The History of Cybersecurity
Chapter 02/07
The History of Cybersecurity
Snapshot
Learn about key events and developments in the escalation of cyber attacks and cybersecurity since the beginning of the internet.
Key Terms:
- Vulnerability
- Worm
- Antivirus software
- Attack surface
Brilliant hackers of both the black-hat and the white-hat varieties face off against each other every day, with one side trying to steal information or crash computer systems and the other trying to stop them.
Explore the Interactive Timeline
Timeline: Major Developments in the History of Cybersecurity
The Digital Arms Race between Black-Hat and White-Hat Hackers
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Interact with an entry to learn more and see what events relate to it.
1969
The Beginning of the Internet
The Pentagon’s Advanced Research Projects Agency concluded development of ARPANET, an early computer network. The first ARPANET message was sent on Oct. 29, paving the way for more robust computer communication, greater vulnerability, and the eventual development of the Internet.
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1971
Creeper: The First Worm
Bob Thomas, a developer working on ARPANET, wrote a program that used PCs on the network to print the message: “I’m the creeper; catch me if you can.” This was the first time a program moved from one computer to another on it’s own. The experiment was harmless, but in retrospect we can now say this was the first computer worm.
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1973
Reaper: The First Cybersecurity Program
Fittingly, the advent of the first computer worm gave rise to the first cybersecurity effort to eliminate an unauthorized program. Ray Tomlinson—an ARPANET researcher who invented the first networked mail messaging system—developed a program named Reaper, which scoured ARPANET to find and delete the Creeper worm.
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1983
Hello, Internet
ARPANET began requiring its users to conduct all network communications via a set of transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) conventions. TCP/IP became the global standard for network communications, allowing networks all over the world to communicate easily with each other and giving rise to the Internet.
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1987
The Spread of the Vienna Virus
In the late 80s, the Vienna virus destroyed random files on computers it infected. A simple virus with many known variants, it never did much damage and probably wouldn’t have become famous except for one thing: it was stopped.
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1987
Virus, Meet Antivirus
When German computer researcher Bernd Robert Fix received a copy of Vienna, he wrote a program that neutralized the virus’ infective and destructive capabilities, making Vienna the first virus known to have been destroyed by an antivirus program.
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1988
Internet Under Attack
Robert Morris, a 23-year-old graduate student from Cornell University, created and released several dozen lines of code that constituted the first Internet worm. The malware replicated wildly, infecting and crashing about 10% of the 60,000 computers connected to the internet and causing millions of dollars in damage.
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1990s
The Anti-Virus Industry Explodes
In the early 90s, the massive popularity of Microsoft’s Windows operating system fueled a boom in the PC market—and an increase in virus activity. The antivirus industry responded with products like McAfee, Norton Antivirus and Kaspersky, which detected threats by scanning all the files in a system and comparing them to a database containing “signatures” of known malware.
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1999
“Melissa” Causes $80 Million of Damage
Created by David Smith, this virus distributed itself via Microsoft Outlook. Infected computers would send an email with the subject “Important Message.” and an attachment titled list.doc which, when opened, would cause a barrage of pornography sites to open. The virus would then disable security features in Word and Outlook, and mail itself to the first 50 people in the user’s contact list.
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2000
ILOVEYOU Infects > 50 Million Computers
This worm spread via an email with the subject “ILOVEYOU” and an attached file named “LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.txt.vbs.” When opened, a hidden script overwrote random files and sent a copy of itself to all of the addresses in the user’s Outlook contacts. The infection spread so quickly that the Pentagon and the CIA shut down their email systems until the coast was clear.
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2001
Fileless Worm Evades Detection
CodeRed spread via a buffer overflow, wherein a program writes too much data to the “buffer” section of memory, causing an overflow that overwrites adjacent memory locations. This allowed the worm to spread itself to other machines, and launch targeted DDoS attacks. Standard antivirus systems that scanned files to identify malware failed, as this worm was fileless.
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2003
US Gov. Recognizes Cybersecurity
As a response to the growing number of cyberattacks and a lack of authority regarding prevention, the newly founded department of Homeland Security establishes the National Cyber Security Division, the United States government’s first official task force dedicated to cybersecurity.
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2007
A Computer in Every Pocket
Apple launched the iPhone, giving every user a pocket-sized, internet-connected computer more powerful than the computer that landed Apollo 11 on the moon. Smartphones constitute a significant cybersecurity concern because the sheer number of them vastly increases the potential attack surface for a hacker to exploit.
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2010
First Weaponized Malware Program
Considered the first example of malware being weaponized on a global-scale, a sophisticated family of worms disrupted Iran’s nuclear program by interfering with centrifuges being used for uranium enrichment. One of the first instances of cyberattacks used in espionage.
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2012
Antivirus Puts Big Data to Work
As traditional cybersecurity programs that identified potential threats based on their “signature” began to fail, the first “next-gen” antivirus software began using big data analysis to detect malware by taking a broad, holistic view of user behaviors, network traffic and application activity.
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2013–2014
Largest Data Breach in History
Kicking off a period of cyberattacks of unprecedented scale, Yahoo suffered a breach that ultimately resulted in the theft of 3 billion users’ personal data, a $35 million fine by the SEC, and 40 consumer class action lawsuits. The best part? They wouldn’t report the breach until 2016.
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2018
The EU Enforces GDPR
Due to concerns around the volume and security of personal data held by companies, the European Union began enforcing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a regulation establishing a mandatory data protection baseline. Among other things, it established that companies must have a response plan in case of a data breach.
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2020
The Rise of the Connected Device
As of 2020, it’s estimated that there are roughly 6.8 internet connected (IoT) devices per person around the globe. As the amount of personal data becomes more and more available, cybersecurity concerns continue to grow.
With each subsequent technological development, the tension between black-hat and white-hat hackers continues to grow. Both sides are quick to adapt their methods to try to catch the other unaware.
References
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”Your Mobile Phone vs. Apollo 11's Guidance Computer.” RealClearScience. July 2019. View Source
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Technologies in Cybersecurity
Chapter 03 of 07
Learn about several different cybersecurity technologies that are already in use to protect your passwords, purchases, identities, and communications.