Top 10 Most Famous Hacker Groups

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A computer hacker is someone who uses their computer skills in order to overcome a problem. In popular culture this term has come to mean a person who uses these skills in order to exploit computer systems in order to break into a system. Sometimes, people do this because it is like solving a puzzle for them. They want to see if they can. These people go by the name of white hat hackers. However, many famous hackers do not have the same good intentions. These people go by the name of black hat hackers. Many times, we don’t know their real names and only know these famous hacker groups by their online identity. Check out the list below for the top 10 famous hacker groups.

#10: Lizard Squad and Its Members Vinnie Omari, Julius Kivimaki, Zachary Buchta, and Bradley Jan Willem van Rooy

The authorities only know of seven members in Lizard Squad. However, don’t let their small size fool you. They are one of the most sinister and famous hacker groups in the world. The authorities have identified 4 members of the group: Vinnie Omari, Julius Kivimaki, Zachary Buchta, and Bradley Jan Willem van Rooy. Lizard Squad is a black hat hacker group. They specialize in DoS attacks (denial of service attacks). A DoS attack is a type of attack where the attacker attempts to disrupt people’s access to a computer network over the internet. Lizard Squad has famously done this against the online gaming community. There are many famous examples of their computer hacking including attacking League of Legends, Destiny, PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, Machinima, North Korea’s internet, and Malaysia Airlines.^[1]ABC – Malaysia Airlines website ‘compromised’ by ‘cyber caliphate’ Lizard Squad hackers

#9: The Hacker Collective Anonymous

Anonymous is one of the most famous hacker groups. They famously wear the stylized Guy Fawkes masks in their online videos and when showing up in public. Similar to Lizard Squad, they also favor using DoS attacks. The authorities do not know the individual members of this online hacking collective. It started as a global community of loosely associated famous hackers who focused on mischief with the goal of self entertainment. Its first famous hack was the famous computer hack of the Church of Scientology.^[2]City Paper Online – Serious Business The sinister and famous hacker group sent prank calls to the Church’s phones, mailed all black fax messages in order to waste ink, and cyber attacked with DoS attacks.

#8: LulzSec led by Sabu

LulzSec is one of the most sinister and famous hacker groups due to their resume of attacks on a variety of very high profile targets. Members of LulzSec include Sabu, Topiary, Kayla/KSM, Tflow (real name Mustafa Al-Bassam), Avunit, Pwnsauce, Palladium, Anarchaos, and Ryan Cleary. LulzSec targeted organizations and websites including Fox.com, Sony Pictures^[3]PC Mag – Sony LulzSec Hack: What You Need to Know, and even the CIA.

#7: Syrian Electronic Army

The Syrian Electronic Army is a famous hacker group with connections to the Syrian government under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The international community has accused the Assad regime of war crimes and crimes against humanity for the atrocities and mass killings that it has committed during the Syrian Civil War. Authorities do not know the Syrian Electronic Army’s exact official relationship with the Assad regime. However, it’s clear that they are pro Assad.

Since 2011, the Syrian Electronic Army has been part of several hacking attacks using hacking techniques such as defacement of websites, spamming, phishing, malware, and Dos attacks. They have used these hacking techniques against anyone in political opposition of the Assad regime.^[4]BBC – Who is the Syrian Electronic Army? Their targets have included other countries in the Middle East, Europe, and US.

#6: Iran’s Tarh Andishan

Iran’s Tarh Andishan is an official hacking group for the Iranian government. In fact, it’s part of Iran’s military defense organization. Authorities regard it as the 4^th strongest cyber hacking unit in the entire world. This cyber army has waged many attacks all over the world. For example, one of their most famous attacks was in 2014. The Iranian Cyber Army launched a series of attacks on Israel, in order to take down the country’s internet infrastructure.^[5]POLITICO – Iran launched major cyberattacks on the Israeli Internet – German Intelligence snooped on Kerry and Clinton – Seleznev gets no bail

Additionally, in 2015, they supposedly launched a host of cyber attacks against Turkey’s power grid, causing black outs for around 12 hours in over half of the country. Lastly, in 2017, the Iranian Cyber Army also attacked the British Parliament building for around 12 hours. Experts believe they did this attack in order to undermine western countries while the Iranian nuclear deal was taking place.

#5: The Level Seven Crew

The Level Seven Crew was a sinister hacking group who were famously active in the 90s before disbanding in the early 2000s after authorities caught their leader in a raid. Their name is based on Dante’s Inferno and the seven levels of hell. More precisely, they take their name from the seventh level of hell, Violence. They are famously hacked into many top level security systems for many organizations and companies including The First American National Bank, NASA, Sheraton Hotels, and The Federal Geographic Data Committee. However, their most famous sinister hacking attack was on the US embassy’s website in 1999. During this attack, they defaced the website with vulgar anti-government and racists slogans.^[6]CNN – Hackers put racist, anti-government slogans on embassy site

#4: globalHell led by MostHateD and Mindphasr

GlobalHell was a sinister hacking group that disbanded in 1999 after authorities caught and prosecuted several of its members.^[7]ZDnet – Global Hell hacker to plead guilty, Part I Two of their most famous members include MostHateD and Mindphasr. They used many different hacking techniques including defacing websites and stealing personal information only to sell it to the highest bidder. Some of their most famous victims include such organizations as the Unites States Army, United States Cellular, Ameritech, the US Postal Service, and even the White House.

#3: TeaMp0isoN led by TriCk, MLT, and hex00010

TeaMp0isoN is one of the most famous hacker groups to come out of the UK.^[8]Softpedia News – Hackers Around the World: It’s No TriCk, He’s Among the Best in the UK Its members include TriCk, MLT, and hex00010. They have famously used various black hat hacking tricks to attack organization such as NASA, NATO, the United Nations, and even Facebook. However, they tend to focus a majority of their attacks at the British government. For example, in 2011, they attacked the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense and stole a list of passwords and email addresses. This agency is responsible for controlling the defense of all of Britain. In addition, it is the headquarters of the British military.

#2: The Chinese Network Crack Program Hacker Group led by Wicked Rose, KuNgBim, Charles, and Rodag

The Network Crack Program Hacker Group is one of the most famous hacker groups to come out of China. Its core members included Wicked Rose, KuNgBim, Charles, and Rodag. They are part of China’s concept of cyber warfare. However, the Chinese government does not admit that they are publicly funded. The Network Crack Program Hacker Group has famously attacked the US Department of Defense.^[9]Time – Enemies at The Firewall The current cyber war draws many parallels between the previous Cold War between the USSR and the United States. They have also famously attacked Microsoft through their GinWui Rootkit. This hacking tool allowed them to control processes on the hacked machine, start and stop Windows, and create and destroy files on the infected computer.

#1: Albert Gonzalez

Between 2005 and 2007, Albert Gonzalez was a sinister and famous hacker who stole credit card information from over 170 million ATM numbers.^[10]The New York Times Magazine -The Great Cyberheist He set up a black hat website where hackers around the world could buy and sell the credit card information he stole. In fact, he also included downloadable documents which showed exactly how to use the credit card information that he was selling. He famously attacked places such as Dave & Busters, TJ Maxx, and Heartland Payment Systems. However, all of Gonzalez’s attacks were merely for his own gain and desire to have a lot of money. In fact, Gonzalez used the money he stole to throw himself a birthday party that cost $75,000.