It is amazing that the first thing to do is "assess the level of threat" (after getting over your intimidation on using the computer technology 😉 ) -- basically a security risk assessment.
I have almost forgotten about how The Computer Chronicles had originally began as an educational program, which was shown on PBS TV stations for the purposes of teaching students in local colleges about the various aspects of computer technologies. I like the Computer Chronicles episodes and I wish that they were still new ones on PBS TV stations these days. Computer Security is as much of a serious problem today as it was back in 1984 so there are things that have changed and things that are still of true concern today.
Ah! Yes! When Stewart mentioned about "toll call," that harkens back in the era where long-distance phone calls (depending on the distance) could run from 25 to 50 cents per minute.
So trippy to see people 40 years ago try to explain this new phenomenon to the regular public . Little did they know how important and often overlooked topics this would be in the computer field. Brilliant show 👏
Oh, my God, the guy from Tri-Data took over 3 minutes to say this: 1. we use lockout threshold of 1 or 2 attempts 2. you can use our software to call another service and you don't have to enter your password for that service (at least I think that's what he said--even Kildall didn't understand him)
I believe the device also acts as a middle man, the password threshold is likely the main feature - but it means you don't need to update any terminal software etc.
In a sense this device has been replaced by the VPN where the outer access is controlled by the VPN solution and then the application running on the internal network has it's own security.
-"No computer system, commercially available today is adequately secure, relative to the value of the assets, the informations assets stored in them" Shows how far we've gotten in 33 years.
I had an Atari Portfolio with the serial interface expansion unit and X-term software, and a small speaker that would connect to the mic, together with a mag pickup. I'd use payphones a lot to access different shell accounts on machines (mostly unix but some VMS) and do my thing from there. A lot of stuff was wide open back then LOL. That was the early to mid 90s.
@@oldtwinsna8347 No sir! Yes there were some major cities to pick the show up after word got around the BBS's. Just not everywhere though, which totally baffles me. There were some "knockoff" CC type programs here and there, some were downright terrible though.
That's ironic to me as Computer Chronicles was regularly aired in (from an American point of view) far away South Africa throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
@@AllboroLCD Agreed, I think a big part of it was the South African governments (through the Department of Trade and Industry) to develop a domestic computer industry. That never really got off the ground but I suppose it could be argued that it might have helped produce people like Elon Musk (*shrug shoulders*)
Interesting that Steward starts off the show with quoting how information in a computer can be safer than in a locked box. Ah! But PC hard drives in that era were so fragile that it was *_extremely_* important to have backed up the files on floppy disks. Now, there was the vulnerability factor of having access to information. The reliability of PC hard drives back then could be measured in months, and not years.
@3:59 I wish we had more videos showing real online connectivity sessions from way back. Anyone have some good links? Not talking about modern day BBS re-creations that exist only for nostalgia.
Wow, simpler times. But it is very interesting that along of the attack vectors mentioned are still valid today. The deliver mechanism has obviously changed but things like 'Brute Force' password attacks, Trojan-Horse malware (virus) are still valid today. This was a very cool look into Cybersecurity's past. And so cool, the list @16:23 is spot on, even today.
I was reading about IBM modems. One thing on the two IBM modems had a security key (number?) in each modem. So even if you cold called the IBM modem. You wouldn't get connected.
This show was great. It is awesome to see these shows when they had no idea how far computer tech would go. So what will they be in 30 to 40 more years? For sure, computer security will still be required. AI in 1984, LOL.
Luv this episode. Even today, ssh looks same-ish. Damn 50 million dollars of hack/fraud back in the early 80's that is alot of money. Bulletinboards were like being used as darkweb back in the days....
How can you be a computer crimes expert in something that didn't exist a few years prior and for which you have no statistics? You can't be an expert because at the time no experts existed, because it was impossible to be one.
I love how the old man at 14:00 is tech savy. today most people his age don't even know how to turn on a computer let alone use one lol. took my mom 4 days to explain to my grandma that the mouse wasn't alive.
In 1984 most people his age weren't tech savvy either. Your logic is flawed. There are more old tech save people now than there were in 1984. All the people that were in the middle of this PC revolution like Stewart and Gary, are old people now.
@@ArumesYT tbf you’re wrong and the op was correct. We’re talking about a time when personal computers or home micros were becoming popular but still cost quite a chunk. Most users would be people who had 1. Disposable income and 2. Free time. Look at the average age of the early user groups in America and Europe. In 1984 it was well over 40.
@@ArumesYTOK I'll help. Computer expensive. Computer education time sink. Computer niche topic. Computer audience people with free time and large amount money. That mostly old man. Young man work and have less money. Old man retire and more money. Old man lot of time. Pricing and time sink made average computer user in 1983 in the 50-60 age bracket I tried to simplify it for you, you were having trouble with easy to understand sentences.
@@medes5597 The US Census of 1984 shows you're wrong. "Overall, access and use of computers by adults was somewhat less than that experienced by children." Also, "Persons ages 35 to 44 were most likely to live in a household with a computer, while persons age 65 and above were LEAST likely." Page 9 (of the PDF, or page 4 if you look at the top of the pages) www.census.gov/history/pdf/computerusage1984.pdf I'm not the one who needs simplification, idiot.
Oddly, if MCI and the others that owned commercial networked services such as Tymnet, Telenet, those systems could've been what the Internet is today. Then again, maybe not, since it was closed loop and their infrastructure even in the late 80s was woefully obsolete, milking it to the end as if they knew their days were numbered.
Details have changed, of course, but even 40 years later, a lot of the fundamentals discussed in that episode are still relevant.
It is amazing that the first thing to do is "assess the level of threat" (after getting over your intimidation on using the computer technology 😉 ) -- basically a security risk assessment.
"With a big enough hammer, you can break anything".
I have almost forgotten about how The Computer Chronicles had originally began as an educational program, which was shown on PBS TV stations for the purposes of teaching students in local colleges about the various aspects of computer technologies. I like the Computer Chronicles episodes and I wish that they were still new ones on PBS TV stations these days. Computer Security is as much of a serious problem today as it was back in 1984 so there are things that have changed and things that are still of true concern today.
Ah! Yes! When Stewart mentioned about "toll call," that harkens back in the era where long-distance phone calls (depending on the distance) could run from 25 to 50 cents per minute.
So trippy to see people 40 years ago try to explain this new phenomenon to the regular public .
Little did they know how important and often overlooked topics this would be in the computer field.
Brilliant show 👏
Little did they know the money this profession would generate
Oh, my God, the guy from Tri-Data took over 3 minutes to say this:
1. we use lockout threshold of 1 or 2 attempts
2. you can use our software to call another service and you don't have to enter your password for that service (at least I think that's what he said--even Kildall didn't understand him)
I believe the device also acts as a middle man, the password threshold is likely the main feature - but it means you don't need to update any terminal software etc.
In a sense this device has been replaced by the VPN where the outer access is controlled by the VPN solution and then the application running on the internal network has it's own security.
Thanks for putting these online. I really enjoy watching
1:20 "War Games" was such a great movie. I do believe the term "war dialer" was because of this movie.
- Hello, database?
- No, this is Patrick
The early show's were all very formal and serious..but still very interesting.
like 95% of the concepts discussed here are still completely relevant. awesome.
-"No computer system, commercially available today is adequately secure, relative to the value of the assets, the informations assets stored in them"
Shows how far we've gotten in 33 years.
yeah only so far security is better then back then and piracy is much less prevalent but still exist to some degree even now
I had an Atari Portfolio with the serial interface expansion unit and X-term software, and a small speaker that would connect to the mic, together with a mag pickup. I'd use payphones a lot to access different shell accounts on machines (mostly unix but some VMS) and do my thing from there. A lot of stuff was wide open back then LOL. That was the early to mid 90s.
It’s interesting and perhaps unsurprising that many of the issues discussed here are still relevant today.
Why did this show never get complete national syndication when it was still airing? Id have been all over this as a kid!
I thought it was on all the PBS stations?
@@oldtwinsna8347 No sir! Yes there were some major cities to pick the show up after word got around the BBS's. Just not everywhere though, which totally baffles me. There were some "knockoff" CC type programs here and there, some were downright terrible though.
That's ironic to me as Computer Chronicles was regularly aired in (from an American point of view) far away South Africa throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
@@arkuis very interesting!
@@AllboroLCD Agreed, I think a big part of it was the South African governments (through the Department of Trade and Industry) to develop a domestic computer industry. That never really got off the ground but I suppose it could be argued that it might have helped produce people like Elon Musk (*shrug shoulders*)
@09:55 "You might expect that as for several years now almost every major prison has been teaching data processing to the prisoners. "
ROFLMAO
@10:40 Been working in IT for 16 years & never heard the term "data diddling" but now I can't wait to start using it 😆
We should start a club for data diddlers!
Interesting that Steward starts off the show with quoting how information in a computer can be safer than in a locked box.
Ah! But PC hard drives in that era were so fragile that it was *_extremely_* important to have backed up the files on floppy disks. Now, there was the vulnerability factor of having access to information.
The reliability of PC hard drives back then could be measured in months, and not years.
Those times, when you were dialing the database :D
'Oh shit, wrong number'
You were dialling a database by phone number, now by the URL/host name.
Ultimately, it’s not that much different.
salami technique vs pizza defence
17:30 That sheen on his hair is legendary.
Might be a wig...
He's obviously had one or two eggs a week since he was a pup.
@@calvinsaxon5822 oh my goodness Calvin, your comment is so funny!!! LOL ....
Now we know where young Justin Bieber got the inspiration for his hair cut from...
Let us keep security secure.
User: User
Password: Password.
Don't tell Herb, but I didn't read chapter 24 in my text.
@3:59 I wish we had more videos showing real online connectivity sessions from way back. Anyone have some good links? Not talking about modern day BBS re-creations that exist only for nostalgia.
2020, people still clicking on phishing emails....
Seems Phishy, if you ask me... >.>
Wow, simpler times. But it is very interesting that along of the attack vectors mentioned are still valid today. The deliver mechanism has obviously changed but things like 'Brute Force' password attacks, Trojan-Horse malware (virus) are still valid today. This was a very cool look into Cybersecurity's past.
And so cool, the list @16:23 is spot on, even today.
The 80s were such an exciting time for computers.
I was reading about IBM modems. One thing on the two IBM modems had a security key (number?) in each modem. So even if you cold called the IBM modem. You wouldn't get connected.
Piggie backie, data leaky and super zappy - The names of 3 most sophisticated cyberattackers.
get ready for the salomi attack it's going to hurt bad and be very tasty🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
20:06
They can be downline-loaded from a remote system. wow
128 pirate message boards. Very interesting computer number =) coincidence?
Password = JOSHUA
This show was great. It is awesome to see these shows when they had no idea how far computer tech would go. So what will they be in 30 to 40 more years? For sure, computer security will still be required. AI in 1984, LOL.
When they talk about cryptography at the end, I wonder if they realized that cryptography would also be weaponized
Luv this episode. Even today, ssh looks same-ish.
Damn 50 million dollars of hack/fraud back in the early 80's that is alot of money.
Bulletinboards were like being used as darkweb back in the days....
“Computer revolution.” So true. Now taken for granted.
300baud
If it's connected to any type of network, it can never, ever be secure.
Cripes Stewart, the ergonomics of that TRS80 3:29 was terrible!
OG hacking
Seems like not much has changed in the past 40 years.
It's "Joshua". It's always "Joshua".
play global thermonuclear war
global thermonuclear war , alright !.
@@bastardtubeuser ok bastardtubeuser, who do you want to be ... the russians?
How can you be a computer crimes expert in something that didn't exist a few years prior and for which you have no statistics? You can't be an expert because at the time no experts existed, because it was impossible to be one.
DAVID LITEMAN !!!!!
Computer Security (1984)
I love how the old man at 14:00 is tech savy. today most people his age don't even know how to turn on a computer let alone use one lol. took my mom 4 days to explain to my grandma that the mouse wasn't alive.
In 1984 most people his age weren't tech savvy either. Your logic is flawed. There are more old tech save people now than there were in 1984. All the people that were in the middle of this PC revolution like Stewart and Gary, are old people now.
@@ArumesYT tbf you’re wrong and the op was correct. We’re talking about a time when personal computers or home micros were becoming popular but still cost quite a chunk. Most users would be people who had 1. Disposable income and 2. Free time. Look at the average age of the early user groups in America and Europe. In 1984 it was well over 40.
@@AcornElectron you say I'm wrong, but your arguments don't explain why 1984 would have more tech savvy elders than 2020 at all.
@@ArumesYTOK I'll help.
Computer expensive. Computer education time sink. Computer niche topic.
Computer audience people with free time and large amount money.
That mostly old man. Young man work and have less money. Old man retire and more money. Old man lot of time.
Pricing and time sink made average computer user in 1983 in the 50-60 age bracket
I tried to simplify it for you, you were having trouble with easy to understand sentences.
@@medes5597 The US Census of 1984 shows you're wrong. "Overall, access and use of computers by adults was somewhat less than that experienced by children." Also, "Persons ages 35 to 44 were most likely to live in a household with a computer, while persons age 65 and above were LEAST likely." Page 9 (of the PDF, or page 4 if you look at the top of the pages) www.census.gov/history/pdf/computerusage1984.pdf
I'm not the one who needs simplification, idiot.
De-Commercialize The Internet and return to pre 1995 status.
The solution is Gopher
Oddly, if MCI and the others that owned commercial networked services such as Tymnet, Telenet, those systems could've been what the Internet is today. Then again, maybe not, since it was closed loop and their infrastructure even in the late 80s was woefully obsolete, milking it to the end as if they knew their days were numbered.
I wish I was around back then when this was new and exciting to everyone...and everyone wanted newcomers to understand it...now...it’s very elitist
My windows 10 OS is so Fucked up and secure even Microsoft cannot tamper with it, Windows is trash.