Cyberspace's Most Wanted: Hacker Eludes F.B.I. Pursuit

John Markoff’s New York Times profile, published while Mitnick was a fugitive, describes him as a “computer programmer run amok” who eluded an FBI manhunt for more than a year and a half. It recounts his teenage break-in at a NORAD computer, his history of phone-phreaking and prior convictions, and his suspected theft of proprietary software from cellular telephone manufacturers.

The article quotes former FBI computer-crime investigator James Settle saying Mitnick “should have been locked up long ago,” and details his tactics of “social engineering” — impersonating employees to talk targets out of passwords. Mitnick later said this piece pushed his public myth “into overdrive” and helped pressure the FBI into prioritizing his capture.