Introduction
At the tender age of 13, a teenager named Kevin Mitnick used the art of Social engineering- manipulating people to give up confidential information- and Dumpster Diving - the practice of looting dumpsters to find discarded items that have value – to bypass a punch card information system that was used in the Los Angeles public transport system. He convinced one of the many drivers of a bus to tell him where he could purchase his own ticket for what he claimed was a school project. Once attaining that, he was able to use transfer slips that were unused to ride any bus he wanted. Social engineering then became his main method of obtaining delicate information such as usernames, password, passphrases and mobile numbers. Dangerous. …show more content…
His friend gave him the phone number for the Ark, a computer system called Digital Equipment Corporation which was used for developing RSTS/E (Resource Sharing Timesharing System Extended) operating system. He managed to break into their network and copy their software. Later in 1988, he was charged and sentenced to a year in prison as well as 3 years of supervised release. As the 3-year period almost came to an end, he hacked into the Pacific Bell computers. A warrant for his arrest was issued, however Mitnick fled and became a fugitive for 2 and a half …show more content…
Mitnick had become obsessed with obtaining a copy of Digital's VMS (Virtual Memory System) minicomputer operating system, and was trying to do so by gaining entry to the company's computer network, Easynet. The computers at Digital's Palo Alto laboratory looked simple enough and so every night with amazing determination, Mitnick and DiCicco would launch their modem attacks from a small company in California where DiCicco had a support job. Sam Reid, who was the senior sales order processor, discovered the attacks almost instantly. But, he didn't know where they were coming from, neither did the police or FBI. This was because Mitnick was manipulating the telephone network to disguise the actual location of the modem
At the tender age of 13, a teenager named Kevin Mitnick used the art of Social engineering- manipulating people to give up confidential information- and Dumpster Diving - the practice of looting dumpsters to find discarded items that have value – to bypass a punch card information system that was used in the Los Angeles public transport system. He convinced one of the many drivers of a bus to tell him where he could purchase his own ticket for what he claimed was a school project. Once attaining that, he was able to use transfer slips that were unused to ride any bus he wanted. Social engineering then became his main method of obtaining delicate information such as usernames, password, passphrases and mobile numbers. Dangerous. …show more content…
His friend gave him the phone number for the Ark, a computer system called Digital Equipment Corporation which was used for developing RSTS/E (Resource Sharing Timesharing System Extended) operating system. He managed to break into their network and copy their software. Later in 1988, he was charged and sentenced to a year in prison as well as 3 years of supervised release. As the 3-year period almost came to an end, he hacked into the Pacific Bell computers. A warrant for his arrest was issued, however Mitnick fled and became a fugitive for 2 and a half …show more content…
Mitnick had become obsessed with obtaining a copy of Digital's VMS (Virtual Memory System) minicomputer operating system, and was trying to do so by gaining entry to the company's computer network, Easynet. The computers at Digital's Palo Alto laboratory looked simple enough and so every night with amazing determination, Mitnick and DiCicco would launch their modem attacks from a small company in California where DiCicco had a support job. Sam Reid, who was the senior sales order processor, discovered the attacks almost instantly. But, he didn't know where they were coming from, neither did the police or FBI. This was because Mitnick was manipulating the telephone network to disguise the actual location of the modem