Kevin Mitnick Is Dead?!?!?!?!?!?!

Ahh mam I miss the 90s when technology was super adventurous and people like Mitnik was around making things even cooler. Now tech is so ubiquitous it's worth avoiding most days and there is no adventure left. No exciting frontier. Now it's just narcissistic social media duck lipped Kardashian dotards and AI research darklords posing existential threat to humanity at large and technocratic despotism on unheard of levels. Sigh.... the 90s were so much better.
 
I have to admit, I had to Google him.

The name sounded familiar but I had completely forgotten that whole hacking and arrest media circus in the mid 90's.
 
I remember his exploits back in the day. Made me realize what not to do when bored. :)
 
Hmm after reading up on him im surprised i have never heard the name before today.
 
tangoseal said:
Ahh mam I miss the 90s when technology was super adventurous and people like Mitnik was around making things even cooler. Now tech is so ubiquitous it's worth avoiding most days and there is no adventure left. No exciting frontier. Now it's just narcissistic social media duck lipped Kardashian dotards and AI research darklords posing existential threat to humanity at large and technocratic despotism on unheard of levels. Sigh.... the 90s were so much better.
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Every generation, as they get older, eventually rants about how things were better when they were younger. I don't necessarily disagree with everything you said, but fact is, people have a tendency to remember the good things and forget the bad things. I have plenty of nostalgic memories of the 90's also, but that doesn't mean that I want to go back to using dial-up and a 15" CRT monitor, using the phone-book to look things up, using paper maps when I take trips, etc
 
GotNoRice said:
Every generation, as they get older, eventually rants about how things were better when they were younger. I don't necessarily disagree with everything you said, but fact is, people have a tendency to remember the good things and forget the bad things. I have plenty of nostalgic memories of the 90's also, but that doesn't mean that I want to go back to using dial-up and a 15" CRT monitor, using the phone-book to look things up, using paper maps when I take trips, etc
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Setting IRQs... Ugh.
 
When I saw the OG thread was necro'd, I knew something bad happened.
I've read nearly all of his books and they are all thoroughly entertaining.
That Hackers 2 movie, as blasphemous as it was to the real story of KM, was when I really started to look into him and the Motorola "hack".
Don't give Hollywood a penny for that piece of trash, go torrent it. It's worth a watch for a laugh.
 
Darunion said:
Hmm after reading up on him im surprised i have never heard the name before today.
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It's because after his initial infamy, he never really did anything of note. While he gets lionized in some circles as an amazing hacker he wasn't, he was a dude who was pretty decent at social engineering, liked doing illegal shit particularly with cloned cellphones, and the big one: used an easy to be known weakness that people had just basically been ignoring to exploit trust between Shimomura's computers so he could use them to hide his activities.

It was noteworthy at the time because it is the first time that anyone is aware of doing a MITM attack, remember this was the early days of the Internet and people mostly ignored security. After that though, he really didn't do much. He formed a computer security consulting company, which are a dime a dozen, did the public speaking circuit, but didn't really make any notable contributions to computer security or anything. He just kinda rode on his fame/infamy. Thus he faded from being talked much about, even in computer security circles. You'd learn about him if you took an intro cybersecurity course at university or a basic SANS course or something like that, but he wasn't someone like Schneier, Domas, Krebs, etc that you might keep hearing about because they keep moving the field of cybersecurity forward.
 
Sycraft said:
It's because after his initial infamy, he never really did anything of note. While he gets lionized in some circles as an amazing hacker he wasn't, he was a dude who was pretty decent at social engineering, liked doing illegal shit particularly with cloned cellphones, and the big one: used an easy to be known weakness that people had just basically been ignoring to exploit trust between Shimomura's computers so he could use them to hide his activities.

It was noteworthy at the time because it is the first time that anyone is aware of doing a MITM attack, remember this was the early days of the Internet and people mostly ignored security. After that though, he really didn't do much. He formed a computer security consulting company, which are a dime a dozen, did the public speaking circuit, but didn't really make any notable contributions to computer security or anything. He just kinda rode on his fame/infamy. Thus he faded from being talked much about, even in computer security circles. You'd learn about him if you took an intro cybersecurity course at university or a basic SANS course or something like that, but he wasn't someone like Schneier, Domas, Krebs, etc that you might keep hearing about because they keep moving the field of cybersecurity forward.
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Kevin operated a very successful penetration testing company
 
alxlwson said:
Kevin operated a very successful penetration testing company
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I don't know anything about how successful it was, but it isn't something that is noteworthy. There are SO MANY consulting/pentesting/etc companies out there. If they aren't doing more than that, contributing is some notable way to cybersecurity as a whole, you aren't going to hear about them even if you are in the field and especially if you are not. I mean I can name a bunch that are successful, do contribute, but I'd bet you've never heard of. Ever hear of James Tarla and Enclave Security? They do the Collative Controls Catalog, which maps all the popular cybersecurity standards to each other, as well as all the normal pentesting/consulting/etc. I'm going to guess you probably have no idea who they are. Not because they aren't good at what they do, but just because it isn't something big enough to make mainstream news and even in the cybersecurity world you have to be interested in a specific segment to have encountered them.

Mitnick gained notoriety back in the 90s and made mainstream news so even non-computer people had heard of him, but didn't do anything real noteworthy after that and so his name faded. That's just what tends to happen unless your contributions are REALLY big. Some names, like Turing, will probably live forever, but most fade if you aren't doing something of note on a continual basis, and even then.
 
<Glances over at his copy of Masters of Deception>...............Raises Glass.
tangoseal said:
Ahh mam I miss the 90s when technology was super adventurous and people like Mitnik was around making things even cooler. Now tech is so ubiquitous it's worth avoiding most days and there is no adventure left. No exciting frontier. Now it's just narcissistic social media duck lipped Kardashian dotards and AI research darklords posing existential threat to humanity at large and technocratic despotism on unheard of levels. Sigh.... the 90s were so much better.
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Translated: You miss the days when you and a hand full of others (probably many of us reading this thread) were nerdy enough to be at the right place in the right time in history to embrace this hobby and, for a fairly significant length of time, were the only people on the planet who knew what any of this shit meant. :)

You can still be that nerd, just know UNIX....you'll still baffle 85% of the "modern" Computing World!

Actually we are almost at full circle......forget asking a Gen Z'er how to run Dos, just ask them to navigate *WINDOWS* sometime ...watch them keep trying to touch the CRT/LCD screen to select...... :D
 
Free Kevin!! and man, heartbreaking to see the devastating effects of pancreatic cancer. I recall reading a book in high school about him and Susy Thunder, it was crazy how far they got with social engineering. RIP Kevin I hope Emmanuel Goldstein does something special for next quarter 2600 magazine.
 
I'm surprised at how many here don't know of him. I'm pretty sure he has been referenced in multiple games, I know he was referenced in Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines and I'm pretty sure he was referenced in at least one of the Deus Ex games as well as one or more of the Watchdogs games.

I think the thing that makes his story interesting is that many of his notable hacks were done just to see if he could which is much more common among aspiring hackers than accomplished ones.

Many of his hacks might have been crude but security was crude back then and social engineering is still effective, plus he certainly had some high profile hacks using those techniques.
 
GotNoRice said:
Every generation, as they get older, eventually rants about how things were better when they were younger. I don't necessarily disagree with everything you said, but fact is, people have a tendency to remember the good things and forget the bad things. I have plenty of nostalgic memories of the 90's also, but that doesn't mean that I want to go back to using dial-up and a 15" CRT monitor, using the phone-book to look things up, using paper maps when I take trips, etc
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Except shit was actually better and cooler back then.
 
GotNoRice said:
Every generation, as they get older, eventually rants about how things were better when they were younger. I don't necessarily disagree with everything you said, but fact is, people have a tendency to remember the good things and forget the bad things. I have plenty of nostalgic memories of the 90's also, but that doesn't mean that I want to go back to using dial-up and a 15" CRT monitor, using the phone-book to look things up, using paper maps when I take trips, etc
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I have to comment again. While I love the technology we have now, new releases just don't have the same wow factor they used to.

Each new hardware release on the cpu side is slightly faster, or in the case of the 5ghz ceiling that was hit 14 million years ago, each gen comes with new power saving features and rarely more speed. The 90's and early 2000's were constantly changing and good luck using a 6 year old processor like you can now.

Different time. Better time.
 
auntjemima said:
I have to comment again. While I love the technology we have now, new releases just don't have the same wow factor they used to.

Each new hardware release on the cpu side is slightly faster, or in the case of the 5ghz ceiling that was hit 14 million years ago, each gen comes with new power saving features and rarely more speed. The 90's and early 2000's were constantly changing and good luck using a 6 year old processor like you can now.

Different time. Better time.
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Yeah I get it.
And RGB. Ugh!
Kind of strange too, how old hardware is bringing way over original MSRP even factoring inflation on auction sites!
When I moved back in 2011 I tossed so much "junk" out like old ISA cards and such. Seeing those brings hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars online makes me cringe.
Of course when 1099Ks finally kick in...

Then we have this thing!

https://liliputing.com/25-board-bri...dd-clicks-back-to-your-ssd-equipped-computer/
 
cpufrost said:
Yeah I get it.
And RGB. Ugh!
Kind of strange too, how old hardware is bringing way over original MSRP even factoring inflation on auction sites!
When I moved back in 2011 I tossed so much "junk" out like old ISA cards and such. Seeing those brings hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars online makes me cringe.
Of course when 1099Ks finally kick in...

Then we have this thing!

https://liliputing.com/25-board-bri...dd-clicks-back-to-your-ssd-equipped-computer/
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Wait what? I still have all that shit.
 
auntjemima said:
I have to comment again. While I love the technology we have now, new releases just don't have the same wow factor they used to.

Each new hardware release on the cpu side is slightly faster, or in the case of the 5ghz ceiling that was hit 14 million years ago, each gen comes with new power saving features and rarely more speed. The 90's and early 2000's were constantly changing and good luck using a 6 year old processor like you can now.

Different time. Better time.
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You're just bored :)

The 70's were the last artistic days of the "Analog Digital Future"...the 80's made everything digital and covered it in plastic chrome plating, and the finally 90's normalized and turned it into commodities that everyone had and everyone took for granted. Digital Technology is about as exciting today as that last stream train release was back after 200 years of steam trains..........so really it wasn't different or better, it was simply newer and today you're just bored with it. And, you were younger. Youth plays a factor here in interest, we tend to be "Yep, seen that, heard that, know how that story ends" the more trips around the sun we've taken......

I'd say the best technology "Wow's" we've had the past 10 or 20 years can be summed up for me as: SSD's and VR headsets. Otherwise, its sort of just evolutions......when I fire up Forza Horizon 5....I'm still just basically playing Turbo or Outrun........
 
"I'd say the best technology "Wow's" we've had the past 10 or 20 years can be summed up for me as: SSD's and VR headsets." HeadRusch
Let me stop you right there. When 3D accelerators came out they were affordable a couple of years and anybody could add one to their computer. I want VR to be tthe next big thing but so far it ain't.
Now ssds on the other hand, I agree with you 110%.
 
This is horrible.
I was just talking about Kevin Mitnick the other day and how he was essentially king of the cyberpunks in the 1990s, and more than earned that title.

He was essentially the Rache Bartmoss of Cyberpunk 2013-2077 lore, only in real life and was the real deal.
His social engineering skills were top-notch of their time, much like how Bruce Lee's martial arts was at the peak of his era, and had a lasting affect on computer and hacking culture for a generation.

In recent years his cyber security training has been highly desired by government and corporate entities, and I'm sure his techniques and skills will be used for years to come.
Rest in peace Kevin, the dark cyberpunk future already misses you dearly. :borg: ✝️


Track Down (2000) was based on his exploits in the 1990s:

 
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Jim Kim said:
"I'd say the best technology "Wow's" we've had the past 10 or 20 years can be summed up for me as: SSD's and VR headsets." HeadRusch
Let me stop you right there. When 3D accelerators came out they were affordable a couple of years and anybody could add one to their computer. I want VR to be tthe next big thing but so far it ain't.
Now ssds on the other hand, I agree with you 110%.
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Whoops, forgot about 3D (see how much we take for granted now!?) you're right, add that to the list. But for VR, that was always "the dream" for some of us who have a certain amount of grey hair (or all of them)..........so the first time we put on that VR headset and were in a game or a demo, touching things with controllers acting as virtual hands well.........that was, for some but not all of us, a hyperventilation moment. I am not a VR fiend, but that doesn't mean the first time I put it on I didn't tear-up and immediately reach out to my nerd buds and go "GET OVER HERE NOW"...........and they too teared up. And then we all proceeded to want to vomit cuz my 980 Ti wasn't cutting it in the frames department :p

Good times!

Circling back to Kevin, I enjoyed Masters of Deception the same way I enjoyed Woz's book......it was cool to be reminded about how things used to be.
 
sram said:
I know him but didn't know he is dead until NOW. 59 is too young to die. Hopefully one day we will find a cure for cancer. My mother died of it. She was 54.
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My dad died from cancer at 44. :(
 
I remember when he was in the news for hacking. His claim to fame were telephone hacks. 2600 has a soft spot for public telephones as those were the early hacks using Radio Shack tone generators to fool public phones into dialing long distance and international calls for free. He wrote a book called Ghost in the Wires which I read many years ago. a very interesting read indeed.

However, many readers, including myself, felt he was very cocky and unrepentant of his "crimes". But, to each his own. I remember an article where he was hired to do penetration testing at some high profile company and he dropped into the bosses office from the ventilation system and hacked into his PC. He was definitely an interesting person.
 
wra18th said:
He dropped into the bosses office from the ventilation system
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Despite what you see in the media, ventilation ducts are usually not going to hold your weight. Pretty sure Kevin weighs more than 25 pounds, so I'm going to doubt the details. Maybe there was something closer to ground level he went through, or through a drop ceiling over a wall that didn't go all the way through, etc.
 
toast0 said:
Despite what you see in the media, ventilation ducts are usually not going to hold your weight. Pretty sure Kevin weighs more than 25 pounds, so I'm going to doubt the details. Maybe there was something closer to ground level he went through, or through a drop ceiling over a wall that didn't go all the way through, etc.
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I used to do all kinds of shit in the plenum, "air ducts" is just a catch-all.
 
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