Top hacking groups that changed the world like no one else.

Top hacking groups that changed the world like no one else.

Anonymous

Famous with the general populace for their vendetta (pun intended) against ISIS while donning the Guy Fawkes masks, Anonymous is an open online creation group spread in many parts of the world. They stand against the injustice of all kinds, keeping with their personality of vigilantes that becomes apparent with their Guy Fawkes masks. They acted against the Church of Scientology, hacked the Pentagon, attacked Visa, PayPal and MasterCard for refusing payments to WikiLeaks, and took down some websites belonging to ISIS. Many individuals from countries like Netherlands, USA, UK, Australia, Spain, and Turkey have been arrested for being allegedly belonging to Anonymous.

 

Lizard Squad

Lizard Squad’s list of victims includes high profile websites like the Malaysian Airlines website, where users were redirected to a page with the message “404- plane not found”, and Facebook. Although Facebook denied being hacked, their network was down for some time due to a DDoS attack by Lizard Squad. The group has also attacked Sony and Microsoft, with their members posting ISIS flags on Sony’s servers. Some members were arrested in USA and England following their Xbox and PlayStation hacks.
The Level Seven Crew

One of the most notorious groups of previous years, The Level Seven Crew was involved in some big hacks in 1999 but their functioning stopped in 2000. They were allegedly inspired by the seventh level of hell according to Dante’s Inferno, which is the violent level. Their list of victims includes The First American National Bank, NASA, the US Embassy in China’s Website, and Sheraton Hotel.

 

Chaos Computer Club

Founded in Berlin in 1980 and one of the largest European Hacking groups, CCC is one of the good hacking groups of the world that has been teaching the common public about technology since the 1980s. The working of CCC is directed towards uncovering security flaws in major government and non-government services. They said that they had to consult a lot of legal advisors before ascertaining what is illegal hacking and what the grey area of legality in hacking is.

They clarified their intentions when they stole 134,000 marks from a bank in Hamburg using their Bildschirmtext page. They showed their true intentions by returning back the entire money after exposing the security flaw in the website. However, they have been found guilty of selling U.S corporations’ and government’s source code to the KGB.

 

LulzSec

This group, short for Lulz Security, was founded as a spinoff of Anonymous after the 2011 HBGarry Hack. Their slogan said “laughing at your security since 2011”. Their existence was announced to the world when they first hacked Fox.com, followed by Sony Pictures, in 2011. After that, LulzSec took down CIA’s website as well. However, in 2012, the group members were arrested by the FBI because their leader, named Sabu, gave them away.

 

Syrian Electronic Army

Syrian Electronic Army aka SEA, is one of the groups that has a strict purpose of their functioning, which is to stamp out opposition groups in Syria. They are widely accredited to be active supporters of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and identify themselves as active Syrian youths who will not stand by idly to watch massive distortion of facts about recent uprisings in Syria.

Their activity is routinely marked by posting of the Syrian flag on a victim’s website, with the group using techniques like phishing, DDoS attacks, spamming, and malware. They have targeted Twitter accounts as well as Facebook pages of influential people like Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

 

GlobalHell

This was a hacking group that was started by a street-gang member named Patrick Gregory. The group’s activity includes hacking some 115 websites and destroying their data leading to millions of dollars’ worth damage. Although Gregory took to computers, his group behaved in a similar way a street gang does, with the group regularly writing “global hell will not die” on US Army’s website.