Hacking History...
From phone phreaks to Web attacks, hacking has been a part of computing for 40 years.
1960's
The Dawn of Hacking
The first computer hackers emerged at MIT. They borrow their name from a term to describe members of a model train group at the school who "hack" the electric trains, tracks, and switches to make them perform faster and differently. A few of the members transfer their curiosity and rigging skills to the new mainframe computing systems being studied and developed on campus.
1980's
Hacker Message Boards and Groups
Phone phreaks begin to move into the realm of computer hacking, and the first electronic bulletin board systems (BBSs) spring up. The precursor to Usenet newsgroups and e-mail, the boards--with names such as Sherwood Forest and Catch-22--become the venue of choice for phreaks and hackers to gossip, trade tips,
and share stolen computer passwords and credit card numbers.
1988
The Morris Worm
Robert T. Morris, Jr., a graduate student at Cornell University and son of a chief scientist at a division of the National Security Agency, launches a self-replicating worm on the government's ARPAnet (precursor to the Internet) to test its effect on UNIX systems. The worm gets out of hand and spreads to some 6000 networked computers, clogging government and university systems. Morris is dismissed from Cornell, sentenced to three years' probation, and fined $10,000.
1995
The Mitnick Takedown
Serial cybertrespasser Kevin Mitnick is captured by federal agents and charged with stealing 20,000 credit card numbers. He's kept in prison for four years without a trial and becomes a cause célèbre in the hacking underground. After pleading guilty to seven charges at his trial in March 1999, he's eventually sentenced to little more than the time he had already served while he awaited a trial. Russian crackers siphon $10 million from Citibank and transfer the money to bank accounts around the world. Vladimir Levin, the 30-year-old ringleader, uses his work laptop after hours to
transfer the funds to accounts in Finland and Israel.Levin stands trial in the United States and is sentenced to three years in prison. Authorities recover all but $400,000 of the stolen money.
1998
The Cult of Hacking and the Israeli Connection
The hacking group Cult of the Dead Cow releases its Trojan horse program, Back Orifice--a powerful hacking tool--at Def Con. Once a hacker installs the Trojan horse on a machine running Windows 95 or Windows 98, the program allows unauthorized remote access of the machine.
2000
Service Denied
In one of the biggest denial-of-service attacks to date, hackers launch attacks against eBay, Yahoo, Amazon, and others. Activists in Pakistan and the Middle East deface Web sites belonging to the Indian and Israeli governments to protest oppression in Kashmir and Palestine.
2001
DNS Attack
Microsoft becomes the prominent victim of a new type of hack that attacks the domain name server. In these denial-of-service attacks, the DNS paths that take users to Microsoft's Web sites are corrupted. The hack is detected within a few hours, but prevents millions of users from reaching Microsoft Web pages for two days.
2011 high profile hack attacks
6 June - Nintendo hit by Lulz Security
5 June - Sony Pictures Russia database leaked
3 June - Sony Europe database leaked
3 June - 10,000 Iranian government e-mails stolen by Anonymous
2 June - Sony Pictures database leaked
1 June - Defence group L-3 discloses it was hit in attack
1 June - Google reveals Gmail attack
30 May - Fake story about Tupac posted to PBS website
29 May - Honda Canada reveals 283,000 records stolen
27 May - Lockheed Martin reveals it has been hit by a hack attack
24 May - Sony Music Japan hacked
19 May - Nasa loses data to TinKode
Top 5 Most Famous Hackers of All Time
1. Jonathan James: James gained notoriety when he became the first juvenile to be sent to prison for hacking. He was sentenced at the age of 16 . In an anonymous PBS interview, he professes, "I was just looking around, playing around. What was fun for me was a challenge to see what I could pull off." James also cracked into NASA computers, stealing software worth approximately $1.7 million.
2. Adrian Lamo: Lamo's claim to fame is his break-ins at major organizations like The New York Times and Microsoft. Dubbed the "homeless hacker," he used Internet connections at Kinko's, coffee shops and libraries to make his intrusions. In a profile article, "He Hacks by Day, Squats by Night," Lamo reflects, "I have a laptop in Pittsburgh, a change of clothes in D.C. It kind of redefines the term multi-jurisdictional."
3. Kevin Mitnick: A self-proclaimed "hacker poster boy," Mitnick went through a highly
publicized pursuit by authorities. His mischief was hyped by the media but his actual
offenses may be less notable than his notoriety suggests. The Department of Justice
describes him as "the most wanted computer criminal in United States history." His
exploits were detailed in two movies: Freedom Downtime and Takedown.
4. Kevin Poulsen: Also known as Dark Dante, he gained recognition for his hack of LA
radio's KIIS-FM phone lines, which earned him a brand new Porsche, among other items. His hacking specialty, however, revolved around telephones.
5. Robert Tappan Morris: Morris, son of former National Security Agency scientist Robert Morris, is known as the creator of the Morris Worm, the first computer worm to be unleashed on the Internet. As a result of this crime, he was the first person prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
From phone phreaks to Web attacks, hacking has been a part of computing for 40 years.
1960's
The Dawn of Hacking
The first computer hackers emerged at MIT. They borrow their name from a term to describe members of a model train group at the school who "hack" the electric trains, tracks, and switches to make them perform faster and differently. A few of the members transfer their curiosity and rigging skills to the new mainframe computing systems being studied and developed on campus.
1980's
Hacker Message Boards and Groups
Phone phreaks begin to move into the realm of computer hacking, and the first electronic bulletin board systems (BBSs) spring up. The precursor to Usenet newsgroups and e-mail, the boards--with names such as Sherwood Forest and Catch-22--become the venue of choice for phreaks and hackers to gossip, trade tips,
and share stolen computer passwords and credit card numbers.
1988
The Morris Worm
Robert T. Morris, Jr., a graduate student at Cornell University and son of a chief scientist at a division of the National Security Agency, launches a self-replicating worm on the government's ARPAnet (precursor to the Internet) to test its effect on UNIX systems. The worm gets out of hand and spreads to some 6000 networked computers, clogging government and university systems. Morris is dismissed from Cornell, sentenced to three years' probation, and fined $10,000.
1995
The Mitnick Takedown
Serial cybertrespasser Kevin Mitnick is captured by federal agents and charged with stealing 20,000 credit card numbers. He's kept in prison for four years without a trial and becomes a cause célèbre in the hacking underground. After pleading guilty to seven charges at his trial in March 1999, he's eventually sentenced to little more than the time he had already served while he awaited a trial. Russian crackers siphon $10 million from Citibank and transfer the money to bank accounts around the world. Vladimir Levin, the 30-year-old ringleader, uses his work laptop after hours to
transfer the funds to accounts in Finland and Israel.Levin stands trial in the United States and is sentenced to three years in prison. Authorities recover all but $400,000 of the stolen money.
1998
The Cult of Hacking and the Israeli Connection
The hacking group Cult of the Dead Cow releases its Trojan horse program, Back Orifice--a powerful hacking tool--at Def Con. Once a hacker installs the Trojan horse on a machine running Windows 95 or Windows 98, the program allows unauthorized remote access of the machine.
2000
Service Denied
In one of the biggest denial-of-service attacks to date, hackers launch attacks against eBay, Yahoo, Amazon, and others. Activists in Pakistan and the Middle East deface Web sites belonging to the Indian and Israeli governments to protest oppression in Kashmir and Palestine.
2001
DNS Attack
Microsoft becomes the prominent victim of a new type of hack that attacks the domain name server. In these denial-of-service attacks, the DNS paths that take users to Microsoft's Web sites are corrupted. The hack is detected within a few hours, but prevents millions of users from reaching Microsoft Web pages for two days.
2011 high profile hack attacks
6 June - Nintendo hit by Lulz Security
5 June - Sony Pictures Russia database leaked
3 June - Sony Europe database leaked
3 June - 10,000 Iranian government e-mails stolen by Anonymous
2 June - Sony Pictures database leaked
1 June - Defence group L-3 discloses it was hit in attack
1 June - Google reveals Gmail attack
30 May - Fake story about Tupac posted to PBS website
29 May - Honda Canada reveals 283,000 records stolen
27 May - Lockheed Martin reveals it has been hit by a hack attack
24 May - Sony Music Japan hacked
19 May - Nasa loses data to TinKode
Top 5 Most Famous Hackers of All Time
1. Jonathan James: James gained notoriety when he became the first juvenile to be sent to prison for hacking. He was sentenced at the age of 16 . In an anonymous PBS interview, he professes, "I was just looking around, playing around. What was fun for me was a challenge to see what I could pull off." James also cracked into NASA computers, stealing software worth approximately $1.7 million.
2. Adrian Lamo: Lamo's claim to fame is his break-ins at major organizations like The New York Times and Microsoft. Dubbed the "homeless hacker," he used Internet connections at Kinko's, coffee shops and libraries to make his intrusions. In a profile article, "He Hacks by Day, Squats by Night," Lamo reflects, "I have a laptop in Pittsburgh, a change of clothes in D.C. It kind of redefines the term multi-jurisdictional."
3. Kevin Mitnick: A self-proclaimed "hacker poster boy," Mitnick went through a highly
publicized pursuit by authorities. His mischief was hyped by the media but his actual
offenses may be less notable than his notoriety suggests. The Department of Justice
describes him as "the most wanted computer criminal in United States history." His
exploits were detailed in two movies: Freedom Downtime and Takedown.
4. Kevin Poulsen: Also known as Dark Dante, he gained recognition for his hack of LA
radio's KIIS-FM phone lines, which earned him a brand new Porsche, among other items. His hacking specialty, however, revolved around telephones.
5. Robert Tappan Morris: Morris, son of former National Security Agency scientist Robert Morris, is known as the creator of the Morris Worm, the first computer worm to be unleashed on the Internet. As a result of this crime, he was the first person prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
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