Top 10 Dangerous Hackers till date

Top 10 Dangerous Hackers till date

Hollywood has painted a pretty glamour picture about hackers, seeming normal men who when armed with computers are literally gods with can do anything from launching nuclear missiles, shutting down cities and even make other computers explode. While the real life hackers might not do such things, but still they are pretty disruptive and have caused damages worth millions worldwide. Here we countdown such real life hackers in Top 10 Dangerous Hackers till date.

Top 10 Dangerous Hackers till date

10. Gary McKinnon

At number 10 in Dangerous Hackers till date is Gary McKinnon. He was an unemployed computer systems administrator when he started accessing the computers of US military. He deleted the crucial OS files that led to thousands of dollars worth damage. He constantly searched the computers for information on free energy and UFOs. His attacks have often been termed as the biggest attacks in America by a single person.

9. Michael Bevan and Richard Pryce

At number 9 is Michael Bevan and Richard Pryce. This duo of British boys has done some of the most notorious hacking activities of all time. Both of them hacked into computers of US Air Force, NASA and NATO. This lead to many files being deleted and moved and cost a fortune to repair and to block further intrusion. Later they also stole information from a Korean facility and dumped it on USAF servers. This action could have resulted in war because if they stole North Korean data, then they would have suspected the USA. Luckily though, the information was stolen from a South Korean Lab and hence US was able to put an end to it.

8. Kevin Mitnick

At number 8 in Dangerous Hackers till date is Kevin Mitnick. He is one of the most famous faces of hacking of all time. He used to hack into telephone and computer companies, copy the confidential data and also alter some of the data. He could break into e-mail accounts and read the mails. Soon, he was the most wanted computer fugitive. Now he works in security industry, helping companies and websites better adept at hacking attacks.

7. Vladimir Levin

At number 7 in Dangerous Hackers till date is Vladimir Levin. Hackers are hack into some organization as a form of protest while other seeks for personal benefits; Levin was of the latter type. In 1994, he hacked into Citibank network and stole US $ 10 million. He was later arrested in UK and brought to US where he spends 3 years in prison. Citibank recovered US $400000 from him but no one knows where the rest of the money went.

6. Michael Calce

At number 6 in Dangerous Hackers till date is Michael Calce. Commonly known by his alias Mafiaboy, this high school student from Quebec, Canada had hacked some of the most visited sites. He would hack sites like Yahoo!, FIFA, Amazon, eBay and CNN leading to denial of services for many hours on these sites. While damages due to his activities have been estimated at US $ 7 million, its global economic damage might be more than US $1 billion.

5. Jeanson James Ancheta

At number 5 is Jeanson James Ancheta. One of the most common forms of hacking is when a hacker controls a large number of computers illegally using some virus so that these computers can be used to carry out any criminal activity. Since so many computers are being simultaneously used, it makes the website or the computer under attack unable to defend itself. Ancheta controlled over 500000 computers and hired out his services to people who wanted to take down a particular site. He has been caught by FBI and serving 60 months in prison.

4. Adrian Lamo

At number 4 in Dangerous Hackers till date is Adrian Lamo. He was one of the most elusive hackers of all time who used public computers like that of Libraries and Cafes in order to hide his identity. His targets were all big corporations like Yahoo!, Microsoft, The New Yorks Time, AOL and WorldCom. He would infiltrate into their computers systems and steal confidential data and also alter data. Despite being later arrested by FBI for computer crimes, he put his skills to good use by informing the US army about Chelsea Manning leaking of documents.

3. Owen Walker

At number 3 is Dangerous Hackers till date is Owen Walker. He was especially famous for orchestrating large attacks capable of taking down websites. He created the Akbot virus with which he could control millions of computers worldwide and channel all that computational resources onto a specific target. It is estimated by experts that the total damage done by him is about US $ 26 million.

2. Albert Gonzalez

At number 2 is Albert Gonzalez. He is famous for the biggest theft ATM numbers and Credit card. During 2005 to 2007, he stole as many as 170 million individual card details by using a code that he injected into computers systems that he controlled illegally. He used the stolen details to carry out transactions and to withdraw money from those accounts. He is estimated to have cost at least US $200 million in damages.

1. Astra

At number 1 in Dangerous Hackers till date is Astra. Very little is known about this elusive hacker apart from his alias Astra and that he was a 58 year old mathematician living in Athens. Though his details might be not so well known, his crimes are. He has been wanted for crimes since 2002 but it was in 2005 when he came under major focus when he hacked into Dassault (a French Military company) and stole sensitive information regarding weapons, aircrafts and other technologies and sold it to other parties. It was estimated that he caused a total of US $360 million worth of damages.

Some hackers desire personal glory and respect for their skill, some do it as a form of protest while some do it for their own benefit. But despite their agendas, hackers can cause some serious damage and here are the most Dangerous Hackers till date.