the blue box

securityops culture

The tone-generating box the young Steve Wozniak built, and sold with Steve Jobs, to make free long-distance calls.

Inspired by the 1971 Esquire piece on phreaking, Wozniak engineered a digital blue box that emitted the control tones phone switches trusted, and the pair sold them around Berkeley. Jobs later said that without the blue box there would have been no Apple - it proved two kids could build something the phone company could not stop.

Also known as: blue box, Wozniak blue box, phreaking box

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