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.

Comments

From reading the article

[phaze3000]

callers from outside Vegas, or from payphones and cell phones, get through, he says, but hotel callers frequently get false busy signals, or reach silence

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.

Uberhackers==police?

[rufusdufus]

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.

LV

[Konster]

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.

no unauthorised call forwarding..

[martin]

The gaunt and grizzled Hill is a former NYPD captain, and he testifies like a pro, giving short quick answers and volunteering little. "I remember investigating many cases of this nature," Hill says. "We would generally check to see that all the programming on the complainant's line was in order... We determined in every case that there was no unauthorized call-forwarding."

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..

No - the switch has been hacked.

[Innominate Recreant]

I write telephony software. It's not the hacking of hotel telephone exchanges - it's the hacking of the swtiches at the telco. When you make a telephone call, the telco not only sends the ANI (caller id - phone number) it sends infodigits - a two-digit number identifying the type of phone from which you are calling - a residential phone, a hotel, payphone, prison, etc. It's very easy to program a switch to reroute calls to a particular DNIS based on infodigits so that if someone at a payphone calls 800-555-1234 the call goes through, but if someone from a hotel calls the same DNIS, it gets routed to a different DNIS, or goes to reorder. It's equally easy to create a conference on the switch, allowing a third party to "listen in" to call - explaining the appearance of one his competitor's "dancers" at a customer's hotel room.

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.

I was in Vegas last month

[Anne_Nonymous]

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!