Tech Support Websites

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Sunday, 28 July 2013

Book Review: Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick & Bill Simon

Posted on 02:12 by Unknown
Ghost in the Wires is the memoir of Kevin Mitnick, once labelled America's most wanted hacker. Besides time in jail, he received the unusual punishment of not being allowed to use a computer for eight years.

His life after that term has changed for the better and he is now a Security Consultant who does ethical hacking (implying what he may have done in the past was unethical after insisting throughout the book that he never hacked for financial gain and never did anything "evil"), public speaker, & author. He has been "hired by government agencies like the FAA, the Social Security Administration and - despite my criminal history - an FBI organization, InfraGard" - some of the same agencies whose loopholes he exploited in his hacking "addiction" days.

By his own admission, he has:
  • manipulated phone company switches all across America
  • got information from the California DMV through social engineering
  • committed identity theft several times
  • tapped into a FBI informant's phone call
  • stole the source code of Sun Microsystem's Solaris
  • cloned cell phone numbers, made free calls
  • acquired Netcom's customer database that contained more than 20,000 credit card numbers ("but I never attempted to use any of them")
  • compromised the security of vulnerability researchers
  • ..and much more
Kevin has also authored international bestsellers Art of Intrusion and Art of Deception. During a book promotion in Poland, he understood the reason for his celebrity status there - "if you beat the system, you were considered a hero!". That possibly explains his fan-following around the world as well - most of us love the "little guy" who "fights" big corporations or institutions. He has over 98K followers on Twitter.

This book is good reading (if you can put up with some of the author's bragging) for professionals dealing with information security, software testing and programming in general, to know how the mind of a hacker works.

This book left me with the feeling that while crime pays, computer crime pays better if you know good lawyers.
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in Book Review | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts
    Win + X   - context menu to access common features like Control Panel, Task Manager, File Explorer, Programs & Features, Run, Search etc...
  • Dashboard-like info with Browser tabs, Windows 7 Taskbar tabs
    Browser tabs & Windows 7 Taskbar tabs are turning self-aware.  This is how my browser looked the other day: I had the summary of all tha...
  • The State Of HTML5 Video
    Key points from the  The State Of HTML5 Video  report by LongTailVideo (last updated on April 19, 2012): 75% of the desktop & mobile bro...
  • Archive tweets & favorites with Google Reader
    There are numerous ways to archive tweets but rather than use yet another tool, I prefer using Google Reader to preserve the tweets I mark ...
  • TWIL - Week #3
    This Week I Learned: New Azure VM Image Templates include SQL Server, BizTalk Server, and SharePoint Server (2013?) images . This can be han...
  • What is the difference between Browser Mode & Document Mode in IE
    If you're a web developer and your job actively involves building web pages that work the same in all browsers including the last three ...
  • My 30-day personal project - watch 100 hours of Pluralsight videos
    Inspired by Matt Cutts' 30-day challenges , I plan to watch 100 hours of Pluralsight online videos to get up-to-date with current ...
  • Azure in Pictures - overview of Windows Azure Features, Services and Common Uses
    Download the Windows Azure Poster in PDF format (1.1MB)
  • Indian comparison shopping sites
    Did you know, India has 120 million Internet users & the Indian e-commerce market is worth $7 billion ?  Travel accounts for over 80 per...
  • HOW TO dynamically generate a Word document with custom header & footer
    Way back in 2004, a project I was working on required a web page to be exported as a Word document (.DOC). Without relying on any components...

Categories

  • AJAX
  • Android
  • APIs
  • App
  • ASP
  • ASP.NET
  • ASP.NET-MVC
  • Azure
  • Azure SQL Database
  • AzureInPictures
  • Bing
  • Book Review
  • Bookmarklet
  • Browsers
  • C#
  • chart
  • Chrome
  • Cloud
  • CSS
  • CSS3
  • DidYouKnow
  • E-Commerce
  • Excel
  • FB
  • Fiddler
  • Firefox
  • Gadgets
  • GeoLocation
  • GMail
  • Google
  • Google Docs
  • Google Reader
  • Health
  • Hotmail
  • HOWTO
  • HTML
  • HTML/CSS
  • HTML5
  • Humor
  • Hyderabad
  • IE
  • IIS
  • India
  • Internet
  • IT
  • Javascript
  • jQuery
  • JSON
  • JSONP
  • Laptop
  • Learning Resources
  • Lists
  • Map
  • Metrics
  • Microsoft
  • miscellaneous
  • Mobile
  • NAPA
  • Office365
  • Opera
  • PDF
  • Performance
  • Personal
  • PHP
  • PM
  • PowerShell
  • Privacy
  • Programming
  • Rant
  • Safari
  • Science
  • Search Engines
  • SearchEngines
  • Security
  • SEO
  • Sharepoint
  • SharePoint2013
  • Silverlight
  • Software Engineering
  • Solutions
  • SQL Azure
  • SQL Server
  • TFS
  • Tip
  • Tips
  • Tools
  • Tools/Utilities
  • Trivia
  • TWIL
  • Twitter
  • UX
  • VM
  • VS.NET
  • VS2010
  • VS2012
  • WCF
  • WebApps
  • Websites
  • WF
  • Windows Phone
  • Windows7
  • Windows8
  • Word
  • WP7
  • WPF

Blog Archive

  • ▼  2013 (112)
    • ►  October (16)
    • ►  September (14)
    • ►  August (8)
    • ▼  July (8)
      • Book Review: Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick &...
      • TWIL - Week #17
      • TWIL - Week #16
      • Things to consider before settling on a JavaScript...
      • TWIL - Week #15
      • HOW TO view both read and unread posts within Feedly
      • Which LINQ syntax is better?
      • TWIL - Week #14
    • ►  June (13)
    • ►  May (12)
    • ►  April (12)
    • ►  March (8)
    • ►  February (15)
    • ►  January (6)
  • ►  2012 (127)
    • ►  December (11)
    • ►  November (14)
    • ►  October (13)
    • ►  September (14)
    • ►  August (16)
    • ►  July (16)
    • ►  June (6)
    • ►  May (5)
    • ►  April (11)
    • ►  March (12)
    • ►  February (7)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2011 (98)
    • ►  December (5)
    • ►  November (2)
    • ►  October (5)
    • ►  September (7)
    • ►  August (7)
    • ►  July (15)
    • ►  June (10)
    • ►  May (7)
    • ►  April (8)
    • ►  March (10)
    • ►  February (11)
    • ►  January (11)
  • ►  2010 (163)
    • ►  December (14)
    • ►  November (19)
    • ►  October (19)
    • ►  September (15)
    • ►  August (18)
    • ►  July (17)
    • ►  June (20)
    • ►  May (17)
    • ►  April (19)
    • ►  March (5)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile