The investigators uncovered thousands of pages of proprietary telephone company information, hundreds of diskettes, half a dozen computers, and volumes of notes. The three Legionnaires and their fellow hackers had been dumpster diving at BellSouth, looking for telco manuals. With the information gleaned, they had developed techniques for accessing over a dozen of BellSouth's computer systems, and from these they downloaded information that would allow them to get into other computer systems--including those belonging to banks, credit bureaus, hospitals, and businesses. When the Leftist was interviewed, he nonchalantly agreed that the Legionnaires could easily have shut down telephone services throughout the country.
Among the masses of information that the investigators found were files on computer bombs and trojan horses--as well as one document that described in detail how to bring down a telephone exchange by dropping a computer program into a 5ESS switch. The program simply kept adding new files to the switch's hard disk until it was full, causing the computer to shut down.
What the investigators didn't uncover was any direct evidence linking the Atlanta Three to the computer bombs. Simple possession of a report that details how a crime could be committed does not prove that it has been. But they did find one document that seemed to portend even greater destruction: during the search of the Prophet's home they discovered something called the "E911 file." Its significance escaped the Treasury agents, but it immediately caused the technicians from BellSouth to blanch: "You mean the hackers had this stuff?" The file, they said, described a new program developed for the emergency 911 service: the E simply stood for enhanced.
The 911 service is used throughout North America for handling emergency calls-- police, fire, and ambulance. Dialing 911 gives direct access to a municipality's Public Safety Answering Point, a dedicated telephone facility for summoning the emergency services. The calls are carried over an ordinary telephone switch; however, incoming 911 calls are given priority over all other calls. From the switch, the 911 calls travel on lines dedicated to the emergency services.
In March 1988 BellSouth had developed a new program for enhancing the 911 service. The E911 file contained information relating to installation and maintenance of the service, and was headed, "Not for use or disclosure outside BellSouth or any of its subsidiaries except under written agreement." It had been stored in a computer in BellSouth's corporate headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. While hacking into the supposedly secure system, the Prophet had found the file and downloaded it to his own PC.
In the hands of the wrong people, the BellSouth technicians said, the critical E911 document could be used as a blueprint for widespread disruption in the emergency systems. Clearly, hackers were the wrong sort of people. According to BellSouth, "any damage to that very sensitive system could result in a dangerous breakdown in police, fire, and ambulance services." Mere computer bombs seemed childish by comparison.
Just seven months later, on the public holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., the most sophisticated telephone system in the world went down for nine hours. At 2:25 P.M. on January 15,1990 the nationwide network operated by AT&T was hit by a computer failure. For the duration of the breakdown, the only voice responding to millions of long-distance callers was a recorded message: "All services are busy--please try again later."
It was estimated that by early afternoon as many as half the long-distance calls being dialed in every major city were blocked. Some twenty million calls were affected, causing chaos in many businesses, especially those such as airlines, car rental companies, and hotels which rely on free 1-800 numbers. It was the most serious failure since the introduction of computer-based phone systems thirty years earlier.
Robert E. Allen, AT&T chairman, emerged the following day to explain that "preliminary indications are that a software problem occurred, which spread rapidly through the network." Another spokesman said that while a failure in the software systems was probably to blame, a computer bomb could not be ruled out. The problem had been centered in what was called a signal node, a computer or switch attached to the network. According to AT&T, the errant system "had told switches it was unable to receive calls, and this had a domino effect on other switches." The effect was not dissimilar to the endless loop, which causes all incoming calls to circle idly around the switch.
