####################################### # # # # # ======== =\ = ====== # # == = \ = = # # == = \ = ====== # # == = \ = = # # == = \= ====== # # # # # # # # ''''''''''''''''''''' # # # # # # > Written by Dr. Hugo P. Tolmes < # # # # # ####################################### Issue Number: 21 Release Date: January 21, 1988 Nothing much to report at the moment. There is a new bulletin board where all the issues of TNS can be found. I'm sure many of you have heard of it: Ripco International (312) 528-5020 All the issues of TNS should be availiable there. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ TITLE: AT&T to Buy Stake in Sun Microsystems FROM: New York Times DATE: January 7, 1988 by Andrew Pollack SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 6 - The American Telephone and Telegraph Company said today that it would acquire up to 20 percent of Sun Microsystems Inc. a fast-growing manufacturer of computer work stations for engineers and scientists. The agreement between the two companies allies the vast resources of AT&T., which has been struggling in computers, with the inventiveness of Sun, a plucky California company that has defied industry convention and is fast becoming one of the major companies in the computer business. Challenging the Giants Together, AT&T and Sun, which announced a cooperative technology development agreement in October, hope to create a major new camp in the computer industry that will challenge the two industry giants: the International Business Machines Corporation and the Digital Equipment Corporation. Under the agreement, Sun will sell AT&T a 15 percent stake consisting of newly issued shares at a price 25 percent above market value. The sales will occur over the next three years at a schedule to be determined by Sun, subject to certain deadlines. AT&T can buy the remaining 5 percent in the open market. At today's prices, AT&T's investment in Sun would ammount to about $300 million, the companies said. AT&T will also get a seat on Sun's board and will nominate Vittorio Cassoni, president of its data systems group, to fill it. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ 1-900s: Still Under Fire - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1-900 services are still under fire by the media. The biggest problem is kids calling 1-900 chat lines and calling porn lines (of which many are 1-900s). In California, there are something like 470 different porn lines to call. Ma Bell has started to issue a service that would cancel out the service. Certain businesses (with large phone systems) have had their phone systems cancel out calls because so many employees have been calling the different call-in services. And then there are those kids who sit around on chat and porn lp the famous $1000 phone bills. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ TITLE: Phone Credit Card Rings Up $5,430 Bill FROM: The Chicago Sun-Times DATE: January 18, 1988 By John Jeter Jeffrey Zan and Donna Plybon have been seeing each other about six months and share all sorts of secrets, including her telephone credit card number. Apparently that secret got out, and they recently received her phone bill- 53 pages long with a total of $5,430.81 for calls from California to Qatar, from Elmhurst to Ethiopia. "How many phones are in Ethiopia, you know?" said an incredulous Zang, 21, of Wheeling. "We send these guys mega-food and they're talking on the telephone. I'm serious; this is really crazy." Zang, who works for a magazine sales company in Arlington Heights, is frequently on the road and follows the "phone first" advice. He regularly calls from area pay phones, using the AT&T Calling Card belonging to Plybon, 22, of Brookfield. On Nov. 23, Zang said, he made a call from an Elmhurst 7-Eleven to a client in Roselle, and he speculated that somebody in the store overheard his conversation. "What happened was, this guy got the phone number, hearing it from me, and he called his squeeze in Pakistan, and then he gave the number to all of his buddies all over the country, and it just became a chain letter the went on from [Dec. 7] all the way to [Dec. 19]," he said, naming the dates on the bill. Plybon received the bill Friday, and the two reported it to AT&T Saturday night- after a study in geography and international economics. The priciest call was an 84-minute chat from Elmhurst to Pakistan that cost $254. There were calls from Chicago to the United Arab Emirates, from Saratoga, Calif. to Norway, and to Somalia and Singapore. "AT&T is really freaking out," Zang said. "This is my first time of hearing of a bill that high," said Vicki McNair, an AT&T account representative at Parsippany, N.J. Zang and Plybon are "innocent until proven guilty, as it's always said. So they're not responsible until we get an investigation on it to see what really went on," she said. Ron Gaddy, an AT&T account specialist, said credit card fraud, a federal offense, requres investigations that take up to 30 days. Needless to say, the card has been cancelled, though Plybon and Zang's relationship hasn't because it's based on trust, the two said. "I was just letting him us it [the card] for his business because he's my boyfriend," Plybon said. "It's not like he's going to be calling Pakistan." $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Just another case of AT&T Calling Card fraud. The AT&T account representative must have been pretty naive if she had never heard of a bill that high. This bill was only $5,430. The record is around $300,000. For more information on AT&T Calling Card Fraud see: ============================================================================== TNS Issue #6- Articn Kids are Too Dumb to Steal" TNS Issue #9- Article: "A Call to Stop Long-Distance Scam" ============================================================================== Both of these articles from previous issues are about AT&T CC fraud. The situations are both similar to this one. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ TITLE: AT&T Accuses G.S.A. of Helping Competitors FROM: The New York Times DATE: January 14, 1988 by Calvin Sims The American Telephone and Telegraph Company yesterday formally accused officials of the General Services Administration of leaking sensitive information to its competitors, enabling them to win government telephone contracts at AT&T's expense. The Federal Government has been investigating allegations that agency officials gave AT&T's confidential bid information to competing companies in return for bribes and favors. AT&T has said that such information was used to outbid it on contracts to supply the government with computerized switching equipment worth about $55 million. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Before Issue #21 comes to an end, I would like to print out a table of contents for all the previous issues. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #1 ---------------------------- Introduction to TNS Magazine - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #2 ---------------------------- Introduction to Issue #2 They Sure Can Talk in Raleigh Teaching Computer Ethics in the Schools Cash-Machine Magician Cheaper Electronics Makes It a Snap to Snoop Los Alamos Nuclear Facility Security Boost - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #3 ---------------------------- Making Computers Snoop-Proof War Against Phone Hacking Heats Up Toll Fraud Trial Sets New Tone - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #4 ---------------------------- Cellular Technology Pirate BBS Scanning Bust Rip Offs How the Soviets Are Bugging America Deadly Bugs The Newest Dating Game - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #5 ---------------------------- Electronic Cryptography Report - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #6 ---------------------------- HD Sentry: Hard Disk Protection from Trojan Horse Programs Check This: Ma Bell is a Generous Soul Sign In and then Sign On How To Beat Phone Assault Prisoner Phone Phreaks Suburban Kids Are Too Dumb to Steal - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #7 ---------------------------- Federal 5 for Cellular Phone Fraud in NYC 18 Are Seized in Illegal Use of Mobile Telephones Hello Anywhere - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #8 ---------------------------- Keeping the Secrets Inside the Computer Bugging Urine Hot-Line Innovation? Just Hold the Phone - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #9 ---------------------------- The National Guards The Caller That Isn't Long-Winded A Call to Stop Long-Distance Scam Online Junkies- Artificial Intelligence Hacking Through NASA: A Threat- Or Only an Embarassment - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #10 ----------------------------- The Bust of Shadow Hawk - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #11 ----------------------------- Shadow Hawk's Bust: Continued from TNS Issue #10 US Sprint Sues "Ring" of Hackers for $20 Million - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #12 ----------------------------- The Blue Box and Ma Bell - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #13 ----------------------------- Capt. Zap: Informant? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #14 ----------------------------- 411: Life at Directory Assistance - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #15 ----------------------------- The Max Headroom TV Pirate - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #16 ----------------------------- The Celling of America Tales That Do Not Compute Responses to Issue #12's Article Introduction: TNS QuickNotes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #17 ----------------------------- New Security Measures at ITT Capt. Zap's Defense - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #18 ----------------------------- 2600 Magazine's Official Bulletin Boards Some Things about Phrack Inc. Syndicate Report: Will It Return? TNS QuickNotes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tolmes News Service Issue #19 ----------------------------- 'If You Need Help, Press 3' Satellite Paging - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$