TIMELINE: Hackers in the headlines

Hackers took over the YouTube channel of popular children’s show Sesame Street on Sunday.

Over 20 minutes of pornography was posted before it could be taken down.

The hackers also posted a message on the YouTube channel saying, “WHO DOESN’T LOVE PORN KIDS? RIGHT! EVERYONE LOVES IT!” The post attributed the hack to YouTube user MREDXWX, who has since denied any responsibility.

Here are some other well-known attacks in recent years.

1994

Russian hackers, led by Vladimir Levin, siphoned $10 million from Citibank and transferred it to bank accounts around the world in 1994. Levin, 30, stool trial in the U.S. and was sentenced to three years in prison. Authorities recover all the stolen money except for $400,000.

1999

In March, David Smith launched a virus that spread to about 1.2 million computers and caused $80 million in financial losses to businesses throughout North America and Europe. Smith was convicted of criminal computer hacking and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He was freed after 20 months of incarceration, after agreeing to go undercover for the FBI.

2000

In February, Canadian hacker Michael Calce launched an attack on several major websites such as CNN, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay that paralyzed the sites for hours.

Economic damages from the attack were estimated at several million dollars. The RCMP and the FBI launched a manhunt that ended two months later with the 15-year-old Calce apprehended at his parents’ home in Montreal.

He was tried and found guilty of 55 counts of mischief and sentenced to eight months in a youth detention centre and a year of probation. As a young offender, he was only known in the media by his online alias “Mafiaboy” to protect his identity.

But in 2008, Calce revealed his identity to the world by releasing a book entitled Mafiaboy: How I Cracked the Internet and Why It’s Still Broken, in which he discussed his fascination with computers and learning how to be a hacker.

Calce has written newspaper columns on computer security in the past few years and now works to help people and businesses protect themselves online.

Three months after Calce launched his attack, a computer worm known as the ILOVEYOU worm infected millions of computers around the world in just a few hours.

The worm, developed by a computer student in the Philippines, was considered one of the most damaging in history.

Later that year, Jonathan James, 17, became the first juvenile to serve jail time for hacking. He killed himself in 2008.

2001

Gary McKinnon hacked into 97 Pentagon, U.S. Navy, Army and NASA computers between February 2001 and March 2002.

The British hacker, also known by his online name “Solo,” admitted that he hacked into the systems, but said he only did it to find evidence of UFOs.

The US government alleges that McKinnon caused $700,000 in damage, and is seeking to extradite him to face charges that could mean up to 70 years in prison.

McKinnon has been fighting extradition for years, claiming his hacking was not malicious. Now 42, MacKinnon awaits a new judicial review of his extradition by the British High Court.

2005

A massive computer security breach at a payment processing company exposed more than 20 million Visa and 13.9 million MasterCard accounts to the risk of fraud in June.

Analysts and law enforcement officials traced the breach to payment processing company CardSystems Solutions of Tucson, Ariz. Hackers were able to insert a code in the company’s network which allowed them to steal information on cardholders.

The hackers were able to access names, account numbers and verification codes, information that could have been used to commit fraud.

A MasterCard investigation found that CardSystems violated MasterCard’s rules by holding cardholder’s account numbers and security codes on its computer system.

A class action lawsuit on behalf of California cardholders was filed against CardSystems, as Visa USA and American Express Co. cut ties with CardSystems completely.

The breach was one of the largest in the world at the time, as hundreds of thousands of cards were cancelled and reissued.

2007

The online job board Monster.com spent millions on security upgrades after a group of con artists broke into its system and stole the resumes of 1.3 million people.

The group used a computer program to access the employers’ section of the site and steal log-in credentials. The logins were used to upload user names, email addresses, phone numbers, and home addresses to a remote server.

While the information taken from the resumes did not include social security numbers or financial data, the contact information alone was enough for the hackers to construct “phishing” and spam emails containing personal information of the users.

Phishing emails sent to users encouraged them to download a “job seeker tool,” which was in fact a program that encrypted files on their computer and demanded money for their decryption.

2008

Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s private email account was hacked and screenshots of the politician’s contact list, messages and inbox were posted to a whistle-blowing website in September.

The hacker gained access to her email account using the password resetting system. They answered security questions using publicly available information.

One of the questions reportedly asked the hacker where Palin met her husband, Todd. The governor mentioned in a speech at the Republican National Convention that they began dating in high school in Wasilla, Alaska.

The hacker allegedly typed in the correct answer, “Wasilla high,” after several other rejected attempts. Along with information such as Palin’s date of birth and ZIP code, the hacker was able to change the password and access the account.

A person claiming to be the hacker posted messages regarding the attack on a web forum. The postings were traced to 20-year-old Tennessee college student David Kernell, who has since been indicted on charges of identity theft, wire fraud and obstruction of justice.

2010

January 2011

In January, Ottawa acknowledged that hackers had gained access to its networks at the Finance and Treasury Board and was forced to curtail use of the Internet to guard against further breaches.

April  

An embarrassing data breach in April compromised personal data
from more than 100 million online gaming and entertainment accounts and
forced Sony’s PlayStation Network to be shut for a month.

May

Around 2,000 Sony Ericsson customers from Canada had their personal data stolen and posted online for anyone to see in May. The company said in a statement that hackers on Sony Ericsson’s Canadian site only accessed email addresses and encrypted passwords.

This came on the heels of a major security breach with the PlayStation Network in the United States and Europe that compromised about 100 million accounts and sent the system down for nearly a month.

October

Sony said on October 12 intruders staged a massive attempt to access user accounts on its PlayStation Network and other online entertainment services in the second major attack on its flagship gaming site this year. The Tokyo-based company says it has temporarily locked about 93,000 accounts whose IDs and passwords were successfully verified by the attempts.

On Sunday October 16, hackers took over Sesame Street’s YouTube channel, posting over 20 minutes of pornography, according to several tech and online media reports.

– With files from The Associated Press