Ghost in the Wires_ My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker - Kevin Mitnick [135]
I uploaded a small VAX Macro program that fooled the operating system and allowed me to disable all the security alarms, without detection, just long enough to change passwords and add privileges on a few dormant accounts—probably belonging to terminated employees—in case I needed to get back in.
Apparently, though, one of the system admins noticed alerts that were triggered when I initially created an account for myself, before I had disabled the alarms. So the next time I tried to get into the Camberley VMS system, I found myself locked out. I called Sarah to see if I could learn anything about this. She told me, “Hannu disabled remote access ’cause there’s some hackering going on.”
“Hackering”—was that what the Brits called it?
Shifting gears, I decided to target getting a copy of the source code for a product referred to internally as “HD760”: the first Nokia digital phone that was currently under development. Reaching the lead developer, Markku, in Oulu, Finland, I convinced him to extract and compress the latest source code version for me.
I wanted him to transfer it via an FTP connection to a server in the United States, but Nokia had just blocked outbound file transfers because of the Mobira security breach.
How about loading it onto a tape? Markku didn’t have a tape drive. I started calling around to other people in Oulu, looking for a drive. Eventually I located a guy in IT who was very friendly, had a good sense of humor, and even more important, had a tape drive. I had Markku send him an archived file containing the code I wanted, and then talked to him about shipping the tape, once the code had been copied onto it, to the Nokia USA office in Largo, Florida. This took a good deal of arranging, but I finally got it put together.
Around the time I knew the package should be arriving, I began calling the mail room at Largo to see if it had gotten there yet. During the last of my several calls, I was put on hold for a long time. When the lady came back on the line, she apologized and said that because the department was moving offices, she would have to “look harder” for my package. Yeah, right: my gut instinct was that they were onto me.
A few days later, I enlisted the help of Lewis De Payne, who was also excited about the idea of getting the source code for this hot new phone. He did a little research and learned that the president of Nokia USA was a guy named Kari-Pekka (“K-P”) Wilska. For some lamebrained reason, Lewis decided to pose as Wilska, a Finnish national, and called the Largo office in that guise to request that the package be reshipped.
We would find out much later that FBI agents had been alerted and had gone to the Largo offices, where they were set up to record the next call either one of us made.
Lewis called, again as Wilska. He confirmed that the package had arrived and asked that it be shipped to a Ramada Inn near his office. I called the hotel to make a reservation for Wilska, knowing that the front desk would hold a package addressed to a guest who was booked to arrive.
The next afternoon, I called the hotel to make sure the package was ready for pickup. The lady I spoke to sounded uncomfortable and put me on hold but then came back on the line to say that yes, the package was there. I asked her to tell me how big it was. She said, “They have it at the bell desk, I’ll go find out.”
She put me on hold again and was gone for a long time. I became antsy, then a little panicky. This was a huge red flag.
Finally she came back on the line and described the size of the package, which did sound about right for a computer tape.
But by now I was feeling really uneasy. Did the bell desk really have it, or was this a setup, a trap? I asked, “Was it delivered by FedEx or UPS?” She said she’d find