In the early 70s computers were limited to large,
expensive timesharing mainframe and Unix systems owned by universities, large
corporations, and government agencies. In 1975 Ed Roberts released the first
microcomputer for sale to the public – the MITS Altair 8080. No keyboard, no
screen – just a box with toggle switches for programming and LED lights to show
the output of the program. He sold 2,000 of the systems the first year. The
following year, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak released the Apple I. Again, no
keyboard or screen. By the end of 1976 computing enthusiasts had purchased
40,000 microcomputers.[1]
In 1977, the Apple II, the Tandy TRS-80 (I cut my teeth programming on this
model), and the Commodore PET brought visual displays and keyboards to the
market. People purchased 150,000 of these systems.[2]
Computer communications were pretty limited. The
government, military, and a few universities had ARPA net and X25 networks. The
public was limited to modem-based computer-to-computer phone calls, which was
fine for dialing computers in your area, but a bit of a problem for those a
long distance call away. The killer app for computer communications was
Bulletin Board System software, which first came to public life, courtesy of
Randy Seuss, during a snowstorm in February 1978. This development connected computer
enthusiasts across the U.S. in an electronic underground where they could
publish ideas and communicate within their own realm on their own terms. From
this technology the computer hacker underground took root.
While it took some time for microcomputers to take hold,
the phone system was already built out and available. A large community of
phone system fanatics – ‘phone phreaks’ – learned how to control the switching
system of the predominant phone switching system in use at the time, largely in
thanks to serious security flaws in the system and the publication of the
details of the internal switching system in the November 1954 issue of the Bell
Labs Technical Journal.
Motives and Crimes
The primary motives behind the computer crimes of the 60s and
70s were desire for system access, curiosity, and the sense of power attained
from defeating security. The phone system was the first and favorite computer
system targeted. The attraction to the phone system for the pioneers of phone
phreaking was not free calls, but the desire to learn the system, the desire to
beat the system, and the desire to control the system. John Draper, the father
of phone phreaking, when asked about the techniques he developed for gaining
operator access to phone systems, published in the October 1971 issue of
Esquire Magazine, stated his motive behind unauthorized system access.
From Secrets of the Little Blue
Box by Ron Rosenbaum, Esquire Magazine (October 1971)
The pioneers of ‘phone phreaking’ mastered the techniques
for controlling the phone system and codified it in what is now called a
‘little blue box’. The box, commonly twice the size of a cigarette case, had
buttons on the front that emitted tones. These tones could be used, if emitted
at the right time and in the right sequence during a call would yield operator
access to the phone system. The benefit, of course, was free calls to anywhere
in the world.
Computers weren’t left alone. The first edition of
Creative Computing magazine, published in 1976, had an article titled “Is
Breaking Into A Timesharing System A Crime?”[3]
Besides the intellectual challenge of breaking in to
systems, people were also motivated to break in to systems simply to gain
access. In the 60s and early 70s time on the university-owned computer systems
was limited. Students who wanted more time developed the first password
crackers and trojan software in order to get the access they wanted.
With the introduction of microcomputers and Bulletin Board
Systems in the mid to late 70s people wanted to connect to other computer
systems. To foot the bill for the long-distance calls many resorted to stealing
long distance access codes – wire fraud. Again, the primary motive to steal the
access codes was not for profit, but curiosity – to connect and learn.