Woz Expounds On His Hacking Shenanigans and Online Mischief

coondoggie writes "In his keynote address at a security conference today, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak admitted he has enjoyed many adventures in hacking often for the sake of pranks on friends and family, especially back in his college days and the early years of working on computers and the Internet. 'I like to play jokes,' said the Wozniak jovially as he addressed his audience of thousands of security professionals attending the ASIS Conference in Chicago. The famed inventor at Apple admitted he also had some fun with light-hearted forays into hacking computer and telecommunications networks several decades ago back in his college years and while learning about electronics and computers."

Comments

Heh... chalk it up to...

[NotQuiteReal]

Kid's will be kids. Case dismissed!

Re:is woz even allowed on an apple campus?

[Camembert]

I think that Woz needed the early marketing genius of Jobs to shine and make a real difference in society with the Apple 2; and it is equally true that Jobs would not have been able to rise to fame back then without the technical genius of Wozniak. Their talents complemented each other very well, and at the right time. Imagine if Woz would have had an early job offer at say HP. He might have become a respected engineer over there, but unlikely with the same recognition today. We wouldn't have heard of Jobs so early on, yet the man had a such a good consumer insight that it is not inconceivable that he would have become notable in other ways.

And the list of what he did?

[Anubis IV]

1) He did some phreaking (phone hacking, back when audible frequencies were used to control the networks).

2) He made a TV jammer and then had friends go try out elaborate steps to "fix" the issue.

3) He snuck into computing facilities and tested out his punch card programs in the middle of the night when they weren't in use.

That's about it from the article. No particularly scintillating details even. Just stuff most of us have already heard.

tomorrow morning "FBI to arrests Woz"

[raymorris]

I wouldn't admit to hacking anything in today's USA.
The Obama administration doesn't like people to be smarter than them.

Re:tomorrow morning "FBI to arrests Woz"

[Anonymous Coward]

Can't you Americans have any discussion on government behavior without immediately making it a red/blue thing ?
I have no doubt someone else will respond, pointing out how this is actually a Bush instigated problem, after which someone else undoubtedly will find a way to blame Clinton, etc,etc.
After that someone will remind us that the problem is the system itself and that red and blue are just 2 sides of the same coin and that you should vote independent.
By that time the thread is swamped by political shills drowning any real discussion of the problem at hand.

So thank you for your contribution, but may I kindly ask that, next time something like this comes along, you JUST SHUT UP ?

thanks and regards,
The internet

Re:Blue Box

[drkim]

This is no surprise, he made blue boxes.

Except in the article he seems to imply that he didn't do it for personal gain:

He went out and learned more about the exact frequencies and tried them out on the telephone system. “I wanted to explore the network,” he said. It was all a form of “White Hat hacking” he says he did but never for purposes of stealing or avoiding paying bills.

But Jobs convinced him to start selling the boxes, and they made about $6,000.

That's not exactly "White Hat hacking" at that point...