Kevin Poulsen

Kevin Poulsen ranked 3rd in the list of famous hackers. He is a former computer hacker who is best known for breaking into telephone company computers to win radio station phone-in contests in the early 1990s. He was able to assure that he would be the proper-numbered caller to win, for example, $20,000 in cash and a Porsche 944 S2 Cabriolet, by taking over all the phone lines leading to Los Angeles radio stations. Poulsen went underground as a fugitive when the FBI began chasing him. He was featured on NBC's Unsolved Mysteries, and after 18 months on the run, he was apprehended in April 1991. He was sentenced to a little more than 5 years in jail after pleading guilty to computer fraud. It was the longest hacking sentence ever handed out in the United States at the time.

Poulsen was temporarily forbidden from using computers after his release from prison. He became a journalist after being reformed but still possessing the curiosity that led to his hacking when he was younger. His first magazine piece, published in WIRED in 1998, was about computer programmers who were forced to resort to survivalist measures due to the imminent Y2K issue. When Poulsen's court supervision ended in 2000, he went to work as the editorial director of a California-based web start-up called SecurityFocus, where he began reporting on security and hacking news. Poulsen broke stories of national importance that were picked up by the mainstream media, including a computer intrusion at a U.S. hospital that breached patient medical records for the first time; hackers "war driving" for open Wi-Fi networks; a computer virus crippling a safety system at a nuclear power plant in Ohio; and a hacker in southern California successfully penetrating a Secret Service agent's PDA and stealing confidential agency files.

What Did He Do?
Poulsen got himself onto the FBI's wanted list when he hacked into federal systems and stole wiretap information. He was later captured in a supermarket (of all places) and sentenced to 51 months in prison and a bill for $56,000 in restitution.

Where Is He Now?
Poulsen changed his ways after being released from prison in 1995. He began working as a journalist and is now a contributing editor for Wired. In 2006, he even helped law enforcement to identify 744 sex offenders on MySpace.

• Born: November 30, 1965 (age 56)Pasadena, California, United States
• Other names: Dark Dante
• Occupation: Contributing editor at The Daily Beast