It's OK To Remove Your 'Free Kevin' Bumpersticker — Noted Hacker Back Online
	found on CNN written by allcaps, edited by Humberto (Plastic) [ read unedited ] posted Mon 20 Jan 12:59pm
		"Kevin Mitnick, possibly the world's most famous hacker, will get back online for the first time in eight years, on the TechTV show 'The Screen Savers'," writes allcaps. "Mitnick, now 39, has been on probation for 'wire and computing fraud and intercepting communications and has been on supervised release since then, with restrictions on his travel, employment and use of technology. He has been allowed to use a cell phone and computer, but not one connected to the Internet'. The return to the networked world marks a new step in Mitnick's hacking career, which started as a teenage passion for ham radio and graduated to phreaking and eventually to breaking into systems at Sun, Motorola, Novell and other corporations. His exploits and the government's efforts to 'make an example of him' have given him a notoriety arguably greater than that of Napster founder Shawn Fanning or Norwegian DeCSS creator Jon Johansen, both of whom have faced criminal charges, or just about anyone else in the Hacker Hall of Fame. Recently, he received a visit from Kevin Spacey, who is apparently interested in playing Mitnick in a film on the subject (one has already been made starring Skeet Ulrich). Now that he's coming back online, Mitnick has remade himself, interviewing with companies to work in security and hacking prevention, saying, 'Now, of course, my attitudes and beliefs and values have changed. I deserved to be punished for my hacking, but the punishment didn't fit the crime. I kind of won the scapegoat sweepstakes.' Still at issue is that Mitnick can't make any money off his story until 2010, which he plans to fight. Should he be able, finally, to profit from his story, or has he already got more exposure than money can buy? More importantly, now that he now is free to surf, what are these guys going to do?

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show almost all: 19 commentsbest: 2 comments by oldest first (ignore threads) newest first highest scores first oldest first newest first (ignore threads)

2.  OT: Whatever happened to "Takedown - The Movie"   by BrotherMcKenzie       at Mon 20 Jan 1:56pm score of 1     I know one was made a couple of years ago starring Skeet "pseudo Depp" Ulrich, but have heard nothing since then. Was this movie ever released?   [ ...reply just to this | comment on the story... | next new ]

4.  Re: OT: Whatever happened to "Takedown - The   by Nephthys       at Mon 20 Jan 4:50pm score of 1   in reply to comment 2     I don't know, but his book, "The Art of Deception" is (unintentionally) hilarious. This book, purporting to teach corporations how to protect against social engineering attacks, is more valuable as a "how to". Cake or Death? Cake, please.   [ ...reply just to this | comment on the story... | next new ]   7.  The attacks aren't exactly a secret.   by sideshow       at Tue 21 Jan 10:55am score of 1   in reply to comment 4     Scam artists have been doing this shit for hundreds (thousands maybe?) of years. Businesses, for some reason, are oblivious to most basic of this attacks and Mitnick is attempting to make them less ignorant. Hollow words will burn and hollow men will burn.   [ ...reply just to this | comment on the story... | next new ]   5.  Re: OT: Whatever happened to "Takedown - The Movie   by automaticvenus       at Mon 20 Jan 6:32pm score of 1.5 brilliant   in reply to comment 2     It was released in France. In the U.S., it's supposedly mired in lawsuits. I say supposed because I've read in 2600 how the defamation suit doesn't exist. It did so poorly in France, my guess is we won't be seeing an official release anytime soon. However, you can download the movie off the net but I'm not sure if you want to waste the bandwidth. I never trust Hollywood with hacker movies.   [ ...reply just to this | comment on the story... | next new ]

3.  What would 2600 do?   by tomaxxamot       at Mon 20 Jan 4:08pm score of 2.5 succinct     More importantly, now that he now is free to surf, what are these guys going to do? They'll continue in the same vein that they have been - bringing attention to cases like this and this and to legislation like this and this. 2600, despite its frequent typos and bad layout, is arguably one of the most important computer magazines available - focusing on "cybercrime" cases that are otherwise ignored or sensationalized by the mainstream media. The Mitnick case was a good example of 2600's purpose - without the magazine's coverage, Mitnick would have been vilified for a month or two and forgotten, without anyone ever considering the fact that he was imprisoned for months without being charged with a crime. Instead, because 2600 was in his corner evangelizing about cyber rights, Mitnick, the stereotypical hacker from the era of the MoD and Captain Crunch Whistles as phreaking devices ended up the subject matter of a major movie and being courted by TechTV. Spread the News - the Ego has Landed.   [ ...reply just to this | comment on the story... | next new ]

6.  Re: What would 2600 do?   by Killjoy       at Tue 21 Jan 7:49am score of 1   in reply to comment 3     "Instead, because 2600 was in his corner evangelizing about cyber rights, Mitnick, the stereotypical hacker from the era of the MoD and Captain Crunch Whistles as phreaking devices ended up the subject matter of a major movie and being courted by TechTV." I have not seen the (slightly less than) major movie, however while it was in production I read summaries and excerpts from the script's various incarnations in 2600 and Phrack. Assuming a degree of accuracy in the aforementioned, had the movie really been major it would not have done Mr. Mitnick any favors in the public eye. Then again, "Hackers" probably didn't do him any favors in the public eye. For a few hours after being subjected to this film, I had to remind myself that A) Any colorfully dressed rollerbladers that I happened across were not really style-over-substance jargon-mangling wannabe hackers, and therefore B) did not deserve being pushed into traffic. My, I'm cranky in the morning. Step 2. Smite enemies with burning pigs.   [ ...reply just to this | comment on the story... | next new ]   9.  Re: What would 2600 do?   by sammy baby       at Tue 21 Jan 2:25pm score of 1.5 informative   in reply to comment 6     I have not seen the (slightly less than) major movie, however while it was in production I read summaries and excerpts from the script's various incarnations in 2600 and Phrack. Assuming a degree of accuracy in the aforementioned, had the movie really been major it would not have done Mr. Mitnick any favors in the public eye. For example: in one scene (apparently: I've not read the script, nor seen the film), he whistles tones into a payphone to deceive it into thinking he has inserted change. In another, he is described as having written a virus which he intends to upload to the Internet: according to one character, "You can crash Air Force One with this virus. Hell, you can crash Wall Street with this virus." Scary stuff. And stupid. Check out Emmanuel Goldstein's review of the first and second versions of the script for more howlers. - in my plastic heart, forever, for art: what kind of lover am I? (e. mckeown)   [ ...reply just to this | comment on the story... | next new ]   13.  Re: What would 2600 do?   by chatsubo       at Wed 22 Jan 9:11am score of 1   in reply to comment 6     has there ever been any realistic hacker films? And more importantly, would anybody want to watch one? Wargames is good for the social engineering part, but watching a guy spend sixteen hours trying to brute force a password, or sniffing packets (as I believe you youngsters say) would be dull in the extreme. Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do   [ ...reply just to this | comment on the story... | next new ]   10.  Re: What would 2600 do?   by marduk_kur       at Tue 21 Jan 11:15pm score of 2 informative   in reply to comment 9     in one scene (apparently: I've not read the script, nor seen the film), he whistles tones into a payphone to deceive it into thinking he has inserted change. Uhh, they really did that, back in the day. Blue Box The mother of all boxes (phone phreaking devices). The first box in history, which started the whole phreaking scene. Invented by John Draper (aka "Captain Crunch") in the early 60s, who discovered that by sending a tone of 2600Hz over the telephone lines of AT&T, it was possible to make free calls. In the 1960s the makers of Cap'n Crunch breakfast cereal offered a toy-whistle prize in every box as a treat for the Cap'n Crunch set. Somehow John Draper (who called himself "Captain Crunch" since then) discovered that the toy whistle just happened to produce a perfect 2600-cycle tone. When the man was transferred overseas to England with his Air Force unit, he would receive scores of calls from his friends and "mute" them -- make them free of charge to them -- by blowing his Cap'n Crunch whistle into his end. Phreaking is funny. Sad lad, he really couldn't handle starting from scratch on the very first level. But he died the death of a warrior.   [ ...reply just to this | comment on the story... | next new ]   16.  Re: What would 2600 do?   by flarp       at Wed 22 Jan 3:28pm score of 1   in reply to comment 10     the bluebox tone does something entirely different - the device for replicating the beeps that cheat operators into thinking you've put coins in a payphone is a red box   [ ...reply just to this | comment on the story... | next new ]   17.  Re: What would 2600 do?   by sammy baby       at Thu 23 Jan 9:53am score of 1   in reply to comment 10     Even then, though, they used a Captain Crunch whistle (hence the name, of both the individual and the magazine 2600). Not their unaided lips. - in my plastic heart, forever, for art: what kind of lover am I? (e. mckeown)   [ ...reply just to this | comment on the story... | next new ]   18.  Re: What would 2600 do?   by OSULugan       at Thu 23 Jan 9:56am score of 1.5 informative   in reply to comment 13     has there ever been any realistic hacker films? You mean The Net wasn't realistic? I get the biggest kick out of the little things, like in Office Space when they save the "virus" to the floppy disk, it is indeed named as such. Why? Wargames is good for the social engineering part, but watching a guy spend sixteen hours trying to brute force a password, or sniffing packets (as I believe you youngsters say) would be dull in the extreme. You mean the kind of things that he actually did in the movie? The "War-dialer" gets it's name from the movie, being a "packet-sniffer" of sorts back when the internet wasn't so commercialized. Once he "found" the number he was looking for, he then hacked into the account. Granted, he didn't get into the extreme of hooking up his computer and running a dictionary file through, but back in those days, on a connection so blazingly fast that you had to place your phone receiver on the modem (read: 300 baud, max), doing a brute-force hack would've taken months. On a side note, IIRC, the 2600 Hz tone didn't simulate coins coming through, but simulated a trunk signal through the phone system, essentially telling it that you were an operator on the line, and allowing you to utilize the system to it's fullest extent. I remember reading an interview in Phrack way back when with a guy who demonstrated a trans-oceanic phone call, guaranteeing a satellite connection (for the flash) all from a pay-phone without inserting a dime. And Ma Bell really started changing things over a decade ago, so unless you're in a less than privledged country, you probably have a snowball's chance in hell of getting one of those boxes to work properly anymore. And God says, "No, that's not right." Yeah. Well. Whatever. You can't teach God anything.   [ ...reply just to this | comment on the story... | next new ]