The hacking scene is definitely not what it used to be. Though it seems hard to remember, there was a time before vulnerabilities were posted to mailing lists every day, you could sell exploits to corporations and hacking groups were being turned into security companies. There were few established laws restricting hacking and a simple Internet search returned a massive amount of detail on how to hack. It was a time when a few small groups of elite technology enthusiasts, driven largely by curiosity and mischief (vs. malicious) became some of the most notorious and powerful hackers of all time.
This was the era of groups like the Legion of Doom, the Cult of the Dead Cow, the Masters of Deception, the Chaos Computer Club, the P.H.I.R.M., the genesis of zines like Phrack and 2600, and the days when blowing a whistle found in a cereal box into a telephone receiver gave you control of a phone line.
In those days, communication between hackers was mostly...
