{"id":13249,"date":"2015-05-07T20:06:24","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T00:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbach.net\/blog\/index.php\/"},"modified":"2021-08-24T12:53:51","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T16:53:51","slug":"worlds-first-hacker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/worlds-first-hacker\/","title":{"rendered":"World’s First Hacker?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"World's<\/a>The story of the first hacker could be a 21st-century tale. It includes a zero-day exploit<\/a><\/strong>, patent trolling<\/strong>, a live demo, egos,<\/strong> and industrial espionage<\/strong>.\u00a0New Scientist<\/a><\/em> has\u00a0identified<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>its candidate for the world’s first hacker. <\/strong>The hacker found a security hole<\/strong> in Marconi’s wireless telegraph technology and used it to publicly show the inventor up.<\/p>\n

The first hacker<\/h3>\n

\"Nevil<\/a>New Scientist’s<\/em>\u00a0first hacker was, Nevil Maskelyne.<\/strong> Nevil Maskelyne was a stage magician who disrupted<\/strong> a public demo of Marconi’s wireless telegraph<\/strong> in 1903. He disrupted the demo by wirelessly sending insults in Morse code through Marconi\u00a0confidential channels. Visitors to the Bach Seat<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>should be sophisticated enough to know the risks of running a live demo<\/strong><\/a>, but 110+ years ago, they didn’t.<\/p>\n

According to the author, the first hack occurred at the Royal Institution<\/a> in London<\/strong>. As Marconi associate,\u00a0John A. Fleming<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(inventor of the vacuum tube) was preparing the Marconi equipment for a public demo<\/strong> of the long-range wireless<\/strong> communication system developed by his boss, the Italian radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi<\/strong><\/a> when something unplanned happened.<\/p>\n

Scientific hooliganism<\/h3>\n

\"Marconi's<\/a>Before the demonstration was scheduled to begin, the demo gear\u00a0began to receive a message. <\/strong>The unplanned message included a poem that accused Marconi of “diddling the public<\/strong>.”\u00a0Then it started in with some Shakespeare<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Arthur Blok, Fleming’s assistant, figured that someone else was beaming powerful wireless<\/strong> pulses into the theater. The new signal was strong enough to interfere with Marconi’s equipment<\/strong>. Unfortunately for Marconi and Fleming, Nevil\u00a0Maskelyne figured out the hack first. Mr. Maskelyne’s hack proved that Marconi’s gear was insecure. <\/strong>It also proved it was likely that they could eavesdrop on supposedly private messages too.<\/p>\n

\"Wood<\/a><\/p>\n

In response,\u00a0Fleming fired posted a complaint in The Times<\/em><\/a>. In the paper he dubbed the hack “scientific hooliganism.<\/strong>”\u00a0 He asked the newspaper’s readers to help him find the hacker.<\/p>\n

However, Maskelyne, whose family had made a fortune making “spend-a-penny” locks in pay toilets outed himself four days later. He justified his actions on the grounds that he revealed the security holes for the public good.<\/strong> (Sound familiar?<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Maskelyne who taught himself wireless technology had a great deal of experience with wireless. According to the article, he would use Morse code in “mind-reading” magic tricks to secretly communicate with a partner. And in 1900, Maskelyn sent wireless messages between a ground station and a balloon 10 miles away. But,\u00a0his ambitions were frustrated by Marconi’s broad patents. <\/strong>The overly broad patent left him embittered towards the Italian. Maskelyne would soon find a way to get back at Marconi. It turned out that the Eastern Telegraph Company<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong>worried that Marconi’s wireless would kill their global wired communications business\u00a0<\/strong>hired Maskelyne as a spy.<\/p>\n

Revealed security holes for the public good<\/h3>\n

\"eavesdrop<\/a>Maskelyne built a 50-meter radio mast near the Marconi Wireless<\/a> offices. From these offices Marconi was beaming wireless messages to vessels as part of its highly successful “secure” ship-to-shore messaging business. From there, Maskelyne could easily eavesdrop on the “confidential channel”<\/strong> Marconi wireless messages.<\/p>\n

Maskelyne gleefully revealed the lack of security by writing in the journal The Electrician<\/i>\u00a0in November 1902,<\/p>\n

I received Marconi messages with a 25-foot collecting circuit [aerial] raised on a scaffold pole. When eventually the mast was erected the problem was not interception but how to deal with the enormous excess of energy.<\/em><\/p>\n

To further publicize\u00a0his results<\/strong> and perhaps extract some revenge on Marconi, Maskelyne staged his Royal Institution\u00a0poetry broadcast.<\/p>\n

The New Scientist<\/em> concludes that Maskelyne’s name had been forgotten but now he is in the history books as the world’s patron saint of hackers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/h6>\n