Mitnick joins the Feds

Convicted hacker Kevin Mitnick is set to become one of the federal agents he was on the run from for so long, after landing himself an acting job thick with irony.

The notorious hacker, who spent almost five years in prison, will be playing a CIA computer expert in next week's episode of 'Alias', a techno-drama shown on US TV.

His federal agent character is supposed to have hacked into the network of evil organisation SD-6.

But the terms of Mitnick's release prevent him using or owning any kind of computer hardware, so the programme producers had to rig up mock machines for him to act with.

Mitnick was arrested in 1995 for hacking into the networks of several major corporations, including Motorola and Sun, and stealing data. Prior to that he had been on the run from the Feds, living under a number of aliases to protect his identity.

The hacker has been quoted describing his acting predicament as "hilarious". He said he would act again if the roles offered are of the same "Mission Impossible" type genre.