Deck of Ronit Chakraborty's Session at Null Kolkata Meetup on 6th August.

1. Evolution
of Hacking, Hackers and Cyber Attacks

2. About Me
Part time cybersecurity student
Part time working on my startup
Dropped out after 10th grade
Focusing on self-education
Technology enthusiast
Love to explore the dark side of the
internet

3. Disclaimer
This presentation is for educational purposes
only, providing an overview of the "Evolution
of Hacking, Hackers, and Cyber Attacks."
It does not endorse illegal activities
or hacking. Unauthorized access to
Computer systems is a criminal offense
with severe legal consequences.
Ethical cybersecurity practices are
encouraged.

4. Intro
As technology has advanced over the
years, so have hackers and their
techniques. This project aims to
showcase the evolution of hackers from
the early days to the modern era,
highlighting the devices they used for
hacking and the types of cyber attacks
employed.

5. What is hacking ?
Hacking is a creative way of
deeply examining how something
works to manipulate it into doing
what you want. Hackers are like
hands-on, experimentation
scientists, often breaking
conventions to discover new
possibilities.

6. Invention of hacking
The first hacking incident
predated computers in
1878. Young phone
operators pranked callers
by manipulating
telephone lines. The term
'hacking' originated at
MIT in the mid-1900s with
train sets. It later evolved
into altering computer
systems from their
intended usage.
Types of Hackers:
White Hat: They find bugs and vulnerabilities
in companies, notifying their tech or security
teams for a bounty. This helps companies
stay ahead of cyber threats.
Black Hat: These hackers exploit weaknesses
to profit from stolen information by accessing
company networks illegally.
Gray Hat: Neither entirely good nor bad, they
may exploit vulnerabilities when not rewarded
by companies for their white hat efforts.

8. The history of hacking dates back to
the late 1800s, although it looked quite
different from the modern version
since computer systems didn't exist
yet. Despite this, there are similarities
to early exploits, like telephone line
switching. Over nearly a century,
hackers continued to exploit technical
systems using telephones. However, it
was in the mid-1960s when hacking,
as we know it today, started to emerge
with the rise of computers. Let's dive
into this brief history of hacking.

9. Modern Hacking Evolves
In the 1960s, 'phreaking' emerged,
manipulating telephones with high-pitched
noise. John Draper, aka Cap’n Crunch, made
free calls using a toy whistle. The 1970s
brought 'Tiger Teams,' government pentesters,
and computer worms. Antivirus followed. By
the 1980s, Congress passed the Computer
Fraud and Abuse Act. Hacking spread with
mainstream computers in the mid-1990s.

11. Evolution of Hacking from the Fringes to the
Mainstream
During the late 1990s dot com boom, hacking
surged with the rise of personal computers.
Notorious hackers like Kevin Mitnick gained
notoriety for credit card fraud and illegal wire
transfers. Today, hacking has evolved into
various uses like vulnerability scanners,
pentesting, and red teaming, with ethical
hacking differing from malicious attacks by
one key factor: permission.

12. Did the attacker have permission to execute the
attack?
Is it a pentest or red teaming? If
yes, it's ethical hacking. If not,
it's hacking. Proactive testing,
like penetration testing, helps
prevent attacks by seeing
systems from a hacker's
perspective.

14. List of devices and attacks
which evolved with time.
1980s - 1990s Early Days
Devices used: Personal
computers, modems,
telephones.
Types of Attacks: Exploiting
weak passwords, buffer
overflows, virus creation,
and simple Denial of Service
(DoS) attacks.
Late 1990s Rise of
internet and cybercrime
Devices used: Personal
computers, laptops, basic
networking equipment.
Types of Attacks: Email
phishing, SQL injection,
website defacement,
spreading worms and
viruses.

15. Early 2000s The cyber
underground and organised
crime
Devices used: More
powerful computers,
servers, networking
equipment.
Types of Attacks:
Advanced Persistent
Threats (APTs),
ransomware, credit card
fraud, data breaches.
Late 2000s The Age of
Nation-State Attacks
Devices used: Advanced
servers, cloud
infrastructure, nation-
state resources.
Types of Attacks:
Targeted attacks on
critical infrastructure,
sophisticated malware
like Stuxnet, advanced
social engineering.

16. Meaning of Cyberattacks
Cyberattacks are malicious actions or attempts to
harm computers, networks, or the information stored
in them. These attacks can be carried out by hackers
or cyber criminals with the goal of stealing sensitive
data, causing disruptions, or gaining unauthorized
access to systems. Cyberattacks can take various
forms, such as spreading viruses, hacking into
websites, or tricking people into revealing their
personal information. Protecting against cyberattacks
is essential to keep our digital world safe and secure.

17. Old School v/s New School CyberAttacks
The main difference between previous old-school cyberattacks
and modern-day cyber attacks lies in their sophistication, targets,
and techniques. Old-school cyber attacks were often characterized
by relatively simple and isolated attempts to compromise
individual systems. In contrast, modern cyber attacks are highly
advanced, multi-faceted, and primarily focus on exploiting
interconnected networks and systems to cause widespread
damage and steal valuable information.

18. Top famous cyber attacks , ransomware attacks , heist and viruses of all time.
WannaCry Ransomware Attack (2017) NotPetya Ransomware Attack (2017)
Sony Pictures Hack (2014) Equifax Data Breach (2017)
Stuxnet (2010) Target Data Breach (2013)
Ashley Madison Data Breach (2015) Bangladesh Bank Heist (2016)
COLONIAL PIPELINE RANSOMWARE ATTACK AIDS trojan (PC Cyborg Virus)
Creeper program DoD & NASA Hacks
CryptoLocker ransomware (2013) Mirai botnet (2016)
Clop ransomware (2019-Present) ILOVEYOU worm (2000)

19. “Future of hacking”
- The future of hacking is concerning, as cybercriminals are likely to
outpace cyber security and intelligence agencies with new methods
and sophisticated attacks. Some key threats include AI-driven social
engineering attacks, cloud-based ransomware, phishing, IoT device
hacking, supply chain infiltration, hacktivism, and state-sponsored
attacks. These attacks pose significant risks to countries, as they can
cripple critical infrastructure like the power grid and
telecommunications. The growing number of connected devices
makes the entire system vulnerable, making prevention and control
measures crucial.

20. Artificial Intelligence Based Crimes
Identity Theft
Fraud and Impersonation
Deep-fake Exploitation
Social Engineering

21. Names of some famous & infamous hackers
(white hat/grey hat/black hat) , groups/organisations and notorious
cyber-criminals.

22. Mustafa Al-Bassam
Charged with 80 different crimes . First started
learning programming at the age of nine. His first
hack was an online calculator after he found a
flaw in the website, later on managed to get his
hands on his school server. Hacked the Egyptian
government with others under the banner of
Anonymous (hacktivism) and Co-founded the
group lulzsec . Victims of his attacks were CIA,
ARIZONA POLICE, US SENATE, etc. He was
arrested when he was about 15 or 16 , and faced
a ban from using the internet for 2 years .

23. Mitch Altman
Founder of Noisebridge hackerspace
in San Francisco,inventor of TV-B and
also chief scientist and CEO of
cornfield electronics . Berlin based
hacker Talks about why it's important
to teach kids about tech. Hackers at
noisebridge conduct biology
experiments and hack a wheelchair to
be controlled by a computer , phone
and even one's own waves.

24. Julian Assange
Editor, publisher and activist, he
became involved in the hacker
community and was convicted for
hacking in 1996. Famously known
for creating wikileaks , a non-profit
media organisation founded in 2006
that published classified documents
and other media provided by
anonymous sources .

25. Trishneet Arora
Founder and CEO of TAC SECURITY,
a cyber security company. Some of his
clients are CBI, PUNJAB POLICE AND
RELIANCE INDUSTRIES and many
more. Film-maker Sunil Bohra is working
on a biographical film about Arora. He
was named in Forbes 30 Under 30 2018
Asia list and Fortune India 40 Under 40
2019 List of India's Brightest Business
Minds.

26. Manan shah
Manan Shah is an Indian
entrepreneur, author and an ethical
hacker. He is the Founder and CEO
of Avalance Global Solutions an
online cyber security company that is
involved in securing government and
enterprise digital setups. Manan has
written books on cyber security,
ethical hacking and web defence.

27. Joe Grand
Grand became involved in
electronics at the age of seven and
later joined the Boston-based hacker
group L0pht Heavy Industries. Joe
Grand is an American electrical
engineer, inventor and hardware
hacker known in the hacker
community as Kingpin.

28. Aaron Hillel Swartz
He is often credited as a martyr and
a prodigy, and his work focused on
civic awareness and activism. In the
whole world he is considered a hero
who fought for freedom of ideas . Co-
founder of Reddit , he helped create
RSS, a popular tool for keeping up
with the latest news and blog posts
before the advent of social media.

29. Virgil Griffith
He worked extensively on the Ethereum
cryptocurrency platform, designed the Tor2web
proxy along with Aaron Swartz, and created the
Wikipedia indexing tool WikiScanner. He has
published papers on artificial life[3] and
integrated information theory.[4] Griffith was
arrested in 2019, and in 2021 pleaded guilty to
conspiring to violate U.S. laws relating to
money laundering using cryptocurrency and
sanctions related to North Korea.

30. Jeremy Hammond
American activist and former computer
hacker from Chicago. He founded the
computer security training website
HackThisSite] in 2003. He was first
imprisoned over the Protest Warrior
hack in 2005 and was later convicted
of computer fraud in 2013 for hacking
the private intelligence firm Stratfor and
releasing data to WikiLeaks, and
sentenced to 10 years in prison.

31. George Hotz
He was the first to jailbreak an iPhone,
hacked into both sony and google then
made a song about it . Created his own
car company to compete with Tesla . An
American security hacker, entrepreneur,
and software engineer. Google paid him
160k dollars for fixing their security
flaws and rejected the 12 million dollar
offer from elon musk for working on
tesla autopilot system.

32. Marcus Hutchins
Marcus Hutchins - AKA
MalwareTech - became a hero for
stopping WannaCry, a particularly
nasty ransomware that spread
quickly all over the world. Yet his
fame also brought to light his
troubled past as the teenage Black
Hat hacker who created KRONOS, a
dangerous rootkit.

33. Jonathan James
This 15-year-old computer hacker caused a
21-day shutdown of NASA computers that
support the international space station, and
invaded a Pentagon weapons computer
system to intercept 3,300 e-mails, steal
passwords and cruise around like an
employee. The first juvenile incarcerated
for cybercrime in the United States. The South
Florida native was 15 years old at the time of
the first offence and 16 years old on the date
of his sentencing.

34. Samy Kamkar
At the age of 16, he dropped out of high school. One year later, he
co-founded Fonality, a unified communications company based on
open-source software, which raised over $46 million in private
funding. In 2005, he created and released the fastest spreading
virus of all time,the MySpace worm Samy, and was subsequently
raided by the United States Secret Service under the Patriot Act.He
also created SkyJack, a custom drone which hacks into any nearby
Parrot drones allowing them to be controlled by its operator and
created the Evercookie, which appeared in a top-secret NSA
document revealed by Edward Snowden and on the front page of

35. Jan Krissler
German computer scientist and
hacker. He is best known for his
work on defeating biometric
systems, most prominently the
iPhone's TouchID.He is also an
active member of the German
and European hacker
community.

36. Gary Mckinnon
A Scottish systems administrator and
hacker who was accused in 2002 of
perpetrating the "biggest military
computer hack of all time",although
McKinnon himself states that he was
merely looking for evidence of free
energy suppression and a cover-up of
UFO activity and other technologies
potentially useful to the public.

37. Kevin Mitnick
American computer security consultant,
author, and convicted hacker. He is best
known for his high-profile 1995 arrest and
five years in prison for various computer
and communications-related crimes.
Mitnick's pursuit, arrest, trial, and sentence
along with the associated journalism, books,
and films were all controversial. After his
release from prison, he ran his own security
firm, Mitnick Security Consulting, LLC.

38. Jude Milhon
Self-taught programmer, civil rights
advocate, writer, editor, advocate for
women in computing, hacker and
author in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Milhon coined the term cypherpunk and
was a founding member of the
cypherpunks.

39. Katie Moussouris
American computer security researcher, entrepreneur,
and pioneer in vulnerability disclosure, and is best
known for her ongoing work advocating responsible
security research. Previously a member of @stake, she
created the bug bounty program at Microsoft and was
directly involved in creating the U.S. Department of
Defense's first bug bounty program for hackers.She
previously served as Chief Policy Officer at HackerOne,
a vulnerability disclosure company based in San
Francisco, California.

40. Robert Tappan Morris
American computer scientist and
entrepreneur. He is best known for
creating the Morris worm in
1988,considered the first computer
worm on the Internet. And became the
first person convicted under the then-
new Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

41. Edward Snowden
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June
21, 1983) is an American and
naturalised Russian former computer
intelligence consultant and
whistleblower who leaked highly
classified information from the National
Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when
he was an employee and
subcontractor.

42. Gottfrid Svartholm
Swedish computer specialist, known
as the former co-owner of the web
hosting company PRQ and co-
founder of the BitTorrent site The
Pirate Bay together with Fredrik Neij
and Peter Sunde.

43. Kristoffer von Hassel
American boy known for being the world's
youngest known hacker and notable for
being the youngest "security researcher"
listed on Microsoft's Security Techcenter as
having exposed a security vulnerability.At the
age of five, Hassel exposed security lapses
in the Microsoft Live Xbox system, prompting
wide media coverage, with some journalists
highlighting the dropping age of hackers and
their technology mastery.

44. Reuben Paul
Reuben Paul is a prodigy. At 10 year
old, he has a firm purpose in life. He’s
an ethical hacker, and his main
concern is security in mobile phones.
During a conference, he took the stage
and showed in a few minutes how a
hacker can steal all important data
from an Android phone and access
contacts, call records and messages.

45. Betsy Davies
Betsy Davies is just seven years old, but a
brief tutorial was enough for her to hack a
public WiFi network. She exposed the
danger of public WiFi and caused a real
storm in the world of cybersecurity. The
VPN provider “Hide My Ass” asked for
Betsy’s help to conduct an experiment as
part of a public awareness campaign that
aimed to show how easy it is to hack into
one of these networks.

46. Anonymous Hacker From Canada
At the age of 12, a young Canadian hacker
launched several DoS attacks, denial of
service, against some Canadian government
websites in support of student protests in
Quebec. The young hacker, who resides in
Montreal, pleaded guilty to having caused the
closing of several pages owned by the
government, including the Institute of Public
Health of Quebec and the Chilean
government.

47. Albert Gonzalez
American computer hacker, computer
criminal and police informer, who is
accused of masterminding the
combined credit card theft and
subsequent reselling of more than
170 million card and ATM numbers
from 2005 to 2007, the biggest such
fraud in history.

48. PLA Unit 61398
People's Liberation Army unit
dedicated to cyberattacks on
American, Japanese, and European
corporations focused on satellite and
communications technology. It is a
unit that takes part in China's
campaign to steal trade and military
secrets from foreign targets.

49. Unit 8200
Israeli Intelligence Corps unit of the
Israel Defense Forces responsible
for clandestine operation, collecting
signal intelligence and code
decryption, counterintelligence,
cyberwarfare, military intelligence,
and surveillance.

50. Bureau 121
North Korean cyber warfare
agency, and the main unit of the
Reconnaissance General Bureau of
North Korea's military. It conducts
offensive cyber operations,
including espionage and cyber-
enabled finance crime.

51. The Shadow Brokers
First appeared in the summer of 2016.They
published several leaks containing hacking
tools, including several zero-day exploits,from
the "Equation Group" who are widely
suspected to be a branch of the National
Security Agency (NSA) of the United
States.Specifically, these exploits and
vulnerabilities targeted enterprise firewalls,
antivirus software, and Microsoft products

52. Lizard Squad
The Lizard Squad came into public view around 2014.
Lizard Squad hackers launched their DDoS assault
first on the League of Legends servers, then on the
PlayStation Network, and then on servers run by
Blizzard. The group seemed to target only video game
services, bringing havoc to Xbox and the PlayStation
Network by taking their networks offline. The Lizard
Squad appeared to be equal opportunity threats and
targeted specific games’ online services. Impacted
games included Call of Duty, Destiny, and FIFA.

53. Syrian Electronic Army
The Syrian Electronic Army generally targets
media organizations in the United States and
other western countries. SEA also targets people
working in foreign government organizations and
military branches. In many cases, this personnel is
a target for espionage. An example of their activity
included an attack on Reuters, during which SEA
redirected a page that read, “Hacked by the Syrian
Electronic Army.” This desire for attribution and
recognition is most typical of hacktivist activity.

54. Xbox Underground
Xbox Underground was an
international hacker group responsible
for gaining unauthorized access to the
computer network of Microsoft and its
development partners, including
Activision, Epic Games, and Valve, in
order to obtain sensitive information
relating to Xbox One and Xbox Live.

55. Lulzsec
Lulz Security, or “LulzSec” for short is a
computer hacker group responsible for
many of the high-profile cyber attacks that
occurred during the peak of their
existence—a period of 50 days during
which they broke into the computer
networks of governments, companies, and
other individuals, making public vast
quantities of private information including
many usernames, passwords, and personal
identifying information.

56. Anonymous
Anonymous is a decentralized
international activist and hacktivist
collective and movement primarily
known for its various cyberattacks
against several governments,
government institutions and
government agencies, corporations
and the Church of Scientology.

57. Lapsus$
LAPSUS$ ransomware differs from other
high-profile ransom-based attack strains
such as Conti, REvil, and LockBit. While
most ransomware attacks employ
sophisticated malware to encrypt files,
LAPSUS$ attacks involve simple threats
of posting stolen data to coerce
payments, forgoing traditional malware
altogether.

58. Conclusion: The evolution of hackers and cyber attacks has been
remarkable, moving from curious individuals exploring computer
systems to sophisticated state-sponsored cyber warfare. As
technology continues to advance, it is crucial for individuals,
organisations, and governments to stay vigilant and adapt their
cybersecurity strategies to defend against emerging threats. The
cat-and-mouse game between hackers and cybersecurity
professionals is ongoing, requiring constant vigilance and
innovation to secure our digital world.

59. Thank You!
Contact me:
https://twitter.com/dj_unos
https://www.linkedin.com/in
/ronit-chakraborty-
435942237/