Timeline

Where all this came from.

Sixteen cases, from a toy whistle that opened the American telephone network to the campaign that reached Google. Each one is the short version; the full account is in the books.

1971

Captain Crunch and the blue boxes How a cereal-packet whistle opened the telephone network United States · Volume One — Origins

1978

Stanley Rifkin and the $10.2 million wire transfer The largest bank theft in American history, carried out with a memorised code and a phone call Los Angeles · Volume One — Origins

1983

The 414s Six teenagers in Milwaukee, sixty systems, and the hearings that produced a law Milwaukee · Volume One — Origins

1986

Brain The first PC virus carried its authors' names, address and telephone number Lahore · Volume One — Origins

1986–1989

The Cuckoo's Egg A 75-cent accounting error that led to the KGB Berkeley, California · Volume One — Origins

1988

The Morris Worm A graduate student's experiment that took down a tenth of the internet Cornell / MIT · Volume One — Origins

1989

The AIDS Trojan Twenty thousand floppy disks, posted by mail — the first ransomware London / Panama · Volume One — Origins

1992–1995

The Mitnick manhunt Two and a half years as a fugitive, and the arrest that made hacking a household word United States · Volume One — Origins

1995

The Black Baron The first person imprisoned in Britain for writing a computer virus Devon · Volume One — Origins

1998

Solar Sunrise The Pentagon prepared for a state attack. It was teenagers. United States / Israel · Volume One — Origins

2000

MafiaBoy A fifteen-year-old took down Amazon, Yahoo and eBay from his bedroom Montreal · Volume Two — Going Pro

2000

ILOVEYOU Forty-five million machines in a day, and no law to charge anyone under Manila · Volume Two — Going Pro

2003

SQL Slammer 376 bytes, and the internet saturated in under ten minutes Global · Volume Two — Going Pro

2003–2005

Titan Rain The analyst who followed the intrusion, and lost his job for it United States · Volume Two — Going Pro

2005–2008

The informant who ran the theft Working for the Secret Service while running the largest card-theft operation in American history United States · Volume Two — Going Pro

2009–2010

Operation Aurora The campaign that reached Google, and changed what companies would say in public Global · Volume Two — Going Pro

The list

Volumes Three and Four are coming.

Going Geopolitical in October, Going Strategic in December. The timeline grows with them.

Never shared, never sold. One-click unsubscribe.
Or email contact@ronanblake.co.uk with ‘list’ in the subject.