506IT by Mateusz Marzec

First computer virus

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:15:02 UTC

First computer virus was created in 1971 and was called Creeper. This virus did not damage the user, but it simply displayed the message: ‘I’M THE CREEPER: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN’. Basically, the inventor of the virus, Bob Thomas, was experimenting with possibilities of creating self-replicating program.

feradhita nkd (2020) A Brief Introduction to Ancient Malware: The Creeper Virus [online]available from [03 October 2020]

First anti-virus

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:15:18 UTC

The answer for a first computer virus was quick, in 1971 after the creeper attack someone developed a first anti-virus software called Reaper. The Reaper was very effective, once it detected Creeper, it removed it from computer and stopped spreading to other computers.

Pandorafms (2018) History of computer viruses: Creeper and Reaper. [online]available from [03 October 2020]

Wabbit virus

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:15:35 UTC

Wabbit virus was created in 1974, it was a self-replicating software that was making multiple copies of itself. By making those copies, the system performance was reduced to nil and system would eventually crash. It was named wabbit because of the speed of self-replicating.

Daniel S. (2010) The very first viruses: Creeper, Wabbit and Brain. [online]available from [03 October 2020]

First Trojan virus

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:15:53 UTC

The first Trojan software was created in 1975 by John Walker, an it was called ANIMAL. The program did not damage the system, it was a simple game, but in the background just spread into more protected directories.

John W. (1996) The Animal Episode [online]available from [03 October 2020]

First large-scale computer virus

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:16:13 UTC

The program developed in February 1982, by high school student Richard Skrenta was originally created as a prank and it was called Elk Cloner. Virus was written for Apple II operating system, which was dominating on home computers at that time. The virus caused no real harm but spread widely, the program displayed a short poem written by Skrenta.

John L. (2012) The 30-year-old prank that became the first computer virus [online]available from [03 October 2020]

First MS-DOS virus

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:16:28 UTC

The first MS-DOS virus was called Brain and was developed in January 1986 by Amjad Farooq Alvi and Basit Farooq Alvi from Pakistan. The program was supposed to stop and track illegal copies of medical software.

David S. (1989) Information on the Brain Virus And Variants [online]available from [03 October 2020]

First self-encrypting virus

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:16:39 UTC

The Cascade was first self-encrypting virus developed in 1987 that was infecting .COM files and it had the effect of making text on the screen fall down. In response, IBM developed an anti-virus software against it.

F-Secure (2020) Cascade [online]available from [03 October 2020]

Leading virus of late 1980s

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:17:44 UTC

In October 1987, a logic bomb DOS virus was detected at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which is why later people called it Jerusalem virus. As it was mentioned before Jerusalem virus was a logic bomb that would go off on every Friday the 13^th. The virus deleted computer data and infected .exe files repeatedly.

Technopedia (2020) Jerusalem Virus [online]available from [03 October 2020]

First replacing program

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:17:54 UTC

The Christmas Tree EXEC was developed in December 1987 and it was a first program that was able to infect a few computer networks internationally. It basically sent itself to each entry in the target's email contacts file. The virus was not harmful, it just displayed the message of a Christmas greeting.

Graham C. (2010) A short history of Christmas malware [online]available from [03 October 2020]

The Morris worm

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:18:59 UTC

In November 1988 was developed the Morris worm by Robert Tappan Morris. Within 24 hours, it infected 6000 out of 60000 connected to the internet. The worm targeted computers running a specific operating system. It did not damage or destroy files, but it delayed network traffic for days. Estimated damage started at $100,000 and soared into the millions.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (2018) The Morris Worm [online]available from [03 October 2020]

First multipartite virus

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:19:12 UTC

The Ghostball was discovered by Fridrik Skulason of Iceland in 1989. It was infecting .COM-files as well as boot sector. Ghostball was written up based on code from two different viruses.

Technopedia (2020) Ghostball Virus [online]available from [03 October 2020]

The first ransomware

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:19:24 UTC

First ransomware software was developed in 1989 and called AIDS, the number of reported cases was around 100000 for the first time. The virus encrypted user data on the 90^th boot and offered to unlock them only in return for a fee which was $189.

Kaveh W. (2016) The Computer Virus That Haunted Early AIDS Researchers [online]available from [03 October 2020]

The first macro virus

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:19:36 UTC

In 1995 was discovered first macro virus named Concept, that virus was targeting Microsoft Word files.

NortonSecurityOnline (2020) Macro Viruses [online]available from [03 October 2020]

Phone lines blocked to win Porsche

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:19:50 UTC

In 1995, LA KIIS FM was offering a Porsche 944 S2 worth of $50000 to the 102nd caller. One of the hackers Kevin Poulsen hacked into Los Angeles phone system and effectively blocked incoming calls to the radio station, in order to win a Ferrari on a radio competition.

Jonathan L. (1993) The Last Hacker : He Called Himself Dark Dante. His Compulsion Led Him to Secret Files and, Eventually, the Bar of Justice [online]available from [03 October 2020]

The first Linux virus

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:20:06 UTC

In 1996 group VLAD from Australia developed first Linux virus called Staog.

F-Secure (2020) Linux/Staog[online]available from [03 October 2020]

The first Windows 95 Virus

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:20:25 UTC

The first computer virus that infected Windows 95 software was written by group VLAD from Australia and was called Boza. Fortunately, for the millions of users of Windows 95, the virus did not appear to be particularly contagious.

Charles A. (1996) First virus infects Windows 95 [online]available from [03 October 2020]

CIH Virus

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:22:20 UTC

In June 1998 in Taiwan, according to the Taipei authorities, Chen Ing-hau wrote the CIH virus. The virus spread through pirated software quickly and was seriously dangerous for computer devices. It is assumed that virus damages cost more than $250 million.

Graham C. (2011) Memories of the Chernobyl virus [online]available from [03 October 2020]

Happy99

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:22:34 UTC

In the beginning of 1999, French virus coder Spanska from 29A group developed an email/newsgroup worm called Happy99. The worm arrived in an email or post, when user executed the worm, it displayed a window of fireworks. The worm copied itself to the Windows system folder as SKA.EXE and created SKA.DLL in that folder. Every time when infected person has sent an e-mail, worm sent another e-mail with the attachment Happy99. It is assumed that between 9,000 and 15,000 computers had been infected with the worm.

Indiana University (2018) What is the Happy99 virus, and how do I remove it? [online]available from [03 October 2020]

The Melissa virus

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:22:45 UTC

In 1999 The Melissa virus was published, it was written by David Lee Smith which hijacked an American Online account, and posted there a file named “alt.sex”, which was just a bait promising free credentials to adult content websites. The virus was creating an automated chain letter by sending emails to first 50 addresses in their mailing list. This virus damaged emails server on more than 300 corporations, including Microsoft. It is assumed that it cost around $80 million to repair and clean up after the virus.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (2019) The Melissa Virus [online]available from [03 October 2020]

A 16 years old with PC hacked NASA

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:23:00 UTC

In 1999 Jonathan James broke into NASA system and downloaded software and stole data, leading to a three-week shutdown of some computers.

David S. (2000) Youth Sentenced in Government Hacking Case [online]available from [03 October 2020]

The ILOVEYOU worm

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:23:13 UTC

– In 4 May 2000 people started receiving emails with suspicious attachment. It was a ILOVEYOU worm which spread through an email with a subject line that said “I love you”. Within 10 days, around 10% of internet connected computers were infected by this virus, biggest companies and government institutions had to close their emails system. It is estimated that this virus infected around 50 million windows computers and it cost $10 billion to repair the damage.

Davey W. (2020) This 20-Year-Old Virus Infected 50 Million Windows Computers In 10 Days: Why The ILOVEYOU Pandemic Matters In 2020 [online]available from [03 October 2020]

The Pikachu virus

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:23:26 UTC

In 2000 somebody developed computer virus that played on the popularity of Pokémon. Anti-virus companies said that was the first virus targeting young people. The reason to target that audience was that they tended to be less careful about security.

BBC News (2000) Pokemon virus contained [online]available from [03 October 2020]

Mafiaboy

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:23:58 UTC

In 2000 a 15 years old Canadian teenager Michael Calce brought down the websites of Amazon, CNN, Dell, E*Trade, eBay, and Yahoo!. At the time, Yahoo! was the biggest search engine in the world.

Doug G. (2011) 'Mafiaboy' breaks silence, paints 'portrait of a hacker' [online]available from [03 October 2020]

SQL Slammer worm

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:24:08 UTC

On 25January 2003, the Microsoft systems were hit by computer worm known as a SQL Slammer. It was the most widespread at that time, it used a bug of Microsoft SQL via internet. The worm overloaded the network and knocked offline many devices such as computers or ATMs.

ESET (2016) Flashback Friday: SQL Slammer [online]available from [03 October 2020]

Sobig worm

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:24:18 UTC

Sobig is considered one of the most destructive worms of its time, it was discovered in 2003. Sobig like other worms was spreading through the e-mails. It cost total $37.1 billion in damage.

David C. (2003) SoBig computer worm the biggest yet [online]available from < https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4082-sobig-computer-worm-the-biggest-yet/ [03 October 2020]

MyDoom

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:24:28 UTC

In 2004 The fastest email and file sharing computer worm was MyDoom, which allowed attackers to access the infected computers’ hard drive. It is estimated that it caused more than $38 billion in damage.

Peter B., Matthew W. (2009) MyDoom virus hits key networks in US and South Korea [online]available from [03 October 2020]

The first webworm

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:24:43 UTC

Santy was found at December 21st, 2004. It was a webworm that used a vulnerability in popular phpBB discussion forum software to spread and it used Google search engine to find vulnerable servers. It infected nearly 40,000 websites before Google blocked it.

F-Secure (2020) Net-Worm:W32/Santy.A [online]available from [03 October 2020]

The first mobile phone worm

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:24:52 UTC

Commwarrior worm was found in 2005 and it was first mobile phone worm. It spread by sending copy of itself via an MMS message or Bluetooth.

F-Secure (2020) Worm:SymbOS/Commwarrior.B [online]available from [03 October 2020]

MySpace worm

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:25:02 UTC

It was released by Samy Kamkar on October 4, 2005 and became one of the fastest spreading viruses in history. Samy written up the script which was invisible to any other user and forced everyone who visited his profile to add him as a friend, but it also added under visitor profile a line which said “but most of all, Samy is my her”.

Lorenzo F. (2015) The MySpace Worm that Changed the Internet Forever [online]available from [03 October 2020]

Zeus Trojan

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:25:15 UTC

In 2007 A trojan horse called Zeus was discovered. It stole banking information through a method called keystroke logging. It is estimated that it infected millions of computers.

Avast Academy Team (2017) The Zeus Trojan: What it is, How it Works, and How to Stay Safe [online]available from [03 October 2020]

Mocmex

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:25:25 UTC

Mocmex was developed in February 2008 and it was a first computer virus on digital photo. It was a trojan that spread via physical and removable drives and collected passwords for online games.

Eyerys (2008) Mocmex, the "nuclear bomb of malware" [online]available from [03 October 2020]

Koobface

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:25:35 UTC

It was discovered in 2008. It was a type of computer worm that infected unwary users through social media platforms like Facebook.

Kaspersky (2020) What Is the Koobface Virus? [online]available from [03 October 2020]

The Conficker

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:25:51 UTC

Computer worm, discovered in November 2008. Conficker was called “one of the most dangerous threats ever.” by FBI. Microsoft estimated number of infected computers ranged from 9 to 15 million. What is more, many government institutions were infected by that worm around the world.

Mark B. (2019) The Worm That Nearly Ate the Internet [online]available from [03 October 2020]

US hacker steals 130 million identities from credit cards

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:26:00 UTC

In 2009 Albert Gonzalez, who once worked with the US secret service stole around 130 million credit card numbers from Heartland Payment Systems, a New Jersey company that processed payments from the store 7-Eleven.

EveningStandard (2009) WORLD: US hacker steals 130 million identities from credit cards [online]available from [03 October 2020]

PlayStation Network Cyber-Attack

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:26:12 UTC

On 19^th April 2011 PSN was hit by DDoS attack in which they loss data of 77 million users and their network was down until 14^th May.

Tom P. (2016) Five years ago today, Sony admitted the great PSN hack [online]available from [03 October 2020]

Yahoo Cyber-Attack

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:26:22 UTC

In 2013 Yahoo was victim of cyber attack in which their three billion accounts were hacked, and their credentials were stolen.

Jonathan S., Jim F. (2017) Yahoo says all three billion accounts hacked in 2013 data theft [online]available from [03 October 2020]

Target Cyber-Attack

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:27:14 UTC

In November 2013, one of the largest US discount retail chain Target was the victim of a large-scale cyber-attack, hackers stole up to 40 million customers credentials. The company agreed to pay up to $10,000 to consumers with evidence they suffered losses from the data breach.

Kevin M. (2020) Target to pay $18.5M for 2013 data breach that affected 41 million consumers [online]available from [03 October 2020]

Adobe Cyber-Attack

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:27:24 UTC

In October 2013, Adobe was the victim of cyber-attack in which 38 million credentials of users had been stolen and 2.9 million accounts had been affected.

BBC News (2013) Adobe hack: At least 38 million accounts breached [online]available from [03 October 2020]

Hold Security Cyber

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:27:37 UTC

Attack In August 2014 Hold security company which gathered from 420,000 websites credentials of users was victim of one of the biggest cyber-attack in which Russian hackers stole 1.2 billion usernames and passwords and more than 500 million addresses.

Nicole P., David G. (2014) Russian Hackers Amass Over a Billion Internet Passwords [online]available from [03 October 2020]

Sony Cyber-Attack

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:27:55 UTC

In late November 2014 Sony Pictures was attacked again, this time it was a threat to release data later that night if an unspecified request was not met. The request was to not release "The Interview" film which was about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Andrea P. (2014) The Sony Pictures hack, explained [online]available from [03 October 2020]

eBay Cyber-Attack

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:28:04 UTC

In 2014 one of the biggest e-commerce corporations eBay, was a victim of cyber-attack in which hackers captured 145 million usernames and passwords.

Jim F., Soham C., Lehar M. (2014) EBay asks 145 million users to change passwords after cyber attack [online]available from [03 October 2020]

Ashley Madison Cyber-Attack

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:28:14 UTC

In 2015, one of the biggest dating site was attacked for the first time. The credentials of 3.9 million users were publishedon a forum located on Tor network.

Rebecca R. (2015) Dating site hackers expose details of millions of users [online]available from [03 October 2020]

Mirai botnet

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:28:23 UTC

On 21st October 2016 Mirai botnet brought down much of America’s internet. Experts said that was one of the largest DDoS attacks in history.

Nicky W. (2016) DDoS attack that disrupted internet was largest of its kind in history, experts say [online]available from [03 October 2020]

WannaCry ransomware

marzecmate — 2020-10-03 23:28:32 UTC

In May 2017 the WannaCry ransomware attacked computer users on global pandemic. This ransomware attacks spread through computers operating Microsoft Windows. User’s files are hold hostage until user make a payment in cryptocurrency Bitcoin. What is more, there is no other way to unlock the data than making a payment.

Kaspersky (2020) What is WannaCry ransomware? [online]available from [03 October 2020]