Cybercrime

Timeline of a growing menace

Crime on communications networks predates the advent of the internet and its beginnings can be traced to when a man named John Draper discovered how to make free phone calls using just a whistle. He is nicknamed Captain Crunch because in 1971, he found that a toy whistle which came free in a packet of Cap’n Crunch cereal would emit a tone of 2600 hertz, the same frequency that was used by AT&T long lines to indicate that a line was ready to redirect a new call.

He went on to teach his method to Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who are rumoured to have tried the trick out themselves and Draper’s methods can be seen to start the concept of wire fraud’s rise to prominence.

Cyber crime took to new levels in 1971 when Police discovered that a teller at New York’s Union Dime Savings Bank had made off with $1.5 million by the computerized shuffling of funds among little-used accounts.

This technique is reminiscent of that used in the film Superman III, when Gus Gorman, played by Richard Pryor, a computer programmer at a bank begins to embezzle tiny amounts from his new employer's payroll system. These tiny amounts invariably add up and amount to a profitable scheme for the hacker. This technique is known as salami slicing and has been a prominent feature of cybercrime since 1973.

“Morris Worm was credited with taking down one-tenth of the internet “

1981 saw the first meeting of computer crime and the law when a hacker responsible for hacking into AT&T’s networks and changing the clocks, causing customers’ bills to become skewed, was subsequently arrested.

Ian Murphy, aka. "Captain Zap“ is credited for being the inspiration for the 1991 film ‘Sneakers’, about computer hackers. Ironically, like many former hackers, Murphy now owns a computer security business and advises on how to stay safe online.

Hacking enthusiasts will no doubt name Robert Tappan Morris as one of the greatest hackers of all time and his 1988 virus known as the self-replicating Morris Worm was credited with taking down one-tenth of the internet.

This was roughly 6,000 systems at the time but is nevertheless an impressive feat which led to the establishment of a US government department - Computer Emergency Response Team. The debacle was particularly ironic, given the fact that Morris’s father was a computer security expert with the National Security Agency.

Cyber mafia became a keyword in the 80s and 90s after two rival hacker gangs engaged in a war with each other which would eventually lead to both their downfalls. As if mimicking the plot of a gangster novel, the hacker who has been called the greatest of all time – Phiber Optik – became disgruntled with hacker group Legions of Doom (LOD) and went on to form Masters of Deception (MOD).

What has been termed ‘The Great Hacker War’ ensued as both groups battled each other to be the best for years, monitoring calls and hacking each other’s computers, until most of met the wrath of the law in 1993.

“He persuaded Citibank's computers to transfer $10 million”

There are two ‘Great Bank Robberies’ of cybercrime history. The first would see $70m stolen from the First National Bank of Chicago. The technique used was a phone authorized wire transfer scheme to move $25.37 million belonging to Merrill Lynch, $25 million belonging to United Airlines, and $19.75 million belonging to the Brown-Forman Corporation to a New York Bank, followed by two separate banks in Vienna.

When the three companies called the bank to find out what happened to their deposits the culprits were soon traced. The second came in 1995 and was the Citibank heist, when Vladimir Levin, another member of the hacker hall of fame, persuaded Citibank's computers to transfer $10 million from its customers' accounts into his. Unfortunately for Levin, Interpol caught up with him at Heathrow Airport and Citibank got most of the money back.

Hacking continued to aggravate the politic establishment. In 1994, for example, The Independent newspaper reported that a BT insider hacked the network to find out secret phone numbers for the Queen, the Prime Minister and MI5 and MI6. Interestingly, The Independent reported the story as follows (note the description of the internet):

“The stolen material was then sent out on to the Internet, a global network of computers, to which any one of 35 million users would potentially have access.”

Fast-forwarding to 2009, hackers continue to rattle the cages of politicians.None more so than defeated Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who’s personal emails were made readily available on Wikileaks during the Presidential election. The perpetrator allegedly spent 45 minutes researching Palin’s background and was then able to guess her password, splashing screenshots and her entire contact list all over the net.

President Obama revealed that his campaign was attacked too, with travel details and personal information taken. He has recently announced the appointment of a Cyber Crime official at the White House to quell growing public concern over statistics such as those in the 2008 Pentagon reports that were over 360 million attempts to break into its networks, on top of multiple attempts on the White House network.

“A massive DoS attack crippled Estonia’s digital infrastructure”

Perhaps the most remarkable cybercrime story is that of ‘Mafiaboy’, a 15 year-old Canadian who in February 2000 was reprimanded for one the of the most high-profile attacks in history, one that crashed many of the nets largest and most established sites.

Extraordinarily, Mafiaboy was able to bring down Amazon, eBay, CNN and Yahoo in the space of a week with a Denial-of-Service attack (DoS – flooding a site with masses of requests thus causing it to crash) and was reported to have caused a massive bill in damages. The exact figure is disputed but some experts put the cost of total economic damages at $1.7 billion.

Cyber crime has now become a tool of modern warfare. In 2007, amidst a dispute between Russia and Estonia surrounding Estonia’s removal of a Soviet war memorial statue, Russia was accused of launching a massive DoS attack which crippled Estonia’s digital infrastructure; government and banks alike. In last year’s invasion of Georgia, Russia was accused again, launching an attack that took out the banking system and disrupted mobile phone services.

Whilst cyber crime is a scourge to the online world, causing most people to fear all manner of attacks and affecting daily behaviour, a select few have used their cyber talents to do something meaningful. Co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, is described as a former hacker-hero, or humanitarian hacker, who decided to build a computer because he couldn't afford one and came up with the first Apple personal computer.

“Cyber crime is now big business”

Just as hackers will continue to hack, so cyber tricksters will continue to trick. Cyber crime is now big business, making professional scammers and spammers millions every month. From gangs in Ukraine to far-fetched cons from Nigeria, there is an array of threats to be vigilant about. Spencer Kelly, presenter of the Click, the BBC’s flagship technology programme, said recently: