1764: Choice theory came about through the thinking and writing of Cesare Beccaria in the mid-seventeenth Century, and it is still widely relied on to explain why people break laws against many types of traditional crime and cybercrime.
1789: Copyright protection was legalized to empower creators, ‘‘To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.’’
1800: Beginning in the nineteenth century new scientific methods lead to discoveries having to do with trait theory.
1900: In the twentieth century several additional general theories of crime came into being. One of these was social process theory, which posits that people commit crime as the result of how they are raised, educated, and acculturated in society.
1903: Originally known as the Bureau of Corporations, the FTC was created on February 14, 1903, under legislation sought by President Theodore Roosevelt to guard against price fixing by corporate cartels.
1914: Congress reconstituted the Bureau of Corporations into the FTC with enactment of the Federal Trade Commission and Clayton Act.
1923: Interpol is established as an international crime information organization.
1929: October 24, Black Thursday. The Stock Market crashed starting the Great Depression, which ultimately led to banking reforms including the establishment of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) as authorized by Congress in the Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
1932: Enigma was deconstructed originally by a Polish mathematician, Marian Rejewski, in 1932, who was able to decipher a pattern and method of encryption allowing the evolution of Enigma to be tracked.
1933: Convention on Rights and Duties of States (inter-American); December 26, 1933.
1934: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) created in response to the thousands of bank failures that occurred in the 1920s and early 1930s.
1937: Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established by the Communications Act of 1934 as an independent agency of the federal government, directly responsible to Congress.
1939: ‘‘SPAM’’ was first coined (and trademarked) in 1937 as the brand name of a canned pork product that is still made by the Hormel Foods Corporation.
1945: World War II begins with Germany’s invasion of Poland and sets the stage for computer research and development leading to innovations in munitions and rocket and missile guidance systems.
1950s: World War II ends with Germany and Japan surrendering to allied nations. The United Nations is founded in the aftermath. Students attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) establish the basis for what eventually would emerge as the hacker subculture.
1958: The Federal Aviation Act of 1958 created the Federal Aviation Agency (forerunner to the FAA).
1960: PLATO is developed and considered to be the first online educational community.
1963: The term ‘‘cyber culture’’ first appears in the Oxford English Dictionary.
1967: Federal Aviation Agency, changed to the FAA in 1967 when it became a part of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
1969: ARPANET is created by connecting the mainframe computers at Stanford Research Institute, the University of California–Santa Barbara, the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA), and the University of Utah.
1972: Atari’s Pong is released, considered the first true video game.
1974: Congress created the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as an independent agency with a mandate relating to that of the SEC, to regulate commodity futures and option markets in the United States.
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is established as an independent agency to regulate civilian use of nuclear materials as authorized by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974.
1975: Dungeons and Dragons is created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson is released, one of the first fantasy role-playing games originally designed for tabletop play.
Congress creates the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), the statute that governs the financing of federal elections.
1976: Copyright Act of 1976 grants exclusive rights to a copyright owner, including the following: (1) the right to reproduce the work; (2) rights to create and reproduce other works based on the original piece; (3) the right to distribute copies; (4) rights to perform the work publicly; and (5) the right to display and transmit the work in a public place.
In a 1976 Congressional Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (i.e., the Church Committee), examples of the Federal Government’s illegal domestic spying are revealed.
1978: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (1978) creates a secret court to review wiretap and other requests of law enforcement agencies in cases that threaten national security.
1980s: Public key encryption was first conceived of in the mid-1980s.
Leetspeak makes its first appearance in the mid-1980s.
Malware begins plaguing information systems, which initially are not illegal and considered malicious computer abuse pranks.
1982: ‘‘Cyberspace’’ first appears in print, but author William Gibson popularized the word and concept of cyberspace with his 1984 book Neuromancer.
1983: MILNET splinters from ARPANET, founded as the dedicated Military Network.
The protocol (set of communications rules) known as TCP/IP became the main networking protocol of ARPANET and continues to be used as the technical basis of data exchange on the Internet.
1984: Steven Levy publishes his 1984 book titled, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, which described the ‘‘Hacker Ethic.’’
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) is founded under a Congressional Mandate.
1985: Razor 1911 forms to become what is widely considered to be the oldest surviving warez group.
1986: Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is passed (18 USC 1030), the first computer criminal law in the United States.
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (an update to the Wiretap Act codified at 18 U.S.C. Section 2701-2711) is passed.
1988: CERT/CC® was formed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in November of 1988.
The Internet is commercialized. See Computerization Robert Morris Jr., a doctoral (PhD) candidate at Cornell University, releases the first Internet worm.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1988).
1989: SANS Institute is founded as a cooperative research and education organization.
1990: ARPANET is disbanded.
Bot programs are developed by users of Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
Personal computers (PCs) become a mainstream commodity.
Electronic Frontier Foundation is founded by Mitch Kapor, John Perry Barlow, and John Gilmore.
Kevin Poulsen, a skilled computer and telephone network hacker, and two accomplices manipulate a telephone network to win a ‘‘call in’’ radio contest hosted by KIIS-FM in Los Angeles, California.
Controversial Operation Sundevil investigation by U.S. Secret Service.
Network Centric Warfare develops at the end of the Cold War conflict between United States and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
1991: The Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) was established in 1991 as the Computer Crime Unit within the U.S. Department of Justice, with three prosecuting attorneys.
Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) computer program was developed by Philip Zimmerman for encryption emails and other electronic communications.
The terms ‘‘identity theft’’ and ‘‘identity fraud’’ are not believed to have been used in print until 1991. See Identity Theft Operation Desert Storm, First Gulf War.
1993: ID Software’s DOOM is released, becoming the first modern multiplayer game.
1994: The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Assistance Act (1994).
Landmark court case United States v. LaMacchia centers on cybercrime involving $1 million in lost revenue through distributing copyrighted software on the Internet.
1995: Known as ‘‘America’s Most Wanted Computer Outlaw,’’ Kevin Mitnick is apprehended in Raleigh, North Carolina.
At this point there were 16 million users of the Internet.
1996: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is legislated and signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
Council of Europe’s Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC) began studying and drafting a proposed Convention on Cybercrime.
Economic Espionage Act of 1996 gives law enforcement greater means to investigate and prosecute corporate espionage.
The U.S. President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (PCCIP) addressed national vulnerabilities associated with interdependent technological systems.
Internet2 is founded as a nonprofit organization. The purpose of Internet2 is to discover the full potential of Internet technology and further promote collaboration and innovation.
1997: ‘‘Cyberterrorism’’ enunciated by Mark Pollitt.
The No Electronic Theft Act of 1997 makes it illegal for any- one in the United States other than the copyright holder, assignees, or their agents to distribute copyrighted software over the Internet.
1998: Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act (U.S. Public Law 105-318) criminalizes identity theft.
Domain Name System (DNS) is created as the universal resource locator (URL) for all Web sites.
1999: Various tools such as Trinoo, Tribal Flood Network, Stacheldraht, and Shaft developed to carry out distributed denial of service (DDOS).
Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) enacted to assist copyright and trademark holders in disputes regarding the registration of domain names.
David Smith releases the Melissa Worm by using a stolen America Online account to post a message promising access to pornographic Web sites on the Alt.sex newsgroup.
2000: DDOS tools merged with worms and rootkits in order to automate the multiple compromise systems to launch further attacks.
Emergence of peer-to-peer (p2p) networks and other file-sharing programs enables people to share and download music for free, resulting in loss of royalties for artists.
The family of the musician Jimi Hendrix pursued legal action against Denny Hammerton, the registrant of the domain name ‘‘jimihendrix.com.’’
Hacker launched Denial of Service (DOS) attacks against Yahoo, CNN.com, Amazon, Buy.com, and eBay, which severely limited their access to the Web sites of these companies.
Programming student in the Philippine Islands releases the ILOVEYOU Worm causing significant damage to computers running Microsoft Windows.
Y2K (Year 2000) bug expected to knock out computer systems throughout the world due to a programming flaw involving the assignment of dates that used only six bits (00/00/00) instead of eight bits (00/00/0000) to represent a month, day, and year.
2000, A&M Records and several other record labels sue p2p firm, Napster.
The completed Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime was opened for initial signature by participating nations in Budapest, Hungary.
September 11 aircraft hijacking terrorist attacks against World Trade Center and Pentagon kill 3,000 people and result in United States ‘‘war on terrorism’’ and unprecedented monitoring of cyberspace for possible illegal activities.
‘‘Digital natives’’ and ‘‘digital immigrants’’ described by Marc Prensky.
USA PATRIOT Act is signed into law on October 26, 2001.
Code Red released onto the Internet as a means to exploit a flaw in Microsoft IIS (Web page) servers.
Warez group known as Drink or Die (DoD) disbanded after an anti-online piracy campaign.
Operation Buccaneer carried out by the U.S. Department of Justice.
2002: U.S. export controls of ‘‘strong encryption’’ relaxed.
Denial of service (DOS) attack cripples seven servers integral to Internet functioning.
2003: Federal Trade Commission reveals that over 27 million Americans have been victims of identity theft in the preceding five years.
CAN-SPAM Act See Laws, Privacy Protection; SPAM Malware known as Slammer infects 90 ercent of the computers vulnerable to its attack method within ten minutes.
2004: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children logs 39 percent one-year increase in number of reported incidents of child pornography.
The CISSP program earned the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) ISO/IEC Standard 17024:2003 accreditation, the first information technology (IT) certification to have done so.
Major earthquake and tsunamis lead to widespread disaster relief fraud on Internet.
Economic losses within the United States attributable to Spam estimated at over $21 billion.
2005: Qui Chengwei, age 41, stabbed to death fellow online gamer Zhu Caoyuan in Shanghai, China, for selling a virtual cyber-sword that the men had previously jointly won in an online auction.
College students in the United States begin using Internet II to pirate music, movies, and software.
Landmark court case Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc., et al. v. Grokster, Ltd., et al. effectively changes ways in which p2p firms can operate so as not to infringe on copyright.
ChoicePoint, one of the largest data collectors and resellers in the United States, pays $10 million in civil penalties and $5 million for consumer redress due to an unprecedented data breach.
2006: Congress approves President George Bush to sign Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime.
Thirteen-year-old Megan Meier commits suicide allegedly because of online harassment.
Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was duped into erroneously paying out over $1 billion in disaster relief to alleged victims of the Katrina and Rita hurricanes that
struck the Gulf Coast in 2005.
America Online (AOL) accidentally releases Internet search data of 658,000 customers.
2007: Austrian authorities uncover international organized child pornography ring involving over 2,300 people from 77 countries who used standard point-of-sale systems to pay for and view videos of children being sexually abused.
Forty-three countries had signed the International Convention on Cybercrime, and 21 nations had ratified it.
Computer servers believed to be located in Russia used to launch cyber attacks against critical information infrastructure of Estonia.
The Consumer Reports National Research Center, on the basis of survey of more than 2,000 households with Internet access, estimated that in the two years prior to the study U.S. consumers lost $7 billion as the result of computer viruses, spyware, and phishing schemes.
Researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) launch world’s largest cybercrime victimization and offending survey involving over 40,000 K–12 students. Findings verify a considerable number of cybercrimes are committed by and among adolescents.
Nucleus Research estimated that the costs of spam exceeded $71 billion worldwide.
2008: There are approximately 1.5 billion individual users of the Internet.
An undersea telecommunications cable in the Mediterranean Sea is severed, slowing Internet access dramatically in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and several nations in the Middle East.
Hackers successfully disrupt electrical power grids in several U.S. cities.
(I made this as resumed and revised) source from:
"encyclopedia of cybercrime" edited by Samuel C. McQuade, III
greenwood press, london. 2009
[need more revision, by many events came after 2008]
_sarung
