What was hacking like in the '80s and '90s? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 3 months ago by hellfire103@lemmy.ca to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I have somehow found myself doing a lighthearted talk on retro hacking this Wednesday. Would anyone here happen to know anything about it?

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[-] PunkRockSportsFan@fanaticus.social 8 points 3 months ago

Phone phreaking was where the fun was. Free phone calls, messing with other people’s boxes and stuff. When it was purely electric phone lines were easy to manipulate.

That and before PayPal credit card processing took weeks.

You could fake a credit card so easy and just get services until they tried to bill it.

The same techniques for social engineering are still the most effective ones.

Computers and systems get smarter.

People actually get dumber.

this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2025

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