When legendary mountain climber George Mallory was asked why he wanted to summit the daunting peak of Mt. Everest, he responded, simply, "Because it's there." And that's the same reason Kevin Mitnick gives when explaining why he infiltrated as many computer systems as he could—it was out of intellectual curiosity, not malicious criminal intent. Nevertheless, in doing so, he became the most infamous computer hacker in American history.
By the time of his arrest in 1995, Mitnick had achieved the dubious distinction of being the FBI's Most Wanted Cyber-Criminal. His notoriety had reached such a fever pitch that, during Mitnick's pretrial, the federal prosecutor insisted Mitnick be held in solitary confinement to prevent him from dialing into NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Comm-and), whistling into the modem line, and instigating nuclear war. (Mitnick maintains he was never able to do this.) The 1980s film War Games was actually inspired by Mitnick's misadventures in computer hacking.
"I was sort of the Frank Abagnale of cyberspace," says Mitnick, referring to the con artist who inspired the film Catch Me If You Can. But unlike Abagnale, who profited from his crimes, "I was doing it for the thrill, the intellectual challenge, and the pursuit of knowledge. I was basically interested in kids' pranksterism, but I used sophisticated hacking techniques." During his hacker days, Mitnick used the name "Condor," after the Robert Redford character in the film Three Days of the Condor.
After a highly hyped trial, Mitnick was convicted of stealing source code from several telecommunications companies and served some 60 months in federal prison. Since completing his parole, Mitnick has built a new life as a bestselling author (The Art of Deception and The Art of Intrusion) and as a security consultant and public speaker.
"I use the experience and knowledge I gained in programming, security, and defeating security measures to help organizations improve security," Mitnick says. He speaks on several topics, including wireless security, the art of deception and social engineering, and the art of intrusion. He also leads seminars on how to improve security and manage risk. But mostly, he says, he speaks to groups of CEOs, CIOs, security and information technology managers, and midlevel managers, about the strategies would-be hackers employ, and the countermeasures that can defeat them.