41–50 of 99 posts
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Er, what risk does the release of an SSN pose to someone two years deceased?
TIL. Now I’m wondering how many other people in this thread don’t know he died (pancreatic cancer). 59 isn’t that old. And he was expecting a baby at the time, which suggests maybe they didnt think so either.
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I've far more respect for Tsutomu. In the end he turned out to be the better hacker. Reading Mitnicks book I sometimes get the impression that the he is making up half of it.
To the best of my knowledge, Mitnick didn't really code at all. There are (let's call them) intrusion specialists whose skillsets don't really involve systems programming, but rather intuition and tenacity, and there are others who write exploits. My understanding is that Mitnick was the former, and was using tools he got from friends and peers.
It should be illegal for the government to keep redactions in anything made public/declassified. It's a slap in the face to see entire sections of text (that most certainly contain important context) blocked out with a white blob.
The Mitnick files contain information about innocent people who are alive and whose privacy rights remain paramount.
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If you are into this topic, read as many point of view as possible and take a look at http://www.takedown.com/ (Tsutomu Shimomura's side of the story).
I've far more respect for Tsutomu. In the end he turned out to be the better hacker. Reading Mitnicks book I sometimes get the impression that the he is making up half of it.
This will pair well with Mitnick's autobiography Ghost in the Wires , in which you get to read Mitnick's side of the story.
[1] Available DRM-free at Downpour (https://www.downpour.com/ghost-in-the-wires?sp=19991) and at Libro.fm (https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781483067216-ghost-in-the-wires)
The password to the system was "BRIS," the name of the vendor.
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The Mitnick files contain information about innocent people who are alive and whose privacy rights remain paramount.
Perhaps too naive a question, but if they are innocent what is there to protect? I get it in the case of informants or agents that operate undercover or in plains clothes but if just a bystander how is it different than some news article?
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Steve's Job SSN is 549-94-3295. How can this release harm a dead person?
Him, probably not. His estate, however, potentially. Perhaps one could get a loan, using his SSN, and his estate gets the bill and subsequent harassment. SSNs make terrible secrets and it's insane that you could harm a live person by knowing their SSN. I doubt that insanity stops just because you're dead.