10. Kevin Paulson
This man, who went by the name Dark Dante, accomplished something quite noteworthy in the past, and he continues to do so to this day. His greatest claim to fame dates back to 1990, when he took over all the phone lines belonging to a radio station in Los Angeles and ensured that he was the fortunate recipient of a brand-new Porsche car. By then, he was just twenty-five. Soon after, the FBI began to pursue him. He was apprehended and handed the harshest sentence ever for hacking in the United States at the time—five years. Even after his release, he was prohibited from accessing a computer.
After shedding his black hat and joining the security industry, he went on to work as a contributing editor for Wired magazine, where he broke numerous high-profile stories. He even wrote software capable of tracking MySpace registered sex offenders, leading to at least one arrest.
9. Albert Gonzalez
It’s claimed that this individual has stolen more identities than any other person in history. The Great Cyber Heist, as described by the New York Times, is attributed to him. In 2010, he received a 20-year sentence for the theft of 90 million credit and debit card numbers from American department stores and businesses. Once more, at the time, that was the harshest punishment ever imposed for a crime of the nature.
He made an estimated $2.8 million at the age of 28, but he ultimately cost banks and companies about $200 million.
8 Kane Gamble aka Cracka
When he was only 15 years old, this determined and brash British youngster infiltrated the FBI as a member of a larger organization known as Crackers with Attitude. You’ll be able to guess where they got the moniker if you know anything about rap music i.e. named after an African American rap group Nubians With Attitude. It appears that the primary member in the UK was not charged, despite the fact that some hackers in the US were charged for belonging to this gang.
He was apprehended by police, but his identity was never revealed (at the time). All that was known about him is that in 2015, when he was just 15 years old, he managed to breach the personal email accounts of the head of the CIA and tens of thousands of FBI, Homeland Security, and other government officials.
7. Max Ray Iceman Butler
This young kid from Idaho is believed to have stolen approximately 2 million credit card details between June 2005 and September 2007, totaling 86 million dollars in charges. When he was younger, he began hacking through offering illicit software that he had stolen.
However, he later became a consultant after being employed by the same people he had defrauded. When he built a backdoor into the Department of Defense’s computer network while he was meant to be repairing an exploit for the US government, he was discovered once more, and received an 18-month prison sentence.
After his release, he wreaked havoc by developing malware that could capture PINs and credit card details, as well as by instigating cyberattacks in the United States. On the dark web, he sold a great deal of banking information before being discovered. He was given the maximum term for this kind of crime at the time—13 years in prison—and was ordered to reimburse his victims for a total of $27.5 million. His release from prison was scheduled for 2019.
6. Astra
Although Astra’s identity has never been made public, it is believed that he was 58 years old at the time of his capture. He was Greek and was supposedly also a math prodigy. He broke into the French aviation giant Dassault Group’s computers for five years.
During this time, he stole technology and engineering secrets related to armaments, providing others with precise blueprints for building certain machinery and weapons. This was useful to some really dangerous people, and the estimated cost of the harm he caused to the corporation was $360 million. He had roughly two hundred and fifty buyers from all over the world. 2008 saw his capture, and he received a six-year term. Nobody is certain of his current whereabouts or true identity, but what is known is that the Sanskrit term “Astra” means “weapon.”
5. Yu Pingan
John McAfee, a security expert and occasional marksman, claimed that this hack was among the best ever executed. The hacker responsible for what is known as the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, hack was able to obtain data on every employee and consultant who had served the US government for the previous 50 years.
2015 saw the discovery of this hack. Pingan even obtained complete knowledge of all the classified personnel, including undercover FBI agents, CIA agents, and various special operations. Yu Pingan, a 36-year-old Chinese national, was detained in 2017 for being involved in this massive breach. He was accused of conspiring to defraud the United States and violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Known by a different name, Goldsun, this cunning individual not only possessed information on 21.5 million applicants and employees in government, but he also had an entire profile of their families.
The US government claimed Yu was employed officially and labeled the breach as an act of espionage since it believes Chinese cellphones are spying tools for the nation.
4. Jonathan James
At the ages of fifteen and sixteen, Jonathan James was able to hack into his local educational system. However, that was only the start. Simultaneously, he breached the United States Department of Defense, obtaining extensive knowledge on the department’s operations, personnel, and early warnings of potential threats to the country.
This young Florida man, who was clearly brilliant, made the decision to hack NASA. He downloaded data worth $1.7 million as well as knowledge about how the International Space Station operated. NASA’s computer network had to be shut down for three weeks in order to investigate the intrusion’s source. He had to personally apologize to NASA and the Department of Defense after being detained and placed under house arrest.
Still, he persisted and eventually gained access to massive retail chains’ databases containing all the personal data of its patrons, including credit card numbers. When things got out of control, James began to fear that he would be held accountable for a crime he had never done. In 2008, the young man, plagued by paranoia, chose to blow his head off with a gun rather than seek mental clarity. He said, “I have lost control over the situation and this is my only way to regain control,” in part of his suicide note.
3. Gary McKinnon
This young man from Scotland reportedly went above and beyond, masterminding the largest-ever cyberattack on a military computer network. Self-identifying as Solo, he is alleged to have compromised nearly 100 NASA and US military computers between February 2001 and March 2002.
He allegedly rendered crucial systems that were needed to command some branches of the armed forces completely unusable, temporarily paralyzing the military. Naturally, this was a big deal, since the US military is arguably the most sophisticated in the world. He even left a derogatory note for this formidable military that simply stated that their security is crap.
He claimed that his primary motivation for hacking NASA was to search for any classified UFO material. The USA was unable to extradite him even after he was apprehended. There, he might have been given seventy years. However, the public, who adored the ostentatious hacker, and UK officials insisted that he not be placed in the lion’s den. Pink Floyd even composed a song in his honor.
Now that he runs an SEO-focused business in the UK, this shrewd hacker is a free man.
2. Julian Assange
In a lengthy article about the hacker’s early life, The Guardian said that despite attending 37 different schools, he left without an educational qualification. In 1997, he contributed to the book Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier, demonstrating his extraordinary hacking skills.
He went by the name Mendax and, from his teenage years until he was twenty, he was hacking educational networks, large organizations, and the Australian government. Before being well-known throughout the world, he infiltrated Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon, banks, and NASA. He was without a doubt the best hacker in Australia, if not the entire globe, according to The Guardian in 1991. Assange allegedly felt he was the chosen one and reportedly declared that it is the responsibility of men in their prime who have convictions to follow through on them.
And that’s exactly what he did, becoming became the most well-known hacker in history.
- Kevin Mitnick
This man began hacking networks at the age of sixteen, and he has pursued this career path ever since—at least when he wasn’t incarcerated. He was a fugitive for over two years at one point, while at the same time compromising networks, stealing passwords, copying highly valuable proprietary software, and generally wreaking havoc.
Because of his 1982 hacking of the North American Defense Command, or NORAD, as a young man still in his teens, Mitnick served as the inspiration for the classic film War Games. That’s the tale, though Mitnick claims he never did it at all. Additionally, he did not wiretap the FBI, for which he also gained notoriety. Even now, he continues to deny this, although not everyone believes him.
In interviews, he claimed that even though he was extremely talented, the US government exaggerated his abilities out of pure paranoia. Because the authorities was so afraid of his magical abilities, they detained him for eight months during a five-year sentence in solitary confinement. According to his own account, the judge was so worried that he thought Mitnick could whistle into a phone and possibly launch missiles, so he wasn’t even permitted to use the jail payphone.
Still, some of the worries were well-founded. In addition, Mitnick breached the network of Digital Equipment Corporation, duplicating and selling its software. He managed to breach what were regarded as Sun Microsystems’ and businesses like Motorola, Netcom, and Nokia’s extremely secure networks.
In addition, he broke into Pacific Bell’s network, but he later claimed he did so merely to show it could be done. He currently owns and operates his own security company. Even now, he’s regarded as the greatest hacker in the world, although he said that he didn’t hack for profit. Large corporations now pay him a ton of money to do his job of making sure they won’t be hacked.
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BONEY MAUNDU SLIM 
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