Letters: Letters From All Over
Dear 2600:
I've been a subscriber to 2600 for some time now, and I enjoy the publication. You're doing a nice public service by illuminating the often neglected area of telephone technology and operations.
One way in which 2600 could do an even more interesting job is by printing a bibliography or list of references from time to time. What books, articles, and journals provide additional information about the telephone system? For example, one article covered ESS #5; there must be some articles, advertisements in trade publications, etc., that provide additional information.
I can give you a start which hopefully you and other readers can add to. Here are two books:
Notes on Long Distance Dialing, published by AT&T around 1971.
Telephone Accessories You Can Build by Jules H. Gilder, around 1975.
Many thanks. Keep up the fascinating work!!
Sincerely,
Howard A, Karten
Randolph, MAYou'll be happy to know that we've broken ground on a database for phreaker/hacker required reading. Your two suggestions are the first entries. A couple of others that we were able to come up with off the tops of our heads:
The Phone Book by J. Edgar Hyde.
Notes on the Network by AT&T themselves. This one is reportedly out of print altogether! (PDF)
Add to that The Rise or Computer State by David Burnham, which we reviewed here a few months back and The Puzzle Palace, a fascinating work on the NSA.
Well do our best to expand on this list, but we really need the help of our subscribers on this one. If you know of a good book or publication, send the name of it to us, or call us and tell us about it. An easy way to find material is to go to your local library and look in the card catalog under the subject: Telephone or Computer. There's bound to be something interesting nearly everywhere and if a lot of people do this, we'll have quite a list before we know it! (By the way, if you hit a card catalog, be sure to drop in your own card with our address on it so that our fame can continue to spread cheaply.)
Dear 2600:
I have been Silver Boxing on various directory assistances and have found that pressing a one starts a ringing. Is this just a test function or is it going somewhere"
Thanks,
Fire Monger
Arlington, VAFor the benefit of others, we'll briefly explain a Silver Box. Every Touch-Tone phone actually has the capacity for sixteen tones, not just twelve. A simple modification inside the phone accomplishes this. The extra tones (a vertical row to the right of the 3-6-9-# row) are labeled A-B-C-D. These tones are used primarily on AUTOVON, or Pa-Bell, the military phone network which can knock out civilian phone service at any time for its own purposes. (Look at the phones on the walls in WarGames.) Such a modified phone is labeled a "Silver Box." But the tones don't really do all that much good to people outside the military, unless they've somehow tapped into a military phone system. This, however, is impossible. Isn't it?
What most phreaks use Silver Boxes for are lapping long-distance info. You would call XXX-555-1212 and then hold down the D key. The moment the information operator picks up, the D tone cuts her off and gives the caller a pulsing dial tone. Each number you hit at this point has a different effect. In some areas, hitting a 6 connects you to one end of a loop. (7 is the other end.) Another number gives you a carrier! We haven't heard of anybody who could do anything with it, though. And hitting a 1 usually gets a ringing somewhere. It almost always sounds exactly like the directory assistance ring for that area. We have never heard of anyone picking up on such a ring, so logic tells us that it's simply a test. If anyone knows otherwise, please let us know.
Incidentally, since it now costs 50-cents to call long-distance information, Silver Boxing has experienced a slight lull.
Dear 2600:
In reply to October's issue "Getting Caught: Hacker's View" - I was in the reverse situation. I had turned in a close friend last spring. I was faced with a situation of turning him in or being an accomplice to fraud. Being in a spot like that, no one can make a decision to do that without always doubting yourself, choosing between being an accomplice or keeping a friendship is a place I wouldn't wish for my worst enemy. In dealing with the feds, one can't take everything as truth - they tell the guy who's busted one story (in hopes of making him crack) and tell the "informer" another story (in hopes of scaring them into saying things they wouldn't normally say). The people who read that in the October issue probably thought the person who turned this guy in was a rat, a fink, or a fed. What they may not realize is the other side of the story, the part where the "informer" gets cornered into telling what he knows, or sacrifice his freedom (end up in jail) if he doesn't tell. In my case, that's what happened. was cornered and had to tell and provide evidence in order to keep my ass clean. The guy I turned in had fouled up the job and would've been caught without my telling, though him and his friends still think I'm a rat. What they may not realize is what they would've done if they were me. Would they have gone to jail to protect a friendship? Or would the friend you're protecting do the same for you if he were faced with turning you in or going to jail? The other point being that since he would've been caught anyway, I would've been subpoenaed to testify against him because he had involved me by using my property for the fraud. To tell a friend you're going to commit some fraud (or whatever) is not a crime, but using that person's property and by that, making them an accomplice, is.
Signed,
The Trojan HorseThanks for writing and giving us an even more ignored side of the story. You may have opened up some eyes. Try letting your "friend" see this letter and he might realize that he wasn't the only one going through hell on a rubber raft.
Last month, we told you about the COMSEC Letter. It is no longer free. It now costs $25. It is free, though, to members of the Communications Security Association (CSA). This is a new group for people interested in communications security. They will soon have a BBS, in addition to publications, seminars, and workshops. The dues are $50 per year. For more info, write to:
or call 202-639-4620.
We also found about another magazine - Boot-Legger. It costs $25 a year and their address is: