Dear Antionline,



I was wondering if you could email me with an answer or suggestion. My brother-in-law got $1000 phone bill from US West which they say he has to pay no questions asked. I told him not to pay it until someone comes to his house and checks out his phone line. I had no other suggestion because I don't know anything about phone hacking. (Phreaking). It seems to me that the phone company just doesn't want to deal with any problems because it will cost them time. It's just plain wrong. My brother-in-law is definitely not phoning Chad, Africa. He doesn't know anybody out of Utah. What can I ask the phone company to check. What can I check? Is there a virus that someone could have put on his computer, that causes this to happen?



If he has to go to court, what are his chances? Please help. Any information you can supply will be beneficial to me and many others.



Cordially,

Craig.



You need to have your brother-in-law call US West's "Wrongful Call Center". Every phone company has one, and they are staffed by people that are trained to handle such things. I'm not sure who he talked to that they told him that he had to pay "no questions asked". I have a feeling it was probably just someone from billing that had no idea what he was talking about.








Ah huh Submitted The Following:



www.levi.com




Please patch your IIS, e-mail microsoft for help, this is not malicious, so please dont take it the wrong way, america has to be safe, greets to function9, ssH, #crontab, RootX11, And muh aim crews out there. - avirex 0d0




This was so halarious I needed to share with you. Oh no, what will we do, a clothing department store website is vulnerable. Some of these hackers are smart and savvy with computers, but have no common sense. If they do, it's no more than an easy excuse for boredem. Why do hackers constantly think they have a obligation to make companies safe and for free infact? Will we all suffer from the wrath of levi terrorist? All our jeans will be bleached to a gayish color!! hahahaha



"greets to function9, ssH, #crontab, RootX11, And muh aim crews out there" Sounds to me
like he should give up computers and enter the challenging and rewarding profession of gangsta rap.









Hello,



I'd first like to say that you guys are doing a wonderful job. I check Antionline at least once a week to keep myself briefed on the world of computer security. I'd like to add a few bits of my personal thoughts on what people like Kevin Mitnick, Jon Johansen (the kid that hacked the DVD), and their imitators have to offer us.



Kevin Mitnick reminds me of some kids that went to my high school. They used to raise hell, get in trouble, steal things, and all the time wonder why "the authorities are being so hard on them." They get away with doing something so often that they think it is okay. When they get busted, they start whining and crying and then take up an anti-authoritarian posture. What babies. If they followed the rules in the first place, then they'd have nothing to whine about in the end. As for Kevin's thoughts of the authorities making "an example" out of him, i'd disagree with that. There was a multi-year investigation, and when he was caught, he had to pay for his crimes. There's no difference than the authorites making "an example" out of a bank robber, or car thief, or even a shoplifter. In all those cases the people broke the law and they had to pay. A kid once shot a paintball at my car... and spent two weeks in jail and got a $300 fine for it? He probably thought that i wanted him to be an example of wh
y this activity is forbidden... no actually. The law is the one that sets the punishment and it was his choice to break it. Kevin Mitnick, you get no pity from me. Will he go back to jail? Probably. Will he and his cronies whine? Probably. Is it an endless downward spiral? Probably. Only time will tell.



As for Jon Johansen; i think he represents a new generation of "C.B.s". No, not Citizens Band radio operators; Cheap Bastards. C.B.s are the ones that pirate intellectual property under the veil of "free speech". They are too cheap to go out and spend $15 on a CD, and are even to cheap to find a friend with it, so they download the pirated MP3. They then realize that they are getting for free what used to cost them an astronomical amount of their beer and cigarette money... so they turn to pirating their own CDs and letting everyone else download them. The whole time, they are making unauthorized copies of copyrighted material. The government agreed a long time ago that there were no problems with "backup copies" of records, movies, and other media... but mass piracy was strictly forbidden. The Cheap Bastards are just that... Cheap bastards. They have enough money to buy a $200 hard drive, $300 worth of memory, and another $1000 of piracy equipment... but they are too cheap to buy a $15 CD. The Cheap Bastard mentality will probably proliferate, because the internet is full of them.



Well, i gotta run, keep up the good work!



Obin Robinson



I have another name for the "Cheap Bastard Mentality". I call it the open source movement, heh.








Mr. Vranesevich,



I am sorry to bother you, but I am doing a presentation on your life
and work (antionline) for an ethics class. I was wondering if you could
let me know of any web sites that post any information about you, or if
you could give some info yourself. I am giving the presentation on
Thursday, February 3. If you have some time, please send some
information to me.



Thanks,

Joel Stammen



Damn, don't do that. It's bad enough you called me Mr., but "a presentation on your life"? Cut me some slack, I'm only 21. You people are going to have me dead and buried before my time.








sarah Submitted The Following:



hrmm.. for once I side with you? how could this be? you took the words out of my mouth about that teacher. there was a teacher here who tried to get someone expelled for ATTEMPTING to log on to her email account here.. she said they hacked the computers blah blah ****ing blah.. shes a lawyer too.. only reason he got off is the "tech person" at my school thought that was beyond dumb and the dumbasses thought the time was way off.. great to know they dont understand time zones.



.....



Explain this to me. I am in an MCSE class. its a joke. "A t1 is 1.544 megabit.. it can download a diskette a second", "Uhmm, no it cant...", "YES IT CAN", "it doesnt stand for MEGABYTE its MEGABIT", "I Know what it means dont make a federal case about it. it can download @ 1.544 megs a second". oh and btw.. a 1.544 megabit T1 is divided into 24 64 meg channels. when did math change? and how can someone charge THOUSANDS of dollars and be a ****ing moron?



There are plenty of other morons that charge thousands of dollars for their services. Take the legal profession as just one of many examples......








John,



I have been a reader for a while now, and read your mailbag religiously. I find your comments on happenings in the news very truthful. I was just wondering, since you haven't really talked much about it, what you think about the whole DeCSS thing...

Thanks

Ivan37



Yeah, I've been hush on that one for a reason, heh. Maybe I'll be able to write up something later this week......