The Art Of Intrusion
Leroy Corey's Story
The two young guys were walking the production line of a helicopter plant at 2am when a towering security guard appeared. "Morning. Can I see your security badges, please," he said. Leroy always tried to keep his voice soft at moments like this; he knew that the sheer size of him could seem threatening. "Hi, Leroy," one of them said, reading the name off his badge. "I'm Tom Dealy, from the Marketing office at corporate in Phoenix, just my friend here how the world's greatest helicopters get built."
Leroy called and said they found Mr. Tom Dealy down on the production line at 2 in the morning with no ID badge. She said, "Let me talk to him."
Dealy got on the phone and said, "Judy, I'm really sorry about getting you waked up in the middle of the night, I hope you're not going to hold this against me."
He listened and then said, "It was just that I had to be here in the morning anyway, for that meeting on the new press release. Anyway, did you get the e-mail about the Thompson deal? We need to meet with Jim on Monday morning so we don't lose this. And I'm still having lunch with you on Tuesday, right?"
He listened a bit more and said goodbye and hung up.
That caught Leroy by surprise; he had thought he'd get the phone back so the lady could tell him everything was okay. Should he call her back-a second call in the middle of the night. "Why make waves?" he thought.
"Okay if I show my friend the rest of the production line?" Daly asked Leroy. "You want to come along, keep an eye on us?"
"Go on," Leroy said. "Look around. Just don't forget your badge next time. And let Security know if you need to be on the plant floor after hours-it's the rule."
"I'll remember that, Leroy," Daly said. And they left.
But you don't just walk into a factory or office building. Got to think it through, do a lot of planning, and do a full reconnaissance on the target, so I could talk to anybody that challenged me, and sound like an employee.
I did some Internet research, then called and asked for Marketing; every company has a Marketing department. A lady answered, and I said I was with Blue Pencil Graphics and we wanted to see if we could interest them in using our services and who would I talk to. She said that would be Tom Dealy. I asked for his phone number and she said they didn't give out that information but she could put me through. The call rang into voice mail, and his message said, "This is Tom Dealy in Graphics, extension 3147, please leave a message." Sure-they don't give out extensions, but this guy leaves his right on his voicemail. So that was cool.
Another call, back to the same office. "Hi, I was looking for Tom Dealy. He's not in. I'd like to ask his boss a quick question." The boss was out, too, but by the time I was finished, I knew the boss's name. And she had nicely left her extension number on her voicemail, too.
I remembered a fence around the parking lot. A fence means a guard who checks you when you try to drive in. And at night, they might be writing down license numbers, too, so I'd have to buy an old license plate at a flea market.
But first I'd have to get the phone number in the guard shack. I wait a bit, then called back and said, "We've got a complaint that the phone at the Ridge Road guard shack has reported intermittent problems-are they still having trouble?" She said she didn't know but would connect me.
The guy answered, "Ridge Road gate, this is Ryan." I said, "Hi, Ryan, this is Ben. Were you having problems with your phones there?" He's just a low-paid security guard but I guess he had some training because he right away said, "Ben who-what's your last name?" I just kept right on as if I hadn't even heard him. "Somebody reported a problem earlier."
I could hear him holding the phone away and calling out, "Hey, Bruce, Roger, was there a problem with this phone?" He came back on and said, "No, no problems we know about."
"How many phone lines do you have there?"
He had forgotten about my name. "Two," he said.
"Which one are you on now?"
"3140."
Gotcha! "And they're both working okay?"
"Seems like."
"Okay," I said. "Listen, Tom, if you have any phone problems, just call us in Telecom any time. We're here to help."
My buddy and I decided to visit the plant the very next night. Late that afternoon I called the guard booth, using the name of the Marketing guy. I said, "Hi, this is Tom Dealy in Graphics. We're on a crash deadline and I have a couple of guys driving into town to help out. Probably won't be here till one or two in the morning. Will you still be on then?"
He was happy to say that, No, he got off at midnight.
I said, "Well, just leave a note for the next guy, okay? When two guys show up and say they've come to see Tom Dealy, just wave 'em on in-okay?"
Yes, he said, that was fine. He took down my name, department and extension number and said he'd take care of it.
We drove up to the gate a little after two, I gave Tom Dealy's name, and a sleepy guard just pointed to the door we should go in and where I should park.
When the lobby guard asked me for my badge, I patted around and said I must have left it in car; I said, "It'll take about ten minutes-I'm too junior to have a good parking place." He said, "Never mind, it's okay, just sign in." Walking down that production line-what a gas. Until that tree-trunk of a Leroy stopped us.
When Leroy called the lady who was Dealy's boss and then gave me the phone, the lady started shouting at me "Who is this, who are you!" and I just kept on talking like we were having a nice conversation, and then hung up.
We got out of there as fast as we could without looking like we were in a hurry. Sure was glad when the guy at the gate just waved us through.