Anonymous names British computer whiz Gary McKinnon the ‘most dangerous hacker of all time’
The IT genius, who has Asperger’s, broke into 97 Pentagon and NASA
computers – stealing passwords, deleting files and shutting down
networks
Trial: Home Secretary Theresa May blocked McKinnon’s extradition under human rights laws
Activist group Anonymous has named a British computer whiz as the most dangerous hacker of all time.
IT whizz Gary McKinnon, who has Asperger’s, broke into 97 Pentagon and NASA computers
– stealing passwords, deleting files and shutting down networks on
military bases. He later accused America of hiding a fleet of warships
in space, reports the Daily Record.
And Anonymous
labelled McKinnon the best-ever “black hat” hacker – the term used to
describe those who indulge in malicious or illegal activity.
The group, who have released a top 10 of the best-ever hackers,
wrote: “Although sufferers of Asperger’s tend to have difficulty in
social situations, they have usually proven to be outright geniuses in
one particular subject.
“For Gary? It is computers. Listed: Anonymous yesterday labelled McKinnon the best-ever “black hat” hacker
“In 2002 he made a strange message appear on US army computer screens.
“It read: ‘Your security system is crap, I am Solo. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels.’”
Glasgow-born McKinnon, 49, claims there are eight to 10 American
ships in orbit manned by a 25-strong crew dubbed “non-terrestrial
officers”.
He said the craft are named USS – like the Enterprise from Star Trek.
He faced trial in the US and up to 70 years in jail if convicted but
Home Secretary Theresa May blocked his extradition under human rights
laws amid fears he’d kill himself.
The full Anonymous list is below:
Daily Record
Wall of fame: Anonymous’ nine other to 10 hackers
1. Gary McKinnon
McKinnon has been accused of executing the largest hack of US government computer networks in history.
The systems involved were army, navy, air force and Nasa.
When all was investigated, Gary faced charges for illegally accessing
97 US government computers causing a total of over £500,000 in damage.
2. Jonathan James
At 16, James was the first juvenile imprisoned in the USA for cyber crime.
With an amazing talent for hacking, he successfully broke into high
security systems such as Nasa and the department of defence aged just 15
and stole more than £1.1million of software.
He also hacked into the Defence Threat Reduction Agency and
intercepted more than 3000 internal messages while collecting usernames
and passwords.
3. George Hotz
The acclaimed “jailbreak artist”. Hotz will forever be connected with the April 2011 PlayStation breach.
Being one of the first hackers to ever “jailbreak” the PlayStation 3 –
breaking through parameters and limitations of the machine established
by the manufacturer – was bad enough.
But releasing his breaking methods to the general public just made his world a total mess.
4. Adrian Lamo
The “homeless hacker”. This gentleman used everything from libraries to coffee shops to avoid getting caught.
Breaking into high-profile networks such as The New York Times, Microsoft, Yahoo and MCI Worldcom was his claim to fame.
5. David Smith
We owe our thanks to Smith for creating and distributing the infamous “Melissa” virus.
Remember her? Although Smith claims that the virus was never meant to
do harm, it overloaded systems and servers around the world.
6. Michael Calce
In February of 2000, Calce launched attacks against large commercial
websites including Yahoo, Amazon, Dell, eBay and CNN. Caught and
convicted in Montreal’s youth court, he was sentenced to eight months in
an open custody programme with one year of probation and restricted
internet use.
7. Robert Tappan Morris
On November 2, 1988, Morris released a “worm” that took down 10 per
cent of the internet, crippling 6000 computer systems. Doesn’t seem like
much but, remember, this is 1988 when Atari was the “go-to” gaming
system. But his downfall was that he had been talking about his “worm”
for months before releasing it.
8. Vladimir Levin
Levin succeeded in transferring £6.7million from the accounts of
Citibank clients into his own personal accounts. Only £270,000 of the
cash was recovered.
9. Albert Gonzales
Accused of the biggest ATM and credit card theft in history. Between
2005 and 2007, Gonzales and his group had allegedly sold more than
170million credit and ATM card numbers.
10. Kevin Poulsen
Branded the “Hannibal Lecter of computer crime” in the 80s by Los
Angeles police for hacking the telephone lines of radio station KIIS-FM
to secure himself as the 102nd caller to win a new Porsche 944. Poulsen
was caught by the FBI in 1991 and pled guilty to counts of mail, wire
and computer fraud and also exposing info on a covert business run by
the FBI. He was given 51 months in prison (then the longest sentence
ever given for hacking).
Among others on the list was Kevin Poulsen, known as the “Hannibal
Lecter of computer crime”, who exposed more than 740 sex offenders.
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