Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!world!decwrl!hayes.fai.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: 0004133373@mcimail.com (Donald E. Kimberlin) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Phreaks of the Monolithic Era of Telephony Message-ID: <12230@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 16 Sep 90 22:33:00 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: Telecommunications Network Architects, Safety Harbor, FL Lines: 77 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 652, Message 5 of 5 Summarizing the story thus far: In a footnote > "... some children, phreaks and assorted other folks consider it >>quite a funny joke to conference two unrelated parties via >>three-way calling, then let them (the two called parties) squabble >>with each other while the perpetrator goes spastic with laughter >>at his little prank. PAT]" This writer responded in an article in Digest V10, Issue 646, describing three incidents of internal phreaking that occurred in the monolithic era. They included connecting two inward operators in Puerto Rico and Hawaii to each other; listening in and engaging some lewd conversation on an intercity FX, and interposing as God on DDD trunks. Our Moderator was rightfully irate about such abuses, saying: >[Moderator's Note: I still don't think it is funny. I regard it as a >major violation of trust ... No doubt about it, Dear Moderator. The point in exposing this to you was to show just how widespread such abuses were in the "good old days." As to the employees getting caught, my recent comments about a benign, complacent environment of employees and managers didn't seem to be understood. In the cases cited here, supervisors and managers would as often be part of it as not. The ONLY case of an employee who ever got caught was one who was feeding horse race results from the telegraph channels to the bookies. He only got caught because the FBI caught the bookies and traced it back to him. Despite his being clearly identified and his part of it making national press, he merely got transferred off the telegraph board over to the toolroom 50 feet away, and enjoyed the rest of his admittedly promotionless career to retirement on the phone in the toolroom. I never saw him walk back to the telegraph board to read the race results. By the time I came on that scene, he was running a sales operation for bridal hope chests and kitchenware from that phone..of course, on the public's "expense" for operating the monolithic "phone company." ... just another form of violation of the public trust. You've queried in one place why we would EVER have broken up AT&T and caused ourselves all the problems we now have. The purpose was to give you some evidence of just how far from the public trust the monopoly establishment had wandered ... and in a myriad of ways the anti-trust court case never even got to. None of these stories was unique. The people in that office weren't the first. Such "tricks" were going on all over the country. If you want a whole book full of them, I can supply them. Just square the issue for our less sophisticated readers' paranoia, rest assured that today, a combination of (digital) technology and reduced profit margins makes it far, FAR less likely that such things continue. It's just not so easy to get into a digital timeslot, and there aren't enough idle employees hanging around any more to engage such games. Why, indeed, should we ever have broken up the Bell monolith? How is it we have so many unforeseen problems to solve? Why, indeed, do we find so many scammy practices and people involved? The answer is simple; Rot had penetrated far deeper than anyone on the "outside" might imagine. And last point: Why on earth would they be so quick to recognize misuse of the network? What's the old conundrum ... it takes one to know one? Pin them down to how much personal practice they have had at doing it. I doubt there's a former local exchange switchman in this nation (and most countries) who hasn't engaged in some international calling "phreaking!" Diogenes' lantern would have failed inside the monolithic Telco, too. Why do you think I left them? Why do you think I bring these tales up now decades later? Simple ... I still feel a sense of outrage at informing you of them.