4 ms·
1981? Security mostly was knowing which phone number to dial in, according to a deceased friend of mine.
by CodeWriter23 2y ago
1981? Security mostly was knowing which phone number to dial in, according to a deceased friend of mine.
- SJC_Hacker 2y agoI guess thats why Matthew Broderick's character had a script which dialed random numbers in a target area code (I think he used Sunnyvale, CA in the movie) I wonder if anyone did that back in the day. Not sure how much the telco would have appreciated it ...
- CodeWriter23 2y agoNever used an auto-dialer myself, but it would be trivial to code one. Just send ATDT<number> out the serial port and see if "CONNECT" comes back before timing out. Back in that time, I think a good rate was $0.01/minute for a local call on a consumer landline. Unlimited calling plans came later. Not attributing any intent to the telco, just saying, there would be no cost issue to motivate an investigation.
- SJC_Hacker 2y agoIt definitely wasn't local - he was in Washington but dialed into Sunnyvale, CA. I can't remember charges for local exchanges (same area code), but I only remember as far back as the late 80s. It was something like 10 cents a minute. I remember all the adds about "friends and family" special rates/etc. Metering on voice calls persisted into the 2000s. But the calls were very brief (if they did pick up) unless he got a "hit". So thousands of calls could have no charge Or maybe he spliced into his neighbors line :-)