Teen Phone Phreak Targeted by the FBI

Wired has an interesting editorial on the latest resurgence of the old days of phone phreaking and the latest phreak that is rising into the FBI crosshairs. The most recent hoax, "swatting", involves malicious pranksters calling police with reports of fake murders, hostage crises, or the like and spoofing the call to appear as though it was from another location. "Now the FBI thinks it has identified the culprit in the Colorado swatting as a 17-year-old East Boston phone phreak known as "Li'l Hacker." Because he's underage, Wired.com is not reporting Li'l Hacker's last name. His first name is Matthew, and he poses a unique challenge to the federal justice system, because he is blind from birth. If he's guilty, the attack is at once the least sophisticated and most malicious of a string of capers linked to Matt, who stumbled into the lingering remains of the decades-old subculture of phone phreaking when he was 14, and quickly rose to become one of the most skilled active phreakers alive."

Oh christ. This is NOT phreaking...

[Chas]

Calling up and making prank calls isn't phreaking.

Even spoofing Caller ID, while a possible phreaking tool, is now common enough today that it's trivial for almost anyone to do.

This is just some stupid punk kid making an ass out of himself and cost the police time and taxpayers money.

This is equal to screaming fire in a crowded theater.

Again, making prank calls to the police and emergency services is stupid, not phreaking.

Re:Skillz!

[ChinggisK]

Renewing your library books wasn't taking away life-or-death police resources that someone else might actually need.

Re:Cops always think that way...

[toddabalsley]

If you're talking about the event in Atlanta, you've missed a few details.
They had a warrant, it was just obtained with false information from information provided by an informant who was know to be not credible.
The grandmother? She shot at the cops after they broke into her house. The cops were returning fire.

Yeah, the people that falsified information to get the warrant should be put under the jail. But don't lump all cops in with a few genuine baddies. Generally, they have a shitty job that pays poorly, and are doing their best to protect you and me.

Re:Thuggery

[Anonymous Coward]

Thuggery is the wrong word, it means violent intimidation. This is more along the lines of reckless selfishness.

"Hee hee! I'm so clever! I made you run outside! Hee hee!"

Re:Oh christ. This is NOT phreaking...

[Carnildo]

Even spoofing Caller ID, while a possible phreaking tool, is now common enough today that it's trivial for almost anyone to do.

E911 doesn't use Caller ID. It uses the same set of signals that the phone company uses for billing, which are much harder to spoof.

Pretexting

[esocid]

Complicating matters in Matt's case is that there's no federal law against pretext phone calls. So in court filings in related cases, the feds have invented a novel legal theory just for the blind hacker. Matt, they argue, violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by persuading phone company workers to access their computers on his behalf. He hacked by proxy, using his voice instead of a computer.

That may be where the complications arise, either that or he was used as an informant by the FBI to prosecute other swatters. Either way he turns 18 in April so they won't have to see if they can try him as a minor.

Re:Challenge? Why

[TheRealMindChild]

No one was killed. Sure, money and resources were lost, but I can't really back the idea that it is serious enough to push the case into an adult trial.

Re:No, not really

[plague3106]

I don't think you know how the phone system works. Its not setup so that numbers are reall locked down to an area or house; there's no reason all 802 numbers must be VT other than its convient for us. But the hardware isn't limited by this anymore.

Re:What's the problem?

[dbrutus]

They're out there. Radley Balko has been doing good work assembling cases of SWAT raids gone wrong through error and malice and the trend line seems to be going in a bad direction.
http://www.theagitator.com/ [theagitator.com]

Re:At least...

[Archangel Michael]

Take another look at the parameters. ALL years being the big key. Look back at how many years are included in the graph.

This is the problem with idiots like you, you see a nice pretty map with lots of markers on it and yet don't have any real clue as to the frequency (spanning time) because time isn't reported. Here's a quick test .... Death of an Innocent, Year 2007 for ALL States .... the result ....

Search Results

This 0 result represents
The state of: All
For the year: 2007
And the following type of incident: Death of an innocent

ZERO!

That's right. It is INFREQUENT, so much so that it didn't happen once last year. While we should mourn the loss of each innocent, and make efforts to keep it from happening, maps like the one above are nothing more than FLAME BAIT, designed to stir up idiots like you.

If that map makes your "blood boil", I suggest that you stop reading shit like that because you don't have a freakin clue what it means.

Re:Challenge? Why

[Anonymous Coward]

Has it ever occurred to you that the goal of the justice system is to reform - not just out of noble altruism, but also in order to keep us all safe in the future -, and not to take revenge?

You might want to inform the US justice system about that. Law enforcement too.

  Ohio Police Officers Arrest & Humiliate An Innocent Woman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzKaUxqDnxE [youtube.com]

  Police dump quadriplegic from wheelchair
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYMKyJRAabE [youtube.com]

  Cops use taser on a woman lying on the ground
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUO0RZbTsgg [youtube.com]

  Police Taser Polish Man to Death at Vancouver's YVR Airport
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6nx0Cx3uMk [youtube.com]

Posting anonymously because police read slashdot too, and I don't want to be next.
Sadly, the terrorists in positions of law enforcement have won this battle, and I am scared shitless of them!

Re:No kidding

[kd5ujz]

I would not say he is all that intellegent, there have been quite a few "phreakers" using calling cards that prompt you for the number to dial, then the number to display on caller ID. This site sells one such card.

http://www.covertcard.com/ [covertcard.com]