When caught, he served time in prison for multiple counts of wire fraud and computer fraud.Īlthough Mitnick ultimately went white hat, he may be part of the both-hats grey area. A warrant was issued for his arrest for the Pacific Bell incident, but Mitnick fled and lived in hiding for more than two years. It's widely believed that he once obtained full control of Pacific Bell's network simply to prove it could be done. Throughout his hacking career, Mitnick never exploited the access and data he obtained. During his conditional release, he hacked Pacific Bell's voicemail systems. He was later arrested, convicted and sent to prison. Because DEC was a leading computer manufacturer at the time, this act put Mitnick on the map. In 1989, he hacked Digital Equipment Corporation's (DEC) network and made copies of their software. In 1982, he hacked the North American Defense Command (NORAD), an achievement that inspired the 1983 film War Games.

In 1981, he was charged with stealing computer manuals from Pacific Bell. Here's a look at the top ten most notorious hackers of all time.Ī seminal figure in American hacking, Kevin Mitnick got his career start as a teen. It took decades of work by now-famous hackers to discover critical vulnerabilities and reveal the strategies that established the foundations of the internet and its free-for-all libertarianism.

The hacker onslaught didn't occur overnight. Even the most amateur hacker can easily find all the tools they need online at virtually no cost. Much of the cyber crime problem stems from the same features of the internet from which we all benefit. According to CPO Magazine, by 2021, hacking attacks will cost a total $6 trillion, up from $2 trillion in losses reported in 2019. Hacking costs companies and consumers trillions of dollars every year.

That said, there is a large grey area populated by political activists and hackers who wear both hats. Black hat hackers operate with malicious intent.

White hat hackers may work in cyber security or as software engineers and testers seeking out vulnerabilities in order to fix them. Computer hacking is the act of identifying and exploiting system and network vulnerabilities in order to obtain unauthorized access to those systems.

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