======================================== = Abuse Hits Computer Networking = ======================================== Typed by :Byte Rider Actical by :William C. Rempel From :L.A. Times Newspaper Date :Aug 1, 1985 Subject :Abuse with BBSes From Long Island, an electronic bulletin board is open to computer users who want to share opinions about American foreign policy in Central America. Gay activists around the country can exchange information over several electronic in San Francisco. And a Texas-based white supremacist group that claims computer technology is "Aryan technology" uses a computer network to disseminate racist hate propaganda. These invisible networks, blending computer technology with the free speech tradition of 18th-Century pamphleteering, represents America's newest communications forums. Anyone with a computer equipped to send or recieve messages over a telephone line can participate. An electronic bulletin board is simply a computer that can answer telephones and exchange messages with other computers. 1,500+ Boards in Use: Industry experts estimate that there are more than 1,500 computer bulletin boards operated out of offices and homes across America, serving a potential audience of about 1 million computer users equipped with telephone connectors called modems. Doctors, business executives, engineers, Vietnam veterans and teen-agers are among the growing number of bulletin board users sharing information or opinions via computer on subjects ranging from famine in Africa, tax law changes or the nuclear freeze movement to science, software or sports. But computer bulletin boards also are being used to exchange stolen credit card numbers, to organize illicit sex rings and to offer advice on how to assemble bombs or break into the data banks of credit bureaus, schools or government agencies. 7 Teen-Agers Arrested Earlier this month, for example, New Jersey police arrested seven teen-agers and closed down a bulletin board that published false credit card numbers, details on how to assemble a pipe bomb and private telephone numbers to computer systems in the Pentagon, a credit agency and a medical library. Two teen-agers in Monterey were arrested and their computers seized last April after they posted extortion demands on an Encino bulletin board. This is a corner of the high-tech underworld, the world of "pirate" bulletin boards where law enforcement investigators increasingly are finding clues to such criminal activities as fraud and vandalism. "I guess it's like with anything else-there's always going to be someone who abuses a good thing," Paul Zurkowski, president of the Information Industry Assn. in Washington, said. Corporations that have been victims of computer criminals-among them TRW Inc, which operates a nationwide credit bureau out of Orange County, and MCI Communications Corp., the long distance telephone service in Washington-now monitor scores of underground bulletin boards daily. In a typical investigation last April, an undercover "hacker" at TRW spent several days "lurking" in two New York-based bulletin boards-named Sherwood Forest II and III-where the agent found a published appeal for credit cards with credit limits of $5,000 to $25,000. The message offered to pay cash or trade Commodore computer software. A responce came three days later when another bulletin board patron using the code name "Circuit Breaker" left a message that he had some credit card account numbers to trade. During that same period other Sherwood Forest patrons published a stolen telephone credit card number, solicited help to gai unauthorized entry to an insurance company computer and requested information on how to make a bomb. TRW notified authorities, and Secret Service agents subsequently seized about $25,000 in computers from two upstate New York teen-agers. They Face federal wire fraud charges. Monitoring Efforts Pay Off In recent months, numerous arrest and confiscated computers have resulted from the bulletin board monitoring programs of corporations and law enforcement agencies. Roger A. Braham, TRW's security assurance supervisor, estimates that at least 26 pirate bulletin boards have been closed down in the last year, about half as a direct response to TRW-initiated investigations. Cats Den, a Boston-area bulletin boards, was shut down in February after a TRW agent came upon published plans of a 14-year-old computer user to attempt to sabotage the credit of another teenager's parents. (TRW denied that sabotage was possible.) Dragon Fire, the popular bulletin board of a well-to-do teen-ager in Gainesville, TEX., was taken off-line in May after TRW found telephone credit card numbers published as well as messages indicating that users in Massachusetts planned to vandalize a high school there. And Farmers of Doom, a Denver-area bulletin board that routed its incoming calls through a suburban public phone both to foil any tracing attempts, was closed in May based on a tip from TRW agents. "We want them to know they're being watched," Braham, a retired Orange city police investigator, said. The stepped-up campaign to intercept illegal computer activities prompted ne hacker-calling himself "Doctor Who"-to warn in a recent electronic bulletin board message to fellow hackers: "This is way!! Say . . . away from TRW untill it kools down." In California, legislation is pending that would make it unlawful to publish, on a computer network, anyones unlisted phone number, credit card numbers or computer access codes without their approval. Bulletin boar operators who fail to remove such private information after notifacation also would be liable in the bill sponsored by State Sen. John Doolittle (R-Citrus Heights). "Bulletin boards are great. We'd like to encourage their use, but we're concerned about the abuse of privacy," Ted Blanchard, legislative consultant Doolittle, said. "Everyone needs to understand the rules." Originated in Chicago The nation's first electronic bulletin board is believed to have originated in Chicago where two computer buffs set up a home-grown system on Feb. 16, 1978-still in the early days of the personal computer revolution. At first, they were the venue primarily of computer hobbyists who used the message system to send out calls for assistance to solve technical programs. Rapidly, their protential was recognized by national organizations and professional groups such as doctors and engineers who set up computer networks to organize conventions, share a variety of communications. Today electronic bulletin board networks are operated by such widely disparate groups by such viduals as the Ku Klux Klan, an alleged prostitution ring in Florida, scientists working with the national Areonautics and Space Administration and local police agentcies in Arizona. Almost anyone with a personal computer can set up his own electronic bulletin board with investments in readily avaliable electronics gear for as little as $2,000. "All you need is a cheap computer, the right software and a modem (that hooks your computer to your telephone) and you're a bulletin board," Everick Bowens, director of security for MCI and president of the newly formed Communications Fraud Control Assn., said. While most bulletin board networks are small, many operated by large companies such as CompuServe, Dialog and The Source-each of them major data base providers-who monitor users of their bulletin boards. MCI routinely monitors bulletin boards to see if its long distance access codes-popular among youths who call themselves "Phreakers"-are being distributed illegally. Bowens said that the enforcement efforts has been largely effective, but one side effect of success is that operators of pirate bulletin boards have become more sophisticated and, therefore, more difficult to investigate. "A lot of these phreaks have gone Special Thanks to: The Prophet, for his excellent file: Unix Use and Security From the Ground Up. The End, good luck, enjoy yourself, and don't get caught! Lord Lawless Phortune 500/BOD --This has been a Lord Lawless Presentation, (C) 1987.-- u are a super user that dir contains much that will be useful to you. In order to move up to a directory one level higher than you are presently in, type "cd ..". So to move from /Bill/files to /Bill I would just type cd .. and, assuming I started in /Bill/files I would now be in /Bill. Ok, now you can wander the system "cat"'ing around and whatnot. If a file