The History of Cybersecurity Add to reading list

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.