The Secret History of Hacking (2001)

The Secret History of Hacking is a 2001 documentary film that focuses on phreaking, computer hacking and social engineering occurring from the 1970s through to the 1990s. Archive footage concerning the subject matter and (computer generated) graphical imagery specifically created for the film are voiced over with narrative audio commentary, intermixed with commentary from people who in one way or another have been closely involved in these matters.

The film starts by reviewing the concept and the early days of phreaking, featuring anecdotes of phreaking experiences (often involving the use of a blue box) recounted by John Draper and Denny Teresi. By way of commentary from Steve Wozniak, the film progresses from phreaking to computer hobbyist hacking (including anecdotal experiences of the Homebrew Computer Club) on to computer security hacking, noting differences between the latter 2 forms of hacking in the process. The featured computer security hacking and social engineering stories and anecdotes predominately concern experiences involving Kevin Mitnick. The film also deals with how society's (and notably law enforcement's) fear of hacking has increased over time due to media attention of hacking (by way of the film WarGames as well as journalistic reporting on actual hackers) combined with society's further increase in adoption of and subsequent reliance on computing and communication networks.

John Draper, Steve Wozniak and Kevin Mitnick are prominently featured while the film additionally features comments from or else archive footage concerning Denny Teresi, Joybubbles, Mike Gorman, Ron Rosenbaum, Steven Levy, Paul Loser, Lee Felsenstein, Jim Warren, John Markoff, Jay Foster, FBI Special Agent Ken McGuire, Jonathan Littman, Michael Strickland and others.

Synopsis

Ce documentaire nous ramène dans un premier temps dans les années 60 avec John Draper, le pionnier du piratage téléphonique. Il sera une source d’inspiration pour un certain Steve Wozniak, un jeune génie qui fondera plus tard le géant Apple. Puis, faisons un bond en avant dans les années 80, lorsque le piratage informatique devient un acte jugé criminel. Le hacker le plus recherché des Etats-Unis à l’époque, Kevin Mitnick, nous raconte son histoire et ses 5 années passée en prison. La rencontre de ces 3 figures du piratage nous permet de faire la lumière sur ces hommes qui devinrent à la fois les héros et les bandits de l’ère informatique.