efore Kevin Mitnick flashed across the national consciousness, Kevin Poulsen, better known as Dark Dante, was America's most wanted hacker. Nearly five years ago, Dark Dante was already on the run from a 1989 indictment, when he was arrested on charges ranging from espionage to allegedly hacking federal wiretap information. The government subsequently dropped the espionage charges, but Kevin was nevertheless convicted on a second charge: electronically fixing radio call-in contests. From his Los Angeles office computer, Kevin fulfilled everyone's secret dream and made sure that he was always the winning caller. For his efforts he netted two Porsches, tens of thousands of dollars, and five years of hard time.

Jonathan Littman, who is currently writing a book about Poulsen, chuckles as he recalls the situation: "They were already giving the Porsches away. He just decided to have a greater probability of winning than most other people."

A hallowed cult figure in the hacker underground and a subject of two "Unsolved Mysteries" episodes, Dark Dante is now preparing for his release from a prison in Northern California. His days of notoriety may be ancient digital history, but our fascination with the hacker figure thrives as the Net continues to expand.