I've still got an AOL CD from the mid 90s at home. Not relevant to the story but a fun fact nonetheless.
I'm certain I've an AOL floppy somewhere around here. Oh, and a Commodore Communications Modem - but that came bundled with Compunet, not AOL or its predecessors. I scanned the leaflet and instructions if anyone's curious.
I had no idea Europe had anything to do with AOL at any point, except the AIM service, which from what I recall most Europeans replaced with ICQ or MSN.
I had one of those. I remember only being allowed to use it late at night so it wouldn't tie the phone line up, and would cost cheaper Back on topic, part of me has to wonder whether this is the end of the Internet as we know it? With all these recent security scares, and the press they've received, will the great unwashed masses start to move away from the Internet because they're worried about the safety of their date?
AOL was a major UK ISP; its floppies - and later CDs - were a frequent sight in computer shops, and often came attached to magazines. Its UK broadband business was bought by Carphone Warehouse years ago, mind. End of an era!
They probably didn't bother to break the encryption. They probably just tried to log onto every account with a password of "password" or "123" Remember, these are AOL accounts we're talking about here.
Keep in mind, all this only works because there are people out there who still not only look at spam, but actually buy things advertised in spam. I still think we should compromise a botnet, send out tons and tons of spam, and anyone who tries the products advertised gets publicly humiliated. Spammers are bad, no question about that, but the people who buy from spam are the real problem.
