Kevin Mitnick
Probably the most famous hacker of his generation, Mitnick has been
described by the US Department of Justice as "the most wanted
computer criminal in United States history." The self-styled
'hacker poster boy' allegedly hacked into the computer systems of
some of the world's top technology and telecommunications companies
including Nokia, Fujitsu and Motorola. After a highly publicised
pursuit by the FBI, Mitnick was arrested in 1995 and after
confessing to several charges as part of a plea bargain agreement,
he served a five year prison sentence. He was released on parole in
2000 and today runs a computer security consultancy. He didn't
refer to his hacking activities as 'hacking' and instead called
them 'social engineering'.
Kevin Poulson
Poulson first gained notoriety by hacking into the phone lines of
Los Angeles radio station KIIS-FM, ensuring he would be the 102nd
caller and thus the winner of a competition the station was running
in which the prize was a Porsche. Under the hacker alias Dark
Dante, he also reactivated old Yellow Page escort telephone numbers
for an acquaintance that then ran a virtual escort agency. The
authorities began pursuing Poulson in earnest after he hacked into
a federal investigation database. Poulson even appeared on the US
television Unsolved Mysteries as a fugitive - although all the 1-
800 phone lines for the program mysteriously crashed. Since his
release from prison, Poulson has reinvented himself as a
journalist.
Adrian Lamo
Adrian Lamo was named 'the homeless hacker' for his pechant for
using coffee shops, libraries and internet cafes as his bases for
hacking. Most of his illicit activities involved breaking into
computer networks and then reporting on their vulnerabilities to
the companies that owned them. Lamo's biggest claim to fame came
when he broke into the intranet of the New York Times and added his
name to their database of experts. He also used the paper's
LexisNexis account to gain access to the confidential details of
high-profile subjects. Lamo currently works as a journalist.Stephen
Wozniak
Famous for being the co-counder of Apple, Stephen "Woz" Wozniak
began his 'white-hat' hacking career with 'phone phreaking' - slang
for bypassing the phone system. While studying at the University of
California he made devices for his friends called 'blue boxes' that
allowed them to make free long distance phone calls. Wozniak
allegedly used one such device to call the Pope. He later dropped
out of university after he began work on an idea for a computer. He
formed Apple Computer with his friend Steve Jobs and the rest, as
they say, is history.
Loyd Blankenship
Also known as The Mentor, Blankenship was a member of a couple of
hacker elite groups in the 1980s - notably the Legion Of Doom, who
battled for supremacy online against the Masters Of Deception.
However, his biggest claim to fame is that he is the author of the
Hacker Manifesto (The Conscience of a Hacker), which he wrote after
he was arrested in 1986. The Manifesto states that a hacker's only
crime is curiosity and is looked at as not only a moral guide by
hackers up to today, but also a cornerstone of hacker philisophy.
It was reprinted Phrack magazine and even made its way into the
1995 film Hackers, which starred Angelina Jolie.
Michael Calce
Calce gained notoriety when he was just 15 years old by hacking
into some of the largest commercial websites in the world. On
Valentine's Day in 2000, using the hacker alias MafiaBoy, Calce
launched a series of denial-of-service attacks across 75 computers
in 52 networks, which affected sites such as eBay, Amazon and
Yahoo. He was arrested after he was noticed boasting about his hack
in online chatrooms. He was received a sentence of eight months of
"open custody," one year of probation, restricted use of the
internet, and a small fine.
Robert Tappan Morris
In November of 1988 a computer virus, which was later traced
Cornell University, infected around 6,000 major Unix machines,
slowing them down to the point of being unusable an causing
millions of dollars in damage. Whether this virus was the first of
its type is debatable. What is public record, however, is that its
creator, Robert Tappan Morris, became the first person to be
convicted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Morris said his
'worm' virus wasn't intended to damage anything and was instead
released to gauge the size of the internet. This assertion didn't
help him, however, and he was sentenced to three years probation,
4000 hours of community service and a hefty fine. A computer disc
containing the souce code for the Morris Worm remains on display at
the Boston Museum of Science to this day.
The Masters Of Deception
The Masters Of Deception (MoD) were a New York-based group of elite
hackers who targetted US phone systems in the mid to late 80s. A
splinter group from the Legion Of Doom (LoD), the became a target
for the authorities after they broke into AT&T's computer system.
The group was eventually brought to heel in 1992 with many of its
members receiving jail or suspended sentences.
David L. Smith
Smith is the author of the notorious Melissa worm virus, which was
the first successful email-aware virus distributed in the Usenet
discussion group alt.sex. The virus original form was sent via
email. Smith was arrsted and later sentenced to jail for causing
over $80 million worth of damage.
Sven Jaschan
Jaschan was found guilty of writing the Netsky and Sasser worms in
2004 while he was still a teenager. The viruses were found to be
responsible for 70 per cent of all the malware seen spreading over
the internet at the time. Jaschan recieved a suspended sentence and
three years probation for his crimes. He was also hired by a
security company.
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