History Of Telephone Hacking Essay
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I. Introduction - The 60s and 70s
Social Advancements
Technological Advancements
The Time Was Right
II. Phreaking Is Born
III. The Technical Aspects That Allowed Phreaking To Work
IV. Phreaker Culture
Famous Phreakers
Phreaking in the Media
V. The Downfall of Phreaking
VI. What s Left For The Phreaking Community
VII. Bibliography. I. Introduction - The 60s and 70s
It s hard for one not to be familiar with the state of our nation in the 60s and 70s. The period was arguably the high point of independent thought for the century. Average, everyday people began to question and disagree with aspects of society that had formerly been respected and revered. The new line of thinking greatly influenced the way society would advanced through that period.
A. Social Advancements
The period in question was marked by a particularly hostile attitude towards those who were in positions of authority. The public was unhappy with the events surrounding the Vietnam War. For the first time, there was a large number of people who felt the need to speak up for what they believed in, even if it was against the government. The nation began to see the laying of foundations towards equal civil rights and disarmament, and the rebirth of independent thought.
Change tends to be popular for the younger generations. Older people are more set in their ways. Some would say that the generation gap is the chasm between differing points of view. The older generations of the 60s and 70s grew up with the idea that the government acted only in the best interests of the people, and that one should support the government in all ways possible. However, the inquisitive nature of the younger generation naturally caused them to tack the more defiant path. So, it is not hard to imagine that the new line of thinking that developed during this period bloomed from mediums related to the younger generations. For instance, pop culture contributed to this new way of thinking. If any one area contributed most to the new way of thinking, it would surely be the areas of higher education. College campuses allowed the younger people to come together and discuss current events, voice their opinions, and find like-minded individuals to associate with. Before long, the greatest areas of protest were college campuses. Thus, collegiate level educational centers became the homes of new independent thought
B. Technological Advancements
While the younger generation was busy with their revolution of sorts, the older populace continued on with their quest for technological advancement. In the midst of war, technology always tends to profit from the race to improve the nation s war machine. A great part of our budget goes towards research into bettering our armed forces chances of winning the war, whether it be by building a better gun, or by building better means of communication, or by making military life more suitable for the men in the trenches. The most prevalent areas for research towards these improvements were the colleges and universities. As the research grants piled in, more and more advancements were made, specifically in the areas of computing and electronics. Eventually, these advancements would creep their way into the everyday life of modern society.
C. The Time Was Right
Based on these facts, we can say that the period pertaining to the 60s and 70s was marked by an increase in independent and noncompliant thought, with a further increase in technological advancement, both centered at institutions of higher learning. Once the possibility of combining our new way of thinking to our new found technology was explored, things would never be the same again. Technology would forever after be considered a medium for expression. From this notion, hacking would be born. But, it would be some time before the computing industry would reach into the lives of everyday people. The technology wasn t quite advanced enough. However, there was one technology that was budding quite nicely in this period. One that reached into every house in the nation. One that was complex enough to grab attention, but simple enough to be dissected by those with enough determination or intent. This technology was the telephone system.
II. Phreaking Is Born
The Jargon dictionary defines phreaking as: The art and science of cracking the phone network (so as, for example, to make free long-distance calls). This was no easy task. The inner workings of the phone system don t lend themselves to analysis very easily. As I ll soon explain, there are many signaling tones involved. The forerunners of the phreaking community must have done some research into the phone system before they developed the methods to manipulate the system. Some sources say that a lot of information about the phone system was obtained by searching through the trash of nearby Central Offices (CO s). More often, the information was found right in a university library, where the Ma Bell Technical Journals were often kept for informational purposes. While reading these journals, it was easy to see how the Bell Telephone System left it self open to attacks.
III. The Technical Aspects That Make Phreaking Work
At this point in time, the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) was a primarily (if not completely) analog network. It was designed to handle analog voice signals. Likewise, it used analog signaling to inform CO equipment of various line states. IT is important to mention that this signaling scheme was in-band. In-band means that the signals were sent over the normal telephone line, right along with the voice signals, and staying within the bandwidth of the line. Sometimes, while placing a call, one would actually be able to hear the office switches signaling each other, especially during a long distance phone call. This is due to the relationship between local offices (class 5 switching systems) and toll offices (class 4 switching systems), in respect to the trunk lines they share. These lines were loop start lines. This means that an off hook signal was given to the line if the loop (or circuit) was completed. If the loop was open, the line was not in use. Buy picking up the phone and dialing out, the customer caused the local office to complete a loop with the class 4 toll office. However, the lines between each class 4 office and other hierarchical offices dealt with Multi-Frequency (MF) signaling. On these trunk lines, there was a 2600Hz signal ever present, to signify the trunk was idle (not being used). If the class 4 toll office needed to route a call, it would cease sending 2600 across that line, to tell the other switch to wait for further instructions. Then the switch would send a combination of MF signals to signify the start of a number (Key Pulse, or KP), then the actual number in dial (consisting of unique MF signals to represent the digits 0-9), followed by the signal to signify the end of the number (ST). Now, assume for example that you are calling an 800 number. 1-800-555-1212, for example. You pick up the phone and dial. When you dial the first digit, 1, the local office switch realizes that you re going to need a long distance line. It send your request onward to a class 4 toll office switch. All this time, you re connected by loop start signaling. The signal won t be broken until you physically hang up the receiver. Now, the toll center switch gets a request to route the number 800/5551212, a number in the 800 Number Plan Area (NPA). The switch knows that this call is not a chargeable call, because the 800 NPA is a free call, from anywhere in the country. The toll office switch will send out the following MF string: KP8005551212ST. The proper switch will receive the request and the call will be connected. Now, here is what made phreaking so popular. If you blow a 2600Hz signal into the receiver of the handset, the furthest toll office (the one serving your number) and every other switch that you re using between the furthest and the nearest toll office (the one that your local office connected to originally) will think that the...
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