400 DEAR HACKER

400 DEAR HACKER

Dear 2600: Over the years I’ve read many letters in your magazine about how

numerous individuals have been singled out unfairly by either viewing your website or by being in possession of the 2600 publication itself.

I now am one of those proud martyrs. I’m finishing out the last year and a half of a six-year prison sentence at Delaware Correctional Center. On February 8, my cell was shook down while I was at a typing class. When I returned to my building, a lieutenant pulled me aside and informed me that I was being written up for possession of non-dangerous contraband.

When I asked what this contraband was, he told me it was two is- sues each of 2600 and Make Magazine. Confused, I asked how they could be considered contraband when the prison mailroom here has been allowing me to receive these mags for the past three years and anything the mailroom here considers a security threat they would not allow the inmate to have.

The lieutenant, looking equally confused (or maybe it was just the blank stare of a man waiting out the workday clock), gave me the “I’m just the middleman here” speech and told me I’d be moved to

a higher security area to await my hearing. Now I’m on a near 24/7 lockdown.

My point to all out there reading this is simple. Don’t wallow in self pity if you’re ever singled out by fear peddlers. Use whatever skills you have to show those ignorant of your passions that you’re driven by a healthy curiosity, not a malicious nature. Don’t waste time arguing with middlemen, go to the source. If you’re barred from doing it in per- son, don’t underestimate the powerful proxy of presence using repeated correspondence. Keep up the good work, 2600; your pages truly are the few remaining bastions of originality and free thought left.

Max Rider Smyrna, DE

BEHIND THE WALLS

Dear 2600: Every federal prison has a networked LexisNexis database computer

intended for legal research by inmates. But it’s connected to the same network that the Bureau of Prisons officers’ computers are connected to. It’s not a closed terminal. So it is possible to get in. I did it when I was at the Terre Haute penitentiary.

In addition, when I was in county jail in Portland, Oregon, I figured out that you can access different extensions that allow free court calls. If you connect to a voicemail, you can enter a different extension and get pretty much any extension in the building. One guy did it from an inmate payphone and called up the kitchen and ordered extra trays for himself.

Very Anonymous Probably not the wisest use of that little security hole. But it does show that where

there’s a will, there’s almost always a way.

Dear 2600: At this point you are like an old friend, although we have never spoken.

I have felt compelled to write for some time and, finally getting around to it, decided to go all out: this letter, a personal letter, and an article submission. (Yes, this is my first attempt at getting published. What other publication matters?)

But what catalyst led to the break in my, ahem, lazy spell? A “little” book about a hacker’s odyssey.