Chapter 1
Kevin's Story
by Kevin Mitnick

Cyberspace's Most Wanted

Markoff's Times article was clearly designed to land a contract for a book about my life story. I've never met Markoff, and yet he has literally become a millionaire through his libelous and defamatory "reporting" about me in the Times and in his 1991 book, Cyberpunk.

In his article, he included some dozens of allegations about me that he stated as fact without citing his sources, and that even a minimal process of fact-checking (which I thought all first-rate newspapers required their reporters to do) would have revealed as being untrue or unproven.

In that single false and defamatory article, Markoff labeled me as "cyberspace's most wanted," and as "one of the nation's most wanted computer criminals," without justification, reason, or supporting evidence, using no more discretion than a writer for a supermarket tabloid.

In his slanderous article, Markoff falsely claimed that I had wiretapped the FBI (I hadn't); that I had broken into the computers at NORAD (which aren't even connected to any network on the outside); and that I was a computer "vandal," despite the fact that I had never intentionally damaged any computer I ever accessed. These, among other outrageous allegations, were completely false and designed to create a sense of fear about my capabilities.

In yet another breach of journalistic ethics, Markoff failed to disclose in that article and in all of his subsequent articles-a pre-existing relationship with me, a personal animosity based on my having refused to participate in the book Cyberpunk In addition, I had cost him a bundle of potential revenue by refusing to renew an option for a movie based on the book.

Markoff's article was also clearly designed to taunt America's law enforcement agencies. "...(L)aw enforcement," Markoff wrote, "cannot seem to catch up with him...." The article was deliberately framed to cast me as cyberspace's Public Enemy Number One in order to influence the Department of Justice to elevate the priority of my case.

A few months later, Markoff and his cohort Tsutomu Shimomura would both participate as de facto government agents in my arrest, in violation of both federal law and journalistic ethics. Both would be nearby when three blank warrants were used in an illegal search of my residence, and be present at my arrest. And, during their investigation of my activities, the two would also violate federal law by intercepting a personal telephone call of mine.

While making me out to be a villain, Markoff, in a subsequent article, set up Shimomura as the number one hero of cyberspace. Again he was violating journalistic ethics by not disclosing a pre- existing relationship: this hero in fact had been a personal friend of Markoff's for years.

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