Ghost in the Wires has been on my book list for a while, and it was recommended by a fellow inmate. He was right; this book was awesome. It’s a sort of autobiography, but told in a narrative form.
Kevin Mitnick was once known as the world’s most notorious hacker and was on the front page of every newspaper in the 90s while there was a worldwide manhunt for him. After reading the book, I’d say he was more of a skilled social engineer and phone phreaker. He goes into vivid detail about almost all of his “hacks.”
He starts by hacking the phone companies. He figures out how their internal systems work and finds loopholes to exploit. Most of his “hacks” involve using his knowledge of the companies’ internal workings to call internal numbers. Using the companies’ internal jargon and tricks to spoof his caller ID to look like it’s coming from a company number, he’s able to convince any employee he’s a fellow employee and get what he wants. Sometimes it’s phone features or secret authorization numbers. It becomes an addiction for him. He never profits or hurts the companies; for him, it’s just the thrill—a true addiction. His obsession leads him to hack into more and more high-profile companies.
Even after he’s arrested and spends years in prison as a juvenile, he uses his skills to keep track of the people tracking him. He taps phone lines and hacks voicemails for the FBI, NSA, prosecutors, and phone security divisions. After a huge manhunt and many false identities, he’s caught in the late 90s. They tried to throw the book at him, but after fighting it with many lawyers on a grassroots public “Free Kevin” campaign, he ends up doing a total of 6 years. During this time, he befriends many influential people, such as Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple).
When he gets out of jail, he’s not allowed to touch a computer while on probation for 3 years. During this time, he becomes even more famous after speaking on Capitol Hill to a congressional committee to harden the U.S. against hackers like himself. He takes on many speaking engagements to help companies protect their systems, especially from social hackers like himself. Eventually, he gets computer access back and does it live on a TV show I used to watch called “The Screen Savers.” I remember that episode because Steve Wozniak was there and gifted the world’s greatest hacker a new Apple IIgs computer.
This book was a very good read for a nerd like me. He goes into amazing detail of his decades-old hacks. He must have an eidetic memory. He even says in the book he remembers almost every phone number he called for all of his hacks and the fake call-back numbers he used.
I especially loved this book since Kevin and I have a lot of similarities in our life events. It gave me great inspiration for my own book. 5 out of 5 stars.
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