Jonathan James - AKA c0mrade
One of the greatest hackers of all time - he is famous for being the youngest hacker ever to go to prison (caught at the age of fifteen).Frankly, the man is a legend. Not only did he successfully hack one of the most secure government gencies in USA - the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (Ironically, the DTRA are responsible for much of the nation's security matters), but he also single handedly attacked NASA. James hacked one of the DTRA servers by means of a backdoor he scripted. He then used this security infiltration to acquire valuable information such as account passwords and software. His attack on NASA forced them to shutdown their systems and ultimately cost them over $41,000. In response to his attack, James said that the software he stole was merely done in an attempt to aid his programming studies. The result? Six months house arrest with probation.Kevin Mitnick - The Legend
Mitnick is famous for being the most wanted hacker of all time. His long list of offenses started at an early age when he hacked the LA bus punchcard system, effectively allowing him free bus rides to practically anywhere. This feat was not as complex as it sounds, but nonetheless very impressive. Mitnick also hacked phonecalls (much the same as John Draper and Apple founder, Stephen wozniac), and the Digital Equipment Corporation - which led to his conviction. However, the police would not have found Mitnick, if it were not for the help of Tsutomu Shimomura (a fellow hacker). Mitnick had attempted to hack Shimomura's computer but had fortunately been "out-hacked" by Shimormura. His location was discovered and reported to officials, as this was Shimormura's personal score that needed settling.
Although Morris is not as well known as hackers like Jonathan James or Kevin Mitnick, he made a huge impact on the need for online and offline computer security. Robert Morris created the first worm - known as the Morris worm. The worm was a big threat to the online community and caused an estimated 6000 machines to be infected beyond repair. The effects of the worm may have been severe, but Morris claims it was in order to see how many people were connected to the internet, and not done for harmful purposes. Morris had to pay a big price for his mistake - a fine for more than $10 000, 400 hours community service, and three years' probation.
Although these hackers are legends in the hacking community, and they have much skill, we should remember to not encourage this sort of behaviour in our own circles. On the other hand, however, it may not be wise to chastise people like Morris if you believe he has caused the online security threats we have today. If he had not created the worm, somebody else certainly would have, and that should not be overlooked. That sort of thing is simply human nature.
The most amazing thing about the new OS is that it is 7 gigs smaller than the previous version.
They have also encoded the whole OS to run on 64 bit processors. This is a big step forward as it decrease the time taken for most tasks by almost 2 percent. This should also allow word programs and normal browsing to be slightly faster.
