The Most Significant Milestones in the Development of Communications
For modern society, instant messaging is a necessary and familiar phenomenon in everyday life. Let me recall the most significant milestones in the development of communications, see how hackers are using the Morse code, its smart contract & blockchain modern implementations and what the most secure ways of communication exist nowadays!
The Invention of Morse Code
Developed in the 1830s and 1840s by Samuel Morse and others, the telegraph revolutionized long-distance communication by transmitting electrical signals over wire laid between stations.
In addition to inventing the telegraph, Morse developed a code in which each letter of the English alphabet was matched with a set of dots and dashes, making it easy to transmit complex messages over telegraph lines. In 1844 Morse sent his first telegraph message from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore.
Although the telegraph was out of widespread use by the early twenty-first century, it laid the groundwork for future inventions. See the source article — for a better translation use deepl.com.
Also suggest reading this awesome article:
Hackers, by the way, have also noticed the unique features of Morse code and are already using it! Don’t believe it? Read these articles:
The Communications Revolution
Telephone
The success of telegraphy and Morse code sparked a desire and need for instant communication, which eventually led to the creation of the telephone — a credit to Scottish scientist Alexander Graham Bell. The first commercial telephone services appeared on both sides of the Atlantic in 1878–79.
Satellite
In 1958, a U.S. satellite was used to transmit the president’s Christmas message to the rest of the world. In 1960, NASA launched the Echo satellite for radio communications; the same year the first ever satellite with an active repeater was launched.
Two years later, in 1962, an international project involving several companies and nation-states launched the world’s first direct relay satellite for commercial communications, Telstar.
Internet
At the height of the Cold War in the 1960s, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher JC Licklider devised a plan to create a “galactic network” of computers that would allow important US leaders to communicate with each other if the Soviets shut down or “hacked” the telephone system.
In the 1970s, American computer scientist Vinton Cerf developed a system that allowed the world’s various small networks to communicate with each other or make “handshakes.” This important innovation was called Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), later expanded to include the Internet Protocol or IP.
The Internet was created, but for the first decade, its existence was limited to universities and researchers. That changed in the 1990s with the advent of the World Wide Web, invented by British scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 while working at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
Mobile Cell Phone Technology
The era of portable cell phones began in April 1973, when Martin Cooper of Motorola made a cell phone call in front of journalists.
Since then, there have been various changes in cell phone technology. In the 1980s, an analog cellular system known as 1G was launched.
In the 1990s, with the development of GSM technology came 2G, marking the transition from analog to digital communications, and the advent of 3G in the 00s made it possible to stream video and music to phones.
The real boom of mobile data transmission began with the advent of the first smartphones based on iOS and Android and 4G networks.
Secure Communications: Tips by officers
Check out this awesome digital communications protocols cheat sheet. According to it, XMPP + OTR + TOR + Jabber or Matrix are still the most secure ways of communication:
What is the best encryption in Jabber? I recently logged into Pidgin for the first time in 6 years, put the classic OTR on, and go ahead with the communication. And it’s been a long time. In 2022 I prefer Gajim, Dino, and Adium clients.
Check out these awesome communication privacy guides:
- How to use OTR
- Darknet OPSEC Guide
- Attacks via a Representative Sample : Myths and Reality
- anonymousplanet-ng.org
- Stylometric fingerprinting redux
- www.eff.org
Don’t forget the list of servers (xmpp-servers.404.city) and pay attention to the ones with online and high uptime.
If you want xmpp.jp server, registration now only there: xmpp.jp/signup.
Going back to encryption, the key differences between OTR and OMEMO are offline messaging, multi-device, and sending encrypted files. Keep this in mind when choosing a client. Stay safe!