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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."
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
It is an LLC, which doesn't really answer the question, but it does suggest it's on the smaller side.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
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..."
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.
In the USA a convicted felon is not even allowed to vote.
That is a serious shortcoming of the democratic process in the United States, as US federal and state governments seem hellbent on creating as many of these ineligible voters as possible, by way of, (for example):
Utilization of bullshit forensic "science" in courtrooms [Torrent]
Maintaining the highest incarceration rate in the world
Prosecuting kids under child porn legislation for "sexting"
Failure to guarantee adequate job skills training and rehabilitation programs to inmates, thus fostering high recidivism
Overzealous prosecution
The War on Drugs
Further, ex-convicts still have a stake in American society, and as long as they're expected to pay taxes, I believe that they should have a say in how it operates. I think that this is something that should be of concern not only to convicted felons, but to every American who is not above the law, and is therefore eligible to be branded a felon.
Thank you, Edward Snowden.
"Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
In the USA a convicted felon is not even allowed to vote.
Wrong - http://felonvoting.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=286
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
In related news, Kevin Mitnick is elected President of Ecuador with 121% of the popular vote.
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.
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.
LLC range from a single owner/director to puny companies like Walmart, and General Motors.
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"
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