| ==Phrack Inc.== |
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| Volume Two, Issue 20, File 12 of 12 |
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| PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN { SummerCon '88 } PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN |
| ^*^ ^*^ |
| PWN Phrack World News PWN |
| ^*^ Issue XX ^*^ |
| PWN PWN |
| ^*^ "SummerCon Strikes Again" ^*^ |
| PWN ----- PWN |
| ^*^ Created, Written, and Edited ^*^ |
| PWN by Knight Lightning PWN |
| ^*^ ^*^ |
| PWN (It is good to be back!) PWN |
| ^*^ ^*^ |
| PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN { SummerCon '88 } PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN |
|
|
| Welcome to Phrack World News Issue XX. Whew! Issue 20 already? I have been |
| gone too long. This issue features the exclusive coverage of SummerCon 1988, |
| which took place in St. Louis, Missouri during the weekend of July 22-24, 1988. |
| Before we get to the bulk of the issue I'd like to make a note that this year's |
| turnout was even greater than last year's with the majority of those claiming |
| they would attend, actually showing up... we had a great time. -KL |
|
|
| Please Note: All the events depicted in this story are based on the |
| observations as seen by Knight Lightning (me). |
|
|
| PreCon '88; A Little Background |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| When Taran King and I went off to college, Sir Francis Drake picked up running |
| Phrack Inc. and PWN. Taran gave the rights to SummerCon to Sir Francis Drake |
| as well, although it was not really his right to give away. At any rate, SFD |
| intended to hold SummerCon '88 in New York City, possibly by trying to get Bill |
| >From RNOC or Tuc to help him out, since SFD lived out on the west coast. A lot |
| of publicity was put out in both 2600 Magazine and WORM (a hardcopy magazine |
| for "cyberpunks" written and distributed by Sir Francis Drake himself). |
| However, eventually it became quite clear that SummerCon '88 would not be held |
| in NYC, at least not by SFD. |
|
|
| In the meantime, there was quite a bit of controversy concerning SummerCon '88 |
| on a bulletin board known as The Forgotten Realm, run by Crimson Death 618. |
| Apparently the members of TFR were trying to figure out where to have the |
| convention. Control C said that he would hold SummerCon '88 in Detroit, |
| Michigan, but the only person who really liked that idea was Ax Murderer. |
|
|
| Eventually it came down to two places; New York City or St. Louis, Missouri. |
| The discussion went on for over a month with everyone leaning heavily towards |
| St. Louis. The clincher came when Prime Suspect received word from myself, |
| that we were indeed planning SummerCon '88 here in St. Louis. So on June 19, |
| 1987 (the ONE year anniversary of SummerCon '87) Crimson Death contacted |
| Phantom Phreaker to get to Taran King who in turn passed the word on to me and |
| I called Crimson Death. We set the date and as such, the actual preliminary |
| planning for SummerCon '88 had begun. |
|
|
| Crimson Death sent the word out and I finally had a chance to release the idea |
| I had conceived two months prior... The Phoenix Project. The new millennium |
| has begun and the rebirth of the phreak/hack community has been achieved. In |
| fact, this rebirth is currently evident in a more physical fashion on a fairly |
| new bulletin board earning its name from my idea... |
|
|
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
|
|
| The Phoenix Project |
| 300/1200/2400 Baud |
| (512) 754-8182 |
|
|
| Brought to you by The Mentor! |
|
|
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
|
|
| SummerCon '88; Not As Planned... Friday Morning, July 22, 1988 |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| Coincidentally, Tuc was again this year's first arrival from out of town. |
| Taran King, Forest Ranger, and I arrived at the airport to greet him and after |
| some hassle at Lambert Field, we grabbed some lunch and went to this year's |
| official SummerCon hotel; the Ramada Inn - Westport. |
|
|
| >From here things did not go exactly to plan. Over three weeks in advance I had |
| reserved a double room in Forest Ranger's name to serve as the Phrack Inc. room |
| or whatever as sort of a base of operations. Ramada had a super savers weekend |
| promotion going on all through summer where a limited number of rooms (doubles) |
| could be purchased for a special weekend rate of $33.90. Well I was sure to |
| get this rate and was given a reservation identification number. However, the |
| check-in counter at first denied this and then finally pulled up the file. |
| They insisted that the room was for $68.00 and that was what we were told. |
| They were incorrect. At about this time, Taran and I had wandered into the |
| main lobby where we were confronted by a guy who subtly said, "Are you here for |
| SummerCon ?" |
|
|
| It was The Dictator, who had come from Phoenix, Arizona (602 NPA). He had |
| already gotten a room (211) at the ridiculous price of $68.00. Unfortunately, |
| we still had a problem, because the hotel supervisor insisted that we weren't |
| 21 anyway and by Missouri State Law they could not legally rent us a room at |
| any rate. This is when I jumped in saying we had reserved the room for Tuc who |
| was 22 and I had been promised the rate of $33.90. The supervisor began to |
| tell some story of a computer error (yeah right) and the person who guaranteed |
| the room was wrong. I argued that it was their problem and not ours if there |
| was indeed this computer error and that this gross display of bad business and |
| false advertising would be reported to the Better Business Bureau. In the |
| meantime Tuc, Taran, and Forest Ranger had grabbed a copy of the Southwestern |
| Bell Yellow Pages (it really is easier to let your fingers do the walking) and |
| were checking out other hotels in the Westport area. My biggest concern was |
| for all the guests driving in who thought we would be at the Ramada. It was |
| not long before the hotel supervisor had spoken to the hotel manager and they |
| offered us the room for a flat rate of $40.00. We took it. The rooms were |
| quite nice actually and would serve our purposes well. |
|
|
| Taran and I ran off on separate errands, while Forest Ranger and Tuc visited |
| Westport Plaza to do some shopping. When Taran and I returned, we ran into |
| another interesting person who said, "You guys here for SummerCon?" It was |
| Dr. Cypher of Bellcore and with him was Mike (a non phreak/hack type, but cool |
| just the same) and Hatchet Molly, a 23 year old graduate student at Northern |
| Illinois University who was working on his thesis; the social atmosphere of the |
| phreak/hack community or something like that. |
|
|
| It was only about 20 minutes later when I wandered down to the lobby and found |
| Lucifer 666 and Synthetic Slug checking in. Standing five feet behind them was |
| another fearsome threesome made up of Crimson Death 618, Phrozen Ghost, and |
| Surfer Bob. PG and SB had been visiting Crimson Death earlier that week prior |
| to reaching SummerCon and they all arrived at the same time. Lucifer 666 and |
| Synthetic Slug got a room, while the others crashed in the Phrack Inc. room. |
|
|
| SummerCon '88; Back At Lambert Friday Afternoon, July 22, 1988 |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| It was time for another trip to the airport for me, Taran, Tuc, and Forest |
| Ranger. We arrived just in time to meet up with The Mentor and Cisban Evil |
| Priest. They were easy to spot because they were the only guys on the plane |
| that were not wearing suits and/or did not have any children with them. |
|
|
| Once greetings had taken place, Mentor unveiled a surprise -- buttons |
| especially made for distribution at SummerCon '88. Created with a laser |
| printer they displayed a large "NO FEDS" with a circle and line through it |
| (like a No U-Turn sign), and also naming The Phoenix Project (the board), the |
| baud rate, and phone number. He brought more than enough for everyone. |
|
|
| After some running around the airport and a brief lounge at one of the |
| airport's bars, we proceeded to meet up with Control C and Bad Subscript who |
| had flown in from Detroit, Michigan. We divided up again and headed for the |
| hotel. Taran King, Tuc, and Cisban Evil Priest rode with me while The Mentor, |
| Control C, and Bad Subscript rode with Forest Ranger. Control C decided he was |
| hungry and FR drove to the nearest McDonald's where he went on to cut off a |
| customer in the drive-through lane and pulled right to the window to pick up |
| some food... not his food, but who cares. |
|
|
| "That will be $3.00, sir." |
| "What exactly do I get for my $3.00?" |
| "Two regular cheese burgers, a large fries, and a large Coke." |
| "Okay!" |
|
|
| They took it and left, leaving McDonald's in a total disarray for at least a |
| half hour. |
|
|
| The Mentor and Cisban Evil Priest as well as Control C and Bad Subscript both |
| got rooms and from there SummerCon '88 really began. |
|
|
| SummerCon '88; Let The Good Times Roll Friday Night, July 22, 1988 |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| Basically it was just a big party from here on, with the old phreaks meeting |
| the new, and some re-acquaintances. Control C brought down some gifts as well |
| -- posters from Michigan Bell. |
|
|
| "I would shred everything, because we get so much |
| information out of the dumpster, it's unreal..." |
|
|
| It was signed by Control C himself and he told us that these posters now appear |
| in all Michigan Bell central offices and other places of business. The picture |
| on the poster featured Control C's own personal stash that he had gotten from |
| Michigan Bell. |
|
|
| We had some other guests arrive during the night. Terminal Technocrat and a |
| friend of his (who did have a handle, but I didn't catch it) arrived from |
| Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A friend of Forest Ranger's named Mike also showed up |
| with Kari, Cary, Katie, Susie, and Amy [some serious bitches]. The main party |
| ran through The Dictator's room until a series of threatening calls from the |
| front desk forced TD to clear everyone out of his room. |
|
|
| In the meantime, Cary (a nymphomaniac 14-year old) was running up Tuc's phone |
| bill and hitting on everyone at the convention. She ended up with Cisban Evil |
| Priest in his room (that he shared with The Mentor). However, since clearing |
| out of The Dictator's room the majority of the party crew all ran into Mentor |
| and Priest's room causing quite a disturbance. When The Mentor heard about |
| this he ran to his room and threw them all out. This action set the rest of |
| the night's activities to a certain theme -- The Fury of Forest Ranger. |
|
|
| You see Forest Ranger was quite a bit drunk and became incredibly pissed off |
| when he found out that his friends were mistreated. A few of us returned to |
| The Dictator's room where FR made several threatening phone calls to The Mentor |
| and was promptly hung up on. Apparently that was the last straw because FR |
| went into an unstoppable rage that trashed most of the items in the room and |
| then he started through the hotel. After damaging several items in the hotel |
| hallways, Forest Ranger proceeded to attack a light fixture in the emergency |
| stairwell and in doing so, sliced his hand open on the newly broken glass. |
|
|
| Emergency measures were called for -- Tuc and Lucifer 666 played rescue team |
| and took Forest Ranger to a not so nearby United States Air Force Hospital in |
| Illinois, where Forest Ranger was stitched up. |
|
|
| After the excitement, most of the people at the convention had mellowed out and |
| Dr. Forbin left to take Cary home (we still don't know what happened to the two |
| of them, but rumor is that Forbin is making a tremendous recovering from |
| several serious venereal diseases.) |
|
|
| At some point this evening Terminal Technocrat, Dr. Cypher, and a few others |
| decided to go on a trashing run. It didn't really turn out as planned and they |
| ended up at Southwestern Bell Publications (where the cameras are almost as big |
| as the dumpsters). It was unsuccessful, but at least there were no casualties. |
|
|
| The final interesting part of this evening was the arrival of The Leftist and |
| The Ur-Vile from Atlanta, Georgia. This arrival is important to make a note of |
| because with the exception of the time spent immediately after they got to the |
| hotel, The Ur-Vile spent the entire remainder of SummerCon '88 asleep. |
|
|
| SummerCon '88; So What Now? Saturday, July 23, 1988 |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| Just about everyone went to Union Station, a luxurious shopping mall in |
| downtown St. Louis. However, a few of us including Taran King and myself |
| arrived at the hotel in time to meet our final guests for the weekend -- |
| Phantom Phreaker and Doom Prophet. |
|
|
| Taran King and myself took a Crimson Death back to TK's to let him copy some |
| unreleased files for Phrack Inc. (since he had been running it at the time). |
| However, now those files will be put out by the original Phrack team. |
|
|
| The main part of the convention started sometime after that and I presented the |
| second public hearing of the now famous Dan The Operator/John Maxfield and the |
| Dan The Operator/Il Duce (Phiber Optick) recordings which were featured in |
| Phrack World News XV, which was published last year. I have decided to make |
| this an annual event and those wishing a copy of the tape should get in contact |
| with me through Epsilon, The Prophet, or through Bitnet. |
|
|
| Unfortunately, the most important information learned at this year's convention |
| cannot be published. However, when looking at the amount and the extent of |
| information brought forth at this year's convention, it makes last year's look |
| like a day at pre-school. If the level jumps like this next year, I think that |
| the world had better watch out because today's phreak/hacks are definitely |
| getting smarter and better every year. The key is to stay out of trouble long |
| enough to gain experience that will keep you out of trouble. |
|
|
| The Leftist brought a terminal with him and it would have been a great "toy" to |
| have at the convention except no one had the extra phone cord necessary to put |
| it to good use. |
|
|
| The rest of Saturday evening was just a mix of story telling, partying, and |
| some deep technical discussions. There was some element of danger present. It |
| would seem that because of the trouble from the previous evening that the hotel |
| management had arranged to have some extra security present in case things got |
| out of hand. The Maryland Heights police force sent a pair of officers over, |
| and they were indeed the rudest individuals I have ever met. |
|
|
| At one point in the evening, Lucifer 666 and I had traveled down to the lobby |
| by way of the stairs and when arrived, the greetings from "officer friendly" |
| reminded me of last SummerCon's police incident ("Run to me boys!"). |
|
|
| (We were wearing our "NO FEDS" pins during this incident) |
|
|
| "You two come here, NOW!" |
| "What? Waitasec we are guests here (holding up keys)." |
| "I can't see that far, you come here, NOW!" |
| "Why did you take the stairs instead of the elevator!?" |
| "The elevator was too slow, sir." |
| "What are you doing down here?" |
| "Going to the soda and candy machines." |
| "I don't want any messing around here tonight, you got that!?" |
| "Yes, we are not looking for problems." |
|
|
| A couple of hours later, I had decided to go to my car to drop a few items off |
| and found myself being followed by the same officer. After I had been to my |
| car, I started back towards the hotel with this jerk eyeballing me. When I had |
| reached the building I asked him... |
|
|
| "Is there a problem officer?" |
| "No, you got a problem!? Do you want to have a problem!?" |
| "Nope." |
|
|
| After this incident I returned everyone's room keys, exited the hotel by a back |
| stairway, hopped into my car and pulled around to the front where the lobby and |
| the two officers were. I calmly honked a couple of times and with my lights |
| off so as not to reveal my plates, gave them "the bird." I left the area at a |
| rather fast pace after that. |
|
|
| SummerCon '88; All Good Things Must Come To An End Sunday, July 24, 1988 |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| By the time I returned on Sunday morning, Terminal Technocrat and his friend |
| had long since been gone as well as Dr. Cypher, Hatchet Molly and Mike. The |
| rest of us hung out for a while as we prepared to pack everything up and send |
| everyone home. The Leftist, The Ur-Vile, Lucifer 666, and Synthetic Slug had |
| to cruise and in the meantime I took Tuc, Control C, and Bad Subscript to the |
| airport breaking five speed limits in order for them to catch their newly |
| scheduled flights. |
|
|
| After which this left me, Forest Ranger, Phantom Phreaker, Doom Prophet, The |
| Mentor, Cisban Evil Priest, Crimson Death, Phrozen Ghost, and Surfer Bob. We |
| were soon joined by Amy and Katie and we all headed out to the St. Louis |
| Galleria, another shopping plaza. On the way, we toured through some of StL's |
| richer sections of town and as we went on became separated from Forest Ranger |
| in downtown Clayton. After five minutes of massive confusion we were once |
| again on track and eventually met up with Forest Ranger and Surfer Bob who was |
| with him at a music store inside the plaza. |
|
|
| We killed about two hours there between lunch, Phrozen Ghost's Unix Manual |
| heist from B. Dalton Booksellers, and the Phantom Phreaker/Doom Prophet Vs. |
| "Goons From Hell" skateboard confrontation. So after all was said and done, |
| Forest Ranger took Crimson Death, Phrozen Ghost, and Surfer Bob back to Ramada |
| to get their car, Phantom Phreaker and Doom Prophet hit the highway, and The |
| Mentor and Cisban Evil Priest went with me back one last time to Lambert Field, |
| where I dropped them off. |
|
|
| And that was SummerCon '88 ... |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ |
|
|
| PostCon '88; Some Things To Make A Note Of... |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| This year's SummerCon posters were made by Knight Lightning and they featured |
| AT&T, MCI, U.S. Sprint and the FON card, Southwestern Bell, ISDN diagrams, Pink |
| Floyd, Domino's Pizza, and many other interesting items including; Oryan QUEST! |
|
|
| "I *Demand* you attend SummerCon!" |
|
|
| "I demand to be let back on MSP! or I will UNLEASH |
| with FULL FORCE (and put a maintenance busy on you!)" |
|
|
| To obtain a copy of this poster contact |
| Epsilon, The Prophet or try and find me on Bitnet. |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Control C and The Mentor were both made members of the Legion Of Doom/Hackers. |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| The Mentor's now famous Hacker's Manifesto which was first released in Phrack |
| Inc. Issue VII appeared in the September issue of Thrasher Magazine. |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| The Dictator is looking for users to call his bulletin board... |
| The Dark Side (Commodore 128) 602-789-9269 |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Who Was This Year's Fed/Informant? I have some strong possibilities about |
| that, , but there is an interesting twist to the story. On Monday evening, |
| July 25, 1988, Forest Ranger claimed that he had received a call (from a source |
| he refused to disclose) stating that Secret Service was indeed at SummerCon '88 |
| and were in room 209 (right next to 211 - The Dictator's room) and another room |
| supposedly under Control C and Bad Subscript's room. |
|
|
| There were reports of supposed Secret Service agents at Ramada, but the general |
| idea was that even if they were legitimate, it was because of Democratic |
| Presidential nominee Govenor Michael S. Dukakis, who was visiting St. Louis |
| that weekend. When I heard all of this, I paid no attention to it because the |
| way it was described, it was just a bunch of jerks being pesky about the "NO |
| FEDS" pins. |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Special Thanks goes to Epsilon and Crimson Death. Without their help, there |
| would not have been a SummerCon this year and thanks to their efforts, I will |
| see to it that there will be a SummerCon for many years to come. |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| According to Dr. Cypher, Byteman was supposed to fly down to St. Louis for the |
| convention, but ran into a mishap with airport security. In his carry-on bag |
| he had several switch blade knives and six blue boxes, which at the time were |
| believed to be detonators for some kind of explosive. After being held at the |
| airport, Byteman was met by the FBI who had verified that the items in question |
| were not detonators, however they did recognize what they were and now Byteman |
| is facing charges of conspiracy to commit toll fraud, etc. |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Crimson Death claims to have received a call from John F. Maxfield a few days |
| preceding SummerCon '88. Apparently he wanted an invitation to the convention. |
| Nevertheless, he did not show up. Also, there was some talk about Richard |
| Sandza going to SummerCon, but he was not there either. |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Ramada Inn Lost And Found: |
| - Has anyone seen the 1981 Employee Of The Month Plaque? |
| - Whoever took it must have been out of CONTROL. |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| SummerCon '88 Guest List |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| Bad Subscript / Cisban Evil Priest / Control C / Crimson Death |
| Dr. Cypher / Dr. Forbin / Doom Prophet / Forest Ranger / Hatchet Molly |
| Knight Lightning / Lucifer 666 / Phantom Phreaker / Phrozen Ghost |
| Surfer Bob / Synthetic Slug / Taran King / Terminal Technocrat / The Dictator |
| The Leftist / The Mentor / The Ur-Vile / Tuc |
|
|
| Plus; |
|
|
| Katie, Cary, Kari, Amy, Susie, Mike1, Mike2, and Terminal Technocrat's friend. |
|
|
| Bringing this year's total attendance to 28 people. |
|
|
|
|
| Hope you enjoyed the article because the future is forever. |
|
|
| :Knight Lightning - The magic is back... With a VENGEANCE! |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ |
|
|
| <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><K><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> |
| <> <> |
| <> THE COMMUNICATIONS FRAUD CONTROL ASSOCIATION IS DEADLIER THAN WE THOUGHT <> |
| <> <> |
| <> Even the most elite fear for the fate of the phreak/hack world... <> |
| <> but Knight Lightning has a plan <> |
| <> <> |
| <> <> |
| <> THE VICIOUS CIRCLE <> |
| <> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <> |
| <> Shadows Of A Future Past \ The Judas Contract \ Subdivisions <> |
| <> <> |
| <> A three part series appearing in Phrack Inc. Newsletter. <> |
| <> <> |
| <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><L><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> |
|
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| ^*^ |
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