Last updated: January 14, 2023
Hackers are capable of amazing things. They are able tolisten to telephone conversations, to penetrate computer systems, to know the identity and characteristics of each person they meet.
Indeed, no information is inaccessible to them.
In this article, I take you on an epic journey through the years to uncover the most daring and influential hackers of all time. You will be blown away by the incredible stories and computer exploits of these legendary characters. So get ready to learn everything you need to know about the best hackers of all time!
Kevin Poulsen
| Status | Black Hat Repentant |
| Username | Darth Dante |
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Today editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, Kevin Poulsen has a tumultuous past as a phreaker (phone, radio and satellite hacker). The most incredible thing is that one of the pieces of evidence against him is a souvenir photo taken by one of his friends, while he was picking the lock of a Pacific Bell telephone exchange! It has to be done…
Before appearing before the judge, Kevin Poulsen fled, and escaped the police for 17 months.
While on the run, he carried out the hack that made him famous. Hijacking the telephone terminals of a Los Angeles radio station, he managed to be the 102nd listener to enter a contest and win a Porsche.
Kevin David Mitnick
| Status | Black Hat repented (today he created his security consulting company). |
| Username | The Condor |
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Kevin David Mitnick is certainly the most famous hacker. Its story was staged in the film Cybertr @ que. Several points remain obscure in this affair, in particular the relentlessness of the government towards Mitnick and the heaviness of his prison sentence (5 years).
After breaking into the Pacific Bell voicemail network, he was prosecuted for two and a half years, during which time he proved elusive, and ridiculed the US police. Federal agents suspected him of wiretapping them, because he was always one step ahead of their attempts to capture him.
Finally, he was arrested in 1995 by the Japanese Tsutomu Shimomura, computer expert and former hacker.
Gary McKinnon
| Status | Gray Hat on the loose |
| Username | Solo |
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Gary McKinnon is convinced of the existence of UFOs, and all of its intrusions into US military computer systems are aimed at finding evidence of it. He also claims that the USA possesses extraterrestrial antigravity technology.
According to the United States, he would have achieved the " greatest military hack of all time ”, And caused 700 dollars in damage.
A British national, he is currently fighting against his extradition to the United States, because he could face up to 70 years in detention if he were to be convicted there.
Le Figaro described his descent into hell: he is a man who “no longer washes, lives in his bathrobe in his apartment, loses his job and his girlfriend leaves”. He spends his days and nights in his bedroom in north London, hacking into American military computers, in order to find information hidden from the eyes of the general public.
Adrian lamo
| Status | Gray Hat |
| Username | The Homeless Hacker |
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Adrian Lamo was an American computer hacker, also known by the nickname "The Homeless Hacker." He started hacking computer systems at the age of 16. However, it was by hacking the security systems of major companies such as Yahoo and Microsoft that he became famous.
Additionally, he was also involved in the Bradley Manning affair, which revealed classified information about US military activities. He was accused of accessing sensitive security systems of the US military, NASA and the US intelligence agency. In addition, he was also known for his actions in hacktivism, that is, the use of technology to protest policies or organizations that he considered unfair.
On March 14, 2018, at the age of 37, he was discovered dead (cause unknown) in an apartment in Wichita, Kansas.