1986 The US Congress passes the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the
first hacking-related legislation
A small accounting error alerts astronomer and computer manager
Cliff Stoll to the presence of hackers using his computer system; a
year-long investigation results in the arrests of five German hackers,
and Stoll later recounts the events in his book, The Cuckoo’s Egg:
Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage
1988 Robert T. Morris, Jr. launches the first self-replicating worm on the
government’s ARPANET to test its effect on UNIX systems; he is the
first person to be convicted under the Computer Fraud Act of 1986

 Stoll publishes his account
of tracking a hacker across
multiple computer systems
and countries
1989 Herbert Zinn is the first juvenile convicted under the Computer Fraud
Act
1990 The Electronic Frontier Foundation is formed, in part to defend the
rights of those investigated for hacking
The United States Secret Service and the Arizona Organized Crime
and Racketeering Bureau implement Operation Sun Devil, a twelve
city multi-state crackdown and the largest hacker raid to date
 Electronic Frontier
Foundation founded 1990
1991 The federal ban barring business from the Internet is lifted
Justin Petersen, arrested three months earlier for hacking, is
released from prison to help the FBI track hacker Kevin Mitnick
Linus Torvalds publicly releases Linux version 0.01
1992 Mark Abene (aka "Phiber Optik") and other members of the Masters
of Deception, a gang of phreakers, are arrested from evidence
obtained from wiretaps.
 Mark Abene of
Masters of Deception
arrested 1992
1995 Kevin Mitnick, probably the world’s most prolific and best known
hacker, is arrested and charged with obtaining unauthorized access
to computers belonging to numerous computer software and
computer operating systems manufacturers, cellular telephone
manufacturers, Internet Service Providers, and educational
institutions; and stealing, copying, and misappropriating proprietary
computer software from Motorola, Fujitsu, Nokia, Sun, Novell, and
NEC. Mitnick was also in possession of 20,000 credit card numbers.
Christopher Pile is the first person jailed for writing and distributing a
computer virus.
 Mitnick’s Wanted Poster
1997 Hell, a freeware application that allows script kiddies to wreak
havoc on AOL, is released
1998 Two hackers, Hao Jinglong and Hao Jingwen (twin brothers) are
sentenced to death by a court in China for stealing ~$87,000 from a
bank in China; Hau Jingwen’s sentence was upheld, while Hao
Jinglong was acquitted in return for further testimony
1999 Napster begins to gain popularity; created by Shawn Fanning and
Sean Parker (ages 19 and 20 at the time), Napster attracts 65
million registered users before being shut down in July of 2001