Kevin Mitnick did not kick down doors and steal secrets. He walked in and took pictures and said, hey, you really should secure your valuables! https://cybersecurityventures.com/k...-diving-phone-phreaking-and-computer-hacking/
Kevin was a good friend, he never considered a question to be stupid, and he had a thirst for knowledge. There were many books about hackers in the early 80's. Approaching Zero was one of them. A girl mentioned in that book and I had the opportunity to meet him at one of the New York 2600 meetings. Back then, the telephone system wasn't digital as it is today. Evan Doorbell (Youtube) made several recordings of the old phone exchanges. Kevin not only explained how things worked, but why they worked the way they did. Back then, to make an international phone call, you had to call the operator, get an international operator and wait for them to call you back when your party was on the line. The early phone system fascinated me in my younger days, and I was glad to have met someone who was as curious about that old technology as I was. To this day, I still mess with an old Apple //e program called Diversi-Dial. There's a more modern version that runs on the web at https://www.magviz.ca Kevin got me started on a path to programming and learning about computers. Sure we have computers that are thousands of times faster, much more powerful, and we can call anyone from almost anywhere on the planet but there are times when I remember those early days and think wow....what a ride.
You are missing the point. Geoff is pointing out that if you want to be public, you have to be public with the facts. Granted, both 'sides' are biased (but clearly Geoff has first-hand experience). But the facts are the facts. Geoff has asked what Mr. Mitnick did that was truly new. Frankly, that's a fair question, and I would like to know that answer myself, if there was anything novel he did. Seeking that answer is not disrespectful in any way. 73 Chip W1YW
He had an interesting life. It kind of reminds me of Frank Abagnale Jr. If not familiar with Frank look him up and you will be absolutely amazed. Crime does not pay but in these two cases their crimes provided a way for them to get paid.
Kevin Mitnick was one of many. To that times the new digital technology came along and the secure levels wasnt existing in different countries. So it was for the people a kind of sports, they want to be curious and experience the thrilling adventure of exploration. Mostly nobody wants to destroy something. So when some of the OMs look back in their history of the own life, what happend in the 70s up top end of 90s? So many things were open like barndoors in different kind of communications or special computer software and more. And when somebody says thats all not true and only bad criminals wanted to do crazy things with the new possibilities begins to lie.
I was a computer hacker before Kevin was. Back in 1980 the University of Michigan Dearborn had a computer lab that me and a friend would walk into, sign the log and begin our adventure of using a main frame computer. We had to use paper terminals and would do simple programs and play computer games. At that time there was no computer hacking federal laws so the most that we could have received was a trespassing notice if caught. We were also minors so we would have only received a hand slap anyway. We also used social engineering asking other students for login, password and software names to access the computer. It was a fun time.
Years ago, I worked for a well-known shareware company. One of my duties was to co-edit the company newsletter. For an anniversary issue, I proposed that we profile several of our earliest users. The boss said no. It was a great idea, except for one problem. One of our original users was “Captain Crunch.”
The Blue Box was actually invented by Alan Kotok (who has passed) and (Another guy who is still alive) so I'll say, the inventor of the JK TTL flip flop. Kotok was mentioned directly in the book "Hackers". He and a couple others wrote the first computer game on the PDP1, established in court as such in defeating the Atari patent. Kotok and JK Flip Flop guy went on to high level jobs at DEC. I knew them both. Kotok, in addition to products also developed the internal phone system for DEC, which later because SS7. He thought that was funny. Captain Crunch, Like Mitnick, was a publicist for himself. He did not do the research or figure out how to hack phones. I'm not sure, but I don't think Captain Crunch was ever prosecuted. I can't say the real guys were criminals though AT&T might disagree. The dark hackers stay dark. They con people into trying out their exploits. If their suckers get caught, they know to refine the technique. The common slang for the suckers is "Script Kiddies". If script kiddie doesn't get caught, the hacker knows it works. Dickens had a character called Fagin, same principle. Even "social networking" wasn't invented by Mitnick. The basic psychology of it even preceded online computing. How do you think "Snake oil" was sold? Mitnick having gotten caught and serving his time, Mitnick used the same psychology to sell stuff he didn't invent. He learned one thing from his mistake - don't lie. In that case, that it was his invention when it wasn't. It was simply his product. Those who bought his "Services" never checked with any academic source involved with computer security. They also never checked with major computer vendors such as DEC, DG, IBM etc. In fact if they were big DEC customers, they would have maybe gotten real hackers. One thing is sure about Mitnick, he wasted a lot of time, money and resources of others both in crimes and in just selling stuff for money. Doing real security work after Mitnick had passed through was a real pain. His simplistic remedies usually were inadequate, creating a false sense of security. As for shareware, people also added a mystique to themselves by claiming a relationship to Capt Crunch and others like him. FYI, Capt. Crunch's story in the media - was incomplete. There was more than the 2600 hertz tone to it. and with one other exception, they were pairs of tones similar to but different from touch tones.
