ARPANet is decommissioned. Traffic from that network is transferred to the Internet.
Linus Torvalds develops the Linux kernel for use with the GNU operating system; the widespread development and adoption of Linux is largely due to the collaboration of users and developers communicating via the Internet. Because of its roots in UNIX, Linux is most popular among hackers and administrators who found it quite useful for building secure alternatives to legacy servers running proprietary (closed-source) operating systems.
The graphical Web browser is created and sparks an exponentially higher demand for public Internet access.
Vladimir Levin and accomplices illegally transfer US$10 Million in funds to several accounts by cracking into the CitiBank central database. Levin is arrested by Interpol and almost all of the money is recovered.
Possibly the most heralded of all crackers is Kevin Mitnick, who hacked into several corporate systems, stealing everything from personal information of celebrities to over 20,000 credit card numbers and source code for proprietary software. He is arrested and convicted of wire fraud charges and serves 5 years in prison.
Kevin Poulsen and an unknown accomplice rig radio station phone systems to win cars and cash prizes. He is convicted for computer and wire fraud and is sentenced to 5 years in prison.
The stories of cracking and phreaking become legend, and several prospective crackers convene at the annual DefCon convention to celebrate cracking and exchange ideas between peers.
A 19-year-old Israeli student is arrested and convicted for coordinating numerous break-ins to US government systems during the Persian-Gulf conflict. Military officials call it "the most organized and systematic attack" on government systems in US history.
US Attorney General Janet Reno, in response to escalated security breaches in government systems, establishes the National Infrastructure Protection Center.
British communications satellites are taken over and ransomed by unknown offenders. The British government eventually seizes control of the satellites.