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Phreaks
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Biella Coleman explores the earliest hacking subculture - Phone Phreaks.
Biella explores the earliest hacking subculture - The Phone Phreaks - an entire subculture that learned to manipulate the phone system with plastic whistles and tone generating blue boxes, and played a part in birthing the modern digital world. She talks with Phil Lapsley, author of βExploding the Phoneβ and a UK hacker who was one of the last generation of traditional phone phreaks about the joy and the risks of the earliest type of hacking.
Last on
Mon 13 Dec 2021
13:45
ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
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Phil Lapsley
Phil Lapsley has spent the last several years documenting the history of phone phreaking through hundreds of interviews, document searches, and Freedom of Information Act requests. He has been interviewed by National Public Radio, Radio Lab, the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ and quoted in multiple newspapers, including the New York Times, on the topic. He has also presented on phone phreaking history at the Vintage Computer Festival and at The Last HOPE, The Next HOPE, and HOPE #9 conferences.
He tells us about the history of phone phreaks, and explains how a rich, edgy subculture was able to blossom in the hidden corners of the phone network.
He tells us about the history of phone phreaks, and explains how a rich, edgy subculture was able to blossom in the hidden corners of the phone network.
Belial
Belial is a British hacker and phone phreak, who tells us about what phreaks in the UK were able to do in the late 1990s and 2000s.
Broadcast
- Mon 13 Dec 2021 13:45ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
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The Hackers
Gabriella Coleman investigates one of the most misunderstood cultures of the modern world.
