Resorts World Las Vegas, a hotel that is hosting attendees of the DEF CON hacking conference this week, will perform daily inspections of rooms including those displaying a privacy sign, according to a letter from the hotel given to guests. An information security professional posted a photo of the letter online. Members of the cybersecurity community have reacted with a mix of anger and disappointment on social media.
“Welcome, and thank you for choosing Resorts World Las Vegas. We are pleased that you have joined us, as you have chosen to stay with us for relaxation, fun and excitement!” the message, written on hotel letterhead, reads.
“As you may or may not know, a well-known hacking convention will be held in Las Vegas during your stay,” it adds. DEF CON runs from August 8 to 11, with many attendees already in the city for the separate Black Hat cybersecurity conference or other events. “We remain committed to our guests’ safety and understand the utmost importance of cybersecurity, as well.”
The letter then describes what staff at Resorts World Las Vegas will be doing: “In an effort to increase the safety of our guests, we will be conducting scheduled, brief visual and non-intrusive room inspections daily beginning Monday, August 5. Rooms with a privacy sign will be included as part of the inspection process.”
For those who missed the joke: Payphone hackers (often called phreakers) discovered that a toy whistle from Captain Crunch cereal boxes could easily be modified to play the specific tone that payphones listened for to indicate that a coin had been inserted. Basically, the phone company didn’t know when a coin has been put in, without some sort of signal from the pay phone. And typically, the only lines run to the phone were the actual phone line. So the pay phone would play a specific 2600Hz tone, indicating that a coin was inserted.
Using this toy whistle, you could essentially use payphones for free, and it was entirely untraceable until the company emptied the phone and counted the coins in the collection bin. In an era when cellphones were only for millionaires and were the size of literal bricks the world was almost entirely dependent on pay phones unless you were at home. So this was a major discovery for phreaks, who quickly began experimenting to see what other tones may be used to send signals.
Naturally, the phone companies panicked, and quickly had the cereal company pull the toys from future boxes.
It didn’t need modification, it was naturally the right pitch.