192 DEAR HACKER

192 DEAR HACKER

I have noticed that with my remote I can walk down the rows of cars at malls or other parking lots and open a car every so often by con- tinuously clicking on the button. So far, I have had the best luck with Dodge cars and trucks.

TheFetish To Heresy

Dear 2600:

I was thinking about the millennium bug (computers supposedly will not

be able to tell the difference between 2000 and 1900 due to an error in coding, and they might interpret the change of 00 at the end of the date as 1900 instead of 2000 which will in turn cause a majority of systems to shut down) when I realized a quick fix to this might be a Morris worm program to correct the problem on a widespread basis. Anyhow, if the hacking community presents this even as a workable solution at the very least it might improve the public perception of us, especially for something we took so much sh*t over in the first place (worm).

Steven Sending worms out all over the net to fix software is probably not the best way to

make friends.

Dear 2600:

I went to a nightclub the other night and the security guard had a new ID verification machine. I unwittingly gave my ID to the guard—he “zipped” and up came all of my info. It looked like a Trans330 (credit card authorization box) but all it did was read the mag stripe on

TECHNOLOGY

the back of my ID and then verify that it was valid. There was also an antenna hanging off the side. So now someone somewhere knows simply that I drink or go out but where does it go from there? Does it know about outstanding warrants or unpaid parking tickets?

the medik It certainly could if it were programmed to do this. What we need to find out is what

information this thing is currently looking for and what records are kept of each query. While it may not be a privacy invasion yet, there is little to prevent it from becoming one in the future.

Dear 2600:

I picked up my first issue of 2600 (15:3) when it was printed last year, and after reading skwp’s “Back Orifice Tutorial,” a great sense of relief and of closure washed over me.

You see, last summer, in the guise of being my friend for several months (and via my own stupidity) a person using the BO software comman- deered my machine. At which time he/she then proceeded to format my hard drive, all the while raving something about my having at- tacked this person (claiming to be female) in the university parking lot that I was attending. I was angry and shocked—quite near the verge of outright openmouthed silence. In all my years, I had done my best to stay out of flame wars, and the BS that can wrap up and engage your full attention on the Internet if you let it, and now, here I was sitting at a nothing screen because I had let down my guard—despite all the literature I can remember reading (and still do) stating the obvious of what can happen if I should decide to take that risk; despite all the hype that the local news likes to drudge up on everything from child porn to hacking The New York Times, etc.

Although I had all but forgotten the incident, I’m glad I ran across (albeit somewhat belatedly) skwp’s article. At last I understood the