While high-profile hacking made headlines in 2012, some of the most famous hack jobs took place years ago. The masterminds behind these notorious events are outlined below. Kevin Mitnick Labeled as the most wanted cyber criminal in United States history, Mitnick took down the dedicated servers of Motorola, Fujitsu and Nokia. After his 1995 arrest and five-year prison term, he went on to found a computer security firm. Kevin Poulson Using the name “Dark Dante”, Poulson gained notoriety by hacking into telephone systems, notably that of Los Angeles radio station KIIS, in order to win a contest….

Kevin Mitnick became notorious for his use of social engineering – the act of manipulating people into divulging information, rather than breaking in or using technical cracking techniques used to commit identity theft, steal credit card information and so on. To clarify the myth and the reality surrounding Kevin Mitnick, our friends at Credit Score sent us the following timeline of both alleged and confirmed criminal acts. …