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Mysteries of the Las Vegas Telecom System
Reverend Raven writes "This is from Security Focus and deals with how some people believe a group of uber-hackers controls the Vegas telecom system. Interesting read, indeed." A follow-up to this old story. The case seems to be still winding its way through the bureaucracy.
This sounds to me like systematic hacking of hotel telephone exchanges, so assuming Sprint isn't responsible for these (I don't see why it would be) I'm really not sure that this is Sprint's fault or problem.
Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
So lets get this straight, in a hotel in Vegas you may or may not get through when you dial out...
Next week "$5 on getting through on the 4th occasion at 3-2"
And "The Gamblers Suite, where even the phone has the element of chance, get through when the blue light is on and win a free meal for two at the Belagio"
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
It seems likely to me that the so-called uber hackers are really the police. Look at the the people involved in this: pimps and smut sellers and Gambino's [and somehow Kevin Mitnik]. The mobsters were caught in a sting when they tried to "muscle-in" on the phone racket. They could only have been caught if the Law knew what was going on.
Last time I went to Vegas, it was much cleaned up from several years ago. Almost no porn and fewer hooker adds. Used to be you couldnt see the sidewalk for them. I say the police did it by jamming the unsavory's phones.
" A man in the porno biz get's the shaft..."
Lemme guess...no pun intended?
Carpe Canem - Seize the Dog
Prostitution in Las Vegas is illegal. Refer to Nevada State Law, Chapter 244, Counties: Government General Provisions, section 8 for more info (NRS 244,345):
8. In a county whose population is 400,000 or more, the license board shall not grant any license to a petitioner for the purpose of operating a house of ill fame or repute or any other business employing any person for the purpose of prostitution.
Since Las Vegas is in Clark County, a county that has a population that is indeed over 400k, we can plainly see that prostitution is illegal in the area. Laws won't stop the average criminal from committing crimes, so we must assume that there is a fairly profitable business in LV selling flesh for pleasure.
As far as I know, police would derive a greater benefit from simply arresting people who were breaking the law, other than jumping through some serious hoops to stealthily put people who derive their livelihood, directly or indirectly, upon the sale or aiding in the sale of illegal activities.
It's far more likely that some people with money are paying people with some knowledge to put some technological legerdemain on their competition.
Is this is some type of surprise? Hell, if I were a cop, I'd let the small fish get eaten by all the big fish, so I could catch and mount the big ones later.
...much later, it would seem.
And someone named Escobar is in charge of the Utilities Cartel. Er, commission.
so what was the 'authorised' call forwarding then?
Anyway as a previous poster says..
Sounds like the hotel's PABX's where hacked not Sprint's as it only effects calls from hotels not cell or other land lines..
This is what the plaintiff in the story is alleging - that Sprint's switches are being reprogrammed by uberhackers in the employ of the Mob or some other competing organizations.
You mean, there's someone carrying out illegal activity in Las Vegas?
And the Police aren't doing anything to stop it?
And a large company appears to be in the hands of mobsters?
Whatever next?
Before you know it, there will be stories about corporations buying influence in the US Government...but that could never happen...
Okay folks, everyplace with a large mob influence has had it's phones tinkered with by the mob. This is old, but has not been talked about for a while, so it is a visit back to news.
Back in the day, New York City had a privat phone network for the "mob", created with "idle" equipment and bribes to phone workers. Result, FBI taps were tapping the known phone numbers and the mob guys were using the "secret" network.
Also, as far as rerouting disconnected numbers for fun and profit, lookup Poulsen's antics, plus other fun stuff.
I will have to say that it is about time that a Telco is getting called on the carpet for their lack of security, rather than just grebbing another Kevin Mitnic or whomever and blaming every problem on them, then discovering the problem still exists after you take away his access to communications.
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
On the wall in my hotel lobby I saw this really cool "AT&T" slot machine with a phone attached. I kept putting in quarters and never won anything or got any money back. Phreakers have obviously hacked the slots too!
This is exactly the conclusion I came to.
This smacks of an inside job.... How in the world could they know that test calls were being carried out for several days, and make sure those test calls went through fine? Well, gee... if you're one of the employees, you'd know about it, wouldn't you?
It's pretty smart on the part of the Sprint employees involved, too. If you pit these shady businesses against each other, ultimately, who is going to care enough to get you in trouble for it? They're probably counting on the majority of people saying "My heart bleeds for you... You can't make millions off of your porn anymore because someone's keeping some of your calls from going through. Cry me a river...." Meanwhile, they're getting a nice kick-back off the top of all those big profits - plus keeping a respectable day job.
In Las Vegas, you might wait for an indefinite amount of time, but you will eventually be able to tell if the person you are calling is home or not.
In Monte Carlo, you can make the connection immediately, but you might get a spurrious busy signal a certain percent of the time.
- undoware.ca
You must have been mis-informed by the media. That happens. The only places in the USA that have power problems are the ones that haven't built any additional power capacity in the last 10 years due to environmentalist protests.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I do not understand why more people/corporations in the USA do not take legal action against their electric power suppliers. You guys suffer brown-outs, interupptions, and so on. Why, one slashdot poll was "how many surge protectors do you own?" or something like that.
I'm not sure what media coverage of us is like over where you are, but don't get the wrong idea. I've never suffered through a brown out, or non-weather related blackout(Tornados and Thunderstorms destroying power lines really isn't their fault). Yes a certain section of the country did last year - mostly because they built no new capacity for years and compounded the problem with a regulatory cock up.
Anyway, as far as surge protectors go, they're nessecary. Really, it's not the power companie's fault that your electricity isn't 100% clean. Things are going to get a little messy when your neighbor fires up his arc welder for a little heavy duty car maintnance. Or for that matter, when the de-humidifier I have sitting in the corner kicks in and dims the light. Hence, we have surge protectors.
Why?
uh... no more like uber-sopranos. there have been many stories about this in the past - basically the mob has their people in the phone co - and they hijack calls to businesses (mostly call girls) from the hotels. then re-route the calls to their own call girls and take the business.
sometimes they dont even hijack the call they just tap it - then when the call girl shows up its too late and the "john" is already being serviced....
when the people who were losing out in this deal bitched to the fcc? the investigation showed that not a single call was lost. (basically the staff in the phone co were alerted to the investigation and stopped their hijacking while it was going on)
the thing was that the FCC gave the telco a WEEKS notice that they were going to investigate this... so the word got out and the mob held back.
this is BS and pisses me off. I would like to take a base-ball bat to the kneecaps of the idiots that gave the telco "notice of impending investigation"