Jonathan Littman makes a convincing argument, if not for the innocence of Kevin Mitnick, at least for the idea that Mitnick was used by a skillful writer and his hacker friend to bolster their own fortunes. Littman portrays Mitnick as intelligent, arrogant, and curious to the point of trespass, but not as "a twenty-first-century Frankenstein," the way he is portrayed by "the media and our government" (369).
The media, in this case, is John Markoff, New York Times writer who first wrote of Mitnick in his book, Cyberpunk. Littman contends that Markoff published front page stories vilifying Mitnick, portraying him as the most dangerous hacker in existence, a fugitive from the law who possessed the power to reek havoc on the world, in order to further his own motives.
In reality Littman claims Mitnick was an addicted hacker who would leave his wife, rent a motel room and hack computer systems around the clock the way some people might go on a drinking binge or indulge in gambling. Mitnick, convicted in 1988 of attempting to gain access to the source code of Digital Equipment Corporation's VMS operating system, served eight months in solitary confinement. While on parole he could not resist computers or association with his hacker friend Lewis DePayne.
When he discovered he was being investigated by federal authorities, Mitnick could not resist the challenge. He turned the agents wire taps back on them, gathered evidence of their wrong doings, co-authored an accusatory letter to Janet Reno concerning the wrong-doing of agents, and generally made a nuisance of himself. Meanwhile Markoff had become skiing buddies with Tsutomu Shimomura, a computer security expert whom Littman claims was a fellow cell phone hacker with Mark Lottor, an associate and fellow co-defendant of famous hacker, Kevin Poulsen.
With the flavor of a wild west story Littman claims Markoff painted Mitnick as a desperado out to do evil deeds on the new territory of the electronic wasteland and created the opportunity for Shimomura to play the part of the avenger of those evil deeds. Littman goes so far as to say that Shimomura orchestrated a break-in of his computer system on Christmas day, 1995, a break-in many in the electronic community claim had happened some time before and one many believe Mitnick did not commit. Of course Shimomura and Markoff deny this.
Since Mitnick's arrest, many have asked what Markoff was doing literally pursuing Mitnick and whether or not doing so was a violation of journalistic ethics, in that in so doing, Markoff forfeited all ability to write about Mitnick's case objectively. Littman claims Markoff held the antenna of the tracking device out a window and drove Shimomura and phone company agents around in his rental car while they were pursuing him.
Of the characters in the story it is Shimomura and Markoff who profit from the drama. After Mitnick's capture Markoff was offered $750,000 to write a book about the occurrences leading up to that event. They also had offers for a movie, and a computer game. Markoff continued to accuse Mitnick journalistically, through the press while submitting proposals to publishers.
Meanwhile Mitnick, who most agree had access to information including credit card numbers and bank transactions, used his ability to establish fake identities for himself in order to acquire and maintain a job, rather than take money he could have easily had. Littman never denies Mitnick broke the law and his writing has the flavor of truth in that when he catches Mitnick admitting wrongdoing or when he suspects, he says so. Even those pursuing Mitnick agreed he was not in it for the money.
Since Littman had contact with Mitnick during the two years he was a fugitive it's hard to imagine Littman could be totally objective about him and his deeds. However the accusations Littman launches toward federal authorities, Markoff, and Shimomura are backed up with quotes from other sources, electronic mail, and published articles and have the sound and feel of "truth" about them.
Littman's reporting is thorough, well documented, understandable, and enjoyable. If I had to bet on whether or not Littman's conclusions are correct, I'd bet they are.
Reference:
The Fugitive Game, Online with Kevin Mitnick by Jonathan Littman
New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1996 - 1997.
© Copyright by Richard Peek. |
Republished by Ethercat, with the author's permission. |
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