Hacker
Professional
- Messages
- 1,041
- Reaction score
- 851
- Points
- 113
Despite the huge number of warnings, we are not used to expecting something bad from the Internet, because the World Wide Web offers easy access to information and quick communication with people from different parts of the world. However, in addition to the many advantages that the Internet provides, it has spawned people aimed at deceiving and taking advantage of other people in ways that most ordinary users do not understand.
On the other hand, you need to understand that not all hackers have evil intentions. In fact, they can be divided into three main groups:
- White hackers: working to improve the security of computers;
- gray hackers: launching computer attacks for fun;
- black hackers: they act with the sole purpose of doing harm.
10. Kevin Mitnink
Kevin Mitnick was perhaps the only computer hacker known even to people far from computers, and one of the most elusive criminals in the United States. Throughout the 1980s, Mitnick infiltrated the computer systems of almost all well-known companies. His story was so amazing that it became the plot of the adventure thriller Hacking.
After the attack on the network of the American computer company Digital Equipment Corp. Kevin spent one year in prison and was released on supervision for three years. However, at the end of the term, the hacker fled and over the next two and a half years made many high-profile hacks, including those related to the theft of corporate secrets and attacks on national security alert systems.
Ultimately, Mitnick was caught and sentenced to five years in prison. After serving his sentence, he did not return to hacking (at least there is no such information), became a public figure and a computer security consultant, and also wrote several books. He is now the owner of Mitnick Security Consulting.
9. Jonathan James
The story of Jonathan James (c0mrade) is very tragic. James started hacking as a teenager - even then he could hack into any government or commercial network - and became the first minor to go to prison for it.
In 1999, James managed to hack the NASA network. The young hacker was able to freely roam the network and stole several files, including the source code of the international space station.
In 2008, James Jonathan committed suicide, presumably because he was accused of carrying out attacks that he was not involved in. Rumor has it that the hacker's death was faked, but there is no concrete evidence of this.
8. Albert Gonzalez
Albert Gonzalez was the leader of the ShadowCrew hacking organization he created. Cybercriminals were involved in theft and subsequent sale of credit card numbers, forging insurance policies, passports and birth certificates.
In just two years (from 2005 to 2007), Gonzalez stole and resold over 170 million credit cards and bank numbers. In 2010, the hacker was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
7. Kevin Poulsen
Dark Dante is the nickname of Calvin Poulsen, a hacker who hacked the telephone line of one of the American radio stations and thus won a Porsche car.
The FBI became interested in Poulsen after he hacked into their database and obtained classified information about intercepted telephone conversations. As a result, he was sentenced to 51 months in prison with a refund of $ 56,000.
After being released from prison in 1995, Poulsen decided to change his life and became a journalist. In 2006, he helped identify over 700 sex offenders on MySpace. The former hacker is currently the editor of Wired magazine.
6. Gary McKinnon
On the web, Gary McKinon is better known as Solo. This Scottish hacker orchestrated the largest ever hack of a military computer system. In just 13 months (from February 2001 to March 2002) McKinnon gained access to over 95 computers belonging to NASA and the US Armed Forces.
Although, according to the hacker, he was only interested in classified information about UFOs and alternative energy sources, American regulators said that he had stolen many important files and caused damage in excess of $ 700,000.
Since McKinson lived in Scotland and carried out all his activities from the United Kingdom, American regulators could not get to him, however, in 2005, the US authorities requested his extradition. The then Prime Minister of Great Britain Theresa May refused the United States, citing McKinnon's "serious illness".
5 Robert Tappan Morris
Robert Teppan Morris inherited his interest in computers from his father, who worked as a programmer at Bell Labs and the NSA. Morris is famous for being the creator of the first network worm, the Morris Worm, which paralyzed more than 6,000 computers in November 1988.
In 1989, Teppan was sentenced to three years probation, a $ 10,050 fine, and 400 hours of community service for violating the Fraud and Abuse Act.
He is now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
4. Loyd Blankenship
Loyd Blankenship or Mentor was a very active hacker in the 1970s. He was a member of several hacking organizations, including Legion of Doom. After his arrest in 1986, Blankenship wrote an essay called Mentor's Last Words, which became a kind of manifesto for hacker culture.
In 1989. Blankenship was hired by Steve Jackson Games to work on the computer game GURPS Cyberpunk, but US Intelligence Service broke into his house and seized the instructions for the game, considering it a "cybercrime" reference. After that, Blankenship abandoned his previous activities and started working for McAfee.
3. Julian Assange
Julian Assange started hacking at age 16. For this activity, he used the nickname Mendax. In just four years, Assange managed to hack into the networks of many corporations, government agencies and educational institutions, including NASA, Lockheed Martin, Stanford University and the Pentagon.
In 2006, he created WikiLeaks, a platform that publishes classified information obtained from anonymous sources or as a result of leaks. In 2010, the US government filed a case against Assange on espionage charges.
Since 2012, Assange has lived in Ecuador, which granted him political asylum, but in April 2019, the country's authorities deprived him of political asylum and Assange was arrested. He is currently in a British prison.
2. Guccifer 2.0
Who exactly is a hacker named Guccifer 2.0 (Guccifer 2.0) is not known for certain. Perhaps this is one person, or maybe a group of people. During the 2016 US presidential election, he hacked into the network of the US Democratic National Committee, after which hundreds of classified documents appeared on WikiLeaks and other similar resources. Some believe that the hacker Guchchifer 2.0, who carried out the cyberattack, is just an attempt by the Russian special services to divert attention from their involvement in the hacking. However, after the research, it was proved that Guuchifer is not a Russian at all, but a Romanian.
Thus, Guccifer is the name of the Romanian hacker who hacked the website of the American government and many other political organizations.
After the presidential election, Guccifer disappeared, reappearing in January 2017 to prove that he (they) had nothing to do with the Russian intelligence services.
1. Anonymous
Today Anonymous is perhaps the most famous hacker who, paradoxically as it sounds, is still unknown. Any hacker can act on behalf of Anonymous - in fact, this is a group that does not have any hierarchy or membership.
Since 2003, Anonymous has attacked many organizations and systems such as PayPal, Amazon, Westboro Baptist Church, Sony, Deep Internet sites, the Church of Scientology, as well as the governments of India, Australia, Syria, the United States and many other countries ... At the same time, Anonymous is still active.
