The hardback edition of The Fugitive Game raised questions about Tsutomu Shimomura's capture of Kevin Mitnick that led to stories in NewsWeek, the New Yorker, BusinessWeek and other major publications. Now in an updated paperback edition, Littman reveals the latest twists of Mitnick's trial in the first interviews with the notorious hacker since his celebrated arrest.

Rejecting a plea bargain that would have landed him eight to ten years in jail, Mitnick has decided to go to trial and plans to subpoena Shimomura as a witness for the defense. "This is a case where the victim of the crime is the one gathering evidence," says Mitnick. "Where's the chain of custody to show that he didn't tamper with the evidence?"

New charges that prosecutors say could land Mitnick a triple life sentence are detailed in a new epilogue that includes surprising interviews with Mitnick's alleged victims. "No confidential information was compromised," says a Motorola official. "It was a nuisance, not a major loss." Meanwhile, Mitnick believes the government is playing hardball. "I figure they'll keep indicting me" in other jurisdictions -- "for five years," the hacker predicts. "Justice isn't the issue. They're sending a message."

A FEW HOURS LATER, Schindler faxed a press release and a federal indictment to reporters at the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and numerous other members of the media. Richard Sherman, Mitnick's attorney, was not faxed a copy of the indictment, and the hacker had no idea he'd been indicted.

The twenty-five-count indictment against Mitnick and De Payne was most remarkable for what it didn't say. Though De Payne was indicted on fourteen of twenty-five counts, specific crimes alleged against De Payne were included in only one count and, notably, there was no charge of conspiracy against either defendant...

Notably missing were any charges that Mitnick had a profit motive or had stolen or used credit card numbers. There were no charges related to any Christmas break-ins or death threats against Tsutomu Shimomura. Nor did the government mention or give the smallest credit to Shimomura. A close inspection revealed what appeared to be a surgicial removal of charges that might have been tainted by Shimomura's involvement. Mitnick's alleged break-ins to the Well in Sausalito, for example, weren't included. But if the strategy was to prevent Shimomura from being called by the defense, the government may have left a door open. Netcom, in San Jose, one of the sites where Shimomura had intercepted Mitnick's communications, was listed in the indictment as one of the victims...

Motorola, a $30 billion corporation, clarified the indictment. Far from getting accounts to internal Motorola systems, as claimed in the indictment, Mitnick had used an ordinary packet sniffer program to pilfer common Internet accounts, mainly on university systems used by Motorola employees. "No confidential information was compromised," said an official. "It was a nuisance, not a major loss." The revelation raised the specter that the government may have wrongly characterized the other company accounts Mitnick garnered as being on internal corporate systems. Mitnick's misappropriation of Motorola's software, the centerpiece of the indictment, was also considered overblown by the company. "He did move a block of code, not considered critical at the time and we subsequently found no pattern of abuse or fraud," said the official. Nor did the official see how cellular source code taken from Motorola or any other of the victim companies could have profited Mitnick. "The contest may have been more important than the result. Like his Digital case, this software was of no use to anybody else."

The billions of dollars of losses Kent Walker, the former U.S. Attorney had trumpeted in the New York Times had apparently dropped a thousand fold to "millions" in the government's press release. The social engineering counts seemed to belie Mitnick's status as the nation's most wanted hacker. Oddly, some of the most detailed parts of the indictment described Mitnick's low-tech telephone tricks and numerous aliases. But the government press release ignored this contradiction, publicizing the "vast scope of Mitnick's alleged computer hacking while he was a fugitive from justice" and writing of how criminals using a lone computer and modem can "wreak havoc around the world." It was an ironic choice of terminology, since Shimomura had described his own program as one that could "wreak havoc on the Internet community." And there was more irony in the indictment's repeated references to Mitnick using "unauthorized" hacking programs. What were Shimomura's hacking programs? Authorized?