The Night of the Hackers ________________________ . As you are surveying the dark and misty swamp you come across what appears to be a small cave. You light a torch and enter. You have walked several hundred feet when you stumble into a bright blue portal. . . With a sudden burst of light and a loud explosion you are swept into . . . DRAGONFIRE . . . Press Any Key if You Dare." . You have programmed your personal computer to dial into Dragonfire, a computer bulletin board in Gainesville, Texas. But before you get any information, Dragonfire demands your name, home city and phone number. So, for tonight's tour of the electronic wilderness you become Montana Wildhack of San Francisco. . Dragonfire, Sherwood Forest (sic), Forbidden Zone, oland, Plovernet, The Vault, Shadowland, PHBI and scores other computer bulletin boards are hangouts of a new generation of vandals. These precocious teenagers use their electronis to play hide-and-seek with computer and telephone securiorces. Many computer bulletin boards are perfectly legiti they resemble electronic versions of the familiar cork ds in supermarkets and school corridors, listing services anviding information someone out there is bound to find useful. this is a walk on the wild side, a trip into the world of round bulletin boards dedicated to encouraging -- and ng -- mischief. . The phone number for these boards s closely guarded as psychiatrist's home telephone number. Some numbers are posted on undrground boards; others are exchanged over the telne. A friendly hacker provided Dragonfire's number. Hook up ou see a broad choice of topics offered. For Phone Phreaks -- light in stealing service from AT&T and other phone nks . Phreakenstein's Lair is a potpourri of phone numbers, a codes and technical information. For computer hackers -- whl into other people's computers -- Ranger's Lodge is chock-fulphone numbers and passwords for government, university anporate computers. Moving through Dragonfire's offerings, you only marvel at how conversant these teen-agers are with thhnical esoterica oy appear on your screen. You enter the password. A menu appears. You hang up in a sweat. You are now a hacker. . Punch in another number and your modem zips off the touch tones. Here comes the tedious side of all of this. Bulletin boards are popular. No vacancy in Bates Motel (named for Anthony Perkin's creepy motel in the movie "Psycho"); the line is busy. So are 221 B. Baker Street, PHBI, Shadowland and The Vault, Caesar's Palace rings and connects. This is different breed of board. Caesar's Palace is a combination Phreak board and computer store in Miami. This is the place to learn ways to mess up a departmt store's anti-shoplifting system, or make free calls on telep with locks on the dial. Pure capitalism accompanies suarchy, Caesar's Palace is offering good deals on disc drives,tware, computers and all sorts of hardware. Orders are plahrough electronic mail messages. . 'Tele-Trial': Boreaesar's Palace, you enter the number r Blottoland, the board operated by one of the nation's most notorious computer phreaks -- King Blotto. This for its great hacker/phreak files. There amid a string of valid VISA and MasterCard numbers are dozens of computer phone numbers and passwords. Here you also learn what Blotto means by tele-trial. "As some of you may or may not know, a session of the conference court was held and the Wizard was found guilty of some miscellaneous charges, and sentenced to four months without bulletin boards." If Wizard calls, system operators like King Blotto disconnect him. Paging through bulletin boards itest of your patience. Each board has different commands. Few asy to follow, leaving you to hunt and peck your way around. ar you haven't had the nerve to type "C," which summons ystem operator for a live, computer-to-computer conversation. time, however, however has come for you to ask a few questof the "sysop." You dial a computer in Boston. It answers and begin working your way throughout the menus. You scan a handfdial- up numbers, including one for Arpanet, the Defense Dment's research computer. Bravely tap C and in seconds the scblanks and your cursor dances across the screen. The next time a computer fouls up your billing on some matter, and COSTS YOU, think about it! _______________________________ . This the follow-up to the previous article concerning the Newsweek reporter. It spells out SOME of the REAL dangers to ALL of us, due to this type of activity! _______________________________ The REVENGE of the Hackers _______________________________ . he mischievous fraternity of computer hackers, few thin are prized more than the veil of secrecy. As NEWSWEEK San Francisco correspondent Richard Sandza found out after ing a story on the electronic underground's (DISPATCHES, Nov, 198\ ability to exact revenge can be unnerving. Also e.... Sandza's report: . "Conference!" someone yelled put the phone to my ear. n came a mind-piercing "beep," and suddenly my kitchen seeme full of hyperactive 15-year-olds. "You the guy who wrote the article in NEWSWEEK?" someone shouted from the depths tatic, and giggles. "We're going disconnect your eone has broken into TRW and obtained a list of all your credit-card numbers, your home address, social-security number and wife's name and is posting it on bulletin boards around the country." He named the charge cards in my wallet. . Credit-card numbers are a very hot commodity among some hackers. To get one from a computer system and post it is the hacker equivalent of making the team. After hearing from Joe I visited the local office of the TRW credit bureau and got a copy of my credit record. Sure enough, it showed a Nov. 13inquiry by the Lenox (Mass.) Savings Bank, an institution with reason whatever to ask about me. Clearly some hacker had unox's password to the TRW computers to get to my files (thenk has since changed the password). . It wasn't lonre I found out what was being done with credit-card numbers, thanks to another friendly hacker who tipped me to Pirate 80, a bulletin board in Charleston, W.Vawhere I found this: "I'm sure you guys have heard about Richtza or Montana Wildhack. He's the guy who wrote the obscene sabout phr her her part, Fernandez insists that TRW "does everythin to keep the system secure . In my case, however, that was not enough. My credit limits would hardly support big-time fraud, but victimization takes many forms. Another hacker said it was likely that merchandise would be ordered in my name and shipped to me -- just to harass me. I used to use credit-card numbers against someone I didn't like," the hacker said. "I'd call Sears and have a dozen toilets shipped to his house." . Meanwhile, back on Dragonfire, my teletrial was going strong. The charges, as pressed my Unknown Warrior, include "dangering all phreaks and hacks." The judge in this case is a h with the apt name of Ax Murderer. Possible sentences range exile from the entire planet" to "kill the dude." King Blotto taken up my defense, using hacker power to make his first plg: he dialed up Dragonfire, broke into its operating and "crashed" the bulletin board, destroying all of issages naming me. The board is back up now, with a retrial in swing. But then, exile from the electronic underground looks r all the time. +-----------------------------------------+ | END of COLOSSUSR Issue 3, Volume 1 | | Please upload to MANrds! | +----------------------------------------------+ (Chuck: Whew!) (Ed: My fingers cramped again!) ial, a video-lynching in which a computer user with grievance dials the board and presses charges against the offending party. Other hackers -- including the defendant --post concurrences or rebuttals. Despite the mealtime interruptions, all this was at most a minor nuisance; some was amusing, even fun. . FRAUD: The fun stopped with a call from a man who identified himself only as Joe. "I'm calling to warn you," he said. When I barked back, he said, "Wait, I'm on your side. Someone has broken into TRW and obtained a list of all your credit-card numbers, your home address, social-security number and wife's name and is posting it on bulletin boards around the country." 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