2600 Flash
Times Changing for Directory Assistance
Directory Assistance promises to have a very different future, both in the U.S. and in France. Here in the States, customers are being threatened with a 75 cent charge for long-distance information requests. In a few parts of the country, Indiana (812) for instance, a request for a phone number produces startling results: a human will answer and ask for the city and name, and after finding it will hit a button, whereupon a machine takes over and spits out the number with a digitized voice. You are then given the option to hold on to be reconnected to another D.A. operator.
This kind of system makes multiple requests quite inconvenient forcing one to either wait to be reconnected to a human, or dial over and over again. This latest step towards total mechanization also strikes fear into the hearts of the D.A. operators, many of whom do not wish to lose their fun jobs.
France, meanwhile, has a nationalized phone system run by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, an agency which has been experimentally offering computerized telephone information (TELETEL) to 70,000 users. The Ministry provides, for free, a small terminal called a Minitel which has a keyboard that folds up over the screen.
To find a number, a user enters the name, address, region of France, and profession of the person they're looking for. If just the name and city are entered, all of the people with that name in that city will be displayed. The system does not yet list all of France, but should by June. The Ministry expects to have 3 million terminals in use within two years. In addition to TELETEL, 15 other services will be provided, including news, stock quotations, shopping catalogs, banking systems, as well as railroad, airline, and movie schedules.
Perhaps this will give AT&T some ideas. Imagine being able to call a distance city and get phone numbers for everybody named Smith! Electronic phone book hacking could be a considerable amount of fun.
No Hacking While Flying, Please
Eastern Air Lines now specifically prohibits the use of portable computers on all flights, because of adverse effects the airline claims may occur. The new baggage policy excludes calculators from this ban.
The feeling at Eastern is that portable computers can interfere with radar and "distort equipment," causing all kinds of strange things to happen. When a company spokesperson for the Miami based carrier was asked if any specific incident triggered the new policy, she responded that an incident "probably happened" but that nothing more could be said.
A possible boycott of the airline has been proposed by Wayne Green, publisher of the magazine Kilobaud Microcomputing.
Trick of the Month
Many supermarkets in states having passed a "bottle bill" of sorts are installing can-return machines. You put an empty aluminum soda can in the machine. UPC code up, and the machine crunches it and gives you money. Well, some hackers have discovered that these machines work for all beverage cans, deposit or not. In some states, for example, non-carbonated beverages (iced tea) don't carry a deposit even though the cans are exactly the same as t he ones containing carbonated drinks. A human will not take those cans back, but the machines will, gladly.
By the way, we haven't heard from anyone who's tried putting a full soda can in one of these machines. It would be interesting to find out if the machine tries to crush it. More interesting to see if it succeeds.
Death Star Cards Spell Woe
Many of the long-awaited AT&T credit cards are now being distributed. You will be impressed when you get yours - complete with a picture of the AT&T Death Star floating over planet Earth, while the new AT&T red, blue, and black stripe looks on.
But with these cards come a few problems. For one thing, many customers of New York Telephone received their PIN cards only days before they got their AT&T cards. What is a PIN card? Well, PIN stands for Personal Identification Number, but other than that, it's really the exact same thing as an AT&T card, except that it doesn't have a magnetic stripe. It also only has four numbers on it - the last part of your 14-digit code (your phone number comprises the first part). New York Telephone proudly claims that this secures your code, since if you lose your card, whoever finds it won't know your phone number nor be able to find out because your name isn't even on it. So along comes AT&T sending out their cards to everyone who got a PIN card. AT&T cards have your name and your 14-digit code prominently displayed (yes, the last four-digits are the same as New York Telephone's). Result: the PIN cards are completely useless, both because they're redundant and because their purpose has been defeated.
AT&T has made a serious mistake with these cards. First of all, since so many of them are in the mail at the same time, many will be stolen, perhaps within the post office itself. Second, there are no security precautions whatsoever at those new credit card phones. You simply plug in the card and dial away. No identity codes to enter, like the bank cards require. With 5,000 of these phones (which also accept American Express cards) scheduled to be installed this year, credit card fraud for AT&T will almost certainly rise, not so much due to phone phreaks, but rather, simple common thieves.
An official at AT&T said that they were not overly concerned. "We're counting on people's honesty," they said. We'll see what they say next year.
ADS Investigation Moved??
It's been rumored that the FBI investigation of IBM Audio Distribution System hackers has now been headquartered in another city (i.e. not Detroit). Last month, 2600 published a rather extensive report on the investigation, including the name of the city and the informant who started this whole mess, John Maxfield of JFM Industries in Detroit.
Several threats have allegedly been made by Maxfield to a group of hackers who helped expose him. This is reportedly being done against the wishes of the FBI. 2600 is currently investigating the authenticity of these threats and, if they check out, you can count on seeing a transcript next month.