Top 5 Notorious Female Hackers

 

Hacking, the art of writing computer code, and manipulating computer hardware has traditionally kept men at the top of the field, and that is why many are surprised to hear that there are a handful of women that have found a place in this world. It remains an evolving, multi-billion dollar industry as some hackers are often blamed for causing irreparable damage while others are simultaneously credited for some of the biggest breakthroughs in technology. No matter what a hacker may be, they are known for their resourcefulness and their knowledge of complex theory, so here is a closer look at ten of the most notorious female hackers and the impact that they have had on the world.

1. Susan Headley

Susan Headley was a hacker in the 1970's and early 1980's who went by the name "Susan Thunder." She was one of the most well known and successful female hackers of her time, and is still held in high regard in hacker history. She was a member of the hacking group Cyberpunks and was most known for her use of social engineering skills in order to hack into organizations. Thunder began her use of social engineering in the early 1970's to get backstage passes to concerts by pretending to be someone important or close to the band. This led her to become a very well practiced Phreaker at the end of the 1970's since she had already mastered the art of social engineering and manipulating people. She later met up with Ron and Kevin Mitnick, who were both already established hackers of the time. Soon after, Thunder began to specialize in attacking military computer systems. She also used her "abilities" as a woman, such as sleeping with guards to certain companies in order to gain access to information, to demonstrate that female hackers could do things in order to reach their objectives that male hackers could not. Thunder said this "gave her a sense of power" over men and over the organizations she would hack into. She was later suspected in setting up Ron and Kevin Mitnick to get caught by the police, but the police made a deal with her. She witnessed against the two men and both Ron and Kevin were sent to jail for the hacking job. Thunder became an expert in the art of hacking and was considered a "security expert" on military issues due to her access and experience from hacking into military computers. Later, in the mid 90's, Thunder was elected into public office in California as a City Clerk.

2. Gigabyte

Kimberly Vanvaeck a.k.a Gigabyte is a female Belgian who was credited for writing the first ever C# virus which she called 'Sharpei'. She was 17 at that time when she released Sharpei, which is designed to infect computers loaded with the .Net framework. The worm appears in an e-mail with the subject line "Important: Windows update" and the following message attached:

"Hey, at work we are applying this update because it makes Windows over 50% faster and more secure. I thought I should forward it as you may like it."

If the attachment is opened, then the worm uses the Outlook address book to send messages--with a copy of the virus attached--to every address in the book. It then deletes the e-mails from the sent folder and removes the copy of itself.
She lives mostly in Belgium, Brussels, but sometimes she still go home to the town where she was raised, near Mechlin. She recently graduated as a Master of Industrial Sciences (Industrial Engineer) in Electronics-ICT. Before that, she also did a Bachelor in Applied Computer Sciences. Now she works as an advisor in IT, at Erasmushogeschool Brussel.

Facts

A female virus writer with a penchant for media attention.

She was arrested by the Belgian Police a few years ago after she was discovered for creating the worm.

She is also well known for frequent run-ins with ubiquitous AV spokesman Graham Cluley over his sociological analysis of virus writers.

During her last year of Bachelor in Applied Computer Sciences, she went to Hanoi, Vietnam, to participate in a project on Multilayer Traffic Engineering, for her final work

3. Kristina Vladimirovna Svechinskaya

Without question, Krisina Svechinskaya remains one of the most well-known names in hacking. This Russian hacker is also a top-notch New York University student, but most will recognize her fr

om a string of high-end hacking jobs that have potentially resulted in millions of dollars lost. Specializing in the use of Trojan horses, Svechinskaya attacked thousands of bank accounts, most within the United States, and then created a series of fake accounts through both Bank of America and Wachovia. She then utilized nine other people to create fake passports, but was finally caught and is now under threat of multiple charges. Overall, some authorities estimate that she stole $3 million in as little as a few months.

4. Xiao Tian

After feeling female hackers had little outlet for their interest in technology, Xiao Tian created the renowned hacking group China Girl Security Team. Still a teenager, Tian quickly expanded the group to just over 2,200 members, all of which were female girls looking for a community in which they would feel welcome. This female hacking organization now has ties to some of the most infamous hacking groups throughout the world and has become one of the largest Chinese-based hacking groups. As with most well-known and outspoken groups of this nature, Xiao Tian and the rest of China Girl Security Team continue to receive attention from national and international police organizations due to their activities.

5. Raven Adler

Often recognized as one of the most gifted and intelligent hackers in the world, Raven Adler graduated high school at just 14 and got her college degree at 18. As a frequent speaker at hacking and software conferences, Adler was also the first female to ever give a presentation at DefCon, one of the world’s most prestigious gathering of hackers. When asked about her appearance at DefCon, she often replies that she would like to be known for her work, not for being a female in the field. Currently, Adler specializes in

securing data from end-to-end, and this has made her invaluable to both private and public organizations looking to protect sensitive information. She now works as a senior security consultant for a number of companies and continues to give lectures and regularly publish her work in industry magazines. She also works closely alongside a number of federal firms in an effort to secure their online databases.