TOP 10 ..

Top 10 Most Dangerous Hackers of 2016

Think you have a pretty good grasp of internet security? Think again. There are skilled and secretive hackers out there who could get past pretty much anything you choose to put in their way. Not only are these hackers fiendishly clever, they are also inventive and constantly invent new ways of getting past security protocols. Whatever you and your server do to protect yourselves, the hackers are always one step ahead. Be happy then that the most skilled of them choose to concentrate on draining millions from banks or discovering government secrets rather than sending your friends messages pretending to be you. Discover more in our Top 10 Most Dangerous Hackers.

10. Jeremy Hammond

Currently serving a 10-year prison sentence, Jeremy Hammond is the hacker who stole 60,000 credit card numbers and used them to make donations to charity. So quite a nice hacker then? He certainly seems to be broadly on the side of good, attacking neo-nazis and holocaust deniers, but there’s no denying he’s on the wrong side of the law at the same time. One of his biggest achievements was hacking the e-mails of the Stratfor group, who specialize in global intelligence, and publishing 973 of them on the WikiLeaks website. Among the revelations contained in the e-mails were details of Osama bin Laden’s death and plans to incite a revolution in Venezuela. It was shocking stuff, but it was the credit card theft that saw him sent to jail, some say unfairly.

9. Kevin Poulsen

Sometimes hackers can appear perfectly innocuous in their day-to-day lives. Take Kevin Poulsen, who is now News Editor for wired.com – a popular and legitimate site favored by geeks. But he was once a black-hat hacker, pulling off such stunts as winning a Porsche 944 S2 from KIIS-FM by hacking their phone lines and guaranteeing he was the 102nd caller. Like other hackers, he has used his powers for the greater good by identifying MySpace users who were looking for child porn. But he also hacked into the FBI computers and ending up serving a 5-year sentence for his crimes. Since his release, he’s concentrated on his writing career not just at wired but also with his book “Kingpin”. A versatile and, it would seem, reformed hacker.

8. Jonathan James

A lot of hackers start young and they will only get younger as this generation grows up surrounded by technology. Jonathan James was the poster boy for teenage hackers, gaining his first conviction at the age of 16 for stealing $170m worth of code from NASA. He did this by hacking into the computers of the Defence Threat Reduction Agency and installing a “backdoor” which gave him access to both messages and source code. He was 15 at the time of the offence and 16 when tried, so received only a juvenile sentence. He resolved to put this past behind him but in 2007 his name was mentioned in conjunction with a hack on the TJX department store. Maintaining his innocence but convinced he would go to prison, he committed suicide on May 18th 2008.

7. The Aurora Hackers

A group of hackers rather than a single one, these were the people responsible for “Operation Aurora“, an international and complex hack in 2009 that targeted 34 companies including Google and Yahoo!. The hackers are believed to come from China as part of the Elderwood Gang – a group of hackers based in Beijing. A Shanghai-based group, PLA Unit-61398, were also believed to be involved, in this massive operation. Google were the first to make the attack public, stating on their blog that they had had their intellectual property stolen – it seems that the hackers were after the source code of these internet giants, rather than any personal information although it later emerged that certain gmail accounts had also been hacked. The hackers behind Aurora have never been caught and said to still be actively hacking. The main result of the whole episode was that Google withdrew from China entirely.

6. Adrian Lamo

Known as “the Homeless Hacker” because he did his hacking while couch-surfing and living in hostels, Adrian Lamo is something of a troubled character. Ex-girlfriends describe him as controlling, and he has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. He may also have been the subject of a restraining order at one point and is so strongly religious that he refuses to give blood samples. All of which may explain his anti-social behavior – hacking into the New York Times website and adding himself to their expert database. It was for this that he was convicted in 2004, and sentenced to six months’ detention at his parents’ house, plus a fine. He also turned the hacking community against each other – after donating to WikiLeaks, he then exposed one of their contributors – a soldier calledBradley Manning, who was leaking confidential military information. Lamo was supported by Kevin Poulsen and together they were called “felons” and “snitchs” but Lamo maintains that Manning was putting lives in danger with his actions. When last heard of, Lamo was in hiding for fear of Manning’s revenge.

5. Robert Tappan Morris

One of the earliest known hackers was Robert Tappan Morris, creator of the “Morris Worm” – a virus that is said to have infected around 6,000 computers. He released it while studying at Cornell in 1988, and was apparently attempting to determine the size of the internet. An innocent enough aim, but he had made his worm death-proof and so it kept replicating itself into unwanted places. He was indicted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and was the first person to do so. As with many of these hackers, his sentence was relatively light – probation, community service and a fine – and he went on to found several companies in the computing sphere.

4. Cody Kretsinger

Affiliated with the hacker group LulzSec, Cody Kretsinger is known to his fellow hackers as “Recursion”. He was convicted in 2013 for his part in a 2011 hack on Sony Playstation, where he managed to get 77 million people’s personal data and cause an outage on the network for 24 days. LulzSec has often been accused of being childish and operating with no real motivation other than, as their name suggests, “the lulz”. They don’t often hack for financial gain – none of the 77 million had their identity stolen – and try to prove just how easy it is to get this kind of data. Kretsinger was granted another relatively light sentence, with only a year in prison for his crimes and many of LulzSec are still at large and operating.

3. Jacob Appelbaum

Another hacker associated with WikiLeaks, this is a man with a troubled past. Given up for adoption by his parents he ended up in a children’s home and then later living with his heroin-addicted father and assorted other junkies. After such an unsettled childhood, he was encouraged to channel his energies into computing and he is now the American public face of WikiLeaks, a role that has seen him constantly detained and questioned at airports about his political views. He is also the spokesman for Tor technologies, which aid projects like WikiLeaks by diverting e-mails between several different countries. So an e-mail sent in America may go to three different servers before reaching Iraq, securing the location of both parties. Appelbaum has never convicted of hacking and now lives in Berlin but is obviously still considered a threat as he and his partner are apparently spied on as they sleep. Chilling…

2. Kevin Mitnick

The title of “World’s Most Dangerous Hacker” has been much contested. These final two hackers have both been given it at different points but Kevin Mitnick is now a respectable businessmanspecializing, as so many former hackers do, in improving the security of their clients’ firms. But this reform has come at the end of a 5-year prison sentence, itself stemming from the violation of a previous sentence (Mitnick committed a hack at the end of his supervised release period). He was arrested in 1995 after breaking into the Department of Justice computers and was said to be able to launch nuclear missiles by whistling down a payphone. The claims may have been exaggerated, but it’s easy to see why he was considered the most dangerous man in the world back in the 1990s.

1. Gary McKinnon

But Mitnick has since been superseded by McKinnon, who managed to hack into the Pentagon computers and leave the message “Your security is crap”. Between 2001 and 2002 – sensitive times for America – he repeatedly hacked US military and NASA computers from his base in London, deleting files and changing passwords. At one point he caused a 24-hour shutdown and caused munitions trucks to be stopped. He also left an anti-American message: “US foreign policy is akin to Government-sponsored terrorism these days … It was not a mistake that there was a huge security stand down on September 11 last year … I am SOLO. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels.” He was arrested in 2002 and is currently imprisoned in Britain, although the US continues to request his extradition. A skilled but also very dangerous hacker who was stopped before he managed to cause a military disaster.

Entertainment

Top 10 Brands That Have Made It To Every Corner of the World

by Unknown 19:37:00

hey everyone..

Travel is great for broadening the mind, isn’t it? Seeing different cultures, experiencing different foods, knowing that you’re miles away from the nearest McDonalds. Or maybe not – global expansion of certain brands has been so successful that you can be thousands of miles away from America and still be able to enjoy the comforts of home. So, who is the most successful? Which popular brands can you find on sale in the depths of the Belize jungle? Find out in our Top 10 Brands That Have Made It To Every Corner of the World.

1. McDonald's

There’s nothing quite like a McDonalds. If by that you mean, nothing that is so uniform around the world then no, there is nothing quite like it. True, some branches have subtle differences, but a Big Mac is a Big Mac wherever you buy it, even if the price varies considerably – in the Ukraine, you would pay just $1.83 for the delicacy. If you’re looking for your McFix, there are over 34,000 outlets worldwide in 123 countries. For Americans everywhere, it’ll make you feel right at home. There’s even one in Guantanamo Bay, although sadly it’s only open to base personnel. A true lesson in world domination.

2. Coca- Cola

But, of course, the biggest brands on the list are American. One of the most iconic brands in the world, Coca-Cola can be found everywhere. It can even be drunk in the jungles of Belize, as the family that owns Coca-Cola in Belize have a jungle lodge there, called Chan Chich where you can, naturally, drink Coke (although at $25 for a burger and Diet Coke you may not want to!)

Coca-Cola aren’t just content with caffeinating the world – they also feel responsible for global happiness, with their happiness barometer (above). According to their findings, “More than half of the people surveyed (56%) cited the taste of Coca-Cola as something that makes them smile”. So, the future happiness of the world is in safe hands – reassuring, hey?

3. BBC

While Microsoft is a relatively new player in the global market, the authoritative tones of the BBC have been reaching the far corners of the world for almost a century. As a kind of hangover from the days of the British Empire, people all over the world still like their news to be delivered in a British accent, and BBC World News goes out to Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and America. But there are worldwide specialist channels too, such as BBC Canada and BBC Persian (above).

Part of this global domination is because the BBC is forbidden to show adverts in the UK, and it relies on license fee payers to fund its programming. Abroad, however, there are no such restrictions and they can also export successful UK shows in slightly different formats (so “Strictly Come Dancing” became “Dancing with the Stars”). It may be definitively British, but apparently Britishness sells..!

4. Microsoft

But Apple still have a way to go before they catch up with Microsoft. The mega-corporation has offices in around 150 countries all over the world, from Azerbaijan to Zambia, who come together at their Worldwide Partner Conference (see above). And those are only the offices – the products have a much greater reach. You would have to find some pretty undiscovered tribes to find someone who had never encountered a Microsoft program in any form.

As such a huge player in the global market, it has come under criticism and been accused of monopolizing the market, a charge it’s hard to argue with. But Microsoft also have some community-based projects to try and enhance the areas they’re expanding into, such as its Microsoft 4Afrikaproject. So they do some good, but they are definitely a force to be reckoned with.

5. Apple

Not all global brands reach worldwide saturation by their own doing. Apple has the dubious honor of being one of the faked brands in the world, with China being a particular hotspot for counterfeit iMacs, iPads that are a touch too small and Louis Vuitton covered iPhones. In Taiwan, they even have a fake Steve Jobs (above), selling tea on TV. And Iraq has its own fake Apple store, which looks nothing like a real Apple store.

In some ways it’s all a compliment- it means that your brand is so recognisable that something just has to be sleek and white for it to be identified as an Apple product, even if it’s missing its logo. On the other hand, it’s a legal department’s nightmare and Apple has a team working on stopping the counterfeits, but it’s fairly futile. Meanwhile, the real Apple stores have made it across Europe and to Japan and China, so they are well on the way to world domination themselves.

6. Pepsi

It may not be the most recognized soft drink in the world (more on that later…) but there’s no denying Pepsi’s global influence, with their product available everywhere from Alaska to Australia. But success comes at a price, and the brand has got into trouble in India for using an excessive amount of groundwater, in areas where water is a scarce commodity. Still reeling from that scandal, a second scandal broke, accusing Pepsi of allowing pesticide residue into their sodas. Pepsi was banned in Kerala (along with Coca-Cola) and there were protests in the streets, with bottles of Pepsi being smashed by angry protesters. In response, the brand has launched a number of PR initiatives in India, including a drive to create “a positive water balance”. The efforts are slowly repairing Pepsi’s reputation, but other countries must be watching the company with suspicion…

7. Ford

Suppose I wanted to buy a car on the island of Madagascar, where would I buy one? Assuming I wasn’t busy being distracted by all the talking animals, I would probably head to Antananarivo, where I would find a Ford dealership. After all, it’s good to buy a car from a known brand if you want to be assured of quality. Say I was in Sweden, where would I go? Maybe Ford again. Or Darussalam, Brunei? Same again.

Not content with revolutionising the manufacturing business by inventing the production line, the Ford Motor Company has expanded to every continent and even the most obscure countries. Surprisingly for such an expansive brand, the company has steered clear of controversy, concentrating instead of just making reliable, unexciting cars. However, the Ford family, now minor shareholders in the business, have had more than enough controversy to compensate…allegedly

8. Nestle

And while we’re skirting around the issue of big brands in developing countries, here’s Nestle – a brand that has undoubtedly achieved global domination, but with some devastating side effects. A quick glance at their global map reveals how many countries the company works in, and their website talks about their business principles of adding value to the communities they work in, and saying things like “Our core aim is to enhance the quality of consumers lives every day, everywhere by offering tastier and healthier food and beverage choices and encouraging a healthy lifestyle”. Funnily enough, there is no mention of the aggressive marketing of breastmilk substitutes in developing countries that led to an international boycott.

But as far as success in spreading the brand goes, Nestle can certainly claim credit. You can’t go anywhere in the world without seeing their chocolate and their logo is globally recognised. Whether they can truly claim to be “the world’s leading nutrition, health and wellness company” is another question!

9. Nike

With the secretive government of China, it can be difficult for American brands to break into the market. But one sportswear brand decided to “Just Do It”. And they were successful – Nike has made its home on Nanjing Xi Lu, Shanghai, and is the country’s number one sportswear brand. They have apparently done this by “listening to the voice of the Chinese athlete and then applying creative design and technology to meet their needs.” What they don’t mention is that sales are falling in China, although they still dominate the market.

But that’s not the whole extent of Nike’s global presence – they also have headquarters in Japan and the Netherlands, which cover their whole EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) operation. It’s reassuring to know that their “creative design and technology” is reaching everyone who needs it. The less said about the people making those shoes in the same countries the better…

10. Starbucks

Peru is notable for many things, but one thing it is known for is its coffee production. Small farmers produce the beans there that are shipped all over the world. So, you’d expect that when you needed a shot of caffeine in Lima , there would be a host of locally-owned coffee shops to choose from. Well, there probably are but there are also a number of branches of Starbucks. In fact, within a few kilometers of Miraflores (a suburb of Lima), there are 8 outlets. And that’s just one example of Starbucks’ worldwide grip – the brand can also be found in 18 European countries, all the major Asian countries and Australia and New Zealand. Oh and Africa, the Middle East and other parts of South America. With a presence on every continent, you are never far from that green mermaid thing…

Top 10 Most powerful web companies of 2016.

by Unknown 11:17:00

hey everyone...

In the last two decades, the world of business has changed beyond recognition. The high-street retailers that used to dominate the “Richest Companies” list are struggling to keep sales up in face of competition from the internet, and the new super-powers are tech companies, that make all their money online. They can spring from one basic idea – a search engine, a mail server – but they have grown to enormous worldwide brands. True, none of them have yet topped Walmart’s $469bn revenue, but things may change again. For now, here are the Top 10 Most Powerful Web Companies based on revenue from 2016.

1. Amazon

But the biggest web company in the world is, of course, Amazon. Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, Amazon started life as an online bookstore. Then it expanded into the logical, similar product ranges – CDs and DVDs. 20 years on and you can buy almost anything on there, from kitchen utensils to shoes. Its revenue in 2013 was an astounding $61.09bn and it has local sites for 12 countries, with shipping to many more. Of course, it has been accused of everything from tax evasion to undercutting local businesses and for that reason many people choose to boycott the company. But it would take a lot of boycotts to make Amazon take notice as it is a retailer on a different scale to nearly any other and continues to lead the market with innovations like the Kindle and e-books. The definitive web company and certainly the most powerful in the world.

2. Google

Another massive dotcom company is Google, which has become so ubiquitous that its name has made its way into everyday language. No-one searches the web for information any more- if you want to find out something, you google it. Starting out as a search engine, Google has expanded into all aspects of web use, including e-mail, document storage and diary planning. With smartphones set up to sync with a user’s Google account, the message is that you don’t need to use any other system – Google will do everything for you. Depending on how comfortable you are with technology, that could either make you feel excited or a little freaked out. It certainly has implications for users’ privacy, an issue which came to light when members of the public were caught on camera on Google Street View. Still, it’s a megalith of a tech company and weighs in with a mighty revenue of $50.18, making it almost unstoppable.

3. eBay

But it still has a way to go before joining the big three. The revenue suddenly leaps up at this point, with third-largest company eBay being worth $14.07bn. Established in 1995, this auction site has become a runaway phenomenon, with some traders earning their living buying and selling on the site. It has numerous international sites, with offices in 30 countries, and is one of the few on this list to charge fees for its services, making the business model a very straightforward one. Sellers pay to list, whether the item sells or not. As with anywhere that facilitates strangers making financial transactions with each other, there are often disputes and the site has been criticised for always siding with the buyer. But there’s no denying it’s a massive success and is often used as an example of one of the biggest businesses to come out of the “dotcom bubble”.

4. Tencent

The highest-ranking non-American company on the list, this is China’s biggest social networking platform, with an instant messaging system that caters to 647.6million users. There are also online, multi-player games and smartphone services. It has often been accused of being derivative, with founder Ma Huateng saying “[To] copy is not evil”, despite legal precedent suggesting that to copy may be undesirable. However, the copying claims have not affected the site’s popularity, with a revenue of $6.96bn and around 25,000 employees. Other social networking sites are banned in China, thanks to the government limiting contact with the outside world, so Tencent has benefited from the lack of international competitors. In time, it might even join the top 3 of the list.

5. Rakuten

The sole Japanese company in the list, this is an e-commerce company that has swallowed other companies whole and expanded its reach around the globe. It started in May 1997, as Rakuten Shopping Mall, and was renamed as Rakuten Inc in 1999. Its founder, Hiroshi Mikitani, still acts as the Chief Executive today. Since 2010, the company has been rapidly expanding, acquiring buy.com and the French Priceminister, before following it up with the acquisition of the UK’s play.com in 2011. The rapid expansion has raised the revenue to $5.56bn and established the company’s presence in Europe, North America and South America as well as its home territory of Asia. It still has a way to go before taking on the world’s biggest e-commerce company but it is a very viable competitor

6. Priceline

7. Facebook

Ten years younger than Yahoo but widely recognized throughout the world, Facebook is seen as the ultimate social media tool, with around 1bn users and a revenue of $5.09bn. It was started in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, and was intended to be an exclusive site for students of Harvard. It then rolled out to other top universities before being the worldwide megalith that it is now. As with most social media sites, it has its lovers and haters – its users have expressed repeated privacy concerns, when new versions of Facebook reset their privacy setting without warning or explanation. But for many users, it has changed the way they think and operate, relying on the system to remember birthdays, organise events and keep in touch with friends. It’s even got its own syndrome – “Facebook envy“, where users experience feelings of depression through comparing their lives to the edited highlights of others’. It may be a relative newcomer on the scene but its impact on day-to-day life is almost unrivalled.

8. YAHOO !

Yahoo was an early player in the dotcom business, starting life as “Jerry’s guide to the World Wide Web” in January 1994, named after co-founder Jerry Yang. At its birth, it was a list of other websites, arranged in a hierarchy which led to the acronym “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle” or “Yahoo”, the company’s new name in March 1994. It is now a web portal, offering search, news, articles and mail services although the latter has attracted criticism for trying to ape the look and feel of gmail, rather than the distinctive Yahoo Mail of the past. Although the company is lagging behind Google in revenue, it still pulled in an impressive $4.99bn in 2013 and at one point in July 2013 beat Google for visitor numbers. It’s currently headed by CEO Marissa Mayer, named as the 8th most powerful businesswoman in America in 2013 by Fortune.

9. Baidu

Another change that’s happened in the last decade is the rise of Chinese companies. Their National Petroleum Company is now the fourth biggest in the world, with a revenue of $425bn and their tech companies are coming up fast to compete with American ones too. Baidu is China’s biggest search engine and has a revenue of $3.54bn. It also contains the Baidu Baike – the Chinese equivalent of Wikipedia, with 6.2 million articles. Like most Chinese web services, it is highly likely that Baike has been censored according to government regulations, so if you read Chinese don’t believe everything you might find on there! Wikipedia itself has been banned in China since 2005, which has contributed to Baidu’s rise in popularity. It has a 63% market share in China and is planning further expansion into social media.

10. Sales Force

This name might not be as well known as some of the others on the list, but with a revenue of $3.05bn it’s a mighty force in the tech industry. Its sector is cloud computing – taking data storage and communication off hardware and onto virtual servers that can be shared by an entire team. Its natural application is for use by sales teams, but it has a number of different products aimed at different markets. Salesforce.com was founded by Mark Benioff in 1999 and has since acquired a clutch of companies to increase the company value to its current $3 billion. It was also named as one of the best companies to work for by Fortune.

People

Top 10 Most Famous People In 2016

by Unknown 08:49:00

hey everyone...

Every year we’re curious, what the next year will bring to us? Who will survive and who will die? Who will fail and who will succeed? And in fact, some surprises are there in the upcoming year waiting to amaze us.
Among the names in the list of the most important people particularly in 2016, some names are there as expected but some people emerged by proving themselves while competing with their rivals. Mark Zuckerberg is considered as an ideal person for today’s generation with his innovative ideas implemented on his social website ‘Facebook’. On the other hand, politicians including Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Angela Merkel are putting a weight on the index. It’s almost impossible to create a list with no Hollywood celebrity in it. Leonardo, Ryan JB, and a few Hollywood representatives are also included in the list.
The list has the names of the people who’re alive and currently existing with much fame and popularity. No dead person on the individual has been considered. These people noted the highest spikes in traffic over a continuous period in 2015 as compared with 2014. Let’s check out the top 10 the most famous people of 2016 that are recognized and known by a majority of the world’s population.

1. Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actor. Called the King of Pop, his contributions to music, dance and fashionalong with his publicized personal life made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades.

The eighth child of the Jackson family, Michael made his professional debut in 1964 with his elder brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon as a member of the Jackson 5, and began his solo career in 1971. In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. His music videos, including those of "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller" from his 1982 album Thriller, are credited with breaking racial barriers and transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool. The popularity of these videos helped bring the television channel MTV to fame. Jackson's 1987 album Bad spawned the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", and "Dirty Diana", becoming the first album to have five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. He continued to innovate with videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" throughout the 1990s, and forged a reputation as a touring solo artist. Through stage and video performances, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous artists of various music genres.

Thriller is the best-selling album of all time, with estimated sales of 65 million copies worldwide. Jackson's other albums, including Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), and HIStory (1995), also rank among the world's best-selling albums. He is recognized as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time by Guinness World Records. Jackson is one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, and was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Dance Hall of Fame as the only dancer from pop and rock music. His other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records, 13 Grammy Awards, the Grammy Legend Award, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 26 American Music Awards—more than any other artist—including the "Artist of the Century" and "Artist of the 1980s", 13 number-one singles in the United States during his solo career,—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era—and estimated sales of over 350 million records worldwide.Jackson has won hundreds of awards, making him the most awarded recording artist in the history of popular music. He became the first artist in history to have a top ten single in the Billboard Hot 100 in five different decades when "Love Never Felt So Good" reached number nine on May 21, 2014. Jackson traveled the world attending events honoring his humanitarianism, and, in 2000, the Guinness World Records recognized him for supporting 39 charities, more than any other entertainer.

Aspects of Jackson's personal life, including his changing appearance, personal relationships, and behavior, generated controversy. In 1993, he was accused of child sexual abuse, but the civil case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount and no formal charges were brought. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted of further child sexual abuse allegations and several other charges after the jury found him not guilty on all counts. While preparing for his comeback concert series, This Is It, Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25, 2009, after suffering from cardiac arrest. The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled his death a homicide, and his personal physician, Conrad Murray, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Jackson's death triggered a global outpouring of grief, and a live broadcast of his public memorial service was viewed around the world. Forbes ranks Jackson as the top-earning dead celebrity, a title held for a sixth consecutive year, with $115 million in earnings.

2. Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II ( born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office and the first president born outside the continental United States. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School between 1992 and 2004. While serving three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, he ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for the United States House of Representatives in 2000 against incumbent Bobby Rush.

In 2004, Obama received national attention during his campaign to represent Illinois in the United States Senate with his victory in the March Democratic Party primary, his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July, and his election to the Senate in November. He began his presidential campaign in 2007 and, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2008, he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential nomination. He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months after his inauguration, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

During his first two years in office, Obama signed into law economic stimulus legislation in response to the Great Recession in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Other major domestic initiatives in his first term included the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to as "Obamacare"; the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010. In foreign policy, Obama ended U.S. military involvement in the Iraq War, increased U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, signed the New START arms control treaty with Russia, ordered U.S. military involvement in Libya in opposition to Muammar Gaddafi, and ordered the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. In January 2011, the Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives as the Democratic Party lost a total of 63 seats; and, after a lengthy debate over federal spending and whether or not to raise the nation's debt limit, Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.

Obama was reelected president in November 2012, defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney, and was sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2013. During his second term, Obama has promoted domestic policies related to gun control in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and has called for greater inclusiveness for LGBT Americans, while his administration has filed briefs which urged the Supreme Court to strike down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and state level same-sex marriage bans as unconstitutional. In foreign policy, Obama ordered U.S. military intervention in Iraq in response to gains made by ISIL after the 2011 withdrawal from Iraq, continued the process of ending U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, promoted discussions that led to the 2015 Paris Agreement on global climate change, brokered a nuclear deal with Iran, and normalized U.S. relations with Cuba.

3. Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an American programmer, Internet entrepreneur, executive, and philanthropist. He is the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and co-founder of social networking website Facebook. His net worth is estimated to be US$54.5 billion as of September 2016, ranking him as the 5th richest person in the world.

Together with his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, he launched Facebook from Harvard's dormitory rooms. The group then introduced Facebook to other campuses. Facebook expanded rapidly, with one billion users by 2012. Zuckerberg was involved in various legal disputes that were initiated by others in the group, who claimed a share of the company based upon their involvement during the development phase of Facebook.

In December 2012, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced they would give the majority of their wealth over the course of their lives to "advancing human potential and promoting equality" in the spirit of The Giving Pledge.On December 1, 2015, they announced they would give 99% of their Facebook shares (worth about $45 billion at the time) to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Since 2010, Time magazine has named Zuckerberg among the 100 wealthiest and most influential people in the world as a part of its Person of the Year distinction.

4. Steve Jobs

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs ( February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American information technology entrepreneur and inventor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer (CEO) of Apple Inc.; CEO and majority shareholder of Pixar Animation Studios; a member of The Walt Disney Company's board of directors following its acquisition of Pixar; and founder, chairman, and CEO of NeXT Inc. Jobs is widely recognized as a pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Shortly after his death, Jobs's official biographer, Walter Isaacson, described him as a "creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing."

Jobs's countercultural lifestyle and philosophy was a product of the time and place of his upbringing. Jobs was adopted at birth in San Francisco, and raised in a hotbed of counterculture, the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1960s. As a senior at Homestead High School in Cupertino, California, his two closest friends were the older engineering student (and Homestead High alumnus) Wozniak and his girlfriend, the artistically inclined and countercultural Homestead High junior Chrisann Brennan. Jobs and Wozniak bonded over their mutual fascination with Jobs's musical idol Bob Dylan, discussing his lyrics and collecting bootleg reel-to-reel tapes of Dylan's concerts. Jobs later dated Joan Baez who notably had a prior relationship with Dylan. Jobs briefly attended Reed College in 1972 before dropping out. He then decided to travel through India in 1974 seeking enlightenment and studying Zen Buddhism.Jobs's declassified FBI report says an acquaintance knew that Jobs used illegal drugs in college including marijuana and LSD. Jobs told a reporter once that taking LSD was "one of the two or three most important things" he did in his life.

Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976 to sell Wozniak's Apple I personal computer. The duo gained fame and wealth a year later for the Apple II, one of the first highly successful mass-produced personal computers. In 1979, after a tour of Xerox PARC, Jobs saw the commercial potential of the Xerox Alto, which was mouse-driven and had a graphical user interface (GUI). This led to development of the unsuccessful Apple Lisa in 1983, followed by the very successful Macintosh in 1984. In addition to being the first mass-produced computer with a GUI, the Macintosh instigated the sudden rise of the desktop publishing industry in 1985 with the addition of the Apple LaserWriter, the first laser printer to feature vector graphics. Following a long power struggle, Jobs was forced out of Apple in 1985.

After leaving Apple, Jobs took a few of its members with him to found NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in state-of-the-art computers for higher-education and business markets. In addition, Jobs helped to initiate the development of the visual effects industry when he funded the spinout of the computer graphics division of George Lucas's company Lucasfilm in 1986.^[11] The new company, Pixar, would eventually produce the first fully computer-animated film, Toy Story—an event made possible in part because of Jobs's financial support.

In 1997, Apple purchased NeXT, allowing Jobs to become the former's CEO once again. He would return the company, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, back to profitability. Beginning in 1997 with the "Think different" advertising campaign, Jobs worked closely with designer Jonathan Ive to develop a line of products that would have larger cultural ramifications: the iMac, iTunes, Apple Stores, the iPod, the iTunes Store, the iPhone, the App Store, and the iPad. Mac OS was also revamped into Mac OS X, based on NeXT's NeXTSTEP platform.

Jobs was diagnosed with a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor in 2003 and died of respiratory arrest related to the tumor on October 5, 2011.

5. Shakira

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (born February 2, 1977)^[ is a Colombian singer, songwriter, dancer and record producer. Born and raised in Barranquilla, she began performing in school, demonstrating Latin American, Arabic, and rock and roll influences and belly dancing abilities. Shakira released her first studio albums, Magia and Peligro, in the early 1990s, failing to attain commercial success; however, she rose to prominence in Latin America with her major-label debut, Pies Descalzos (1996), and her fourth album, Dónde Están los Ladrones? (1998).

Shakira entered the English-language market with her fifth album, Laundry Service. Its lead single, "Whenever, Wherever", became the best-selling single of 2002. Her success was solidified with her sixth and seventh albums Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 and Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 (2005), the latter of which spawned one of the best-selling songs of the 21st century, "Hips Don't Lie". Shakira's eighth and ninth albums, She Wolf (2009) and Sale el Sol (2010), received critical praise. Her official song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)", became the biggest-selling World Cup song of all time. With over a billion views, it is one of the most-watched music videos on YouTube. Since 2013, Shakira has served as a coach on the American version of The Voice, having appeared in two of its seven seasons—fourth and sixth. Her tenth album, Shakira (2014), is preceded by its lead single, "Can't Remember to Forget You".

Shakira has won many awards, including five MTV Video Music Awards, two Grammy Awards, eight Latin Grammy Awards, seven Billboard Music Awards, 28 Billboard Latin Music Awards and has been Golden Globe-nominated. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and sold between 70 and 125 million records worldwide (depending on the source), making her one of the best selling Latin artists of all time. She carries out well-known philanthropic activities through charity work most notably through her Pies Descalzos Foundation. In 2014, she was listed as the 58th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

6. Osama bin Laden

Usama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden ( March 10, 1957 – May 2, 2011) was the founder of al-Qaeda, the organization that claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks on the United States, along with numerous other mass-casualty attacks worldwide. He was a Saudi Arabian, a member of the wealthy bin Laden family, and an ethnic Yemeni Kindite.

Bin Laden was born to the family of billionaire Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden in Saudi Arabia. He studied at university in the country until 1979, when he joined Mujahideen forces in Pakistan fighting against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. He helped to fund the Mujahideen by funneling arms, money and fighters from the Arab world into Afghanistan, and gained popularity among many Arabs. In 1988, he formed al-Qaeda. He was banished from Saudi Arabia in 1992, and shifted his base to Sudan, until U.S. pressure forced him to leave Sudan in 1996. After establishing a new base in Afghanistan, he declared a war against the United States, initiating a series of bombings and related attacks. Bin Laden was on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) lists of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and Most Wanted Terrorists for his involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings.

From 2001 to 2011, bin Laden was a major target of the War on Terror, as the FBI placed a $25 million bounty on him in their search for him. On May 2, 2011, bin Laden was shot and killedinside a private residential compound in Abbottabad, where he lived with a local family from Waziristan, during a covert operation conducted by members of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group and Central Intelligence Agency SAD/SOG operators on the orders of U.S. President Barack Obama.

7. Bear Grylls

Edward Michael "Bear" Grylls (born 7 June 1974) is a British adventurer, writer and television presenter. He is widely known for his television series Man vs. Wild (2006–2011), originally titled Born Survivor: Bear Grylls in the United Kingdom. Grylls is also involved in a number of wilderness survival television series in the UK and US. In July 2009, Grylls was appointed the youngest-ever Chief Scout in the UK at age 35.

8. Tom Cruise

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), known professionally as Tom Cruise, is an American actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and has won three Golden Globe Awards. He started his career at age 19 in the film Endless Love (1981). After portraying supporting roles in Taps (1981) and The Outsiders (1983), his first leading role was in the romantic comedy Risky Business, released in August 1983. Cruise became a full-fledged movie star after starring as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in the action drama Top Gun (1986). One of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood, Cruise starred in several more successful films in the 1980s, including the dramas The Color of Money (1986), Cocktail (1988), Rain Man (1988), and Born on the Fourth of July (1989).

In the 1990s, he starred in a number of hit films, including the romance Far and Away (1992), the drama A Few Good Men (1992), the legal thriller The Firm (1993), the romantic horror film Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), the romantic comedy-drama sports film Jerry Maguire (1996), the erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut, and the drama Magnolia (both 1999). Since 1996, Cruise has been well known for his role as secret agent Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible film series, whose most recent film, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, was released in 2015.

In the 2000s, Cruise starred in a number of successful films, including the science fiction thrillers Vanilla Sky (2001) and Minority Report (2002), the epic war film The Last Samurai (2003), the crime film Collateral (2004), the science fiction disaster thriller War of the Worlds (2005), and the historical thriller Valkyrie (2008).

In the 2010s, he has starred in the action comedy Knight and Day (2010), the thriller Jack Reacher (2012), the post-apocalyptic science fiction film Oblivion (2013), and the military science fiction film Edge of Tomorrow (2014). In 2012, Cruise was Hollywood's highest-paid actor. 16 of his films grossed over $100 million domestically; 22 have grossed in excess of $200 million worldwide.

He has won Golden Globe Awards for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture in Drama in 1990 for Born on the Fourth of July; Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture in Comedy/Musical in 1997 for Jerry Maguire; and Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture in 2000 for Magnolia. In 2002, Cruise won the Saturn Award for Best Actor for Vanilla Sky. In 2003, he won an AFI Movie of the Year Award for The Last Samurai and an Empire Award for Best Actor for Minority Report.

Cruise is an outspoken advocate for the Church of Scientology and its associated social programs, and credits it with helping him overcome dyslexia. In the 2000s, his criticisms of psychiatry and anti-depressant drugs, particularly therapy for 9/11 rescue workers, and efforts to promote Scientology as a religion in Europe, sparked controversies, as did a leaked video interview of him promoting Scientology.

9. Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, ( born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays for Spanish club Real Madrid and the Portugal national team. He is a forward and serves as captain for Portugal. In 2008, he won his first Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards. He then won the FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2013 and 2014. In 2015, Ronaldo scored his 500th senior career goal for club and country.

Often ranked as the best player in the world, Ronaldo was named the best Portuguese player of all time by the Portuguese Football Federation, during its 100th anniversary celebrations in 2015. He is the only player to win four European Golden Shoe awards. One of the most marketable athletes in sport, in 2016 Forbes named Ronaldo the world's best paid athlete. In June 2016, ESPN ranked him the world's most famous athlete.

Ronaldo began his club career playing for Sporting CP, before signing with Manchester United at age 18 in 2003. After winning his first trophy, the FA Cup, during his first season in England, he helped United win three successive Premier League titles, a UEFA Champions League title, and a FIFA Club World Cup. By age 23, he had received Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations. He was the subject of the most expensive association football transfer when he moved from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2009 in a transfer worth €94 million ($132 million). In Spain, he has since won one La Liga title, two Copas del Rey, two Champions League titles, and a Club World Cup. Ronaldo holds the record for most goals scored in a single UEFA Champions League season, having scored 17 goals in the 2013–14 season. In 2014, Ronaldo became the fastest player to score 200 goals in La Liga, which he accomplished in his 178th La Liga game. He is the only player in the history of football to score 50 or more goals in a season on six consecutive occasions. In 2015, Ronaldo became the all-time top goalscorer in the UEFA Champions League, and he also became Real Madrid's all-time leading goalscorer. He is the second highest goalscorer in La Liga history behind Lionel Messi, his perceived career rival.

Ronaldo made his international debut for Portugal in August 2003, at the age of 18. He is Portugal's most capped player of all time with over 130 caps, and has participated in seven major tournaments: four UEFA European Championships (2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016) and three FIFA World Cups (2006, 2010 and 2014). He is the first Portuguese player to reach 50 international goals, making him Portugal's all-time top goalscorer. He scored his first international goal in Euro 2004 and helped Portugal reach the final. He took over captaincy in July 2008, and he led Portugal to the semi-finals at Euro 2012, finishing the competition as joint-top scorer. In November 2014, Ronaldo became the all-time top scorer in the UEFA European Championship (including qualifying) with 23 goals. At Euro 2016, he became the most capped player of all-time in the tournament, the first player to score at four consecutive European Championship finals, and also equalled Michel Platini's all-time record for most goals scored in the competition. Ronaldo lifted the trophy after Portugal defeated France in the final, and he received the Silver Boot as one of the second-highest goalscorers of the tournament.

10. Paul Walker

Paul William Walker IV (September 12, 1973 – November 30, 2013) was an American actor. Walker began his career guest-starring in several television shows such as The Young and the Restless and Touched by an Angel. Walker gained prominence with breakout roles in coming of age and teen films such as She's All That and Varsity Blues. In 2001, Walker gained international fame for his portrayal of Brian O'Conner in the street racing action film The Fast and the Furious, and would reprise the role in five of the next seven installments. He also starred in films such as Eight Below, Timeline, Into the Blue, Joy Ride and Running Scared.

Besides acting, Walker was the face of The Coty Prestige fragrance brand Davidoff Cool Water for Men, and starred in the National Geographic Channel series, Expedition Great White. He also founded the charity "Reach Out Worldwide" (ROWW), an organization providing relief efforts for areas affected by natural disasters. He was often praised for his off-screen charity work, and as a performer.