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Phreaking
Phreaking is a slang term coined to describe the activity of a culture of people who study, experiment with, or explore telecommunication systems, such as equipment and systems connected to public telephone networks. The term ''phreak'' is a sensational spelling of the word '' freak'' with the ''ph-'' from '' phone'', and may also refer to the use of various audio frequencies to manipulate a phone system. ''Phreak'', ''phreaker'', or ''phone phreak'' are names used for and by individuals who participate in phreaking. The term first referred to groups who had reverse engineered the system of tones used to route long-distance calls. By re-creating the signaling tones, phreaks could switch calls from the phone handset while avoiding long-distance calling charges which were common then. These fees could be significant, depending on the time, duration and destination of the call. To ease the creation of the routing tones, electronic tone generators known as blue boxes became a stap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Box
A blue box is an Electronics, electronic device that produces tones used to generate the in-band signaling tones formerly used within the North American long-distance telephone network to send line status and called number information over voice circuits. During that period, charges associated with long-distance calling were commonplace and could be significant, depending on the time, duration and destination of the call. A blue box device allowed for circumventing these charges by enabling an illicit user, referred to as a "Phreaking, phreaker", to place long-distance calls, without using the network's user facilities, that would be billed to another number or dismissed entirely by the telecom company's billing system as an incomplete call. A number of similar "color boxes" were also created to control other aspects of the phone network. First developed in the 1960s and used by a small phreaker community, the introduction of low-cost microelectronics in the early 1970s greatly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Box (phreaking)
A blue box is an electronic device that produces tones used to generate the in-band signaling tones formerly used within the North American long-distance telephone network to send line status and called number information over voice circuits. During that period, charges associated with long-distance calling were commonplace and could be significant, depending on the time, duration and destination of the call. A blue box device allowed for circumventing these charges by enabling an illicit user, referred to as a " phreaker", to place long-distance calls, without using the network's user facilities, that would be billed to another number or dismissed entirely by the telecom company's billing system as an incomplete call. A number of similar "color boxes" were also created to control other aspects of the phone network. First developed in the 1960s and used by a small phreaker community, the introduction of low-cost microelectronics in the early 1970s greatly simplified these devi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Box (phreaking)
Black boxes were devices which, when attached to home phones, allowed all incoming calls to be received without charge to the caller. The black box (as distinguished from blue boxes and red boxes) was a small electronic circuit, usually a resistor or zener diode in series with the line. It relied on (now-obsolete) telephone exchanges controlled by mechanical relays. These exchanges used a relay to detect a drop in line voltage (usually to less than -10V off-hook, compared to -48V when on-hook) to begin billing for a call; a separate relay controlled ringing on the line. The black box placed a resistor in series with the line, so that the off-hook voltage was closer to -36V: just enough to stop the ringing, but not enough to trigger billing. A bypass capacitor was often added to prevent the device from attenuating AC signals such as transmitted voice. A call originating from a telephone fitted with a black box would still be charged for by the telephone company unless some meth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Wozniak
Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname Woz, is an American technology entrepreneur, electrical engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, and inventor. In 1976, he co-founded Apple Inc., Apple Computer with his early business partner Steve Jobs. Through his work at Apple in the 1970s and 1980s, he is widely recognized as one of the most prominent pioneers of the personal computer revolution. In 1975, Wozniak started developing the Apple I, Apple I into the computer that launched Apple when he and Jobs first began marketing it the following year. He was the primary designer of the Apple II (1977 computer), Apple II, introduced in 1977, known as one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputers, while Jobs oversaw the development of its foam-molded plastic case and early Apple employee Rod Holt developed its switched-mode power supply, switching power supply. With human–computer interface expert Jef Raskin, Wozniak had a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Box (phreaking)
A red box is a phreaking device that generates tones to simulate inserting coins in pay phones, thus fooling the system into completing free calls. In the United States, a nickel is represented by one tone, a dime by two, and a quarter by a set of five. Any device capable of playing back recorded sounds can potentially be used as a red box. Commonly used devices include modified Radio Shack tone dialers, personal MP3 players, and audio-recording greeting cards. History The term "red box" to refer to a phreaking box dates to 1973 or earlier. Red box use became more widespread in the 1990s following the publication in 2600 Magazine of instructions on how to make a red box by replacing a crystal oscillator in a tone dialer. Red boxes grew obsolete in the 2000s as phone systems in the US and other nations updated their signaling technology. Technical details United States The tones are made by playing back 1700 Hz and 2200 Hz tones together. One 66 ms tone represents a n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Hacker Crackdown
''The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier'' is a work of nonfiction by Bruce Sterling first published in 1992. The book discusses watershed events in the hacker subculture in the early 1990s. The most notable topic covered is Operation Sundevil and the events surrounding the 1987–1990 war on the Legion of Doom network: the raid on Steve Jackson Games, the trial of "Knight Lightning" (one of the original journalists of ''Phrack''), and the subsequent formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The book also profiles the likes of " Emmanuel Goldstein" (publisher of '' 2600: The Hacker Quarterly''), the former assistant attorney general of Arizona Gail Thackeray, FLETC instructor Carlton Fitzpatrick, Mitch Kapor, and John Perry Barlow. In 1994, Sterling released the book for the Internet with a new afterword. Critical reception Cory Doctorow, who voiced an unabridged podcast of the book, said it "inspired me politically, artistically and socially ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freak
A freak is a person who is physically deformed or transformed due to an extraordinary medical condition or body modification. This definition was first attested with this meaning in the 1880s as a shorter form of the phrase " freak of nature", itself a broader term meaning " whimsy or caprice of nature", attributed at least as far back as 1847. The term's original neutral connotation became entirely negative during the 20th century; therefore, ''freak'' with its literal meaning of "abnormally developed individual" is viewed purely as a pejorative today. However, the term is also recently used playfully to refer to an enthusiast or obsessive person, as in a ''fitness freak'' or ''control freak''. Usage ''Freak'' saw usage as jargon by promoters and performers of freak shows, though its use in this sense has decreased along with the popularity of freak shows. One well-known example of this word was in reference to Joseph Merrick, the "Elephant Man." As a jargon, side-show frea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Public Switched Telephone Network
The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the aggregate of the world's telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local telephony operators. It provides infrastructure and services for public telephony. The PSTN consists of telephone lines, fiber-optic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables interconnected by switching centers, such as central offices, network tandems, and international gateways, which allow telephone users to communicate with each other. Originally a network of fixed-line analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now predominantly digital in its core network and includes terrestrial cellular, satellite, and landline systems. These interconnected networks enable global communication, allowing calls to be made to and from nearly any telephone worldwide. Many of these networks are progressively transitioning to Internet Protocol to carry their telephony traffi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2600 Hertz
2600 hertz (2600 Hz) is a frequency in hertz (cycles per second) that was used in telecommunication signaling in mid-20th century long-distance telephone networks using carrier systems. Tone signaling carrier systems operated in the standard telephony voice frequency range ( to ). They replaced direct current (D.C.) signaling on toll trunk lines because they could be used with any type of toll facility over any length of transmission line that was suitable for voice transmissions. This included transmission through line repeaters and other facilities that would distort, block, or otherwise prohibit D.C. loop-disconnect signaling, such as rotary dial pulses, and on-hook/off-hook signaling. Common frequencies for this purpose were , , , , and , the latter being just outside the voice range. These signaling systems were continuous tone methods, so that the idle condition of a trunk line could easily be detected by the presence of the appropriate signaling frequency, in contr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar. He was a pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along with his early business partner and fellow Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Jobs was born in San Francisco in 1955 and adopted shortly afterwards. He attended Reed College in 1972 before withdrawing that same year. In 1974, he traveled through India, Hippie trail, seeking enlightenment before later studying Buddhism in the West#Emerging mainstream western Buddhism, Zen Buddhism. He and Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976 to further develop and sell Wozniak's Apple I personal computer. Together, the duo gained fame and wealth a year later with production and sale of the Apple II, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputers. Jobs saw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slang
A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of particular in-groups in order to establish group identity, exclude outsiders, or both. The word itself came about in the 18th century and has been defined in multiple ways since its conception, with no single technical usage in linguistics. Etymology of the word ''slang'' In its earliest attested use (1756), the word ''slang'' referred to the vocabulary of "low" or "disreputable" people. By the early nineteenth century, it was no longer exclusively associated with disreputable people, but continued to be applied to usages below the level of standard educated speech. In Scots dialect it meant "talk, chat, gossip", as used by Aberdeen poet William Scott in 1832: "The slang gaed on aboot their war'ly care." In northern English dialect it me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Engineering (security)
In the context of information security, social engineering is the use of psychological influence of people into performing actions or divulging Confidentiality, confidential information. This differs from psychological manipulation in that it doesn't need to be controlling, negative or a one-way transaction. Manipulation involves a zero-sum game where one party wins and the other loses while social engineering can be win-win for both parties. A type of confidence trick for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or system access, it differs from a traditional "con" in the sense that it is often one of many steps in a more complex fraud scheme. It has also been defined as "any act that influences a person to take an action that may or may not be in their best interests." Research done in 2020 has indicated that social engineering will be one of the most prominent challenges of the upcoming decade. Having proficiency in social engineering will be increasingly important for orga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
