Mitnick Speaks About Hacking

Rob_Warwick writes "I've just posted a one on one interview with Kevin Mitnick on Applefritter. In just less than 20 minutes, we take a look at who generally gets targeted by social engineering schemes, and how social engineering can assist in making a technical exploit work. Mitnick speaks about which industries are at highest risk from social enginerering, and what types of workers are generally easier to talk into doing something for you. Kevin also talks about who his heroes were when getting into phreaking and computers, as well as a humbling moment when he was on the recieving end of some social engineering. The HOPE keynotes for both Kevin and The Woz are also available for download."

Comments

Mitnick stories...

[anakin357]

Is it just me, or do you really don't care about him anymore?

It's a bad dream that just wont go away, some people are so enamored with Kevin that they feel the need to post every story that includes his name.

He's a felon.

One of the first, abeit more publicized and punished geeks, and I really don't care to read stories about him. About the only thing that actually is interesting is that this guy got caught by trying to hack into some other geeks computer, and was traced back to his location.

Amature. Go social engineer some money out of a bank instead of robbing it with a gun, and THEN I'll be interested.

I can see it now, bumper stickers that read:

"Free Kevin v2.0"

Didn't Mitnick go to jail?

[John Seminal]

I thought he went to jail for doing this? I would have thought part of his release deal would have included not speaking about hacking and not associating with hackers. I remember from a political science class being told that most drug dealers who get released do so on the condition they will not associate with anyone known who is also a criminal. One guy who got caught at school using a computer for illegal purposes (and prosecuted) got a reduced sentance to two years probation and part of the deal was he could not use a computer.

Remote

[Xner]

And how exactly would remote authentication work? Chop off your finger and send it via fed-ex? Or would it involve converting your biometric information to a digital representation that is vulnerable to all the usual attacks, with the added problem that you can't "change fingers" like you change passwords?

Biometrics isn't the panacea it's made out to be. Educate your users, it's the only way.