Kevin Mitnick quotes - page 5

At the end of the day, my goal was to be the best hacker. (Kevin Mitnick)
What I found personally to be true was that it's easier to manipulate people rather than technology. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
For a long time, I was portrayed as the Osama bin Laden of the Internet, and I really wanted to be able to tell my side of the story. I wanted to be able to explain exactly what I did and what I didn't do to people who thought they knew me. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
Use a personal firewall. Configure it to prevent other computers, networks and sites from connecting to you, and specify which programs are allowed to connect to the net automatically. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
Businesses should absolutely set aside funding in their budgets for security consultants. Unless there is an expert on staff, and there usually is not, it needs to be outsourced. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
The Patriot Act is ludicrous. Terrorists have proved that they are interested in total genocide, not subtle little hacks of the U.S. infrastructure, yet the government wants a blank search warrant to spy and snoop on everyone's communications. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
Protecting yourself is very challenging in the hostile environment of the Internet. Imagine a global environment where an unscrupulous person from the other side of the planet can probe your computer for weaknesses and exploit them to gain access to your most sensitive secrets. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
I think a cyber-terrorism attack is overblown, though the threat exists. I think al Qaeda and other groups are more interested in symbolic terrorism, like what they did to the World Trade Center - suicide bombers or something that really has an effect and is meaningful to people. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
I was an accomplished computer trespasser. I don't consider myself a thief. I copied without permission. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
The myth of Kevin Mitnick is much more interesting than the reality of Kevin Mitnick. If they told the reality, no one would care. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
Back up everything! You are not invulnerable. Catastrophic data loss can happen to you - one worm or Trojan is all it takes. (Kevin Mitnick)
It's kind of interesting, because hacking is a skill that could be used for criminal purposes or legitimate purposes, and so even though in the past I was hacking for the curiosity, and the thrill, to get a bite of the forbidden fruit of knowledge, I'm now working in the security field as a public speaker. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
People are prone to taking mental shortcuts. They may know that they shouldn't give out certain information, but the fear of not being nice, the fear of appearing ignorant, the fear of a perceived authority figure - all these are triggers, which can be used by a social engineer to convince a person to override established security procedures. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
A lot of companies are clueless, because they spend most or all of their security budget on high-tech security like fire walls and biometric authentication - which are important and needed - but then they don't train their people. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
When I was in prison, a Colombian drug lord, offered me $5 million in cash to manipulate a computer system so that he would be released. I turned him down. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
I obtained confidential information in the same way government employees did, and I did it all without even touching a computer. ... I was so successful with this line of attack that I rarely had to go towards a technical attack. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
The intent of the individuals who created the DDoS attacks has nothing to do with hacking, and they are vandals, not hackers. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
You can't go to Windows Update and get a patch for stupidity. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
My message today is primary the same... I usually go around speaking on the threat of the human element, particularly on social engineering. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
It's still basically just solving a puzzle, ... Years ago, with poor judgment, I was intrigued to break through security on computer systems. Now I do it with the client's permission, for socially acceptable reasons. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
At the time the books were released, I was in custody, so I had higher priorities - dealing with my criminal case - than dealing with litigation. There's a lot of information out there that is inaccurate. (Kevin Mitnick)
I basically look at it as... if the guy hacked into Citibank and stole millions of dollars, would I hire him to secure my bank Maybe not. View quote
Kevin Mitnick
That's not a badge of honor I enjoy, ... I never had malicious intent. I was never trying to hurt anyone or damage anything. View quote
Kevin Mitnick