| Kevin Mitnick | |
|---|---|
| Criminal penalty | 1988: One year prison. 1999: 46 months prison plus 3 years' probation |
| Call sign | N6NHG |
| Website | https://www.mitnicksecurity.com |
On August 10, 1999, Judge Pfaelzer sentenced Mitnick to three years and 10 months in prison, granting him credit for time served, to be followed by three years of probation.
He broke into DEC's computer network and copied the company's software, a crime for which he was charged and convicted in 1988. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Near the end of his supervised release, Mitnick hacked into Pacific Bell voicemail computers.
The FBI finally caught up with Mitnick in February 1995 after he hacked into the computer of Tsutomo Shimomura, a research scientist.
Gary McKinnonNationalityBritishOther namesSoloCitizenshipUnited KingdomKnown forComputer hacking2 more rows
Mitnick did not get 15 years but was sentenced and served five years in prison for his hacking. When he was finally released, he was not legally able to profit from books or films for seven years.
Kevin Mitnick’s estimated net worth is now around 15 million dollars . Frank Jones has loved computers from the age of 13.
Kevin Mitnick’s early hacking exploits. Kevin Mitnik was born in 1963. When he was 12 years old, he used social engineering even before the phrase “social engineering” existed. Kevin told a bus driver that he needed some information for a school project.
The heyday of hacking was before the Internet even existed. There are amazing and exciting stories about hackers who hacked for notoriety, money, street cred, and just for personal accomplishment. Before the Internet, there were still many targets for hackers. Hackers reverse engineered casino games like slot machines.
Mitnick the Fugitive. Mitnick was hiding in the Denver area and using a false name and false ID. He continued hacking and broke into dozens of computer networks, intercepted passwords, broke into private email systems, and did many other things that hackers like to do. It was like he just could not stop.
Mitnick was playing a game of cat and mouse with the FBI and some computer researchers who had been the target of Mitnick’s hacks. Cell towers and mobile antennas were used to track Mitnick to his apartment.
Kevin then “dumpster dived” to get un-punched bus transfer tickets. Then he used the punch machine on the tickets to “hack” himself free bus rides.
He would go on to serve five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release during which time he was forbidden to use a computer.
Kevin Mitnick Live at CeBIT. He is the most famous hacker of the world – and at CeBIT Global Conferences 2015 he performs a hack live on center stage: Kevin Mitnick. YouTube. cebitchannel. 16.2K subscribers.
Did you know – The hack Kevin’s most proud of is the Motorola hack in which he convinced an employee to send him the code of the MicroTAC Ultra Lite cell phone.
In support of encrypted emails, private key management is very important. A private key should never be shared with anybody. Also, protecting metadata is required to become truly invisible in the digital world. “The hacker mindset doesn’t actually see what happens on the other side, to the victim.”. – Kevin Mitnick.
Did you know – When Kevin Mitnick began hacking back in the 1970s there were no laws against it.
Did you know – Kevin spent his first year in prison in solitary confinement because the prosecutor told the judge that if he got to a phone he could connect to NORAD and somehow launch an ICBM.
Did you know – After he was released from prison, Kevin obtained the license plate “X HACKER” for his Nissan.
Kevin Mitnick eventually spent 5 years in prison, including 4 and a half years of pre-trial imprisonment and 8 months of solitary confinement. He was eventually released from prison on January 21, 2000. His supervised release came to an end on January 21, 2003.
He then spent 5 years in jail. After the end of his supervised release in 2003, he focused on ethical hacking and providing cyber-security solutions to corporates and the government. He established the consulting company Mitnick Security Consulting and the IT training company KnowBe4.
At a time when his supervised release was about to end, Kevin hacked into the voice-mail computers of Pacific Bell. An arrest warrant was issued in his name, following which he spent almost 3 years on the run. As a fugitive, Kevin Mitnick reportedly gained unauthorized access to numerous computer networks.
Kevin Mitnick was interested in hacking since childhood. When he was 12, he used social engineering (and unused slips that he found in a dumpster) to hoodwink the card-punching system of the Los Angeles bus system.
He also copied software owned by some of the U.S.’s biggest telecom and computer companies. Kevin also stole computer passwords, changed computer networks, and hacked into private e-mails. He soon came to be known as “The Condor” and “The Darkside Hacker.”.
Kevin Mitnick was eventually charged with 14 counts of wire fraud and eight counts of possession of unauthorized access devices, apart from other crimes such as gaining unauthorized access to a federal computer system and damaging a computer.
Kevin has also co-written (with William L. Simon and Robert Vamosi) four bestselling books: The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security (2003), The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders and Deceivers (2005), the autobiography Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker (2011, a New York Times bestseller), and The Art of Invisibility: The World's Most Famous Hacker Teaches You How to Be Safe in the Age of Big Brother and Big Data (a book on cyber privacy, released in 2017). All four books have been translated into 20 languages and are available in more than 50 countries.
Still, Mitnick blazed a small legal trail by winning the right to use a laptop computer at the jail to review the mountain of electronic evidence the government has compiled against him - enough data to fill a library if it were printed out, Randolph said.
Vinson, Mitnick’s lawyer, said his client has not yet decided how he will try to make ends meet and pay off the $4,125 in restitution he has been ordered to pay.
It is clear, however, that Mitnick is eager to tell his side of a story that has been related many times by others, beginning in 1991 when he was a featured player in the book “Cyberpunk” by Katie Hafner and John Markoff. Markoff, a New York Times reporter, later wrote a second book, “Takedown,” which chronicled the hunt for and eventual capture of Mitnick after he violated probation and became a fugitive. The case also inspired several other books and a feature movie of “Takedown,” release of which apparently has been delayed by a defamation of character lawsuit filed by Mitnick.
Finally, under a plea bargain announced in March 1999, Mitnick stipulated that he caused $5 million to $10 million in damage while invading computers and was sentenced to another 10 months in jail.
Mitnick was captured in February 1995 by federal agents in North Carolina, with the assistance of computer security expert Tsutomu Shimomura, after nearly 2 1/2 years on the run.
In a statement outside the prison grounds, Mitnick took issue with his portrayal by prosecutors and in the media as a master computer criminal.
In an advance glimpse of the interview offered by the network, Mitnick echoed his statement upon his release saying he did it for fun, never profit.
Mitnick pleaded guilty to some charges and served five years in prison (including eight months spent in solitary confinement), then spent two more years in supervised release before all restrictions were lifted.
Mitnick already had a long history of fiddling with computer networks and telephone systems before his 1995 arrest. His first hack, if that's what it was, occurred when Mitnick was 12.
1995: Perhaps the most celebrated cracking case in history begins with the arrest of Kevin Mitnick by the FBI on charges of wire fraud and breaking into the computer systems of several major corporations . The case bestowed upon Mitnick a sort of antihero status while raising the consciousness of hacking and computer security in ...
He continues to enjoy his quasi-celebrity status, is sought after as a public speaker and still hangs out with his good buddy, Steve Wozniak. In 2011, he published Ghost in the Wires, a chronicle of his legendary exploits.
Mitnick first received national attention in 1982 when he hacked into the North American Defense Command (NORAD), a feat that inspired the 1983 film "War Games." Also during the 1980s, he gained temporary control of three central telephone offices in New York City and all the phone switching centers in California.
Mitnick is said to have used the name "Condor," after the Robert Redford character in the movie "Three Days of the Condor," during his time on the run.
Randolph said he believed the government was being especially harsh with Mitnick to discourage hackers and cyberterrorists.
Mitnick once worked in Denver under the alias id Eric Weiss at the Law firm of Holme, Roberts and Owen. Kevin Mitnick was in Denver to give a presentation to BBVA Compass bank clients on March 13, 2018 at the Halcyon Hotel in Denver Colorado. Kevin Mitnick made headlines in 1995 when he was arrested by the FBI for hacking computers.
Convicted computer hacker Kevin Mitnick, right, declines to answer any questions from the media, after reading a statement in an improvised news conference early Friday, Jan. 21, 2000, after being released from the Federal Correction Institute in Lompoc, Calif. Jim Bounds, Raleigh News & Observer via Associated Press file.
After prison, Mitnick started using his hacking skills for good as a consultant at Mitnick Security and public speaker. In 2012, he joined cybersecurity firm KnowBe4 as its Chief Hacking Officer. Despite his criminal background, Mitnick has won fans in the security, government and financial communities. The Tuesday event capped a 13-city tour with BBVA bank.
Yet, he kept at it through his 20s and became a fugitive in 1992. He picked Denver because of the Rocky Mountains, and it was “as far away as I’ve ever been in my life,” Mitnick said. “I just started creating resumes and looking at newspapers.
Said Markoff in an email: “What he did as an outlaw was to exploit the best quality in people — their desire to help. … Remember, he spent five years in prison for stealing software from a range of companies. He was sharing the software with an Israeli citizen. The cost to the companies was enormous. He also did lasting damage to individuals who lost their jobs as a result of his activities — something he has never acknowledged responsibility for.”
Mitnick told The Denver Post he does have regrets, especially after learning people lost their jobs at the Denver law firm, which is now part of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner.
While the FBI was hunting down notorious hacker Kevin Mitnick in the early 1990s, a newcomer named Erik Weisz showed up in Denver, moved into an apartment on 16th Street and got an IT job at a local law firm.