Kevin Mitnick: The Hacker Who Hacked People

Key takeaways

• Mitnick's main tool was not code but people: by phone, with the right words and a calm voice, he got staff to give him passwords and access. This is called social engineering.
• At 12, by his own account, he rode Los Angeles buses for free after asking a driver where to buy a transfer punch "for a school project" and finding blank transfers in a dumpster.
• At 16, in 1979, he got into DEC's "Ark" system and copied its software; in 1988 he was sentenced to 12 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release.
• After about two and a half years on the run with false names and cloned phones, he was arrested in Raleigh on 15 February 1995 with cloned phones, more than 100 cloned phone codes and false IDs.
• He was held about four and a half years before trial, 8 months of it in solitary; by his account officials told a judge he could start a nuclear war by whistling into a payphone. In 1999 he took a plea deal: 46 months plus 22 months.
• His lasting lesson: verify before you trust. Hang up and call back on a number you know, never give anyone a password or SMS code, and slow down when someone rushes you.