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“Mitnick to the Unit Manager’s
office. Mitnick to the Unit Manager’s office.”
That didn’t sound good. When I got there, I was again confronted by the
three suits of my “welcoming committee,” and they were livid. I tried to
point out that they had ordered me to find a job, and the supervisor of the
Telecom Department had taken me on.
They were pissed.
For the next several weeks, my new job was one of the worst in the
prison: in the kitchen, washing pots and pans.
On January 21, 2000, in the early-morning hours, I was taken to Receiving
and Discharge. I had served my time and was up for release. But I was
stressed.
A few months before, a California State case against me, for attempting
to trick the DMV into sending me photographs of Joseph Wernle, Joseph
Ways, and Eric Heinz (aka Justin Petersen), had been dismissed, but it had
left me feeling uneasy. As I waited to be set free, I worried that some other
state or Federal agency might be lying in wait outside the gates to arrest me.
I’d heard of prisoners being released only to be picked up for something
else the moment they got out the door. I paced nervously back and forth in
the holding cell, waiting.
When I finally walked out of Lompoc, I could hardly believe I was free
to go. My mom and Aunt Chickie were there to pick me up. My dad had
wanted to come, but he had suffered a mild heart attack and had a recent
triple bypass that ended in a severe staph infection, so he couldn’t make it.
A mass of reporters and camera crews were there. Eric Corley and a large,
excited crowd of “Free Kevin” fans were there, as well. As we stood
talking, the prison sent out chaser vehicles to urge us farther from the prison
grounds. But I didn’t care. I felt like a new man. Would what lay ahead be a
repetition of my past? Or something quite different?
As it turned out, what lay ahead was a whole new life I could never have
imagined.
?">THIRTY-EIGHT
?">Aftermath: A Reversal of Fortune
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I
t’s a challenge to describe my life since walking out of prison, but the
story would not be complete without this update
.
In March 2000, two months after my release, a letter arrived from
Senator Fred Thompson, asking me if I would fly to Washington to testify
before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. I was surprised,
delighted, and flattered that they recognized and respected my computer
skills enough to want to hear my ideas about how to protect the
government’s computer systems and networks. I had to ask the Probation
Office for permission to travel to Washington, DC; I imagine I must have
been one of the few people under the Office jurisdiction, if not the only one
ever, who gave “testifying before a Senate committee” as a reason for
requesting travel permission.
The topic was to be “Cyber Attack: Is the Government Safe?” My close
friend and supporter Jack Biello had a good way with words and helped me
craft my written testimony.
We’ve all seen committee meetings on C-SPAN, but being ushered in and
sitting there, in front of that raised platform, with the familiar faces of
nationally known political leaders peering down at you, ready to soak up
your words—well, the experience has a magical quality about it.
The room was packed. I was the lead witness in a hearing chaired by
Senator Fred Thompson, with a panel that included Senators Joseph
Lieberman and John Edwards. Though nervous at first when reading my
testimony, I felt a flood of confidence surge through me when the Q&A
started. Much to my own surprise, I apparently did an impressive job, even
offering some jokes and being rewarded with laughter. (The text of my
remarks is available online at
http://hsgac.senate.gov/030200_mitnick.htm
.)
Following my testimony, Senator Lieberman asked a question about my
history of hacking. I responded by talking about how my motive had been
to learn, not to profit or cause harm, and mentioned the case of that IRS
agent, Richard Czubinski, whose conviction had been overturned when the
court accepted his argument that he had accessed information only out of
curiosity; he never intended to use or disclose the information.
Lieberman, obviously impressed by my testimony and by my reference
to a legal precedent I had myself uncovered, suggested that I should become
a lawyer.
“With my felony conviction, it’s unlikely I’d be admitted to the Bar,” I
said. “But maybe one day you’ll be in a position to pardon me!”
That drew a big laugh.
It was as if a magic door had opened. People started calling me for speaking
engagements. My career options seemed to be so severely limited by the
conditions of my release that I had been near despair. And now, after my
congressional testimony, the possibility of a lucrative speaking career was
suddenly taking shape.
The only trouble was, I had terrible stage fright! It took more hours than
I’d like to remember, and many thousands of dollars paid to a speaking
coach, to help me overcome this fear.
As part of my fearful induction into public speaking, I joined the local
Toastmasters group. Ironically, their meetings were held at General
Telephone’s main offices in Thousand Oaks, where I’d once worked ever so
briefly. My Toastmaster’s visitor pass gave me unfettered access to the
offices inside the building. I couldn’t help but smile every time I walked in,
thinking about how completely freaked out the folks in Security would be if
they only knew. One of the interview requests I received around this time
was from the U.S. Commission on National Security in the Twenty-first
Century, a think tank that presents security recommendations to Congress
and the President. A pair of men from the Department of Defense,
representing the commission, came to my apartment in Thousand Oaks and
spent two days asking me how government and military computer networks
could be made more secure.
To my surprise, I was also invited to appear on a number of news shows and
talk shows. Suddenly I was a kind of media celebrity, giving interviews to
leading international publications including the
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