon 95. I found many people there who, fearing a sunburn, wanted to buy my T-shirts!" -ErikB "I tried to attend, but was thwarted by "No Admittance to The Public" sign. I feel as though I missed the event of the year." - The Public "mmmm...look at all the little Mexican boys..." -Netta Gilboa "mmmm...look at all the little Mexican boys..." -Emmanuel Goldstein "Wow! CuervoCon 95 was more fun that spilling my guts to the feds!" - Panther Modern "CuervoCon is our favorite annual event. We know we can give security a day of rest, because you people are all too drunk to give us any trouble..." - AT&T "No moleste, por favor." - TeleMex Don't miss it! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Have you ever hacked a machine in your hometown from a foreign country? Have you ever had to convert dollars into pesos to get your bribe right? Have you ever spent time in a foreign prison, where your "rights as an American" just don't apply? Have you ever been taken down for something that wasn't even illegal half an hour ago? YOU WILL! And the con that will bring it to you? CUERVOCON 96 ---------------------------------------------------------------- CUERVOCON 96 CUERVOCON 96 CUERVOCON 96 CUERVOCON 96 CUERVOCON 96 brought to you by - S.o.B. - TNo - PLA - Phrack - The Guild - F.U.C.K. - SotMESC - Contact Information info@cuervocon.org www.cuervocon.org - Look here for updates. Voice mail system coming up soon. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BEYOND HOPE It's the long awaited sequel to Hackers On Planet Earth and it takes place in New York City on August 1, 2, and 3, 1997 (tentative). Location and Registration information to be announced. Contact 2600's voice BBS for information 516.473.2626 or e-mail beyondhope@2600.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ °±²³ ³²±° °±²³ ////// ////// /////// //////// ³²±° °±²³ // // // // // ³²±° °±²³ // // /////// // //// ³²±° °±²³ // // // // // // ³²±° °±²³ ////// * ////// * // // * ///////// * ³²±° °±²³ ÖÄÄ¿ ÒÄÄ¿ ÖÄÒÄ¿ ³²±° °±²³ º ³ ÇÄ º ³²±° °±²³ Ð Á ÐÄÄÙ Ð ³²±° ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Welcome Sysop! We are glad that you are interested in echoing IIRG-Net. A lot of effort has gone into its creation. We are presently looking for Hubs and Nodes. We want people who are going to help us reach our goal of bringing back the underground to the quality that once existed. Though you need not run a large BBS to join us, we would like to know that you operate a quality BBS. We want to run a top of the line network and to do that we need top of the line people. Please read the rules, fill out the application and we'll be in touch with you shortly. Thanks for your time. Network Administrator Mercenary/IIRG ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ[IIRG-NET MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS]ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Sysops who are interested in echoing IIRG-Net must fill out an IIRG-Net application and upload it to the IIRG's World Headquarters System, (The Rune Stone BBS) or send it via e-mail to iirg@iirg.com for review by the Net Administrator (N.A.). Systems applying for access should have an answer within five working days from the receipt of the application, though most will be processed within 48 hours. To request an application, send e-mail to iirg@iirg.com with the subject "NET APP", and an application will be mailed to you. Before completing the application, all Sysops must read this file and the IIRGUIDE.TXT in their entirety. Though IIRG-Net isn't a difficult net to echo, the rules are important. Sysops echoing IIRG-Net are not only expected to follow those rules, but to enforce them on their system as well. To apply for net access your system must meet these minimum requirements: 1. All users who can access IIRG-NET must be known to you or verified via voice or verification door or by other means. 2. Your system must be accessible 24 hours a day - 7 days a week. 3. Your system must have been on-line for at least 6 months. 4. There must be no fees for echoing IIRG-Net. Either to a system or user. (normal system access fees do not apply here and are acceptable) ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ[IIRG-NET SYSOP RULES]ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ 1. Nodes and Hubs must attempt to make a mail run at least once every 3 days. 2. Nodes and Hubs must have a current IIRG-Net Info Packet available for download and must upload all applications to The Rune Stone BBS. 3. Nodes & Hubs must carry all user conferences as well as 2 private conferences. 4. No cross-linking of IIRG-Net conferences is allowed. 5. Hubs can deny access to IIRG-Net conferences to any user they feel is unfit, unless instructed to let them on by the Net Administrator. Also, any refusal to deny a locked-out user will result in the Hub being dropped from IIRG-Net. 6. All net problems, ideas or complaints should be discussed in IIRG_ADMIN and not in the public conferences. 7. All IIRG-Net conference taglines should begin with þ IIRG-Net þ. 8. Recurrent failure of the above rules will result in the offending Node or Hub being suspended or expelled from IIRG-Net. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chaos Computer Club e.V. CHAOS COMMUNICATION CONGRESS 1996 _________________________________________________________________ Der futurologische Congress - Leben nach der Internetdepression Wir befinden uns im Jahre 50 n. Null. Das gesamte Internet ist von den Großkonzernen besetzt... Das gesamte Internet? Nein! Das von unbeugsamen Hackern bevölkerte globale Dorf hört nicht auf, den Eindringlingen Widerstand zu leisten. Und das Leben ist nicht leicht für die kommerziellen Legionäre, die als Besatzung in den befestigten Lagern Backbonum, Firewallum, Webarium und Telekomum dienen... 27.-29. Dezember 1996 Eidelstedter Bürgerhaus Hamburg Agentensoftware / Ausstieg aus der Unix-Technologie bis zum Jahre 2005? / Promis / Wirtschaftsspionage / Lauschangriff / Telekoma / Warum Internet Scheiße ist / Firewall Aufzucht und Pflege / ATM / THC++ / DECT / Telefonanlagen-Hacking / Menschenrechte / Kybernetik-Visionen / Dummheit in Netzen / Konsumterror / Spitzel im Web / ISDN en detail / IP via Packet / Chaos PR / InfoWar / Wer traut einem TrustCenter? / Kompatibilität von virtueller und tatsächlicher Realität? / Festplattenweitwurf / Geschichte der Kommunikation: die Zukunft als Self-fullfilling prophecy? / Zensur: politisch, sozial, rechtlich, technisch - Blauhelme auf der Datenautobahn? / Fernsehsender selbst gemacht / Geld und andere virtuelle Realitäten / CCC vor Ort: Erschliessung des Universums... / Druidenwettstreit im Hackcenter / Häcksenspace / Zaubertrank im Chaos-Cafe und vieles mehr... Die Eintrittspreise "Ideal Standard" DM 42,- Mitglieder d. CCC e.V. DM 23,- Presse DM 75,- Gewerbliche Teilnehmer DM 200,- Schüler, Zuvieldienstleistende, Renter DM 30,- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Section [9]: Phantasy Tidbits News from the Internet and Beyond ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Briton charged with trying to hack into U.S. military computers LONDON (Jun 24, 1996) - A British computer software technician has been charged with attempting to hack into sensitive U.S. military computers, British police said Sunday. Mathew Bevan, 21, of Cardiff, Wales, allegedly tried to tap into computer systems operated by the U.S. military and Lockheed, a missile and space company, a Scotland Yard spokesman said. He was formally charged Saturday. Bevan is to appear in court July 11. Another Briton, 18-year-old Richard Pryce, was arrested last year for allegedly hacking into U.S. military hardware from a computer in his London bedroom. Pryce, a music student, is to appear in court next month on 12 charges. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Phone-line hackers sell illegal access on the street LOS ANGELES (Sep 21, 1996) - Hackers are breaking into telephone line boxes and tapping dial tones belonging to businesses and homes, selling access on the street using a special hand-held receiver. Victims sometimes find their lines tied up for hours and get bills for tens of thousands of dollars in fraudulent calls. Highly skilled scam artists target so-called "b-boxes" that serve as junctions for the phone lines of hundreds of homes and businesses in a neighborhood. The hackers open the 4-foot-tall gray boxes on the sidewalk and clip onto the phone lines with special tools, diverting a dial tone into a hand-held receiver from which customers can make calls. In a more sophisticated version, the hackers forward a dial tone to a nearby pay phone, where customers line up to make calls for a fee of $5 to $20. The Los Angeles area, with its large immigrant population, has been particularly fertile for the phone fraud. The scammers have a ready population of customers looking to make inexpensive overseas calls. Six people caught in the act have been arrested for phone-line hacking this year in Los Angeles, Burbank, Montebello, San Francisco and Toronto, Patsy Ramos, manager of Pacific Bell's centralized fraud bureau, says. As many as 15 incidents a week are reported in California, according to Pacific Bell. One non-profit group victimized received bills for more than $30,000 in calls to South and Central America, Europe and Egypt. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The year zero: When the computers fail to roll over (Sep 28, 1996) - A few years back, Mary Bandar of Winona, Minn., received an invitation to enroll in kindergarten. A computer, triggered by the fact that she had been born in '88, had spit out a notice that it was time for her to begin school in the fall. The only problem was, she was born in 1888. Mary Bandar was 104 years old. The Texas Department of Information Resources had a strange experience recently when it received a list of its own board members from a state commission. The names of only seven of the nine active members appeared on the printout. The head-scratching ended when the staff realized that the missing members were serving terms expiring in the year 2000. The computer figured their terms had ended long, long ago in '00, or 1900. Unfortunately for just about every automated state and local government office or agency, the fact that many computer systems are already having trouble with computations into the year 2000 and beyond has ominous implications. "There are going to be some governments that come crashing down to their knees when their computer systems fail," says Jack Townsend, a consultant for Napa County, Calif. The basic problem is that software running on many computers uses only two digits to designate the year. Whenever computers running that software read the date "00," they either interpret it as 1900 or choke on data they don't understand. Fixing the problem will require tedious and expensive corrections to millions of lines of software code; some of the elderly mainframes still in wide use in government may not be fixable at all. It's estimated that overhauling state and local government computer systems to cope with the year 2000 problem could cost hundreds of millions, and perhaps billions, of dollars nationwide. Yet because the problem's complexity is difficult to grasp for non-technical types, many governments have been slow to react. The consequences are enormous if, as the new millennium begins, the small bugs now surfacing turn into incorrect revenue, expenditure and benefit calculations on a mammoth scale. "Failures will potentially be dramatic," says Bruce Hall, research director for the Gartner Group, an information technology consulting firm. Any system using dates to calculate eligibility or expiration or installments, entitlements, tax payments, court docket scheduling, parole and sentencing, long-term debt management, salaries - is vulnerable. "If you're just storing or retrieving information, it's a cakewalk," says Glen Mackie, information systems manager for the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles. "If you're calculating penalties and interest, it becomes quite a religious experience." What's worse, government computers communicate regularly with other state, local and federal government systems, as well as those of the private sector, such as banks and vendors. The opportunities for corrupted data flowing back and forth are enormous. And it's not just information systems that could go on the fritz. Electronic equipment using a calendar as a timing device, such as traffic lights that change on weekends, also could go haywire. Many security systems, elevators and heating and air conditioning systems run on timed programs. "Computer chips are ubiquitous," says Rod Armstrong, Nebraska's information technology coordinator. "I don't know if anyone knows the extent to which they're affected." Indeed, no one really knows all of the ramifications of the century date change. This is the first turn of a century in an electronic age. In computer-speak, the dreaded words are "unpredictable results." "Computers are sort of stupid. They'll do exactly what they're told," says Mackie. "The trouble is, we don't always know what we've told them." The year-2000 computer problem is global, affecting businesses as well as governments. But while even some modern computers have trouble handling dates later than December 31, 1999, it is older "legacy" systems that will be the costliest and most difficult to fix. Businesses are more likely to replace their systems frequently, while many a '60s-era mainframe still chugs away in government computer rooms, often running software code older than the technicians who tend the machines. Making computers 2000-friendly is a formidable task, one that a lot of public officials who haven't had to worry about the technical side of government are going to find themselves wrestling with as the end of the century approaches. "Until they experience the pain involved, the manual effort involved,"says the Gartner Group's Hall, "they don't begin to understand the scope of the problem." It's not that fixing computer systems to handle years that begin with 20 is particularly technically challenging. But getting the job done is labor-intensive. Some larger states' computers contain more than 100 million lines of code to be looked at and possibly altered. "It's a lot of computer skunk work," says William Kilmartin, Massachusetts state comptroller. Few governments have budgeted adequate resources to get all of their systems year-2000 compliant. And the longer they wait, the more likely there will be an ineffective scramble to get the work done at the last minute. Hall predicts that less than half of all organizations will be compliant by 2000, and that the percentage of state and local governments that have solved their millennium problems will be even lower. There is one aspect of the year-2000 problem that is especially difficult for the information-technology professionals who want to prevent that apocalypse: educating the elected officials, cabinet members and department heads who are being asked to provide the resources needed to fix the problem. "You're asking legislators to make the tough political choice to fix a date rather than do something that would benefit someone in the state," says Steve Kolodney, director of Washington state's Department of Information Services. "That's a low-flying turkey that doesn't take a high-powered rifle to shoot down." One reason it's difficult to convince managers and legislators of the depth of the problem is that there remains a persistent and widespread belief that, as Kolodney puts it, "a white knight is going to come riding out of the computer industry to solve the problem." Technology experts say it's not likely. The solution certainly doesn't exist now. Hall says he puts it this way to dubious government managers and elected officials: "You are going to have to take a leap of faith that what the technical people are telling you is true." Governments that can't find the resources to bring their computers into the next century face a range of possible disasters. Technology people say the best-case scenario is that those computer systems will simply crash. It will be worse if they keep running, cutting millions of dollars in incorrect checks or failing to bill for proper amounts. "The best thing that can happen is the system will blow up," says Mackie. "Otherwise, it will do something you don't expect it to do." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hacker indicted in multimillion-dollar software-stealing spree LOS ANGELES (Sep 28, 1996) - A computer hacker who was the subject of a nationwide manhunt was charged with a multimillion-dollar software-stealing spree during his nearly three years as a fugitive. A federal grand jury indicted Kevin Mitnick on Thursday on charges he stole computer programs from companies, damaged University of Southern California computers and used stolen passwords during his time on the run. The 25-count complaint, which followed an investigation by a task force of high-tech experts from the FBI, NASA and federal prosecutor's offices nationwide, also alleges that Mitnick used cloned cellular phone codes. Mitnick, 33, pleaded guilty in April to a single count of cellular phone fraud for using 15 stolen phone numbers to dial into computer databases. He also admitted violating probation for a previous computer fraud conviction. In return, prosecutors agreed to drop 22 other fraud charges but warned that new charges could follow. Mitnick, described by one expert as the "Billy the Kid" of hacking, served a year in prison for illegally tapping computers at Digital Equipment Corp. in 1988. At age 17, he served six months at a youth center for stealing computer manuals from a Pacific Bell switching center. In 1992, he disappeared while on probation. Computer security expert Tsutomu Shimomura tracked Mitnick to Raleigh, N.C., where he was arrested in February 1995. The arrest came after telephone technicians tracked his cellular phone signal to an apartment complex there. Mitnick consented to having the case moved to his home state of California. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- FBI investigating e-mail offers of child pornography SAN FRANCISCO (Oct 22,1996)- Authorities were trying Tuesday to determine whether a prankster distributed a child pornography e-mail ad to computer addresses around the world, including to San Francisco Bay area residents. The e-mail, sent Monday, apparently originated in the New York City borough of Queens from an America Online subscriber. Among the recipients were people who work for missing and abducted children's foundations and several newspaper offices. Some of the recipients were outraged. "Am I liable for prosecution?" one worried Internet newsgroup user wrote after publicly posting the letter and asking for mail from others who received the ad. San Francisco FBI spokesman Doug Perez said an arrest could be made as early as Wednesday, but he would not elaborate. FBI offices in New York, San Francisco and Baltimore were involved in the investigation. "I'm hoping this is somebody's sick idea of a prank," said New York City Officer Kevin Hui, who added that police were inundated with calls from people who received the ad. The e-mail letter asked recipients to send from $2.99 to $49.95 to "Child Fun" in exchange for child pornographic photos, videotapes and audio tapes. The letter also offered to trade or buy child pornography and emphasized "action shots" of adults having sex with young boys. Photos and tapes of girls as young as 4 and boys as young as 7 were listed. The ad also said recipients could have their faces "morphed" onto pornographic photos with children. "I am a fan of child pornography and for the past 4 years, I have been able to gather quite a collection of it. I send out these advertisements to this mailing list once a week,'' the e-mail letter said. Lee Altschuler, chief of the U.S. attorney's office in San Jose, said advertising child pornography for sale in interstate commerce is a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The letter writer said the mailing list had been compiled from another list of e-mail addresses. America Online spokesman Andrew Graziani said that the fact that the e-mail had an AOL return address didn't necessarily mean it originated from AOL. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hoax e-mails are newest form of Net attack FBI investigating e-mail offers of child porn (Nov. 4, 1996) First, Internet pranksters amused themselves by sending hoax postings and tacky ads to online bulletin boards. Next, Net abusers started sending unsolicited e-mail en masse. Now, they've unleashed a disturbing combination of the two: hoax e-mails. Increasingly, experts say, people are exploiting the mass-market possibilities of the Net for anonymous attacks that land in people's personal electronic mailboxes. On Oct. 21, in what some believe to be the most prominent example, thousands of Silicon Valley Internet users, and many others worldwide, received what appeared to be an explicit e-mail solicitation for child pornography. FBI officials, who aren't talking, officially are investigating the e-mail as an illegal pornography offer. But many Internet experts now believe it is either a hoax or a smear against the supposed author. "It's electronic slander, libel and character assassination as e-mail," said Stephen Hansen, computer security officer at Stanford University, about such easy, anonymous attacks. "It's the online equivalent of a drive-by shooting." Many ordinary Internet users reacted with outrage to the child pornography solicitation, including some of the estimated 600 people at Stanford who received the electronic sales pitch. Local police stations across the country received a flood of complaints, as did America Online Inc., the service provider from which the offensive e-mail was sent. "We have never had a message like that sent out to that magnitude of recipients," said America Online spokeswoman Melissa Andrews. She said the company has been working around-the-clock with the FBI to identify the perpetrators. "The nasty e-mail, Andrews said, originated from three of the company's e-mail accounts. AOL has determined the account holders accidentally released password information which the perpetrators used to break in and anonymously send the message to what appears to be a random group of Internet users. "Hi," the e-mail titled "Child Porn" begins, "I sent you this letter because your e-mail address was on a list that fits this category.'' The e-mail then goes on to offer the recipient pictures, videos and games based on child pornography. Those interested in having their own image morphed onto a sex action shot could even send a picture. The sender attached a name and a Queens, N.Y., street address for orders. Many Net experts immediately suspected a hoax. Michael Godwin, legal counsel for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the offer contained so many obviously illegal references to pornography that it quickly impressed him as a deliberate attempt to offend. "It was like sending a letter to the police and saying, "Please arrest me." Speculation about the e-mail quickly spread worldwide and press accounts popped up in the Netherlands, Japan, England and Israel. Some people speculated online that it was part of a FBI-AOL joint sting operation to entrap would-be pornography buyers. Others wondered whether the e-mail was an attempt to embarrass either AOL or junk e-mail spammers, who, rumor had it, used the same street address in earlier mass mailings. Still others used it as an excuse for zesty, in-your-face online exchanges about what should and shouldn't be expected to happen online. "Do you live in a cave, sir?" Netizen David Pinero of Tampa, Florida, asked someone who expressed outrage about the e-mail solicitation. "Sir, get off the Internet, OK? ... You've obviously demonstrated some inability to tolerate such online hooliganism without having a cow. I, for one, don't want our criminal justice system using this piece of nonsense as an excuse to censor the Internet." At one point, a Menlo Park computer scientist got caught up in the controversy. His name appeared as the author of the porn solicitation, next to a New York address. The man quickly called the FBI to share his suspicions that he was a victim of a trick played by an online enemy, a man he had sparred with in an online discussion group called rec.pets.dogs.behavior. Now, however, the computer scientist believes the fact that his name was used in the e-mail likely is a coincidence. It's still not known whether another man with the same name was the letter sender's intended victim. Pranks and abuses have existed almost since the Internet began as a Defense Department initiative linking four research institutions' computers in 1969. But its rapid expansion to more than 40 million users today has compounded the possibilities and reach of mischief. "We are still in the Wild West, and lots of bad and strange things happen, hoaxes and real," notes Kathey Hale, an Internet industry analyst at Dataquest Inc. Hansen, the Stanford computer security expert, says faculty and students have fallen victim to other Net pranksters who set out to ruin reputations. These anonymous jokesters have sent e-mail or Internet postings in the name of users who forget to sign off shared workstations. In one instance, a visiting scholar found out that someone had posted a message in his name when police called him to investigate a posting in an alternative sex discussion group saying he approved of sex between his children. Female students have had their names, along with personal information gleaned from student directories, posted to sex solicitation bulletin boards. When Hansen can track down perpetrators' service providers, he warns them about the problem. If they don't deal with the offender, he said, he puts them on a blacklist that blocks all their transmissions to and from Stanford. Peter G. Neumann, a computer securities researcher at SRI International in Menlo Park recalls the now famous April Fool's "Chernenko Spoof" of 1984. Named after the now deceased Soviet leader, Konstantin Chernenko, the Cold War era posting angered or duped many readers with its announcement that the USSR had joined the Internet and looked forward to peaceful co-existence with the West. More recently, pranksters set out to frighten Net newcomers, derisively called "newbies," with mass electronic warnings about the dreaded "Good Times" virus, which supposedly wreaked computer havoc after sneaking in on e-mail. The virus was imaginary, said Godwin, but its real power came from seeing how it multiplied among gullible believers. "Whenever a viral idea or a viral rumor infects the population," he said, "it spreads." Net abuses reached new extremes in the mid-'90s, when uninvited electronic advertisers began interrupting free-spirited discussions on Internet bulletin boards. One of the first broad attempts came in 1994 from Phoenix lawyers Laurence A. Canter and Martha S. Siegel. The pair invaded newsgroup discussions dedicated to non-commercial exchanges with 5,000 unsolicited pitches for their immigration law firm. Enraged Internet users sent them death threats. Technology brought a solution. Volunteer monitors came up with software that allowed them quickly to delete such mass bulletin board postings. So, fly-by-night advertisers began using mass junk e-mail to make their pitches instead. As network managers have discovered, they are hard to stop. Inexpensive software can send out mass mailings in minutes or cull lists of thousands of e-mail addresses. Once such e-mails have been launched, it's hard to block them without resorting to crude tactics. America Online has been the most aggressive service provider fighting junk mailers, suing one advertiser and unveiling a program last week to block mail from Internet sites that routinely flood subscriber mailboxes. On the Net, where gossip spreads faster than a virus, some speculate that angry junk e-mailers may have sent the child porn e-mail using AOL addresses to take revenge for AOL's hard stance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Canadian Police Seize Big Internet Child Porn Stash (Nov 5, 1996) TORONTO - A 22-year-old Canadian man has been arrested for possession of a huge stash of child pornography gathered from the Internet, with some images showing children drugged and in pain, police say. The seizure from the home of Trevor Davis in the small city of Kirkland Lake in Northern Ontario, was believed to be the largest of child pornography in Canada with confiscation of 20,000 computer files containing video clips and photos, police said. "It just rips the heart right out from you," said Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Bob Matthews. "I found it absolutely disgusting." Police said the images recovered in the October raid showed children having sex with other children and animals, and others involving bondage and drugs. Canadian police worked in conjunction with the American FBI and its investigation into an Internet child pornography ring in California. In addition to possession of pornography, police charged Davis of making, distributing and importing child pornography. He is to appear in court Nov. 18. Matthews said a conviction of simple possession of child pornography can result in a jail sentence of up to five years while the other charges also carry long terms. The Canadian police also seized computer hardware and software, children's clothing, women's undergarments and documentation from Davis' home. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hacker affixes pornography onto Latin summit web pages VINA DEL MAR, Chile (Nov 11, 1996) - A computer hacker broke into the Internet site of a summit attended by 21 heads of state and filled it with pornographic pictures and ribald humour, red-faced organisers of the meeting said on Monday. The hacker linked pictures of nude women to a list of activities planned for the first ladies at the summit. The Summit's World Wide Web page was promptly shut down at the annual Ibero-American summit of leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal. The hacker swapped group photos of the heads of state with pictures of nude men and women, people who saw the pages said. He also replaced the words Press Information with "Press Disinformation," while Housing Forum and Public Development became "Drinking Forum and Pubic Underdevelopment." Chilean government officials had proudly inaugurated the Web pages, the first at an Ibero-American summit, a few months ago as a show of Chile's technological progress. "We don't see any political intent behind this. It's just a joke in very bad taste," said Roberto Eskenazi, the summit's website producer. He said initial investigations pointed to a group of hackers in Sweden, some of whom were believed to be Chilean. "It's a well-known group based in Sweden that has done this sort of thing before and planned this for weeks," he added. He said the pictures were on-line for an hour. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FBI Investigates Hacker Attack At World Lynx (November 12,1996) The FBI is investigating a hacker attack that caused the shutdown of computer systems at World Lynx Inc., an Internet access provider in Little Rock, Ark., according to the company's president. World Lynx has helped federal investigators track down a suspect and he's expected to be arrested in the next few days, says Lewis Pollack, president of World Lynx. Pollack, who declined to identify the alleged intruder, says the FBI searched his home in nearby Cabot, Ark., last Friday. The hacker was trying to shut down the company's operations, rather than going after specific data, Pollack says. "This was a premeditated and vicious attack. He meant to bring us down." World Lynx has redesigned its systems following numerous attacks by the intruder during the past six weeks, Pollack says. One attack resulted in an interruption of business for four hours. Pollack says the company has suffered a financial loss as a result of the attacks, but he declined to specify the amount. Once World Lynx technicians knew what the hacker was after, they used their computer systems to find him. "We out-hacked him," Pollack says. "We figured out that he needed specialized knowledge to get into where he was. We watched him go in and out" of the systems. World Lynx, which offers Web design services and high-speed connections, notified its more than 6,000 customers of the problem by E-mail. The interruptions, which Pollack says didn't threaten customers' data, stopped after World Lynx systems were reconfigured. Federal investigators were notified of the attacks more than two weeks ago and are said to be investigating the case. Officials at the local FBI office in Little Rock were not available for comment. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Ping of Death' not really deadly (November 13,1996) - The newest denial-of-service attack technique to reach prominence on the Internet - the so-called Ping of Death - is cause for concern. But unlike other forms of denial-of-service attacks, this one is relatively easy to test and fix. The Ping of Death relies on a flaw in some TCP/IP stacks when handling unusually and illegally large ping packets. Some systems, including Windows NT and Windows 95, can generate ping packets that are larger than allowed by the protocol because of the way TCP/IP breaks up large packets. Systems receiving such packets can hang or crash because memory allocated for storing the packets overflows. Ping of Death, like all denial-of-service attacks, does not, by itself, threaten the security of systems that are attacked. However, these attacks can deny service to legitimate users and can sometimes be used as a prelude to a more direct attack on the accounts or data stored on a system. Some older firewall software, for example, can be tricked into letting in unauthorized traffic by overloading legitimate TCP/IP ports. Unlike other recent denial-of-service attacks that have made news, Ping of Death depends upon flaws in the implementation of TCP/IP. The SYN flood attacks that surfaced in large numbers in September and so-called ICMP (or ping) storms that have been around a lot longer than Ping of Death exploit a fundamental flaw in the TCP/IP architecture, and are thus notoriously hard to avoid. That difference means that Ping of Death does not affect all systems in the same way. Some systems may reliably crash under such attack, while others are unaffected. Other systems crash sometimes but not all the time. Windows NT 3.51, for example, will crash sometimes, but Windows NT 4.0 appears immune to the problem. Apple Computer Inc.'s OpenTransport-based TCP/IP stack can cause crashes in some circumstances, but Macintoshes using the older MacTCP software appear not to be affected. A good list of systems affected and the operating system patches available to correct the problem can be found at http://www.sophist.demon.co.uk/ping. Alternately, some operating systems, and most firewalls, will let system administrators disable ping support. This may be a good workaround until patches can be installed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Priest Boasted Of Pedophile Crimes On Internet (November 13,1996) NEWCASTLE, England - A Roman Catholic priest who indecently assaulted four young boys and used the Internet to boast about his crimes to other pedophiles has been jailed for six years. Prosecutors say Father Adrian McLeish, a 45-year-old parish priest in the city of Durham, northern England, had amassed a huge pornographic collection of indecent pictures of boys on his four computers. Describing the case as unique in Britain, prosecution lawyer Beatrice Bolting said it established a link between child abuse and the display of lewd material on the World Wide Web. "It is the first in this country where there is a proved inextricable link between communications of a pornographic nature on the Internet with other pedophiles and the actual sexual abuse of young children," she told Newcastle Crown Court. McLeish, who pleaded guilty to 12 charges of assault and admitted possessing and distributing pornographic photos of children, was arrested last December on charges of assaulting boys under the age of 14. "You used your position as a priest to ingratiate yourself with their parents. The families and the children looked up to you and trusted you," Judge Alan Moses told McLeish. Police went to his parish after raiding the home of another pedophile and finding 37 contact numbers on the Internet. One of the contacts linked him to a pedophile network. The Catholic Church has been beset by a series of child sex abuse cases in Britain, Ireland and the United States amid a growing debate about whether priests should be allowed to marry. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyber-hate crime indictment handed up IRVINE, Calif., (Nov. 14 ,1996) - A federal grand jury has indicted a former University of California at Irvine student for allegedly sending an anonymous computer message threatening to hunt down and kill Asians on campus. Prosecutors said the 10-count indictment of Richard Machado, handed up Wednesday, marks the first government prosecution of a federal hate crime allegedly committed in cyberspace. The grand jury charged Machado, 19, with civil rights violations by sending a threatening electronic message to about 60 UC Irvine students on Sept. 20. In the e-mail, the indictment said, Machado accused Asians of being responsible for all crimes on campus, ordered them to leave the university and warned that he would kill them if they did not. Asians made up 47 percent of the 16,700 students at UC Irvine last year. "This was no prank," U.S. Atty. Nora Manella told the Los Angeles Times. "The defendant's clear intent was to scare and intimidate Asian students and to discourage them from attending the university to which they were lawfully admitted. Such conduct is criminal." Machado was not enrolled at the school when he allegedly used a 24-hour computer lab in the university's engineering building, according to campus police. If convicted, Machado faces up to 10 years in prison and a maximum $1 million fine, according to Asst. U.S. Atty. Michael Gennaco, who will prosecute the case. Gennaco told the newspaper that most of the recipients of the e-mail, which contained less than a dozen sentences and was signed "Asian-hater," were Asian-Americans, including Machado's former roommate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Infected spreadsheets now spreading viruses CARLISLE, Pa. (Nov. 14, 1996) -Information security experts at the National Computer Security Association Thursday renewed their virus warning to users of Microsoft Excel. Users of this program need to know that their spreadsheets may be infected by macro viruses, said NCSA President Dr. Peter Tippett. Recent outbreaks of spreadsheet virus infections confirm that these viruses are in the wild and spreading. Microsoft Excel spreadsheet macro viruses have many similarities with the Microsoft Word macro viruses that have spread so rapidly over the past 12 months, often as attachments to electronic mail. This latest Excel infection appears to be a variant of the previously observed Laroux virus, which was first spotted in July of this year. Tentatively named Laroux.B, the virus affects the users PERSONAL.XLS file in much the same way as the original Laroux, but with unpredictable results due to a programming error. Both strains of Laroux infect spreadsheets created in both Excel 5.0 and Excel 7.0, on both Windows 95 and Windows 3.1 machines. Once a user's copy of Excel has been infected, new spreadsheets created with that version of Excel will also be infected, as will any existing spreadsheets that are opened and then saved with the infected Excel. A copy of this new strain of Laroux was forwarded to the NCSA Anti-Virus Labs for analysis by On Technology. The existence of the virus was independently confirmed with sites involved by NCSA. On Technology is a member of the NCSA Anti-Virus Product Developers Consortium. Although the virus itself does not attempt to destroy data, according to Stephen Cobb, NCSA's Director of Special Projects, the potential for loss of both data and productivity is very real. Cobb has written over a dozen books dealing with spreadsheets and word processing applications. Case studies conducted by NCSA indicate that productivity suffers two hits during a macro virus infection, the first being an increase in help desk calls from users who are infected. When support staff figure out what is happening, productivity takes a second hit, caused by the disinfection operation. This has to be thorough, to prevent re-infection, and immediate, to minimize the negative impact of users unwittingly distributing infected documents to customers and business partners. And even if the virus itself is not designed to delete data, files may be lost or damaged during the disinfection process. The NCSA considers the best solution to macro viruses be anti-virus products that provide proactive, real-time protection at the desktop. While an experienced Excel user can remove this particular infection manually, there are clearly advantages to using an anti-virus program that automates the process. Cobb observes, we do not want to be pessimistic or alarmist about these things, but history suggests we will see more of these infections. The time for users to upgrade their anti-virus policies, strategies, and products in order to tackle macro viruses, is now, rather than later. More information about Laroux and other macro viruses can be found at the NCSA web site: http://www.ncsa.com/avpd1.html. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Book Publisher Launches Computer Virus Hoax LONDON, ENGLAND, (NOV 15 1996) - A computer virus hoax now circulating the Internet was orchestrated by Penguin Books as a publicity stunt, according to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit. The message reads: "There is a computer virus that is being sent across the Internet. If you receive an e-mail message with the subject line "Irina," DO NOT read the message. DELETE it immediately. Some miscreant is sending people files under the title 'Irina.' If you receive this mail or file, do not download it. It has a virus that rewrites your hard drive, obliterating anything on it. (Information received from the Professor Edward Prideaux, College of Slavonic Studies, London )." According to the London Daily Telegraph, Penguin sent out a bogus letter to newspapers and television stations with a warning about the virus. "Prideaux is one of the main characters in the Irina book Penguin is planning to launch," said Cluley. "The hoax was eventually traced back to Penguin via the envelopes used. The College of Slavonic Studies does not exist. But London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies said it had been inundated with calls to the fictitious Prof Prideaux." According to Cluley, the letter was sent by Guy Gadney, the former head of electronic publishing at Penguin. "Although Gadney sent out a second letter explaining that the first was a hoax, it has done little to stop the spread of the alert, and it is now beyond anyone's control, like the Good Times hoax. "Amusingly, an anti-virus company (McAfee in Russia) haven't helped the problem by recently faxing the phony alert to their users! Seems they didn't realize it was a hoax," Cluley added. "One should note that merely reading an e-mail text message - as long as that e-mail program is not foolishly configured to launch attachments automatically - cannot cause damage or spread a virus," Cluley said. See http://www.drsolomon.com/vircen/irina.html for updates. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hacker pleads guilty to computer fraud ST. LOUIS, (Nov. 15 1996) - A 20-year-old computer hacker faces sentencing for breaking into two telephone company computer systems and altering their files. Christopher Schanot pleaded guilty Thursday to computer fraud and illegal wiretapping. Sentencing was set for Jan. 31. Prosecutors described Schanot as a computer genius. He tapped into the computer systems at Southwestern Bell and BELLCORE but officials have not said what files were altered in the process. Schanot first penetrated the Southwestern Bell computer, using a password obtained from the son of a phone company employee and used the system for e-mail and Internet access in the summer of 1994. He then installed a ``sniffer'' program that compiled user identifications and passwords. The following November, he transferred the program to the Morristown, N.J., computers operated by BELLCORE, the investigative and research company that supplies support for the Baby Bells. Investigators have not detailed what files Schanot accessed and what he did to them. Court documents indicate he was able to breach the systems' firewalls. Southwestern Bell and BELLCORE spent more than $80,000 investigating the situation and cleaning up their files. The violations were committed while Schanot was an honor student at Vianney High School. Prosecutors said Schanot has been linked to the Internet Liberation Front, which objects to the commercialization of the Internet and has pulled a number of pranks against major companies. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clinton signs executive order on encryption policy WASHINGTON, (Nov 15 1996) - President Bill Clinton signed an executive order Friday announced in October to liberalize export restrictions on computer encoding technology, a critical component of global communications and online commerce. The new policy will not take effect until the Commerce Department writes regulations to implement the order, Vice president Al Gore's office said in a statement. The regulations are expected to be completed before the end of the year, Gore's office said. Recognizing the international significance of U.S. export policy, Clinton also designated Ambassador David Aaron as special envoy for cryptography. "We are moving forward to implement the encryption export liberalization plan that I announced in October," Gore said. "These two actions will help promote the growth of international commerce and robust secure global communications in a manner that protects the public safety and our national security." Some in Congress and the high-tech industry have complained the administration's plan does not go far enough. They argue that Cold war era limits on export of encryption, computer programs that use mathematical formulas to scramble information, put U.S. companies at a disadvantage. Foreign companies are not required to abide by the export limits and can sell programs using strong encryption inside and outside the United States. Encryption has become widely used, for example to safeguard corporate electronic mail from outsiders or keep credit card numbers transmitted over the Internet away from hackers' prying eyes. Under current law, U.S. companies can only export programs using short passwords or software "keys." Companies seeking to export stronger programs must get permission from the State Department. Under the new Clinton policy, companies could eventually export any strength of encryption if the programs also provided a means for the government to decode the messages acting under a court order or similiar authorization. Jurisdiction over export applications would be transferred to the Commerce Department, but the Justice Department would be added to the list of agencies that review such requests. Departments of State, Defense, Energy and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency also review the applications. But Gore's office noted that no one agency will have a veto over export decisions. Some companies feared that the Federal Bureau of Investigation would be given veto power. Several companies, including International Business Machines Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co , have said they will introduce new forms of encryption that will be exportable under the executive order and, they said, meet the needs of commercial users. The executive order limits the use of a common argument that companies make in seeking permission to export encryption. Under U.S Export Administration Regulations, companies can point to the availability of comparable products being sold by foreign companies when applying for an export license. But Clinton concluded in the order that export of encryption could harm U.S. national security and foreign policy interests "even where comparable products are or appear to be available from sources outside the United States." The order gives the Secretary of Commerce discretion to consider foreign availability in determining whether to issue a license but the Secretary is not required to issue a license on that basis. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer hacking whiz pleads guilty to electronic break-and-enter ST. LOUIS (Nov 15, 1996) - A computer whiz deemed so cunning he could control almost any computer system has accepted a plea bargain for hacking his way into the secret files of two major communications companies. Christopher Schanot, 20, was linked to the Internet Liberation Front, a group of hackers who have claimed responsibility for some high-profile computer pranks and who decry the commercialization of cyberspace. In exchange for a reduced sentence, Schanot pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of computer fraud and one count of illegal wiretapping. He faces up to 15 years in prison and $750,000 in fines at his sentencing on Jan. 31. Prosecutors said Schanot broke into national computer networks and had passwords to military computers, the credit reporting service TRW and the phone company Sprint. They gave no indication he tried to profit from his intrusion. His hacking caused security breaches that companies said cost tens of thousands of dollars to repair. The break-ins took place between October 1994 and April 1995, when Schanot was an honor student at a Catholic boys' school in suburban St. Louis. He vanished after graduating in May 1995. Authorities caught up with Schanot last March and arrested him at the suburban Philadelphia apartment he shared with a 37-year-old woman, Netta Gilboa, the publisher of Gray Areas. The magazine professes to explore subject matter that is "illegal, immoral and/or controversial." In April, Schanot was placed under 24-hour house arrest and ordered to not even talk about computers. Originally accused in a five-count indictment, he pleaded guilty to charges surrounding break-ins at Southwestern Bell and Bellcore, a communications research company owned by seven regional telephone companies. Mike Schanot said his son made the plea bargain only after prosecutors threatened him with a wider range of charges. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (November 15, 1996) - The first federal indictment for Internet-based hate crimes was filed yesterday against a former University of California at Irvine student. Richard Machado, 19, allegedly sent e-mail to 59 mostly asian students saying, "I personally will make it my life carreer (sic) to find and kill everyone of you personally. OK?????? That's how determined I am." The hate-filled message was sent on September 20 using a spoofed e-mail alias from a campus computer. Federal investigators would not comment on how they determined that Machado was the culprit. Nevertheless, the ten-count indictment against him is punishable by up to $1 million and 10 years in prison. If Machado is found guilty, the case would sharpen some of the fuzzy legal boundaries between virtual and physical hate speech. But a judgment erring too far in either direction could prove harmful to freedom of speech on the Net. One of the victims named in the indictment, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of further physical threats, told The Netly News that, "They seem to think it is not going to go to trial. I think he might even admit that he did it." Indeed, Machado has been "completely cooperative," according to Manuel Gomez, the school's Vice Chancellor for student services. None of the victims or investigators we talked to have found any motive for the incident. Although one of the recipients was Machado's former roommate, he appears to have randomly targetted students with asian surnames (47 percent of the student population at U.C. Irvine is asian). But it is not entirely clear that this case meets the requirements necessary for a guilty verdict. Although the text was certainly "hate speech," the e-mail in question would have to pass the Brandenburg test -- meaning it would have to incite illegal activities - according to ACLU litigator Ann Beeson. The Brandenburg test says that, "To justify suppression of speech the speech must be intended to produce imminent lawless action and must be likely to produce such action." The test is normally used in the context of a Ku Klux Klan demonstration where in hate speech could cause someone to suffer direct physical harm as a result. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AUSTIN (Nov. 15,1996) - The University of Texas has unveiled a new supercomputer that can perform 24 BILLION math operations per second. That's known in computer lingo as 24 gigaflops. The one-point-eight-MILLION dollar Cray computer consists of three six-by-six-foot metal boxes filled with 44 microprocessors and 26 hard-disk drives. It can perform more calculations in one second that a human could do by hand in half-a- MILLION years. The machine will be used for computer modeling, an increasingly common method of visualizing such things as exploding stars and hidden petroleum reserves. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Section [10]: Hacking Attendance for Windows By InfoTronics By: Mercenary/IIRG I most recently got the chance to hack the Attendance for Windows employee time and attendance monitoring system. This system is supposed to automatically process employee transactional data for the purpose of tabulating employee hours. This system (or similar system), is becoming common in fast food franchises, department stores, hospitals, and other businesses that employ large numbers of personnel. The version of the system that I was hacking was the bar-code version. I understand that InfoTronics makes a mag-stripe version, but most companies will only purchase the bar-code model because of sheer cost. Hacking this system is extremely easy for any person with adept hacking skills. The system is vulnerable at three points; 1. The Time Clock 2. The Control PC 3. Wiring between Time Clock and PC Each system comes with two supervisor only cards; a "Time Set Card" and a "System Enable" card. These two cards are protected with an infrared strip across the bar-code so that it may not be photocopied or easily deciphered. However, the cards are vulnerable to any standard bar-code reader. These cards may be reproduced by any bar-code program that can do 3 of 9 bar-codes. The cards decode to: System Enable: +++3ff Time Set: +++308 By duplicating these two cards, you will have unrestricted access to the time clock. You will be able to change the time, date, programming options, and communication options. Scrolling through the clock options is very self explanatory as each item is labeled on the units LCD screen. Hacking the system software on the PC end is also very easy. There are two very simple and easy methods of attack that will work. Which method you use is totally a matter of personal choice. The system I had the opportunity to hack was a 486DX2-66 set-up on a Windows for Workgroups network. Your first step will be to bypass any front end security set-up on the PC itself. This may consist of a BIOS password or front-end security utility. There are many utilities and methods to bypass these security inconveniences. Should you have some combination you can't get by, send us a letter and I'll address your problem in our next issue. My first method is to fool the system into allowing you access. You must be able to physically get into the system through DOS or through a DOS shell in Windows or through the File Manager. By renaming the file PREFDATA.DTA to PREFDATA.SAV (or any name you prefer), the system will think that this is the very first time you have activated the program and will default to it's start-up password combination of; OPERATOR: USER PASSWORD: MASTER By entering the program this way, you will bypass any security or user limitations placed on any established accounts and will have super-user access to the program. When you have finished looking around the program, delete the new PREFDATA.DTA and rename PREFDATA.SAV to PREFDATA.DTA, this returns the system back to it's normal security set-up. My second method consists of physically examining the PREFDATA.DTA to extract the password information. I will assume that the reader has a working knowledge of HEX editor's and will have enough skill to get access to the Attendance directory. By scrolling down through the program to the very first occurrence of words (or text), you will have a list of user accounts (as in example 1). EXAMPLE 1: 001000 00 00 01 00 09 00 02 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF úúúúúúúúúúúúúúúú 001010 49 49 52 47 20 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 06 20 FF FF IIRG úúú úú 001020 FF FF 50 48 41 4E 54 41 53 59 20 20 00 00 0B 20 úúPHANTASY úúú From this, you know that this PREFDATA.DTA has two accounts; IIRG and PHANTASY. By utilizing this information you may search the file for password information (as in examples 2 and 3). EXAMPLE 2: 004010 04 00 49 49 52 47 06 00 20 31 00 48 41 43 4B 45 úúIIRGúú 1úHACKE 004020 52 20 20 20 20 1E 00 13 00 10 00 11 00 09 00 0C R úúúúúúúúúúú For the account IIRG, the password would be HACKER. EXAMPLE3: 005010 15 00 50 48 41 4E 54 41 53 59 20 20 4D 41 47 41 úúPHANTASY MAGA 005020 5A 49 4E 45 20 20 1E E0 00 00 03 00 FF FF FF 05 ZINE úúúúúúúúúú For the account PHANTASY, the password would be MAGAZINE. Should you happen to have a lazy administrator on your hands, the default accounts for Attendance consist of; Operator: USER Password: Master Operator: TASKMGR Password: Master My last advice on hacking this system, is that since the timeclock and PC are not constantly communicating, you have the opportunity of taking over this system through the wiring between the PC's serial port and the timeclock itself. On the system I had access to, the system used 3 wires on COM port 1. 9 Pin Serial Port ----------------- Pin 2 - Red Pin 3 - White Pin 5 - Black By patching into the system with alligator clips hooked into my laptop's serial port, I was successful in taking control of the timeclock. Of course, I had a copy of the Attendance software, but even without this you can monitor and intercept signals utilizing terminal software. One last note on the Attendance software, the software is dongle protected off the parallel port. The dongle only tells the software how many users the software may have. I have seen 50 and 100 user versions. Without the dongle, the software is limited to 10 users. However, if you copy a version created with the dongle attached and it's employee's are configured. You will have the capability of utilizing the more than 10 users without the dongle. Check the programs ABOUT screen and you will see something like (48 of 10 Employees). Should you have any questions or comments, contact me at mercenary@iirg.com and I'll respond in our next issue. Attendance for Windows is (c) By InfoTronics (R) Windows for Workgroups is (c) By Microsoft (R) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Section [11]: Letters to the IIRG (Fan Mail, Hate Mail, Letter Bombs) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Hey Isn't that Your Guys Work? Hey IIRG, I was reading the most recent issue of 2600 (Autumn 1996) and saw the "Building the Cheese Box" article. Isn't that the IIRG's Technical Journal Number Three by Thomas Icom? And if it was why didn't they give the group any mention? -=>Beast<=- IIRG Reply: Apparently 2600 magazine does not want to give any credit where credit is due. On your question, yes you were correct - Thomas Icom originally published that article as the IIRG's Technical Journal Volume II, Issue 3 on July 15, 1995. Thomas Icom brought up the issue several months ago that 2600 was hurting for articles and would like to publish TJ3 in the magazine. We said fine, let them publish the article, it had been out for a year already. We did not expect them to strip out the group credits in the article and copyright notices on our schematic GIF. For us now it's a mute point, in the future we will only allow magazines to publish our work on the basis that they will give credit where credit is due and will not allow magazines to publish our works without a written agreement to do so. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Heard about your FTP site? Dear IIRG, I have heard that you guys run a GhostServer on the net, what's the address and when is it up? CP/M IIRG Reply: Yes, you have heard correct - we do run a GhostServer site. But due to the large demand when the site is up, we only release the schedule on our main system - The Rune Stone BBS. Call in and set up an account there and you will find the dates and times if you request them from the sysop. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. What is the Rune Stone's NUP? (We get this question in mail at least 10 times Hourly) IIRG Reply: The New User Password is the same as it always was: CYBERDECK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Section [12]: IIRG Distribution Sites (or Gateways to Oblivion) ////// ////// /////// //////// // // // // // // // /////// // //// // // // // // // ////// * ////// * // // * ///////// IIRG World HQ: The Rune Stone BBS 14.4k V.32 Phantasy's Home Board Complete IIRG Archives 14000+ Files (86o)-585-9638 NUP: cyberdeck IIRG Distribution Site 1: Unauthorised Access Uk On-line 10.00pm-7.00am GMT +44-(0)636-708063 3oo/12oo/24oo/96oo/14.4k HST Established 1990 British Underground Guild WHQ SysOp: Phantasm IIRG Distribution Site 2: The Black Lodge LodgeNet Member Site Sysop: The Brit (5o8)-PRI-VATE -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Phantasy Distribution Sites Phantasy's Distribution Site's are continually changing, we apologize if you called a board and didn't find the Mag. Network Distribution Sites will have the Issues first, we suggest calling one of them if a problem does arise. 1. Lightning Systems (414) 363-4282 200 Million Bytes on-line USRobotics Dual Standard HST/V.32bis 2400 thru 14.4k v.32bis/HST 2. l0pht.com oooo .oooo. oooo . `888 d8P'`Y8b `888 .o8 888 888 888 oo.ooooo. 888 .oo. .o888oo ftp://ftp.l0pht.com 888 888 888 888' `88b 888P"Y88b 888 or 888 888 888 888 888 888 888 888 www://www.l0pht.com 888 `88b d88' 888 888 888 888 888 . o888o `Y8bd8P' 888bod8P' o888o o888o "888" for 888 o888o Cult of the Dead Cow, International Information H e a v y I n d u s t r i e s Retrieval Guild, and Black Crawling Systems "Growing machines to feed your dreams." Archives Login as 'bbs' to access the LHI InfoXchange. -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Section [13] Articles We Never Want to See This Month - Hacker Barbie Author Unknown MATTEL ANNOUNCES the latest in their new line of Barbie products, the "Hacker Barbie." These new dolls will be released next month. The aim of these dolls is to negate the stereotype that women are numerophobic, computer-illiterate, and academically challenged. This new line of Barbie dolls comes equipped with Barbie's very own X-terminal and UNIX documentation as well as ORA's "In a Nutshell" series. The Barbie clothing includes a dirty button-up shirt and a pair of well-worn jeans. Accessories include a Casio all-purpose watch, and glasses with lenses thick enough to set ants on fire. (Pocket protectors and HP calculators optional.) The new Barbie has the incredible ability to stare at the screen without blinking her eyes and to go without eating or drinking for 16 hours straight. Her vocabulary mainly consists of technical terms such as "What's your Internet address?", "I like TCP/IP!", "Bummer! Your kernel must have gotten trashed," "Can't you grep that file?", and "DEC's Alpha AXP is awesome!" "We are very excited about this product," said Ken Olsen, Marketing Executive, "and we hope that the Hacker Barbie will offset the damage incurred by the mathophobic Barbie." (A year ago, Mattel released Barbie dolls that say, "Math is hard," with a condescending companion Ken.) The Hacker Barbie's Ken is an incompetent management consultant who frequently asks Barbie for help. Leading feminists are equally excited about this new line of Barbie dolls. Naomi Falodji says, "I believe that these new dolls will finally terminate the notion that womyn are inherently inferior when it comes to mathematics and the sciences. However, I feel that Ken's hierarchical superiority would simply reinforce the patriarchy and oppress the masses." Mattel made no comment. Parents, however, are worried that they will fall behind the children technologically when the Hacker Barbie comes out. "My daughter Jenny played with the prototype Hacker Barbie for two days," says Mrs. Mary Carlson of rural Oxford, Mississippi, "and now she pays my credit card bill online. Got no idea how she does it, but she surely does it. I just don't wanna be looked upon as some dumb mama." Mattel will be offering free training courses for those who purchase the Hacker Barbie. The future Hacker Barbie will include several variations to deal with the complex aspects of Barbie. "Hacker Barbie Goes to Jail" will teach computer ethics to youngsters, while "BARBIE RITES L1KE BIFF!!!" will serve as an introduction to expository writing. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- PHANTASY(C) IIRG 1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997 May Odin Guide Your Way! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- May You Be Feasting and Drinking in Valhalla For a Full Night Before the Christian God Knows You're Dead -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-