ATT dumps Kevin Mitnick

"In recent years, he's committed the password to memory and has deliberately not shared it with anyone or kept it stored on a computer."<p>Isn't that what everyone is supposed to do with their passwords?

Wouldn't such a customer be worth gold? A single user that constantly get's attacked by hackers would provide a great opportunity to detect and fix security holes. If a hacker get's through, it is just one person's account compromised. But each detected attack could prevent attacks on other accounts.<p>I think some other telco should pay Mitnick to become their customer. How else could you attract so many hacker brains and make them work on finding security flaws in your system?

So AT&#38;T is basically admitting their approach to security is "security through obscurity"?<p>As long as you're not a high profile celebrity you <i>should</i> be ok because not one wants to own you...

A service provider whose top priority was security <i>could</i> have taken another approach to KM... using him like the canary in a mine shaft, an indicator of problems with their security system (allowing all-numerals password would be just one example of such a problem that ought to be fixed).

An 8 digit, all numerals password? Really, Mitnick?<p>Also, it wasn't just AT&#38;T that is refusing service to him, his webhost HostedHere.net did the same thing.<p>And if this has been happening over and over again for 9 years why didn't he just want to go to another service provider?

20k per year? He's doing something wrong...

I find Kevin Mitnick going to the authorities for protection a little bit weird. If your claim to fame is that you are the 'worlds baddest hacker' you take the script kiddies as going with the territory. It's like Billy the Kid complaining about the wanna-be's that want to meet him at noon on main street.<p>"The move by AT&#38;T came this week after Mitnick hired a lawyer to complain that his privacy was being invaded by people posting Mitnick's account information in public hacking forums"<p>You need a lawyer to complain these days ?<p>Most other 'celebrities' have these issues but being a high profile hacker makes you a great target.<p>The best defence against this is don't get caught hacking... that way your privacy stays yours.<p>What Mitnick should do is give tit for tat, expose the identities of his attackers. For such a hotshot security consultant (all digits?) that should be a piece of cake, really.<p>That said, AT&#38;T has no business cutting him off, rather the opposite, they should secure their systems and use the publicity surrounding this to brand themselves as the provider that is good enough to secure even Kevin Mitnicks account.