* TOP 10 HACKS OF HISTORY
Here is a list off the top 10 hacks of all time.
Early
1990s
Kevin Mitnick, often incorrectly called by many as god
of hackers, broke into the computer systems of the world's top
technology and telecommunications companies Nokia, Fujitsu, Motorola,
and Sun Microsystems. He was arrested by the FBI in 1995, but later
released on parole in 2000. He never termed his activity hacking,
instead he called it social engineering.
November
2002 Englishman Gary McKinnon was arrested in November 2002
following an accusation that he hacked into more than 90 US military
computer systems in the UK. He is currently undergoing trial in a
British court for a "fast-track extradition" to the US
where he is a wanted man. The next hearing in the case is slated for
today.
1995 Russian computer geek Vladimir Levin effected
what can easily be called The Italian Job online - he was the first
person to hack into a bank to extract money. Early 1995, he hacked
into Citibank and robbed $10 million. Interpol arrested him in the UK
in 1995, after he had transferred money to his accounts in the US,
Finland, Holland, Germany and Israel.
1990
When a Los
Angeles area radio station announced a contest that awarded a Porsche
944S2 for the 102nd caller, Kevin Poulsen took control of the entire
city's telephone network, ensured he is the 102nd caller, and took
away the Porsche beauty. He was arrested later that year and
sentenced to three years in prison. He is currently a senior editor
at Wired News. 1983
Kevin Poulsen again. A little-known
incident when Poulsen, then just a student, hacked into Arpanet, the
precursor to the Internet was hacked into. Arpanet was a global
network of computers, and Poulsen took advantage of a loophole in its
architecture to gain temporary control of the US-wide network.
1996
US hacker Timothy Lloyd planted six lines of
malicious software code in the computer network of Omega Engineering
which was a prime supplier of components for NASA and the US Navy.
The code allowed a "logic bomb" to explode that deleted
software running Omega's manufacturing operations. Omega lost $10
million due to the attack.
1988
Twenty-three-year-old
Cornell University graduate Robert Morris unleashed the first
Internet worm on to the world. Morris released 99 lines of code to
the internet as an experiment, but realised that his program infected
machines as it went along. Computers crashed across the US and
elsewhere. He was arrested and sentenced in 1990. 1999
The
Melissa virus was the first of its kind to wreak damage on a global
scale. Written by David Smith (then 30), Melissa spread to more than
300 companies across the world completely destroying their computer
networks. Damages reported amounted to nearly $400 million. Smith was
arrested and sentenced to five years in prison.
2000
MafiaBoy,
whose real identity has been kept under wraps because he is a minor,
hacked into some of the largest sites in the world, including eBay,
Amazon and Yahoo between February 6 and Valentine's Day in 2000. He
gained access to 75 computers in 52 networks, and ordered a Denial of
Service attack on them. He was arrested in 2000.
1993
They
called themselves Masters of Deception, targeting US phone systems.
The group hacked into the National Security Agency, AT&T, and
Bank of America. It created a system that let them bypass
long-distance phone call systems, and gain access to the pbx of major
carriers.
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