This hack from the early days showed signs of what was to come.
We’ve made the point that in the earlier days, the internet was a significantly different place in comparison to what we see. If you’re of the younger generation, it might be hard to gauge just how big a shift this actually was however it's fair to say that the late 90s and early 2000s would lay the foundations for the modern world we see today.
One of the things that would be notable different, would be the concept of cybersecurity. Still in its infancy in this period, it would be incidents like today's events that would show the potential for bad actors to do damage.

Background

While the internet was a different place in these earlier years it's also fair to say that society was as well. Mobile phones were in their infancy and computing was still in its personal phase, which used large, bulky desktop-based systems.
Landline telephones were common and the smartphone didn't exist meaning that early devices were extremely simplistic. So much so, that the first mobile phones didn’t even use encryption and could be listened in on with little more than a frequency-compatible scanner.
One of the big shifts that would lead to our modern world would be the concept of e-commerce and retail. Being born out of the dot com bubble meant that it was a relatively new technology. Despite this though, many were able to see the potential of technology and were willing to persist with its implementation.
The 2000 Super Bowl would highlight a lot of this new technology. Dot com companies would spend large in an attempt to highlight their vision and gain brand recognition as well as growth.
It’s more than fair to say that we hadn’t given much thought to adequate security at this point.

The Hacker

Our hacker was just a teenager when this event occurred. Born in Canada and living between two houses due to separated parents, the computer would eventually become a beacon of escape for the youngster. Rumoured to have started his journey with computers at the tender age of just 6 years old, it provided an outlet for both entertainment and learning.
While these skills would lay the foundations of a promising career in security research, it’s fair to say that our young hacker would become notorious for something far bigger than private research.
In the year 2000, he’d run some software that would eventually start a distributed denial-of-service attack that would be responsible for knocking Yahoo offline.

The Incidents (Project Revolt)

When we assess these events, it’s important to point out that we’re actually talking about more than just a one-off here. But first, let’s backtrack a little.
Today, we’d typically think of Google or Microsoft as a large technology company that’s at the forefront of both visibility and development. In the early 2000s though, things were completely different then.
While both companies would still exist, Google was in its infancy and hadn’t yet reached the lofty heights that we know of today. And Microsoft was still in the middle of dealing with the fallout from its highly publicised anti-trust case.
In terms of public profile, a usable product and market share. Yahoo was where things were at and at the time, Yahoo was huge. To the point where it almost was “the internet” the same way that many people see Google or Facebook holding the same role today.
So, knocking the world's premier search engine and mail provider offline due to a DDOS attack would, as you imagine, come with some pretty significant consequences.
It wasn’t just Yahoo at the end of it all though. By the time authorities caught up with him, he’d also caused problems for Amazon, Dell, Fifa, CNN and even E-bay.
Our young hacker was certainly making his presence known.
DDOS Attacks use high traffic levels to knock targets offline. Source: Wikipedia

The FallOut

Some things are universal and the concept of maturity coming with age is one of those things. So while our hacker had the technical means to perform the attack, it’s probably fair to say that he hadn’t had a chance to study the importance of OPSEC at this point. As such, he would eventually become the master of his downfall.
In the early stages of the investigation, the authorities weren’t quite sure where to look. While this sounds ridiculous in today's world, we already made the point earlier that things were pretty different back then.
Eventually, our hacker would come to the attention of authorities after claiming responsibility for the attack in a Canadian, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) room.
IRC would eventually lead police straight to the hacker. Source: Wikipedia
After carrying out inquiries regarding the viability of the claims, the authorities would eventually realise that Mafiaboy was in fact, their person of interest.
While he would initially deny responsibility for the attacks, authorities would eventually charge him with over fifty counts of computer-related crimes.
In today’s world, it’s almost certain you’d receive jail time for an equivalent attack. When all was said and done though, Mafiaboy would receive just 8 months in open custody and a year's probation for the attacks that were estimated to cause over 12 million dollars in damage.
These attacks would kick-start discussions around securing e-commerce sites around the world, helping to bring in many of the robust measures that we still see in use today.
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