[Asterisk-Dev] OMG THE SKY IS FALLING!! NOT!!!

[Dr. Rich Murphey]

There was a fascinating telco hacking case a year or two ago.

The owner of an escort service in Las Vegas was claiming that the mob had
hijacked his phone lines and was redirecting them to competitors.  He spends
$10K or more every month for print advertising and can usually predict call
volume based on the advertising.  Then suddenly one day his phone stopped
ringing, and when he called it, a competitor answered.

So sprint checks the lines and finds nothing wrong.  In the news, the guy
sounds quite bizarre.  He's claiming that the mob is taking over the public
telephone system in Las Vegas, but Sprint, the government, law enforcement
and everybody else claims that everything's fine.

The drama during the trial was very enjoyable -- Kevin Mitnick showed how
easy it is to get the passwords for the switches and hijack them.  [just
tell a sprint engineering that you're a Nortel engineer.]  And sprint had to
eat it's words.

Cheers,
Rich

You don't need to outrun the bear, you only need to outrun the other guy.  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-dev-admin at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-dev-
> admin at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Jennifer Archer
> Sent: Friday, May 14, 2004 5:49 PM
> To: asterisk-dev at lists.digium.com
> Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Dev] OMG THE SKY IS FALLING!! NOT!!!
> 
> True or the weather can! We had our line short with another line, i could
> talk to my neighbor, she was talking to someone else, the 3rd party
> couldn't
> hear me but the neighbor could. strange stuff..
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> 
> Steve McMahon
> Digital DataBits Innovations
> Salem, OR  97301
> Office:   (503)371-6448 Ext. 2
> Cellular: (503)881-6828
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Steven Critchfield" <critch at basesys.com>
> To: <asterisk-dev at lists.digium.com>
> Sent: Friday, May 14, 2004 11:57 AM
> Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Dev] OMG THE SKY IS FALLING!! NOT!!!
> 
> 
> > On Fri, 2004-05-14 at 13:29, Jennifer Archer wrote:
> > > I think land lines are just as easy to hack into as sip (and probally
> easier
> > > than sip) but... consider this... walk down the street, open the #$%^
> CO
> BOX
> > > gain access to the F1 F2 F3 whatever bridge it onto a unused pair of
> > > wires...  and run a line to your house, what have you just done?
> hijacked
> > > someone elses line(s) ... and anyone who can put a battery in a remote
> > > control could easily hijack a land line.  SIP ... Who knows how to
> hijack a
> > > sip call? I dont... but... someone will figure it out, and someone
> will
> make
> > > it more secure when it becomes a widespread problem.
> >
> > Sometimes the telco does this for you. While living with my mom, I had a
> > ISDN line. When I moved out it was decommissioned. A few years later, my
> > mom wanted a extra line for her internet access. As the drop was already
> > there, she just ordered the circuit. On the day it was to be turned up,
> > I wired up the internals for her. Shortly after it was wired up, the
> > line rang. I picked up the line and was surprised to be in a three way
> > call with a budy up the street and a friend who was calling him. Talk
> > about security, my friend had the line for more than a year and it was
> > also terminated at my mothers house more than a block away also.
> > --
> > Steven Critchfield  <critch at basesys.com>
> >
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