Topic Guide
What Is Bbss?
Bbss is a subject covered in depth across 1 podcast episode in our database. Below you'll find key concepts, expert insights, and the top episodes to listen to — all distilled from hours of conversation by leading experts.
Key Concepts in Bbss
Hacker manifesto
A legendary text written by Loyd Blankenship (The Mentor) in 1986, it outlines hacking as an act of profound curiosity, a quest for knowledge, and a challenge to the perceived profiteering and secrecy of large corporations like telephone companies. This episode presents it as a core philosophical statement of early hacker culture.
Phreaking
A portmanteau of "phone" and "freak," phreaking refers to the manipulation and exploration of the telephone system. The episode highlights its popularization by Esquire Magazine in 1971 and its role as a precursor to computer hacking, driven by a desire to understand and subvert communication networks.
War dialing
A technique involving systematically dialing a range of phone numbers to identify active modems or computers on the other end. Early hackers like Paul Stira used this method to discover hidden computer systems within the vast telephone network, emphasizing the era's lack of central directories or search engines.
Bbs (bulletin board system)
In the 1980s, a BBS was a computer system running software that allowed users to connect via modem to exchange messages, download files, and share information. This episode portrays BBSs as crucial early online communities and distribution platforms for "text files" like Phrack Magazine, fostering hacker culture before the widespread internet.
Trashing
The practice of rummaging through discarded materials (like dumpsters) behind corporate offices, particularly telephone companies, to find valuable information such as manuals, phone numbers, or system configurations. Legion of Doom members used trashing to gather intelligence, embodying their belief in liberating knowledge that corporations sought to guard.
Computer fraud and abuse act (cfaa)
A landmark 1986 US federal law that criminalized unauthorized access to computer systems, particularly the clause "exceeding authorized access." The episode critically examines the CFAA's broad and vague language, arguing it effectively criminalizes many common online behaviors (like violating terms of service) and grants excessive prosecutorial power.
What Experts Say About Bbss
- 1.Loyd Blankenship (The Mentor) penned his legendary "Hacker Manifesto" in 1986, articulating hacking as an act of curiosity and a challenge to corporate control.
- 2.The 1971 Esquire Magazine article, featuring the inventor of the "blue box," was instrumental in popularizing phreaking and inspiring early tech pioneers like Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs to build and sell blue boxes.
- 3.Ramparts magazine was famously raided by police in 1972 after publishing an article detailing how to build a "mute box" for making free long-distance calls, leading to its eventual shutdown.
- 4.Early phone hackers like Paul Stira engaged in "war dialing" to discover phone company computers and gained control of systems like the New York Telephone Company's Switching Control Center System to manipulate call features.
- 5.Phrack Magazine, launched in 1985 as a text-based e-zine distributed on BBSs, became a central repository for technical hacking information and counter-culture content, ranging from lock-picking to bomb-making tutorials.
- 6.The Legion of Doom (LoD), formed in 1984, was a highly respected hacker group known for publishing detailed technical journals derived from "trashing" phone company dumpsters, advocating for the free flow of knowledge while largely eschewing system destruction.