Hacker Perspective: Brainwaste
I have always been a hacker. Best of all, I have always been aware of it. I have always been able to push the envelope, to think outside of the box. I always chased the white rabbit and wanted to find out just how deep the rabbit hole went. Exploring and experimenting with everything has always been my way of life and I want to tell you all about it. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, my family had a summer home in a community on an island off the southern shore of Long Island here in New York and it was here that I developed the hacker mentality and then put it to good use.
Being a hacker is not about doing certain things. It is about having a mind, and mindset, which allows one to be able to do certain things. It means to have an inquisitive mind which asks certain questions, finding the answers to those questions, and then following the leads to those places where the answers take you. To be a hacker means to look at things in a way that the average person does not know how to do or would not think of doing. Further, being a hacker is the best way to protect yourself in a world that is designed to dumb you down. Hacking opened my mind and made me examine and challenge the assumptions that I had taken at face value for the truth. Having an inquisitive open mind is the best defense against ignorance. Hacking was how I learned that the system in place was here to dumb me down and make me/keep me a sheep. This was the purpose of the status quo.
I have always been interested in acquiring what others deemed to be "forbidden knowledge" and learning about things that others told me I should not be knowing. My thirst for subversive knowledge grew daily. Unfortunately, 2600 Magazine did not exist at this point in time. One summer day, I found Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book while browsing at the local bookstore. Hoffman's book inspired me to pursue my own mischief and gave me plenty of ideas of how to do so. Hoffman's book pointed me in the right direction to learn what I wanted to learn and explore things that I wanted to explore, just like 2600 Magazine does for me today! Hoffman opened my eyes to the fact that there were many others in the world who saw things the way I did and who also thought like I did.
The first hack that I did was easy, fun, and profitable. My friends and I used to always play pinball at the local diner which had several machines. Our favorite machine was called Doodlebug. One of the main objectives of the Doodlebug pinball machine was to score points by making the machine "doodle." To make the machine "doodle" was to make a steel pinball that was located under the inner surface of the machine go up and down in the vertical tube that contained it. This action of "doodling" was initiated by hitting certain lit targets in a specific order. When the machine was in this mode, the player would earn points in an accelerated manner and thus would be able to win extra balls and free games if enough points were scored. Getting things for free was very important to me as money was always tight.
I needed to find a very easy way to make the machine doodle so as to rack up enough points to get plenty of free games. I remembered that when I went into the shed that we had in the back of our house to fetch something, I saw a very large magnet which looked very powerful. The seed had been planted in my mind to look for a way to hack the Doodlebug pinball machine for free games. So the next time I was playing the Doodlebug machine, I had my trusty magnet with me. Within a short time of playing, I hit the lit targets in the proper sequence and had the machine doodling 100 points every time that the encased steel ball hit the upper and then the lower bumper in the tube that it was in. When I saw that the machine was about to stop doodling, as there was a set time by the machine on this action, I made my move. As fast as possible, I placed the magnet on the glass top of the machine, directly over the tube where the steel ball was quickly scoring points. The force of the magnet was powerful enough to keep the steel ball bouncing back and forth between the bumpers and keep scoring enough points to earn some free games for me. I held the magnet in place until I had 15 free games. Fifteen was enough for me. No sense in being greedy.
One day a friend of mine, who I will identify only as X, stole a lineman's handset from a telephone company repair truck. X told me that the lineman's handset was an item restricted only to authorized phone company technicians and was a very hard piece of telephony to get your hands on. X told me that this was a device used by telephone company repairmen to connect to a phone line for testing purposes. X told me that there were many interesting things that we could do with the lineman's handset, as using it was just like being an extension on that phone line. This concept just blew my mind and I couldn't wait to experiment with the lineman's handset.
X and I found a Telephone Network Interface (TNI) outside of a building. X opened up the TNI with a screwdriver and attached the headset's pair of alligator clips to the terminal wires. We got a dial tone and were now ready to play with the PSTN. X made sure that the ringer was turned off so that an incoming call would not draw attention to our activities. Wiretapping was first on our agenda. X and I took turns attaching the headset's alligator clips to different sets of terminal wires until we found a phone line with conversation on it. After testing a few lines, we were successful and eavesdropped on a couple making plans for a party at their house that weekend, a restaurant owner ordering liquor and food from a supplier, and someone discussing the hot date that he had the previous night. Next, we made some free, and untraceable, phone calls. X made some local calls to some friends and I made a long distance call to my cousin who was on vacation in Italy. The best feature of Beige Boxing was the ability to make calls and charge them to any number that we liked. There was one specific individual in our town who irritated me. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to exact my revenge. Without getting too detailed, this individual found long distance charges on his next phone bill that amounted to just about two thousand dollars.
Our town was not without its share of social problems. Most of these problems that my friends and I encountered were with the repressive Suffolk County Police that patrolled our community. The cops always enjoyed giving people a hard time for some petty violation of a village ordinance, either a real violation or one that a cop either exaggerated or simply made up just to f*ck with you. One hot summer afternoon, I was walking through the central part of our town eating a slice of pizza and holding an open can of soda in one hand. As I passed the village green, someone yelled Hey you!" I looked around, but did not see anyone. "Yeah. You wearing the Yankee cap. Over here." I turned around and behind me was a uniformed Suffolk County cop. "Come over here," the officer commanded. "Right over here in front of my patrol car. Walk over real slow.' I obeyed these orders, not knowing what law I had broken to deserve this treatment. "Don't you know that it's a violation of the laws of this incorporated village to eat any food or have a drink or open can of any soda within the limits of the central township?" "You're kidding me? Right?" I replied. "Drop that food and drink right now!" the cop commanded. I obeyed. "Turn around and put both hands on the hood of the patrol car. I want to see ten fingers on the fender. Come on. What are you waiting for? An engraved invitation?" I placed both my open hands on the hood of the patrol car and the officer frisked me.
"Turn around and face me," he ordered. Again I obeyed. "Since I didn't find any weapons or other contraband on you, I'm just going to write you up a summons for having food and drink in a part of town where possession of food and drink is prohibited."
"But what specific law did I break, Officer? Give me a citation,' I protested.
"I have no citation to give you. You broke a Say-So law."
"What is a Say-So law?" I asked.
"You broke the law because I say so."
This was the response of Suffolk County's Finest. And with that, he wrote up a summons for a violation of some obscure village ordinance with a $250 fine. This is what is called an "attitude arrest."
This is done when a police officer does not like someone's attitude or behavior. It shouldn't happen by itself, as arrests are legally authorized only on "probable cause," when an officer has reason to believe a criminal offense has been committed. When a cop did something like this (a police action which lacks any logic), we called it "mind over matter" as in "They don't mind and you don't matter."
One day, I went to the local Suffolk County police station to file a complaint against someone (no, not the cop who ticketed me). I went over to the desk sergeant on duty and he told me to take a seat on a nearby bench. From my view on the bench, I could see into the offices in the back of the station, where high level Suffolk County Police personnel worked. The Chief of Police of our town also had his office in this area. I thought about the type of work that those people do and what sensitive information might be in the files of the cases that they were working on.
If I could get into those offices and check into the papers that those case files contained, I would be in a position to know what was really happening in our community with regard to police matters. So I waited to file my complaint and I also waited for an opening to come along where I could get into those offices and run through the files.
After about 20 minutes of waiting, the desk sergeant told me that he had to leave on an assignment and that I should just "sit tight" and wait for someone to help me file my complaint. After the sergeant left the station, I made my move and slid into the back room offices without being seen. After a cursory look around, I found the desk where the Chief of Police worked. The Holy Grail. There were some files on the desk that the Chief had obviously been working on and I opened a few up and eagerly started reading.
One file detailed traffic ticket numbers and another some summarized reports of vandalism. Nothing spectacular. The next file I read was very interesting indeed. It detailed the orders from Suffolk County Police Headquarters to the Chief of Police of my town to cover up a local scandal in our town that the cops were investigating.
The Chief was ordered by Suffolk County HQ to withhold any specifics of the scandal from the public and to our local newspaper as well as any other media that inquired about the scandal. When put on the spot and pressured for answers, the Chief was ordered to lie when questioned and to mislead the public and press by putting out a fraudulent cover story as to what the scandal was about and as to what their investigation had found out and where it was heading. The reasoning behind this dishonesty and censorship on the part of the Suffolk County Police was this: not to make the public uncomfortable, even if that means diluting, sensationalizing, or lying about the truth.
The Suffolk County Police distinguished two categories of arrest and imprisonment: one for breaking a law, the other for political reasons. The difference is clear: Someone who spoke out in public against the policies of the town's mayor is considered a different type of criminal than an armed robber who knocked over the town bank.
One is an "everyday lawbreaker," while the other is a threat to the political hegemony of the establishment. The authorities in our town always hated me because I was for real. Many people do a lot of heavy talking, but when it comes down to the point of action, they disappear. If someone was the victim of any type of injustice, I would always turn up at their side fighting for them. I have always had a huge problem with authority and these experiences only made it worse.
Although many of the hacking activities that my friends and I did back in those days were illegal, I did not then and do not now believe anything that we did do was wrong. Our actions were not evil.
Nobody actually was hurt by what we did. I never acted in a malicious way. I only wanted to experiment, explore, and learn.
Expanding my horizons and obtaining knowledge were my goals. There is a distinction in the law between actions that are malum in se (evil in and of itself) and actions that are malum prohibitum (wrong only because of the existence of a law prohibiting it).
An example of malum in se would be murder. In every society, such a thing would be recognized as wrong. It would require no act of the legislature forbidding it to inform people that it was wrong. An example of malum prohibitum, on the other hand, would be the statute prohibiting driving through a stop sign without coming to a halt.
Absent such a law, to do so would be a morally indifferent act. In the case of hacking, there is a point beyond which I will not go, and that is anything my conscience tells me is malum in se or that my judgment tells me is irrational. I have no problem with doing something that is malum prohibitum.
I will (and have in the past) hacked something after satisfying myself that; a) it was a legitimate way to learn about the system; b) a question of malum prohibitum; and c) a rational action.
British author George Orwell wrote, "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two equals four" even though you're being told otherwise. It's the freedom to give voice to the real truth, untainted by disinformation and propaganda.
Is that freedom of value to you? You have a choice. You can continue to believe what you've been told, or you can open your eyes to examine the facts and discover the truth for yourself.
Hacking is your ticket to this freedom. If, at the end of your journey, you conclude that you had previously been manipulated and deceived, you may find yourself asking what other "truths" may be illusory.
How accurate and objective is other information being fed to us?
Have courage. There are many uncharted roads ahead, much to be explored, and a flock in the meadow in need of brave shepherds.
Brainwaste is an open-minded, dedicated computer hacker and phone phreaker who is always experimenting with technology. His goals in life are learning, questioning authority, and hacking everything.