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January 21, 2000
Web posted at: 10:18 a.m. EST (1518 GMT)

In this story: Coast-to-coast hacking spree Not a thief or a terrorist, just 'curious' Avenues may be limited for Mitnick RELATED STORIES, SITES

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Once one of the FBI's most wanted criminals, cyberspace cult hero Kevin David Mitnick was released from prison Friday.

Mitnick had been behind bars since February 1995 on a 25-count indictment that included charges of wire fraud and illegal possession of computer files stolen from such companies as Nokia, Motorola and Sun Microsystems.

The notorious computer hacker was released from the Federal Correctional Institute at Lompoc after completing a five-year prison term. He was sentenced last March after he pleaded guilty to five felony counts. Under a negotiated plea agreement, he was given credit for about four years served while awaiting trial.

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Mitnick will have to pay more than $4,000 in restitution to his victims -- a small fraction of the millions of dollars in damages he is believed to have caused.

In 1992, Mitnick violated the terms of his probation for a hacking charge and went into hiding for 2 1/2 years. During that time on the run, he hacked into computers, stole corporate secrets, scrambled phone networks and broke into the national defense warning system -- until he finally broke into the wrong guy's computer.

Computer scientist Tsutomu Shimomura helped the FBI track down Mitnick at a Raleigh, North Carolina, apartment in February 1995 after Mitnick had hacked into Shimomura's home computer and stolen information from him.

Backers of the 'Free Kevin.com' web site are trying to raise funds to help get Mitnick back on his feet

Mitnick has no shortage of supporters, most of whom say that hacking is 'recreational' or simply an intellectual challenge to Mitnick. He became a 'cyber martyr' and hero for many who believe the government tried to make an example of him with the 68-month sentence.

"For all that he's done, there are despots and murderers out there who have suffered less than Kevin," said Steve Gold, news editor of Secure Computing Magazine and a former hacker himself.

"Kevin was just really curious. That was his biggest crime, actually ... the crime of curiosity. He really has the old hacker ethic of just being curious about things and wanted to know how things worked," said Dale Coddington, a Mitnick defense team adviser.

Mitnick said Thursday he intends to go to college to study computer technology, but the terms of his probation prevent him from using computers for three years, precluding him from studying or working just about anywhere.

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"It's going to be very, very hard for him," said Kevin Poulsen, who faced the same restrictions when he got out of prison for computer-related crimes.

"Not only are all of his skills ... oriented toward computers, but even if he were to not want to work in the computer field, it's very hard to get a job of any kind that does not require you to work with computers."

Mitnick may have help, though. Backers of the long- running Free Kevin.com web site are raising money to, in their words, help him get back on his feet. At last report, they had raised just over $3,000.

Technology correspondent Rick Lockridge and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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