phreaking /freek'ing/ n.
[from `phone phreak'] 1. The
art and science of cracking the phone network (so as, for
example, to make free long-distance calls). 2. By extension,
security-cracking in any other context (especially, but not
exclusively, on communications networks) (see cracking).
At one time phreaking was a semi-respectable activity among
hackers; there was a gentleman's agreement that phreaking as an
intellectual game and a form of exploration was OK, but serious
theft of services was taboo. There was significant crossover
between the hacker community and the hard-core phone phreaks who
ran semi-underground networks of their own through such media as
the legendary "TAP Newsletter". This ethos began to break
down in the mid-1980s as wider dissemination of the techniques put
them in the hands of less responsible phreaks. Around the same
time, changes in the phone network made old-style technical
ingenuity less effective as a way of hacking it, so phreaking came
to depend more on overtly criminal acts such as stealing phone-card
numbers. The crimes and punishments of gangs like the `414 group'
turned that game very ugly. A few old-time hackers still phreak
casually just to keep their hand in, but most these days have
hardly even heard of `blue boxes' or any of the other
paraphernalia of the great phreaks of yore.
[from `phone phreak'] 1. The
art and science of cracking the phone network (so as, for
example, to make free long-distance calls). 2. By extension,
security-cracking in any other context (especially, but not
exclusively, on communications networks) (see cracking).
At one time phreaking was a semi-respectable activity among
hackers; there was a gentleman's agreement that phreaking as an
intellectual game and a form of exploration was OK, but serious
theft of services was taboo. There was significant crossover
between the hacker community and the hard-core phone phreaks who
ran semi-underground networks of their own through such media as
the legendary "TAP Newsletter". This ethos began to break
down in the mid-1980s as wider dissemination of the techniques put
them in the hands of less responsible phreaks. Around the same
time, changes in the phone network made old-style technical
ingenuity less effective as a way of hacking it, so phreaking came
to depend more on overtly criminal acts such as stealing phone-card
numbers. The crimes and punishments of gangs like the `414 group'
turned that game very ugly. A few old-time hackers still phreak
casually just to keep their hand in, but most these days have
hardly even heard of `blue boxes' or any of the other
paraphernalia of the great phreaks of yore.
Related:
- phreaking /freek'ing/ n.
[from `phone phreak'] 1.
The art and science of cracking the phone network (so as, for example, to make free long-distance calls).... - blue box
n. 1. obs. Once upon a time, before
all-digital switches made it possible for the phone companies to
move them out of band
one could actually hear the switching tones used to route long-distance calls.... - cracker n.
One who breaks security on a system. Coined
ca.
1985 by hackers in defense against journalistic misuse of hacker (q.... - dumpster diving: /dump'-ster di:'-ving/ n. 1. The practice of
sifting refuse from an office or technical installation to extract
confidential data
especially security-compromising information (`dumpster' is an Americanism for what is elsewhere called a `skip').... - dumpster diving /dump'-ster di:'-ving/ n.
1. The practice
of sifting refuse from an office or technical installation to
extract confidential data
especially security-compromising information (`dumpster' is an Americanism for what is elsewhere called a `skip').... - hacker ethic n.
1. The belief that information-sharing
is a powerful positive good
and that it is an ethical duty of hackers to share their expertise by writing open-source and facilitating access to information and to computing resources wherever possible.... - demoscene /dem'oh-seen/
[also `demo scene'] A culture of
multimedia hackers located primarily in Scandinavia and northern
Europe.
Demoscene folklore recounts that when old-time warez d00dz cracked some piece of advertisement of in the beginning, usually containing colorful display hacks with greetings to other cracking groups.... - vadding: /vad'ing/ [from VAD, a permutation of ADV (i.
e., {ADVENT}), used to avoid a particular {admin}'s continual search-and-destroy sweeps for the game] n.... - vadding /vad'ing/ n.
[from VAD, a permutation of ADV
(i.
e., ADVENT), used to avoid a particular admin's continual search-and-destroy sweeps for the game] A leisure-time activity of certain hackers involving the covert exploration of the `secret' parts of large buildings -- basements, roofs, freight elevators, maintenance crawlways, steam tunnels, and the like....
