The term hacking has been around in some form or another since 1200 BC. Its meaning in the Oxford dictionary is to “cut with rough or heavy blows” or more recently to “gain unauthorized access to data in a system or computer”. In Roman times stealing information, finding out where people live, and various forms of sabotage was happening without a computer. We also know of phreaking telephone lines from the 1950s, and our current myriad exploits in our modern age.

This talk will take you through the history of hacking from the times of ancient empires to the cyber security age. We will talk about some of the biggest hacks to have ever occurred, (remember et tu brute force, anyone?) how they happened and what could have been done to prevent them.

By the end of this talk you should be able to easily identify different types of hacking and make better judgments on your systems security posture to make sure you are not a target of the next big cyber attack.