"HACKER'S STORY: Two days on long distance" SOURCE: Toronto Computes! June '91 ENTERED BY: Anarchy Tech [ This is a typical example of someone that "became" (Hahahahaha) a "hacker" (as he calls himself) for all the wrong reasons, and turned into an even lower life-form when he was caught. It is this kind of moron that gives the REAL hackers a bad name in society. ] -AT **NOTE** entries surrounded by square brackets "[]" are injection by me (AT). John Medica has been cured [Hahahaha] of his addiction to hacking. He was cured by a police bust and a theft conviction that landed him two years' probation and 100 hours of community service. Now the 22 year old Toronto man [mouse] wants to warn companies that hackers are out to get them. [ What a CROCK this is! Since when was HACKING (in it's most purest form) truely destructive!? ] And he wants to warn hackers that they can't always evade detection. [No shit, sherlock.] "If you get into it you're taking a risk. I thought I might get away with murder. If they don't listen then it's not my fault. Down the road they'll be in the same situation as me." He says many companies are very vulnerable to hacking. "There's a problem out there. I know a lot of people hacking on UNIX." [whistle, whistle] UNIX is a high-end operating system used by many government departments. "Down the road you could see federal systems going down," Medica warns. Medica says he became a hacker for fun and for braggin rights on computer bulletin boards. "You feel you have to try it. It's just like WarGames." [Ah Ha! There it is!] Once he'd broken into a system, he'd spread the news to his computer buddies connected to a special bulletin board for hackers. He says participating on the bulletin board was just like hanging out with a crowd. "It was competition, braggin." Last year Medica and some computer friends aquireda Bell Canada credit card from a hacker bulletin board. They used the number to embark on a long-distance phone binge that lasted two days. [Well, THERE'S A SMART MOVE.] They phoned British Columbia, California, London, and Sidney, Australia. The call to Sidney lasted two hours and included ording an Australian pizza from Pizza Hut. Calls to Brian Mulroney's office in Ottawa and the KGB in Moscow were unsuccessful. Medica says he also got access codes for a local company called Video 1, allowing him to call commercial party lines on the 976 exchange at the company's expense. He says that unlike other hackers, he never sold the access codes. "I wasn't into it that seriously." [Obviously, you got caught, didn't you.] The access codes were available to all participants of the hackers boards, he says. He found out about the hacker board through pirate boards which distribute illegally obtained software. He learned about pirate boards through friends. There are about 100 pirate boards in the Toronto area, says Medica. [ 100 eh? Hmmm, I wonder if that's as high as he can count? He forgot the other 300+ that he couldn't get on. BUT! I am being very critical. Personally, it could all be a front for the press. It's what I might do.. Actually, I wouldn't talk to the press at all. If this is not a front, which is highly likely, then this guy must be crazy. Using codes that were made public on a Hacker (or any other type of) BBS is totally insane. Never distribute your codes to anyone but your immediate group members (or friends) and don't accept codes from anyone but them. I stay away from codes all-together. They are easy to trace, and you don't learn anything from using them. Hack your own codes, and crack your own systems. Don't abuse someone else's efforts. ]