Hacking pioneer John Draper, aka Cap’n Crunch, needs funds for medical help | VentureBeat | Security | by Dean Takahashi
John Draper, a legendary phone phreaker known as Capn Crunch, had surgery last week to deal with a degenerative spine disease, and his friends are raising money on GoFundMe for the medical bills.Draper worked with others in the late 1960s to hack the AT&T phone system, using a toy whistle that came from a Capn Crunch cereal box. The whistle emitted a tone at 2600 hertz, whoch happened to be the same one that AT&T used to reset its phone lines.Draper became famous for the stunt, and he became known by the Capn Crunch alias. His efforts were the beginning of the anti-establishment culture that grew up around computer hacking. He was profiled in Esquire magazine in 1971, and that article inspired Steve Wozniak to invite Draper for a meeting. Draper showed up at Wozniaks dorm room and taught him and his friend Steve Jobs how to build a blue box, or a device that would hack the network and give the owner free phone calls.
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