Public Address | Cafe | Speaker: The great New Zealand phone hacking scandal https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/ en-us Copyright (c) 2026 Public Address Sacha https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220531#post220531 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220531#post220531 Apple apparently continue to deny that their logo has anything to do with the image of Turing's mode of death, but one wonders.

Now there's an image that's sticking. Wow.

]]> Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:46:33 +1200 merc https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220521#post220521 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220521#post220521 Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:33:06 +1200 Christopher Dempsey https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220509#post220509 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220509#post220509 Reported as suicide, there was recently a biography written. I mean, suicide by cyanide delivered in an apple, and the apple was not tested for traces of cyanide?

Indeed there was a biography, which I picked up a few years ago. Interesting to read if one skips over the mathmatical…

]]> Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:12:44 +1200 stever@cs.waikato.ac.nz https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220271#post220271 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220271#post220271 Bletchley Park's website (how things have changed! It was a secret place until fairly recently!)

http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/

I guess if you think that the stored-program, digital, electronic computer is a good thing ( :-) ), then you will think that the people and the work that they did is a good…

]]> Thu, 14 Jul 2011 06:59:49 +1200 Ian Dalziel https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220268#post220268 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220268#post220268 *Eraser Head?
....then did the dealing on his kid's Etch-E-Sketch. Two swipes and it's all gone.
or was it more it takes a swiper to ketch a thief ...


speaking of phreaks...
...one piece of an algoritm.
...but I suspect there migt** have been...
I'm worried that Michael Laws is…

]]> Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:22:28 +1200 Steve Barnes https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220238#post220238 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220238#post220238 How Digital Detectives Deciphered Stuxnet, the Most Menacing Malware in History
Fascinating stuff, well for a geek, hAxXoR p0r9

]]> Wed, 13 Jul 2011 21:53:48 +1200 Steve Barnes https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220233#post220233 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220233#post220233 ‘Military Meltdown Monday’ — 90K Military Usernames, Hashes Released
DOH!

]]> Wed, 13 Jul 2011 21:30:19 +1200 nic.wise https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220196#post220196 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220196#post220196 I would say Bletchly Park people were a combination of both – some geniuses breaking codes and building machines, some script kiddies using the tools created to do the breaking.

Ok, I'd say there were a bit smarter than script kiddies see days, but I suspect there migt have been…

]]> Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:42:27 +1200 Islander https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220005#post220005 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220005#post220005 Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:06:38 +1200 merc https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220002#post220002 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=220002#post220002 Tue, 12 Jul 2011 18:47:27 +1200 Islander https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219993#post219993 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219993#post219993 Didnt he also commit suicide afterwards?
Aue, waste of a genius-

]]> Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:47:52 +1200 merc https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219982#post219982 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219982#post219982 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
Turing's homosexuality resulted in a criminal prosecution in 1952, when homosexual acts were still illegal in the United Kingdom. He accepted treatment with female hormones (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison.

]]> Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:44:06 +1200 Sean Murgatroyd https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219888#post219888 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219888#post219888 Essentially, if we're talking about "one girl with one piece of an algorithm" as being a unit in the "calculator"... aren't we talking about crowdsourcing accurate computational outcomes?

This is where genius lies.

]]> Tue, 12 Jul 2011 10:30:54 +1200 Ross Mason https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219869#post219869 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219869#post219869 Gaaaa....Alan Turing!!!!!

Not von Neumann!!

Bletchley Park Ok.. 80% were women.

]]> Tue, 12 Jul 2011 07:32:25 +1200 Ross Mason https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219868#post219868 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219868#post219868

They then built a huge infrastructure to brute force their way into the keys.

And is the traditional classification of them as geniuses influenced by them being on the Right Side?

Just remember all they had were a few relays and glass valves hooked up capable of a few hundred…

]]> Tue, 12 Jul 2011 07:16:04 +1200 Lilith __ https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219834#post219834 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219834#post219834 Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:03:33 +1200 BenWilson https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219808#post219808 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219808#post219808 Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:36:03 +1200 Rich of Observationz https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219802#post219802 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219802#post219802 I'm not sure if the ones who don't get caught are the same kind of benign(ish), not-for-profit braggards

Well, there are the ones that work for, inter alia: the Chinese secret service, NSA, GCHQ, GCSB, the Russian mafia, News International or various permutations of the above.

(In the days of…

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:02:18 +1200 Keith Ng https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219798#post219798 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219798#post219798 It's also why most hackers get caught. They're people too.

Ahem, that's why most of the hackers who get caught end up getting caught. I'm not sure if the ones who don't get caught are the same kind of benign(ish), not-for-profit braggards.

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:55:09 +1200 B Jones https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219789#post219789 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219789#post219789 Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:13:32 +1200 Russell Brown https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219773#post219773 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219773#post219773 Can you link to the Computerworld article, please?

Thanks

It's in there now. Vagaries of importing MS Word hyperlinks ...

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:12:01 +1200 Kumara Republic https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219768#post219768 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219768#post219768 Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:47:15 +1200 Juha Saarinen https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219721#post219721 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219721#post219721 Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:05:38 +1200 Rich Lock https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219710#post219710 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219710#post219710 the system enabling various Wehrmacht grunts to make further operating errors

If I recall correctly from a doco I saw some years ago, one of the 'handshake' protocols when sending a message was to send five or so random characters to the recipient, who would have to send them back…

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:39:03 +1200 Graham Dunster https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219700#post219700 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219700#post219700 Can you link to the Computerworld article, please?

Thanks

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:01:25 +1200 Matthew Poole https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219698#post219698 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219698#post219698 I think most 'hackers' just torrent said files and run them.

There is a reason that the computer security vernacular includes the highly disparaging term "script kiddie". The real geniuses find their own holes, and craft their own exploits. The lesser geniuses follow the instructions for finding the holes but…

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:56:45 +1200 Rich of Observationz https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219697#post219697 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219697#post219697 Ok, so what were the Bletchley Park team? Geniuses or script kiddies?

The Germans made a schoolboy error – no letter could be encoded as itself – which opened Enigma up to attack through frequency analysis, along with the system enabling various Wehrmacht grunts to make further operating errors (I…

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:56:37 +1200 James Butler https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219683#post219683 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219683#post219683 Not really. All you have to do is nick the owner's bag and steal their keys. This is what people don't get about security. Most of it is down to simple shit.

Indeed. The HBGary Hack for example was a little more involved than most, but one of Anonymous's biggest…

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:12:18 +1200 stephen walker https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219682#post219682 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219682#post219682 Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:07:02 +1200 Paul Campbell https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219679#post219679 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219679#post219679 Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:02:42 +1200 BenWilson https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219678#post219678 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219678#post219678 Most of it is down to people. Which is why nothing involving them will ever be 100% secure.

It's also why most hackers get caught. They're people too.

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:02:40 +1200 Fooman https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219676#post219676 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219676#post219676 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7eZqotsYjI&feature=related ]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:01:25 +1200 Lucy Stewart https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219673#post219673 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219673#post219673 Most of it is down to simple shit.

Most of it is down to people. Which is why nothing involving them will ever be 100% secure.

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:54:56 +1200 Steve Braunias https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219672#post219672 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219672#post219672 Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:53:48 +1200 BenWilson https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219669#post219669 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219669#post219669 Writing the code that finds security exploits, is, I assume, fairly difficult, but a matter of expertise and time, not genius. I think most 'hackers' just torrent said files and run them.

Yup, if you could crack public key encryption, you'd be a genius, and worth billions. But if you…

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:38:28 +1200 Danyl Mclauchlan https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219662#post219662 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219662#post219662 Ever since, I'm continually amused by the popular conflation of hacker with computer genius. It's not quite "never the twain shall meet", but there's very little, if any, correlation

Writing the code that finds security exploits, is, I assume, fairly difficult, but a matter of expertise and time, not genius.…

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:03:21 +1200 Andre Alessi https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219661#post219661 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219661#post219661 they don't do that any more, right? Right?

Now it's 1234. Seriously. And that change wasn't made in response to the security breaches above, it was because of an upgrade to the aging voicemail platform, replacing it with a newer version.

However when someone dials in to the mailbox for…

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:02:56 +1200 Rich of Observationz https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219658#post219658 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219658#post219658 It doesn't really take much smarts to violate security, any more than it does to break into a car or house

Depends on the security, really. If the car's a late model BMW bristling with Thatcham Cat 1 alarms, then it would be pretty impressive to be able to twoc…

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 11:55:40 +1200 BenWilson https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219656#post219656 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219656#post219656 We did a much better job than general media, which got hung up on the teenager being a “whizz kid” going on a “hacking” and “phreaking” spree when all he did was to stumble on gaping security left open because of… convenience.

Yes, I remember half of a university lecture…

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 11:43:10 +1200 Stephen Judd https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219646#post219646 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219646#post219646 I well remember a person I can't name blogging some years ago about their hobby of getting access to Telecom landline voicemail boxes, which in the old days* used to have a default PIN of the last four digits of the phone number.

Because they were fundamentally a naughty, rather…

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:50:06 +1200 Public Address https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219645#post219645 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-the-great-new-zealand-phone-hacking/?p=219645#post219645 Discussion from blog post.

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:50:06 +1200