My first memory of Mitnick was a very early web viral 8bit sound file (ADPCM if memory serves) that was purported to be Mitnick (it turned out later to not be Mitnick); "I know sendmail technique. ...". I can still hear it in my head today. I got my start into infosec working as an admin at my university; trying to keep on top of students being naughty was a good introduction.
Kevin Mitnick has died
391–400 of 666 posts
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#392Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 Mannin…
>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
You're mistaking Manning's leak with the CIA.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/world/middleeast/cia-syri...
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#393"He is survived by his brother-in-law, Ricky Barry and his wife Roxy"
What a strange way to phrase it. Why don't they mention his sister first? Is it plain sexism or were they in bad terms?
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#394Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#395I was not aware he was ill. Always sad to hear people that are taken by cancer. I didn't know Kevin, but am friends with Tsutomu Shimomura who worked with authorities to get him arrested. Tsutomu worked with me a bit when I was at Sun trying to get a cryptographically secure subsystem into the base system specification. It was fun to listen to his side of this story. The 80's was a really weird time for computer enth…
Markoff and Shimomura received $750,000 for their book rights and $650,000 for the film rights. The most sensational parts in the book or the movie had absolutely nothing to do with the truth. Sharknado is closer to reality than Track Down. The cringest part is Tsutomu's fictional gf.
Take Down (the movie) was fantastic fiction, and even showed Mitnick as convicted before he even was.
However my cringiest take away from the book was Simomura's detailing of what he was eating which seemed to have so many mentions that at times I thought it was a healthy eating dialogue.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#396"He is survived by his brother-in-law, Ricky Barry and his wife Roxy" What a strange way to phrase it. Why don't they mention his sister first? Is it plain sexism or were they in bad terms?
I'm assuming you know something I don't (about who Roxy is), but it's entirely possible to have a brother-in-law married to someone that is not your sister.
I have a brother-in-law; my wife's brother.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#397I was not aware he was ill. Always sad to hear people that are taken by cancer. I didn't know Kevin, but am friends with Tsutomu Shimomura who worked with authorities to get him arrested. Tsutomu worked with me a bit when I was at Sun trying to get a cryptographically secure subsystem into the base system specification. It was fun to listen to his side of this story. The 80's was a really weird time for computer enth…
> but the flamboyant way it was done scared the crap out of people who were both clueless and in a position to do stupid things. As a result we got the CFAA and the DMCA which are both some of the most ridiculous pieces of legislation after the so called "patriot" act. > The damage that did to curious people growing up lost the US a significant fraction of their upcoming "innovation" talent. The causal leap from flam…
> The causal leap from flamboyant hackers to the DMCA/CFAA
That isn't much of a leap. The penalties aren't rooted in the actual damages, because for most of this kind of curiosity-based intrusion, there isn't any real damage and the damage imputed to them is the cost of cleaning up after the vulnerability, which the "victim" ought to have paid regardless. Getting trolled by some kid isn't what costs you money, implementing a vulnerability that allows some kid to troll you is.
The reason the penalties are high is because of that embarrassment. Some major institution that ought to have done better gets pwned by some pranksters and they lose face. So they want to throw the book at the guy to deter anyone else, not from maliciously causing them undue harm, but from making a fool of them in public.
But blaming the youth for bragging about it is blaming the victim. The perpetrators are the institutions that abuse the law, and the process of creating the law, to severely punish not evildoers but the child who points out that the emperor has no clothes.
> and then to damaging the US's innovation talent
These are the laws they use to charge the likes of Aaron Swartz, are they not?
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#398RIP ... absolutely opened my eyes as a kid ... tonight, I'm going to dig out the old 30 threadbare paperback about hackers where I first learned of him.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#399To 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.
You just misunderstand it… Beating a disease is synonymous with overcoming it. Thats it.
No, it is not. It deliberately uses a different word and that difference matters.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#400Rarely has "Hacker News" been a more appropriate page name.
RIP Kevin.