10 Old-School Hackers That Messed Stuff Up

For as long as computers have existed, people have been hacking them. Well, almost.

Published 10 months ago in Wow

For as long as computers have existed, people have been hacking them. Well, almost. Hacking began in the late 60s and 70s as a way for computer scientists themselves to test the boundaries of their technology and was a part of many university computer science clubs. But once the personal computer was released for the first time in 1973, hackers finally had the opportunity to cause some harm.

We imagine hackers in a post-internet world; furiously typing away at their laptops while an action movie protagonist yells something like, "Hurry up Q, we need that door!" But hackers were wreaking havoc well before the internet went public in 1993, and even getting arrested for it. John Draper, also known as Captain Crunch, is considered by many to be one of the first major hackers in the 70s, and he tapped into numerous important phone lines. John even claimed he could call President Nixon from a secure line.

Read about John and other hackers who messed stuff up in the early days of computers.

1
The first computer hackers were mostly computer science students trying to push the limits of the technology. Fernando Corbató and his team at MIT created the first password systems in conjunction with this. This was 1961.

2
Bob Thomas created the Creeper virus in 1971, which was known as the first computer virus. He worked for BBN Technologies as a programmer, so although the virus spread through the ARPANET, it did not cause harm.

3
John Draper, also known as Captain Crunch, is considered by many to be one of the first major hackers. He hacked into the phone system in the 1970s, and once claimed he was able to get a call through a secure line to President Richard Nixon.
4
In 1984, Bill Landreth was convicted for hacking into government computer systems for NASA and Department of Defense data. He was known as “The Cracker.”

5
Loyd Blankenship, a computer security hacker who went by the handle The Mentor, published the “Hacker’s Manifesto” in 1986. It argues that intellectual goods cannot be owned, and hackers have an obligation to share everything they can with the world. He was a member of the “Legion of Doom,” and was also arrested.
6
In November of 1988, Robert Morris created an internet worm that clogged thousands of systems by causing a programming error. This became known as the Morris worm.
7
Kevin David Mitnick began a life of hacking in 1979 when a friend gave him the telephone number for the Ark, the computer system that the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) used for developing software. In 1988 he was charged for breaking into that same system, and sentenced to a year in prison. Later, he hacked into Pacific Bell voicemail computers, and evaded arrest for two and a half years. While on the run he hacked into numerous networks, cell phone companies, computer companies and more. He stole passwords, cloned cell phones, and obtained private information. He was eventually caught in 1998, and charged with “14 counts of wire fraud, eight counts of possession of unauthorized access devices, interception of wire or electronic communications, unauthorized access to a federal computer, and causing damage to a computer.” He would go to jail for five years.

8
In 1990, Kevin Poulsen hacked a phone system in LA, allowing himself to win a Porsche 944 in a radio phone-in.
9
Hao Jinglong and Hao Jingwen were Chinese twin brothers and hackers who broke into a bank’s computer network and stealing 720’000 yuan, or around $87,000. They were sentenced to death by a Chinese court in 1998.
10
In 1994, a Russian mathematician named Vladimir Levin hacked into Citibank and stole $10 million.