Hacker to Get 22 Months in Prison

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


          LOS ANGELES -- A convicted computer hacker faces a 22-month prison term for parole
          violations and for using stolen cellular telephone numbers to dial into database systems. 

          Kevin Mitnick confessed to using 15 stolen numbers to dial into computer
          data bases in North Carolina. 

          During a hearing Monday, U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer said that
          she planned to sentence Mitnick to 22 months in prison, and was
          considering monetary restitution as well. 

          "I think more is in order, but this is what the law expressly describes. So that's what I'm going to
          give him," Pfaelzer said in court. 

          Mitnick is to be formally sentenced on Monday. 

          Still pending against Mitnick is a 25-count federal indictment accusing him of stealing millions of
          dollars in software during an elaborate hacking spree. A trial date in that case has not been set. 

          He was arrested in February 1995 in Raleigh, N.C., following an investigation and cross-country
          manhunt, with a trap sprung by Tsutomo Shimomura, an expert in computer security. 

          Mitnick consented to having the case moved to his home state of California. 

          Pfaelzer made it clear that Mitnick was not to have access to computers in prison. 

          Mitnick has pleaded innocent to 25 counts of computer and wire fraud, possessing unlawful access
          devices, damaging computers and intercepting electronic messages in an unrelated case. 

          He is being held without bail.