[Info-vax] Famed US hacker Kevin Mitnick dies aged 59

[gah4]

On Thursday, July 20, 2023 at 11:08:54 PM UTC-7, Nomen Nescio wrote:

(snip)

> Some of us continue to question whether Mitnick actually hacked 
> a VMS system as claimed, or simply took advantage of a careless 
> system manager who failed to change the default password on a 
> certain account. Shimomura knows the truth of the matter and so 
> does that SYSMGR. 
 
As far as I know, that counts.

Reminds me of the story of the plumber fixing a sink.
Goes under the sink, and a few minutes with a hammer, fixes it
and gives the bill for $50 to the owner.

Owner complains about so much for just a little work.

Then a new bill:

Applying hammer to drain: $1.  Knowing where to do it: $49.

Not all hackers will know the default passwords for VMS.

For those that do, it counts.