- "extract (a modulating signal) from its carrier."
Demodulate is a technical show exploring hacking & phreaking in the 1980s-1990s.
By interviewing people involved in the hacking & phreaking scene during this period,
we will attempt to understand techically how their attacks worked along with the
motivations behind them.
Episode 2: "The Wardialer" - Popular in the 1980s and 1990s, "wardialing"
was a popular method hackers used to find computer system to attack. Prior to the
movie "WarGames", it was known
as "demon dialing". Whatever you called it, there was much more to "wardialing" than
just dialing a bunch of telephone phone numbers. There was a complete methodology hackers
used to avoid punishment from 'Ma Bell' (The phone company) and law enforcement. There
was also more to wardialing than just looking for modem carriers. Wardialing was used
to identify PBX (Private Branch eXchanges), telco "test" equipment,
unprotected voice mail systems, fax machines, HVAC/temperature control systems, elevators,
radio towers and much. By the early 2000's, the art of wardialing was almost dead. Then
hackers started to use VoIP (Voice over IP) to take wardialing in a completely new direction.
In this episode of Demodulate, we discuss the old and the new school of wardialing.
Episode 1: "The x.25 hacker" - Invented in the 1970s and popular in the
1980s, x.25 networks allowed some of the first computer systems to be globally
connected. At the time, x.25 networks were used by ATM machines, aviation companies,
e-mail systems, environmental control systems, news outlets, chemical companies,
banking and financial computers and much more. Globally connectivity and a wide
range of targets attracted hackers from around the world. In this episode,
we will be exploring and talking with x.25 hackers to learn how x.25 networks
functioned and how x.25 hackers exploited them.
For more information, full interview recordings, etc see the
Episode 1 page.
