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Kevin Mitnick has died

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Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#331

Post by dormento »

unethical_ban wrote: post #295
dylan604 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a similar vein of social engineering, Exploding The Phone is good read about the Phreakers of yore.

It's in my Amazon list and now I know why. I'm 34 and learned about phreaking well after it was a thing but it inspired me. Now I'm a cybersecurity consultant (glorified sysadmin) making a nice salary but without any of the joy that was present in my 20s rebelling against my F100 company's IT policy. Installing Dokuwiki on a shadow server just to get shit done. Helping write a custom request system to get shit done.…

> making a nice salary but without any of the joy that was present in my 20s rebelling against my F100 company's IT policy

You just hit it. That feeling. Me too, nowadays I mostly go through the motions. No enthusiasm, no joy, no interest, no energy... no "spark". Mitnick lived and shined at a time when showing off didn't just land you in jail. Until it did.

Long live the legend.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#333

Post by submeta »

Taking a detour from the current thread, this sad news about Kevin Mitnick serves as a poignant reminder of the impermanence of life, but also of the value of vigilance. It's a note to all of us about the importance of our health. Remember, routine health checkups, especially as we age, can have a significant impact on our wellbeing.

Cancer, if detected early, does not have to be a death sentence. In fact, many forms of cancer are treatable and even curable if caught in their initial stages. Our advancements in medical science and technology have indeed made it possible. Yet, they can only do so much if we, as individuals, do not take the responsibility of regularly visiting our doctors.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#335

Post by 4gotunameagain »

jeremy_carroll wrote: post #318

To be candid; fuck this narrative. Nobody "Beats" cancer based on sheer will. Same scenario as those that did not "Fight hard enough". It's a disease. It does not care about your wants, and needs.

Any doctor will tell you that mentality is incredibly important in fighting (yes, fighting) diseases.

It is well known that your psychological state influences the immune system a lot, and even from anecdata, you can see that people rapidly deteriorate when they give up. It is not a coincidence all these terms are used.

Can all cancers be beaten by sheer will? Of course not.

But it does play a huge factor in many cases.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#336

Post by retrocryptid »

8n4vidtmkvmk wrote: post #314
autoexec wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Manipulating people is more interesting in some ways than exploiting a bit of badly written software because while I write terrible code all the time, I could fix it too but there's no patching our stupid stupid brains. We can try to be more careful, and avoid falling for things others have already, but the flaws are still there just waiting for the moment our guard is down.

Some human exploits can be patched, at least partially. 2FA with hardware authentication helps prevent people from leaking their own passwords and such. Phishing detectors help. Etc. I'm sad to admit my wife is better at this than me. Any time anyone she doesn't know tries to talk to her, she's quick to escape. I tend to try to politely decline, she just books it

There is no patch for human stupidity.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#337

Post by ianpenney »

The hacker community needs a word akin to “Silent Key” - in the ham radio community - that means a contributor that’s passed on.

Never met the guy but you’re damn right I know who he is. And I come from the middle of nowhere.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#338

Post by [deleted] »

ldargin wrote: post #280
programmarchy wrote: post #68

Serious question: why revere Mitnick, but not someone like SBF? Mitnick is admired for his technical skill and social engineering prowess, but the same argument could be made that SBF is also exceptional in this regard on an even larger scale. Both are (alleged) criminals. Genuinely curious what makes Mitnick morally good in the eyes of HN. Was it his redemption arc as a “white hat”?

Mitnick didn't steal anything except source code. He didn't do anything that was truly reprehensible. I feel it's premature to comment on SBF. He hasn't even been tried yet.

[deleted]

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#340

Post by retrocryptid »

iJohnDoe wrote: post #228
larrywright wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really enjoyed the book Takedown, about Shimomura's pursuit of Mitnick - I must have read it three or four times. I always wondered what happened to Shimomura, since he just seemed to drop out of sight after that book came out.

Shimomura was an egotistical asshole at the time. However, he was younger then and can hopefully acknowledge he was still learning about himself and wasn’t all-wise yet. I hope Shimomura can realize that Mitnick made him a better version of himself, both personally and professionally.

Meh. It 'ain't braggin' if it's true. Worked with Tsutomo on some projects. Dude has an extremely keen analytical mind. Mitnick on the other hand had an excellent grasp of human intellectual frailty. I was always surprised people expected Tsutomo to be some amazingly empathetic mensch and Mitnick to be some uber mentat wizzard.

Each was quite good within their speciality, and kinda crappy in the other's. And that's totally okay.

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