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Kevin Mitnick Helping Secure Presidential Elections In Ecuador
hypnosec writes "Kevin Mitnick, who was one of the most wanted computer hacker in the US at one time, is now heading a security consultancy firm – Mitnick Security Consulting, and is entrusted with the task of securing Sunday's presidential elections in Ecuador. Mitnick tweeted, '18 years ago I was busted for hacking. I do the same thing today but with full authorization. How cool is that?' His company will focus on protecting the Net Lock computer system tasked with tabulating Ecuador's elections."
A great opportunity for a name change!
Ezekiel 23:20
That guy: I can secure that election for you, very cheap & virtually bulletproof.
I don't mean to challenge whatever white-hat work that Kevin Mitnick is doing, but the phrase does indeed strike me as something a lobbyist (or well, tout) would tell me. Perhaps I'm just cynical.
Trust in the democratic process is as important as the actual security of the process. So I would suspect that anything Mitnick finds will be discussed behind closed doors - and it's none of my business, but this does not add any more unless I trust Mitnick (viz not at all).
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
But at least here he has the decency to refrain from telling everyone that he's going to secure the election for Bush, as Diebold did.
USA! Number one in election fraud!!!
Is "Mitnick Security Consulting" just the name for Kevin Mitnick as freelancer? Or is it more like a regular security company with a bunch of paid employees, with Kevin Mitnick as the brand figurehead / spokesman / PR guy?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Considering what is at stake in the Condor region in particular and the efforts of the incumbent Presidente to hasten its demise, I hope Mitnick does exactly what he says he's doing.
Not sure what to think about this. In the USA a convicted felon is not even allowed to vote. In Ecuador they import them to make sure that the voting is fair. Then again, in the USA we are still arguing over trying to make voting more restrictive.
His attack on Shimomura, with DNS and ARP poisoning for an rhosts exploit? Not kiddie.
In fact, Mitnick has moderate to high "skills" in the standard of the c. 2000AD heyday.
His real forte? Is, was and shall always be social engineering. Really, an enviable confidence player.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Mitnck is little more than a "script kiddy". Those who are not "in the know" like these Ecuadorians, have been sold a tall tale by a guy who got where he is not by hacking ability but smooth talking.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Slashdot: Where Mitnick is a script kiddie but Limor Ladyada is a prominent electrical engineer.
"Congratulations, Presidente Mitnick."
Who paid the underqualified for burger flipping son of an ex president the wages of the USA president, I think they're doing OK.
Housholds - lyme disease - civil war - Germany - research - Vatican - hospitals -
Alright, I gather that openly talking about these issues is dangerous, but FFS, could you maybe make a rational statement from which a guy might draw some conclusions? Which Civil War are you talking about? A German Civil War? A Roman Civil War? Was there a war in the Vatican? Who performed research during a Civil War?
I'm wondering if you have Ass Burger's Disease or something like that.
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Go back to Godlike Productions.
There's a lot more about this and other shocking verified facts here: http://www.verifiedfacts.org/
Back in the mid-nineties, in one of my computer courses, we had to give a lecture about someone related to computer security. I chose Mitnick. His story then was legendary. It's only gotten better since.
And I got the highest score in the class for that assignment, so all I can say is "Go Mitnick!"
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
It's from the generator of random conspiracy theories at verifiedfacts.org. Some of them are actually pretty funny.
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The fact that he nearly single-handedly got the entire world to stop calling people "con-men" and start referring to them as enviable "social engineers" is his most staggeringly astounding accomplishment. That he now seems to have parlayed that into /actual/ social engineering is frightful.
My ass he was. He was damned good at social engineering however, which he does deserve credit for.
In related news, Kevin Mitnick is elected President of Ecuador with 121% of the popular vote.
He should know better about aiding foreign governments who are hostile to the US after his ass was pounded by the feds.
He's just asking for a one-way trip to a indefinite detention in a military prison. Remember, Ecuador is harboring Assange.
So either he's incredibly naive or Ecuador is stupid and is trusting a double-agent of sorts that will help implement a digital coup to oust their leadership.
Not DNS nor ARP poisoning, TCP spoofing and TCP SYN flooding. The tools to pull off the attack were written for him by another hacker, but knowing all that I still wouldn't classify him as a 'script kiddie'. His strengths were social engineering and telephone/telecom knowledge (someone in the underground with skills in that area would be known as a phone phreak) It's entertaining watching all the posers of today claim that he's a 'script kiddie', put any of them in front of a Nortel SuperNode System or any other switching system responsible for voice traffic, and ask them to perform a wiretap then watch the puzzled look in their eyes as they try to remember if their Hacking Exposed book or SANS training course covered that topic, this wouldn't be a problem for Mitnick.
Yeah he's a bit of a media whore, yes we're tired of hearing about social engineering but a 'script kiddie', no not exactly.
Thanks for the refresher on how he assumed a trusted identity. It's been a few years (ahem) since I read about this.
Was all this really 18 years ago? We were all around 29 or 30 years old...
The TCP attacks are easier, but nonetheless equally hackish - and don't require sharing a segment!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Frosty is correct, this can all be confirmed in The Onion.
Which makes Mitnick a con-man.
Check out his book too, it's a really fun and entertaining read.
I hope he stays there.
He was busted once, got a slap on the wrist, then the fucker went out and did even more.
Now the con-man is making $$$ off his name and rep.
As far as I'm concerned, the con-man had his second chance; and he blew it. /. should stop publishing anything with his name in it.
That's sort of a critical distinction - enough that it's not really the same thing at all.
Hehe, I heard the same about Captain Crunch.
Well done.
Mitnick could be included on a team but Mitnick is just one guy. They should instead use around 5 hackers as consultants and at least 1 of the 5 should be a hacker who either has never been caught or who isn't a celebrity. Mitnick as a choice is cool but also seems a bit like a publicity stunt to hire him and him alone for that.
> Kevin Mitnick Helping Secure Presidential Elections In Ecuador
Wow, he can down Back Hawks with one hand, while dismembering grey berets with the other?
"...the validity of the public debt, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned..."
FYI, Ecuador is a quite communistic country that nationalized foreign company assets without full and immediate compensation (in and itself a legitimate casus belli per the 1956 Suez War precedent) and Ecuador also refuses to pay back the loans it took from international investors and foreign governments. It is only a matter of time before Ecuador will see a regime change and install a right-winger government that cares not for "human rights" (leftist entitlement scams) but spins up the domestic economy in order to pay back the loans and to pay the full compensation sum for the nationalizations.
I think it needs to be made clear that leftist politics are OK in and itself, but stealing from others is not OK and the stronger countries will duly punish such behaviour and make change in the local regime if they see fit. The sanctitiy of private property is beyond human opinion, having been declared by God himself as in "Thou shall not steal!" and therefore supercedes the souverignity of countries and nations. Debts must be paid fully and nationalized wealth must be fully and immediately compensated for, else the most God-fearing country on Earth, the USA, must act!
Please can Anonymous or someone hack this election wide-open so Mitnick can be forgotten. Or better still, elect him as Ecuadorian President-for-Life.
No really. I am.
Far too often we focus on the crime and the criminal and don't care one toss for rehabilitation or reintegration into society. Kevin managed to do something stupid 18 years ago, got his ass busted for it, paid his debt to society and now is taking his talents and managed to find a legit and legal way to utilize them.
Good on ya mate.
So I'm OK with this. He turned his life around and instead of sitting on his ass and complaining how unfair life is that he got caught, he kept his nose clean, got past his probation (which denied him access to computers), pulled himself up by his bootstraps and made something positive out of the situation.
Whether or not his company is competent to handle that sort of job? Well that's on him and the staff he has hired.
-- Wiccan Army, 13th Airborne Division "We will not fly silently into the night"
Didn't he get the tools for that from Hack-Tic?
I'm Rocco. I'm the +5 Funny man.
The fact that he nearly single-handedly got the entire world to stop calling people "con-men" and start referring to them as enviable "social engineers" is his most staggeringly astounding accomplishment. That he now seems to have parlayed that into /actual/ social engineering is frightful.
Last I checked the term "con-men" was still in much more use than "social engineer".
Does this actually work out most times? A guy might be the world's greatest safecraker, but that doesn't mean he'd have what it takes to design a safe.
.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
Always was; He's a criminal, and should be regarded as such. I find his celebrity sickening.
You are welcome to emmigrate there! The first world won't miss you.
Except he has been tried and served his time. There is such a thing as redemption.
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet." General James Mattis
You only seek redemption when you change yourself. He's still the same asshole he ever was.
Yea, except he did no such thing. Try TCP Syn flood attack ... with tools written by someone else. The very definition of script kiddie.
Mitnick NEVER had skills. He's been over blown as if he was special. Truth is, his 'skills' are absolutely shitty and the only people who think otherwise are himself, the guy who prosecuted him, and his followers that think criminal hacking is cool.
He accomplished some social networking so long ago that no one even remembers what he did. He practiced it in a time when no one put any thought into it at all, so it was easy as cake. Not that its MUCH hard now.
Social engineering was his real forte, but he wasn't particularly impressive with that. He simply took advantage of systems that had no protection. A con-man who saw the open hole that was the size of the Atlantic ocean. Hell he wasn't the first or the best then. He's just the moron who got caught. WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU?
Mitnick is about as impressive as a hacker as the locksmith who opens unlocked doors. He never has never had any 'skills'.
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Check out his book too, it's a really fun and entertaining read.
Criminals can be good company as long as you stay on the right side of them. They generally quite like showing off to mug punters.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Excellent post, most informative.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Meanwhile, in the USA, Supervisors of Elections who dare to point out security flaws in computerized voting equipment are referred to as "traitors".
I'd be really interested in seeing another hacker group go up against him to see if he's as good as the legend says he is. And how would you know which side was successful? Certainly the outcome of the election is highly suspect. If you can prevent hacking, you also have detailed knowledge of how to stuff the ballot box.
"18 years ago I stopped someone's bleeding with a compress and saved his life. Now I'm holding myself out as a Doctor of Medicine. How cool is that?"
"18 years ago I argued a case in small claims court [or was busted for drug possession.] Now I'm acting as a lawyer to assault and murder defendants. How cool is that?"
"18 years ago I learned how to use an Excel spreadsheet. Now I'm a full time consultant for Microsoft Office 2013. How cool is that?"
Any of those statements including Mitnick's, if backed by the correct education and experience, may be true. But just because one was busted as a cracker does not make one a security expert. Maybe he's gotten the chops for the job... don't know, don't care. But the main thing that makes me dubious is... the best security people I have known and worked with are very circumspect and pretty private about their work - I was when I worked in physical security. In short, Mitnick's Ego just made his job harder - how many script kiddies will now be gunning for him? And were I his client, I'd have a nice long conversation about keeping confidences of a client and how that relates to confidence in his work.
Someone made an applet for others to use, it counted the time accumulated that Mitnick was at the time sitting in jail awaiting trial.
Good ol' days...
He could do about anything he wanted with phone systems - call routes, billing, you name it.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Always was; He's a criminal, and should be regarded as such. I find his celebrity sickening.
What does that make most politicians? Kevin did his time, how about the rest?
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
One of Mitnick's complaints is that people who serve their time usually wind up being criminals again because society blocks them at every move to try to be legitimate. I agree with him. His story about trying to rise above what he did is interesting. In fact, it's absolutely amazing that he turned out to be a good guy again. He's the rare exception. As a society, we should try to rehabilitate more people so that they can contribute to society.
I question your statement about Mitnick. Do you feel that way about all people who are labeled "criminals"? If so, how do they turn back to the light side of the force? What if society labeled them a criminal when they really weren't?
I don't disagree with Mitnick's redemption...i disagree with us still paying attention. His only noteriety is based entirely on the crime that he committed.
I really wish him the best; i'm just tired of reading about him.
OffTopic: "Mitnick's Redemption" sounds like a Ludlum novel...