There have been many famous names and groups that have helped shape the world of Information security and hacking.

Black Hat's
Eric Corley(aka Emmanuel Goldstein)
Kevin Mitnick(aka Condor)
Kevin Poulsen(aka Dark Dante)
Robert Tappan Morris
Vladimir Levin
Mark Abene(aka Phiber Optik)
Chris Goggans(aka Erik Bloodaxe)
Nahshon Even-Chaim(aka Phoenix)
Richard Jones(aka Electron)

White Hat's
Steve Wozniak
Linus Torvalds
Richard Stallman
Free Software Foundation
Legion of Doom
Masters of Deception
CCC (Chaos Computer Club)
L0pht