Dec 27 21:24 1985  data.tap Page 1





--FEATURE ARTICLES AND REVIEWS-





 TAPPING COMPUTER DATA IS EASY, AND CLEARER THAN PHONE CALLS !



    BY RIC BLACKMON, SYSOP OF A FED BBS

        Aquired by Lunatic Labs

        Uploaded by Elric of Imrryr

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        FOR SEVERAL YEARS, I ACCEPTED CERTAIN BITS OF MISINFORMATION

AS TECHNICALLY ACCURATE, AND DIDN'T PROPERLY PURSUE THE  MATTER. SEVERAL

FOOLS GAVE ME FOOLISH INFORMATION, SUCH AS:

 A TAP INTERRUPTS COMPUTER DATA TRANSMISSIONS; DATA COULD BE PICKED UP

AS RF EMANATIONS BUT IT WAS A MASS OF UNINTELLIGIBLE SIGNAL CAUSED BY DATA 

MOVING BETWEEN REGISTERS; ONE HAD TO BE IN 'SYNC' WITH ANY SENDING COMPUTER;

DATA COULDN'T BE READ UNLESS YOU HAD A DIRECT MATCH IN SPEED, PARITY & BIT

PATTERN; AND ONLY A COMPUTER OF THE SAME MAKE AND MODEL COULD READ THE

SENDING COMPUTER. THIS IS ALL PLAIN SWILL. IT IS IN FACT, AN EASIER CHORE

TO TAP A COMPUTER THAN A TELEPHONE. THE TECHNIQUE AND THE EQUIPMENT IS ALMOST 

THE SAME,  BUT THE COMPUTER LINE WILL BE MORE ACCURATE (THE TWO COMPUTERS

INVOLVED, HAVE ERROR CORRECTING PROCEDURES) AND CLEARER (DIGITAL

TRANSMISSIONS HAVE MORE DISTINCT SIGNALS THAN ANALOG TRANSMISSIONS).



FIRST, RECOGNIZE THAT NEARLY ALL DATA TRANSMISSIONS ARE SENT IN CLEARTEXT

ASCII SIGNALS. THE LINES CARRYING OTHER BIT-GROUPS OR ENCYPHERED TEXTS ARE

RARE. SECOND, THE SIGNAL APPEARS ON GREEN AND RED (WIRES) OF THE PHONE LINE

('TIP' AND 'RING'). THE DATA IS MOST LIKELY ASYSCHRONOUS SERIAL DATA MOVING

AT 300 BAUD. NOW THAT 1200 BAUD IS BECOMING MORE CHIC, YOU CAN EXPECT TO

FIND A GROWING USE OF THE FASTER 

TRANSMISSION RATE. FINALLY, YOU DON'T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THE PROTOCOL OR 

EVEN THE BAUD RATE(SPEED) UNTIL AFTER A TAPED COPY OF A TRANSMISSION IS 

OBTAINED.



        IN A SIMPLE EXPERIMENT, A TAPED COPY OF A DATA TRANSMISSION WAS MADE

WITH THE CHEAPEST OF TAPE RECORDERS, TAPPING THE GREEN  AND RED LINES BEYOND

THE MODEM. THE RECORDING WAS THEN PLAYED INTO A MODEM AS THOUGH IT WERE AN

ORIGINAL TRANSMISSION. AT THAT POINT, HAD IT BEEN NECESSARY, THE PROTOCOL 

SETTINGS ON RECEIVING TERMINAL COULD HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO MATCH THE TAPE. NO

ADJUSTMENTS WERE NECESSARY  AND A NICE, CLEAR ERROR-FREE DOCUMENT WAS RECEIVED

ON THE ILLICIT VIDEO SCREEN AND A NEAT HARD-COPY OF THE DOCUMENT CAME OFF THE

PRINTER. THE MESSAGE  WAS INDEED CAPTURED, BUT HAD IT BEEN AN

INTERCEPTION INSTEAD OF A SIMPLE MONITORING, IT COULD HAVE BEEN ALTERED

WITH A SIMPLE WORD PROCESSOR PROGRAM, TO SUIT ANY PURPOSE, AND PLACED BACK ON

THE WIRE.



        WERE I TO HAVE AN INTEREST IN INFORMATION ORIGINATING FROM A 

PARTICULAR COMPANY, AGENCY, OR OFFICE, I THINK THAT I WOULD FIND IT FAR MORE

PRODUCTIVE TO TAP A DATA TRANSMISSION THAN TO TAP A VOICE TRANSMISSION, AND

EVEN MORE REWARDING THAN GETTING HARDCOPY DOCUMENTS.



        *SIGNIFICANT & IMPORTANT INFORMATION IS MORE CONCENTRATED IN A

DATA TRANSMISSION.

        *SIGNIFICANT & IMPORTANT INFORMATION IS MORE EASILY LOCATED IN 

DATA TRANSMISSIONS THAN IN MASSES OF FILES OR PHONE CALLS.

        *TRANSMITTED DATA IS PRESUMED TRUE, AND WHEN ALTERATION IS















Dec 27 21:24 1985  data.tap Page 2





DISCOVERED, ITS READILY BLAMED ON THE EQUIPMENT.

        *THE LAWS CONCERNING TAPS ON UNCLASSIFIED AND NON-FINANCIAL COMPUTER

DATA ARE EITHER QUITE LACKING OR ABJECTLY STUPID.



THE POINT OF ALL THIS IS THAT THE PRUDENT MANAGER REALLY OUGHT TO ENCRYPT

ALL DATA TRANSMISSIONS. ENCRYPTION PACKAGES ARE CHEAP (A 'DES' PROGRAM IS

NOW PRICED AT $30) AND ARE EASY TO USE.



-------------------------------



Editor's Note: This file was aquired by me from a BBS, the is for 'Computer

Security' people only (hehehehe). If you want to fone # just e-mail me. But

please don't crash the board, if is much more valuable up and running where

we can keep an eye on it & THEM.

	-Elric of Imrryr

	Co-Founder of Lunatic Labs

        This file was format for 80 column printing on a UNIX System