So who is Kevin Mitnick?

MasterC · 10-06-2002, 07:59 PM

Ok, so who's got an extra 15k lying around that they'd like to get a piece of history for?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2057697313

And I am guessing I should know, but what hacker crimes did Kevin Mitnick get charged for?

I read a few of the pages and links and stuff, but really didn't get a good feel for what he actually did, other than "internet crimes".

stickman · 10-06-2002, 08:22 PM

Try www.freekevin.com or www.kevinmitnick.com.

trickykid · 10-06-2002, 08:25 PM

Did you go to his site ? http://www.kevinmitnick.com/

In the about section it kind of explains what he did.

MasterC · 10-06-2002, 10:08 PM

Yep, went to both of them actually, and even read the about section. But, it still all seems to just say blanket things, not really saying who he hacked, or what he did. Figured maybe someone on here might know a little more details about it, but thanks for the links anyway guys.

Cool

nautilus_1987 · 10-07-2002, 02:13 PM

BTW, Chad I have seen film - "Hackers 2".... cool....about Mitnick and Shimomura

I suggest you to go to www.takedown.com , everything about Kevin David Mitnick , Tsutomu Shimomura and all other 'stuff' is written there,
very interesting article btw.
Who is Mitnick? He is just a product of smart people, who advertised it, made good affero and lots of money

Hacker is such human that noone shouldk know about him
Maybe Kevin is some sort of 'low-level' phreakers..uh... I have seen ( and known ) much more 'intelegent' people.... especially in Russia

Mara · 10-07-2002, 04:08 PM

Kevin just became famous. And he's not a 'hacker'. There are 'kernel hackers', but ((hacker != cracker) && (hacker != phreaker)).

Thymox · 10-07-2002, 04:13 PM

Hijacking this thread for a moment, if you don't mind

Who else does it interminably annoy when the press (and anyone else, for that matter) use the journalistic term 'hacker' to mean, what we, the enlightened computer savvy people, know to really be a 'cracker'? Have any of you ever written to the editor/producer of such publications? What was the outcome?

Mara · 10-07-2002, 04:21 PM

No outcome, no understanding. Even in dictionaries...

neo77777 · 10-07-2002, 06:12 PM

Well, I tried to point it out for PC-Mag crew, and I got no reply nor feedback in their magazine. Ignorence is bliss. And there is no PC-Mag in my maail anymore, it was replaced with Linux Magazine!!!

llama_meme · 10-08-2002, 10:44 AM

I don't see what the probelm is. If 90% of the population thinks a hacker is what we call a cracker, than that's effectively what hacker means. Minorities who, for some reason, presume their definitions of words are somehow more correct than everyone else's very seldom get their way (and rightly so, IMHO).

Of course we can all go on observeing the hacker/cracker distinction, but why should the rest of the world have to speak how we want them to? You don't get mathematicians insisting that everybody use "normal" exclusively to mean perpendicular, after all.

</rant>

Alex

Thymox · 10-08-2002, 11:45 AM

No, but since computer savvy people (such as our good selves) are becoming ever more part of the mainstream, it will serve as a point of confusion if we, as an increasing group, use the term to mean someone who writes programs, and the rest of the public don't see it that way... they'll think that we're all talking about crackers.

llama_meme · 10-08-2002, 12:27 PM

Quote:

No, but since computer savvy people (such as our good selves) are becoming ever more part of the mainstream, it will serve as a point of confusion if we, as an increasing group, use the term to mean someone who writes programs, and the rest of the public don't see it that way... they'll think that we're all talking about crackers.

Agreed, but only because we're too stubborn to accept that hacker now generally means the same as cracker. If we changed our usage there'd be no problem. Also, we often use hacking in the context of cracking anyway (e.g. "RMS hacked into a website") so it's no wonder people get confused over the meaning of it.

Hmm, sorry to go making a big argument out of this. Will shut up if that's requested.

Alex

Thymox · 10-08-2002, 12:51 PM

He he. No, I see your point... I suppose there are always two arguments, but which one is right? I guess the fact that there are more of 'them' than there are of 'us' dictates that the common usage of hacker shall always be the in the journalistic sense. Hey ho.

llama_meme · 10-08-2002, 02:00 PM

yay, reconciliation and muffins all round then

wonderpun · 10-08-2002, 02:13 PM

Hey MasterC, so did you find any info on what did Kevin exactly do? Because I too have seen articles where they say: "Internet crimes"(Like it says a lot to us

) But I do know a couple of things. I had a great magazine which was totally dedicated to Kevin Mitnick but I think I gave it to somebody.

But one thing I surelly remember because it was very funny. Mitnick broke into Sun Microsystems and downloaded the "Solaris" source code. Sun charged him for 80 million dollars. (I think

) But the funniest part is that Sun now distributes the same source for free to educational institutions and for 100 bucks(Again,I don't exactly remember the sums

) to regular folks. Cool, ain't it?