Kevin Mitnick, the world’s most wanted hacker, has died. He was 59 years old

Kevin Mitnick, one of the most famous hackers in the history of the Internet, has died at the age of 59. This is confirmed by various sources in the American press. Mitnick from what has emerged so far died of complications from pancreatic cancer.

He was the most wanted hacker in the world for years. He is best known for a series of computer crimes committed in the 1990s, which saw him mastermind and architect of one of the most sensational thefts in the history of the web, which involved the exfiltration of thousands of files, data and credit cards from American computers.

The hacker who brought governments and companies to their knees, stealing their secrets

“I have never taken a single dollar out of citizens’ pockets,” Mitnick has always defended himself, who has spent more than 5 years of his life in prison because of his criminal activities. In 1979 he hacked his first computer network. No one can locate him and he will be sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment only 9 years later. It was 1988. But his real rise in cybercrime will begin shortly after. He will target the computer systems of government, corporate and university organizations using his computer skills to hack into the telephone networks and cell phones of millions of people.

In 1995 he was arrested after a manhunt that lasted more than two years. Mitnick is captured by the FBI and charged with illegal use of a dial-up device and computer fraud. “It is alleged that he had access to corporate trade secrets worth millions of dollars. He was a very big threat,” said Kent Walker, a former assistant US attorney in San Francisco at the time, as recalled by the New York Times. An event he remembers well, because three years later the website of the major US newspaper was hacked by a group of Mitnick supporters, forcing it to close for a few days.

Then the career as an entrepreneur in the field of information security condemned her

The following year, Mitnick pleaded guilty to computer and wire fraud under a settlement with prosecutors and was sentenced to 46 months in prison. He was also prohibited from using a computer or cell phone without his probation officer’s permission for three years following his release. As a fugitive in the 1990s, he hacked Pacific Bell computers for voicemail while he was on probation and continued to hack into cellular networks and corporate and government websites.

Once his debt to justice was paid, in 2000 he founded and ran Mitnick Security Consulting, a consulting firm specializing in information security.