The word “hacker” has been greatly misconstrued in today’s society. There are many different types of hackers and the media either portrays them as cyber-terrorists or heroes, depending on who is telling the story. The reality is that there are many reasons why someone might become a hacker and these motives drive them to keep hacking.
While hacking is a criminal act, some hackers are more famous than others for their hacks. Famous hackers are usually those who have hacked some of the world’s largest corporations.
As we know, there are many ways to define hacking, but one thing that unites them all is their courage and ingenuity in solving problems.
The individuals on this list may very well be some of the most famous hackers that ever lived.
The 10 Most Famous Hackers of All Time
These are not just computer hackers, but also people who have broken into other systems and have done illegal things. They are all fascinating characters, but hacking is illegal so please don’t be tempted to try it at home!
1. Kevin Mitnick
Kevin Mitnick, also known as the world’s most notorious hacker, is a computer security consultant and author.
He was one of the first hackers to be convicted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986.
Mitnick spent five years as a fugitive before he was apprehended at the end of 2000 by FBI agent Moulton after his trace was discovered following a hacking incident at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Mitnick now employs his knowledge of social engineering to protect companies from similar attacks. He has been successful in defending major corporations from cyberattacks against their computer systems and networks since 1990, including Motorola, IBM, Nokia, Sun Microsystems, and Fujitsu Siemens Computers.
Also, Kevin Mitnick is the author of famous books:
- Ghost in the Wires
- The Art of Invisibility
- The Art of Deception
- The Art of Intrusion
2. Markus Hess
Markus Hess was a computer hacker who found vulnerabilities in NASA, US Air Force, and other US military systems.
Hess’s interests included hacking into computer systems. From 1982 to 1986 he hacked into NASA, the US Air Force, and other US military systems. He was successful in accessing data that led to vulnerability assessments in these systems. Hess was eventually caught and sentenced to ten years in prison for wire fraud and violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986.
Markus Hess was a German hacker who broke into NASA’s systems and reportedly stole a total of 10,000 pages of source code.
Markus Hess was a German hacker who broke into NASA’s systems and reportedly stole a total of 10,000 pages of source code. It is said that he was driven by the desire to prove that he could beat the security systems of the most technologically advanced country in the world.
3. Mark Aben
Mark Abene has been dubbed “The most wanted computer criminal” of the 1980s and early 1990s after he was convicted of over 50 hacks of various U.S institutions. He was convicted for hacking into the Department of Defense, NASA and the FBI database and was sentenced to ten years in prison
Mark Abene is one of the first true hackers. He hacked into the phone system and learned how to “phone phreak,” which means that he learned how to manipulate telephone networks.
Mark Abene was born in 1955 in New Jersey. His hacking skills were noticed by other “phone phreaks” because he was clever enough to break into AT&T’s telephone operator network.
This led him to create the computer program “Phiber Optik.” He used this program to hack into many different systems during his work as an independent hacker for hire.
4. Julian Assange
Julian Assange is a hacker and the founder of WikiLeaks. In 2006, he founded WikiLeaks. The organization revealed secrets from different governments and caused controversy around the world.
In November 2010, Julian Assange was detained in London because Swedish authorities were investigating rape charges against him. After spending time in prison, he was released on bail and allowed to live at Ellingham Hall under house arrest. He later found asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
He has been a fugitive from US law enforcement since 2010. In 2017, he was found guilty of computer crimes and sentenced to 50 weeks’ imprisonment by a British court for jumping bail in 2012, and to three years’ supervised release following his sentence. In 2019, he was sentenced to 50 weeks’ imprisonment by a British court for breaching bail conditions imposed in 2012 after being released from prison.
5. Jonathan James
Jonathan James is a hacker and former computer programmer, who became well-known after he was caught hacking into NASA computers in 1986.
James has been known to make a living out of hacking major corporations and government agencies. He claims to have secured security clearance from the FBI. James has been known as a “comrade” and was arrested in 2003 for his role in helping hackers break into the Pentagon’s network.
6. Kevin Poulse
Kevin Poulsen is an American hacker who has been convicted of various computer crimes, including breaking into the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Pentagon, and other government computers.
Poulsen was born on January 21, 1962 in Sacramento, California. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in journalism. He was first apprehended for hacking into DEC’s computers when he was 17 years old.
He was also a freelance writer and editor for Wired Magazine. Kevin Poulse has written about hacking and security in many issues of Wired since 1993. He is also an author of a book called Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cyber Crime Underground
He also hosts the radio show “Off The Hook” on Radio Free Berkeley
7. Michael Calc
Michael Calce is a famous hacker who was known as “Mafiaboy”. at the age of 15 when he hacked the Yahoo and AOL website and accessed up to 250,000 user names, email addresses, and passwords. He also created a worm that caused $1 billion in damages to computer networks and the economy.
Michael Calce was born in 1979 to Italian-Canadian parents and grew up in Montreal, Quebec. He attended Dawson College for one year before dropping out and starting his hacking career.
Calce served five years for his crime but was later deported to Canada.
He now works as a computer security consultant at Nav Canada.
8. Gary McKinnon
Gary McKinnon is accused of hacking into NASA’s computer system and causing $800,000 in damage.
Gary was a British hacker who’s been accused of gaining access to US government and military computer systems including the Pentagon network and causing $800,000 in damages.
He hacked into the US military computers from his bedroom in London and was able to view confidential military information. Gary McKinnon also saw information about UFOs and had downloaded a lot of data on the topic which he quickly deleted when he realized that what he was doing is illegal.
He also confessed that he hacked into NASA’s computer system but denied any wrongdoing against the space agency.
9. Albert Gonzalez
Albert Gonzalez is a well-known computer hacker, who is responsible for many large-scale breaches of major companies. One of the most infamous incidents he was involved in was the TJX Companies breach. This breach compromised over 90 million credit cards and put millions of people at risk.
Albert Gonzalez created a website called Shadowcrew which was a sophisticated group of hackers that dealt with credit card cloning, ATM thefts and other forms of cybercrime.
Albert Gonzalez grew up in Miami, Florida. As a child, he was interested in martial arts and computers. After high school, Albert studied computer science at the University of Miami but dropped out to work for a software firm. In 1999 he started to work on the website ShadowCrew which became a sophisticated group of hackers who dealt with credit card cloning, ATM thefts, and other forms of cybercrime.
10. Anonymous
This is a loosely associated international network of activist and hacktivist entities.
Anonymous grew out of a series of popular cultural events in 2003, in particular the group’s opposition to the Church of Scientology. Anonymous members have been involved in both cyberattacks and real-life protests.
In July 2008, members were blamed for taking down the websites of Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal in response to those sites withdrawing their services from WikiLeaks. In October 2010, it interfered with access to public files on WikiLeaks by flooding WikiLeaks with requests when it was temporarily down due to a denial-of-service attack.
In February 2012, Anonymous announced its intention via Twitter to take action against the website of the Swiss Bank Julius Baer following alleged data compromises.
No one has ever revealed their identity as Anonymous, but this group has been successful in hacking into private information.
They are not afraid to hack anyone, even governments and law enforcement agencies.
The term “Anonymous” is not taken from any particular Greek god, but rather it combines two words: anonymous and collective
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