312 DEAR HACKER

312 DEAR HACKER

someone like Kevin Mitnick as a “cracker.” Almost without exception, these same people will say that Mitnick belongs in prison. No further discussion. All details of the case are simply skipped over. “Cracker” denotes a criminal without defin- ing the crime. Conversely, describing someone as a hacker opens up the door to all kinds of questions about what was really going on. We already have plenty of words that can aptly describe a computer criminal—thief, vandal, extortionist, the list goes on and on. Such people are clearly not hackers and the way we describe them tells us something about the crime. The word “hacker” has most certainly been misused by the media—anyone who says they are a hacker is reported by the media to be one without any confirmation. That laziness is what must be changed, not the words. Manipulation of the language is a very insidious way of controlling the masses. We must be wary of this.

Dear 2600: Some people, well... myself do not agree with this whole Free Kevin

thing. He is guilty, he got caught. Now he has admitted to several of the crimes (plea bargain) and paid/is paying the penalty. The only thing I agree on is the ridiculous amount of time he had to spend “paying for his crime.” We are all aware of what he was doing, and looking back in hindsight, he deserved to get caught and pay a price.

I think 4+ years is too much, but that’s not for me to decide. While Kevin was not actually going to use the credit cards (I believe), he did wreak a lot of havoc and taunted people into taking action. That’s where his guilt is. I believe this magazine should point out this fact instead of praising what he did and making him out to be a martyr. Let’s find a new cause to fight for, instead of this old bag.

David

Let’s not even get into the guilt/innocence thing here and assume that Kevin is guilty of everything. So what are we talking about? More than four years in a prison with murderers and kidnappers because he looked at software and lied about his identity on the phone? (The credit card file and Shimomura’s computer were appar- ently only hooks to get the public’s interest—it seems to have worked very well. But Kevin was never charged with any wrongdoing in those matters.) Ask yourself how you know the things you think you know. Who told you he was taunting people?

OUR BIGGEST FANS

Probably the same newspaper accounts that failed to mention that the taunting was proven to have come from another source, especially when it continued after his arrest. But again, let’s avoid the guilt/innocence thing—is Kevin’s sentence at all in proportion to the crime? You say it’s “ridiculous” which is exactly what we’re saying. That’s all the common ground we need. There will be plenty of time to debate the rest. What’s hard for us to understand is why you don’t think you have any right to challenge this kind of injustice. You cannot just defer away your ability to speak up when something is wrong. If you don’t care, that’s one thing. But if you claim to have an opinion on an issue, that opinion should be expressed, not kept quiet because “it’s not for you to decide.” And finally, we will be moving on to new causes as we always are. But we will not leave this one unfinished.

Dear 2600: First off, let me just get off of my chest how I feel about hacking and all

that. While I am not a hacker, nor a lawyer, I can honestly say that any figures short of infinity used to express the amount of time and money spent protecting private company, personal, and governmental data is surely an understatement. You bitch and complain about unjustified quotes of measly amounts by prosecutors of your lamer hacker friends when those amounts don’t even come close to the total damage that has been done by you and people like you.

I am constantly fixing problems with my customers that were brought about by security issues, and in my opinion these issues shouldn’t even exist. I feel that if a person is a gravedigger, and is caught abusing his position for personal, financial, or sexual gain, then not only should

he lose his job and never be allowed to work in that position again, but he should be beat over the head with the very shovel he used to dig them up.

So, no, I don’t feel one bit sorry for the miserable prick who you claim needs his computer access to build a case against his oppressors. He screwed that up when he took advantage of his ability to gain access to them to begin with. I feel that he’s made his bed, and he should lie in it.