Hello and welcome to Malicious Life brought to you by Cyber Reason.

My name is Ran Levin, podcaster software developer and author of several books on the history of technology.

The global accounting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers conducted a survey regarding financial crimes.

They found that cybercrime is the second most reported financial crime among its clients.

According to the FBI, more than $3 billion were either stolen or extorted from businesses or from individuals just in 2015.

Cybercrime is one of the most notable threats of the current age.

But it wasn't always like this.

The older ones among us may remember a different time

when computer viruses were much more innocent

and the virus authors were usually bored

computer geeks and not members of some sophisticated well-organized crime

syndicate. We are launching the Malicious Life Podcast

because we're fascinated by the world of cybercrime

and would like to share with you

the stories of how it evolved and became one of the biggest threats to today's society.

In the upcoming episodes, we'll track the changes that took place in the world of cybercrime.

We'll talk about the early hacker culture of the 1970s and 80s

and the subsequent rise of viruses in the 1990s.

Next, we'll discuss email spam

and how he transformed cybercrime from a small time

opportunistic crime to a bona fide business model. We'll talk about botnets,

D-D-D-D-D-D-D-Sattacts and activists, and finally about the latest and perhaps

...