Since the dawn of computing, hackers have been pushing the boundaries of what‘s possible with technology – sometimes to society‘s benefit, but often not. Over the decades, a number of hackers have risen to infamy for their daring exploits, brilliant innovations, and occasionally, massive digital demolition.
From the early phone phreaks to today‘s organized cybercriminal gangs, the world‘s most notorious hackers have left an indelible mark on the history of computing. Their stories are emblematic of the constant struggle between digital troublemakers and the cybersecurity experts trying to stop them.
Let‘s take a journey through time to examine some of the most significant hackers in history, the impact they had, and what we can learn from them.
The Wild West Era
The 1960s and 70s are often considered the "Wild West" period of hacking. At the time, the term "hacker" generally referred to skilled computer enthusiasts who enjoyed playing around with systems and programs. It was an era of curiosity and experimentation.
However, it wasn‘t long before some started testing the limits of what they could do with their skills. In the early 1970s, John Draper, aka "Captain Crunch," discovered that a toy whistle given away in Cap‘n Crunch cereal could be used to make free long-distance phone calls. Draper and other "phone phreaks" manipulated the tones used by the telephone system to control it.
As Bruce Sterling notes in his book The Hacker Crackdown, phone phreaking "gave birth to the digital underground, one of the most powerful forces in the American electronic community today." Figures like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak cut their teeth on phone phreaking as teens before going on to found Apple.
Other pioneers emerged as well:
- In 1971, Vietnamese-American programmer Don Luu created one of the first video games, Spacewar, by hacking a DEC PDP-1 mainframe.
- In 1978, 15-year-old Kevin Mitnick began his hacking career by bypassing the punch card system for Los Angeles city buses.
- In 1981, Ian Murphy, aka "Captain Zap," became the first hacker ever convicted of a crime after hacking AT&T‘s internal clock to charge off-hours rates during the day.
The Rise of Cybercrime
As computing became more integral in the 1980s and 90s, malicious hacking incidents began to rise. Hackers increasingly targeted computer networks and data for profit and mayhem.
In 1986, Congress passed the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the first law specifically targeting hacking. That same year, a group called The Legion of Doom formed, soon becoming the most famous hacking group in the world. Its members included legendary hacker Kevin Poulsen, aka "Dark Dante."
In 1988, Cornell student Robert Tappan Morris created one of the first computer worms, which spread across the early internet and caused major disruptions. Morris became the first person convicted under the new hacking law.
The early 90s saw a spree of high-profile hacks:
- In 1990, the UK-based hacker "Data Stream" infiltrated over 200 companies and institutions worldwide, including the Pentagon, NASA, and NATO.
- In 1994, Russian hacker Vladimir Levin led a group that stole $10 million from Citibank, one of the first online bank heists.
- In 1995, Kevin Mitnick was arrested after a well-publicized two and a half year manhunt in which he hacked into dozens of major corporations.
The period also saw the emergence of hacktivist collectives who used digital disruption for social and political ends. The most famous was Cult of the Dead Cow, whose members included eventual presidential candidate Beto O‘Rourke.
The New Millennium
Hacking exploded in scale and severity in the 2000s as the internet went mainstream. Malware ran rampant, with infamous viruses like ILOVEYOU and Anna Kournikova infecting millions of computers. Professional cybercrime organizations emerged as hacking became a global, multibillion-dollar illicit industry.
At the same time, hacktivist groups became increasingly prominent. Anonymous, an amorphous group of hackers, activists, and pranksters, originated on the website 4chan in 2003. Anonymous gained notoriety for its distributed denial-of-service attacks, website defacements, and other digital disruptions of its ideological targets, like the Church of Scientology and PayPal.
Other major hacking incidents of the 2000s include:
- In 2007, TJX Companies announced that hackers had stolen over 45 million credit card numbers from its systems over a year and a half, the biggest known theft of personal data at the time.
- In 2010, the Stuxnet worm damaged Iran‘s nuclear program in one of the first acts of cyberwarfare by a nation-state.
- In 2011, members of the hacktivist groups Anonymous and LulzSec went on a high-profile hacking spree, attacking Sony, Fox, PBS, and other major targets.
- In 2013, Yahoo! suffered a breach that exposed all 3 billion of its user accounts, the largest data breach in history.
The Steady Drumbeat
Over the 2010s, mega-breaches became a fact of life as hacking incidents grew in size, frequency, and severity. By 2020, the number of records exposed in data breaches was in the hundreds of billions per year. Ransomware attacks, where hackers encrypt a victim‘s files and demand payment, surged, as did supply chain attacks, like the devastating SolarWinds hack.
At the same time, cybersecurity defenses became increasingly sophisticated thanks to advances like artificial intelligence and threat intelligence sharing. Governments passed stricter laws and dedicated more resources to fighting cybercrime. The ongoing battle between hackers and defenders, though, shows no signs of slowing down.
Lessons Learned
The history of hacking is in many ways the history of the digital revolution. Hacking evolved from an obscure hobby to a professionalized criminal industry and a tool of geopolitics.
By examining this history, we gain crucial insights:
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Hacking is here to stay. As more of our lives go digital, the opportunities and incentives for hacking will only grow.
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The human factor is key. While the stereotype is of lone geniuses, most major hacks succeeded due to social manipulation as much as technical skill. Addressing the human element must be a major priority.
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Offense has the edge. Hackers have a built-in advantage, especially as more devices come online. Playing effective digital defense requires being right 100% of the time. Hackers only need to be right once.
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Collaboration is critical. With the scale and complexity of modern hacking, neither the public nor the private sector can go it alone. Defending our digital ecosystem will require deep partnership between government, industry, and civil society groups.
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Consequences are not enough. While stricter punishments for hacking are important, arrests and sentences on their own cannot deter all digital misconduct. Building resilient systems that can withstand and recover from inevitable hacks must be the priority.
Of course, for all the destruction they caused, hackers have also driven immense innovation. Just as Linus Torvalds hacked together Linux and birthed a software revolution, may we hope the hackers of the future bend their brilliance toward more constructive ends – securing our digital future rather than corrupting it.
One thing is certain: as long as there are computer systems, there will be hackers trying to break into them. How we adapt to this reality will define the digital age. The notorious hackers of the past may be gone, but their impact echoes through the ether to this day.
