Episode 3 - Flag Planting Happiness

Explicit content warning

02/06/22 • 48 min

Melbourne hackers were getting a reputation around the world, and none more so than the group known as The Realm. Phoenix, Electron and Nom antagonised system administrators and computer security experts around the world, even shutting down NASA for an entire day. The police needed to act and they were starting to catch up.

Credits:

News clips (ABC Library Sales)

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Credits:

News clips (ABC Library Sales)

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Previous Episode

Episode 2 - You’ve Been Wanked

(If you’re from the US and haven’t heard that term, better look it up). The beginning of Hacktivism. The Wank Worm infected thousands of computers around the world. Its target was NASA and there was a strong political message. Although it’s never been proven who was responsible, the hackers left some unique clues which helped investigators trace it back to Melbourne.

Credits:

Midnight Oil: 1984 (Madman Films)

Morris Worm news clip (GBH Archives)

News clips (SBS Archives)

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Next Episode

Episode 4 - The Party's Over

It took a while for the Australian Federal Police to take hacking seriously, but when they finally did, the party was over. The Realm Hackers were charged with new laws which had never been tested in the courts. No-one knew what to expect from the judge. They were the canary in the coalmine and a new hacker group, headed by Julian Assange was watching closely.

Credits:

News clips (ABC Library Sales)

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.