Underground: Hacking, madness and obsession on the electronic frontierDreyfus, Suelette
Science
Underground: Hacking, madness and obsession on the electronic frontier
Dreyfus, Suelette
Computer crimes -- Australia; Computer hackers -- Australia -- Biography; Computer security -- Australia
`Hey, I'm not going for a job interview here,' Anthrax responded.
Constable Andrew Sexton, a redhead sporting two earrings, came up to
Anthrax and his father and took them upstairs for coffee. Detective
Sergeant Ken Day, head of the Computer Crime Unit, was in a meeting,
Sexton said, so the interview would be delayed a little.
Anthrax's father and Sexton found they shared some interests in law
enforcement. They discussed the problems associated with
rehabilitation and prisoner discipline. Joked with each other.
Laughed. Talked about `young Anthrax'. Young Anthrax did this. Young
Anthrax did that.
Young Anthrax felt sick. Watching his own father cosying up to the
enemy, talking as if he wasn't even there.
When Sexton went to check on whether Day had finished his meeting,
Anthrax's father growled, `Wipe that look of contempt off your face,
young man. You are going to get nowhere in this world if you show that
kind of attitude, they are going to come down on you like a ton of
bricks.'
Anthrax didn't know what to say. Why should he treat these people with
any respect after the way they threatened his mother?
The interview room was small but very full. A dozen or more boxes, all
filled with labelled print-outs.
Sexton began the interview. `Taped record of interview conducted at
Australian Federal Police Headquarters, 383 Latrobe Street Melbourne
on 29 November 1994.' He reeled off the names of the people present
and asked each to introduce himself for voice recognition.
`As I have already stated, Detective Sergeant Day and I are making
enquiries into your alleged involvement into the manipulation of
private automated branch exchanges [PABXes] via Telecom 008 numbers in
order to obtain free phone calls nationally and internationally. Do
you clearly understand this allegation?'
`Yes.'
Sexton continued with the necessary, and important, preliminaries. Did
Anthrax understand that he was not obliged to answer any questions?
That he had the right to communicate with a lawyer? That he had
attended the interview of his own free will? That he was free to leave
at any time?
Yes, Anthrax said in answer to each question.
Sexton then ploughed through a few more standard procedures before he
finally got to the meat of the issue--telephones. He fished around in
one of the many boxes and pulled out a mobile phone. Anthrax confirmed
that it was his phone.
`Was that the phone that you used to call the 008 numbers and
subsequent connections?' Sexton asked.
`Yes.'
`Contained in that phone is a number of pre-set numbers. Do you
agree?'
`Yes.'
`I went to the trouble of extracting those records from it.' Sexton
looked pleased with himself for hacking Anthrax's speed-dial numbers
from the mobile. `Number 22 is of some interest to myself. It comes up
as Aaron. Could that be the person you referred to before as Aaron in
South Australia?'
`Yes, but he is always moving house. He is a hard person to track
down.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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