Kevin Mitnick Analysis

Kevin Mitnick is an interesting person. Throughout the whole video I noticed that he laughed a lot, especially when he was talking about his past as a hacker. To me, that showed that he was not sorry for what he had done and it showed arrogance. Although the video was not a particularly long one, it had enough information in it to paint a picture as to the person that Mitnick is today. At first I was not a fan of Mitnick, but later I started to warm up to him a tad. Overall, I enjoyed this video and found it to be very informative. I do not agree with his view of himself, when he was heavily involved in hacking, as a prankster. Breaking into computer systems without permission is not pranking, its stealing. He knowingly made copies of the …show more content…
As mentioned in the previously, making copies of information without a company’s knowledge is definitely theft, especially in this case where the information was private. Now, if he were to make copies of information already known to the public, then I could see where it could be perceived that he did not actually take anything. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Moreover, I believe that his motives for hacking were for intellectual challenges. I believe that he got a high off of successfully manipulating someone into leaking private information and from successfully coping said information without anyone’s knowledge. It was like he was proving to himself he was very intelligent and no one could compare, and nothing could stop him because he was unstoppable. Finally, I do believe that there is such a thing as ethical hacking. He received permission from these companies to hack into their system and show them where they need to be stronger, how to identify bad guys, and how to increase their security measures. He did help those companies in the end and as far as I can tell from the video, he did not make copies of information. They knew what they were signing up for. He did not go behind their backs, so he says. If someone goes behind someone’s back and hacks into their computer and takes private information, then that is illegal. If someone gives another person permission to do so, and that person does not take private information but merely hacks into it to show the need for them to increase security and change some things, then that is ethical as long as both parties are aware of everything taking