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Kevin Mitnick has died

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Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#541

Post by defrost »

felixhammerl wrote: post #536
defrost wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two of the most recent most high profile hacks required a large degree of preplanning, scoping out, custom coding etc to achieve the breadth and depth of penetration gained upon execution. How would you classify supply-chain attacks? Primary security was bypassed by breaking secondary security .. so there was security to be overcome, there was no social engineering aside from understanding procedures in play, and no…

let me blow your mind with "the lazarus heist" podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xtvg9/episodes/downloads

Another good example, thank you.

Over time they got more interesting and less like the "basic unsophisticated | opportunistic | social engineer | inside agent" description given above.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_Group

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#542

Post by kjs3 »

samstave wrote: post #511
puzzlingcaptcha wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that it really depends on the type of the pancreatic cancer. While pancreatic adenocarcinomas are some of the worst cancers out there (overall 5y survival of 8%), others like pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours have a fairly good prognosis. Famously, Steve Jobs sought alternative medicine solutions to the latter, which was probably misguided.

I come from a long line of clinical/medical folks in my family - and me on the tech side of medicine... That said the following is me talking out my ass, but I have followed a very few number of pancreatic cases - jobs being one... and there is one anecdotal that I would hope people closer to such cases can chime into ; how much wine did these people drink (jobs was a prolific wine drinker) Im wondering if sulfates f…

Jobs famously didn't drink much alcohol; he was way more into exotic fruit juices and such. Where did you get the idea he did? And what's with the oddly narrow "must be the sulfates, in wine specifically". Why not tannins? Polyphenols? Organic acids? We already know alcohol contributes to a variety of cancers...what compelling evidence is there that sulfate need be involved?

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#543

Post by specialist »

jonahx wrote: post #363
ChuckMcM wrote: post #193

I 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…

Moral panics incite all sorts of stupid policy making.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#544

Post by psychphysic »

outericky wrote: post #522
thesuitonym wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was already meeting with the CEO in some capacity, so it's very clear he had access to the CEO, maybe as a security consultant. Then getting him to read the number is easy, "Hey, I just got a new cell, but I might have given you my old card, can you read the number back to me?" Getting a phone number with all the necessary digits is a bit of a stretch, but not impossible. And I would suspect, because this is the w…

213-954-8607 Random number, legit area code. Unless you are looking for all 10 digits, pretty easy social hack

Yeah, the only worry is someone saying mine fifty four. And you don't catch 5.

But that's pretty easy. Sorry I didn't catch that could you do it one number at a time?

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#545

Post by EMCymatics »

marcus0x62 wrote: post #477
withinboredom wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pro-tip: CFAA only applies if you cross state lines between you and the server. Otherwise, state laws applies and there are/were some states that never passed any 'anti-hacking' laws. Source: experience.

Pro-er tip: if you are in the US and access a computer over any kind of service provider network (Internet, leased line, etc.) you should operate on the assumption your traffic is crossing state lines and the CFAA applies to your activities. Tools like traceroute cannot show you where your traffic is physically being sent because: there may be no geographic information in the router reverse DNS records, that informat…

How can the DNS records not be accurate?

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#546

Post by msarrel »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #193

I 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…

Having been around for the long haul and meet Kevin a few times, I'm sad to hear of his passing. Yet, his white hat influence will live on.

I completely agree. There was a time when hacker did not mean criminal. That was the time during which Kevin was active. It was also the time during which I was active, not that that matters right now. But there was a rapid shift from computers being something you could explore to if you're exploring that then you are a bad person. And I also agree that trying to scare policy makers isn't necessarily going to work because they don't understand what they're scared of. Curiosity is no longer rewarded in general in our society.

Those of you who don't think what Kevin did was important, there seem to be a lot of people discussing him, aren't there?

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#547

Post by 634636346 »

lynx23 wrote: post #413
vintagedave wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have been downvoted, but I'm not sure that's reasonable. While doctors do generally do their best, sometimes medical care is not ideal. Your point though seems to be rooted in what happened to you as a child. I'm sorry to hear it. Could you share something about what happened please?

I expected nothing else but downvotes. It is pretty representative for the times that peopel can not stand viewpoints which do not align with their own. And no, I am not going to post my personal medical history on HN in detail. My short description of the incident is already personal enough. Besides, what would that help? Everyone picks their own convenient opinion these days, all that can come out of this is that p…

I upvoted you, for what it's worth. People here really are relentless with the downvoting and flagging.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#548

Post by nemo44x »

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.

We just say these types of things because it makes us feel better. And that's OK. I don't think anyone accuses someone who dies of "not fighting hard enough".

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#549

Post by conductr »

eduction wrote: post #473
josh2600 wrote: post #48

Mitnick 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 veri…

He has the CEO’s number and successfully calls him, and through some miracle gets through directly to ask this trivial question — as opposed to getting the number from the assistant who answers his phone - sure ok but then under what pretense does he then ask him to repeat his phone number? “Please repeat the phone number I just dialed.” The phone number contains all the digits needed to recreate the bank account num…

He probably gained the CEO's trust at some point. Something like "I bet I can break into your personal bank account given public info?"

CEO interest is piqued. Gives him a business card, let's talk soon.

The on the call,

KM: what is your checking account number?

CEO: that's private

KM: it's printed on every personal check you write, so definitely not private

CEO: ok, good point, #######

KM: great, now tell me the numbers on the card I gave you

CEO: your phone number?

KM: yes

CEO: ok, ########

KM: ok I think I have what I need

CEO: really? that's it?

KM: yep, let me get to work, we'll talk soon

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#550

Post by whynotkeithberg »

I read his book when I was younger... And at DEFCON 19 I got selected to get paired with a celebrity hacker in the 10,000 cent hacker pyramid. I ended up getting paired with Kevin Mitnick & we played against Dan Kaminsky. It was a really cool experience & even though Kaminsky went on to win... It was a ton of fun and Kevin was a really cool guy.

I hope his family is doing well.

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