EMMA THOMPSONNATALIE SLACK

Phreaks, Hackers & TrollsThe Politics of Transgression

and Spectacle.REMIX

Phreaking is a slang term used which exploits weaknesses in the phone system to make long-distance calls for free, tap into other calls, take control of lines, get free phone services.

Joe Engressia, also known as Joy Bubbles, was blind since birth with perfect pich. In 1957, at the age of eight, he discovered he could “stop” the phone by whistling at a certain pitch, later discovered to be a 2600 hertz tone, into the receiver. Which the eventually the media show cased the “whiz kid” which influenced others into his footstepsBy 1961, phreakers no longer had to rely on perfect pitch to make their way into the phone system. They were using Blue Box. This device was used to replicate the tones used by the telephone switching system to route calls. enabling Blue Box users to act as if they were a telephone operator..

1950–1960s: Freaking and Phreaking.

1970’s - Phreaking.

Phreaking came into the public lime light after a particular article called “secrets of the little blue box” it was an instant hit, because it revealed, in detail, the practices of Phreaking.

John Draper, famously known as "Cap'n Crunch,”. the only link to the sugary cereal was a plastic toy whistle that was once a prize giveaway in each cereal box. In the late sixties, he had discovered that the Cap'n Crunch toy whistle's tone perfectly matched the 2600-hertz long distance trunk telephone signal. This enabled him to make free long distance phone calls around the world.

1980s To Make a Thief, Make an Owner;to Create Crime, Create Laws”—Ursula Le Guin.

By the 1980s, Phreaking growing but was increasingly joined by a growing number of computer enthusiasts, many of them preteens and teens, who extended the politics of transgression into new technological terrains.

1990’s – Hackers, Public enemy number 1 in the US.

Throughout the 1990’s the Hacker underground was thriving, although there was an increasing number of these types of hackers being nabbed and criminally prosecututed.Case Study – Hacker and phone Phreaker Kevin Mitnick

Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s he was arrested and convicted multiple times for various crimes which included computer fraud and possession illegal long-distance access cods.

He was eventually placed on the FBI “Most wanted” list and was part of a three year manhunt until he was arrested in 1995. He was in jail for five years, four of those years were as a pretrial detainee and was placed in solitary confinement for one year. Mitnick explained these extreme circumstances were taken because a federal prosecutor told the judge he could use the phone to connect to North American Aerospace command and launch a ICBM. He never gained anything financially for his hacking and believes his harsh treatment was used to send a message to the wider hacking community. He was released in 2002.

2000-2010, Good Grief! The masses have come to our internet.

In the year 2000 the floodgates opened with cheap Internet connections. Added to this a host of new social media technologies, including blogs, wikis, social networking sites, and video-sharing sites, were being built and used by geeks and nongeeks to post messages, to share pictures, to chatter aimlessly, to throw ephemeral thoughts into the virtual wind, and to post videos and other related Internet memes. Internet memes are viral images, videos, and catchphrases under constant modification by users, and with a propensity to travel as fast as the Internet can move them.

During this time post 9/11 mandated stiff punishments for Cybercrimes. This added to the crackdowns during the 1980’s and 1990’s made a much more reserved hacker underground. Hackers like Kevin Mitnick are an endangered species on cultural landscape of North America and Europe.

Trolls

Trolls have transformed what were more occasional and sporadic acts, often focused on virtual arguments called “flaming or “flame wars, into a full-blown set of cultural norms and set of linguistic practices.

Trolls work to remind the “masses” that have lapped onto the shores of

the Internet that there is still a class of geeks who, as their name suggests,

will cause Internet grief, hell, and misery; examples of trolling are legion.

Griefers, one particular subset of troll, who roam in virtual worlds and games seeking to jam the normal protocols of gaming, might enact a relatively harmless prank, such as programming flying phalluses to pay a public visit in the popular virtual world Second Life during a high-profile CNET interview.

Trolling Examples

Case Study 1. – World of Warcraft

During a virtual funeral held in the enormously popular massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft, for a young player who had passed away in real life, griefers orchestrated a raid and mercilessly killed the unarmed virtual funeral entourage.

Case Study 2. – In the winter of 2007 and 2008, one group of trolls, bearing the name Anonymous, trolled the Church of Scientology after the church attempted to censor an internal video featuring Tom Cruise that had been leaked. Eventually what was simply done for the sake of trolling grew into a more traditional protest movement.

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References

All content taken from –

Mandiberg, M (2012). The Social Media Reader. New York: NYU Press.