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Safe computing
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By
Michael Dunn
Hacking
started in the early 1960s in university facilities with huge
mainframe computers. At first, "hacker" was a positive term
for a person with a mastery of computers who could push programs
beyond what they were designed to do.
- In the early 1970's, John Draper learned he could make a
longdistance call for free by blowing a precise tone into
a telephone that tells the phone system to open a line. Draper
discovered the whistle in a box of Cap'n Crunch cereal. Draper,
who later earns the handle "Captain Crunch," is arrested repeatedly
for phone tampering throughout the 1970s.
- Two members of California's Homebrew Computer Club begin
making "blue boxes," devices used to hack into phone systems.
The members, who use the handles "Berkeley Blue" (Steve Jobs)
and "Oak Toebark" (Steve Wozniak), later go on to found Apple
Computer.
- In the early 1980's one of the first arrests of hackers
is made here in Wisconsin. The FBI busts the Milwaukeebased
414s (named after the local area code) after members are accused
of 60 computer breakins ranging from Memorial SloanKettering
Cancer Center to Los Alamos National Laboratory.
- Two hacker groups form, the Legion of Doom in the United
States and the Chaos Computer Club in Germany.
- 2600: The Hacker Quarterly is founded to share tips on phone
and computer hacking.
- In the late 1980s Kevin Mitnick, a veteran hacker at age
25 secretly monitors the email of MCI and Digital Equipment
security officials. He is convicted of damaging computers
and stealing software and is sentenced to one year in prison.
- First National Bank of Chicago is the victim of a $70million
computer heist.
- An Indiana hacker known as "Fry Guy" so named for hacking
McDonald's is raided by law enforcement. A similar sweep occurs
in Atlanta for Legion of Doom hackers known by the handles
"Prophet," "Leftist" and "Urvile."
- In the early 1990s AT&T longdistance service crashes on
Martin Luther King Jr. Day, law enforcement starts a national
crackdown on hackers. The feds nab St. Louis' "Knight Lightning"
and in New York grab Masters of Deception trio "Phiber Optik,"
" Acid Phreak" and "Scorpion." Fellow hacker "Eric Bloodaxe"
is picked up in Austin, Texas.
- Operation Sundevil, a special team of Secret Service agents
and members of Arizona's organized crime unit, conducts raids
in 12 major cities, including Miami.
- A 17month search ends in the capture of hacker Kevin Lee
Poulsen ("Dark Dante"), who is indicted for stealing military
documents.
- Hackers break into Griffith Air Force Base, then go on to
computers at NASA and the Korean Atomic Research Institute.
Scotland Yard nabs "Data Stream," a 16-year-old British teenager
who curls up in the fetal position when seized.
- 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.
- In the late 1990s hackers 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 hackers in 1995 alone.
- A Canadian hacker group called the Brotherhood, angry at
hackers being falsely accused of electronically stalking a
Canadian family, break into the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
Web site and leave message: "The media are liars." Family's
own 15-year-old son eventually is identified as stalking culprit.
- Hackers pierce security in Microsoft's NT operating system
to illustrate its weaknesses.
- Popular Internet search engine Yahoo! is hit by hackers
claiming a "logic bomb" will go off in the PCs of Yahoo!'s
users on Christmas Day 1997 unless Kevin Mitnick is released
from prison
- In 1998 The hacker 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.
Michael Dunn of Appleton writes about computer safety issues..
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