Copyright 1994 The Times Mirror Company   
                               Los Angeles Times

                     July 10, 1994, Sunday, Valley Edition

SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 1; Column 2

LENGTH: 1455 words

HEADLINE: AUTHORITIES AGAIN SEEK LEGENDARY HACKER; COMPUTERS: KEVIN
MITNICK, A LONGTIME VALLEY RESIDENT, IS ACCUSED OF USING HIS TECHNICAL
WIZARDRY TO VIOLATE PROBATION. HE HAS GONE INTO HIDING. 

BYLINE: By JOHN JOHNSON and JULIE TAMAKI, TIMES STAFF WRITERS

BODY:
   He's one of America's most wanted digital desperadoes. 

   Kevin Mitnick, a legendary "dark side" hacker whose computer was, in
the words of one investigator, an "umbilical cord . . . to his soul," is
being sought by federal and state authorities for once again allegedly
using his technical wizardry as a weapon. 

   A warrant has been issued accusing him of violating the terms of his
federal probation that he not enter a computer illegally. At the same
time, the state Department of Motor Vehicles is accusing him of posing as
a law enforcement officer to gain classified information and to possibly
create false identities for himself. 

   Though they narrowly missed him at a Studio City copy shop where he was
picking up some allegedly illegally obtained DMV information, authorities
so far haven't been able to catch up with him since they visited the
Calabasas company he worked for in late 1992. Mitnick's life now seems to
have come tantalizingly close to replicating the Robert Redford movie role
in "Three Days of the Condor," about a man who goes into hiding and uses
his technical knowledge to outwit the government. 

   Mitnick once used the nickname "Condor." 

   For Mitnick, 30, a former computer nerd who dropped 100 pounds before
going into hiding, these are just the latest accusations spanning a career
of hacking that began at Monroe High School in North Hills, when he
learned how to access the school district's main computers. Eventually, he
was able to break into a North American Air Defense Command computer in
Colorado Springs, Colo., several years before the movie "WarGames," about
a hacker who nearly starts a war after entering a defense computer. 

   Mitnick also became a skilled "phone phreak" who was able to manipulate
the telephone system to pull pranks on friends and enemies, according to
authorities. He disconnected service to Hollywood stars he admired, and a
former probation officer said her phone service was terminated just as she
was about to revoke his probation. 

   "He's an electronic terrorist," said a onetime friend who turned him in
to authorities in 1988. 

   Showing the panic he can instill in others, after his arrest in 1988,
he was denied bail by three different federal judges, who feared what he
could do once back on the streets. Much of the fear about Mitnick in law
enforcement quarters appears to stem not from what he has done in any one
case, but from what mayhem he could cause in our computer-dependent
society if he put his mind to it. 

   Mitnick eventually pleaded guilty to one computer crime and served a
year in prison. Afterward, he spent almost a year in a Los Angeles
residential treatment program, Gateways Beit T'Shuvah, during which time
he was not allowed to touch a computer. 

   Harriett Rossetto, the program director, said Mitnick suffered from an
addictive-obsessive disorder. 

   "I saw his hacking as an addiction," she said. Mitnick was a loner who
was very vulnerable and did not open up easily. In appearance, he
resembled the classic computer jockey, overweight, with clunky glasses and
shirttail hanging out. At the keyboard of a computer, he felt strong and
capable. 

   Rossetto liked him, but was not particularly impressed by his
intelligence. 

   This has been a recurring theme over the years. Some people see him as
a genius with a terminal, while others say his technical abilities are not
extraordinary. What is extraordinary, say friends, is his willingness to
be consumed for as long as it takes by his appointed task, such as finding
a way past a computer's security system. 

   Undeniable, however, are his skills at what some have called "social
engineering" and others "gagging," which is the ability to manipulate
others to turn over information he desires, such as access codes and
passwords. 

   Beit T'Shuvah uses the 12-step recovery model. While at the center,
Mitnick made good progress and lost weight. After leaving the program, he
moved to Las Vegas, then returned for a relative's funeral. Rossetto saw
him briefly. 

   He told her he wasn't doing well. "I said, 'Admit yourself back here,'
" she said. 

   He didn't. 

   In June, 1992, Mitnick went to work for Teltec Investigations Inc., in
Calabasas. 

   Company executive Michael Grant said Mitnick was training to be an
investigator for the firm, which does assets investigations, surveillance
and research. Grant said he knew about some of Mitnick's past problems.
"He told me he had gone straight." 

   Grant said that while Mitnick was at the firm, he did a good job. He
lived with another company official, Mark Kasden, a friend of Mitnick's
father, Alan. 

   Then in late September of that year, FBI agents showed up and asked to
search Mitnick's office. 

   According to an affidavit for another search at the same time, the FBI
was conducting a computer and wire fraud investigation into computer
hacking and unauthorized entry into Pacific Bell Telephone Co. computers.
Mitnick was named as a suspect. 

   The FBI believed that Mitnick the "phone phreak" was back. According to
the affidavit, Mitnick or others residing and working at three apartments
and a Compton company had tapped into telephone and electronic
communications to obtain passwords belonging to security investigators,
tampered with the computers, and intercepted company voice mail. 

   Investigators also alleged that special calling features not then
available to the public had been placed on Kasden's phone and were not
being paid for. They included speed dialing and priority ringing. 

   The FBI declined to comment on their investigation, but Grant said he
and Kasden believe Mitnick rigged the phones for himself while he was
staying with Kasden. 

   Grant believes Mitnick is "probably one of the brightest individuals
with a computer that ever set foot on Earth." 

   After the search, Mitnick disappeared. Kasden said he later saw him
once briefly at a gas station. "He said, 'Adios, I have problems I have to
take care of.' " 

   Neither Grant nor Kasden see him as destructive. "He's a gentle guy and
nonviolent. He's never going to hurt anybody. But some of the stuff he
does is irritating," said Grant. 

   Concurring in that assessment are some people who have known him
longer. 

   Alan Rubin, an attorney who once represented him, said Mitnick has
never used his skills to enrich himself. When he was arrested in 1988, he
was living in a modest Panorama City apartment. 

   And LEWIS DE PAYNE, 35, who befriended Mitnick when both men were
teen-agers, said his friend is often judged to be something he's not.
"He's brash, but effective, and that causes some people some discomfort as
far as rubbing them the wrong way." 

   DE PAYNE also says people over-estimate Mitnick's computer wizardry. 

   But others insist his activities go beyond curiosity and pranksterism
to serious crime, such as posing as a law enforcement officer to gain
private information. The New York Times has reported that Mitnick is
suspected of stealing software and data from half a dozen cellular phone
manufacturers, compromising the security of the phone networks. 

   The DMV has also requested a warrant for his arrest, claiming that in
the fall of 1992 he began posing as a law enforcement officer to obtain
sensitive DMV information, including driver's licenses and vehicle
information and photographs. 

   "He would give a requesting officer's name and would basically use his
identity and birth date," said Bill Madison, a DMV spokesman in
Sacramento. 

   Madison believes Mitnick could have gotten the secret law enforcement
PIN numbers he needed by tapping into DMV phone lines in Los Angeles and
Sacramento. 

   Authorities got wind of the scam after a DMV technician became
suspicious when a man, who identified himself as an investigator for the
fraud division of the Los Angeles County Welfare Department, requested DMV
information and supplied a fax number that the technician did not
recognize. 

   The number was traced to a Studio City copy shop. Other fax numbers
were then traced to copy shops in Sacramento and Santa Monica. 

   Investigators staked out the copy shop and watched Mitnick pick up the
materials, Madison said. A chase ensued, but Mitnick got away. 

   "We almost had him," Madison said. 

   Madison said he believes Mitnick may be using the information to change
identities, to wreak havoc on other's lives or possibly for some type of
monetary gain. 

   In one case, Mitnick allegedly gained access to a Bay Area man's
records and used information in the file to try and change his health care
provider so that he could benefit from the man's medical coverage. He also
used the information to take on the identity of the man's dead son in
order to obtain a phony driver's license. 

   "It's very scary," Madison said. "You don't want him in your records." 

GRAPHIC: Photo, To some, Kevin Mitnick is an "electronic terrorist."
Others call him "gentle" and "nonviolent."