Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker Read Online Free PDF

phreaking, strolling into the phone company
in person
was the ultimate hack. Access was by pressing the right code numbers on the outside door’s keypad, and we social-engineered the code without a problem, letting us walk right in.
    My God—how exciting! For us, it was the ultimate playground. But what should we look for?
    A large man in a security guard’s uniform was making his rounds of the building and came upon us. He was built like a nightclub bouncer or an NFL lineman—very intimidating. Just standing quietly, hands at his sides, he could scare the pants off you. Yet somehow, the tighter the situation, the calmer I seem to get.
    I didn’t really look old enough to pass for a full-time employee. But I dived in anyway. “Hi,” I said. “How’re you tonight?”
    He said, “Fine, sir. May I see your company ID badges please?”
    I checked my pockets. “Damn. I must have left it in the car. I’ll just go get it.”
    He wasn’t having any of that. “No, you’re both coming upstairs with me,” he said.
    We didn’t argue.
    He brings us to the Switching Control Center on the ninth floor, where other employees are working.
    Heart pounding. Chest heaving
.
    A couple of switch techs come over to see what’s going on. I’m thinking that my only option is to try to outrun the rent-a-cop, but I know there’s slim chance of getting away. I’m desperate. It feels like there’s nothing between me and jail but my social-engineering skills.
    By now I know enough names and titles at Pacific Telephone to try a ploy. I explain, “I work at the COSMOS in San Diego, and I’m just showing a friend what a central office looks like. You can call my supervisor and check me out.” And I give him the name of a COSMOS supervisor. Thank God for a good memory, yet I know we don’t look like we belong there, and the story is lame.
    The guard looks up the supervisor’s name in the intercompany directory, finds her home phone number, and places the call.
Ring, ring, ring
. He starts with an apology for calling so late and explains the situation.
    I say, “Let me talk to her.”
    He hands me the phone, which I press hard against my ear, praying he won’t be able to hear her voice. I ad-lib something along the lines of, “Judy, I’m really sorry about this—I was giving my friend a tour of the switching center and left my company ID card in the car. The security guard is just verifying I’m from the COSMOS center in San Diego. I hope you won’t hold this against me.”
    I pause a few beats, as if listening to her. She’s ranting. “Who
is
this? Do I know you? What are you doing there?!”
    I start in again. “It was just that I had to be here in the morning anyway, for the meeting on that new training manual. And I have a review session with Jim on Monday at eleven, in case you want to drop in. You and I are still having lunch on Tuesday, right?”
    Another pause. She’s still ranting.
    “Sure. Sorry again for disturbing you,” I say.
    And then I hang up.
    The guard and switch techs look confused; they were expecting me to hand the phone back to the security guard so she could tell him it was okay. You could just see the look on the guard’s face: Did he dare disturb her a
second
time?
    I tell him, “She sure was upset at being woken up at two thirty in the morning.”
    Then I say, “There’s just a couple other things I want to show my friend. I’ll only be another ten minutes.”
    I walk out, Rhoades following close behind.
    Obviously I want to run but know I can’t.
    We reach the elevator. I bang the button for the ground floor. We sigh with relief when we get out of the building, scared shitless because it was such a close call, happy to be out of there.
    But I know what’s happening. The lady is calling around desperately, trying to find somebody who knows how to get the phone number for the guard’s desk at the Sunset-Gower CO, in the middle of the night.
    We get to the car. I drive a block away without