Hackers Underworld 2: Forbidden Knowledge/Hackers Underworld 2: Forbidden Knowledge.iso/UNDERGRD/VOL_3/CUD323D.TXT

Text File | 1994-11-01 | 20KB | 361 lines

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From: Various
Subject: The CU in the News (Thackeray; Cellular Fraud; Privacy)
Date: 27 June, 1991

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***  CuD #3.23: File 4 of 4: CU in the News / Thackeray;Privacy  ***
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From: Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen (Reprinted from Newsbytes)
Subject: Gail Thackeray & Neal Norman Form Security Firm
Date: June 21, 1991

 NORMAN & THACKERAY FORM SECURITY FIRM 06/21/91

 DALLAS, TEXAS U.S.A., 1991 JUNE 21 (NB) -- Neal Norman, a veteran of
 34 years with AT&T, has announced the formation of GateKeeper
 Telecommunications Systems, Inc. The new firm will introduce a
 product which it says "provides an airtight defenses against
 unauthorized computer access."

 Norman told Newsbytes "we think we have a product that will
 revolutionize telecommunications by stopping unauthorized access to
 computer systems." Norman said that the system, which is scheduled to
 become available in the early fall, will provide protection for
 terminals, mainframes,  and PBXs.

 Norman also told Newsbytes that Gail Thackeray, ex-Arizona assistant
 attorney general known for her activities in the investigation of
 computer crime, will be a vice president of the new firm. "I am
 extremely happy to have someone of Gail's ability and presence
 involved in this endeavor right from the beginning. Additionally,"
 Norman said, "we have enlisted some of the industry's most well known
 persons to serve on a board of advisors to our new company.  These
 respected individuals will provide guidance for us as we bring our
 system to market. Among those who have agreed to serve in this group
 are Donn Parker of SRI; Bill Murray, formerly of IBM; and Bob Snyder,
 Chief Computer Crime Investigator for the Columbus, Ohio, police.

 Synder told Newsbytes "I am excited about working with such bright
 people on something of real importance and I hope to contribute to an
 improvement in computer security."

 (Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen/19910621)

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From: Anonymous
Subject: Cellular Phone Fraud
Date:  Thu, 27 Jun 91 13:35:41 CDT

From: The Wall Street Journal, June 6, 1991. Pp. A-1, A-7.
By John J. Keller

                             DIALING FOR FREE
                                   ****
        Thanks to Hackers, Cellular Phone Firms Now Face Crime Wave
                                    ***
 An Altered Computer Chip is Permitting Easy Access to Networks Nationwide
                                    ***
                        Mr. Sutton's Crucial Error
                                    ***

Robert Dewayne Sutton wants to help stop the tide of fraud sweeping the
cellular telephone industry. The 35-year old clearly knows plenty about
fraud. After all, he helped spark the crime wave in the first place.

Mr. Sutton is a computer hacker, a technical whiz who used an
acquaintance's home-grown computer chip to tap into the local cellular
phone network and dial for free. Mr. Sutton went into business selling the
chips, authorities say, and soon fraudulent cellular phone calls were
soaring nationwide.

In February, 1989, police finally nabbed Mr. Sutton in his pick-up truck at
a small Van Nuys, Calif., gas station. He was about to sell five more of
the custom chips to a middleman. But by then it was too late. The wave of
fraud Mr. Sutton helped launch was rolling on without him.

((stuff deleted explaining that industry currently loosing about $200
million a year, "more than 4% of annual U.S. revenue" to cellular phone
fraud, and could rise to %600 million annually.  Celluar system first
cracked in 1987, by Kenneth Steven Bailey an acquaintance of Sutton from
Laguna Niguel, Calif.  Bailey used his PC to rewrite the software in the
phone's memory chi to change the electronic serial number. By replacing the
company chip with his own, Bailey could gain free access to the phone
system.))

((More stuff deleted, explaining how drug dealers use the phones, and small
businesses sprung up selling free calls to anyplace in the world for a few
dollars. Sutton denied selling the chips, but apparently sold his program
for a few hundred dollars, and anybody with a copy could duplicate it. This
is, according to the story, an international problem.))

When the dust settled in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles this April, Mr.
Sutton pleaded guilty to production of counterfeit access devices and, after
agreeing to cooperate with investigators, was sentenced to three years'
probation and a $2,500 fine.

((stuff deleted))

But in adversity there is opportunity, or so believes Mr. Sutton.  He says
he's got a marketable expertise--his knowledge of weaknesses in cellular
phone security systems--and he wants to help phone companies crack down on
phone fraud. He'll do that, of course, for a fee.

** end article**

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From:     <Silicon [e-mail]>
Subject:  How Did They Get My Name?
Date:     Tue,  8 Jun 91 19:09 EDT

                       How Did They Get My Name?
                            By John Schwartz
                         Newsweek: June 3, 1991

When Pam Douglas dropped by Michelle Materres's apartment, Michelle
was on the phone--but Pam knew that already. She and her son, Brian,
had been playing with his new walkie-talkie and noticed the toy was
picking up Michelle's cordless-phone conversation next door. They had
come over to warn her that her conversation was anything but private.
Materres was stunned. It was as if her neighbors could peek through a
window into her bedroom-except that Michelle hadn't known that this
window was there. "It's like Nineteen Eighty-four ;" she says.

Well, not quite. In Orwell's oppressive world, Big Brother-the police
state-was watching. "We don't have to worry about Big Brother
anymore," says Evan Hendricks, publisher of the Washington-based
Privacy Times.  "We have to worry about little brother." Until
recently, most privacy fears focused on the direct mail industry; now
people are finding plenty of other snoops.  Today's little brothers
are our neighbors, bosses and merchants, and technology and modern
marketing techniques have given each a window into our lives.

Suddenly privacy is a very public issue. A 1990 Harris poll, conducted
for consumer-data giant Equifax, showed that 79 percent of respondents
were concerned with threats to their personal privacy-up from 47
percent in 1977. Privacy scare stories are becoming a staple of local
TV news; New York City's ABC affiliate showed journalist Jeffrey
Rothfeder poking into Vice President Dan Quayle's on-line credit
records-a trick he had performed a year before for a story he wrote
for Business Week. Now Congress is scrambling to bring some order to
the hodgepodge of privacy and technology laws, and the U.S. Office of
Consumer Affairs has targeted privacy as one of its prime concerns.
Advocacy groups like the Consumer Federation of America and the
American Civil Liberties Union are turning to privacy as one of the
hot-button issues for the '90s . "There's a tremendous groundswell of
support out there," says Janlori Goldman, who heads the ACLU Privacy
Project.

Snooping boss: Concern is on the rise because, like Materres,
consumers are finding that their lives are an open book. Workers who
use networked computers can be monitored by their bosses, who in some
cases can read electronic mail and could conceivably keep track of
every keystroke to check productivity. Alana Shoars, a former e-mail
administrator at Epson America, says she was fired after trying to
make her boss stop reading co-workers' e-mail.  The company says
Shoars got the ax for in subordination; Shoars counters that the
evidence used against her was in her own e-mail--and was
misinterpreted. Other new technologies also pose threats: cordless and
cellular phones are fair ga