A brief history of hacking

The world is full of hackers, or so it seems. In the past few months barely a day has gone by without news of a fresh security breach.

Multi-national companies have been left counting the cost of assaults on their e-mail systems and websites.

Members of the public have had their personal information stolen and pasted all over the internet.

In the early decades of the 21st century the word "hacker" has become synonymous with people who lurk in darkened rooms, anonymously terrorising the internet.

But it was not always that way. The original hackers were benign creatures. Students, in fact....