Kevin Mitnick

Kevin David Mitnick (August 6, 1963 – July 16, 2023) was an American computer security consultant, author, and convicted hacker. In 1995, he was arrested for various computer and communications-related crimes, and spent five years in prison after being convicted of fraud and illegally intercepting communications.

Mitnick's pursuit, arrest, trial and sentence were all controversial, as were the associated media coverage, books, and films, with his supporters arguing that his punishment was excessive and that many of the charges against him were fraudulent, and not based on actual losses. After his release from prison, he ran his own security firm, Mitnick Security Consulting, LLC, and was also involved with other computer security businesses.

Early life and education

Mitnick was born on August 6, 1963, Mitnick was Jewish, and grew up in Los Angeles, California.

Mitnick attended James Monroe High School in North Hills, during which time he became a licensed amateur radio operator with callsign WA6VPS (his license was restored after imprisonment with callsign N6NHG). He chose the nickname "Condor" after watching the movie Three Days of the Condor. He was later enrolled at Los Angeles Pierce College and USC. 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. After a warrant was issued for his arrest, Mitnick fled, becoming a fugitive for two-and-a-half years.

According to the United States Department of Justice, Mitnick gained unauthorized access to dozens of computer networks while he was a fugitive. He used cloned cellular phones to hide his location and, among other things, copied valuable proprietary software from some of the country's largest cellular telephone and computer companies. Mitnick also intercepted and stole computer passwords, altered computer networks, and broke into and read private emails.

Arrest, conviction, and incarceration

thumb|alt=Black sans serif text "FREE KEVIN" on a yellow background|Supporters from [[2600: The Hacker Quarterly|2600 Magazine distributed "Free Kevin" bumper stickers.]]

After a well-publicized pursuit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Mitnick on February 15, 1995, at his apartment in Raleigh, North Carolina on federal offenses related to a two-and-a-half-year period of computer hacking that included computer and wire fraud. He was found with cloned cell phones, more than 100 cloned cellular phone codes, and multiple pieces of false identification.

In 1998, Mitnick was charged in the United States District Court for the Central District of California with 14 counts of wire fraud, eight counts of possession of unauthorized access devices, interception of wire or electronic communications, unauthorized access to a federal computer, and causing damage to a computer. As part of a plea bargain, Mitnick pleaded guilty in 1999 to four counts of wire fraud, two counts of computer fraud, and one count of illegally intercepting a wire communication. U.S. district judge Mariana Pfaelzer sentenced Mitnick to 46 months in federal prison plus 22 months for violating the terms of his 1989 supervised release sentence for computer fraud. He admitted to violating the terms of supervised release by hacking into Pacific Bell voicemail and other systems and to associating with known computer hackers, in this case co-defendant Lewis De Payne.

Mitnick served five years in prison—four-and-a-half years' pre-trial and eight months in solitary confinement, because, according to Mitnick, law enforcement officials convinced a judge that he had the ability to "start a nuclear war by whistling into a pay phone", implying that law enforcement told the judge that he could somehow dial into the NORAD modem via a payphone from prison and communicate with the modem by whistling to launch nuclear missiles. In addition, a number of media outlets reported on the unavailability of kosher meals at the prison where he was incarcerated.

Mitnick was released from prison on January 21, 2000. During his supervised release period, which ended on January 21, 2003, he was initially forbidden to use any communications technology other than a landline telephone. Under the plea deal, Mitnick was also prohibited from profiting from films or books based on his criminal activity for seven years, under a variation of the Son of Sam law.

In December 2001, a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) judge ruled that Mitnick was sufficiently rehabilitated to possess a federally issued amateur radio license.

Controversy

Mitnick's criminal activities, arrest, and trial, along with the associated journalism, were all controversial. his supporters argue that his punishment was excessive and that many of the charges against him were fraudulent

The case against Mitnick tested the new laws that had been enacted for dealing with computer crime and it raised public awareness of security involving networked computers. The controversy remains and the Mitnick story is often cited today as an example of the influence of news media on law enforcement personnel.

Consulting

After his release in 2000, Mitnick became a security consultant, public speaker, and author.

In 2002, Mitnick co-founded Defensive Thinking Inc with Alex Kasperavičius.

He ran Mitnick Security Consulting LLC, a computer security consultancy, and was part owner and Chief Hacking Officer at KnowBe4, the provider of an integrated platform for security awareness training and simulated phishing testing. Elements of the original CSEPS material were incorporated into KnowBe4's training offerings. He also served on the advisory board of Zimperium, a mobile security company specializing in mobile intrusion prevention systems.

He resided in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Death

Mitnick died from pancreatic cancer on July 16, 2023, at the age of 59 at a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania hospital. Kimberley remains active in the cybersecurity and hacking communities.

Media

thumb|Hacker [[Adrian Lamo (arrested 2003), Kevin Mitnick, and reformed hacker Kevin Poulsen (released from prison 1996) (photo 2001)]]

In 2000, Skeet Ulrich and Russell Wong portrayed Mitnick and Tsutomu Shimomura, respectively, in the movie Track Down (known as Takedown outside the US), which was based on the book Takedown by John Markoff and Shimomura. The DVD was released in September 2004. From 2000 to 2002, Mitnick co-hosted DarkSide of the Internet, a two-hour weekly radio program on KFI in Los Angeles. Mitnick also appeared in Werner Herzog's documentary Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (2016).

Books

About Mitnick

Several books were written about Mitnick's hacking activities, prosecution, and later public career:

(1995) Cyberpunk – Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier, by Katie Hafner and John Markoff,
(1996) The Cyberthief and the Samurai: The True Story of Kevin Mitnick-And the Man Who Hunted Him Down, by Jeff Goodell,
(1996) Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw—By the Man Who Did It, by Tsutomu Shimomura and John Markoff,
(1996) The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick, by Jonathan Littman,

Written by Mitnick

Mitnick was the co-author, with William L. Simon and Robert Vamosi, of four books, three on computer security and one autobiography:

(2002) The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security,
(2005) The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders & Deceivers,
(2011) Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker,
(2017) The Art of Invisibility,

References

Bibliography

Government documents

Articles

Film, television and radio

DarkSide of the Internet (2000–2002), a two-hour weekly radio program on KFI in Los Angeles
Freedom Downtime (2001)
"Doppelgänger", an episode of Alias (2001) – cameo as CIA Agent Burnett
Track Down (2000; released in the United States in 2004 as Takedown)
The Secret History of Hacking (2001)
The Inside Man – cameo as himself
Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (2016)