Hacker in the world

posted on 20 Jan 2009 21:28 by victimsoul

Kevin Mitnick

Kevin David Mitnick (born August 6, 1963) is a computer security consultant and author, who was incarcerated for more than four years without trial or a bail hearing.

He was a world-famous controversial computer hacker in the late 20th century, who was at the time of his arrest, the most wanted computer criminal in United States history.

Arrest, Conviction, and Incareceration

After a well-publicized pursuit, the FBI arrested kevin Mitnick in his apartment in Raleigh, North Carolina February of 1995 on federal offenses related to a 2½-year computer hacking spree.

In 1999, Mitnick admitted to the authorities to four counts of wire fraud, two counts of computer fraud and one count of illegally intercepting a wire communication, as part of a plea agreement before the United States District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles. He was sentenced to 46 months in prison in addition to 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 PacBell voicemail and other systems and to associating with known computer hackers, in this case codefendant Louis De Payne.

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 which ruled in his favor, allowing him to access the Internet.

In addition, as per the plea deal, Mitnick was prohibited from profiting from films or books that are based on his criminal activity for a period of seven years.

Mitnick now runs Mitnick Security Consulting, a computer security consultancy.

Computer cracking

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 charged and convicted in 1988. He was sentenced to twelve months in prison followed by a three year period of supervised release. Near the end of his supervised release, Mitnick hacked into Pacific Bell voice mail computers. A warrant was issued for Mitnick’s arrest and he fled, becoming a fugitive for the next two and one half years. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, during this time, Mitnick gained unauthorized access to dozens of computer networks using cloned cellular phones to hide his location and, among other things, stealing 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 e-mail. Mitnick was apprehended in February 1995 in North Carolina. When arrested he was found with cloned cellular phones, over one hundred clone cellular phone codes, and multiple pieces of false identification.

Acts by Kevin Mitnick

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 admin privileges to an IBM minicomputer at the Computer Learning Center in LA in order to win a bet

Hacking Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu Siemens systems

Wiretapped FBI agents according to John Markoff, although denied by Kevin Mitnick.

Alleged

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

Wiretapped the California DMV

Made free cell phone calls