Top 10 hackers of the world

Hacking is like sex. You get in, you get out and hope that you didn’t leave something that can be traced back to you

10. Jonathan James:

Jonathan Joseph James AKA c0mrade was the first underager to be confined in the crime of hacking at the early age of 16. He responded his accusation in a much quite manner - I was just looking around, playing around. What was fun for me was a challenge to see what I could pull off.

9. Dmirty Sklyarov:

Research student of cryptanalysis and an employee of software company, he was confined after developing software that allows the user to fudge the arrangement of copyright acts in Adobe system eBook reader program. Eh…that is just plain weird, who knows what all these crazy people are thinking?

8. Onel de Guzman:

A mail with an agitative subject “I LOVE YOU: A Love letter for you” and with an attachment LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs, one click on the attachment and show is over. Guzman, son of a fisherman wrote this programme which spread from east to west in a single day damaging computers in government offices across the world, including the pentagon and CIA.

7. Mark Abene:

Better known by his pseudonym Phiber Optik, he founded the group MOD (Master Of Deception). Fondness of programming and thirst for knowledge drove him to access sensitive networks. Unique portrait of computer hackers who should be credited for many of the breakthroughs in the high-tech world.

6. Timothy Lloyd:

Fired from an information services company, Llyod  launched a logic bomb in the company’s code which exploded after 20 days from his termination deleting running softwares. In this financial disaster company suffered losses of 10 million dollors.

5. Gary Mckinnon:

According to USA, he is the biggest military computer hacker. He whacked the security system of NASA and Pentagon and became the new celebrity in hacking community. Currently facing an imprisonment of 70 years and deprived from accessing internet, he is a nerd who knew too much.

4. Kevin Poulsen (Dark Dante):

Known as the Hannibal Lecter of computer crime, he came in light by ditching a radio station and winning the two Porsches, $20,000 and two Hawaiian vacations. Now an editorial director for Security focus, he will be always remembered for his tremendous amount of damage – both financial and security related.

3. Robert Tappan Morris:

Graduate of Cornell University, Ph. D. from Harvard and now a professor of computer science at MIT, he is the founding father of worms. Apparently, contagious and destructive technocrat.

2. Vladimir Levin:

Legendary head of hacking ring, this graduate of St. Petersburg Tekhnologichesky University hacked Citibank Newyork and transferred $10 million to his accounts in U.S , Europe and Israel. A true hacker in classic sense.

1. Kevin David Mitnick:

Black hat in the world of hacking, he started his social engineering at the age of 12 by hacking the Los Angeles bus transfer system to get free rides. Starting his journey with a bus he traveled a long way by exploiting FBI, DEC, IBM, Motorola, Nokia, Sun Microsystems and Siemens. Well, these are short listed but after serving 5 years and 8 months in a solitary confinement, he now runs a company “Mitnick Security”, a security consultancy for multinational companies.

Written by: earthwit on April 1, 2010.