Phreaking [related: Trigger Tone]
A hacking term derived from a mash-up of
phone
and
freak.
The expression originated as a colloquialism for the reverse
engineering of long distance phone calls via audio tone generation. The
origins of phone phreaking trace back to the automation of
Ma Bell
switchboards in the 1950's via the
implementation of in-band signaling. The system, developed internally,
included the use of secret or shrouded tones to signal various functions
within the network. For example, a tone of 2600 Hz
1
was used to
trigger the end of a call and the opening of a usable long distance line. Use
of this tone was first discovered and manipulated via precise whistling by
Joybubbles, a blind seven-year old with
perfect pitch from Richmond, Virginia. Following exploitation of its initial
system, Ma Bell developed multi-frequency or MF
2
tones. However a
document detailing the use and production of these new frequencies entitled
the
Bell System Technical Journal
was mistakenly released to the
public by the company in the late 1950's - an incident subsequently blamed on
the burgeoning (but notoriously passive) phreaking community, including
members of the
Masters of Deception. In June of
1972,
Ramparts
magazine
published an article entitled "Regulating the Phone Company in Your Home"
outlining schematics for replicable construction of a "black box" facilitating access to free long distance calling and was subsequently sued
by
Ma Bell, with the covert assistance of the
CIA. Notably, many eventual
Silicon Valley
oligarchs began their careers in
technology as phreakers, including MacIntosh founders Steven Wozniak and Steve
Jobs.
1 Actualized within the AT&T circuitry as sine tone, internally referred to by mathematicians as a rose pattern.
2 Known within the phreaking community as "Marty Freidman" tones - commonly understood as reference to the former Megadeth guitarist of the same name. An outspoken opponent to "shredding", Marty relocated to Tokyo in the late 1990s and subsequently starred as Paul Weinberg, an English language teacher, in Isshin Inudou's Gou-Gou Datte Neko de Aru.
"Shredders are the guys in your friend’s basement who play insanely fast, and it just looks so mind-blowing and amazingly cool with their fingers flying all around the neck, but if you close your eyes and actually listen, what you hear is a pile of shit. It's ego music, akin to masturbation - actually, to wanting someone else to watch you masturbate. It's not a gift of joy, it's like a navel-gazing journey down a dark chasm of nothingness - the siren song of a twisted mind. I prefer the economy, the sculpted beauty and concision of Def Leppard over the phallic fireworks of Steve Via any day of the week. "