Kevin D. Mitnick Quotes & Sayings

A typical call in one of my routines went like this: Me: What city, please? Caller: Providence. Me: What is the name, please? Caller: John Norton. Me: Is this a business or a residence? Caller: Residence. Me: The number is 836, 5 one-half 66. At this point the caller was usually either baffled or indignant. Caller: How do I dial one-half?! Me: Go pick up a new phone that has uh-half on it. The reactions I got were hilarious. — Kevin D. Mitnick

While the Texas prison officials remained in the dark about what was going on, they were fortunate that William and Danny had benign motives. Imagine what havoc the two might have caused; it would have been child's play for these guys to develop a scheme for obtaining money or property from unsuspecting victims. The Internet had become their university and playground. Learning how to run scams against individuals or break in to corporate sites would have been a cinch; teenagers and preteens learn these methods every day from the hacker sites and elsewhere on the Web. And as prisoners, Danny and William had all the time in the world.

Maybe there's a lesson here: Two convicted murderers, but that didn't mean they were scum, rotten to the core. They were cheaters who hacked their way onto the Internet illegally, but that didn't mean they were willing to victimize innocent people or naively insecure companies. — Kevin D. Mitnick

The difference can be summed up in one word: authorization. I don't need authorization to get in. It's the word that instantly transforms me from the World's Most Wanted Hacker to one of the Most Wanted Security Experts in the world. Just like magic. — Kevin D. Mitnick

Every hacker is to some extent a rebel who lives by different standards and enjoys beating the system. — Kevin D. Mitnick

the Feds had also found Netcom's customer database that contained more than 20,000 credit card numbers on my computer, but I had never attempted to use any of them; no prosecutor would ever be able to make a case against me on that score. I have to admit, I had liked the idea that I could use a different credit card every day for the rest of my life without ever running out. But I'd never had any intention of running up charges on them, and never did. That would be wrong. My trophy was a copy of Netcom's customer database. Why is that so hard to understand? Hackers and gamers get it instinctively. Anyone who loves to play chess knows that it's enough to defeat your opponent. You don't have to loot his kingdom or seize his assets to make it worthwhile. — Kevin D. Mitnick

Since most users choose a password that is either a name or a simple dictionary word, an attacker usually begins by setting 10phtCrack (or whatever program he's using) to perform a "dictionary attack" - testing every word in the dictionary to see if it proves to be the user's password. If the program doesn't have any success with the dictionary attack, the attacker will then start a "brute-force attack," in which case the program tries every possible combination (for example, AAA, AAB, AAC ... ABA, ABB, ABC, and so on), then tries combinations that include uppercase and lowercase, numerals, and symbols. — Kevin D. Mitnick

Right away, I invited on guests like Steve Wozniak, John Draper, and even porn star Danni Ashe, who took her top off in the studio to show us all how hot she was. (Listen up, Howard Stern, I'm following in your footsteps!) — Kevin D. Mitnick

I went to prison for my hacking. Now people hire me to do the same things I went to prison for, but in a legal and beneficial way. — Kevin D. Mitnick

One noted software libertarian, Richard Stallman, even refused to protect his account with a password. — Kevin D. Mitnick

If we had ever met in person, I would have given her a kiss to thank her for all the wonderful help she gave me. Ann, if you read this, your kiss is waiting. — Kevin D. Mitnick

There isn't any loving, romantic way to put this: I told Bonnie we needed to get married so she couldn't testify against me, and also so she could visit me if I landed in jail, which was looking like the way things were headed. — Kevin D. Mitnick

knowing you're smarter than somebody and you can beat them. And that, in our case, it was gonna make us some money. — Kevin D. Mitnick

Anyone who thinks that security products alone offer true security is settling for the illusion of security. — Kevin D. Mitnick

In the security community, this letter is known by all as a "get-out-of-jail-free card." Pen testers tend to be very conscientious about making sure they always have a copy of the letter with them when they're on or anywhere near the premises of the client company, in case they get stopped by a security guard who decides to flex some muscle and impress the higher-ups with his gumshoe instincts, or challenged by a conscientious employee who spots something suspicious and has enough gumption to confront the pen tester. — Kevin D. Mitnick

But have you ever felt that something was so good it couldn't possibly last? — Kevin D. Mitnick

When I was being moved, a deputy U.S. Marshal with a Southern accent so thick it sounded like he was doing a bad parody of a Good Ol' Boy sheriff laughed and said, "You're the only prisoner we ever had that got booted out of jail! — Kevin D. Mitnick

The maximum sentence was twenty years for each free phone call. Twenty years for each call! I was facing a worst-case scenario of 460 years. — Kevin D. Mitnick

F_k being a script kiddie if you can avoid it - be a hacker. — Kevin D. Mitnick

Every time some [developer] says, 'Nobody will go to the trouble of doing that,' there's some kid in Finland who will go to the trouble. — Kevin D. Mitnick