This article is based on a presentation at the Fall 2023 Accounting & Finance Forum on Data with Dignity by Scott Shakelford, the Provost Professor of Business Law and Ethics at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, Director for IU’s Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, and Executive Director of the Ostrom Workshop.
November 2, 1988 may not be a date you’ve assigned significance to. But it served as a key turning point in the history of the Internet and cybersecurity: the first DDoS attack.
This high-profile cybercrime, during which a graduate student at Cornell flooded a server with Internet traffic and inadvertently immobilized about 6,000 computers, caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. And despite being accidental (it was meant to be a research project), the first DDoS attack nonetheless changed the landscape for cybersecurity and AI governance, says Scott Shackelford, a professor of business law and ethics for the Kelley School of Business, who also serves as the director for IU’s Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research.
From that case, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act was established, setting a precedent that what happens in the cyber world has real-life consequences. (more…)