26 Facts About Kevin Mitnick

Kevin David Mitnick was an American computer security consultant, author, and convicted hacker.

Kevin Mitnick is best known for his high-profile 1995 arrest and five years in prison for various computer and communications-related crimes.

Kevin Mitnick was born on August 6,1963, in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California.

Kevin Mitnick's father was Alan Mitnick, his mother was Shelly Jaffe, and his maternal grandmother was Reba Vartanian.

Kevin Mitnick was Jewish, and grew up in Los Angeles, California.

At age 12, Kevin Mitnick convinced a bus driver to tell him where he could buy his own ticket punch for "a school project", and was then able to ride any bus in the greater Los Angeles area using unused transfer slips he found in a dumpster next to the bus company garage.

Kevin Mitnick attended James Monroe High School in North Hills, during which time he became a licensed amateur radio operator with callsign WA6VPS.

Kevin Mitnick chose the nickname "Condor" after watching the movie Three Days of the Condor.

Kevin Mitnick was later enrolled at Los Angeles Pierce College and USC.

Kevin Mitnick broke into DEC's computer network and copied the company's software, a crime for which he was charged and convicted in 1988.

Kevin Mitnick was sentenced to 12 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Kevin Mitnick used cloned cellular phones to hide his location and, among other things, copied valuable proprietary software from some of the country's largest cellular telephone and computer companies.

Kevin Mitnick intercepted and stole computer passwords, altered computer networks, and broke into and read private emails.

Kevin Mitnick was found with cloned cell phones, more than 100 cloned cellular phone codes, and multiple pieces of false identification.

In 1998, Kevin Mitnick was charged in the United States District Court for the Central District of California with 14 counts of wire fraud, eight counts of possession of unauthorized access devices, interception of wire or electronic communications, unauthorized access to a federal computer, and causing damage to a computer.

Kevin Mitnick admitted to violating the terms of supervised release by hacking into Pacific Bell voicemail and other systems and to associating with known computer hackers, in this case co-defendant Lewis De Payne.

Kevin Mitnick was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, but it was not used as evidence because he pleaded guilty before going to trial.

Under the plea deal, Kevin Mitnick was prohibited from profiting from films or books based on his criminal activity for seven years, under a variation of the Son of Sam law.

In December 2001, a Federal Communications Commission judge ruled that Kevin Mitnick was sufficiently rehabilitated to possess a federally issued amateur radio license.

John Markoff and Tsutomu Shimomura, who had both been part of the pursuit of Kevin Mitnick, wrote the book Takedown about Kevin Mitnick's capture.

The controversy remains and the Kevin Mitnick story is often cited today as an example of the influence of news media on law enforcement personnel.

Kevin Mitnick carried out security consulting for, performed penetration testing services, and taught social engineering classes to companies and government agencies.

Kevin Mitnick ran Mitnick Security Consulting LLC, a computer security consultancy and was part owner of KnowBe4, provider of an integrated platform for security awareness training and simulated phishing testing, as well as an active advisory board member at Zimperium, a firm that develops a mobile intrusion prevention system.

Kevin Mitnick died from pancreatic cancer on July 16,2023, at the age of 59 at a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania hospital.

At the time of his death, he was married and his wife, Kimberley Kevin Mitnick, was pregnant with their first child, a son.

Kevin Mitnick appeared in Werner Herzog's documentary Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World.