This isn't Kevin Mitnick we're talking about -- and Mitnick spent years in prison. I'm not deeply familiar with Ross's background, but nothing I've read so far indicated he was a "master hacker" -- a hacker, maybe, but mostly somebody who used existing tools to do what others had not done (at least not as successfully) and was, at least initially, very careful about security (which does not imply being a hacker at all).