Compuer Hacking

I was just brushing up on my computer interests and came across a much more conclusive site of Kevin D. Mitnick. When I first heard about him, and this almost fanatic following, it was via bumper stickers branding "Free Kevin", promotional websites, and rallies. Thanks to more media updates, there's a much clearer picture of this situation, now.

Apparently accused with 25 counts of alleged federal computer and wire fraud violations in December 1992, the Kevin Mitnick case has become wildly blown out of proportion. The government has tried to tack on additional allegations. Fortunately, they conceded these were against the facts.

The government requested 32 months, but he has been sentenced 22 months by the court and has been in custody since his arrest in February 1995, his sentence satisfied.

Litigators have been trying to make makes Kevin into an Example. Making him out to be a "Cyber-boogie-man", by hyping the prosecution exaggeration the value of the losses, making him to be menacing when he's just a curious computer intellectual.

"Claim of $80 million." Kevin was alleged to have caused losses over $80 million, but he did not aim to destroy property with malicious intent nor make money, only pursue his intellectual curiosity.

"Longer sentence ensure more guilty pleas". The government hopes longer sentencing will cause future hackers in the future to buckle at the knees and plead guilty -- a frightening and menacing scare tactic. "Divert attention from government Internet Control". The government aims to use the scrutiny of Mitnick as a diversion to draw attention away from its ambitions to control the telecommunications systems.

This, personally, seems a bit of stretch. The other claims are legit, but this one is a bit out there. The government -- via Arpanet -- created the "parent” of the Internet in the first place. J.C.R. Licklider first created the Advanced Research Project Agency Network for the Department of Defense in 1962, making it the first packet-switching network. A major advancement form the previous "circuit-switching", which tied up an entire circuit for one communication, "packet-switching" use a single communications data link to communicate with simultaneous machines by assembling the data into packets. The first network email was sent in 1971 and the military branched off their own network, MILNET, in 1984. So the government created the original framework in the beginning, since then, however, the Internet has thrived and dynamically grown into a thing of itself with many creators, ranging from computer enthusiasts, private corporations, network administrators, international networks, and internet service providers, to name a few. So, while the government did have a huge hand in setting up the initial blueprint for the Internet with ARPANET, like vendor who sells painters canvas, the Internet is free reign now -- its own creation. While the painter does have a connection with the canvas supplier, the canvas vender certainly cannot claim the painting as it's own.

Overall, the Kevin Mitnick case is an interesting one not only because it involves a hacker, but also because it is covering new legal territory in unexplored areas of litigation. The curiosity, however, and the vehement support of Kevin is the most fascinating part of the story.