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Computer and Internet Hacks are often in the news and the latest organisation to suffer is LinkedIn. But the business networking site is only the latest in a long line of websites and organisations to suffer in this way as this list of 5 Of the most notorious internet hacks reveals.


1. The recent victim

LinkedIn is fresh in our memories but the recent attack is likely to be remembered for some considerable time. At the very beginning of June 2012, the site began to report news of a hack and the suggestion that millions of passwords had been leaked and downloaded. At the same time, a user on a web based forum in Russia appeared claiming to have gained access to nearly 6.5 million of those passwords.

LinkedIn has around 150 million users across the globe so the hack therefore affects less than 10% of that base but for those involved, it was no consolation. E-mail addresses may also have been leaked and while they appeared encrypted at first, there was no guarantee that the hackers wouldn’t be able to go on and crack the code.

2. Google’s Chinese attack

In June 2011, almost a year to the day prior to the notorious LinkedIn hack, Google reported that hackers in China had attempted to gain access to personal e-mail accounts of Senior US Officials and many other prominent individuals in the United States and beyond.

The scam seemed simple and not unlike many others that we all see on a regular basis as journalists and officials in China were tricked into sharing their Google Mail passwords from a contact calling themselves ‘Bad Actors’. The intention was to gain access to sensitive information but despite the furore, Washington denied that any accounts had been compromised.

“We have no reason to believe that any official U.S. government email accounts were accessed," said Caitlin Hayden, speaking on behalf of the National Security Council.

3. Playstation

To the uninitiated, it may be difficult to understand why anyone would want to hack the entire Playstation network other than to cause havoc. There is a form of hacker in existence whose sole aim is to cause mischief and inconvenience but Playstation held far more useful information on their files.

Personal e-mails are always of use to the cybercriminal but the network also held extensive credit card data and that’s why the attack made global headlines back in April 2011.

Several theories emerged as to who carried out the hack and gained access to personal information on all of the 77 million users. To date, no-one really knows how much was obtained and how much damage was caused and all that Sony could advise was a change of password and for its users to be on alert for Phishing scams.

Obama isn’t dead

One of the more distressing types of hack involves social media and the fake announcement of a high profile death. On this occasion, the attackers into Fox News’ Twitter feed chose Independence Day – 4th of July 2011 to announce the ‘death’ of President Barack Obama.

Americans all over the country and beyond woke up to the announcement that the President has been assassinated. While some saw through the hoax, many believed the ‘news’ and spread the word until the hack had gone global before the truth was finally revealed.

The Homeless Hacker

There have been times when computer hackers have become celebrities in their own right and that was certainly the case with Adrian Lamo who broke into the networks of several major organisations in the mid 2000’s.

Lamo stood out from the rest for two main reasons: Firstly, he was a squatter and used internet cafes to ply his dubious trade but there was no real malice in his intentions. He would simply break in and inform those organisations of his findings and how they could go about addressing the situation.

His long list of victims included the New York Times and despite his non malicious approach to hacking, Lamo was ordered to pay $65,000 in restitution and was sentenced to six months home confinement and two years’ probation. Today he works as a journalist and public speaker.

This article was written by Matt Russell of Web Hosting Buzz.