Early 60sThe
universities that have huge computer, such as the laboratory for
artificial intelligence at MIT, becoming the first stage for hackers. At first, the term "hacker" has positive connotations, and describes a
person who has a certain mastery in managing computer and that can
"push" the use of programs beyond the threshold for which they were
designed.1983In
one of the first arrests of hackers, the FBI catch a group of six
teenagers in Milwaukee known as "414", a name derived from the local
area code. Hackers
are accused of seventy "raids" in computers around the country,
including the Center for Research on Cancer Sloan-Kettering and the
National Laboratory of Los Alamos. One of the hackers gets immunity as a result of his testimony, the other five get a suspended sentence.1984Eric Corley, who uses the pseudonym "Emmanuel Goldstein" (based on the
novel 1984 by George Orwell) from the street in New York to the
publication of 2600: The Hacker Quarterly, which quickly becomes a
clearinghouse of information for hacking.1985Journalists underground "Taran King" and "KnightLightning" launch
Phrack, an electronic magazine based in St. Louis, which provides
information on the comupter hacking.1986Five
lights of the then West Germany were arrested on charges of espionage
after a 'survey carried out by Clifford Stoll, a researcher at the
University of Berkeley in California, which took over and investigated
on its own the systematic intrusions into government computers and
American university . Three
of these hackers, accused of having sold the KGB information and
software, were convicted but none of them was ever detained. From this experience Stoll he obtained two years after a successful book, "The Cuckoo's Egg," which describes his hunt hackers.1987A
seventeen year old Chicago with some academic problems, Herbert Zinn,
known to the authorities as "Shadow Mask", admits he infiltrated
computers AT & T in Bedminster, New Jersey. According to federal authorities, the boy was near arivato to enter the sorting system's main phone company. Zinn
thus becomes one of the first to be prosecuted under the Computer Fraud
and Abuse Act of 1986, it states that among other things made it
illegal to use passwords of others. He is caught in a BBS was incauntamente boasted of being riusciuto to attack computers on the AT & T.1988Robert
Morris, a student of twenty-two Cornell University, launched on the
Internet a "worm" program that he had written to exploit a security hole
on Unix systems. The
worm programmed to penetrate other computers on the network and
replicate, infected about 6,000 systems quickly - about a tenth of the
Internet back then - and virtually stopped the network seizing resource
systems. Morris
was arrested shortly after and said that was not his intention to cause
harm, evaluated according to estimates of experts between 15 and 100
million dollars. The conviction could result in up to 5 years in prison and a fine up
to $ 250,000: the final judgment was limited to three years' probation,
400 hours of community service and $ 10,000 in fines.1988The Ministry of Defense severs the links between the non-confidential
military network (MILNET) and the ARPANET (the first Internet) after
discovering a hacker was able to penetrate at least in a computer
Milnet.1989Kevin
Miotnick is convicted of stealing software from DEC (ex-Digital) and
calling codes for long distance phone calls from MCI, effectively
becoming the first person to be convicted under the new law that pursues
the crimes of access data on interstate connections. He spent a year in prison and then was set free visgilata, but with orders not to use computers or associate with other hackers.1990Four
members of the "Legion of Doom", a group of hackers in the southern
United States, were arrested for stealing the technical specifications
relating to the telephone network for emergency calls (911) of
BellSouth, information that could be used to " potentially disrupt or halt service related to 911 calls in the entire United States, "at least according to the indictment. The
company said at that time that hackers also have lifted logins,
passwords and addresses of connection for your computer network, and
that this had resulted in the expenditure of about $ 3 million to
increase security measures. Three hackers group were convicted and handed sentences of 14 to 21
months and was ordered to pay restitution of $ 233,000 to BellSouth.1990The Secret Service launches Operation Sundevil to hunt down hackers. Agents eventually seize computer equipment in 14 cities.1991Police
arrest Justin Tanner Petersen in Dallas for possession of a stolen car
and find computer files that lead to charges as it shows that he had
managed to penetrate the computer systems of TRW. After his conviction, Petersen is contacted by the FBI and the Secret Service to give their help in computer investigations. Justin
Tanner Petersen cooperate with investigators in the Mitnick case, but
in October 1993 will disappear for a short time after being declared a
fugitive. Reappears in 1994 as an accomplice to Kevin Pulsen within the framework of its radio station (see 1993).1991The
US General Accounting Office reveals that Dutch teen-agers were able to
penetrate the systems of the Department of Defense during the Gulf War,
altering or copying of information classified as secret related to
military operations, including data of military personnel, the amount of equipment being moved to the Gulf and the development of major weapons systems.1992Five
members of "Masters of Deception", a group of minors of the
neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens in New York, are accused of
infiltrating, among others, in the computer systems of AT & T, Bank
of America, TRW and NSA (l 'National Security Agency). Investigators in this case used for the first time of the intercepting devices for the capture of hackers. One of the boys, Mark Abene ("Phiber Optik"), was sentenced to one year; the other to 6 months.1993Kevin
Poulsen is charged with using computers to rig promotional contests at
three radio stations in Los Alamos, in a pattern that presumably would
lead to reward his efforts with two Porsche, $ 20,000 in cash and two
trips to Hawaii. Poulsen,
already a fugitive for two previous charges related to problems with
computer systems and telecommunications, is accused of conspiring with
two other hackers, Ronald Mark Austin and Justin Tanner Peterson, to
gain control of incoming phone lines to radio stations, in By making sure that only their calls were able to "win" the top prize.1994Two
hackers identified as "Strem Date" and "Kuji" break into systems of
Griffith Air Force base and hundreds of other computers, including NASA
and the Institute for Atomic Research in Korea. After a cyber-manhunt, Scotland Yard detectives arrest "Data Stream", a
sixteen year old at the time of the arrest lies down in the fetal
position and cry, while "Kuji" was never identified.1994The
Independent newspaper reported the news of a temporary worker at
British Telecom used for any length of password obtained with remarkable
ease to get the phone numbers of the Queen, the Prime Minister John
Major and several top secret installations of M15 , which they were all popular on the Internet. Steve Fleming, the reporter who wrote the story, later admitted that
he had worked for the phone company and purloined the numbers.1994Hackers
launch an attack with the clear intention to penetrate the computer of
Tsutomu Shimomura at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, in California,
which contains sophisticated security systems. Shimomura joins others in an attempt to track down Kevin Mitnick already convicted, suspected in the break.1995K. Mitnick was arrested in Raileigh, North Carolina. The
help of Tsutomu Shimomura proves crucial in assisting the federal
authorities in tracking Mitnick after he had managed to fit in the
computer managed by Shimomura during an attack at the San Diego
Supercomputer Center. Mitnick
was accused of being able to hack into a computer network and with
stealing 20,000 credit card numbers and to have copied the software. Mitncik awaits jail verdict issued in 1999, when it is found guilty of seven charges. He served another 10 months and was released on parole in January
2000. It can not use the computer until 2003 without permission from the
officer in charge of probation.1995The
thirty year old Russian hacker Vladimir Levin is arrested in England
according to the accusation that he used his laptop to transfer at least
3.7 million dollars from Citibank in New York to various accounts
scattered around the world he managed together his accomplices. Levin is later extradited to the US where he was sentenced to 3 years in prison and ordered to repay $ 240,000 to Citibank.1995Satan is put into circulation, a software designed to find the weaknesses of Unix computers connected to the Internet. Its authors, including security expert Dan Farmer, say they wrote
Satan to help operators of computers networked to detect and correct the
flaws in their own systems before vulnerabilities are discovered by
hackers.1996A
hacker known by the pseudonym Johnny [Xchaotic] mail bombs to about
40 politicians, big businessmen and other individuals and institutions
by subscribing to mailing lists on the Internet, generating at least
20,000 messages in a weekend. [Xchaotic] also publishes a poster that explains why he chose each objective. It has never been captured.1997The body of InterNIC domain registry operated by Network Solutions is attacked by a competitor. Eugene
Kashpureff, an employee of AlterNIC eventually pleaded guilty to
designing a defective version of the software 'InterNIC which has spread
rapidly around the world to other DNS servers and prevented tens of
thousands of users the ability to reach many Web sites with domain ".com" and ".net". The software also "hijacked" visitors to the website, rerouting them to the AlterNIC home page.1998The
Under Secretary of Defense of the Government of the United States John
Hamre announces that hackers have completed "the most systematic and
organized attack of all time into the Pentagon", breaking into computers
of different government agencies to examine and possibly alter the
envelopes pay and personnel data. A short time later, two teen-agers from Cloverdale, California, are detained in connection. Three weeks later the authorities announced the arrest of an Israeli
boy known as "the Analyzer," the alleged mastermind of the intrusion.1998A
clear message to the young hacker is sent by federal prosecutors, who
for the first time put on trial a minor accused of having blocked the
communications system of an airport in Worcester, Massachusetts, during
an intrusion into the computer system of the Bell Atlantic took the 'previous year. According
to authorities, the boy's attack interrupted the communications between
the control tower and air traffic at the airport in Worcester for six
hours. There was not any accident. During
the trial the boy, which were not declared the name and exact age,
pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years probation and to pay $
5,000 in favor of the telephone company, not because 250 hours of
community service social.1998Hacker
who declare themselves members of the "Masters of Downloading" say they
entered the network of the Pentagon and of stealing proprietary
software that would allow them to control the system of a military
satellite. Threaten to sell the software to terrorists. The Pentagon denies that the sioftware was confidential or that may
allow hackers to control their own satellites, but admits that a network
containing sensitive information was violated.1998Max
Butler, also known as MaxVision, stands out for two sites that deal
with penetration test and a valid program Arachnids who collects the
signatures of the different types of attack. Alongside
this activity, defined as "white hat hackers" (which is partly also the
name of one of its sites), during June 1998, after which there was a
widespread knowledge of an exploit known as BIND, was After
gaining access to thousands of sites, in particular the military and
government, putting remedy to the vulnerability, but also installing a
backdoor that allowed him to access it. Confessed and convicted by the court in California, he was sentenced
to 18 months with the possibility of parole from April 2002 for good
behavior until the exhaustion of the sentence, scheduled for October of
that year.May-June 1999The
sites of the US Senate, the White House and the US Army, along with
dozens of other government sites, fall victim to cyber vandals. In all, the hackers scrawl messages that are quickly erased immediately. One of the most notable message reads "Crystal, I love you on the website of the CIA, signed" Zyklon ".November 1999The Norwegian group Masters of Reverse Engineering (MORE) is a key to decode the security software DVD. The group creates a DVD decoder program and distributes it on the Web,
a move that spurs a flurry of lawsuits from the entertainment industry.February 2000Within
three days, the hacker causing the interruption of many websites
including The most visited, among whom I Yahoo !, Amazon, Buy.com, eBay
and CNN.com using attacks "Denial of Service" which overload servers host the sites with a huge number of requests for data.January 2001D.
Moran, eighteen, otherwise known as "Coolio", a hacker active in New
Hampshire, is found guilty of violating the site of RSA (one reference
in the field of computer security), one of the police department of Los
Angeles, what NASA and other sites including that of the US government. He was sentenced to nine months in prison and ordered to pay $ 15,000 in fines. A
business consultant was interested in his case and has been involved in
a recovery plan which foresees its use in the hours of semi freedom for
debugging computer systems, with a view to help him create his own
consulting firm a After finishing the prison experience.July 2001The
FBI arrests Russian computer engineer Dmitri Sklyarov at the annual
gathering of hackers in Las Vegas for the violation of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The company's Moscow Sklyarov had sold a program that sbloccava files of the Adobe eBook Reader.2001A.
Garrett, a computer consultant from New Zealand, was found guilty of
five counts, while another 4 are dropped for lack of evidence. The
charge is to be penetrated illegally in some Internet sites, installing
the server backdoor (BackOrifice) to obtain passwords, it had canceled
4500 sites by the server of a provider of New Zealand and some users
have threatened with reprisals if they did not change provider. The
ruling, following a lawsuit that began in '98, has resulted in the
requirement for Garrett to lend 200 hours as a teacher of advanced
computing techniques for adult communities. The case dragged on for several years as in New Zealand had not been enacted yet no law that directly concern cybercrime.2001Jesus
Oquendo, better known as "Sil", responsible for an intriguing and
irreverent website (AntiOffline) was sentenced in July by a court in New
York to 27 months in prison and a fine of nearly $ 100,000. Although
Oquendo continued to plead not guilty, he was found guilty of
violations of computer and information have caught at the company where
he was employed, which in turn shared resources and space in a server
name of an investment company. Based
on the evidence presented by the prosecution, Sil had collected a
number of e-mails and passwords by redirecting to a site under his
control and then violate a site of a wholesaler of computer equipment
erasing the data base and replacing a message to proud of what happened. Sil was able to show that at the time of the violation and sending
mail he was not connected, but this did not help that to reduce his
sentence.2001Since
this is a minor, it is known only the name of art: Mafiaboy, but the
recent conclusion of his court case has brought to light other elements.
Mafiaboy,
at the time of its greatest assets as crackers had about 15 years, but
it is almost certain that they are attributable to him the exploits that
led to breach sites, eBay, Yahoo, Buy.com and some universities
(Berkeley and MIT) and a series of DoS against Dell Amazon, CNN and AOL. Other hacked sites have been traced in the US, the UK, Denmark, Korea and his native Canada. Mafiaboy
pleaded guilty and repented after the arrest in 2000, his most recent
activity sees him employed in a restaurant, attend supplementary
educational courses and a course of restoration school. Faced
with a possible sentence of two years, the judgment has deemed
punishable by eight months of juvenile prison, one year of probation and
400 dollar fine. Damage caused to the aforesaid company were estimated at about $ 1.8 billion.2001OnTheFly,
alias J. De Wit, a young Dutch student computer is on trial on the
charge of spreading a virus known as the Anna Kournikova. Although
millions have been infected systems, FBI investigators were unable to
prove that just over fifty and in front of the millions of dollars that
can be spent to deal with the consequences, have been complaining about
damage to less than 200,000 dollars. The verdict is expected in late September; the demand for punishment could involve a certain amount of hours that J. De Wit should pay in terms of social assistance.2001NASA has always been one of the most coveted targets of hackers and crackers. While
the attempts of infringement are countless other there is a greater
responsiveness on the part of the investigators towards those who can
not. J.
Schwab, known as "skalir" is currently under investigation in New
Mexico for abuse computer salesman last year, when he was still a minor
when he violated one of the sites of the NASA in Silicon Valley,
altering their content and inserting trojan . For
a similar operation carried out in '98 against the server NASA's JPL
(Jet Propulsion Lab.), R. Torricelli, alias "rolex", was sentenced to
four months and the damages (approximately $ 4,500). In this case the content of the site had been replaced with pornographic material. Rolex
is also alleged to have violated some 800 sites and stealing credit
card numbers and using them to illegal purchases of over $ 10,000. J.
James, aka "c0mrade", a fifteen Florida who removed data from 13 NASA
sites, was sentenced a year later to 6 months imprisonment. It
seems that the material had subtracted a total value of $ 1.7 million,
and that the restoration of data has led to cost $ 41,000. On
the same days of September during which the sentence was pronounced
c0mrade, a certain J. Diekman was arrested in California on suspicion of
infiltrating in some systems owned by NASA and several universities
such as Stanford, Harvard and Cornell.
