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The Underground Network

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By this time a third network was being created by kids all over America by kids with access to a phone line and a modem. They created Bulletin Boards and they used them because in order to get on to the ARPANET you had to be on an educational connection. On the bulletin boards an underground network of hackers talked about all the holes in the net's security and how to exploit them.

It wasn't until 88 that hacking became a netwide issue, the bulletin boards would give out passwords (in the days when a password really was just a word) and these passwords allowed kids to access faster more powerful computers then they could actually afford themselves.

The Worm

On the 2nd of November 1988 at 7pm EST a college student released the Internet worm, it paralysed the net and crashed 6000 computers. The first virus had arrived. It arrived attached to an e-mail and got run by a user inadvertently, although at the time no one new how it was being done, it just looked like lots and lots of e-mail's coming in that caused a crash. The worm showed that net security didn't exist and that even the military computers were wide open.

It also showed people that you didn't have to be rich to be powerful on the net, you just had to be clever, and if you were, hacking was for you.

The World Wide Web

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Guide/site and images ©Stephen Cox