Operation Weather

using. Clip that modem line and wait for Telecom to trace that line back to its point of origin.

However, things at RMIT were not working that way. The line traces began failing, and not just occasionally. All the time.

Whenever RMIT staff found the hackers on-line, they clipped the lines and Telecom began tracking the winding path back to the originating phone number. En route, the trail went dead. It was as if the hackers knew they were being traced . . . almost as if they were manipulating the telephone system to defeat the AFP investigation.

The next generation of hackers seemed to have a new- found sophistication which frustrated AFP detectives at every turn. Then, on 13 October 1990, the AFP got lucky. Perhaps the hackers had been lazy that day, or maybe they just had technical problems using their traceless phreaking techniques. Prime Suspect couldn't use Trax's traceless phreaking method from his home because he was on a step-by-step exchange, and sometimes Trax didn't use the technique. Whatever the reason, Telecom managed to successfully complete two line traces from RMIT and the AFP now had two addresses and two names. Prime Suspect and Trax.

'Hello, Prime Suspect.'

'Hiya, Mendax. How's tricks?'

'Good. Did you see that RMIT email? The one in Geoff Huston's mailbox?' Mendax walked over to open a window as he spoke. It was spring, 1991, and the weather was unseason- ably warm.

'I did. Pretty amazing. RMIT looks like it will finally be getting rid of those line traces.'

'RMIT definitely wants out,' Mendax said emphatically.

'Yep. Looks like the people at RMIT are sick of Mr Day crawling all over their computers with line traces.'

'Yeah. That admin at RMIT was pretty good, standing up to AARNET and the AFP. I figure Geoff Huston must be giving him a hard time.'