History Of Hacking prt 4 By CEO of TIA

Somewhere in the book of history, back in the days, when hackers were actually hackers, many things happened, good and bad, for better or worse.

The date was between 1990 and 2000, the internet is a public service now, we have websites and web applications, we have web servers, and of course we have hackers.

The web has become essential for businesses, governments, individuals and services like banking, e-commerce, communication and so on.

The popularity of web applications has made them attractive targets for hackers aiming to exploit vulnerabilities in code, design, configuration and even in logic.

Bit by bit, the internet has evolved to become a "jungle" where survival is for the fittest.

Ever since, launching any web (or mobile) application without subjecting it to professional penetration test is akin to releasing prey into the wild.

We recall from that era:

Kevin Mitnick vs. Tsutomu Shimomura year 1994.

Kevin Mitnick was referred to as "The Most Wanted Computer Criminal".

Tsutomu Shimomura, a Japanese Cyber Security expert who worked with the FBI.

Mitnick was able to hack into the computer systems of Shimomura to steal sensitive information, which eventually resulted in Mitnick's arrest.

Vladimir Levin vs. Citibank year 1995:

Vladimir Levin, a Russian Hacker, was leading a group that infiltrated Citibank's systems, managing to steal +/- 10 million USD from customer accounts.

Though Citibank was able to recover most of the stolen funds, this event marked one of the first large-scale financial breaches raising concerns about the security of online banking systems, even before online banking became mainstream.

Solar Sunrise year 1998:

A group of teenage hackers from California joined by two Israeli teenagers conducted a series of attacks against over 500 Department of Defense (DOD) systems in the USA, exploiting vulnerabilities in the Solaris operating system to steal sensitive data.

Initially, it was thought (or at least dealt with) to be a coordinated cyber attack orchestrated by Iraq and caused panic among US cybersecurity officials.

In result, Solar Sunrise exposed the lack of governmental readiness against cyberattacks, given the fact that "professional" work done by "trained officials" was defeated by a group of teenagers who did it "because they could".

Jonathan James vs. NASA and DoD year 1999:

Jonathan James going by the name "c0mrade" was 15 years old when he managed to gain unauthorized access to systems belonging to NASA and the US Department of Defense. He stole software worth over 1.7 million USD from NASA and got access to DoD emails and sensitive information.

Once again the fact that "professional" work done by "trained officials" was defeated by a group of teenagers who did it "because they could" raised many concerns not only about the cyber security state of the public sector, but always raised questions about the efficiency and quality of the officials who are responsible for such positions.

.... But then, years later, "skiddies" happened...

(History Of Hacking Part 5. Read more)

By Elie Ghabash

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