166 lines
7.7 KiB
Plaintext
166 lines
7.7 KiB
Plaintext
Subject: "Computer hackers tap into phone gold mine"
|
|
|
|
This was one of todays headlines on the front page of today's Detroit Free
|
|
Press...
|
|
|
|
Computer hackers tap into phone gold mine
|
|
|
|
Voice mail fraud put at $4 billion a year
|
|
|
|
By David Ashenfelter
|
|
Free Press Business Writer
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the late 1980s, high-tech pranksters got their kicks by breaking into
|
|
unprotected computer systems.
|
|
Then, they infected computers with harmful binary viruses.
|
|
Today, hackers are wreaking havoc on computerized telephone systems.
|
|
"It's a big problem, and getting worse," said John Haugh, a Portland,
|
|
Ore., a telecommunications expert who estimated that hackers are responsible
|
|
for about $4 billion a year in toll fraud.
|
|
"Once they get inside the system and get a dial tone, they can make phone
|
|
cals all over the world," Haugh added. "By the time the customer gets his
|
|
phone bill, the criminals are long gone."
|
|
The Detroit Newpaper Agency (DNA), publisher of the Detroit News and Free
|
|
Press, recently became a victim of one variation of the telescam.
|
|
Three months ago, DNA employees starte fing strange messages in the
|
|
company's computerized voice mail system. The messages were intended for
|
|
someone else and were left by callers wdentified themselves as "Black
|
|
Lightning," "Phantom," or "Plastic Man."
|
|
What initially appeared to be a glitch in the voice mail system turned out
|
|
to be the wof a hacker who broke into the message system through a dial-in
|
|
maintenance line, said telecommunications manager Ricardo Vasquez.
|
|
Once inside, the hacker cracked the system administrator's pass code and
|
|
set up score of voice mailboxes for freinds and associates who dialed in on
|
|
the DNA's toll-free number.
|
|
Later, officials at Sl Oil Co. in Huston and Shearson Lehman Bros. in
|
|
St. Louis notified Vasquez that their voice mail systems had been penetrated
|
|
by hackers who left messages urging their friends to call a mail box at the
|
|
DNA.
|
|
"We were lucky," Vasquez said. "Our losses amounted to only a few hundred
|
|
dollars for calls on our toll-free phone line."
|
|
He said the company's losses would have beenfar worse had the system been
|
|
equipped tlow the intruders to make worldwide long-distance calls on DNA
|
|
phone lines.
|
|
Vasquez said the DNA does not plan to request a criminal investigation
|
|
because losses were small.
|
|
Officials at Shell Oil and Shearson Lehman declined to comment.
|
|
Michigan Bell security employees referred inquiries to the public
|
|
relations staff, which, in turn, referred inquiries to the Tigon Corp., an
|
|
Ameritech subsidiary in Dallas which sells and leases voice mail systems.
|
|
"It is a growing problem and people need to be aware of it," said Tigon
|
|
spokeswoman Jill Boeschenstein. "In most cases, has try to get in to have
|
|
some fun and fool around with the message system.
|
|
"The real expense comes when they're able to make outgoing calls that the
|
|
company ends up paying for. That can be a considerable sum before the company
|
|
realizhat is going on."
|
|
Boeschenstein said companies that uy or lease voice mail systems are
|
|
responsible for unauthorized usage. She said companies can protect their phone
|
|
systems relatively easily be using longer pass codes and disconnecting
|
|
maintenance phone lines, which enable system administrators to operate the
|
|
system from a remote location. Boeschenstein also said companies should do a
|
|
more thgh job of monitoring their systems.
|
|
Telecommunications expert Haugh, whose company interviewed more than 400
|
|
toll-fraud victims or near victims, said the most the most sinister telephone
|
|
hackers break into a phone system and set up hidden mail boxes, then sell them
|
|
to drug, prostitution and child pornography rings that want to make free calls
|
|
that are hard to trace.
|
|
Hackers also marke mailboxes to nationwide rings that sell long-distance
|
|
phone calls for $10-$30 apiece from payphones on the streets of large U.S.
|
|
cites. Haugh said many of the customers are immigrants who want to call
|
|
relatives in their homelands.
|
|
A favorite time for hackers to sell phone services is on weekends, when
|
|
companies aren't using or monitoring thier phone systems, some of which aer
|
|
capable of handling hundreds of lodistance calls simultaneously.
|
|
Haugh said one nationally known manufacturer, which he declined to
|
|
identify, belatedly discovered that it was on the hook for $1.4 million worth
|
|
of long distance calls made on it's phone lines in just one weekend.
|
|
And after companies are victimized, they rarely are willing to discuss it
|
|
publicly.
|
|
"They're afraid of bad publicity or liability and in almost all cases
|
|
their fears are unfounded," Haugh sa"It's a very foolish attitude. Until
|
|
the problems becometter understood, other companies aren't going to do
|
|
enough to protect their systems from abuse."
|
|
|
|
There were also two VERY helpful sidebars to the article:
|
|
|
|
+-----------------------------+
|
|
| FREE RIDE |
|
|
| |
|
|
| By invading telephone |
|
|
| systems and using them for |
|
|
| their own calls and messages|
|
|
| telephone hackers are |
|
|
| costing companies plenty. |
|
|
| Here is one way it's done: |
|
|
| |
|
|
| 1: Hacker dials number for |
|
|
| the companies maintenance |
|
|
| line |
|
|
| and, |
|
|
| once | <-----sinister looking picture of hacker
|
|
| on it | dialing phone to allow communication
|
|
| cracks | with kiddie-porn friends
|
|
| the password code for the |
|
|
| administrator. |
|
|
| |
|
|
| 2: Acting as the company's |
|
|
| telephone administrator, |
|
|
| hacker sets up network of |
|
|
| phony voice mail boxes |
|
|
| for friends and associates. | <-----Drug dealers and prostitutes!
|
|
| |
|
|
| 3: Hacker gives company's |
|
|
| 800 number to phriendz and |
|
|
| associates, so they can dial| <----- see above
|
|
| into the system. They can |
|
|
| leave messages for the |
|
|
| hacker or others in network,|
|
|
| and pick up messages in the |
|
|
| mailboxes. |
|
|
| |
|
|
| (lame-looking 1964 800 |
|
|
| service graphic dragged |
|
|
| out of closet and put |
|
|
| here) |
|
|
| |
|
|
| 4:In some systems, once |
|
|
| connection is established, |
|
|
| INVADERS can also make long-|
|
|
| distance calls, which will |
|
|
| be billed to the company. |
|
|
| |
|
|
| Source: Telecommunications |
|
|
| Advisors, Inc. |
|
|
+----------------------------+
|
|
|
|
+-----------------------------+
|
|
| SYSTEM SECURITY |
|
|
| |
|
|
| To protect you company's |
|
|
| voice mail system from |
|
|
| telephone hackers: | <---------EVIL, NASTY Ones! Oh, NOOOO!
|
|
| |
|
|
| o Use longer passwords, | <---------What a concept.
|
|
| which are harder to decipher|
|
|
| |
|
|
| o Disconnect the maintanence|
|
|
| phone line, so outsiders | <---------Shit, what phun is THAT?!?!?!?
|
|
| can't gain control of the |
|
|
| system |
|
|
| |
|
|
| o Encourage employees to |
|
|
| report any suspicious |
|
|
| messages on their voice mail|
|
|
| |
|
|
| o Scrutinize system reports |
|
|
| to look for unauthorized |
|
|
| entry into the system. |
|
|
| |
|
|
| Source: Ameritech Corp. |
|
|
| |
|
|
+-----------------------------+
|
|
|
|
|
|
Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253
|