2600: The Hacker Quarterly

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2600: The Hacker Quarterly
2600 Spring 2012.gif
Spring 2012 issue of 2600
EditorEmmanuel Goldstein (Eric Gordon Corley)
Categories Computers, technology
FrequencyQuarterly
Publisher2600 Enterprises Inc.
Total circulation
(2009)
52,250
Founded1984
CountryUnited States
Based in Middle Island, New York
LanguageEnglish
Website 2600.com
ISSN 0749-3851

2600: The Hacker Quarterly is an American seasonal publication of technical information and articles, many of which are written and submitted by the readership, on a variety of subjects including hacking, telephone switching systems, Internet protocols and services, as well as general news concerning the computer "underground."

Contents

With origins in the phone phreaking community and late 20th-century counterculture, 2600 and its associated conference transitioned to coverage of modern hacker culture, and the magazine has become a platform for speaking out against increased digital surveillance and advocacy of personal and digital freedoms. [1] [2]

Publication history

The magazine's name comes from the phreaker discovery in the 1960s that the transmission of a 2600 hertz tone which could be produced perfectly with a plastic toy whistle given away free with Cap'n Crunch cereal, discovered by friends of John Draper over a long-distance trunk connection gained access to "operator mode," and allowed the user to explore aspects of the telephone system that were not otherwise accessible. [1] The magazine was given its name by David Ruderman, who co-founded the magazine with his college friend, Eric Corley. [3] Ruderman ended his direct involvement with the magazine three years later.[ citation needed ]

The magazine traces its origins to early Bulletin Board Systems as a place for hackers to share information and stories with each other. It was launched in January 1984, [2] [4] [5] coinciding with the book of the same name and the break-up of AT&T. It is published and edited by its co-founder Emmanuel Goldstein (a pen name of Corley which is an allusion to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four ) and his company 2600 Enterprises, Inc. [6] 2600 is released on the first Friday of the month following a season change, usually January, April, July, and October.[ citation needed ]

Goldstein has published a compilation of articles from the magazine entitled The Best of 2600: A Hacker Odyssey. The book, an 888-page hardcover, has been available from July 28, 2008, in the US and August 8, 2008, in the UK and is published by Wiley. [7]

"Hacker" term

In the usage of 2600 and affiliates, the often loaded term "hacking" refers to grey hat hacking, which is generally understood to be any sort of technological utilization or manipulation of technology which goes above and beyond the capabilities inherent to the design of a given application. This usage attempts to maintain neutrality, as opposed to the politically charged and often contentious terms white hat hacking (which some consider hacking motivated exclusively by good, benevolent intentions—such as hardware modding or penetration testing), and black hat hacking which some consider to be hacking motivated exclusively by malicious or selfish intentions, such as electronic theft, vandalism, hijacking of websites, and other types of cybercrime. [1] [8] [9] ) Other hackers believe that hat-color labels are an oversimplification and unnecessary designation, best suited for use by the media, and suggest that people who use hacking to commit crimes already have a label, that of criminal .

Conferences and meetings

The 2600 van, a modified New York Telephone vehicle 2600 van.jpg
The 2600 van, a modified New York Telephone vehicle

2600 established the H.O.P.E. (Hackers on Planet Earth) conference in 1994, marking the publication's tenth anniversary. The conference is held at the Hotel Pennsylvania, in Manhattan, New York City, and has occurred every two years with the exception of the second HOPE in 1997, held at the Puck Building in Manhattan. The convention features events such as presentations, talks, concerts, and workshops. Speakers have included computer security figures and hackers such as Kevin Mitnick, Steven Levy, Richard Stallman, and Steve Wozniak, as well as whistleblowers William Binney, Daniel Ellsberg, and Edward Snowden, and countercultural figures like Jello Biafra and The Yes Men.[ citation needed ]

There are monthly meetings in over 24 countries. The meetings are listed in the back of the magazine, and are advertised as being open to anyone regardless of age or level of expertise.[ citation needed ]

In other media

2600 Films produced a feature-length documentary about famed hacker Kevin Mitnick, the Free Kevin movement and the hacker world, entitled Freedom Downtime , and is currently working on one titled Speakers' World. [10]

Corley is also host of Off The Wall and Off the Hook , two New York talk radio shows. Both shows can be downloaded or streamed via the 2600 site, and are also broadcast on various radio stations:

In the 1995 movie Hackers, a character named Emmanuel Goldstein, also known as "Cereal Killer", was portrayed by Matthew Lillard.

Court cases

2600 has been involved in many court cases related to technology and freedom of speech alongside the Electronic Frontier Foundation, perhaps most significantly Universal v. Reimerdes involving the distribution of DVD copy protection tool DeCSS, where courts upheld the constitutionality of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act anti-circumvention provisions. [11]

The magazine itself received a copyright claim for the ink spatter stock image featured on the Spring 2012 issue from Trunk Archive, an image licensing agency, using an automated image tracking toolkit. While Trunk Archive identified its own image that featured the ink spatter as the source, it was discovered that the original ink spatter was created by the Finnish artist Jukka Korhonen, [12] on DeviantArt, who had released it into the public domain. [13] Trunk Archive later retracted the claim and sent a letter to 2600 apologizing for the mistake. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Corley</span>

Eric Gordon Corley, also frequently referred to by his pen name of Emmanuel Goldstein, is a figure in the hacker community. He directs the non-profit organization 2600 Enterprises, Inc., publishes a magazine called 2600: The Hacker Quarterly, and hosts the hacker convention Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE). His pseudonym is derived from the fictional opposition leader in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Mitnick</span> American hacker (1963–2023)

Kevin David Mitnick was an American computer security consultant, author, and convicted hacker. He is best known for his high-profile 1995 arrest and five years in prison for various computer and communications-related crimes. Mitnick's pursuit, arrest, trial, and sentence along with the associated journalism, books, and films were all controversial. After his release from prison, he ran his own security firm, Mitnick Security Consulting, LLC, and was also involved with other computer security businesses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue box</span> Device for hacking telephone networks

A blue box is an electronic device that produces tones used to generate the in-band signaling tones formerly used within the North American long-distance telephone network to send line status and called number information over voice circuits. This allowed an illicit user, referred to as a "phreaker", to place long-distance calls, without using the network's user facilities, that would be billed to another number or dismissed entirely as an incomplete call. A number of similar "color boxes" were also created to control other aspects of the phone network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Markoff</span> American journalist

John Gregory Markoff is a journalist best known for his work covering technology at The New York Times for 28 years until his retirement in 2016, and a book and series of articles about the 1990s pursuit and capture of hacker Kevin Mitnick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hackers on Planet Earth</span> Conference series

The Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) conference series is a hacker convention sponsored by the security hacker magazine 2600: The Hacker Quarterly that until 2020 was typically held at Hotel Pennsylvania, in Manhattan, New York City.

Freedom Downtime is a 2001 documentary film sympathetic to the convicted computer hacker Kevin Mitnick, directed by Emmanuel Goldstein and produced by 2600 Films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Abene</span> American InfoSec expert and former hacker

Mark Abene is an American information security expert and entrepreneur, originally from New York City. Better known by his pseudonym Phiber Optik, he was once a member of the hacker groups Legion of Doom and Masters of Deception.

A black hat is a computer hacker who violates laws or ethical standards for nefarious purposes, such as cybercrime, cyberwarfare, or malice. These acts can range from piracy to identify theft. A Black hat is often referred to as a "cracker".

<i>Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Corley</i> American legal case

Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Corley, 273 F.3d 429, was a court ruling at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The ruling was the first significant test of the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

2600 hertz (2600 Hz) is a frequency in hertz that was used in telecommunication signaling in mid-20th century long-distance telephone networks using carrier systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lazlow Jones</span> American writer and voice actor

Jeffrey Crawford "Lazlow" Jones is an American writer, producer, director, voice actor, and radio personality. He is best known for his work with Rockstar Games, with which he has worked on the Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, and Red Dead Redemption series and for his radio shows Technofile and The Lazlow Show.

<i>Off the Hook</i> (radio program)

Off the Hook is a hacker-oriented weekly talk radio program, hosted by Emmanuel Goldstein, which focuses on the societal ramifications of information technology and the laws that regulate how people use them. It airs Wednesday nights at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time in New York City on the community radio station WBAI 99.5 FM. It is also simulcast online via streaming MP3, rebroadcast on various other radio stations, and has been made available as a podcast.

A security hacker is someone who explores methods for breaching defenses and exploiting weaknesses in a computer system or network. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, such as profit, protest, information gathering, challenge, recreation, or evaluation of a system weaknesses to assist in formulating defenses against potential hackers.

Emmanuel Goldstein is a key character in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Bernie S. is a computer hacker living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a regular panelist on the WBAI radio show Off the Hook. In 2001 he appeared in Freedom Downtime, a documentary produced by 2600 Films.

Charles Platt is a British author, journalist and computer programmer. He relocated from England to the United States during 1970 and is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He has one child, Rose Fox, who edits science-fiction, fantasy, and horror book reviews. Platt is the nephew of Robert Platt, Baron Platt of Grindleford.

Plover-NET, often misspelled Plovernet, was a popular bulletin board system in the early 1980s. Hosted in New York state and originally owned and operated by a teenage hacker who called himself Quasi-Moto, whom was a member of the short lived yet famed Fargo 4A phreak group. The popular bulletin board system attracted a large group of hackers, telephone phreaks, engineers, computer programmers, and other technophiles, at one point reaching over 600 users until LDX, a long distance phone company, began blocking all calls to its number (516-935-2481).

References

  1. 1 2 3 Niarchos, Nicolas (October 24, 2014). "A Print Magazine for Hackers". The New Yorker . ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  2. 1 2 Jack Bratich. "2600: The Hacker Quarterly". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  3. interview with David Ruderman
  4. Bruce Sterling (1993). The Hacker Crackdown . Bantam Books. ISBN   0-553-56370-X.
  5. "2600: The Hacker Quarterly : History of Information". www.historyofinformation.com. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  6. "NYS Corporation". Appext20. March 19, 1984. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
  7. Goldstein, E (July 28, 2008). The Best of 2600: A Hacker Odyssey: Wiley. ISBN   0-470-29419-1
  8. "'Hackers are necessary': Q&A with Emmanuel Goldstein of 2600: The Hacker's Quarterly". www.crime-research.org. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  9. "Plugging a security leak - Silicon Valley Business Journal". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  10. "Off the Hook 09/12/06". 2600 Enterprises.
  11. "Copyright fight comes to an end". CNET. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  12. "Loadus". DeviantArt. Retrieved January 10, 2018.
  13. Storm, Darlene (September 10, 2015). "Hacker magazine 2600 extorted for $714 over ink spot pic copyright troll doesn't own". Computerworld. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
  14. "AN APOLOGY FROM TRUNK ARCHIVE | 2600". www.2600.com. Archived from the original on May 23, 2016. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
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