Topic Guide
What Is Masters of deception?
Masters of deception 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 Masters of deception
Dialed number recorder (dnr)
A device used by phone companies in the 1980s, akin to an answering machine, that recorded metadata such as which numbers connected to which and for how long. The episode highlights its use by New York Telephone Company security without requiring a court order, unlike police wiretaps, to monitor customer activity (01:00).
Dial hub
A newly invented remote access point in the New York telephone network in 1988, allowing employees to log in from home. It was a significant vulnerability when hackers like 'the technician' (Mark aka Fiber Optic) obtained login tokens, granting them unauthorized access to the entire network (03:02).
The well (whole earth 'lectronic link)
An early online community (BBS) founded by Stuart Brand, stemming from the ethos of the Whole Earth Catalog. It became a significant hub for cultural exchange, tech discussions, counterculture movements, and attracted diverse users including journalists, artists, and hackers, fostering early internet culture (07:06).
Operation sundevil
A massive, coordinated nationwide crackdown by the US Secret Service in 1990, targeting hackers across 14 cities. It resulted in numerous search warrants and arrests, marking a significant escalation in government efforts to combat perceived computer fraud (49:47).
Timenet
An international communication network that predated the modern internet, primarily serving government agencies and large corporations needing robust global communication. The episode describes how a 'back door' to TimeNet's supervisor-level computer granted hackers unparalleled access to vast parts of the interconnected digital world (29:29).
Computer fraud and abuse act (cfaa)
A federal law passed in the US that was broadly interpreted and aggressively applied by law enforcement during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The EFF and many hackers argued it criminalized curiosity and exploration, leading to an end of what was considered the "golden age" of hacking by turning benign digital exploration into serious crime (55:54, 64:07).
What Experts Say About Masters of deception
- 1.Mark, aka Fiber Optic, was identified as potentially the most skilled phone system hacker in America, or even the world, by the late 1980s (05:03).
- 2.The Whole Earth Catalog and its associated online community, The Well, were instrumental in fostering early internet culture, open dialogue, and serving as a hub for diverse groups, including hackers (07:06).
- 3.The Masters of Deception (MOD) gained supervisor-level access to TimeNet, an international communication network, which allowed them to access military secrets, credit reports, and essentially any connected network (29:29).
- 4.John Perry Barlo, a Grateful Dead lyricist, co-founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) with Mitch Kapor and Steve Wozniak in response to government overreach and misinterpretation of early cyber activities (51:48).
- 5.Operation Sundevil was a large-scale Secret Service crackdown in 1990, involving raids across 14 cities, but often resulted in arrests without substantial evidence of severe computer crimes (49:47).
- 6.The 1990 AT&T network outage, which triggered extensive hacker investigations, was ultimately revealed to be caused by a bug in AT&T's own software, not external hacking (61:01).