EVEN though Kevin Mitnick, one of America鈥檚 most notorious hackers, is in the FBI鈥檚 custody, computer specialists who helped to track him down are still on their guard. Two security experts from the San Diego Supercomputer Center spent nearly two months with FBI agents in a nationwide hunt that led to Mitnick鈥檚 arrest last week in Raleigh, North Carolina. Now one of the pair is asking not to be named, for fear of retaliation by Mitnick鈥檚 friends.
A duel of computer wizards began after a hacker broke into the home computer of Tsutomu Shimomura, a security expert at the San Diego centre (This Week, 4 February). He stole some files and left a taunting voice-mail message. Shimomura 鈥渢ook it as a challenge, which it obviously was meant to be鈥�, said a spokeswoman for the centre.
An FBI affidavit accuses Mitnick of a series of break-ins. Most show more interest in demonstrating technical skill than making money. One target was The Well in San Francisco, one of the oldest computer communities. According to the FBI, Mitnick stored copies of the files stolen from Shimomura in one of The Well鈥檚 machines, along with a file containing credit card numbers taken from Netcom, a company that offers subscribers access to the Internet.
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Mitnick tried to cover his tracks by using a cellular phone to log onto the Internet, but Shimomura and FBI agents traced his calls to Raleigh. They pinpointed the source as one of two apartments, and Mitnick had rented one of them under a false name.
Mitnick has a long record of computer offences, and was on the run when he was arrested. He spent a year in jail after a conviction in 1988 for computer fraud and later disappeared, violating the terms of his parole.