“Virtually everyone in technology knows about Kevin Mitnick, who in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s was a notorious fugitive hacker on the run from the FBI,” Mike Elgan reports for Computerworld. “Most experts also know that he’s made his living since being released from prison as a security consultant. But did you know that he still hacks for a living?”
“Mitnick has always emphasized the importance of social engineering for hacking, an emphasis that’s lacking in most security advice. He also focuses on how to get through to a public that struggles to appreciate the risks,” Elgan reports. “So he gets through to his public by hacking them (with their permission). Corporate training can make the eyes glaze over. So Mitnick drives his points home by actually hacking his clients, then showing them how they could be easily victimized in the future by a malicious hacker.”
“He’s got some easy tips for securing mobile devices,” Elgan reports. “I sat down with Mitnick at last week’s RSA conference in San Francisco, and he rattled off advice that everyone can use.”
Read more in the full article -recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Some good advice in the full article, so take heed.
I listened to Kevin’s “Ghost in the Wires” audiobook last week, Fascinating.
I always wanted to go to his house and set up a box-stick-and string trap with a laptop in it as bait on his front door.
The 70min video in the article:
Uses a Macbook running OS X, VM Ubuntu running as well, targets Windows. 😉
I remember when Kevin was able to once again get on the internet after his probation was over. He was on TechTV’s show the Screen Savers, and they made a big deal about it. Although, I was in college and didn’t really know who Kevin was back at that time, but I still remember it.
God, I miss the old TechTV channel. I used to have that channel on almost 24/7, always something interesting to see on it. Curse G4 for killing it!
By the by, I used to love Leo Laporte and all his shows he had. However, it seems to me that lately he hasn’t been taking his meds or something.
He’s been off his meds for years. Kind of obnoxious too.
He warns about attacks being possible via PDF files. Does anybody know whether this applies to PDF files on any computer, or whether it’s a PC only issue, or maybe solely an Adobe Acrobat issue?
Those on this forum might like to know whether there is any risk associated with opening PDFs on a Mac using preview?
Adobe Acrobat Reader was just updated today to patch two CVEs that could potentially allow PWNing of a victim’s device. PDFs infamously allow the use of embedded scripting, which turns out to be as dangerous as Microsoft’s allowing of macros in Office documents. After years of debacle, Adobe finally turned scripts OFF by default. Leave them off.
Oh and NO. Apple’s Preview ignores scripts in PDFs. There is no danger as a result. Preview has proven to be a far safer way to ready PDFs than Reader.
It’s interesting that Mike Elgan wrote this article. He has clearly stated that he believes Apple should fork over the iPhone goods to the FBI. That’s naughty, Mike. (0_o)