Hackers and Crackers of the Analog Age

Petra Smith (Sharesies)

These days you can hack the planet from the comfort of your couch, but before the digital age hacking was a bit more hands-on – if you wanted to make off with a company’s valuable assets you needed the skills, know-how and nerve to crack a safe. The canny criminals who perfected the dangerous art of safebreaking became media sensations for their daring exploits, and sparked a technology arms race in search of an “uncrackable” safe.

Let’s go back in time to meet some of the notorious (and criminally forgotten) characters from the golden age of safebreaking, and explore how safecracking techniques evolved through the twentieth century.

About Petra

Petra is a security culture specialist and storyteller who is on a mission to make information security accessible to everyone. She has a point and she’s getting to it.