Jump To Kevin Mitnick's Stats
Sometimes the life of a computer geek has its major pitfalls. Especially if your computer activity falls in the category of hacking. Just ask Kevin Mitnick, the twice convicted computer hacker that now leads his life on the straight and narrow. This new leaf that Mitnick has turned helped him open his own legitimate firm Mitnick Computer Security Consulting LLC and has provided the former felon with a net worth of $16,758,000.
By his 12th year on this earth, Mitnick started scheming with his easy understanding of computer systems. By the time he was 16, he cracked into the Digital Equipment Corporation's computer system. The authorities got him though and in 1988, he had a felony record and had to serve some time and some probation. For whatever reason, his devotion to computer hacking could not be quenched. He went after Pacific Bell toward the end of his three year probationary period and was charged again. He didn't like the sound of incarceration.
For two and a half years, Mitnick went on the lam but did not slow down his growing passion, knowledge and exploitation of computer hacking. He was able to shield his whereabouts through cloned phones and stealing passwords and information while he was on the lam. Ultimately, he was caught and charged with hacking crimes against Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu Siemans Systems.
By 2000, Mitnick had served all the court ordered time behind bars, which included a stint in solitary confinement. Apparently, the government asserted that Mitnick could wreck havoc throughout the country's systems simply by whistling into a phone.
Beside his work now as a security consultant to avoid computer systems getting hacked, Mitnick has co-authored two books and penned his autobiography. Slowly, Mitnick appears to have gotten into the good graces of media. In 2011, he was welcomed as a guest on The Colbert Report. Mitnick has managed to slowly regain his balance in a digital world without having to hack in.
