-dates the computer network, the scofflaws
known as "phone phreaks" pre-date the scofflaws known as "computer
hackers." In practice, today, the line between "phreaking" and
"hacking" is very blurred, just as the distinction between telephones
and computers has blurred. The phone system has been digitized, and
computers have learned to "talk" over phone-lines. What's worse--and
this was the point of the Mr. Jenkins of the Secret Service--some
hackers have learned to steal, and some thieves have learned to hack.

Despite the blurring, one can still draw a few useful behavioral
distinctions between "phreaks" and "hackers." Hackers are intensely
interested in the "system" per se, and enjoy relating to machines.
"Phreaks" are more social, manipulating the system in a rough-and-ready
fashion in order to get through to other human beings, fast, cheap and
under the table.

Phone phreaks love nothing so much as "bridges," illegal conference
calls of ten or twelve chatting conspirators, seaboard to seaboard,
lasting for many hours--and running, of course, on somebody else's
tab, preferably a large corporation's.

As phone-phreak conferences wear on, people drop out (or simply leave
the phone off the hook, while they sashay off to work or school or
babysitting), and new people are phoned up and invited to join in, from
some other continent, if possible. Technical trivia, boasts, brags,
lies, head-trip deceptions, weird rumors, and cruel gossip are all
freely exchanged.

The lowest rung of phone-phreaking is the theft of telephone access
codes. Charging a phone call to somebody else's stolen number is, of
course, a pig-easy way of stealing phone service, requiring practically
no technical expertise. This practice has been very widespread,
especially among lonely people without much money who are far from
home. Code theft has flourished especially in college dorms, military
bases, and, notoriously, among roadies for rock bands. Of late, code
theft has spread very rapidly among Third Worlders in the US, who pile
up enormous unpaid long-distance bills to the Caribbean, South America,
and Pakistan.

The simplest way to steal phone-codes is simply to look over a victim's
shoulder as he punches-in his own code-number on a public payphone.
This technique is known as "shoulder-surfing," and is especially common
in airports, bus terminals, and train stations. The code is then sold
by the thief for a few dollars. The buyer ab