Quite the page turner. Loved it, and it gave me a completely different light on Mitnick. ( )

This book was quite an entertaining recount of Mitnick's adventures. Basically his modus operandi was - there's information to be found if only... hold my beer and check this move.
He's trail was on while I was a teenager, so I'll admit, I admire the guy. He saw opportunities and ways to gain access to whatever he wanted to know.

To him, gaining access was the challenge, and his charm he used on the people at the companies (social engineering by another name) was his biggest ally.

What is quite amazing is that daily people still fall for the same techniques.

And thanks to Mitnick, there is now a space in the modern world for ethical hackers. ( )

Was not a fan of the author's attitude toward his crimes. I also stopped listening, forgot I had the book checked out, and then didn't feel the need to check it out again.

Stopped at 30%. ( )

Kevin loves Kevin. Kevin believes Kevin can do no wrong.
Kevin is also a con man and a liar so it's very hard to find the truths in all of this. The book is also very badly written.
I had expected to find this very interesting but in the end its a boring mess. ( )

Kevin Mitnick is somebody I had heard of, but I hadn’t followed the extent of his exploits and his addiction to hacking. This is a very captivating read. The amount of social engineering coupled with phone hacking is phenomenal. What an amazing life living on the edge. ( )

I was just looking for something to listen to on my commute to work when I came across this book. I had never heard of Kevin Mitnick before, but the book was highly rated so I gave it a shot.

And I'm glad I did, this book took me back to a wildly different time. A time that my children have a hard time wrapping their heads around. A time when cell phones and the internet where new and shiny but not very well understood. It is understandable to see how young Kevin was dazzled by the technology and information at his fingertips, like it was a puzzle to figure out.

This book was well written and expertly spoken with the audiobook version. It was a pleasure to listen to. I may not have understood all the technical talk but it didn't matter, I was riveted none the less. Highly recommend. ( )

Kind of tedious -- a long litany of social engineering episodes. It is surprising the FBI, police and software companies weren't more on the ball. ( )

Wow, did I enjoy this book. It was long, but ended way too soon! I'm sure I'll read it again. It contained much technical jargon, but all was explained so that if I didn't know what it was, I did afterwards. It's a shame they didn't see that he was essentially a good kid, and the advantage of having him on their side, but hacking was such a new thing, then. ( )

very entertaining. It's amazing how much of what is talked about in this book (particularly the social engineering side) is still applicable. It's a scary place out there.

From not knowing anything but his name and reputation, this was the perfect book to learn about a vital part of hacker history. ( )

Read on beach vacation. Good, informative. Not a GREAT book. A lot of detailed data about his hacking; especially phone companies. Much of it obsolete.
Found ways to keep safe/secure. Beneficial. ( )

Since I work in the IT and technology industry I really enjoyed this book and the level of detail included by Mitnick. Other readers may find it interesting but not as captivating. ( )

A really entertaining read. I already knew most of the story but I still enjoyed it. Of course that doesn't mean I admire Mitnick or condone his actions. The guy spent his life having fun, doing the equivalent of spray painting walls and vandalising bus shelters for no benefit to anyone and little benefit for himself just for his own gratification. He was treated harshly but it's not like he claims he was innocent. He feels hard done by society and his friends but then again I'm sure his friends and society feels the same about him. He's been given so many second chances it's obscene but in the end maybe society will get something back from him now he's decided to contribute back. Or maybe he just got better at it. I guess we'll find out in the next memoir. ( )

In Ghost in the Wires, Kevin Mitnick tells the story of his hacking career, from the start in his teens, through becoming the FBI's most wanted hacker, to spending years in jail before finally being released. There are lots of details on how he broke into phone systems and computers to get the source code of various systems and cell phones.

I was surprised to learn how much of it was thanks to social engineering, i.e. pretending to be somebody else in order to get information, for example passwords. One of the biggest takeaways from the book for me was all the different ways he used to get people to reveal secrets to him. Truly eye-opening.

The book is also quite exciting at times. It reads like a thriller, especially when Kevin is on the run from the FBI (which is most of the time, actually). Despite being around 400 pages, it felt like a quick read. I would recommend it to anybody interested in hacking, social engineering or computer security.

I have also written about this on my blog: "Social Engineering from Kevin Mitnick" https://henrikwarne.com/2015/12/27/social-engineering-from-kevin-mitnick/ ( )

I looooved this book. Absolutely fascinating. I'm embarrassed to say, after years in the computer world, I'd never heard of Kevin Mitnick (no offense). I was mainly interested in the world of hacking. I got so much more. Truly fascinating story, and it even better knowing it was true.

Though this is clearly a 5-star book, I had to mentally knock it down a notch because this was just one side of the story. I had to admit, several times throughout the book I wondered if this was merely another social engineering ploy from Kevin...mixing so much truth with little misdirection. I supposed that's what made this ride even better.

Very, very good read. ( )

I read this shortly before I started my undergraduate Cybersecurity degree. From what I understand Kevin Mitnick is a bit of a jerk. Regardless, the book was entertaining and the wild cyber-infused goose chase Mitnick gave the FBI is super interesting to read about. I'd recommend this to anyone who finds exploiting technology, and white-collar crime interesting. ( )

It was an interesting story, but a bit repetitive. Mitnick is a bit of an unreliable narrator who excuses many of his crimes since he did not do it for financial gain. Would make for a good case study for an ethics class. ( )

"Ghost in the wires is a story about a man who would hack info from companies and to get detailed info about the employees. He didn’t do this to steal or hurt anyone he did it for fun and sport. After a while of doing it the FBI started catching on and this elusive hacker was now on the run."

Dated but very interesting. I got kind of a brutal creep vibe, not from the social engineering, but from his interpersonal interactions, his explanations of dynamics that didn't seem authentic or maybe are conveniently explained, his enabling family, his simultaneous brutal treatment of "friends" and wounded hurt that they were not his friends. He also seems grandiose and a braggart. However, it is very artful how he did things whether you agree with his actions or enjoy the impression of his personality you get. It is hard to fathom the breadth of information he had, how he applied it in high pressure situations, and how like a chess player he often had to plan things in series of moves ahead. For those aspects, it is a very worthy read, and even for the creepy parts, it is informative.

Dated but very interesting. I got kind of a brutal creep vibe, not from the social engineering, but from his interpersonal interactions, his explanations of dynamics that didn't seem authentic or maybe are conveniently explained, his enabling family, his simultaneous brutal treatment of "friends" and wounded hurt that they were not his friends. He also seems grandiose and a braggart. However, it is very artful how he did things whether you agree with his actions or enjoy the impression of his personality you get. It is hard to fathom the breadth of information he had, how he applied it in high pressure situations, and how like a chess player he often had to plan things in series of moves ahead. For those aspects, it is a very worthy read, and even for the creepy parts, it is informative.

I was fascinated by Kevin's story, yet appalled at the same time.

He was clearly clever, hard-working, capable, yet he wasted all that ability on stupid pranks to access information which, according to him, he didn't benefit from in any way. The technical information went straight over my head, but the social side of what he did was interesting. He used technical knowledge and sheer confidence to talk people into giving him the access he needed. With the current concerns about cyber crime and identity theft, it was valuable to know just how frighteningly easy it is to talk people into giving out sensitive information. We could all learn a lot from reading this book!

The other thing that bothered me about Kevin? He kept saying how guilty he felt at the worry and grief he was causing his mother and grandmother, and he repeatedly promised them to stop, but didn't do so. He was either lying about his feelings for his family, or he was completely addicted to what he was doing.

Clearly a book like this is one-sided. Who knows how much of it is true? All the same, I would love to know what a psychiatrist would make of him!
( )

Let me start off by saying that I'm surprised that Kevin doesn't need a wheelbarrow to help him walk around. He certainly has the biggest balls of anyone on this planet.

I think my rating would be different for different people. Do you know computers/coding/tech during the 80's & 90's? Then it is certainly 5 stars.
Are you comfortable with tech, but not obsessed? Then it's 4 stars.
Are you technologically illiterate? Then it's probably 3 to 3.5 stars.

It's an amazing story and worth the read. ( )

I thought stuff like this happened only in movies. Probably the best non-fiction thriller I have read since I stopped reading fiction a long long time ago.

I thought stuff like this happened only in movies. Probably the best non-fiction thriller I have read since I stopped reading fiction a long long time ago.

When reading the memoir of a person with a singular life story, you're generally coming for the content first, and everything else second. To that end, Kevin Mitnick delivers.

The book is a a fast-paced account of his escapades as a hacker, phreaker, and social engineer nonpareil. It's an entertaining read, and is written to be accessible to even the most non-technical of readers.

I'd read [b:The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick|18162|The Fugitive Game Online with Kevin Mitnick|Jonathan Littman|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348907043s/18162.jpg|19619] a few years back, so I was familiar with the general story of Kevin Mitnick, but two things really stuck with my after finishing this book.

The first was Mitnick's talent as a social engineer. While he glosses over his technical escapades, it's clear he has technical chops as a hacker. These take a back seat to his ability to engineer others into doing the work for him. I'd love to have heard some of the conversations he'd had with his targets; I'm betting they'd be a pretty entertaining listen.

The second surprise for me was how hopelessly addicted to hacking he was. If you replaced every instance of computers with drugs, it'd be a very standard story of addiction, relapse, and recovery. While I can sympathize, even empathize, with a love of computers and burning curiosity, the pursuit of the target at the expense of all else revealed Mitnick's hobby for what it truly was.

If this book wasn't Kevin Mitnick writing about Kevin Mitnick, I probably would have given it one star. It read like a cheap crime novel, and the avoidance of any sort of responsibility for his actions really left a bitter taste in my mouth.

That being said, it's well worth a read; Kevin Mitnick really is in a league of his own.

( )

The story of Kevin Mitnick is certainly an interesting one. It charts the rise and fall of this hacker who hacks, basically, just for fun. He does not seek financial gain for his actions.

I read it because I wanted to know how he managed to hack in such secure systems. It is certainly interesting not only as it shows how brazen Mitnick was but also how these companies just were not prepared for security of this kind at the birth of the digital age. Most of this now you probably could not do now, although Mitnick does state there are certain tricks which will probably still work.

As fascinating a life as Mitnick led, the book is not written in a particularly engaging way in my opinion and sometimes reeks of self-importance and arrogance.

Definitely worth a read though. ( )