Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: 15 Jun 91 15:39:22 GMT From: Nick Sayer Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Fighting Phone Hackers in SoCal Message-ID: Organization: The Duck Pond, Stockton, CA Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 460, Message 6 of 7 Lines: 58 marks@capnet.latimes.com (Mark Seecof) writes: > He suggests that parents > educate themselves about their children's computers. ``If a kid is > spending a whole bunch of time on his computer and it's hooked up to a > modem, he's not just running his software. What is he doing on that > computer? Does he really need a modem?'' > [ed. note -- this officer may be an expert on fraud but is clearly > unqualified to make such sweeping assertions about what (young) people > do with computers. Playing rogue can eat up as much time as hacking > while the modem remains idle.] I heartily agree. For two years while I was in high school, I ran a perfectly legitimate BBS in San Diego. Telecom historians in that town will remember that in '85 (I think), PacBell security sent out a letter to all BBS sysops in effect saying "Big Brother is watching you." Saying that BBSs are centers of hacker activity is like saying ethnic neighborhoods are centers of drug activity: specific examples do occur, but the generalization is unjustified. If it was my town, I'd press that cop for a full, public appology. When modems are outlawed, only outlaws will have modems. Modems don't phreak, people do. etc. > Not all hackers are young computer fanatics testing their limits. Nor are all "young computer fanatics testing their limits" hackers in the sense that the article means. First, let's remember that the term 'hacker' in it's propper definition implies no illegality. Those who attempt to defraud telephone companies are more properly called "phreakers." > ``The hacking problem is two-fold,'' says Caltel president Smith, also > president of the Sacramento-based long-distance telephone company > Execuline. ``First, we have Information Age fraud, which is an > outgrowth of the proliferation of computers in households. We have > all these kids who want to talk to each other on bulletin boards, and > if mom and dad had to pay for all those phone calls, the cost would be > prohibitive. ... A big reason why there are so many boards. If there's one in your local area, then there's no need to phreak it. > [... Stuff about the sticktoitiveness of Thrifty Tel's Bigley and how > she thinks that hackers are immoral and wants to defeat them.] Thank you for sparing us her little attitude. I am offended by both her generalizations and the phreakers who "try" to make those generalizations justified. There. I feel much better. Nick Sayer mrapple@quack.sac.ca.us N6QQQ 209-952-5347 (Telebit)