00:00 This episode is about the early days of hacking and how a group of underground nerds became infamous hackers, starting with their targeting of NASA during the launch of the Galileo spacecraft in October 1989.

03:50 During the launch of the Galileo spacecraft in 1989, a group of hackers known as the "wank worm" infiltrated NASA's system and spread a self-propelling software that caused panic by telling users their files were being deleted, although no actual damage was done.

07:30 The "wank worm" hack on NASA's system during the Galileo launch in 1989 was one of the first political hacks, costing NASA half a million dollars and marking the beginning of hacktivism.

11:12 In 1989, just four months after Australia got connected to the internet, hackers from Australia broke into NASA's system, causing significant damage.

15:28 In 1989, Melbourne became a hub for hackers, particularly in the underground tech community, who engaged in semi-legal activities to gain access to technology, and formed a hacker collective known as The Realm, which traded information with overseas hackers.

19:16 Australian hackers Phoenix and Electron, who were part of the hacker collective The Realm, are suspected of infecting NASA with the Wank Worm, although no one was ever arrested or charged specifically for the hack. They later gain access to Zardos, an online newsletter that shares cybersecurity vulnerabilities, allowing them to break into high-profile networks and institutions such as Los Alamos National Labs and Harvard University.

23:13 The Australian Federal Police, with the help of the FBI, were able to track down and arrest the hackers Phoenix and Electron from The Realm after an article in The New York Times brought attention to their activities, leading to a raid on Electron's home.

27:10 Phoenix and Electron, the hackers from The Realm, were arrested and charged with unauthorized access to computers in the US and Australia, but managed to avoid jail time and have since disappeared.