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“What if?”
Bonnie and I would regularly have lunch with a friend of hers, a guy
from their Security Department. I was always careful to turn my ID badge
around; he obviously hadn’t caught my full name when we were introduced,
so why let him read it on my badge like a billboard flashing “Phone
Company Public Enemy #1”?
Altogether, this was one of the coolest times of my whole life—who
needed hacking?
But only a week after I started, my new boss dropped a bomb on me. He
handed me a security form for an all-access badge that would grant me
entry to the data center twenty-four/seven, since I would be on call for
emergencies. Immediately, I knew I was going to get canned; as soon as
staff from GTE Security looked at my form, they’d recognize my name and
wonder how I had bypassed all of their security checks and actually been
hired—as a programmer, no less.
A couple of days later, I went to work with a bad gut feeling. Later that
morning, my supervisor sent for me, and his boss, Russ Trombley, handed
me my paycheck plus severance pay, saying he had to let me go because my
references had not checked out. An obvious ruse. I had provided the names
only of people who would say good things about me.
I was escorted back to my desk to gather my personal effects. Within
minutes, a posse from Security showed up, including the guy who had been
having lunch with Bonnie and me. A couple of them started searching my
box of floppies for any company property. Whatever. There was none, just
legitimate software. The whole posse walked me to the door and all the way
to my car. As I drove off into the distance, I glanced in my rearview mirror.
They were all waving good-bye.
My career at GTE had lasted a total of nine days.
I heard later that the guys from Pacific Bell Security razzed the hell out of
their buddies at GTE, thinking it was hilarious that any company could be
stupid enough to hire the notorious phone phreaker Kevin Mitnick—whom
Pacific Bell had been keeping a file on for years.
One step back and one step forward. A Computer Learning Center
instructor who also worked at Security Pacific National Bank as an
Information Security Specialist suggested I apply for a job there. Over a
period of weeks, I had three sets of interviews, the last one with a vice
president of the bank. Then a fairly lengthy wait. Finally the phone call
came: “One of the other candidates has a college degree, but we’ve decided
you’re the person we want.” The salary was $34,000, which for me was
great!
They sent an in-house memo around that announced, “Please welcome
new employee Kevin Mitnick, who starts next week.”
Remember that article in the
Los Angeles Times
, which covered my
juvenile arrest and printed my name, a violation of law as well as a
violation of my privacy because I was a minor? Well, one of the people at
Security Pacific National Bank remembered that article, too.
The day before I was to start, I got a strange call from Sandra Lambert,
the lady who’d hired me and who founded the security organization
Information Systems Security Association (ISSA). The conversation was
actually more like an interrogation:
SL: “Do you play Hearts?”
Me: “The card game?”
SL: “Yes.”
I had a sinking feeling that the party was over.
SL: “Are you a ham radio operator with the call sign WA6VPS?”
Me: “Yes.”
SL: “Do you dig around in the Dumpsters behind office buildings?”
Me: Uh-oh. “Only when I’m hungry.”
My attempt at humor fell. She said good-bye and hung up. I received a
phone call from Human Resources the next day withdrawing the
employment offer. Once again, my past had come back to bite me in the ass.
Sometime later, media outlets received a press release from Security
Pacific National Bank announcing a $400 million loss for the quarter. The
release was a phony—it wasn’t really from the bank, which had not in fact
lost money in that quarter. Of course the higher-ups at the bank were sure I
was behind it. I didn’t learn about any of this until months later, at a court
hearing, when prosecutors told the judge that I had committed this
malicious act. Thinking back, I remembered telling De Payne that my job
offer had been pulled. Years afterward, I asked him if he had been behind
that press release. He vehemently denied it. The fact is, I didn’t do it. That
wasn’t my style: I’ve never practiced any kind of vicious retribution.
But the phony press release became another part of the Myth of Kevin
Mitnick.
Still, I had Bonnie in my life, one of the best things that had ever happened
to me. But have you ever felt that something was so good it couldn’t
possibly last?
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