Jonathon James
Born in South Florida in 1983, Jonathon James was only 15 years old when he began hacking into various systems in 1998-1999. What really got the attention of authorities was when James hacked into the computers of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), a special division of the Department of Defense.
James later admitted he installed a packet sniffer on a server via an unauthorized backdoor. The sniffer allowed him to intercept passwords (10 considered critical) and over 3,000 messages passing to and from DTRA employees.
James also hacked into NASA computers, where he downloaded software worth $1.7 million. NASA was forced to shut down their computers for 3 weeks once the threat was detected, costing NASA an additional $41,000.
On January 26, 2000, James house was raided by agents from the Department of Defense, NASA, and local authorities. James eventually pleaded guilty to 2 counts of juvenile delinquency in exchange for a lesser sentence of 6 months of prison and probation until the age of 18.
Today, currently 24, James is looking to start his own computer security company.
Computer Used: Gateway Pentium 266Online Alias: c0mradeInteresting Fact: First juvenile incarcerated for cyber crime in the United States
Adrian Lamo
Lamo was born in Boston Massachusetts in 1981. Adrian Lamo is famous for his attempts to identify security flaws on the networks of Fortune 500 companies and notifying them if he found them. Although very noble, the practice is still highly illegal in most places without permission.
He generally took advantage of improperly configured proxies to gain access to networks. His list of targets included:The New York TimesMicrosoftYahoo!CingularCitiGroupBank Of AmericaMcDonaldsLamo is most famous for his 2002 success of breaking into the New York Times computer network and adding his name to databases of expert sources. The Times did not find his actions amusing, and after a 15 month investigation, a warrant was filed for Lamos arrest. Lamo spent a few days in hiding, eventually surrendering to US Marshals.
Lamo pleaded guilty to 1 count of computer crimes against Microsoft, Lexis-Nexis and The New York Times in January 2004. He was sentenced to 6 months detention at his parent's home and 2 years probation, and ordered to pay $65,000 in restitution.
Today Lamo is a senior staff writer at the American River Current.
Interesting Fact: Lamos was removed from a NBC Nightly News segment when NBC asked him to perform his skills on camera and ended up gaining access to NBC's internal network.
Kevin Mitnick
Mitnick is a very interesting addition to the top 5 list because most of his notorious acts came about via social engineering rather than abusing security flaws. He was able to obtain user names and passwords, modem phone numbers, and other various pieces of information solely through social engineering.
His first arrest was a result of a Memorial Day weekend in 1981 incident. Mitnick and two friends talked their way past a security guard at Pacific Bell's phone center and found databases of passwords to access computers and door locks. They even planted pseudo names in various places to setup future social engineering. The case was later solved when an ex-girlfriend of one of the men went to the police.
It has been proven Kevin Mitnick managed to do all the following using social engineering (many more things were never proven):Use the LA Bus system to get free rides at the age of 12Evade the FBIGain admin privileges to an IBM minicomputerGain access to the systems of Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Sun & FujitsuIn 2000, Mitnick was released from prison after serving 5 years (4 ½ years in pretrial, 8 months of solitary confinement). He was initially not allowed to access the internet until 2003, but fought the decision in court and won.
Mitnick now runs Mitnick Security Consulting, where his fame has gained the occasional attention of hackers to occasionally break his company's website.
Kevin Poulsen
First Computer To Hack With: TRS-80 color computer
In 1982, at the age of 17, Poulsen managed to hack into the US Department of Defense's Arpanet, the ancestor of the internet. He wasn't prosecuted, and later ended up working for Sun Microsystems as a programmer.
Poulsens best known hack was when he took over the telephone lines of Los Angeles radio station KIIS-FM, guaranteeing that he would be caller 102 and winning a Porsche. He also used the same scheme to win $20,000 and 2 Hawaiian vacations.
In 1988, Poulsen came into real heat in when the FBI suspected Poulsen of hacking sensitive federal investigation databases. He immediately disappeared off the radar. When NBC featured Poulsen on Unsolved Mysteries, the shows 1-800 phone lines 'mysteriously' crashed.
Poulsen was eventually caught in a supermarket in 1991, after shoppers recognized this famous hacker and tackled him in the store. Poulsen pleaded guilty in 1994 to 7 counts of mail, wire and computer fraud and was sentenced to 51 months in prison and ordered to pay $56,000 in restitution. At the time, 51 months was the longest ever sentence given to hacker.
More recently, Poulsen used his skills to find 744 sex offenders with MySpace profiles leading to 1 arrest. Poulsen has not had trouble finding work due to his highly desired abilities.
Robert Morris
Morris, son of a former NSA chief scientist, is notoriously known for creating the first computer worm spread via the internet.
Morris created the worm in 1988 as a graduate student at Cornell University. According to Morris, he created the worm with the intent of gauging the size of the internet. He programmed the worm to detect if the infection was already present on the computer and compute a tally. Morris believed administrators would defeat his worm by instructing the computer to send a false signal back to worm. Morris decided the best method to solve that issue was to instruct the worm to infect the computer 14% of the time regardless. This resulted in exponential spreading of the worm, destroying thousands of machines.
Morris was indicted in 1989 under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the first Peron to be indicted under this act. In 1990 Morris was sentenced to 3 years probation, 400 hours of community service and a $10,050 fine.
Today, Morris is an associate professor at MIT in the Engineering and Computer Science Department, focusing mainly on computer network architecture.
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