While hackers are constantly in the sights of law enforcement, as they are the perpetrators of many cybercrimes, it is their grim reputation that usually precedes their actions.
And so the red flags of the FBI, the NSA, and other agencies that are trying to root out the roots of cybercrime and hackers, turn into web pirates in their own eyes, stealing confidential information and exposing the dirty work of many.
You see why hackers to poke their noses into electronic traces, and when this is accompanied by good intentions, then we're talking about hackers who transform into punishers!
But beyond the goals, the act of hacking itself remains impressive when it reaches levels of penetration that their amateur colleagues can only dream of.
So let's look at 10 awesome and terrible hackers who have already entered the internet pantheon, both for the size of the attack and for the purpose..
Captain Zap
While one would expect that hacking is a new story, here we will talk about one of the most historic hackers in an equally historic incident! Back in 1981, when everything was virgin and pure, where a guy with the nickname Captain Zap decided to laugh at the expense of the American telecommunications provider AT&T. Captain Zap (real name Ian Murphy), annoyed as he was by the steep charges, decided to attack by finally changing the internal clocks of the telecommunications giant. That's all he did, one might ask? "Only" obviously doesn't stick here as American providers offered lower charges for night calls at the time, so by changing AT&T's official recording time, Zap was able to provide all subscribers with cheaper calls throughout the 24 hours. Simple but historical, as we are talking about the infancy of the internet…
Kevin Poulsen
One of the demonic hackers has gained a reputation as a jealous one in his 20-plus years of activity, although nothing would overshadow his 1991 feat, by far his most impressive and entertaining feat. Amusing for us, of course, as he himself served 51 months in prison for the story, since the judge did not share the same sense of humor. But what did he do that ended up behind bars? A Los Angeles radio station held a phone contest with prizes of a handful of Porsches. Of course, everyone wants a Porsche, so the hacker got into the city's telephone network and tampered with it in such a way that the station could only accept calls from him and his friends, thus ensuring that luck would be exclusively on their side in the contest! Inimitable…
TiGER-M@TE
How easy is it to hack a website? Two? Three? How many is a lot and what is the magic number that turns the "teasing" of electronic pages into a feat? If we're talking about the infamous TiGER-M@TE, make it 700,000! Yes, you read that right, the guy took down 700,000 websites, and in one go! It was in 2011 when TiGER-M@TE decided to let off steam by playing with an entire data center (Inmotion), thus crashing hundreds of thousands of websites, including the Google search engine in Bangladesh. Yahoo and Bing also paid for this huge cybercrime..
MafiaBoy
Now that we've made it clear that the ability to simultaneously take down thousands of websites can only be considered impressive, imagine someone trying to take down huge sites like CNN or eBay, for example. And imagine doing it when they're only 15 years old and without any effort! That's exactly what Canadian Michael Calce did, keeping a number of the world's largest websites offline! Calce, known as MafiaBoy, spent time in a reformatory after collecting 56 charges for cybercrimes, although as soon as he got out, he was immediately "stung" by electronic protection companies, as the best hacker could also become the best painter of the digital neighborhood. But what caught him and brought websites to their knees? The simple curiosity about his abilities, first of all, and mainly the bet he had made with his friends that he could take down CNN if he wanted. And not only did he do it, he did it until the TV commercial break was over!
Anonymous
Chances are that unless you landed on Earth from space today, you've probably heard of the fearsome group of hackers who are marshaling their cyber superpowers in the name of justice for the world. We're talking about the fearsome and formidable Anonymous hackers, the group of hackers who started out as humble 4chan to become great defenders and hard-core punishers of our digital world. Every self-respecting website hopes to never be targeted by Anonymous, who marshal their unimaginable powers in the service of good. One of their most famous exploits was their holy crusade to bring down the church of hate with its grim homophobic sermons, the infamous Westboro Baptist Church. It was in 2012 when Anonymous gained control of the official website of the church organization, publishing the names of the dark members but also a lot of other confidential information. They even put a “wallpaper” with gay porn on the website, making everyone admit that someone had to finally deal with the known racists. Since then, of course, they have done so much and magically that the incident of 2012 is now an old story…
Gary McKinnon
So far we have talked about cyberattacks that had a comical element or were simply impressive in scale. Time to enter the truly terrifying territory of hacking, where the war with national security and intelligence agencies rages on the margins of electronic activity. A big name here is Gary McKinnon, who gained access to the US Pentagon network and stole 24,000 secret files! Yes, you read that right, the guy hacked the Pentagon and now had thousands of classified US military files in his hands. In fact, in this incident, before the NSA named him as the culprit, the government spoke of a terrorist attack or even an intervention by foreign intelligence agencies within its borders! The matter could easily have escalated into something worse and many were the ones who lost their sleep for days…
North Korea's Twitter
The well-known social network is often the target of cyberattacks, although the attacks usually target celebrity accounts that make racist comments and other such activities. However, Twitter is also used by governments of almost all countries, as well as official officials, such as North Korea's Kim Jong-un and his late father, dictator Kim Jong-il. And of course, we are not talking about a comical attack here that mocked the leader for his special haircut or his love of basketball, but an attack that made his account openly call for rebellion against the regime! The same group also teased the nation's official YouTube channel by inserting a cartoon with the son (Kim Jong-un) running over citizens with his sports car. The turmoil that prevailed inside the isolated country, needless to mention…
Mathew Bevan and Richard Pryce
We're talking about the cyberattack that almost started World War III! So simple, so amazing. The two kids from Wales wanted to prove in 1996 that there was a cover-up of an alien case(!), so they dug into the archives of Griffiss Air Force Base in New York, looking for evidence of an alleged UFO sighting and how the Americans covered it up. We don't know if they found any aliens, but what we do know is that the agency soon discovered that someone had hacked into its system and was stealing its files, its classified files of course. Of course, they didn't know who the intruder was or what his intentions were, so panic set in. It could also have been intelligence agencies from other countries, and you know which countries we mean, poking their noses into the official network of the US military. As the US Air Force spokesperson later claimed, the two Britons almost sparked a heated incident..
Lulz Security
Okay, the Pentagon and the US military may be vulnerable to attacks, but the computer of the almighty CIA cannot be tampered with by anyone. Right? Probably not! It was in 2011 when the hardcore and now famous hackers of the Lulz Sec group appeared, who infiltrated the CIA network without any problems and played ball by playing with its settings, before downloading it from the web. They did not intend to steal the secret information hosted there, locked and encrypted, despite the fact that it was now in their hands, as all they were interested in was to make a show of force and undermine the supposedly invulnerable CIA! After the infamous attack that spread cyber terror across the US, Lulz Security hit a series of other targets, from the Senate and Congress to television networks and media outlets, showing in practice that no one is immune and everyone needs to be very careful where they store their dirty laundry..
Julian Assange
We learned about Julian Assange from his involvement with WikiLeaks, although he himself was a prominent hacker since the 1980s, linking his name to a series of cyberattacks and hacker circles around the world. He was a headache for governments around the world since he was a teenager, having a bad habit of publishing their bad writings. And of course, then came the infamous WikiLeaks, with him actually belonging to its founding team, although he never admitted that he was its founder or director, claiming that he was simply the organization's press spokesman. And of course, he may have stated that everything the website published was the result of kind sponsorship from other hackers, but everyone knows that Assange is too good and brilliant a cyber-hacker to sit idly by. And of course there's the other thing: you know you've made it in cybercrime and are now at the top when the US calls you their enemy! The internationally renowned hacker and known troublemaker has been keeping the world busy with his exploits (his good exploits, alas) for decades..
Source: Newsbeast
