Hacking
A brief history of hacking...
bsd 4.11> █
zuley clarke / james clawson / maria cordell
november 2003
LCC 6316: Historical Approaches to Digital Media
table of contents the evolution of hacking .................................................................................
1
the drive to hack ............................................................................................
2
cultural infiltration ...........................................................................................
4
event timeline .............................................................................................
6
bibliography ...................................................................................................
8
LCC 6316: Historical Approaches to Digital Media
the evolution of hacking
Though it wasn’t yet called “hacking,” the earliest known incidents of modern technological mischief date from 1878 and the early days of the Bell Telephone Company. Teenage boys hired by Bell as switchboard operators intentionally misdirected and disconnected telephone calls, eavesdropped on conversations, and played a variety of other pranks on unsuspecting customers (Slatalla 1).1 first hacks
The first bona fide appearance of a computer hacker occurs nearly 100 years later, in the
1960s. A “hack” has always been a kind of shortcut or modification—a way to bypass or rework the standard operation of an object or system. The term originated with model train enthusiasts at MIT who hacked their train sets in order to modify how they worked. Several of these same model train hackers later applied their curiosity and resourcefulness to the then new computer systems being deployed on the campus (CNN 1). These and other early computer hackers were devout programming enthusiasts, experts primarily interested in modifying programs to optimize them, customize them for specific applications, or just for the fun of
bsd 4.11> █
zuley clarke / james clawson / maria cordell
november 2003
LCC 6316: Historical Approaches to Digital Media
table of contents the evolution of hacking .................................................................................
1
the drive to hack ............................................................................................
2
cultural infiltration ...........................................................................................
4
event timeline .............................................................................................
6
bibliography ...................................................................................................
8
LCC 6316: Historical Approaches to Digital Media
the evolution of hacking
Though it wasn’t yet called “hacking,” the earliest known incidents of modern technological mischief date from 1878 and the early days of the Bell Telephone Company. Teenage boys hired by Bell as switchboard operators intentionally misdirected and disconnected telephone calls, eavesdropped on conversations, and played a variety of other pranks on unsuspecting customers (Slatalla 1).1 first hacks
The first bona fide appearance of a computer hacker occurs nearly 100 years later, in the
1960s. A “hack” has always been a kind of shortcut or modification—a way to bypass or rework the standard operation of an object or system. The term originated with model train enthusiasts at MIT who hacked their train sets in order to modify how they worked. Several of these same model train hackers later applied their curiosity and resourcefulness to the then new computer systems being deployed on the campus (CNN 1). These and other early computer hackers were devout programming enthusiasts, experts primarily interested in modifying programs to optimize them, customize them for specific applications, or just for the fun of