OMG! This is so sad. I read about Kevin a lot and read the book, "The Art of Deception" during my teen years and was fascinated by how interesting social engineering was. Once I got into college, I got busy and never followed him anymore. I recently read about him in some random article and then I read about him now. I opened HN to see the black band on top and was worried to know who it could be and turns out, it was Kevin.
Kevin Mitnick has died
301–310 of 666 posts
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#302RIP to the legend. Remember when Yahoo! was defaced with a "FREE KEVIN" message? Good times.
I remember when KevinMitnick.com was defaced.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#303Earlier 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…
Regarding your source: People don't behave consistently all the time. There are probably people who have briefly met you when you were not in a good mood who would say that you are a jerk.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#304Is this real?
I'm wondering the same thing. Wikipedia page isn't updated, I don't see any updates on https://www.mitnicksecurity.com/ or https://www.knowbe4.com/ , and I can't find any other news mentions about this. I also can't find mention of him having pancreatic cancer, but that's not necessarily a confirmation of anything. He certainly could have kept it private.
KnowBe4 has confirmed. https://web.archive.org/web/20230720043020/https://www.nytim...
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#305Wow. 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.
I miss Adrian, looking at this picture now gives me a wistful feeling https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lamo-Mitnick-Poulsen... Hope Kevin Poulsen is doing okay tonight.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#306[flagged]
If you and your wife really love each other and your wife really want to have a piece of the love you had in form of another family member, why not? Is the submission for someone who just died the right place to write something you already know is harsh? Considering the kind of person Kevin was, I'm sure a bunch of his friends are on here, reading these very comments so maybe just a tiny bit of respect would be suita…
Totally.
It’s the age old issue if someone can’t understand something therefore there can be no understanding in it.
While many people are remembering the Free Kevin phenomenon, the random places the t-shirts would appear for years.. like other things Kevin appeared to do - it’s a decision that’s entirely Kevin and his wife’s business, and they seem more than capable of it.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#307Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
Being physically abusive automatically cancels any credits you may have for any other qualities.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#308I will always remember when the "Takedown" movie came out. I loved the original "Hackers" and couldn't wait for "Hackers 2" which was Takedown.
I had learned about Mitnick few years prior to the movie and was fascinated by his life story and what he had done up to that point (including his "takedown" by the FBI). It's an understatement to say that his work, character and some sort of positive social manipulation put a great influence on my upbringing and later my professional career. Back then I enjoyed playing pranks with my friends and "hacking" them with all sorts of trojans and ejecting their CD roms :)
I am very sad to hear that he's gone. RIP Legend.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#309It's funny, though I didn't really know him I did have two chance interactions 15 or so years back that are in a way core lessons for me about business.
Back when he started doing consulting I ended up spending some hours on the phone with him over a week or so as an evenings/weekends side project (I had a more than full time job too). He seemed like a nice enough dude, basically a middle aged guy trying to put his life back together, and he was understandably not up to speed on web app security due to his recent stint in prison. I don't think that business ever panned out but he eventually pivoted and built a multi-billion dollar company around the concept he was known for (social engineering).
The second is embedded in his somewhat famous lock pick business card. It turns out those cards are a direct copy of a friend's card, conceived by me, designed by a second friend, and inspired by a third friend who'd discovered the shop that did etched steel cards. Kevin's card traded in usability by shortening the tools to make more space for contact information. Regardless, his ability to capture the spotlight helped ensure his version is by far the best known.
RIP.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#310Earlier quoted context omitted.
toool is an organization worthy of the support, and they sell a version of it.
Do you have a link? I'm not seeing one at toool.nl