'Use VPN!' Former 'Most Wanted Hacker' Mitnick talks Snowden, NSA, privacy

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the ongoing leaks from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden cause more anger the more they emerge people across the world are being shown just how much their private lives and private data are being monitored by intelligence services and I can discuss this whole issue right now and I'm joined live in the RT studio by kevin Mitnick one of the world's most renowned computer hackers Kenneth Nick great to see you here great to be on your show well done okay you're kind of a legend here so welcome to Moscow welcome to RT great to have you with us so you actually broke into a National Security Agency tell us a little bit about this story so why did you do it when did you do it how did you do it did you do it for fun I don't know you know yet it didn't give me the passwords don't worry no this I didn't actually break into the NSA actually when I was a juvenile I was interested in hacking the telephone company switches so I thought what would be the most interesting thing to wiretap as a kid and I figured that would be the NSA so I hacked into a telephone switch in Laurel Maryland and this was actually the phone company and then I was able to hacking that switch to be able to intercept an ongoing call between somebody in the National Security Agency but I only wanted to see if I could do it so as soon as I heard conversation it was some man and woman talking I listened for like five 10 seconds and then I hung up and never did it again it's just to see if I could actually do it I see the NSA is actually hiring code crackers why do they need them well they need you know to create well actually they need a higher code crackers to increase their capabilities that's that's the job of the National Security Agency is to break codes so they want to get the best people in the world to help do that and according to Edward Snowden now we can call this name so according to Edward Snowden's revelations emails phone calls messages are all being tracked so how far can the government go I think they have access to everything at least in the United States and probably Britain Great Britain I believe they have access to everything because they basically could why they basically could intercept all the packets going through the backbone of everything and and now it's there's been some revelations that they've been pretty resourceful at breaking crypto so now I think they have access to a ton of stuff mmm I believe yes I believe it's all about Scott McNealy said I think about 15 years ago you have no privacy get over it and that was the ex CEO of Sun Microsystems I think that quote really holds true today you went to jail for some high-profile hacking right do you think the government is still tracking you after all these years maybe only the Russian government since I'm here in Moscow no I doubt it you know something comes up where they think that I could have some involvement maybe but you know I'm on the other side you know I help companies protect their systems companies actually you know I'm still you know I still hack today every day companies actually hire me to break into their systems to find their vulnerabilities so I could tell them what the vulnerabilities are so they can fix them so it's kind of like Pablo Escobar's becoming a pharmacist let me go back to to the Snowden revelations how do these leaks affect America's national security well it probably cause it's dead very damaging right because this was yeah it was kind of like how I felt in a lot of colleagues in the information security world felt we already felt this was already being done but there was actually no confirmation but now there's definite confirmation and now that the cat is out of the bag it should surely damages national security because now our adversaries now potentially terrorists know our methods of operation or at least have it confirmed so now they could change the way they communicate and how damaging are there and talking about Edward Snowden as it as a person I mean is he a traitor or a hero from your point of view I think he's a whistleblower you know I don't look at him as a true I'm actually glad that he revealed what the National Security Agency was doing at least against Americans by violating our constitutional rights to privacy but I do think you know I have some mixed feelings that he did cross the line when and he revealed NSA operations that we have against other countries because as we all know all countries spy on each other so no matter who goes rogue you know when they start publicizing operations against other countries like for example of an FSB agent went rogue and they were in the FSB was doing an operation Afghanistan Afghanistan and he published it it would be bad for Russia so you know so I think you know I have mixed feelings about it but I wouldn't classify him as a traitor in my mind I see and actually got hundreds of people people are reading your tweets and the all the questions we receive lo the questions hashtagged asked Mitnick so that's interesting interesting in DISA I won't be able to ask them all right now bye make sure when you get out just read them all and and let's apply to Moscow is answer Twitter questions but I'll be happy to do it here sure but of course the most popular one is how can citizens protect their data and communications while still using popular corporate software and services well it's pretty it's pretty scary because if you you know now with the revelations of Snowden that allegedly the NSA has approached and partnered with a lot of companies to develop a security software that developed VPN technology they might have intentionally weakened this technology so they could intercept communications but an average citizen probably that they're you know if they're not a terrorist they really are not concerned about his Intelligence Agency intercepting communications but more a criminal organization so the first thing I'd recommend to the average person on the street is use whenever you're out in the public or you know in a hotel like I'm in a hotel in Moscow or using public Wi-Fi is use a VPN service because what that immediately does is it creates it takes your data and it kind of puts it in an encrypted envelope so people can't really intercept and spy on that so as a consumer I would think about using a VPN service and they're pretty cheap mmm GPN stands for virtual private network and I should anything basically can be hacked what do you think everything could be hacked if your adversary has enough time money and resources of course intelligence agencies have unlimited budgets and is there any way to stop hackers like make strict laws or Department that will follow such people is that possible something so you know I don't think there's a way I mean hacking has been going on since the 60s and it's not stopped yet I mean I started hacking in the early 90s and it's only gotten worse I mean it hasn't gotten better and another popular question on Twitter is it okay to bank via a phone by phone or by internet by by phone by I guess by internet yeah it says by foot well I look at it this way like you know using my credit card over the Internet I do it all the time inally stop I don't really care if somebody steals my credit card number you know why because least in America if there's any fraud on my account I just simply call the bank and they take the charger off I have to basically sign a letter an affidavit that it wasn't me and the problem goes away now in some countries that might be different where the consumer has the burden of proof then I'd be a little bit concerned but it's really where does the liability lie does it lie with the consumer does it lie with the merchant does it lie with the bank and also one of our viewers is asking also your views regarding the phone touch ID feature more specifically from Apple oh yeah that's sort of that's where they get your fingerprints you know it kind of makes you think could they could could somebody intercept your fingerprint data and or does Apple store this information I haven't read much about the touch ID because it just was you know released within the last I believe 24 hours but it kind of makes you think about well wow now with all this stuff going on all the revelations of Snowden now Apple is getting your fingerprint you know is that stored anywhere or is it only stored on your device if your device is stolen could somebody extract that fingerprint information out of the device to spoof who you are now so these are questions that won't be answered later sure could a boycott of tech gadgetry like iPod and firms like Verizon and Google who are selling our info to the NSA deter them no no no I don't think so no I mean this is like the form of hacktivism where you you have you know a group of individuals whether it's like LulzSec or anonymous and they break into stuff and they try to get the media to cover the message they want to send but at the end of the day it really doesn't change behavior of a government agency or a company basically they go out and try to prosecute the guys it's I you know the thing that I see that I have seen change and I wouldn't call Snowden an activist I'd call him a whistleblower is because because of his exposures that what the government has really been doing then now that's created change in debate and stuff like that so that's the only time I've really seen it interesting and actually Julian Assange stage that NSA spying on citizens is just the tip of the iceberg so well maybe what it maybe what he's alluding to is the spying on heads of state now I remember years ago when there was a hack into Vodafone in Greece and some unknown foreign nationals were allegedly spying on heads of state and Greece and now you know that in my mind like flashes back to this incident now now there's some information coming out that our own National Security Agency might be might be spying on heads of state so maybe that's what he's talking about okay and another question have you ever think about a movie based on your story where you're about the subject and actor it would be awesome little sex that would be actually pretty cool I mean right now I do have an agent that's trying to shop my new book ghost in the wires yeah it's a New York Times bestseller and we're trying to get trying to get made into a motion picture I don't know if I'd actually become an actor or a consultant on the movie but it's in the works it's just it's tough in Hollywood because Hollywood gets approached with ideas you know hundreds of ideas a year or maybe even thousands and they only pick you know a very small a small number of those projects to actually make into a movie do you regret of being a hacker I I regret any problems I caused companies or consumers you know like I caused damages because I hacked into their systems and they had to go in and figure out you know what did he do and they had to rebuild their systems so I I would consider myself as a what I'd call a pain-in-the-ass hacker right not a guy that was out I was never the type of guy who would try to wipe data out or or try to profit it was more about the intellectual challenge and the adventure and the curiosity so I regret that part but I'm still a hacker today you know and I love I love what I do it's almost like it's not work it's almost like it's just just a I wouldn't call it a gain but it's it's very intellectually stimulating no I would maybe it maybe it's analogous to playing chess I see what do you have in you on your desk Oh earlier I wanted to give you my business card and what's really cool about my business card home biscotti yeah yeah it just has my name and address although yeah that's not interesting the interesting part is here this is actually a tool set right so this is a lockpick set so if you lock yourself out of your house you lock yourself out of your office just think of kevin Mitnick and i'll open the door for you so here you go lovely thank you so much Kevin wonderful thank you thanks for the present yeah you're welcome it was great to have you on the show thank you thank you very much thanks for having me come on again thank okay pleasure public

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Channel: RT

Views: 371,265

Rating: 4.8019276 out of 5

Keywords: RT, Russia Today, Kevin Mitnick, privacy, internet, hacking, hackers, NSA, leaks, snowden, surveillance, VPN, spying, US, UK, online security, internet security, encryption, hacktivism, anonymous, Software, facebook, google, tracking, free software, LINUX, Windows, Apple, technology, Youtube

Id: T8aXx3K_lKY

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 12min 17sec (737 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 12 2013

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