Phonecard fraud may be a hoax

June 1992

Computer

Phonecard

fraud may be a hoax

A claim In the UK Electromcs freezing

a Phonecard

-

Marketplace

Weekly that

a prepaid

telephone

card -

would permit the card holder to defraud

Brmsh

Telecom

may

not

be supportable

Electromcs

Weekly had clarmed that exposing

Phonecard

to a very low temperature

the

telephone’s

thermal

erasing

from

reducrng the card’s value, effecting changing call being made into a free one which makes the Phonecard, stored

a group

temperatures cards

performed

telephone

perfectly

the

Landis & Gyr,

has reported that It

of the cards

for 12 weeks

a

prevented head

at subfreezing

It claims when

that the

used

In a

card reader at the end of that penod

Landis & Gyr claims to have 1 million Phonecard users installed

In 25 countries

Bntrsh

Telecom

19 000 of the card reading

Nynex, a US regional Bell operating testing

57 of the devices

York State Supreme

has

units, and company,

at the Brooklyn

Court Building

IS

New

and at the

Staten Island Ferry Terminal

Cellular phone phreaking simple The winter

made

Issue of the quarterly

hackers’

magazine, 2600, focuses on cellular telephones In an article called ‘mobile frequencies’ some hints on accessing call frequencies are given, along with a list of valrd phone channels used In major USA cltres The author also recommends monitoring the polrce/frre frequencies to keep an eye on what they are doing Other articles In the issue Include an account of the Dutch hacker raids in January (the formal charges against the two hackers are for forgery, racketeering and vandalism, the Netherlands does not yet have anti-hacking laws), and a discussion of the DES crypt0 algorithm

01992

Elsevrer Scrence Publrshers

Ltd

Fraud & Secunty Bullet/n

Torchraven

has released

Unr-secure

which

claims to manage secure access to Unix networks without having to make changes to the Unix kernel It IS menu driven and provides security “to a level beyond C2 functionality” An audit trail, password control and rnactrvrty timeout are provided The software IS designed to work on a wide range of Unix versions rncludrng USL system V 3, system V 4 and Berkeley, from PCs through to multi processor systems For more InformatIon call Kann Brown on +44 (0)71 359 6191 The Computer Security lnstttute has published the 1992 Computer Secunty Buyers Gurde This 450 page reference book features product Information on over 500 products and services, mostly USA based, and IS available free of charge to CSI members, others may receive it at the cost of paying a membership rate of $127 ($167 international) For more details contact Philip Chapnrck on +I 415 905 2688 Sophos Ltd has released a VAX/VMS version of its virus scanning software Sweep Sweep for Pathworks runs as a VAXIVMS process, checking DOS files held on the VAX server It IS updated every month as new viruses appear, with updates being sent out automatically on TK50 tape Lrcences are available on a per user basis or a per VUP basis, and start at f29 50 per user per annum or f995 per VUP per annum and Include the PC version of Sweep For more details call Peter Lammer on +44 (0)235 559933 Biometric access control IS being implemented at Expo 92 In Seville The control, provided by Bull, Involves scannrng an rndrvrdual’s finger to verify data held wrthrn a smartcard This will be used to monitor the entry of some 4000 season ticket holders as they pass through the site’s 12 main entrances According to David Ferrar, director of Bull’s open systems organization, the level of pubkc acceptance of the brometnc device has greatly Interested a number of leadmg banks and retailers For more InformatIon contact Laura Hotham on +44 (0)81 479 2751

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