Posted on 08/28/2004 2:44:44 PM PDT by tricky_k_1972
Talking about hacking and cyber terrorism.
Sould be Kevin Mitnic.
May I ask what got him put away?
Addiction to hacking. He didn't do anything all that bad, but his ability to do it at all really pissed people off.
Stealing people's money via the internet and creating general mayhem and trouble.
I think it was for trying to hack a bank, but I don't remeber.
Greatest hacker in the world known.
LINKS OF INTEREST
http://www.truthusa.com/LinksOfInterest.html
While no doubt smart and talented, it should be noted that much of Mitnick's Mayhem was caused by social hacking -- or getting stupid people to divulge their accounts and passwords to him.
GOOGLE Search Term: "Kevin Mitnick"
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Kevin+Mitnick%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&filter=0
Ahem. It's Kevin Mitnick. And he was no hacker of merit. His only claim to fame was a keen ability for social engineering. But I'd seen his "skills" in action. They were no great shakes.
Mitnick had a penchant of being a real a-hole. He was always running around, double-crossing people, pissing people off. It finally caught up to him when someone (not Mitnick) broke into Tsutomu Shimomura's system in San Diego. Mitnick did a load of bragging and badmouthing of Shimomura following that Christmas day incident. After that, Shimomura took it on himself to track Mitnick down. It was all over but the shouting then.
By the time all was said and done, two of my colleagues were expert witnesses for the defense in the Mitnick trial. In an odd twist of fate, Mitnick and I even have the same attorney.
Another interesting bit of trivia re: Kevin: He was good friends with Irv Rubin during his childhood in LA. Went to summer camp and practised weapons defense with Irv. Kevin is an interesting dude. His mistake was not stopping when he was ahead. He ripped off a lot of cellphone companies for airtime, and stole code from many companies, including Sun. If he hadn't hacked into Tsutomu's servers, he would never have been on many radar screens. He seems to be doing OK now.
True. He never knew when to leave well enough alone.
He ripped off a lot of cellphone companies for airtime, and stole code from many companies, including Sun.
Funny thing about that: Sun claimed huge losses by the theft of the source code for their SunOS operating system, but the company never posted said losses to their shareholders. As a consequence, their claim ended up not holding any water in court.
If he hadn't hacked into Tsutomu's servers, he would never have been on many radar screens.
Nobody I know believes Kevin had the skill to crack Tsutomu's box. Hell, Kevin couldn't even break into Nyx in Denver (and breaking into that system was like stealing candy from a baby...ask Andrew Burt). It's more probable that Kevin knew someone who cracked Tsutomu's box and only got the big bullseye because he crowed about it the most.
He seems to be doing OK now.
Yeah, he I think his time in Lompoc gave him some perspective and the very clear impression that life has a decidedly sucky quality to it when you're on the wrong side of the law. ; )
Seems like Sun isn't the only one to do that. Acxiom has done the same thing. Claim their damages are in the millions from a hacker, expect to be reimbursed for the losses they claim, but as far as I have been able to determine, did not disclose the losses to their shareholders.
"After that, Shimomura took it on himself to track Mitnick down."
I remember it now. Shimorua was intense, very impressive.
Indeed...often descending into being imperious. He doesn't suffer fools lightly (and I'm completely on board with that), but he can be unnecessarily brusque with people who know what they're doing but don't do things Shimmy's way. Ah well...to each their own.
I agree, but it was the taunting of "Shimmy" that did him in. And the Christmas break-in of Toad Hall's servers, too. Kevin was still a couple levels above a script kiddie, IMNSHO.
That makes one think that perhaps Acxium is lying about the amount of damages. They may be making too much of it.
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