The invention of the Internet had a huge effect on the way we live our lives. But our now computer-driven society has opened up a brand new platform for criminals to commit misdemeanor, known as cybercrime. Here are the 10 key moments that has made cybercrime into the newest problem facing the police this century.
1. New York’s Union Dime Savings Bank
One of the first recorded cybercrimes was back in 1970, where the chief teller at a branch of New York’s Union Dime Savings Bank managed to steal over $1.5million from hundreds of peoples accounts from the comfort of his office computer.
2. US Department of Defense
In 1983, a sole 19 year old student at the University of California managed to hack into the international communications system used by the USA’s Department of Defense. He was able to read highly confidential information discussed by a number of the world’s biggest governments..
3. Sky TV (UK and Ireland)
In 1995, a group of European hackers hacked into the encrypted, pay-to-view satellite signal that provides Sky TV to households in the UK and Ireland. Although their motivation wasn’t the most malicious attack (they wanted to watch Star Trek episodes that weren’t shown in their country), the copyright breach was a major problem for NewsCorp.
4. Melissa Worm
The first major computer virus, the Melissa worm, infected a document on its first victim’s computer in 1999. The worm then automatically sent the same infected document to everybody in that users email inbox, spreading the virus over millions of computers worldwide..
5. Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, and More
Someone believed to be sole hacker, going under the name of MafiaBoy, launched a number of attacks on some of the most high profile websites on the Internet at the start of the year 2000. Websites including Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Dell, and CNN were unavailable to users during the attack. In August of the same year, MafiaBoy was charged with 54 counts of illegal access to computers..
6. The Anna Kournikova Virus
In 2001, a hacker under the handle of OnTheFly tricked computer users into opening a virus disguised as a rude photo of the tennis player Anna Kournikova. Jan de Wit, from the Netherlands, was sentenced to 150 hours of community service for spreading data with the intention of causing damage..
7. Major Banks Hit
In 2010, over 13 million computers were infected by a virus which Spanish investigators believed to have been started by a group of 3 hackers in Europe. The virus targeted computers in 40 major European banks and hundreds of the largest companies in America..
8. Dreamboard Taken Down
The US Department of Homeland Security took down the single largest pedophile ring website Dreamboats. The website shared up to 123 terabytes of child pornography to around 600 users. Homeland Security arrested 52 users around the world in relation to the distribution of the illegal material..
9. PS3
In April 2011, Sony’s online gaming network, the PlayStation Network, was taken offline for days after what they described as an “external intrusion”. More than 70 million users were unable to play games online or download content to their console. It is believed thousands of users credit card details were accessed during the hack..
10. Visa and MasterCard
Over 1.5 million North American customers that hold a Visa and MasterCard had their details stolen in the same month as the PS3 hack in 2011. The information was stolen from third party credit card processors Global Payments and was limited to only their card numbers..
As we can see, cybercrime is an on-going problem for everyone across the virtual world. It constantly changes and develops, creating new viruses and security problems faster people can solve them. In order to help combat cybercrime it is vital that we all take precautions when online. Simple things such as not opening email attachments from unknown senders and not providing confidential information to suspect sites can make a big difference to the spread of viruses and continuance of online identity theft..