260 DEAR HACKER

260 DEAR HACKER

manager mistakenly sent an email which we all saw, stating he wanted the managers to use this to keep track of our productivity and I’m sure to be used as a reprimand tool. I don’t know how to fool or thwart this action other than putting a pie plate over the antenna, which could alert management that we were fooling around with this device. Is there any way we could create a jamming signal from within the cab that could screw with the communication of either the satellite or the cell transmission? Does anyone have more technical information about how these devices work?

Tired of being followed Please don’t use my name

Comfort yourself with the knowledge that there are people all over the place figur- ing out ways to subvert these things. We’ll publish the results when we get them.

Dear 2600:

I work for a very large telecom whose name I won’t divulge for obvi- ous purposes. It all began with the implementation of cameras in our workspace, then with the implementation of “vericept,” and now the proverbial straw. I work as a network security analyst monitoring several large networks investigating possible compromises and infec- tions. We all know how the pay never fits the job. So they have hired

a lot of people I wouldn’t have watching over a TI calculator. I get frustrated because nobody has a clue about signatures or even hacker methodology or can even fathom the mindset. So I decided to be a nice guy and put up a bulletin board on my machine at home regard- ing security, exploits, new code, and several other general categories. Well, the “telecom” caught wind of this and tried to force me to shut it down, saying it was a breach of company policy because of the fact

I have a security bulletin board and it pertains to my position because

I work in security. They even went to the extreme of saying if anyone from work posted on it, I would be the one paying the ultimate price.

A little background information on me and why they feel threatened.

I have been working with exploit code since I was about 15 and spent some time as a contractor for the DoD working as a security engineer

T H E M A G I C O F T H E C O R P O R AT E W O R L D

and even spent some time in the military as a cryptologist. So every move I make they watch me. Where does it say in the Constitution that you give up your rights when you walk into a place of employment? I have sought employment elsewhere and want everyone to know that telecoms, especially the large and seemingly powerful ones, have no idea what they are doing.

sting3r, CEH This kind of thing is unfortunately spreading. There are many corporations and

institutions that think they can control their employees 24 hours a day. Worse, there are so many people who just blindly buy into this, especially if the paycheck is large enough. We need more people like you to keep this from becoming the norm.

Dear 2600:

I am a sysadmin at one of the larger school corporations in a Midwestern state. I run security, run the firewall software, do backups, investigate intrusions, give advice, etc., etc. Typical sysadmin stuff.

I keep a subscription to your magazine. I find little resistance from peers or administration about keeping a copy around.

I am sometimes confronted with students who are considered hackers.

A few years ago, I was introduced to a young man (we’ll call him Tom). Tom was a real loner of a kid and seemed kind of down. He had been caught “hacking” some years before. As we all know, these types of evil “hackers” are often just misunderstood. After his hacking incident his punishment was to not use a computer for two years.

The entire school corporation, from the elementary schools to the vocational education department, knew about this kid. He had a “superhacker” reputation. He started hanging around my office and talking with me. I work in an environment that would allow him to have access to some big holes. I had administrators call me and warn me that it might not be safe to have this kid hanging around consoles