Evidence-based stories of attacks, technologies, people and decisions that shaped modern cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
In 2016, AlphaGo played a move that experts thought was a mistake — but it turned out to be brilliant. Why this moment in the party explains the opportunities and risks of AI in cybersecurity.
In 2017, NotPetya exited a Ukrainian accounting program and paralyzed global corporations, causing $10 billion in losses. The story of a weapon that only pretended to be a ransom.
In 2021, ransomware stopped the largest fuel pipeline on the US East Coast. The input was one password without MFA. The story of an attack that showed the fragility of infrastructure.
In 2014, a bug in OpenSSL allowed passwords and keys to be stolen from servers' memory - silently, without a trace. The story of Heartbleed, the era of "branded" vulnerabilities, and lessons about open source.
Kevin Mitnick was the world's most wanted hacker - and his weapons weren't exploits, but phones and psychology. A story of social engineering, an FBI chase and a second life.
In May 2000, an email with the subject line "ILOVEYOU" infected millions of computers in a few hours and caused billions of dollars in damage. The story of a worm that exploited human curiosity.
In 2014, hackers wiped Sony Pictures, leaked internal emails and threatened theaters — all because of a comedy about North Korea. The story of an attack that combined politics and censorship.
In 1989, 20,000 floppy disks sent by mail ushered in the era of ransomware. The story of an AIDS Trojan, an eccentric biologist, and a ransom paid to a safe deposit box in Panama.
In 1986, astronomer Cliff Stoll noticed a 75-cent difference in billing. The trail led him to a hacker selling data to the KGB. The first story about cyber counterintelligence.
The Morris worm was the first to paralyze the Internet - and its creator meant no harm. The story of a code bug that infected 10% of the network and created CERT.
Conficker built one of the largest botnets in history and eluded defenders with a clever domain generator. And then he did nothing. A history of phantom weapons and unprecedented defense.
A secret NSA exploit went viral, and a few weeks later, WannaCry shut down hospitals and factories in 150 countries. The story of EternalBlue, the kill switch, and a lesson in patching.
In 2003, the fastest worm in history doubled in size every few seconds, packed into a single package, and infected almost all vulnerable servers in 10 minutes - despite an existing patch.
In 2010 the world discovered a landmark cyberweapon: code that damaged Iranian centrifuges while showing operators normal readings. The Stuxnet story and its lessons for OT security.
In 1966, a simple program posing as a psychotherapist made people confide in him as if they were a human being - even though he didn't understand anything. The story of ELIZA and the effect that explains today's AI.
In 2016, the Mirai botnet compromised hundreds of thousands of IoT devices with default passwords and cut off Twitter, Netflix and Reddit in a single attack. The history of the cam army and its creators.
In 1997, an IBM computer defeated a world chess champion for the first time. The story of brute force computing, the movement that broke Kasparov, and what it meant for AI.
Trace modern cryptography from DES, Diffie–Hellman and RSA through AES and TLS 1.3 to NIST post-quantum standards, with practical security lessons.
Learn how vulnerability disclosure evolved into CVE, NVD, CVSS and CISA KEV, how each layer works and how defenders should prioritise remediation.
From Creeper and Fred Cohen through the Morris worm, ILOVEYOU, Mirai and ransomware. Learn how malware evolved and which defensive lessons endured.
From shared computers, Creeper and the Morris worm to ransomware, zero trust and cloud security. Explore the incidents and standards that shaped defence.
Follow generative AI from language models and VAEs through GANs, Transformers and diffusion. Learn how each architecture works and where its risks begin.
From DENDRAL and MYCIN to rule engines and two AI winters. Learn how expert systems worked, why the market failed and what LLM teams should learn.
Trace neural networks from McCulloch–Pitts and the perceptron to backpropagation, AlexNet, ResNet and Transformers. Learn the technical lessons.
Explore AI history from Turing and Dartmouth to transformers and generative models. Learn what changed, what failed and what businesses should do now.
We turn current threats into role-based training, safe exercises and a clear reporting path. The free Academy remains available for self-directed learning.
