Hackers have done both a tremendous amount of damage-both financial and security related. But they are also the group of people who are responsible for the development of the World Wide Web and many other innovations. Here, for your consideration, is a list of the top ten hackers of all time.
Black Hat Crackers:
“Black hats,” are hackers who are known for their work in exploiting computer systems for personal gain. They are infamous for committing serious cyber crimes. Five of the top ten Creating, Maintaining & Presenting A Homeschool Portfolio hackers of all time fall under this category. They include the following:
Jonathan James: Jonathon James was the first juvenile ever to be sent to prison for computer hacking when he was convicted and sentenced at the tender age of sixteen. He has always maintained that he did not really intend to cause any harm, but enjoyed working on computers. Jonathan told one interviewer, “I was just looking around…playing around. What was fun for me was a challenge to see what I could pull off.” During his notorious hacking career, James managed to hack into several government organizations where he accessed security-sensitive material. One of his most famous stunts, and one of the hacks that ultimately landed him in jail, was breaking into the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) servers by means of installing a backdoor. At one point, he also broke into NASA’s servers, where he stole software to the tune of $1.7 million. The intrusion also forced a temporary computer shutdown by NASA, resulting in losses of over $41,000. Because James, also known by computer handle, “c0mrade,” was a juvenile, he received a mere slap on the wrist for his hacking crimes. His punishment consisted of six months in prison and a ban on recreational computer use.
Robert Tappan Morris: Morris is infamous for his creation of the first computer worm (the “Morris Worm”), and was the first person to be convicted under 1986’s Computer Fraud and Abuse act. While a student at Cornell, Morris wrote the code for what was to become the first worm unleashed on an unprepared Internet. Morris has always maintained that he did not mean to cause harm. Of course, the Morris Worm ended up causing untold damages as it slowed computers Buy Special Gifts To India Online to the point of uselessness and replicated itself over and over. Morris was convicted for his crime and received three years of probation, four-hundred hours of community service, and a fine of more than ten-thousand dollars. Currently, he is a tenured professor in the Massachusetts Institute of The Rush of Last Minute Christmas Shopping Technology’s computer science laboratory.
Adrian Lamo: Adrian Lamo earned his notoriety by breaking into such institutions as Microsoft and the New York Times. The press had a field day with him, calling him “The Homeless Hacker.” Lamo used free Internet connections in places like coffee shops and libraries by day, and slept in the streets at night. Lamo told a reporter, “I have a laptop in Pittsburgh, [and] a change of clothes in D.C. It kind of redefines the term multi-jurisdictional.” Lamo was able to hack into dozens of corporate servers. Some of his hit list included such companies as Yahoo, Citigroup, Cingular, and even Bank of America. Lamo was different than many “black hat” hackers, however, in that he did what is termed, “penetration testing,” wherein he found the flaws in a computer system’s security and informed the company. Because he did this penetration testing on his own, it was not legal. (When companies hire their own “hackers” to complete the same type of testing in-house, there is no illegality involved.) The New York Times was not amused when he hacked into their intranet. The intrusion allowed him access to sensitive, personal Gourmet Indian Food Tastes Best When Made With Fresh Ingredients information on contributors and other employees, including Social-Security numbers. The crime netted him eight months of home confinement, two years of probation, and an order to repay the New York Times more than sixty-thousand dollars in restitution. He is currently working as a public speaker and is a well-respected journalist.
Kevin Mitnick: Kevin Mitnick professes to be one of the most notorious hackers of all time, even referring to himself as a hacker “poster boy.” In fact, Mitnick became so infamous, that his exploits were chronicled in the movies “Freedom Downtime” and “Takedown.” Mitnick began with small hacking jobs, like getting into the Los Angeles bus system’s site to get free rides on the city’s bus-punch card system. He then moved on to other small jobs, like “phone phreaking” (gaining illegal access to telecom resources). In the end, it was stealing software from Digital Equipment Corporation’s computer network that would up landing him a conviction. According to CNN, he also “…hacked into computers, stole corporate secrets, scrambled phone networks and broke into the National Defense warning system.” He hacked into another notorious hacker’s home computer and it was this run-in with fellow cyber criminal, Tsutomu Shimomura, that began the road to his downfall. Mitnick served-out his five-year prison sentence. He now works as an author, a public speaker and, ironically, a computer-security consultant.
Kevin Poulsen: Kevin Poulsen first came to the attention of the public when he was able to hack into the phone lines of LA radio station KIIS-FM. This allowed Matamalayong him to win several call-in contests, netting him a new Porsche, among many other prizes. He has been called the “Hannibal Lecter of computer crime,” by authorities. Poulsen ran afoul of law enforcement after he was able to hack into a federal investigation database. While the authorities were hunting him, he continued his hacking activities-even getting into federal computers where he was able to access wiretap information. The night that Poulsen’s photo aired on the television show, “Unsolved Mysteries,” the 1-800 phone lines for the program crashed. Poulsen wound up meeting is fate when he was arrested in a supermarket. He served a sentence of five years and has since gone on to work as a journalist.
White Hat Hackers
In contrast to “black hat” hackers, “white hat” hackers are those that, in theory, use their computer-hacking skills for good. Some are hired by corporations to work as “ethical” hackers in order to test the security of their computer systems, while others work on their own. “White hat” hackers are responsible for developing many incredible new technologies.
Stephen Wozniak: Steve Wozniak, often called, “Woz,” is one of the two men famed for founding Apple Computers. (Wozniak started On the web Education Classes his hacking career with simple stunts like building “blue boxes”-devices that allow a user to make free long-distance calls by bypassing telephone switch devices.) Woz has received numerous awards for Free Security Programs - The Right Price For Computer Safety his technological innovations, including the National Medal of Technology, and honorary doctorates from Kettering and Nova Southeastern University. But before all that, Wozniak dropped out of college to develop what would eventually become the Apple computer. Steve Jobs helped him further develop the idea, suggesting that they should sell it as a completely-assembled PC board, ready to use out of the box. They were a great team-with Wozniak doing most of the software and hardware design and Jobs handling the business end of things-all on virtually no budget. Currently, Woz does not work full-time for Apple, focusing instead on philanthropic ventures. He spends a great deal of time working with the Los Gatos, California school district to provide students and teachers with hands-on teaching, and often provides donations of state-of-the-art technology equipment.
Tim Berners-Lee: Tim Berners-Lee’s parents were both famed mathematicians who worked on one of the earliest computer projects, which may explain his natural acumen for, and interest in, technology. Berners-Lee has earned many technology recognitions and awards, but is most noted for being the inventor of the World Wide Web, which allows access to sites on the Internet. He has also received the prestigious Millennium Technology Prize. While studying at Oxford, he was able to build his first computer from scratch, using a soldering iron, some TTL gates, an old processor, and a television set. Later, while working with a European nuclear research organization, he created a hypertext prototype system to allow researchers to easily share and update data. This is the work that ultimately led him to the realization that hypertext could be joined together with the Internet. On this subject, Berners-Lee was quoted as saying, “I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and-ta-da!-the World Wide Web.” Amazingly, the idea of the World Wide Web, as developed by Berners-Lee, has been used throughout the world without his ever receiving any patent or royalties.
Linus Torvalds: Linus Torvalds is best known as the developer of Linux, the famed Unix-based operating system, but refers to himself as “just an engineer.” He states, “I just want to have fun making the best damn operating system I can.” Torvalds got his start in computers with a Commodore VIC-20-an 8-bit home computer. After starting out using a home computer, he then moved to a Sinclair QL and proceeded to modify the operating system on his own. In 1991, he began to develop Linux (creating the Linux kernel), with the Minix operating system serving as his guide and inspiration. While working on Linux with a task switcher in Intel 80386 assembly and a terminal driver, he then requested other programmers to contribute code of their own. The response was overwhelming, resulting in less than two percent of the current Linux kernel being written by him-the rest came from contributors. Currently, Torvalds serves as the coordinator for Speed up Computer what is possibly MLA Example Papers the largest freeware/software collaboration in the world, putting together the code that volunteer programmers contribute to the kernel. Torvalds has achieved world-wide fame, receiving honorary doctorates from Stockholm University and the University of Helsinki.
Richard Stallman: Stallman’s participation in the GNU Project, which was founded with the intention of developing a free operating system, has garnered him the title of “Father of Free Software.” Stallman, who also goes by the computer handle of “rms,” began his hacking career during his time at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he worked as a “staff hacker” on several different projects. He criticized the MIT policy of restricting computer access in the lab and proceeded to break down the password system that the university installed. Stallman always believed that free software should Anti Anxiety Medication be available for all sorts of applications, but the real beginning of his interest in making Bali: What To Do And Where To Go it available to all began when he attempted to modify a printer and he (and his fellow lab workers) could not do so. This was the beginning of what was to become the GNU project. He chose to begin his work with an operating system because that is the foundation of the computer. There is currently a GNU/Linux version of Torvald’s original operating system. Stallman continues to promote free software rights and participates in organizations like Free Software Foundation and the League for Programming Freedom. Stallman has received multiple honors and awards for his work.
Tsutomu Shimomura: Ironically, Tsutomu Shimomura became famous because of his role in helping the FBI to capture another famous hacker, Kevin Mitnick. After Mitnick hacked into Shimomura’s computer, it became a personal mission for Shimomura to get his revenge. However, Shimomura was, and is, every bit as capable of committing the same type of cyber crimes for which he helped to convict Mitnick. An author described one encounter with him: “He pulls out this AT&T cell phone, pulls it out of the shrink-wrap, finger-hacks it, and starts monitoring phone calls going up and down Capitol Hill, while an FBI agent is standing at his shoulder, listening to him.” In the end, it was Shimomura’s ability to “out-hack” Mitnick that led to his arrest. Shimomura helped to pinpoint Mitnick’s location by only utilizing his cell phone. Shimomura “…used a cellular frequency direction-finding antenna hooked up to a laptop to narrow the search to an apartment complex.” At an apartment near the Raleigh- Durham airport, Mitnick was arrested. Shimomura later wrote a book with journalist John Markoff, recounting the incident. The book was later made into a film.
There are, of course, numerous computer hackers, both “white hat” and “black hat,” working hard on hacking into various systems at any given time. Now that you have learned a little bit about some of the most notorious hackers who have used their skills to help society, perhaps you will take a closer look at your own computer security.
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