The History of British Phreaking courtesy of Jolly Roger

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

$ $

$ THE HISTORY OF BRITISH PHREAKING $

$ -=- -=-=-=- -- -=-=-=- -=-=-=-=- $

$ $

$ THE SECOND IN A SERIES OF $

$ THE HISTORY OF.....PHILES $

$ $

$ WRITTEN AND UPLOADED BY: $

$ $

$$$$$$$$$$$$-=>LEX LUTHOR<=-$$$$$$$$$$$

$ AND $

$ THE LEGION OF DOOM! $

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

NOTE: THE BRITISH POST OFFICE, IS THE U.S. EQUIVALENT OF MA BELL.

IN BRITAIN, PHREAKING GOES BACK TO THE EARLY FIFTIES, WHEN THE TECHNIQUE OF

'TOLL A DROP BACK' WAS DISCOVERED. TOLL A WAS AN EXCHANGE NEAR ST. PAULS

WHICH ROUTED CALLS BETWEEN LONDON AND NEARBY NON-LONDON EXCHANGES. THE TRICK

WAS TO DIAL AN UNALLOCATED NUMBER, AND THEN DEPRESS THE RECEIVER-REST FOR 1/2

SECOND. THIS FLASHING INITIATED THE 'CLEAR FORWARD' SIGNAL, LEAVING THE CALLER

WITH AN OPEN LINE INTO THE TOLL A EXCHANGE.THE COULD THEN DIAL 018, WHICH

FORWARDED HIM TO THE TRUNK EXCHANGE AT THAT TIME, THE FIRST LONG DISTANCE

EXCHANGE IN BRITAIN AND FOLLOW IT WITH THE CODE FOR THE DISTANT EXCHANGE TO

WHICH HE WOULD BE CONNECTED AT NO EXTRA CHARGE.

THE SIGNALS NEEDED TO CONTROL THE UK NETWORK TODAY WERE PUBLISHED IN THE

"INSTITUTION OF POST OFFICE ENGINEERS JOURNAL" AND REPRINTED IN THE SUNDAY

TIMES (15 OCT. 1972).

THE SIGNALLING SYSTEM THEY USE: SIGNALLING SYSTEM NO. 3 USES PAIRS OF

FREQUENCIES SELECTED FROM 6 TONES SEPARATED BY 120HZ. WITH THAT INFO, THE

PHREAKS MADE "BLEEPERS" OR AS THEY ARE CALLED HERE IN THE U.S. "BLUE BOX", BUT

THEY DO UTILIZE DIFFERENT MF TONES THEN THE U.S., THUS, YOUR U.S. BLUE BOX

THAT YOU SMUGGLED INTO THE UK WILL NOT WORK, UNLESS YOU CHANGE THE

FREQUENCIES.

IN THE EARLY SEVENTIES, A SIMPLER SYSTEM BASED ON DIFFERENT NUMBERS OF PULSES

WITH THE SAME FREQUENCY (2280HZ) WAS USED. FOR MORE INFO ON THAT, TRY TO GET A

HOLD OF: ATKINSON'S "TELEPHONY AND SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY".

IN THE EARLY DAYS OF BRITISH PHREAKING, THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY TITAN

COMPUTER WAS USED TO RECORD AND CIRCULATE NUMBERS FOUND BY THE EXHAUSTIVE

DIALING OF LOCAL NETWORKS. THESE NUMBERS WERE USED TO CREATE A CHAIN OF LINKS

FROM LOCAL EXCHANGE TO LOCAL EXCHANGE ACROSS THE COUNTRY, BYPASSING THE TRUNK

CIRCUITS. BECAUSE THE INTERNAL ROUTING CODES IN THE UK NETWORK ARE NOT THE

SAME AS THOSE DIALED BY THE CALLER, THE PHREAKS HAD TO DISCOVER THEM BY 'PROBE

AND LISTEN' TECHNIQUES OR MORE COMMONLY KNOWN IN THE U.S.-- SCANNING. WHAT

THEY DID WAS PUT IN LIKELY SIGNALS AND LISTENED TO FIND OUT IF THEY SUCCEEDED.

THE RESULTS OF SCANNING WERE CIRCULATED TO OTHER PHREAKS. DISCOVERING EACH

OTHER TOOK TIME AT FIRST, BUT EVENTUALLY THE PHREAKS BECAME ORGANIZED. THE

"TAP" OF BRITAIN WAS CALLED "UNDERCURRENTS" WHICH ENABLED BRITISH PHREAKS TO

SHARE THE INFO ON NEW NUMBERS, EQUIPMENT ETC.

TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THE BRITISH BRITISH PHREAKS DID, THINK OF THE PHONE

NETWORK IN THREE LAYERS OF LINES: LOCAL, TRUNK, AND INTERNATIONAL.#IN THE UK,

SUBSCRIBER TRUNK DIALING (STD), IS THE MECHANISM WHICH TAKES A CALL FROM THE

LOCAL LINES AND (LEGITIMATELY) ELEVATES IT TO A TRUNK OR INTERNATIONAL

LEVEL.#THE UK PHREAKS FIGURED THAT A CALL AT TRUNK LEVEL CAN BE ROUTED THROUGH

ANY NUMBER OF EXCHANGES, PROVIDED THAT THE RIGHT ROUTING CODES WERE FOUND AND

USED CORRECTLY. THEY ALSO HAD TO DISCOVER HOW TO GET FROM LOCAL TO TRUNK LEVEL

EITHER WITHOUT BEING CHARGED (WHICH THEY DID WITH A BLEEPER BOX) OR WITHOUT

USING (STD). CHAINING HAS ALREADY BEEN MENTIONED BUT IT REQUIRES LONG STRINGS

OF DIGITS AND SPEECH GETS MORE AND MORE FAINT AS THE CHAIN GROWS, JUST LIKE IT

DOES WHEN YOU STACK TRUNKS BACK AND FORTH ACROSS THE U.S.#THE WAY THE SECURITY

REPS SNAGGED THE PHREAKS WAS TO PUT A SIMPLE 'PRINTERMETER' OR AS WE CALL IT:

A PEN REGISTER ON THE SUSPECTS LINE, WHICH SHOWS EVERY DIGIT DIALED FROM THE

SUBSCRIBERS LINE.

THE BRITISH PREFER TO GET ONTO THE TRUNKS RATHER THAN CHAINING. ONE WAY WAS

TO DISCOVER WHERE LOCAL CALLS USE THE TRUNKS BETWEEN NEIGHBORING EXCHANGES,

START A CALL AND STAY ON THE TRUNK INSTEAD OF RETURNING TO THE LOCAL LEVEL ON

REACHING THE DISTANT SWITCH. THIS AGAIN REQUIRED EXHAUSTIVE DIALING AND MADE

MORE WORK FOR TITAN; IT ALSO REVEALED 'FIDDLES', WHICH WERE INSERTED BY POST

OFFICE ENGINEERS.

WHAT FIDDLING MEANS IS THAT THE ENGINEERS REWIRED THE EXCHANGES FOR THEIR OWN

BENEFIT. THE EQUIPMENT IS MODIFIED TO GIVE ACCESS TO A TRUNK WITH OUT BEING

CHARGED, AN OPERATION WHICH IS PRETTY EASY IN STEP BY STEP (SXS)

ELECTROMECHANICAL EXCHANGES, WHICH WERE INSTALLED IN BRITAIN EVEN IN THE 1970S

(NOTE: I KNOW OF A BACK DOOR INTO THE CANADIAN SYSTEM ON A 4A CO., SO IF YOU

ARE ON SXS OR A 4A, TRY SCANNING 3 DIGIT EXCHANGES, IE: DIAL 999,998,997

ETC.#AND LISTEN FOR THE BEEP-KERCHINK, IF THERE ARE NO 3 DIGIT CODES WHICH

ALLOW DIRECT ACCESS TO A TANDEM IN YOUR LOCAL EXCHANGE AND BYPASSES THE AMA SO

YOU WON'T BE BILLED, NOT HAVE TO BLAST 2600 EVERY TIME YOU WISH TO BOX A CALL.

A FAMOUS BRITISH 'FIDDLER' REVEALED IN THE EARLY 1970S WORKED BY DIALING 173.

THE CALLER THEN ADDED THE TRUNK CODE OF 1 AND THE SUBSCRIBERS LOCAL NUMBER. AT

THAT TIME, MOST ENGINEERING TEST SERVICES BEGAN WITH 17X, SO THE ENGINEERS

COULD HIDE THEIR FIDDLES IN THE NEST OF SERVICE WIRES. WHEN SECURITY REPS

STARTED SEARCHING, THE FIDDLES WERE CONCEALED BY TONES SIGNALLING: 'NUMBER

UNOBTAINALBE' OR 'EQUIPMENT ENGAGED' WHICH SWITCHED OFF AFTER A DELAY. THE

NECESSARY RELAYS ARE SMALL AND EASILY HIDDEN.

THERE WAS ANOTHER SIDE TO PHREAKING IN THE UK IN THE SIXTIES. BEFORE STD WAS

WIDESPREAD, MANY 'ORDINARY' PEOPLE WERE DRIVEN TO.

OCCASIONAL PHREAKING FROM SHEER FRUSTRATION AT THE INEFFICIENT OPERATOR

CONTROLLED TRUNK SYSTEM. THIS CAME TO A HEAD DURING A STRIKE ABOUT 1961 WHEN

OPERATORS COULD NOT BE REACHED. NOTHING COMPLICATED WAS NEEDED. MANY

OPERATORS HAD BEEN IN THE HABIT OF REPEATING THE CODES AS THEY DIALLED THE

REQUESTED NUMBERS SO PEOPLE SOON LEARNT THE NUMBERS THEY CALLED FREQUENTLY.

THE ONLY 'TRICK' WAS TO KNOW WHICH EXCHANGES COULD BE DIALLED THROUGH TO PASS

ON THE TRUNK NUMBER.CALLERS ALSO NEEDED A PRETTY QUIET PLACE TO DO IT, SINCE

TIMING RELATIVE TO CLICKS WAS IMPORTANT THE MOST FAMOUS TRIAL OF BRITISH

PHREAKS WAS CALLED THE OLD BAILY TRIAL.#WHICH STARTED ON 3 OCT. 1973.#WHAT

THEY PHREAKS DID WAS TO DIAL A SPARE NUMBER AT A LOCAL CALL RATE BUT INVOLVING

A TRUNK TO ANOTHER EXCHANGE THEN THEY SEND A 'CLEAR FORWARD' TO THEIR LOCAL

EXCHANGE, INDICATING TO IT THAT THE CALL IS FINISHED;BUT THE DISTANT EXCHANGE

DOESN'T REALIZE BECAUSE THE CALLER'S PHONE IS STILL OFF THE HOOK. THEY NOW

HAVE AN OPEN LINE INTO THE DISTANT TRUNK EXCHANGE AND SENDS TO IT A 'SEIZE'

SIGNAL: '1' WHICH PUTS HIM ONTO ITS OUTGOING LINES NOW, IF THEY KNOW THE

CODES, THE WORLD IS OPEN TO THEM. ALL OTHER EXCHANGES TRUST HIS LOCAL EXCHANGE

TO HANDLE THE BILLING; THEY JUST INTERPRET THE TONES THEY HEAR. MEAN WHILE,

THE LOCAL EXCHANGE COLLECTS ONLY FOR A LOCAL CALL. THE INVESTIGATORS

DISCOVERED THE PHREAKS HOLDING A CONFERENCE SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND SURROUNDED BY

VARIOUS PHONE EQUIPMENT AND BLEEPER BOXES, ALSO PRINTOUTS LISTING 'SECRET' POST

OFFICE CODES. (THEY PROBABLY GOT THEM FROM TRASHING?) THE JUDGE SAID: "SOME

TAKE TO HEROIN, SOME TAKE TO TELEPHONES" FOR THEM PHONE PHREAKING WAS NOT A

CRIME BUT A HOBBY TO BE SHARED WITH PHELLOW ENTHUSIASTS AND DISCUSSED WITH THE

POST OFFICE OPENLY OVER DINNER AND BY MAIL. THEIR APPROACH AND ATTITUDE TO THE

WORLDS LARGEST COMPUTER, THE GLOBAL TELEPHONE SYSTEM, WAS THAT OF SCIENTISTS

CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS OR PROGRAMMERS AND ENGINEERS TESTING PROGRAMS AND

SYSTEMS. THE JUDGE APPEARED TO AGREE, AND EVEN ASKED THEM FOR PHREAKING CODES

TO USE FROM HIS LOCAL EXCHANGE!!!

(Left Untouched as I got it...-----JR)

(Same Here... '94. ----------Exodus)