phreaking

jargon /freek'ing/ "phone phreak" 1. The art and science of

cracking the telephone 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).

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.

[Jargon File]

(1994-11-09)