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Kevin Mitnick has died

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Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#551

Post by AlecSchueler »

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…

I read it as he asked the CEO to repeat the number that Mitnik had given him earlier to ensure that it was correct.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#552

Post by WhackyIdeas »

Aerbil313 wrote: post #457
fsckboy wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 judg…

The comment you’re replying to was not serious. It’s irony highlighting the nonsensicality of the replied sentiment.

Can I ask how you are so sure of that? Fascinated by your confidence on this one - maybe even jealous actually… Curious!

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#553

Post by kjs3 »

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…

Spot on. More simply, no matter the technical underpinnings, the case will be made in court that because your service provider (and probably the carriers it's connected to) have infrastructure across state lines at all, your traffic could have crossed state lines, and the court will be asked to assume it did. And they probably will.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#554

Post by nicetryguy »

blindriver wrote: post #498
nicetryguy wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's one of the few that's still difficult to detect, and by the time you show symptoms you are basically stage 4... it's treatable if you catch it early, but therein lies the problem; My grandfather passed away from it.

I'm sorry to hear that, someone I knew closely died of pancreatic cancer and died 6 weeks after diagnosis which is why it scares me so much. Did your grandfather smoke, or drink a lot of alcohol? Or drink a lot of tea or coffee?

Yeah he smoked a tobacco pipe, as grandpas do, but didn't drink alot was in relatively great physical health for his age before that. He was 70. This was in 2000.

He lived about a year after his diagnosis, which occurred when he was jaundice. His health / quality of life was ok after, some weeks were good, some were bad, but yeah it was stage 4 when they caught it, and there is / was only so much you can do, especially 23 years ago.

Fun Fact: He worked on the Univac! Spent his career with Unisys afterward.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#555

Post by kjs3 »

EMCymatics wrote: post #545
marcus0x62 wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

You're new here, aren't you?

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#556

Post by muzani »

programmarchy wrote: post #68

Serious question: why revere Mitnick, but not someone like SBF? Mitnick is admired for his technical skill and social engineering prowess, but the same argument could be made that SBF is also exceptional in this regard on an even larger scale. Both are (alleged) criminals. Genuinely curious what makes Mitnick morally good in the eyes of HN. Was it his redemption arc as a “white hat”?

Mitnick wasn't malicious, more curious. He tried things, some of which shouldn't be tried, because it was illegal.

He also educated the entire industry on how it works. Most people today show off that they're a security consultant but they haven't really had any experience breaking into things, and a lot of the advice is impractical. Like everyone knows that MD5 is insecure, but who's going to actually use it as an attack vector? Mitnick does the attack and then documents it. Some people claim he made stuff up, but even having the kind of imagination to make up these scenarios puts him above many security experts.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#557

Post by j0hnyl »

loup-vaillant wrote: post #517
j0hnyl wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure it's the alternative treatments that did him in... it was the AIDS that he kept a secret and was subsequently revealed by wikileaks.

Do you have a credible link? The quick search I did suggests the evidence was unreliable and likely forged.

I'm only aware that documents were circulating saying that, but now that I'm searching around, I think the best details are here:

https://wikileaks.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs_purported_HIV_medical_...

Conclusion is that the documents shouldn't be taken at face value... so maybe not?

However, if he was HIV+ I can totally see why it would be covered up.

I guess it's a big question mark, but it's not unbelievable.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#558

Post by pizzalife »

You can watch some of Kevin's telnet logs here: http://www.takedown.com/evidence/transcripts/index.html

No disrespect to the dead, but I always thought he kind of lived in a lame timeframe. It used to be a lot easier to do what he did. If you check the terminal logs, he was a script kiddie at best (I know he's more famous for the social engineering). How many CVEs did Mitnick have to his name..? (AFAIK, zero)

Anyway, I'm prepared to get some downvotes but do check out the logs. It's pretty entertaining regardless.

Re: Kevin Mitnick has died

#560

Post by mywittyname »

moritonal wrote: post #479
eduction wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Mitnick could have been hired as a advisor for their system, personally by the CEO. He calls the CEO to ask a "personal question" so to skip the assistant, asks something innocent, then let's the CEO he has a new number and provides a fake number. He asks the CEO to confirm he heard the number correctly, but it's a bad line, so speak clearly please. The "new phone number" has all the digits of the bank account he's t…

It's also possible that the CEO knew what Mitnick was getting at and played along to a degree.

Kind of like when your company has a security presentation about this new "report phishing button" in your email and you suddenly see this weird phishing-like email come through a few hours later. Hopefully you connect the dots.

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