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  • TUESDAY JULY 12 2005 2:38 PM

Say Goodbye to Phrack

Submitted by Shal

Edited by Shal

Phrack Magazine, a staple of the hacking community for two decades, has announced that it is shutting down.

As much manifesto as hacking handbook, the magazine was hugely influential in the early days of hacker culture.

As hackers moved from dial-up bulletin boards on to the net, the magazine kept its place as a knowledgeable, and often scurrilous, source of security information.


Back in 1985 when the first issue of Phrack appeared, the magazine was largely dedicated to phone phreaking -- the internet was still strictly for military, governmental, and academic research use. As computer use and complexity evolved, so did Phrack's focus.

Publishing a hacker magazine for 20 years wasn't always easy.

The magazine got caught up in the series of raids on hackers and hacker groups that took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Phrack editor Knight Lightning, aka Craig Neidorf, was arrested, charged with fraud and tried before a grand jury for reprinting most of a confidential document, known as the E911 document, stolen from the Bell South telephone company. Bell South claimed that the confidential E911 document contained sensitive information and put its value at $80,000.

The case became a cause celebre for the digital underground and Mr Neidorf's defence was organised by the fledgling Electronic Frontier Foundation.


The very last issue of Phrack will be a special hardback edition available at Defcon 13 and WhatTheHack 2005.

The editorial staff has stated on the Phrack website that their decision to end publication will be fully explained in the final issue of the magazine.

As someone who read issues of Phrack in the 90s, I will be sad to see it go.

 
Comments
Lemonkid

Lemonkid

China
May 2003

JUL 12, 2005 03:17 PM

I'll have to retire my blue box in their honor.

elicit77

elicit77

USA
October 2003

JUL 12, 2005 11:01 PM

uhhh, phrack closed their doors months ago. But its still a big loss. I'm glad the site will stay up for a while longer tho.

Holden_Caulfield

Holden_Caulfield

Ann Arbor, MI
April 2004

JUL 12, 2005 11:04 PM

There's still 2600 Magazine. wink

*Edited for punctuation*

[Edited on Jul 13, 2005 by Holden_Caulfield]

dem_z

dem_z

United Kingdom
June 2004

JUL 13, 2005 01:09 AM

Phrack 24 and the 911 nonsense were glory days.

I love the fact that a bunch of information that was in the public domain was said to be worth tens of thousands of dollars and to be very dangerous to the public.

Shal

Shal

Los Angeles, CA
October 2002

JUL 13, 2005 02:29 AM

0rd3r_66 said:
uhhh, phrack closed their doors months ago. But its still a big loss. I'm glad the site will stay up for a while longer tho.



Funny, according to their own website they had a call for papers going until July 10th, and their final issue is yet to be released. wink

[Edited on Jul 13, 2005 by Shalome]

MistahPrince

MistahPrince

Chicago, IL
February 2005

JUL 13, 2005 06:24 AM

frown

It will be missed.

Thankfully Blacklisted 411 came back in 2003. Good stuff.

saruman

saruman

Montreal, QC
February 2003

JUL 13, 2005 06:46 AM

Not such a great loss. It seems like the last few editors (starting at least with route) have not really wanted to perpetuate the magazine and they've let it stagnate until they had no choice but to make one more issue. And so it is that phrack is now an annual, if that.

akl

akl

Sacramento, CA
February 2004

JUL 13, 2005 08:01 PM

I'll pick one up at defcon, maybe.

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