Kevin Mitnick passes away at 59!
Let me tell you a story! This is a story of a hacker and how I grew up. I was probably 9 when I got my first computer, a Commodore 64! I was more interested in how it worked and programming on it then doing anything else. I spent tons of time programming in BASIC.
Fast forward a few years, to the 1980s. PacMan was all the rage! I had my first PC, an 8088 Lazer XT! It was 4.77mhz and 10mhz switchable. Some games played to fast at 10mhz! I got this PC so I could run something called a BBS (The precursor to the internet). People would dial into my BBS and we would exchange files painfully slow at 2400 Baud and eventually 9600 Baud.
It was during this time that my interest in hacking also came into existence. I never hacked into things to do anything malicious. However, I was super curious on how things worked and how things could break. We had a group of people that were part of a Fidonet exchange (think Reddit but decentralized, Way before decentralized was cool) that would share information on how to compromise various OSs, BBSs, and more. We would share this info and test it out. Kevin was one of the names that was affiliated with our group. Although, I really never got to know Kevin, we ran in similar circles. It was a crazy and great time for learning in my life. We learned about things like Phreaking, PCPursuit, and more. We would create dialers to connect to pay phones and give us free calls. There was a lot of other things we did that I won't go into right now.
I often think about the fact that if I was less careful in my teenage days then I probably would have been better known in my adult years. I am not saying that Kevin wasn't a great hacker. I am just postulating that maybe I should of taken more risks back then. Super sad to hear that a kindred soul is gone too soon. R.I.P Kevin Mitnick!
engadget.com/kevin-mitnick-f…