blue box
lorehacking
The phone-phreaking device that generated the 2600 Hz tone and signaling frequencies to seize control of the long-distance network.
In-band signaling meant the phone network trusted tones any caller could produce; a toy whistle from Cap'n Crunch cereal famously hit 2600 Hz, earning John Draper the name Captain Crunch. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs built and sold blue boxes before founding Apple, and Wozniak later said there would have been no Apple without them. The lesson outlived the hardware: never trust control signals carried in the data channel.
Also known as: phone phreaking, 2600 Hz