4 ms·

Has this now been reclaimed by hackers? If so, that is great news. It used to be an amazing source of information, back when Tarod and Knight Lightning ran thi

Has this now been reclaimed by hackers? If so, that is great news. It used to be an amazing source of information, back when Tarod and Knight Lightning ran things. Then it slowly seemed to get taken over/become for the cyber-security professional crowd. The P.H.I.R.M. publications are great reading too. gatech.edu used to have an archive of all the old Phrack issues somewhere, and more, but I've no idea if it's still there.

tptacek 6y ago
A lot of those people from the KL days were security professionals.
- scienceman 6y ago
  I think there’s an implication difference between security professionals and cyber-security professionals.
  - tptacek 6y ago
    When did that supposed shift happen? I lost track after Schiffman, but everyone up to that point was pretty much the same kind of people as the KL crew.
segmondy 6y ago
Once the editor changed from an individual to "The Phrack Staff" it kinda lost it's charm. I also take it as a sign of the times tho, folks who needed to earn a living couldn't risk being strongly associated with the zine. Folks also began self publishing on their own sites/blog and bugtraq really became the place to publish your CVE... It was fun while it lasted. I'm sure the new & current gen have their own idea of the "in thing".
- tptacek 6y ago
  I can't think of any time since the mid-1990s where being affiliated with Phrack would have jeopardized a high-status career in software security.
  - kbenson 6y ago
    I think perhaps not everyone that would want to participate had their career in software security though, and I can imagine some other software sectors where they might look unkindly on the relationship. E.g. Someone working deep in the bowels of some company in the financial sector but their hobbies are more diverse.
    - tptacek 6y ago
      That's funny, because a plurality of the O.G. Phrack crew wound up working in security in finance, particularly at the i-banks.
      - happyconcepts 6y ago
        maafakaz!
      - kbenson 6y ago
        You know, I might be conflating phrack with 2600 in my head. IIRC (which is by no means guaranteed) 2600 was (is?) a bit more edgy, but I was regularly reading both at around the same time in the early 2000's, so some of my ideas about them might be mixed after all this time.
    - NateLawson 6y ago
      Hacking became "cool" for the corporate world in the late 90's. Movies like The Matrix and the fact that nothing too valuable was online yet meant that getting hacked was likely just web site defacement. Meanwhile, there was finally real money to be made in developing security for when the web finally became worth protecting.
  - NateLawson 6y ago

tptacek 6y ago

A lot of those people from the KL days were security professionals.

scienceman 6y ago
I think there’s an implication difference between security professionals and cyber-security professionals.
- tptacek 6y ago
  When did that supposed shift happen? I lost track after Schiffman, but everyone up to that point was pretty much the same kind of people as the KL crew.

segmondy 6y ago

Once the editor changed from an individual to "The Phrack Staff" it kinda lost it's charm. I also take it as a sign of the times tho, folks who needed to earn a living couldn't risk being strongly associated with the zine. Folks also began self publishing on their own sites/blog and bugtraq really became the place to publish your CVE... It was fun while it lasted. I'm sure the new & current gen have their own idea of the "in thing".

tptacek 6y ago
I can't think of any time since the mid-1990s where being affiliated with Phrack would have jeopardized a high-status career in software security.
- kbenson 6y ago
  I think perhaps not everyone that would want to participate had their career in software security though, and I can imagine some other software sectors where they might look unkindly on the relationship. E.g. Someone working deep in the bowels of some company in the financial sector but their hobbies are more diverse.
  - tptacek 6y ago
    That's funny, because a plurality of the O.G. Phrack crew wound up working in security in finance, particularly at the i-banks.
    - happyconcepts 6y ago
      maafakaz!
    - kbenson 6y ago
      You know, I might be conflating phrack with 2600 in my head. IIRC (which is by no means guaranteed) 2600 was (is?) a bit more edgy, but I was regularly reading both at around the same time in the early 2000's, so some of my ideas about them might be mixed after all this time.
  - NateLawson 6y ago
    Hacking became "cool" for the corporate world in the late 90's. Movies like The Matrix and the fact that nothing too valuable was online yet meant that getting hacked was likely just web site defacement. Meanwhile, there was finally real money to be made in developing security for when the web finally became worth protecting.
- NateLawson 6y ago