Read Online The Fugitive Game: Online With Kevin Mitnick by Jonathan Littman - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Jonathan Littman
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attorney and his aunt,
Chickie Leventhal, owner of Chickie's Bail Bonds.
"Don't talk to the feds," Chickie advises her nephew. An hour
later, Mitnick emerges from the apartment to an audience of FBI
agents.
"I'm not going to talk," he announces.
Five minutes later, once he's sure the feds have cleared out, Mit-
nick jumps back on the 101 freeway and peels over to Teltec's of-
fices, checking his rear view mirror for a tail. He boots up his hard
drive and scans his directory. This is what the FBI wants. This is
what they'll look for in a few minutes or an hour when they arrive
with their search warrant: Mitnick's secret files on the FBI.
Deleting them won't suffice. Mitnick knows that the delete com-
mand doesn't erase files, it just abandons them on the disk. Only if
the computer runs out of memory will his "deleted" files be over-
written. He's got to erase the files permanently, immediately over-
write them so they can never be reconstructed.
Mitnick types the command in a burst:
wipeinfo . . .
Early Departure
Kevin Mitnick doesn't have
much time. He's got one
chance. Find dirt on the undercover agent the FBI sent to screw up
his life.
He begins with a name and a number. But unlike most people,
Eric Heinz Jr.'s social security number reveals little. No employment
record, no taxes paid to the IRS, no real estate. The only useful fact
he uncovers is the name of a father in San Rafael, California.
Mitnick puts his finely tuned social engineering skills to the
task. "Can I speak to Eric Junior?" Mitnick asks in his friendly
voice.
"There's no Eric Junior here," Eric Heinz Sr. replies.
"It's important I get in touch with him," Mitnick implores.
After an awkward silence the man finally speaks.
"He died in infancy."
A death certificate, Mitnick thinks. Gotta know where little Eric
Jr. died.
"Really. Where was that?"
But it's one question too many. The man asks for a number to call
back.
A minute later, Eric Heinz Sr. phones and Kevin Mitnick answers
the pay phone at a restaurant on Sepulveda, his trusty sidekick,
De Payne, standing by. But the ruse fails. Eric Heinz Sr. suspects
something's not right.
Mitnick pushes on with his search. He learns Eric Heinz Sr. is
originally from Washington, D.C., so the hacker canvasses the death
certificates of five neighboring states, looking for Eric Heinz Jr. It's
not that easy, since many are closed to public inquiries. When he
comes up empty-handed, he tries another tack.
Kevin Mitnick, Mr. Social Security impostor, phones Heinz Sr.'s
brother.
"Are you Eric Heinz Senior?"
"No, he's my brother," the man says.
"We'll straighten that out," Mitnick says helpfully. "This is odd.
We have an Eric Heinz Junior here in the database."
That's all it takes to get the brother to reveal the whole tragic story.
Mrs. Heinz's ill-fated drive with her son to the 1962 Seattle World's
Fair, and the terrible car accident that killed mother and son.
But Mitnick is already planning his next step. It's easy, even legal.
Washington is an open state when it comes to most records. Mitnick
simply applies for the death certificate of one Eric Heinz Jr., and a
few weeks later, an official document arrives, proof that Eric Heinz
Jr., the FBI's undercover operative, has been fraudulently assuming
the identity of a two-and-a-half-year-old toddler who died three
decades ago.
On November 6, 1992, Robert Latta, Chief Probation Officer of the
Central District of California, petitions the court to issue a bench
warrant with bail fixed at $25,000 in the case of the United States
versus Kevin David Mitnick:
It is alleged that the above-mentioned supervised releasee has vio-
lated the terms and conditions to wit:
1. .. .[0]n August 7, 1992, Mr. Mitnick participated in the un-
authorized access of Pacific Bell computers (confidential voice mail
system). This was accomplished through the unauthorized use of con-
fidential and personal passwords of Pacific Bell Telephone Company
security investigators
Chickie Leventhal, owner of Chickie's Bail Bonds.
"Don't talk to the feds," Chickie advises her nephew. An hour
later, Mitnick emerges from the apartment to an audience of FBI
agents.
"I'm not going to talk," he announces.
Five minutes later, once he's sure the feds have cleared out, Mit-
nick jumps back on the 101 freeway and peels over to Teltec's of-
fices, checking his rear view mirror for a tail. He boots up his hard
drive and scans his directory. This is what the FBI wants. This is
what they'll look for in a few minutes or an hour when they arrive
with their search warrant: Mitnick's secret files on the FBI.
Deleting them won't suffice. Mitnick knows that the delete com-
mand doesn't erase files, it just abandons them on the disk. Only if
the computer runs out of memory will his "deleted" files be over-
written. He's got to erase the files permanently, immediately over-
write them so they can never be reconstructed.
Mitnick types the command in a burst:
wipeinfo . . .
Early Departure
Kevin Mitnick doesn't have
much time. He's got one
chance. Find dirt on the undercover agent the FBI sent to screw up
his life.
He begins with a name and a number. But unlike most people,
Eric Heinz Jr.'s social security number reveals little. No employment
record, no taxes paid to the IRS, no real estate. The only useful fact
he uncovers is the name of a father in San Rafael, California.
Mitnick puts his finely tuned social engineering skills to the
task. "Can I speak to Eric Junior?" Mitnick asks in his friendly
voice.
"There's no Eric Junior here," Eric Heinz Sr. replies.
"It's important I get in touch with him," Mitnick implores.
After an awkward silence the man finally speaks.
"He died in infancy."
A death certificate, Mitnick thinks. Gotta know where little Eric
Jr. died.
"Really. Where was that?"
But it's one question too many. The man asks for a number to call
back.
A minute later, Eric Heinz Sr. phones and Kevin Mitnick answers
the pay phone at a restaurant on Sepulveda, his trusty sidekick,
De Payne, standing by. But the ruse fails. Eric Heinz Sr. suspects
something's not right.
Mitnick pushes on with his search. He learns Eric Heinz Sr. is
originally from Washington, D.C., so the hacker canvasses the death
certificates of five neighboring states, looking for Eric Heinz Jr. It's
not that easy, since many are closed to public inquiries. When he
comes up empty-handed, he tries another tack.
Kevin Mitnick, Mr. Social Security impostor, phones Heinz Sr.'s
brother.
"Are you Eric Heinz Senior?"
"No, he's my brother," the man says.
"We'll straighten that out," Mitnick says helpfully. "This is odd.
We have an Eric Heinz Junior here in the database."
That's all it takes to get the brother to reveal the whole tragic story.
Mrs. Heinz's ill-fated drive with her son to the 1962 Seattle World's
Fair, and the terrible car accident that killed mother and son.
But Mitnick is already planning his next step. It's easy, even legal.
Washington is an open state when it comes to most records. Mitnick
simply applies for the death certificate of one Eric Heinz Jr., and a
few weeks later, an official document arrives, proof that Eric Heinz
Jr., the FBI's undercover operative, has been fraudulently assuming
the identity of a two-and-a-half-year-old toddler who died three
decades ago.
On November 6, 1992, Robert Latta, Chief Probation Officer of the
Central District of California, petitions the court to issue a bench
warrant with bail fixed at $25,000 in the case of the United States
versus Kevin David Mitnick:
It is alleged that the above-mentioned supervised releasee has vio-
lated the terms and conditions to wit:
1. .. .[0]n August 7, 1992, Mr. Mitnick participated in the un-
authorized access of Pacific Bell computers (confidential voice mail
system). This was accomplished through the unauthorized use of con-
fidential and personal passwords of Pacific Bell Telephone Company
security investigators
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