_________ SWAT MAGAZINE ISSUE THIRTEEN: JANUARY 1999 __________ / \___________________________________________/ \ / .Security and Paranoia. \ / By -=The Firestarter=- \ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Since there is going to be a few changes to the magazines content (well more stuff like general articles and reviews etc). I have decided to write about security and paranoia. I can only speak from my own point of view and my experiences, so make what you will of it. I cover a lot of underground activities, I'm a phreaker and have ripped off BT more times than I care to rememebr. I'm a hacker, (ok so I don't follow "hacker ethics" but then again some would say my morals are screwed up), I have hacked into a few systems. I'm a pyrotechnition, I have made and set off more explosive devices and started more fires than I can remember. Finally I am a carder, I only tend to card software off the net, but that's not the point. Am I paraniod? no. I have no reason, I have only ever come close to being arrested three times, each time (twice for explosives, one time for assult) I got away with it. Some might say I'm lucky, truth is I never got into trouble over things I had done, I have got into troube for things other people have done. Why? because of security. I have a huge list of card numbers, they are encrypted on my hard drive making them useless for evidence. My room probably contains more chemicals than I know about,ok so on there own they are ok, mixed and prepared in certain ways and they become explosive, if the police come knocking at my door I'll just dump the lot down the toilet. Both my computer hard drives can be wiped in a matter of seconds, and all of my disks can be destroyed also. I don't think all that much of my security, I talk over my home phone line about stuff that I'm doing, I also use a PBX from my home phone line quite often. Some of you will be saying that I'll get arrested very soon. I don't think so. Let's look at some of the most common things I do that a lot of you all seem to think is stupid, first off all the chemicals and print outs in my room, there not hidden, my chemicals is in a box labled "Explosives", and a load of print outs in just put next to my computer desk. My chemicals could be flushed down the toilet or tipped out of my window, my print outs can be saturated with lighter fluid and touched if need be. It would take seconds to destroy all that evidence. Second is the PBX, I've used both UK and US outdials from my house, I know that I can't stop them getting my number, and all that, but BT isn't going to bust me, why? because BT still get there money from the 0800 number, it isn't BT's problem if some guy abuses an outdial. I talk quite openly to people over my home phone line about what I've done. According to a lot of you, you will say that it's stupid. Why is it? is the police force going to spend all that time and money bugging my phone line, I think not. I'm not wanted by anyone, I cover my tracks when I do something, that I'm good at. The point is, the police aren't going to spend a lot of money trying to catch some guy that commits minor offences. Look how many times the Pentagon has been hacked, have they caught everyone that did that? no they haven't. If on the other hand you hacked the pentagon and got a lot information that threatens US national security, then be paranoid. You don't have to keep all of your information buried in your garden. Keep it encrypted by all means. I know that a lot of you will have reason to be paranoid, but ask youself, is my paranoia justified? if the police expect that you bombed some place, the chances are they will have you arrested on the spot, they can hold you for up to two weeks according to the terrorism act. If you hacked into something, ok the police can arrest and keep you for a few days (depending on what you did). Printouts on hacking systems means nothing, if it's information about a particular system (the pentagon for example) and it's information that you got from the server itself, then be scared. But common sense tells us not to keep shit like that. Credit card fraud, ok this is kinda dodgy. But sources tell me that fraud squad don't have to investigate something unless it's a grand or over. They're not goning to be bothered with 30 dollar software scam, but saying that I always use an outdial and a dodgy ISP account when carding software. If the police where to raid my house I could be arrested. But for what? what does the evidence prove? fuck all. As long as I know for sure the police are not investigating me I'm ok. The only way to prevent and investigation is to be careful. As long as you use common sense you will be ok. If you are truly elite in your chosen field of the underworld, then you will cover your tracks along the way, thus preventing you from becomming under investigation in the first place. If you slip up on security when doing a something big, then destroy/encrypt all evidence, and lie low for a couple of months, it isn't worth losing any sleep over. Anything small, encryption or hiding stuff will surfice. The police could raid every house in the UK, I can assue you that 95% of those houses would get bused for something, weather it's mearly a pirate video/cassette or A huge arms/drugs cache. Why don't they? they can't afford it. They will not spend loads of money tring to catch a small time crook, when there's more dangerous people out there. So just ask yourself to justify your paranoia, then compensate with security. (just thought tha I'd add, it doesn't hurt to have a boot disk loaded with PGP set to wipe your entire dirve, for emergencies only)