Oh no. He is a hero that taught so many people.
Kevin Mitnick has died
341–350 of 666 posts
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#342Earlier 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.…
Labelling the installation of DokuWiki as rebellion just made my day :-D
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#343Earlier quoted context omitted.
Adrian Lamo also passed away at an early age (37), coincidentally enough.
Wasn’t sure who that was, but wikipidia says: “Lamo was best known for reporting U.S. soldier Chelsea Manning to Army criminal investigators in 2010[7] for leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive U.S. government documents to WikiLeaks.[8][9] Lamo died on March 14, 2018, at the age of 37.[10]” Kind of the wrong side in history there. But RIP, regardless.
> Kind of the wrong side in history there.
Manning’s leaks included vast numbers of documents related in no way to a legitimate whistleblowing issues, some of which helped spark the Arab Spring which precipitated in an ongoing civil war in Syria, slave markets and the beheading of religious minorities in Libya, and on and on all over the region affecting 100s of millions of people. I don’t know about Lamo, but Manning certainly isn’t on the right side of history and deserves to be still in jail.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#344Just read about this.
So many memories from way back, reading up on his story (and stories), reading his books, watching "Takedown" over and over again ...
No matter how polarising he was, his influence in the field and in leading many young people to get into computers and turn that into a career is unquestionable, imho.
RIP
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#345Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#346Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Education is a patch. It's very hard to install though.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#347To 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.
Let's put it that way, the will is never sheer. Looks like the will pushed Kevin to deal with it and relentlessly look for solutions (and put his money to use) instead of succumbing to it. If so, then in the end obviously it's his will that helped him score a win against cancer.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#348To 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.
Every type of cancer is different. I think that if you're young enough and lucky enough to have avoided close dealings with terminal cancer, you might be fooled into thinking that the are all kinds of new treatments that can cure you if you get diagnosed. But what you eventually realise is that every cancer is different. Some are treatable, and others are an extremely aggressive and don't respond to anything. My sister's ovarian cancer made itself known in March, was officially diagnosed in early April and she was gone by September. It did not slow down for anything. On the other hand an old boss of mine was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer and lived 4 years, eventually choosing to end his treatment because he'd just be dragging out a final two painful weeks into 6 painful months. And then there are the lucky ones that get a lump removed and never hear from it again.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#349Wow. 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.
Wired story about the origin of the cards: https://www.wired.com/2007/06/lock-pick-busin/ (I looked it up because I thought they looked like some cards someone I knew designed, and sure enough…)
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#350Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
that's incredibly simplistic and lacking in empathy.
there are people with serious psychological disorders such that they can't control negative impulses and behaviors. Some people are born or develop an empathy void, but they are still human beings. Yes, we need to make sure they don't harm others, but pissing on them doesn't help you or anyone else, so why do it? All men are created equal, judge not lest ye be judged, ChristianGeek.
"Judgement is Mine." - Your Friend