February 25

1997
IBM releases Object REXX, an object-oriented scripting language based on the REXX language. On October 12, 2004, IBM will release the language as open source software. Visit the official Object REXX website at IBM.

Two law firms representing shareholders file suit against AOL in Alexandria, Virginia District Court accusing the company’s executives, specifically Steve Case, of insider trading. The suit alleges that eighteen insiders took advantage of artificial stock values which peaked at US$71 in May of 1996.

1998
Computers at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) and United States Department of Defense are hacked by Ehud Tenebaum using the web handle Analyzer. The MIT computer is running an out dated version of Linux. After gaining access to an account, Analyzer takes advantage of other security holes in order to install a packet-sniffer, which he then uses to collect user names and passwords.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Pentagon step up investigations of successful efforts made by hackers to break into US military computers over the past two weeks. The military denies penetration into classified areas; however, they admit that the hackers obtained information that they should not have been able to download.

1999
Elbrus International introduces the 1200MHz Elbrus E2K processor, with performance speeds three to five times faster than the Intel Merced processor, while still running all legacy MS-DOS and Windows software.

A seventeen year old female hacker from Belgium, calling herself Gigabyte takes credit for writing the first-ever virus, Sharpei, written in Microsoft’s newest programming language, C# (C sharp). Read more about Gigabyte at TechTV.


2000
The website of Levi’s Music is hacked by GForce Pakistan.

The website of Nike Taiwan is hacked by VUGO and Dr_Delete. two Brazilian hackers.

The website of Yamaha Motor Europe is hacked by Team Infinity.

2002
Gigabyte, a seventeen year old female Belgian hacker and a member of the virus-writing group Metaphase, takes credit for writing the first-ever virus written in Microsoft’s new C# programming language, Sharpei, by posting its source code on her website. Sharpei is also only the second piece of malicious code to target Microsoft’s new .NET platform. It is a worm that spreads via Outlook, claiming to be an official Microsoft software update. In an online interview March 1st, Gigabyte claims that she wrote the worm to make a social point as well as a technical one. I want to let people (and especially guys) know there ARE girls out there who like computers and for more than games. I think that’s quite important … for all girls out there who know something about computers but are surrounded by guys who think they’re all stupid [..] On February 14, 2004, Kim Vanvaeck will be arrested at her home in Mechelen, Belgium and charged with eleven counts of computer data sabotage using the handle Gigabyte.

2004
Microsoft’s Tokyo offices are raided by Japanese fair trade officials acting under the suspicion that anti-monopoly laws had been violated. As a result, Microsoft will remove a contract clause which prevents computer firms from suing Microsoft for patent violations. Read more at the BBC News website. Visit the official Microsoft website.

2008
Novell purchases Platespin for $205 million. Platespin is a company dealing with disaster recovery products.

Apple announces The MacBook Pro will also now include the multitouch trackpad – A MacBook Pro with a 15-inch display, 2.4GHz processor, 3MB of L2 cache, and a 200GB hard disk lists for $1,999. The 17-inch model, with a 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo chip, 6MB of L2 cache, and a 250GB hard drive is priced at $2,799

2014
Gmail adds ‘Unsubscribe’ link option for mailing lists

Facebook announced they will be discontinuing their email service by next month. Facebook.com email has been available since 2010 and was forced on users in 2012.