salman presentation

Hacking :

Hacking Group members:- 1.Muhammad Omer Javaid 2.M Raees Khan 3.Suleman Ahmed 4.Tanzeel Khaliq

What is Hacking? :

What is Hacking? “Hacker is a Particular type of illegal activity which endangers the privacy and security of important online information .” A hacker is a person who breaks into computers and computer networks for profit, as protest, or sometimes by the motivation of the challenge.

Who is hacker? :

Who is hacker? In the media the word "hacker" is often used, for what I would call a "cracker", someone that breaks into systems to damage it, or for the purpose of getting illegitimate access to resources.

History of hacking. :

History of hacking. This is a timeline of computer security hacker history. Hacking and system cracking appeared with the first electronic computers. Below are some important events in the history of hacking and cracking. 1930s 1932 Polish cryptologists: Marian Rejewski , Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Różycki broke the Enigma machine code. 1939 Alan Turing , Gordon Welchman and Harold Keen worked together to develop the Bombe (on the basis of Rejewski's works on Bomba ). The Enigma machine 's use of a reliantly small key space makes it vulnerable to brute force and thus a violation of CWE-326

History of hacking.:

History of hacking. 1960s 1965 William D. Mathews from MIT found a vulnerability in a Multics CTSS running on a IBM 7094 . This flaw discloses the contents of the password file. The issue occurred when multiple instances of the system text editor were invoked, causing the editor to create temporary files with a constant name. This would inexplicably cause the contents of the system CTSS password file to display to any user logging into the system.

History of hacking.:

History of hacking. 1970s 1971 John T. Draper (later nicknamed Captain Crunch), his friend Joe Engressia , and blue box phone phreaking hit the news with an Esquire Magazine feature story. [1]

History of hacking.:

History of hacking. 1980s 1981 Chaos Computer Club forms in Germany . The Warelords forms in The United States, founded by Black Bart (cracker of Dung Beetles in 1982) in St. Louis, Missouri, and was composed of many teenage hackers, phreakers , coders, and largely black hat-style underground computer geeks. One of the more notable group members was Tennessee Tuxedo , a young man that was instrumental with developing conference calls via the use of trunk line phreaking via the use of the Novation Apple Cat II that allowed them to share their current hacks, phreaking codes, and new software releases. Other notable members were The Apple Bandit, Krakowicz , and Krac -man. Black Bart was clever at using his nationally known and very popular BBS system in order to promote the latest gaming software. He used that relationship to his advantage, often shipping the original pre-released software to his most trusted code crackers during the beta-testing phase, weeks prior to their public release. The Warelords often collaborated with other piracy groups at the time, such as The Syndicate and The Midwest Pirates Guild and developed an international ring of involved piracy groups that reached as far away as Japan. Long before the movie War Games went into pre-production, The Warelords had successfully infiltrated such corporations and institutions as The White House, Southwestern Bell "Ma Bell" Mainframe Systems, and large corporate providers of voice mail systems. 1982 The 414s break into 60 computer systems at institutions ranging from the Los Alamos Laboratories to Manhattan's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center . [2] The incident appeared as the cover story of Newsweek with the title Beware: Hackers at play , [3] possibly the first mass-media use of the term hacker in the context of computer security. As a result, the U.S. House of Representatives held hearings on computer security and passed several laws. [4]

History of hacking.:

History of hacking. 1980s 1981 Chaos Computer Club forms in Germany . The Warelords forms in The United States, founded by Black Bart (cracker of Dung Beetles in 1982) in St. Louis, Missouri, and was composed of many teenage hackers, phreakers , coders, and largely black hat-style underground computer geeks. One of the more notable group members was Tennessee Tuxedo , a young man that was instrumental with developing conference calls via the use of trunk line phreaking via the use of the Novation Apple Cat II that allowed them to share their current hacks, phreaking codes, and new software releases. Other notable members were The Apple Bandit, Krakowicz , and Krac -man. Black Bart was clever at using his nationally known and very popular BBS system in order to promote the latest gaming software. He used that relationship to his advantage, often shipping the original pre-released software to his most trusted code crackers during the beta-testing phase, weeks prior to their public release. The Warelords often collaborated with other piracy groups at the time, such as The Syndicate and The Midwest Pirates Guild and developed an international ring of involved piracy groups that reached as far away as Japan. Long before the movie War Games went into pre-production, The Warelords had successfully infiltrated such corporations and institutions as The White House, Southwestern Bell "Ma Bell" Mainframe Systems, and large corporate providers of voice mail systems. 1982 The 414s break into 60 computer systems at institutions ranging from the Los Alamos Laboratories to Manhattan's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center . [2] The incident appeared as the cover story of Newsweek with the title Beware: Hackers at play , [3] possibly the first mass-media use of the term hacker in the context of computer security. As a result, the U.S. House of Representatives held hearings on computer security and passed several laws. [4] 1983 The group KILOBAUD is formed in February, kicking off a series of other hacker groups which form soon after. The movie WarGames introduces the wider public to the phenomenon of hacking and creates a degree of mass paranoia of hackers and their supposed abilities to bring the world to a screeching halt by launching nuclear ICBM 's. The 414s are caught and investigated by the FBI . Although most members are not charged with a crime, they gain widespread media attention, [5][6] eventually becoming a cover story of Newsweek entitled "Beware: Hackers at play". [7] The U.S. House of Representatives begins hearings on computer security hacking. [8] In his Turing Award lecture, Ken Thompson mentions "hacking" and describes a security exploit that he calls a " Trojan horse ". [9] 1984 Someone calling himself Lex Luthor founds the Legion of Doom . Named after a Saturday morning cartoon, the LOD had the reputation of attracting "the best of the best" — until one of the most talented members called Phiber Optik feuded with Legion of Doomer Erik Bloodaxe and got 'tossed out of the clubhouse'. Phiber's friends formed a rival group, the Masters of Deception . The Comprehensive Crime Control Act gives the Secret Service jurisdiction over computer fraud . CULT OF THE DEAD COW forms in Lubbock, Texas and begins publishing its ezine . The hacker magazine 2600 begins regular publication, right when TAP was putting out its final issue. The editor of 2600 , " Emmanuel Goldstein " (whose real name is Eric Corley ), takes his handle from the leader of the resistance in George Orwell 's 1984. The publication provides tips for would-be hackers and phone phreaks , as well as commentary on the hacker issues of the day. Today, copies of 2600 are sold at most large retail bookstores. The first Chaos Communication Congress , the annual European hacker conference organized by the Chaos Computer Club , is held in Hamburg William Gibson 's groundbreaking science fiction novel Neuromancer , about Case , a futuristic computer hacker, is published. Considered the first major cyberpunk novel, it brought into hacker jargon such terms as " cyberspace ", "the matrix", " simstim ", and " ICE ". 1985 KILOBAUD is re-organized into The P.H.I.R.M. , and begins sysopping hundreds of BBSs through-out the United States , Canada , and Europe . The online ' zine Phrack is established. The Hacker's Handbook is published in the UK. 1986 After more and more break-ins to government and corporate computers, Congress passes the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act , which makes it a crime to break into computer systems. The law, however, does not cover juveniles. Arrest of a hacker who calls himself The Mentor . He published a now-famous treatise shortly after his arrest that came to be known as the Hacker's Manifesto in the e- zine Phrack . This still serves as the most famous piece of hacker literature and is frequently used to illustrate the mindset of hackers. Astronomer Clifford Stoll plays a pivotal role in tracking down hacker Markus Hess , events later covered in Stoll's 1990 book The Cuckoo's Egg . [10] 1987 Decoder magazine begins in Italy . The Christmas Tree EXEC "worm" causes major disruption to the VNET , BITNET and EARN networks. [11] 1988 The Morris Worm . Graduate student Robert T. Morris, Jr. of Cornell University launches a worm on the government's ARPAnet (precursor to the Internet). [12][13] The worm spreads to 6,000 networked computers, clogging government and university systems. Morris is dismissed from Cornell, sentenced to three years probation, and fined $10,000. First National Bank of Chicago is the victim of $70-million computer theft. The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) is created by DARPA to address network security . The Father Christmas (computer worm) spreads over DECnet networks. 1989 Jude Milhon (aka St Jude) and R. U. Sirius launch Mondo 2000 , a major '90s tech-lifestyle magazine, in Berkeley, California . The politically motivated WANK worm spreads over DECnet . Dutch magazine Hack-Tic begins. The Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll is published.

History of hacking.:

History of hacking. 1990s 1990 Operation Sundevil introduced. After a prolonged sting investigation, Secret Service agents swoop down on organizers and prominent members of BBSs in 14 U.S. cities including the Legion of Doom , conducting early-morning raids and arrests. The arrests involve and are aimed at cracking down on credit-card theft and telephone and wire fraud. The result is a breakdown in the hacking community, with members informing on each other in exchange for immunity. The offices of Steve Jackson Games are also raided, and the role- playing sourcebook GURPS Cyberpunk is confiscated, possibly because the government fears it is a "handbook for computer crime". Legal battles arise that prompt the formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation , including the trial of Knight Lightning . Australian federal police tracking Realm members Phoenix , Electron and Nom are the first in the world to use a remote data intercept to gain evidence for a computer crime prosecution. [14] 1992 Release of the movie Sneakers , in which security experts are blackmailed into stealing a universal decoder for encryption systems . MindVox opens to the public. Bulgarian virus writer Dark Avenger wrote 1260 , the first known use of polymorphic code , used to circumvent the type of pattern recognition used by Anti-virus software , and nowadays also intrusion detection systems . [ citation needed ] 1993 The first DEF CON hacking conference takes place in Las Vegas . The conference is meant to be a one-time party to say good-bye to BBSs (now replaced by the Web), but the gathering was so popular it became an annual event. AOL gives its users access to USENET , precipitating Eternal September . 1994 Summer: Russian crackers siphon $10 million from Citibank and transfer the money to bank accounts around the world. Vladimir Levin , the 30-year-old ringleader , uses his work laptop after hours to transfer the funds to accounts in Finland and Israel . Levin stands trial in the United States and is sentenced to three years in prison. Authorities recover all but $400,000 of the stolen money. Hackers adapt to emergence of the World Wide Web quickly, moving all their how-to information and hacking programs from the old BBSs to new hacker Web sites . AOHell is released, a freeware application that allows a burgeoning community of unskilled script kiddies to wreak havoc on America Online . For days, hundreds of thousands of AOL users find their mailboxes flooded with multi-megabyte email bombs and their chat rooms disrupted with spam messages. 1995 The movies The Net and Hackers are released. February 22: The FBI raids the "Phone Masters". [15] 1996 Hackers alter Web sites of the United States Department of Justice (August), the CIA (October), and the U.S. Air Force (December). Canadian hacker group, Brotherhood, breaks into the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . The U.S. General Accounting Office reports that hackers attempted to break into Defense Department computer files some 250,000 times in 1995 alone. About 65 percent of the attempts were successful, according to the report. The MP3 format gains popularity in the hacker world. Many hackers begin setting up sharing sites via FTP , Hotline , IRC and Usenet . 1997 A 15-year-old Croatian youth penetrates computers at a U.S. Air Force base in Guam . [16] June: Eligible Receiver 97 tests the American government's readiness against cyberattacks . December: Information Security publishes first issue. First high-profile attacks on Microsoft's Windows NT operating system [1] In response to the MP3 popularity, the Recording Industry Association of America begins cracking down on FTPs [2] . The RIAA begins a campaign of lawsuits shutting down many of the owners of these sites including the more popular ripper/distributors The Maxx (Germany, Age 14), Chapel976 (USA, Age 15), Bulletboy (UK, Age 16), Sn4rf (Canada, Age 14) and others in their young teens via their ISPs. Their houses are raided and their computers and modems are taken. The RIAA fails to cut off the head of the MP3 beast and within a year and a half, Napster is released. 1998 January: Yahoo! notifies Internet users that anyone visiting its site in recent weeks might have downloaded a logic bomb and worm planted by hackers claiming a "logic bomb" will go off if Mitnick is not released from prison. January: Anti-hacker runs during Super Bowl XXXII February: The Internet Software Consortium proposes the use of DNSSEC ( domain-name system security extensions ) to secure DNS servers . June: Information Security publishes its first annual Industry Survey , finding that nearly three-quarters of organizations suffered a security incident in the previous year. October: " U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno announces National Infrastructure Protection Center ." 1999 Software security goes mainstream In the wake of Microsoft's Windows 98 release, 1999 becomes a banner year for security (and hacking). Hundreds of advisories and patches are released in response to newfound (and widely publicized) bugs in Windows and other commercial software products. A host of security software vendors release anti-hacking products for use on home computers. The Electronic Civil Disobedience project, an online political performance- art group , attacks the Pentagon calling it conceptual art and claiming it to be a protest against the U.S. support of the suppression of rebels in southern Mexico by the Mexican government. ECD uses the FloodNet software to bombard its opponents with access requests. U.S. President Bill Clinton announces a $1.46 billion initiative to improve government computer security . The plan would establish a network of intrusion detection monitors for certain federal agencies and encourage the private sector to do the same. January 7: an international coalition of hackers (including CULT OF THE DEAD COW , 2600 's staff, Phrack ' s staff, L0pht , and the Chaos Computer Club ) issued a joint statement ( [3] ) condemning the LoU's declaration of war. The LoU responded by withdrawing its declaration. March: The Melissa worm is released and quickly becomes the most costly malware outbreak to date. July: CULT OF THE DEAD COW releases Back Orifice 2000 at DEF CON August: Kevin Mitnick , "the most wanted man in cyberspace", [ who? ] sentenced to 5 years, of which over 4 years had already been spent pre-trial including 8 months solitary confinement. September: Level Seven hacks The US Embassy in China's Website and places racist, anti-government slogans on embassy site in regards to 1998 U.S. embassy bombings . [4] September 16: The United States Department of Justice sentences the "Phone Masters". [17] October: American Express introduces the "Blue" smart card , the industry's first chip-based credit card in the US

History of hacking.:

History of hacking. 2000s 2000 May: The ILOVEYOU worm, also known as VBS/ Loveletter and Love Bug worm, is a computer worm written in VBScript. It infected millions of computers worldwide within a few hours of its release. It is considered to be one of the most damaging worms ever. It originated in the Philippines; made by an AMA Computer College student for his thesis. September: teenage hacker Jonathan James becomes first juvenile to serve jail time for hacking. 2001 Microsoft becomes the prominent victim of a new type of hack that attacks the domain name server . In these denial-of-service attacks, the DNS paths that take users to Microsoft's Web sites are corrupted. February: A Dutch cracker releases the Anna Kournikova virus, initiating a wave of viruses that tempts users to open the infected attachment by promising a sexy picture of the Russian tennis star. April: FBI agents trick two into coming to the U.S. and revealing how they were Hacking U.S. banks [5] . May: Spurred by elevated tensions in Sino-American diplomatic relations , U.S. and Chinese hackers engage in skirmishes of Web defacements that many dub " The Sixth Cyberwar ". July: Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov is arrested at the annual Def Con hacker convention. He is the first person criminally charged with violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). August: Code Red worm , infects tens of thousands of machines. 2002 January: Bill Gates decrees that Microsoft will secure its products and services, and kicks off a massive internal training and quality control campaign. May: Klez.H , a variant of the worm discovered in November 2001, becomes the biggest malware outbreak in terms of machines infected, but causes little monetary damage. June: The Bush administration files a bill to create the Department of Homeland Security , which, among other things, will be responsible for protecting the nation's critical IT infrastructure . August: Researcher Chris Paget publishes a paper describing " shatter attacks ", detailing how Windows' unauthenticated messaging system can be used to take over a machine. The paper raises questions about how securable Windows could ever be. October: The International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium - (ISC)2 - confers its 10,000th CISSP certification. 2003 March: CULT OF THE DEAD COW and Hacktivismo are given permission by the United States Department of Commerce to export software utilizing strong encryption. December 18: Milford Man pleas guilty to hacking. 2004 March: Myron Tereshchuk is arrested for attempting to extort $17 million from Micropatent . July: North Korea claims to have trained 500 hackers who successfully crack South Korean, Japanese, and their allies' computer systems. [18] 2005 September 13: Cameron Lacroix is sentenced to 11 months for gaining access to T-Mobile USA's network and exploiting Paris Hilton's Sidekick . [19] November 3: Jeanson James Ancheta , whom prosecutors say was a member of the " Botmaster Underground", a group of script kiddies mostly noted for their excessive use of bot attacks and propagating vast amounts of spam , was taken into custody after being lured to FBI offices in Los Angeles. [20] 2006 January: One of the few worms to take after the old form of malware, destruction of data rather than the accumulation of zombie networks to launch attacks from, is discovered. It had various names, including Kama Sutra (used by most media reports), Black Worm, Mywife , Blackmal , Nyxem version D, Kapser , KillAV , Grew and CME-24. The worm would spread through e-mail client address books, and would search for documents and fill them with garbage, instead of deleting them to confuse the user. It would also hit a web page counter when it took control, allowing the programmer who created it as well as the world to track the progress of the worm. It would replace documents with random garbage on the third of every month. It was hyped by the media but actually affected relatively few computers, and was not a real threat for most users. February: Direct-to-video film The Net 2.0 is released, as a sequel to The Net , following the same plotline, but with updated technology used in the film, using different characters, and different complications. The director of The Net 2.0 , Charles Winkler, is son of Irwin Winkler, the director of The Net . May: Jeanson James Ancheta receives a 57-month prison sentence, [6] and is ordered to pay damages amounting to $15,000.00 to the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake and the Defense Information Systems Agency, for damage done due to DDoS attacks and hacking. Ancheta also had to forfeit his gains to the government, which include $60,000 in cash, a BMW, and computer equipment [7] . May: Largest Defacement in Web History is performed by the Turkish hacker iSKORPiTX who successfully hacked 21,549 websites in one shot. [8] July: Robert Moore and Edwin Pena featured on Americas Most Wanted with Kevin Mitnick presenting their case commit the first VOIP crime ever seen in the USA. Robert Moore served 2 years in federal prison with a $152,000.00 restitution while Edwin Pena was sentenced to 10 years and a $1 million restitution. September: Viodentia releases FairUse4WM tool which would remove DRM information off WMA music downloaded from music services such as Yahoo Unlimited, Napster, Rhapsody Music and Urge. 2007 May 17: Estonia recovers from massive denial-of-service attack [21] June 13: FBI Operation Bot Roast finds over 1 million botnet victims [22] June 21: A spear phishing incident at the Office of the Secretary of Defense steals sensitive U.S. defense information, leading to significant changes in identity and message-source verification at OSD. [23][24] August 11: United Nations website hacked by Turkish Hacker Kerem125 [25] October 7: Trend Micro website successfully hacked by Turkish hacker Janizary (aka Utku ) [26] November 29: FBI Operation Bot Roast II: 1 million infected PCs, $20 million in losses and 8 indictments [27] 2008 January 18: Project Chanology Anonymous attacks Scientology website servers around the world. Private documents are stolen from Scientology computers and distributed over the Internet March 7: Around 20 Chinese hackers claim to have gained access to the world's most sensitive sites, including The Pentagon . They operate from a bare apartment on a Chinese island. [28] 2009 April 4: Conficker worm infiltrated millions of PCs worldwide including many government-level top-security computer networks [29] 2010 January 12: Operation Aurora Google publicly reveals [30] that it has been on the receiving end of a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google" June: Stuxnet The Stuxnet worm is found by VirusBlokAda . Stuxnet affects Windows computers throughout the world. Later, it is learned that Stuxnet can also affect some Unix systems. [31] 2011 April 17: An " external intrusion " sends the PlayStation Network offline, and compromises personally identifying information (possibly including credit card details) of its 77 million accounts, in what is claimed to be one of the five largest data breaches ever. [32]

Purpose behind hacking:

Purpose behind hacking When hacking began in the early 1950's, it began with a purpose of finding simple solutions, or ways around technical problems when dealing with computing systems. The term "hacked" or "hacks" was first used by a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology describing the situation when his technology students would look for short cuts, or even to perform it as an experiment. These kinds of experiments often served the purpose of making certain functions easier through technology. They were also curious to see what computing obstacles could be "hacked", or bypassed, when using the computer as a tool for hacks. Calculators and even video game systems can even be utilized as a common way to perform simple hacks (otherwise known as a "cool hack"). However, more recently, the purpose of hacking is normally associated with computer crimes and it is used as a means to commit more malicious actions (often referred to as an "ugly hack"). Many computer crimes committed today involve the perpetrator hacking into accounts without authorization in order to obtain private information as a means to inconvenience, steal, or to commit fraud against their victim(s). Hacked computer systems remain one of the most dangerous and frightening fears of the modern era, not least because often it is unclear that a computer system has been hacked until it is too late. Computer fraud is one of the most common computer crimes which involves a criminal illegally collecting secured information with the means to deceive, and it is often use a means to gain finances and/or materials.  A common form of computer fraud, involving hacks, is when a violator makes his/her way into a private account online to gather another individual's credit card information. This information is used to help the criminal access items, but it is at the victims expense. One of the biggest computer crime threats that the United States faces today, involves criminals hacking into government computers as a means to commit cyberwarfare . Cyberwarfare is implemented when the terrorist hacks into a private account to obtain classified information as a means to cause real world harm. When a government computer is hacked, it leaves government officials to question our country's network security system and our safety. Warring countries may commit espionage when a spy hacks into the government's computers and they can use this information as a means to commit cyber warfare. Government reports concluded that China hacked or attempted to hack into the United States government's computers, which prompted President Barack Obama to create the position of a cyber security tsar and a cyber security office within the white house.

Hacking may refer to. :

Hacking may refer to. Computer hacking, including the following types of activity: Hacker (programmer subculture), activity within the computer programmer subculture Hacker (hobbyist), to heavily modify the software or hardware of one's own computer system Hacker (computer security), to access computer networks, legally or otherwise Computer crime Illegal taxicab operation Pleasure riding, horseback riding for purely recreational purposes The act of stealing jokes Hacking, an area within Hietzing , a municipal district of Vienna, Austria Ian Hacking, Canadian philosopher of science

type of hacking:

type of hacking Hacker(programmer subculture) Hacker(hobbyist) Hacker(computer security) Hacking Social Anxieties Hacking Means Hacking Famous Cases Ethical Hacking Computer Crimes Hacking Hacking How to Hack Hacking Software Network Hacking

6.Use of hacking in Army:

6.Use of hacking in Army Pak cyber Army Use of hacking in Defense

Why Taliban use hacking and computer?:

Why Taliban use hacking and computer?

CBI:

CBI CBI website hacked by Pak Three proxy servers “United states( California), Indonesia ( Jakarta) and latin .

Usa Top Hacker:

Usa Top Hacker Kevin mitnick , fred Cohen(1983) University of southern California (make small program as experiment, that make copies of data and distribute to other computers

Top ten hackers of the world:

Top ten hackers of the world Black Hat Crackers The Internet abounds with hackers, known as crackers or " black hats ," who work to exploit computer systems. They are the ones you've seen on the news being hauled away for cybercrimes. Some of them do it for fun and curiosity, while others are looking for personal gain. In this section we profile five of the most famous and interesting "black hat" hackers. Jonathan James : James gained notoriety when he became the first juvenile to be sent to prison for hacking. He was sentenced at 16 years old. In an anonymous PBS interview , he professes, "I was just looking around, playing around. What was fun for me was a challenge to see what I could pull off." James's major intrusions targeted high-profile organizations. He installed a backdoor into a Defense Threat Reduction Agency server. The DTRA is an agency of the Department of Defense charged with reducing the threat to the U.S. and its allies from nuclear, biological, chemical, conventional and special weapons. The backdoor he created enabled him to view sensitive emails and capture employee usernames and passwords. James also cracked into NASA computers, stealing software worth approximately $1.7 million. According to the Department of Justice, "The software supported the International Space Station's physical environment, including control of the temperature and humidity within the living space." NASA was forced to shut down its computer systems, ultimately racking up a $41,000 cost. James explained that he downloaded the code to supplement his studies on C programming, but contended, "The code itself was crappy . . . certainly not worth $1.7 million like they claimed." Given the extent of his intrusions, if James, also known as "c0mrade," had been an adult he likely would have served at least 10 years. Instead, he was banned from recreational computer use and was slated to serve a six-month sentence under house arrest with probation. However, he served six months in prison for violation of parole. Today, James asserts that he's learned his lesson and might start a computer security company. Adrian Lamo : Lamo's claim to fame is his break-ins at major organizations like The New York Times and Microsoft. Dubbed the "homeless hacker," he used Internet connections at Kinko's, coffee shops and libraries to do his intrusions. In a profile article, " He Hacks by Day, Squats by Night ," Lamo reflects, "I have a laptop in Pittsburgh, a change of clothes in D.C. It kind of redefines the term multi-jurisdictional." Lamo's intrusions consisted mainly of penetration testing, in which he found flaws in security, exploited them and then informed companies of their shortcomings. His hits include Yahoo!, Bank of America, Citigroup and Cingular. When white hat hackers are hired by companies to do penetration testing, it's legal. What Lamo did is not. When he broke into The New York Times' intranet, things got serious. He added himself to a list of experts and viewed personal information on contributors, including Social Security numbers. Lamo also hacked into The Times' LexisNexis account to research high-profile subject matter. For his intrusion at The New York Times, Lamo was ordered to pay approximately $65,000 in restitution. He was also sentenced to six months of home confinement and two years of probation, which expired January 16, 2007. Lamo is currently working as an award-winning journalist and public speaker. Kevin Mitnick : A self-proclaimed "hacker poster boy," Mitnick went through a highly publicized pursuit by authorities. His mischief was hyped by the media but his actual offenses may be less notable than his notoriety suggests. The Department of Justice describes him as "the most wanted computer criminal in United States history." His exploits were detailed in two movies: Freedom Downtime and Takedown. Mitnick had a bit of hacking experience before committing the offenses that made him famous. He started out exploiting the Los Angeles bus punch card system to get free rides. Then, like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, dabbled in phone phreaking . Although there were numerous offenses, Mitnick was ultimately convicted for breaking into the Digital Equipment Corporation's computer network and stealing software. Mitnick's mischief got serious when he went on a two and a half year "coast-to-coast hacking spree." The CNN article, " Legendary computer hacker released from prison ," explains that "he hacked into computers, stole corporate secrets, scrambled phone networks and broke into the national defense warning system." He then hacked into computer expert and fellow hacker Tsutomu Shimomura's home computer, which led to his undoing. Today, Mitnick has been able to move past his role as a black hat hacker and become a productive member of society. He served five years, about 8 months of it in solitary confinement, and is now a computer security consultant, author and speaker. Kevin Poulsen : Also known as Dark Dante, Poulsen gained recognition for his hack of LA radio's KIIS-FM phone lines, which earned him a brand new Porsche, among other items. Law enforcement dubbed him "the Hannibal Lecter of computer crime." Authorities began to pursue Poulsen after he hacked into a federal investigation database. During this pursuit, he further drew the ire of the FBI by hacking into federal computers for wiretap information. His hacking specialty, however, revolved around telephones . Poulsen's most famous hack, KIIS-FM, was accomplished by taking over all of the station's phone lines. In a related feat , Poulsen also "reactivated old Yellow Page escort telephone numbers for an acquaintance who then ran a virtual escort agency." Later, when his photo came up on the show Unsolved Mysteries, 1-800 phone lines for the program crashed. Ultimately, Poulsen was captured in a supermarket and served a sentence of five years. Since serving time, Poulsen has worked as a journalist. He is now a senior editor for Wired News. His most prominent article details his work on identifying 744 sex offenders with MySpace profiles. Robert Tappan Morris : Morris, son of former National Security Agency scientist Robert Morris, is known as the creator of the Morris Worm, the first computer worm to be unleashed on the Internet. As a result of this crime, he was the first person prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Morris wrote the code for the worm while he was a student at Cornell. He asserts that he intended to use it to see how large the Internet was. The worm, however, replicated itself excessively, slowing computers down so that they were no longer usable. It is not possible to know exactly how many computers were affected, but experts estimate an impact of 6,000 machines. He was sentenced to three years' probation, 400 hours of community service and a fined $10,500. Morris is currently working as a tenured professor at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He principally researches computer network architectures including distributed hash tables such as Chord and wireless mesh networks such as Roofnet . White Hat Hackers Hackers that use their skills for good are classified as " white hat ." These white hats often work as certified "Ethical Hackers," hired by companies to test the integrity of their systems. Others, operate without company permission by bending but not breaking laws and in the process have created some really cool stuff. In this section we profile five white hat hackers and the technologies they have developed. Stephen Wozniak : " Woz " is famous for being the "other Steve" of Apple. Wozniak, along with current Apple CEO Steve Jobs, co-founded Apple Computer. He has been awarded with the National Medal of Technology as well as honorary doctorates from Kettering University and Nova Southeastern University. Additionally, Woz was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in September 2000. Woz got his start in hacking making blue boxes, devices that bypass telephone-switching mechanisms to make free long-distance calls. After reading an article about phone phreaking in Esquire, Wozniak called up his buddy Jobs. The pair did research on frequencies, then built and sold blue boxes to their classmates in college. Wozniak even used a blue box to call the Pope while pretending to be Henry Kissinger. Wozniak dropped out of college and came up with the computer that eventually made him famous. Jobs had the bright idea to sell the computer as a fully assembled PC board. The Steves sold Wozniak's cherished scientific calculator and Jobs' VW van for capital and got to work assembling prototypes in Jobs' garage. Wozniak designed the hardware and most of the software. In the Letters section of Woz.org, he recalls doing "what Ed Roberts and Bill Gates and Paul Allen did and tons more, with no help." Wozniak and Jobs sold the first 100 of the Apple I to a local dealer for $666.66 each. Woz no longer works full time for Apple, focusing primarily on philanthropy instead. Most notable is his function as fairy godfather to the Los Gatos, Calif. School District. "Wozniak ' adopted ' the Los Gatos School District, providing students and teachers with hands-on teaching and donations of state-of-the-art technology equipment." Tim Berners-Lee : Berners-Lee is famed as the inventor of the World Wide Web, the system that we use to access sites, documents and files on the Internet. He has received numerous recognitions, most notably the Millennium Technology Prize. While a student at Oxford University, Berners-Lee was caught hacking access with a friend and subsequently banned from University computers. w3.org reports, "Whilst [at Oxford], he built his first computer with a soldering iron, TTL gates, an M6800 processor and an old television." Technological innovation seems to have run in his genes, as Berners-Lee's parents were mathematicians who worked on the Manchester Mark1, one of the earliest electronic computers. While working with CERN, a European nuclear research organization, Berners-Lee created a hypertext prototype system that helped researchers share and update information easily. He later realized that hypertext could be joined with the Internet. Berners-Lee recounts how he put them together: "I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and – ta-da ! – the World Wide Web." Since his creation of the World Wide Web, Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium at MIT. The W3C describes itself as "an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff and the public work together to develop Web standards." Berners-Lee's World Wide Web idea, as well as standards from the W3C, is distributed freely with no patent or royalties due. Linus Torvalds : Torvalds fathered Linux, the very popular Unix-based operating system. He calls himself "an engineer," and has said that his aspirations are simple, "I just want to have fun making the best damn operating system I can." Torvalds got his start in computers with a Commodore VIC-20, an 8-bit home computer. He then moved on to a Sinclair QL. Wikipedia reports that he modified the Sinclair "extensively, especially its operating system." Specifically, Torvalds hacks included "an assembler and a text editor…as well as a few games." Torvalds created the Linux kernel in 1991, using the Minix operating system as inspiration. He started with a task switcher in Intel 80386 assembly and a terminal driver. After that, he put out a call for others to contribute code, which they did. Currently, only about 2 percent of the current Linux kernel is written by Torvalds himself. The success of this public invitation to contribute code for Linux is touted as one of the most prominent examples of free/open source software. Currently, Torvalds serves as the Linux ringleader, coordinating the code that volunteer programmers contribute to the kernel. He has had an asteroid named after him and received honorary doctorates from Stockholm University and University of Helsinki. He was also featured in Time Magazine's " 60 Years of Heroes ." Richard Stallman : Stallman's fame derives from the GNU Project, which he founded to develop a free operating system. For this, he's known as the father of free software. His " Serious Bio " asserts, "Non-free software keeps users divided and helpless, forbidden to share it and unable to change it. A free operating system is essential for people to be able to use computers in freedom." Stallman, who prefers to be called rms , got his start hacking at MIT. He worked as a "staff hacker" on the Emacs project and others. He was a critic of restricted computer access in the lab. When a password system was installed, Stallman broke it down, resetting passwords to null strings, then sent users messages informing them of the removal of the password system. Stallman's crusade for free software started with a printer. At the MIT lab, he and other hackers were allowed to modify code on printers so that they sent convenient alert messages. However, a new printer came along – one that they were not allowed to modify. It was located away from the lab and the absence of the alerts presented an inconvenience. It was at this point that he was "convinced…of the ethical need to require free software." With this inspiration, he began work on GNU. Stallman wrote an essay, " The GNU Project ," in which he recalls choosing to work on an operating system because it's a foundation, "the crucial software to use a computer." At this time, the GNU/Linux version of the operating system uses the Linux kernel started by Torvalds . GNU is distributed under " copyleft ," a method that employs copyright law to allow users to use, modify, copy and distribute the software. Stallman's life continues to revolve around the promotion of free software. He works against movements like Digital Rights Management (or as he prefers, Digital Restrictions Management) through organizations like Free Software Foundation and League for Programming Freedom. He has received extensive recognition for his work, including awards, fellowships and four honorary doctorates. Tsutomu Shimomura : Shimomura reached fame in an unfortunate manner: he was hacked by Kevin Mitnick . Following this personal attack, he made it his cause to help the FBI capture him. Shimomura's work to catch Mitnick is commendable, but he is not without his own dark side. Author Bruce Sterling recalls: "He pulls out this AT&T cellphone , pulls it out of the shrinkwrap , finger-hacks it, and starts monitoring phone calls going up and down Capitol Hill while an FBI agent is standing at his shoulder, listening to him." Shimomura out-hacked Mitnick to bring him down. Shortly after finding out about the intrusion, he rallied a team and got to work finding Mitnick . Using Mitnick's cell phone, they tracked him near Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The article, " SDSC Computer Experts Help FBI Capture Computer Terrorist " recounts how Shimomura pinpointed Mitnick's location. Armed with a technician from the phone company, Shimomura "used a cellular frequency direction-finding antenna hooked up to a laptop to narrow the search to an apartment complex." Mitnick was arrested shortly thereafter. Following the pursuit, Shimomura wrote a book about the incident with journalist John Markoff , which was later turned into a movie. We hope you have enjoyed our introduction to some of the most famous real-life hackers, both white and black alike, and have gotten a clearer impression of who hackers really are. To find out more about hacking, cracking, these or other famous hackers, or just how to keep your computer safe from all of the above, check out the following resources:

Use in terrorism:

Use in terrorism A Russian computer security expert predicts that terrorists could seek to target the country's critical infrastructure through electronic warfare, a strategy that could raise the stakes in how Russia handles computer crime. While terrorists aren't believed to currently have the know-how to disrupt critical infrastructure, it would be "very dangerous" if they start learning, said Valery Vasenin , head of the Computer Security Department at the Institute for Information Security Problems (IISP) at Moscow State University. "I think the phenomenon of terrorism will go in this direction," Vasenin said in an interview at his office. "This is probably the most important problem for the coming years." Russian's energy grid is a possible target, which could cause widespread blackouts. The air transportation or fuel distribution systems are other possible targets, Vasenin said. Russia has experienced chilling episodes of terrorism. In September 2004, 331 people, more than half of whom were children, were killed when Chechen separatists stormed a school in Beslan . In October 2002, Chechen rebels took 850 people hostage in a Moscow theater; 117 died after Russian forces used a poisonous gas before entering the premises.

Use in different agencies :

Use in different agencies It should come as no suprise , that in this modern world, technology is not just a tool, but a weapon. For ages we hear the identity threats, malware intrusions, backdoors, worms, rootkits , that can infect us all, and society has decided to use it as a method to sell "security" rather than defeat the ones writing the same apps and programs. It's a way of "patching" a problem temporarily (and make money doing it) rather than eliminate the problem all together. Yet little does anyone question, why this assumption of rule is chosen, and whether or not there is more behind the scenes. The knowledge some possess, is being used daily, in attacks not just on unsuspecting web browsers, but also, in worldwide affairs, from intelligence agencies across the globe. Certain "Democratic" governments, believe they have an "obligation" to enforce their laws online, as well as in public. With today's modern technology, its more than capable for them to do exactly that, according to many global security experts. Apparently (although not surprising to some) intelligence agencies, have been using hacking methods online for many years, and in many branches of heavy level government authorities, such as the NSA, this is assumed as an instrument which can be wielded in order to control the rule of law. It is simply another standard, such as "interrogation" that is allowed to protect national security, in a post 9/11 world, as they claim. The Chinese governement is no newcomer to the imposed restrictions on the web, being dubbed "The Great Firewall of China" by many. Chinese hackers have some of the most exclusive and challenging tools available to them, equally being used a a force for deterrance on behalf of the Chinese rule of "law". Most notably, in 1999 (a time where the US was incapable of defending their systems from the Chinese) the Chinese found their way into the US White House emails. The White House has said that the the penetration cracked the unclassified branch of the network temporarily, but the classified network remained secure. As recent as late 2007, since the EU has become a powerful financial force in the world market, hackers with links to China's military were accused of waging a long-term campaign to penetrate the computer networks of British government departments. Alex Neill, China expert and head of the Asia Security Programme at the Royal United Services Institute, said cyber attacks by the Chinese reflected a new doctrine of the PLA described as "pressure point warfare" - the attacking of specific nodes to leave the adversary paralysed . The Chinese disputed the claims of both the West and Eastern powers, as "groundless". Jiang Yu, a spokesman for the foreign ministry in Beijing, said: "China has all along been opposed to, and forbids, criminal activities undermining computer networks, including hacking.'' China is ready to strengthen co-operation with other countries, including the US, in countering internet crimes." It seems to most of us, that this is a cyber war simulation, that is going on between multiple nations. Only that the agenda remains truly unknown, as most of the reports that are coming out, are only what your media provides you with, that is already de-classified from the government. Interestingly enough, we know that cyber warfare is not new, but the defense mechanisms involved, are constantly manipulating themselves to deter new threats. With so little information on why this happens behind the scenes, other than the obvious, the ability to access defense records, the ability to access financial records, and the ability to use both to compete with your nation on an economic strategy, there has to be more of a movtive to this. Let's take a look further. Although "unofficial", there exists a splinter cell of operatives working on behalf of the United Nations, a team of unwilling counter-intelligence experts, majoring in international cyber defense. This team, is called the "Red Team", a branch of the National Security Agency (NSA), unknown and off record. You can compare them to "mercenaries" of the security industry, very good at what they do, and for the right price, clients pay them to beak into the clients own networks, for example, governments. They find the security flaws, defense failures, and intrusion levels, and the said client can then remove all threats from their systems, or at least deter them. In a world where cyber "death panels" exist to annihalate your governments competition, one cannot be surprised by the fact that these modern government hired free agents to exist. One of the primary functions of the NSA is to protect and secure the computer networks of the military of the United States, NATO, and United Nations security forces. Some will say, what civilian can possibly understand this? Well that's easy to relate in your daily lives. Consider, warrantless wiretapping, massive data-mining (spam) on the internet, and when you just couldn't get onto certain sites because they were "down for maintenence " at times. This is what Red Team and other government lead hacking teams do, they provide the “adversarial network services to the rest of the Department Of Defense". This is not kid shit folks, the professionalism and stealth that exists here, is existant . These guys must conduct their work without doing damage to or otherwise compromising the security of the networks they are tasked to analyze—that means no denial-of-service attacks, malicious Trojans or viruses. Get in, get out, and do what you were hired to do. That is the ultimate goal for a team like this. Let's view the North Korean aspect. In recent years, the supposed funneling of money and technology between Russia and North Korea, have also been attatched claims of a co-op cyber warfare proposition between the two powers. A report in South Korean newspaper JoongAng Daily claims that the North Korean People’s Army has built a new unit comprising 100 hackers. The hackers are said to be the biggest source of international attacks on US military web sites. The attacks, are only able to display to you, a minor percentage of what North Korea is capable of. In 2006, a UN research study concluded that North Korea's special operations, would be "significant enough shut down the Pacific Command and cause significant damage to mainland computer networks". One expert says that the DPRK’s hacking abilities now rivals that of the CIA. The internet is now the new standard of waging unconventional warfare by adversaries of the United States. Russia has been extremely offensive and aggressive. Cyber attacks last year were traced and directed to Russian government servers, which had infiltrated Estonian websites, including that of the presidency, almost every government agency, banks, and top news websites for three weeks in April 2007. Previously Russia had expressed its anger over a decision by the Estonian government to redirect a memorial in which was to be dedicated to fallen Soviet soldiers who perished during World War II. Russia also infiltrated, and then later militarily invaded the Georgian government, including that of the Foreign Ministry during their war in August 2008. Iran remains a powerhouse in the cyber games, stating that it remains in the top five of all worldwide nations with cyber warfare capabilities, with a reported budget of $76 million annually and a crew of 2,400 people. DefenseTech.org states that “Iran has fairly advanced cyber-warfare weapons and offensive plans that include cyber attacks against specific government websites and infrastructure. Iran’s cyber ambitions are ambitious and troubling. We know their strategic message to rally their base, and allies, at the cost of the destruction of "imperial" nations such as the US backed State of Israel. This is forever another endless battle in some eyes as a "biblical" prophecy, as the forces of "Persia" supplied by the old U.S.S.R. allies, invaded the "Holy Land" to control. It is by no means unexpected for the "Persian" wing of the world to be involved in the cyber game. Such threats, intrusions, and learning experiences of the new millenium , have led the United States Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, to creat the first ever Pentagon Cyber Command, to be headed by the director of the ultra secretive National Securtiy Agency. (NSA Red Team) Although this also brings about the calls from privacy advocates, whom worry that the role of the NSA will further force the "militarization" of the Internet. Removing rights, stripping the ability of private sharing networks, p2p, file sharing, and other methods, because they could further become a loophole or a ticking time bomb, where information was allowed or stored or a database remained, that would be unnoticed to even the NSA. This type of fear is a doomsday scenario, where an elite operative from an enemy military, has set something in place, which would disable the communications and interface of all television, broadcast, and cellular networks. Imagine if that happened in your nation, no phones, no tv , no mobile, no internet... All communications cut off. Many fear this is a factor that will assume a role during an armageddon -like world war in the new millenium . A completely new beginning to a devastating war. Current modern societies are not believed to be able to survive without all the communications they take for granted, as we are all living in a modern world, using these tools as a lifestyle. Special assistant to the secretary of the United States Air Force, John Wheeler, was given the assignment to strategize the cyberwarfare plans, says the U.S. been the recipient of many major cyberspace attacks and we are viewed as a potential adversary to most nations. "There's a lot of things that could be done to break down the will of a nation by undermining and, so to speak, throwing sand in the gears of processes that the people depend on," he says. "It's a form of bombing or even fire-bombing populations to destroy their will." This fear from the new game of chess nations are playing, has lead the current Obama administration in the United States, to appoint the Cybersecurity "Czar". The president said with so much at stake, the status quo was no longer acceptable. He said his administration will pursue a new comprehensive approach to secure the nation's digital infrastructure. "This new approach starts at the top with this commitment from me. From now on, our digital infrastructure, the networks and computers we depend on every day, will be treated as they should be as a strategic national asset. Protecting this infrastructure will be a national security priority." stated President Obama . Mr. Obama promised to no quick fixes to the cybersecurity challenges, saying it would be a long difficult struggle, demanding patience and persistence over many years. The main question that remains, is "how much time do we have?" I guess that's the question that will remain unanswered, as many nation's agencies all compete to have as much knowledge about each other, as they possibly can. We have no choice but to accept the strategies each nation assigns itself. As they work in the shadows, we only dream of the true intentions, and remain unaware, of the world that is within.

Thank you:

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