Top 10 most famous hackers

We present the ten most famous hackers.

 

The former self-styled 'hacker poster-boy': Kevin Mitnick

1. Kevin Mitnick
Probably the most famous hacker of his generation, Mitnick has been described by the US Department of Justice as "the most wanted computer criminal in United States history." The self-styled 'hacker poster boy' allegedly hacked into the computer systems of some of the world's top technology and telecommunications companies including Nokia, Fujitsu and Motorola. After a highly publicised pursuit by the FBI, Mitnick was arrested in 1995 and after confessing to several charges as part of a plea-bargain agreement, he served a five year prison sentence. He was released on parole in 2000 and today runs a computer security consultancy. He didn't refer to his hacking activities as 'hacking' and instead called them 'social engineering'.

 

2. Kevin Poulson
Poulson first gained notoriety by hacking into the phone lines of Los Angeles radio station KIIS-FM, ensuring he would be the 102nd caller and thus the winner of a competition the station was running in which the prize was a Porsche. Under the hacker alias Dark Dante, he also reactivated old Yellow Page escort telephone numbers for an acquaintance that then ran a virtual escort agency. The authorities began pursuing Poulson in earnest after he hacked into a federal investigation database. Poulson even appeared on the US television Unsolved Mysteries as a fugitive – although all the 1-800 phone lines for the program mysteriously crashed. Since his release from prison, Poulson has reinvented himself as a journalist.

3. Adrian Lamo
Adrian Lamo was named 'the homeless hacker' for his penchant for using coffee shops, libraries and internet cafés as his bases for hacking. Most of his illicit activities involved breaking into computer networks and then reporting on their vulnerabilities to the companies that owned them. Lamo's biggest claim to fame came when he broke into the intranet of the New York Times and added his name to their database of experts. He also used the paper's LexisNexis account to gain access to the confidential details of high-profile subjects. Lamo currently works as a journalist.

4. Stephen Wozniak
Famous for being the co-founder of Apple, Stephen "Woz" Wozniak began his 'white-hat' hacking career with 'phone phreaking' – slang for bypassing the phone system. While studying at the University of California he made devices for his friends called 'blue boxes' that allowed them to make free long distance phone calls. Wozniak allegedly used one such device to call the Pope. He later dropped out of university after he began work on an idea for a computer. He formed Apple Computer with his friend Steve Jobs and the rest, as they say, is history.

5. Loyd Blankenship
Also known as The Mentor, Blankenship was a member of a couple of hacker elite groups in the 1980s – notably the Legion Of Doom, who battled for supremacy online against the Masters Of Deception. However, his biggest claim to fame is that he is the author of the Hacker Manifesto (The Conscience of a Hacker), which he wrote after he was arrested in 1986. The Manifesto states that a hacker's only crime is curiosity and is looked at as not only a moral guide by hackers up to today, but also a cornerstone of hacker philosophy. It was reprinted in Phrack magazine and even made its way into the 1995 film Hackers, which starred Angelina Jolie.

6. Michael Calce
Calce gained notoriety when he was just 15 years old by hacking into some of the largest commercial websites in the world. On Valentine's Day in 2000, using the hacker alias MafiaBoy, Calce launched a series of denial-of-service attacks across 75 computers in 52 networks, which affected sites such as eBay, Amazon and Yahoo. He was arrested after he was noticed boasting about his hack in online chat rooms. He was received a sentence of eight months of "open custody," one year of probation, restricted use of the internet, and a small fine.

7. Robert Tappan Morris
In November of 1988 a computer virus, which was later traced to Cornell University, infected around 6,000 major Unix machines, slowing them down to the point of being unusable and causing millions of dollars in damage. Whether this virus was the first of its type is debatable. What is public record, however, is that its creator, Robert Tappan Morris, became the first person to be convicted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Morris said his 'worm' virus wasn't intended to damage anything and was instead released to gauge the size of the internet. This assertion didn't help him, however, and he was sentenced to three years probation, 4000 hours of community service and a hefty fine. A computer disk containing the source code for the Morris Worm remains on display at the Boston Museum of Science to this day.

8. The Masters Of Deception
The Masters Of Deception (MoD) were a New York-based group of elite hackers who targeted US phone systems in the mid to late 80s. A splinter group from the Legion Of Doom (LoD), they became a target for the authorities after they broke into AT&T's computer system. The group was eventually brought to heel in 1992 with many of its members receiving jail or suspended sentences.

9. David L. Smith
Smith is the author of the notorious Melissa worm virus, which was the first successful email-aware virus distributed in the Usenet discussion group alt. sex. The virus original form was sent via email. Smith was arrested and later sentenced to jail for causing over $80 million worth of damage.

10. Sven Jaschan
Jaschan was found guilty of writing the Netsky and Sasser worms in 2004 while he was still a teenager. The viruses were found to be responsible for 70 per cent of all the malware seen spreading over the internet at the time. Jaschan received a suspended sentence and three years probation for his crimes. He was also hired by a security company.

Can Adobe beat back hackers?

For years, Adobe Systems has occupied a quiet corner of the personal-computer industry. Photographers and designers use its software to clean up photos and set up Web sites. Workers everywhere trade electronic documents formatted with Adobe's programs, often without knowing the company behind the software.
Now Adobe is attracting the unwanted attention of hackers--and security experts are concerned the company isn't doing enough to repel assaults. So far this year, Adobe has released nine security updates for the current version of its Acrobat Reader software, up from four in 2008, said Moscow security firm Kaspersky Lab.
Adobe appears to have replaced Microsoft as the primary means by which hackers try to infect or take control of PCs. "Adobe at the moment is the main target," said Roel Schouwenberg, a Kasperky senior antivirus researcher in Woburn.
Historically, Adobe hasn't had to contend with attacks, so it hasn't been focused on potential weaknesses. But as Microsoft has toughened up its security, Adobe has become a more tempting prey. Its software, particularly Flash for Web video and Reader for documents, is loaded on virtually every personal computer.
Vulnerabilities in such widely used software can cause myriad problems. More than a dozen sites, including those of The New York Times, USA Today, and Nature, have been infected with fake ads that exploit Adobe software. In the case of the Times, if Web surfers clicked on an ad for antivirus software, malicious code would take control of their computers through Flash and direct them to a site infested with malware. Other attacks circulate via e-mail, with virus-laden PDF files that open in Acrobat Reader.
Scrambling to respond
Security specialists fret Adobe lacks the firepower to stop the attacks. With an estimated US$2.9 billion in sales this year, the company is one-twentieth the size of Microsoft, with a much smaller engineering staff. Microsoft issues monthly security patches for Windows and gives away antivirus software. Adobe said in May it would begin releasing regular quarterly security fixes for Reader in September and then missed that deadline by a month. A second update will be delayed until January. "So far there's been no consistency at all," said Chet Wisniewski, a security analyst at antivirus software maker Sophos.
Adobe conceded its popularity with hackers is growing but said it is gaining the upper hand. It has five times as many engineers working on security as two years ago and has trained its entire Reader team on safe programming practices. "We're over the hump of being reactive," said Chief Technology Officer Kevin M. Lynch. Adobe had sought security advice from Microsoft and Google.
If it gets a handle on its security problems, hackers will turn their attention elsewhere. Yahoo's instant messenger and Apple's iPhone, for example, are starting to see attacks.
The case of Adobe illustrates a conundrum for tech companies: They need to balance spending on new products, which brings in revenue, with spending on security, which doesn't. Adobe, though solidly profitable, laid off 680 people, 9 percent of its workforce, on Nov. 10. The need to step up security spending is "not an uncommon problem, but Adobe's going to have to get their arms around it", said Rob Enderle, president of consultant Enderle Group.

Hackers bypass Windows 7 activation

Hackers have managed to find a way around one of the key antipiracy protections built into Windows 7.
Ordinarily, the operating system requires users to activate their copy of Windows 7 within 30 days. However, a recently outlined method allows the normal notifications to be turned off.
The software does not actually get confirmed as legitimate, but users are able to keep using the product indefinitely.
Microsoft confirmed last week it is aware of the technique, but said that it is working to shore up the activation procedure.
"We're aware of this workaround and are already working to address it," a Microsoft representative said in a statement, which also urged customers to only use genuine software, noting the fake stuff can contain malware and other bad things.
It is the latest in a long history of cat-and-mouse moves between the makers of Windows and those who would rather not have to pay for the privilege.

Framed for child porn — by a PC virus

Of all the sinister things that Internet viruses do, this might be the worst: They can make you an unsuspecting collector of child pornography.
Heinous pictures and videos can be deposited on computers by viruses — the malicious programs better known for swiping your credit card numbers. In this twist, it's your reputation that's stolen.
Pedophiles can exploit virus-infected PCs to remotely store and view their stash without fear they'll get caught. Pranksters or someone trying to frame you can tap viruses to make it appear that you surf illegal Web sites.
Whatever the motivation, you get child porn on your computer — and might not realize it until police knock at your door.
An Associated Press investigation found cases in which innocent people have been branded as pedophiles after their co-workers or loved ones stumbled upon child porn placed on a PC through a virus. It can cost victims hundreds of thousands of dollars to prove their innocence.
Their situations are complicated by the fact that actual pedophiles often blame viruses — a defense rightfully viewed with skepticism by law enforcement.
"It's an example of the old `dog ate my homework' excuse," says Phil Malone, director of the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. "The problem is, sometimes the dog does eat your homework."
The AP's investigation included interviewing people who had been found with child porn on their computers. The AP reviewed court records and spoke to prosecutors, police and computer examiners.
One case involved Michael Fiola, a former investigator with the Massachusetts agency that oversees workers' compensation.
In 2007, Fiola's bosses became suspicious after the Internet bill for his state-issued laptop showed that he used 4 1/2 times more data than his colleagues. A technician found child porn in the PC folder that stores images viewed online.
Fiola was fired and charged with possession of child pornography, which carries up to five years in prison. He endured death threats, his car tires were slashed and he was shunned by friends.
Fiola and his wife fought the case, spending $250,000 on legal fees. They liquidated their savings, took a second mortgage and sold their car.
An inspection for his defense revealed the laptop was severely infected. It was programmed to visit as many as 40 child porn sites per minute — an inhuman feat. While Fiola and his wife were out to dinner one night, someone logged on to the computer and porn flowed in for an hour and a half.
Prosecutors performed another test and confirmed the defense findings. The charge was dropped — 11 months after it was filed.
The Fiolas say they have health problems from the stress of the case. They say they've talked to dozens of lawyers but can't get one to sue the state, because of a cap on the amount they can recover.
"It ruined my life, my wife's life and my family's life," he says.
The Massachusetts attorney general's office, which charged Fiola, declined interview requests.
At any moment, about 20 million of the estimated 1 billion Internet-connected PCs worldwide are infected with viruses that could give hackers full control, according to security software maker F-Secure Corp. Computers often get infected when people open e-mail attachments from unknown sources or visit a malicious Web page.
Pedophiles can tap viruses in several ways. The simplest is to force someone else's computer to surf child porn sites, collecting images along the way. Or a computer can be made into a warehouse for pictures and videos that can be viewed remotely when the PC is online.
"They're kind of like locusts that descend on a cornfield: They eat up everything in sight and they move on to the next cornfield," says Eric Goldman, academic director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University. Goldman has represented Web companies that discovered child pornographers were abusing their legitimate services.
But pedophiles need not be involved: Child porn can land on a computer in a sick prank or an attempt to frame the PC's owner.
In the first publicly known cases of individuals being victimized, two men in the United Kingdom were cleared in 2003 after viruses were shown to have been responsible for the child porn on their PCs.
In one case, an infected e-mail or pop-up ad poisoned a defense contractor's PC and downloaded the offensive pictures.
In the other, a virus changed the home page on a man's Web browser to display child porn, a discovery made by his 7-year-old daughter. The man spent more than a week in jail and three months in a halfway house, and lost custody of his daughter.
Chris Watts, a computer examiner in Britain, says he helped clear a hotel manager whose co-workers found child porn on the PC they shared with him.
Watts found that while surfing the Internet for ways to play computer games without paying for them, the manager had visited a site for pirated software. It redirected visitors to child porn sites if they were inactive for a certain period.
In all these cases, the central evidence wasn't in dispute: Pornography was on a computer. But proving how it got there was difficult.
Tami Loehrs, who inspected Fiola's computer, recalls a case in Arizona in which a computer was so "extensively infected" that it would be "virtually impossible" to prove what an indictment alleged: that a 16-year-old who used the PC had uploaded child pornography to a Yahoo group.
Prosecutors dropped the charge and let the boy plead guilty to a separate crime that kept him out of jail, though they say they did it only because of his age and lack of a criminal record.
Many prosecutors say blaming a computer virus for child porn is a new version of an old ploy.
"We call it the SODDI defense: Some Other Dude Did It," says James Anderson, a federal prosecutor in Wyoming.
However, forensic examiners say it would be hard for a pedophile to get away with his crime by using a bogus virus defense.
"I personally would feel more comfortable investing my retirement in the lottery before trying to defend myself with that," says forensics specialist Jeff Fischbach.
Even careful child porn collectors tend to leave incriminating e-mails, DVDs or other clues. Virus defenses are no match for such evidence, says Damon King, trial attorney for the U.S. Justice Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.
But while the virus defense does not appear to be letting real pedophiles out of trouble, there have been cases in which forensic examiners insist that legitimate claims did not get completely aired.
Loehrs points to Ned Solon of Casper, Wyo., who is serving six years for child porn found in a folder used by a file-sharing program on his computer.
Solon admits he used the program to download video games and adult porn — but not child porn. So what could explain that material?
Loehrs testified that Solon's antivirus software wasn't working properly and appeared to have shut off for long stretches, a sign of an infection. She found no evidence the five child porn videos on Solon's computer had been viewed or downloaded fully. The porn was in a folder the file-sharing program labeled as "incomplete" because the downloads were canceled or generated an error.
This defense was curtailed, however, when Loehrs ended her investigation in a dispute with the judge over her fees. Computer exams can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Defendants can ask the courts to pay, but sometimes judges balk at the price. Although Loehrs stopped working for Solon, she argues he is innocent.
"I don't think it was him, I really don't," Loehrs says. "There was too much evidence that it wasn't him."
The prosecution's forensics expert, Randy Huff, maintains that Solon's antivirus software was working properly. And he says he ran other antivirus programs on the computer and didn't find an infection — although security experts say antivirus scans frequently miss things.
"He actually had a very clean computer compared to some of the other cases I do," Huff says.
The jury took two hours to convict Solon.
"Everybody feels they're innocent in prison. Nobody believes me because that's what everybody says," says Solon, whose case is being appealed. "All I know is I did not do it. I never put the stuff on there. I never saw the stuff on there. I can only hope that someday the truth will come out."
But can it? It can be impossible to tell with certainty how a file got onto a PC.
"Computers are not to be trusted," says Jeremiah Grossman, founder of WhiteHat Security Inc. He describes it as "painfully simple" to get a computer to download something the owner doesn't want — whether it's a program that displays ads or one that stores illegal pictures.
It's possible, Grossman says, that more illicit material is waiting to be discovered.
"Just because it's there doesn't mean the person intended for it to be there — whatever it is, child porn included."

First iPhone worm spreading, warn security experts

An Australian hacker claims to have written the first iPhone worm, though only for phones that have been "jailbroken".

Users who have not 'jailbroken' their phones are safe

The 21-year-old hacker, Ashley Towns, has written a worm - a type of self-replicating computer program similar to a virus, that changes the iPhone's wallpaper to show a picture of 80's pop singer Rick Astley and displays the message "ikee is never going to give you up".
Mr Towns told Australian television that he created the virus to make users aware of the danger of not changing the default password for their phone.

However, only iPhone users who have 'jailbroken' their phones will be affected by the worm. Jailbreaking an iPhone involves running a program that circumvents the official Apple operating system and allows users to run software on their phone that has not been approved by Apple. Apple doesn't support jailbroken phones and has tried to prevent jailbreaking through software updates. The company has also claimed that iPhone jailbreaking is illegal.
Writing on his blog, Mikko Hypponen of security company F-Secure said that source code had been released for four variants of the worm. Mr Hypponen wrote: "This means that there will quickly be more variants, and they might have nastier payload than just changing your wallpaper."
Users who have jailbroken their phones are vulnerable to Mr Towns's worm and those similar to it only if they are running a program called SSH, which allows people to connect to the phone remotely over the internet. Even then, users can remove the threat from the virus by changing their password from the default, which is "alpine".
Last week a Dutch hacker began accessing vulnerable phones and demanding money for instructions on how to fix the loophole.

Chinese officials ban Internet cafés

Chengdu, China — All Internet cafés have been closed for more than two months in Guan County in China’s Shandong province, following a county government closure order, Chinese media revealed in October. No reason was given except that the action was “based on instructions from higher authorities.” This is really odd.
Previously, Chinese officials have blamed people who post comments online at Internet cafés for “causing social disorder.” But the Guan authorities’ shutting down all 21 local Internet cafés violates both the right to free speech guaranteed in the Constitution and the rules of the market economy.
More critically, the authorities’ handling of the shutdown shows their administrative incompetence. Frankly, this measure proves that the county government leaders are unqualified for their jobs.
Further, explaining their action with the unreasonable claim that they were following “instructions from higher authorities” is surely a violation of the country’s Open Government Information Act, which took effect on May 1, 2008. As taxpayers, both the owners of the Internet cafés and the netizens who are their customers have the right to know why the cafes were closed.
When government policies affect the people's livelihood, their background and legal basis should be clearly explained. Otherwise, individual political leaders could make decisions according to their whims and on the spur of the moment, resulting in ridiculous measures that are both illegal and against the people’s will.
In China there have been numerous cases of leaders making up their own policies and causing trouble for the people, leading eventually to conflicts between officials and citizens.
Judging from all the news articles related to the closing of the Internet cafés, it appears that the authorities’ action resulted from a local netizen’s compliant related to the government’s family planning rules. In my opinion, the posted statements should be investigated, rather than being labeled as “rumors” and blocked. Rumors do not stop the wise; instead they should prompt a search for more open and truthful information.
Removing the source of information and blocking access to the Internet serves only to prepare the soil for the spread of rumors. In fact, all kinds of talk, guesses and rumors have circulated during the two months of blocked access to the Internet. This was due to the officials’ contempt for the government information disclosure rules.
Confrontations between Chinese officials and people often come from various governments’ arrogance and indolence. In the case of Guan County, if officials encountered a problem related to Internet cafés, they should have investigated the issue instead of simply cutting off the problem at one stroke and shutting down all the cafés. Such a sweeping approach, often at the command of one man, is bound to cause trouble.
Further, the officials’ phobia toward Internet cafés is a reflection of their own lack of comprehension of the social reality. The Internet has been deeply changing Chinese society, and the authorities need to understand this powerful tool and develop the capacity to cope with it.
What they really fear is losing control of those who use cyber cafés – both adult netizens who go online to discuss current affairs and students who use the Internet to play games and chat with friends.
Those who oppose and demonize Internet cafés tend to have only a smattering of knowledge about them – characterizing them as places for citizens to criticize the government or for students to indulge in online games and make friends while abandoning their studies.
The trend toward dialogue, rationality, openness and tolerance of different views cannot be resisted. Individuals and nations that try to resist such trends will be excluded from this information era. In brief, the fear of new things, lack of tolerance and absence of an adventuresome spirit result in a lack of competitiveness and being out of tune with the times.
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(Editor’s note: According to the China Internet Network Information Center, China had 338 million netizens as of July, 2009; 28 percent of them are rural dwellers. Internet penetration in Chinese cities was 35 percent, but less than 12 percent in rural areas. Thus, most Chinese access the Internet in public places such as cyber cafés.
Many officials are nervous due to increasing online revelations about official corruption and incompetence, which have gained nationwide attention. Regulations now require Internet cafés to check and record the identities of their customers, including setting up cameras at counters to take their photos. Customers under 18 are not allowed, but still many teenagers find their way into the cafés to play games.)
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(Ran Yunfei is a noted critic on current affairs and an activist promoting civil society in China. This article is translated and edited from the Chinese by UPI Asia.com; the Chinese original can be found at http://www.my1510.cn/article.php?id=c2f98179215c1a84 ©Copyright Ran Yunfei.)