News Items
You don't need encryption to blow up a bomb. That's the lesson the Clinton administration seems to be having trouble learning. Almost immediately after the Oklahoma City bombing, there were cries on Capitol Hill for "broad new powers" to combat terrorism. According to FBI Director Louis Freeh, one of the biggest problems facing us today is that of criminals communicating on the Internet using encryption. "This problem must be resolved," they say. According to White House aides, Clinton will seek new FBI powers to monitor phone lines of suspected terrorists as well as more access to credit and travel records. Under the proposal, authorities will be able to do this without evidence of a criminal act underway or in the planning stages. Under the current situation, a lot of people are supporting this kind of a move without considering the consequences. Once such measures are undertaken, they have a history of being abused. In a land where tabloid television describes hackers as "computer terrorists," we wonder if the government is that far behind. After all, our own Bernie S. (see page 4) was denied bail, at least in part because he owned books that explained how explosives worked. With this kind of hysteria dictating enforcement, we shudder at the results of these proposals. In the case of Oklahoma City, one fact remains very clear. None of this would have helped. The suspects weren't significant enough to be noticed. And they didn't use encryption or the Internet at all. And yet, the tabloids are screaming about the shocking speech that can be found on the Internet and how something has to be done to stop it. But curtailing speech and liberty never advances the cause of freedom and once begun is very difficult to reverse. Considering that it had no difficultly in speaking out against the recent Communications Decency Act which seeks to outlaw objectable material over computer networks, the Clinton administration really should know better.
Encryption has already been effectively outlawed in Russia. An edict by Russian President Yeltsin entitled "On Measures to Observe the Law in Development, Production, Sale, and Use of Encryption Devices and on Provision of Services in Encrypting Information" restricts the use of encryption technologies by government agencies as well as private entities. The edict bans the development, import, sale, and use of unlicensed encryption devices, as well as "protected technological means of storage, processing, and transmission of information". It's widely believed that this came about because of FBI influence abroad.
It's now illegal to own a satellite TV dish in Iran. Saying the dishes are the equivalent of waving American flags, the government hopes this move will "immunize the people against the (((cultural invasion))) of the West." We think that same cultural invasion inspired this short-sighted overly hysterical reaction. It's not quite as stupid as outlawing listening to the radio. But it's close.
Here's one you won't see in a phone company ad: Caller ID used successfully by a criminal against a victim. That's right! A San Antonio woman was allegedly shot to death by her ex-boyfriend earlier this year after he used a Caller ID box to track her down. It seems she called him to talk from a male friend's house and that in addition to the phone number being sent out, the caller's name was as well. All that was needed at that point was a phone book. Since we've done such a good job teaching our children and society the importance of 911, maybe it's time we started teaching them about *67.
In England, however, British Telecom is reporting a 21 percent drop in "malicious" calls due to their version of Caller ID known as Caller Display. Says BT, "Our technology not only helps create a more efficient and convenient world but is helping our customers feel safer." Customers are also using the BT Call Return feature at a rate of three million calls a day. Callers dial 1471 and hear the number of the person who called them last for no charge.
The Call Return feature in Canada has sparked some controversy. The CRTC (the regulatory commission governing phone companies) has ordered all of Canada's local phone companies (BC Tel, AGT, Bell Canada, MT&T, NBTel, and Newfoundland Tel) to stop Call Return from functioning on calls that have been blocked.
Last issue we reported on the difficulty NYNEX was having with its All-Call Restrict feature. Some phones that were supposed to have it didn't. (We were one of those.) Now it seems that NYNEX can't even handle a simple call trace without causing a major incident. Within hours of the Oklahoma City bombing, someone called in a bomb threat to a Boston hospital. NYNEX traced the call to the wrong number, thanks to an employee error and a policy of not double-checking. Now NYNEX is offering to pay the college tuition of the innocent kid who spent two days in jail as a result.
It could happen as soon as early 1996. Residential customers in New York City and Long Island will have a choice between NYNEX and Cablevision's Lightpath. Consumers would be able to switch services without switching numbers. Lightpath has been providing phone service to business customers on Long Island. Of course, the flip-side of this is that NYNEX will now enter the cable TV business, something we're not sure the world is ready for.
The press release goes something like this: "You no longer need to carry a pocketful of quarters. With NYNEX's new European-style payphones, all you'll need is a phone card." Trouble is, these phones are beginning to pop up everywhere in New York City streets, replacing existing "real" payphones. This wouldn't be a problem in itself except the phones have three strikes against them: they don't allow calls to 800 numbers, they don't allow calls to 950 numbers, and they don't take incoming calls. One thing that isn't lacking is the NYNEX greed factor: if they aren't making money every minute the receiver is off hook, they'll make a phone completely useless.
AT&T's new 500 number service has its pluses and minuses. While you can make calls from anywhere using your master PIN, you will be stuck with a hefty 80 cent surcharge. If the number you're calling is your home number, you can avoid this surcharge by using one of the non-master PINs that you're supposed to give out to your friends and family. Hopefully you won't be committing a federal crime by engaging in this practice.
US West has taken a big step towards making phone rates a bit more realistic. For one dollar, payphone callers in Northern Oregon can make a call within the region and stay on the phone for as long as they like. The same rate applies for calling card and collect calls. The calls are made by dialing 1+503 or 0+503 before the number. Local calls are still a quarter.
In a disturbing little bit of revisionism, we've noticed that scanners with 800 MHz capability, while still illegal to buy, are now defined as "for government use only" in advertisements. Anyone working for a governmental agency who files the proper paperwork is entitled to buy one of these devices and presumably listen to the frequencies that have been denied to the rest of us.
Government raids on 24 spy shops around the country were designed to keep certain pieces of technology out of the hands of private citizens. Advanced surveillance equipment such as transmitters hidden in pens are illegal for average citizens to own. Only law enforcement agencies are allowed to have those kind of devices. In fact, the federal agents who made the busts were using those very devices to gather evidence.
It's official. The trial of Kevin Mitnick begins July 10 in Raleigh, North Carolina. He will be facing a 23-count indictment, allegedly for making cellular phone calls on a cloned phone. Each of the federal counts carries a sentence of 20 years.
Assuming Mitnick doesn't receive a 460-year sentence, the feds have indicated that they will bring him up on charges in other locations as well (San Francisco, San Diego, Denver, and Seattle). Every single one of these charges is directly related to the fact that Mitnick was trying not to be captured. So why was he running in the first place? We may finally have an answer. In 1992, Mitnick was employed by Tel-Tec Investigations, a company that was being investigated by Pacific Bell. According to a source, when the company was contacted, they agreed to testify against Mitnick in exchange for leniency.
The focal point of the entire investigation was the unauthorized accessing of Pacific Bell voice mail. Since Mitnick was on probation at the time and since any probation violation could easily result in prison time, he chose to leave. And that's really the whole reason why this wild chase happened in the first place. Either he accessed a voice mail system without permission or someone else in the company did and decided to make him the fall guy. Either way, the punishment far outweighs the crime, if, in fact, there ever was a crime. And in Mitnick's case, the punishment has already been handed down; he lived a fugitive's life for years, never knowing when or if his freedom would suddenly expire. We can only hope this side of the story is told at the trial.
Anyone wishing to send mail to Kevin Mitnick can do so by emailing kmitnick@2600.com. We will forward the mail to him on a regular basis. Please remember that prison authorities read all incoming mail.