Kevin David Mitnick was born on August 6, 1963, and he is one of the most famous criminal hackers to be put in prison. He received the nickname “America’s Most Wanted Computer Outlaw,” by the police, US Marshall’s, and FBI for over two years after vanishing while on probation for his 1989 conviction for computer and access device fraud. Mitnick had previously been convicted in 1981 of destroying data over a computer network and with stealing operator’s manuals from the telephone company. In 1983 he was convicted of breaking into a Pentagon computer over the ARPANET from a USC campus terminal room. Several years later he went underground for more than a year after being accused of tampering with a TRW credit reference computer; an arrest warrant was issued, but it later vanished from police records without explanation.
He was convicted of stealing software from the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) in December 1987. In 1988 Mitnick pleaded guilty to one count of computer fraud and one count of possessing illegal long-distance access codes after being caught for nightly attacks attempting to gain entry to Digital’s corporate computer network, known as Easynet, in order to steal a copy of Digital’s VMS minicomputer operating system. That was the fifth time that Mitnick had been apprehended for a computer crime, and the case attracted nationwide attention because, in an unusual plea bargain, he agreed to one year in prison and six months in a counseling program for his computer “addiction.
His downfall was his Christmas 1994 break-in to Tsutomu Shimomura’s computers in San Diego, California. Less than two months later, Tsutomu had tracked him down after a cross-country electronic pursuit. Mitnick was arrested by the FBI in Raleigh, North Carolina, on February 15th, 1995. He was convicted of wire fraud and breaking into the computer systems of Fujitsu, Motorola, Nokia, and Sun Microsystems.
While he was on the run, he broke into countless computers, intercepted private electronic communications, and copied off personal and confidential materials. Among the materials he copied off and stashed in readily accessible locations around the Net were personal electronic mail, stolen passwords, and proprietary software. Much of the stolen software was the trade secret source code to key products in which companies has invested many millions of dollars of development effort in order to maintain their competitive edge. His activities on the systems he broke in to, often altering information,
corrupting system software, and eavesdropping on users, sometimes prevented or impeded legitimate use. He tried to stay a step ahead of the law by using cloned cellular
telephones and stolen cellular and internet service for many of his intrusions.
Mitnick was charged in North Carolina with 23 counts of access device fraud for his activities shortly before his arrest. In order to expedite his return to California, he agreed to plead guilty to one count and have his case consolidated in Los Angeles. In California, he was charged with an additional 25 counts of access device, wire, and computer fraud.
On March 16, 1999, Mitnick plead guilty to five of these counts and two additional counts from the Northern District of California. He was sentenced to 46 months and three years probation, to be served in addition to eight months for his North Carolina plea and 14 months for his probation violation. He was released from prison on January 21, 2000, being eligible for early release after serving almost 60 months of his 68 month sentence. During his supervised release, Mitnick was restricted from using any type of communications technology other than a landline telephone.
As the world’s most famous reformed hacker, Kevin Mitnick has been the subject of countless news and magazine articles published throughout the world. Currently he is working as a security consultant to corporations worldwide and he is the cofounder of Defensive Thinking, a Los Angeles-based consulting firm. Mitnick has testified before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs on the need for legislation to ensure the security of the government’s information systems.
His articles have appeared in major news magazines and trade journals. He has also appeared on Court TV, Good Morning America, 60 Minutes, CNN’s Burden of Proof and Headline News. Kevin Mitnick has also been a keynote speaker at numerous industry events and has hosted a weekly radio show on KFI-AM 640 in Los Angeles. Kevin Mitnick usually makes semi-annual appearances on the popular late-night radio show “Coast to Coast AM.” Mitnick guest starred in a first season episode of Alias. The casting was an in-joke, since Mitnick played a CIA hacker. Due to the conditions of his parole, however, the computer he used in the scene was a prop. Kevin Mitnick was a keynote speaker at the IAPP (International Association of Privacy Professionals) Privacy Academy in Las Vegas, NV, October, 2005. He offers security consulting services through his company Mitnick Security Consulting, LLC and has co-authored two books on computer security.
