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Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 10:06:51 -0600 (MDT)
From: mea culpa <jericho@dimensional.com>
To: InfoSec News <isn@sekurity.org>
Subject: [ISN] A history, more or less, of hacking


Forwarded From: William Knowles <erehwon@kizmiaz.dis.org>


(September 20, 1998 00:07 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com)
Notable dates in the relationship between hackers and authorities:

1876 -- Alexander Graham Bell invents telephone. 
 
1878 -- First report of teen boys kicked off telephone system for pranks. 
 
1971 -- John Draper discovers that a toy whistle from a cereal box exactly
reproduces the tone needed to open a free telephone line. He adopts the
handle, "Captain Crunch." 
 
1977 -- Two computer hobbyists, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, fresh from
making "blue boxes," the devices used to hack phone company computers,
produce the Apple computer. 
 
1981 -- IBM introduces its version of the personal computer. 
 
1983 -- The movie "WarGames," starring Matthew Broderick, is released. 
 
1983-1984 -- AT&T is split up, resulting in seven regional Bell operating
companies and new targets for hackers. 
 
1984 -- Congress passes Comprehensive Crime Control Act giving Secret
Service jurisdiction over credit card and computer fraud. 
 
1984 -- Founding of 2600: The Hacker Quarterly, a voice for the hacker
underground. 
 
1985 -- Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link computer conference (WELL) goes
online; Phrack electronic magazine founded. 
 
1986 -- Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and Electronic Communications Privacy
Act passed. 
 
1988 -- Robert Morris crashes 6,000 computers on the Internet with a virus
program and is fined $10,000. The federal Computer Emergency Response Team
formed in response. 
 
May 7-9, 1990 -- Secret Service coordinates "Operation Sundevil"  raids in
Cincinnati; Detroit; Miami; Newark, N.J.; Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.;
Pittsburgh; Richmond, Va.; and Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and
San Jose, Calif. 
 
June 1990 -- Cyber-rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation
established. 
 
March 25-28, 1991 -- The first Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference,
in San Francisco. 
 
1993 -- Masters of Deception members arrested by Secret Service.  All
plead guilty to computer crimes and conspiracy. 
 
Summer 1994 -- Vladimir Levin, a graduate of St. Petersburg
Tekhnologichesky University, allegedly masterminds a Russian hacker gang
and steals $10 million from Citibank; arrested in London in 1995. 
 
Feb. 15, 1995 -- Kevin Mitnik arrested and accused of stealing 20,000
valid credit card numbers. He pleads guilty in 1996. 
 
Summer 1995 -- "Hackers," the movie, is released. 
 
Feb. 28, 1998 -- U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno announces National
Infrastructure Protection Center. 
 
Spring 1998 -- Pentagon computers repeatedly hacked. Israeli teen Ehud
Tenebaum, also known as "The Analyzer," claims he mentored two California
teens on how to do it. 
 
May 19, 1998 -- Members of L0pht hacker group testify before the Senate,
warn of serious security weaknesses and claim the ability to shut down the
Internet in half an hour. 

-o-
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