The Most Famous Hackers and What Happened to Them
We live in an digital era, when no one can feel completely safe. Amongst us live individuals with certain special skills that give them absolute power and control over other people and even such global spanning organizations as the NSA or FBI. These skilled people are known as hackers. As you may have already surmised, in this episode we’ll talk about the most talented but at the same time, most dangerous, hackers.
Actually, not all hackers are the bad guys. Those people who use hacking to improve computer security are called “white-hat hackers”, “gray-hat hackers’ are just having goofing off, and the most malicious and dangerous are the ones called “black-hat hackers”. Here’s a list of the most notorious hackers, how they earned their reputation, and how they ultimately ended up.
VLADIMIR LEVIN
This guy and his 3 buddies hacked into a number of Citibank accounts and stole about 10 million dollars. They carried out the whole operation without leaving their apartment in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The most interesting thing is that they didn’t even use the internet, but rather telecommunications systems. For hours they had been listening to customers and writing down all their personal information, including PIN’s and account numbers. Afterwards, he was sentenced to 3 years, also ordered to pay back $240 thousand to Citibank (considering the fact that authorities were able to recover only $400 thousand). The current whereabouts of Vladimir is unknown.
ASTRA
It’s said that a man under the pseudonym “Astra” turned out to be a 58 years-old mathematician. This person hacked the Dassault Group and stole valuable information about the company’s jet fighters and military aircraft. Afterwards, he stole all the information of nearly 300 hundred people all across the globe. It’s said that the total damage from this hacking rampage to the company is about $360 million.
KEVIN POULSEN
This hacker is also known as the “Dark Dante”. He’s famous for hacking the lines of radio station KIIS FM and rigging himself as a Porsche winning caller. After Kevin had hacked the federal systems and stole wiretap information he was arrested by the FBI and sentenced to 4 years and 3 months in prison as well as $51 thousand in restitution. Having emerged from jail, Poulsen started a career as a journalist. Now he’s gone legit as a senior editor at Wired.
ALBERT GONZALEZ
Albert Gonzalez is the creator of the website Shadowteam.com. Members of this site could sell or buy bank account numbers, health insurance cards, birth certificates and so on. This hacker is known for throwing his money about and booking rooms in luxury hotels for days. After being caught in New Jersey, he was charged with having 15 fake ID cards. However, he avoided jail time as he provided evidence on 19 members of his team. Nevertheless, he learned nothing and kept stealing debit and credit card numbers. As a result, he’s been arrested again and was sentenced to 18 years in the penitentiary.
GARY McKINNON
Gary is known under the alias “Solo.” This genius accessed about 97 computers that belonged to the U.S. armed Forces and NASA. According to his story, he was looking for any information or at least images that could confirm the existence of UFOs. However, U.S. authorities have quite a different story, they said that he deleted valuable files and rendered several hundred computers inoperable. The total damage is over $700 thousand. Gary had been dodging the American government until 2005, when he faced extradition. Nevertheless, Theresa May succeeded in blocking the extradition as he’s seriously sick and extradition will infringe upon his human rights.
JULIAN ASSANGE
Assange is also known under the name “Mendax”. We know him for creating WikiLeaks — a platform that allows us to send leaked news anonymously. He started hacking at the preciously young age of 16 , and in his list of hacking victims include such organizations as NASA, the Pentagon, Citibank, and Stanford University. Since 2010, he’s been charged under the Espionage Act of 1917. For now, Julian has to spend his days in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
SYRIAN ELECTRONIC ARMY
This group of hackers appeared in 2011 and backed the regime of Syrian president Bashar-al-Assad. It’s said that they’re supported by the Syrian government. This group of hackers wasn’t all that sophisticated. However, they successfully attacked plenty of high-profile organizations and websites
ANONYMOUS
This is easily the most famous group of hackers. The name of the group is comprised of a group of “hacktivists” who get meddle in international and political events. They got involved in leaking the secret documents and taking down the websites. They also launched an attack on the Ku Klux Klan and succeeded in taking down their social media accounts.
The Bottom Line
If you feel unsafe or anxious after reading this article, you shouldn’t. Usually, hackers go for big organizations or politicians. However, you should be afraid of those who’s goal it is to steal your bank account information or other personal details. In this case, you should know how to protect yourself (We may refer you to one of our articles or promise our audience that we’ll cover this topic in a futurearticle).
