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Mitnick is perhaps synonymous with Hacker. The Department of Justice still refers to him as “the most wanted computer criminal in United States history.” His accomplishments were memorialized into two Hollywood movies: Takedown and Freedom Downtime.
Mitnick got his start by exploiting the Los Angeles bus punch card system and getting free rides. Then similar to Steve Wozniak, of Apple, Mitnick tried Phone Phreaking. Mitnick was first convicted for hacking into the Digital Equipment Corporation’s computer network and stealing software.
Mitnick then embarked on a two and a half year coast to coast hacking spree. He has stated that he hacked into computers, scrambled phone networks, stole corporate secrets and hacked into the national defense warning system. His fall came when he hacked into fellow computer expert and hacker Tsutomu Shimomura’s home computer.
Mitnick is now a productive member of society. After serving 5 years and 8 months in solitary confinement, he is now a computer security author, consultant and speaker.
n 1999, Mitnick admitted to the authorities to illegally gaining access to computer networks and acquiring copies of software as part of a plea agreement before the United States District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles. Though Mitnick has been convicted of computer related crimes and possession of several forged identification documents, his supporters argue that his punishment was excessive. In his 2002 book, The Art of Deception, Mitnick states that he compromised computers solely by using passwords and codes that he gained by social engineering. Mitnick did not use software programs or hacking tools for cracking passwords or otherwise exploiting computer or phone security.
Mitnick served five years in prison, of which four and a half years were pre-trial, and eight months were in solitary confinement. He was released on January 21, 2000. During his supervised release, which ended on January 21, 2003, he was initially restricted from using any communications technology other than a landline telephone. Mitnick fought this decision in court, and the judge ruled in his favor, allowing him to access the Internet.
Kevin Mitnick began social engineering, or perhaps discovered his first engineerable situation at the age of 12. He realized he could bypass the punchcard system used for the Los Angeles bus system: by buying his own punch, he could get free bus rides anywhere in the greater LA area. Social engineering became his primary method of obtaining information, whether it be user names and passwords, modem phone numbers or any number of other pieces of data.
In high school, he was introduced by “Petronix” to phone phreaking, the activity of manipulating telephones, which he often used to evade long distance charges. Mitnick also became handy with amateur radios; using such equipment, Mitnick reportedly managed to gain unauthorized access to the speaker systems of nearby fast food restaurants.
Mitnick gained unauthorized access to his first computer network in 1979, when a friend gave him the phone number for the Ark, the computer system at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) used for developing their RSTS/E operating system software. He broke into DEC’s computer network and copied DEC’s software, for which he was later convicted. This was the first of a series of run-ins with the law.
In August 20, 2006, Kevin Mitnick’s site was defaced by a Pakistani group called FBH and the French hacktivist DkD[|| (http://www.zone-h.org/content/view/14073/31) with offensive messages against him. The domain names defensivethinking.com, mitsec.com, kevinmitnick.com and mitnicksecurity.com displayed the vandalism for hours before the affected files were replaced.
Mitnick commented:
The Web hosting provider that hosts my sites was hacked, fortunately, I don’t keep any confidential data on my Web site, so it wasn’t that serious. Of course it is embarrassing to be defaced—nobody likes it.
As a notorious figure, Mitnick has been targeted by hackers who wish to bolster their status and for people seeking to prove their abilities.
Zone-H reports that on one occasion, there was a struggle between different black hat and white hat hackers when some defacers put their nicks on Mitnick’s site and fans replaced the vandalized copy with an original unmodified one. This went on for a full day.
Documentation via wikipedia.org and picture gtsav.gatech.edu database.
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