Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!csun!nic.csu.net!csus.edu!ucdavis!csusac!sactoh0!vector0!jon From: jon%vector0@sactoh0.SAC.CA.US (A Product of Society) Newsgroups: alt.hackers Subject: Re: beige box Message-ID: Date: 22 Nov 90 20:16:56 GMT References: <1990Nov21.230806.9622@terminator.cc.umich.edu> Organization: Vector Zero Productions Lines: 47 Approved: BIFF@biffster.BIFFNET lenv@terminator.cc.umich.edu (Len Vishnevsky) writes: > I used to see plans of boxes all the time. Does anyone remember the > blotto box? It seems that someone had the impression the FBI used a > method called lock and trace, which kept the voltage on your phone > line at a high level, so they g-men could trace you and you couldn't > disconnect the line (i.e. hang up) The blotto box was designed to > play a radio or some other electric device to lower the voltage and > disconnect the line before you were traced. Does any of this seem > even remotely real? Obviously with ess you can be traced instantly > now, but what about 5-10 years ago? It was true 5-10 years ago. They would raise the voltage of your line to 90v or so, which made a loud noise in your ear and *kept* the phone line open. Try to hang up and the phone would ring again. You might not be on the line, but your path would stay open. The Blotto Box was simple: Connect the red/green wires to an AC outlet and plug your light in. This would use up all the power, supposedly. Also, supposedly, they tried to compensate by increasing the power, which the light bulb promptly ate up. In the end, the FBI computer would melt from generating that much power. But the phone line's fuses would blow before that would *really* happen, thus disconnecting your path. I think this method of trace, at the fastest, took 10 seconds. Plenty of time to unplug your light and put it on the line. But you've got to know you're being traced... So you stick a voltmeter on your line. This became kind of popular. Since old kludgy bugs and taps used to drain power from your line, you not only knew when someone was tracing, but when someone was tapping. But it was only a tool for the paranoid, since how many people actually got traced this way? > > -- > Len Vishnevsky > lenv@terminator.cc.umich.edu Jon vector0!jon@sactoh0.SAC.CA.US ...ames!pacbell!sactoh0!vector0!jon fezzes for one and all!