AT&T Concerned About H2K2

An anonymous submitter forwards this possibly-authentic note about today's H2K2 conference. If you're in the New York area and you love computers and nice hotels, come on down. Anonymous writes "So I get into work, and what do I find in my mailbox? Why, nothing less than a warning cautioning me to be very careful talking to people from July 12 to July 14. (Not me specifically, you understand, it went out all over). Full text follows."

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AT&T Network Fraud Advisory
July 11, 2002
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Possible Hacker Social Engineering Attempts
Friday July 12 - Sunday July
14, 2002
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Caution:
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Be careful about giving information to anyone you don't know and those making unusual information requests by claiming to be an AT&T employee or customer. The H2K2 (Hackers on Planet Earth 2002) Hacker Conference will take place this weekend, Friday, July 12 to Sunday to July 14, 2001, [ed. note: 2001?] in New York City. This conference will be a gathering of over five thousand computer hackers, guest speakers, and computer enthusiasts. http://www.h2k2.net In 1994, 1997 and 2000 at the previous Hope (Hackers on Planet Earth) Conferences, live demonstrations of "social engineering" techniques were performed in front of thousands of hackers and other attendees. The hacker panel dialed live into AT&T offices and centers and demonstrated how to get proprietary information by pretending to be an AT&T employee and customer. These calls were recorded and videotaped by the hackers and are sold as instructional material at future hacker conferences. There is a very high likelihood that AT&T will be a target again this weekend. The social engineering contest is scheduled for Sunday July 14th, at 4 P.M. ET, (1 PM PT). During this period hackers may be dialing into AT&T to get information. AT&T Network Security would like to warn our employees to be on guard this entire weekend for any unknown person calling and claiming to be an AT&T employee to request proprietary information or claiming to be an AT&T customer with unusual requests. Remember, if anyone, who is unknown to you calls for proprietary information or make unusual requests, please follow your procedure by requesting additional information to ensure the person is who they say they are before giving out any information. If the person is claiming to be an AT&T employee, please request name, callback and HRID #. Then verify through POST or the email global address list if the information is correct and even request to call the employee back at their contact number. If the person is claiming to be an AT&T customer verify this by requesting additional info on their account like address and SS# and even request to call the person back at their contact number listed on the account. Please be on guard for any unusual requests. Verify the person is an AT&T employee or a legitimate customer and if they have a need to know the information they are asking. If you can't verify employment or number, don't give out the information. If you are still in doubt regarding the legitimacy of the caller, then speak to a supervisor regarding the situation before proceeding further and inform the caller you will call them back. If you still have questions you can call the Security Hotline 1-800-822-9009. Remember you do not want to be the lucky guest of honor on a telephone call from the hacker conference this weekend with thousands of hackers listening to you and attempting to scam AT&T out of proprietary information. Please be on guard.
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Source: AT&T Network Security
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Comments

Hah

[iONiUM]

If you still have questions you can call the Security Hotline 1-800-822-9009.
Can't the hackers who read slashdot (probably most of them) just call this number instead now?

Furthermore, why doesn't Microsoft have a security hotline?

Re:Hah

[JWSmythe]

I get the feeling the operators at (800) 822-9009 are about to be slashdotted themselves.. Can AT&T take 1/2 mil simultanious calls to their security hotline? hehe

Re:Hah

[Pig Hogger]

Furthermore, why doesn't Microsoft have a security hotline?

They had one, but it melted down.

What a great fuss about nothing

[gowen]

I regularly get emails saying "A person has been seen acting suspiciously on campus, and ran away when challenged. There has been a spate of robberies by extra vigilant," and nothing is made about it. It doesn't mean we're not to be vigilant the rest of the time, just a timely and worthwhile heads up.

What makes this different except the criminals involved are 'l33t and say stuff like "Mad propz".

Re:What a great fuss about nothing

[edbarrett]

So what does "mad props" mean anyway?

The Set Decoration Is Not Amused.

HA! Social Engineering!

[Havokmon]

Kudos to the guy who got AT&T to give us their proprietary info on what security precautions they take before giving out confidential information. ;)

Addendum:

[cybermace5]

Dear Employees:

The previous memo failed to mention another warning sign of hacker social engineering attempts. If you hear the song "Halcyon-On and On" by the music group Orbital, hang up the telephone immediately. We will be holding information sessions at all regional offices for telephone support personnel, where you will be trained to recognize this music within several seconds. DO NOT confuse this warning sign with the last five minutes of Mortal Kombat! It is better to be safe than sorry. Thank you for your cooperation, and stay Hacker-Free(tm) during this period of "l337n355".

Hah

[acceleriter]

And they thought no one would post that warning which now contains

- the resolution procedures in case of doubt about a callers identity

- the "security hotline" phone number.

Nice going, AT&T.

perfect security

[constantnormal]

At my employer's firm, we have perfected the art of repelling those out to gain information by a 2-pronged approach. We run the callers through a maze of automated phone forwarding recordings to (eventually) a person who has no clue about anything.

Re:perfect security

[zerOnIne]

you work for verizon, don't you?

Ignore the memo!

[L. VeGas]

If we're forced to follow basic security procedures, it means the hackers have already won.

good thing this was posted by anon

[jd142]

I bet AT&T would just love to get their hands on the person that posted this. AT&T did a very responsible thing: they saw a potential threat to the security of their customers, i.e., a lot of people who are reading this (and even if you don't pay AT&T directly, you might use their lines if you have a cable modem), and sent out a warning to remind their people. They included reminders of proper secure behavior. And what is the first thing an employee do? Leak the number and protocols to an outlet read by the people who are most likely to try and breach security. If you were my employee you'd get in some serious trouble.

Many people who do the social engineering hack make fun of companies for having clueless employees or employees that don't follow basic guidelines. So for those few who make fun of AT&T for doing this, I'd say you can't have it both ways.

We should be applauding AT&T for reminding their people of basic security precautions.

This is a Dood Thing(tm)

[bigjocker]

That e-mail proves the meeting has acomplished one of its goals. Thanks to H2K2 AT&T is being more careful with the private info.

Isn't that what we all want? At least that's the reason why I support those kind of things.

AT&T Security

[kmellis]

This reminds me that back in the day, AT&T Security was supposedly a bunch of bmf's.

In about 1980, when I was in high school, I discovered an unused phone extension line in my bedroom closet and started experimenting with it. I quickly figured out the basics and built a little homemade phone. Later, I got the idea of using a thirty-foot spool of wire and a couple of alligator clips to quickly tap into someone's line outside of their house to steal long distance phone calls from the safety of my car. This is really trivial stuff, I know, but I thought I was clever.

But not clever enough. I called my cousin long-distance by connecting to what turned out to be the phone line of a little old lady who'd never made a long-distance phone call in her life. Her church was helping her pay her bills and noticed the phone call immediately. They called AT&T, and AT&T merely checked to see who else in my small New Mexico town had ever called that California number. Then they called my mom.

Once AT&T security found out that I hadn't actually done anything sophisticated or interesting, they just made my parents pay for the call and dropped the matter.

None of this, of course, shows that AT&T security was especially astute. But a few years later I was working as a radio disc-jockey, and I told this story to the station's chief broadcast engineer. He told me that he had worked for AT&T and that AT&T Security were among the best private security experts in the world. In his words: "Don't fuck with AT&T Security". That made an impression on me.

Later on, when I first read about the phone phreaking era, I felt lucky that a) I wasn't ingenious enough to get myself in any real trouble, and b) I didn't know anyone who was.