The Complete History of Hacking

Maybe not the com pl ete history but a valid attempt. A compl ete hacker history will never be obtainabl e since so much of the history is fragme nte d, unfound ed and unreported.T his will not be a complete list but a work in progress.

[1960 Nov] Telephone calls are switched for the first time by computer.

[1963] Dartmouth College , located in Hanover, New Hampshire, incorporates the introduction to the use of computers as a regular part of the Liberal Arts program.

[1963] ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is created, permitting machines from different manufacturers to exchange data. ASCII consists of 128 unique strings of ones and zeros.

[1964] There are approxi mat ely 18,200 computer system s in the United States. Over 70% of those computers were manufactured by International Business Machine s (IBM).

[1964] Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny created BASIC (Beginner's All- Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), an easy- to- learn program mi ng language, for their students at Dartmout h College.

[1967] The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA ) work with U.S. computer experts to form a network of Interface Message Processors (IMPS). The computers would act as gateways to mainframe s at a variety of institutions in the United States and provide a major part of what would become the Internet in the years ahead.

[1969] The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA ) originates ARPA N E T , a service designed to provide efficient ways to communi cate for scientists. A Cambridge, Massachus etts consulting firm, Bolt Beranek and Newma n , who won a ARPA contract to design and build a network of Interface Message Processors (IMP S) the year prior, ships (Sept) the first unit to UCLA and ships (Oct) the second unit to Stanford Research Institute . IMPS act as gateways to mainframe s at a variety of institutions in the United States. Within a few days of delivery, the machine at UCLA and Stanford link up for the first time and ARPA N E T is founded. Later the network expands to four nodes. The first four nodes (networks) consisted of the, University of California Los Angeles, University of California Santa Barbara, University of Utah and the Stanford Research Institute . This system would evolve to be known as the Internet or the Information Super Highway.

[1969] Intel makes the announce m e nt of a much larger RAM chip. It boasts of a 1KB capacity.

[1969] Ken L. Thompso n , Dennis M. Ritchie and others start working on the UNIX operating system at Bell Labs (later AT&T). UNIX was designed with the goal of allowing several users to access the computer simultane ously.

[1969] The first computer hackers emerge at MIT . They borrow their name from a term to describe members of a model train group at the school who "hack" the electric trains, tracks, and switches to make them perform faster and differently. A few of the members transfer their curiosity and rigging skills to the new mainframe computing system s being studied and developed on campus

[1969] Joe Engressia ('The Whistler', 'Joybub bles' and 'High Rise Joe') considered the father of phreaking. Joe, who is blind, was a mathem atics student at USF in the late 1960s when he discovered that he could whistle into a pay telephone the precise pitch --the 2600- cycle note, close to a high A- - that would trip phone circuits and allow him to make long- distance calls at no cost.

1970s

[1970] An estimated 100,000 computer systems are in use in the United States. [1970] Digital Equipm ent Corporation (DEC) introduce s the famous PDP- 11 , which is considered to be one of the best designed minicom puters ever, and many of the machines are still used today. Some of the best computer hackers in the world cut their teeth on -11's.

[1971] The first personal computer, the Kenback , is advertised in the Septem b er issue of Scientific American .

[1971] John Draper ('Cap'n Crunch') learns that a toy whistle given away inside Cap'n Crunch cereal generates a 2600- hertz signal , the same high- pitched tone that accesses AT&T's long- distance switching system. Draper builds a blue box that, when used in conjunction with the whistle and sounded into a phone receiver, allows phreakers to make free calls.

[1971] Esquire magazine publishes Secrets of the Little Blue Box with instructions for making a blue box , and wire fraud in the United States escalates. Among the perpetrators: college kids Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs , future founders of Apple Comput er, who launch a home industry making and selling blue boxes .

[1971] First e- mail program written by Ray Tomlinson and used on ARPA N E T which now has 64 nodes. Tomlinson of Bolt Beranek and Newma n , contracted by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA ) to create the ARPA N E T , selects the @ symbol to separate user names in e- mail as the first e- mail messag es are sent between computers.

[1972 May] John Draper arrested for phone phreaking and sentenced to four months in California's Lompoc prison.

[1973] Intel ’ s chairman, Gordon Moore , publicly reveals the prophecy that the number of transistors on a microchip will double every year and a half. Moore ’ s Law will hold true for more than twenty years.

[1975] About 13,000 cash dispensing Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) are installed.

[1975] Atari, Inc. ’ s home version of PON G begins selling at 900 Sears and Roebuck stores under the Sears ’ Telegam e s brand.

[1975 Aug] William Henry Gates , III (Bill Gates) and Paul Allen found Microsoft .

[1976] David R. Boggs and Robert M. Metcalfe invent Ethernet at Xerox in Palo Alto, California.

[1976 Apr] Stephen Wozniak , Steven Paul Jobs and Ron Wayne sign an agreeme nt that founds Apple Computer on April 1.

[1977 Aug 3] The TRS- 80 ('Trash- 80') Model I offered to the public and becom es the first desktop computer.

[1977 Dec] The Atari 2600 is selling for $199.95 and includes one game and two controllers.

[1978] Bill Joy produces first Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) of UNIX.

[1978] There are an estimated 5,000 desktop computers in use within the United States.

[1978] Kevin David Mitnick ('Condor') meets phone phreak Lewis De Payne ('Roscoe') of Roscoe gang while harassing a HAM radio operator on the air in Southern California.

[1979] The C Program ming Language by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie is published.

[1979 Jun] The Apple II+ with 48K RAM and a new “ a u t o- start ” ROM is introduced by Apple Comput er for $1,195

1980s

[1980] There is an estimated 350,000 computer terminals "networked" with larger "host" computers.

[1980] Nintendo, Ltd. release s Donkey Kong as a coin- operated arcade game.

[1980] Usenet is born, networking UNIX machines over slow phone lines. Usenet eventually overruns ARPAN E T as the virtual bulletin board of choice for the emerging hacker nation. 1980 Dec] Roscoe Gang, including Kevin Mitnick , invade computer system at US Leasing.

[1981] Kenji Urada, 37, becomes the first reported death caused by a robot. A self- propelled robotic cart crushed him as he was trying to repair it in a Japane se factory.

[1981] Commo d ore Business Machines starts shipping the VIC- 20 home computer. It features a 6502 microprocesso r, 8 colors and a 61- key keyboard. Screen columns are limited to 22 characters. The product is manufactured in West Germany and sells in the U.S. for just under $300.

[1981 Jul] Microsoft acquires complete rights to Seattle Comp uter Product ’ s DOS and names it MS- DOS .

[1981] Ian Murphy ('Captain Zap') was the first hacker to be tried and convicted as a felon. Murphy broke into AT&T's computers and changed the internal clocks that metered billing rates. People were getting late- night discount rates when they called at midday.

[1981 May 23] Kevin Mitnick , 17, is arrested for stealing computer manuals from Pacific Bell's switching center in Los Angeles, California. He will be prosecuted as a juvenile and sentenced to probation.

[1981 May 28] First mention of Microsoft on Usenet.

[1982] There are an estimated 3 million computer terminals "networked" with larger "host" computers. Also, there are an estimated number of 5 million desktop computers in use within the United States. More than 100 companie s make personal computers.

[1982] Sun Microsyste ms , Inc. is founded by four 27- year- old men; Andreas von Bechtolshei m , Vinod Khosla , Scott McNealy and Bill Joy .

[1982] As hacker culture begins to erode, losing some of its brightest minds to comm ercial PC and software start- ups, Richard Stallman starts to develop a free clone of UNIX, written in C, that he calls GNU (for Gnu's Not Unix).

[1982] Lewis De Payne ('Roscoe') pleas guilty to conspiracy and fraud. Sentence: 150 days in jail. Accom plice gets thirty. Mitnick gets ninety day diagnostic study by juvenile justice system, plus a year probation.

[1982] Kevin Mitnick cracks Pacific Telephone system and TRW ; destroys data. [1982] William Gibson coins term "cyberspace."

[1982] '414 Gang' phreakers raided. '414 Private' BBS was where the '414 Gang' would exchange information while breaking into system s of Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center and Los Alamos military computers.

[1982 Aug] Com m o d ore ships the Com m o d ore 64 computer and enters more than one million homes during this first year. The C- 64 was the first home computer with a standard 64K RAM. With an suggested retail price of $595, it was considered a huge value. It included a keyboard, CPU, graphics and sound chips.

[1982 Sep 19] Scott E. Fahlman typed the first on- line smiley, [1983] The Internet is formed when ARPA N E T is split into military and civilian sections.

[1983] The movie WarGa m e s is released, Matthe w Broderick plays a computer whiz kid who inadvertently initiates the countdo wn to World War III.

[1983] Plovernet BBS (Bulletin Board System) was a powerful East Coast pirate board that operated in both New York and Florida. Owned and operated by teenage hacker 'Quasi Moto', Plovernet attracted five hundred eager users in 1983. Eric Corley ('Emm an u el Goldstein') was one- time co- sysop of Plovernet, along with 'Lex Luthor', who would later found the phreaker/hacker group, Legion of Doom.

[1983 Sep 22] Kevin Poulsen ('Dark Dante') and Ron Austin are arrested for breaking into the ARPA N E T . At 17 Poulsen is not prosecuted and Austin receives 3 years probation.

[1983 Sep 27] Richard Stallman makes the first Usenet announce m e nt about GNU.

[1983 Nov 12] First mention of Microsoft Windows on Usenet.

[1984] Andrew Tanenbau m writes the first version of Minix, a UNIX intended for educational purposes. Minix later gave Linus Torvalds the inspiration to start writing Linux .

[1984] The University of California at Berkeley release d version 4.2BS D which included a complete implementation of the TCP/IP networking protocol s. System s based on this and later BSD releases provided a multi- vendor networking capability based on Ethernet networking.

[1984] Bill Landreth ('The Cracker') is convicted of breaking into some of the most secure computer system s in the United States, including GTE Telemail's electronic mail network, where he peeped at NAS A Department of Defense computer corresponde nc e. In 1987 Bill violated his probation and was back in jail finishing his sentence. Bill also authored an interesting read titled 'Out of the Inner Circle'. of telephone networks, copying proprietary information from companies and distributing hacking tutorials. Members included: 'Lex Luther' (founder), Chris Goggans ('Erik Bloodaxe'), Mark Abene ('Phiber Optik'), Adam Grant ('The Urvile'), Franklin Darden ('The Leftist' [1984] Legion of Doom formed. Legion of Doom, a hacker group which operated in the United States in the late 1980's. The group's wide ranging activities included diversion of telephone networks, copying proprietary information from companies and distributing hacking tutorials. Members included: 'Lex Luther' (founder), Chris Goggans ('Erik Bloodaxe'), Mark Abene ('Phiber Optik'), Adam Grant ('The Urvile'), Franklin Darden ('The Leftist'), Robert Riggs ('The Prophet'), Loyd Blankenshi p ('The Mentor'), Todd Lawrence ('The Marauder), Scott Chasin ('Doc Holiday'), Bruce Fancher ('Death Lord'), Patrick K. Kroupa ('Lord Digital'), James Salsman ('Karl Marx'), Steven G. Steinberg ('Frank Drake'), Corey A. Lindsly ('Mark Tabas'), 'Agrajag The Prolonged', 'King Blotto', 'Blue Archer', 'The Dragyn', 'Unkno wn Soldier', 'Sharp Razor', 'Doctor Who', 'Paul Muad'Di b', 'Phucked Agent 04', 'X- man', 'Randy Smith', 'Steve Dahl, 'The Warlock', 'Terminal Man', 'Silver Spy', 'The Videosmith', 'Kerrang Khan', 'Gary Seven', 'Bill From RNOC', 'Carrier Culprit', 'Master of Impact', 'Phanto m Phreaker', 'Doom Prophet', 'Thom as Covenant', 'Phase Jitter', 'Prime Suspect', 'Skinny Puppy' and 'Professor Falken'.

[1984] 2600: The Hacker Quarterly founded by Eric Corley ('Em ma n u el Goldstein').

[1984 Jun 19] The X Window System is released by Robert W. Scheifler.

[1985] Hacker 'zine Phrack is first published by Craig Neidorf ('Knight Lightning') and Randy Tischler ('Taran King').

[1985 May 24] Date of incorporation under original founding name, Quantu m Computer Services (America Online ).

[1986] The Congress passes Comput er Fraud and Abuse Act. The law, however, does not cover juveniles.

[1986] The german hacker group, Chaos Computer Club , hacked information about the german Nuclear Power Program from governm e nt computers during the Chernobyl crisis.

[1986 Jan 8] Legion of Doom/H member Loyd Blankenship ('The Mentor') is arrested around this time. He publishes a now- famous treatise that comes to be known as the Hacker's Manifesto .

[1986 Feb 26] The Phoenix Fortress BBS issues warrants for the arrest and confiscation of the equpm ent of 7 local users in Fremont, CA. The Sysop turns out to be a local law enforcem e nt agent and the Phoeni x Fortress created to catch hackers and software pirates.

[1986 Sep 1] An unknown suspect or group of suspects using the code name Pink Floyd repeatedl y accessed the UNIX and Portia computer system s at Stanford University without authorization. Damage was estimated at $10,000.

[1986 Aug] In August, while following up a 75 cent accounting error in the computer logs at the Lawren ce Berkeley Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, network manag er Clifford Stoll uncovers evidence of hackers at work. A year- long investigation results in the arrest of the five german hackers responsi ble.

[1987 Sep 14] It's disclosed publicly that young german computer hackers calling themsel ve s the Data Travellers, managed to break into NASA network computers and other world- wide top secret computer installations.

[1987 Nov 23] Chaos Computer Club hacks NAS A's SPA N network.

[1987 Dec] Kevin Mitnick invades system s at Santa Cruz Operation . Mitnick sentenced to probabtion for stealing software from SCO, after he cooperate s by telling SCO engineers how he got into their system s.

[1988 Jun] The U.S. Secret Service (USS S ) secretly videotapes the Summ erC o n hacker convention.

[1988 Nov 2] Robert T. Morris, Jr., a graduate student at Cornell University and son of a chief scientist at a division of the National Security Agency (NSA), launches a self- replicating worm on the governm e nt's ARPA N E T (precursor to the Internet) to test its effect on UNIX system s. The worm gets out of hand and spreads to some 6,000 networked computers, clogging govern me nt and university systems. Morris is dismissed from Cornell, sentenced to three years probation and fined $10,000.

[1988 Nov 3] First mention of the Morris worm on Usenet. 1988 Dec] Legion of Doom hacker Robert Riggs ('The Prophet') cracks BellSouth AIMS X computer network and downloads E911 docum ent (describes how the 911 emergency phone system works). Riggs sends a copy to Phrack editor Craig Neidorf ('Knight Lightning'). Both Craig and Robert are raided by Federal authorities and later indicted. The indictment said the "computerized text file" was worth $79,449, and a BellSouth security official testified at trial it was worth $24,639. The trial began on July 23, 1990 but the proceedings unexpectedl y ended when the governm e nt asked the court to dismiss all the charges when it was discovered that the public could call a toll- free number and purchase the same E911 document for less than $20.

[1988 Dec 16] 25- year- old computer hacker Kevin Mitnick is held without bail on charges that include stealing $1 million in software from DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation), including VMS source code, and causing that firm $4 million in damages.

[1989] 22- year- old computer hacker and ex- LOD member Corey Lindsly ('Mark Tabas') pleaded guilty to felony charges relating to using a computer to access US West's system illegally, which resulted in five years probation. [see also 1995 Feb. 'Phone ma sters']

[1989] At the Cern laboratory for research in high- energy physics in Geneva, Tim Berners- Lee and Robert Cailliau develop the protocols that will become the world wide web.

[1989 Jan 23] Herbert Zinn ('Shado wh a wk'), a high school dropout, was the first to be convicted (as a juvenile) under the Comput er Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986. Zinn was 16 when he managed to break into AT&T and Department of Defense systems. He was convicted on January 23, 1989, of destroying $174,000 worth of files, copying programs valued at millions of dollars, and publishing passwords and instructions on how to violate computer security systems. Zinn was sentence d to nine months in prison and fined $10,000.

[1989 May] A task force in Chicago raids and arrests an alleged computer hacker known as 'Kyrie'.

[1989 Jun] An underground group of hackers known as the NuProm ethe us League distributes proprietary software illegally obtained from Apple Computer .