No matter how well you build the bank, there’s always going to be someone who tries to break into it. Sometimes they manage it, no matter how secure you think it is.
With the advent of the internet and the digital age, it became apparent that information was becoming as valuable as the money kept in any bank. And with that came the internet’s own type of bank robber – the hacker.
Here are 3 great hacks, which of course, are terrible hacks really. Because who wants their system hacked?
The Morris Worm
Back when the internet was in its infancy, Robert Morris felt that he could contribute by releasing a ‘worm’ (a type of virus). He managed to bring down over 6,000 systems.
Remember, this was 1988, so those 6,000 systems comprised one-tenth of the entire internet at that time.
It wasn’t long before he was caught (he’d been bragging about it for months before). He was one of the first hackers to be tried under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Although he got off lightly with a fine and community service, he ended up costing the taxpayer over £9 million pounds to de-worm the systems.
NB – His father, Robert Morris Senior just happened to be a cryptography security expert in with the National Security Agency.
Conficker
Another worm now, with this one occurring in 2008. Although starting slowly, the Conficker worm picked up speed and used infected terminals (Botnet) to distribute other viruses and malware throughout the web.
Over 15 million computers around the globe were affected, with Microsoft even offering a financial reward for information that leads to the arrest of the attackers.
Houston, we have a problem
At only 15 years old, Jonathan James could have worked for any computer company. His knowledge was instead put to malicious use when he hacked into the US Department of Defence and NASA systems. In the latter, he was accused of stealing £1 million pounds of software.
He was the first underage criminal convicted for hacking in the US.
Authors Biography
Rachel Hurley is part of the Digital Marketing team at HANDD, the managed File Transfer specialists.
