The Secret History of Hacking

Last updated
The Secret History of Hacking
Directed byRalph Lee
Produced by
Starring
Narrated byQarie Marshall
Music byChris Marshall
Release date
  • 2001 (2001)
Running time
50 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Secret History of Hacking [1] is a 2001 documentary film that focuses on phreaking, computer hacking and social engineering occurring from the 1970s through to the 1990s. Archive footage concerning the subject matter and (computer generated) graphical imagery specifically created for the film are voiced over with narrative audio commentary, intermixed with commentary from people who in one way or another have been closely involved in these matters.

Contents

Film summary

The film starts by reviewing the concept and the early days of phreaking, featuring anecdotes of phreaking experiences (often involving the use of a blue box) recounted by John Draper and Denny Teresi. By way of commentary from Steve Wozniak, the film progresses from phreaking to computer hobbyist hacking (including anecdotal experiences of the Homebrew Computer Club) on to computer security hacking, noting differences between these 2 forms of hacking in the process. The featured computer security hacking and social engineering stories and anecdotes predominantly concern experiences involving Kevin Mitnick. The film also deals with how society's (and notably law enforcement's) fear of hacking has increased over time due to media attention of hacking (by way of the film WarGames as well as journalistic reporting on actual hackers) combined with society's further increase in adoption of and subsequent reliance on computing and communication networks.

Cast

John Draper, Steve Wozniak and Kevin Mitnick are prominently featured while the film additionally features comments from or else archive footage concerning Denny Teresi, Joybubbles, Mike Gorman, Ron Rosenbaum, Steven Levy, Paul Loser, Lee Felsenstein, Jim Warren, John Markoff, Jay Foster, FBI Special Agent Ken McGuire, Jonathan Littman, Michael Strickland and others.

See also

Related Research Articles

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A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term hacker has become associated in popular culture with a security hacker – someone who utilizes their technical know-how of bugs or exploits to break into computer systems and access data which would otherwise be inaccessible to them – hacking can also be utilized by legitimate figures in legal situations. For example, law enforcement agencies sometimes use hacking techniques in order to collect evidence on criminals and other malicious actors. This could include using anonymity tools to mask their identities online, posing as criminals themselves. Likewise, covert world agencies can employ hacking techniques in the legal conduct of their work. On the other hand, hacking and cyber-attacks are used extra- and illegally by law enforcement and security agencies, and employed by state actors as a weapon of both legal and illegal warfare.

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References