First, you should specify the meaning of the term. "Hack" once meant a lot of concepts with the general meaning "something to abruptly break." There were still nuances. Then "hacking" became a simple computer hooliganism.
"Hacker" is a hacker of websites and servers. A person who uses his skills for different, sometimes unseemly purposes. Now it is for some - industry, and for others - a lifestyle. The latter prefer to call themselves "hackers" rather than "hackers", it is the whole international community. They hack networks out of sporting interest and, going away, often "patch holes." "Clean" hackers not only do no harm, but also benefit by pointing out weaknesses in the system. And they often do it unselfishly. Sometimes and at the request of the owner of the network, who wants to know these weaknesses.
The most famous hacking attacks in the history of the Internet
Kevin Mitnick and the Pentagon. This American is probably the most famous hacker in the world, thanks in large part to his penchant for eccentric behavior, which was expected of him by the idle public. At the time of his arrest in 1995, Mitnick said without appeal that he needed to whistle into the phone of a street phone to start a nuclear war.
In fact, of course, he could not do anything like that, because, even though he really hacked a lot of secure networks, but used for this not some ingenious programs and supernatural codes, and banal methods of social engineering: simply put, the human factor. Mitnick used not so much some technical skills as knowledge of psychology and manipulated people, forcing them to give out their passwords.
Mitnick hacked the Pentagon on a computer with a processor of less than 2 megahertz
Jonathan James and NASA. American Jonathan James - the first juvenile hacker, convicted in the U.S. for cybercrime. The prosecution alleged that at the age of 15 in 1999, he hacked into the computer system of his own school, the bell South telecommunications network, and then penetrated the server of the U.S. Department of Defense. Here, he intercepted more than 3,000 emails from government officials, hacked into a NASA server, and stole software designed to manage life support systems on the International Space Station.
James was arrested in 2000, but due to his young age he was found guilty of two counts of juvenile court and avoided actual imprisonment. Instead, he spent six months under house arrest and sent a written apology to the Pentagon and NASA. If James were two years older, he would face at least ten years in prison.
Kevin Poulsen and KIIS-FM radio station. Another former hacker who changed his occupation, like Mitnick, to a safer one. In the eighties, Poulsen specialized in hacking telephone lines and easily manipulated the numbers and channels of different operators. Poulsen first became known under the pseudonym Dark Dante in 1993 after the hacking of the phone control system of Los Angeles radio station KIIS-FM. porsche 944 S2.
Poulsen is now senior editor of Wired magazine
Gary McKinnon and the U.S. Department of Defense. This Scot is the most famous British hacker, whose extradition since the beginning of the 2000s are sought by the United States, where he faces more than 70 years in prison. The UK police first became interested in McKinnon in 2002, but thanks to public support and some other circumstances he is still at large.
In the United States, McKinnon is accused of hacking into nearly a hundred computers belonging to the Department of Defense and NASA in 2001. According to the authorities, having gained access to the system, he deleted critical files and actually paralyzed the work of the network of the U.S. military department for a whole day. Moreover, McKinnon allegedly erased data about U.S. weapons in hacked computers after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and stole some critical information. Under UK law, he was only given a six-month sentence for such offences. McKinnon himself claimed that he had searched the computers of the US military for evidence of withholding information about UFOs and other potentially useful technologies from the public. In addition, he claimed to have gained access to completely unprotected machines and left numerous records of all the vulnerabilities detected on the same computers.
A federal court in the US state of Virginia in November 2002 formally charged McKinnon with seven computer crimes, and if the UNITED Kingdom had extradited him to the United States, the attacker could have spent his entire life in prison. After the 2003 Extradition Act came into force, it seemed that the fate of the hacker had been decided, but that was not the case. What has changed has changed, he was obliged to report daily to the police station and not to leave the house at night.
Vladimir Levin and Citibank. A Russian hacker who withdrew $12 million from citibank in 1994. Most of the money was returned to their rightful owners, but $250,000. were never found. Interestingly, at the time of the crime, our country did not have articles in the criminal code providing for punishment for cybercrime, so Levin was extradited to the United States and detained for 3 years.