The Mitnick manhunt
Two and a half years as a fugitive, and the arrest that made hacking a household word
Kevin Mitnick went on the run in 1992 rather than face charges, and spent the next two and a half years moving between cities under assumed identities while continuing to access telephone company and software firm systems — mostly through social engineering rather than technical exploitation.
The pursuit became a media event. After Mitnick accessed systems belonging to security researcher Tsutomu Shimomura, Shimomura joined the hunt, and Mitnick was arrested in Raleigh, North Carolina in February 1995. He served five years, including a long period in solitary confinement, and later worked as a security consultant.
The case that fixed the public image of the hacker for a generation, and the clearest early demonstration that persuading a person is usually easier than defeating a system.
The Hacker Chronicles
Volume One — Origins
This page is the summary. The chapter — ‘Most Wanted’ — follows the case properly: what was known at the time, who decided what, and how it actually unfolded rather than how it was later retold.
Two more volumes this year.
Going Geopolitical in October, Going Strategic in December.
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