What is Hacking?
If you think to get into someone’s Facebook account, google account, and Netflix account is called hacking? That’s not true. In PC networking, hacking is any technical effort to control the conduct of network associations and associated systems. MIT engineers during the 1960s completed some harmless technical analyses and fun learning exercises. These were supposed hacks. Before the internet, a few hackers in the US experimented with methods to modify telephones for making ‘FREE’ long-distance calls over the phone network illegally. As PC networking and the internet exploded in popularity, information systems turned into the widest target of hackers.
Malicious attacks on PC systems are known as cracking, while at the same time hacking really applies just to exercises meaning well. However, Most non-technical individuals fail to make this differentiation. Hacking on PC systems is frequently done through scripts or other system programming. These programs normally manipulate data going through a network connection in ways designed to acquire more data about how the target system works. Many such pre-packaged scripts are available on the Internet for everyone, mainly that is for entry-level hackers.
Many skilled hackers study and modify these own scripts to develop new methods of hacking. Some highly skilled hackers work for Business firms and governments agency with the job to protect that company’s software and the government data from enemy hackers.
1. Kevin Mitnick
You might have guessed this is the guy we’d have at number one, as he’s kind of a mythological hacker. Looking at security websites such as Kaspersky, they all agree that this man deserves a lot of credit for his hacks. This is a guy that was hacking systems when he was only 16 yrs old, and he’s made a life’s work out of it since when he wasn’t spending time behind bars at least. At one point he went on the run and was a fugitive for more than two years, and all the time he was hacking networks, stealing passwords, copying very valuable proprietary software, and generally causing trouble. Mitnick was the inspiration behind the iconic movie, “War Games”.
That’s because, in 1982, the then young American man still in his teens hacked the North American Defense Command (or NORAD). Well, that is the story, but actually, Mitnick says he never even did it. Nor did he wiretap the FBI, something he also became famous for. He denies this till today, but some people don’t believe him. He has said in interviews that while he was damn good, the U.S. government blew up his talents out of sheer fear. During a 5-year stint in prison, they kept him in solitary confinement for 8 months, just because the government was so fearful of his magical talents. He wasn’t even allowed to use the prison payphone because, in his own words, the judge was so paranoid, he actually believed that Mitnick could whistle into a phone and perhaps start launching missiles.
Poor Mitnick had become a victim of fear and ignorance, with a judge and a government that was way behind him. Nonetheless, some fears were justified. Mitnick also hacked Digital Equipment Corporation’s network, copying and selling their software. He got past what were thought to be the very secure networks of Sun Microsystems, and companies such as Motorola, Netcom, and Nokia. He also hacked Pacific Bell’s network, once saying he only did it just to prove it could be done. He now runs his own security firm. Still known as the world’s best hacker, he always said he did it for fun rather than for money, and we commend him for that. His job now is being paid tons of money by big companies to ensure they won’t get hacked.
2. Julian Assange
We do have to talk about the man himself, who was a formidable hacker at a very young age. Long before Assange became an enemy of the United States, he was, it seems, an enemy of all kinds of institutions. The Guardian wrote a long feature on the life of this hacker as a young man, stating that he went through 37 different schools and came out with no qualifications. He helped write the book “Tales of Hacking, Madness & Obsession on the Electronic Frontier” in 1997, which proved he was a hacking genius.
Calling himself “Mendax,” in his teens until he reached 20, he hacked the Australian government, big corporations, and also educational networks. He moved on to banks, the Pentagon, NASA, Lockheed Martin, all before he became internationally famous. The Guardian writes that in 1991, he was without a doubt the best hacker in Australia, perhaps even the world. It’s said Assange believed he was a chosen one, once stating, “Men in their prime, if they have convictions, are tasked to act on them.” And that he certainly did, becoming the most recognizable hacker ever to have lived.
3. Gary McKinnon
This young Scottish lad went a step further, and he is said to have been behind the “biggest military computer hack of all time.” Calling himself Solo, it’s said that between February 2001 and March 2002, he hacked almost 100 NASA and US military computers. It’s said he paralyzed the military for a while, making very important computers that were used to control parts of the armed forces totally inoperable. This was a huge deal of course, with the U.S. being the most advanced military in the world. Maybe the Scot, then aged 35, left a note for this powerful military.
It simply read, “Your security is crap.” He said he hacked NASA mainly because he wanted to see if there was any UFO secret information. He was caught, but the USA couldn’t get him extradited. He could have gotten 70 years over there, but UK officials and a passionate public who loved the brazen hacker demanded he not be sent over to the lion’s den. Pink Floyd even wrote a song about him. This clever man now roams free in the UK where he has an SEO-focused company. That basically means he can get your website at the top of Google searches, and you might well believe him given his past.
4. Jonathan James
One little guy named Kristoffer Von Hassel who hacked the Xbox at just 5 years old. But today we are only talking about people who caused serious damage or blew the minds of security experts. One such man was Jonathan James, who at the age of 15 and 16 managed to hack his local school system. But that was nothing; at the same age, he hacked the United States Department of Defense, getting a lot of information about what was happening in the department, who was employed there and being first on the ball regarding threats to the USA. This young man from Florida was nothing short of a genius, and he decided to hack NASA. He downloaded information pertaining to how the International Space Station worked, data that had a value of $1.7 million.
