History 329/SI 311/RCSSCI 360 Computers and the Internet: A global history

The Dark Side: Hackers, Spam, and Black Markets

Today

} Revisions to the syllabus and end of the course } Hackers } Spam } Vandalism on Wikipedia } Black markets on “darknets” } Next time Proposed changes to syllabus

} April 7: session on China } Guest lecturer Silvia Lindtner } Last class April 12 — NO CLASS April 14 } No final exam — 1250-1500 word essay instead } Why does history matter? How has learning the history of computers changed your view of the present? } Adjustment to percentages for final grade } Midterms 1 and 2 – each 30 pct of grade (was 20) } Final essay — 10 pct of grade

Hackers Tweet this

John Draper, A.K.A. “Captain Crunch,” discovers that free phone calls 1972 can be made with the use of a blue box and a plastic toy whistle that comes in Cap’n Crunch cereal boxes. The whistle duplicates a 2600-hertz tone to unlock AT&T’s phone network.

1979 The first computer “worm” is created at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center. The program is meant to make computers more efcient, but later hackers modify worms into computer viruses that destroy or alter data.

source (all blue slides): Dell Computer

Captain Crunch (John Draper)

} “Phreaking” } Built “blue boxes” } Connected with Homebrew computer club } 2600 magazine (1984-) PC hackers (1975-present) } Structure: distributed computing } Individual PCs in homes, offices } PC hacker culture } Far larger, highly fragmented group } Time of day no longer important } Mainframe and mini hackers: usually nighttime, to get maximum computer performance from timesharing systems } Face-to-face social opportunities } Hacker gatherings (Homebrew Computer Club, 2600) } Trade shows } Mainly curiosity and exploit-driven (not criminal) Hardware hackers: the Homebrew Computer Club

Silicon Valley, mid-1970s

Homebrew and the origins of Apple Network hackers (late 1980s-present) } Structure: Internet, online services, WWW } Usually from PCs } Cyberspace: online interaction } Anonymity: masking of gender, etc., disembodiment } Very large communities: fragmentation } Commerce and finance online: } Hacker/cracker distinction evolves; major criminal acts begin

Famous Steiner cartoon, 1993

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1983 contact us for vaccination

Fred Cohen, a University of Southern California doctoral student, comes up with term 1986 “computer virus.”

The first PC virus, “the Brain,” is created. The Brain, however is not destructive, and the The Alameda, 1987 creators included their Cascade, contact information with it. Jerusalem, Lehigh, and Miami viruses are created. Tweet this

1988 A worm is uploaded to ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), the X ancestor of the Internet, disabling about 6,000 computers X by replicating itself and filling their memory banks. Robert Morris, who created and unleashed the virus out of boredom, received three years’ probation and a $10,000 penalty.

The first self-modifying 1990 viruses are created.

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Concept, the first Microsoft Word-based virus, spreads worldwide using macro 1995 commands. The virus is spread by opening an infected Word document.

1998

“Solar Sunrise” occurs when hackers 2000 take control of over 500 government, military, and private Hackers use computers computer systems. Authorities at the University of eventually learn that two California California-Santa Barbara teenagers coordinated the attacks. to crash Amazon, Yahoo, eBay, and other websites by flooding their sites with trafc. Tweet this

2001

The Code Red worm causes $2 billion in damage by infecting Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000 server software. The virus attempts to use all infected computers to attack the White House website simultaneously, but the worm’s code is deciphered in time and the attack is blocked. 2005 Users of computers infected with PoisonIvy find their computers remotely controlled via the virus. The remote access trojan is used to attack not only personal computers, but chemical and defense companies as well.

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2008

* * * The Koobface virus spreads through email and social networking sites like Facebook. Once infected, a computer sends its users ads for phony software. Money is exchanged but products are never delivered. 2009

The Conficker (a.k.a Downadup or Kido) worm, best known for stealing financial data and passwords, infect millions of computers. The complexity and infection rate leads to the assembly of an alliance of experts just to stop the complex virus. Tweet this

2010 Stuxnet, a virus created for industrial and economic attacks, is discovered. The worm targets systems used to run nuclear power plants and water facilities and is so large and complex, estimates suggest it was developed by the U.S. or Israeli governments and took more than 10 years to develop.

The Ramnit virus is used to steal over 2011 45,000 passwords and accounts on Facebook. The virus attaches itself to a legitimate file, infects a computer, ******** and runs an invisible browser to connect with a hacker.

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2012

The Heartbleed bug takes advantage of a flaw in the OpenSSL security software library in order to access passwords, encrypted communications, and other sensitive data. Millions of secure servers are exposed to the virus, which in turn afects billions of people.

Between Nov. 27-Dec. 15, the 2013 personal data of 70 million customers is stolen when hackers gain access to Targets’ servers. Target discovers the breach on Dec. 13, ******** the event is leaked on Dec. 18, and Target publicly announces it the next day. Tweet this

2014

One dozen Russian hackers steal more than 1.2 billion matching passwords and usernames, and over 500 million email address. The heist is accomplished using viruses to test and ******** exploit vulnerabilities in websites’ SQL code.

Hacking evolves } Early hacker communities: mainframes, minis } Unified, local } Competitive, but also cooperative } Highly social (face to face); embodied } Later hacker communities: PCs, networks } Fragmented, distributed } Competitive, but also cooperative } Highly sociable online, but often little face-to-face contact } “White hat” vs. “black hat” } Hackers vs. crackers Spam

since 1937… Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1970) The first spam (1978)… …sent to thousands of Arpanet users

DIGITAL WILL BE GIVING A PRODUCT PRESENTATION OF THE NEWEST MEMBERS OF THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY; THE DECSYSTEM-2020, 2020T, 2060, AND 2060T. WE INVITE YOU TO COME SEE THE 2020 AND HEAR ABOUT THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY AT THE TWO PRODUCT PRESENTATIONS WE WILL BE GIVING IN CALIFORNIA THIS MONTH. THE LOCATIONS WILL BE:

TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1978 - 2 PM HYATT HOUSE (NEAR THE L.A. AIRPORT) LOS ANGELES, CA

A 2020 WILL BE THERE FOR YOU TO VIEW. ALSO TERMINALS ON-LINE TO OTHER DECSYSTEM-20 SYSTEMS THROUGH THE ARPANET.

IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO ATTEND, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT THE NEAREST DEC OFFICE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE EXCITING DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY.

History of email spam } 1993: accidental USENET posting first called “spam” } 1994: first large-scale spam } “Global Alert for All: Jesus is Coming Soon” – posted to all USENET newsgroups } Early 2000s: a series of criminal convictions, with prison sentences, for spamming } Howard Carmack: sent 800 million messages under aliases } Prison sentence 3.5-7 years } Damages of $14.5 million to Earthlink (ISP) } Early 2000s: introduction of botnets } Command-and-control servers (C&C); slave or “zombie” PCs } Some botnets are good, and legal: scrapers, Internet Archive, etc. Spam volume, 2007-2012

The Gmail spam filter at work (2004-2011) Statistics from an Internet security firm… …and from my own computer source: https://www.incapsula.com/images/blog/images/bot-traffic-report-2013.jpg Botnet C&C server locations worldwide, last 2 weeks

C&C = command and control

Source: TrendMicro

Spamhaus vs. Cyberbunker: a DDoS war (2015)

The World's Worst Spammers

Up to 80% of spam targeted at internet users around the world is generated by a hard-core group of around 100 known persistent spam gangs whose names, aliases and operations are documented in Spamhaus' Register Of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) database.

This TOP 10 chart of ROKSO-listed spammers is based on Spamhaus views of the highest threat, least repentant, most persistent, and generally the worst of the career spammers causing the most damage on the internet currently.

Twitter spambots Network graph of the spambots, 3 levels deep

Source: Terence Eden, “This is what a graph of 8,000 fake Twitter accounts looks like,” https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2015/03/this-is-what-a-graph-of-8000-fake-twitter-accounts-looks-like/

Network graph of the spambots, 5 levels deep

Source: Terence Eden, “This is what a graph of 8,000 fake Twitter accounts looks like,” https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2015/03/this-is-what-a-graph-of-8000-fake-twitter-accounts-looks-like/ Vandalism on Wikipedia

A Wikipedia “edit war”

History of entry for “chocolate”

“Half of mass deletions are modified within 3 minutes, and half of vulgar mass deletions are modified within 2 minutes”

Source: F. Viégas, M. Wattenberg, and K. Dave, “Studying Cooperation and Conflict between Authors with history flow Visualizations,” CHI 2004 Wikipedia entry on “global warming”

…we click the “history” tab… …and find entries for “Gardner monk…”

Vandalism. Source: R. Stuart Geiger, “The Social Roles of Bots and Assisted Editing Programs,” WikiSym ‘09

A how-to for Wikipedia vandals Reverting Wikipedia vandalism

Comment by the poster of this video:

“mmmm-mmmm vandals...Twinkle eats you for breakfast....with lots of sugar on top....”

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKQbrqikdjI

Black markets on “darknets” Darknets

} Tor (The Onion Router) — started 2002 } Anonymous, encrypted communication network via 7000+ relays } Location, name, etc. of users very difficult to trace } I2P (Invisible Internet Project) — started 2003 } Peer-to-peer, anonymous } Can run any Internet or Web service

Silk Road: a black market run on darknets (2011-2013) Ross William Ulbricht “Dread Pirate Roberts” Next time: Ghana } Reading } “Brief history of Ghana”and “CIA World Factbook on Ghana” } Burrell, “User Agency in the Middle Range: Rumors and the Reinvention of the Internet in Accra, Ghana” (2011) } Wiens, “An Infamous E-Waste Slum Needed Us. It Got Razed Instead.”

} Context } Burrell, “The Import of Secondhand Computers and the Dilemma of Electronic Waste” (2012)

} Computing } United Nations Environment Programme, 2011. Where Are WEee in Africa? Findings From the Basel Convention E-Waste Africa Programme

} Primary sources } Aljazeera, “E-Waste Republic” } Hakkens, “A Free Trip” (video, 4 min)