Bulletin Board #44

Fred asked that I go ahead and post the following items to see what your responses are. He is soliciting your inputs and thoughts. He's one of the "white hat" guys so this is a legitimate inquiry, not some sleaze ball PI (like me) trying to beat the system. :-)
Fred wrote

Hi Tim,

MERRY XMAS!!

Suppose that a pen register/DNR is placed on a suspect's phone line. To expedite the process of deciphering the DNR [so they don't have to subpoena the phone records or look up the numbers with a phone CD] the law enforcement agency puts caller ID on the same system. Can this be detected by the suspect in the following way? Allegedly he has simply placed a caller ID device on his phone (but NOT activated the service with the phone company)? If so, how does this occur, and what is the fix (if there is one)? Are there other risks of detection for DNR/pen register systems?

It's a real question and I'm looking for a real answer.

Thanks.

Fred

On Mon, 22 Dec 1997 20:09:38 -0700 Tim Johnson writes:

That's a good one to think about Fred.

It would have to be done at the central office to operate without him getting the indication of a caller ID service being placed thereon. At central office, they can split the line, but if it is in series, both caller ID's would register. Sounds to me like they are doing it without the benefit of the telephone company. Are they doing it legally....some states require a court order, even for pen registers.

Call me. Also, I'd like to post this (anonymously) to see what kind of feedback I can get. It should be interesting and maybe even something I haven't considered or heard of. If it's OK, let me know; if you'd prefer not to, I understand.
Tim,
I understand that this is the new strategy of the druggies who want to detect government wiretaps. Apparently a signal is initiated by the government caller ID device that somehow activates the druggie's device (which up to then was inactive as it had not been hooked up). The one I'm aware of is legal with court order, etc. and being done by a law enforcement agency. Suggest you also see (www.fbi.gov/leb/oct972.htm) for an article on "Caller ID: Maintaining Investigative Security". Discusses the DNR/caller ID use but does not identify a problem like this. Other interesting info in it, however.

If you spray hairspray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.

A 4 year-old's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.

If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42-pound boy wearing pound puppy underwear and a superman cape.

It is strong enough however to spread paint on all four walls of a 20-by-20-foot room.

Baseballs make marks on ceilings.

You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on.

When using the ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit.

A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.

The glass in windows (even double pane) doesn't stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.

When you hear the toilet flush and the words Uh-oh, it's already too late.

Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it.

A six-year-old can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year-old man says they can only do it in the movies.

A magnifying glass can start a fire even on an overcast day.

If you use a waterbed as home plate while wearing baseball shoes, it does not leak-it explodes.

A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000-sq-foot house 4 inches deep.

Legos will pass through the digestive tract of a four-year-old.

Duplos will not.

Play Dough and Microwave should never be used in the same sentence.

Super glue is forever.

McGyver can teach us many things we don't want to know.

Ditto Tarzan.

No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming pool, you still can't walk on water.

Pool filters do not like Jell-O.

VCR's do not eject PB&J sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.

Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.

Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving.

You probably do not want to know what that odor is.

Always look in the oven before you turn it on.

Plastic toys do not like ovens.

The fire department in San Diego has at least a 5-minute response time.

The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy.

It will however make cats dizzy.

Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy.

Quiet does not necessarily mean don't worry.

A good sense of humor will get you through most problems in life (unfortunately, mostly in retrospect).
James M. Atkinson  Phone: (978) 546-3803
Granite Island Group - TSCM.COM
127 Eastern Avenue #291   http://www.tscm.com/
Gloucester, MA 01931-8008  jmatk@tscm.com



From: "Jason Wilson"

Dear Mr. Johnson,

I was wondering if I could impose on you for answers to a few questions. For years I have been interested in TSCM work and have been fortunate enough to meet a few people who were nice enough to share information with me. My origional goal was to enter the military and hopefully end

up in an OSI type area and learn the trade properly, however due to a childhood injury to my leg I am unable to pass the physical. I take electronics classes on a regular basis and have been looking for a good civilian school to attend. That is one of the reasons I am writing you. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to here them.

The other reason I was writing is as follows. As I said, I've been fortunate to meet some people who are willing to share their trade information with me, and one suggested that I contact you. He said that it would be good for me to get input from several different people on the same question as there are several different ways to approach the same problem. With that in mind, I thought I'd ask for some basic information. In regards to telephone voltages, and ohms checks I'd like to ask you and your list subscribers what all do you (and they) look for and how do you check for it. Across the tip & ring, to ground, etc. I'd also like some input on what is an acceptable voltage drop differential percentage when checking different lines and phones.

If you and your list don't offer such input and training for newcomers I understand. It's a hard business to break into without military training.

Thanks for your time.

Subject: Things to think about....

-Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?

-It's a dog eat dog world out there. And they're short on napkins.

-Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.

-One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.

-Atheism is a nonprophet organization.

-If man evolved from monkeys and apes, why do we still have monkeys and apes?

The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.

-Never trust a stockbroker who's married to a travel agent.

-Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.

-Is boneless chicken considered to be an invertebrate?

-It must be true that men are from Mars. Look at how the place has deteriorated.

-On the other hand, you have different fingers.

-Married people don't live longer than single people. It just seems longer.

-I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.

-If all those psychics know the winning lottery numbers, why are they all still working?

- Disneyland: A people trap operated by a mouse.

- Common Sense Isn't.

- Sooner or later, EVERYONE stops smoking.

- It may be that your sole purpose is to serve as a warning to others.

- A hen is an egg's way of making another egg.

- Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

- The best way to save face is to keep the lower part shut.

- War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.

- He who laughs, last.

This was in response to further info regarding a mobile surveillance. I think I posted the first part, but haven't had a chance to go back and check.

From: Marguerite Russell
To: "'dbugman@amug.org'"

Tim
The data I have is this:

  1. The recorded conversations are from a moving vehicle
  2. The recording tape machine/either some kind of standard TEAC or MARANTZ
  3. The orginal tapes were standard 90 minute tapes
  4. The recording machine was in a fixed location within a building
  5. Recordings took place from Autumn 96-spring 97
  6. 6At some point probably around Feb 97 there was an improved system used, after which digital tapes were used
  7. There were probably 1 or more cars (exact numbers unknown) involved in visual surveillance. It is not known how these were equipped.
What I need to know is the type of equipment that would be needed to mount such an operation ie am I right in assuming there must be some sort of bug in the vehicle transmitting direct to the fixed location? What kind of distance would be technically possible? Would the signal be direct or would it need some kind of intervention?

Is there a technology that can send signals without using usual radio type frequencies?

Thanks
Marguerite

Reply-To: "Fred Kerr"
Subject: Winners!!

I know some of these people!!
Fred C. Kerr, CPP  [FKerr@worldnet.att.net]
Phone: 253-445-9498

The New Darwin Awards Report:

Miami, FL Motorist Alvin Sims didn't notice that his truck had smacked into a utility pole and his passenger was dead until the police stopped his car. Donna Richardson, 29, was hanging her head out of the window of her boyfriend's 1993 Chevrolet truck early Saturday -she was vomiting - when the truck suddenly veered. Her head slammed a pole and she died instantly, police said Monday. Sims, 36, kept driving. Metro-Dade police said when an officer stopped the truck several miles later - its right mirror and antenna were damaged. Sims told police that he was looking for a hospital because his passenger was sick. "Apparently, he thought he hit a puddle and did not see that he had killed her."

On February 3, 1990, a Renton (Seattle area) man tried to commit a robbery. This was probably his first attempt, as suggested by his lack of a record of violent crime, and by his terminally stupid choice:
  1. The target was H&J Leather & Firearms, a gunshop;
  2. The shop was full of customers, in a state where a substantial fraction of the adult population is licensed to carry concealed handguns in public places;
  3. To enter the shop, he had to step around a marked King County Police patrol car parked at the front door;
  4. An officer in uniform was standing next to the counter, having coffee before reporting to duty.
Upon seeing the officer, the would-be robber announced a holdup and fired a few wild shots. The officer and a clerk promptly returned fire, thus removing him from the gene pool. Several other customers also drew their guns, but didn't fire. No one else was hurt.
Derrick L. Richards, 28, was charged in April in Minneapolis with third- degree murder in the death of his beloved cousin, Kenneth E. Richards. According to police, Derrick suggested a game of Russian roulette and put a semiautomatic pistol to Ken's head instead of a revolver.
MOSCOW, RUSSIA - A drunk security man asked a colleague at the Moscow bank they were guarding to stab his bullet-proof vest to see if it protected him against the knife..... It didn't and the 25-year-old guard died of a heart wound. Isn't it good to see the Russians getting into the spirit of the awards?
Jacques LeFevrier left nothing to chance when he decided to commit suicide. He stood at the top of a tall cliff and tied a noose around his neck. Hetied the other end of the rope around a huge boulder at the top of the cliff. He drank some poison and set fire to his clothes. He even tried to shoot himself at the last moment. He jumped off the cliff and fired the pistol. The bullet missed him and cut through the rope above him. Free of the threat of hanging, he plunged into the sea. The sudden dunking extinguished the flames and made him vomit the poison. He was dragged out of the water by a kind fisherman and was taken to hospital, where he died ... of exposure!!!

In Buxton, N.C., a man died on a beach when an 8-foot-deep hole he had dug into the sand caved in as he sat inside it. Beachgoers said Daniel Jones, 21, dug the hole for fun, or protection from the wind, and had been sitting in a beach chair at the bottom Thursday afternoon when it collapsed, burying him beneath 5 feet of sand. People on the beach on the Outer Banks used their hands and shovels, trying to claw their way to Jones, a resident of Woodbridge, Va., but could not reach him. It took rescue workers using heavy equipment almost an hour to free him while about 200 people looked on. Jones was pronounced dead at a hospital. You just wouldn't believe the outpouring of concern, people digging with their hands, using pails from kids," Dare County Sheriff Bert Austin said.

In Guthrie, Okla., in October, Jason Heck tried to kill a millipede with a shot from his .22-caliber rifle, but the bullet ricocheted off a rock near the hole and hit pal Antonio Martinez in the head, fracturing his skull. In Elyria, Ohio, in October, Martyn Eskins, attempting to clean out cobwebs in his basement, declined to use a broom in favor of a propane torch and caused a fire that burned the first and second floors of his house. In February, Santiago Alvarado, 24, was killed in Lompoc, Calif., as he fell face-first through the ceiling of a bicycle shop he was burglarizing. Death was caused when the large flashlight he had placed in his mouth (to keep his hands free) crammed against the base of his skull as he hit the floor.

According to police in Dahlonega, Ga., ROTC cadet Nick Berrena, 20, was stabbed to death in January by fellow cadet Jeffrey Hoffman, 23, who was trying to prove that a knife could not penetrate the flak vest Berrena was wearing. Sylvester Briddell, Jr., 26, was killed in February in Selbyville, Del., as he won a bet with friends who said he would not put a revolver loaded with four bullets into his mouth and pull the trigger.

In February, according to police in Windsor, Ont., Daniel Kolta, 27, and Randy Taylor, 33, died in a head-on collision, thus earning a tie in the game of chicken they were playing with their snowmobiles. Paul Stiller, 47, was hospitalized in Andover Township, N.J., in September, and his wife Bonnie was also injured, by a quarter-stick of dynamite that blew up in their car. While driving around at 2 a.m., the bored couple litthe dynamite and tried to toss it out the window to see what would happen, but they apparently failed to notice that the window was closed.

Jeffrey J. Pyrcioch, 19, and an alleged accomplice were arrested in West Lafayette, Ind., in May on theft and fraud charges. Pyrcioch allegedly cashed checks that he had written with disappearing ink, apparently believing the checks would be blank by the time they were presented to the bank for collection. However, traces of ink remained, and police said Pyrcioch would have a better chance of getting away with it if he had not used checks pre- printed with his name and account number on them. [Washington Post, 6-2-96]

In August, 12 men were arrested near Szczecin in northern Poland as they were digging up a road because they had heard a rumor that it was built with a large stockpile of police-confiscated hashish. The hashish had been sold to a chemical plant to be incinerated into ash for road construction.

Paul Carthy, 25, pleaded guilty in Exeter, England, in September to theft subsequent to his original charge of shoplifting from a liquor store. In the second theft, he had stolen the magnetic letters off the name board that was held up to his face when his mug shot was taken.

In September, according to police in Junction City, Kan., David Bell, 30, just released from jail for car theft, walked out the door and stole another car to get home.

In October, William B. Singleton, 24, just released from jail in Belton, Mo., on a larceny charge, allegedly broke into a vending machine in the lobby of the police station and stole a 60-cent Strawberry Twisteroo while he waited for his ride to arrive.

In October, a 49-year-old San Francisco stockbroker, who "totally zoned when he ran," according to his wife, accidentally jogged off of a 200-foot-high cliff on his daily run.

In September in Detroit, a 41-year-old man got stuck and drowned in two feet of water after squeezing headfirst through an 18-inch-wide sewer grate to retrieve his car keys.

In September, a 7-year-old boy fell off a 100-foot-high bluff near Ozark, Ark., after he lost his grip swinging on a cross that marked the spot where another person had fallen to his death in 1990.

Taking "Amateur Night" Too Far: In Betulia, Colombia, an annual festival in November includes five days of amateur bullfighting. This year, no bull was killed, but dozens of matadors were injured, including one gored in the head and one Bobbittized. Said one participant, "It's just one bull against [a town of] a thousand Tommy Smiths (morons)."he was right about "survival of the fittest"

That's it for this go around.

Have a safe New Year and I'm looking forward to greeting each and every one of you in the next Year.

Don't forget to put 1998 on you checks tomorrow.

Tim