A Brief History of Cybercrime and Cyberwarfare - The Technical and Social History of Software Engineering - page 375

After monitoring and tracing millions of calls, eventually AT&T brought
charges against about 200 of these phone phreakers, who were convicted. These
convictions put a damper on phone phreaking by amateurs because the conse-
quences were severe and apprehension was probable.
Attacking computers and software was not feasible in the early days of the
computer industry because each computer was physically isolated and only a se-
lect few programmers and engineers could access them. Later, when remote con-
nections to computers via modems entered the picture, it was possible for hackers
to gain access to computers and software from a safe distance.
Data communications between remote computers became possible in about
1968 due to the development of modems and multiplexors. This led to the
ARPANET in 1969, which connected the University of California in Los Angeles
to the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park.
Internal computer networks began to appear in the mid-1970s. A technical set
of standards that allowed internetwork communication paved the way for the in-
ternet. This standard was called the transmission control protocol (TCP) and the
related internet protocol (IP). These were published under the abbreviation TCP/
IP in 1974.
Other countries had also developed network capabilities, but many used differ-
ent protocols. It was not until about 1989 that networks from Europe, Asia, South
America, Africa, and the United States were able to share information. The global
network later evolved into the modern internet. Networking, like personal com-
puters, was to be a significant factor in cybercrime and cyberwarfare.
The Hacker Invasion
There are several points of historical interest that kicked off the arrival of the com-
puter hacker.
In 1982, a group of hackers broke into 60 computer systems. Newsweek had a
cover story about this and popularized the word “hacker.” This attack led to the
first congressional hearings on computer security and also to new laws against cy-
bercrime.
In 1983, a University of Southern California graduate student named Fred Co-
hen first used the phrase “computer virus.” This was the first scholarly paper on
computer software attacks, and it would become an important milestone in later
antivirus defenses. His paper was titled “Computer Virus: Theory and Experi-
ment.”