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Kevin Mitnick has died

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Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#171

Post by AceyMan »

Kina wrote: post #79
bshipp wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The....Gerber Baby? Is there a story there? She seems pretty normal and pleasant from her Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Turner_Cook

It doesn’t matter who the Gerber Baby really is. Society has chosen to associate the Gerber Baby with certain attributes regardless of who the person behind the photo really is, and so it is with Kevin Mitnick. Mitnick, the real person, excelled at social engineering more than any other trait and was arguably subjected to malicious prosecution. But in his later years, there’s a lot of documentation online indicating…

I think we'd all be surprised to find out how many "legendary", "amazing", "revolutionary" famous people are not particularly pleasant. You don't achieve greatness by being a sweetheart.

[ftr, I have no idea what his demeanor was; like many, it's quite likely he softened over time.]

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#173

Post by neilv »

wnissen wrote: post #31

He certainly was an interesting person. It was always amazing the degree to which law enforcement prosecuted his hacking and cracking, when it seems like much more impactful crimes involving computers go uninvestigated. Plenty of people are hounded by threats of violence into leaving their jobs and homes, that seems far more impactful than Mitnick's crimes. And FYI, while he died unexpectedly young, a 57-year-old man…

I'm sure the child will grow up knowing that they were wanted and loved.

Obituaries mention surviving family members by convention, but otherwise leave very personal matters to the family.

The death of someone can be a reminder of our own mortality. Maybe a later HN post can work through some of those thoughts.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#174

Post by Apocryphon »

gkoberger wrote: post #6

Wow. He was only 59. I've always loved his lockpicking business card: https://www.mitnicksecurity.com/kevin-mitnicks-famous-lockpi... While I assume this is real, part of me does feel like a combination of how young he is and who is is leads me to be slightly skeptical. Assuming it's real, hopefully he would have appreciated the skepticism.

Adrian Lamo also passed away at an early age (37), coincidentally enough.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#175

Post by RajT88 »

owenmarshall wrote: post #112
cjensen wrote: post #93

Earlier 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.

As someone too young to have a credit card in 1995, I’m curious: was its theft more of a “big deal” back then? My Amex account number was stolen a month ago. It took me three minutes on the call with a rep to get it locked + a new card issued. I think I spent more time and effort on the phone with my dentist later that week.

Less fraud protection. I got my first credit card in 1998 and started paying attention.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_and_Accurate_Credit_Tra...

This gave prior anti-fraud legislation more teeth and had a huge impact.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#176

Post by hellyer »

EMIRELADERO wrote: post #57
hellyer wrote: post #42

[dead]

> Having been threatened with murder and then blackmailed, with zero consequence to the perpetrators, I have first hand experience dealing with such corruption. Care to elaborate? This sounds like something too heavy to leave behind as a remark on a comment

[dead]

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#178

Post by myself248 »

trashcanman wrote: post #136

Wow didn’t see that coming. I met him at a HOPE conference with Steve Wozniak. Followed him for years from hacker zine texts distributed on CDs back in the day. Wow that’s really sad what a fun guy he was. His social engineering book was pretty interesting. That OKI phone story was so fascinating I bought a couple to see if I could do it too, although by then 900MHz was phased out. This guy made a difference in my li…

MENU SND END RCL STO CLR

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#179

Post by kazinator »

owenmarshall wrote: post #112
cjensen wrote: post #93

Earlier 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.

As someone too young to have a credit card in 1995, I’m curious: was its theft more of a “big deal” back then? My Amex account number was stolen a month ago. It took me three minutes on the call with a rep to get it locked + a new card issued. I think I spent more time and effort on the phone with my dentist later that week.

I just have to log into my online banking app, click on the credit card, and then slide a lock switch from left to right. A prompt comes up whether I'd like to report it lost or stolen too. If it's just misplaced, I don't have to bother.
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