Kevin Mitnick could
be classified as one of the first hackers. Kevin was intrigued by magic at a
young age. His fascination with magic and the art of practicing it until perfect
was how he discovered his enjoyment in fooling people. At the age of twelve an
unknowing bus driver let him know where he could get a punch for a bus card,
with that he would go to the dumpsters behind the station and get old cards and
thus began his career. When Kevin got to high school he met up with a student
that introduced him to phone phreaking (a type of hacking that allows you to
explore the telephone network by exploiting the phone systems and phone company
employees.) This was ultimately his introduction to social-engineering. Kevin's
hacking career started when he was in high school. In the 70's the term hacker meant
a person who spend a great deal of time tinkering with hardware and software,
either to develop more efficient programs or to bypass unnecessary steps and
get the job done more quickly. Today the term has become more negative and
means "malicious criminal."
Kevin studied computers at the Computer Learning Center in Los
Angeles. He found vulnerability in the operating system and gained privileges
that he should not have. The best experts on the staff could not figure out how
he done it so they offered him an ultimatum: Do an honors project to enhance
the school's computer security or face suspension. He chose to do the project
and ended up graduating with honors ands well as being one of the earliest
examples of “hire the hacker." The cycle of events that would change his
life would start when he became the subject of a July 4th story in the New York
Times. Overnight he changed from a nuisance hacker into Public Enemy Number One
according to John Markoff (who wrote the story.)
The following are confirmed criminal acts
·
Using
the Los Angeles bus transfer system to get free rides
·
Evading
the FBI
·
Hacking
into DEC system(s) to view VMS source code (DEC reportedly spent $160,000 in
cleanup costs)
·
Gaining
full administrator privileges to an IBM minicomputer at the Computer Learning
Center in Los Angeles in order to win a bet
·
Hacking
Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu Siemens systems
The following are alleged criminal acts
· Stole computer manuals from a Pacific Bell telephone switching
center in Los Angeles
· Read the e-mail of computer security officials at MCI
Communications and Digital[8]
· Wiretapped the California DMV
· Made free cell phone calls
· Hacked Santa Cruz Operation, Pacific Bell, FBI, Pentagon,
Novell, California Department of Motor Vehicles, University of Southern
California and Los Angeles Unified School District systems.
· Wiretapped FBI agents, according to John Markoff. This
was denied by Kevin Mitnick
· Broke into his local cellphone network and tracked the
FBI agents who were after him, when the agents were close, he cleaned all the
evidence and left a labeled 'FBI Donuts' box for them.
After a pursuit in 1995
the FBI arrested Mitnick at his home in North Carolina on federal
offenses related to a two and a half year period of computer hacking. Mitnick
served 5 years in prison, four and a half years pre-trial and eight months in
solitary confinement. The solitary was because, according to MitnickMitnick,
officials believed he had the ability to start a nuclear war by whistling into
a pay phone. He was released in 2000, with technology restrictions limiting him
to only the use of a landline telephone. Mitnick fought this and won the ruling
and got to access the internet. Mitnick now runs Mitnick Security Consulting.
In my opinion the punishment did not fit the crime. The
breeches in security should have not been there for him to find, had it not
been for him I feel that people with worse intentions could have had more
harmful actions.
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