Tech & Internet

Bugs, worms and internet mysteries.

5 rabbit holes

• New
  Computer virusesILOVEYOU: the email that broke the internetMay 2000. Millions of people open an email with the subject line “ILOVEYOU” and a love letter attached. The attachment is a program that overwrites their files and sends itself to everyone in their address book. Within days it has hit tens of millions of computers, including those of governments.3 stages · 20 min
• New
  CybercrimeThe billion-dollar bank hackFebruary 2016. Hackers inside Bangladesh’s central bank send payment orders worth nearly a billion dollars to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Most are blocked. But 81 million dollars disappear into the Philippines, into casinos, and are never fully recovered.2 stages · 36 min
• New
  Computing historyThe Morris wormNovember 1988. A graduate student releases a small program to measure the size of the young internet. A bug makes it copy itself far too often. Within a day, thousands of computers at universities and research labs grind to a halt.2 stages · 20 min
• New
  Internet mysteriesCicada 3301, the internet’s hardest puzzleJanuary 2012. An anonymous image appears online: “We are looking for highly intelligent individuals.” Hidden inside is a code. Solving it leads to more codes, phone numbers, books and posters on lampposts in cities around the world. Then the trail goes cold.2 stages · 38 min
• New
  Computing historyY2K: the disaster that didn’t happenFor decades programmers saved memory by writing years with two digits. As 2000 approached, the world realised that “00” might be read as 1900. Banks, power grids and planes might fail. Governments and companies spent fortunes. Then midnight came, and almost nothing happened.2 stages · 12 min