From the sound of it, Spike sounds like a variation of the Urine box and or Blotto box files that were in heavy circulation in the mid to late 80s, many of them started out as a joke (eg, the blotto box was a cleverly hyped but none-the-less wholly fictional device that could supposedly kill a phone switch, circulated by the 2300 club and later LOD -- people in on the joke knew that the actual blotto box was a tape loop of quarter tones and had nothing to do with power spikes, generators, or taking down switches).

Similarly, the Urine Box could supposedly send a lethal power spike down a landline killing the called party. Two versions that I am aware of circulated, one claiming this was possible with inband signalling, ie, CCITT5, and other using several 9volt batteries and some misc radioshack parts. The former is pure fabrication, or it's ITU-T's best kept secret ;) and the latter is physically impossible.

As for the h/p community being tight lipped about techniques regarding power and/or gas et such, I think that is perhaps because of lack of interest. But perhaps an unfortunate result of this article will be to stir up some excitement amoung the 16 year olds -- on the bright side, maybe utilities will get off their beaurocratic *sses and do something about their allegedly insecure networks.

-c

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