Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker by Kevin D. Mitnick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Along with [b:Catch Me If You Can|6139393|Catch Me If You Can|Frank W. Abagnale|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266533813s/6139393.jpg|985716], Frank [a:Abagnale|5659606|Abagnale|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] Jr.'s autobiography, and the classic [b:The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage|18154|The Cuckoo's Egg Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage|Clifford Stoll|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166885571s/18154.jpg|19611] by [a:Clifford Stoll|30891|Clifford Stoll|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-M-50x66.jpg], this is an amazing and exciting tale of pioneering social engineering, identify theft and evasion of the authorities. I really enjoyed this stroy of audacious crime and the author apparently never really trying to outrun his own eagerness to get over, as well as outrun the authorities.
Mitnick seems to accelerate from getting phone services unpaid, tapping into phone coversation, stealing proprietary code, other person's identities not to mention the work time and shipping costs of countless gullible marks without a twinge of guilt.
His ability to social engineer is the real skill, along with luck and an amazing memory, that every security administrator and anyone that answers a phone at work should be aware of. This book is a cautionary tale on many levels: not patching systems, trusting anyone that calls especially if they seem to be a colleague in need and the general pointlessness of trying to run from The Man.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment