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This week in InfoSec (08:15)

With content liberated from the “today in infosec” twitter account and further afield

3rd May 1978: Earliest known case of spam.  Gary Thuerk, a marketing representative for Digital Equipment Corporation, sends out an e-mail promoting an open house for the company’s latest computer systems to 393 recipients on the ARPANET, a precursor to the modern Internet. While this number sounds small by today’s standards, this was all the ARPANET users on the west coast of the United States. Given that this was an unsolicited commercial e-mail, it is now considered the first of its kind. In other words, the first spam message well before the term was coined. It brought a quick and negative response from many users and Thuerk was warned by ARPANET administrators that mass mailings were not an acceptable use of the network. The backlash notwithstanding, the open house was largely successful with over $12 million dollars of DEC equipment being sold. I guess it was better to ask forgiveness than permission in this case! 

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2008/05/27/spamreg-or-spam-whats-in-a-name/

according to Hormel’s SPAM® FAQ, the name was dreamt up by a chap called Ken who received a $100 prize for his efforts. Hormel says that we have to thank him that we’re not all eating Crinkycrinky or Canned Flappertanknibbles.

29th April 2004: The Sasser worm is released into the wild, infecting over 1 million Windows XP and Windows 2000 computers worldwide.

Although the worm did not have an intentionally destructive payload, it caused many computers to slow down or crash and reboot repeatedly along with clogging up network traffic. Among the effects of the worm, the British coast guard had to resort to paper maps for the day, a French news agency lost satellite communication for hours, Delta Airlines had to delay or cancel many flights, and the University of Missouri had to disconnect its network from the Internet. 

(GC: Memories of Sasser? 🙂)

Author Sven Jaschan.  German kid.  Also created the Netsky worm.  Bragged about it to his schoolmates.

Following his arrest, Microsoft said that they had received tip-offs from more than one source, and that the $250,000 reward for identifying the author of the Netsky worm would be shared between them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Jaschan

Got off very lightly as he was underage when the virus was written - just given 30 hours community service.  No fine.

Went to work the next day as normal.... which was as a developer for a German cybersecurity company called SecurePoint.  In retaliation, the anti-virus company Avira officially halted its cooperation with Securepoint.

Rant of the Week  (17:12)

Cloudflare Q1 Earnings Call Transcript

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mattfivesixpartners_pretty-brutal-takedownthrowing-under-the-activity-7058819871119175681--ULh/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

Billy Big Balls of the Week (28:46)

[email protected] Feel free to talk about anything you want which might fall into the category of big ball energy as you don’t need to be spoon fed like the other muppets I work with.

Joe Sullivan.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/05/04/sullivan-sentencing-uber-executive/

Industry News (37:56)

UK Gun Owners May Be Targeted After Rifle Association Breach

T-Mobile Reveals Second Breach of the Year

Hackers Exploit High Severity Flaw in TBK DVR Camera System

Bitmarck Halts Operations Due to Cybersecurity Breach

Dark Web Bust Leads to Arrest of 288 Suspects

Three-Quarters of Firms Predict Breach in Coming Year

Apple and Google Unveil Industry Specification For Unwanted Tracking

US Authorities Dismantle Dark Web "Card Checking" Platform

Consumer Group Slams Bank App Fraud Failings

Tweet of the Week (46:48)

https://twitter.com/joshlemon/status/1654268564160020482

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