World’s Top 5 Black Hat Hackers of All Time

What can hackers do to our PC? Are they really can break our security? The portrayal of hackers in the media has ranged from the high-tech super-spy, as in Mission Impossible where Ethan Hunt repels from the ceiling to hack the CIA computer system and steal the “NOC list,” to the lonely anti-social teen who is simply looking for entertainment.

***Black Hat Hackers***

A black hat hacker, also known as a cracker or a dark side hacker (this last definition is a direct reference to the Star Wars movies and the dark side of the force), is someone who uses his skills with a criminal intent. Some examples are: cracking bank accounts in order to make transferences to their own accounts, stealing information to be sold in the black market, or attacking the computer network of an organization for money.


1 ) Jonathan James

A black hat hacker, also known as a cracker or a dark side hacker (this last definition is a direct reference to the Star Wars movies and the dark side of the force), is someone who uses his skills with a criminal intent. Some examples are: cracking bank accounts in order to make transferences to their own accounts, stealing information to be sold in the black market, or attacking the computer network of an organization for money.

James also cracked into NASA computers, stealing software worth approximately $1.7 million. According to the Department of Justice, “The software supported the International Space Station’s physical environment, including control of the temperature and humidity within the living space.” NASA was forced to shut down its computer systems, ultimately racking up a $41,000 cost. James explained that he downloaded the code to supplement his studies on C programming, but contended,”The code itself was crappy . . . certainly not worth $1.7 million like they claimed.”

2 ) Adrian Lamo

Adrian Lamo around computers as a very young child. He had a Commodore 64 when he was like 6 or so. And his first interest in seeing how things worked behind the scenes wasn’t all about technology necessarily, and his interest in what you might call hacking isn’t really primarily about technology…He saids” It’s not sexy when I’m exploring less obvious aspects of the world that don’t involve multibillion-dollar corporations. There’s a certain amount of tunnel vision there.”Last year, Lamo earned the disapproval of his probation officer in the closing months of his two year probation term when he refused to provide a blood sample for the FBI’s DNA database.  The  Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, was created to catalog violent criminals and sexual predators, but the 2004 Justice for All Act expanded the system to include samples from all newly convicted federal felons, including drug offenders and white-collar criminals.

3 ) Kevin Mitnick

Kevin David Mitnick (born August 6, 1963) is a computer security consultant and author. In the late 20th century, he was convicted of various computer- and communications-related crimes. At the time of his arrest, he was world-famous as the most-wanted computer criminal in the United States.Mitnick gained unauthorized access to his first computer network in 1979, at 16, when a friend gave him the phone number for the Ark, the computer system Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) used for developing their RSTS/E operating system software. He broke into DEC’s computer network and copied DEC’s software, a crime he was charged with and convicted of in 1988. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Near the end of his supervised release, Mitnick hacked into Pacific Bell voice mail computers.

After a warrant was issued for his arrest, Mitnick fled, becoming a fugitive for two and a half years.  According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Mitnick gained unauthorized access to dozens of computer networks while he was a fugitive. He used cloned cellular phones to hide his location and, among other things, copied valuable proprietary software from some of the country’s largest cellular telephone and computer companies. Mitnick also intercepted and stole computer passwords, altered computer networks, and broke into and read private e-mail. Mitnick was apprehended in February 1995 in North Carolina. He was found with cloned cellular phones, more than 100 clone cellular phone codes, and multiple pieces of false identification.

4 ) Kevin Poulsen

Kevin Poulsen was among the most accomplished, multi-talented hackers. He worked for SRI International by day, and hacked at night under the handle “Dark Dante”. He trained to be the complete hacker, and even taught himself lock picking.Among other things, Poulsen reactivated old Yellow Page escort telephone numbers for an acquaintance that then ran a virtual agency. When the FBI started pursuing Poulsen, he went underground as a fugitive. When he was featured on NBC’s Unsolved Mysteries, the show’s 1-800 telephone lines mysteriously crashed. He was finally arrested in February, 1995.

Poulsen’s best known hack was a takeover of all of the telephone lines for Los Angeles radio station KIIS-FM, guaranteeing that he would be the 102nd caller, and winning a Porsche 944 S2.  In June 1994, Poulsen pleaded guilty to seven counts of mail, wire and computer fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice, and was sentenced to 51 months in prison and ordered to pay $56,000 in restitution. It was the longest sentence ever given for hacking up to that time. He also later pleaded guilty to breaking into computers and obtaining information on undercover businesses run by the FBI.

5 ) Robert Tappan Morris

Morris, son of former National Security Agency scientist Robert Morris, is known as the creator of the Morris Worm, the first computer worm to be unleashed on the Internet. As a result of this crime, he was the first person prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.  Morris wrote the code for the worm while he was a student at Cornell. He asserts that he intended to use it to see how large the Internet was. The worm, however, replicated itself excessively, slowing computers down so that they were no longer usable. It is not possible to know exactly how many computers were affected, but experts estimate an impact of 6,000 machines. He was sentenced to three years’ probation, 400 hours of community service and a fined $10,500.