Age of innocence
The first computer virus was created in a lab and released without malicious intent. The Creeper, named after a character in Scooby-Doo, was set loose on to the Arpanet by engineer Bob Thomas in 1971 but was quickly neutralized. One of the first internet viruses, the Morris worm, released in 1988, caused more damage, though its creator, Robert Morris, a Cornell student, claimed it was an innocent mistake. He was sentenced to three years’ probation. Morris is now a professor at MIT and the disk containing his worm’s source code is on display at the Boston Museum of Science.
Teenage kicks
Malware entered a delinquency phase in the 1980s and 1990s as youthful hackers used viruses to cause disruptions without obvious motives. The Elk Cloner virus, spread by Rich Skrenta on to Apple II computers in 1982, was a harmless prank but it created a template for more destructive assaults such as the Jerusalem virus, in 1987, and Michelangelo, in 1991. Melissa, a virus named after a stripper its creator, David Smith, had met in Florida, spread via e-mail in 1999 and cost more than US$80 million to clean up. The Sasser virus, which caused damage estimated at US$18 billion in 2004, was spread by an 18-year-old German hacker, Sven Jaschan, reportedly to create work for his mother’s computer security business.
Money spinners
With greater connectivity in the 1990s, economic crime became big business online and malware was developed to flog us Viagra and pinch our bank details. Last year, 30-year-old Cuban-American Albert Gonzales, aka Soupnazi, a member of the ShadowCrew hacker group, was sentenced to 20 years for the alleged theft of more than 170 million card numbers. A large proportion of the world’s cyber crime can be traced to criminal gangs and small hacker groups in Russia and eastern Europe.
Cyber warfare
Many believe the new domain of 21st-century warfare is cyberspace, although examples of cyber warfare can be traced back to the cold war. In 1982, stolen software doctored by the CIA caused a massive explosion in a Soviet gas pipeline. Numerous international cyber assaults have been reported in the last decade, involving China, Israel and the US, which set up a major cyber command last year, but the most powerful evidence that we’re entering an age of cyber warfare is Stuxnet, first detected last June. This worm, disseminated on USB sticks, was used to target Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Some suspect US or Israeli government involvement.
June 23 to June 29 After capturing the walled city of Hsinchu on June 22, 1895, the Japanese hoped to quickly push south and seize control of Taiwan’s entire west coast — but their advance was stalled for more than a month. Not only did local Hakka fighters continue to cause them headaches, resistance forces even attempted to retake the city three times. “We had planned to occupy Anping (Tainan) and Takao (Kaohsiung) as soon as possible, but ever since we took Hsinchu, nearby bandits proclaiming to be ‘righteous people’ (義民) have been destroying train tracks and electrical cables, and gathering in villages
Dr. Y. Tony Yang, Associate Dean of Health Policy and Population Science at George Washington University, argued last week in a piece for the Taipei Times about former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) leading a student delegation to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that, “The real question is not whether Ma’s visit helps or hurts Taiwan — it is why Taiwan lacks a sophisticated, multi-track approach to one of the most complex geopolitical relationships in the world” (“Ma’s Visit, DPP’s Blind Spot,” June 18, page 8). Yang contends that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has a blind spot: “By treating any
This year will go down in the history books. Taiwan faces enormous turmoil and uncertainty in the coming months. Which political parties are in a good position to handle big changes? All of the main parties are beset with challenges. Taking stock, this column examined the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) (“Huang Kuo-chang’s choking the life out of the TPP,” May 28, page 12), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) (“Challenges amid choppy waters for the DPP,” June 14, page 12) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) (“KMT struggles to seize opportunities as ‘interesting times’ loom,” June 20, page 11). Times like these can
Swooping low over the banks of a Nile River tributary, an aid flight run by retired American military officers released a stream of food-stuffed sacks over a town emptied by fighting in South Sudan, a country wracked by conflict. Last week’s air drop was the latest in a controversial development — private contracting firms led by former US intelligence officers and military veterans delivering aid to some of the world’s deadliest conflict zones, in operations organized with governments that are combatants in the conflicts. The moves are roiling the global aid community, which warns of a more militarized, politicized and profit-seeking trend
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