I was involved in this "scene" in the late 80s/early 90s. If I were the same age I was then today, I doubt very much I'd have gone down the same route because of how much the world has changed.
Back then I was using a Commodore 64 hooked up to a tv with a modem (starting at 300 baud and moving up from there); hacking (in the phrack sense) and "phreaking" allowed me to access a much wider world of information and computer resources than I otherwise would have had. Access to "real" computers that can run C compilers! Access to instant communications with people around the world!
These days this sort of thing is no big deal; you can buy a veritable super computer for less than a hundred bucks and run a free OS on it with a full developer ecosystem, worldwide calling is essentially free, the modern Internet gives you access to more free information than anyone could possible consume. But back then, as a 12-18 year old (without parents who worked in CompSci academia or such) all of that was unattainable by legal means, thus the hacking.
The "groups" for me were a secondary thing and a means to share knowledge (again, prior to the web and easy access to ridiculous amounts of information) and they aren't really needed anymore for my personal use case (though I'm not suggesting mine is the only use case, I know a lot of people who were certainly more into it for the social aspects, which still exist today).
I think this is one of the more important points. Most of what we were doing back then is now easily done by everyone.
We dropped trunks to get free conference lines so we could all be on the phone together. We scammed the phone companies for free long distance to talk to each other. We had private BBSs. All of that has been suplanted with every day tech and done better.
We cracked programs because we were young and couldn't afford software. You had to know someone, be in the scene, to get access to that stuff. Now there are thousands of websites.
All the really postive stuff is out there for everyone. It's the dark hacking that is thriving and I am not surprised it is not out in the open. But I am certain it is there... they just don't want the publicity. We used to do it for the thrill... they do it for the cash.
Although hacktivism is new. We were to busy trying to figure out how it worked to make any real statements.
> The "groups" for me were a secondary thing and a means to share knowledge
I think this is the key point. For those that grew up with computers before modems became popular in early 90's, your best option to have access to information was to meet folks with similar interests and find your nearest computer club.
I remember Phrack from those early days, with the editions being passed in 5 1/4 diskettes. Nice to see that it is still alive.
Comments
I was involved in this "scene" in the late 80s/early 90s. If I were the same age I was then today, I doubt very much I'd have gone down the same route because of how much the world has changed.
Back then I was using a Commodore 64 hooked up to a tv with a modem (starting at 300 baud and moving up from there); hacking (in the phrack sense) and "phreaking" allowed me to access a much wider world of information and computer resources than I otherwise would have had. Access to "real" computers that can run C compilers! Access to instant communications with people around the world!
These days this sort of thing is no big deal; you can buy a veritable super computer for less than a hundred bucks and run a free OS on it with a full developer ecosystem, worldwide calling is essentially free, the modern Internet gives you access to more free information than anyone could possible consume. But back then, as a 12-18 year old (without parents who worked in CompSci academia or such) all of that was unattainable by legal means, thus the hacking.
The "groups" for me were a secondary thing and a means to share knowledge (again, prior to the web and easy access to ridiculous amounts of information) and they aren't really needed anymore for my personal use case (though I'm not suggesting mine is the only use case, I know a lot of people who were certainly more into it for the social aspects, which still exist today).
I think this is one of the more important points. Most of what we were doing back then is now easily done by everyone.
We dropped trunks to get free conference lines so we could all be on the phone together. We scammed the phone companies for free long distance to talk to each other. We had private BBSs. All of that has been suplanted with every day tech and done better.
We cracked programs because we were young and couldn't afford software. You had to know someone, be in the scene, to get access to that stuff. Now there are thousands of websites.
All the really postive stuff is out there for everyone. It's the dark hacking that is thriving and I am not surprised it is not out in the open. But I am certain it is there... they just don't want the publicity. We used to do it for the thrill... they do it for the cash.
Although hacktivism is new. We were to busy trying to figure out how it worked to make any real statements.
> The "groups" for me were a secondary thing and a means to share knowledge
I think this is the key point. For those that grew up with computers before modems became popular in early 90's, your best option to have access to information was to meet folks with similar interests and find your nearest computer club.
I remember Phrack from those early days, with the editions being passed in 5 1/4 diskettes. Nice to see that it is still alive.