Greatest Hackers in the World.

Kevin Mitnick

Now, this is a hacker who made history with his skillset, so much so that he was the focus of a feature film known as Track Down. In his time, he managed to capture the attention of the US Department of Justice as the most wanted computer criminal in US history. Anyone who manages to beat his record will surely blow minds across the globe.

You must be wondering what one would do to get this much recognition. Well, Kevin started by hacking into the Digital Equipment Corporation’s network. He did not get away with it, and he got out under a three-year supervision term. Towards the end of his supervision, Kevin fled and embarked on a two and a half hacking spree. During this time, he got into the national defense warning system and made away with tons of corporate secrets that made him a wanted man.

After the authorities caught up with him, he served a five-year prison sentence, and he decided to change his ways. He now works as a consultant and speaks at public events involving computer security. He also runs Mitnick Security LLC.

Jonathan James

Jonathan went by the name cOmrade, and his tale is a tragic one that shook the hacking community to its core. He started hacking at a young age, which gave him an edge over the other hackers in the field. In his youth, he was able to get into tons of government and commercial networks, and when the authorities caught up with him, he ended up in prison as a minor.

Over time, he developed a powerful skill set that enabled him to access NASA’s network, where he obtained and downloaded source codes valued at $1.7 million at the time. Interestingly, he was out to understand how the international space station worked while doing all this, and his activities led to a shutdown in the network that lasted three weeks. All this time, the authorities were out to pinpoint the source of the threat, and they ended up using forty-one thousand dollars to look into the breach.

Later on, many high-profile companies were the victims of network attacks, and the authorities suspected that Jonathan had a hand in the said activities. He denied the charges, and as the investigations took place, he committed suicide for fear that he would go down for crimes that were not his own — quite a tragic story.

Albert Gonzalez

Albert did not start small in his hacking career as he made a name for himself as the leader of a group known as ShadowCrew. The group stole and sold credit card numbers, and it also created fake passports, birth certificates, health insurance cards, and other documents which allowed their clients to take part in identity theft crimes.

Gonzalez was able to collect more than one hundred and seventy million credit card and ATM card numbers in his two years of operation before he hacked into Heartland Payment Systems and TJX companies where he stole all of their credit card numbers. His actions caught the attention of the authorities, and he is now serving a twenty-year prison term, with a scheduled release date in 2025.

Kevin Poulsen

Kevin went by the name Dark Dante, and he earned his fame owing to his skills in hacking telephone systems. During his career, he hacked into radio station lines and made himself the winning caller, thus walking away with a brand new Porsche. Kevin did not stop there and went ahead to hack into federal systems where he stole wiretap information, making him one of the most wanted people in the FBI’s lists. The authorities caught up with Kevin, and he served fifty-one months in prison before changing his ways to work as a contributing editor and journalist.

Nasa Hacker Gary McKinnon

Gary also went by Solo, and he gained a reputation for himself by hacking into computers owned by NASA and the US Armed Forces where he deleted files worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. He was able to get away from the US authorities as he was of Scottish descent and extradition efforts by the American government proved futile when Theresa May stepped in to block them on the grounds of incompatibility with human rights.

Can you think of another hacker who deserves to go down in history books as one of the best in the field?