Comments on: Book Review – The Art of Deception

By: Mitnick Interview | John's Jottings

Mitnick Interview | John's Jottings — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 22:50:04 +0000

[...] a follow-up to my review on The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security, I’ll point you to [...]

By: ObsidiaN

ObsidiaN — Thu, 29 May 2003 15:44:54 +0000

FAO Joe Grossberg:

How many hackers do you know who have released a book about their life, the way they’d spent it, feature examples of things they had done, friends had done and other people with similar skills had done?

I think Kevin’s done a fantastic job considering he’s guarded so closely and feared so much by officials the he wasn’t allowed a simple phonecall in prison for ages. It’s like giving a watercolour artist everything he’ll need to paint a masterpiece and then tying his arms behind his back so he can hardly move.

By: david

david — Sun, 16 Mar 2003 01:02:24 +0000

I am very much aware of the Kevin Mitnick case. The only reason he was caught, as Joe points out, is that he trusted the wrong people. The FBI was able to finally nail him when his partners in crime ratted him out. The fact that he was caught had nothing to do with his skills as hacker, but his choice to work with others that betrayed him. The FBI already had built a case against him LONG before Shimomura helped the Feds find him.

By: Joe Grossberg

Joe Grossberg — Wed, 05 Feb 2003 15:01:10 +0000

Seriously though, was Kevin Mitnick special in any way, *other than* the fact he got caught? (And the fact there was a lot of publicity?)

I mean, the hackers who didn’t get caught, by definition, are more expert in this domain.

By: john

john — Wed, 05 Feb 2003 06:00:38 +0000

You could be right Elaine. It is mentioned more than a few times that this book is his redemption for a life of crime, and perhaps reflecting on those crimes within the same book did not make sense.

By: elaine

elaine — Wed, 05 Feb 2003 05:36:26 +0000

I heard he couldn’t use too much of his personal experience, as part of the terms of his sentence – something about not profiting from his crimes. which, given how enlightening it could’ve been, is unfortunate.