10 Best Hackers The World Has Ever Known
1.
Gary McKinnon
Gary McKinnon must’ve been a
curious, restless child, for to gain information on UFOs, he thought it better
to get a direct access into the channels of NASA. He infiltrated 97 US military
and NASA computers, by installing virus and deleting a few files. All the
efforts to satisfy his curiosity, but, alas, curiosity killed the cat. It was
soon found that McKinnon was guilty of having hacked the military and NASA
websites from his girlfriend’s aunt’s house in London. While entering and
deleting the files from these websites wasn’t enough, McKinnon thought of
shaming the security forces by putting out a notice on the website that said,
“Your security is crap.” Well, looks like McKinnon was something, if he could
shut down the US Military’s Washington Network of about 2000 computers for 24
hours, making the hack, the biggest military computer hack of all time!
2.
LulzSec
LulzSec or Lulz Security, a high
profile, Black Hat hacker group, gained credentials for hacking into Sony, News
International, CIA, FBI, Scotland Yard, and several noteworthy accounts. So
notorious was the group that when it hacked into News Corporations account,
they put across a false report of Rupert Murdoch having passed away. While the
group claims to have retired from their vile duties, the motto of the group,
“Laughing at your security since 2011!” stays alive. There are assertions of
the group having hacked into the websites of the newspapers like The Times
and The Sun to post its retirement news. Many, however, claim that this
group had taken it upon itself to create awareness about the absence of
efficient security against hackers.
3.
Adrian Lamo
Adrian Lamo decided to switch
careers when he realized the potentials of his skills. He became a news when he
hacked into Yahoo!, Microsoft, Google, and The New York Times. This, although
culminated into his arrest, it later helped him gain the batch of an American
Threat Analyst. A guy who would hack into top-notch accounts sitting in the
spacious and comforting cafeterias, libraries, internet cafes, soon turned
Wikileaks suspect Bradley Manning over to FBI. While Manning was arrested for
leaking several hundred sensitive US government documents, Lamo went hiding or should
we presume, undercover?
4.
Mathew Bevan and Richard Pryce
Targeting the over-sensitive nerves,
what Mathew Bevan along with his alleged partner Richard Pryce did, could have
triggered great many issues between USA and North Korea. The duo hacked the US
military computers and used it as a means to infiltrate the foreign systems.
The crucial contents of Korean Atomic Research Institute were dumped into USAF
system. However, the contents were majorly relevant to South Korea and hence,
less volatile. But this, nonetheless, could have led to a huge international
issue.
5.
Jonathan James
The first juvenile to be imprisoned
for a cyber-crime at the age of 16, Jonathan James or better known as c0mrade,
hacked into Defense Threat Reduction Agency of US department. Further, he
installed a sniffer that scrutinized the messages passed on between the DTRA
employees. Not only did he keep a check on the messages being passed around, in
the process, he collected the passwords and usernames and other such vital
details of the employees, and further even stole essential software. All this
cost NASA to shut down its system and to pay from its pocket $41,000. c0mrade,
however, had a bitter ending as James committed suicide in 2008.
6.
Kevin Poulsen
How far would you go to win your
dream car or a dream house? How far will you go to win an online contest or a
radio show contest? Perhaps, you shall keep trying your luck, unless you are
Kevin Poulsen! Poulsen infiltrated a radio shows call-in contest just so he
could win a Porsche. Dark Dante, as he was better known, went underground after
FBI started pursuing him. He, later, was found guilty of seven counts of mail,
wire and computer fraud, money laundering and the likes. What turned out to be
rewarding in Dark Dante’s case is – his past crafted his future. Poulsen now
serves as a Senior Editor at Wired.
7.
Kevin Mitnick
Clad in an Armani suit, when a
bespectacled face in his mid-40s smiles at you from the computer screen, you
can hardly consider the man a cyber-criminal. Such is the case with Kevin David
Mitnick. Once upon a time, the most wanted cyber-criminal of US, now is an
affluent entrepreneur. Kevin, who is now a security consultant, was convicted
of hacking Nokia, Motorola and Pentagon. He pleaded guilty to seven counts of
fraud that included wire fraud, computer fraud and of illegally interception a
wire communication. After five years of incarceration that included eight
months of solitary confinement, Mitnick now has started afresh. However, his
knack with the computers is still reminisced and was even depicted on celluloid
in the films Takedown and Freedom Downtown.
8.
Anonymous
The concept of being a “digital
Robin Hood” was far from being conceived, but in the computer age, it is very
likely that someone somewhere has bagged this title. A “hacktivist group”
called Anonymous are known with the penname of being the “digital Robin Hood”
amongst its supporters. Identified in public by wearing a Guy Fawkes Masks,
Anons, as they are widely known, have publicized themselves by attacking the
government, religious and corporate websites. The Vatican, the FBI, the CIA,
PayPal, Sony, Mastercard, Visa, Chinese, Israeli, Tunisian, and Ugandan
governments have been amongst their targets. Although, Anons have been arguing
whether to engage in a serious activism or a mere entertainment, many of the
group members have clarified their intent which is to attack internet
censorship and control.
9.
Astra
Astra, a Sanskrit word for weapon
was the penname of a hacker who dealt in the weapon stealing and selling. A
58-year-old Greek Mathematician hacked into the systems of France’s Dassault
Group, stole vulnerable weapons technology data and sold it to different
countries for five long years. While the real identity of the ASTRA remains
untraced, officials have said that he had been wanted since 2002. Astra sold
the data to approximately 250 people from around the globe, which cost Dassault
$360 millions of damage.
10.
Albert Gonzalez
How safe is internet banking? When
we browse through the profile of this mastermind, we are certain that one ought
to use the World Wide Web with immense care. For two long years, Albert
Gonzalez, stole from credit cards of the netizens. This was recorded to be the
biggest credit card theft in the history of mankind. He resold approximately
170 million credit cards and ATM numbers. He did so by installing a sniffer and
sniffing out the computer data from internal corporate networks. When arrested,
Gonzalez was sentenced to 20 years in Federal prison
