6- Jonathan James
Jonathan James is known for receiving the first American juvenile hacking conviction. At 15 he was responsible for hacking into Bell South school system, the Department of Defense and NASA. In addition, he was stealing source code from the International Space Station. This resulted in NASA shutting down its systems for 3 weeks and losing $41,000. Moreover, he was also guilty of stealing and selling $1.7 million worth of private government software. His punishment was 6 months of house arrest, a year of probation, and apologies to all wronged organizations.
James might have turned his life around if not for what happened next. When Albert Gonzalez was found guilty of stealing thousands of credit cards Jonathan James got pulled into the investigation. He insisted he was innocent. But feared he the prosecution would rule against him because of his past record. In May 2008 Jonathan James killed himself, with his suicide note citing his lack of faith in the courts and his fear as his primary motivators.