[ISN] Hackers: Under the hood - Kevin Mitnick

[InfoSec News]

http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/security/0,39023764,39116620-5,00.htm

Name: Kevin Mitnick
Handle(s): Condor, from the movie
Three Days of the Condor
Age: 40
Place of birth:California, USA 
Marital status: Divorced. Now lives with girlfriend
and her eight year-old daughter
Current residence: Las Vegas, USA
Job: Chief executive of Defensive Thinking
First computer: Toshiba 4400 SX laptop
Best known for: His notoriety
Area(s) of expertise: Social engineering 


Even though I was a hacker since the 70s, I used other people's
computers," confessed Kevin Mitnick. He didn't have to buy his own
computer until 1992!

Perhaps the best known computer criminal in the world, Mitnick has
used his mastery of social engineering -- or plain trickery -- to
illegally penetrate networks all across the globe. His misdeeds was
the subject of a book and subsequent movie of the same name, Takedown.

After being imprisoned three times for hacking -- the third time
spending four and a half years behind bars -- Mitnick has gone
straight. He now writes books about security, travels the world as a
professional speaker and runs Defensive Thinking, the company he built
on the back of his notoriety.
 
It's easy to picture him as a leather-clad cyberpunk or a
narcissistic, cold, calculating cybervillain.

So frankly it's a little disappointing to speak with him.

Mitnick is -- on the telephone at least -- one of the least offensive
or aggressive subjects one is likely to encounter. He is pleasant and
polite, and considering his reputation as a master of deception,
fairly easy to read.

His generally upbeat demeanour doesn't waver, even when speaking of
the hardest times in his life -- like when he spent around eight
months in solitary confinement because a US court was convinced he
could start a nuclear war by whistling into a telephone.

As you speak to Mitnick, you get the impression his mild manner isn't
obscuring from view a malicious menace to society, but someone who
feels victimised. Someone who feels he was in the wrong place at the
wrong time, and paid too high a price for his mistakes.

Starting out as a prankster while in high school in the late 70s,
Mitnick fell in love with phreaking -- hacking the public phone
network -- before being drawn into hacking computers.

"I was involved in phone phreaking before I was into computers. This
was before AT&T was deregulated. I was pulling pranks on friends and
family," Mitnick told ZDNet Australia in a recent interview. "I met
this other kid, who knew about my shenanigans, who thought computers
would interest me because phone companies were going from magnetic
switches to computerised systems."

While still in high school, his first hack came in the form of a login
simulator he authored. When run, the program would display a normal
login prompt, but when a user name and password was entered, the
details would be captured before logging the user on. Mitnick used
this technique to obtain his teacher's username and password.

Looking back, he says he has been described as someone who had a
terrible addiction to hacking, an all-consuming passion that wrecked
his life. That's a bit of a stretch, he said.

"I'd spend a great deal of time on it ... it was my hobby. I wouldn't
characterise it as heroin. I spent more hours than the average person
would spend on the computer though," he said. To him, Mitnick
exhibited the same sort of enthusiasm as a child hooked on an Xbox or
Playstation.

He said his family has always been supportive of his passion for
technology. "They encouraged it. They didn't know I was doing anything
wrong until I got a visit from the FBI," he said. "I was in high
school, I think I was 17. I don't remember why he visited me ... he
didn't have any evidence, it was a part of an investigation."

Unlike many of his ilk, Mitnick came from a working-class background.  
His mother worked long hours as a waitress to support him.

These are details one never forgets ... and then some -- he recalls
being locked up for the first time when he was "around 17 or 18".

"I went to the California Youth Authority," he said, his tone shifting
slightly. "It wasn't fun, it wasn't like what you see in the movies.  
It was like being in a brig."

In 1988, he was back in the slammer for hacking into Digital Equipment
-- which was acquired by Compaq Computer in 1998 -- to steal operating
system source code. During that time he spent eight months in solitary
confinement and until today, he attributes that stint to the failure
of his marriage.

Things went seriously pear-shaped for Mitnick in the early 90s. He
went on the run after realising that authorities were investigating
him for parole violation. While on the run, he used various aliases
such as Eric Weiss -- which was the real name of legendary magician
and escape artist Harry Houdini -- to gain employment. He even spent a
considerable amount of time working as a systems administrator for a
law firm.

When the law caught up with him, he was thrown into prison for four
and a half years. According to the US Department of Justice, Mitnick
admitted to stealing software from Motorola, Novell, Fujitsu, Sun
Microsystems, and Nokia. It's probably why he takes such a dim view of
the imprisonment of terrorist suspects held -- without charge -- in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba by American authorities.

"The United States is a police state. 9-11 was a horrible tragedy for
the world, and the Department of Justice has used it to trample on
[our] rights," he said. "[Now] the government makes the call as to
whether you qualify for certain rights."

The tale of the hunt for Mitnick and his subsequent capture was
documented into a book by security consultant Tsutomo Shimomura -- one
of Mitnick's victims, and The New York Times journalist John Markoff.

Mitnick attributes his rough treatment by the US authorities in part
to the publicity generated by Markoff in both writing about his
exploits for the New York Times and co-authoring Takedown with
Shimomura. "They turned me into 'Osama bin-Mitnick,'" he said.

"Not only did it demonise me, it was libellous," Mitnick said,
obviously still annoyed over the way he was portrayed. "The only
reason I didn't sue was because I was in custody at the time."

But Mitnick's patience bore fruit.

"What ended up happening is the movie came out in 1998 and I was able
to get an attorney. I settled out of court for a large sum of money.  
Markoff is lucky, and Shimomura is lucky that there's a one year
statute of limitations [on libel cases]," he explained. "They
exploited me to make millions of dollars."

After his release from prison, Mitnick started working on a book
titled The Art of Deception , centred around social engineering -- the
technique he mastered that allowed him to trick system administrators
and others into divulging information he shouldn't have been allowed
to have. This included usernames and passwords, system dial-in numbers
and much, much more.

He also wrote about his experience with Markoff and Shimomura, however
his publisher refused to print the material. It has since found its
way on to the Internet, known as the "Forbidden Chapter".

Mitnick has come a long way since his days in incarceration.

Currently working on his next book, tentatively called The Art of
Intrusion , Mitnick is a sought-after public speaker and runs
Defensive Thinking, a consultancy specialising in minimising the risks
posed by social engineering. He freely admits that his notoriety is a
big part of his recent success, but says his recent good fortune is
what he's most proud of in life.

Now living in "sin-city" Las Vegas, Mitnick enjoys the simple things
in life. "I like travelling, going to movies and shows ... I'm going
to Metallica [concert] this Saturday. Woz is coming up, we're going
together," he said. And he certainly has some interesting friends .  
"Woz " is Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

But what he relishes the most is spending time with his girlfriend and
her daughter. "My best accomplishment was the ability to take all this
negativity and completely turn my life around," he said. -- Patrick
Gray