the grugq

@PeoriaBummer@infosec.exchange @thegrugq@mastodon.social in terms of public awareness, I think that’s me again. It was known, but it was a niche word like knowing “CNA” for “computer network attack” to mean “hacking”… it wasn’t secret, but it just wasn’t common to hear and most people wouldn’t know what you meant. If you look at the very early talks on OPSEC (after mine, for example) you’ll see some hilarious stuff. People that don’t know what they’re talking about (not to be mean, just they weren’t subject matter experts). The whole thing was quite new and novel. Weirdly enough, Google trends almost supports this, but has weird data that makes no sense to me. So, I guess I’d say it was a term known by a few (a sizable minority), but it was popularized by me. Not to brag or anything, just that’s what I think happened. I learned the term from someone, probably Dave Aitel or Halvar flake, and then I used it in a talk that got huge traction (for back then, it was 2012 but the YT video up now was uploaded in 2016 and I can’t find the original for the view count.) in the first few days. So, er… answer is basically the same. It existed in small circles with a more military / intelligence background, and it wasn’t the term of art at the time in the wider community. At least as I recall.

@PeoriaBummer@infosec.exchange @thegrugq@mastodon.social not sure. There wasn’t anything public before me, so that would be 2011.i might be missing something, but before then it was just oral lore that got shared between ppl. Trick for staying hidden on hacked boxes, etc. There were very old guides for what not to do on hacked boxes, such as “don’t leave your handle” but I’m not sure if that would count as OPSEC. The word was used in private by ex .gov people, but again that was oral lore…. People just were expected to know these things. Is that what you’re looking for? Security has been around since the beginning but as far as I know it was mostly little rules of what not to do, and they weren’t comprehensive or grounded in a “theory of security”. I would look in ancient Phrack articles for mentions of security measures to take, but I think you’d have to do close reading to find them because they won’t be labeled. I assume, I haven’t done this myself.