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What Happened to Phrack?

Posted by Cliff on from the where-did-they-go-now dept.

A worried Anonymous Coward asks: "Remember phrack; the ever irrepressible hacker journal. Their site seems to be down. Does anyone know what happened to them? Phrack was a tradition. I remember the times I used to pour on the articles dissecting every bit of information. To see it go makes me sad." Pinging the primary domain name server for phrack.com also returned no results. Have they dropped off of the face of the 'net, never to be seen again?

11 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. What's with these AskSlashdot's? by cot · · Score: 5

    I thought the point of an Ask Slashdot was to put out a question with many possible answers, such as "Is there any way to set up a machine to do X, Y, and Z?".

    Then people can respond with a variety of solutions to the problem. This can provide a wealth of information to the person asking the question, as well as other interested parties.

    This question (and a few other recent ones) asks something that probably could have easily been answered with a quick web search. Not only that, but the answer isn't really something that requires a community response.

    "Where's X?"

    "It's over there"

    "Oh."

    ...

    It's not that I am bitter that this guy asked this question. I am bitter because we miss out other questions with potentially more interesting answers.

    --

  2. One other mirror site by Teancum · · Score: 4

    I will regret doing this, because I know it will get slashdotted, but a mirror of all of the issues can be found here.

    If you want to get a good glimpse at the earlier days of computer "hacking", this is a good place to start. I especially like the "hack" to open a Master combination lock. I hope this helps a little.

  3. Has happened more than once... by cOdEgUru · · Score: 3

    In early 1990, the United States Secret Service carried out a nationwide crackdown on hackers which came to be known as Operation Sundevil. The sweep was highly publicized, in an effort to discourage many of the hackers whom it did not target. Naturally, this crackdown had an adverse effect on Phrack magazine. In late December of 1989, Issue 30 was released; a mere three weeks later, Phrack was shut down by the USSS during Operation Sundevil. Over the course of 1990, several attempts were made to re-establish Phrack, however, since they were not done with the consent of the original editors, they were unfocused and not generally accepted by the hacker community.

    --
    Rapid Nirvana
  4. Re:New address by baldeep · · Score: 3

    Gosh, and I figured they just got slashdotted ;-)

  5. Re:They've only moved by plover · · Score: 5
    The best quote on alt.2600 from that time period was "Has anybody else noticed that the quality of the lamers has gone downhill?"

    John

    ...all downhill since 1972...

    --
    John
  6. New address by Infernal+Pulse · · Score: 5

    The site has moved to the new address http://phrack.infonexus.com and is definatly still alive and firing out awesome articles.

  7. They've only moved by Gordo+Toor · · Score: 5

    http://phrack.infonexus.com/
    --
    I wrote the play & still own the script ...

    1. Re:They've only moved by coaxial · · Score: 4

      I thought that domain name looked familure. Back when in 1994-1995 (freshman in college) I went through my infatuation with cracker culture, that alot of people do. I amassed quite a collection of filez and had ran a semipopular site out of my dorm room (running Slackware).

      This was back in the day when alt.hackers still was "self-moderated" meaning you had to add a specific header saying "X-Moderator-Approved:" or something in order to get your post to propigate across USENET. And you had better include your "ObHack" or you'd get flamed. (Some where quite involved. Like hacking a garage door opener to your beer refridgerator to open the door and deliver a beer to you.)

      This was also back back in the day when alt.2600 actually had a resident population that new stuff, as opposed to being just 5cr1pT k1Ddi3z. There were two guys on alt.2600 that new the most. Will something (the FAQ maintainer) and route@infonexus.com. (I forgot his email address but his FTP site was something at ftp.cdrom.com/.../route .)

      I haven't thought about that guy in years.

      --
      The Guy Formerlly Known as "Coolness Incarnate"

      (Now I'll have to track down The Bob(c) and my walk down memory lane will be complete.)

      (Oh and incase you're wondering when alt.2600 took the nosie dive into pure shit, I say summer of 1995. Basically USENET's commuliative quallity halved that summer. Don't know exactly why though. It was after the AOL-USENET fiasco.)

    2. Re:They've only moved by dillon_rinker · · Score: 3

      Oh and incase you're wondering when alt.2600 took the nosie dive into pure shit, I say summer of 1995. Basically USENET's commuliative quallity halved that summer. Don't know exactly why though.

      Windows 95. Dial-up networking. Bundled TCP/IP stack. Everybody and their dog could get on the internet with a few clicks. I don't blame the increase in the signal/noise ratio on Microsoft or Windows per se, merely on the ease of use.

  8. Re:phrack by ArtPepper · · Score: 4

    http://www.eff.org/pub/Misc/Publications/CuD/Phrac k/

    Includes up to issue 49.

  9. EFF used to host Computer Underground Digest arch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3

    I dunno if it is still around, but ftp.eff.org under /CUD used to host the computer underground digest and a huge collection of hack / phrack netzines including Phrack, Lod tech manual, Cult Dead Cow, Informatic and others.