Kevin Mitnick Helping Secure Presidential Elections In Ecuador 85
hypnosec writes "Kevin Mitnick, who was one of the most wanted computer hacker in the US at one time, is now heading a security consultancy firm – Mitnick Security Consulting, and is entrusted with the task of securing Sunday's presidential elections in Ecuador. Mitnick tweeted, '18 years ago I was busted for hacking. I do the same thing today but with full authorization. How cool is that?' His company will focus on protecting the Net Lock computer system tasked with tabulating Ecuador's elections."
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Housholds - lyme disease - civil war - Germany - research - Vatican - hospitals -
Alright, I gather that openly talking about these issues is dangerous, but FFS, could you maybe make a rational statement from which a guy might draw some conclusions? Which Civil War are you talking about? A German Civil War? A Roman Civil War? Was there a war in the Vatican? Who performed research during a Civil War?
I'm wondering if you have Ass Burger's Disease or something like that.
Re:The Truth About Trace heavy metals (Score:5, Informative)
It's from the generator of random conspiracy theories at verifiedfacts.org [verifiedfacts.org]. Some of them are actually pretty funny.
e-Cuador (Score:2, Offtopic)
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Vote 1 Kevin Mitnick for President
Re:Mitnick is a script kiddie (Score:5, Interesting)
His attack on Shimomura, with DNS and ARP poisoning for an rhosts exploit? Not kiddie.
In fact, Mitnick has moderate to high "skills" in the standard of the c. 2000AD heyday.
His real forte? Is, was and shall always be social engineering. Really, an enviable confidence player.
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"Congratulations, Presidente Mitnick."
Re:Mitnick is a script kiddie (Score:5, Interesting)
The fact that he nearly single-handedly got the entire world to stop calling people "con-men" and start referring to them as enviable "social engineers" is his most staggeringly astounding accomplishment. That he now seems to have parlayed that into /actual/ social engineering is frightful.
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Always was; He's a criminal, and should be regarded as such. I find his celebrity sickening.
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Except he has been tried and served his time. There is such a thing as redemption.
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Always was; He's a criminal, and should be regarded as such. I find his celebrity sickening.
What does that make most politicians? Kevin did his time, how about the rest?
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One of Mitnick's complaints is that people who serve their time usually wind up being criminals again because society blocks them at every move to try to be legitimate. I agree with him. His story about trying to rise above what he did is interesting. In fact, it's absolutely amazing that he turned out to be a good guy again. He's the rare exception. As a society, we should try to rehabilitate more people so that they can contribute to society.
I question your statement about Mitnick. Do you feel that
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I don't disagree with Mitnick's redemption...i disagree with us still paying attention. His only noteriety is based entirely on the crime that he committed.
I really wish him the best; i'm just tired of reading about him.
OffTopic: "Mitnick's Redemption" sounds like a Ludlum novel...
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Check out his book too, it's a really fun and entertaining read.
Criminals can be good company as long as you stay on the right side of them. They generally quite like showing off to mug punters.
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Not DNS nor ARP poisoning, TCP spoofing and TCP SYN flooding. The tools to pull off the attack were written for him by another hacker, but knowing all that I still wouldn't classify him as a 'script kiddie'. His strengths were social engineering and telephone/telecom knowledge (someone in the underground with skills in that area would be known as a phone phreak) It's entertaining watching all the posers of today claim that he's a 'script kiddie', put any of them in front of a Nortel SuperNode System or any
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Thanks for the refresher on how he assumed a trusted identity. It's been a few years (ahem) since I read about this.
Was all this really 18 years ago? We were all around 29 or 30 years old...
The TCP attacks are easier, but nonetheless equally hackish - and don't require sharing a segment!
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Yea, except he did no such thing. Try TCP Syn flood attack ... with tools written by someone else. The very definition of script kiddie.
Mitnick NEVER had skills. He's been over blown as if he was special. Truth is, his 'skills' are absolutely shitty and the only people who think otherwise are himself, the guy who prosecuted him, and his followers that think criminal hacking is cool.
He accomplished some social networking so long ago that no one even remembers what he did. He practiced it in a time when
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He could do about anything he wanted with phone systems - call routes, billing, you name it.
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Is "Securing elections" a euphemism? (Score:3)
That guy: I can secure that election for you, very cheap & virtually bulletproof.
I don't mean to challenge whatever white-hat work that Kevin Mitnick is doing, but the phrase does indeed strike me as something a lobbyist (or well, tout) would tell me. Perhaps I'm just cynical.
Trust in the democratic process is as important as the actual security of the process. So I would suspect that anything Mitnick finds will be discussed behind closed doors - and it's none of my business, but this does not add any more unless I trust Mitnick (viz not at all).
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Just shows to go ya, you can sell snow to Eskimos. USA!
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Well, obviously they can't harvest their own snow because it would adversely affect interstate snow harvesting commerce.
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Well, obviously they can't harvest their own snow because it would adversely affect interstate snow harvesting commerce.
Ya know, with a freezer, you can grow your own? OMFG!!!111
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Well, obviously they can't harvest their own snow because it would adversely affect interstate snow harvesting commerce.
Ya know, with a freezer, you can grow your own? OMFG!!!111
Better make sure you have a license for medical snow before the power company catches up with you....
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Trust in the democratic process is as important as the actual security of the process.
This is something all too often forgotten in discussions around electronic voting; proponents think that adding enough security is sufficient. Transparency of the process in critical, as it can deliver that trust; that's why I (as a gadget freak) am very much in favour of paper ballots. Incredibly hard to fix on a large scale without anyone noticing, and oversight can be carried out by any citizen, not just by security experts with PhDs.
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I don't mean to challenge whatever white-hat work that Kevin Mitnick is doing, but the phrase does indeed strike me as something a lobbyist (or well, tout) would tell me. Perhaps I'm just cynical.
It's cynical at all. Ecuador isn't really known for being terribly trustworthy.
http://report.globalintegrity.org/Ecuador/2008 [globalintegrity.org]
My feel is that Mitnick was just brought in as window dressing. I wouldn't even suspect that Mitnick would have to hide anything he finds. It's only the tabulating equipment that h
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No, it fits perfectly. The highest bidder to Mitnick "secures" himself a victory.
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Yes, it makes perfect sense that the people in power in Equador would just give some US nerd the power to decide the election.
Mitnick's job is window dressing, nothing more.
so what does the company do? (Score:2)
Is "Mitnick Security Consulting" just the name for Kevin Mitnick as freelancer? Or is it more like a regular security company with a bunch of paid employees, with Kevin Mitnick as the brand figurehead / spokesman / PR guy?
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Fate of the Shuar (Score:2)
Considering what is at stake [climate-connections.org] in the Condor region in particular and the efforts of the incumbent Presidente to hasten its demise, I hope Mitnick does exactly what he says he's doing.
Mitnick Is Up To His Same Old Tricks (Score:2, Interesting)
Mitnck is little more than a "script kiddy". Those who are not "in the know" like these Ecuadorians, have been sold a tall tale by a guy who got where he is not by hacking ability but smooth talking.
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In the USA a convicted felon is not even allowed to vote.
That is a serious shortcoming of the democratic process in the United States, as US federal and state governments seem hellbent on creating as many of these ineligible voters as possible, by way of, (for example):
Utilization of bullshit forensic "science" [pbs.org] in courtrooms [Torrent] [kat.ph]
Maintaining the highest incarceration rate in the world [wikipedia.org]
Prosecuting kids under child porn legislation for "sexting" [wikipedia.org]
Failure to guarantee adequate job skills training and rehabilitation
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Weird, I have a felony conviction and I can still vote. Are we sure we're not confusing states and the US?
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Weird, I have a felony conviction and I can still vote. Are we sure we're not confusing states and the US?
I did; thank you for the correction. mtm_king posted this chart: http://felonvoting.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=286 [procon.org]
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In the USA a convicted felon is not even allowed to vote.
Wrong - http://felonvoting.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=286 [procon.org]
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You are welcome to emmigrate there! The first world won't miss you.
He was the subject of one of my CompSci reports (Score:1)
Back in the mid-nineties, in one of my computer courses, we had to give a lecture about someone related to computer security. I chose Mitnick. His story then was legendary. It's only gotten better since.
And I got the highest score in the class for that assignment, so all I can say is "Go Mitnick!"
computer hacker (Score:1)
My ass he was. He was damned good at social engineering however, which he does deserve credit for.
In related news... (Score:5, Funny)
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(Allegedly, Mitnick was tracking the FBI agents who were pursuing him, and would leave them boxes labelled "FBI DONUTS.")
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After securing the vote, Ecuador named their national drink after him, and then proceeded to give everyone in the country a Free Mitnick!
Let him stay there (Score:1)
I hope he stays there.
He was busted once, got a slap on the wrist, then the fucker went out and did even more.
Now the con-man is making $$$ off his name and rep.
As far as I'm concerned, the con-man had his second chance; and he blew it. /. should stop publishing anything with his name in it.
They should hire more than one hacker (Score:3)
Mitnick could be included on a team but Mitnick is just one guy. They should instead use around 5 hackers as consultants and at least 1 of the 5 should be a hacker who either has never been caught or who isn't a celebrity. Mitnick as a choice is cool but also seems a bit like a publicity stunt to hire him and him alone for that.
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The entire country is bananas, and the US is to blame for that :)
Chiquita! [google.com]
(Just pointing out that Mitnick is not the first social engineer hired to manage politics in Ecuador)
Viva el Presidente (Score:2)
I'm happy for him. (Score:3)
No really. I am.
Far too often we focus on the crime and the criminal and don't care one toss for rehabilitation or reintegration into society. Kevin managed to do something stupid 18 years ago, got his ass busted for it, paid his debt to society and now is taking his talents and managed to find a legit and legal way to utilize them.
Good on ya mate.
So I'm OK with this. He turned his life around and instead of sitting on his ass and complaining how unfair life is that he got caught, he kept his nose clean, got past his probation (which denied him access to computers), pulled himself up by his bootstraps and made something positive out of the situation.
Whether or not his company is competent to handle that sort of job? Well that's on him and the staff he has hired.
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Kevin managed to do something stupid 18 years ago, got his ass busted for it, paid his debt to society and now is taking his talents and managed to find a legit and legal way to utilize them.
He turned his life around and instead of sitting on his ass and complaining how unfair life is that he got caught, he kept his nose clean, got past his probation (which denied him access to computers), pulled himself up by his bootstraps and made something positive out of the situation.
Except that's not what happened. He was busted 1988, then continued to break the law and was busted again in February 15, 1995. So much for keeping his nose clean. He never would have been famous if he'd reformed when caught.
"Hacker becomes security consultant" (Score:2)
.
This would make for a great film (Score:2)
I'd be really interested in seeing another hacker group go up against him to see if he's as good as the legend says he is. And how would you know which side was successful? Certainly the outcome of the election is highly suspect. If you can prevent hacking, you also have detailed knowledge of how to stuff the ballot box.
Remember the Mitnick counters? (Score:2)
Someone made an applet for others to use, it counted the time accumulated that Mitnick was at the time sitting in jail awaiting trial.
Good ol' days...