Kevin Mitnick Case

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
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As the new computer technology emerges, computer crimes are becoming more common. Computer crimes present new type of crimes that have become major challenge for law enforcement agencies. Computer crimes, otherwise regarded as cyber crimes, bear many characteristics that make them challenging for law enforcement. The fact that they transverse state boundaries and the differences in legal regimes in these countries makes it difficult to investigate them efficiently unless there is cross border cooperation of law enforcement agencies. In addition, cyber criminals use advanced technology that always beat law enforcers. The fact that they are technology based means that law enforcers have to keep up with changing technology to track these criminals. This study will use the case of Kevin Mitnick, one of the renowned cyber criminal in the history of the United States. The case of Kevin Mitnick is worth reviewing if at all we have to understand the difficulties and complexities involved in the investigation of computer crimes. At the end, it will become easier to understand why it has become challenging for law enforcers to fight ...
... computer crimes.
Investigation and arrest of Kevin Mitnick
For Kevin Mitnick, controversy started early in his life. His involvement with computer crimes started at an early age in Los Angeles gave him bases for his heroic hacking crimes. He grew up as a part of the gang of hackers in Los Angels who tapped into computer system at Monroe High School. This shows that his crime record on computer hacking started quite at an early age and he was groomed to become the most wanted cyberspace criminal. AT the age of 17 years, Kevin Mintick stole Pacific Bell manuals and software from Microoprt Systems of Santa Cruz (Cadoree, 1994). This got him probation due to his young age and in addition, this was a time when computer hacking was not considered a serious crime. His crime record kept on rising and in 1988, he was convicted of computer fraud. During the trial Judge Mariana Pfaelzer liked Mitnick’s hacking action to drug addiction as he had show a consistent record of the same crime (Katie, 1995). The judge ordered him to seek therapy and prohibited him from using any computer or telephone for the period he was in prison. However, he served for only one year.
In June 1992, Kevin Mitnick was working with Teltec Investigations, Inc., in Calabasas, Los Angeles. FBI was still on his heels and by September the same year, they asked for warrant to search Mitnick’s office (Katie, 1995). The warrant was issued and it accused Mitnick of violating the terms of federal probation under which he had been released as it forbade him to access any computer illegally. He had also been accused by California Department of motor vehicles of posing as a law enforcement officer with an aim of gaining classified information and creating a false identity for himself. According the affidavit issues, the FBI wanted to conduct a computer – and wire-fraud investigations related to computer hacking which also included entry into Pacific Bell Telephone Company computers without permission (Minor, 1995). Mitnick had been listed as a suspected and it was at this point that he went on the run.
During the 1990s, Mitnick is believed to have committed dozens of computer crimes which led to loss of millions of dollars for the victims. In December 1995, there was security breach on Tsutomou Shimomura, who was a famed computer security expert (Goodell, 2006). He found out that his system’s security had been breached and important data had been stolen. He had stored data that was used in programming cell phones and security systems. He estimated that value of the stolen software at $500,000 (Goodell, 2006). To access Shimomura data, Mitnick had made an electronic key to computer systems which enabled him to enter and leave at will and after he stole all the data he wanted, he would then restore the system as it was in the beginning (Mitnick & William, 2003). He edited log files thereby successfully staging a scene to direct attention away from the crime. After many days of scrutiny, Shimomura verified that there was an attack in his system.
Shimomura had good connections with FBI and National Security Agency (NSA) that is responsible for securing national computers and information (Goodell, 2006). The FBI was on the heel again chasing the assailant who they did not first know. They wire-tapped Shimomura’s phone and it was during this time when the name linked to the assailant surfaced during a phone call. The hacker who had entered into Shimomura security system called gloating of his achievements. The FBI carefully recorded this conversation and when these voice samples were played back by FBI security experts, it became evident that the voice was tracked back to Kevin Mitnick. He had committed another hacking.
However, there were need to verify further before relying on the similarity of voice records. FBI required a large amount of forensic evident that could be linked to Mitnick and this was not difficult to find. FBI discovered other forensic evidence that linked Mitnick to the crime. However Mitnick was also a clever hacker. He had not stored his hacking tool in his home computer but he had stored it in public computer (Mitnick, 2002). He careful created a public file site on the internet and stored his key there and it was from here where he used to connect to his victims. He had created the site know as The Well that installed special surveillance software, which secretly recorded connections which were coming in or going out of the system.
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