Hacker Infiltrates Phone System, Runs Up $96,000 Bill : Crime: City of Anaheim, victimized via computer, will split cost with AT&T.; A new phone setup has been installed. A suspect has not been identified.

Someone using a computer infiltrated the city’s telephone system, running up $96,000 in long-distance charges before the theft was discovered, officials said this week.

Maintenance Director John H. Roche Jr., whose department oversees the phone system, said that during July and August of last year, an unknown computer hacker from the eastern United States used the Public Utility Department’s toll-free telephone line to call into its system. The hacker then used his computer to tap into the system and place long-distance calls to Africa, Europe and South America and have the city billed for the calls.

The city and AT&T;, its long-distance provider, have agreed to split the loss, and the toll-free line has been removed, Roche said. He also said the city’s telephone system has been changed to prevent hackers from gaining access.

The problem was discovered and resolved when the city received its phone bill in August, Roche said, but it was not made public until Tuesday, when the City Council had to approve the settlement.

“It was one of those unlucky things that happen and we got unlucky and it happened to us,” Roche said. “There are a lot of hackers out there who do nothing more than sit around all day and try to cheat people.”

City Atty. Jack L. White said officials are trying to find the hacker and force him to pay the city’s charges.

AT&T; spokeswoman Sue Adams said such long-distance fraud costs carriers and businesses more than $1 billion annually.

Without knowing the specifics of the Anaheim thievery, she said what typically happens is that a hacker has his computer randomly call toll-free numbers, which use the 800 area code. When the hacker’s computer finds a toll-free line that is hooked up to another computer, it will randomly shoot numbers and letters at the other computer until it discovers a password into its system.

From there, the hacker takes over, experimenting with the telephone system until he finds a way to access an outside line. Then he starts making his phone calls.

“A lot of hackers see this as a challenge,” Adams said.

There are various ways a business can protect its phone lines, she said. Long-distance carriers offer monitoring services that track phone calls that are being made from a business and can spot unusual patterns that indicate a hacker has infiltrated the phone system. There are also computer programs that do the same thing.