'80s hacker turned journo, IT crime ace Steve Gold logs off Steve Gold, a former hacker who became a respected information security journalist, has died following complications from heart surgery. Tributes to Gold from the tight-knit UK security and publishing communities have been pouring in following his death, aged 58. Gold unwittingly became famous in the mid '80s when he …
They could have used this:
http://news.images.itv.com/image/file/74646/image_update_37a81a6ae22400d1_1344373011_9j-4aaqsk.jpeg
No they didn't name BT Gold after him. For you young whippersnappers BT Gold was the first major dial-up email system in the early 1980s. To have an account was almost as posh as having a secretary with an IBM Golfball.
Such horrible sad news. I only heard yesterday that he was seriously ill, and now the inevitable ghastly news that has followed.
Steve was a really nice chap. A truel gent. He always loved a natter on the phone, had time for everyone, and would love to tell stories of his escapades from the early 80s.
Can't believe he's gone. They don't make many of them like that anymore.
RIP Steve. We'll miss you mate.
$!+
$! I worked at BT Gold during 1998 and early 1989.
$!
$! I don't remember ever interacting with Steve Gold, but I do remember very
$! well the huge fuss after the Prince Phillip Mailbox Hack. Word came down
$! from On High that someone had done a Very Bad Thing and it wasn't to
$! happen again. Or Else.
$!
$! Perhaps someone on the board was worried that a future knighthood might
$! be in jeopardy.
$!
$! Well played, Mr. G. I'll take down your Handbook from the attic and read
$! it again.
$!
$ LOGOUT
$!-
Pretty devastating news. I met Steve when he was still wondering if the House of Lords were going to find him guilty of forgery and counterfeiting for his Prestel hack. For various reasons I needed some-one to edit a 4th edition of my Hacker's Handbook - and I reckon I chose well. That would be back in 1987. Since then we probably spoke 2-3 times a week, exchanging gossip, helping out on techie problems and (in my case) giving quotes for Steve's stories.
These days there are rather too many people calling themselves tech journalists when their main activity seems to be cutting and pasting from press releases (the staff of the Register a significant exception of course) but Steve, like the much-missed Guy Kewney, knew how to research, explain, write up,and where appropriate enthuse his readers.
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I was Steve's barrister in the hacking case where I took and lived through all the trials and tribulations. He became a good and trusted friend and we shared a common interest in getting the computer community thinking about the problems and possibilities arising from the use of computers. In more recent years I called him frequently for advice on mobile technology - he was always the source of the best possible deal that was out there. He worked too hard and could always be relied upon for delivering the goods. We shall all miss him and his cheery telephone manner.
I recall meeting him at least once or twice, at trade shows while working for Modem House based in Exeter back in the 80's. I think he wrote the software (tape loaded) to allow the Prism 1000\2000\VTX5000 to access text based services rather than the originally supplied Viewdata package.
I'd completely forgotten about the Hackers Handbook David, though I still recall how you thought that someone made a member of his staff sleep with him until a wedding ring was pointed out & walking through Soho with you
Fun times going up to London about once a month (once hanging out of a taxi chatting up four oriental ladies in a open topped "Merc" around Hyde Park Corner at late night until the vehicles went different ways).
A great couple of years doing those events, until 1989 when the world changed for those of us that had worked there.
So shocked to hear of Steve's passing.
My enduring memory of him was meeting him (at Euston I think) with one of the first mobile phones clutched to his ear; they really were the size of a brick, and almost as heavy!
His Micromouse articles on Prestel/Micronet 800 inspired me to run my own (irregular) comment and news pages on Prestel; I ended up working for Micronet myself, left home and moved to London to rent a room from his friend of his (and the standby Micromouse,) We spoke many times, although not as much as we should have over the last few years.
Steve, you were a great chap, a good friend, an amazing writer, and you will be sorely missed.
(And you never did dig out those microdrives with the saved Prestel pages you promised me!)
Rob (once known as "The Mad Sysop".)
www.viewdata.org.uk
*90#
I knew Steve for more than 20 years, got to know him better in the last 4-5 years as he became one of my contributors at 'Engineering & Technology' mag. A warmly knowledgeable, witty and wise man, Steve Gold stayed at the top of his game over a period of decades. His passing is a huge loss to information/cyber security journalism.
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