____ _____________ ___________ _____ ____\ |_\_ | _ _ |_\_ | _ | _ |__________ _ _ ___ | _ | _ | | | | _ | | | | |-| _ | | ______\ | /___ | | | | | | | | | |____ | ___| | | | |-| \ |zZ! /___ l______|_____|__|-|__|_____|__/__|___\___|_|_|___|_ ___________ ___________ | _ | _ | |-| | ___/_ | | _ \_ __/_|_ _ | \_ D a m a g e , I N C .| | | | | | | |___ | | | | | \_ _/ | | |__/ | | | ___| | | | | | |--| ___| | | ___| | N e w s l e t t e r |__|__|___\ |_______|_____|_____|___\ |__|__|___\ |__| Volume 2, Issue #19 (Released: 01/01/01) "Propagandize." http://surf.to/damage_inc damage_inc@disinfo.net =============================================================================== C O N T E N T S : > INTRODUCTION - An Introduction to the Damage, INC. Newsletter. > ADVISORIES - Rolling the dice: Hacker tracking and you. % Search String: {ADVISORIES} > BIG BROTHER BASHING - FBI's Carnivore devours online privacy. % Search String: {BIG BROTHER} > CONSPIRACIES AND COVERUPS - N/A in this issue. Shout "conspiracy!" % Search String: {COVERUPS} > CORRUPTION AND GREED - Politics As Usual. % Search String: {GREED} > CROSSED WIRES - cDc Global Domination Update PR for your viewing pleasure. % Search String: {WIRES} > DAMAGE, INC. REVIEWS - Snapshot of things we currently follow/read. % Search String: {REVIEWS} > DRUGSTORE COWBOYS - Got drug propaganda? Trip on this. % Search String: {DRUGS} > H/P INF0 - Bringin' back the old sk00l and hittin' hard with it. % Search String: {H/P} > INTERVIEWS & INTERROGATIONS - An interview with Grandmaster Ratte' (cDc) % Search String: {INTERVIEWS} > NEWS FROM THE TRENCHES - Damage, INC. updates, news dispatches and more. % Search String: {NEWS} > OBJECTIVE OPINIONS - Hacker Culture, The Propaganda Machine Rolls On, etc. % Search String: {OPINIONS} > REPORTS FROM THE FRONT - Propaganda reports delivered directly to your screen. % Search String: {REPORTS} > THOUGHTS, POEMS AND CREATIVE WRITING - Crazy, entropic rants & writings. % Search String: {WRITING} > CLOSING COMMENTS - Final propagandistic material for this issue. % Search String: {CLOSING} =============================================================================== < DISCLAIMER > All articles contained in the Damage, INC. Newsletter are for informational purposes only. Damage, INC. is not responsible for how any of the information presented is used. It is not intended to be a manual with instructions to be followed. We won't be held responsible for any damages caused, illegal and fraudulent acts committed, etc. by our readers. If/how you use the information included herein is entirely up to you. < COPYRIGHT NOTICE > All articles and source code contained within this file are (C) Copyright by Damage, INC. (unless stated otherwise). No part of this work can be modified, reproduced or changed in any way without the expressed written consent of Damage, INC. That means, electronically or otherwise, in part or in whole this file must not be altered. It cannot be distributed and sold for profit. You cannot claim that you wrote it, or alter any articles and source code that has been written and Copyrighted by us. Also, you must *not* distribute any Damage, INC. releases in "packages" with other text files or utilities. They must only be distributed alone in their present, original form. You are hereby permitted to read and distribute the Damage, INC. Newsletter freely to quality h/p boards and sites only. Copyright 2001 by Damage, INC. All Rights Reserved. =============================================================================== INTRODUCTION: This is the dawn of a whole new era. Imagine a universe converging on another universe and witnessing that as we travel around the sun at over 66,000 mph on our tiny blue planet. Picture technology merging flawlessly with hacking, hacker culture, and expressed in words. Technology is information. Think of that. Think about the possibilities and conveniences that technology affords you for a minute. Think about what living without any advanced technology at your disposal would be like. Would you be able to adapt? Would you survive? Would you be more, or less happy than you are right at this very moment? Flash freeze that image in your mind. Then fast forward to the future. Think of what technology *might* be like a decade or more from now... With such very rapid advancements, you may not even be able to do that. You may not be able to predict or theorize about it. It might be beyond what you can currently imagine. Still, use your imagination. What types of problems will arise due to new technology being used, misused and abused? What potential hazards could there be because of it? How could technology be used against you? And how could it be used for your benefit, to your own advantage? These are some of the questions you should ask yourself. These are some of the things that you should think about and consider from time to time. As for hackers and technology, how will the culture evolve? What will the h/p scene be like decades from now? How will hacking change? How will security change and evolve? How will privacy issues change? How will the government use technology in the future? How will private companies use it? What will they do with the information they've gathered? And how will all of it affect you? Obviously these are only rhetorical questions. They are huge, and well beyond the scope of this zine. Nevertheless, they should still be asked and thought about. Ignoring them only serves to bury your head in the sand and pretend that technology isn't changing the world. The fact still remains that it is, and it will continue to do so. It's better to be aware and somewhat prepared, than to simply walk in blind and ignorant. The same goes for security. Complacency and a false sense of security are the main ingredients in a recipe for disaster. If you think your security is infallible, without even testing it, monitoring it, updating it and shoring it up with patches against new exploits that are known, you'll be done in eventually. It's only a matter of time. When the planets collide... think of the sound they'll emit. Think of the tremendous energy they'll disperse. Think of what will be destroyed and what will be created in the process. The same goes for technology. The same rules apply as when planets collide. In this new Millennium, technology is being created, advanced and moving at the speed of light. It's like no other time in history. But it isn't all good. Monumental problems and issues of privacy are arising by the millisecond. People need to be consciously aware of how technology is affecting them in their daily lives. They need to know what's happening behind their screen, behind the scenes. As in, who's keeping track of their activities, who has their information, how many databases are they in, and how easily can their personal profiles be assembled, bought, sold, obtained through deceptive and illegal means, etc. These issues are complex and must be examined on an ongoing basis. Technology can be a great benefit. But it can also be a huge threat and a powerful weapon in the control of large corporations, government and other agencies. Big Brother isn't just a mythical entity. It's here. It lives. It breathes. It exists. Don't choose to ignore it. Don't just turn a blind eye. Don't be influenced and brainwashed. Propagandize don't criticize. Choose dictators from history to diefy and lionize. Fire up the propaganda machine, recruit and mobilize. Once the spin starts rolling, and you have them where you want them, labotamize. Take their minds and brutalize. Influence and brainwash until they respect and see you as wise. Change their ethics and beliefs and cut them all down to size. Make the masses into zombies slaves under the banner of America, and Americanize. Exploit them to death and capitalize. Then use all of that to your advantage so you can commercialize further and profitize! Go on now, propagandize. Enough ranting. Let the mind games and propaganda begin. Come with it now... ADVISORIES - {ADVISORIES} Rolling the dice: Hacker tracking and you. You feelin' lucky punk? Okay, so you aren't all little know nothing script kiddies armed with port scanners, exploits, filled with malcontent, rage and a desire to go out and get your kicks breaking into systems without forethought. However, I'm positive that at least *some* of you are. And this article was written with you in mind. The intention of it was to prevent you from doing something stupid, without first considering the consequences. You can consider this to be a warning of sorts, or a "STOP... THINK FIRST BEFORE PROCEEDING" primer. At any rate, it isn't a technical advisory. You won't find k00l new scripts and exploits in here to use. What you will find however, is an article explaining ways to avoid being traced. Along with that, there's some commentary on what's going on in the scene, with hackers (or "former" hackers) being hired to track other hackers that've accessed sensitive systems and data. Take it for what it is. The majority of it is just common sense. But I felt that Damage, INC. might as well put it out there, for clueless kids that are fucking around with shit they don't know about, and getting caught. Yes, that's still happening on a great scale. So, if you fit into that category and don't want to get busted needlessly for something, when it could've been avoided, read on. The importance of logs: Regardless of the system you're exploring, no matter what OS it's running, or how you got in, or the level of access you've managed to acquire on it, the log files are still extremely important. It's actually sickening to read about a kid being busted, or see an interview of them, and they say "I wasn't careful at all. I didn't think to edit/remove the log files. I used no stealth. I didn't have to get traced and caught. I could've avoided it." or something along those lines. If they had the knowledge and ability to avoid it, why the fuck did they leave the logs untouched? Did they simply forget, and leave them there, unmodified, in their haste? That's more than a serious error. That is inexcusable. The moral is kids, IP scanners and port scanner, and r00t kits... and all of your thousands of exploits you've collected... mean literally shit if you get in and forget to do anything with the log files. Ya dig? Location: It's the same in hacking as with real estate. Location, location, location. Say that a few times. Scream it aloud. Hypothetically, why break into say... a NASA server, or a .mil system from home using your desktop system and dialup/cable/DSL connection? Why? Why launch anything from your box that's sitting in your own home? Once again, why? And for that matter, why use your own account, with your IP address (not through any proxy servers, totally unspoofed)? Why? All too often the media gets a nice juicy story about how a "kid hacker" was caught breaking into a high profile system, downloading data from it, or launching a DDoS attack... or spreading a virus... or whatever... and they did it from home, using their own dialup Internet account and their phone line. Are they just begging to be traced? You don't have to hire a fucking expert to track you down if you're gonna be that inept, incompetent and stupid. Instead of pulling shit like a punk, why not grab a laptop, go to a payphone with a jack, or hookup to a junction box or something... have other accounts with you to use, and still take all the necessary precautions (so that it's difficult to trace the connection back to your area code, let alone you and your address/phone line) You've heard of field phreaking, right? Well, when it comes to high profile systems, *don't* fuck with them from home. Get your little field hacking kit together... and go. Stealth: In simple terms, the objective of stealth, is to make yourself as anonymous and transparent as possible. You've heard of stealth firewalls right? Essentially, it makes ports invisible... so it's like they don't exist or your system isn't online or powered on. Stealth encompasses so many things. It extends from your name, location; meaning an address, phone number, and any other identifiable things, to your connection... along with all that goes with it. Simply put, your system itself can betray you, and give away valuable packets of information which can be used against you. Covering these traces of info, or eliminating them entirely wherever possible, helps your goal of preventing being tracked. This is what stealth is all about. There are many ways of accomplishing this goal, but, it is beyond the scope of this short article. Maybe I'll explain a few ways in a future article. Stealth also includes things such as not making your actions known by means of telling others about them. And, anything that can be considered or construed as evidence against you, should be well hidden elsewhere at another location or destroyed if not needed. Trophies can get you jail time. So, safely secure your incriminating data. Closing: Yes, it's a rush. You can get a thrill out of being somewhere you're "not supposed to be". Unauthorized areas of anything (not just systems) can be fun to explore. And, it's understandable that a lot of kids get their kicks from doing it. However, think of the consequences. Don't let it come as a surprise that they exist. Playing dumb won't work. Excuses won't work. You can't social engineer the feds out of serving an arrest warrant. You can't social engineer judges in court. Trust me, it doesn't work that way kids. In conclusion, it's up to you what you do, what precautions and chances you take. If you want to roll the dice, and end up having to go through a bust situation with criminal charges laid on ya by the feds, by all means, ignore all of this. And ignore anything else that you've ever read about how to avoid being traced. Don't even consider trying to make yourself as stealthy and anonymous as possible. If you want to play Russian roulette with a loaded pistol (not revolver), start pulling the trigger kid. If you want to have a Mexican standoff with the feds... be my guest. It won't make you any cooler. Won't give you a big rep. You'll get your 15 mins of fame out of it, sure. After that though, you're still in jail and relatively unknown and forgotten. And you have a record for life. If you have no real skills, you're fucked when you get released. Is it worth it? If you fuck up, that's what it's like. Think about it. Prepare. Be aware. Be stealthy, logical, methodical. Plan things well ahead of time. If you're setting things up, double check it. Test it on systems of far less importance. Consult someone you trust and seek advice. Think about what might go wrong ahead of time, instead of after the fact. You don't want to be sitting in a cell, serving time, saying "Damn, I wish I would've done this... or hadn't forgotten to do that..." As if it isn't obvious already, this is serious now. You may think exploring someone's system, reading and downloading data files isn't illegal. You may decide to be lax in your measures due to that thinking. Well, that logic isn't just flawed, it's totally fucked. In case you haven't realized it yet, if you play around on any sensitive systems, they will try to pursue you no matter what. You can break into U.S. systems from England, and they'll try and track you and hunt you down. Yes, that's a fact. You don't have to use or sell any of the information you take either. Hell, you don't have to take a single 1 byte file. Once inside, it doesn't matter what you do. If you leave a trace, that's grounds for them to go after you. Think first, then act if you think the benefits outweigh the risk. Written by THC Phreak / Damage, INC. (C)opyright 2000. BIG BROTHER BASHING - {BIG BROTHER} FBI's Carnivore devours online privacy. In its heavy-handed efforts to wage war against crime, the FBI has unleashed another privacy killing weapon upon "thought criminals" that "threaten" the United States of America. Despite an extensive arsenal of electronic surveillance systems and techniques, the FBI deemed it necessary to create the software program known as "Carnivore." The official purpose of Carnivore is so the FBI can conduct electronic surveillance of email and Internet communications at an Internet service provider (ISP) facilities in order to fulfill "legal court orders." In other words, Carnivore is the FBI's primary Internet wiretap. The FBI stated that Carnivore is needed in order to "provide jurors an opportunity to determine factual issues based upon a defendant's own words." Who are examples of suspects that the FBI would use Carnivore to eavesdrop on? FBI Assistant Director Donald M. Kerr answered that question at a House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution: "Criminals use computers to send child pornography to each other using anonymous, encrypted communications." "Hackers break into financial service companies' systems and steal customers' home addresses and credit-card numbers, criminals use the Internet's inexpensive and easy communications to commit large-scale fraud on victims all over the world, and terrorist bombers plan their strikes using the Internet." It makes me sick to see that the FBI Assistant Director places hackers akin to the perverts, fraudsters and terrorists that he mentions. However, it isn't surprising to get that kind of fucked up rhetoric from the Thought Police. The FBI violates the privacy of innocent citizens far more brutally than hackers could ever desire to. The FBI has been very cautious not to reveal many details about how Carnivore works. Briefs regarding Carnivore that have been sent to the Department of Justice and the White House staff have been classified. The FBI is concerned that publicly revealing certain weaknesses or other technical information may allow hackers to defeat Carnivore. What they did reveal on their web site is a very basic description of how they claim Carnivore works, which I have imported below: "The FBI connects a commercially available one-way tapping device at the ISP's access point. This tap produces an exact copy of all data at the access point. The tap also provides electrical isolation to prevent Carnivore from having any kind of impact on the ISP's network. The copied network traffic then flows into the collection system where it is compared against a predefined filter. This filter only passes traffic authorized for capture by the court order. Traffic that passes through the filter continues on to be archived to permanent storage media. No other data is ever stored to permanent media, nor is any information recorded about traffic that does not match the filters. All information collected is maintained and, in the case of full content interceptions, is sealed under the order of the court. This information, as well as information obtained pursuant to pen register and trap & trace authorities may subsequently be made available by the court to the defendant." "[Carnivore] provides the FBI with a unique ability to distinguish between communications which may be lawfully intercepted and those which may not. For example, if a court order provides for the lawful interception of one type of communication (e.g., e-mail), but excludes all other communications (e.g., online shopping) the Carnivore tool can be configured to intercept only those e-mails being transmitted either to or from the named subject. Carnivore serves to limit the messages viewable by human eyes to those which are strictly included within the court order." If the FBI told the truth above, they would have us believe that Carnivore is a sophisticated filtering program that agents would use to view Internet traffic that only pertains to the court order in their possession. If this isn't disinformation, I still have a definite problem with the fact that all ISP traffic is at the fingertips of the Thought Police. In the past, there have been confirmed reports of wiretap abuses by the FBI. However, instead of performing wiretaps in violation of the 4th Amendment on a small number of phone lines per search warrant, the FBI agents would have access to all of the traffic on an ISP. In my opinion, it would be the equivalent of allowing the FBI to have instant and convenient access to every single conversation on several huge trunks. Then a filter in the earpiece and the agent would be told, "OK, you have the ability to listen to any conversation on a trunk full of phone lines, but you have to use this earpiece filter to only listen in on the little line that pertains to your court order." However, it is also possible that the FBI is overstating the abilities of Carnivore. It is uncertain if the FBI has the ability to write something that could capture and scan so much data without bogging down an ISP. Regardless of Carnivore's true nature, it all comes down to trusting the FBI, and the agent using Carnivore. It is the corrupt FBI agent that would violate the privacy rights of an innocent person. There have been enough reported privacy abuses, that the FBI should not be blindly trusted with such tools. After researching the FBI's long track record of civil privacy rights abuses, I firmly believe that they should not have tools such Carnivore available to them. Big Brother and the Thought Police cannot be trusted. ISP owners also have concerns with being forced to allow the installation of equipment and software onto their systems without knowing the full nature of how it works, or what it is doing to their system (performance and security concerns). Some want the FBI to publish information on the software used so that ISPs can be sure that it does what the agency says. Also, several civil rights groups, including the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), have expressed grave concerns about Carnivore. Most of their concerns relate to the fact that the FBI is unwilling to give any substantial detail as to exactly how Carnivore operates. In fact, the ACLU has requested that the FBI surrender Carnivore's source code so that it can be analyzed. FBI has flatly refused to honour the requests of any of the civil liberties groups. The FBI may be able to ignore organizations like the ACLU, but they were surprised by the concerns of some U.S. Congressmen. "The potential for abuse here is tremendous," said Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.). "What you're [The FBI's] saying is 'Trust us.'" The toughest questioning came from Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Robert L. Barr Jr. (R-Ga.). Nadler peppered the officials with a series of questions that underscored the point that Carnivore, under the laws that govern pen-register surveillance, could be used without the difficult showing of "probable cause" required in a telephone wiretap. After the hearing, House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey issued a statement saying members of both parties showed "strong concerns that the administration is infringing on Americans' basic constitutional protection against unwarranted search and seizure. "We should be sensitive to any potential for abuse," said Florida Representative Charles Canady, the panel's chairman. "Even a system designed with the best of intentions to legally carry out essential law enforcement functions may be a cause for concern if its use is not properly monitored." The stunned FBI replied that their agents have too much integrity, and would risk their careers if they used Carnivore outside the scope of their search warrant. In fact, most of the information regarding Carnivore on the FBI's web site is dedicated to defending the "integrity" of their tarnished law enforcement organization. I'll let you read their weak reasons why Carnivore doesn't threaten innocent Internet users' right to privacy: "The use of the Carnivore system by the FBI is subject to intense oversight from internal FBI controls, the U. S. Department of Justice (both at a Headquarters level and at a U.S. Attorney's Office level), and by the Court. There are significant penalties for misuse of the tool, including exclusion of evidence, as well as criminal and civil penalties. The system is not susceptible to abuse because it requires expertise to install and operate, and such operations are conducted, as required in the court orders, with close cooperation with the ISPs. The FBI is sharing information regarding Carnivore with industry at this time to assist them in their efforts to develop open standards for complying with wiretap requirements. The FBI did at the request of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) Implementation Section, at an industry standards meeting (the Joint Experts Meeting) which was set up in response to an FCC suggestion to develop standards for Internet interception." The FBI's infamous arrogance is very apparent. Their agents, which have gotten off free, or with mild slaps on the wrist for prior wiretap abuses, will be kept in line by the idle threat of losing evidence, or jail time. Meanwhile, they also say that Carnivore is too complicated for anyone outside of the FBI to comprehend and operate. All that tells me is the only thing protecting innocent users' privacy is internal investigations (meanwhile the FBI has not mentioned if Carnivore logs or does and audit of the agent's actions) and their assumption that people outside the FBI are too ignorant and stupid to use their system for their own purposes. Again, the message of "trust us, we won't abuse your privacy even though we need the ability to do it" is the only safeguard the FBI deems necessary. Despite all of the criticism and concerns from prominent groups and politicians, as well as individual citizens, Carnivore still continues to function the same way since its inception. The only changes proposed are cosmetic changes to Carnivore's interface. The FBI is making sure that "accidental" abuses of privacy due to user input errors are eliminated by adding a few more caution screens. While this may make Congress feel more at ease, all it does is adds a few mouse clicks for the privacy abusing agent. The fact that no external auditing of the FBI's actions was not mentioned in any of the press releases and panel transcripts that I had access to troubles me. This is absolutely wrong. No one is watching the Thought Police, but the Thought Police themselves. Again, I must say that the FBI, or any other government bureaucracy, cannot be trusted. They are incapable of policing themselves. Why? They'll be too busy watching what individuals are doing on the Internet to worry about policing privacy abuses by FBI agents using tools such as Carnivore. Written by Shatazar / Damage, INC. (C)opyright 2000. RIP personal privacy of UK Internet users? "Government is too secretive. Too many decisions are taken behind closed doors without proper consultation with the public. Government then rushes new laws through Parliament and bad legislation is passed. People want to be better informed about what government is up to, and be consulted more." --- Jack Straw Home Secretary to Her Majesties Government. First impressions to many of the h/p scene is that it is childish and damaging and there it ends for many who choose to remain ignorant. The second impression for those who are more open minded is that for some it is a means of attaining knowledge that has been purposely hidden from sight of the public. Even government officials admit they are too secretive in their decision making. So what if the government wanted to play at h/p, what if they wanted to know what was happening on the Internet within the UK or your home nation? And more importantly what the hell am I talking about? The Regulation Of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill and it's publicly reported purpose to combat the increasing problem of crimes committed online, mainly child pornography, fraud, terrorism and drug trafficking. The government already has powers to eavesdrop telephonic communications via listening stations such as Government Communications Headquarters (http://www.gchq.org.uk) and the NSA's Menwith Hill (http://www.menwithhill.com) Time to learn a new acronym GTAC or Government Technical Assistance Centre. Remember Jack Straw that I quoted earlier? He's the guy who issues the warrants to security agencies to intercept telephone and postal communications and will be doing the same for GTAC and online traffic. The RIP Bill that will allow this to happen was secretively being rushed into legislation behind closed doors to meet a 1st October 2000 deadline. It was passed in July and will be implemented on 5th October. As new legislation the RIP Bill will be costly both to personal privacy and economics. It was economic cost that saved personal privacy from surveillance legislation for the Internet before when the Electronic Commerce bill contained similar proposals (was altered and passed as law June 2000). Who was it that saved us at the last minute? Big business is who. As we all know multinational corporate entities don't like all their activities to be monitored too closely. Don't relay on them to bail us out again, do something. The cost of the proposed RIP Bill runs into millions of private and public money. The GTEC extension to MI5 (http://www.mi5.gov.uk) set up by the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) will cost œ25 million in tax payers money (unless MI5 decides to run a CIA style fundraiser, and we ain't talking yard sales or girl guide cookies). ISP's are expected to cough up between œ44,700 to œ113,300 in cost for the first year and œ19,000 thereafter, which will get passed on to their subscribers. This cost to ISP's is for the interception capabilities to be integrated into their system that they will be required by the RIP Bill to install. With 400+ ISP's in the UK that totals between œ17.88 million and œ45.32 million. Charles Clarke MP, who is responsible for pushing the RIP Bill through the House of Commons, has been noted to say that he "...wants to make the UK the best place in the world to do electronic business". Strange thing to say considering the bill he is responsible for is making UK ISP's and e-commerce business' consider migrating their operations to neighboring countries like France and the Irish Republic who are a little more friendlier. Among these are Poptel, UUnet, Claranet and GreenNet. The RIP Bill requires a warrant to read online traffic, but communications data will not require a warrant. Communications data include things like your e-mail address book and website logs. So any public authorities from Department of Social Security and Health Service to local authorities and so on can have access to see who you e-mail and what material you browse. Part 3 of the RIP Bill gets a little more interesting and concerns the disclosure of decryption keys. This requires the police to obtain a warrant from a judge. The police can request a warrant on the grounds of "for the purpose of preventing or detecting serious crime". I'll just run that by you again in slow motion "for the purpose of...detecting serious crime", not if there is a serious crime, no need for crime at all just detecting serious crime is enough. The bill doesn't stop there and neither am I. As we read further into the RIP Bill failure to comply to the warrant is a maximum of two years imprisonment. Don't bother telling anyone you've been served with a warrant because that will earn you an extra three years. Failure to produce decryption keys also means you are presumed guilty until you prove yourself to not be in possession of the means to obtain the decryption keys. An interesting twist to the law to be guilty until proved innocent. Did I mention that the government could hold onto the decryption keys as long as it likes once it has obtained them? Well it can under this new bill. A personal thought what of online traffic that somebody in New York retrieves from a server in Paris? Will that be monitored and logged if it passes through the UK? If it doesn't fall into the bounds of the RIP bill and GCHQ ignores it I am confident that Menwith Hill may keep an eye on it. A bill similar to the RIP bill has already been passed as law in the Netherlands. Here is why it exists according to Jason Thomas of PC Plus magazine. "[Proposals] in the RIP Bill first appeared in the Electronic Communications Bill. They resulted from last year's European Parliament resolution calling for interception at ISP level. This in turn came from a resolution from the Lawful Interception of Communications council (Enfopol)...looking even further back the Enfopol documents were inspired by a series of secret meetings between various international law enforcement agencies. They were called the International Law Enforcement Telecommunications Seminars (ILETS) and met without parliamentary knowledge or government supervision. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigations was the initiating body, and the measures ELTIS [I think that should read ILETS] agreed became the basis of Enfopol documents, which ultimately have dictated UK government policy. So it seems a group of unaccountable individuals from various security services have dictated European and UK policy." What effect does this have on those it is intended to imprison? If you're a terrorist or the accountant for a drug cartel conveniently loosing the decryption key offers a shorter prison sentence than your real crimes. The bill is not going to work effectively against the serious criminals it is supposed to protect the unknowing public from, a public that is suspicious of the governments intentions. The bill is flawed and can be worked around. The bill does not have power over direct modem to modem connections but this would probably be under the jurisdiction of GCHQ. For a $10,000 set-up fee and $1,500 a month you can have your web services run from a platform a few miles off the Felixstowe coast (http://www.sealandgov.com and http://www.havenco.com). The Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise insist that these platforms still come under UK law. It is uncertain if the bill applies to information stored in other countries but as Casper Bowden (Director of Foundation for Information Policy Research) said, "By analogy, you are no longer talking about whether someone has the key to a safe, the question is whether they even have a safe." By using a free archiving service like xdrive (http://www.xdrive.com) or Netstore (http://www.netstore.com) from public Internet access points in combination with steganography. For those who are unsure steganography is the concealment of information within images and sound files by using unused bits and inaudible frequencies. The RIP bill will insist you reveal the steganographicly hidden data but they got to know it exists first. This offers some protection; the hidden data has to be known to exist, so keep an eye on the information your browser leaves behind, as a warrant is not need to seize it. Some now believe that by forcing criminals to find workarounds it is encouraging them to use the Internet as a world wide safety deposit box. Things to do if you disagree with the RIP bill, one mail your MP, chances are your MP is not fully aware of what the RIP Bill means. And don't be insulting or patronizing this will not help. Not many people have faith in their MP so go to step two. It is believed that GCHQ and Menwith Hill already go out of their way to intercept PGP signed and/or encrypted e-mails, so send as many as you can, I'm sure they would love the over time. I am sure there is more that can be done, be creative in your protest not destructive. The Internet is not a birthright and no matter how many people take it and it's freedoms for granted it is a privilege and one worth protecting. In the main the Internet is self-regulating and self-repairing and will remain so if users are trusted to take responsibility for their own data and connections. The Internet is a vast entity, Damage Inc. only takes responsibility of this part, cross it's and others borders of your own free will. All information is believed to be correct at the time of writing but for up to date information visit http://www.stand.org.uk Written by Alfie Ilkins. The HRDC Big Brother Database Secrets Revealed. Look for an article on Human Resources Development Canada... and the ongoing saga that is our relationship, with infrequent correspondence by mail and bureaucracy from hell... in the next issue (hopefully). However, I can't guarantee anything as the Canadian government's response time is so utterly slow, it's deplorable. But, at this juncture, it's *their* turn to wait for my reply to the latest offering in govspeak that they've sent by mail. So, in a sense, they're anxiously awaiting my response to their last letter... and I can imagine a bureaucrat sitting there impatiently, eager to receive word from this dissident in arms. Rest assured, the article will contain some *hilarious* quotes from government officials. Things so damn funny, we couldn't have produced and fabricated something of equal humour. If you want to meet some truly amusing people, hang around government buildings, be social and strike up conversations with low level zombies employed as gophers and paper pushers... They'll feed you more material than you can ever imagine. To hold you until the article arrives, I'll give you one direct quote... "Human Resources Development Canada Longitudinal *WHAAAAAAT*???" - the response given to me when I made a formal request to see a copy of my file, while standing face to face with a government worker at the local HRDC office. That's right, she didn't have a clue what I was requesting, even though the faction of government she is employed by was responsible for creating and maintaining that specific database and files on every Canadian citizen. Either she feigned ignorance extremely well, or she simply was that ignorant. CORRUPTION AND GREED - {GREED} Politics As Usual. Bush and Dick. Bore and Lieberman. What about Bob (Dole)? Where's Ralph? Hey, there's a Pat (Buchanan) too! And for the love of phreaks, will someone please call Ross Perot and ask for his endorsement? That pint sized, midget mouthpiece that always pretends he can't get a word in edgewise is alright in my book. "Larry, can I talk? Can I say somethin' now?" - Perot on CNN's Larry King show. Hell, at least Perot has the statistics to prove *anything*. :) Whatever happened to Donald Trump? Or, how about Steve Forbes? I say they should bring those bastards back into the running. Bring em back into the mix. And anyone else with money to burn that wants a piece of the action! Plus, America *needs* preacher Gore. You know, the flamboyant, over the top, in your face Gore. The one that rants on stage like an old sk00l style Baptist preacher straight outta the early 1920s. The one with hair flying wildly in the wind, shirt buttons undone and tie loosened so it can flip flop around. The one with charisma and energy. The one that stands defiantly on stage and angrily screams "I'll fight for you!" at onlookers that've been carefully selected out of his most ardent supporters. That Gore. You know who I mean now? Preacher Gore! Ah yes, the many faces of Gore... But that's my personal favorite of all his personae, by far. Seriously folks, how many of you voted? How many of you thought it would make any difference? How many voted for Ralph Nader? How many thought the election results would be so close, and the Presidential race relying on recounted votes in Florida? Did you hear the word "chad" (dimpled, pregnant, dented, hanging, and fucked) used enough by the media? Did you enjoy the media's television coverage on election night? Wasn't that something to behold. Predictions abounded. Egg was on face, everywhere! Egg and cheese omelets for all. Crow pie by the truckload. It was a virtual feast for the media and masses. More than just watching the usual election coverage, it was time to chow down at 2am EST. Wasn't it great? "We're calling Florida for Gore. No, it's too close to call... Wait, Bush is now the unofficial President elect. Uhhhh... hold on folks. We have egg on our face again. Mix up a few more omelets for our nice shiny suits. We're gonna need it by nights end." Watching the news anchors getting flustered and frustrated was just hilarious. New Suit: $2,000 Imported Coffee: $500 Haircut: $150 Fucking up Presidential Election 2000: Priceless Oh hell yeah. All apologies MasterCard. But, that's our attempt at parody. As if all the comedy shows haven't already used your advertising campaign in parodies to death already anyway. So get over it. Politics as usual simply means a lack of real choices in political figures (or figureheads), and the same old partisan, political bullshit. This isn't about fairness. It isn't about "having every vote counted" as Gore repeated for so long ad nausea until everyone was sick of hearing it. Granted, it was very close in Florida. Still, let's face it, he just wanted to be the next President. It was all about winning. And he was willing to use his spin machine to try to get into the White House, no matter what it took. So, fuck it. Not that Bush and Dick are any better. Kids, with George W. Bush you have reason to live by the words, "PHEAR THE BEAVER!"... because our leader is a babbling idiot that can't string two words together to save his life. And he knows nothing about foreign policy, as well as many other things. Having a daddy that was President is more than a foot in the door, sort of speak. Having a brother who's Governor of Florida doesn't hurt either. Affluence and influence. All I want to know is, who the hell voted for Ralph Nader? Stand up and be counted! C'mon, some of you must have... The whole process is fucked. The entire thing is nothing more than a fucking joke. Most people are completely indifferent. They don't give a shit who is their president, as long as they can make a few bills on the stock market and buy the new SUV they've been eyeing. America is fucked. Americans are only concerned with themselves and their own personal wealth. A country divided? Obviously. What an astute observation that is, on the part of the good ol' reliable mass media. Political commentary at its best, 24 hours a day if you want it. I mean, out of 100 million people that voted, it was about as close to a 50/50 split as you're ever gonna see. And so, it all came down to people holding up ballots to the light to look for punched out chads, and make decisions on how people voted. Well, it could've gone down to a coin toss. No word of a lie. That was a distinct possibility! That's our "system" at work... Now what? It's over. Live with it. Take it. Be indifferent. Not that I expect this article to actually change anything. The vast majority of Americans are indifferent and complacent. Mobilizing the people that aren't is damn near impossible. And there's a huge shortage of true leaders on top of it all. Well, at least ones with charisma. No offense Ralph, but you don't cut it. Putting your politics aside for the moment, you lack the qualities that a true leader needs in order to inspire people and create a real, long lasting, effective movement. Someone that with their mere words, can make the rich fat cats do more than stand up and take notice, but rather, have unexpected bowel movements, is what is needed. And that someone isn't Ralph Nader. As fun loving and lovable as he is, and as much as he appeals to a certain group of college kids, he isn't the man for the job. In politics, your ideas and your heart being in the right place aren't nearly enough. You've gotta have much more than that. You've gotta have style and flash and a way to wake people up and get them all jacked up about the issues. So, with that being said, I wish Nader and the Green Party all the luck in the world. As I mentioned earlier, the system is corrupt. It's filled with greed and deception. Politicians are bought and sold. Special interest groups pay for the elections, for the most part, through political donations. Yes, reform is needed. But, *real* reform, not more bureaucracy meant to fool the masses into thinking everything has been changed and fixed. As it stands now, it's about "stuff my pockets and i'll fill yours." Yes, that's immoral and unethical. But that's reality. Obviously you aren't reading this to be shielded from the truth and influenced by spin. So, we'll give it to you straight. Things aren't going to change until the control is taken out of the hands of the special interest groups and huge corporations and put into the hands of the people. Yes, I'm stating the obvious. This won't be accomplished through the Republican and Democrat parties. Voting for the "lesser of the two evils" won't help matters at all. Being indifferent to it won't change it. Opposing it, but being complacent won't either. What's needed is a voice of change. This country needs a powerful voice to speak on behalf of the people. Change is desperately needed, but it'll never happen if we just leave it in the hands of our current "leaders", and assume they'll get the job don't. They won't. They lack the necessary power to do it. They lack the desire to get it done, at all costs. They aren't motivated to take action, since they're all extremely wealthy. I can say with almost absolute certainty that of those of you that voted, the people you voted for are all much richer than you and I combined. So, without a real interest in this, why would they work their asses off to change it? For the most part, their only interests are getting richer, acquiring power and obtaining a level of fame that many of us can't even imagine. That's their stake in it. So, why the hell do people expect *them* to *change* things? It's illogical to do so. Only a fool would make make a conclusion like that based on those circumstances. They aren't going to shoot themselves in the foot for your sake, for your benefit. They'll do what benefits them alone. And they'll continue doing just that, until we collectively choose to stop them... Written by Blackie Lawless / Damage, INC. (C)opyright 2000. CROSSED WIRES - {WIRES} Global Domination Update PR for cDc. For your viewing pleasure, here's a little something from cDc. _ _ ((___)) cDc communications [ x x ] Global Domination Update #28 \ / "A Special Message of Hope" (' ') December 24th, 2000 (U) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE A TIME OF GREAT REFLECTION IS UPON US A lot of major events have happened since the last Update... the release of Back Orifice and BO2K, a completely redone web page, and the formation of cDc's Hacktivismo subdivision. But since our birth in 1984, the bread-and- butter of cDc is our routine creative output. That's what these updates are about, and act as sort of a "State of the Union' address to fill you fine, upstanding, sexy folks in on the progress of The Struggle. The United Arab Emirates have recently banned access to our web page from the grasp of their citizens. Why? Because the international press has gotten wind of and started to write about Hacktivismo's upcoming "Project X" - which promises to bypass Internet censorship. Watch for more in the upcoming months. It's a traditional manger scene where Mary and Joseph beam with wonder at the radiant baby Jesus, the wise men and shepherds doing likewise. The animals are milling about in the background when a cow munching on straw picks up the baby Jesus by the head and starts chewing. "OH MY GOD!!! It's eating the Messiah!!!" Jesus' little baby legs kick wildly and the frantic parents, wise men, shepherds and maybe an angel or two rush around smacking the cow on the head while tugging on the baby's legs in a desperate attempt to free him. "Bad cow! BAD COW! Don't eat the Messiah! Stop eating the Messiah, cow! BAD COW!!!" And that, boys and girls, is why we make hamburgers from cows to this very day. "Manger Scene" by Scott Christensen. _________________________________/ - x X x - \______________________________ _ _ information is junk mail: _ _ ((___)) THE TEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE ((___)) [ x x ] _ [ x x ] \ / _ |_|_ _ _|_ _|_ |_ _ _| _ _. _| _ _ \ / (' ') (_|_|| |_ (_) | |_ | |(/_ (_|(/_(_|(_| (_(_)\_/\_/ (' ') (U) (U) deal with it presents unto you our personal gift of love deal with it S U C K E R NEW RELEASES S U C K E R __________________________________/new audio\_______________________________ "We make hardcore jams, so fuck respect..." -Eazy E 248:"What You Thinkin' 'Bout" by Lo-Pro. This slowed-down, banging gangsta track features the advanced lyrical stylings of Luck and Sage from one of the hardest crews in Texas, the LBK Mafia. All-original music by xxxclusive and Grandmaster Ratte' of cDc. Featuring no damn samples, period. 249:"DemonSeed's Night Before X-Mas" by Myles Long. A startling tale of personal redemption, as Long dictates. Script kiddie pays with his sins with his life, as DemonSeed Elite strikes with his mighty astral monster truck. 250:"cDc's NSF Holiday Training" by Delchi. There's no "off season" for the cDc Ninja Strike Force! You fool!! Suffer!! Aagh!! _________________________________/ - x X x - \______________________________ _ _ ((___)) CULT OF THE DEAD COW [ x x ] \ / wishes you and (' ') your charming family "((U)& a ( )""""& VERY MERRY HOLIDAY SEASON! &&&&&( .) &&&( )""""& """"&&&&&( )& &&&"""""""&&( ( )&&&&&&&&&&""""" &&&&&( )"""""&&&( )& ( )&&""""""&&( )&&&&&&&&& """"""( )&&&&&&( )&&&&( )& /\___/\ &( )&&&&&&&&( )&&&&&&&"""&& | @ x | )&&&&&( )&&&&""""""___\|/_&& cDc Likes You Best, __\_^_/__ ___\|/___ &&&&& | ||| | All Year 'Round! (__/ooM\__)|___|||___| |___|||___| (__\___/__) _______________________________/new text files\_____________________________ 376:"cDc's Guide to Sexually Transmitted Diseases" by Myles Long. This former Eastern-European porn star pulls it all out and lays it on the table for you regarding STD's. 377:"My Life as Santa's Rubber-Clad Love Slave" by Scott Christensen. It's It's tough being an elf... you can't reach very high, and you're easy to tie up and throw in a closet. _________________________________/ - x X x - \______________________________ From: chankins@network-one.com To: feedback@cultdeadcow.com Subject: Stupid I am a 44 year old x-marine and I like the martial arts. I stumbled up on this sick sight and would like to invite your bad-ass's over for a lesson any time some of the sick cows are in my area. I would like to practice my neck breaking tech. on a stupid cow. I live in Fulton, Ms. and work for the city utility dept. I am not hard to find. Ask for the Recon. Ranger Eddy. _________________________________/new visuals\______________________________ 1:"Build The Future" by Myles Long. A long, hard road is ahead! 2:"Anime Chicks Dig cDc" by Satoshi "Toy" Igarashi. Anime girl sitting around. Yep. 3:"Good Ol' Boy" by unknown. George W. Bush, the shape-shifting reptile- beast, looking goofy. _________________________________/ - x X x - \______________________________ Thanks to the following recent items of influence: MUSIC: OutKast, At The Drive-In, Juvenile, AC/DC FOOD: sweet-potato casserole PRINT: F.E.D.S. magazine, _The Secret Doctrine of the Kabballah_ WAREZ: Defender, via MacMAME JEWELRY: iced-down pinkie ring HOT SEX: yer momma, ha ha... A brief interview with Count Zero/cDc: CZ: "What you want to talk about? They ain't my kids and I don't know that chick. Whatever they told you, I don't know that chick." Thanks, Zero! Fools better recognize: CULT OF THE DEAD COW is a gift to the women of this world and trademark of cDc communications. Established in 1984, cDc is the longest-running crew in the telecom underground worldwide, and inventor of the "e-zine." Every issue is produced on an Apple ][ for genuine tru-skool flavor. You thirst for our body of work, you know you do. Find it at the cDc Global Domination Factory Direct Outlets: World Wide Web: www.cultdeadcow.com Usenet: alt.fan.cult-dead-cow BBS: 806/794-4362 Entry:KILL For further information, write: Email: feedback@cultdeadcow.com Postal: cDc, 1369 Madison Ave. #423, New York, NY 10128, USA xoxoxo, Grandmaster Ratte' cDc Warrior-Priest-King "We're into telecom for the groupies and money. Bling bling." __//////\ -cDc- CULT OF THE DEAD COW -cDc- /\\\\\\__ Est. 1984 \\\\\\/ NINJA STRIKE FORCE * HACKTIVISMO \////// Est. 1984 #### We will have more to say. --- DAMAGE, INC. REVIEWS - {REVIEWS} Snapshot of things we currently follow/read. Instead of reviewing web sites or whatever, we decided to just write about the things we follow and read these days... as the title suggests. If you have no interest in knowing what types of sites we frequent, and what types of texts and zines we read, as offended as we are, you can always just skip ahead to the next section and read our drug propaganda. Like we're gonna know you did that anyway... Wait, that was a little misleading. It made it seem like we're not watching you. For the record, we know what you read and what you don't. We're like Santa all jacked up on steroids with Psi powers comin' outta his ass. :) Cult of the Dead Cow - Either you get it, or you don't. Point blank. cDc gets it. Some people don't get them. Many do. All that matters is, they put out what they want and don't conform to other people. And that's just damn cool. I don't just mean in this electronic realm either. Living that way is the only way to really live. Creating what you want, putting forth the ideas you want, and doing what you want... out of the desire to please yourself instead of others around you. Read the interview with G. Ratte' in this issue for better insight on the group. SecurityFocus.com - Excellent security information on the site and in the newsletter. Subscribing to the mailing list is highly recommended. Hacker News Network - HNN, maintained by Weld Pond of the L0pht (now @Stake), has a wide range of newsworthy articles and is updated regularly. The site also has a web site defacements list (from attrition.org), for the kids that want to see all phreaky graphics, messages and shout outs on the latest sites to be hax0red. Hehe. Hack Canada - An excellent assortment of articles relating to Canadian hacking/phreaking. New texts are released on a regular basis. Very informative and a great resource for the Canadian scene. Nettwerked - The Clone, who is also part of the Hack Canada crew in Alberta, has put together a really cool site of his own, along with a zine, K-1ine. I realize he has been interviewed and this has been mentioned before in earlier issues. And Nettwerked is an affiliate of Damage, INC. However, it bears mentioning that with each new issue he releases, the improvements are drastically noticeable and readily apparent. If you're Canadian, his site is a must visit for the solid telco information alone. In my opinion, Nettwerked has put out some of the best quality t-files in the Canadian scene... Adbusters - Culture jamming, Spoof ads, Magazine, Uncommercials, Campaigns like "Buy Nothing Day", etc. Are you tired of commercialism infiltrating *every* area of "society" and aspect of your lives? Go here and read, then act. www.adbusters.org rTMark - An actual corporation that's about trying to improve culture. As they say "it seeks cultural profit, not financial." What a novel concept! Another quote from their FAQ "rTMark supports the sabotage (informative alteration) of corporate products, from dolls and children's learning tools to electronic action games, by channeling funds from investors to workers for specific projects grouped into "mutual funds." Go there, read and get involved with their various projects. A very cool site that's *about something*. www.rtmark.com We also read a lot of the texts and zines on www.textfiles.com and http://scene.textfiles.com as well. Plus, we still read some of the zines we reviewed here in previous issues, etc. DRUGSTORE COWBOYS - {DRUGS} Got drug propaganda? Trip on this. We brought back the Drugs section, but decided to give it a hip new name. Yeah, that's right. We changed it *just* so you'd think it was cooler. The new name refers to the movie "Drugstore Cowboy", which has a cameo appearance by Burroughs... who plays an old junkie. ;) A cool movie, and a fitting title for this section... as it reflects what it's about quite nicely. The anti-drug campaign (or spin/propaganda machine) has been going steadily for well over half a century now. You would think that people would be more informed and enlightened in their views on drugs and drug use by now. But governments, law enforcement, the legal system, medical associations and doctors don't seem to be getting it. Not in most countries at least. Not yet. Some of the most hilarious drug propaganda is circa 1950-1960. In that era, it wasn't uncommon for people, especially parents of teenagers, to believe that their kids would go insane and become sex crazed maniacs from indulging in smoking marijuana. Some even thought their children would become enraged, pyschopathetic killers. As laughable as that sounds, it's true. They thought that was a real possibility. And the government was behind spreading those types of outright lies, through their own campaigns. Rumours became truths. Were the 50s perfect? If you wanted to live in a make-believe... dream world, far separated from reality, then maybe. Regardless of all the lies that were spread, people still used drugs throughout the 50s. The propaganda meant to fool and scare people failed then, and it's still failing miserably now. In the 1980s and 90s, the government really stepped it up a few notches. They began to run commercials that were chock full of "shock value" -- at least, as much as they could possibly put into them. I'm sure you've all seen the public service announcements on television. Well, those of you that watch TV must have. What about currently? Well, the anti-drug propaganda is still out there, proliferating as it always has. That hasn't changed. That won't change, until people realize that it's about *personal choice*. Drugs can definitely affect some people's lives adversely. In other words, it fucks them up and they'd be much better off without using them. For others, it's a source of inspiration and creativity. As strange as that might seem to some people, it's true. Regardless of what you use, or don't use, just consider this. Get the straight facts before you start fucking around with things. If you think you can shoot heroin once, to experiment with it, just to try it, think again. It's possible, but it's also more likely that you won't stop at using it once for the experience. Unless it does nothing for you, which is pretty rare. And whatever you choose to do, research it first. And if you decide to use pills, get them tested first if you can. You never know what shit is going to be mixed in, or what it really is at all unless you do that. You don't want to be doing things that aren't pure. But with h, you don't want to shoot some that's *too* pure either. Anyway, just think about these things, or stick with smoking dope. By the way, I'm not preaching. Do whatever the hell you want to do. But being careless doesn't make you cool kids. Dying young doesn't make you cool either. Remember these things, and make your drug experiences as safe as you can. Written by BLACKENED / Damage, INC. (C)opyright 2000. H/P INF0 - {H/P} Bringin' back the old sk00l and hittin' hard with it. Yeah, that's right. We are bringin' it back. It ain't all about the Gnu exploitz. Sometimes you've gotta go back to the old sk00l... and thus, we're giving you a healthy dose of it. Coloured boxes? You know it doesn't get anymore old sk00l than that! Bell Centrex Explained. While on a trashing expedition, I found some papers that contained information about the Bell Centrex telephone service. In this article, I will give you a brief explanation as to what the Bell Centrex service is, who will have it, and a list of features that can be taken advantage of if you have access to Centrex. Bell Centrex is a service that Bell Canada attempts to sell to small businesses that are too small to purchase a PBX system, but have outgrown the limitations of basic POTS business services. For example, a small business may want an easy way to have phones in their building to have their own assigned extensions. Bell will try to sell Centrex because they can set it up to do this for a potential customer. All Centrex customers will be locked into a three-year contract, so if you find a business that has just signed up, you'll have three year to take advantage of the basic features that they will have (if you're interested in them). At the site of the Centrex subscriber, there is no hardware or software that enables them to obtain Centrex services. The actual Centrex system is housed and maintained in the confines of Bell Canada. When someone subscribes to Centrex, they are given a piece of paper stating the date that they will switch over from the POTS to Centrex. That transfer also happens at Bell. Unless the subscriber has problems, a technician will not have to visit the subscriber in order to connect them to the Centrex service. Bell has made Centrex so that people that have very little or no knowledge of the telephone system think that it is a PBX. The first trick they used is to require callers to press "9" in order to dial out. Rudimentary extension service is another ploy to make people believe that they are using a PBX when it is just the POTS with some extra features thrown in by Bell. The truth is that Centrex is a PBX sham, and has none of the flexibility or expendability that any real PBX system has. For small business owners that have little knowledge of the telephone system and don't know or care about what a PBX is, they will be attracted to Centrex because of all of the "SmartTouch" services that Bell has given Centrex as standard features. In fact, don't be surprised if you find that Bell has sold Centrex to small businesses that have not outgrown the capabilities of the POTS. If the business subscribes to more than three features like Call Waiting, Caller ID, Call Forwarding, etc. it is cheaper for them to subscribe to Centrex then to stay on the POTS and subscribe to individual features. This can be valuable to a field phreak that can find a Centrex subscriber because they will all have the same set of features, and could have them for a substantial period of time. I have typed up, word for word, the poorly written Bell Centrex list of features that I found for your reference. You will quickly notice that Bell has given Centrex features different LASS codes in order to activate/deactivate them: Subject: Dialing Plan & Centrex Configuration & Features 1. To dial local or operator assisted calling card calls press "9" as the leading digit. Please remember to reprogram any auto dial or circuit alarm numbers as per the above dialing plan (ie. Interac, visa/master card machines, built in speed dial's on your fax). 2. Call Forward Calls Externally 1. Lift the hand set 2. Depress *70 3. Listen for special dial tone 4. Dial the number you are forwarding to (remember to dial "9" first) 5. Listen for the confirmation tone 6. Hang up To Cancel Call Forward: 1. Lift the hand set 2. Depress *71 3. Listen for confirmation tone 4. Hang up 3. Transfer Calls Externally: 1. Press the Link key (this places the caller on hold) 2. Listen for the special tone 3. Dial 9 + 7 digit telephone number of the person you are transferring to 4. Announce the call 5. Press the Link key (this brings the call off hold 6. Hang up 4. 3-Way Conference Call 1. Follow the above procedure to the point of announcing the call 2. Press the Link key 3. You now have a 3 party conference call using only one line. If there is no answer, or it is busy, press (LINK) twice and you are back with your original party. 5. Call Park: 1. Press LINK 2. Dial *72 3. Listen for confirmation tone. 4. Replace the handset 6. Speed Call Short (0-9): To Store 1. Lift handset 2. Press *77 3. Dial one digit code and telephone number (ie. 0+9+888-1111) 4. Replace handset To Use 1. Lift handset 2. Press * followed by one digit code (ie *0) 7. Ring Again: To Use 1. You have called someone and have received a busy signal. Press LINK + *76. Listen for the confirmation tone. 2. Replace the handset. 3. When the called station becomes free you will hear the Ring Again notification (one long and two short rings. Lift the handset. The call will automatically ring. To Cancel Ring Again 1. Lift the handset. Listen for the dial tone. 2. Dial *76. Listen for the confirmation tone. 3. Replace the handset. Your request will be cancelled. 8. To Call Forward on a No-Answer Condition: 1. Lift handset and pick telephone line 2. Dial *90 (listen for confirmation tone) 3. Enter the telephone number you wish the call directed to either an external number (9+7 digit telephone) or internally to a 4-digit number within the office. To Cancel Forward on a No-Answer Condition: 1. Lift handset and press a line 2. Dial *91 (listen for confirmation tone) 3. Hang-up receiver 9. To Call Forward on a Busy Condition: 1. Lift handset and pick telephone line 2. Dial *88 (listen for confirmation tone) 3. enter the telephone number you wish the call directed to either (9+telephone number for an external number) or a 4-digit extension or another number within your office (last 4 digits of the telephone #) To Cancel Forward on a Busy Condition: 1. Lift handset and press a line 2. Dial *89 (listen for confirmation tone) 3. Hang-up receiver 10. Call Waiting: When to use Feature 1. To answer a second call 2. To end current caller To Use 1. When you HEAR a TONE through the receiver press LINK once. The first caller is put on HOLD automatically. 2. Replace handset. Your telephone will ring. 3. Lift the handset, you are now connected to the third party. 4. To return to first caller, press LINK once. --- Written by Shatazar / Damage, INC. (C)opyright 2000. Modem Brown Box. By Phractal. Using your modem as a bridge for two separate lines to create '3-way calling' This is a common scenario that many dialup users of the internet have on their computers. Many people have two phone lines at home, for the convenience of being connected to the internet via telephone and also being able to use the other line for voice calls. In this diagram, we start out with two separate phone lines, each having their own unique telephone number of course. One line supplies Phone A with access to a dialtone. Line two plugs directly into the modem. Almost all telephone modems have two phone jacks. One is meant for the incoming phone line (ie the line coming from the wall), and the other is meant to attach to phone (Phone B), which can be used when the modem is not in use, and will operate on the same line as line 2, naturally. This is where 'I' and 'O' labeled on the modem come into place. The 'I' stands for input, and the 'O' stands for output. On many modems, the input jack is labeled 'Line', and the output jack is labeled 'Phone'. When the modem is not in use, think of it as a router for Line 2 to Phone B. *POTS lines from wall Line 1 Line 2 Phone Line Modem Line |~| |~| | | | | | | /----------\ | | | | | | /-------------\ | Computer | /----------\ | | | | | | | @@@@@@@@ | _______ \-------| had to say, since he has strong opinions, beliefs and a very unique take on things -- including "society", its rules and laws. And now we're giving you even more to contemplate with our latest interview. Grandmaster Ratte' (cDc) is in the spotlight. Obviously, Cult of the Dead Cow is a very well known, revered, respected, influential group in the scene. Since 1984, they've been doing nothing short of kickin' fuckin' ass. With the longest running e-zine, a diverse group of members and a wide assortment of releases, along with media saturation, cDc stands apart from all the rest. More than just being high profile, their members have made a huge impact and countless valuable contributions. Bow to the Cow. I'm eternally grateful that he has agreed to be interviewed for the Damage, INC. Newsletter. His insight into the scene is immeasurable and comments invaluable. But enough with the pre-interview hype, adulation and near awe struck admiration of cDc. In this interview, we explore everything from the group dynamic of cDc to other topics such as Hacktivism, etc. Just read the damn interview and enjoy it without dropping your jaw so much that your keyboard becomes covered in thick saliva. This interview was conducted towards the end of December, 2000, and it commences right here... Alias: Grandmaster Ratte' Group(s):cDc communications Country: US of A Description: SWM, 30, 2 legs, non-smoker, active, fit, enjoys knitting and cats. Seeks baby seal for (c)lubbin'. Music: minor key stuff with a catchy melody, all styles Movies: sitting way down close to the screen to get my money's worth of spectacle Books: non-fiction Email: gratte@cultdeadcow.com IRC: gratte Usenet: alt.fan.cult-dead-cow URL(s): www.cultdeadcow.com - Since no introductions are necessary, I'll just jump right into the real interview questions. How has cDc managed to stay together, evolve and be so productive throughout the years? Many other groups have disappeared, dissolved and basically weren't able to adapt and keep evolving. I realize that cDc is fundamentally different, but, it's still an amazing feat to last so very long. And the fact the group is still growing and expanding its domain is also impressive. So, the question is, what's the driving force behind the group? What's responsible for it continuing to grow and thrive? And how are you able to maintain such dedication and diligence? ----- Well, cDc resulted from a name change to an earlier group called Pan-Galactic Entropy that I had started in '83, '84 in Lubbock, Texas (806). We were the local BBS scene kids, mostly in junior high, and the majority of us were running our own boards... on Apple II's, Texas Instruments 99/4a's and Atari 800's. Lubbock is a weird little college town in the middle of cotton field country. There's sort of a clique of the offspring of the Texas Tech University professors and the students who tend to find each other and huddle together in the midst of tumbleweeds and pickup trucks with gun racks. So that was us. A lot of other computer underground things came from that unlikely place. In the '80s there were two major h/p BBS's there before ours, and GwD and F.U.C.K. (now Attrition.org) started there; all revolving around the university. Enough background, now I'll answer the question... In 1986, I came up with the cDc name and Franken Gibe joined. Gibe's a really sharp visionary type, and we would talk endlessly about the hacker/BBS scene and what we didn't like about it, and what we wanted to do with our own group differently. So the two of us really put together the whole 'concept' that's been driving everything since. Fortunately, the concept is very broad and inclusive and says basically, "The technology is not the point - it's just a means to something else." That right there put us 180 degrees apart from every hacker group before and it still trips up most people I think in the 'scene' - they fall in love with the gadgetry itself and don't see that's just a dead end. Until it's too late and they're burned out from a small idea that can't grow. So our mission is to use these crazy communications tools to figure out something else. When we started, it was about using the free long-distance phone calls, and now it's on the 'net. No difference. In practical terms, you stay together through... stubbornness? cDc is my main creative outlet, I _have_ to do this. For a group to survive, I think it has to have passion about what it's doing, 'cause there's not much else to sustain it - no salaries or concrete payoffs. The most rewarding thing about it is the sense of accomplishment when you've done some work you know is good, and the feedback you hopefully get from people who dig your stuff. The trick is to keep it fresh and interesting for the people involved, which means change and growth if you're determined to stick with your plan. It's inevitable. As Woody Allen said, "Ninety percent of success is just showing up." So show up, put in work, keep doing it, and there ya go. People come and go from cDc. There have been 50 or so members over the years, and we tend to have an active lineup of around 20 people at any given time. Currently, some of the people have been in since the mid '80s and some around a year, and they're all still bringing different things to the table. The concept of cDc includes a change of roster... the concept has to be bigger than any of the people. Individuals are flighty, they change and their lives go this way and that and a group has to accommodate that reality or it can't work. As long as there are people willing to do the necessary grunt work, things'll hum along fine. ----- - Hacktivism is one of the topics that I simply couldn't ignore during the course of this interview. So let's get into it. In your opinion, what's the importance of Hacktivism as it stands right now? And, do you think it'll be even more important in the future? Will it be more of a potent tool to get political messages across? What are you views on it as a means of protesting and enacting change? I'd say right now, Hacktivism is a bubbling idea. It's still in the pot, and a lot of people are standing around the stove rubbing their hands, waiting to dig in. We've got a "subsidiary" now called Hacktivismo that OXblood Ruffin is stirring up... they're all hot-shit coders and are working on practical human rights apps that will make Hacktivism a more concrete force. Hacktivism is about finding a political, real world end to these tech means... which is exactly the same as the cDc concept. So it's another way to spread our idea about what the point to all this is. Yes, I think it will be very important in the near future. I think a lot of people are and many, many more will be picking up the flag and running with it. It's something to care about and fight for and I'm proud to be involved. ----- - Since cDc is producing and releasing audio now, and you mentioned to me that you've been really into it for 10 years or so now... I thought it'd be prudent to ask what the plans are. How big is cDc gonna get into audio and what types of projects are in the works? Yeah, I've been playing bass and guitar and yelling in zillions of noisy bands since I was 16. Then I got into hip-hop and dance production in '90 with an Amiga and a little keyboard and a 4-track. Franken Gibe and I started a punk club with partners who had a skateboard park in a warehouse and we put on lots of shows for a few years. Some raves, too. Then xxxclusive and I put together a lil' ol' recording studio in a few different places and we did tons of demo production, mostly southern gangsta hip-hop and punk rock. We're gonna be very into audio, at least as much as we've been into text files. The first MP3 we put out was in mid '97, and now we've got the bandwidth to really do things right. The plan is to target the music scene specifically with our audio and do lots of stuff with the guys running Shoutcast sites. So we'll plug along with our telecom, no-budget way of doing things and then a few years later the old conventional scene maybe will notice what we've been up to. That seems to be the way it goes. ----- - cDc is infamous for its media relations. By that, I simply mean, the group is very well known in media circles, and utilizes the mass media as an outlet. In fact, in my view, you're masters at it. My question is, how was this relationship with the media formed and achieved? Who is responsible for forging these media relations? And how important is the media aspect to cDc? In school in the late '80s I wrote a paper about "electronic publishing" and how important I thought it would be and the professor said it was a ridiculous idea. Ha. In college, I got a degree in telecommunications - which means radio and TV stuff. I also had classes in journalism, public relations, marketing, advertising, and media law. So I was in all these classes learning about dealing with the media, and I thought, "Well, we've got a magazine, sort of, so why not act like it?" I was just using standard media relations tactics in a new environment. I'd scour every magazine I could find for email addresses (this was way before dot com mania and e-i-e-i-o-everything) of "movers and shakers" and send them press releases about our stuff. Relating to the media is very important for cDc for two reason. One, because mass media is how you spread a message - advertising costs money, but public relations work is free. Two, because in the context of what we do, issuing press releases and fielding interviews and such is freakin' hilarious. And so, the more the better. We catch flack from a few humorless gimps in the hacker world who don't get it, but the press aren't the enemy. They're just cats doing their job and most of 'em are cool folks. They want a hook, they want "riveting drama", 'scool. You hang out with a reporter at a restaurant, they pay for your food, you tell 'em a story. If it's not you, they'll just go find some other car wreck to look at. Different people in the group field different kinds of questions, so between us we can cover things pretty well. ----- - On a similar note, cDc has always been excellent at promoting itself within the scene, and even outside of it. The group is well known for its unmistakable style and flash. And so, relating to this, how do you put together the shows you put on at the various hacker cons the group attends? We use a lot of antihero imagery to wrap up an essentially positive message - most people figure it out but a few knuckle-draggers don't get it. That's ok, they don't have to. We do these things because it's fun to scheme and plot and use these techniques in this context; we're playing around. We're not making money and we're not trying to trick anybody. The attitude is that we definitely want everybody in on the fun, ya know. The only market we're interested in is hearts and minds, and the point will be more clear as our agenda emerges over time. We plan for the shows we do in email mostly. Then as the time draws near, a lot of work goes into getting lights and sound working right (sometimes) and whatever printed materials we're giving out to press, throwing to the crowd, etc. We have to put the recorded audio together on a CD, and maybe there'll be some video. Which is a nightmare with video projectors and such. Of course you've gotta have some sort of show concept, and you have to script out who's saying what and when. Then you've got costumes to put together, and props and figuring out how to get all your junk to the location. When you see the stage, you have to figure out staging: how you come in, where you stand, who does what where. How the lights are going to work. The audio cues. At H2K we had a theater group doing a play and so I had to meet with them several times for script-writing and rehearsals. They did a great job. We also did three musical numbers, and so the people involved with that had to know how the songs went and what they were supposed to be doing. It's a whole big fat ton of work to put on those shows and they cost quite a bit of money to do. We don't get paid for them either, so we hope to make some of the money back with t-shirt sales. ----- - Judging by their writing, quotes in articles and interviews, each member of cDc seems to have a very distinct style, unique personalities and interests. It's a group of real individuals, which is very cool. And you keep it fresh, by adding members, expanding, constantly getting into new things, etc. The group as a whole seems to have its own culture, at least that's how many outside observers view it. More than just a generic hacker culture. Can you rant a a little on cDc culture, and give us an idea of what some of the basic ethics and ideals of the group are? Is there anything that isn't permitted within the "boundaries" of cDc and all that the name encompasses? Yeah, everyone in cDc is definitely their own person and we want them to project their characters as much as possible. We have an internal culture of communicating on a personal level with each other, in most cases for many years. Before everyone had Internet email, cDc communicated through a private message board on the Demon Roach BBS. Then that switched over by the early '90s to an Internet mailing list we're all on. We talk about intimate details of our lives, know embarrassing things about each other, etc. There are cliques within the group, but for the most part we're all fairly close friends. I guess you could say the culture sort of comes from knowing that this isn't a regular hacker group, it's not supposed to be, and that we're pushing for something else. Finding something else is the culture of the group. That's what keeps it fresh and interesting for us. Being in cDc is like being in a band, or a gang, or both. But it's a new definition without the traditional boundaries. It's much better. It's an ideal, a lifestyle. The ideal is to be this renaissance person, mad ninja skills in all aspects of life, enlightened, uber-el33t, etc. So maybe you're really a bit lamer than all that superstar stuff, but ya know, at least you can inspire your own damn ass. And that's pretty cool. ----- - How has cDc changed since you first started writing and releasing issues? I still vividly remember reading cDc's t-files from the 80s... with the early ones including song lyrics for albums, lists, telecom terms and that sort of thing. The evolution of the group was so clear and apparent as each year passed. Was it as natural an evolution as it seemed? We started doing text-files in '84 and over the next year or so we had amassed quite a few. With the name change to cDc, we started numbering the text files to make them collectible, so you could tell if you didn't have them all. Before that, nobody was numbering anything. Quite a few t-files didn't make the cut at that point, though you might still see them floating around. So by then we had a little 'zine with enough articles to warrant our own subdirectory on a BBS. The next issue was distribution, so we made a point of making damn sure all our files got onto the biggest h/p and text BBS's at the time. We would recruit sysops into our efforts; for a long time we had an organized "Factory Direct Outlet" distribution plan to guarantee certain BBS's would carry our releases as soon as they came out. So we basically churned away like this, growing gradually, until 1993 when Drunkfux set up our first Internet site, cypher.com. Mindvox was also huge and we were all over it, a telnet-able BBS in New York that everybody who was anybody was on. This was when the "cyperpunk" thing was happening, the last of the big hacker-scene busts was going on, and we started doing press releases through Internet email. We had a _massive_ email list then, which I'd send out manually one at a time and it took days to send out a PR. The goal was if you had a computer and a modem, we wanted to be in your face about cDc. This was when the hacker cons became more widespread... SummerCon had been going on yearly in St. Louis with the Phrack scene, but now Defcon started and Drunkfux had his HoHoCons ( in my opinion, the best - freakin' NUTS - cons now are watered-down pussy shit compared to those). So by the early '90s, the Internet happened and we grew beyond the BBS scene and that's been the situation. We've been wanting deliriously to do wider media than t-files for almost ten years now but didn't have the bandwidth to handle the kinda traffic these releases move. I'm very excited about that stuff. The cDc web site has been totally redone six times now I think, and the latest is kinda cool. It has a "content management system" - w00. ----- - What do you think the legacy of cDc will be? What will the group be doing 5 or 10 years from now? Yes, I'm basically asking you to predict the future. ;) Astral travel. Building an army of psionic warriors to battle the alien reptilian overlords in the 4th dimension for the fate of mankind. ----- - Excluding BackOrifice and BO2K, what has cDc written or done that made a huge impact on the scene? (including texts, ideas, ideals, terms coined, philosophies, etc.) And which cDc issue stands out in your mind, and why? I think our biggest impact has been the idea of electronic publishing, through the e-zine, webzine, whatever. BO is a cool app and made a lot of noise but in the big picture, coming up with "new media" is a way bigger deal. We're sort of in a weird position, because on one hand we're the flagbearers of certain "old skool hacker" traditions - on the other hand, we were all about breaking from some of that when we started. Now the cultural enemies are the dot com ninnies and the scared reactionaries who come following them not realizing what they're getting into. You can't just hide the Playboys in the dresser and keep the scary books out of the library any more - gee, maybe you should stop treating your kids like retards who have to be sheltered from anything challenging, and they'll turn out better. I'm digressing, sorry. I guess the influence to the hacker scene in general is the attitude that we're here to have fun and build something cool. In particular, there are tons of details... I'll see quotes from us in the mission statements of groups, unattributed. File templates cut and pasted from ours. Too many to think of. Tons of times I'll be reading somebody else's etext or whatever and think "Oh, that came from my...so and so". References and whatnot all over the place. It's cool, it's fine. Everything's always built on what came before. We were looking at the Apple Mafia and LOD/H and figuring out what we didn't wanna do in the early days, and now we're thinking about the Rolling Stones (in '73) and KISS. But the most important cDc innovation: MIXED-CASE ACRONYMS!! The cDc file that stands out the most to me is #200: "Super mega blah blah blah." That damn thing took like a year to put together, and I remember finishing it up at some crazy hour of the morning just before I drove off for 7 hours to a HoHoCon. I hadn't put out a file all year, we had been stuck at #199 forever and everyone in the group was pretty pissed off. So I basically couldn't show my face without that file. I brought it on a floppy and all was well, and I still think it's the best file I've done by far. I've been really happy with the concept, an elaborate Dickens parody through the eyes of a BBS sysop. Another file that stands out to me is the "Six Million Dollar Man - alien conspiracy" (#253) thing. At some hacker con, Omega and White Knight had a handful of copies printed out and announced he had this "special exclusive paper" and these journalist guys were LEAPING for it, yelling "Press!" It was too funny, and something really clicked for us, seeing that. Also, I remember that Mormon-expose file by Krass Katt being kind of an "oh wow" moment, along with the first time I'd seen all that UFO-Roswell-MJ12 conspiracy stuff... Gibe and I used to sit around, freaked out, talking about all that business when we first found it on the old UFONet boards in the late 80s. ----- - You mentioned HOPE was more interesting this year than Defcon... How was Jello Biafra's speech? What's your take on cons in general? As far as cDc stuff goes, our show at HOPE last year was probably the best live show we've ever done. Then two weeks later at Defcon, very little went like it was supposed to, and it was pretty disappointing. I remember coming back to the "Suite of the Elite" after the show just feeling down and mumbling to myself, "It didn't work, it didn't work." We had a lot of communications problems within the group leading up to it and we weren't really on the same page. And then tons of technical glitches and general confusion led to a half-assed show. But we learned a lot about what not to do and to not just assume things will work out, and next year should be insane. Jello Biafra's speech was really cool, I think it's definitely what's needed - an outside voice pointing towards some sort of agenda, via hacktivism and such. I think the problem with these cons has been sort of a blase' attitude - I see a lot of kids throwing themselves in these "Internet security consulting companies" trying to act like some dim-witted view of what "professional" means and not seem like they're 16 years old. Thinking they're going to pull a L0pht and somebody's going to throw 'em some money. Get real, kid. Too much unimaginative dull thinking going on, people not seeing the big picture or thinking about the potential here. Enough complaining though, cons are still great and everyone should go if possible. It's really fun to meet people from the pages and IRC and hang out for a weekend. ----- - Do you want to give any shout outs to anyone? Yes, everybody who's helped us out in some way over the years. Carried our stuff on their system, put a sticker someplace, bought a t-shirt, sent some good feedback, told someone about cDc, lugged stuff around at a con, wrote a story about us. We appreciate it very much. We're so grateful to everyone. ----- - Thanks for doing this interview. We really appreciate it. Thank you, it was fun. Happy New Year, y'all... G. Ratte'/cDc ----- Afterward: To say the very least, interviewing Grandmaster Ratte' has been a real highlight for me, and has made this issue special. I remember reading cDc issues in the late 80s, when I first got into BBSing and the whole text scene. In all honesty, I grew up reading cDc. Their files are the biggest reason that I got into this at all. And, I can still vividly remember scanning while reading the latest cDc issues. ;) So, massive thanks to G. Ratte' and the rest of cDc for putting out such high quality material throughout the years. It's amazing how they've been able to play such a prominent role in the scene for so many years, and still not take themselves too seriously... and keep their sense of humour, etc. Thanks again for giving our readers a chance to get to know you and cDc better. And keep sending the cDc PR our way. To our readers, make sure you hit www.cultdeadcow.com and check it for all their cool new stuff. Damn straight you better! NEWS FROM THE TRENCHES - {NEWS} WXYZ Channel 7 Action News at 11 from Detroit City baby! We're down in the trenches and we're diggin' up the dirt for your reading pleasure. Once again it's time for the News. So hold onto your hats folks, because this edition has more flash, razzle and dazzle than a Vegas show and a newsstand tabloid put together. Yeah, that's right. We've got the straight dope on all the happenings. And, we're reporting live from the source, inside the heavily guarded Damage, INC. compound. So get up, wake up and come with it now! We realize it has been a long time since we've released a new issue. But since the end of June, a hell of a lot has been going on. However, we're off to a good start in 2001. And that's all that really matters right now. Our texts are now readable online at www.textfiles.com/groups/DAMAGEINC/ Yes, the URL is case sensitive. Yes, our directory is right below cDc on the groups page. We know. ;) A new edition of the Phreaky Field Phreaking List for Winter 2001 is on its way to CRTs and printers everywhere. So, look for it to be available sometime in January. Hit the site for all the details. We also have a few little projects in the works. More details will be released at a future date. I just wanted to create some anticipation and leave you wondering... Here's some hints. Think merchandise. Think phreaky. Think. OBJECTIVE OPINIONS - {OPINIONS} The Propaganda Machine Rolls On. Spinning its wheels, spinning its spin, the propaganda machine always manages to roll on. It's wheeling and dealing, churning and turning, bubbling and sputtering, but it still always manages to spout out misinformation and disinformation when it's called upon. It's a public relations machine and a corrupt politician's dream. It's big, bad, nasty and mean. And it's churning out lies throughout the world, in every scene. Propaganda is defined as being "an association, organized scheme, for propagation of a doctrine or practice; doctrines, information, etc. thus propagated; efforts, schemes, principles, of propagation." Simply put, that means the spreading of information, ideas, beliefs, dogma, principles, and systems by way of an organized scheme or effort. The focus of this article isn't just propaganda, but rather the actual workings of it. As in, the machinery that drives it, creates it, and spreads it. Picture the image of a steamroller, except it is able to travel at the speed of information, faster than the speed of light. Now think of that information being tainted and corrupted. The highways the propaganda machine paves over previously contained truth, but now they're built on falsehoods and lies. In essence, that's how it works. The question is, who's driving it? And what are the reasons for wanting to spread lies? Why use propaganda at all? What is the purpose of it? In this article, I'll attempt to answer those questions. In the process of doing that, I'll state my own opinions on the propaganda machine. Just keep in mind, no one's opinion is completely objective. There's natural bias and subjectivity built into them all, including mine. However, most people won't admit that before stating them, since consciously or subconsciously they want you to agree with them and believe everything they've written. Unlike those people, I'm willing to honestly make an admission such as that up front so that you know ahead of time. That way, you can think and form your own opinions while reading this article, without being influenced in any way to agree with me. That being said, here's the truth -- as I see it -- behind propaganda. Propaganda has infiltrated every facet of our so-called "society", from government and military reports, to campaign advertisements during elections. But that's not all. That's just the beginning. It takes on so many forms that it can sometimes be difficult to recognize as being propaganda at all. It has spread so far, that it's literally everywhere and in everything now. In fact, it has become ubiquitous. Just like Big Brother. Sure, we've written about propaganda before. And you know it's one of Big Bro's favourite tools to use against us, to influence us. But do you know how it works? Do you know how it gets inside of your brain? It's brainwashing. It's out and out mind control, just as much as any other technique that relies on technology. Hell, your television and radio are both technologies that can be used to spread propaganda. They're part of the machine. They're tools. Computers are also tools. Nothing is completely good, or completely pure. Almost any type of technology can be used against us by Big Brother. Nothing is entirely beneficial and harmless. Nothing. Obviously, the answer to the first question of who's driving the propaganda machine is Big Brother. They're in the driver's seat. They're at the helm. They're pulling the levers, hitting the switches and pushing the buttons. And they're pulling the strings too. But not all of us are naive puppets, and so easily controlled by the propaganda machine. We aren't all zombies, yet. The reasons for wanting to spread lies, disinformation and misinformation are simple. It keeps us from knowing the truth. It influences the public to think they know what Big Bro wants them to know. It throws them off track. It keeps them blind and in the dark. It keeps them down. It keeps them ignorant. It's a barricade that keeps them out of the loop. They can't get at the inside information. They can't get the real stuff, the truth. They can only feast on the lies. They can only rely on what they've read, heard, or been told. And many of them believe it, without question. The actual propaganda machine is media. And I don't just mean mass media publications, broadcasts and the the various media organizations and outlets in the world. That is, even though the mass media has always been one of Big Brother's closest allies... they aren't the entire propaganda machine. The mass media is just the biggest part of the engine. It consists of much more than the mainstream media sources and outlets. We're talking about a huge, worldwide machine that can encompass even the smallest zines, pamphlets and leaflets. Hell, propaganda can be something as small as a flyer that has been stuck underneath the windshield wiper on your car. And it can be as big as a government controlled, national television news station. It isn't that easy to bring it to a halt either, unless you revolt and overthrow the government behind it. Yes, that happens, but look at the damage that has already been done by the time it's taken off the air. Ask a Russian about Stalin, and even now, the older ones will still speak of him with reverence and respect. That's propaganda at work, long after his death. Long after the demise of the machine, the imagery it brainwashed people with can still live on. Propaganda is often spread by word of mouth from person to person as well, in the same way that rumours are. This method isn't as slow as you may believe. If people are already prone to believe something, they'll spread it like wildfire throughout their area. And in turn, the people they tell will be likely to do the same. It continues from there until entire cities believe something that's entirely false. Things have changed drastically in the last century though, with the advent and widespread use of technology such as television, radio, etc. And of course, now there's the Internet, and people have high speed digital connections to the rest of the world. And so, that just means propaganda can be spread even quicker than in previous generations. A wired world aids the spread of propaganda more than anything else. Technology only enables propagandists to spread their lies anywhere and everywhere in what equates to a millisecond. Propaganda at the speed of light. Broadband bandwidth for propagandists everywhere baby. That's where it's at. Now anyone can spread their message, and reach anywhere on the globe with it, faster than previously imagined. Propaganda is, and always has been, a powerful force. It's a tool of choice for governments across the globe. It is, without a doubt, one of the oldest forms of misleading people. And it has been a proven means of swaying public opinion and creating popularity in order to obtain power and control. Certain political parties (past and present) perfected the use of propaganda to the degree that they could attain whatever power they wanted, and do whatever they wanted, with very little opposition. In fact, the holocaust during WWII was due in no small part to propaganda. Yes, propaganda can lead to massacre. Once mastered, it can influence people to do anything. A well oiled propaganda machine can kill and slaughter anyone in its path, very easily. The corpses it leaves in its wake aren't even speed bumps. They don't slow it down at all. It just rolls on and on. Usually counter-propaganda and physical force are all that can stop it once it gets going. Propaganda warfare. That can be just as dangerous in an unstable world. So, the next time you read something, consider the machine that might be at work behind it. Rolling... rolling. Churning and burning. Written by BLACKENED / Damage, INC. (C)opyright 2000. Hacker Culture. To paraphrase what Erik Bloodaxe once wrote in Phrack during his editorship, technical articles aren't as memorable as hacker culture. And long after they were written, they aren't usually very useful either. Most often they're virtually obsolete as you would be hard pressed to find an active, working system around that they describe a decade or more after they were written. But the articles on people, the stories and the hacker lore survive years, and even decades after they're written. In this article, I'm going to attempt to explain why, as well as give my own opinions on hacker culture, past, present and future. Hacker culture grows and evolves like everything else. In hacking, it's the people that make it interesting, and the people that are remembered. Of course, many of those people are involved in groups, have web sites, and contribute to zines, etc. And so that's an important part of hacker culture as well. Stories and memories are what keep things alive. A well known hacker may decide to quit the scene, but they'll forever be remembered by alias and/or by name by the many people that remain active in it. They'll also be survived by the things they wrote during their time in the h/p scene. The same goes for hacker groups and zines. They may be retired, but they'll still exist electronically. They'll still be remembered by people, if they were memorable to begin with. Hell, there are several 1980s groups that people still talk about today, and zines from that era that are still read. They don't just disappear and fall into the abyss. They don't fade away that quickly and easily. Hacker culture survives from generation to generation. And that's actually a good thing. We shouldn't allow the past to just be forgotten. It's important to document and preserve the past. Credit should be duly given to anyone that does that. Why does hacker culture, and the past survive? The simple answer is, it's difficult to kill a legend. For example, a group that receives a lot of publicity, notoriety, and is involved in many well known events, scandals, rumours, has members part of famous hacks, crackdowns, busts, and whatever else is bound to be the topic of many conversations. Hype about them is inevitably created. Stories are told and retold. They're passed from person to person, and their name survives. The members might move on to different things, but their association with a long lasting group isn't severed. The same goes with certain popular zines. The editors become linked to that zine. The mere mention of their alias automatically makes you think of the zine that they created, or were the editor of. They go hand in hand. The same applies to people that were involved with well known hacker groups. If someone says that alias, you think of the group they were in. It's word association. In some cases, you can't think of one without thinking about the other. Here are a few things worth mentioning and commenting on: LOD Communications started a project of documenting the history of many underground hack/phreak boards in 1993. Although LOD wasn't able to gather together as many complete message bases from all the boards they had hoped, they did manage to put out quite a bit of very interesting, nostalgic material from several well known boards from the 80s, such as Phoenix Project, Black Ice, etc. And so, they did preserve some of that history, which is cool. Jason Scott of www.textfiles.com fame has done an excellent job of preserving files that might otherwise have been forever lost. He maintains a huge archive of t-files, including those released by individuals, groups and has an extensive collection of zines. Massive site... and massive props should go out to him for the tremendous work he's put into it. scene.textfiles.com also does a great service by providing information regarding the release of new zines and new issues of zines, etc. Gotta get your ascii fix. ;) cDc (Cult of the Dead Cow) has been a fixture in the hacking scene since 1984. Along the way, they've done a great deal to preserve the "old sk00l" scene, and are still releasing ascii text cDc issues after all these years... which is damn cool. To say the least, they have managed to bring the best of both old and new together, into a fine blended mix. ;) In all seriousness, when you think of t-files and electronic zines... how can you *not* think of and mention cDc? They're so synonymous with each other, so interlinked that it would be blasphemy to write an article on Hacker Culture, and fail to mention Cult of the Dead Cow in it. But, in the interest of brevity, if you want more insight on cDc... and its culture, read the interview in this issue with G. Ratte'. I decided to write this article because hacker culture really interests me. In fact, I'm more interested in the culture than ever before... perhaps more than all of the technical aspects of hacking, and latest techniques, etc. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure of all of the reasons for finding it so interesting. I just find it to be a fascinating culture. In terms of cultures, it's a relatively new one. It has only been around for decades, and not centuries. It's still changing and evolving at a rapid pace. It's still fresh and exciting. And it has some of the most unique, strange, amazing characters and personalities of any culture. Very few, if any, cultures have the diversity in individuals, or true individuals for that matter, as this one. It is, without a doubt, a culture of thinkers, inventors, innovators and engineers. It's filled with brilliant people. If nothing else, hackers are a truly unique group. They forge ahead, pressing technology forward, pushing the limits, advancing their knowledge, even when faced with overly harsh legal consequences. They've managed to accomplish a huge amount in the few short decades that the world has had computers as a tool. Yes, that's right, computers are just a tool. They don't inspire me to write, even though I use one to write and distribute material with. So, there you have it; hacker culture without it being written about by a paid journalist who's uninterested in it and doesn't really give a fuck what it is, and how it is presented or preserved. Written by BLACKENED / Damage, INC. (C)opyright 2000. Democracy: Believe what I say. Is that really democracy? What happened to the whole freedom of speech and expression part of our Constitution? Well, the fact is, that doesn't seem to mean shit these days. Political correctness has all but abolished people's ability to accept that freedom means NOT ALWAYS FUCKING HEARING, READING AND SEEING WHAT YOU WANT! Democracy is basically non-existent now though. What about the good old US of A you say? What about the land of the free? Love it or leave it right? There, I said it. That's what this is all about in a sentence. If you criticize a country, especially the one you live in, and others falsely believe that it's free... and you disagree (as you should be your right to do in a *free* country), they get all upset. Some of them become so enraged, they'll start yelling and tell you to "get the fuck outta the country if you don't like it." and use the old cliche of "USA: Love it or leave it." Yeah, whatever. There's so much freedom that if you don't love it, or if you're critical of parts of it, you're told to leave? Is that freedom? It's the old dictatorship rule of, disagree with us and what we think and you're not welcome. Well, not welcome could mean, executed in many cases. But, the same logic applies. Is that the type of "democracy" you want to live in? A country in which if you disagree with something, or are critical of a policy, or a government, the popular opinion is that you're "anti-America" and thus, you should leave? Do you want to be forced to leave? Honestly, I don't think that's that far off. If many people had their way, that's how it'd be. Is a "democracy" a place where everyone agrees? Is it a place where everyone loves everything about it? Is it a place where if you disagree with a law or a public policy, you're in the wrong? Is it a place where you're not supposed to voice your opinions and views on things? Is that freedom? If you want to be free, speak out. Make yourselves heard before it's too fucking late. Make damn sure that freedom of speech means what it says. Freedom doesn't mean thinking what you're told, and doing whatever you're told. It means you have a right to your beliefs! Don't let anyone take that power away and change the definition of freedom. And please, don't live under the false assumption that your rights and freedoms are protected. They aren't. Sad but true. America deserves better than that type of ignorant attitude, which is about following popular opinion. This country was *built on* differing opinions and viewpoints. It was founded on freedom for the individual. But each and every day, democracy is slipping away. Written by Blackie Lawless / Damage, INC. (C)opyright 2000. censorthisshit Say that a few times really fast. Sounds like censorship doesn't it? Marijuana is a gateway drug. Everything you know is a lie. The truth is out there. Tomorrow is another day. Develop a taste for mainstreamness, pop culture, cliches, consumerism, commercialism, advertisements and propaganda. Stare blankly at your television screens. Those idiot boxes won't turn you into zombies. They're just a tool. The medium is the message? @!#$ that. The medium is electronic. But this is the message. The message is the message, not the medium I'm using to send it out! However I choose to say something doesn't become the message. The message *is* the message and *remains* the message. The medium is inconsequential. The words are still mine. And the message has the same meaning regardless of the medium used to broadcast it. You can pretend propaganda doesn't exist. You can pretend hypocrisy doesn't exist. You can pretend censorship doesn't exist. You can ignore it all. You can pretend it doesn't bother you. You can be indifferent. You can be against it in your mind, and be complacent. But the reality is, it does @!#$ing exist. It's all around you. It has infiltrated every facet of your lives. It's everywhere, around every corner of "society". Some people claim to be above it. Some proclaim themselves to be anti-censorship, and yet they censor what others write in the forums on their web sites. Hypocrisy and censorship aren't just in a marriage of convenience, they're soul mates. Some people boldly claim they're against propaganda and aren't influenced by it. They pretend it doesn't affect them. They're living a lie, thinking they don't believe propaganda, and can always distinguish it from the truth. The fact is, you can't. Not always. No one can. Our minds aren't wired that way. Every piece of information you take in can be analyzed and stored, but we don't have filters to remove all the propaganda we're continually being fed. It's only natural that some of it is absorbed, believed as truth, and stored for future reference. And so, it exists in your mind. Once there, it can be spread further. Think of it as being a time bomb. Tick. Tick. Of these things, censorship is probably the easiest to fight. Well, at least in western nations. In countries such as China, it is obviously much more difficult to combat, as the stakes are a lot higher, and the people actively involved in campaigns that oppose censorship are pursued vigorously and imprisoned. We don't have that threat hanging over our heads here, yet. Therefore, we should do even more to fight against it. Think of it as a struggle for freedom. Not just for freedom of speech, but for the freedom of all ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and expression. Why must we battle against the proliferation of censorship? Personally, I don't want to live in a "society" that actively promotes restrictions and limitations. I don't want to be controlled, and have my words controlled. Many substances are already controlled by governments already... Ahhhhhh... @!#$ history and culture and truth and freedom. It's all @!#$ing @!#$ed up and @!#$ anyway right? Do you know what would be really cool? We should try to eliminate words entirely. You know, like in Orwell's novel, 1984. Without the words, people couldn't speak out. Hell, people wouldn't even be able to think dissident thoughts anymore. Thoughts would be censored. Everyone would be kept in check. We'd all be the same, thinking and talking the same. Sameness would be the order of the day. Sameness would rule. Big Brother would be victorious. And the zombies could all live in @!#$ing ignorant bliss. That isn't the type of world I want to live in, where words are chosen for you, changed for you, and your speech is at someone else's discretion. What you say should be how you want it said. What you want to expression should be the way you want to express it. Yes, that's idealistic. But so @!#$ing what! Once censorship takes hold and becomes the accepted way, you'll soon see more than "swear" words and "slang" disappearing from the vernacular. You will many limitations put on languages, and our means of expression ourselves verbally will be restricted by virtue of less choice in vocabulary. And I say, @!#$ that! My thoughts and words are my own and will remain that way. It's so @!#$ing ignorant to tell someone else how to express themselves. And saying that swearing and using obscenities is a sign of ignorance, is even worse. The old holier than thou, judgmental attitude. The "I'm better than you" or "I'm above you" @!#$. @!#$ that. @!#$ it. @!#$ it all. Written by BLACKENED . Damage, INC. (C)opyright 2000. You Can Hack Their Computers, But Can You Hack Their Minds? By: Yogini Bare (hermes23w@disinfo.net) Sure, hackers are a breed above because as long as they're hackers, they haven't been caught, and as long as they haven't been caught they've got something up on the system. Hacking is an evolutionary response to a system that doesn't work, a force preying off of the system and evolving with it like any living organisms. It's a relationship that depends on opposition, but the hacking/phreaking communities wouldn't have a rallying point if not for the corrupt and decadent meglo-monopolies that crowd out competition that isn't smarter, faster, and more willing to operate outside the box. Nor would the mainstream have a decent incentive for growth if it weren't for those people testing the limits of established technological boundaries. The mutual struggle for the upper hand sharpens the skills of hackers and mainstream techies alike. The question I pose to the counterculture is though: Do we try so hard to oppose something that we end up becoming it? It's a normal scenario; the story of the undercover cop who gets to liking the perks of the underworld or, on the opposite extreme, the ex-SLA bomber who turned into a well-to-do socialite (until the Feds caught up with her). Immersion is a common way to influence people because humans tend to adapt to their surroundings, especially under the pressure of threatening situations. It can be a situation where a person becomes assimilated into their surroundings to "fit in" or reduce hostility, or it could be the immersion of a hacker who studies their prey until they identify with it more than themselves. Either way, pressure like that triggers the natural response of adaptation. That means, the people now running ahead of the sociological pack are most vulnerable to the influence of immersion for the very reason that they are most suited to adaptation. Arrest can ruin a hacker for life, can take the spark of perpetual evolution out of them because they learn quickly what the system can do with its brute bully power. If those who are running ahead of everything choose to look back, they have a good chance of being absorbed back into the very complacency they were trying to get away from. I propose we move forward. It very well might be that Bill Gates is the most successful hacker to date because by the time the government caught on to what he was doing, Micro$oft was too big to stop. Windows software has pervaded a lot of the computers in the world just like any virus out there. The difference between it and what we would traditionally think of as a virus is that Microsoft is predominantly a virus of the mind, whereas what hackers cook up is only a virus for the electronics. People want what ol' Billy has, but the resistance people put up to a virus makes the difference between a jail cell and the Microsoft mansion. By packaging ideas in a way that makes people want it, you serve yourself as well as everybody else. To the masses, if it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, then it's a little quacker and they'll accept it. However, inside the duck you can put anything you want because its only a facade to get your ideas in. Put a candy coating on LSD and mark a little "M" on the front and people might actually go for it. Its effective because it opens up the holes in peoples' heads so you can cram a little crap into them- without the chance of getting your balls handed to you by the Feds because the system had recognized you as a threat. Come on, isn't the whole revolt against the system because that system has overspecialized and doesn't work? Why just stick to tech when a combination of it and other skills would work better? We can be smart enough that no one evens knows its hacking. Imagine what could happen if instead of fighting something, you changed what made you want to fight it all together. If you hacked into mass beliefs and made them evolve, made them want to change, where would you be then? Better ask ol' Billy... REPORTS FROM THE FRONT - {REPORTS} Propaganda reports delivered directly to your screen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CAMBRIDGE, MASS. Internet Pioneer Sees Web becoming even better Ten years after he created the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee is nurturing it into a gigantic brain, where databases get smarter and work together to solve problems. Berners-Lee terms it "the Semantic Web." To him, it's the second half of the information revolution. The Web is, of course, far from a finished product. "It's still got lots and lots of room for evolution, expansion and enhancement," said Vinton Cerf, an Internet pioneer. "It's still very much in its infancy." The Semantic Web is all about making more kinds of data easier for computers to process -- and to locate. For instance,