There are many notable hackers all around the world. There are mainly two
types of hackers, first, who dominate the cyber world by breaking the
secure firewall. Second, who is computer security experts and
specializes in penetration testing.
The word “hacker” originally referred to 2nd type, it doesn’t mean
“Criminal” or “Bad Guys.” Yeah! That’s true. There are good hackers and
bad hackers! These days, benevolent hackers are often known as “White
Hat Hackers” and sinister or bad hackers are called as “Black Hat
Hackers.” In this article, I’ll be taking about 5 most famous hackers in
the world. Here are the 5 most known black hat hackers and what
happened to them.
Jonathan James
Jonathan James was known as “c0mrade” on the Internet. What is his
ticket to fame? He was convicted and sent to prison for hacking in the
United States–all while he was still a minor. At only fifteen years of
age, he managed to hack into a number of networks, including those
belonging to Bell South, Miami-Dade, the U.S. Department of Defense, and
NASA.
Yes, James hacked into NASA’s network and downloaded enough source
code to learn how the International Space Station worked. The total
value of the downloaded assets equaled $1.7 million. To add insult to
injury, NASA had to shut down their network for three whole weeks while
they investigated the breach, which cost them $41,000.
The story of James has a tragic ending, however. In 2007, a number of
high profile companies fell victim to a massive wave of malicious
network attacks. Even though James denied any involvement, he was
suspected and investigated. In 2008, James committed suicide, believing
he would be convicted of crimes that he did not commit.
Kevin Mitnick
Kevin Mitnick is the “Most Wanted Computer Criminal” in U.S history.
There are two featured films based on Kevin Mitnick – Takedown (2000)
and Freedom Downtime. What did he do? He hacked the cell phone and made
free calls, he had stolen the code from companies like Sun Microsystems
and Novell. Kevin also hacked into NSA (National Security Agency) phone
calls. When he found guilty in many frauds charges, he had been sent to
prison for five years. Nowadays, he works as a professional Security
Consultant.
Albert Gonzalez
Gmail secrets you should know
Albert Gonzalez paved his way to Internet fame when he collected over
170 million credit card and ATM card numbers over a period of 2 years.
Yep. That’s equal to a little over half the population of the United
States.
Gonzalez started off as the leader of a hacker group known as
ShadowCrew. This group would go on to steal 1.5 million credit card
numbers and sell them online for profit. ShadowCrew also fabricated
fraudulent passports, health insurance cards, and birth certificates for
identity theft crimes totaling $4.3 million stolen.
The big bucks wouldn’t come until later, when Gonzalez hacked into
the databases of TJX Companies and Heartland Payment Systems for their
stored credit card numbers. In 2010, Gonzalez was sentenced to prison
for 20 years (2 sentences of 20 years to be served out simultaneously).
Kevin Poulsen
Technologies you never knew existed
Kevin Poulsen, also known as “Dark Dante,” gained his fifteen minutes
of fame by utilizing his intricate knowledge of telephone systems. At
one point, he hacked a radio station’s phone lines and fixed himself as
the winning caller, earning him a brand new Porsche. According to media,
he was called the “Hannibal Lecter of computer crime.”
He then earned his way onto the FBI’s wanted list when he hacked into
federal systems and stole wiretap information. Funny enough, he was
later captured in a supermarket and sentenced to 51 months in prison, as
well paying $56,000 in restitution.
Like Kevin Mitnick, Poulsen changed his ways after being released
from prison. He began working as a journalist and is now a senior editor
for Wired News. At one point, he even helped law enforcement to
identify 744 sex offenders on MySpace.
Gary McKinnon
Interesting facts you never knew about the internet
Scottish computer hacker, Gray McKinnon was popular as Internet handle
“Solo.” He gained access 97 American Military Networks and NASA between
2001 and 2002, and leaving the message on military website, “Your
Security is Crap.” However, he claimed that he was just searching for
information about energy suppression and UFO activity cover-ups. It has
registered “Biggest Military Computer Hack of all the time.” But, now he
has reinvented as a SEO wizard and charging 40 Pounds per hour to help
websites cum blog ranks.
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