News Roundup
Foul-Ups and Blunders
Over the past couple of years, Suffolk County (New York) officials have been planning a state-of-the-art computer system to handle everything from emergency phone calls to the police and fire departments to fingerprint data and court records. The system so far has cost $15.9 million, is two years overdue, and, last but not least, doesn't work. It was designed by Unisys and is supposed to do all kinds of magical things in an average of 3.5 seconds. In early tests, the system froze up entirely. More recent tests have seen functions take as long as 30 seconds to complete and an unexplained instance of garbage being sent throughout the network. According to County Executive Assistant John Gallagher, "It began to act strangely and started putting information into the records machine that was totally unrelated to the information called in." All in all, the system has failed nine tests. The county executive has reportedly lost faith and has referred to it as "unstable and unreliable." The system uses Unisys A16 mainframe computers.
Touch-Tone Registration
Colleges across the country are using a new method of registering students: Touch-Tone phones!
We checked out two universities near us and found similar systems operating at each. At Suffolk Community College, students simply dial 516-696-4910
The only information required by the system is the student's Social Security number! Armed with this information, anyone can change the poor student's schedule, adding or dropping courses to their heart's delight. Of course, you also need a copy of the current academic schedule in order to obtain the proper four digit section numbers. This schedule is available throughout the campus. The State University of New York at Stony Brook has a more secure system. Yes, they use the Social Security number as the student identifier. But at least they have the good sense to require a password. Of course, without exception, the password is the student's birthdate (MMDDYY). It brings new meaning to the words "learning institutions." Right now, they're learning pretty slow.
Oh yes, the number for that system is: 516-632-9393
Electronic Mayhem
Earlier this year, motorists were startled when an electronic highway sign on I-95 in Connecticut suddenly announced "You All Suck." The person who did this and somehow managed to get caught claims it was an accident. He thought it was just a computer bulletin board system and that there was no password protection whatsoever.
In a similar story, a U.C. San Francisco student changed the outgoing message on the University Health Insurance line to say that the system had poor security. After initially calling the number for information, the student was able to see the flaws in the system. "It was ridiculously simple," he said. "The menu actually offered a 'Change Personal Profile' option, so I pressed it to see what would happen. Before I knew it, it was helping me change the menu and outgoing message, and I didn't even need a password." The student notified the campus newspaper and the University Health Insurance Office but declined to give his name, fearing disciplinary action. He said he wanted people to know that "technology is a really powerful tool."
The Latest From the U.K.
According to British Telecom, attacks by "organized and well-equipped criminals" on BT's 110,000 payphones rose from about 1,000 a month in September 1991 to around 6,500 by January 1993. But, thanks to a "determined campaign," the number of attacks has since been cut by around 50 percent. Part of this campaign includes payphones that speak, saying "Warning - tamper alarm; police have been informed." Warbling alarm tones are also being used. They really go all out on these studies, by the way. They have graphs, charts, press releases, you name it. But best of all are the sometimes startling conclusions they reach. Like: "These figures show there is a direct relationship between the number of attacks and the number of payphones in working order." Gosh.
Telephone competition is heating up in the U.K. Mercury, the number two company, recently announced that its new mobile phone service (One2One, a joint venture with US West) was offering free off-peak, local calls. Mercury's Lord Young claimed that "with the free calls, you'd be mad to use a BT phone." But a London newspaper, The Independent, wrote, "On present tariffs, anyone ripping out their BT phone from the socket and replacing it with One2One would be advised to consult an accountant or a psychiatrist. For Lord Young's free calls are only free once you have bought a handset for 250 pounds and paid a monthly fee of [nearly 15 pounds], and are prepared to pay tariffs up to 17 times those charged by BT to use the Mercury telephone at peak periods."
For those of you in Ireland, dialing 03 allows you to call any number within England. For instance, to reach 071-2234567 in London, from Ireland you would dial: 03-071-2234567
Domestic information are reachable at 190, Great Britain information at 197. International information is available by dialing 114, or 10 if calling from old-style A&B coinboxes. The international prefix is "16."
So to call us here at 2600, using the United States country code of 1, you would dial: 16-1-516-7512600
999 is the number for emergencies. 1800 is the prefix for toll-free calls, called Freefone. 1199 gives you an 18-hour advance weather forecast from most locations.
To call Ireland Direct from the United States, dial 800-562-6262 for AT&T, 800-283-0353 for MCI, or 800-473-0353 for Sprint.
From Canada, dial 800-463-2050. From France, 1900-353; Spain, 900-990-353; the Netherlands, 06-022-0353; and Britain/Northern Ireland, 0800-89-0353. If you haven't figured it out yet, Ireland's country code is 353.
In Perth, Scotland, the first tests of Call Return for the British Isles are underway. According to BT, "Customers using the service will enter a simple code on their telephone and an automatic voice at the exchange will immediately give details of the last calling number, whether or not the call was answered at the time. A second code will enable the number to be dialed automatically by the exchange if the customer wishes to return the call immediately, or the number can be noted so that the customer can ring back at a more convenient time."
Caller Display is the British version of Caller ID and it's being introduced in the same coercive style as it is in the States. BT claims that 90 percent of its customers enthusiastically support the service and that 74 percent "could see no reason why anyone would want to prevent the display of their number." They also claimed that when blocking was made available, only .01 percent of all calls used it. BT expects these services to be available to more than 95 percent of its customers in 1994. They also refer to the new technology as the C7 signaling process.
In more British news, the countdown to Phoneday has begun. On April 16, 1995, the biggest change to national and international dialing codes in 25 years will take effect. On that fateful day, which also happens to be Easter Sunday - presumably to emphasize the importance of the event, an extra digit be added after the initial 0 of city codes. The extra digit is 1.
So London, which only a couple of years ago was 01 and is now 071 or 081, will soon be 0171 or 0181. The toll-free code of 0800, the mobile codes of 0860 and 0850, and the information and entertainment services code of 0891 will remain unchanged.
The general idea is for codes beginning with 01 and eventually 02 to be geographical in nature, 03 to be more mobile numbers, 07 to be for "lifetime" numbers (the same idea as AT&T's EasyReach service), and 08 to be for specially tariffed premium services.
04, 05, 06, and 09 are not going to be used right away. Five cities (Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, and Bristol) will get brand new city codes. Their current codes are 0532, 0742, 0602, 0533, and 0272 respectively.
The corresponding new codes will be 0113, 0114, 0115, 0116, and 0117.
Nottingham and Bristol will add a 9 in front of all local numbers, the other cities will add a 2. And, finally, the international dialing code will change from 010 to 00. This is in keeping with the new European Community standard, as is the transition of the emergency number from 999 to the standard 112.
If you know anyone in the U.K., it's probably best to leave them alone for a while. These are traumatic times.
Collect Your Wits
So which collect service is really cheaper?
Here's what we were able to figure out. For a collect call from our Long Island office to an abandoned warehouse in San Francisco, the rate we got for dialing 0+ with AT&T was $2.20 for the first minute and 26 cents per minute thereafter.
By using AT&T's 1-800-OPERATOR service, the rate was $1.73 for the first minute and 24 cents for each additional minute.
MCI's rates were a bit harder to interpret. To start with, none of their operators know the rates. Each time you ask, you're transferred to the "rate operator" which is a neat way of saying customer service. Anyway, their rate for a 0+ call to the same number was either $3.76 or $2.20 for the first minute and 26 cents per minute thereafter. It really depends who you ask.
By using MCI's 1-800-COLLECT service, the rate for the same call is $1.73 for the first minute and 24 cents for each additional minute, identical to 1-800-OPERATOR.
Things started to get complicated when we asked about interstate calls. We tried to price a call to the governors mansion in Albany, NY. AT&T's 0+ rate was 1.85 for the first minute and 20 cents for each additional minute. We got different answers for using 1-800-OPERATOR, ranging from it being impossible because it was within the same state to $1.85 for the first minute and 21 cents for each minute thereafter.
MCI charged $1.82 for the first minute and 20 cents for each additional minute using 0+ and their 1-800-COLLECT rate (we think) is $1.65 for the first minute and 20 cents for each additional minute. One MCI representative quoted us a rate of one cent a minute for a night call and four cents a minute for a daytime call!
We knew right away that those numbers were bogus but we have to wonder how many people would have fallen for it. With this kind of service, it's no wonder MCI has never attached their name to any advertisement of 1-800-COLLECT.
Incidentally, AT&T ran a very strange promotion for their 1-800-OPERATOR service, or so they claim. Up until December 5th, there were no surcharges on collect calls and all daytime collect calls cost 15 cents a minute. If those numbers were true, then it was actually cheaper to call somebody collect than to call them direct!
We should point out that it took an average of five minutes to get an answer to a single rate question from either company. It's no wonder consumers are totally confused since the companies themselves can't seem to figure it out.
Phone trauma in the United States, unlike Great Britain, doesn't center on one day. It's with us all the time.
Fantasy World
People just love it when we publish information on Walt Disney World. So here's some helpful hints on their Guest Messaging Service, which everyone staying at the Walt Disney World Resort gets. Everyone. To retrieve messages from anywhere in the world, all you have to do is dial 407-827-1888 (only the last five-digits are necessary from within the hotel), then enter your room number and your secret password. You can easily remember your secret password because it's set to the first four letters of your last name. Messages also stay alive for three days after you check out, unless you delete them. While you can no longer get messages once you've checked out, you are still able to access old messages by calling: 407-827-1699
Start the Insanity!
Now that prepaid phone cards are starting to appear in the United States, crazed collectors are popping up in hot pursuit. Phone companies are encouraging this behavior by producing colorful and unique telephone cards, sometimes centered around special events, like the Democratic Convention in New York City in 1992. On September 25th, Richmond, Virginia hosted the first International Credit Card Collectors' Convention. Some see this euphoria for cards rivaling the current ecstasy that coin and stamp collectors constantly experience.
You can drool over pictures of more than 400 telephone cards by getting the 1993 U.S. Telephone Card Catalog, available for $5 from:
You can also get information on a publication called International Telephone Cards by writing to:
Insuring Profits
Who really benefits from phone fraud?
One has to wonder when all of a sudden the phone companies turn into insurance brokers. For $1,200 a month (don't get caught in the stampede) AT&T will cover all fraudulent phone costs above $25,000. This, naturally, doesn't include the sign-up fee. If AT&T fails to notify the customer of the fraud, the customer only has to pay $12,500. Sprint has a similar program, no doubt designed to provide the best service possible at the lowest cost. We'd like to know how much fraud would have to occur for the phone companies to lose even one cent on this plan.
New Numbers
Did you know that BellSouth is experimenting with three-digit N11 codes? 211, 311, 511, 711, and 811 are going to be used for the next two years for various "pay" services run by independent companies. Does this mean you'll be able to be ripped off by a 900 number without having to dial ten digits? Anything's possible.
Meanwhile, in Canada, 711 is being allocated for deaf people who will be able to reach a relay services operator with a TDD text telephone.
Just when you thought you were safe from 900 numbers, AT&T is arranging to have the 900-555 exchange offer still more pay services. The reasoning is that since many major companies block 900 calls, they don't block calls to 900-555 since everybody knows 555 is information and information wants to be free, etc. So AT&T's plan would put various services in the 555 exchange that are "business related" and have nothing to do with entertainment. (This means that USA Today's 900-555-5555 number would most certainly have to vacate.) Despite this restriction, it still sounds to us like AT&T is taking advantage of a security hole to push more pay services down our throats.
The 200 area code has reportedly been allocated to AT&T for its "one number" personal communications system. Other reports indicate that the 500 area code is being allocated to multiple carriers for similar services. We don't know if this means subscribers to AT&T's EasyReach service, currently reachable on 0-700 numbers, will have to change their phone numbers. It would be pretty ironic though, since the service's initial selling point was that you would never have to change your number again.
Some new country codes for some new countries: the new Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) - 381 (formerly 38); Croatia - 385; Slovenia - 386; Macedonia (not the Greek one) - 389; and Bosnia/Herzegovina - 387. Don't expect to get through on that last one for quite some time.
Journalistic Integrity
Our local daily paper, Newsday, prides itself on being technologically savvy. All too often, though, their attempts fall flat. For instance, a story this summer screamed "Hacker Heard Plan for Baghdad Attack." In other words, somebody who can turn on a radio and listen to unencrypted phone calls is seen, in Newsday's eyes, as a hacker. Also, according to Newsday, "A pen register is a metal box roughly the size of a VCR, which is connected to telephone wires and prints out the telephone numbers of any outgoing calls. But with the flick of a switch, it can also be used to listen to phone conversations." Not any pen register we've ever seen. The RadioShack CPA-1000 came out ten years ago and could fit in the palm of your hand. We suspect the professional stuff is even smaller. And pen registers are, not used to listen in on phone calls. If they are, then they stop being pen registers. It's really quite simple.
The Joy of New Technology
Bergen and Morris County, New Jersey probation officials are experimenting with a computerized monitoring system to replace the ordeal of visiting probation officers. Once a month, probation clients call a special number to report any changes in their status and any problems they may have had with the law. It should probably go without saying that it's a 900 number. A computer speaks to them and, according to officials, it's very effective. "We have had people report violations that normally would not be reported to our probation officers," said Jude Del Preore, chief of probation in Morris County. "Clients believe there is a verification system built in. They think the great computer network in the sky will somehow catch up with them if they're lying." Law enforcement types just love to spread those misperceptions around.
Caller ID News
BC Tel of British Columbia, Canada is offering a Caller ID option we haven't seen yet here in the States. Alternate Number Display (AND) allows a number unique to the customer and different from his/her phone number to show up on the called party's Caller ID box. The number can't be called back and anyone who tries will get a message to the effect of, "The party you are trying to reach does not accept calls at this number." It costs $3 a month for this privilege.
We discovered a brand new feature on Cable & Wireless 800 numbers. It seems that Caller ID boxes are able to read data from Cable & Wireless long distance calls. In other words, if you have your own 800 number and it terminates on a phone line with Caller ID, you will be able to see phone numbers from around the country show up on your Caller ID box. It appears that ANI information from the calling party is being picked up by Cable & Wireless and translated into Caller ID data on the called end. The good part about this is that companies (or people) with 800 numbers can now see who's calling them immediately without having to wait for the itemization at the end of the month.
The current ability to do this right away through ANI is rather expensive and requires special equipment. With this new method, all that is needed is a Caller ID box. The bad part is that this technology could easily be extended over to regular long distance calls, not just 800 calls.
For now, it appears that this is some time away. The Cable & Wireless system is still rather spotty and unpredictable. We noticed certain numbers that pass Caller ID data to us would not pass the data through the 800 number, although nobody could tell us why.
Corporate Ideas
Some helpful hints on choosing a good password from the Information Security Office of Sacramento:
- Combine letters and numbers, such as the name and birthdate of a relative or friend, e.g., LISA105
- Take the first or last letters from each word of a phrase, e.g., IWADASN (it Was A Dark And Stormy Night) or EDESOEFT (wE holD thesE truthS tO bE selF evidenT).
- Remove all vowels from a common word or words, e.g., TPSCRT (ToP SeCReT).
- Make it as long as possible, with a minimum of 4 characters.
They also remind employees not to use any of these examples, as many people will be reading this.
Here's another corporate tip: Please don't feed the Dumpster divers. Posters are being designed that say "Properly Dispose of Proprietary Information. Dumpster Diving is a Real Threat." According to our corporate source "Proprietary company information can travel fast once it's in the hands of a hacker. Hackers communicate via computer networks and even have their own underground newsletter, '2600 Magazine; the Hacker Quarterly,' based in New York." Our source goes on to advise us that "A good way to thwart divers is to either shred sensitive material or seal it in cartons and arrange to have the cartons picked up by the mail center, with instructions to destroy them." Our corporate source that leaked this company document to us was, incidentally, a Dumpster.
Tidbits
Here are some fun facts: in 1992, New Jersey Bell disconnected 376,240 accounts, up from 275,855 in 1988. Supposedly, this tells us something about the economy. The number of business accounts disconnected was only 17,291, down from 19,428 in 1991. New Jersey Bell handles three million residential accounts and 524,000 business accounts.
There's an interesting service operating at 503-520-2222 which gives you a free doorway into the Internet. The only catch is that you have to call using AT&T. Other carriers will get you a busy signal. From this site (ns.speedway.net), you can hook into various systems using Telnet or rlogin or read USENET newsgroups. You can get more details by emailing support@speedway.net.
For a demonstration of AT&T's TrueVoice service, call 800-932-2000. AT&T claims that they've figured out a way to make callers sound closer and more natural than ever before. To us, it sounds like they're just turning up the volume a bit. Either way, you can expect this service to spread to your area sometime soon.
AT&T has raised the rates of information yet again. Now it costs 75 cents every time you look up a number anywhere in the country. Overseas information (which only a couple of years ago was free and which still is free in many parts of the world) now costs a whopping $3.95 per request! When getting the number costs several times as much as making the call, it's quite likely that fewer calls will be made. Does it take a genius to figure this out?
As most of us know, hacker conferences in the United States tend to cause a bit of commotion. But sometimes it surprises even us. A recent flyer for Pumpcon II (Philadelphia) promised that "any proceeds above the conference costs will be used to help the victims of last year's conference." How could anybody resist a promotion like that?
And finally, Caller ID has come to the rescue once again. An escaped prisoner was captured when he called his mother-in-law from a phone booth. The mother-in-law had Caller ID, enabling the cops to zero in on his location. Next time he probably won't call first.