K o r o v a M u l t i m e d i a World Wide Web http://www.korova.com http://www.chromejob.com ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- 25 May 1998 S t a r t B u t t o n Hoax du Jour: The AOL Hacker Riot II Many users wrote to me in answer to my page on the 90# Phone Scam. I thought I had made it pretty clear to begin with, but some clarification is in order. YES, there is a possibility that the series of keys 9-0-#, or something similar, might work on certain PBX and other business phone systems to enable a savvy con artist to get an outside phone at a business' expense. But NO, it will not work on every system with the same success. And NO, it will not work on residential phone exchanges. Much of the confusion apparently resulted from the omission of one line of the original account, which detailed the specific PBX function needed at a New Orleans military base to give a caller an outside line. The omission may've occurred when an Air Force non-com forwarded the warning far and wide. Again, it was my stated contention that, though certain phone systems are vulnerable to social engineering, the fear that the precise same codes (90#) will work anywhere is ... absurd. ------------------------------------------------------- It's that time of year again. Schools are wrapping up, Memorial Day has come and gone, and some dang fool has decided to again put the bugaboo bamboozle over on AOL Computer Virus Myths users of dubious BS-filtering abilities. AOL RIOT JUNE 1, 1998 WARNING: You must forward this letter to 10 people or your account will be terminated on June 1, 1998. All recipients of this e-mail are being tracked. When you received this, when you forwarded it, who you forwarded it to, is all on record. We are AOL's most elite hacker group, known as LcW. We have hacked AOL's (easily infiltrated) systems on numerous occaisions. We have shut down AOL keywords, we can kick any AOL Staff member off for 24 hours, we have gained access to Steve Case's account, we have created AOL's most famous hacking programs (Fate X, HaVoK, HeLL RaIsEr, MaGeNtA) and we can certainly get your credit card info. However, if you send this to 10 people, like you are told, you will escape unharmed. We won't terminate your account and you will be able to continue using AOL. So if you know whats best for you, you will send this to 10 people as soon as possible. If you think we are bluffing....just wait till June 1, and see if you can sign or not. CAUTION: THERE WILL BE A VIRUS UPLOADED ON AOL'S MAIN SERVER ON JUNE 1, 1998. ANY USERS WHO HAVEN'T FORWARDED THIS MESSAGE WILL AUTOMATICALLY HAVE THE VIRUS DOWNLOADED INTO THEIR SYSTEM. WE SUGGEST YOU FORWARD THIS MESSAGE OR YOUR COMPUTER WILL BE FRIED. [CIAC] The idea is, of course, absurd. Last year's Valentine's Day "riot" amounted to little more than inept amateurs disrupting some chat rooms using "basic tricks of the trade: scrolling text too fast to read, kicking out chatters, and using macros that spewed out text like 'RIOT!!! RIOT!!! RIOT!!!' and 'Get Ready to Corrupt.'" [WIRED] This year's announcement seems as pedestrian. Spamming e-mail is easy, and making assertions of elite hacker status is just as easy. And confer no more credibility. (Note the brilliant use of ALL CAPS text, usually a good sign of BS.) This year's variant introduces the added hysteria of an overt threat that the senders will close your account, ruin your computer, ruin your credit, yada yada,... unless you continue spamming the message to your friends. (And your friends will love you for it, right?) I don't think so. Like most other Internet chain letters, this one contains a hook, a threat, and (of course) a request. [CIAC Internet Chain Letter alert] The threat this time is a little more preposterous: the sender claims omnipotence over your account, ability to track your e-mail (and do so for hundreds or thousands of other users?), and threatens various forms of remote mayhem on your system (including involuntarily receiving and executing a virus). It's a slightly new hoax (the "direct-threat chain letter" [Computer Virus Myths]), but it doesn't even use an original motif. Delete it upon receipt. Do not forward it. Have a happy Memorial Day. Related Links --> http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html#aolriot http://www.kumite.com/myths/cvha/1997/#evvalentine http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,7727,00.html http://www.wired.com/news/culture/story/2088.html D.B. Spalding The HOAX DU JOUR is a regular feature of Korova Multimedia. Tune in to http://www.korova.com/virus/hoax.htm. D.B. Spalding is an infopreneur and consultant based in Marin County, CA. Many of his articles can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.korova.com. (C) Copyright 1998 D.B. Spalding. All rights reserved.