The world of hackers is a mysterious and many times an intriguing place. Groups like Anonymous and Legion of Doom are made up of many faces, faces that have no names, no real names at least. Before they are caught and exposed to the public, we know many of the hacktivists by alias names, and like so many comic book characters, there are both the good and the bad. So, I ask you . . . what’s in a name? Who are the people behind the hacker pseudonyms? Let’s take a small peek into the lives of those that have posed under an alias, made their way into some of the biggest organizations in the world, and exposed weaknesses or wreaked havoc.
John Daper
First on my
list is John Draper or better known as “Captain Crunch.” He is known for his
hack on the telephone system in 1977. By mimicking the tone with a whistle, he
opened up the telephone systems long distance line, making long distance calls
free of charge. Draper later showed future owners of Apple, Steve Jobs and
Steve Wozniak, how to create a box that imitates this sound. This technology
would later be used to create voice mail, tone-activated calling menus, and
more. It is also believed that while serving time in jail he wrote the first
word processor, EasyWriter, for Apple II.
Kevin Poulsen
Next on my
list is Kevin Poulsen posing as the “Dark Dante.” It would seem that hackers
have a thing for the phone systems. To ensure that he was the 102nd caller and
win a Porsche 944 S2, he hacked the Los Angeles radio station, KIIS-FM
telephone lines. Paulsen served 5 years in prison and was the first American to
be banned from using computers or the Internet. In 2004, he was allowed to use
the Internet under certain restrictions. Poulsen has since come clean and has
written for Wired, helped design and develop SecureDrop, and helped track down
sex offenders on MySpace.
Jonathan James
Coming in as
the youngest on my list is NASA stopping teenager Jonathan James or as he
called himself . . . “c0mrade.” At the age of 15, he hacked into Bell South,
Miami-Dade, U.S. Department of Defense, and NASA. NASA was forced to shut down
all their computers for 3 weeks in January 2000 to figure out how the
International Space Station’s source code was stolen. This source code
controlled critical life-sustaining elements of the space station, costing a
cool $41,000 to track and exposed the intruder. James’s house was raided and
James placed under house arrest till 18 years old. Seven years later, the James
was thought to be apart of the group that hacked TJX, to this James pleaded
innocent. Convinced that he would be persecuted for a crime he did commit,
James committed suicide on May 18,2008 with a note pleading his innocence and
claiming this route was the only way to gain control over the situation.
Gary McKinnon
American’s
just love that British accent! But maybe not the British hacker Gary McKinnon,
also known to the world as “Solo.” McKinnon is responsible for the largest
military computer attack by any hacker or hacktivists group. From his
girlfriend’s house in London, between February 2001 and March 2002, McKinnon
managed to hack into the United States Military and NASA. After years of court
cases over whether McKinnon should serve out his sentence in the US or Britian,
McKinnon was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and clinical depression, and
claimed his reason for his hacking was to get information on free energy
suppression and expose a cover-up by the United States of UFO activity.
Eventually, McKinnon’s extradition order to the United States was terminated.
Adrian Lamo
Appropriately
named “the homeless hacker,” the last hacker on my list is Adrian Lamo. Lamo
couch hoped, lived in abandoned buildings, and did all of his hacking from
coffee shops, Internet café, and libraries. This did not deter him from hacking
into the Ney York Times, Microsoft, Yahoo, and others. Hacking into The New
York Times website, Lamo added his name to the list of expert sources. That’s
one way to get on the list. Facing time in prison and hefty fees, Lamo stated
remorse for the chaos he had caused, and later disclosed Bradley Manning, to
the U.S. Army authorities, the man who “leaked” the “collateral Murder” video.
It is also believed that Lamo worked with Project Vigilant as a security
specialist. To this day, Lamo takes stands for the hacktivists group Anonymous,
making claims that they are not as indestructible as the news makes them out to
be and overly mythologized.
It is
undeniable that all of these men committed crimes, but many of them turned from
black hacking to ethical hacking, helping U.S. organizations protect their data
with stronger
authentication, increase cyber security, and expose dangerous hackers
before more damage can be done. Hackers: many helping strengthen our defenses
others malicious to the end. These are the men behind the aliases.
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