Black hat, white hat, or somewhere in
between, hackers have had a huge impact on
the evolution of information technology. See if
you agree that these 10 hackers belong on this
list.
Hacking is not a recent invention. In fact, it
has been around since the 1930s, although not
always associated with computers. Here's a
rundown of some of the most noteworthy
hackers in history.
1: Kevin Mitnick
Kevin Mitnick, once considered the most-
wanted cybercriminal in the United States, is
often touted as the poster child of computer
hacking. Kevin mastered an early form of
social engineering (scamming operators) and
computer hacking to gain access to and modify
telephony switching systems. After a very
public two-year chase, arrest ,and
incarceration, the hacker community
collectively rose in protest against what they
viewed as a witch hunt.
2: Robert Tappan Morris
On November 2, 1988, Robert Morris released
a worm that brought down one-tenth of the
Internet. With the need for social acceptance
that seems to infect many young hackers,
Morris made the mistake of chatting about his
worm for months before he actually released it
on the Internet, so it didn't take long for the
police to track him down. Morris said it was
just a stunt and added that he truly regretted
wreaking $15 million worth of damage, the
estimated amount of carnage caused by his
worm.
3: Vladimir Levin
Seeming like the opening of a James Bond
movie, Vladimir Levin was working on his
laptop in 1994 from his St. Petersburg, Russia,
apartment. He transferred $10 million from
Citibank clients to his own accounts around
the world. As with most Bond movies, Levin's
career as a hacker was short lived -- with a
capture, imprisonment, and recovery of all but
$400,000 of the original $10 million.
4: Yan Romanowski
Yan Romanowski, also known as MafiaBoy, was
arrested in February 2000 for launching a
denial-of-service attack that brought down
many of the Internet's largest sites, including
Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo. Yan's lawyer
claimed, "If [MafiaBoy] had used all his
powers, he could have done unimaginable
damage." It is widely believed that
Romanowski is no more than a script kiddie.
His attacks, however successful, were
implemented using computer scripts that
clogged networks full of garbage data.
5: Kevin Poulsen
Kevin Poulsen, known as Dark Dante in the
hacker community, specialized in hacking
phone systems, particularly radio stations. This
talent allowed only calls originating from his
house to make it through to the station,
assuring him of wins in listener radio contests.
His iconic 1991 hack was a takeover of all of
the telephone lines for the Los Angeles KIIS-
FM radio station, guaranteeing that he would
be the 102nd caller and win the prize of a
Porsche 944 S2. The bold Poulsen was wanted
by the FBI for federal computer hacking at the
same time he was winning the Porsche and $
20,000 in prize money at a separate station.
Poulsen spent 51 months in a federal prison,
the longest sentence of a cybercriminal at that
time.
6: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
The now-famous founders of Apple Computer
spent part of their youth as hackers. They
spent their pre-Apple days (circa 1971)
building Blue Box devices (an early phreaking
tool allowing users to make long distance calls
without the financial charges) and selling them
to fellow students at the University of
California, Berkeley.
7: David Smith
Smith's fame comes from being the author of
the infamous email virus known as Melissa.
According to Smith, the Melissa virus was
never meant to cause harm, but its simple
means of propagation (each infected computer
sent out multiple infected emails) overloaded
computer systems and servers around the
world. Smith's virus was unusual in that it was
originally hidden in a file containing passwords
to 80 well-known pornography Web sites. Even
though more than 60,000 email viruses have
been discovered, Smith is the only person to
go to federal prison in the United States for
sending one.
8: Jonathan James
James gained notoriety when he became the
first juvenile, at age 16, to be sent to prison
for hacking. James specialized in hacking high-
profile government systems, such as NASA and
the Department of Defense. He was reported to
have stolen software worth more than $1.7
million.
9: George Hotz
While George Hotz may be a renowned
jailbreak artist, he's best known for being
named as the primary reason for the April
2011 PlayStation breach. As one of the first
hackers to jailbreak the Sony PlayStation 3,
Hotz found himself in the middle of a very
mean, public, and messy court battle with Sony
-- perhaps because of his public release of his
jailbreaking methods. In stated retaliation, the
hacker group Anonymous attacked Sony in
what has been the most costly security break
of all time. Hotz denied any responsibility for
the attack and said, "Running homebrew and
exploring security on your devices is cool;
hacking into someone else's server and stealing
databases of user info is not cool."
10: Gary McKinnon
In 2002, a decidedly odd message appeared on
a U.S. Army computer: "Your security system
is crap," it read. "I am Solo. I will continue to
disrupt at the highest levels." It was later
found to be the work of Gary McKinnon, a
Scottish system administrator. Gary has been
accused of mounting the largest ever hack of
U.S. government computer networks --
including Army, Air Force, Navy, and NASA
systems. The court has recommended that
McKinnon be extradited to the United States to
face charges of illegally accessing 97
computers, causing $700,000 in damage.
Adding even more interest to McKinnon's
actions is his insistence that much of his
hacking was in search of information on UFOs,
information he believed the U.S. government
was hiding in its military computers.