Hackers tend to get a bad rap as being disruptive criminals who thrive on damaging or infiltrating the computer systems of others. While this may very well be true in some instances, there are also hackers who make positive contributions. After all, the term "hacking" does not necessarily imply any sort of malicious activity. Although they may only be famous among the computer enthusiast community, many hackers have made significant accomplishments and in doing so have actually strengthened today's computer systems. Let's take a look at some of the most notable hackers.
Richard Stallman
Born March 16, 1953, Stallman pioneered the GNU project in 1983 in order to create a Unix-like operating system that would be free to use. In October of 1985 he set up the Free Software Foundation. The concept of copyleft (as opposed to copyright) can be attributed to Stallman. Copyleft is the concept that copyright laws should also be used to remove restrictions on replicating and modifying works that are protected by traditional copyright.
Having once worked as a hacker in MIT's Al laboratory, Stallman has been a consistent advocate of free software and has campaigned both against major software patents and what he determines to be unnecessary extension of copyright law. Among his credits include Emacs, the GNU Debugger and the GNU Compiler Collection. In 1989, Stallman became the co-founder of the League for Programing Freedom.
Steve Jobs
Notorious co-founder of Apple Computers, Steve Jobs has roots in hacking. Some of his early exploits even closely resemble activities that some may consider to be questionable. Along with Apple Computers co-founder, Steve Wozniak, the two both have an extensive history in the field of hacking. Some Apple fans speculate that this may have something to do with the relatively low incidence of successful hacking attempts on Apple Computers.
Linus Torvalds
The original creator of Linux, Torvalds is a famous and world renowned hacker. His open source operating system is a huge hit among the hacker community. Torvalds is a big believer and supporter in the concept of open source software, believing firmly that it should be made available to everyone.
Jonathan James
Among the more notorious criminal hackers is Jonathan James. James was the first juvenile hacker to ever be sent to prison, at the mere age of 16. His crimes included infiltrating the computers of some extremely high-profiled targets, including a Defense Threat Reduction Agency server as well as NASA. James was known to use the handle "c0mrade" when conducting his online exploits. He was originally only sentenced to house arrest, but after violating the terms of his parole, he was then sent to prison.
Kevin Mitnick
In the 1980s a hacker by the name of Kevin Mitnick gained a considerable amount of attention after allegedly breaking into North American Aerospace Defense Command (aka NORAD) when he was just 17 years old. Mitnick was fond of bragging about his actions, which led to a rumor that he had landed on the FBI's Most Wanted list. In actuality, Mitnick was arrested repeatedly for hacking into secure systems, but he was never actually included on the FBI's most wanted list.
Adrian Lamo
Adrian Lamo made a name for himself as a hacker by hacking into computer systems using public computers available at libraries as well as cyber cafes. He would routinely explore very high-profile systems on the hunt for security flaws. Once he located a flaw, he would exploit it to hack into their system. Rather than doing this to damage the companies, he would simply do it as recreation, sending the companies a notice of the security flaw so that they could patch it. Hoewever, since Lamo was not asked to perform this service, it was still considered illegal. After breaking into the New York Times' computer system, Lamo was arrested.
