The Anarchist Cookbook (46 page)

you want to call) >>> RAPIDLY <<< & >>> EVENLY <<< depress the switchhook 10 times. To

dial 634-1268, depress 6 X'S pause, then 3 X'S, pause, then 4X'S, etc. It takes a little

practice but you'll get the hang of it. Try practicing with your own # so you'll get a busy

tone when right. It'll also work on touch-tone™ since a DTMF line will also accept pulse.

Also, never depress the switchhook for more than a second or it'll hang up!

Finally, remember that you have just as much right to that phone as the asshole who put

the lock on it!

148.Exchange Scanning by The Jolly Roger

Almost every exchange in the bell system has test #'s and other "goodies" such as loops

with dial-ups. These "goodies" are usually found between 9900 and 9999 in your local

exchange. If you have the time and initiative, scan your exchange and you may become

lucky!

Here are some findings in the 914-268 exchange:

9900 - ANI

9901 - ANI

9927 - OSC. TONE (POSSIBLE TONE SIDE OF A LOOP)

9936 - VOICE # TO THE TELCO CENTRAL OFFICE

9937 - VOICE # TO THE TELCO CENTRAL OFFICE

9941 - COMPUTER (DIGITAL VOICE TRANSMISSION?)

9960 - OSC. TONE (TONE SIDE LOOP) MAY ALSO BE A COMPUTER IN SOME

EXCHANGES

9961 - NO RESPONSE (OTHER END OF LOOP?)

9962 - NO RESPONSE (OTHER END OF LOOP?)

9963 - NO RESPONSE (OTHER END OF LOOP?)

9966 - COMPUTER (SEE 9941)

9968 - TONE THAT DISAPPEARS--RESPONDS TO CERTAIN TOUCH-TONE KEYS

Most of the numbers between 9900 & 9999 will ring or go to a "what #, please?" operator.

149.A Short History of Phreaking by The Jolly Roger

Well now we know a little vocabulary, and now its into history, Phreak history. Back at

MIT in 1964 arrived a student by the name of Stewart Nelson, who was extremely

interested in the telephone. Before entering MIT, he had built autodialers, cheese boxes,

and many more gadgets. But when he came to MIT he became even more interested in

"fone-hacking" as they called it. After a little while he naturally started using the PDP-1,

the schools computer at that time, and from there he decided that it would be interesting

to see whether the computer could generate the frequencies required for blue boxing. The

hackers at MIT were not interested in ripping off Ma Bell, but just exploring the

telephone network. Stew (as he was called) wrote a program to generate all the tones and

set off into the vast network.

Now there were more people phreaking than the ones at MIT. Most people have heard of

Captain Crunch (No not the cereal), he also discovered how to take rides through the fone

system, with the aid of a small whistle found in a cereal box (can we guess which one?). By

blowing this whistle, he generated the magical 2600hz and into the mouthpiece it sailed,

giving him complete control over the system. I have heard rumors that at one time he made

about ¬ of the calls coming out of San Francisco. He got famous fast. He made the cover

of people magazine and was interviewed several times (as you'll soon see). Well he finally

got caught after a long adventurous career. After he was caught he was put in jail and was

beaten up quite badly because he would not teach other inmates how to box calls. After

getting out, he joined Apple computer and is still out there somewhere.

Then there was Joe the Whistler, blind form the day he was born. He could whistle a

perfect 2600hz tone. It was rumored phreaks used to call him to tune their boxes.

Well that was up to about 1970, then from 1970 to 1979, phreaking was mainly done by

college students, businessmen and anyone who knew enough about electronics and the fone

company to make a 555 Ic to generate those magic tones. Businessmen and a few college

students mainly just blue box to get free calls. The others were still there, exploring

800#'s and the new ESS systems. ESS posed a big problem for phreaks then and even a

bigger one now. ESS was not widespread, but where it was, blue boxing was next to

impossible except for the most experienced phreak. Today ESS is installed in almost all

major cities and blue boxing is getting harder and harder.

1978 marked a change in phreaking, the Apple ][, now a computer that was affordable,

could be programmed, and could save all that precious work on a cassette. Then just a

short while later came the Apple Cat modem. With this modem, generating all blue box

tones was easy as writing a program to count form one to ten (a little exaggerated). Pretty

soon programs that could imitate an operator just as good as the real thing were hitting

the community, TSPS and Cat's Meow, are the standard now and are the best.

1982-1986: LD services were starting to appear in mass numbers. People now had programs

to hack LD services, telephone exchanges, and even passwords. By now many phreaks were

getting extremely good and BBS's started to spring up everywhere, each having many

documentations on phreaking for the novice. Then it happened, the movie War Games was

released and mass numbers of sixth grade to all ages flocked to see it. The problem

wasn't that the movie was bad, it was that now EVERYONE wanted to be a hacker/phreak.

Novices came out in such mass numbers, that bulletin boards started to be busy 24 hours a

day. To this day, they still have not recovered. Other problems started to occur, novices

guessed easy passwords on large government computers and started to play around... Well

it wasn't long before they were caught, I think that many people remember the 414-

hackers. They were so stupid as to say "yes" when the computer asked them whether

they'd like to play games. Well at least it takes the heat off the real

phreaks/hacker/crackers.

150. "Secrets of the Little Blue Box" by Ron Rosenbaum

Dudes... These four files contain the story, "Secrets of the Little Blue Box".

-A story so incredible it may even make you feel sorry for the phone company-

Printed in the October 1971 issue of Esquire Magazine. If you happen to be in a library and

come across a collection of Esquire magazines, the October 1971 issue is the first issue

printed in the smaller format. The story begins on page 116 with a picture of a blue box.

--One Farad Cap, Atlantic Anarchist Guild

The Blue Box Is Introduced: Its Qualities Are Remarked I am in the expensively furnished

living room of Al Gilbertson (His real name has been changed.), the creator of the "blue

box." Gilbertson is holding one of his shiny black-and-silver "blue boxes" comfortably in the

palm of his hand, pointing out the thirteen little red push buttons sticking up from the

console. He is dancing his fingers over the buttons, tapping out discordant beeping

electronic jingles. He is trying to explain to me how his little blue box does nothing less

than place the entire telephone system of the world, satellites, cables and all, at the

service of the blue-box operator, free of charge.

"That's what it does. Essentially it gives you the power of a super operator. You seize a

tandem with this top button," he presses the top button with his index finger and the blue

box emits a high-pitched cheep, "and like that" -- cheep goes the blue box again -- "you

control the phone company's long-distance switching systems from your cute little Princes

phone or any old pay phone. And you've got anonymity. An operator has to operate from a

definite location: the phone company knows where she is and what she's doing. But with

your beeper box, once you hop onto a trunk, say from a Holiday Inn 800 (toll-free) number,

they don't know where you are, or where you're coming from, they don't know how you

slipped into their lines and popped up in that 800 number. They don't even know anything

illegal is going on. And you can obscure your origins through as many levels as you like. You

can call next door by way of White Plains, then over to Liverpool by cable, and then back

here by satellite. You can call yourself from one pay phone all the way around the world to

a pay phone next to you. And you get your dime back too."

"And they can't trace the calls? They can't charge you?" "Not if you do it the right way.

But you'll find that the free-call thing isn't really as exciting at first as the feeling of

power you get from having one of these babies in your hand. I've watched people when

they first get hold of one of these things and start using it, and discover they can make

connections, set up crisscross and zigzag switching patterns back and forth across the

world. They hardly talk to the people they finally reach. They say hello and start thinking

of what kind of call to make next. They go a little crazy." He looks down at the neat little

package in his palm. His fingers are still dancing, tapping out beeper patterns.

"I think it's something to do with how small my models are. There are lots of blue boxes

around, but mine are the smallest and most sophisticated electronically. I wish I could

show you the prototype we made for our big syndicate order."

He sighs. "We had this order for a thousand beeper boxes from a syndicate front man in

Las Vegas. They use them to place bets coast to coast, keep lines open for hours, all of

which can get expensive if you have to pay. The deal was a thousand blue boxes for $300

apiece. Before then we retailed them for $1500 apiece, but $300,000 in one lump was

hard to turn down. We had a manufacturing deal worked out in the Philippines. Everything

ready to go. Anyway, the model I had ready for limited mass production was small enough

to fit inside a flip-top Marlboro box. It had flush touch panels for a keyboard, rather than

these unsightly buttons, sticking out. Looked just like a tiny portable radio. In fact, I had

designed it with a tiny transistor receiver to get one AM channel, so in case the law

became suspicious the owner could switch on the radio part, start snapping his fingers, and

no one could tell anything illegal was going on. I thought of everything for this model -- I

had it lined with a band of thermite which could be ignited by radio signal from a tiny

button transmitter on your belt, so it could be burned to ashes instantly in case of a bust.

It was beautiful. A beautiful little machine. You shouldve seen the faces on these

syndicate guys when they came back after trying it out. They'd hold it in their palm like

they never wanted to let it go, and they'd say, 'I can't believe it. I can't believe it.' You

probably won't believe it until you try it."

The Blue Box Is Tested: Certain Connections Are Made

About eleven o'clock two nights later Fraser Lucey has a blue box in the palm of his left

hand and a phone in the palm of his right. He is standing inside a phone booth next to an

isolated shut-down motel off Highway 1. I am standing outside the phone booth.

Fraser likes to show off his blue box for people. Until a few weeks ago when Pacific

Telephone made a few arrests in his city, Fraser Lucey liked to bring his blue box (This

particular blue box, like most blue boxes, is not blue. Blue boxes have come to be called

"blue boxes" either because 1) The first blue box ever confiscated by phone-company

security men happened to be blue, or 2) To distinguish them from "black boxes." Black

boxes are devices, usually a resistor in series, which, when attached to home phones, allow

all incoming calls to be made without charge to one's caller.) to parties. It never failed: A

few cheeps from his device and Fraser became the center of attention at the very hippest

of gatherings, playing phone tricks and doing request numbers for hours. He began to take

orders for his manufacturer in Mexico. He became a dealer.

Fraser is cautious now about where he shows off his blue box. But he never gets tired of

playing with it. "It's like the first time every time," he tells me.

Fraser puts a dime in the slot. He listens for a tone and holds the receiver up to my ear. I

hear the tone. Fraser begins describing, with a certain practiced air, what he does while

he does it. "I'm dialing an 800 number now. Any 800 number will do. It's toll free. Tonight

I think I'll use the ----- (he names a well-know rent-a-car company) 800 number. Listen,

It's ringing. Here, you hear it? Now watch." He places the blue box over the mouthpiece of

the phone so that the one silver and twelve black push buttons are facing up toward me. He

presses the silver button -- the one at the top -- and I hear that high-pitched beep.

"That's 2600 cycles per second to be exact," says Lucey. "Now, quick. Listen." He shoves

the earpiece at me. The ringing has vanished. The line gives a slight hiccough, there is a

sharp buzz, and then nothing but soft white noise.

"We're home free now," Lucey tells me, taking back the phone and applying the blue box to

its mouthpiece once again. "We're up on a tandem, into a long-lines trunk. Once you're up

on a tandem, you can send yourself anywhere you want to go." He decides to check out

London first. He chooses a certain pay phone located in Waterloo Station. This particular