The Fugitive Game: Online With Kevin Mitnick (26 page)

Videotape image of
Justin Petersen, aka
Eric Heinz or Agent
Steal, working
undercover for the
FBI at a 1992
hacker conference.

Shimomura in North Carolina

Shimomura's equipment

Shimomura in the Media

Tsutomu Shimomura,
John Markoff of the
New York Times, former San Francisco
Assistant U.S.
Attorney Kent Walker,
and Joe Orsak and
Jim Murphy of
Sprint Cellular.

Kent Walker

John Markoff

Joe Orsak

Jim Murphy

Kevin Pazaski

Todd Young

Todd Young, a cellular fraud gumshoe,
and Kevin Pazaski of CellularOne in
Seattle, found Kevin Mitnick in a few
hours and kept his basement apartment
under surveillance for two weeks.
Federal authorities rejected the cellular
fraud case as insignificant.

Young's Cellscope

Mitnick's apartment in Seattle

I figure I might as well ask my subject for some ideas on where to
start researching. "Who do you think I could call to check out some
of these old myths, like the NORAD hack, or the Security Pacific
release?"

". .. All the different people in the ham radio world. The Under-
ground. 43 5 [a ham radio group]. My old teacher, John Christ, lives
in Lake Tahoe. There's this guy, Steven Shalita. We weren't friends.
I lis parents live on 7833 Cantaloupe Street. There's Irv Rubin. He's
like the head of the JDL [Jewish Defense League]. My old teacher
liked me, Larry Gehr. He worked at the Computer Learning Center
in Downy, Los Angeles."

This is what's amazing about Kevin Mitnick. His openness, his
seeming naivete, his incredible memory. He's rattling off a list of real
people who know him, real people who may convey an uncensored
image.

"What about Lewis?"

"Lewis has this Internet group. He
loves
to antagonize people. It's
his hobby. I did too. Then, I actually turned around and tried to be
friends with these people. I got back on the 435, and I said, 'I was an
asshole, but now I'd rather be your friend.'

"Everybody was shocked, but after that I never had to pay for
breakfast. It actually worked."

Kevin Mitnick even describes his transformation into a nice guy as
a hack, a con, a social engineering job.

"When was this?"

"Ninety or '91," Mitnick recalls. "Most of them love me. Try
Tony Cardenas. His call sign is WB6ID. He lives in Cerritos."

"You've got a pretty good memory."

"I know. Let's see, there's Bob Arkow, a Highway Patrol radio
engineer. He works in the Hollywood office."

"What's his call sign?"

"WA6HMC."

"How'd you meet him?"

"He was a bus driver. I met him and he turned me on to ham
radio.

"Then there's this guy Ed Jules," Mitnick continues. "When I was
a kid, he used to jam my radio frequency. So I found a local hospital