Chapter 1
Kevin's Story
by Kevin Mitnick

First Contact

My first encounter with Markoff had come in the late eighties when he and his wife Katie Hafner contacted me while they were in the process of writing Cyberpunk, which was to be the story of three hackers: a German kid known as Pengo, Robert Morris, and myself. What would my com- pensation be for participating? Nothing. I couldn't see the point of giving them my story if they would profit from it and I wouldn't, so I refused to help. Markoff gave me an ultimatum: either interview with us or anything we hear from any source will be accepted as the truth. He was clearly frustrated and annoyed that I would not cooperate, and was letting me know he had the means to make me regret it. I chose to stand my ground and would not cooperate despite his pressure tactics. When published, the book portrayed me as "The Darkside Hacker." I concluded that the authors had intentionally included unsupported, false statements in order to get back at me for not cooperating with them. By making my character appear more sinister and casting me in a false light, they probably increased the sales of the book.

A movie producer phoned with great news: Hollywood was interested in making a movie about the Darkside Hacker depicted in Cyberpunk. I pointed out that the story was full of inaccuracies and untruths about me, but he was still very excited about the project. I accepted $5,000 for a two-year option, against an additional $45,000 if they were able to get a production deal and move forward.

When the option expired, the production company asked for a sixmonth extension. By this time I was gainfully employed, and so had little motivation for seeing a movie produced that showed me in such an unfavorable and false light. I refused to go along with the extension. That killed the movie deal for everyone, including Markoff, who had probably expected to make a great deal of money from the project. Here was one more reason for John Markoff to be vindictive towards me.

Around the time Cyberpunk was published, Markoff had ongoing email correspondence with his friend Shimomura. Both of them were strangely interested in my whereabouts and what I was doing. Surprisingly, one e-mail message contained intelligence that they had learned I was attending the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and had use of the student computer lab. Could it be that Markoff and Shimomura were interested in doing another book about me? Otherwise, why would they care what I was up to?

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