Computer Hacking

2 Pages 517 Words

The textbook, Management of Information Technology, defines the information super highway as, “An installed intelligent workstation for office and professional workers in most organizations to connect via the local area network (LAN) or to other nets or to large computer data stores through servers that function as message-switching and message processing systems.” (Frenzel, 1999, p.14). The books continues and identifies a subject by the name of Kevin Mitnick who was arrested on February 15, 1995, for sleuthing on the information highway. This paper will portray the events leading up to the arrest of Kevin Mitnick. Mitnick, 31, described by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, (FBI), as the “Nations Most Wanted Computer Hacker”, was arrested in his home on February 15, 1995. Mitnick, as described by Forbes Magazine is, “A recreational hacker with a compulsive-obsessive relationship to information. He hoarded information, never sold it, and wouldn’t even share it with his friends.”(published in 1999). What lead up to the arrest and incarceration of Mitnick is described below. Kevin David Mitnick was cyberspace's most wanted hacker. Mitnick could launch missiles or cripple the world's financial markets with a single phone call - or so went the myth. The FBI, phone companies, bounty hunters, even fellow hackers pursued him over the Internet and through cellular airways. Tsutomo Shimomura, a computational physicist was on vacation when he discovered that someone infiltrated the computers near San Diego, California, and stole several intelligence files. Shimomura became even more involved with the case when the infiltrator tapped into Shimomura’s voice mail system and left him a computer-altered message. Companies. “The attack clearly infuriated the wrong person.” (Frenzel, 199, p.441). Throughout the month of January 1995 and into February 1995, Shimomura and his team of “computer sleuths” monitored the hackers eve...