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From: jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Caller*ID To RS232 Now Available
Message-ID: <11672@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 4 Sep 90 04:03:50 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 617, Message 8 of 10


In article <11660@accuvax.nwu.edu> you write:

>It certainly will be neat when my local Sysop's BBS can just answer up
>and take me directly to the menu screen because he could get Caller ID
>on my when I dial in

*There's* a security hole for you.  All J. Random Phreak has to do is
patch into a local junction box.  (I forsee people not having both
password *and* CNI protection on a line.)

And you thought your C$ bill was high when your password got hacked.
1/2 :-) 


J. Eric Townsend 
University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics 
(713) 749-2120   Internet: jet@uh.edu   Bitnet: jet@UHOU   Skate UNIX(r)


[Moderator's Note: Well Eric, nothing is going to be perfect, but many
little things help with the problem of computer break-ins. Yes, the
phreak could tie into a junction box someplace, and of course he could
easily get discovered by the owner of the pair he is on. He could take
his laptop portable down to the payphone on the corner, I guess, even
on a cold night in January. It boils down to how much effort is a
phreak going to make to break in somewhere when he knows he has to run
a veritable obstacle course along the way of Caller*ID, callback
modems, eight or ten character passwords to be deciphered, etc. There
will still be some who try, and some who succeed at breaking in, if
not necessarily succeeding at avoiding prosecution later.  PAT]