system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How did computer hackers do their hacking back in the 60s and 70s?

I realized that I know next to nothing about computers from back then, so I was wondering, for example, how a hacker from back then would hack into a business' computer? Like would they have to be on site, or could they do it remotely? Also, how easy was it to hack those old IBMs from that era?
gpt
The vast majority of hacking in the pre-internet days relied on physical access to the system... as that was the only way to access it... or by manipulating someone with physical access to it to do something to it (knowingly or unwittingly)

Even today, physical access to the system is often how a lot of hacks take place, there's just no substitute for ease of actually having physical access.

Even many newer big name hacks, such as at least one of the Sony hacks and stuff like Stuxnet both were done with physical access.