newsletter
of the
[]#[] []#[]
#[]#| Synectic Underground |#[]#
[]#[] []#[]
#[]#| "uniting and educating |#[]#
[]#[] the phreak/hack community" []#[]
#[]#| ------------------------ |#[]#
[]#[] Issue Six --- May 20, 1989 []#[]
Introduction and Contents
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Triad is the official Synectic Underground newsletter. The purpose
of the Synectic Underground is simply to pull together the phreak / hack
community with information vital to its interests. We will be interviewing
members of the community, bringing forth system news and development, relay-
ing information on various groups, and presenting quality articles that will
educate and inform. Triad's head editor, Black Peter has taken temporary
leave of the Underground and I, URban Lividity, will fill in as head-editor
until his return. Submission's can be made on The Lost City of Atlantis
[703-xxx-xxxx] or on P-80 International via file email.
There is really not much technical information in this issue, as
there were no Triad submissions. In Isssue Seven, we should have a
decent amount of interesting information (as if this issue isn't good
enough?). If you would like an invitation to join Atlantis, leave email
on the BeeHive, a 2600 board, at [703-xxx-xxxx]. Please include several
reasons on why we should admit you.
This issue has a rather sentimental value to the Atlantis Associates,
in that Peter Gunn will be leaving us. Peter Gunn has re-established The
Lost City of Atlantis, its repuation, value and quality among the under-
ground phreak/hack community. As those that read may know, Atlantis is a
system dedicated to serving the needs of this community through providing
a safe haven for its *members* as well as providing a "veritable library"
of information via files as well as being host to knowledgeable *members*.
We owe much thanks to Peter Gunn for his outstanding dedication and committ-
ment. At present Peter Gunn has other obligations in his life that unfor-
tunately are tearing him away from his "baby". Yes, he is leaving but he
will not be gone. Atlantis will always be around, as projected system up
grades include: multiple lines, chat system, Amiga 2000 accerelator card
(25Mhz), and increased storage. As you can see, Atlantis will be here for
quite some time. With dedication of this sort, it just HAST to be. In
closing we'd like to simply say, "Mr. Gunn, we'll miss you." This letter
is but a small token in repaying the debt we owe you.
[ Atlantis Associates ]
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| In this issue we have... | Author(s)/Interviewer |
+-----------------------------------------------+---------------------------+
| o The Great Legacy of Atlantis | Peter Gunn |
| o Curses, Curses, and more Curses | Bill Lurker/Violence |
| o An Interview with Supernigger | URban Lividity |
| o Synectic Underground News/Notes/Comments | Atlantis Associates |
| | |
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This article is meant to help others understand the history and
purpose of the Lost City of Atlantis, a phreak/hack bulletin board system
which has been run in several different locations in the United States by a
small number of sysops, and has provided safe haven for some of the best
known names in the hack/phreak community since 1984. Please forgive any
minor inaccuracies involving dates which you may find in this article, as it
has been quite some time since Atlantis went up, and much has happened in the
meantime.
First, I'd like to introduce myself, my name is Peter Gunn, current
system operator and owner of The Lost City of Atlantis. I have always felt
that the pursuit of the endless droves of knowledge available on mainframe
security, telephony, phreaking, and various other topics is the key to gain-
ing information about anything you may ever want to know. In other words,
the key to what I will call power for lack of a better word is COMMUNICATION.
This is the age of communication.
One can access vast stores of information ranging from the common to the
obscure from any computer anywhere on the planet. Systems exist which can
provide information on anything you will ever want to know. If you want
this power all you need to do is access this information. Comprehension is
not the problem. The problem is the cost of communication. The huge network
of cables, transponders and microwave towers which can connect you to some
guy in Japan who might happen to have the information you need is owned by
companies who control this equipment [URban: Most of the time atleast!], and
with that control these companies squeeze incomprehensible amounts of money
from the masses who cannot live without the services of these companies.
[URban: Simply rediculous.]
Way back in 1986, a friend in Philadelphia, PA named Jim (aka: The
Lineman) handed down a computer system, hard drive, and modem to me. The
hard drive contained the entire Lost City of Atlantis structure, a system
which had already been called legendary by many before it went down in
fall of 1985. The software was modified Apple-Net, a BBS program written
in Applesoft BASIC by John Peckacek (sp), then sysop of a Minneapolis
system called the Safehouse. John was reportedly one and the same as the
Apple Bandit.
Before Atlantis went down in Philly, it was involved in one of
the bigger busts of 1985, and I am STILL unsure of exactly what happened.
Some people who would know are the Disk Jockey, Sir William, Sir Gallahad,
and Epsilon, though it's been so long and so much has happened since then
that I don't even remember. Certainly it happened as a result of careless-
ness on someone's part, and lack of security...though security wasn't lax.
When Atlantis was handed down to me, I was living in Richmond, VA.
I decided it had been MUCH too long since I was involved with the world
of telecom, and within days, I had Atlantis running again at 2400 baud.
There were hundreds of text files, tons of old accounts, and thousands of
old messages from people whose names I had not seen in over a year. I
called up a few connections I still had and in a week's time, Atlantis was
regaining its host of phreaks and hackers from all over.
About a month after it went back up in Richmond, I decided it was
time to advance out of the dark ages of Applesoft BASIC, and find some new
software. This is when GBBS Pro came into the picture. Some other Apple
people in the area were kind enough to spot me a copy and give me a few
pointers, and before long, I discovered the beauty of ACOS, the language
that the software used to manage SEGMENTS of the system. With ACOS, you
could take straight GBBS Pro and make it into ANYTHING you wanted.
Security shells were implemented, and newuser voting became automated and
controlled by Atlantis Associates who would look over a new applicant's
account and responses to the heavy questionaire, and then vote.
The system ran smoothly, although there was constant modification.
At one point, Creative Chaos and I wrote an excellent TELENET shell to be
used as the front-line security of the system. Perfect TELENET emulation,
except only one NUI and one NUA would work. Any other attempts at access
were thwarted and relative TELENET error messages were displayed to the
disgruntled unwanteds. After that, there was a brief CYBER shell, and then
you were connected to Atlantis, where you had to confront even more of the
automated security. Nonetheless, those who should have gotten access got
in with the extensive series of "system passwords" required to bypass the
shells, and those who did not belong or were not invited never quite made
it inside. Needless to say, I still miss that BBS software and its
amazing versatility, but someday, somebody will write decent Amiga BBS
software, and things will be good again.
Atlantis now runs on an Amiga 2000 equipted with the HST 19,200 baud
modem, and despite rather non-creative base software, the system is looking
as slick as ever (thanks to many hours of hard work by URban Lividity and
several thousand good ideas of mine). [URban: Very FUNNY.] It's now more
active than it has ever been, and hackers and phreaks call Atlantis from
such distant locations as Germany, South Africa, Yugoslavia, England, Italy
Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and Switzerland, among other places.
Atlantis will always stand as a beacon for all active the hack/phreak
underground community, and I am proud of those who have the passion, exper-
ience and knowledge to have hung in there for so long. It is this passion
for learning which has kept at least a small part of what was once a huge
hack/phreak community alive and kicking. Maybe with the advent of the
Synectic Underground we will return to our previous powerful status.
Having been away on business for six months while Atlantis has been
running here in the 703 NPA, I cannot tell you how pleased I am to see
that things are going stronger than ever. My thanks go out to some people
who have made this possible.
o URban Lividity for actually making BBS-PC! look decent, and
for all of the work and concern he has shown for the survival
of hacks and phreaks everywhere. [URban: Thanks, PG!!]
o The Lineman, who I should call and say hi this week since
it's been a while, who handed down this legacy to me
for the good of all who have ever benefited from it.
o Creative Chaos, wherever you are, for instructing me in the
ways of hacking and phreaking, and for showing me the
power of the Amiga.
o A guy in California called Covenleader who assisted in aquiring
Atlantis' USR Courier HST modem.
o Finally Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, for reasons
which should be obvious, but aren't.
It is my wish that the security policies, which are more or less
CODES OF HONOR among the underground, continue to be followed with all the
respect that one would reserve for the undying pursuit of information and
knowledge that keep hacking and phreaking alive, even in these dark times.
Msg: #1712 Sec: 9 - :Phreak/Telephony
19-Mar-89 06:04 AM
Subj: curse (r)
From: Bill Lurker
To: all
o Curse to the person unknown that recently gave me the virus that
messed up my comm port.
o Curse to the guy that distrubuted one of my hoarded outdials far
and wide.
o Curse to the line noise.
o Curse to the person that took that vax account I gave him, and
posted it on a leech board as his own, so it died within a day.
o Curse the idiot that wrote the operator, "I am on your system".
o Curse the guy that gave out the unix account everyone now has..
(yeah, it happens alot, so you don't know what i am talking
about, do you?)
o Curse the guy that killed off the bbs on telenet..
o Curse the leeches that download across the coast for 10 hours
straight, and never get anything they use.
o Curse this line nose again.
o Curse most of the LOD for being elitist, intuctial snobs, and
most of them don't seem to know what they are doing.. Don't let
that fool you, they're just really cheap at giving out any type
of info, worse than ibm. Every call ibm? MODEL numbers are a
state secret..
o Curse ibm for their micro channel, bad software, $100 consulants
manuals, their passwords on directories and curse this line
noise again.
o Curse tymnet for password to connect to hosts.
o Curse telenet for not connecting straight to tymnet.
o Curse autonet for not connecting to much of anything without an
nui.
o Curse dialup passwords on unix's.
o Curse dtmf time delay detection systems on lds's for watch's on
code hacking.
o And FUCK cincy bell operators for being soo dumb. Fuck this line
noise AGAIN. Fuck the world. Fuck the guy that destroyed a vms
system that I put one too many backddors and extra accounts in,
so he could get on. (never give decnet dialup and sys privs..)
o Fuck bitnet for being hard to use..
o Fuck busy systems at 5am in the morning and burn all those shit
files (lod, this might mean y_u)
o Curse anyone that mentions cosmos again! Please, another system
to talk about, damn..
o And, curse hp systems, but admire their great security!
Bill Lurker, left
From: Violence
To: Bill Lurker
Mighty extensive list of curses there, ole Bill. <grin>. I can under-
stand your mood. I only give accounts to those I know and trust because of
functional idiots wasting systems like a hyperactive Reaper.
Care to explain the LDS time delay circuit in detail? Eh?
No more COSMOS? Ok then, how about LMOS then? <grin>
Let me re-do your HP curse...
o Curse HP's MPE operating system.
o Curse VeSoft's SECURITY/3000 package because I don't know what
FIELD.SUPPORT's mothers maiden name is! Argh!
o But ENJOY Eugene Volokh's nice discources on MPE security and
manipulation of HP disk drive controler read/write heads.
o Curse people that use NETLINk to call any NUA other than sister
ring systems! Make them burn in hell, god, please.
Well, I'll stop now. Don't want to get in a rut cursing what
cannot be helped. Makes me even more depressed.
Oho! Raggin on ye olde LOD, eh? Personally I like Lexie's old
files on VMS and some of Prophet's and Phantom Phreaker's files were ok.
I'll be uploading my PRIMOS series here tommorrow afternoon so read that
if you're tired of current reading material.. heh heh
[]# An Interview with Supernigger #[]
by
URban Lividity
o Do you feel that the purpose of the Synectic Underground is a good
one? Explain.
Yes, if the idea of the Synectic Underground is to disseminate information
and teach people new things, I am all for it.
o What does it mean to you, to be an active phreak or hacker partici-
pating in the underground community?
I guess if you are doing things or talking to people, you are active. I
really don't think it's a good measure of anything though.
o What is DPAK? What is it's purpose for existing. Who is currently
active in the group? Be liberal in your response.
DPAK....Ha, DPAK was formed as a parody of the phreak/hack community with
its many 'elite groups' and secret societies. We figured with names like
Supernigger, Elyte D00d, Squashed Pumpkin, Meat Puppet, Lung C00kiez, and
Sharp Rem0b, who was going to take us seriously? We didn't intend for
people to but they did anyway, adding to our comic view of the whole p/h
community. (These names, by the way, were chosen as a parody of all the
wierd names people use as handles instead of their real names.)
How the group actually formed though, is funnny in an of itself. The
name DPAK came from Mad Hacker 312, who when questioned about getting un-
published numbers, said something to the effect of:
"Oh, you'd have to be a DPAK agent to get THAT information"
(DPAC, with a C, is an inter-office bell department.) As to the formation,
a few years back, MCI had a back door on it (you could put in any code and
it would work), and a few friends and I said "Hey, we can make our own group
, we can be the DPAK Agents". We made up a story (that was obviously meant
to be taken as a joke), that "today at 3:00 PM, DPAK Agents cornered an MCI
official and said 'YOU WILL GIVE THESE PEOPLE FREE CALLS!'". That is the
story we used to give out the MCI back door to everyone. It was basically
started as a big hype job, and we figured thats how anyone else who was
'known' got known, just by saying their name enough times in enough places
and spreading enough rumors, people actually began to believe that they were
'cool'. That is what we were trying to satire. But, after that, just
through random experiment, we did learn alot, particularly with engineering,
which really doesn't depend on how much you know, but rather how good of a
sweet-talker you are.
After DPAK was formed, we noticed people just making up stuff and spread-
ing rumors (and blindly gathering as much information as possible, whether
useful or not) just to impress others. Savant, a user on Demon Roach Under-
ground put it perfectly when he said "I thought phreaking was just gaining
useful knowledge to help you do things, not a big fuckin P.R. campaign."
Oh how true.
And as to how all the members met, it was on a Sceptre system in calif,
on Mike Bean's chat system in 504, and on DP's chat system (201-861-7680).
(Phreakers/Hackers used to call it, but now just local people usually call
that system). DPAK is more a group of friends than a phreaking or hacking
group. That's basically how it started; current DPAK members: myself, DP,
Meat Puppet, Sharp Rem0b, and Dark Wanderer.
o Concerning Phreak/Hacking, who has influenced/taught you the most?
The only person I can think of is Lord Foul also known as The Devil, The
Nazi, and R0tten kumquat. A real funny guy. Have been looking for him for
quite some time; haven't seen him in like 3 years. Still waiting for him
to call DP's (Divus's) system in 201.
o Some people take note of your rather unique alias, how did it develop?
Back when you could box a conference, someone boxed a conference to a loop
that I was on, and demanded that I get off (he was waiting for someone to
call it). I refused (I was on first), so he said "GET OFF, NIGGER!", and
blew 2600hz which knocked me off. I proceeded to call back with something
that was unknockable, and again he said "GET OFF, NIGGER!", and tried to
knock me off with 2600, but it didnt work, and I promptly replied "Ha, you
can't knock me off, I'm SUPERnigger! I got the POWER!". People usually
laugh when they here it. I laugh when I think about it. If it makes people
laugh then I'm happy.
o If you had a statement to make in 50 words or less, what would it be?
Hi Mom.
[]#[]
#[]#| Supernigger, interviewed by URban Lividity
[]#[]----------------------------------------------------------------------
#[]#| o Handle origin : See earlier statements above.
[]#[]
#[]#| o Years active
[]#[] in the Underworld: Somewhere between 7 and 8.
#[]#|
[]#[] o Age at interview : ????
#[]#|
[]#[] o Hardware owned : c64, 1 disk drive, color monitor, joystick,
#[]#| telephone, floppy disks, modem, table, pac man
[]#[] game.
#[]#|
[]#[]
[]# UNDERGROUND NEWS, NOTES, COMMENTS AND RUMORS #[]
o The WASHINGTON POST: Hackerphobia
---------------------------------
As some may know, Atlantis was wrongfully accused of being behind
some rather stupid acts of anarchy in the greater Washington
metropolitan area. The Atlantis Associates wrote a commentary
(which can be found on Atlantis) expressing thier outrage for such
slander. The Associates called The Post and wanted to submit the
file electronically, thier repsonse, "No, I'm sorry, we can't open
our lines to just anyone, can you mail it?" MAIL IT? How archiac.
They continue..."You guys are lying, there's no file, you just want
to hack into our computers, goodbye." Stupid people.
o 2600 Magazine on Atlantis
-------------------------
Emmanuel Goldstein has limited access on The Lost City of Atlantis.
From what we gathered from him, 2600 wants a place where they can
communicate with members of the phreak/hack community. Limited
access was granted because of underground rumors that 2600 has
sold out on the phreak/hack community.
o An Invitation!
--------------
The Atlantis Associates cordially invite the Phortune 500 board
of directors to join the members of Atlantis. The invited user
password can be obtained from The Renegade Chemist.
o Concerning Damage Inc. (301)
----------------------------
Cyber Punk of the 301 npa Damage Inc, states that the group is
fairly close-knit and that those who insulted URban Lividity are
Damage Inc. posers. So be it.
o Concerning QUARTEX
------------------
In the lesser world of Amiga c001 d00dz warez trading, Spreadline
of Quartex, the professional cracking group that is "The ONLY name
in the Business", was offered the chance to administrate Inverse
Utopia, the Amiga section of Atlantis. But as things go in the
0-0 day, 19,200++ bps warez business, a rumor got started stating
that Atlantis was the NEW QUARTEX HeadQuarters, and so they backed
out. Oh well. [shit, this should be listed before the Damage Inc.]
[notes. On second thought... ]
o Quotes from the Phreak/Hack Community
-------------------------------------
. Life sucks, but never to the point of orgasm....
-Psychic Warrrior
