[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] ÄMOrgUE Textz Proudly PresentsÄ P H I N E T: FEDTAX DATABASE P A R T I Author: MalHavoc [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] PHINet is a mainframe located in New York, accessable through Tymnet. It is a database and document search-and-retrieval system designed for tax research. If the system seems a bit boring to the hacker, then I should point out the following information concerning costs: PHINet's connect-time prices are based upon the accumulated hours of use per month. See chart below. Hours/month Peak hourly rate Off-peak hourly rate =========== ================ ==================== 1-5 $85.00 $76.50 5-20 80.00 72.00 20-50 70.00 63.00 50+ 60.00 54.00 As you can see, if what the system can offer helps you, Then it is well worth it to hack an account. PHINet is one of those services which you could really use from time to time, but would never dare pay the high fees for. To enable you to access PHINet, you must gain an account. I will not go through the steps of gaining an account on a system simply because the steps are obvious and hopefully well-known to those reading this phile. To start you off, however, I will just say that it would be wise to locate a person/buisness probable to use PHINet, and work a little social engineering charm. Combined with trashing the person/buisness, you will surely have an account in no time. The user ID is eight characters long, and the password is four characters long. LOGGING ON TO PHINET ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The first thing you need to do is get your nearest Tyment dialup. Connect to Tyment, and at the login prompt, type "ph". The message "PRENTICE-HALL ENTER USERID;PASSOWRD:call connected" will appear. When you get this, enter the userid number and password, separated by a semicolon. i.e.- p000-000;wxyz. If you login sucessfully, the News Menu will appear. GETTING AROUND ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ PHINet is a very user-friendly system, therefore I won't have to go into the details of many PHINet commands. The News Menu lists all of the menu-driven databases, and an example of it is shown below: PHINet NEWS MENU 1 DAY1--Daily Tax Update 2 WEEK--Compilation of previous 5 Daily Updates 3 XPRT--Experts' Briefings 4 HELP--User Assistance and Customer Support 5 RATE--Applicable Federal Interest Rates Choose a database by selecting the respectful number. You will receive another menu, with complete instructions on the contents and usage. The following is information on all databases in the News Menu: DAY1: This database contains information concerning tax news from the previous day. WEEK: This database contains the previous *five* daily updates. XPRT: This database contains briefings written by tax experts. Everyday a new article is featured. HELP: This database contains a large amount of information on PHINet and its search-and-retrieval system. This is a good area to enter because of the command lists you can capture. They become *very* useful. Databases in the News Menu are not searchable. The Main Menu lists all of the searchable databases. An example of the Main Menu is shown below: MENU PHINet main menu FED1 Federal income tax without the index FED2 federal income tax with the index INDX Keyword index for federal income taxes CASE Tax cases 1954+ PLRS Private letter rulings 1977+ RULE Revenue rulings and procedures 1954+ FULL CASE + PLRS + RULE TOTL FED1 + FULL (Global federal income tax search) ESGT Federal estate and gift taxes EXCT Federak excise taxes FDEG FED1 + ESGT CITE Citator 2nd series, cases and rulings 1954+ TXSP Tax simplification proposals IRML Internal revenue manual PUBS Internal revenue service publications SHEL Tax shelters ENTER DATABASE NAME: I think from this point on you it will be pretty easy for you to find your way around because of its simple database form, along with its extreme user friendliness. Part Two of this phile will continue to explore the depths of PHINet, and possibly any letters sent to me concerning PHINet. Happy exploring... -MalHavoc