dang / mods: if anyone passing deserves the HN black banner, I think Mitnick deserves the banner.
Kevin Mitnick has died
41–50 of 666 posts
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#42[dead]
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#43[flagged]
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#44Watch "Freedom downtime".
There they make it clear that the New York Times columnist and book author John Markoff made up absolutely everything.
The movie "Track Down" (US) / "Takedown" is also full of BS.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#45He certainly was an interesting person. It was always amazing the degree to which law enforcement prosecuted his hacking and cracking, when it seems like much more impactful crimes involving computers go uninvestigated. Plenty of people are hounded by threats of violence into leaving their jobs and homes, that seems far more impactful than Mitnick's crimes. And FYI, while he died unexpectedly young, a 57-year-old man…
Doesn't that statistic depend heavily on how old the child is to begin with?
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#46Oh My Gosh this is so sad !
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#47I remember reading Kevin Mitnick books in the early 2000s and it really open my eyes about social engineering and how hacking is more than just cracking a code. Help me become a better DevOps and Software Engineer.
Same! His book on social engineering was profound to my teenage mind. Rest in peace.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#48Mitnick was a hacker hero of mine in my youth. I think I’ve understood his role as jester prior to conviction less as I’ve grown older, but there’s something about the boyhood charm of being so divorced from the potential consequences of one’s actions that is almost unique.
Mitnick had so many stories that entranced the people around him. I heard one second hand of Mitnick dealing with a bank who had early voice verification software. Upon meeting the CEO he gave the executive his card and departed for the evening. Arriving back at his hotel, he called the CEO and asked him to read his phone number to him. The phone number contained all ten digits which Mitnick had neatly tape recorded so as to make the CEO’s voice reproducible. He then proceeded to use the bank’s vocal banking system to transfer $1 from the CEO’s account to his as the authentication mechanism was reading out your own account number in your voice.
When Mitnick arrived back in the board room the architect of the voice verification system was crestfallen and the bank CEO delivered a check on a silver platter.
Now how much of that tale is embellished I will never know as it was second hand, but that was the kind of whimsy Mitnick brought to our world.
Rest in Power.
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#49[flagged]
Re: Kevin Mitnick has died
#50He certainly was an interesting person. It was always amazing the degree to which law enforcement prosecuted his hacking and cracking, when it seems like much more impactful crimes involving computers go uninvestigated. Plenty of people are hounded by threats of violence into leaving their jobs and homes, that seems far more impactful than Mitnick's crimes. And FYI, while he died unexpectedly young, a 57-year-old man…
> a 57-year-old man in the US has only a 50% chance of living to see their child reach 23 years of age
Perhaps a clearer way to put it: a 57-year-old man in the US has a 50% chance of living to 80, which doesn't seem quite as shocking of a statement.