Here Are 10 Former Hackers Who’ve Gone On To Build Awesome Careers!

Over the years, there have been some highly devastating hacker attacks. They have often also been part of the most wanted list of many government agencies. So, without further ado, we bring you 10 of the most notorious hackers in history!

1. Kevin Mitnick

-Under a plea bargain in February 1995 Mitnick admitted guilty to charges including computer fraud and unlawfully intercepting wire communications.

-After serving five years’ jail time, he went on to establish information security firm Mitnick Security Consulting. In 2012, Mitnick became Chief Hacking Officer at KnowBe4, a company that specialises in providing next-generation security awareness training.

2. Chris Putnam

-We know Chris Putnam as the creater of a worm that turned some people’s Facebook profiles look like Myspace pages, as also caused certain contact details to be wiped out completely. Soon enough Facebook identified the man behind the prank, however, instead of taking him to Court, the social networking giant offered him a job.

-Putnam ended up working at Facebook for four years beginning 2005 (the year when he was caught).

3. Peter Hajas

-Came to prominence in Octover 2010, when he developed MobileNotifier: an open-source notification system for jailbroken iOS devices. MobileNotifier gained instant respect among traditional folk and soon enough replaced Apple’s own alert messaging system

-The popularity reached to a level where Peter was hired by Apple itself to develop iOS apps and frameworks.

4. Jeff Moss

-Jeff's early hacking escapades were more concerned with overturning security measures as part of Obama administration’s Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC).

-He later went on to become a white hat hacker, using his hacking expertise ethically to check the robustness of computer many security systems.

-He is also the founder of hacking conference DEF CON and information security conference Black Hat (selling the same in 2005 for some $13.9 million).

5. George Hotz

-Came to prominence in 2007 when he became the first individual evr to unlock the iPhone.

-Went on to jailbreak the PlayStation 3. Invited legal suite from Sony in 2011 for offenses including computer fraud and copyright infringement.

-Following an out-of-court settlement with Sony as early as April 2011, Hotz was hired by Facebook soon enough the same year, for a role still not known! He left Facebook in January 2012.

6. Christopher Tarnovsky

-Started off in 1996 repairing pirated satellite TV access cards. Soon enough, a Canadian pirate paid him $20,000 to repair cards disposed by the electronic countermeasures (ECMs) used by the cards’ manufacturers.

-This was followed by a stint with card manufacturer NDS where he was tasked with identifying vulnerabilities in the NDS software.

-However, in 2007 both him and NDS were accused of piracy in an unsuccessful lawsuit brought by US pay-television provider DISH Network.

-Later inn 2012 Tarnovsky was installed as vice president of semiconductor security services for computer security firm IOActive.

7. Owen Thor Walker

-Started out by helping a network of cyber criminals steal from online bank accounts and gain access to more than a million computers, bringing about losses in excess of $20 million. He was still a teenager then.

-Pleaded guilty to various charges of cyber crime in 2008.

-Later during the same year, he was hired as a security consultant by New Zealand telecoms firm TelstraClear (now part of Vodafone New Zealand).

8. Robert Morris

-Developed one of the earliest internet computer worms in history in 1988 while he was a Cornell University postgraduate student. The worm, created to 'gauge the size of the internet' took advantage of a number of security vulnerabilities in host computers and also replicated itself. The worm resulted in damage estimated at a cost of up to a whopping $10 million.

-Morris was convicted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in 1989.

-Ever sincce, he has co-founded start-ups like Viaweb, which Yahoo bought for $48 million in 1998.

9. John Draper

-Popularly known as Captain Crunch, the name given to him when he gained control of Bell System (subsequently AT&T) phone lines by the tone produced by a whistle given away in boxes of Cap’n Crunch cereal at the time.

-Was arrested for toll fraud in May 1972. Was arrested for telephone fraud again in 1974, only this time he had to serve prison sentence.

-while in jail Draper coded a large part of EasyWriter: the earliest word processing software for the Apple II computer.

-Went on to be hired by the then nascent Apple.

10. Kevin Poulsen

-On 1 June, 1990, Poulsen used his phone line hacking expertise to win the “lucky 102nd caller” in a competition to win a Porsche held by LA radio station KIIS FM. Spent just over five years in jail the following year after pleading guilty to computer fraud.

-Following his release, he began a career in journalism, and an award winning one at that!