Susan Headley

Known as Susan Thunder, Headley ran with the same phreaking crowd as a young Kevin Mitnick. Her strength was not the technology but social engineering: call a switchboard or an operations desk, sound authoritative, walk away with whatever was needed. It was the same method Mitnick would later make famous.

The group broke up acrimoniously in the early 1980s and Headley testified against her former associates. She later appeared in public to show how easily staff could be talked into things, then left the scene to play poker professionally — another line of work that rewards reading people.