A CYBER HACKER TO CYBERSECURITY EXPERT
KEVIN MITNICK
KEVIN MITNIC was born on August 6, 1963, in Van Nuys, California. His father was Alan Mitnick and his mother was Shelly Jaffe
At the age of 16, Mitnick acquired illicit access to a computer network in 1979 when a buddy gave him the phone number for the Ark, a computer system that Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) used to create the RSTS/E operating system software. In 1988, he was charged with and found guilty of stealing DEC’s software by hacking into the company’s computer network. He received a 12-month prison term, followed by three years of house arrest. Mitnick broke into the voicemail systems at Pacific Bell at the end of his supervised release. Mitnick escaped when a warrant was issued for his arrest, spending the next 2.5 years on the run.
Mitnick had first been arrested for computer crimes for brazenly walking into a Pacific Bell office and taking a handful of computer manuals and codes to digital door locks. For that, he served a year in a rehabilitation center, deemed by a federal judge as being addicted to computer tampering.
A message requesting Mitnick’s release was posted on the Yahoo! website following a hack in December 1997. The message said that unless Mitnick was released, all recent visitors to Yahoo!’s website had been infected with a computer worm that would cause havoc on Christmas Day. Yahoo! denied the allegations and asserted that the worm didn’t exist.
Mitnick was accused of wire fraud (14 charges), having illegal access devices (8 counts), intercepting wire or electronic communications, getting onto a federal computer without authorization, and harming computers.
When Mitnick was detained by the FBI in 1995, his hacking rampage came to a halt. He was given a five-year prison term after being charged with 26 counts of wire fraud and computer fraud.
In prison, Mitnick started learning about computer security. He understood that he might utilize his understanding of hacking to assist in defending businesses against cyberattacks. He started his own security consulting business, Mitnick Security Consulting LLC, after being released from prison. In addition, he published a number of publications on computer security, including “The Art of Deception” and “Ghost in the Wires.”
Kevin Mitnick was married twice. He got married first in 1987 and then after 1990.
Kevin Mitnick’s first wife’s name is Bonnie Vitello. They were married in 1987 and separated and divorced in 1990.
Kevin Mitnick, an infamous computer hacker, died at age 59 after battling pancreatic cancer
Kevin’s second wife, Kimberley, is pregnant with Kevin’s first child.
Kevin Mitnick holds the title as the world’s most famous hacker ever, with this title dating back to 1995 by the US Department of Justice.