Date: Thu, 10 Jun 93 09:33:30 PDT
From: eichin@cygnus.com (Mark Eichin)
Message-Id: <9306101633.AA27822@cygnus.com>
To: sipb@MIT.EDU, cplay@MIT.EDU
Subject: [bostic@vangogh.CS.Berkeley.EDU: ]
Content-Length: 5732

Couldn't you just imagine this happening to you? :-)		_Mark_

From: Keith Bostic <bostic@vangogh.CS.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1993 21:02:14 -0700
To: /dev/null@vangogh.CS.Berkeley.EDU


The original post up here about the theft of the apple laserwriter plus
from the computer center here at Carnegie Mellon was, shall we say,
somewhat inaccurate. I just happen to be the roomate of the guy who
trapped the thief.  This is his story (ds6w+@andrew.cmu.edu). By the way,
everything you are about to read is TRUE. I was there when it all came
down........

Random Info :
	Baker Hall - One of the BIG academic buildings here. The cluster
	has 20 sun 3/50's, 20 each Mac and IBM PC's. The laserwriter
	(called cedar - all andrew printers are named after trees :-))
	was stolen from the UCC across campus from Baker. BTW, the UCC
	cluster doesn't even have macintosh's. You'll understand why this
	is important later on.  Academic Computing - the people who run
	the clusters and hire the PCons (ie Don)

----------------------------

(voiceover the dragnet theme):

On Jan 16, at approximately 2:00 am, a $4,000 laserwriter printer was
stolen from the main computing cluster of CMU. As the printer was not
alarmed and unwatched, the suspect simply walked in and carried it off.
Witnesses described the suspect as a black male, 6'2", very heavily built
and "mean looking". This is the story of how that printer was recovered.
My name is Don Snow. I'm a computer hacker. (Dragnet theme: dum, ta-dum,
dum)

By Jan 16, 2:00, the word was out on all the bulletin boards. I was at my
usually scheduled post in the Baker Hall computer cluster. I worked until
6:00. My replacement was late, so I had to wait until they rotated
somebody over to relive me. At approximately 5:30, I received a strange
phone call:

me: Baker hall, what can I do for you?

voice: are you in front of the printer right now?

me: no.

voice: can you get to the printer while still on the phone and still be
in front of a mac?

me: no, there is no mac next to this printer

voice:ok, thanks, (whispered to people on the other side) just be quiet
and call security, I'll handle this.

[disconnected]

Obviously, something was up. (dum, ta-dum, dum)

At 5:50, received visit from campus security. Officer explained meaning
of phone call. Suspect had called the main computing center, claiming to
be the consultant in Baker Hall, asking how to hook up an apple
laserwriter printer to a macintosh. The call to me confirmed the fact that
he was not the consultant, because it was impossible to be on the phone
and in front of a mac and in front of the printer in Baker Hall as the
suspect claimed.  (dum, ta-dum, dum daaaaa)

The word went out to all clusters who had laserwriters to be on the
lookout for a phone caller asking about laserwriters. At 6:20, I received
another call:

me: baker hall, how can I help you?

voice: yeah, I'm the consultant over at the main computer center, and I
need to restart the laserwriter for the macintosh. I'm getting this
strange error message. Can you help me?

me: sure, let me get the manual.

I then put my hand over the receiver and whispered "security" to my friend
sitting next to me, who immediately got up and ran out of the cluster. I
then began to stall the person on the other line.

me: now, what is the error message?

voice: unauthorized password failure.

me: sounds bad. let me look it up.

(5 minute pause of holding the receiver)

me: no there's nothing here...oh, I see why. This is the dinky users
manual and not the reference manual. hold on.

(5 minute pause)

me: ok, I got the right one, here we go. I'm looking at the index now.

me: hold on, I have to help a user.

(5 minute pause)

me: ok, I think I know what the problem is. You probably have the print
options configured wrong.

voice: no, I have all the options under print right

me: do you have the reduced bit map set?

voice: that is not on the menu

me: its on a secondary menu

(I then begin to have him toggle all the print options. Security arrives
and begins phone trace)

(later, after toggling about 5 print options)

voice: what do you mean, try setting the font substitution? that should
have nothing to do with the password.

me: (I begin to spew out technical garbage) Actually, it might. the
problem might be that the fonts you are using are not standard, and thus,
the mac is giving the printer a non-standard password which the
laserwriter doesn't understand.

voice: but I'm using "times" font! that has to be standard!

me: (calmly) yes, but the version of "times" from the MacDraw document
may an old version and therefore be outdated and thus in a non-standard
form than that of the laserwriter, which is thus expecting the standard
print toggle from the mac. Toggling the font substitution would tell the
mac to send the codes to the printer triggering the printer to be ready
to receive non standard fonts, and thus allow a smooth transfer of your
document from mac to printer. try it.

voice: OH, i see now. let me do it. no, it still isn't working.

me: er, hold on, I have to help another user.

(5 minute pause)

[disconnected]

Total elapsed time of stall: 40 minutes. Phone trace: successful.

On Jan 18, suspect was arrested in possession of printer, along with
$20,000 more stolen computer hardware. Suspect made full confession. Case
closed (dum, ta - dum, dum daaaa, da da da dum!)

Inscription on gold plaque from Academic Computing:

"Presented to Donald Snow in recognition of his
 invaluable  assistance in the recovery of the LaserWriter
 stolen from the UCC cluster on January 16, 1988. Don's
 impersonation of a helpful user consultant held the thief on
 the phone long enough for a successful phone trace."