Morris claimed that he had no intention of the worm escaping the lab
Kevin Poulson hacked federal systems for information on wiretaps. He also took over phone lines for a Los Angeles station KIIS-FM to win a Porsche in a radio caller contest. He served a sentence of five years. Poulson is currently a journalist.
Linus Torvalds is the creator of the Linux operating system. Linux is a Unix-based OS that is open source. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Helsinki and Stockholm University. He continues to work on the Linux kernel.
Mark Abene, also known as Phiber Optik, is a white hat hacker who drew attention during the 1980s and early 1990s. Abene was early to defend ethical hacking as legitimate computer security. His clients include First USA, UBS, American Express, and others.
Robert Morris is the hacker behind the Morris Worm, which slowed down government and university systems in 1998. Morris claimed that he had no intention of the worm escaping the lab. However, it affected over 6,000 systems. Morris was sentenced to three years in prison, 400 hours of community service, and a penalty of $10,500. Morris currently teaches at MIT.
Steve “Woz” Wozniak, the inventor of the Apple computer and co-creator of Apple, Inc, was a member of the phreaker sub-culture in the 1970s before he invented the Apple I. Woz continues to purchase and test many devices for usability and security, often criticizing Apple products.
