Freedom Downtime Page #2

lmmediately, because there were

employees at Security Pacific...

that knew Kevin Mitnick,

including one ham radio operator...

immediately that was attributed to,

''Kevin Mitnick did this.''

And that's howthat rumor spread.

l'd seen this all before.

Hackers were always getting blamed

for things they didn't do.

ln many cases

for things that weren't even possible.

lt was obvious

somebody had to set the record straight...

somebody who would command respect.

Hackers break into government

and business computers...

stealing and destroying information...

raiding bank accounts,

running up credit card charges...

extorting money by threats

to unleash computer viruses.

Whoa, hold on a second.

What was this guy reading?

The Weekly World News?

Hackers don't steal and extort,

they play with all kinds of things.

Like those Simplex locks

on the FedEx boxes.

ln typical corporate brainpower...

FedEx uses the same combination

on every drop box in the country.

lt's fun to stick something

really big in there...

that couldn't possibly fit in the chute

just to f*** with the guy

And he got some cheap beer out of it too.

lf you go somewhere

you're not supposed to be...

and bring something back to show people...

that always struck me

as being a whole lot like a panty raid.

And you know, panty raids are really...

in the grandest tradition of this country

Try to make your way in there...

get the stuff, and get back out with it

without getting your head cut of.

What we're doing here is we're talking...

on McDonald's external speaker

for their drive-thru.

And what we're doing to do that...

is we have a modified ham radio...

meaning it transmits on frequencies

other than the ones it was intended to.

ln this case,

it's standard business band frequencies.

the standard McDonald's frequency

l'll take your order.

The blonde, would you please

kneel down for a second?

Could one of you take off your tops?

We'll give you the food for free.

You bastards, you better stop being smart.

-Here comes the manager.

-Really?

While corporateAmerica

would always be the playground of hackers...

it was mostly about fun and exploration,

not damage or profit.

But try telling that to corporateAmerica.

Kevin Mitnick had already paid

a heavy price for his curiosity.

He had served a year-and-a-half in 1988...

for logging into DEC computers

without authorization.

By simply looking

at the VMS operating system...

DEC claimed he caused

millions of dollars in damage...

and was sentenced as if he had caused

that amount of physical damage.

He was held without bail and was put

in solitary confinement for eight months...

He was held without bail and was put

in solitary confinement for eight months...

because they thought he could do

more damage from the prison payphone.

After his sentence, Kevin served

three years of supervised release...

reporting to authorities every month...

and being restricted in where he could go

and what he could do.

He only had days to go

when federal authorities decided...

he had violated the terms

of his supervised release...

by associating with Lewis DePayne...

and accessing someone's voice mail

without permission.

lt was nothing.

But it was enough.

Knowing howthe media

and the court system...

would crucify him over any offense...

because he could start World War lll

from a payphone...

Kevin decided to just walk away.

l was devastated.

We were never far away from each other.

And how was he living on his own...

without his family to share things with?

lt was horrible.

What kind of a life is this?

He is not streetwise.

He's a home person.

Kevin managed to avoid attention.

Then, on July 4, 1994, everything changed.

A front page story in the NewYork Times...

turned Kevin Mitnick into a household word

all over again.

The evil-looking picture...

the mythical stories

about breaking into NORAD computers...

and controlling all the telephones

in California...

even the Security Pacific news release tale

was retold as fact.

Nobody could figure out howthe story

made it onto the front page ofThe Times...

since there was nothing new in the story

But the author was no stranger.

John Markoff...

who was quickly becoming a Mitnick expert

without ever having met him.

We looked at the story

as an amusement back then.

We were planning the first Hackers On

Planet Earth conference thatAugust.

The story had gotten so big that

we all walked around with Mitnick masks.

They came here to the Hotel Pennsylvania

by the hundreds.

These usually anonymous creatures

of the cyberworld...

better known as hackers,

were holding a convention.

Throughout that weekend,

Kevin called in several times to say hi.

We all wished he could be there.

But we knew why he was running.

One of the things Markoff

hadn't mentioned in his article...

was the eight months

of solitary confinement.

The guy was in solitary confinement

for eight months.

Think about it.

l mean, that would definitely change a man.

You would run.You wouldn't want that.

lt was eight months, not for anything he did,

but because the judge was scared.

And if you get someone

who is that unaware...

of actually what he can do

and thinks he can destroy the world.

lf you have someone

who has enough power...

to put you in solitary confinement

you will run.

lt makes perfect sense to me.

l think it's part hype...

part hysteria, part lack of understanding...

and part fear.

Solitary confinement means no books...

no pencil, no paper, no company.

Nothing to do...

but stare at these small four walls.

He would get out one hour a day..

and that's it.

You know, he might whistle up

some missile launch codes.

That's a big problem

with hackers nowadays.

They get a little pissed off

and they launch some nukes by whistling.

The fear factor is just insane.

Once or twice or maybe more,

l can't even remember...

they didn't even bring him down

to the visitors' room.

They took my daughter and l...

upstairs to a floor...

that wasn't occupied at that time.

We were the only ones there and the guard.

They were hovering over him...

as though he was an absolute monster

What could he possibly do, you know?

Could he make...

a computer out of the telephone?

l don't know what they were afraid of!

First of all, he had no desire to.

Secondly, it wouldn't have

accomplished anything.

Thirdly, he couldn't do it.

Kevin managed to elude the authorities

into the next year.

Then, on February 15, 1995...

they found him in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The FBl's most-wanted computer hacker

is behind bars.

Kevin Mitnick was jailed without bond

in Raleigh, North Carolina...

where he was arrested this week.

He's accused of breaking into

corporate computers nationwide.

Private computer experts say

so many other hackers are at work...

that privacy is virtually impossible.

The FBl had managed to track Kevin...

with the help of a mysterious

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