Zahid Hossain Khan
Nowadays, we hear about hacking incidents frequently. From password theft to Bitcoin wallet hacking. Although it seems very common now, the world's first hacking incident occurred before the invention of computers!Generally, the concept of hacking or intrusion into a system is considered a modern cyber crime. Although it is a modern crime, the world's first hacking incident occurred in the early 19th century. At that time, the Internet or computers did not exist. The first historical incident of hacking in the world occurred in the telegraph system of France in 1834.
Looking at history, it is seen that the first known hacking incident occurred in 1834. At that time, French fraudsters Francois Blanc and Joseph Blanc used the Chap Telegraph system to gain financial benefits. At that time, a network of optical telegraphs was used to send stock market information between Paris and Bordeaux in France. That system is also known as the semaphore system.
In the late 18th century, Claude Chap created this system to convey various messages. This system depended on towers with different arms. The Blanc brothers looked into that telegraph system. They were curious about using the telegraph system to send stock market information from Paris to Bordeaux. If they received information faster than others in the market, they would gain a competitive advantage. With this idea, they created a way to insert secret messages into the signal.
The Chap system did not allow telegraph operators to send private messages. The Blanc brothers bribed an operator at the relay station to make slight changes to the official message. They created a system where a special code was sent to avoid the attention of the authorities. The worker at the relay point would explain these changes and inform the Blanc brothers of the stock market information in advance. Knowing how much the stock price had changed a few hours before the general public, the Blanc brothers began to make a lot of profit in stocks. No one caught them doing this for two years. Later, the government learned of this error. At the time, there was no law against such manipulation, so they could not be formally prosecuted.
The telegraph hack of 1834 is considered the first documented hacking incident in history. It was the first instance of technology being used to gain unauthorized access and manipulate information, even though computers were not used.
Source: Markpack.org
