Information Security News: Hacker Mitnick Barred From Web-Based Magazine

[Nelson Murilo <nelson () PANGEIA COM BR>]

[http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/000623/n23386067.html]


U.S. hacker Mitnick barred from Web-based magazine

   By Michael Miller

   LOS ANGELES, June 23 (Reuters) - Kevin Mitnick, once the world's most
   notorious computer hacker and a man who has spent more than five years
   behind bars for his activities, has been barred from writing a column
   for a start-up e-business venture.

   Mitnick will be in court on Monday to fight the ban, imposed by his
   probation officer, arguing that the judge who imposed the terms of his
   three-year probation following his release from prison in January,
   never meant them to be so sweeping.

   Under the terms of probation imposed by U.S. District Judge Mariana
   Pfaelzer, Mitnick, 36, is not allowed within a ``dot-com'' of a
   computer until January, 2003. Neither can he use modems, software,
   cellular phones or anything else that could link him to the Internet.

   In addition, he is not allowed to leave a seven-county area of
   southern California and cannot consult and advise on computers or any
   computer-related or Internet-related matters.

   The Los Angeles Times said on Friday that Mitnick's probation officer,
   Larry Hawley, had cited the ``consult and advise'' restrictions in
   denying him the right to work for the Web site Contentville.

   The venture, to be launched next month, will sell books, magazines and
   other publications over the Internet and will offer a wide range of
   expert analysis.

   Mitnick, whose hacking is said to have cost some high-tech giants
   hundreds of millions of dollars, was denied permission to attend a
   cyber security conference in Utah because that would have infringed on
   the seven counties restriction as well as the ``consult and advise''
   ban.

   A native of Los Angeles who led the FBI on a three-year chase before
   being arrested in North Carolina in 1995, Mitnick pleaded guilty to
   computer and wire fraud. Under a plea bargain arrangement, he was
   sentenced to 54 months in jail and ordered to pay $4,125 to the
   high-tech companies he victimised, a sum that the judge described as a
   ``token'' amount.

   Prosecutors had sought restitution of $1.5 million. Mitnick's victims,
   including such high-tech giants as Sun Microsystems Inc.
   (NasdaqNM:SUNW - news), Novell Inc. (NasdaqNM:NOVL - news), NEC
   America Inc. and Nokia Mobile Phones (NYSE:NOK - news), said Mitnick's
   hacking had cost them about $290 million.

   Mitnick, who started hacking as a teenager, was jailed for eight
   months for his activities in 1989. He went underground in 1992 when he
   was accused of violating the terms of his probation.

   In all his tangles with the law, Mitnick was never accused of making
   money and always insisted that he was just ``having fun.''

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