Terminal Compromise, Winn Schwartau [sight word books txt] 📗

OR HOW ABOUT THE

GUY WITH AIDS, WHO KNOWS HE’S GOT IT AND SCREWS AS MANY PEOPLE

AS HE CAN TO SPREAD IT AROUND. VIRUSES ARE DANGEROUS AND DEMENT-

ED. NO HACKER OF THE CODE WOULD DO THAT.

You keep mentioning this code. What is the code?

IT’S A CODE OF ETHICS THAT MOST OF US LIVE BY. AND IT’S CRUCIAL

TO A STABLE UNDERGROUND CULTURE THAT SURVIVES BY ITS WITS. IT

GOES LIKE THIS: NEVER INTENTIONALLY DAMAGE ANOTHER COMPUTER.

That’s it?

PRETTY SIMPLE HUH?

So, you said earlier that you poke around NASA computers. And

NASA just had a pretty good glitch that rings of hackers. Some-

one broke the code.

EXACTLY. BUT NO ONE’S TAKING CREDIT.

Why would they? Isn’t that a sure giveaway and a trip up the

river?

YES AND NO. MORRIS FOR EXAMPLE ADMITTED HIS MISTAKE. HE SAID HE

WAS WRITING A VIRUS FOR THE EXERCISE AND IT GOT OUT OF CONTROL.

OOPS, HE SAID, AND I’M INCLINED TO BELIEVE HIM BECAUSE HE DIDN’T

COVER HIS TRACKS. IF HE WAS SERIOUS ABOUT SHUTTING DOWN INTERNET

HE WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN FOUND AND HE WOULDN’T HAVE ADMITTED IT IF

THEY EVER CAUGHT HIM. PROVING HE DID IT IS NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE.

So?

SO, HACKERS HAVE STRONG EGOS. THEY LIKE TO GET CREDIT FOR FIND-

ING THE KEYS TO COMPUTERS. IT BUILDS THEM A REPUTATION THAT THEY

FEED ON. VIRUS BUILDERS ARE THE SAME. IF SOMEONE BUILDS A VIRUS

AND THEN FEEDS IT INTO THE SYSTEM, HE WANTS TO GET CREDIT FOR IT.

SO HE TAKES CREDIT.

And then gets caught, right?

WRONGO AGAIN, LET’S SAY I TOLD YOU THAT IT WAS ME THAT DID THAT

STUFF AT NASA.

So it was you?

NO NO. I SAID, IF IT WAS ME, WHAT WOULD YOU DO ABOUT IT?

Uh . . .

WHAT?

I’m thinking.

WHO WOULD YOU TELL?

The police, NASA,

WHAT WOULD YOU TELL THEM?

That you did it.

WHO AM I?

Good point. Who are you?

I DIDN’T DO IT AND I’M NOT GOING TO TELL YOU WHO I AM. YOU SEE,

MOST OF US DON’T KNOW EACH OTHER THAN OVER THE COMPUTER. IT JUST

DON’T MATTER WHO I AM.

I don’t know if I buy everything you say, but it is something to

think about. So what about the NASA thing.

I DON’T KNOW. NOBODY DOES.

You mean, I gather, nobody has owned up to it.

EXACTLY

How can I describe you? If I wanted to use you in an article.

STUDENT AT A MAJOR UNIVERSITY.

Sounds like a Letter to Penthouse Forum.

TRY THE SEX BBS.

If you’ve done nothing wrong, why not come forward?

NOT EVERYONE BELIEVES WHAT WE DO IS HARMLESS. NEITHER DO YOU.

YET. MIGHT BE BAD FOR MY HEALTH.

What time is it?

WON’T WORK GUY. TIME ZONES I UNDERSTAND. ONE THING. IF YOU’RE

INTERESTED, I CAN ARRANGE A TRIP THOUGH THE FIRST TRUST BANK

COMPUTERS,

Arrange a trip? Travel agent on the side.

IN A WAY WE ARE ALL TRAVEL AGENTS. JUST THOUGHT YOU MIGHT BE

INTERESTED.

Let’s say I am.

JUST CALL 212-555-9796. USE THE PASSWORD MONEYMAN AND THE ID IS

9796. LOOK AROUND ALL YOU WANT. USE F1 FOR HELP. I’LL CALL YOU

IN A COUPLE OF DAYS. LEAVE YOUR COMPUTER ON.

<<<<<>>>>> Chapter 13 Wednesday, November 25 HACKERS HAMPER HOLIDAY HELLO’S By Scott Mason

As most of my readers know by now, I have an inherent suspicion

of lame excuses for bureaucratic bungling. If any of you were

unable to make a long distance phone call yesterday, you weren’t

alone.

AT&T, the long distance carrier that provides the best telephone

service in the world, handles in excess of 100,000,000 calls

daily. Yesterday, less than 25% got through. Why? There are

two possible answers: AT&T’s official response and another,

equally plausible and certainly more sinister reason that many

experts claim to be the real culprit.

According to an AT&T spokesperson from its Basking Ridge, New

Jersey office, “In my 20 years with AT&T, I have not seen a

crisis so dramatic that it nearly shut down operations nation-

wide.” According to insiders, AT&T came close to declaring a

national emergency and asking for Federal assistance.

Airlines and hotel reservation services reported that phone

traffic was down between 65-90%! Telemarketing organizations said

that sales were off by over 80%.

Perhaps an understanding of what goes on behind the scenes of a

phone call is in order.

When you pick up your phone, you hear a dial tone that is provid-

ed by the Local Exchange Company, or as more commonly called, a

Baby Bell. The LEC handles all local calls within certain dial-

ing ranges. A long distance call is switched by the LEC to the

4ESS, a miracle of modern communications. There are 114 Number 4

and 5 Electronic Switching Systems used in all major AT&T switch-

ing offices across the country. (A few rural areas still use

relays and mechanical switches over 40 years old. When it rains,

the relays get sticky and so does the call.)

Now here’s the invisible beauty. There are 14 direct connects

between each of the 114 4ESS’s and every other 4ESS, each capable

of handling thousands of call at once. So, rarely do we ever get

a long distance busy signal. The systems automatically reroute

themselves.

The 4ESS then calls its own STP, Signal Transfer Point within an

SS7 network. The SS7 network determines from which phone number

the call originated and its destination. (More about that later!)

It sends out an IAM, Initial Address Message, to the destination

4ESS switch and determines if a line is available to complete the

call. The SS7 is so powerful it can actually create up to 7

additional virtual paths for the heaviest traffic. 800 numbers,

Dial a Porn 900 numbers and other specially coded phone numbers

are translated through the NCP and routed

separately. Whew! Had enough? So have I.

The point is, massive computer switches all across our nations

automatically select the routing for each call. A call from

Miami to New York could be sent through 4ESS’s in Dallas, Los

Angeles and Chicago before reaching its ultimate destination.

But what happened yesterday?

It seems that the switches got real stupid and slowed down. For

those readers who recall the Internet Worm in November of 1988

and the phone system slowdown in early 1990 and then again in

1991, computers can be infected with errors, either accidentally

or otherwise, and forced to misbehave.

AT&T’s explanation is not satisfying for those who remember that

AT&T had said, “it can never happen again.”

Today’s official explanation is; “A minor hardware problem in one

of our New York City 4ESS switches caused a cascading of similar

hardware failures throughout the network. From all appearances,

a faulty piece of software in the SS7 networks was the culprit.

Our engineers are studying the problem and expect a solution

shortly. We are sorry for any inconvenience to our valued cus-

tomers.”

I agree with AT&T on one aspect: it was a software problem.

According to well placed sources who asked to remain anonymous,

the software problems were intentionally introduced into AT&T’s

long distance computers, by person or persons yet to be identi-

fied. They went on to say that internal investigation teams have

been assigned to find out who and how the “bug” was introduced.

Regardless of the outcome of the investigation, AT&T is expected,

they say, to maintain the cover of a hardware failure at the

request of the public relations Vice President.

AT&T did, to their credit, get long distance services up and

running at 11:30 P.M. last night, only 9 hours after the problem

first showed up. They re-installed an older SS7 software ver-

sion that is widely known to contain some “operational anomalies”

according to the company; but they still feel that it is more

reliable than what is currently in use.

If, in fact the biggest busy signal in history was caused by

intruders into the world’s largest communications systems, then

we need to ask ourselves a few questions. Was yesterday a sym-

bolic choice of dates for disaster or mere coincidence? Would

the damage have been greater on a busier business day? Could it

affect our defense systems and the government’s ability to commu-

nicate in case of emergency? How did someone, or some group,

get into AT&T’s computers and effect an entire nation’s ability

to do business? And then, was there a political motivation

sufficient to justify am attack om AT&T and not on Sprint or MCI?

Perhaps the most salient question we all are asking ourselves,

is, When will it happen again?

This is Scott Mason, busy, busy, busy. Tomorrow; is Big Brother

listening?

* Friday, November 27 Times Square, New York

The pre-winter overnight snow-storm in New York City turned to

sleet and ice as the temperature dropped. That didn’t stop the

traffic though. Hundreds of thousands of cars still crawled into

Manhattan to insure downtown gridlock. If the streets were

drivable, the city wouldn’t stop. Not for a mere ice storm.

Steam poured from subway grates and manhole covers as rush