Top 100 Kevin Mitnick Quotes
#1. The hacking trend has definitely turned criminal because of e-commerce.
Kevin Mitnick
#2. Hacking was the only entertainment that would occupy my mind - like a huge video game, but with real consequences. I could have evaded the FBI a lot longer if I had been able to control my passion for hacking.
Kevin Mitnick
#3. I happen to be notorious. That, I have no control over.
Kevin Mitnick
#4. Penetrating a company's security often starts with the bad guy obtaining some piece of information that seems so innocent, so everyday and unimportant, that most people in the organization don't see any reason why the item should be protected and restricted.
Kevin Mitnick
#5. My argument is not that I shouldn't have been punished, but that the punishment didn't fit the crime.
Kevin Mitnick
#6. I was addicted to hacking, more for the intellectual challenge, the curiosity, the seduction of adventure; not for stealing, or causing damage or writing computer viruses.
Kevin Mitnick
#7. Should we fear hackers? Intention is at the heart of this discussion.
Kevin Mitnick
#8. My hacking involved pretty much exploring computer systems and obtaining access to the source code of telecommunication systems and computer operating systems, because my goal was to learn all I can about security vulnerabilities within these systems.
Kevin Mitnick
#9. A hacker doesn't deliberately destroy data or profit from his activities.
Kevin Mitnick
#10. It's actually a smarter crime because imagine if you rob a bank, or you're dealing drugs. If you get caught you're going to spend a lot of time in custody. But with hacking, it's much easier to commit the crime and the risk of punishment is slim to none.
Kevin Mitnick
#11. I think a cyber-terrorism attack is overblown, though the threat exists. I think al Qaeda and other groups are more interested in symbolic terrorism, like what they did to the World Trade Center - suicide bombers or something that really has an effect and is meaningful to people.
Kevin Mitnick
#12. Hacking is exploiting security controls either in a technical, physical or a human-based element.
Kevin Mitnick
#13. You can't go to Windows Update and get a patch for stupidity.
Kevin Mitnick
#14. Nine out of every 10 large corporations and government agencies have been attacked by computer intruders.
Kevin Mitnick
#15. The first programming assignment I had in high school was to find the first 100 Fibonacci numbers. Instead, I thought it would be cooler to write a program to get the teacher's password and all the other students' passwords. And the teacher gave me an A and told the class how smart I was.
Kevin Mitnick
#16. I get hired to hack into computers now and sometimes it's actually easier than it was years ago.
Kevin Mitnick
#17. The Internet is like the phone. To be without it is ridiculous.
Kevin Mitnick
#18. Garbage can provide important details for hackers: names, telephone numbers, a company's internal jargon.
Kevin Mitnick
#19. I believe in having each device secured and monitoring each device, rather than just monitoring holistically on the network, and then responding in short enough time for damage control.
Kevin Mitnick
#20. The myth of Kevin Mitnick is much more interesting than the reality of Kevin Mitnick. If they told the reality, no one would care.
Kevin Mitnick
#21. For a long time, I was portrayed as the Osama bin Laden of the Internet, and I really wanted to be able to tell my side of the story. I wanted to be able to explain exactly what I did and what I didn't do to people who thought they knew me.
Kevin Mitnick
#22. Back in my day, I would probe by hand. Now you can get commercial software that does the job for you.
Kevin Mitnick
#23. New security loopholes are constantly popping up because of wireless networking. The cat-and-mouse game between hackers and system administrators is still in full swing.
Kevin Mitnick
#25. Hackers are breaking the systems for profit. Before, it was about intellectual curiosity and pursuit of knowledge and thrill, and now hacking is big business.
Kevin Mitnick
#26. Social engineering is using deception, manipulation and influence to convince a human who has access to a computer system to do something, like click on an attachment in an e-mail.
Kevin Mitnick
#27. For the average home-user, anti-virus software is a must.
Kevin Mitnick
#29. Most of the computer compromises that we hear about use a technique called spear phishing, which allows an attacker access to a key person's workstation. It's extremely difficult to defend against.
Kevin Mitnick
#30. No way, no how did I break into NORAD. That's a complete myth. And I never attempted to access anything considered to be classified government systems.
Kevin Mitnick
#31. I'm an expert witness in a case that's in appeal about a guy who allegedly misappropriated source code from a major, major company - he actually worked there and then apparently they found it on his laptop later.
Kevin Mitnick
#32. Both social engineering and technical attacks played a big part in what I was able to do. It was a hybrid. I used social engineering when it was appropriate, and exploited technical vulnerabilities when it was appropriate.
Kevin Mitnick
#33. All they need to do is to set up some website somewhere selling some bogus product at twenty percent of the normal market prices and people are going to be tricked into providing their credit card numbers.
Kevin Mitnick
#34. The key to social engineering is influencing a person to do something that allows the hacker to gain access to information or your network.
Kevin Mitnick
#35. Protecting yourself is very challenging in the hostile environment of the Internet. Imagine a global environment where an unscrupulous person from the other side of the planet can probe your computer for weaknesses and exploit them to gain access to your most sensitive secrets.
Kevin Mitnick
#36. Computer hacking really results in financial losses and hassles. The objectives of terrorist groups are more serious. That is not to say that cyber groups can't access a telephone switch in Manhattan on a day like 9/11, shut it down, and therefore cause more casualties.
Kevin Mitnick
#37. I was hooked in before hacking was even illegal.
Kevin Mitnick
#38. The perfect PIN is not four digits and not associated with your life, like an old telephone number. It's something easy for you to remember and hard for other people to guess.
Kevin Mitnick
#39. I was an accomplished computer trespasser. I don't consider myself a thief. I copied without permission.
Kevin Mitnick
#40. When somebody asks for a favor involving information, if you don't know him or can't verify his identity, just say no.
Kevin Mitnick
#41. Use a personal firewall. Configure it to prevent other computers, networks and sites from connecting to you, and specify which programs are allowed to connect to the net automatically.
Kevin Mitnick
#42. So the ethic I was taught in school resulted in the path I chose in my life following school.
Kevin Mitnick
#43. We have problems with our physical security, operational security through to management.
Kevin Mitnick
#44. The explosion of companies deploying wireless networks insecurely is creating vulnerabilities, as they think it's limited to the office - then they have Johnny Hacker in the parking lot with an 802.11 antenna using the network to send threatening emails to the president!
Kevin Mitnick
#45. If I needed to know about a security exploit, I preferred to get the information by accessing the companies' security teams' files, rather than poring over lines of code to find it on my own. It's just more efficient.
Kevin Mitnick
#46. I obtained confidential information in the same way government employees did, and I did it all without even touching a computer ... I was so successful with this line of attack that I rarely had to go towards a technical attack.
Kevin Mitnick
#47. I'm still a hacker. I get paid for it now. I never received any monetary gain from the hacking I did before. The main difference in what I do now compared to what I did then is that I now do it with authorization.
Kevin Mitnick
#48. Any type of operating system that I wanted to be able to hack, I basically compromised the source code, copied it over to the university because I didn't have enough space on my 200 megabyte hard drive.
Kevin Mitnick
#49. When I was in prison, a Colombian drug lord, offered me $5 million in cash to manipulate a computer system so that he would be released. I turned him down.
Kevin Mitnick
#50. Social engineering is using manipulation, influence and deception to get a person, a trusted insider within an organization, to comply with a request, and the request is usually to release information or to perform some sort of action item that benefits that attacker.
Kevin Mitnick
#51. It's true, I had hacked into a lot of companies, and took copies of the source code to analyze it for security bugs. If I could locate security bugs, I could become better at hacking into their systems. It was all towards becoming a better hacker.
Kevin Mitnick
#52. I get hired by companies to hack into their systems and break into their physical facilities to find security holes. Our success rate is 100%; we've always found a hole.
Kevin Mitnick
#53. The government does things like insisting that all encryption programs should have a back door. But surely no one is stupid enough to think the terrorists are going to use encryption systems with a back door. The terrorists will simply hire a programmer to come up with a secure encryption scheme.
Kevin Mitnick
#54. So what I was essentially doing was, I compromised the confidentiality of their proprietary software to advance my agenda of becoming the best at breaking through the lock.
Kevin Mitnick
#55. I don't know the capabilities of our enemies. But I found it quite easy to circumvent security at certain phone companies throughout the United States. So if an inquisitive kid can do it, why can't a cyberterrorist do it?
Kevin Mitnick
#56. Choosing a hard-to-guess, but easy-to-remember password is important!
Kevin Mitnick
#57. Usually companies hire me, and they know full well who I am, and that's one of the reasons they want to hire me.
Kevin Mitnick
#58. My actions constituted pure hacking that resulted in relatively trivial expenses for the companies involved, despite the government's false claims.
Kevin Mitnick
#59. As a young boy, I was taught in high school that hacking was cool.
Kevin Mitnick
#60. A log-in simulator is a program to trick some unknowing user into providing their user name and password.
Kevin Mitnick
#61. Are hackers a threat? The degree of threat presented by any conduct, whether legal or illegal, depends on the actions and intent of the individual and the harm they cause.
Kevin Mitnick
#62. Our Constitution requires that the accused be presumed innocent before trial, thus granting all citizens the right to a bail hearing, where the accused has the opportunity to be represented by counsel, present evidence, and cross-examine witnesses.
Kevin Mitnick
#64. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded Apple Inc, which set the computing world on its ear with the Macintosh in 1984.
Kevin Mitnick
#65. My hacking was all about becoming the best at circumventing security. So when I was a fugitive, I worked systems administrator jobs to make money. I wasn't stealing money or using other people's credit cards. I was doing a 9-to-5 job.
Kevin Mitnick
#66. Companies spend millions of dollars on firewalls, encryption, and secure access devices and it's money wasted because none of these measures address the weakest link in the security chain: the people who use, administer, operate and account for computer systems that contain protected information.
Kevin Mitnick
#67. No company that I ever hacked into reported any damages, which they were required to do for significant losses.
Kevin Mitnick
#68. Businesses should absolutely set aside funding in their budgets for security consultants. Unless there is an expert on staff, and there usually is not, it needs to be outsourced.
Kevin Mitnick
#69. A lot of companies are clueless, because they spend most or all of their security budget on high-tech security like fire walls and biometric authentication - which are important and needed - but then they don't train their people.
Kevin Mitnick
#70. There's a feature on Facebook where you can enable security that checks the device you're coming from. By default these features are likely off, but as a consumer, you can enable them.
Kevin Mitnick
#71. Back up everything! You are not invulnerable. Catastrophic data loss can happen to you - one worm or Trojan is all it takes.
Kevin Mitnick
#72. I made stupid decisions as a kid, or as a young adult, but I'm trying to be now, I'm trying to take this lemon and make lemonade.
Kevin Mitnick
#74. I'm not a fugitive anymore. Never will be in the future. After spending five years in jail, you learn your lesson. I never want to return there.
Kevin Mitnick
#75. I characterize myself as a retired hacker. I'm applying what I know to improve security at companies.
Kevin Mitnick
#76. I don't know of any case that involves computer hacking where there were multiple defendants charged where there wasn't an informant on the case.
Kevin Mitnick
#77. Most people assume that once security software is installed, they're protected. This isn't the case. It's critical that companies be proactive in thinking about security on a long-term basis.
Kevin Mitnick
#78. Of course I'm sure half the people there hate me and half the people like me.
Kevin Mitnick
#79. I started with CB radio, ham radio, and eventually went into computers. And I was just fascinated with it. And back then, when I was in school, computer hacking was encouraged. It was an encouraged activity. In fact, I remember one of the projects my teacher gave me was writing a log-in simulator.
Kevin Mitnick
#80. If you go to a coffee shop or at the airport, and you're using open wireless, I would use a VPN service that you could subscribe for 10 bucks a month. Everything is encrypted in an encryption tunnel, so a hacker cannot tamper with your connection.
Kevin Mitnick
#81. Sometimes I get a call from my bank, and the first thing they ask is, 'Mr. Mitnick, may I get your account number?' And I'll say, 'You called me! I'm not giving you my account number!'
Kevin Mitnick
#82. I think malware is a significant threat because the mitigation, like antivirus software, hasn't evolved to a point to really mitigate the risk to a reasonable degree.
Kevin Mitnick
#83. Anything out there is vulnerable to attack given enough time and resources.
Kevin Mitnick
#84. Hackers are becoming more sophisticated in conjuring up new ways to hijack your system by exploiting technical vulnerabilities or human nature. Don't become the next victim of unscrupulous cyberspace intruders.
Kevin Mitnick
#85. Once when I was a fugitive, I was working for a law firm in Denver.
Kevin Mitnick
#86. Security is always going to be a cat and mouse game because there'll be people out there that are hunting for the zero day award, you have people that don't have configuration management, don't have vulnerability management, don't have patch management.
Kevin Mitnick
#87. If hackers, if anyone committing a criminal act, wants to reduce their risk, they obviously don't involve anybody else. The greater the circle of people that know what you're doing, the higher the risk.
Kevin Mitnick
#88. Social engineering bypasses all technologies, including firewalls.
Kevin Mitnick
#89. I was pretty much the government's poster boy for what I had done.
Kevin Mitnick
#90. It doesn't work the same way everywhere. The Americans are the most gullible, because they don't like to deny co-workers' requests. People in the former Soviet bloc countries are less trusting, perhaps because of their previous experiences with their countries' secret services.
Kevin Mitnick
#92. Social engineers veil themselves in a cloak of believability.
Kevin Mitnick
#93. Not being allowed to use the Internet is kind of like not being allowed to use a telephone.
Kevin Mitnick
#94. I went from being a kid who loved to perform magic tricks to becoming the world's most notorious hacker, feared by corporations and the government.
Kevin Mitnick
#95. The intent of the individuals who created the DDoS attacks has nothing to do with hacking, and they are vandals, not hackers.
Kevin Mitnick
#96. The Americans are the most gullible, because they don't like to deny co-workers' requests.
Kevin Mitnick
#97. I love solving puzzles, I love finding my way around obstacles, and I love learning new things about technology.
Kevin Mitnick
#98. I wasn't a hacker for the money, and it wasn't to cause damage.
Kevin Mitnick
#99. I have done a lot to rehabilitate my reputation.
Kevin Mitnick
#100. I could pose as a Yahoo rep claiming that there's been some sort of fault, and somebody else is getting your e-mail, and we're going to have to remove your account and reinstall it. So what we'll do is reset the current password that you have - and by the way, what is it?
Kevin Mitnick
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