10 Famous Hackers

and Hacks
10. Kevin Mitnick
 Not all hackers break the law and even fewer become
the targets of FBI manhunts.
 But Kevin Mitnick was jailed twice -- first in 1988, and
then, after a plea bargain, from 1995 until 2000.
 Mitnick often trumpeted himself more as a "social
engineer" than a hacker. He said he preferred to use
"persuasion, influence and manipulation" in order to
solicit information from influential people.
 Mitnick has been the subject of several books,
including "Takedown"
 Since regaining his computer privileges, he has
started his own security-consulting firm, in addition
to making rounds on the public speaking circuit.
 9. Kevin Poulsen
 Like Kevin Mitnick, Kevin Poulsen was hunted by the FBI and was the
subject of a book "The Watchman: The Twisted Life and Crimes of
Serial Hacker Kevin Poulsen" chronicling his hacking exploits.
 And like Mitnick, Poulsen eventually went straight, giving up
hacking.
 While still a child, he learned how to whistle into a payphone in
order to get free calls (he channeled the sound through his braces).
He hacked a radio station's phone lines in order to win a call-in
contest whose prize was a Porsche.
 He eventually earned the distinction of being the first hacker
charged with espionage after he allegedly stole classified
information from the Air Force .
 Eventually he was sentenced to 51 months for his crimes.
 Since giving up hacking, Poulsen has become a journalist, working as
a senior editor at Wired magazine, where he often writes about
hackers.
 8. Adrian Lamo
 As a hacker, Lamo broke into the networks of a number of
major companies -- Excite@Home, MCI WorldCom, Yahoo,
Microsoft and Google -- but he often contacted the companies
and told them about the security holes. In some cases, he also
helped them fix these holes without accepting any
compensation.
 He finally got into trouble when he hacked into The New York
Times -- from a computer at a Kinko's -- in 2003. He found a
trove of information there, including personal details on
thousands of people who had written for the paper, including
celebrities and ex-presidents. To avoid jail time, he
negotiated a plea bargain that included six months of house
arrest.
 In April 2010, Lamo was diagnosed with Asperger's, an autism-
spectrum disorder commonly associated with people of high
intelligence who have difficulty socializing.
 7. Gary McKinnon
 Like Adrian Lamo, Gary McKinnon has been diagnosed with
Asperger's syndrome. This Scottish hacker's supporters have
protested plans for the U.K. government to extradite him to the
United States to face trial for allegedly hacking into U.S.
government computers.
 Those working on McKinnon's behalf worry that he is "too
psychologically fragile" and may commit suicide. His case has
contributed to a serious debate about the U.K.'s extradition
policies.
 McKinnon is under suspicion for hacking into U.S. government
computer networks in late 2001 and early 2002, in what's been
called a historic breach of security.
 A British court judgment accuses McKinnon of infiltrating 97
computers, installing hacking software, deleting important files and
stealing information .
 McKinnon has admitted to the hacks and said he thought he could
6. Robert Tappan Morris
 Robert Tappan Morris is now a tenured professor at MIT Computer
Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, but he has a colorful
history as one of the computer world's most renowned hackers.
 In 1988, while still an undergraduate at Cornell, Morris released into
the wild what may have been the first computer "worm," a virus that
went on to infect 6,000 Unix-based computers. Many of these
machines suffered serious damage.
 Although Morris claimed that he was only trying to measure the "size"
of the then-embryonic Internet, the government eventually decided
to prosecute him. He became the first person convicted under the
1986 Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
 Because of the novelty of the case and Morris' claim that he didn't
intend to cause any damage, a debate ensued about whether he
deserved prison time.
 Since 1993, the DEFCON conference has been one of the world's
largest gatherings of hackers. The event features lectures, hacking
contests and other events, and is attended by many well-known
hackers and computer-security specialists.
5. John Draper
 While many hackers go mainstream and open consulting firms or
become university professors, some never quite get there, and wind
up in prison or somewhere else on society's margins.
 John Draper is one such person. After serving as a radar technician
in the Air Force in the mid-1960s, Draper began tinkering with the
phone system, learning its intricacies, its internal codes (including,
allegedly, a code that allowed him to get President Nixon on the
phone) and how to hack the system for free calls.
 Later, Draper linked up with Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple,
and also wrote one of the first word processing programs eventually
picked up by Apple and IBM. But his eccentric behavior, poor
business sense and bad luck hampered his ability to make money and
to stay in a job for long.
 A 2007 newspaper article described Draper as living in a decrepit,
one-room apartment, having almost no teeth, and getting by either
on the kindness of friends or occasional programming gigs.
4. The Masters of Deception
 The Masters of Deception (MOD) was a group of hackers based in
New York who, in the late 1980s, went on a hacking spree, taking
particular advantage of the country's phone system in order to
hack into various corporate and government networks.
 Although members of the MOD were top-notch hackers, their big
mistake likely came when they engaged in a rivalry with the
Legion of Doom (LOD). The battle between the two came to be
known as the Great Hacker War, although the conflict allegedly
started when one LOD member used a disparaging racial epithet
in reference to an MOD member.
 Eventually, five members of MOD pled guilty to various crimes,
and four spent brief periods in jail. The groups' members
dispersed, and many found work for technology and security
firms. Their story has been chronicled in many articles and books,
including one whose title says it all: "Masters of Deception: The
Gang That Ruled Cyberspace."
3. Matthew Bevan and Richard Pryce
 Some hackers steal information or money, or damage or hijack systems, but
few hackers can claim to have nearly started a war. But in 1996,
 Matthew Bevan and Richard Pryce were accused of just that by the U.S.
government. Bevan and Pryce, who are both British, were arrested
separately, several months apart, for trying to break into U.S. military
systems.
 Bevan was a 21-year-old IT worker at the time and went by the hacker alias
"Kuji," while Pryce was only 17 and known as "Datastream Cowboy“.
 According to a U.S. government report, the two allegedly worked together
for several months, first establishing an electronic beachhead on a
computer system located at Griffiss Air Force Base, in New York. They then
installed password-collecting programs and began hacking their way into
other government systems.
 After discovering the intrusions, U.S. officials became especially alarmed
when they found that the duo may have infiltrated a North Korean system
during an especially tenuous time of negotiations with that country over its
nuclear-weapons program. Because the intrusion came via a hijacked U.S.
government computer, it could've been construed as an act of war.
Ultimately it was discovered that the hack in question had targeted a South
Korean government agency.
2. Jonathan James
 By age 16, Jonathan James had already achieved renowned hacker status by
becoming the first juvenile hacker to be sentenced to juvenile detention for 6
months in 2000.
 Going by the alias "cOmrade," James was charged with hacking into computer
systems belonging to NASA and the Department of Defense
 James' father supported his son, saying that he hadn't caused any damage and had
exposed security flaws. Unfortunately, after leaving the juvenile institution,
James' troubles continued when he tested positive for drugs. And when his mother
died when he was 18, that left him alone with her house and little motivation to
work, a recipe for hacking.
 In 2008, government agents raided his house as part of an investigation into what
was then called the largest identity theft case in U.S. history. James and others
were suspected of hacking into the systems of many large businesses and stealing
information as part of an identity and credit-card theft ring that had netted
millions of dollars.
 Two weeks after the raid, James committed suicide. He left a suicide note
explaining that, while he considered himself innocent, he believed that because
of his past notoriety, federal authorities would pin the blame on him rather than
other guilty parties.
1. Albert "segvec" Gonzalez
 In 2009, Albert Gonzalez pleaded guilty to hacking into numerous
companies' computer systems in connection with the so-called
TJX identity theft ring -- the same series of crimes that led to the
raid on Jonathan James' house. The group that Gonzalez was a
part of stole 36 million credit card numbers from TJX, which owns
TJ Maxx and other large stores, although 70 percent or so of
these cards were expired.
 What's particularly strange about Gonzalez's case is that for years
he worked as an informant for the secret service, providing
information on other credit card thieves. However, by continuing
and even expanding his criminal behavior, he left himself open to
prosecution and was eventually sentenced to 20 years in prison
 Several other men also were sentenced to prison time for their
participation in the ring, although Gonzalez's sentence remains
the longest ever handed down to a hacker in the United States.
 Albert Gonzalez sent the data he stole to the TJX ring's
mastermind, Maksym "Maksik" Yastremskiy. He was sentenced to
30 years in prison by Turkish authorities in 2009.