he met his match, that's for sure
Takedown (1995)
11–20 of 42 posts
Re: Takedown (1995)
#12[deleted]
Re: Takedown (1995)
#13I grew up as a huge Mitnick fan, and I still am. He was vilified and used as the poster boy for all computer hackers, phreakers, and the lot - unfairly I think. Takedown was one of the most dry and dull books I've ever read, and John Markoff should be ashamed of himself. Read Mitnick's book, Ghost in the Wires. So much better.
Re: Takedown (1995)
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
To me too in a way. It all looked cool. It was only later then I started to see the way we valorize bad actors as a bad thing about culture. Someone who does bad things is automatically treated as smarter then someone who has good ethics and cares about his impact on others.
I'm not even "why idealize hackers". I remember being a teenager too. I'm saying, why Mitnick ? What about his M.O. was ever interesting?
Because of how unjustly he was treated. Held for 5 years without trail, most of that in solitary confinement, because the government thought if he got to a phone he could launch nuclear weapons (seriously). Mitnick was in it for the knowledge, and exploration, not financial gain, not destruction, or anything like the script kiddies of today.
Re: Takedown (1995)
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not even "why idealize hackers". I remember being a teenager too. I'm saying, why Mitnick ? What about his M.O. was ever interesting?
Were there others as high profile at the time? He might have just been the first widely known when “hacking” and the Net was new for a lot of people.
Yes, and they set an interesting counter-example:
Kevin Poulsen, Mark Abene, Elias Ladopoulos, and others took things in a sinister direction. Mitnick wasn't like that, and I think that really set him apart, but because he was the best the government had to make an example out of him.
Re: Takedown (1995)
#16I recommend to watch movie based on Kevin Mitnick story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_Down I couldn't say it's very accurate story but it's still fun to watch.
99% of it never happened and what actually "happened" was over-dramatized.
They exaggerated so much that Mitnick was sent to a maximum security jail.
Re: Takedown (1995)
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not even "why idealize hackers". I remember being a teenager too. I'm saying, why Mitnick ? What about his M.O. was ever interesting?
Because of how unjustly he was treated. Held for 5 years without trail, most of that in solitary confinement, because the government thought if he got to a phone he could launch nuclear weapons (seriously). Mitnick was in it for the knowledge, and exploration, not financial gain, not destruction, or anything like the script kiddies of today.
He seems like more or less the archetype of the modern script kid (he was using other people's exploits --- and in an era where you could exploit a lot of vulnerabilities with simple shell scripts, no less). What makes you think otherwise? How much do you know about his motives?
a little later:
When talking about his sentence, it's useful to compare it to that of Lewis DePayne, his accomplice. They're both charged with essentially the same crimes. But DePayne isn't going on a hacking spree while on supervised release, and gets probation.
Re: Takedown (1995)
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Were there others as high profile at the time? He might have just been the first widely known when “hacking” and the Net was new for a lot of people.
Yes, and they set an interesting counter-example: Kevin Poulsen, Mark Abene, Elias Ladopoulos, and others took things in a sinister direction. Mitnick wasn't like that, and I think that really set him apart, but because he was the best the government had to make an example out of him.
How did Mark Abene take things in a more sinister direction than Kevin Mitnick?
Re: Takedown (1995)
#19I grew up as a huge Mitnick fan, and I still am. He was vilified and used as the poster boy for all computer hackers, phreakers, and the lot - unfairly I think. Takedown was one of the most dry and dull books I've ever read, and John Markoff should be ashamed of himself. Read Mitnick's book, Ghost in the Wires. So much better.
I can't speak to "Ghost in the Wires", however a book that contemporaneous to "Takedown" that does a better job, I think, is "The Fugitive Game", by Johnathan Littman: https://www.amazon.com/Fugitive-Game-Online-Kevin-Mitnick/dp...
Re: Takedown (1995)
#20I recommend to watch movie based on Kevin Mitnick story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_Down I couldn't say it's very accurate story but it's still fun to watch.
This movie is known as Takedown in the rest of the world, and it is not fun to watch, nor does it cover Mitnick's side of the story: "Track Down (also known as Takedown outside the United States), is a 2000 film about computer hacker Kevin Mitnick, based on the book Takedown by John Markoff and Tsutomu Shimomura."
Watch the documentary Freedom Downtime by Eric "Emmanuel Goldstein" Corley and read Mitnick's book, Ghost in the Wires. Written by Mitnick after his probation terms were expired. Dude's got humor, and its written in a way which is both fun and suspense. Whether it is accurate, who knows, but it is from his perspective.