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.
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.