Linux Administration Handbook, Second Edition

20. Security

WarGames, a 1983 film starring Matthew Broderick, is a fascinating look at the early computer cracking subculture. In the movie, David Lightman employs several well-known attack techniques, including war dialing, social engineering, phone hacking (aka “phreaking”), and password guessing to start and then stop a nuclear attack. WarGames brought computer security into the limelight and, with it, the misnomer “hacker” as a label for troublesome teenage whiz kids. This early film was only the beginning of what has now become a global problem.

Five years later, the world of computer and network technology entered a new era when ...