Posted by Roblimo on Wednesday February 05, @12:15PM
from the black-hat-turns-white dept.
Kevin Mitnick has been crazy-busy with media tours and book promotion stuff, and apologizes for taking so long to answer your questions. But answer he has, at length and in detail, with a brief intro at the start to correct a story in which he says he was misquoted. He has some other things on which he wants to set the record straight, too. Lots of them. Strong stuff here.
http://interviews.slashdot.org/interviews/03/02/04/2233250.shtml?tid=103&tid=123&tid=172 (http://interviews.slashdot.org/interviews/03/02/04/2233250.shtml?tid=103&tid=123&tid=172)
Quote* First and foremost, I really can't start a nuclear war from a prison payphone, as prosecutors alleged, which resulted in my being placed in solitary confinement for eight months.
I can't believe such ridiculous ideas were believed by our federal government. This type of stuff scares me when considering the enforcement of the "Patriot Act".
Peter
-Begin Sarcasm-
Yeah, but notice how he said PRISON payphone? That's being awfully specific. I guess that means he could start a nuclear war from a HOSPITAL payphone. I'd have stuck him in solitary, too.
-End Sarcasm-
I'm currenty reading his "The Art of Deception" book which is pretty good. It makes you think about stuff that wouldn't occur to us non-social engineering geniuses. I never had an issue arise from where I've worked as an Network Admin (I was essentially the 2nd in command of an IT dept. for a business that grossed $15 million anually), but I can't say that I wouldn't have fallen for a few of these tricks Mitnick talks about. Hopefully, when I'm done with the book I can guarantee I will never fall for any of them. :-D