The Offline Beginnings of Online Hacking

Ever wondered how the history of hacking culture started? Needless to say, the ethos that ‘nothing should be off limits’ has been around for years, so understanding the progression is certainly an interesting topic.

Roof and tunnel hacking in 1957 was a time for simply exploring off-limit areas on the MIT campus, but this was just the start. Advancements in technology can only mean one thing: there are more systems to hack! In 1971, early forms of ‘spoofing’ was discovered when Joe Engressia whistled down a phone in a very specific tone and was granted free long distance calls. Nice find, eh?

The culture of hacking gained a notoriously popular sport around 2007 when Parkour or ‘free running’ was invented. This subculture made all areas of public and private domain into a playground. Although dangerous and highly risky, this was a revolutionised way of thinking and inspired by old hacks.

In the future we can only guess how hacking culture will develop, but as the modern world becomes increasingly innovative and technology based, there are all sorts of flaws to detect so don’t expect hacking to stop anytime soon.

The infographic is by James Duval.