Exploding the Phone

Book about phone phreaks- people who explored the phone networks and
learned how the phone system worked. They used this knowledge to
exploit the phone system and formed underground communities. These
people were are an early form of hacking and social engineering. Among
these people are names like Captain Crunch who's moniker is from his
discovery that the whistle that came with Captin Crunch ceral was the
right frequency needed for sending signals to computer automating the
phone network.

The telecom companies are a major antagonist. Many of the phreaks just
wanted to learn more about the phone network and computers. They were
largely driven by curiosity. But the telecoms started cracking down on
the fun and going after the phreaks, claiming they were abusing the
system for free calls and criminal activity. This is part of the scare
about hackers being able to manipulate national security sensitive
systems. Instead of working on making the telelcomunication system
more robust and improve their own security, they attempted to use
legal recourse against phreaks.

At least this is how the book characterizes this tension between the
telecoms and the phreaks. And while their is certainly a point that
what the phreaks were doing was not really illegal, they were just
exploring the network and the technology to see what is
possible. However, what they discovered could be exploited for
nefarious purposes. The book addresses this point by saying that
actual criminal organizations or actors with malicious intent didn't
seem to account for that many people or damages. Especially not enough
to warrant the response and the scare that resulted.

One such attempt to mitigate phone phreaks exploitation of the phone
network was Project Greenstar, by AT&T and Bell Labs.