Writing for ZDNet News, Robert Lemos reports that convicted criminal hacker Kevin Mitnick is back online, the terms of his probation finally complete. Apparently Mitnick has been left with a hankering for one of Apple’s newest pieces of kit, too.
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Mitnick is one of the most high-profile examples of the government crackdown on hackers. The 39 year old served five years in jail after his February 1995 arrest following a trail of break-ins to computer systems in high-tech companies. Following his jail sentence, Mitnick was forbidden from using computers or accessing the Internet as the terms of his probation. Now those terms have been lifted, and Mitnick is hoping to gain employment in the field of computer security. He’s also founded his own company, called Defensive Thinking.
Mitnick is attempting to sell some of the equipment he used in the past to raise money for his future efforts. He’s put on eBay his own 486-based Toshiba Satellite laptop — the one authorities ultimately caught him with during their bust — and a Sony Vaio system he used to write his book, “The Art of Deception.” The cell phone Mitnick relied on when the FBI cracked down on him is also on the auction block, according to Lemos.
“Mitnick hopes to replace the laptops with a 17-inch Apple PowerBook,” wrote Lemos. “While he continues to play with computers and technology, he stressed that misusing them is something he will never do again.”