Kevin Mitnick, once one of the most wanted computer hackers in the United States, has died at the age of 59. This is reported by The New York Times with reference to the press secretary of the company KnowBe4 Kathy Wattman.

The cause of death was complications from pancreatic cancer. He was treated at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center after being diagnosed more than a year ago, according to King David Memorial Chapel & Cemetery in Las Vegas.

Kevin Mitnick is best known for a series of crimes in the 1990s involving the theft of thousands of data files and credit card numbers from computers in the United States.

He used his skills to penetrate national telephone and mobile networks, causing damage to government, corporate and university computer systems. At that time, investigators called him the “most wanted” computer hacker in the world.

In 1995, the FBI arrested Mitnick and charged him with illegal use of a telephone network access device and computer fraud. He later pleaded guilty as part of a deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to 46 months in prison.

He was also banned from using a computer or mobile phone without the permission of a probation officer for three years after his release.

After serving a prison sentence for breaking into corporate computer networks, he was released in 2000 and began a career as a security consultant, author and public speaker.