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From: gabe@sirius.ctr.columbia.edu (Gabe Wiener)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Telephone Security in Colleges
Message-ID: <2320@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 20 Dec 89 18:25:56 GMT
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Reply-To: Gabe Wiener <gabe@sirius.ctr.columbia.edu>
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 585, message 6 of 13


Here at Columbia we have a digital phone system (much to my dismay).
Billing is relatively secure.  Each student is issued a Personal
Security Code which must be entered on the phone before you can get an
off-campus trunkline.  This PSC is the source of all billing.  Thus
even roommates who share the same phone will receive separate bills.

It's a little inconvenient having to dial 91 plus a seven-digit PSC
followed by the number, but it saves a lot of hassles in billing
later.

The distributing frames in the dorm basements are locked, but there
are always ways to get around that.  However, there isn't much point,
as you can't "listen in" to a digital signal, and you can't make a
call w/o the PSC number.

Before 1988, Columbia was on a Centrex system, and the panels for that
were blatently exposed.  You could walk into the phone closet of any
floor or the dist. frame in the basement and play all the games you
wanted with a test set.  I don't think it was ever too widespread,
though.


Gabe Wiener - Columbia Univ.     "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings 
gabe@ctr.columbia.edu             to be seriously considered as a means of 
gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu       communication. The device is inherently of
72355.1226@compuserve.com         no value to us."  -Western Union memo, 1877