There are 2 types of hackers! The first is what you often see in Hollywood movies, antisocial “nerds” who try to conquer cyberspace and turn everything upside down! The second type is those who simply enjoy looking for new tricks on software source code and hardware gigs.
Yes, that's right! The term hacker most often refers to those who belong to the second type and have no bad intentions! However, the term is often used for cyber criminals. There are both good and bad hackers! Well-intentioned hackers are often called “white hats” and the bad ones are “black hats.”
Let's look at some of the most famous black hat hackers and their history:
Jonathan James
Jonathan James was known by the nickname “c0mrade” on the Internet. He was sentenced to prison for hacking in the US when he was still a minor! At only fifteen years old, he managed to hack a large number of networks, including Bell South, Miami-Dade, the US Department of Defense, and NASA.
Yes! James hacked into NASA's network and downloaded enough code to learn how the service works. The total damage was $1.7 million. NASA was forced to shut down its network for 3 weeks and the investigation into the breach cost $41,000.
James' story, however, came to an inglorious end in 2007 when a large number of high-profile companies fell victim to a major cyberattack. Although James denied any involvement, he was a suspect and was investigated. In 2008, James committed suicide because he did not want to be convicted of a crime he did not commit!
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Kevin Mitnick
Mitnick's journey as a hacker is so interesting and fascinating that the US Department of Justice has named him the most wanted computer criminal in history. His story was the basis for 2 movies!
After serving a year in prison for hacking into the Digital Equipment Corporation network, he was released but under supervision for 3 years. Near the end of that period, he escaped and spent 2 years hacking into the national defense system and gaining access to many corporate secrets.
Mitnick was eventually caught and sentenced to 5 years in prison. After serving his sentence, he became a consultant and speaker on IT security issues. He is now the owner of Mitnick Security Consulting, LLC.
Albert Gonzalez
Albert Gonzalez became famous on the Internet after collecting over 170 million credit card and ATM card numbers over a 2-year period. Yes, we're talking about a little over half of the US population.
Gonzalez started out as the leader of the hacker group, ShadowCrew. This group stole 1.5 million credit card numbers and sold them online. They also made fake passports, health insurance cards, and birth certificates.
Gonzalez was eventually caught after hacking into the databases of TJX Companies and Heartland Payment Systems for their stored credit card numbers. In 2010, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
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Tune in to SecNews next Sunday for the continuation of the tribute to the hackers who left their mark!
