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" I characterize myself as a retired hacker. I'm applying what I know to improve security at companies. "
Kevin Mitnick
Security
Know
Improve
Related Quotes:
" The Internet is like the phone. To be without it is ridiculous. "
Kevin Mitnick
Ridiculous
Internet
Without
" Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded Apple Inc, which set the computing world on its ear with the Macintosh in 1984. "
Kevin Mitnick
Ear
Computers
Set
" I saw myself as an electronic joy rider. "
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Myself
Rider
Saw
" The Patriot Act is ludicrous. Terrorists have proved that they are interested in total genocide, not subtle little hacks of the U.S. infrastructure, yet the government wants a blank search warrant to spy and snoop on everyone's communications. "
Kevin Mitnick
Government
Everyone
Patriot
" I use Spam Arrest because of the amount of junk mail I get. Any legitimate person who wants to send me a message has to jump through hoops before they can be added to my opt-in list. "
Kevin Mitnick
Mail
Jump
Me
" I think it goes back to my high school days. In computer class, the first assignment was to write a program to print the first 100 Fibonacci numbers. Instead, I wrote a program that would steal passwords of students. My teacher gave me an A. "
Kevin Mitnick
School
Teacher
Think
" So the ethic I was taught in school resulted in the path I chose in my life following school. "
Kevin Mitnick
Taught
Life
My Life
" I was pretty much the government's poster boy for what I had done. "
Kevin Mitnick
Boy
Government
Much
" Of course I'm sure half the people there hate me and half the people like me. "
Kevin Mitnick
Half
Hate
Sure
" 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
Way
Break
Government
" 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
People
Security
Information
" My primary goal of hacking was the intellectual curiosity, the seduction of adventure. "
Kevin Mitnick
Adventure
Curiosity
Goal
" 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
Through
Lock
Software
" Think about it: if you were running a multi-million dollar company, and your database of customer information was stolen, would you want to tell your clients? No. Most companies did not until the laws required them to. It's in the best interest of organisations - when they're attacked and information is stolen - to tell nobody. "
Kevin Mitnick
Best
Information
Customer
" What happens with smaller businesses is that they give in to the misconception that their site is secure because the system administrator deployed standard security products - firewalls, intrusion detection systems, or stronger authentication devices such as time-based tokens or biometric smart cards. But those things can be exploited. "
Kevin Mitnick
Cards
Stronger
Smart
" 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
You
Bank
Giving
" 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
You
Service
Hacker
" Anything out there is vulnerable to attack given enough time and resources. "
Kevin Mitnick
Enough
Time
Attack
" But a lot of businesses out there don't see the return on investment, they look at it as a liability, and until they can understand that proactive security actually returns, gives them a return on investment, it's still a hard sell for people. "
Kevin Mitnick
Investment
See
Look
" When an attacker fails with one person, they often go to another person. The key is to report the attack to other departments. Workers should know to act like they are going along with what the hacker wants and take copious notes so the company will know what the hacker is trying to find. "
Kevin Mitnick
Key
Hacker
Find
" 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
Young
Now
Stupid
" 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
Need
Website
Credit
" 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
Hacking
Hacker
Never
" 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
Going
Way
You
" I was hooked in before hacking was even illegal. "
Kevin Mitnick
Hooked
Even
Hacking
" The hacking trend has definitely turned criminal because of e-commerce. "
Kevin Mitnick
Hacking
Criminal
Because
" 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
People
Risk
Circle
" Oracle, for example, has even hired people to dumpster dive for information about its competitor, Microsoft. It's not even illegal, because trash isn't covered by data secrecy laws. "
Kevin Mitnick
Dive
People
Data
" One of my all-time favorite pranks was gaining unauthorized access to the telephone switch and changing the class of service of a fellow phone phreak. When he'd attempt to make a call from home, he'd get a message telling him to deposit a dime, because the telephone company switch received input that indicated he was calling from a pay phone. "
Kevin Mitnick
Class
Company
Home
" 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
You
Identity
Information