PC Industry: Phreaking
Previous one: Before
It might be unknown to most, but hacking isn’t technically a bad thing. In fact, it was hacking that truly started the personal computer market. To this day, one of the most famous, and thought to be the best hacker of all time by some, remains to be Steve Wozniak. Steve, or Woz, is the co-founder of Apple, Inc.
It was 1971 and at the time, Steve Woz did not realize the future he was going to lead, as he picked up his mother’s Esquire magazine from the kitchen table. He rarely had any interest in it, but thought to look through it this very day. How lucky he was, to discover an article with the title, “Secrets of the Little Blue Box”. This article would send Woz into a world on the other side of the law, something that had begun earlier that year by a cereal brand and a person by the name of John Draper.
John Draper, a vietnam war veteran , was called on the telephone by his friend, Denny Teresi. Teresi wanted to show Draper a new world known as phone phreaking. The origin of phone phreaking is unknown, however it appears to have started in the 1950s or 60s. Phreaking was a way to hack into the phone network and make free calls. It was also used as a prank to disconnect calls at phone booths.
At the time of phreaking, the phone system used very basic means of sending commands to the network. Everything was controlled by a tone with a specific frequency. It so happened that a tone with a frequency of 2600hz, was used internally to tell the network that a phone call was over. This could be manipulated as a prank, or to get free calls including long distance.
Josef Engressia, another phone phreak, had a special gift with sounds, he could perform a perfect tone at the exact pitch he wanted while whistling. He discovered at age 7 by accident, that whistling with a specific frequency could activate phone switches. He later used this to hack into phone lines.
Denny Teresi had called John Draper because he was shown a new way to phone phreak by Engressia. Engressia had discovered that a whistle that came in Cap’n Crunch cereal boxes so happened to make the exact frequency of 2600hz.
From this day forward, John Draper was a phone phreak. He was given the nickname, Captain Crunch.
The trend of phone phreaking was growing, and Caption Crunch became the mascot of this hidden world. Phone companies started finding better ways to protect their networks using multi-tones and more frequencies. This is where Draper came in with his engineering skills. He created a device known as a Blue Box. This could hack into the more sophisticated networks.
Phone phreaking was getting even more popular after this. Conventions started being held. It was becoming harder to manage and control. Finally, it would be hit hard by complete media coverage done by Ron Rosenbaum. Rosenbaum tracked down Denny and Josef, but he could not find John Draper. The phone phreaks Rosenbaum interviewed, spilled everything. Draper, aka Captain Crunch, called up Rosenbaum asking him not to publish the article.
In 1971, Rosenbaum’s article on phone phreaking was published, entitled: “Secrets of the Little Blue Box”. After reading the article, Draper knew phone phreaking was over. Everything was in it.
“I read it to Denny over the phone, the whole thing. And everyone got on a conference call, one of the last conference calls we had, and I read the article to everybody that couldn’t read it. I said, you guys really screwed up, you guys shouldn’t have met with this guy and given this guy all this information.” - John Draper.
Everyone started phone phreaking. The police and FBI started to get evolved, making Blue Boxes illegal. Possession of a Blue Box could send you to jail for up to 2 years.
The article might have ruined phone phreaking, but it helped a new cause. Steve Wozniak was blown away by the article, so much so that he began work on his own Blue Box. He couldn’t get all the tones at the correct frequency, so he started looking for Caption Crunch. Draper was keeping a low profile due to the attention of the article so it was quite hard to locate him. Eventually Woz discovered that Caption Crunch was John Draper, who made an occasional appears on a radio station. Woz called up the radio station asking for Draper, they told Woz that Draper had disappeared. However, 10 minutes later the phone rang, Woz picked it up to discover that Draper had called him.
Draper went up to Berkley to meet with Woz to help him with the Blue Box. They got it working and started making calls. A few weeks later, Wozniak’s car broke down on the road. Steve Jobs was with him at the time. Steve used Woz’s Blue Box to try and call their friends at Berkeley to pick them up. A few minutes later the cops showed up, called by the telephone company, wondering what Jobs and Woz were up to. They asked for the Blue Box, lucky not knowing what it was. Woz tried to play it off as an audio synthesizer. Somehow, this worked, and the cops let them go. But not everyone was lucky as more and more people were busted for having a Blue Box.
“The LA people got busted, the Seattle people got busted, New York people got busted. They came in with grand jury investigations. And of course everyone that got busted had my number and I was made the kingpin because of that article…” ….”It was just that one unlucky time I had [my Blue Box]. I get out of the car and three cars went one in front of my car, one in the back of my car, two in the side of the car. And FBI agents grabbed me right there.” - John Draper.
Draper served 4 months in jail.
Woz continued to use his Blue Box, even to call the pope on behalf of president Nixon (as a prank). Steve Jobs, always finding a way to make a few bucks, came up with an idea one day. He asked Woz about selling Blue Boxes to other people. Woz agreed, even though he considered himself an ethnical phone phreak. Jobs and Woz had created a system of going around the Berkeley campus knocking on doors and selling Blue Boxes. They did a little skit first to make sure the person was cool and was not going to turn them in for selling illegal products.
Eventually the selling of Blue Boxes ended at a pizza parlor when Jobs and Woz tried to make a phone call. Three guys noticed the Blue Box and were quite interested in it, though they had no money to buy it from them. A few minutes later, Jobs and Woz came out of the parlor and into Jobs’ car. One of the three guys, who were interested in the Blue Box, walked up to the driver side window pointing a gun at Jobs. He asked for the Blue Box and Jobs nervously handed it over.
This was the end of the first money making venture between Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, but it wasn’t the last.