Case Study: Emerging Issues in Financial Crime and Cyber Security

This assignment presents a detailed case study of Kevin Mitnick, a prominent figure in the realm of computer hacking and financial crime. The report meticulously outlines Mitnick's activities, starting from his early exploits involving social engineering and unauthorized access to computer networks, through to his evolution as a fugitive and subsequent transformation. It delves into the specific methods he employed, such as exploiting vulnerabilities in systems, cloning cellular phones, and intercepting communications to steal passwords. The analysis further examines the impact of his actions, including the legislative reforms prompted by his activities and the rise of ethical hacking as a countermeasure. The case study also explores the evolution of Mitnick himself, from a criminal hacker to a cybersecurity consultant, offering insights into the changing landscape of cybercrime and the ongoing efforts to combat it. The assignment highlights the increasing threats posed by cybercrimes and the need for robust cybersecurity measures and legislative frameworks to protect digital assets and personal information.

Running head: EMERGING ISSUES IN FINANCIAL CRIME
Emerging Issues in Financial Crime
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1EMERGING ISSUES IN FINANCIAL CRIME
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Case Description....................................................................................................................2
Case Analysis.........................................................................................................................5
An increase/decrease..........................................................................................................5
Legislative reform..............................................................................................................6
Change in character............................................................................................................6
Sequence of activities.........................................................................................................7
The repercussions of that financial crime/cyber security on business and the community
............................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The way that cyber world is transforming has given various opportunity to the human
lives in shaping up the day to day activities. People spend most of their times on the internet
and utilise all the benefits that the cyber world has been providing to them. However, most of
them do not realize that the world of internet is plagued with the amount of ethical and
unethical hackers as well who could easily get into the cyber accounts of different people and
extract out all the information regarding the utilization of internet of every individual (Corbet
et al., 2019). This may even considered to be extracting out the particular aspects of financial
data transactional information about an individual. This is regarded to be the financial crime
established in cybersecurity world. There have been different kinds of trends and issues
identified for this problem as well and therefore this report is based on the case study of
Kevin Mitnick, who is identified as a hacker. His entire history behind hacking and his
evolution right from childhood to is latest activities in 2002 would be analyzed in order to
you understand what has been the trends and issues described in in financial cybercrimes
(Park et al., 2016). There would be a description of the case and analysis summarizing all the
study that has been formulated on the case study.
Case Description
The following is a description of a case that was based on the life of Kevin Mitnick
who was declared as a computer hacker. Mistake has been held by the United States
Department of Justice on different accounts going to his another is access to computer
network hand held responsible for various unauthorized access to different computers as well
(Akey, Lewellen & Liskovich, 2018). The case study defines how Mitnick had been
delivering his unauthorized access and his natural sense of having an unauthorized access has
been delivered through different incidents right from the age of 12. He used to bypass the Los

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Angeles bus service punch card system utilizing social engineering and dumpster diving.
With this, he convince the bus drivers into making him find a ticket punch system for his
school project that was totally made up.
He used to travel anywhere in Los Angeles with the forged ticket that he planned for
himself using transfer slips in the dumpster next to the company for that particular bus
services. It was identified that it was the same Social Engineering technology that has been
utilized by him ever since he has been identified as hacker. As days begin to pass, Mitnick
started to gain unauthorized access to computer networks. His first access was recognized in
1979 when he was only 16. He utilized the access to the Digital Equipment Corporation or
DEC for developing RSTS/E Operating System software and broke into the computer
network to copy their software. This was identified as a serious crime for which he was
convicted in the year 1988 (Weiss & Miller, 2015).
The 12-month sentence that Mitnick was serving in jail could not hold him down even
after there was a supervised release for him in the next 3 years. As soon as the supervised
release ended, Mitnick was again charge for hacking into the voicemail computers for Pacific
Bell. When there was an issue of the variant released for his capture, he fled and was marked
as a fugitive for the next two and half years. Even when he was a fugitive, he was reported to
be gaining unauthorized access to numerous numbers of computers as per the reports of the
United States department of justice (Lin, 2015). He had gained the ability of cloning cellular
phones in order to hide his own location and copy variable software properties gathered from
the cell phone organizations of the largest companies also delivering cellular services in
computer systems. He was also able to intercept in steal all the passwords of a computer and
also became the largest online attack because he has the power to break into the computer
systems and also gain access to the private emails (Alexander, 2018).

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There were also supporters of this unethical hacker. When he was held for a well-
publicized pursuit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI arrested mechanic from his own
apartment charging for various federal offences that he had already conducted including
computer and wire frauds. Any zone apartment was found to be delivered with number of
cellular phones that were cloned and a huge number of phone codes of over 100 clones. They
had also been the occurrences of multiple pieces for false identification evidences.
He also had his own supporters. In the year 1997 in December, his followers had hack
the website for Yahoo and displayed the message calling for his release. Yahoo also received
threat that if they failed to do so, they would also be charged with catastrophically in internet
on the very day of Christmas. However Yahoo claimed that there were no worm found and
the existence of a hoax was evident only to scare people.
Mitnick was already in possession of numerous unauthorized access device, 14 wire
routes and numerous interceptions of wire and electronic communications (Oh & Shong,
2017). It was also found that he was found to be guilty of accessing the Federal computers
without any authority and also was repeatedly causing damages to the computers. However,
even if he was already serving to be guilty for computer frauds, four kinds of wire fraud, and
illegal intercepting with wire communication, he also made an appeal in the United States
District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles to reduce his jail time
(Antonescu & Birău, 2015). He was convicted with the sentence of 46 months in prison and
22 months of violating the terms of 1989 supervised release sentence and computer fraud.
He also had his own supporters. In the year 1997 in December, his followers had hack
the website for Yahoo and displayed the message calling for his release. Yahoo also received
threat that if they failed to do so, they would also be charged with catastrophically in internet

5EMERGING ISSUES IN FINANCIAL CRIME
on the very day of Christmas. However, Yahoo! claimed that there was no worm found and
the existence of a hoax was evident only to scare people (Walch, 2015).
Case Analysis
An increase/decrease
The previous ways by which the digital information was kept stored or the way by
which they were managed did not think much about the ways by which any malicious person
could easily barge into the system without an authority in unthinkable ways. This is why, the
hackers easily found the permeable sources from where they could barge into the system of
an individual user or an organization by which they could hack in to their systems to steal all
the information they could. Mitnick was also one of them with a special skill of not just
stealing data but also obtaining unauthorized information like usernames and passwords of
people and the modem phone numbers as well (Lucas, 2015). Mitnick was extremely talented
given his age, where he could barge into the system of DEC or Digital Equipment
Corporation to steal data at just the age of 16. Mitnick was even found to be hired by other
people to help them with hacking into the private data of others. Ever since his conviction as
a teenager and the ways by which the person started to upgrade himself as a fugitive made it
clear how the hackers have been becoming much more dangerous. The hackers have been
upgrading themselves beyond any limit and this is why it was very important that the people
handling the cyberworld upgraded their security systems and also modified the legislative
measures. Previously, the management of the security systems were handled in a different
way, but at the same time it was taken into considerations that the information and
confidential data were not safe from these people. Therefore, the systems started to change
and at the same time, they also wanted to modify the legislation to handle all the cases that
were previously not found.

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Legislative reform
While hackers have become an integral part of the legislative culture, it was extremely
difficult to find out their importance in the cyberworld (Cerrudo & Apa, 2017). The media
often perceived the hackers to be associated with harms, especially people like Kevin
Mitnick, but at the same time, there were also the rise of the ethical hackers or the white hat
hackers who were a reformed part of the legislative industry and brought about to counterfeit
the unethical hackers who would barge into the systems where they had not authority to. This
was one of the most important modification that was brought about by the legislative
measures. The ethical hackers had the authority to make sure that the people in a specific area
hacking through the systems were found in the same way the malicious hackers used their
abilities to barge into the computers of other with the utility of the cyber world and hack out
information regarding them (Elhai & Hall, 2016). This was legally allowed since the people
who would be behind the entire idea of ethical hacking had a better intention of morally good
reasons for finding out the malicious ones. While the unethical hackers use their abilities to
exploit the systems and then use it for their own selfish ideas, the white hat ethical hackers
used to make sure that the same exploitation was used against themselves to make it clear that
the hackers were found out and the people using the systems in the cyberworld were not at
harmed by the black hat hackers. This was same way that Mitnick could be identified after
every unauthorized activity he led on in the cyberworld.
Change in character
The case study of Kevin Mitnick clearly delivers that as of now he has changed the
courses of the activities he used to perform previously. He had been barred or prohibited from
various activities that he used to perform previously, like general social connection (Rader &
Rahman, 2015). However, he fought for his rights in the court and won the right to access the
internet again. This is why, the court had also feared his past and made him win his plea deal,

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no sooner than the restriction against him to prohibiting him from using the films or books
related to criminal activities and profiting from them (Harvey, 2017). This is why it was
found that Mitnick now runs Mitnick Security Consulting LLC, a computer security
consultancy and is part owner of KnowBe4, provider of an integrated platform for security
awareness training and simulated phishing testing. This could be regarded as one of the most
severe transformations that a person could go through. The ethical hacker that was subjected
to the roles of a fugitive and a convict was transformed to the roles of a security provider to
the cyber world. He has been providing the solution to the other people as well who were
looking for cyber security services through his organization Mitnick Security Consulting
LLC.
Sequence of activities
Mitnick started to hack into the systems even when he was just a mere boy of 12. The
ways by which he started his activities was not to be regarded as an activity of a child. Right
from that time., he started to barge into normal systems and at the same time carefully
convinced people to believe that his activities were for innocent causes (Beckers & Pape,
2016). This ha been the stepping stone to the various problematic sequences that Mitnick
would put forward in the future. This is because, the activities of Mitnick as a hacker only
would increase in number and severity (Loh-Hagan, 2015). He started to hack into cyber
systems for government organizations and steal data. At the same time, he started to phone
and computers and their operating systems, such that people started to believe that he had the
ability to "start a nuclear war by whistling into a pay phone".
The repercussions of that financial crime/cyber security on business and the community
The repercussion was such that the legal authorities also started to utilize the same
way to stop him with the ways that he himself used to hack into the systems of others
(McIlwraith, 2016). The use of White Hat Ethical Hackers was a repercussion of the same by

8EMERGING ISSUES IN FINANCIAL CRIME
the legislative authorities. There was a reform in the legislative measures and without
preventing the attacks, they intended to apply the same idea that the hackers would use to
intrude into the systems. The only differences between these were the ways by which these
activities were performed. The moral reason behind the utility of the entire ethical hacking
idea was developed with the good moral values. Where the black hat hackers used these
techniques to harm the users, at the same time, the white hat hackers were the ideas
developed by the Government who would help the people using the same techniques as the
black hat hackers and identify them.
Conclusion
Therefore, in conclusion, it can be said that Mitnick was indeed a person who spent
the most of his as a convict and a fugitive based on all the problems that he has created in the
past regarding hacking and unauthorized access to different areas and organizations. There
have been various reasons why he was not allowed to be using all the other facilities that
people used to enjoy given the various problems that he has caused. It was evident that all the
problems that were affected were the problems that he was causing led to extreme security
conditions that made organizations suffer and he was even found to be able to copy system
software and clone the applications of mobile phones to make duplicate copies of them. All
these were emerging threats to the security system of the entire United States that were found
to be extremely threatening as none of the organizations were feeling safe about their security
system. He started to hack at such a point of time that the ways by which people used to keep
their digital security was affected completely. He began upgrading himself with all the
security measures adopted by the ethical internet users as well. The ways by which he had the
power to convince clears a picture of how the hackers all around the world is capable of
upgrading themselves and presenting more complicated and sophisticated ways of hacking
into the systems of any individual user or even an organization. This is the reason why the

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analysis was done as above to understand how the legislation has reformed itself given the
change in the ways by which hackers used to attack the individual users or organizations to
steal all the confidential data. The more the Black Hat Hackers have upgraded themselves,
the security system was upgraded to stop them and so had been the changes brought about in
the entire legislative system.

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References
Akey, P., Lewellen, S., & Liskovich, I. (2018). Hacking Corporate Reputations. Rotman
School of Management Working Paper, (3143740).
Alexander, J. C. (2018). The Societalization of Social Problems: Church Pedophilia, Phone
Hacking, and the Financial Crisis. American Sociological Review, 83(6), 1049-1078.
Antonescu, M., & Birău, R. (2015). Financial and non-financial implications of cybercrimes
in emerging countries. Procedia Economics and Finance, 32, 618-621.
Beckers, K., & Pape, S. (2016, September). A serious game for eliciting social engineering
security requirements. In 2016 IEEE 24th International Requirements Engineering
Conference (RE) (pp. 16-25). IEEE.
Cerrudo, C., & Apa, L. (2017). Hacking robots before skynet. IOActive Website.
Corbet, S., Lucey, B., Urquhart, A., & Yarovaya, L. (2019). Cryptocurrencies as a financial
asset: A systematic analysis. International Review of Financial Analysis, 62, 182-199.
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Loh-Hagan, V. (2015). Ethical Hacker. Cherry Lake.
Lucas, D. (2015). Hacking reverse mortgages. Unpublished paper, MIT.

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