the baudy world of the byte bandit-a postmodernist interpreta.txt

1000 HOWTOs for various needs [WINDOWS]

                From -> (#660)
                To   ->All
                Date ->01/31/xx 01:29:00 AM
               Well,  instead of leaving codes,   could you leave us
               "uninformed" people with a few 800 dialups and formats?
               I don't need codes,  I just want dialups!   Is that so
               much to ask?   I would be willing to trade CC's {credit
               cards} for dialups.  Lemme know..
                 Sub ->0266 Codez
                From -> (#134)
                To   ->All
                Date ->01/31/xx 06:56:00 AM
               Anyone, What is the full dial up for 0266 codez?
               Such requests are considered amateurish, rarely generate the
          requested information,  and elicit  predictable "flamez" (severe
          criticism) or even potentially dangerous pseudo-assistance:
                 Sub ->Reply to: 0266 Codez
                From -> (#124)
                To   ->C-Poo
                Date ->01/31/xx 09:02:00 AM
 
                                       - 19 -
 
 
               Okay,   here's  the full  info,   Chris:    Dial
               1-900-(pause)-{xxx}-REAL.   When it  answers,   hit
               #*9876321233456534323545766764 Got it?   Okay, here's a
               800 number to try:  1-800-426-{xxxx}.   Give the opera-
               tor your zip,and fake it from there!   Enjoy, you hack-
               meister, you!
                Sub ->Reply to: 0266 Codez
                From -> (#448)
                To   -> #38
                Date ->01/31/xx 03:43:00 PM
               What the fuck kind of question  is that?  Are you that
               stupid?  what is the full dial up for an 0266?  Give me
               a break!  Call back when you learn not when you want to
               leech!
                 Sub ->CC-ING
                From -> (#393)
                To   -> #38
                Date ->02/05/xx 01:41:00 AM
               WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?  PROBABLY A NARC, AREN'T YA!  NO
               ONE IN HIS RIGHT MIND ASKS FOR CARDS. (AND NARCS AREN'T
               IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS) AND GIVE OUT CARDS,  WHAT DO YOU
               THINK WE ARE, SHLONGS?!  PERSONALLY I GET MY OWN ON THE
               JOB,  PUMPING GAS  PAYS A  LOT MORE  THAN YOU THINK,
               THEREFORE I DON'T NEED ANY.  THINK ABOUT IT, IF YOU ARE
               A GOOD HACKER, WHICH I CAN SEE YOU'RE NOT, THEN YOU CAN
               HACK OUT YOUR OWN CODEZ.   PEOPLE WHO NEED CCS CAN CALL
               CC-VMBS.  I HAVE ONE,  BUT DON'T ASK FOR IT.   IF YOU
               DON'T KNOW  MY CC-VMB LINE  THEN YOU'RE NOT  TO WELL
               KNOWN.   A LOT OF KNOWN  HACKERS KNOW MY  CC-VMB LINE.
               WELL, IF YOU'RE A NARC, YOU'VE JUST BEEN FOUND OUT,  IF
               NOT YOU MIGHT WANT TO GET A JOB AS ONE CUZ YOU ACT JUST
               LIKE ONE {In BBS protocol,  upper case letters indicate
               emphasis, anger, or shouting}.
               Although hackers  freely acknowledge that  their activities
          may be occasionally illegal,  considerable emphasis is placed on
          limiting violations only to those  required to obtain access and
          learn a system,   and they display hostility  toward those who
          transgress beyond beyond these limits.   Most experienced CU mem-
          bers are suspicious of young novices who are often entranced with
          what they perceive to be the "romance" of hacking.  Elite hackers
 
                                       - 20 -
 
 
          complain continuously that  novices are at an  increased risk of
          apprehension and also can "trash"  accounts on which experienced
          hackers have gained and hidden their access.   Nonetheless,  ex-
          perienced hackers take pride in  their ethic of mentoring promis-
          ing newcomers, both through their BBSs and newsletters:
               As {my} reputation grew,  answering such requests [from
               novice hackers wanting help] became  a matter of pride.
               No matter how difficult the question happened to be,  I
               would sit at the terminal for five, ten,  twenty hours
               at a time, until I had the answer (Landreth, 1985: 16).
               The nation's top elite p/hacker  board was particularly nur-
          turing of promising novices before it voluntarily closed in early
          1990, and its sysop's handle means "teacher."  PHRACK,  begun in
          1985,  normally contained 10-12  educational articles (or "phi-
          les"),  most of which  provided explicit sophisticated technical
          information about computer networks  and telecommunications sys-
          tems[5].   Boundary  socialization occurs in message  bases and
          newsletters that  either discourage  such activity  or provide
          guidelines for concealing access once obtained:
               Welcome to the world of hacking!  We,  the people who
               live outside of the normal rules, and have been scorned
               and even arrested by those  from the 'civilized world',
               are becoming scarcer  every day.  This is  due to the
               greater fear of what a good hacker (skill wise, no mor-
               al judgements here) can do nowadays, thus causing anti-
               hacker sentiment in the masses.  Also, few hackers seem
               to actually know about the  computer systems they hack,
               or what equipment they will run  into on the front end,
               or what they  could do wrong on a system  to alert the
               'higher' authorities who monitor the system. This arti-
               cle is intended  to tell you about some  things not to
               do, even before you get on the system. We will tell you
               about the new wave of  front end security devices that
               are beginning to be used on computers.  We will attempt
               to instill in you a second identity,  to be brought up
               at time of  great need,  to pull you  out of trouble.
               (p/hacker newsletter, 1987).
 
                                       - 21 -
 
 
               Elite hacking requires highly sophisticated technical skills
          to enter the maze of protective barriers,  recognize the computer
          type, and move about at the highest system levels.   As a conse-
          quence, information sharing becomes the sine qua non of the hack-
          er culture.   "Main message" sections  are generally open to all
          users, but only general information, gossip,  and casual commen-
          tary is posted. Elite users, those with higher security privileg-
          es and access to the "backstage" regions,  share technical infor-
          mation and problems, of which the following is typical:
                   89Mar11
                   From ***** ** * ***>
               Help! Anyone familiar with a system that responds:
                 A2:       SELECT     :       DISPLAY:
               1=TRUNK,2=SXS;INPUT:3=TRUNK,4=SXS,5=DELETE;7=MSG  <and
               then it gives you a prompt>  If you chose 1...  ENTER
               OLD#,(R=RETURN)
                 At this point I know you can enter 7 digits,  the 8th
               will give you an INVALID ENTRY type message.  Some num-
               bers don't work however.  (1,2,7,8 I know will)
                 Anybody?
                   89Mar10
                   From *********>
               I was hacking around on telenet (415 area code) and got
               a few things that I am stuck-o on if ya can help,  I'd
               be greatly happy.   First of all,   I got  one that is
               called RCC PALO ALTO and I can't figure it out.  Second
               (and this looks pretty fun)  is the ESPRIT COMMAIL  and
               I know that a user name is  SYSTEM because it asked for
               a password on ONLY that account (pretty obvious eh?)  a
               few primnet and  geonet nodes and a  bunch of TELENET
               ASYYNC to 3270 SERVICE.   It asks for TERMINAL TYPE, my
               LU NUMBER and on numbers  higher  than 0 and lower that
               22 it asks for a password.  Is it an outdial?  What are
               some common passwords?  then I got a sushi-primnet sys-
               tem.  And a dELUT system.   And at 206174 there is JUST
               a :  prompt.  help!  (P/h message log, 1988).
               Rebelliousness also permeates the hacker  culture and is re-
          flected in actions, messages, and symbolic identities.  Like oth-
 
                                       - 22 -
 
 
          er CU participants, hackers employ handles (aliases)  intended to
          display an aspect of one's personality and interests,  and a han-
          dle can often reveal whether its  owner is a "lamer" (an incompe-
          tent)  or sophisticated.   Hackers take  pride in their assumed
          names, and one of the greatest taboos is to use the handle of an-
          other or to use multiple handles.  Handles are borrowed liberally
          from the anti-heros of science fiction,  adventure fantasy,  and
          heavy metal rock lyrics,  particularly among younger users,  and
          from word plays on technology, nihilism,  and violence.   The CU
          handle reflects a stylistic identity  heavily influenced by meta-
          phors reflecting color (especially red and black),  supernatural
          power (e.g., "Ultimate Warrior, "Dragon Lord"), and chaos ("Death
          Stalker," "Black Avenger"), or ironic twists on technology,  fan-
          tasy, or symbols of mass culture (e.g., Epeios,  Phelix the Hack,
          Ellis Dea, Rambo Pacifist, Hitch Hacker).
               This anti-establishment ethos also  provides an ideological
          unity for collective  action.   Hackers have been  known to use
          their collective skills in retaliation  for acts against the cul-
          ture that the perceive as unfair by, for example, changing credit
          data or "revoking" driver's licenses (Sandza, 1984b;  "Yes,  you
          Sound very Sexy," 1989).   Following a bust of a national hacker
          group, the message section of the "home board" contained a lively
          debate on the desireability of  a retaliatory response,  and the
          moderates prevailed.   Influenced especially by such science fan-
          tasy as William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984),  John Brunner's The
          Shockwave Rider (1975), and cyber-punk, which is a fusion of ele-
 
                                       - 23 -
 
 
          ments of electronic communication technology  and the "punk" sub-
          culture,  the hacker ethic promotes resistance to the very forms
          that create it.   Suggestive of Frazer's (1922) The Golden Bough,
          power is challenged and supplanted  by rituals combining both de-
          struction and rejuvenation.   From this emerges a shared ethos of
          opposition against perceived Orwellian  domination by an informa-
          tion-controlling elite:
               (Hackers will) always be necessary,  especially in the
               technological oppression of the future.   Just imagine
               an information system that  systematically filters out
               certain obscene words.   Then it will move on to phras-
               es,  and then entire ideas will be replaced by comput-
               ers!   Anyway, there will always be people tripping out
               on paper and trying to keep it to themselves,  and it's
               up to us to at least loosen their grasp (P.A.  Message
               Log 1988).
          Another hacker summarized the  near-anarchist ethic characterized
          the CU style:
               Lookit, we're here as criminal hobbyists, peeping toms,
               and looters.   I am in it for the fun.   Not providing
               the public what it has a right to know,  or keeping big
               brother in check.  I couldn't care less.   I am sick of
               the old journalistic hackers  nonsense about or (oops!
               OUR)  computerized ego...I make  no attempt to justify
               what I am doing.  Because it doesn't matter. As long as
               we live in this goddamn welfare  state I might as well
               have some fun taking what isn't mine,  and I am better
               off than  those welfare-assholes  who justify  their
               stealing.   At least I am smart enough to know that the
               free lunch  can't go on  forever (U.U.   message log
               1988).
               In sum, the hacker style reflects well-defined goals, commu-
          nication networks, values, and an ethos of resistance to authori-
          ty.  Because hacking requires a  broader range of knowledge than
          does phreaking,  and because such knowledge can be acquired only
          through experience, hackers tend to be both older and more knowl-