Friday 2 August 2013

10 Most Infamous Criminals In Technology

Bangalore:  Technology is shaping this era. Most of the daily activities like, internet, banking, travelling, shopping and myriad others are powered by technology in one or the other way. So there lies immense power with the person who is a tech genius to bring change in lives around the world for better. But there are a few instances when the geeks gone wrong and turned into criminals. Read on to know 10 tech personalities who turned into criminals as compiled by Rediff.


#10 David Smith


Melissa, a malware named after a Miami stripper was put in the wild by David L. Smith. It was a mass-mailing macro malware.


First found on March 26, 1999, Melissa shut down Internet E-mail systems that got clogged with infected e-mails propagating from the virus. It was first distributed in the Usenet discussion group alt.sex. The virus was inside a file called "List.DOC", which contained passwords that allowed access into 80 pornographic websites. The virus' original form was sent via e-mail to many people.


Smith was sentenced to 10 years, serving 20 months, and was fined US $5,000. His malicious design cost the world $80 million in damages.