Computer Hacker Agrees to Plea-Bargain : Crime: Ex-North Hills resident will serve less than a year after pleading guilty to single count. But he may face additional charges.

Notorious computer hacker Kevin Mitnick, captured earlier this year in North Carolina following a nationwide electronic manhunt, has agreed to a plea-bargain that will allow him to serve less than a year in prison in exchange for a guilty plea to one of 23 charges related to his most recent hacking spree, his attorney said Saturday.

But federal prosecutors in North Carolina said Mitnick, 31, a former North Hills resident who was arrested in the Raleigh area on Feb. 15, will very likely face additional charges elsewhere.

Mitnick’s California attorney confirmed Saturday that Mitnick has agreed to plead guilty to a single count and will serve a maximum of eight months in prison. But the 23 charges he faced involve only the cellular phone fraud Mitnick is alleged to have committed during his few weeks in the Raleigh area just before his capture.

“He has not been indicted here on computer fraud,” Assistant U.S. Atty. John S. Bowler said. “Other jurisdictions remain interested in him.”

Government and industry sources have said Mitnick caused millions of dollars in damages by stealing secret computer files and forcing firms to install new security measures. He has also been accused of copying software from dozens of companies and stealing 20,000 credit card numbers. No charges have yet been filed in connection with these allegations.

In California, Mitnick could face charges stemming from probation violations. After serving a year in prison for previous hacking-related crimes, Mitnick agreed to enter a counseling program to help him curb his illegal computer compulsions.

But he fled before he finished treatment and just before the FBI tried to question him about still more hacking allegations.

There could also be additional charges in California--or Colorado and Seattle, two places Mitnick is believed to have stayed while running from authorities--though none have yet been filed.

“There have been ongoing discussions with the U.S. Attorney’s office” in Los Angeles, said John Yzurdiaga, Mitnick’s California attorney.

Mitnick spent more than two years running from the FBI for his alleged computer break-ins before being captured in North Carolina.

There he was charged with 21 counts of using cloned phones, one count of possessing equipment for cloning cellular phones, and one count of possessing 15 or more stolen cellular phone numbers.

Yzurdiaga said Mitnick has agreed to plead guilty to the charge of possessing stolen phone numbers. The others charges, Yzurdiaga said, will be dropped.

Mitnick started hacking when he was a student at Monroe High School, where he broke into Los Angeles Unified School District computers.

As he got older, he became more daring, hacking into a Defense Department computer several years before the movie “WarGames” told the story of a computer hacker who nearly starts a war when he breaks into a military computer. That caper got Mitnick the year in prison.

Last Christmas Day, authorities say, Mitnick met his match when he hacked his way into the computer of software security expert Tsutomu Shimomura. Shimomura worked with the FBI to track Mitnick to Raleigh.