412 DEAR HACKER

412 DEAR HACKER

they have gone to jail to protect a friendship? Or would the friend you’re protecting do the same for you if he were faced with turning you in or going to jail? The other point being that since he would’ve been caught anyway, I would’ve been subpoenaed to testify against him because he had involved me by using my property for the fraud. To tell a friend you’re going to commit some fraud (or whatever) is not a crime, but using that person’s property and, by that, making them an accomplice, is.

The Trojan Horse Thanks for writing and giving us an even more ignored side of the story. You may

have opened up some eyes. Try letting your “friend” see this letter and he might realize that he wasn’t the only one going through hell on a rubber raft.

Dear 2600: Are any of your readers familiar with the International Day of the

Phreak? It’s an annual event that’s been going on for about three years now, with growing support each time. On the first Saturday after tax day (this year that would be Saturday, April 20), phone phreaks all over the world “get together” and do funny things to phone companies all over the world! Two years ago some pholks knocked out a Sprint satellite link by repeatedly calling the same access number with the same code from many different cities at once. It was great phun.

Perhaps your readers can suggest ideas for this year’s “holiday.” Also, does anyone know of a similar day for computer hackers? I think it takes place in the fall. (Phreaks can outdo hackers any day, by the way!)

Father This is truly horrible. Do keep us informed, though.

A C U LT U R E O F R E B E L S

Dear 2600: The following is a true story. Monday, 04/01/85 6:08 a.m. The phone rang. I got up and looked at the desk clock. It was 6:08

am, an hour before I go to school. I picked the receiver up. “Is this John McKee?” asked the caller urgently. “Yes,” I replied, half asleep. “You better get rid of your printouts and your stuff on disks. You’re gonna get a visit within the next 20 minutes,” the kid said. He hung up. I got nervous. The phone rang again. “John, this is Jim. Greg just got busted and his brother has been calling up all of his friends on a sheet Greg had. Did he call you?” “Yes, he did,” I said. “You better believe it, because you’re gonna get nailed with the rest of us. Get rid of everything, burn it.” I thought to myself, “What did I do to make them want me? Codes? No time, have to burn everything pertaining to illegal wrongdoings.” I was panic-stricken. I got it together and went outside and burned it, disks, printouts, everything. As I was return- ing to my house, I wondered if they had a tap on my line. The phone rang another time. “Oh no. Who is it now?” I went in and answered it, only to be told “April Fools!” Click.

John

Dear 2600: I’ve been thinking of starting my own bulletin board. But I’m not look-

ing forward to the possibility that some jackass will leave a credit card number or other nasty information on my board and that some even bigger jackass will see said message before I can delete it and accuse me of conspiring somehow to defraud or steal or build explosives or whatever else they happen to be afraid of will happen at that moment. The recent raids in New Jersey indicate that even a conscientious sysop (as the fellow who was running The Private Sector claims to be) can get screwed over by computerphobic police and Federal agents. What preemptive protections are available for a bulletin board operator who plans on staying within the confines of the law and yet does not want to stain her or his board with warnings and continually censor the flow of