Hilarious IRS article from Stupid Evil Bastard

[ElfNinosMom]

From http://www.StupidEvilBastard.com:

Easiest way to hack into the IRS? Just ask for their password.

Posted by Les on Tuesday, August 07, 2007 at 03:09 PM.
Read 14 times.
Tags: hacking, irs, social engineering

A lot of people have bought into the Hollywood mythology of a hacker as someone who sits at a keyboard typing randomly until he magically manages to break into a secure computer system solely by the power of his superior understanding of computers and programming, but the truth is you don’t have to be a Super Genius™ to successfully invade a computer network. You just have to know how to ask nicely:

Inspector general finds lax computer security by IRS employees - SignOnSanDiego.com

WASHINGTON – IRS employees ignored security rules and turned over sensitive computer information to a caller posing as a technical support person, according to a government study.

Sixty-one of the 102 people who got the test calls, including managers and a contractor, complied with a request that the employee provide his or her user name and temporarily change his or her password to one the caller suggested, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, an office that does oversight of Internal Revenue Service.

All it takes to be a successful hacker is a little knowledge of social engineering.

[Link to SignOnSanDiego article: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nati ... urity.html - ENM]

[Nikki]

Unfortunately the account names and passwords only work within the local-area network.

Still, someone needs to get the dope slapper board back out of storage.

[grixit]

Heh. Back in the 70's i knew a blueboxer who bragged that he didn't even need his box, he just needed to know enough jargon to impersonate a technical intern. He'd call a regular operator and pretend to be panicking, saying "i know i'm not supposed to be on a subscriber line but i've total confractulated the 27-R test board, and if my supervisor finds out, i'll be out of the program. But there's this number, if i could just get to it, i've got a buddy who could talk me through resetting it. Could you please, please put me through?" and it usually worked.

[webhick]

Heh. Back in the 70's i knew a blueboxer who bragged that he didn't even need his box, he just needed to know enough jargon to impersonate a technical intern. He'd call a regular operator and pretend to be panicking, saying "i know i'm not supposed to be on a subscriber line but i've total confractulated the 27-R test board, and if my supervisor finds out, i'll be out of the program. But there's this number, if i could just get to it, i've got a buddy who could talk me through resetting it. Could you please, please put me through?" and it usually worked.

And if you're a woman, that works even better because every guy fantasizes about rescuing the damsel in distress. Men are easy.

[grixit]

Heh. Back in the 70's i knew a blueboxer who bragged that he didn't even need his box, he just needed to know enough jargon to impersonate a technical intern. He'd call a regular operator and pretend to be panicking, saying "i know i'm not supposed to be on a subscriber line but i've total confractulated the 27-R test board, and if my supervisor finds out, i'll be out of the program. But there's this number, if i could just get to it, i've got a buddy who could talk me through resetting it. Could you please, please put me through?" and it usually worked.

And if you're a woman, that works even better because every guy fantasizes about rescuing the damsel in distress. Men are easy.

Except of course that back then, regular phone operators tended to be women.

[webhick]

And if you're a woman, that works even better because every guy fantasizes about rescuing the damsel in distress. Men are easy.

Except of course that back then, regular phone operators tended to be women.

Then part of his success could have been chocked up to maternal feelings.

[Doktor Avalanche]

Heh. Back in the 70's i knew a blueboxer who bragged that he didn't even need his box, he just needed to know enough jargon to impersonate a technical intern. He'd call a regular operator and pretend to be panicking, saying "i know i'm not supposed to be on a subscriber line but i've total confractulated the 27-R test board, and if my supervisor finds out, i'll be out of the program. But there's this number, if i could just get to it, i've got a buddy who could talk me through resetting it. Could you please, please put me through?" and it usually worked.

So you knew John "Cap'n Crunch" Draper?

[Nikki]

It's a shame he didn't know the double-secret insider password.

"Man on pole" got you a dial tone, no questions asked.

[webhick]

It's a shame he didn't know the double-secret insider password.

"Man on pole" got you a dial tone, no questions asked.

Nowadays that might get you a date, but only with a certain kind of individual.

[grixit]

Heh. Back in the 70's i knew a blueboxer who bragged that he didn't even need his box, he just needed to know enough jargon to impersonate a technical intern. He'd call a regular operator and pretend to be panicking, saying "i know i'm not supposed to be on a subscriber line but i've total confractulated the 27-R test board, and if my supervisor finds out, i'll be out of the program. But there's this number, if i could just get to it, i've got a buddy who could talk me through resetting it. Could you please, please put me through?" and it usually worked.

So you knew John "Cap'n Crunch" Draper?

No, this was someone i knew in college, who desperately wanted to be "Cap'n Crunch". Problem was he was a one trick pony. Or rather one set of tricks. He could manipulate the phone system but seemed to have no other skills. Oh wait, he was good at foosball, mainly because he had his own table. And he was really open minded about drugs-- if you gave him something he'd take it without any hesitation. And he was flunking so badly, that he was hoping to get expelled fast enough so that his last quarter wouldn't count.

Hmm, i really oughta googlestalk him and see if he's been up to anything notable.

[grixit]

And if you're a woman, that works even better because every guy fantasizes about rescuing the damsel in distress. Men are easy.

Except of course that back then, regular phone operators tended to be women.

Then part of his success could have been chocked up to maternal feelings.

In retrospect, that's probably correct, albeit at the time, he came across as pretty mature to me. Yeah i had had such a sheltered life that blueboxing seemed like life on the edge.

[Cobalt Shiva]

"Social engineering" is the one thing you can't really defend against, because stupidity is a resource that is both inexhaustible and renewable.