Telephone enthusiasts, historians and (reformed) phone phreaks will gather at The Next HOPE hacker conference this Fri-Sun July 16-18 at the Hotel Pennsylvania in NYC.
Ever since the first blue box arrest in 1961, the telephone company, the FBI, and the phone phreaks engaged in a long-running game of cat and mouse. This talk explores the moves and countermoves between the two sides from 1960 to 1980, covering advances in phreaking - new ways to hack the phone system and evade detection - as well as advances in finding and prosecuting those pesky phone phreaks. Based on exclusive interviews with phreaks, FBI agents, and telephone company security officers for his forthcoming book on the history of phone phreaking, Phil will focus on some of the more dramatic battles between the two sides that occurred during the heyday of analog phone phreaking, including the 1962 Harvard "spy ring", a certain well-known phone phreak's wiretapping of the FBI in 1975 (yes, you read that right), and the hacking of the military's AUTOVON telephone network in the mid-1970s.
Phil Lapsley has spent the last several years documenting the history of phone phreaking, through hundreds of interviews and Freedom of Information Act requests. He has been interviewed by National Public Radio and the BBC and quoted in multiple newspapers, including The New York Times, on the topic. He has also presented on phone phreaking history at the 10th Annual Vintage Computer Festival and The Last HOPE. When not researching phreaking, Phil has tried to act like an upstanding member of society. He cofounded two high technology companies in the San Francisco Bay Area and worked for McKinsey and Company, a management consulting company that advises Fortune 100 companies on business strategy. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering and computer sciences from U.C. Berkeley and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He codeveloped Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP, RFC 977) used in the USENET news system. He is also the author of one textbook, 17 patents, and numerous technical articles.
The Telephone Pioneers of America
The Telephone Pioneers of America is an organization of mostly retired employees of the Bell System and affiliated companies. They remain active in the community as an organization that promotes their history and industry. You can find them in many communities across the nation, often in the very cities and neighborhoods they spent their careers working in. The pioneers have amassed lifetimes of wisdom working on the telephone system and intimately understand the technology and politics of it. The telephone company will never be what it was when they were employed there and they know that the next generation of pioneers may not ever actually work for "the company" as they did. Using photographs, recordings, and artifacts, this unique treasure will become accessible to members of the audience, especially younger individuals who may not ever have used what is now vintage telephone equipment - like rotary dial phones. There will be a selection of functional and historically significant equipment for attendees to learn about and enjoy thoroughly. This talk is intended to help bridge the gap between hacker and pioneer.
Kyle Drosdick is an independent publisher, consultant, and photographer. He volunteers with organizations he is interested in, like The Telephone Pioneers of America, The Photographic Center, Lance Armstrong Foundation, HackerBot Labs, and, more recently, Sensible Washington. The Telephone Pioneers are an example of how that work impacts and supports his thriving adult learning process.
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