Let us look at the most famous hackers of all time.
- Kevin Mitnick
A computer security consultant and once the most wanted criminal in the history of the United States, Kevin Mitnick began his career as a teenager. He skillfully infiltrated several systems in big companies such as Pacific Bell, Nokia, Sun Microsystems, and Motorola among others. He is said to have hacked Pacific Bell’s network and gained complete control over their system just to prove that it can be done. Later, he went white hat and launched "Mitnick's Absolute Zero Day Exploit Exchange in 2014.
- Jonathan James
Another hacker from the US, Jonathan James notoriously gained access to a NASA server and even stole the source code of the International Space Station. However, he was acquitted and served prison for his hacking attempts.
- Kevin Poulsen
Former black hat hacker, Kevin Poulsen is known by his alias Dark Dante. He hacked into Pentagon when he was just a minor. He is known to have hacked a radio station to win Porsche and US$20,000 ensuring that he is their 102nd caller. He also hacked into federal systems to get information on secret government files. Later, he turned to journalism.
- Matthew Bevan and Richard Pryce
The British hacker duo has infamously hacked into various military systems in 1996. These included the Korean Atomic Research Institute (KARI), Defense Information System Agency, and Griffiss Air Force Base. They primarily hacked these systems to prove UFO conspiracy theory and that military systems too have loopholes.
- Linus Torvalds
Dubbed as one of the best hackers of all time, Linus Torvalds is the developer of an open-source, UNIX-based operating system - Linux. He started hacking early on while he was just a teenager.
- Robert Morris
The US-based computer scientist and businessman, Robert Morris created the infamous Morris Worm, a malware, when he was a graduate student at Cornell University. He was later acquitted for this and had to serve probation along with a penalty of US$10,500.
