Re: US to yank Kevin Mitnick's radio license

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

Forwarded from: John Q. Public <tpublic () dimensional com>

On Fri, 28 Dec 2001, InfoSec News wrote:

|Forwarded from: SleuthOne () aol com
|
|In a message dated 12/27/01 12:16:05 PM, Telemann Mediatrix
|<genie () spunge org> writes:
|
|> In 1994 I was arrested for several different crimes, 11 felonies,
|> 9 were federal offenses.
|
|And somehow you are attempting to justify, excuse and rationalize WHY
|the above series of criminal activities were acceptable on the basis
|of the idle curiosity of a 16 yr old "child"?

Bill: I am making no attempt to defend Telemann's justification, but I
must point out that his story appears to have taken place quite a few
years ago...

|Crap!  One of our Sr Techs is a bright 17 yr old that routinely works
|on a highly complex network--passed a stringent background check and
|random drug-screening and finds ways to lawfully fulfill his
|curiosities.

I speak up only because there is clearly so much more to do now at a
younger age, with all of the technology that has become as commonplace
as indoor plumbing...

|Teenagers KNOW the difference between right-wrong and legal-illegal.  
|Perhaps they choose to run with their impulsivity of risk taking
|behavior and pay dearly for the consequences of their actions.  
|Belittling the issue of crimes against property versus crimes against
|persons is a weak attempt at mitigating multiple felonies.

It's wonderful that there are so many mentors now for our young people
to learn from, and it's not surprising that they pick a mentor that is
only a few years older than them...

|You are on the law enforcement shit list--as is Mitnick.  The moral of
|the story is don't play unless you're willing to pay and pay dearly.  
|Arguing the right-wrong behavior of law enforcement, in a democratic
|society, is interesting foder for conversation at a bong party.

Isn't it surprising that violent and drug-related crimes have not
dropped as significantly as "computer crime" has escalated?

|I'm sorry that you and others of your ilk came upon a tainted future
|for things done out of youthful enthusiasm and curiosity.  Only time
|can help you re-earn the trust, you seek, in our society.
|
|Josh Waters
|Criminologist

I'm sorry that you are proudly identifying yourself as a criminologist
when you clearly don't understand the criminals.

Just over ten years ago I couldn't get a tech as a senior anything
because I had no "experience."  I was not brought up in a backward
school district, there just was simply no education available to my
age group.  There was no world wide web, and java was still coffee.  
I would not have been able to find anyone to grade my C programming.  
The only way I could experience this stuff was to do it all on my own.  
I only wished I had the opportunities that your 17 year old coworker
has now.

You appear to have a problem with Telemann associating his 16 year old
age with childlike behavior.  Aren't most of the juvenile computer
criminals described by their psychologists or psychiatrists as having
a social development much lower than other non-criminals in their age
group?  Is alcohol, drug abuse, shop lifting, et cetera rampant in
teens because they all know the difference between right and wrong?  
Why is it that most criminals are described as being a sociopath or
suffering from antisocial personality disorder?

If the moral of YOUR story is to not play if you cannot pay the price,
how do explain the amount of crime perpetuated by juveniles, AKA,
adolescents and immature adults?  (hint: check the definitions of
those words)

I'm sorry that you have chosen the field of criminology and have taken
to haphazardly ranting at some random Joe with a bruised past.  
Preaching to him about reentering society is the position of his
parents and elders, though I'm sure he got enough of that years ago.

It's clear that his tale was from a time long since past.  He has
described some of the struggles he has had to deal with, and has
luckily landed a job in a high tech arena (which, I presume, was his
goal).  The opportunities available in his fields of interest are
orders of magnitude more abundant than they were when he was younger
(God bless Tim Berners Lee).

This young man's curiosities can now be dealt with in an employment
setting, instead of using his bright mind to pick at things he did not
have lawful access to.  I would be very surprised if he ever gets in
trouble with the law again by acting as an irresponsible technology
neophyte.  It was clear to me that he now feels what he did was not
above the law.  Some might say that he used to stray and now has been
put on the track.  Some might even call him rehabilitated.

It's too bad that so many adults have forgotten what it was like to be
young, especially when a new technology has popped up in their
lifetime and they seem to have a jealous reaction to the younger
generation's grasp of it.  How would you have reacted to the first
teenager to make a prank call on the newly- invented telephone?  How
about the first young man that "impulsively"  took dad's new horseless
carriage and ran it into a ditch or up a tree?  I see knee-jerk
reactions like yours all the time, and it makes me sad.

It's interesting that (most) mammals learn by experience.  Is it
coincidence that Americans under the age of 18 are not automatically
"responsible" by law to make certain choices on their own?  I'd say
this Telemann has learned from his experience and was simply relaying
his past to others in relevance to a previous article.  We certainly
don't need more browbeaters in the world like yourself, especially in
any legal profession.  Switch to journalism where this is commonplace.

.nhoJ

PS. Don't be a dick and dig up a bunch of shit on me.  That wouldn't
be professional.



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