Famous Hackers

Kevin Mitnick

Kevin David Mitnick was born in Los Angeles, California on August 6, 1963. From a very young age Kevin displayed a knack for social engineering and problem solving.

Kevin's first hack was that he realised he could travel for free by creating his own punch cards. A bus driver told hmi where he could buy his own hole punch, and from then on, he rode the busses for fun.

In High School, Kevin got into phreaking and ham radio's.

Kevin cracked into his first computer system in 1979, aged 16 when a friend gave him the phone number for the Ark, the computer system at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) used for developing their RSTS/E operating system. Kevin copied the Operating System, which he was later convicted for in 1988. Kevin received a 12month sentence and 3years parole. On the last day of his parole, a warrant was released for his arrest in relation to a hack on Pacific Bell's voice mail computers. This was the start of Kevin's 2.5 year time on the run from the law.

While Kevin was a fugitive, he hacked into dozens of computer networks, using cloned cellular phones to mask his location. He eventually became the first computer criminal to make it to the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted Criminals.

In February 1995, Kevin was apprehended in Raleigh, North Carolina.

He would spend the next 4yrs locked up without even a fair trial. Eventually, Kevin received his trial, and was received a 5yr sentence, to which he was credited for the time he spent behind bars without a trial.

Kevin has been mentioned more than most people know in the general media, and has even had a couple of movies made about his skills.

The first occurance was the film Wargames. This movie was created during the initial hype about Kevin's skills. He was thought to be able to launch nuclear weapons by simply whistling a code down the phone.

After Kevin's arrest in 1995, Tsutomu Shimomura wrote a book about his account his involvement in tracking down Kevin in Raleigh, North Carolina. The book received mixed reviews. Some believe that Shimomura mentioned too much about what he ate, and not enough about the case.

The book was later made into a film starring Skeet Ulrich, which also received mixed reviews.

A documentary was also made by 2600 called "Freedom Downtime", documenting Emmanuel's travels across the country to see Kevin's tiny jail cell window.

After his release, Kevin went on to write two highly successful books(The Art of Deception and The Art of Intrusion), and start his own computer security consulting company.

Kevin is a long time member of 2600, and a close friend of Emmanuel Goldstein.

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