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Hacker cries foul over FBI snooping Burhan Wazir Sunday October 21, 2001 The Observer The world's most infamous computer hacker, out of jail and eking a living as an actor in a television drama, has denounced the new Patriot Act - which would allow FBI and police to snoop on emails and monitor US internet activity in their efforts to counter terrorism. Kevin Mitnick, 38, imprisoned for breaking into the computer systems of America's leading telephone companies, told The Observer that the legislation proposed in the wake of the 11 September attacks was 'ludicrous'. 'Terrorists have proved that they are interested in total genocide, not subtle little hacks of the US infrastructure, yet the government wants a blank search warrant to spy and snoop on everyone's communications,' he said. Mitnick also warned that hackers risked inordinately heavy exemplary jail sentences. 'Trust me, you do not want to be the next big winner of the scapegoat sweepstakes.' Mitnick says he was a scapegoat. He was arrested and charged with committing seven software felonies in 1995 and held without bail, sometimes in solitary confinement, until his conviction in 1999. Altogether he served four and a half years before being freed in January last year. Under the terms of his release, he is banned until January 2003 from using a computer, finding employment as a technical consultant or even writing about computer technology without permission from his probation officer. He was only recently given approval to carry a mobile phone to keep in touch with family members following the death of his father five months ago. Faced with the restrictions, Mitnick has found work in an ABC spy drama, Alias, in which he plays a CIA computer expert. Mitnick, whose career won him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's most notorious hacker, says he was a victim of circumstance. 'I am not innocent but I certainly didn't do most of what I was accused of,' he says. 'A hacker doesn't deliberately destroy data or profit from his activities. I never made any money directly from hacking. I wasn't malicious. A lot of the unethical things I did were to cover my own ass when I was a fugitive.' He hacked into the email of New York Times reporter John Markoff, who was covering the FBI's pursuit of him. Mitnick says: 'I read the emails because they were discussing how the FBI was going to catch me. I didn't read it all, just searched for a combination of letters that's in my name, and words like "trap", "trace" and things like that. Again, this is something I had to do to cover my ass, total self-preservation.' He and Markoff subsequently co-wrote a book about the case. Having testified before a Senate committee on the dangers of politically motivated hackings, Mitnick continues to believe that the threat from cyberterrorism could easily be countered by strengthening security measures at government institutions and private corporations. 'Yes, a co-ordinated team of hackers could take down the communications systems, the power system, perhaps the financial markets,' he says. 'But all of those systems would be back online pretty quickly - you can't really knock them out for an extended period. You could use those outrages as a decoy though, to draw attention from what you are really planning.' But, he warns, now is not the time to be hacking. He cites the case of Dmitry Skylarov, a Russian software programmer awaiting trial in the US on charges that he violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. 'I hope Dmitry puts up a good fight. He's got a great lawyer, I had a public defender. He's innocent, whereas I wasn't http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,578081,00.html -------------------------------------------------- Get more bang for your buck with TopOffers! It's the best bargains, bar none! Choose your favorite TopOffers now and collect a SPECIAL BONUS! http://click.topica.com/caaadOab1dhr0b2EDp2f/Topica -------------------------------------------------- --via http://techPolice.com archive: http://theMezz.com/cybercrime/archive subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --via http://theMezz.com ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?b1dhr0.b2EDp2 Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
