Chapter 1. Security Overview

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1.1.2.3. The 1980s

IBM develops and markets PCs based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor, a relatively inexpensive

architecture that brought computing from the office to the home. This serves to commodify the PC

as a common and accessible household tool that was fairly powerful and easy to use, aiding in the

proliferation of such hardware in the homes and offices of malicious users.

The Transmission Control Protocol, developed by Vint Cerf, is split into two separate parts. The

Internet Protocol is born of this split, and the combined TCP/IP protocol becomes the standard for

all Internet communication today.

Based on developments in the area of phreaking, or exploring and hacking the telephone system,the

magazine 2600: The Hacker Quarterly is created and begins discussion on topics such as hacking

computers and computer networks to a broad audience.

The 414 gang (named after the area code where they lived and hacked from) are raided by author 

ities after a nine day cracking spree where they break into systems from such top secret locations

as the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a nuclear weapons research facility.

The Legion of Doom and the Chaos Computer Club are two pioneering hacker groups that begin

exploiting vulnerabilities in computers and electronic data networks.

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 was voted into law by congress based on the exploits of

Ian Murphy, also known as Captain Zap, who broke into military computers, stole information from

company merchandise order databases, and used restricted government telephone switchboards to

make phone calls.

Based on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the courts were able to convict Robert Morris, a

graduate student, for unleashing the Morris Worm to over 6,000 vulnerable computers connected

to the Internet. The next most prominent case ruled under this act was Herbert Zinn, a high school

dropout who cracked and misused systems belonging to AT&T and the DoD.

Based on concerns that the Morris Worm ordeal could be replicated, the Computer Emergency

Response Team (CERT) is created to alert computer users of network security issues.

Clifford Stoll writes The Cuckoo's Egg, Stoll's account of investigating crackers who exploit his

system.

1.1.2.4. The 1990s

ARPANet is decommissioned. Traffic from that network is transferred to the Internet.

Linus Torvalds develops the Linux kernel for use with the GNU operating system; the widespread

development and adoption of Linux is largely due to the collaboration of users and developers

communicating via the Internet. Because of its roots in Unix, Linux is most popular amongst hack 

ers and administrators who found it quite useful for building secure alternatives to legacy servers

running proprietary (closed source) operating systems.

The graphical Web browser is created and sparks an exponentially higher demand for public Internet

access.

Vladimir Levin and accomplices illegally transfer US$10 Million in funds to several accounts by

cracking into the CitiBank central database. Levin is arrested by Interpol and almost all of the

money is recovered.

Possibly the most heralded of all hackers is Kevin Mitnick, who hacked into several corporate

systems, stealing everything from personal information of celebrities to over 20,000 credit card

numbers and source code for proprietary software. He is caught and convicted of wire fraud charges

and serves 5 years in prison.