This is the age of the computers and mobiles. Every hand is holding a device . Mobile and Computers have made our life so easy that we can talk to our friends and relatives which are thousands of miles away from us or if you want to see any video or something you can see that . It is like we are having the world in our pockets . But the problem nowadays is that those devices are not safe . They can be hacked at any time . In this article we will know about the world's top 10 dangerous hackers , who shocked the world .
What is Hacking ?
Hacking is nothing but to enter inside other's system (exploit other's system ) and retrieve their personal and confidential data . Or we can say that the unauthorized access of someone other's computer system for some illicit purpose is hacking . Those who perform these hacking operations are called hackers .
Type of Hackers
Hackers are majorly classified in three categories .
1. Black Hat Hacker
2. White Hat Hacker
3. Grey Hat Hacker
Top 10 List :
1. Kevin Mitnick :
If you know , you know . He was one of the best hacker of all time . In 1982 , he hacked the North American Defense Command (NoRAD) . In 1989 , he hacked Digital Equipment Corporations's Network (DEC) . He was arrested and later when he was in conditional release again he hacked Pacific Bell's Voicemail System to prove he could . After that he was sentenced to five years of imprisonment . In 2014 he launched "Mitnick's absolute Zero Day Exploit Exchange" which sells critical software exploits. Once he was called "The Ghost in the Wires".
2. Albert Gonzalez :
Albert Gonzalez is the one of the best hackers in the world. He started off as the leader of a hacker group called ShadowCrew. At age 22, he became famous when he hacked and collected more than 170 million credit card and ATM card numbers over a period of two years. He worked with the govt. organization after this but he was secretly working as a black hat hacker. In 2005 he hacked into the databases of TJX Companies and Heartland Payment Systems ny a basic SQL injection and he stole all the stored credit card numbers. Albert was sentenced to prison for 20 years and will be released in 2025.
3. Adrian Lamo :
In 2001, 20-year-old Adrian Lamo used an unprotected content management system at Yahoo to modify a Reuters article and add a fake quote attributed to former Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Lamo became infamous for his notices to both the media and the victims of his hacks. In 2002 when he hacked The New York Times’ network. He was sentenced to two years probation and a fine of nearly $65,000. Lamo earned the moniker "The Homeless Hacker" because he preferred to wander the streets with little more than a backpack and often had no fixed address.
4. Gary McKinnon :
Can you hack NASA ? He did ! He was one of those who hacked NASA . In 2002, Gary gained popularity in the world of hacking by doing the “biggest military computer hack of all time". Over a 13-month period from February 2001 to March 2002 he was doing this activity, he illegally accessed 97 computers belonging to the US Armed Forces and NASA. He claimed he was only searching for information on free energy suppression and UFO cover-ups. US authorities said he deleted a number of critical files and rendered over 300 computers inoperable, resulting in over $700,000 in damages. Gary McKinnon, is also known as "Solo" on the internet, allegedly coordinated what would become the largest military computer hack of all time . He is facing criminal charges of up to 70 years in jail.
5. Julian Assange :
He is one of the most popular hacker in the world . Julian Assange started his hacking career at the age of 16 under the name "Mendax." After four years, he accessed various government, corporate, and educational networks—including the Pentagon, NASA, Lockheed Martin, Citibank, and Stanford University. In 2010 United States started an investigation against Assange .Assange has been pending extradition to the United States to face charges for his involvement in the Wikileaks organization.He is currently in prison in the UK, though the British courts have rejected the United States' extradition appeal.
