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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>phreaking</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../P.html" title="P"/><link rel="previous" href="phreaker.html" title="phreaker"/><link rel="next" href="pico-.html" title="pico-"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">phreaking</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="phreaker.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">P</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="pico-.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="phreaking"/><dt xmlns="" id="phreaking"><b>phreaking</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/freek´ing/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [from &#8216;phone phreak&#8217;] </p></dd><dd><p> 1. The art and science of <a href="../C/cracking.html"><i class="glossterm">cracking</i></a> the phone
network (so as, for example, to make free long-distance calls). </p></dd><dd><p> 2. By extension, security-cracking in any other context (especially,
but not exclusively, on communications networks) (see
<a href="../C/cracking.html"><i class="glossterm">cracking</i></a>).</p></dd><dd><p>At one time phreaking was a semi-respectable activity among hackers;
there was a gentleman's agreement that phreaking as an intellectual game
and a form of exploration was OK, but serious theft of services was taboo.
There was significant crossover between the hacker community and the
hard-core phone phreaks who ran semi-underground networks of their own
through such media as the legendary <i class="citetitle">TAP Newsletter</i>.
This ethos began to break down in the mid-1980s as wider dissemination of
the techniques put them in the hands of less responsible phreaks. Around
the same time, changes in the phone network made old-style technical
ingenuity less effective as a way of hacking it, so phreaking came to
depend more on overtly criminal acts such as stealing phone-card numbers.
The crimes and punishments of gangs like the &#8216;414 group&#8217; turned
that game very ugly. A few old-time hackers still phreak casually just to
keep their hand in, but most these days have hardly even heard of
&#8216;blue boxes&#8217; or any of the other paraphernalia of the great
phreaks of yore.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="phreaker.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../P.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="pico-.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">phreaker </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> pico-</td></tr></table></div></body></html>