Cyberculture.hu

A legtartósabb legenda a hackeléssel kapcsolatban, hogy kezdetben voltak a patyolattiszta hackerek, akik a rendszerek iránti kíváncsiságtól vezérelve kalandoztak a telefonos, számítógépes hálózatokon, aztán jött a sajtó és összemosta őket a gépeket feltörő, warezolt szoftvert áruló aljanéppel. Az igazság valahol félúton van, a patyolatból is visza kell venni és az aljanépből is. A legrégebbi, a hacker szót tartalmazó sajtóbeli szöveget Fred Shapiro ásta elő az American Dialect Society levelezőlistáján. A cikk az MIT The Tech nevet viselő egyetemi lapjának 1963. november 20-án megjelent számából származik, és a telefonrendszert vaktárcsázással és kísérletezéssel elfoglaló hackerekről szól. Az évszám főleg azért fontos, mert a hackerkultúra egyik bölcsőjének számító Marvin Minsky-féle mesterséges intelligencia laboratórium is még csak négy éve üzemelt, lopott szoftverek pedig még egyáltalán nem voltak.

Services curtailed

Telephone hackers active

<br/> by Henry Lichstein<br/>

Many telephone services have been curtailed because of so-called hackers, according to Рrofessor Carltoп Tucker, administrator of the Institute phone system.

Stating „IT means the students whoo are doing this are depriving the rest of you of priviliges you otherwise might have.” Prof. Tucker noted that two or three students are expelled each year for abuses of the phone system.

The hackers have accomplished such things as typing up all the tie-lines between Harvard and МIT, or making longdistance calls by charging them to a local radar installation. One method involved connecting the PDP 1 computer to the phone system to search the lines until a dial tone, indicating an outstde line, was found.

Tie lines connect MIT’s phone system to many areas qithout a prorata chanrge. Among the tie-lines discovered have been ones to the Millstone Radar Facility, the Sudbury defense installation, IBM in Kingston, New York, and the MITRE Corporation.

Tucker warns hackers

Commenting on these incidents Prof. Tucker said „If any of these people are caught (by the telephone company) they are liable to be put in jail. I try to warn them and protect them.”

While Tucker felt „we don’t have too much trouble with the boys; we appreciate their curiosity,” he also said that repeated involvement, for instance, caused the expulsion from the Institute of one member of the Class of ’63 one week before his graduation.

Because of the „hacking”, the majority of the MIT phones are „trapped”. They are set up so tie-line calls may not be made. Originally, these tie-lines were open to general use.

Lines Found by Force

While the hackers have resorted to some esoteric methods, many tielines have been found by „brute force techniques” - mass dialing until something „interesting” is found. Another, more urbane method, has been the judicious perusal of telephone directories. To quote one accomplished hacker, „The field is always open to experimentation.”

While stating „We attempt to stop (hacking) because it impairs our relations with the phone company, and hurts the service for the rest of the students,’ Tucker observed that the MIT phone system, serving a community of about 14,000 persons, is as large as that for a small town.

Including Lincoln Laboratories, which accounts for over 50% of costs, the Institute’s phone bill exceeds $1,000,000 each year. This is the third largest bill in New England.

The General Electric Company has the largest phone bill. Raytheon Corporation has the second largest bill in the New England area.

• A The Tech archívuma az 1963-as évre
• Telephone hackers active by Henry Lichstein (PDF)

Hála jár még Gustavo Duartének, aki Shapiro leletét ásta elő pár évvel később. Amerikát bezzeg elég volt egyszer felfedezni.