The film starts by reviewing the concept and the early days of
phreaking, featuring anecdotes of phreaking experiences (often involving the use of a
blue box) recounted by
John Draper and
Denny Teresi. By way of commentary from
Steve Wozniak, the film progresses from phreaking to
computer hobbyist hacking (including anecdotal experiences of the
Homebrew Computer Club) on to
computer security hacking, noting differences between these 2 forms of hacking in the process. The featured computer security hacking and social engineering stories and anecdotes predominantly concern experiences involving
Kevin Mitnick. The film also deals with how society's (and notably law enforcement's) fear of hacking has increased over time due to media attention of hacking (by way of the film
WarGames as well as journalistic reporting on actual hackers) combined with society's further increase in adoption of and subsequent reliance on computing and communication networks. == Cast ==