Hacking History

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

[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.

[1969] Ken L. Thompson , 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 simultaneously.

[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 systems being studied and developed on campus.

[1969] Joe Engressia ('The Whistler', 'Joybubbles' and 'High Rise Joe') considered the father of phreaking. Joe, who is blind, was a mathematics 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.

[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 Computer, who launch a home industry making and selling blue boxes .

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

[1980 Dec] Roscoe Gang, including Kevin Mitnick , invade computer system at US Leasing.

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

[1984] Bill Landreth ('The Cracker') is convicted of breaking into some of the most secure computer systems in the United States, including GTE Telemail's electronic mail network, where he peeped at NASA Department of Defense computer correspondence. 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'.

[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 Blankenship ('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', 'Unknown Soldier', 'Sharp Razor', 'Doctor Who', 'Paul Muad'Dib', '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', 'Phantom Phreaker', 'Doom Prophet', 'Thomas Covenant', 'Phase Jitter', 'Prime Suspect', 'Skinny Puppy' and 'Professor Falken'.

[1986] The german hacker group, Chaos Computer Club, hacked information about the german Nuclear Power Program from government computers during the Chernobyl crisis. National Security Agency (NSA), launches a self- replicating worm on the government's ARPANET (precursor to the Internet) to test its effect on UNIX systems. The worm gets out of hand and spreads to some 6,000 networked computers, clogging government and university systems. Morris is dismissed from Cornell, sentenced to three years probation and fined $10,000.

[1988 Dec] Legion of Doom hacker Robert Riggs ('The Prophet') cracks BellSouth AIMSX computer network and downloads E911 document (describes how the 911 emergency phone system works). Riggs sends a copy toPhrack 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 unexpectedly ended when the government 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. 'Phonemasters']

[1989 Jan 23] Herbert Zinn ('Shadowhawk'), a high school dropout, was the first to be convicted (as a juvenile) under the Computer 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 sentenced to nine months in prison and fined $10,000.

[1989 Jul 21] Known as the "Atlanta Three" case, 3 members of the LOD/H (Legion of Doom) where charged with hacking into Bell South's Telephone (including 911) Networks - possessing proprietary BellSouth software and information, unauthorized intrusion, illegal possession of phone credit card numbers with intent to defraud, and conspiracy. The three hackers where: Franklin Darden ('The Leftist'), Adam Grant ('The Urvile' and 'Necron 99'), Robert Riggs ('The Prophet').
 

[1989 Jun 22] 'Fry Guy', a 16-year-old in Elmwood, Indiana cracks into McDonald's mainframe on the Sprint Telenet system. One act involved the young hacker altering phone switches so that calls to a Florida county probation department would ring at a New York phone- sex line answered by "Tina." On September 14 1990, he was sentenced to forty- four months probation and four hundred hours community service

Still to continue...wait for the next update.