The Real One
Forum Expert
Computer hÀçking is the most popular form of hÀçking nowadays, especially in the field of computer security, but hÀçking exists in many other forms, such as phone hÀçking, brain hÀçking, etc. and itâs not limited to either of them.In the computer security context, a hÀçker is someone who seeks and exploits weaknesses in a computer system or computer network. hÀçkers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, such as profit, protest, challenge or enjoyment.
hÀçking has been around for more than a century. In the 1870s, several teenagers were flung off the countryâs brand new phone system by enraged authorities. Hereâs a peek at how busy hÀçkers have been in the past 35 years.
Early 1960s
University facilities with huge mainframe computers, like MITâs artificial intelligence lab, become staging grounds for hÀçkers. At first, âhÀçkerâ was a positive term for a person with a mastery of computers who could push programs beyond what they were designed to do.
Early 1970s
ohn Draper John Draper makes a long-distance call for free by blowing a precise tone into a telephone that tells the phone system to open a line. Draper discovered the whistle as a give-away in a box of childrenâs cereal. Draper, who later earns the handle âCaptain Crunch,â is arrested repeatedly for phone tampering throughout the 1970s.
Yippie social movement starts YIPL/TAP (Youth International Party Line/Technical Assistance Program) magazine to help phone hÀçkers (called âphreaksâ) make free long-distance calls.
Two members of Californiaâs Homebrew Computer Club begin making âblue boxes,â devices used to hÀçk into the phone system. The members, who adopt handles âBerkeley Blueâ (Steve Jobs) and âOak Toebarkâ (Steve Wozniak), later go on to found Apple Computer.
Early 1980s
Author William Gibson coins the term âcyberspaceâ in a science fiction novel called Neuromancer.
In one of the first arrests of hÀçkers, the FBI busts the Milwaukee-based 414s (named after the local area code) after members are accused of 60 computer break-ins ranging from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Comprehensive Crime Control Act gives Secret Service jurisdiction over credit card and computer fraud.
Two hÀçker groups form, the Legion of Doom in the United States and the Chaos Computer Club in Germany.
2600: The hÀçker Quarterly is founded to share tips on phone and computer hÀçking.
Late 1980s
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act gives more clout to federal authorities.
Computer Emergency Response Team is formed by U.S. defense agencies. Based at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, its mission is to investigate the growing volume of attacks on computer networks.
At 25, veteran hÀçker Kevin Mitnick secretly monitors the e-mail of MCI and Digital Equipment security officials. He is convicted of damaging & hÀçking computers and sâ éåling software and is sentenced to one year in prison.
First National Bank of Chicago is the victim of a $70-million computer heist.
An Indiana hÀçker known as âFry Guyâ â so named for hÀçking McDonaldâs â is raided by law enforcement. A similar sweep occurs in Atlanta for Legion of Doom hÀçkers known by the handles âProphet,â âLeftistâ and âUrvile.â
Early 1990s
After AT&T long-distance service crashes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, law enforcement starts a national crackdown on hÀçkers. The feds nab St. Louisâ âKnight Lightningâ and in New York grab Masters of Deception trio âPhiber Optik,â â Acid Phreakâ and âScorpion.â Fellow hÀçker âEric Bloodaxeâ is picked up in Austin, Texas.
Operation Sundevil, a special team of Secret Service agents and members of Arizonaâs organized crime unit, conducts raids in 12 major cities, including Miami.
A 17-month search ends in the capture of hÀçker Kevin Lee Poulsen (âDark Danteâ), who is indicted for sâ éåling military documents.
hÀçkers break into Griffith Air Force Base, then pewwwte computers at NASA and the Korean Atomic Research Institute. Scotland Yard nabs âData Stream,â a 16-year-old British teenager who curls up in the fetal position when seized.
A Texas A&M professor receives death threats after a hÀçker logs on to his computer from off-campus and sends 20,000 racist e-mail messages using his Internet address.
Kevin Mitnick [photo / AP ]In a highly publicized case, Kevin Mitnick is arrested (again), this time in Raleigh, N.C., after he is tracked down via computer by Tsutomu Shimomura at the San Diego Supercomputer Center.
Late 1990s
hÀçkers break into and deface federal Web sites, including the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Air Force, CIA, NASA and others.
Report by the General Accounting Office finds Defense Department computers sustained 250,000 attacks by hÀçkers in 1995 alone.
A Canadian hÀçker group called the Brotherhood, angry at hÀçkers being falsely accused of electronically stalking a Canadian family, break into the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Web site and leave message: âThe media are liars.â Familyâs own 15-year-old son eventually is identified as stalking culprit.
hÀçkers pierce security in Microsoftâs NT operating system to illustrate its weaknesses.
Popular Internet search engine Yahoo! is hit by hÀçkers claiming a âlogic bombâ will go off in the PCs of Yahoo!âs users on Christmas Day 1997 unless Kevin Mitnick is released from prison. âThere is no virus,â Yahoo! spokeswoman Diane Hunt said.
1998
Anti-hÀçker ad runs during Super Bowl XXXII. The Network Associates ad, costing $1.3-million for 30 seconds, shows two Russian missile silo crewmen worrying that a computer order to launch missiles may have come from a hÀçker. They decide to blow up the world anyway.
In January, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics is inundated for days with hundreds of thousands of fake information requests, a hÀçker attack called âspamming.â
hÀçkers break into United Nationâs Children Fund Web site, threatening a âholocaustâ if Kevin Mitnick is not freed.
hÀçkers claim to have broken into a Pentagon network and stolen software for a military satellite system. They threaten to sell the software to terrorists.
The U.S. Justice Department unveils National Infrastructure Protection Center, which is given a mission to protect the nationâs telecommunications, technology and transportation systems from hÀçkers.
hÀçker group L0pht, in testimony before Congress, warns it could shut down nationwide access to the Internet in less than 30 minutes. The group urges stronger security measures.
1999
Software security goes mainstream In the wake of Microsoftâs Windows 98 release, 1999 becomes a banner year for security (and hÀçking). Hundreds of advisories and patches are released in response to newfound (and widely publicized) bugs in Windows and other commercial software products. A host of security software vendors release anti â hÀçking products for use on home computers.
The Electronic Civil Disobedience project, an online political performance-art group, attacks the Pentagon calling it conceptual art and claiming it to be a protest against the U.S. support of the suppression of rebels in southern Mexico by the Mexican government. ECD uses the FloodNet software to bombard its opponents with access requests.
U.S. President Bill Clinton announces a $1.46 billion initiative to improve government computer security. The plan would establish a network of intrusion detection monitors for certain federal agencies and encourage the private sector to do the same.
January 7: an international coalition of hÀçkers (including CULT OF THE DEAD COW, 2600 âs staff, Phrackâs staff, L0pht, and the Chaos Computer Club) issued a joint statement condemning the LoUâs declaration of war. The LoU responded by withdrawing its declaration.
A hÀçker interviewed by Hilly Rose during the Art Bell Coast-to-Coast Radio Show exposes a plot by Al-Qaida to derail Amtrak trains. This results in ALL trains being forcibly stopped over Y2K as a safety measure.
March: The Melissa worm is released and quickly becomes the most costly malware outbreak to date.
July: CULT OF THE DEAD COW releases Back Orifice 2000 at DEF CON
August: Kevin Mitnick, âthe most wanted man in cyberspaceâ,[who?] sentenced to 5 years, of which over 4 years had already been spent pre-trial including 8 months solitary confinement.
September: Level Seven Crew hÀçks The US Embassy in Chinaâs Website and places racist, anti-government slogans on embassy site in regards to 1998 U.S. embassy bombings.
September 16: The United States Department of Justice sentences the âPhone Mastersâ..
October: American EĂÏréƥƥ introduces the âBlueâ smart card, the industryâs first chip-based credit card in the US.
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