In the early 1970s, John Draper, known as Captain Crunch, exploited a 2600 Hz tone from a toy whistle in Cap’n Crunch cereal boxes to manipulate the American telephone system, allowing free long-distance calls. This practice laid the groundwork for modern hacking and influenced the creation of Apple Inc.

• 01John Draper, a former U.S. Air Force technician, became famous for using a toy whistle to exploit the telephone network's signaling system.
• 02The 2600 Hz tone, used by AT&T to indicate free lines, could be mimicked by the whistle, allowing users to make free long-distance calls.
• 03Draper and other phreaks shared knowledge in an underground community, leading to the development of devices called 'blue boxes' that could manipulate phone calls.
• 04Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were inspired by phreaking, leading them to create blue boxes as their first business venture before founding Apple.
• 05The practice of phreaking led to significant changes in telecommunications, prompting AT&T to move control signals to separate channels to prevent exploitation.