Kevin Mitnick, a reformed hacker who was once one of the most wanted computer criminals in the United States, died Sunday, according to a statement shared Wednesday by a cybersecurity training company he co-founded and a Las Vegas funeral home. He was 59.
His death was confirmed by Kathy Wattman, a spokeswoman for training company KnowBe4.
The cause was complications from pancreatic cancer. According to the King David Memorial Chapel & Cemetery in Las Vegas, he was treated at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center after his diagnosis more than a year ago.
After serving a prison sentence for breaking into and tampering with corporate computer networks, he was released in 2000 and began a new career as a security consultant, author, and public speaker.
Mr. Mitnick was best known for the crime spree in the 1990s that stole thousands of data files and credit card numbers from computers across the country. He used his skills to penetrate the country’s phone and cellular networks and destroy the computer systems of governments, businesses and universities.
At the time, investigators called him the “most wanted” computer hacker in the world.
After a manhunt of more than two years, Mr. Mitnick was caught by the FBI in 1995 and charged with illegal use of a telephone access device and computer fraud. “He allegedly had access to millions of dollars worth of company secrets. He was a very big threat,” said Kent Walker, a former assistant US attorney in San Francisco, at the time.
In 1998, while Mr. Mitnick awaited sentencing, a group of supporters seized the New York Times website for several hours and forced it to close.
The next year, Mr. Mitnick pleaded guilty to computer and cable fraud under an agreement with prosecutors and was sentenced to 46 months in prison. In addition, for three years after his release, he was forbidden from using a computer or mobile phone without the permission of his probation officer.
Mr. Mitnick grew up in Los Angeles, the only child of divorced parents. According to his 2011 memoir Ghost in the Wires, he moved frequently and was something of a loner dabbling in magic tricks.
By the age of 12, Mr. Mitnick had figured out how to ride the bus freely using a $15 punch card and blank tickets he fished out of a dumpster, and in high school he developed an obsession with the inner workings the switches and circuits of telephone companies.
By the time he was 17, he was digging into the computer systems of various companies and came into conflict with the authorities for the first time over these activities. It was the beginning of a decades-long game of cat-and-mouse with law enforcement.
In his memoirs, Mr Mitnick denied many of the allegations made against him, including that he had hacked into government computer systems.
Mr Mitnick also claimed he ignored the credit card numbers he collected in his search for codes. “Anyone who enjoys playing chess knows that defeating your opponent is enough. You don’t have to plunder your kingdom or confiscate your wealth to make it worthwhile,” he wrote in his book.
The survivors also include Mr Mitnick’s wife, Kimberley Mitnick, who is pregnant with their first child, according to an obituary released by the funeral home.
A full obituary will be forthcoming.