Adrian Lamo

Adrian Lamo is an infamous former grey hat hacker and journalist, principally known for breaking into a series of high-security computer networks, and his subsequent arrest. Best known among these were his intrusions into The New York Times and Microsoft. He is also known for attempting to identify security flaws in computer networks of Fortune 500 companies and then notifying them of any found; while still illegal in many places without permission, this can be seen as a form of unsolicited penetration testing. Dubbed the "homeless hacker" for his transient lifestyle, Lamo spent most of his travels couch-surfing, squatting in abandoned buildings and travelling to Internet cafes, libraries and universities to investigate networks, and sometimes exploit security holes. Despite performing authorized and unauthorized vulnerability assessment for several large, high-profile entities, Lamo refused to accept payment for his services. In the past, his lifestyle allowed him to travel up and down the coasts of the United States, often by coach, carrying all necessary possessions in a backpack.

Adrian Lamo is perhaps best known for breaking into The New York Times internal computer network in February 2002, adding his name to confidential databases of expert sources, and using the paper's LexisNexis account to conduct research on high-profile subjects, although his first published activities involved operating AOL watchdog site Inside-AOL.com.

in 2004, Lamo was sentenced to six months' detention at his parents' home plus two years probation, and was ordered to pay roughly $65,000 in restitution. He was convicted of compromising security at The New York Times and Microsoft, and is alleged to have admitted to exploiting security weaknesses at Excite@Home, Yahoo!, Microsoft, MCI WorldCom, Ameritech, Cingular and has allegedly violated network security at AOL Time Warner, Bank of America, Citigroup, McDonald's and Sun Microsystems. Companies sometimes use proxies to allow their employees access to the internet, without giving the internet access to their internal network. However, when these proxies are improperly configured, they can allow access to the company's internal network. Lamo often exploited this, sometimes using a tool called ProxyHunter.

Critics have repeatedly labelled Lamo as a publicity seeker or common criminal, claims that he has refused to publicly refute. When challenged for a response to allegations that he was glamorizing crime for the sake of publicity, his response was "Anything I could say about my person or my actions would only cheapen what they have to say for themselves." When approached for comment during his criminal case, Lamo would frequently frustrate reporters with non sequiturs such as "Faith manages" and "It was a beautiful day."

At his sentencing, Lamo expressed remorse for harm he had caused through his intrusions, with the court record quoting him as adding "I want to answer for what I have done and do better with my life."
As of January 16, 2007, Lamo's probation was terminated, ending a three-year period during which the U.S. District Court's ruling prevented him from exercising certain freedoms, including the ability to employ any privacy protection software, travel outside certain established boundaries, or socialize with security researchers.

Can You Hack It?, a documentary covering Lamo's life and times, is slated for release under the care of Trigger Street Productions. Directed by Sam Bozzo, it features Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak, TechTV personality Leo Laporte, and narration by actor Kevin Spacey. The film explores the practical and ethical themes of modern computer hacking, intertwining Lamo's story with those of controversial figures throughout history.

Kevin Mitnick

Kevin Mitnick began social engineering at the age of 12. He realized he could bypass the punchcard system used for the Los Angeles bus system: by buying his own punch, he could get free bus rides anywhere in the greater LA area. Social engineering became his primary method of obtaining information, whether it be user names and passwords, modem phone numbers or any number of other pieces of data.
In high school, he was introduced to phone phreaking, the activity of manipulating telephones which was often used to evade long distance charges for his benefit. Mitnick broke into his first computer network in 1979, when a friend gave him the phone number for the Ark, the computer system at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) used for developing their RSTS/E operating system software. He broke into DEC's computer network and copied DEC's software, for which he was later convicted. Kevin Mitnick would change his identity by exploiting how the identification system worked in the United States. He would obtain the birth certificates of recently deceased newborns and very young children (around the ages of 1 to 3 years old), as the government had no distinct record of their death since they never worked nor were involved in society. Furthermore, the certificates would have to be from someone who was born and died in places far apart, as it was more difficult to trace back to the original source. He changed his identity about three or four times, any time he changed jobs. He claimed to have learned most of this information through a book titled Paper Trail. Mitnick was arrested after the FBI obtained a search warrant, searched his house, and found his wallet with numerous fake IDs. He was caught in an accident by having the fake identification still in his possession.

The case against Mitnick tested then-nascent laws that had been enacted for dealing with computer crime, and it raised public awareness of security issues involving networked computers. The controversy remains, however, as Mitnick is often used today as an example of the quintessential computer criminal although his exploits are less notable than his notoriety suggests.

Kevin Mitnick now runs Mitnick Security Consulting, a computer security consultancy

Dennis M. Moran(aka Coolio)

is an American hacker who was accused in February 2000 of a series of Denial-of-service attacks that shut down some of the most popular websites on the Internet. He was later arrested and pled guilty to defacing the websites of DARE and RSA Security, as well as unauthorized access of US Army and Air Force computer systems at four military bases.
He was also accuased of hacking:
-Yahoo.com
-eBay
-Amazon.com
-E*TRADE
-Buy.com

He was sentenced to 12 months in jail with 3 months suspended as well as ordered to pay $15,000 USD in restitution.

Adam Botbyl

Adam Botbyl is an American computer hacker. He and Brian Salcedo and Paul Timmins, gained unauthorized access to the United States nationwide computer system used by the Lowe's.

Timmins and Botbyl initially discovered an open wireless LAN access point at the Lowe's store in Southfield, Michigan. Months later, Botbyl and Salcedo returned to explore and exploit the network. They then attempted to install a program could allowed them to capture the credit card information of customers conducting transactions through the Southfield store. TheUS government claimed that the crime could have caused more than $2.5 million in damages. The three men were initially charged with 16 counts of wire fraud and unauthorized intrusion. Botbyl was sentenced to 26 months imprisonment, followed by 2 years of supervised release.

Computer criminals :

Adam Botbyl
Dennis Moran
Nahshon Even-Chaim
Jonathan James
Richard Jones
Kevin Mitnick
Mark Abene
Robert Tappan Morris
Jeffrey Lee Parson
Kevin Poulsen
Brian Salcedo
Simon Vallor


I'll be posting a detailed description series about every person on the above list.