Hacker’s Exploits Give Rise to Legend

The debate has raged from the takeout taco shops frequented by cyberpunks to the sepulchral watering holes of Fortune 500 whiz kids: Was Kevin Mitnick the world’s most dangerous hacker or merely the world’s most over-hyped computer nerd?

After three books and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles detailing the exploits of the onetime Condor, all that is clear as he sits in prison facing trial on an array of computer fraud charges is that he has become the world’s most famous digital vandal.

As with Billy the Kid and other folk heroes, when it comes to Kevin Mitnick--who grew up in the Valley and began his obsession by breaking into Los Angeles Unified School District computers as a student at James Monroe High School in North Hills--it is difficult to separate fact from myth. And, just as with Billy “the Kid” Bonney, it hardly matters anymore what the truth is, because the legend of the cheeseburger-scarfing hacker who asked his future wife out on a date by e-mail is so much more persuasive.

Did he or didn’t he break into NORAD computers as a youth? Was he, until being brought to heel by a cybersleuth, involved in some sort of black-hat computer intrigue that remains hidden from view?

Mitnick is still not talking, only heightening interest as his case, which alleges that he stole millions of dollars worth of software from companies from Silicon Valley to Finland, as it wends its way to trial.