Mitnick Speaks About Hacking

Rob_Warwick writes "I've just posted a one on one interview with Kevin Mitnick on Applefritter. In just less than 20 minutes, we take a look at who generally gets targeted by social engineering schemes, and how social engineering can assist in making a technical exploit work. Mitnick speaks about which industries are at highest risk from social enginerering, and what types of workers are generally easier to talk into doing something for you. Kevin also talks about who his heroes were when getting into phreaking and computers, as well as a humbling moment when he was on the recieving end of some social engineering. The HOPE keynotes for both Kevin and The Woz are also available for download."

Re:Biometrics

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't get around them without chopping off someone's hand and plucking out their eyes

You've been watching too much Sci-Fi.. The Sci-reality of the situation that they can currently be fooled by fake fingers made from gelatin [cfo.com], or a photo of an eye [go.com].

Re:Didn't Mitnick go to jail?

[Anonymous Coward]

Mitnick is no longer under the supervision of the courts. while he is a convicted felon, he is not a ward of the state, ergo, he is a free man again with almost full rights(he may not be able to vote or serve on jury duty pursuant to local statutes governing convicted felons), and he may pursue whatever he sees fit to pursue, including breaking other local, state, and federal laws if he feels the need to spend more time in prison.

once your parole time is up, the courts can no longer tell you what you can and cannot do within the boundaries of the law.

and thusly, if mr. mitnick sees fit to fleece the public with his l337 5ki11z in, ahem, "hacking", then he is legally entitled to do so as long as people are buying into his hogwash. however, do not underestimate his skills at social engineering. that was how he gained access to the majority of those systems, and it looks like he's getting another good social engineering over on an unsuspecting public's pocket book.

Re:easy

[rpbailey1642]

get people with passwords to tell you their passwords

That's easy, offer them chocolate [slashdot.org].

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Sorry, Canadian Accent

[Rob_Warwick]

Sorry about the quality folks, I'll put up a transcript after I get it typed. I've got a train ride back to New Jersey tonight, so I'll throw it up. Also, sorry about the Canadian accent and the quick talking. Getting a few minutes with Kevin Mitnick is not easy at HOPE, and I was trying to get through the material.

Convicted?

[Inoshiro]

Kevin was held in prison for about 5 years the second time around on bogus charges. It never went to trial, he was merely incarcerated. The white equivalent of Brown Equals Terrorist [brownequalsterrorist.com].

Tragically, he finally gave up and pleaded no contest to the charges so he could be allowed to leave the prison and return to society. Go watch Freedom Downtime [imdb.com] if you want to understand what Kevin was truly up against.

Another interview with Kevin

[Sir Foxx]

There is an excellent interview(video and audio) at thebroken.org with Kevin for anyone that cares.