Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Kevin Mitnick has died

dignitymemorial.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 666 posts

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#251

Post by beebmam »

RajT88 wrote: post #160
faeriechangling wrote: post #143

Mitnick did remind myself as a preteen, even if it never seems he quite outgrew his own preteen antics. He was a gutsy guy who made life more rich and interesting in his own way. He never seemed to bend to the system’s will long after many of us so called anti-authoritarians would have thrown in the towel. When I read his books I alternated between fascination, revulsion, admiration, and shock. Mitnick above all wasn…

> Mitnick above all wasn’t boring and I think “not boring” doesn’t get enough credit in the measure of a man. My wife might agree or disagree with you, depending on the day.

My ex certainly wasn't boring. But they certainly were physically abusive. I don't believe that automatically qualifies someone as deserving of credit.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#252

Post by autoexec »

throwaway88008 wrote: post #90

The post mentions Dutchman Stu Sjouwerman as a close friend. Kevin was partnered with Stu in the security company KnowBe4. Stu is a dedicated Scientologist, and has donated millions and millions of dollars to that corrupt organization. I know because I served in the Scientology Sea Org and knew Stu when he was on “OTVII”. This was before KnowBe4, but he was still something of a big donator. He really hit it big with…

They seem to hook a lot of clever people. I always assumed it was some kind of weird tax dodge, but maybe Scientology doesn't get enough credit for their social engineering skills

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#255

Post by [deleted] »

craftkiller wrote: post #145
tomjakubowski wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would he have known the CEO's bank account number? Did the CEO write him a check at some point? Or maybe a bank's CEO traditionally gets account number 1…

Bank account numbers aren't secret, they're written on the bottom of every check you write. The story lacks the details of how he got his hands on it but its not unreasonable to assume he was able to access such unprotected information.

[deleted]

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#256

Post by dryrun »

jboy55 wrote: post #210

My parents vaguely remembered who Kevin Mitnick was when I gave my father my copy of 'Ghost in the Wires' to read. I told him, this was the 'hacker' of the 80s, read how he managed to 'hack' all these places. My father replied, "I'm pretty sure I won't understand anything he would do". Me, "Just give it a chance, you'll be surprised" When he gave the book back, I asked my father if anything Kevin did my father wouldn…

Would there be a modern version of this? I haven't read it and I'm interested, but mostly my parents are getting old, and with AI on the corner, I fear a bit the next level scams.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#257

Post by yreg »

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.

For years I planned to get one by sending him the $10, but I never got around to do it…

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#258

Post by tomjakubowski »

craftkiller wrote: post #145
tomjakubowski wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would he have known the CEO's bank account number? Did the CEO write him a check at some point? Or maybe a bank's CEO traditionally gets account number 1…

Bank account numbers aren't secret, they're written on the bottom of every check you write. The story lacks the details of how he got his hands on it but its not unreasonable to assume he was able to access such unprotected information.

Yeah I know, I wondered in the comment whether CEO might have written Mitnick a check

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#260

Post by garfieldnate »

Having read and loved Ghost in the Wires, I felt a special bond with Kevin. I loved his antics combined with his fearless exploration of how everything around him works. I'm really sad reading of his death today. He was far too young. My favorite story from the book is how he set up a computer to tail the logs of cell towers in his area for phone numbers matching the FBI agents assigned to his case so he would be alerted when they were on to him. Wow, that's bold! But also, reading that I realized how our society had allowed ourselves to be surrounded by tracking machines that the government could use to find us at any time, and man it was beautiful to see it turned back on them.
Post reply on HN