The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders and Deceivers
Hacker extraordinaire Kevin Mitnick delivers the explosive encore to his bestselling The Art of Deception
The Art of Intrusion – Kevin Mitnick, the world’s most celebrated hacker, now devotes his life to helping businesses and governments combat data thieves, cyber vandals, and other malicious computer intruders. In his bestselling The Art of Deception, Mitnick presented fictionalized case studies that illustrated how savvy computer crackers use “social engineering” to compromise even the most technically secure computer systems.
Now, in his new book, Mitnick goes one step further, offering hair-raising stories of real-life computer break-ins-and showing how the victims could have prevented them. Mitnick’s reputation within the hacker community gave him unique credibility with the perpetrators of these crimes, who freely shared their stories with him-and whose exploits Mitnick now reveals in detail for the first time, including:
- A group of friends who won nearly a million dollars in Las Vegas by reverse-engineering slot machines
- Two teenagers who were persuaded by terrorists to hack into the Lockheed Martin computer systems
- Two convicts who joined forces to become hackers inside a Texas prison
- A “Robin Hood” hacker who penetrated the computer systems of many prominent companies-andthen told them how he gained access
With riveting “you are there” descriptions of real computer break-ins, indispensable tips on countermeasures security professionals need to implement now, and Mitnick’s own acerbic commentary on the crimes he describes, this book is sure to reach a wide audience-and attract the attention of both law enforcement agencies and the media.
Book Review by Gary
I liked the book. It’s a collection of true hacker tales covering what they did, how they did it, and, at the end of each chapter, Kevin Mitnick gives his personal advice on how to mount counter measures to secure your network. I thought the information was interesting and useful, the stories were well chosen, and the book was superbly enjoyable.
Each chapter is a different case study. And as I read each case, I underlined the technical details used in the story. It wasn’t just all about “social engineering (manipulating people into helping you gain access to a network).” There were software techniques (C++ and Visual Basic) and “command line” utilities such as “traceroute.” There were references to “ports,” such as 53, 25, and 80, and “zone transfers.” Another referenced something called “Nmap,” and a “Cisco device.” Servers and routers were discussed along with “RADIUS” and a “demilitarized zone” and “Transfer Control Protocol.”
And that’s only a sampling of the computer networking stuff. There is also a whole bunch of good junk about telephone networks: switches, PBX and all that jazz – the playground of those pesky phreakers. I mention these things because although you do not necessarily have to be a techno-geek to understand this book, you would be miles ahead of you at least knew a little about communication networks. Put it this way, if you’re totally clueless, you probably won’t like this book. On the other hand, if you’re a novice like me, you’ll probably love it. I did.
As a footnote, my favorite was the chapter about how a small group of people actually hacked into the Las Vegas slot machines. And they made money! After I read that story I was hooked and couldn’t put the book down.