Kevin Mitnick
Kevin Mitnicks story is so insane that it was even the basis for a featured film called Track Down. The United States Department of Justice described him as “the most wanted computer suspect in U.S. history.”
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What has he done?
He was released three years after serving in prison for a year on account of hacking into the network of the Digital Equipment Corporation. At the end of this period, he fled to a hacking era of 2,5 years involving a breach of the national defense warning system and the robbing of corporate secrets.
Where is he?
Mitnick was finally imprisoned and sentenced to 5 years in prison. He became a consultant and public speaker for computer security after completing those years. He is currently running Security Consulting, LLC.
Jonathan James
Jonathan James’s story is tragic; he’s called the “c0mrade.” At a young age, he started breaking, hacking into several business and government networks, and was imprisoned — all while still a minor.
What did he do?
James ultimately broke into NASA’s network to access the source code to find out how the International Space Station functions (assets amount to $1.7 million at the time). Whilst investigating the breach, NASA had to shut down their network for three weeks at $41,000.
Where is he now?
Several well-known organizations were exposed to various malicious network attacks in 2007. While James refused to participate,He was under suspicion and prosecution. James committed suicide in 2008, claiming that he was convicted of crimes he did not commit.
Albert Gonzalez
The chief of the hacker group called Shadow Crew was Albert Gonzalez. Shadow Crew also created counterfeit passports, health insurance cards and birth certificates for crimes of identity theft in addition to the stealing and selling credit card numbers.
What did he do?
Albert Gonzalez paved the way for internet fame by obtaining over two years more than 170 million credit card numbers and ATM card numbers. He then hacketed all of its credited credit card numbers in the databases of TJ X Companies and Heartland Payment Systems.
Where is he?
Gonzalez was sentenced to 20 years in prison and is scheduled to be released in 2025. Both terms are 20 years in prison at the same time.
Kevin Poulsen
With his complex understanding of telephone systems, Kevin Poulsen, known as Dark Dante, earned his 15 minutes of fame. He hacked the telephone lines of a radio station at one time and set himself as the winner and won him a new Porsche. It was the “Hannibal Crime Lecter,” according to the papers.
What did he do?
When he hacked into federal systems and stole wiretap information, Poulsen was included on the FBI’s wanted list. Later in a supermarket (from every corner) he was imprisoned for 50 months and a $56,000 bill of reimbursement was sentenced.
Then, where is it?
Upon his release from prison during 1995, Poulsen changed his ways. He started work as a newspaper and is now Wired’s publisher. During 2006, he also helped the police to identify 744 sexual offenders in MySpace.
Nasa Hacker Gary McKinnon
Gary McKinnon, known on the Internet as the “Solo,” allegedly coordinated the biggest military hack in computers ever.
What did it do?
From February 2001 to March 2002, over 13 months, McKinnon illegal access to 97 US military and NASA computers.
He claimed to have been looking for free energy suppression information only and overexposures, but he deleted a number of critical files according to the US authorities, making more than 300 computers inoperable and damaging more than $700,000.
Then, where is it?
With a Scottish origin, McKinnon was able to escape the US government until 2005 when he came face to face as extradition. Following several appeals, Theresa May blocked her extradition for being “seriously ill” and for being “incompatible with[ his] human rights.”
Robert Tappan Morris
His father Robert Morris, an informatician at Bell Labs, and later at the NSA, gained his knowledge of the computers. The world’s first known computer worm is credited to Morris.
What has he done?
In 1988, while studying at Cornell University, he created the Morris Worm. The program was designed to measure the Internet size, but it was flawed: the computer could be infected several times, and the computer would slow down further with each infection. It made it unusable for about 6,000 computers.
Now, where is it?
The electronic fraud and harassment statute was found to have been broken by Robert Tappan Morris in 1989. He received a 3-year probation term, 400 hours of community service and a $10,050 fine. He eventually established Y Combinator and is now a tenure professor at the Institute of Technology in Massachusetts.
Loyd Blankenship
Loyd Blankenship has been an active hacker since the 1970s and is regarded as the “Mentor” in hacking circles. He has previously been a member of several hacking groups, especially the Legion of Doom (LOD).
What did he do?
He wrote an essay, “Mentor’s Last Words,” after his arrest in 1986, and he wrote the essay “A Hacker Awareness and Hacker’s Manifesto.” The essay has become a sort of foundation for hacking community.
Now, where is it?
In 1989, Blankenship was engaged in the GURPS Cyberpunk with Steve Jackson Games. In 1990, the US Secret Service searched his home and seized the game’s “computer crime guide” and has since stopped hacking, and is now McAfee’s director for software research and design.
Julian Assange
He has hacked for four years into many governmental, business and educational networks, including the Pentagon, NASA, Lockheed Martin, Citibank and Stanford University and has been operating in several parts of the world since the age of 16.
What did he do?
As a forum for the publication of news leaks and classified documents from anonymous sources in 2006, Assange founded Wikileaks. The United States launched an investigation against Assange in 2010 to charge him under the Espionage Act of 1917.
Now where is he?
Assange is now a resident of Ecuador and is in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, fearful of extradition.
Guccifer 2.0
Who is the 2.0 of Guccifer?
No one sure knows. It can be an individual or a group that masks as a human. The name commemorates a Romanian hacker (called “guccifer”), who frequently targeted US officials and other political leaders.
What did they do? What did they do?
The network of the Democratic National Convention was hacked during the 2016 US Presidential Election. On WikiLeaks and elsewhere there were thousands of documents leaked. Some suspect that Guccifer 2.0 is a front for Russian intelligence but Guccifer 2.0 claimed to be Romanian rather than Russian in an interview with Vice.
Where are they?
A moment before the 2016 US presidential election, Guccifer 2.0 vanished, but then emerged once again in January 2017 to say that he had no links with Russian intelligences.
Anonymous
Anonymous might be the most popular, but also nebulous “hacker” of all time. The Anonymous is a collective group of hackers without any true leadership or hierarchy rather than a single person. Anyone in Anonymous’s name can act.
