PHREAKERS IN HIGHER LEARNING INSTITUTION IN MALAYSIA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON “HARMFUL PHREAKING” VS “HARMLESS PHREAKING” M. Hakim, J. Jais, Y. Azlan College Of Information Technology Universiti Tenaga Nasional S. Zuraidah Faculty of Management & Human Resource Development Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Email: mohdhakim@uniten.edu.my , jamilin@uniten.edu.my , azlany@uniten.edu.my zuraidahs@utm.my ABSTRACT This paper is different from the previous two on its in-depth analysis on “Harmless Phreaking” and “Harmful Phreaking”. We compare the phreaking methods in Malaysia with the professional phreaking methods and we will focus specifically on Public Phone Phreaking. We made a survey on the the methods exercised by amateur phreakers in Higher Learning Institution in some part of Malaysia. In the United States, Phreakers normally will end up in jail term. In Malaysia, there are laws to control phreaking activities but usually it was left undetected. Emerging technologies in phreaking is freaky. How much secure your telephone lines are? Are you sure there is nobody else is listening somewhere between the lines? It does not matter either it is “Harmless Phreaking” or “Harmfull Phreaking”. Both of it will cost telecommunication companies (Telco’s) lots of money. Keywords: Phreak, Telecommunication line, Hackers, Crackers INTRODUCTION PHREAKERS Phreaking is a slang term coined to describe the activity of a subculture of people who study, experiment with, or explore telecommunication systems, like equipment and systems connected to public telephone networks. The term "phreak" is derived from the words "phone" and "freak." It may also refer to the use of various audio frequencies to manipulate a phone system. "Phreak", "phreaker", or "phone phreak" are names used for and by individuals who participate in phreaking. Additionally, it is often associated with computer hacking. This is sometimes called the H/P culture (with H standing for Hacking and P standing for Phreaking). Phreakers are a class unto themselves. They might mess with trunk lines just to see how things work (like when Steve Wozniak and John Draper tried to call the Pope in Rome (were also called “Captain Crunch”), or break into the telephone switches themselves, as Kevin Poulsen did when he rerouted lines to manipulate a radio station contest and win a Porsche. Phreaker is not a new terminology. Its history dated back to 1950’s [3]. The first phreaking method was discovered by Joe Engressia in 1957. Joe Engressia was an 8 years old boy when he discovered that whistling the E above middle C (a frequency of 2600 Hz) would stop the recording every time. What the eight-year-old Engressia did not realize was that the 2600 Hz frequency was an internal telephone company signal to take control of a trunk line, which opened up almost limitless possibilities for routing calls with no long-distance charges. Phreaker’s basic concept is just the same as hackers and crackers. They will acquire in-depth knowledge about the system they want to attack. Once they master the skills, they will begin to explore the several patterns of system design and architecture [4].