BoingBoing is now confirming it:
https://boingboing.net/2023/07/19/kevin-mitnick-1963-2023.ht...
Kevin Mitnick has died
161–170 of 666 posts
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#162For those looking for an official source outside of the obituary: Dave Kennedy (a longtime infosec pro and, in my opinion, a trusted source) confirmed in a tweet: https://nitter.net/HackingDave/status/1681838080355966976
Although I haven't seen an "official" statement, I believe that this news is legitimate.
RIP Kevin.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#163There goes my hero.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#164If you're looking for other stories, The Art of Deception (Mitnick specific) and The Art of Intrusion (not all Mitnick) have a ton.
In a similar vein of social engineering, Exploding The Phone is good read about the Phreakers of yore.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
As one of the people whose credit card number was stolen from Netcom, I would strongly object to this. I'm not here to speak poorly of the dead, but I'm definitely here to judge those who think too highly of him.
Did this cost you money personally, or just inconvenience you?
A single card fraud scenario itself is not the only cost to credit card fraud.
Investigation costs money. Emotional health costs money.
Humans can paper over technical security problems with our sensibilities.
Hackers figurative identity and obsession with perfect system security (physically impossible) has been weaponized to abuse.
You all are not owed deference. Go touch grass. Reality does not exist for you.
Good job you all make purpose built machines do math. You read the manual. All the real discoveries to enable that were made hundreds of years ago.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
As one of the people whose credit card number was stolen from Netcom, I would strongly object to this. I'm not here to speak poorly of the dead, but I'm definitely here to judge those who think too highly of him.
Did this cost you money personally, or just inconvenience you?
It's almost always an inconvenience, and doesn't cost you a thing. They refund the fraud, and send a new card. You might have to fill out some paperwork.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#167Sad news. His biography/story "Ghost in the Wires" is one of the most amazing books I've ever read. I highly recommend it. The audiobook is read by Ray Porter and is gold. I'll be giving it a re-listen.
His books "The Art of {Deception,Invisibility,Intrusion}" are absolute bangers for most of the people here. Can't recommend enough
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#168BoingBoing is now confirming it: https://boingboing.net/2023/07/19/kevin-mitnick-1963-2023.ht...
Confirming? They're reiterating from the same source as everyone else (dignitymemorial.com) hardly confirmed and can't even call that journalism.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#169When Kevin first found out he had Cancer, the doctors gave him "weeks". But you know Kevin -- he refused to accept his fate and found the top doctors in the world, tried experimental procedures and was able to get himself all the way into remission just 11 months later. It was incredibly inspiring, we all thought he had yet again beaten the system. It's tragic how the last 10 weeks played out, he fought all the way u…
Looks like he died from pancreatic cancer. This cancers always reminds me of the Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. He was a CMU professor who also died from pancreatic cancer 15 years ago.
https://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/
Here’s an HN discussion from a few years ago.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#170If you're looking for other stories, The Art of Deception (Mitnick specific) and The Art of Intrusion (not all Mitnick) have a ton.
I wish I remember which book I read about Mitnick (and others).
I developed a strong dislike for Mitnick, however. As others have said, he came across as an adolescent with an over-sized ego. More "Jackass" than "Silicon Valley". Although I'm sure he's not the only "hacker" for whom illegal entry into computer systems gave him a sense of self-importance.
No thanks.
Edit: yeah, probably was "Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier". I still don't think "bullshit artist" is something to aspire to.