2600: The Hacker Quarterly

Called “the hacker's bible,” 2600: The Hacker Quarterly is both a technical journal, focusing on technological exploration and know-how, and a muckraking magazine, exposing government and corporate misdeeds. 2600 has continuously been involved in the legal, ethical, and technical debates over the hacker's craft.

2600 began in 1984 as a three-sheet newsletter with a circulation of 25. It was named for the 2600-hertz tone that used to control AT&T's switching system. Mimicking the frequency—allowing free access to long-distance lines—was one of the first modifications learned by phone phreaks, the forerunners of computer hackers.

The magazine is closely identified with its founder, publisher, and editor, “Emmanuel Goldstein” (real name Eric Corley); the pseudonym comes from the shadowy leader of the resistance in George Orwell's 1984. He was arrested in 1983 for allegedly hacking into a system that gave him access to a number of corporations' emails. The charges were later dropped, but the experience led him to decide to channel his energies into a magazine that would give the digital underground community a printed forum.

For many, Goldstein has taken on the role of spokesperson for young hackers. Goldstein served as technical consultant on the Hollywood film Hackers (1995), has testified in Congress, and has been hosting Off the Hook, a talk-radio show on New York's WBAI station, since the early 1990s.

2600, currently an 8"x 5", 58-page glossy-covered magazine, publishes articles that address topics such as system entry and exploration, security vulnerabilities, protection from invasive software, the implications of new encryption techniques, how to remove ad banners from Web sites, and the ethics of viruses. An extensive “letters to the editors” section makes up a large portion of the magazine, and contains responses to previous articles and other letters (sometimes in precise technical detail), legal advice, anecdotes about authoritarian responses to hacking, and tales of hacking adventures. Since 1989, 2600 has regularly featured its signature photos of payphones from around the world. In addition, the magazine has continuously countered mainstream media representations of the hacker as computer terrorist. It has routinely run editorials in support of jailed hackers like “Phiber Optik” (technical consultant to the magazine), Bernie S., and especially Kevin Mitnick, on whose behalf 2600 mounted a spirited defense.

All of this is part of 2600's mission to define the “hacker ethic.” For Goldstein, this ethic begins with the notion that “all information should be free,” and involves a hard-line stance against corporate and government control of information technologies, as well as an affirmation of knowledge-seeking and technological innovation on the part of hackers. This ethic maintains that hackers should not damage or profit from the systems that they crack. 2600's stance is that hackers perform a public service by exposing the vulnerabilities of electronic systems—a kind of consumer advocacy. The political stance of the magazine can be described as anti-authoritarian and vaguely libertarian; Goldstein himself prefers the label “dissident.”

The magazine is only the printed version of the activities that fall under the category “2600.” The Web site (http://2600.com) chronicles the latest activities in the hacker world, as well as carrying an archive of hacked Web sites and an online store. The 2600 Club meets on the first Friday of every month in more than 100 cities worldwide. These gatherings are held near clusters of pay phones, so other meetings can be called. In 1994, 2600 sponsored Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE), a conference marking the magazine's ten-year anniversary. The HOPE convention is held every three years in New York City, and attracted more than 3,000 attendees in 2000.

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