Computer Hacker Faces Year’s Sentence of Rehabilitation for His ‘Addiction’

In a novel move, a Los Angeles federal court judge said Monday that she will sentence a computer hacker to a year in a rehabilitation center, where he can be treated for his “addiction.”

U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer said she would place Kevin Mitnick of Panorama City in the custody of Gateways Hospital’s Bet T’Shuvah (the House of Repentance) after the program’s director, Harriet Rossetto, said that Mitnick would benefit from the program.

Pfaelzer said she will rule today on whether Mitnick should serve any additional prison time. He has spent seven months in federal custody while his case has proceeded.

Rossetto and lawyers involved in the case said they believe it is the first time that a person indicted for a computer hacking-related crime will be treated as an addict.

“This is the first time anything has been structured like this,” in a case of this type, said Assistant U.S. Atty. James R. Asperger.

Mitnick has an “impulse disorder,” Rossetto said of the 25-year-old man who pleaded guilty in March to one count of computer fraud and one count of possessing unauthorized long-distance telephone codes.

When he was indicted in December, Mitnick was described as such a danger that prison guards supervised his phone calls to keep him from accessing computers.

Mitnick apologized in court for his actions and pledged to never repeat them.

Rossetto, a licensed social worker, said that Mitnick would be treated at Bet T’Shuvah, a 20-bed facility in an old Victorian house near MacArthur Park, along the same lines as someone addicted to alcohol, drugs or gambling.

She said that Mitnick’s “hacking gives a sense of self-esteem he doesn’t get in the real world. . . . This is a new and growing addiction. There was no greed involved. There was no sabotage involved. . . . He’s like a kid playing Dungeons and Dragons.”

Mitnick has been a highly adroit computer hacker since he was a student at James Monroe High School in Sepulveda, where he first took a programming course in 1979.

He also became fascinated with how telephone systems could be manipulated and, in 1981, he and three others were arrested for stealing manuals while pretending to be on a guided tour of Pacific Bell’s computer center in Los Angeles. He was prosecuted as a juvenile and placed on probation.

But he soon moved on to bigger things--using his expertise to tap into the internal computer system of Digital Equipment Corp., the world’s largest maker of networked computers. Former U.S. Atty. Robert C. Bonner said Mitnick stole a security software program that had been developed by Digital at a cost of $1 million.

Co-Hacker Involved

Mitnick was indicted after a long-time friend and co-hacker, Leonard DiCicco, agreed to cooperate with federal agents because the two had had a falling out.

If convicted of all counts, Mitnick faced a maximum sentence of 20 years and a fine of $750,000, prosecutors said.

One federal charge of illegally transporting a stolen program is still pending against DiCicco. He told Pfaelzer on Monday that he was prepared to plead guilty, but the judge said she would not hold a hearing on the matter until next Monday.

Asperger told Pfaelzer that he was amenable to Mitnick being placed in the custody of Gateways Hospital, in part because he has cooperated extensively with the government in its case against DiCicco.

Later, Asperger said that Mitnick had turned out to be considerably less harmful than the government had originally thought. The prosecutor said that Mitnick had not broken into Digital’s computer system out of malice or to make money.

“It’s something like climbing Mt. Everest,” Asperger said. “He did it because it’s there.”

Pfaelzer said she will rule today on how much additonal prison time, if any, Mitnick should serve, after she has had a chance to review federal sentencing guidelines and listen to a presentation from Asperger.

Asperger said he thought the judge was leaning toward placing Mitnick in the rehabilitation program as soon as possible.