‘World’s most famous hacker Kevin Mitnick buys beachfront property in Main Beach on Gold Coast
It had the same owner for 50 years but now this Main Beach property has gone to an international buyer with an unusual background. READ THE FULL REPORT
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AN American who became known as the world’s most famous hacker and appeared on the FBI’s most-wanted list has signed-in to the Gold Coast.
Kevin Mitnick has emerged as the person who in January bought a beachfront property at Main Beach for $7.236 million.
The 57-year-old Californian became the owner of a cottage on a 402sq m site, one that had been in the same hands for 50 years.
Wraps were put on his identity but it later emerged that he was from the US and was a bloke called Kevin.
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It transpires that he was a pretty keen buyer – he bought the property through a company, KDM Property, registered the day before the auction.
Kevin, born in the Van Nuys neighbourhood in Los Angeles, is no stranger to Australia, having visited the country multiple times to address conferences and IT events.
He apparently was on the Gold Coast in January and had a squiz at the Main Beach property before it went under the hammer.
Post the January auction, it was suggested he intended bowling the old cottage and building a new private residence.
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If that happens, his neighbours might get some insights into a man who was pursued by US authorities for years and ended up spending five years in jail.
Kevin, at 12, worked out how to beat the Los Angeles bus punch-card system and was able to travel about the city free.
He progressed to hacking computers, breaking into the security systems for companies such as Motorola, NEC, and Nokia.
He was arrested several times and jailed for five years in 1995.
His initial jail time was spent in solitary confinement – FBI officials apparently believed he was capable of triggering World War Three by making a call and whistling a code into the phone.
Since his release he’s used his hacking skills to make money through working for Fortune 500 companies and public speaking.
The Las Vegas-based whiz has written four books, one of them Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker.
A movie made in 2000, Takedown, was based on a story about the capture of the hacker.
Kevin, given the money he’s spent on his Main Beach property, appears certain he can ‘hack’ the suburb’s oceanfront lifestyle.
That said, he won’t be in an extremely private setting.
He will have residents in towers like the Norfolk and Silverpoint looking down on him.
Then there’ll be the buyers who take up residence in a planned posh 17-floor tower earmarked for the land on his northern side and those who buy into a 16-floor building, Dune, one property away on his southern side.
If Kevin demolishes the house on his site, only one of the Main Beach Pde beachfront strip’s old originals will be left standing.
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