Everything a hacker needs to know about getting busted (1998)

I was phreaking (stealing long distance telephone service) in the late 80s and early 90s when Phrack magazine was at its peak.

At one point, the phone line I used with my modem would have a long delay between the time I picked up and the time I got a dial tone, and the connection afterward would be weak, noisy and attenuated. I'd even get bad packets over the Ymodem file transfer protocol.

I asked some of my hacker friends if my phone was being tapped by the companies I was stealing long distance service from. One of them knew the number of a department of a department at Pacific Bell (my local phone provider) that handled investigating illegal taps. These companies would tap the lines of people that they suspected were stealing service without getting the required warrant just because they had the capability to do s.

So I called that number and asked them to see if my phone was being illegally tapped. One of the first things they asked me was, "are you calling from the line you think is tapped?" I told them I was, and they explained that in doing so I revealed my hand to whoever was tapping me.

The very next phone call my modem made was back to normal without the noise, delay and attenuation.

I estimate that I made $50,000 to $100,000 in illegal phone charges. I was calling other computers all over the world. This was back when calling Europe or Oz from the USA could cost $10 per minute or something insane.

I never got busted. But I knew some people who had. I think I was getting close to getting busted but it never happened.

I went on to have a very successful career in Silicon Valley.

Entertaining read. Some of it is clearly before my time, and some of it is timeless, I think. Was kind of amused when I got to the section on avoiding detection, specifically this bullet:

* I would keep in mind that the numbers I dialed on my phone could eventually be used to track me again. For example, if I called my girl friend frequently, after I changed numbers and location I might still be calling that number. The telcos now have toll record data base software that can cross reference and track this type of thing.

Very turn-of-the-millennium that this very basic mass-surveillance capability was even worth mentioning. Apparently the author died in 2010, pre-Snowden. Things have certainly changed.

Better advice than in Office Space: https://youtu.be/-da3-gPWFp0

I recall printing this txt out in a 3-hole binder in my younger years. Skip ahead 25 years and I'm wondering what I thought would happen .