Kevin Mitnick, RIP

The original “social engineer”

Those who have saw cybersecurity evolve over the years will be saddened by the death due to complications in the surgery related to pancreatic cancer of Kevin Mitnick. He was just 59 years old.

Kevin turned over a new leaf in his life and moved from the dark side of breaking into computer networks to the good side of inspiring a whole generation into cybersecurity. While there are many people who just switch people off within cybersecurity, Kevin spoke in a way that allowed cybersecurity to be understood by the masses while also inspiring others into great careers.

His roots in cybersecurity can be traced to the 1990s, and where he was accused of stealing credit card data from a range of sources, and on hacking into mobile phone networks and corporate networks. At one time, he was named the World’s “most wanted” computer hacker:

In fact, the FBI searched for over two years for Kevin related to charges of telephone misuse and computer fraud, But in 1995, they managed to capture him. Then, in 1998, some of his supporters managed to take over The New York Times website, and shut it down. By 1999, Kevin pled guilty to the…