(If you're curious, this person peformed a dictionary search on my
database for each and every letter in the dictionary πŸ˜‰ )

From: Ward Mundy (ward_mundy@ca11.uscourts.gov)
To: noweb4u@telcodata.us
Subject: Thanks
Date: 18 Sep 2002 10:58:30 -0400

Paul,
Before you read your log and have a heart attack that someone has ripped off all your data, I wanted to explain what I was doing. I work for the federal courts and I'm building an emergency SMS notification system so that judges and staff could be alerted in the event of a serious emergency (such as 9/11). In order to build something like this, I obviously needed to know not only the cell phone number of everyone (which we have) but also the cell phone provider. As you probably know, the hi-tech United States doesn't yet have transparent SMS services that most Europeans take for granted. In any case, I needed area codes, prefixes, and cell phone provider names to build my data base. Then all that's missing is email domains for each provider using SMS , e.g. Nextel uses messaging.nextel.com. When I get this finished, I'll be glad to shoot you a copy of the domains of all the providers I can find. It might be a piece of data you would want to consider adding to your already formidable data base down the road. Thanks for your wonderful web site!
–wm

13 thoughts on “”

  1. *dictionary* would indicate correct spelling, right?
    please reference: *peformed*

    oh and let us also review "searched every letter in the dictionary"
    was that supposed to be a funny? or am I dense?
    Usually people search the alphabet for letters…and search dictionaries for words… *shrug* maybe thats just me ;oΓΎ

    Am I totally confuzzled or is your gray matter turning blonde?

    Oh, and yes, I was _that_ bored. hehee

    1. A dictionary attack doesn't imply they used words from a dictionary.
      They ran what appeared to be a script that requested the names of several phone companies, and then requested the alphabet.
      A dictionary attack is where you use a list of words (or single characters) and run them sequentially against the target.
      πŸ™‚

      But considering this is the first time the DOJ has ever sent me a letter where they were happy, this is a good thing πŸ˜‰

      The part about data I created being used to page federal judges is even cooler.

    1. I see a name on some of the emails going to a firewalls list that I subscribe to…it reminds me of your LJ ID. The next time I see it I will note it.

      And _no_ this is not a pickup line. LOL πŸ˜›

  2. I think I've already got a hookup πŸ™‚ If all goes well, I'll be helping a french automaker convert all their closed systems to all linux/open source based stuff.

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