hacking

	==Phrack Inc.==

	Volume Two, Issue 23, File 10 of 12

	In The Spirit Of The Vicious Circle Trilogy...
	Phrack Inc. Presents

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	* *
	* Big Brother Online *
	* *
	* by Thumpr Of ChicagoLand *
	* *
	* June 6, 1988 *
	* *
	* Special Thanks To Hatchet Molly *
	* *
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	The United States Government is monitoring the message activity on several
	bulletin boards across the country. This is the claim put forth by Glen L.
	Roberts, author of "The FBI and Your BBS." The manuscript, published by The
	FBI Project, covers a wide ground of FBI/BBS related topics, but unfortunately
	it discusses none of them in depth.

	It begins with a general history of the information gathering activities of the
	FBI. It seems that that the FBI began collecting massive amounts of
	information on citizens that were involved with "radical political" movements.
	This not begin during the 1960's as one might expect, but rather during the
	1920's! Since then the FBI has amassed a HUGE amount of information on
	everyday citizens... citizens convicted of no crime other than being active in
	some regard that the FBI considers potentially dangerous.

	After discussing the activities of the FBI Roberts jumps into a discussion of
	why FBI snooping on BBS systems is illegal. He indicates that such snooping
	violates the First, Fourth, and Fifth amendments to the Constitution. But he
	makes his strongest case when discussing the Electronic Communications Privacy
	Act of 1987. This act was amended to the Federal Wiretapping Law of 1968 and
	was intended to protect business computer systems from invasion by "hackers."
	But as with all good laws, it was written in such broad language that it can,
	and does, apply to privately owned systems such as Bulletin Boards. Roberts
	(briefly) discusses how this act can be applied in protecting your bulletin
	board from snooping by the Feds.

	How to protect your BBS: Do NOT keep messages for more than 180 days. Because
	the way the law is written, messages less then 180 days old are afforded more
	protection then older messages. Therefore, to best protect your system purge,
	archive, or reload your message base about every 150 days or so. This seems
	silly but will make it harder (more red tape) for the government to issue a
	search warrant and inform the operator/subscriber of the service that a search
	will take place. Roberts is not clear on this issue, but his message is stated
	emphatically... you will be better protected if you roll over your message base
	sooner.

	Perhaps the best way to protect your BBS is to make it a private system. This
	means that you can not give "instant access" to callers (I know of very few
	underground boards that do this anyway) and you can not allow just anyone to be
	a member of your system. In other words, even if you make callers wait 24
	hours to be validated before having access you need to make some distinctions
	about who you validate and who you do not. Your BBS needs to be a PRIVATE
	system and you need to take steps to enforce and proclaim this EXPECTED
	PRIVACY. One of the ways Roberts suggests doing so is placing a message like
	this in your welcome screen:

	"This BBS is a private system. Only private citizens who are not
	involved in government or law enforcement activities are authorized
	to use it. The users are not authorized to divulge any information
	gained from this system to any government agency or employee."

	Using this message, or one like it, will make it a criminal offense (under the
	ECPA) for an FBI Agent or other government snoop to use your BBS.

	The manuscript concludes with a discussion of how to verify users and what to
	do when you find an FBI agent using your board. Overall, I found Roberts book
	to be moderately useful. It really just whetted my appetite for more
	information instead of answering all my questions. If you would like a copy of
	the book it sells for $5.00 (including postage etc). Contact;

	THE FBI PROJECT
	Box 8275
	Ann Arbor, MI 48107

	Visa/MC orders at (313) 747-7027. Personally I would use a pseudonym when
	dealing with this organization. Ask for a catalog with your order and you will
	see the plethora of anti-FBI books this organization publishes. Undoubtedly
	the FBI would be interested in knowing who is doing business with this place.
	The manuscript, by the way, is about 20 pages long and offers references to
	other FBI expose' information. The full citation of the EPCA, if you want to
	look it up, is 18 USC 2701.

	Additional Comments: The biggest weakness, and it's very apparent, is that
	Roberts offers no evidence of the FBI monitoring BBS systems. He claims that
	they do, but he does not give any known examples. His claims do make sense
	however. As he states, BBS's offer a type of "publication" that is not read by
	any editors before it is "published." It offers an instant form of news and
	one that may make the FBI very nervous. Roberts would do well to include some
	supportive evidence in his book. To help him out, I will offer some here.

	* One of the Ten Commandments of Phreaking (as published in the
	famous TAP Magazine) is that every third phreaker is an FBI agent.
	This type of folklore knowledge does not arise without some kind of
	justification. The FBI is interested in the activities of phreakers
	and is going to be looking for the BBS systems that cater to them. If
	your system does not, but it looks like it may, the FBI may monitor it
	just to be sure.

	* On April 26, 1988 the United States Attorney's Office arrested 19
	people for using MCI and Sprint credit card numbers illegally. These
	numbers were, of course, "stolen" by phreakers using computers to hack
	them out. The Secret Service was able to arrest this people by posing
	as phone phreaks! In this case the government has admitted to placing
	agents in the field who pretend to be one of us. Watch yourself out
	there, the success of this "sting" will only mean that they will try
	it again. Be wary of people offering you codes.

	* In the famous bust of the Inner Circle and the 414s, the FBI monitored
	electronic mail for several months before moving in for the kill.
	While it is true that the owners of the systems being hacked (Western
	Union for one) invited the FBI to snoop through their files, it does
	establish that the FBI is no stranger to the use of electronic
	snooping in investigating crimes.

	Conclusion: There is no reason to believe that the government is not
	monitoring your bulletin board system. There are many good reasons to believe
	that they are! Learn how to protect yourself. There are laws and regulations
	in place that can protect your freedom of speech if you use them. You should
	take every step to protect your rights whether or not you run an underground
	system or not. There is no justification for the government to violate your
	rights, and you should take every step you can to protect yourself.

	I have no connections with Roberts, his book, or The FBI Project other then
	being a mostly-satisfied customer. I'm not a lawyer and neither is Roberts.
	No warranty is offered with this text file. Read and use it for what you think
	it is worth. You suffer the consequences or reap the benefits. The choice is
	yours, but above all stay free.

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