13 Feb Phone Phreaking: Hacking Before The Internet
This week in cybersecurity from the editors at Cybercrime Magazine
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Sausalito, Calif. – Feb. 13, 2024
For a generation of today’s youths raised on smartphones, multi megabit downloads and digital home phones before them, the idea that the phone system was once primitive enough that it could be manipulated with a plastic toy whistle is at once both strange and tantalizing.
But that’s exactly what happened back in the 1970s, when natural curiosity about evolving phone networks birthed a generation of inquisitive “phone phreaks” who spent considerable time and energy poking and prodding the machines to see what was going on behind that rotary handset.
They were the precursors to today’s network hackers, sharing tips and tactics not by closed and encrypted message groups but by printed newsletters distributed by mail.
A new video essay released by Cybercrime Magazine tells the story.
The 4 minute and 30 second video is based on a story written by David Braue, who is also the narrator.
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