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From: nelson%odin.corp.sgi.com@sgi.com (Nelson Bolyard)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Ramparts Magazine Article: Still a Threat?
Message-ID: <12933@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 3 Oct 90 00:11:30 GMT
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In article <12764@accuvax.nwu.edu> optilink!cramer@uunet.uu.net
(Clayton Cramer) writes:

>In article <12711@accuvax.nwu.edu>, djcl@contact.uucp (woody) writes:

>> * {Ramparts Magazine} printed instructions on how to build a "mute
>> box" (something to suppress call supervision on incoming long distance
>> calls).  While Ramparts was in rather illegal territory with that
>> article, the actions Ma Bell took were probably the issue here. Bell
>> agents were ordered to find all extant copies of the offending
>> {Ramparts Magazine}, trying to get the subscription lists, going after
>> newsstand dealers, threatening any radio stations that mentioned the
>> action, etc.

>My mother was working for Los Angeles County Library at the time the
>Ramparts article appeared; orders came down from the top to cut out
>the offending article and destroy it.  But she made a copy first and
>brought it home.  (Not that we ever did anything with it -- she just
>felt uncomfortable having stuff disappear into "the memory hole").

I would imagine, and hope, that now in our modern age of 5ESS switches
&c that nothing one could do on a POTS line would be able to "suppress
call supervision on incoming long distance calls" and thus the
information in that (in)famous article would no longer be a threat to
the phone system.

I'm under the impression that fifteen years ago, there was little
difference between a POTS line and a line inside the phone system,
between switches.  If one knew how to construct the right device to
generate the right switching and routing signals, one could do
interesting things form an ordinary POTS line, like tie up all the LD
trunks between two cites, or something.  I think this was due to
"in-band" signalling.

But now, with advancements in "signalling", e.g. things like
Signalling System Number 7, I'm under the impression that signalling
is done largely "out of band" and no amount of the right tones and
clicks will have these effects.

If my impressions are basically right, then that old Ramparts article
could finally be published, under the heading of "Fifteen years ago,
this would have been a big scoop."

Can anybody say with certainty if the article is still a threat?

If the answer is a definite "no", then would somebody please publish it?
(Does you mother still have her copy, Clay ?)


Nelson Bolyard      nelson@sgi.COM      {decwrl,sun}!sgi!whizzer!nelson
Disclaimer: Views expressed herein do not represent the views of my employer.


[Moderator's Note: Mother (NOT Clay's mother!) has always hated
{Ramparts Magazine} with a passion since back in the middle sixties
when the magazine announced they would print AT&T's credit card
check-digit formula in their next issue. AT&T went to the highest
court in the nation to get a prior-restraint order against Ramparts
to prevent publication of the article, which Ramparts said 'will
explain how to create your own telephone credit card.' Remember,
thirty years ago the AT&T card number formula was a simple-minded
thing which involved a 'key letter' based on the fourth or fifth digit
of the phone number, and it changed yearly. The issue hit the streets
just as AT&T got the court order; Ramparts had to pick up copies from
the news dealers and destroy them. 

The magazine, whose name comes from the first stanza of 'The Star
Spangled Banner' ("...whose broad stripes and bright stars, through
the perilous fight, o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly
streaming ...") vowed then to get even; Ma Bell triumphantly vowed to
squash anyone else who tried to give away corporate secrets.  For the
curious, the word 'rampart' is an archaism, an erstwhile term from the
Middle English which literally means 'a hole in the ground with a
mound of dirt in front of it behind which someone can hide to observe
the actions of others.'  PAT]