Kevin Mitnick vandaag vrijgelaten

Frenzy schrijft: "Kevin Mitnick, de hacker die 5 jaar zonder proces heeft vastgezeten, wordt vandaag vrijgelaten". CBS zal komende zondag een exclusief interview met Kevin Mitnick uitzenden:

Mitnick leaves a federal prison in California on Jan. 21 after serving five years for fraud convictions related to hacking into the computer systems of companies including Sun Microsystems, Motorola, and Qualcomm.

He believes what he did was"a gross invasion of privacy" but not stealing. "I was an accomplished computer trespasser. I don't consider myself a thief," he tells an incredulous Bradley, who counters that it was stealing. "I copied without permission," retorts Mitnick.

Another part of Mitnick's rationale is that it was all for fun and not profit. "I saw myself as an electronic joy rider," he says about the dozens of computer break-ins he perpetrated on some of the world's most secure computer systems. "I was like James Bond behind the computer," says Mitnick. "I was just having a blast."

Part of the "blast" was how easy it was and, sometimes, how loaded with irony. Exploiting a flaw in the computer system of Novell, the computer software design company, enabled Mitnick to breech the company's security computer fire wall in "a few minutes," he says. To steal the source codes for two of Motorola's most advanced cell phones, he merely conned someone over the phone into e-mailing it to him - a heist that took just 15 minutes on his cell phone. [break] Tevens staat hij op de cover van de winter editie van 2600: [/break] Kevin Mitnick, a member and writer for 2600 Hacker Quarterly magazine, jailed almost 5 years ago for illegal system intrusion, will be released finally, Friday, at 12 pm EST.

The cover for the newest 2600 magazine features Mitnick still in jail, displaying the infamous "Free Kevin" logo, featured here.