TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

Legendary hacker Kevin Mitnick returns to the Internet tomorrow when his probation forbidding him to use the Internet (and all computers) comes to an end. Kevin was jailed following a series of legendary hacking exploits, and has never used the commercial Internet.

But all of that will change tomorrow when "39-year-old Kevin Mitnick will log on to the Internet for the first time in eight years, during the live TechTV show "Screen Savers.""

Some background to Kevin can be read here, his domain is here, more information here. Kevin's story was even made into a movie, Takedown, which you can read about here.

Now something of a reformed character, Kevin will likely take up employment as a computer security consultant of some sort. He's become something of a celebrity, and wrote a book called "The Art of Deception" where he talks about a lot of the social and psychological aspects of his hacking. You can read about that book here. A very gifted computer security guru who is well worth reading about.

here's a chapter that I think didn't make it into Kevin's book:

http://212.100.234.54/content/55/28835.html

He's getting on the internet on national TV? Man, some people are eternal optimists.

Looks like an interesting movie; anyone seen it?

i've watched the movie, its interesting if you like computers and that sort of thing, otherwise its probably a complete bore. I liked it and found it interesting, but as I said you kind of a have to be part of that sub-culture to follow it and like it, I think, as opposed to the movie hackerz which anyone would like if they like lame enough movies that have flashing lights, cool kids and not a lot of technical accuracy.

takedown does demonize mitnick a little but also shows him as more of a con artist, which is what he really was probably at heart. I am not sure how much of the film is crap though and how much is true.

certainly if you are interesting in the hacking/cracking/phreaking sub-culture then you should watch this movie.

if you are interesting in the social engineering of cracking, then you should read mitnick's book. in the UK at any rate, its going on amazon for £10 now.

I saw it veh, thought it was a decent movie.

The movie did get a slating from some reviewers, but I guess they were not into computer movies. Its definately a much more mature movie than Hackerz, not a classic like Wargames but still enjoyable. But as I said, I think you have to understand a little of that subculture to fully get into it.

I remember somewhere on TLC they named both Tsutomu and Kevin in the top 10 hackers of all time list.

After 8 years, will he still make that up again?

I'm sure he hasnt' lost a second in those eight years. I was probably hard for him, but I am willing to bet he is still as sharp as ever.

yeah I think so too. He will have kept reading in jail and kept up to date with the developments in the computing world. If anything, with about 23 hours per day in a jail cell, he will have devoted most or all of that time to honing his computing skills.