Kevin Mitnick, perhaps the world?s best known hacker, is out of jail -  but he’s still feeling the heat from US authorities. Known for cracking a string of computers at cell phone companies, universities and ISPs, Mitnick pleaded guilty in March, 1999 to seven felonies, and was released from prison on January 21st, 2000 after nearly five years in custody. But now he has been yanked off the lecture circuit and ordered by the U.S. Probation Office to halt his professional writing efforts. ‘In regards to the numerous requests you have received concerning writing and critiquing articles and speaking at conferences, we find it necessary to deny your participation and recommend that you pursue employment in a non-related field,? reads an April 12th letter to Mitnick from the Ventura, California U.S. Probation Office that supervises him.‘Right now, I’ve retained counsel to go ahead and try to get this clarified,’ Mitnick said this week. ?I’m surprised, because all I was trying to do through my writing and speaking was to tell people how information security is important.?In February, Mitnick testified before a Senate committee about U.S. government computer security. He has also written a five-hundred-word commentary for Time Magazine on the high-profile denial of service attacks that briefly struck down some of the most widely used e-commerce sites on the Web.  Mitnick?s unfortunate situation is that he?s not only banned for three years from using computers, cell phones and the Internet, but is also prohibited from acting ?as a consultant or advisor to individuals or groups engaged in any computer related activity,? without the permission of the U.S. Probation Office.

But until this month, the Probation Office apparently didn’t uphold the details of that broad order. Seems like they might have decided it was time to get heavy on Kevin again.