Most Famous Hackers & Crackers in the World

Whilst the media is keen to portray hackers as suave super-spy characters with a range of gadgets at their disposal, zipping through pleasing graphical dioramas of color, in reality this is not the case. Some herald them as heroes, whilst others revile them as nothing more than criminals with a bit of technical knowhow. This list is an introduction to some of the most famous real-life non-fiction hackers/crackers from recent history. But ultimately, the best ones out there are the ones we’ll never hear of, because they’ll never get caught.see poics accordings to numbers
1.
Jonathan James. AKA c0mrade. James was the first juvenile that was sentenced to prison for cybercrime, being only 15 years of age at the time of the crime and 16 when he was sentenced. After some minor incursions into telecommunications networks, what brought him to the attention of the authorities was that James had gotten into computers at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, an agency responsible for analyzing threats to the US, either native or from abroad. He’d done this by installing backdoor programs on a computer server in Virginia, which in turn allowed him to collect sensitive data, including the emails of many DTRA employees, detailing usernames and passwords to whole range of things, including military computers. Upon detection, NASA had to shut down their computers for a number of weeks in order to make sure everything was ok and to fix any damage caused, costing $41,000 in the process. Unfortunately for him, the good times were not to last long, as James’ house was raided on a January morning in 2000 and he was arrested, being sentenced to six months in prison and probation until the age of 18. Sadly, James died in the middle of last year, with suicide suspected of being the cause.

2.
Adrian Lamo. Dubbed the “Homeless Hacker” due to the fact he usually did most of his “work” from internet cafes, abandoned buildings and libraries. What Lamo did was to do “penetration testing” on several major companies, including Yahoo!, Bank of America and Microsoft. He’d break into their computer systems via security flaws and the like and would then notify the companies that he’d just broken into about the flaws in their computer systems, with some of his targets even being thankful for the security advice that he provided. However, in February 2002, Lamo broke into the computer network of The New York Times, where he was able to view all kinds of sensitive information and was subsequently arrested. He was sentenced to 6 months of detention at his parents’ house, two years of probation and ordered to pay about $65,000 in restitution.

3.
Kevin Mitnick. AKA Condor. Whilst Mitnick’s feats are arguably not the most incredible, he is likely the most famous hacker in recent history and was – at the time of his arrest – the most wanted hacker in US history. Mitnick started on his life’s path at the tender age of 12, where he got around the LA bus punchcard system by buying his own punch, thus he was able to get free bus rides wherever he wanted. In later years he would then proceed to practice phreaking with cell phones, fast food speaker systems, amateur radios and drive-thru speakers. He would later be sentenced for hacking into the computer system for DEC, earning him some prison time and a period of supervised release. It was near the end of this release that Mitnick took it upon himself to hack into yet more computer systems and then fleeing before he could be caught. He went on an epic hacking spree that lasted for the next two and a half years, until his apprehension in February 1995. Ultimately, it was hacking into fellow (white hat) hacker Tsutomu Shimomura’s computer, after which Shimomura made it his personal mission to track down Mitnick. In total, Mitnick has served around 5 years in prison, with 8 months being in solitary confinement. The accompanying photo is Mitnick (middle) with Adrian Lamo (left) and Kevin Poulsen (right).

4.
Kevin Poulsen. AKA Dark Dante. Currently a senior editor at Wired News, Poulsen was made famous with perhaps his best known hack, which netted him a $50,000 Porsche. An LA radio station was offering the Porsche as a prize to the 102 nd caller to the station, so what Poulsen did was to take over the station’s telephone line, block out all the other callers but himself, thereby ensuring that he was the 102 nd caller and winning the Porsche. However, it was his hacking into various Federal computer systems that attracted the attention of the FBI, leading to his arrest at a supermarket in 1991. In 1994, he was found guilty of mail, wire and computer fraud, as well as obstruction of justice and sentenced to almost 5 years in prison and forced to pay $56,000 in restitution. At the time, Poulsen was on the receiving end of the longest prison sentence a cracker had ever been “awarded”.

5.
Robert Tappan Morris. AKA rtm. Creator of the Morris Worm, one of the very first worm viruses to be sent out over the internet, Morris inadvertently caused many thousands of dollars worth of damage and “loss of productivity” when he released the worm in the late 80s. According to Morris himself, it was an experiment to see how big the internet was by counting how many machines were connected to it. Unfortunately, the worm copied and replicated itself to a large extent; so much so that it caused the computers it infected to become unusable. Morris was ultimately discovered and although he was lucky enough to escape prison time, he was fined $10,500 and was sentenced to 36 months of probation with 400 hours of community service.

6.
John Draper. AKA Captain Crunch. Although technically a phone phreak, the Captain is seen by many as the father of modern “hackery” and phreaking, as well as being somewhat of a legend. Born in 1944, his legend began when he was informed by a friend that a toy whistle given away in boxes of the Cap’n Crunch cereal would emit a 2600 hertz tone when the 3 rd hole was glued up. This tone was a frequency that was used in the making of phone calls at the time and would eventually lead to Draper creating “blue boxes”, devices capable of replicating other dialing tones, effectively making calls for free. So here was a man that could circumvent phone charges all thanks to a small cereal box toy. Having given an interview with Esquire magazine in 1971, it exposed the world to the subject of phone phreaking and Draper was arrested in 1972 on toll fraud charges, being sentenced to five years’ probation. In the mid 70s, he taught some of his skills to Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, after Wozniak had read the Esquire article. Draper was even temporarily employed by Apple, even writing the code for EasyWriter, the first Apple II word processor.

Tips on how to make 'Enemies'

Billy Crudup gets asked the same two questions whenever he tells friends he's playing infamous FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover in Michael Mann's gangster thriller "Public Enemies."The first question is always an excited "Really?" says the 40-year-old Tony Award-winning actor. "The second question is, 'Did you put on a dress?'"There you have it," says Crudup, who was last seen as the towering blue Dr. Manhattan in "Watchmen." Crudup promises he keeps this Hoover strictly in the closet.Set in 1933, the action-thriller, which opens July 1, revolves around the legendary Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), whose crime spree in Chicago made him Public Enemy No. 1 to Hoover and the recently formed FBI and its top agent, Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale).

Crudup spent just two weeks working on the role last year in Chicago and Wisconsin, and said his time playing opposite Bale was great. But he's still looking forward to working with Depp -- the two had no scenes together.Crudup says that the "Public Enemies" script, by Ronan Bennett and Mann and Ann Biderman, was rich with character development -- "filled with this mixture, which seemed always to be Hoover's problem, of ego and patriotism. That was more than enough for me to tackle him."Mann, says Crudup, always sort of characterized Hoover as a visionary to the actor. " 'Visionary' to me speaks of somebody who is attempting to change society or culture for the good," Crudup says. "It was interesting to think of him in a somewhat positive light."Crudup was in awe of Mann's skills as a filmmaker ("The Insider," "Heat")."He's incredibly ambitious and has a fierce intellect and is driven to create spectacular work," he says. "He is fastidious about everything and really likes to be the singular voice behind, not just the spirit of, but the minutiae of the story he's telling. It's impressive . . . I barely have the mind to juggle my lines!"

Case against pro-Israel lobbyists likely to be dropped

Dismissal of 2005 charges against former AIPAC officials Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman would end a politically sensitive prosecution.

The Justice Department asked a judge Friday to drop espionage-related charges against two pro-Israel lobbyists, a move expected to end a politically sensitive case that focused on whether U.S. secrets had been leaked.Prosecutors said recent court decisions would have made the case hard to win and forced disclosure of large amounts of classified information. But defense lawyers and some legal experts said the government was wrong in the first place for trying to criminalize the kind of information horse-trading that long has occurred in Washington.The intrigue surrounding the case against the two former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee already was chock-full of references to top-secret intelligence matters and Middle East politics. But it intensified in recent weeks with reports that Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), a staunch supporter of AIPAC, had been caught on federal wiretaps in 2005 offering to aid the two lobbyists in exchange for help in obtaining a coveted House committee chairmanship.The dismissal, which is all but certain to be approved by a federal judge, probably will end the five-year legal battle between the government and the two lobbyists, Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman.

It was the second major federal case dropped by Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. since he took over in January. Last month, the government dropped its prosecution of former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and voided his conviction, citing misconduct by federal attorneys.During the Bush administration, the Justice Department had accused Rosen and Weissman of obtaining classified information from the U.S. government and then disclosing it to reporters, think tank personnel and the Israeli government in a way that could either harm national security or aid a foreign country.The two men, who had left their jobs at AIPAC before being charged in 2005, were never accused of espionage and have maintained that they did nothing wrong.After several delays, their trial had been set for June 2 in Alexandria, Va., where the Justice Department filed the dismissal motions Friday.A third defendant in the case, former Pentagon official Lawrence A. Franklin, pleaded guilty to giving classified defense information to Rosen and Weissman and was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison.According to the indictment, Rosen and Weissman conspired to obtain and then disseminate classified information on sensitive issues such as U.S. policy toward Iran, the status of U.S. counter-terrorism investigations in the Middle East and current intelligence on Al Qaeda and other terrorist networks.After the arrests, Harman was recorded by court-approved wiretaps being used to investigate suspected Israeli intelligence-gathering in the United States. According to some reports, Harman, who was not the object of the wiretap, was said to have promised an Israeli operative that she would lobby officials for leniency for Rosen and Weissman.Harman denied wrongdoing and demanded the release of transcripts of any wiretapped conversation in which she participated.Then-CIA Director Porter J. Goss wanted to inform Congress about Harman's wiretap in accordance with a long-standing policy governing sensitive intelligence investigations, but was asked by then-Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales not to, according to a former senior intelligence official who spoke of internal discussions on condition of anonymity.The prosecution of Rosen and Weissman continued without interference, several current and former federal law enforcement officials said.The government's case began to falter in recent months, however, when lawyers for Rosen and Weissman won several key procedural rulings. The lobbyists won the right to subpoena as defense witnesses a number of former top Bush administration officials, including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.Defense lawyers Abbe Lowell and Baruch Weiss said their clients had met frequently with those officials. As witnesses, the officials would help prove that the Bush administration, like prior administrations, routinely discussed sensitive information with AIPAC as part of a sanctioned, back-channel relationship between the United States and Israel.U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III also issued legal rulings that set a high bar for the prosecutors, including a requirement to prove that Rosen and Weissman knowingly meant to harm the United States or aid another country.U.S. Atty. Dana J. Boente, the acting top federal prosecutor in the region, said the government was moving to dismiss the charges because of the additional legal burdens."When this indictment was brought, the government believed it could prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt based on the statute," Boente said, adding that there was a "diminished likelihood" the government could win now.Lowell and another defense lawyer, John Nassikas III, praised the Obama administration for reviewing the case and denounced the previous administration's actions dating to the first FBI search at AIPAC's offices in 2004.Rosen and Weissman may sue the government to recover legal costs, which are estimated at more than $10 million.Many current and former federal law enforcement officials said the prosecution's case was strong and that there was proof the two lobbyists knew their actions were wrong."The judge had made so many adverse rulings that this was inevitable, but it grates on me," one former senior Justice Department official said of the decision to drop the case.josh.