                               ==Phrack Inc.==

                     Volume Two, Issue Ten, Phile #8 of 9

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PWN                                                                         PWN
PWN                      <-=*} Phrack World News {*=->                      PWN
PWN                                                                         PWN
PWN                            Issue IX/Part One                            PWN
PWN                                                                         PWN
PWN                    Compiled, Written, and Edited by                     PWN
PWN                                                                         PWN
PWN                            Knight Lightning                             PWN
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In PWN Issue Seven/Part One, we had an article entitled "Maxfield Strikes
Again."  It was about a system known as "THE BOARD" in the Detroit 313 NPA.
The number was 313-592-4143 and the newuser password was "HEL-N555,ELITE,3"
(then return).  It was kind of unique because it was run off of an HP2000
computer.  On August 20, 1986 the following message was seen on "THE BOARD."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
                Welcome to MIKE WENDLAND'S I-TEAM sting board!
                   (Computer Services Provided By BOARDSCAN)
                             66 Megabytes Strong

                           300/1200 baud - 24 hours.

                      Three (3) lines = no busy signals!
                        Rotary hunting on 313-534-0400.


Board:   General Information & BBS's
Message: 41
Title:   YOU'VE BEEN HAD!!!
To:      ALL
From:    HIGH TECH
Posted:   8/20/86 @ 12.08 hours

Greetings:

You are now on THE BOARD, a "sting" BBS operated by MIKE WENDLAND of the
WDIV-TV I-Team.  The purpose?  To demonstrate and document the extent of
criminal and potentially illegal hacking and telephone fraud activity by the
so-called "hacking community."

Thanks for your cooperation.  In the past month and a half, we've received all
sorts of information from you implicating many of you to credit card fraud,
telephone billing fraud, vandalism, and possible break-ins to government or
public safety computers.  And the beauty of this is we have your posts, your
E-Mail and--- most importantly ---your REAL names and addresses.

What are we going to do with it?  Stay tuned to News 4.  I plan a special
series of reports about our experiences with THE BOARD, which saw users check
in from coast-to-coast and Canada, users ranging in age from 12 to 48.  For our
regular users, I have been known as High Tech, among other ID's.  John Maxfield
of Boardscan served as our consultant and provided the HP2000 that this "sting"
ran on.  Through call forwarding and other conveniences made possible by
telephone technology, the BBS operated remotely here in the Detroit area.

When will our reports be ready?  In a few weeks.  We now will be contacting
many of you directly, talking with law enforcement and security agents from
credit card companies and the telephone services.

It should be a hell of a series.  Thanks for your help.  And don't bother
trying any harassment.  Remember, we've got YOUR real names.

Mike Wendland
The I-team
WDIV, Detroit, MI.
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This then is the result:

Phrack World News proudly presents...

                    Mike Wendland & the I-Team Investigate
                            "Electronic Gangsters"
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Carman Harlan:  Well we've all heard of computer hackers, those electronic
                gangsters who try to break into other people's computer
                systems.  Tonight on the first of a three part news 4 [WDIV-TV,
                Channel 4 in Detroit] extra, Mike Wendland and the I-Team will
                investigate how such computer antics jeopardize our privacy.
                Mike joins us now to tell us what at first may have been
                innocent fun may now be affecting our pocket books.

Mike Wendland:  Well Carman and Mort, thanks to the media and movies just about
                everyone knows about hackers and phone phreaks.  By hooking
                their Apples, their Ataris, and their Commodores into telephone
                lines these electronic enthusiasts have developed a new form of
                communication, the computer bulletin board.  There are probably
                10,000 of these message swapping boards around the country
                today, most are innocent and worthwhile.  There are an
                estimated 1,000 pirate or hacker boards where the main
                activities are electronic trespassing, and crime [Estimates
                provided by John Maxfield].

[Clipping From Wargames comes on]

                In movies like Wargames computer hackers are portrayed as
                innocent hobbyist explorers acting more out of mischief than
                malice.  But today a new generation of hackers have emerged.  A
                hacker that uses his knowledge of computers to commit crimes.
                Hackers have electronically broken into banks, ripped off
                telephone companies for millions of dollars, trafficked in
                stolen credit card numbers, and through there network of
                computer bulletin boards traded information on everything from
                making bombs to causing terrorism.

[Picture of John Maxfield comes on]

John Maxfield:  Well, now there are electronic gangsters, not just electronic
                explorers they are actually gangsters.  These hackers meet
                electronically through the phone lines or computer bulletin
                boards.  They don't meet face to face usually, but it is a
                semi-organized gang stile activity, much like a street gang, or
                motorcycle gang.

Mike Wendland:  John Maxfield of Detroit is America's foremost "Hacker
                Tracker".  He has worked for the F.B.I. and various other law
                enforcement and security organizations.  Helping catch dozens
                of hackers around the country, who have used their computers
                for illegal purposes.  To find out how widespread these
                electronic gangsters have become, we used John Maxfield as a
                consultant to setup a so-called "sting" bulletin board [THE
                BOARD].

                We wrote and designed a special program that would allow us to
                monitor the calls we received and to carefully monitor the
                information that was being posted.  We called our undercover
                operation "The Board", and put the word out on the underground
                hacker network that a new bulletin board was in operation for
                the "Elite Hacker".  Then we sat back and watched the computer
                calls roll in.

                In all we ran our so called "Sting" board for about a month and
                a half, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  We received literally
                hundreds of phone calls from hackers coast to coast, ranging in
                age from 17 to 43.  All of them though had one thing in common,
                they were looking for ways to cheat the system.

                The hackers identified themselves by nicknames or handles like
                CB radio operators use, calling themselves things like Ax
                Murderer, Big Foot, and Captain Magic.  They left messages on a
                variety of questionable subjects, this hacker for instance told
                how to confidentially eavesdrop on drug enforcement radio
                conversations.  A New York hacker called The Jolter swapped
                information on making free long-distance calls through stolen
                access codes, and plenty of others offered credit card numbers
                to make illegal purchases on someone else's account.

John Maxfield:  Well these kids trade these credit card numbers through the
                computer bulletin boards much like they'd trade baseball cards
                at school.  What we've seen in the last few years is a series
                of hacker gangs that are run by an adult, sort of the
                mastermind who stays in the background and is the one who
                fences the merchandise that the kids order with the stolen
                credit cards.

Mike Wendland:  Then there were the malicious messages that had the potential
                to do great harm.  The Repo Man from West Virginia left this
                message telling hackers precisely how to break into a hospital
                computer in the Charleston, WV area.

[Picture of Hospital]

                This is where that number rings, the Charleston Area Medical
                Center.  We immediately notified the hospital that there
                computer security had been breached.  Through a spokesperson,
                the hospital said that a hacker had indeed broken into the
                hospital's computer and had altered billing records.  They
                immediately tightened security and began an investigation.
                They caught the hacker who has agreed to make restitution for
                the damages.  Maxfield says though, "Most such break-ins are
                never solved".

John Maxfield:  When you are talking about electronic computer intrusion, it's
                the perfect crime.  It's all done anonymously, it's all done by
                wires, there's no foot prints, no finger prints, no blood
                stains, no smoking guns, nothing.  You may not even know the
                system has been penetrated.

Mike Wendland:  Our experience with the "Sting" bulletin board came to a sudden
                and unexpected end.  Our cover was blown when the hackers
                somehow obtained confidential telephone company records.  The
                result a campaign of harassment and threats that raised serious
                questions about just how private our supposedly personal
                records really are.  That part of the story tomorrow.  [For a
                little more detail about how their cover was "blown" see PWN
                Issue 7/Part One, "Maxfield Strikes Again."  Heh heh heh heh.]

Mort Crim:  So these aren't just kids on a lark anymore, but who are the
            hackers?

Mike Wendland:  I'd say most of them are teenagers, our investigation has
                linked about 50 of them hardcore around this area, but most
                very young.

Mort Crim:  Far beyond just vandalism!

Mike Wendland:  Yep.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A few quicknotes in between shows, Mike Wendland and John Maxfield set up THE
BOARD.  Carman Harlan and Mort Crim are newscasters.

Also if anyone is interested in the stupidity of Mike Wendland, he flashed the
post that contained the phone number to the hospital across the screen, Bad
Subscript put the VCR on pause and got the number.  If interested please
contact Bad Subscript, Ctrl C, or myself.
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Carman Harlan:  Tonight on the second part of a news 4 [WDIV-TV, Channel 4 in
                Detroit] extra Mike Wendland and the I-Team report on how they
                setup a sting bulletin board to see how much they could get on
                these criminal hackers.  Mike joins us now to explain that
                information, that was not the only thing they got.

Mike Wendland:  That's right, Carman & Mort.  Our so called sting bulletin
                board received hundreds of calls from hackers all over America,
                and even Canada.  They offered to trade stolen credit cards,
                and they told how to electronically break into sensitive
                government computers.  But our investigation came to a sudden
                end when our sting board was stung.  Our cover was blown when
                a hacker discovered that this man, computer security expert
                John Maxfield was serving as the I-Team consultant on the
                investigation.  Maxfield specializes as a hacker tracker and
                has worked for the F.B.I. and various other police and security
                agencies.  The hacker discovered our sting board by getting a
                hold of Maxfield's supposedly confidential telephone records.

John Maxfield:  And in the process of doing that he discovered the real number
                to the computer.  We were using a different phone number that
                was call forwarded to the true phone number, he found that
                number out and called it to discover he was on the sting board.

Mike Wendland:  But the hacker didn't stop at exposing the sting, instead he
                posted copies of Maxfield's private telephone bill on other
                hacker bulletin boards across the country.

John Maxfield:  The harassment started, all of the people on my phone bill got
                calls from hackers.  In some cases their phone records were
                also stolen, friends and relatives of theirs got calls from
                hackers.  There was all sorts of other harassment, I got a call
                from a food service in Los Angeles asking where I wanted the
                500 pounds of pumpkins delivered.  Some of these kids are
                running around with guns, several of them made threats that
                they were going to come to Detroit, shoot me and shoot Mike
                Wendland.

Mike Wendland:  A spokesperson from Michigan Bell said that the breakdown in
                security that led to the release of Maxfield's confidential
                records was unprecedented.

Phil Jones (MI Bell):  I think as a company were very concerned because we work
                       very hard to protect the confidentially of customer's
                       records.  [Yeah, right].

Mike Wendland:  The hacker who got a hold of Maxfield's confidential phone
                records is far removed from Michigan, he lives in Brooklyn, NY
                and goes by the name Little David [Bill From RNOC].  He says
                that getting confidential records from Michigan Bell or any
                other phone company is child's play. Little David is 17 years
                old.  He refused to appear on camera, but did admit that he
                conned the phone company out of releasing the records by simply
                posing as Maxfield.  He said that he has also sold pirated
                long-distance access codes, and confidential information
                obtained by hacking into the consumer credit files of T.R.W.
                Little David says that one of his customers is a skip-tracer, a
                private investigator from California who specializes in finding
                missing people.  Maxfield, meanwhile, says that his own
                information verified Little David's claim.

John Maxfield:  The nearest I can determine the skip-tracer was using the
                hacker, the 17 year old boy to find out the whereabouts of
                people he was paid to find.  He did this by getting into the
                credit bureau records for the private eye.  This is an invasion
                of privacy, but it's my understanding that this boy was getting
                paid for his services.

Mike Wendland:  In Long Island in New York, Maxfield's telephone records were
                also posted on a bulletin board sponsored by Eric Corley,
                publisher of a hacker newsletter [2600 Magazine].  Corley
                doesn't dispute the harassment that Maxfield received.

Eric Corley:  Any group can harass any other group, the difference with hackers
              is that they know how to use particular technology to do it.  If
              you get a malevolent hacker mad at you there's no telling all the
              different things that can happen.

Mike Wendland:  What can happen?  Well besides getting your credit card number
                or charging things to your account, hackers have been known to
                change people's credit ratings. It is really serious business!
                And tomorrow night we'll hear about the hacker philosophy which
                holds that if there is information out there about you it is
                fair game.

Mort Crim:  "1984" in 1986.

Mike Wendland:  It is!
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Carman Harlan:  News four [WDIV-TV, Channel 4 in Detroit] extra, Mike Wendland
                and the I-Team look at how these hackers are getting out of
                hand.

Mike Wendland:  The problem with hackers is not just with mischief anymore,
                unscrupulous hackers are not only invading your privacy, they
                are costing you money.  Case and point, your telephone bills,
                because American telephone companies have long been targets of
                computer hackers and thieves we are paying more than we should.
                Experts say the long distance companies lose tens of millions
                of dollars a year to, these self described "Phone Phreaks."

                For example in Lansing, the Michigan Association of
                Governmental Employees received a phone bill totalling nearly
                three hundred and twenty one thousand dollars.  For calls
                illegally racked up on there credit card by hackers.  Such
                victims seldom get stuck paying the charges, so hackers claim
                there piracy is innocent fun.

Phil Jones (MI Bell):  Nothing could be further from the truth, it becomes a
                       very costly kind of fun.  What happens is that the
                       majority of the customers who do pay there bills on
                       time, and do use our service lawfully end up quitting
                       after that bill.

Mike Wendland:  That's not all, hackers regularly invade our privacy, they
                leave pirated credit card numbers and information how to break
                into electronic computer banks on bulletin boards.  Thousands
                of such electronic message centers exist across the country,
                most operated by teenagers.

John Maxfield:  There is no law enforcement, no parental guidance, they're just
                on their own so they can do anything they want.  So the few bad
                ones that know how to steal and commit computer crimes teach
                the other ones.

Mike Wendland:  There is very little that is safe from hackers, from automatic
                teller machines and banks to the internal telephone systems at
                the White House.  Hackers have found ways around them all
                hackers even have their own underground publication of sorts
                that tells them how to do it.

[Close up of publication]

                Its called 2600 [2600 Magazine], after the 2600 hertz that
                phone phreaks use to bypass telephone companies billing
                equipment.  It tells you how to find credit card numbers and
                confidential records in trash bins, break into private
                mainframe computers, access airline's computers, and find
                financial information on other people through the nations
                largest credit bureau, TRW.  2600 is published in a
                ram-shackled old house at the far end of Long Island, New York
                by this man, Eric Corley.  He argues that hackers aren't
                electronic gangsters.

Eric Corley:   We like to call them freedom fighters.  Hackers are the true
               individuals of the computer revolution, they go were people tell
               them not to go, they find out things they weren't supposed to
               find out.

Mike Wendland:  Corley's newsletter supports a hacker bulletin board called the
                Private Sector.  Last year the F.B.I. raided it.

Eric Corley:  They managed to charge the system operator with illegal
              possession of a burglary tool in the form of a computer program.

Mike Wendland:  But the bulletin board is still in operation.  Corley resents
                the suspicion that hackers are involved in criminal activities.

Eric Corley:  Hackers are not the people who go around looking for credit cards
              and stealing merchandise.  That's common thievery. Hackers are
              the people who explore.  So basically what we are saying is more
              knowledge for more people.  That will make it better for
              everybody.

Mike Wendland:  He claims that hackers, in their own ways, really protect our
                rights by exposing our vulnerabilities.  Well hackers may
                expose our vulnerabilities, but they also invade our privacy.
                There activities have really spotlighted the whole question of
                privacy raised by the massive files that are now out there in
                electronic data banks.  Much of that information that we think
                is personal and confidential is often available to the whole
                world.



                   Original transcript gathered and typed by

                            Ctrl C & Bad Subscript

                       Major editing by Knight Lightning
_______________________________________________________________________________
