ARPANET map (1975). WHERE DID HACKING COME FROM? West Coast Hackers Hacking wasn't exclusively an MIT activity. On the West Coast, important hacking centers formed at Stanford, Berkeley, and the Xerox PARC in Palo Alto. The spread of the ARPANET made it easier for hackers to share ideas and programming. At universities and research centers all over the country, hackers hacked. By the 1980s, the Internet connected people all over the planet. Hacking had become a global phenomenon.