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HACKER

by RUPERT LALLY

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  • Limited Edition Cassette: Federal Penitentiary Orange
    Cassette + Digital Album

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  • Limited Edition Cassette: FBI Badge Gold
    Cassette + Digital Album

    Strictly limited hand numbered tape of Hacker by Rupert Lally with exclusive artwork by Eric Adrian Lee.

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1.
PEN TEST 03:44
2.
ROOT 03:10
3.
2600HZ 02:32
4.
MUTEX 02:56
5.
RUN PROGRAM 02:22
6.
HOT SWAP 03:48
7.
8.
9.

about

This album and its concept was inspired by Kevin Mitnick’s book,A Ghost In The Wires: My Adventures As The World’s Most Wanted Hacker. 

Hackerexists in a largely forgotten world; the pre-Internet, pre-Windows era of the 1980s, when you had to use dial up modems to access another system and hacking was less about code and more about using social engineering to con people into giving you the information you needed. 

The story my album soundtracks goes something like this…

The Hacker mingles with others checking in to a tech firm; swiping a security pass, he makes it inside and picks the lock on the supervisor’s office. Once he’s in, he boots up the supervisor’s computer, copying several files onto a floppy disc, before slipping back out of the building without being detected. This was a ‘pen test’, short for penetration test. These days he’s hired to break into firms to test their security and see if they notice the hack, but it wasn’t always the case. 

Flashback to the early 70s: the root file in the Hacker’s history. As a teenager he is interested in magic and confidence tricks and stumbles across a book on the art of social engineering. Around the same time an older boy teaches him about phone phreaking – using a 2600hz tone to exploit a flaw in the public telephone system and make free phone calls. 

Despite only being interested in being able to see what systems he can access, the Hacker’s youthful misadventures soon land him in trouble with both the phone company and the F.B.I. He is arrested and sentenced to 6 months in a juvenile detention facility. 

Upon his release he tries to find a job, but his conviction makes it impossible for him to find work with computers. Frustrated, he turns to phone phreaking once more, but when he’s tipped off that the F.B.I. plan to capture him again, he runs, creating a new identity and using his phone hacking skills to keep himself one step ahead of his pursuers. 

With his new identity in place, he starts life afresh in a new city and manages to find a data entry job in an insurance firm. The thrill of illicit hacks won’t stay dormant forever though, and soon he begins again. After several daring hacks, he starts to wonder if his new identity might be compromised. He finds taps on his phone line and suspects that a fellow hacker might be an F.B.I. undercover agent. 

He knows he needs to get out, but before he can clear out his apartment, he’s caught by the F.B.I. and despite never having used his hacking skills to steal anything, his notoriety – plus the government’s paranoia over the dangers of hacking – lead to him being placed in solitary confinement within a maximum-security prison. 

Years go by with no chance of parole, despite public appeals for his release. Eventually, he is called upon to give his expertise on another hacking case, in exchange for his freedom. Finally a free man, he becomes highly valued for his expertise on hacking and forms his own cyber security company. 

Rupert Lally 2022

credits

released December 23, 2022

All tracks composed and performed by Rupert Lally
Cover and inner panel artwork by Eric Adrian Lee

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all rights reserved

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Spun Out Of Control London, UK

Boutique music label publishing & promoting the best in synth-based electronica, actual & imagined soundtracks from talented new composers.

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