Hackers and Computer Security

Before the internet and the attendant problems of internet security, there was another type of hacker. In the early 70´s hackers were "phone phreaks", who found ways to manipulate the phone system. One of the first phreaks was John Draper who figured out how to make a long-distance call for free by blowing a precise tone into a telephone that tells the phone system to open a line. Draper discovered the whistle as a give-away in a box of children´s cereal. Draper, who later earned the handle "Captain Crunch," was arrested repeatedly for phone tampering throughout the 1970s.

Hackers and Computer Security

Some of the leaders of the personal computer industry began as hackers. Two members of California´s Homebrew Computer Club begin making "blue boxes," devices used to compromise the online security of the phone system. The members, who adopted the handles "Berkeley Blue" (Steve Jobs) and "Oak Toebark" (Steve Wozniak), later went on to found Apple Computer.

Hackers and Computer Security

At 25, legendary hacker Kevin Mitnick secretly compromised theinternet security and email security of MCI and Digital Equipment and monitored the email of their security officials. He was convicted of damaging computers and stealing software and was sentenced to one year in prison. Now out of prison, he runs his own computer security consulting company.

Hackers and Computer Security

One reason why the internet security is so vulnerable to hackers and information security problems is because the foundations of the internet were created by scientists who placed a premium on ethical behavior. An early critic of internet security, Cliff Stoll, famously stated that "if we built buildings the way we programmed computers, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization."