private line magazine and e-zine back issue text archive. Caution when using any material here which is now very much dated.
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26. You could tell by the audience questions than many in the crowd knew a great deal about UNIX. Few, though, got up to speak. Peter did. That deserves credit. Shipley's company is the Little Garden in San Francisco. It provides internet connections to the greater San Francisco bay area. His remarks reminded me that I need to learn more about UNIX. Much of the discussion went right over my head. Still, that is my fault. English may be the unofficial language of the internet but UNIX seems to be the official one.
27. Saturday ran more smoothly. Philip Zimmerman introduced himself by saying in a quiet voice that he had authored Pretty Good Privacy. The crowd gave him a round of loud applause. Zimmeran talked about electronic privacy, new developments with PGP and how he was now the subject of a federal grand jury investigation. It was somewhat eerie to listen to Zimmerman. An invisible whirlwind of current events and history surrounds him as he speaks. Hearing him speak was enough to justify the entire trip to Vegas. At least for me. I won't remember much of this convention ten years from now. But I will remember that I saw Zimmerman at Def Con.
28. He talked about designing simpler interfaces to make PGP easier to use. True point and click routines with graphical interfaces. He also went to great lengths to explain that the current release of PGP is as robust as the older version. The new one is slightly different for patent and legal reasons. He also talked about how close he was to perfecting a secure voice phone based on PGP routines. You wouldn't need a special telephone, just your regular computer. Using conventional Sound Blaster cards and 19,000 baud modems, one could finally talk on a telephone line in complete privacy. Just so long as the party on the other end has the same equipment. He also told a story that someone had told him. AT&T engineers supposedly became depressed upon hearing of his work. They should be. A cheaper, better system now threatens their expensive Clipper based phones.
29. Gail Thackeray spoke next. She is now a deputy district attorney for Maripoca County, Arizona. Her points were poorly delivered and not well received. Her first stumble came when she seized upon an innocent example provided by Zimmerman. He said that privacy was simple in the old days. You just went behind the barn to talk with someone in private. PGP restored what people had before the days of electricity and electronics. Thackeray attacked this. She maintained that privacy was never assured because your comments could always be misinterpreted and distorted later. What? Zimmerman's point was that privacy used to be secure during transmission. Thackeray's point dealt with the conversation after transmission. The two points are not related. Yet she tried to say that they were.
30. She then trotted out the same tired arguments she related to Bruce Sterling in The Hacker Crackdown. One is that law enforcement needs better tracing abilities. A telco once told her that a kidnapper's call couldn't be traced. This still upsets her. She provided no details about the incident. I have no idea, therefore, why the company couldn't. I suspect it may be a problem beyond legislation. Tracing calls from certain remote places may be difficult or impossible. Arizona and the West in general have dozens of small phone companies that use simple central office equipment. These may not pass ANI or automatic number identification to the toll office. What then? Many CO's support party line service. How do you know, therefore, if the call is coming from Ranch A or Ranch B? There are also thousands of miles of open carrier wire and aerial cable that can be clipped into without detection. Just you, your lineman's handset and your jeep between, say, Jarbridge, Nevada and Elko. How does better call tracing help any of this? And why is she talking about this to us? Talk to a telco, that's what I say. Or give us some specific information.
31. Thackeray also talked about how encryption works against discovering the dreaded, mythical nuclear bomber, Her worst fear. The scenario that she holds us hostage to. The reason that we have to accept Clipper or some other government imposed encryption standard. Get real. For better or worse, someone who has a nuclear bomb is already using encryption, passing notes by hand or delivering plans in a diplomatic pouch. The issue is moot unless the government makes their form of encryption the only one that people can use. And only then if they are prepared to jail people for not going along. Listening to Thackeray, I am convinced that law enforcement is ready to do that.
32. Her talk really broke down after the first audience question. One audience member said that he didn't worry about the police reading his e- mail; the reason that he encrypted was to keep snoopy system administrators from reading it. A reasonable solution to a common problem. Thackeray's demeanor changed when she heard this question. Her voice became strident. She said that she didn't have a problem with him doing so, for now, but her tone was very condescending. "What" she seemed to say, "e-mail? I have bigger problems to deal with."
33. Yeah. Sure you do. Until my e-mail interests you and you can't read it. The audience kept up their questioning. She kept delivering fuzzy answers. This is the woman who has talked to hackers for years? About what? What useful information has she given us? Tell me what happens when I'm arrested. What the process is. The difference between federal law and state law. What the fines are. The code sections we might be arrested under. I heard nothing specific. We got philosophy instead. Great.
34. A central theme to her talk was that we may all have to abide by a breakable encryption scheme. Why? In order to fulfill a social contract that she maintains exists between all members of society. The greater good, that sort of thing. Defined, of course, by her and law enforcement.
35. Well, that's a big subject. One best discussed over many drinks. In the end, however, I'm not sure that anything useful will be accomplished, no matter how much philosophizing and talking that you do. Law enforcement types favor control. Hackers push control away. No two groups could be farther apart before they start talking. No amount of talking will bring them together. Communication does not necessarily lead to acceptance or understanding. Both sides of the abortion debate, for example, understand each other's position very well. Neither side, however, will change. Endless arguing may appeal to the contentiously inclined but I would rather participate in a debate with a fair chance of winning. Thackeray gamely answered people's questions after her talk. I got two back issues out of my back pack. "What the hell", I thought. I'll give her two copies of private line. She did make the effort to get here. Maybe she'll read my comments on California toll fraud in those issues. Maybe she'll see that some people are interested in specifics. As I waited to hand her the issues, though, I heard her say something to an acquaintance. She said that many in the audience were very naive and that many had never thought about some of the issues that she raised. I stepped up and told her that my magazine contained some naive ramblings about California Penal Code section 502.7 and 502.8. She looked a little lost at hearing Penal Code cites in this strange setting but she did thank me. The Con raced on after this. There were some canceled talks but other people stepped in. The following is a loose collection of notes on some of the more interesting speakers. In no particular order.
36. Stephen Dunnifer of Free Berkeley Radio gave an interesting, politically charged talk on micro-broadcasting. He's trying to bring radio to the community and neighborhood level with low power transmitters. His radios seem well built and designed. Most current circuits don't drift enough, anyway, to cause interference. His people are currently fighting the FCC to loosen restrictions on licensing. Starting a radio station today means tens of thousands of dollars. And then what do you get? A monolithic station that doesn't serve an area very well. KFBK in Sacramento, "the flame-thrower of the Central Valley" seems to cover Carmichael only when there is a murder. No local news. Dunnifer's people will go to court to change things. As a ham I feel that the FCC will never move away from the present system without that court order. Dunnifer thinks that changing the system through legislation is impossible. He's probably right.
37. Padgett Peterson talked about viruses and computer security. He has been involved with computers since the 1950's. He's done quite a bit of work for the military including all sorts cryptography projects. Peterson spoke with a quiet authority. He seems to see the Big Picture. He knows how things work. Most of us are trying to figure out bits and pieces of the puzzle a little at a time. He has worked full time in computer related fields for over 30 years. He says, for example, that a DOS computer gives him everything he needs. Doesn't need UNIX to do anything. But that's because he knows UNIX already. He can make that kind of decision because he knows both systems. As a beginner I don't think that I can put off learning UNIX even though he says it isn't necessary. I'll probably stick to basic commands, though, and let it go at that. Peterson also talked about how viruses were changing. He said that many people say they are developing viruses to learn more. If so, he said, then viruses should become harder to find yet easy to remove once discovered. The reverse is true. Today, he said, viruses are just as easy to discover but they are much more difficult to get rid of.
38. Winn Schwartu gave a fascinating talk on electronic security, state sponsored corporate theft, HERF guns and EMP/T bombs. Among other things. I might have thought he was a charlatan but I think he is the real thing. I overheard him talking about electromagnetic pulse weapons at lunch to his friends. He was trying to explain the technology to his friends with the enthusiasm of a little kid. In other words, he really enjoys his work. He's written a few books but he didn't push them on anybody. He hardly mentioned them at all. I respect the discipline that that takes. He also hung around the con for the entire weekend, unlike some speakers who came in and left quickly. His just wrote Information Warfare: Chaos on the Electronic Superhighway.
39. Dead Addict offered some home spun philosophy about the electronic future. I think DA's real contribution to Def Con were his frequent questions about better interfaces. He seemed to ask every programmer about how they would develop a program that was easier to use. I think we all assume that programmers are working on better GUI's. It's not a bad idea to have someone make sure.
40. Dr. Mark Ludwig talked about viruses, file security and on being a citizen of the world. He writes a quarterly on viruses. He sponsored a virus contest just for the convention. Before he gave out the best virus award he noted a contest rule. He said it prohibited a destructive virus. "But" he added, "I don't consider the destruction of an anti-virus program to be a destructive act." I thought that rather clever.
41. He talked about how important it was to encrypt files and to encrypt them often. He also talked about how we ought to become more comfortable with travel and distant places. Take cheap flights when you can to visit different countries. Get used to the idea that you can move yourself and your work to another place if you need to. I thought this was a liberating kind of talk. Most of us get used to our surroundings. He seems comfortable traveling to, say, Nigeria at a moment's notice. He also mentioned a few books that give information on setting up overseas bank accounts.
42. Chris Hall of Executive Protection Associates, Inc. helped give an interesting talk on industrial espionage and corporate security. He's their Chief Operating Officer. There were a lot of security types at the con. They talked about bugging and wiretaps and showed some photographs. They made the important point that you really can't do much about law enforcement monitoring. If they are using a form of REMOBS or remote observation, then they listen through the central office and not in a location that you can access or control. Chris will soon be writing a column for private line.
43. These were just some of the speakers. It seemed that on Saturday and Sunday someone was always talking. Some people bailed out and others filled in. I never did catch any talk on cell phones, despite a few being listed in the program. Still, White Lightning brought along a custom test set that he uses with his cell work. He patiently answered questions and demonstrated how the equipment worked. This demo was out in the lobby but improntu demonstrations happened here and there by different people. Most were the result of pure curiosity and enthusiasm for different kinds of technology.
44. I was surprised how socially connected people were. It dispels the lone hacker myth. Only 30 to 40 people sat by themselves before each talk. The conferees were young. Most seemed in their 20's with some generation Y and a few thirty somethings thrown in. Everyone over thirty, by the way, was deemed to be a Fed.
45. I was also taken by the enormous creativity of the event. Americans are a creative, driven lot. We are a nation of tinkers, inventors, gadgeteers and fix it men. It has always been this way. Thomas Edison, Samuel Morse, Eli Whitney and Elias Howe were all represented in some small way by all of the people at the con. We push toward a common goal: understanding. Figuring out how things work. Motivated for different reasons, perhaps, but motivated none-the-less. Infuriated when we don't have the information we want. Delighted when we get that last piece of the puzzle. Only to find, of course, that there is another puzzle to figure out. I can't think of a better life.
Def Con Info:
e-mail list: majordomo@fc.net with "subscribe dc-announce" in the body of the message to join the announcement list. "subscribe dc-stuff" for the chat list.
FTP : fc.net in /pub/defcon from cyberspace.com.
DT's e-mail: dtangent@defcon.org
Snail mail: DEF CON 2709 E. Madison #102 Seattle, WA, 98112
(DT says that he has tapes of the whole convention for sale. They consist of (10) 90 minute tapes, $32.90 for a set. He also has some shirts left: 20 long sleeve white shirts, about 1/2 old style 1/2 new style. They are three color front, two color back and $22.90 (that extra 2.90 is for postage))
V. ROAD TRIP TO VEGAS
46. We took the road less traveled. Most people from Sacramento go down the Central Valley to Bakersfield and then head east to Vegas. That route looked fast and boring. We wanted slow and interesting. I just put out the second issue and I was tired. In no mood to rush. So, we took a criss crossing, zig-zagging route instead. We went over the Sierra Nevada, down to Bishop and then over the White mountains to Nevada. A two day trip. We started out by pointing the Jeep east along Highway 16, the old Jackson Highway. It runs into Highway 49, the only true north south route of the Sierra Nevada foothills. We headed south until we caught Highway 88, which then strikes north-east over the Sierra.
47. We struck gold quickly on Highway 88 near the Bear River Lake Resort. Right off the highway was a Northern Telecom pay phone that ran on solar power. Cool. It even had a locking cabinet around it. The number is (209 295-9801. A telco with perhaps the most distinctive name in America operates this pay phone: The Volcano Telephone Company. They serve a fairly large area in the central Sierra . Three exchanges. Six thousand lines or so. Their trucks are white with bold blue lettering if you are keeping a watch. I resisted the temptation to call Belize and took photos instead. We kept on 88 until it ran into 395. We then headed south.
48. The next stop was the slightly funky town of Markleeville. Tye dye clothing. VW buses. CONTEL country. Continental Telephone Company of California, that is. Pay phone placards suggested that repair and admin were out of Stateline at Lake Tahoe. CONTEL operated dozens of step by step offices as late as 1987. One post to a newsgroup stated that CONTEL installed 5ESS's in many Southern California cities instead of the less expensive GTD-5's. Enlightened thinking, indeed. I don't know, though, what kind of switch now serves Markleevile. It may be a remote instead of a stand alone switch.
49. I do know, however, that 99XX numbers tie most pay phones together from here to Bishop. Numbers like 694-9994, 9991, 9995 and so on. Some run in consecutive order. For example, at the top of Conway Summit on Highway 395 is a pay phone. Right at the 8,138 foot mark. It's number is (619) 647-9964. The next stop is the Mono Basin National Scenic Area about a dozen miles away The two pay phones there are 9962 and 9961. What happened to 9963? Probably back at the one phone I didn't stop at on the way. Might be pretty easy to find test numbers in this country Stop at the Visitor Center if you drive by Mono Lake. It's well done. You can learn about tufa. Rain and lightning over the Sierra Nevada provided a dramatic background as we visited. A tropical storm had pushed inland from the Gulf Of Mexico. 100 percent humidity and 85 degrees. Humidity in Las Vegas the next day would be less than 10%. Next stop was Bishop. The overnight destination.
50. We stayed at the Frau Haus or the Krautz Haus motel I don't remember. At four p.m. it was hot and humid. Overweight people filled the pool. The only way to cheer me up was to find a used bookstore. Which we did. I found a three year old book on telecom for about seven dollars. This brings up an important point. Many used bookstores in bigger cities are picked clean when it comes to telephony. Try book stores in smaller towns as well as antique stores. You may be surprised
51. I passed out after dinner and then woke up around 10:30 p.m. Time for a night op. I strolled over to CONTEL's corporation yard downtown. They maintain a big presence in Bishop. You can't miss their microwave tower as you drive through the city. My intel says that Bishop is a toll center. This makes sense because Bishop is the largest city in the southern Sierra Nevada. CONTEL's building may also house the central office switch for the city. Their corporation yard was spotless and well lit. Several company trucks were parked at weird angles near the back door. The building looked occupied. I understand that most toll centers are manned around the clock. In any case, the highlight of their yard was a brand new, bright red Snow Cat on a trailer with the CONTEL logo emblazoned across the side. Great stuff. Made me wish I had some private line bumper stickers to paste on it. I bet the linemen fight over who gets to make service calls with this machine during the winter.
52. We took off the next morning to cross the southern end of the White Mountains into Nevada. You cross these mountains by using Highway 168. We gassed up in Big Pine first before heading toward the summit. Count on all gas being 15 to 20 cents a gallon higher than in the city. We didn't buy any food or drinks in Big Pine. That was a mistake. The next supplies turned out to be 97 miles away in Scotty's Junction, Nevada. I'm taking extra water for the jeep as well. Next time. One problem with these isolated roads is that having a AAA card doesn't help much. They pay for the first five miles of towing only. Getting stuck fifty miles up the road might bankrupt your vacation.
53. The road to the Westgard Pass was long and turning. This is the way to the Bristlecone Pine grove. Some of these trees are over 4000 years old. We didn't look at them because they are twelve miles off the road near the top of the grade. But we will see them next year when we return to Def Con. Just takes more planning. This 80 miles of road had few houses along it. No services. Some ranch houses had electric power but I did not see telephone cable running out to them. It's odd to think of people in 1994 who don't have telephone service available. Still, that is also the situation in some northern California counties as well.
54. The scenery was beautiful, though, and we enjoyed the drive. Wide vistas of bare mountains and the occasional soda lake. Five or six falling down houses marked the town of Lida Junction. No stores. I was confident, however, that there would be something at the junction of Nevada Highway 95. There was. A cathouse. I told my friend that I would check things out in the interest of finding her something to drink. She told me to keep driving. The drive south to Las Vegas was boring and uneventful. A fiber optic cable runs alongside it. At 7,000 feet the temperature in the mountains was pleasant. It was now climbing past 100 degrees as we drove down Highway 95. We stopped in Beatty for lunch. Beatty heralds itself as "The Gateway to Death Valley." Great. This little town has a strange affinity for mules. Mule Days. Twenty Mule Team. Borax mining and all that. Expensive mule related t-shirts, sweaters and key chains. A casino named for a mule. We had a pleasant lunch and then got back on the road. It was your basic Death Drive until Las Vegas.
55. We got into Vegas after a total of 563 miles. We traveled through North Vegas first. Many North Las Vegas residents think their town has an image problem. I understand. Much of this area looks like Telegraph Avenue South. Litter and street people and 1050 heat. Lovely. I read now, though, that they are trying to clean things up. The town got cleaner but busier as we drove. Traffic is very heavy around all the hotels. We didn't have a detailed map of Las Vegas so we just motored toward the hotel signs. I'll have a map next year.
56. Next year we'll set aside an even longer block of time for the road trip. I think that many people could only set aside a weekend for the Con. That's unfortunate. It makes everything feel rushed. My suggestion is to think about taking an entire week off next year. That's what I am doing since I have so much time to plan ahead. I hope to see you there.
The Sahara Hotel ---
57. Dark Tangent would like the Con to return to the Sahara next year. They are, however, raising the costs dramatically. Dark Tangent says that they now want $3,000 for the space he needs next year. Here's a few random notes on the hotel in case we all wind up back there in 1995.
58. The parking lot is a mess. Ignore all signs, parking attendants and wrong way arrows and drive into the parking garage first. Not the temporary lot. Park the car but leave your luggage inside. Scope out things first. The check in line can vary from a few people to an hour long wait. Get a beer and relax. Jump into line if the wait is short. The baggage handlers are union, by the way, so you may want to carry your own luggage.
59. The Sahara is an old casino. It's kept up well but it's been used hard. The rooms though, are much cleaner and brighter than the rest of the motel. We registered early and got a room on a top floor. I didn't hear anything from adjacent rooms. They do check for hotel cards before you get on the elevators. I think that's a nice touch. I understand, though, that they won't issue room cards to people under 18 without an "adult" present. So don't lose your card if you are under age. I thought there would be more friction between the casino and those under 21. I really didn't see any incidents. Maybe security was low key but I did not see anything overt.
60. Driving and parking are such a hassle that you may find yourself staying at the hotel the whole weekend. If so, food is going to get expensive. Still, there is a nice cafe near the pool where you can buy fruit, pastries, milk and sandwiches. It's actually more pleasant than the restaurants, especially in the morning when you can take your food outside. Speaking of the pool, the hotel does not keep it open after dark. That's a shame since the area is so well lit and because the weather is so hot.
61. Pay per view movies in the hotel room are an overpriced joke. Seven to eight dollars. The drink specials, though, are a godsend. The Sahara had Heinekens for a dollar all weekend. They were the savoir of many, including me. just got an exciting document with a dull name.
VI. A FEW THOUGHTS ON EMS AND 911
62. I just got an exciting document with a dull name. It's called The Sacramento Regional Fire/EMS Communications Center: Computer Aided Dispatch and Records Management System. Request for Proposals. What is it? It's an invitation to bid. The City and County of Sacramento want to upgrade the communication system that handles their fire and emergency medical response. The Warner Group put together for the County a complete description of the existing system as well as the requirements for a new one. This booklet gives all bidders the same information. They use this Request for Proposal to develop their bid. It gives a lot of fascinating, telecom related details.
63. The smaller cities of Sacramento county use Macintoshes and PC clones to deal with the regional communication center. The larger districts use mini-computers. The larger districts have dedicated tie lines to the EMS center. The smaller ones, though, still use normal dial up phone lines. Galt has a dedicated line but it is over microwave. Galt, in fact, wins the hacker seal of approval for having their headquarters and their three fire stations running Amigas! Where do you go, anyway, for fire dispatch and EMS software for the Amiga? It poorly details callboxes. Many still exist in downtown Sacramento. Some still use open wire strung on poles.
