jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) (06/02/90)
Well, I rushed out and bought GURPS Cyberpunk, in the hopes that my
money will help SJG with legal fees. (Plus, I collect game stuff.)
On the front cover, in the SJG Illuminatus logo, it says: "The book
that was seized by the U.S. Secret Service! (see p. 4)"
Anyway ... (Assuming I know *nothing* about cracking/phreaking. I
won't comment on my real knowledge.) The following is a summary of
text from the GURPS Cyberpunk supplement, with a few direct quotes.
How Much Hacking Can I Do Based on the C-word manual: (From the
section entitled "Netrunning".)
0. People use handles to hide their real identity (p62).
1. You can uses sensitive devices to listen in on the signals being
sent to a computer monitor, and redisplay the image on your own screen
(p62).
2. General info on ISDN. (p64-64)
3. Computer accounts can come in various levels, from specialty
logins (uucp) to "superuser" who has access to everything. Some
programs can give you a higher level of access, equivalent to a
"better" account (p68).
4. General info on back doors (p69).
5. General info on chat systems (p69).
6. A list of network names from around the world. No clues as to which
are real. For the US, the following are listed:
WUT, UDTS 2, Datel I & II, Telenet, Tymnet, ARPAnet, Infomaster, GraphNet,
TRT, FTCC, UniNet, Autonet, CompuServer, GENIE, AlaskaNet, JANET, Internet
(p 71).
7. Passwords can be really obvious, or hard to remember random text strings
(p 72.)
8. A program could possibly cause physical damage (p 72.)
9. General Phreaking Info:
- Diverters: go through a bunch of systems so that tracing takes
a long time;
- Junction Boxing: Just go down to the local junction box and tie in
(p 76).
10. Lots of networks use different protocols that are sometimes
incompatible (p 77).
11. Ma Bell stuff:
- Existence of CN/A, and that Ma Bell can look you up in any way;
- Line Routing: "With access to the main phone switch computer,
a hacker can control everything about a specific phone line.";
- Monitoring: a person could monitor calls with the right access;
- After Billing: A person could change bills;
(p 82).
12. Trashing: Go through somebody's trash to find out all sorts of
interesting info about their computing equipment (p 86,87). (13 and
14 are from the section "Attack and Defense Programs". The programs
are obviously s-f software, but ...):
13. Promote: "This program is executed from a normal user account on
a system. If successful, the account is 'upgraded' to a superuser
account."
14. Webster: "This is the standard icebreaker for use against
Password programs (see p 93.). It acts as an extremely fast
'brute-force' hacker." (p 92).
15. Credcard Crime: A false balance could be entered in an account. A
device could be used to access somebody else's card without having the
correct password to get into the credcard (p 105). [note: a credcard
is a self-contained debit card that can have anything from a password
to retina scan protection.]
And, um, that's about it. Now that you've read that, you know how to break
into computer systems and do phone phreaking... 1/2 :-)
J. Eric Townsend -- University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics (713) 749-2120
Internet: jet@uh.edu
Bitnet: jet@UHOU
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