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CNN Interviews Kevin Mitnick
phantom writes to tell us that a couple of days ago Kevin Mitnick gave an interview to CNN further deconstructing his past exploits and discussing his current activities.
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Nothing to see here, please move along.
Damn, he's good.
Fr33 K3v1n!!!!
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
hahahahaha oh that's rich.
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
Why is it that people get so worked up over Mitnick?
He was a dick to a bunch of people, he got in trouble, he spent some time in jail. Okay, that sucks for him, but why does everyone drool over him?
Woz was an electronic prankster, but he wasn't a jerk, and he *created things* instead of just making people unhappy. I could see being a Woz fan, but waving a "Kevin" flag is just weird.
Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
He was overheard muttering "I hacked the FBI and wiretapped NORAD."
There was a good interview of Kevin Mitnick in the third release by "The Broken".
He is a reasonable sounding guy, and I think in the interview with "The Broken" sort of dispells some of the myths that were started about him in the book "Cyberpunk" by Katie Hafner and John Markoff.
I read that book when I was in 6th grade and I was totally blow away. I got a modem and started war dialing and memorizing "at" commands just so I could try and be a badass like Kevin Mitnick.
"Copyright infringement is not theft!"
Okay, now do the one about "theft of service," "stolen kisses," and "stealing your thunder." And can you do the one about Apple's "don't steal music" sticker? I just love that one!
Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
Kevin was very personable, and has clearly given a lot of thought to his current phase in life as a security expert. As you might expect from his background, Kevin has a keen mind for remembering details, and observing human interaction. That's part of what I like about his books, as well as from his presentation at The Fifth Hope.
Truth is, Kevin Mitnick has become a poster boy for hackers, but he was by no means the most "dangerous" or the most skilled by any means. Most famous yes, most "powerful," no.
insert inflammatory anti-microsoft comment here
Yeah, that whole "reading" thing must be a bit beyond you, eh?
Flooding in eastern states leaves 10 dead has been on CNN.com's front page since Sunday.
I'm not crazy,I'm actively irresponsible.
they did a phone interview with a guy who could whistle tones to blow up the world and make baby orphans die and stuff. they are lucky he didnt explode their brains with his telepathic powers!
I lost my concept of community when my community lost all concept of me.
He stole the code. He electronically hacked into systems and stole code. This is completely different than normal copyright infringement, where you legally have access to something and then copy it illegally. He obtained this source code illegally (hence, he stole it). See the difference?
There's a good article on Kevin Mitnick in the Rotten Library that discusses this.
- Someone breaks into your house and takes your tv
- Someone walks into your house (door was unlocked), reads your gay porno magazines, and leaves.
Do *you* see the difference?granparent post was right, he's just a dick
the kind of people who admire criminals do so for one overriding reason: for all of their other failures, criminals do have courage
so if you admire kevin mitnick, you admire him because he has the balls to do what you do not
meanwhile if you don't admire kevin mitnick, then good for you: you probably have a modicum of courage about your character, without the failures of character mitnick has/ had
as for his prosecution, well if that's what gets you fired up, then you aren't really interested in kevin mitnick at all, you are interested in law enforcement and prosecution and rights
those who admire kevin mitnick only do so because they are spineless themselves, and are drawn to anyone who shows initiative, while anyone with initiative in themselves find nothing attractive about mitnick at all, and could care less
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
"See the difference?"
I saw a difference before your post, but now i'm just confused. That's a pretty crazy leap you made to get to your conclusion.
Lets try and make things simpler and see where we end up?
Copying is illegal?
No, distribution is illegal. Therefore it wasn't anything to do with copyright infringement, so both you and the GP are misguided.
Copying files after breaking into a network is stealing?
No that's just copying files after breaking into a network, a different crime i would imagine (it may be theft but not in the sense that your post makes it out to be).
Breaking into a network breaks various laws, copying files after breaking into a network *is* probably against some law or another but its not 'stealing' in a reasonable sense i.e you haven't taken something away from the victim. Although now that i think about it reasonable people will say that if someone copies some private file they have taken something (data) that's not theirs to take, so i guess as usual nothing is simple.
Could it be something else?
Unauthorised copying?
Unauthorised access?
Or perhaps copying data that you gain access to illegally is just a part of any overall legislation that deals with computer crime.
Conclusion
I really don't know.
But it's probably not so 'simple' as your post makes it out to be (in its roundabout way).
Copying files is not illegal in the copyright sense.
Copying files after breaking into a machine/network is undoubtably against the law in most countries.
It may be deemed theft, but not in the sense that you stole a cow or car. More like theft of trade secrets (is there such a thing?).
The End.
http://www.takedown.com/evidence/index.html
Voice mail messages to Tsutomu
Call to Mark Lottor
The attacker's on-line sessions
Sessions from other anklebiters (past and present)
Analysis of the machine state after the break-in
Photo from files stolen from Tsutomu
Netcom login records for gkremen (stolen account)
Fun are the live sessions.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
That's just about the most idiotic generalization I've ever read, bar SCO propaganda. I'm quite confident to hand you this compliment even if I don't really know who this Kevin guy is. Have you any idea how many reasons one can have to admire someone? Being spineless seems like a very very distant reason to me. I don't know what it is that bugs you about this Kevin or his fan club, but just reading the article tells me there could be quite a lot to admire regardless of what people think he stands for.
Admiration does not have to be coupled to the whole spectrum of human foibles and weaknesses. You can admire someone's guts even without having actually looked at his innards. You can hate someone's guts and equally admire him for it, etc etc etc...
I think there's even cause to admire this guy just by the emotions he seems to evoke in total - (barely saved my karma there)...
I think, therefore I am...I think.
it's an excellent article which puts mitnick, markoff and shimomura in their proper light.
Is there a bot on this site that posts stupid mindless two line replys to peoples posts?
It seems to be written something like this:
Perhaps if you actually read my post it I quite clearly made out my position on ILLEGALY breaking into a computer and copying its files. Doing so will see in a very real concrete and steel barred prison.
The crime you have committed isn't neccessarely theft in the traditional sense.
Either your going for the 'quick & witty' mod, or you're stupid, perhaps both?
Plus i dont have a social security number, so copying it would be a bit hard. But if i understand correctly it's not exactly hard to get anyway given the prevalence of its (mis)use in your country.
CNN: Do you miss being on the run? (stupid question CNN!)
:)
MITNICK: No, no, I don't miss it all. I like my life now. I made some really stupid mistakes in the past as a younger man that I regret. I'm lucky that I've been given a second chance and that I could use these skills to help the community.
But now that I've turned over a new leaf and people are interested in my skill-set, now the notoriety of my name helps me in my business.
Make up your mind, are you helping the community or are you helping your own business?
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Unpublished works are more protected, as obtaining a copy deprives the owner of the exclusive right. Especially source code has a real value, often millions, which would be lost if it were leaked and spread to the public. In this case the damages are the total value of the product, the cost of development.
There was a case long ago where a hacker obtained a document about 911 operating procedures. Initially they charged him with millions of damages, which included a lot of manhours of work, the cost of all computer systems used to write it, etc. When it was discovered a copy of the document could be ordered by anyone for a few dollars, the case was dropped. This is because the crime switched from stealing an unpublished work to copying a published work.
I was also kind of annoyed by that, because I had thought he would jump on that language. I think that he has probably tired of making the distinction for people. And really you can't force a new word onto the populous, because you think it isn't descriptive or correct. Word's evolve through the cultural experience that you just don't have control over, even when they are simply not descriptive. Do you think Hormel Foods is going around giving interview about how they want to change that everyone uses the word SPAM, from it's use to describe unsolicited emails. Sorry hormel, monty python and culture is stronger than your corporate brand.
Also, from the CNN Mitnick photo, and comparing it to the Mitnick I saw in the interview on The Broken, Mitnick is obviously taking steps to become more studly corporate. He's lost weight, got some stylish glasses, trimmed the mullet. With this new persona, he maintains cool corporate Mitnick so he can't get all nuts with his interviewer by saying things like "They're Crackers Cindy for God's sake!!, the bad hackers are called crackers! Forget your interivew, I'm leaving you dumb bitch!"
...::----::...
I am in no way affiliated with this sig.
Yeah, good thing our wonderful government would never imprison its own citizens without charge or trial.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.