World Famous Top 10 Hackers in the World

1. Gary McKinnon:

USA declared him as the biggest military computer hacker ever. He whacked the security system of NASA and Pentagon. This made him one of the great black hat hacker celebrities and got his name into the hacker's community. The nerd is now facing 70 years of imprisonment and is deprived from accessing internet. He has illegally accessed 97 computers and has caused around $700,000 damage to the economy.

2. Robert Tappan Morris:

He is the creator of first internet worm ?Morris worm? he was a student at Cornell and from that where he started writing codes to create worms as he wanted to know how large the internet world is. But the worm lead to the slow speed of internet and made the systems no longer usable. There was no ways to know how many computers were affected but the experts alleged that around 6000 machines. He was sent to 3 years imprisonment, 400 hours of community service and was fined $10,500. At present he is a professor at Massachusetts institute of technology, computer science and artificial intelligence laboratory. He was the first person prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

3. Kevin David Mitnick:

The computer security consultant, author and a hacker was accused of many cases. He broke into the computer of top technology and telecommunications like Nokia, Motorola, Fujitsu Siemens and sun Microsystems. He termed his activity as ?social engineering? to legalize his acts. He hacked the Los Angeles bus transfer system to get free rides the biggest hacking was the breaking into the DEC system to view the VMS source code (open virtual memory system which lead to the clean-up cost of around $160,000. He also gained the full administration privileges to IBM minicomputers at the computer learning institute in Los Angeles for a bet.

4. Kevin Poulson:
  

He is best known for his takeover of the KIIS-FM phone lines, a Los Angeles based radio station. He was also known as dark Dante. The former black hat hacker is currently a senior editor at wired new.

5. Jonathan James:

He is maestro of all hackers who broke into the server of department of defense in the year 1999 which gave him a nick name c0mrade at the age of 16. He also got into the hacking of NASA. Stealing softwares of NASA and DoD later put him into big trouble. As he was a minor the punishment was for for 6 months imprisonment and has to pledge that he won?t be using computers forever.

6. Adrian Lamo:

The threat analyst and grey hat hacker broke into various high profile computers like New York Times, yahoo and Microsoft that lead to his arrest in the year 2003.He used his internet connections at libraries and coffee shops. The black hat hacker was sentenced to six month home confinement and two years of probation and two years of probation which is expired on January 16, 2007. Now he a great public speaker and a award winning journalist.

7. Vladimir Levin:

The Russian born Jewish became famous for being involved in an attempt to fraudulent transfer of $10.7 million through Citibank?s computers. He and his 4 other members with him were involved in this activity. He used a laptop computer in London, England for the access. He stole the customers? codes and passwords. He made a transaction of $3.7 million via wires to accounts his group controlled in United States, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany and Israel. He was arrested in London airport in March 1995, was convicted upto 3 years in jail. He had to pay Citibank of amount $240,015.

8. Raphael Gray:
 

He hacked the computer systems around the world in over six weeks. He was 19 years when he performed the hacking. His mission was to make a multi- million pound credit card. He published about 6,500 credit cards as an example of weak security in the consumer websites.

9. The Deceptive Duo:

 

In the year 2002 two young boys namely Benjamin stark,20 and Robert Lyttle,18 who broke into government networks, including the U.S. navy, NASA, FAA and Department of Defense (DOD). They argued that they were merely trying to expose security failures and protect Americans because of the 9/11 incident. Stark was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment and Lyttle severed 4 months in prison with 3 years? probation and was fined with an amount of ten thousand dollars each.
 

10. Michael Calce:

Famously knows as mafia boy in the hackers? world as he was a minor, his name was not disclosed. A high school student from west island, Quebec who launched service attacks in the year 2000 against the top commercial websites including yahoo!, amazon.com, Dell.Inc, E*trade, E-Bay and CNN. On September 12, 2001, the Montreal Youth Court sentenced him to 8 months of open custody, one year probation, a small fine. He was restricted from accessing the internet.