Urban Outlaws author Peter Jay Black gives a rundown of the most devious
hackers and nastiest viruses he knows, and warns how to protect
yourself against them
When you read about the “perfect crime” in a newspaper or a book, well, it can’t be. How could it? If it was a perfect crime, no one would ever find out! So, writing a list that includes the top hackers in the world doesn’t necessarily mean they were the best. The best hackers are the ones you never hear about. The best hackers are the people who remain anonymous. My list includes the ones that got caught, but they were still very impressive. Who knows, perhaps even the best hackers all get caught eventually.
Like many words in the English language, “hacker” has shifted in meaning over the years. The modern interpretation is “a person who uses computers to gain unauthorised access to data.” And although there are various arguments and stories about the origin of the term, its source is most likely from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, during the early 60s.
There are different types of hackers too:
A White Hat is someone who doesn’t hack with criminal intent. These are the guys who work with companies, testing their security and reporting any weaknesses.
A Grey Hat, on the other hand, is someone who uses his or her hacking skills for both legal and illegal activities. They hack into secure systems without permission (the illegal bit) but they never steal money or data. They just do it to prove they can!
A Black Hat is someone who hacks into systems with deliberate criminal intent. This can be to steal money or information from companies or individuals.
Moving on to viruses, these are a completely different matter. Viruses come in all shapes and sizes. Some can just be a nuisance – like shutting down your computer, closing windows, things like that – while others can be very harmful - like stealing your personal information.
Steven Hawking has an interesting idea about computer viruses: “I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We’ve created life in our own image.”
So, without further ado, I present a list of the top 10 infamous hackers and viruses. Remember, all of the hackers are black hat and all the viruses are very nasty!
1. The Creeper virus was first spotted on the internet’s pedecessor, Arpanet. It was a self-replicating program written in the early 70s. Once on the infected system, it would taunt people with the message, “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!”
2. The Brain is considered to be the first MS-DOS virus in the world. It first appeared in January 1986 and caused disruption by replacing the boot sector of floppy discs. This virus – unlike many others – was quite obvious as it renamed the discs.
3. The Melissa A virus came in an email with a message that read “Here’s the document you asked me for…do not show it to anyone.” Then, once opened, the virus spread using the first 50 people in the address book. Its creator was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but received a shorter sentence for aiding authorities in capturing another virus creator.
4. Kevin Mitnick hacked various big companies such as Motorola and Nokia and caused a lot of problems. At one time, he was considered the most wanted computer criminal in United States history. But he changed later from a Black Hat to a White Hat and now Kevin helps companies with their online security.
5. Adrian Lamo hacked into many famous networks, such as Microsoft and The New York Times. In 2010, he reported a US soldier for leaking sensitive documents to WikiLeaks.
6. Vladimir Levin led a hacking group that carried out what’s thought to be the first online bank robbery! He transferred $3.7m from Citibank in over eighteen separate attacks. He was later caught and arrested at a London airport, then convicted and jailed.
7. In January 2007 the Storm Worm virus spread through computers using an email with a the subject line “230 Dead as Storm Batters Europe!” This was then used to entice readers into opening the email. When they did, their computer was infected with malware and a Trojan. Over three days the Storm Worm was thought to be accountable for 8% of malware globally!
8. In the early 1990s Kevin Poulsen hacked a radio competition phone line to make sure he was the 102nd caller and win a Porsche 944! The FBI pursued Poulsen for 18 months before he was caught and sent to prison. After leaving prison, Kevin became a journalist.
9. The Chernobyl virus rears its head each year on the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. This one is particularly nasty – it replaces critical computer files and even the main BIOS – which is essential for starting your computer! According to reports, it’s caused an estimated $1bn of damages.
10. Robert Tappan Morris invented the first known worm which appeared in 1988. It attacked thousands of computers at Cornell University causing many millions of dollars worth of damages.
So, now you know all about the nasty hackers and viruses out there how can you protect yourself from them? Unfortunately, you can’t. Well, not completely. What you can do to help protect yourself is add firewalls, install anti-virus programs and malware alerts, to let you know and help protect you from any potential threats.
The main thing to remember is to be careful!
Every time you go on to the internet, make sure you don’t share your personal data with a website unless you 100% trust them. Don’t click links on emails when you don’t know who they came from. Above all else, never share your address, real name or bank details with anyone you don’t know. It’s amazing what tricks bad people will try to catch you out!
And, like the best hackers in the world, remain forever invisible!
Source : - theguardian
When you read about the “perfect crime” in a newspaper or a book, well, it can’t be. How could it? If it was a perfect crime, no one would ever find out! So, writing a list that includes the top hackers in the world doesn’t necessarily mean they were the best. The best hackers are the ones you never hear about. The best hackers are the people who remain anonymous. My list includes the ones that got caught, but they were still very impressive. Who knows, perhaps even the best hackers all get caught eventually.
Like many words in the English language, “hacker” has shifted in meaning over the years. The modern interpretation is “a person who uses computers to gain unauthorised access to data.” And although there are various arguments and stories about the origin of the term, its source is most likely from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, during the early 60s.
There are different types of hackers too:
A White Hat is someone who doesn’t hack with criminal intent. These are the guys who work with companies, testing their security and reporting any weaknesses.
A Grey Hat, on the other hand, is someone who uses his or her hacking skills for both legal and illegal activities. They hack into secure systems without permission (the illegal bit) but they never steal money or data. They just do it to prove they can!
A Black Hat is someone who hacks into systems with deliberate criminal intent. This can be to steal money or information from companies or individuals.
Moving on to viruses, these are a completely different matter. Viruses come in all shapes and sizes. Some can just be a nuisance – like shutting down your computer, closing windows, things like that – while others can be very harmful - like stealing your personal information.
Steven Hawking has an interesting idea about computer viruses: “I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We’ve created life in our own image.”
So, without further ado, I present a list of the top 10 infamous hackers and viruses. Remember, all of the hackers are black hat and all the viruses are very nasty!
1. The Creeper virus was first spotted on the internet’s pedecessor, Arpanet. It was a self-replicating program written in the early 70s. Once on the infected system, it would taunt people with the message, “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!”
2. The Brain is considered to be the first MS-DOS virus in the world. It first appeared in January 1986 and caused disruption by replacing the boot sector of floppy discs. This virus – unlike many others – was quite obvious as it renamed the discs.
3. The Melissa A virus came in an email with a message that read “Here’s the document you asked me for…do not show it to anyone.” Then, once opened, the virus spread using the first 50 people in the address book. Its creator was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but received a shorter sentence for aiding authorities in capturing another virus creator.
4. Kevin Mitnick hacked various big companies such as Motorola and Nokia and caused a lot of problems. At one time, he was considered the most wanted computer criminal in United States history. But he changed later from a Black Hat to a White Hat and now Kevin helps companies with their online security.
5. Adrian Lamo hacked into many famous networks, such as Microsoft and The New York Times. In 2010, he reported a US soldier for leaking sensitive documents to WikiLeaks.
6. Vladimir Levin led a hacking group that carried out what’s thought to be the first online bank robbery! He transferred $3.7m from Citibank in over eighteen separate attacks. He was later caught and arrested at a London airport, then convicted and jailed.
7. In January 2007 the Storm Worm virus spread through computers using an email with a the subject line “230 Dead as Storm Batters Europe!” This was then used to entice readers into opening the email. When they did, their computer was infected with malware and a Trojan. Over three days the Storm Worm was thought to be accountable for 8% of malware globally!
8. In the early 1990s Kevin Poulsen hacked a radio competition phone line to make sure he was the 102nd caller and win a Porsche 944! The FBI pursued Poulsen for 18 months before he was caught and sent to prison. After leaving prison, Kevin became a journalist.
9. The Chernobyl virus rears its head each year on the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. This one is particularly nasty – it replaces critical computer files and even the main BIOS – which is essential for starting your computer! According to reports, it’s caused an estimated $1bn of damages.
10. Robert Tappan Morris invented the first known worm which appeared in 1988. It attacked thousands of computers at Cornell University causing many millions of dollars worth of damages.
So, now you know all about the nasty hackers and viruses out there how can you protect yourself from them? Unfortunately, you can’t. Well, not completely. What you can do to help protect yourself is add firewalls, install anti-virus programs and malware alerts, to let you know and help protect you from any potential threats.
The main thing to remember is to be careful!
Every time you go on to the internet, make sure you don’t share your personal data with a website unless you 100% trust them. Don’t click links on emails when you don’t know who they came from. Above all else, never share your address, real name or bank details with anyone you don’t know. It’s amazing what tricks bad people will try to catch you out!
And, like the best hackers in the world, remain forever invisible!
Source : - theguardian
No comments:
Post a Comment