HIGH-TECH CRIMES REVEALED: CYBERWAR STORIES FROM THE DIGITAL FRONT

The Growth of High-Tech Crime

Though difficult to confirm, one of the first high-tech crimes was what has come to be known as “The Salami Technique Attack” against a bank in New York in 1967. In this case, a computer programmer was alleged to have stolen fractions of pennies out of many bank accounts. It is difficult to confirm since there were no convictions in this case, and no one has said definitively what happened. What can be said with certainty however is that the first confirmed hacker conviction belongs to John Draper, also known as Cap'n Crunch. He specialized in breaking into or hacking the telephone systems to make free calls. He got his name from a whistle that came in a box of Captain Crunch cereal that he used to make free long ...