Group 42-Sells Out! - The Information Archive/Group 42 Sells Out (Group 42) (1996).iso/hack/depayne.txt

Text File | 1995-12-14 | 40KB | 814 lines

Taken from MIND LINK! on Sat Jul 22 23:03:59 1995

Sat Jul 22 13:01:31 1995
Message : #29248309    From: Lewis De Payne
Address : [e-mail]
Group   : Usenet.alt.2600
Length  : 6655 words 37665 bytes
Subject : Re: Will Spencer, and his silliness....
Read 1 times

Msg-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]>
Posted: Sat, 22 Jul 1995 19:17:10 GMT

Org.  : NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)

Stephen H. Kawamoto stopped to think, then wrote:
:
: The reason why Suzie and Kevin got 'flamed' in CPunk was because only
: DePayne and DiCicco talked.  And they talked despite one of them doing
: something illegal which Hafner knew about but didn't mention to autho-
: rities for reasons known only to her.

I didn't realize that was the only reason they got "flamed."  What was
this illegal thing which Hafner knew about but didn't mention?  I thought
De Payne talked to Hafner because he enjoys pulling coordinated pranks
on the media at-large.  Take a look at this, for example:

From: [e-mail] (Joe Hamill)
Newsgroups: alt.recovery
Subject: SCOOP ON DE PAYNE & ROSS
Date: 19 Nov 1994 04:04:55 GMT
Organization: CERFnet Dial n' CERF Customer
Message-ID: <3ajth7$[e-mail]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: nic.cerf.net

THE SCOOP ON ROSS JEFFRIES AND LEWIS DE PAYNE



"Wretched are the Peacemakers, for they shall be shit on by both sides."
                        -- after Monty Python, Life of Brian


Well, don't I feel silly. Trying to bring peace between Ross Jeffries,
Lewis De Payne, and Jacquelyn.

Jacquelyn, my apologies for suggesting you make peace with people who
don't want peace. Some of us have been completely had by a couple of
phonies.

The Lewis De Payne name kept nagging at me. I knew I knew that name from
somewhere. Then I read some more of his posts. Then it all came in a
flash! Not "The" Lewis De Payne? Computer hacker extrordinaire? Friend of
Kevin Mitnick?

A man who skunked me good once already?

I signed off AOL and called up a Nexis on Lewis De Payne and Ross Jeffries
(appended below). Of course!

Lewis is a cyberpunk Merry Prankster! A hacker! A computer whiz, with an
incredible bent for mischief! He's not in recovery, and neither is Ross
Jeffries, or rather, Paul Jeffrey Ross (his real name).

Both of these guys are from LA, and are probably friends. Paul Jeffrey
Ross is a right-wing anti-woman pseudo-comic, a la Andrew Dice Clay, and
Lewis De Payne is a clever rascal with no discernable agenda other than
tricking people. And he's good at it.

How De Payne skunked me (almost): I work at KCOP TV news in LA. We wanted
to do a story on Kevin Mitnick, another infamous computer hacker, who is
on the lam from the FBI. De Payne's name came up as a childhood friend of
Mitnick's in the LA Times clips, a nd we contacted his lawyer to try to
get an interview. Either with De Payne, or through his aegis, with the
fugitive Kevin Mitnick. We never speak directly to De Payne, only the
lawyer. Then we get a phone call: the guy says he's Kevin Mitnick, give
him a number to call Sunday Morning at 10AM. Our researcher gives him a
number. The guy calls, and our Executive Producer conducts the interview
with "Mitnick." We record it. Whoever it was who called us, comandeered
the recorded Pac Bell female telephone voice and made it say, "Thank You,
for using Kevin Mitnick." We play the tape for Mitnick's father, his
psychiatrist, and another friend. All say, "That's not Kevin Mitnick."
They also say it sounds a bit like Lewis De Payne.

The Executive Producer was philosophical about it. I laughed a lot.
"This guy's good," I said.

Anyway, Lewis, I admire such virtuosity. Which of course is not to be
confused with virtue. But, then, you'd rankle at being accused of virtue,
wouldn't you. You are good at the Merry Prankster bag, though. You and I
would have gotten along well when I was 16, and one of my fondest
fantasies was to dose all the communion hosts at midnight mass on
Christamas with blotter acid. In a snowstorm. At Our Lady of Perpetual
Help Basilica in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. (Instead, I shot heroin using holy
water that night.)

No need to heap any abuse on De Payne and Ross. They are part of another
world. One cannot, in good conscience, criticize a barracuda for not
behaving like a good guppie. That level of floating malevolence is almost
sublime. One pulls back in awe at such things, and quietly lets them swim
past. One can only get angry if one takes the bait. And then, the chances
of getting bitten and torn to shreds are greater.

I salute you, Paul and Lewis! You had us going good and well.

Forgive my part in unmasking you, but you would have done the same.

Move on, O denizens of the Net, and leave this poor school of fish in
peace, wounded and limping as we are.



THIS ONE IS ABOUT ROSS JEFFRIES:
                   Copyright 1991 The Times Mirror Company
                               Los Angeles Times

                      July 19, 1991, Friday, Home Edition

SECTION: View; Part E; Page 1; Column 4; View Desk

LENGTH: 1807 words

HEADLINE: RETURN OF THE BRUTE; RELATIONSHIPS: FORGET SENSITIVE. FORGET
NICE. WHAT WOMEN REALLY WANT IS A BIG, STRONG BARBARIAN, ACCORDING TO A
NEW CROP OF SELF-HELP BOOKS.

BYLINE: By ROBIN ABCARIAN, TIMES STAFF WRITER

BODY:
   Hub Thompson didn't used to be too lucky with the babes. A 26-year-old
San Diego guitar teacher, Thompson describes himself as good-looking --
"real good-looking" -- but previously devoid of discrimination.

   "I would just go for any girl who went for me," he said. "I wasn't
selective. It was a confidence thing."

   Then he bought a copy of a mail-order book called "How to Get the Women
You Desire Into Bed." Now he's humming a different tune.

   "I am learning to dump them if they need to be dumped," said Thompson.
"This romance stuff is totally trench warfare. It's almost like bargaining
for the price of something. If somebody doesn't want what I want, hey,
there's the door, babe."

   Ah, honesty. Ah, sensitivity. Ah, nuts.

   The sexual landscape has always been a treacherous one, but there is a
brewing meanness out there, a harsh '90s twist on the war between the
sexes. It might be a backlash against feminism and double messages (Be
manly! Cry, too!) -- or maybe guys are just tired of being told to get in
touch with their feelings. Whatever the reasons, in some quarters, honesty
is out, manipulation is in. For this crowd, the sensitive New Age male is
not just dead and gone, he's been dragged back into the Dark Ages by the
Neo-Neanderthal.

   Deep down the brute may be looking for love (and someone to do the
laundry), but you'd never know it from his approach.

   The brief apotheosis of Andrew Dice Clay and the misogynistic lyrics of
rappers were perhaps the early warning signs of incipient
Neo-Neanderthalism. But recently, brutishness has blossomed all around.
Consider:

   * It is possible to buy a T-shirt in several stores on the Venice
boardwalk that says in huge block letters, "Shut Up Stupid Bitch."

   * "Studs," a new show on the Fox television network, features this low
concept: "Two men go out on dates with three of the same women. Then, all
convene on the set to find out which of the guys is 'the bigger stud.' "
   * Last month, Boston Red Sox fans were treated to the sight of bleacher
bums simulating sex with inflatable dolls, until complaints caused
officials to ban the dolls from the stadium.

   * Recently, the world of vanity publishing has spewed forth such titles
as "How to Get all the Girls You Want" ("The three main types of women are
the "ho," "the freak" and "the good girl.") and "The Bartender's Guide on
How to Pick-Up Women" ("I've also included a section for women, because I
feel they are the most misunderstood, abused group in terms of
relationships -- by their own choice.").

   For the married brute, there is "How to Cheat on Your Wife and Not Get
Caught" ("The best place to meet women who are the most vulnerable and the
easiest to conquer is at the Parents Without Partners group. If the
organizers make you sign some type of statement that you are single,
separated or divorced, go ahead. After all, you're not forging a tax
return or killing someone.")

   * Even Cosmopolitan magazine is endorsing a return to the old double
standard. Last December, it published "How to be a Great Date," a feature
that suggested, among other things, "At the table, be a little geisha-like
-- butter his roll, put the sugar alongside his coffee," and "Say, 'That's
absolutely fascinating!' at least once before the evening is over."

   An unlikely hero of the Neo-Neanderthal movement is ROSS JEFFRIES, the
pseudonym of a 32-year-old Culver City man whose real name is PAUL JEFFREY
ROSS.

   The tall, reedy Jeffries, who grew up in Lawndale, has spent the last 1
1/2 years on the talk-show circuit promoting his book, "How to Get the
Women You Desire Into Bed." He claims to have sold thousands of copies and
is planning an info-mercial in the fall.

   The book is aimed, he said, at those who do not possess the money or
looks that most people presume are natural magnets of the dating scene. He
offers some sound advice, but some behavior experts raise their eyebrows
at his proposals for psychological warfare.

   The book is shot full of hostility toward women, because, as Jeffries
explained, they deserve it.

   "Well, you have to understand, the animosity comes from being slapped
down when I was too nice. But also some of that is a character I get
into."

   A paragraph from the book suffices to impart its unsubtle flavor: "When
it comes to sex, women have a massive power advantage," he writes. "It's
relatively easy for even a fat, ugly troll to obtain sexual satisfaction.
All she has to do is go to any bar or club, act even mildly flirtatious
and be willing to put out. She's sure to get laid, if not by the
best-looking guy, then at least by someone."

   In an interview at the Sidewalk Cafe in Venice, during which Jeffries
attempted to hit on two women (one was "too young," one was married; both
seemed flattered), he said his most essential advice to men is this:
"Don't be too nice. When you accommodate, you get what the commode gets,
which is the crapola."

   He advocates faking warmth or being outrageous (send flowers, sign the
card "secret admirer" and show up later wearing a T-shirt that says "I am
your secret admirer").

   He also suggests that men prowl dormitories telephonically, dialing
random numbers using known dorm prefixes until they find a student willing
to grab a cup of coffee on the spot. ("This way," he said, "you find the
adventurous ones.")

   In a bawdy seminar last month at a Westchester hotel -- his first -- he
awkwardly demonstrated the techniques borrowed from hypnosis and
neurolinguistic programming, which claims to help people overcome fear of
failure. The 22 men who paid $55 for 3 1/2 hours, seemed receptive, except
when Jeffries allowed a couple of energy drink salesmen to solicit
distributors ("Why not get rich and get laid?"). Some men left the room.

   Jeffries advocates covert hypnosis to induce trance-like attention in a
woman, using such techniques as the mirroring of speech and breathing
patterns pioneered by psychotherapist Virginia Satir and psychiatrist
Milton Erickson, neither of whom is alive.

   ("I bet they would have been appalled," said Kate Wachs, a Chicago
psychologist who founded a center that specializes in romantic
relationships. "You can use any good technique to con people, and this is
certainly a very unhealthy use of a very good technique.")

   But Jeffries, who says he was recently dumped by his girlfriend of
several months, equates courtship to street fighting, an arena in which
all is fair.

   "I am trying to get these guys to protect themselves. . . . Women love
a guy who will listen, but the problem is when they aren't interested in
you sexually, you wind up getting slapped around. I put up with that for
years, and finally I said, 'No more.' That is why when a woman starts
telling me her problems, (he snaps his fingers) adios!"

   The message seems to resonate for the men who read his book.

   Anthony Alpert, a 25-year-old financial consultant in Huntington Beach,
said his pattern of getting dumped by women after three or four months of
dating ended after he read Jeffries' book.

   "I think women love a challenge," he said. "I was unchallenging. I laid
everything out on the line. So I got the book, read it cover to cover and
pretty much knew what I was going to do the next time I met a girl."

   He cooked dinner for his next date, Julie Jerez. "I acted like I had
thousands of women over to my house for dinner. There was a hockey game
on," he said. "And it didn't matter if she liked hockey or not, I was
gonna watch the darn hockey game."

   Jerez, a 22-year-old law office receptionist, said she was impressed by
Alpert's confidence. "Actually," she added, "I did want to watch the
hockey game. I was kind of hoping a fight would break out because I like
it when they start slapping each other with the stick."

   Alpert and Jerez have been together for 14 months, and although Alpert
attributes this in part to Jeffries' book, Jerez thinks she would have
fallen in love with him anyway.

   Therapists who specialize in courtship and relationships disagree with
the premises and techniques of the Neo-Neanderthal approach, but say the
books do represent a phenomenon.

   "Men are feeling less empowered. Maybe because of the economy, maybe
because of the diffusion of roles between men and women that makes it more
threatening for men," said Carl Hindy, a New Hampshire therapist who wrote
"If This is Love, Why Do I Feel So Insecure?"

   Men who read books like Jeffries', Hindy said, "have very low freedom
of movement -- their expectations of being able to satisfy their need are
quite low. That is usually due to problems like shyness and shame and
social skills deficits. I also wonder if you have these men . . . reading
this stuff not for instruction, but for fantasy gratification."

   Jerrold Lee Shapiro, an associate professor in counseling psychology at
Santa Clara University, finds a lot of "interesting and valid pieces (in
Jeffries' book), but then they are kind of twisted into a
single-mindedness of purpose."

   Some experts say there is truth to the adage that women do not like
nice men, but they offer caveats in the same breath:

   "I've had guys ask me, 'Why don't women like nice men?' " said Wachs,
the Chicago psychologist. "But there is a difference between nice and too
nice. (Women) don't want to be conned, but they don't want someone who
gives in to everything.

   "I could see where this approach might work with certain people, people
who want to be abused, people who are attracted to psychopathic men. This
sounds very antisocial."

   All of which probably means precious little to Hub Thompson, the San
Diego guitar teacher, who tells several stories about how he has applied
Jeffries' techniques to his love life. Each has the same ending, a sort of
Neo-Neanderthal coda:

   "I went out with a girl for a week, and my hands started doing too
much," said Thompson. "So she is like, totally flipped out because she
thought I was going too fast. She said give me a couple of days to think
about it. I called Ross and said, 'What should I do?'

   "He said, 'Don't call her on Friday. Call her on Sunday! She left you
hanging, so you leave her hanging.' So I called her on Sunday and told her
I had a great weekend. I told her I went out with 'a person' and had a
great time. It made her dig me more because it made her feel like she had
lost me. I want a girl that just can't wait to jump my bones, otherwise
it's no fun. Eventually, I ended up dumping her."

   The next date using the Jeffries method produced similar results.
   "I went out with this one girl and I told her right off, 'I want to go
out with you, I really dig you. But if you don't want to sleep with me
later on, I am gonna feel like you are leading me on.' Well, it made her
mad. But what does she expect? Well, I ended up dumping her because it
just wasn't happening. But at least I let her know what I wanted."

GRAPHIC: Drawing, COLOR, HANK HINTON / For The Times ; Photo, "How to Get
Any Woman You Desire Into Bed" author ROSS JEFFRIES, a.k.a. PAUL JEFFREY
ROSS, shows off his charms to a woman he met on the Venice boardwalk. It
turned out that she is married.  PATRICK DOWNS / Los Angeles Times

Copyright 1991 The Times Mirror Company
                               Los Angeles Times

                      July 28, 1991, Sunday, Home Edition

SECTION: View; Part E; Page 4; Column 2; View Desk

LENGTH: 102 words

HEADLINE: READERS LAMENT 'RETURN OF THE BRUTE'

BODY:
   Neo-Neanderthals like (author) PAUL JEFFREY ROSS and his lecherous,
boorish followers will unfortunately be around until the end of time.

   Are Ross and his fellow primates so threatened by the empowerment of
women that they'd resort to bullying tactics to get a girl in the sack?
Not only is it insulting, but it sends the message that abuse is
appropriate and deserved.

   The fact that the Los Angeles Times would print such a testament to
hatred toward women, sadly proves that we are still considered
second-class citizens whose most desirable position is lying on our backs.

   ANGELA AIELLO

   Studio City

THE REST OF THESE INCLUDE REFERENCES TO LEWIS DE PAYNE:

                   Copyright 1994 The Times Mirror Company
                               Los Angeles Times

                     July 31, 1994, Sunday, Valley Edition

SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 1; Column 2

LENGTH: 1691 words

HEADLINE: HACKER IN HIDING; DIGITAL DESPERADO WHO CLAIMS TO HAVE WORKED
FOR THE FBI IS NOW BEING SOUGHT BY THE AGENCY

BYLINE: By JOHN JOHNSON, TIMES STAFF WRITER

BODY:
   First there was the Condor, then Dark Dante. The latest computer hacker
to hit the cyberspace most wanted list is Agent Steal, a slender,
good-looking rogue partial to Porsches and BMWs who bragged that he worked
undercover for the FBI catching other hackers.

   Now Agent Steal, whose real name is Justin Tanner Petersen, is on the
run from the very agency he told friends was paying his rent and flying
him to computer conferences to spy on other hackers.

   Petersen, 34, disappeared Oct. 18 after admitting to federal
prosecutors that he had been committing further crimes during the time
when he was apparently working with the government "in the investigation
of other persons," according to federal court records.

   Ironically, by running he has consigned himself to the same secretive
life as Kevin Mitnick, the former North Hills man who is one of the
nation's most infamous hackers, and whom Petersen allegedly bragged of
helping to set up for an FBI bust. Mitnick, who once took the name Condor
in homage to a favorite movie character, has been hiding for almost two
years to avoid prosecution for allegedly hacking into computers illegally
and posing as a law enforcement officer.

   Authorities say Petersen's list of hacks includes breaking into
computers used by federal investigative agencies and tapping into a credit
card information bureau. Petersen, who once promoted after-hours rock
shows in the San Fernando Valley, also was involved in the hacker
underground's most sensational scam -- hijacking radio station phone lines
to win contests with prizes ranging from new cars to trips to Hawaii.

   The mastermind of that scheme was Dark Dante, whose real name is Kevin
Poulsen. He is awaiting sentencing in connection with that case, having
already spent three years in custody, the longest term in jail for any
hacker in history.

   Petersen's case reveals the close-knit and ruggedly competitive world
of computer hacking, where friends struggle to outdo each other and then,
when they are caught, sometimes turn on each other. Petersen boasted of
his alleged exploits trapping his former colleagues.

   Petersen gave an interview last year to an on-line publication called
Phrack in which he claimed to have tapped the phone of a prostitute
working for Heidi Fleiss. He also boasted openly of working with the FBI
to bust Mitnick.

   "When I went to work for the bureau I contacted him," Petersen said in
the interview conducted by Mike Bowen. "He was still up to his old tricks,
so we opened a case on him. . . . What a loser. Everyone thinks he is some
great hacker. I outsmarted him and busted him."

   How much of Petersen's story is true and how much is chest-thumping is
at issue, for he is a shadowy person who didn't even use his own name
during the years he spent on the fringes of the Los Angeles rock scene.
Tall, good-looking, with long hair down the middle of his back, Eric
Heinz, as he was known by everyone, shattered the computer nerd pocket
protector stereotype. He frequented the Rainbow Bar and Grill on Sunset
Boulevard, often with different women on his arm, and handed out cards
identifying himself as a concert promoter and electronic surveillance
specialist.

   Riki Rachtman, an MTV "veejay," said Petersen had a reputation for
technical wizardry among the club crowd. "Everybody knew, if you screwed
(him) over, he had the power to screw everything" with you, Rachtman said.

   But was he really working as a government informant at the same time to
ensnare his hacker buddies for the bureau? The FBI refused to talk about
Petersen directly. But J. Michael Gibbons, a bureau computer crime expert,
expressed doubts. He advises against such relationships.

   "It's not safe. Across the board, hackers cannot be trusted to work --
they play both sides against the middle," he said. The agents "could have
had him in the office. They probably debriefed him at length. Send him out
to do things? I doubt it."

   But Santa Monica attorney Richard Sherman, who is representing a friend
of Mitnick's in another hacker case, has accused the FBI of not only
actively using Petersen as an informant, but also of turning a blind eye
to Petersen's alleged crimes during the time he was in their care. The
crimes involve alleged credit card fraud.

   In a May 19 letter tS. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, Sherman said three agents
in Los Angeles engaged "in a course of conduct which is illegal and
contrary to bureau policy" in handling Petersen.

   Jo Ann Farrington, deputy chief of the public integrity section,
responded on July 18 that there were no grounds to begin a criminal
investigation. Because Sherman had called "into question the ethical
conduct of the named special agents," the letter was referred to the
Office of Professional Responsibility for review.

   "It is factually incorrect that we allowed Mr. Petersen to commit
crimes," said Assistant U. S. Atty. David Schindler.

   Those who knew Petersen best described him as a bright,
verging-on-arrogant man who dressed well and sometimes walked with a cane,
a result of a motorcycle accident six years ago that cost him a foot. He
sometimes promoted after-hours clubs in the Valley and in Hollywood,
according to a partner, Phillip Lamond.

   One night the two men were talking about Petersen's adventures. "The
difference between you and me," Lamond said Petersen told him, "is I get a
thrill from breaking the law."

   In the Phrack interview, published on the Internet, an international
network of computer networks with millions of users, Agent Steal bragged
about breaking into Pacific Bell headquarters with Poulsen to obtain
information about the phone company's investigation of his hacking.

   He said they found "a lot of information regarding other investigations
and how they do wiretaps."

   "Very dangerous in the wrong hands," replied Bowen, according to a
transcript of the interview.

   "We are the wrong hands," Petersen said. Bowen said Petersen still
calls him from time to time.

   Petersen was arrested in Texas in 1991, where he lived briefly. Court
records show that authorities searching his apartment found computer
equipment, Pacific Bell manuals and five modems.

   An FBI affidavit reveals fear that Petersen could have been
eavesdropping on law enforcement investigations. The affidavit says
Petersen admitted "conducting illegal telephone taps" and breaking into
Pacific Bell's COSMOS computer program, which allows the user to check
telephone numbers and determine the location of telephone lines and
circuits.

   A grand jury in Texas returned an eight-count indictment against
Petersen, accusing him of assuming false names, accessing a computer
without authorization, possessing stolen mail and fraudulently obtaining
and using credit cards.

   The case was later transferred to California and sealed, out of concern
for Petersen's safety, authorities said. The motion to seal, obtained by
Sherman, states that Petersen, "acting in an undercover capacity,
currently is cooperating with the United States in the investigation of
other persons in California."

   Petersen eventually pleaded guilty to six counts, including rigging a
radio station contest with a $20,000 prize. He faced a sentence of up to
40 years in jail and a $1.5-million fine, but the sentencing was delayed
several times while, Sherman believes, Petersen continued working for the
government. Lamond said Petersen told him the FBI was paying him $600 a
month "to help them track down hackers."

   Then on Oct. 18, 1993, 15 months after entering his first guilty plea,
Petersen was confronted outside federal court by Schindler, who asked if
he had been committing any crimes while on bail. Petersen said he had,
according to Schindler. Petersen met briefly with his attorney, then took
off.

   "I've got a big problem and I'm splitting," a friend said he told him
the same day.

   Attempts to reach Petersen were unsuccessful and his attorney, Morton
Boren, said he has "no knowledge of Justin committing any crimes."

   Sherman also scores the government for allegedly allowing Petersen,
while an informant, to utilize a Pacific Bell Telephone Co. computer
called Switched Access Services, or SAS. Sherman said the computer allows
operators to intercept telephone calls and place other calls, making it
appear the calls originated from other phones.

   Rich Motta, executive director of applications, reliability and support
for Pacific Bell, said he would not "take a position one way or the other"
on Sherman's allegations.

   While declining to discuss Petersen's actions, Schindler acknowledged
that in the Poulsen case, "we alleged and he pled guilty to the fact of
using the SAS system. Among other things, they rigged radio station
contests using SAS. It is a test technology they managed to hijack and use
for criminal purposes. Once we became aware of it we took steps to correct
it."

   There are tantalizing hints at links between Mitnick and Petersen,
despite their obvious differences in style. Mitnick was the classic
computer jockey, overweight and shy, who asked his eventual wife out on
their first date by sending her a computer message. Petersen, on the other
hand, is flamboyant and self-assured.

   The California Department of Motor Vehicles has a file on Petersen, but
refused to divulge any information about him, saying the file was being
used in another case. "The indications are that it's Mitnick," said Bill
Madison, a spokesman for the agency.

   Friends say they think Petersen can survive well on the run. "He's
already got a lot of experience" living undercover, said one friend.

   But Mitnick may be having a tougher time. LEWIS DE PAYNE thinks his
friend would like to find a way out of his predicament. "It is my opinion
he would like to surrender to some type of news media that could provide
legal counsel," he said.

   In the Phrack interview, Petersen makes no apologies for his choices in
life.

   While discussing Petersen's role as an informant, Mike Bowen says, "I
think that most hackers would have done the same as you."

   "Most hackers would have sold out their mother," Petersen responded.

   Times staff writer David Colker contributed to this story.

                   Copyright 1994 The Times Mirror Company
                               Los Angeles Times

                      July 12, 1994, Tuesday, Home Edition

NAME: KEVIN MITNICK

SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 1; Column 2; Metro Desk

LENGTH: 1429 words

HEADLINE: THE FUGITIVE HACKER; HUNT CONTINUES FOR MAN ACCUSED OF RAISING
HAVOC WITH COMPUTERS

BYLINE: By JOHN JOHNSON and JULIE TAMAKI, TIMES STAFF WRITERS

BODY:
   He's one of America's most wanted digital desperadoes.

   Kevin Mitnick, a legendary "dark side" hacker whose computer was, in
the words of one investigator, an "umbilical cord . . . to his soul," is
being sought by federal and state authorities for once again allegedly
using his technical wizardry as a weapon.

   A warrant has been issued accusing him of violating the requirement of
his federal probation that he not enter a computer illegally. At the same
time, the California Department of Motor Vehicles is accusing him of
posing as a law enforcement officer to gain classified information and to
possibly create false identities for himself.

   Authorities have not been able to catch up with him since they visited
the Calabasas company that he worked for in late 1992. Mitnick's life now
seems to have come tantalizingly close to replicating the Robert Redford
movie role in "Three Days of the Condor," about a man who goes into hiding
and uses his technical knowledge to outwit the government.

   Mitnick once used the nickname "Condor."

   For Mitnick, 30, a former computer nerd who dropped 100 pounds before
going into hiding, these are just the latest accusations spanning a career
of hacking that began at Monroe High School in North Hills, when he
learned how to access the school district's main computers. Eventually, he
was able to break into a North American Air Defense Command computer in
Colorado Springs, Colo., several years before the movie "WarGames," about
a hacker who nearly starts a war after entering a defense computer.

   Mitnick also became a skilled "phone phreak" who was able to manipulate
the telephone system to pull pranks on friends and enemies, according to
authorities. He disconnected service to Hollywood stars that he admired,
and a former probation officer said her phone service was terminated just
as she was about to revoke his probation.

   "He's an electronic terrorist," said a onetime friend who turned him in
to authorities in 1988.

   After his arrest in 1988, he was denied bail by three different federal
judges, who feared what he could do once back on the streets. Much of the
fear about Mitnick in law enforcement quarters appears to stem not from
what he has done in any one case, but from what mayhem he could cause in
our computer-dependent society if he put his mind to it.

   Mitnick eventually pleaded guilty to one computer crime and served a
year in prison. Afterward, he spent almost a year in a Los Angeles
residential treatment program, Gateways Beit T'Shuvah, during which time
he was not allowed to touch a computer.

   Harriett Rossetto, the program director, said Mitnick suffered from an
addictive-obsessive disorder.

   "I saw his hacking as an addiction," she said. Mitnick was a loner who
was very vulnerable and did not open up easily. In appearance, he
resembled the classic computer jockey, with clunky glasses and shirttail
hanging out. But at the keyboard of a computer, he felt strong and
capable.

   Rossetto liked him, but was not particularly impressed by his
intelligence.

   This has been a recurring theme over the years. Some people see him as
a genius with a terminal, while others say his technical abilities are not
extraordinary. What is extraordinary, say friends, is his willingness to
be consumed for as long as it takes by his task, such as finding a way
past a computer's security system.

   Undeniable, however, are his skills at what is called "social
engineering" by some and "gagging" by others -- the ability to manipulate
others to turn over information he desires, such as access codes and
passwords.

   Beit T'Shuvah uses the 12-step recovery model. While at the center,
Mitnick made good progress and lost weight. After leaving the program, he
moved to Las Vegas, then returned for a relative's funeral. Rossetto saw
him briefly.

   He told her he wasn't doing well. "I said, admit yourself back here,"
she said. He didn't.

   In June, 1992, Mitnick went to work for Teltec Investigations Inc. in
Calabasas.

   Company executive Michael Grant said Mitnick was training to be an
investigator for the firm, which does asset investigations, surveillance
and research. Grant said he knew about some of Mitnick's past problems,
but "he told me he had gone straight."

   Grant said that while Mitnick was at the firm, he did a good job. He
lived with another company official, Mark Kasden, a friend of Mitnick's
father, Alan.

   Then in late September of that year, FBI agents showed up and asked to
search Mitnick's office.

   According to an affidavit for another search at the same time, the FBI
was conducting a computer and wire fraud investigation into computer
hacking and unauthorized entry into Pacific Bell Telephone Co. computers.
Mitnick wasnamed as a suspect.

   The FBI believed that Mitnick the "phone phreak" was back. According to
the affidavit, Mitnick or others residing and working at three apartments
and a Compton company had tapped into telephone and electronic
communications to obtain passwords belonging to security investigators,
tampered with the computers and intercepted company voice mail.

   Investigators also alleged that special calling features not then
available to the public had been placed on Kasden's phone and were not
being paid for. They included speed dialing and priority ringing.

   The FBI declined to comment on the investigation, but Grant said he and
Kasden believe that Mitnick rigged the phones for himself while he was
staying with Kasden.

   Grant believes that Mitnick is "probably one of the brightest
individuals with a computer that ever set foot on Earth."

   After the search, Mitnick disappeared. Kasden said he later saw him
once briefly at a gas station. "He said, 'Adios, I have problems I have to
take care of.' "

   Neither Grant nor Kasden sees him as destructive. "He's a gentle guy
and nonviolent. He's never going to hurt anybody. But some of the stuff he
does is irritating," Grant said.

   Concurring in that assessment are some people who have known him
longer.

   Alan Rubin, an attorney who once represented him, said Mitnick has
never used his skills to enrich himself. When he was arrested in 1988, he
was living in a modest Panorama City apartment.

   And LEWIS DE PAYNE, 35, who befriended Mitnick when both men were
teen-agers, said his friend is often judged to be something he is not.
"He's brash, but effective, and that causes some people some discomfort as
far as rubbing them the wrong way."

   DE PAYNE says people overestimate Mitnick's computer wizardry.

   But others insist that his activities go beyond curiosity and pranks to
serious crime, such as posing as a law enforcement officer to gain private
information. The New York Times has reported that Mitnick is suspected of
stealing software and data from half a dozen cellular phone manufacturers,
compromising the security of the phone networks.

   The DMV has requested a warrant for his arrest, contending that in the
fall of 1992 he began posing as a law enforcement officer to obtain
sensitive DMV information, including driver's licenses and vehicle
information and photographs.

   "He would give a requesting officer's name and would basically use his
identity and birth date," said Bill Madison, a DMV spokesman in
Sacramento.

   Madison believes that Mitnick could have gotten the secret law
enforcement personal identification numbers that he needed by tapping into
DMV phone lines in Los Angeles and Sacramento.

   Authorities got wind of the trouble after a DMV technician became
suspicious when a man, identifying himself as an investigator for the
fraud division of the Los Angeles County Welfare Department, requested DMV
information and supplied a fax number that the technician did not
recognize.

   The number was traced to a Studio City copy shop. Other fax numbers
were traced to copy shops in Sacramento and Santa Monica.

   Investigators staked out the copy shop and watched Mitnick pick up the
materials, Madison said. A chase ensued, but Mitnick got away.

   "We almost had him," Madison said.

   Madison said he believes that Mitnick may be using the information to
change identities, to wreak havoc on other's lives or for some type of
monetary gain.

   In one case, Mitnick allegedly gained access to a Bay Area man's
records and used information in the file in an attempt to change his
health care provider so that he could benefit from the man's medical
coverage. He also allegedly used the information to take on the identity
of the man's dead son to obtain a phony driver's license.

   "It's very scary," Madison said. "You don't want him in your records."

GRAPHIC: Photo, Hacker Kevin Mitnick, shown in a file photo, remains at
large.

--
--Joe Hamill                    "Where it is a duty to worship the sun
                                it is pretty sure to be a crime
                                to examine the laws of heat."
johamill@cerf.n                 --John, Viscount Morely of Blackburn


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