[(Fugitive Game Online with Kevin Mitnick )] [Author: Jonathan Littman] [Sep-1997]

by Jonathan Littman

Provides a definitive study of the criminal career of Kevin Mitnick, a computer hacker and infamous cyberthief, and the high-tech pursuit to bring him to justice

Genres: Nonfiction, Technology, Biography, Computers, History, Crime, Hackers

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Rick Muële · Rating 5 out of 5]

I FOUND it easy-to-read, common sense, and many useful examples. I'm not going to ofefr the cliche that more developers should read this book, but offer the suggestion that more of them follow up by implmeenting suggestions.

[Scott Holstad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I realized as I was reading this that I had read this before -- 20 years ago when it was first published. I had forgotten that, but it came back to me as I read it again. And I really enjoyed reading it again, even though so much about technology and the Internet has changed since then. Littman wrote so that the information still seems relevant all this time later.

The book is, of course, about the world's most famous hacker, Kevin Mitnick, and about the government's insane obsession to catch him and bring him to their form of "justice" back in the mid-90s when he was a fugitive. Littman interviewed tons of people for this book and spent over 50 hours interviewing Mitnick himself, so I take Littman's word over anyone else's aside from Mitnick's himself in his own autobiography of a couple of years ago (which was excellent), particularly those of John Markoff and Tsutomu Shimomura, the author/New York Times reporter and the NSA spook and super security expert/hacker who "helped" the FBI track and catch Mitnick.

The book details Mitnick's unhappy childhood, his beginnings in ham radio and then computing and phone phreaking, his growth in social engineering and his troubles with the law as a teenager. It started early. And hacking became an obsession. However, Mitnick was an "old school" hacker. He didn't do it for money or profit. He did it for the challenge and for information. He liked breaking into systems and finding out information and he liked breaking into phone systems. As a young adult, he was once again caught and sentenced to a fairly short term in prison, but he was put in solitary for eight months and it scarred him, permanently. He was allowed outside for one hour a day -- with murderers. He wasn't allowed access to computers, of course, or even to telephones, as the prosecutor had convinced the judge he could start World War Three by using the phone to launch our nuclear missiles, as insane as that sounds, and the judge bought it. When he got out of prison, he tried to get a legitimate job, but his probation officer would call these companies and tell them Mitnick couldn't be allowed near money or anything secure, so he couldn't get work. He grew even more bitter. He and his hacker best friend Lewis DePayne started doing some black stuff again.

Meanwhile, much to my initial confusion, Littman's book actually pretty much starts off with the story of a different hacker, Eric Heinz, aka Agent Steal. Aka quite a few names actually. And one who is actually an FBI informant. And one who sets up Mitnick for a sting which the FBI will use to arrest Kevin again so they can put him away for a good, long time. Why? Don't know. He had already done his time. He was doing no real harm. He was trying to live a decent life. So the FBI was trying to screw him over from day one. Nice. Great government watching over us. Mitnick and his buddy caught on, however, and started tapping the phones of the FBI agents watching them. Kevin was working for a detective agency at the time and found out its lines were tapped, as well as his father's, so he knew what was going on. At some point, though, Heinz started screwing the FBI by doing some black hat hacking and when they went to arrest him, he went on the run, so their informant was a bust. Littman actually interviewed him over the phone a number of times.

Around this time, Kevin's probation was about to run out. However, literally as that was about to happen, he screwed up and was almost arrested and he fled. All of a sudden, he was a fugitive on the run. And so it really began. Mitnick disappeared, although he apparently later went to Seattle because he narrowly escaped arrest there some time later. He and Littman got in touch through Lewis and the telephone calls began. Littman paints a fairly sympathetic picture of Mitnick, although not always. For instance, he wasn't thrilled when he discovered that Kevin was reading his email on The Well, an ISP I used to use at the same time. When Littman told The Well's tech support staff that a hacker had root access on their system, they said it was impossible, their system was impregnable, and they wouldn't believe him. But Kevin had hacked their system and was not only reading email, but dumping huge files on their system, stolen source code he had hacked from corporations such as Motorola, Qualcomm, perhaps DEC, and ultimately over 21,000 credit card numbers he stole from Netcom, another ISP. Ultimately, the FBI would accuse him of stealing credit card numbers from computers all over the country, which wasn't true, but they never accused him of actually USING any, as he never did, so he never gained anything monetarily from them. Furthermore, with all of his hacks of source code and programs, they claimed he stole $80,000,000 worth of stuff. But he never sold any of this source code, never profited from it in any way, never deleted the original source code from the companies he made COPIES from, never actually hurt them. So the FBI was clearly out to screw him. And when they ultimately got him, he was facing over 200 years in prison.

Meanwhile, the self described Kevin Mitnick "expert," John Markoff, a New York Times reporter who had written a book on hackers a few years before, about a third of which featured Mitnick, was busy writing front page articles on Mitnick and the dangers he presented to the world. He wrote old allegations and myths that Mitnick had hacked into NORAD, inspiring the movie Wargames with Matthew Broderick, that he had hacked into numerous secure sites that endangered the safety of our country, that he was stealing phone companies' software worth billions, etc. Markoff hadn't even talked to Mitnick. Littman had. A lot. Markoff and Littman knew each other as journalists. They even had lunch together a few times. Littman never told him he was in contact with Mitnick, even as Markoff stated that he wanted to catch Mitnick himself. Littman was a little shocked by that.

So Kevin was on the run all over the country and kept calling Littman. Meanwhile, on Christmas day in 1995, I believe, Tsutomu Shimomura, a quietly well known NSA "spook" and super security expert had his personal computer broken into and everything in his computer stolen, which included a number of custom built "tools" which would enable someone to basically break the damn Internet and also cell phone code that would enable anyone to eavesdrop and trace calls without a warrant, among many other things. It made huge news and within hours, Markhoff reported it on the front page of the New York Times. At the same time, Mitnick called Littman, gleefully giving him a detailed account of how the hack attack took place, what happened, what was stolen, what happened to it, etc. Obviously, Littman was left to conclude that Mitnick did it, and everyone else concluded the same thing, based on Markoff's article. Shimomura was mega-pissed and vowed to catch the person responsible as a matter of honor and immediately set about doing so. With Markoff at his side. Which was odd. What was an NSA spook and a journalist doing going about pursuing a federal fugitive with or without the FBI's help? Were they deputized? No. Nonetheless, they flew to San Francisco, where the US Attorney and FBI agent in charge essentially put Shimomura in charge of things. He brought his own equipment with him and using it, as well as, perhaps, the equipment of the cell phone companies and the FBI, he was able to determine that Mitnick was in Raleigh NC, so he flew there immediately and joined a Sprint technician with scanning equipment. Where they were joined by an unidentified Markoff. And a couple of FBI agents. The Sprint guy and Shimomura located Mitnick's apartment in 30 minutes. They then returned with Markoff holding the equipment for another look. A journalist playing the active role of law enforcement. Littman pulls no punches in how he views this. And when the FBI finds out about this, they lose it. Shimomura tries to throw his weight around, but they dump Markoff. Nonetheless, Shimomura still has enough weight to accompany the FBI to Mitnick's apartment the next day to arrest him. As Mitnick is being handcuffed, he tells Shimomura that he respects his skills and Shimomura just stares at him.

But it doesn't end there. Mitnick is eventually flown from North Carolina to California after being jailed there for far too long and after Markoff's articles have made Shimomura a superstar. And surprise, surprise, Markoff and Shimomura sign a $750,000 book deal for a book on their tale of tracking down and capturing Mitnick. Then they sign a movie deal based on the book for a whole lot more money. It's truly disgusting. Mitnick hires a good attorney, but the US Attorney hates this man and sets out to screw Kevin by indicting his buddy, Lewis. Mitnick's attorney already represents him and can't then represent Kevin too, so Kevin is left without a lawyer and the public defender says they have no one to take his case. He's truly screwed and looking at 200 years in prison. But something happens. Magazines and newspapers start looking at and questioning Markoff and Shimomura's roles in this event. It seems suspicious. For everything that happened in this case, Markhoff was prepared with a front page story within several hours, like he had written them ahead of when they actually occurred. Almost like Mitnick was entrapped by Shimomura on the Christmas day attack. And then there was the rumor circulating that an elite Israli hacker had actually been the one behind the attack on Shimomura's computer and that, moreover, it wasn't the first time his computer had been penetrated and that, moreover, a number of people had his files and programs. Kevin was just one of them. So was Kevin set up by the government and Markoff/Shimomura? They certainly appear to have used unauthorized wiretaps, illegal hacking actions, illegal hacking/phreaking tools and actions for which Shimomura had had to get immunity to display to Congress two years before, but which was still illegal, etc. There were a lot of irregularities with this case. And of the 24+ indictments, not too many made sense. There weren't many that were absolute and provable. In fact, the only one that seemed solid was his probation violation. That's it. He never actually broke anything. He never used anything. He never made any money. He never really did anything evil, unless you think tapping FBI agents' lines who are tracking you is evil or reading the occasional illicit email. Really, this deserves 200 years?

The book ends before Mitnick is sentenced. The good thing is the book is old, so you can find out that Mitnick only had to serve five years in prison and is out and reformed and has his own security company now and seems to be doing well, so more power to him. Meanwhile, Shimomura lost his fame almost as soon as the media started questioning his actual role in things and Markoff's legitimacy took a hit too. And they lost their movie deal. Boo hoo. Frankly, I think they were vindictive assholes, plotting to take down the world's most famous hacker for no other reason than pure fame and profit on their part. I think they were mega-dicks. I'm pretty sure Markoff is still around. I don't know what became of Shimomura. I assume he's still at it, but if so, I hope he's keeping a low profile and isn't doing what he very obviously was doing then -- illegal hacking and phreaking -- for the feds. Fascinating book, even after all these years. Definitely recommended.

[chipster · Rating 5 out of 5]

kevin mitnick is the man. (ok, no kevin poulsen is THE MAN) but mitnick was the sheet too. And he almost got away with it. He even lived here in seattle and worked at a hospital IT department that i am familiar with. Yes, i have driven to the apartment building where he lived. he paid too big a price for the crime but was rewared with the hacker MVP. He's doing quite well for himself these days doing consulting work as a computer security analayst. The lesson here is that "crime" really can be a great resume builder in the right circles.

[Todd Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Until Mitnick's new personal memoirs hit the shelves, this is the only book you should bother with to learn about the crimes, chase, and eventual arrest of perhaps the most misunderstood hacker of our time.

Jonathan Littman, having been in somewhat frequent contact with Mitnick throughout the events discussed in the book, gives first-hand insight into Kevin's misadventures and manages also to expose the shady activities of law enforcement and journalists involved in the subsequent investigations.

A must-read for fans of security, privacy, or cyber-crime books.

[Steven Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a more accurate assessment of what actually transpired during the 1980’s and 90’s.

[Phil (Theophilus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's astonishing what ignorance & uncertainty engender in the judiciary. Social engineer, Kevin Mitnick was so feared by the U.S. government that in addition to being ordered to serve prison time, he was also ordered not to use telephones or a computer for the duration of his incarceration plus for a period following his release.

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Maybe because I knew alot of the events decribed already from previous books read or perhaps the writing, hard to tell. None of the people, even Mitnick, jump off the page and the book becmae a slog through events of limited interest.

[Jenny Dawid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nikt tu nie pomyślał nawet o włączeniu sprawdzania pisowni, że o porządnej korekcie nie wspomnę. Literówki goniły literówki, a niektóre zdania trzeba było czytać trzy razy, żeby przebrnąć przez ich niegramatyczność.
Historia jednak wciągająca i ciekawa. Polecam, ale raczej nie w wydaniu Heliona.

[harper Reed]

20061105201420

[Omri Nathanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the story about the famous hacker, Kevin Mitnick, at the time the 1# most wanted by the FBI, and his “fugitive game” evading the FBI.

The beginning was a little bit rough for me to catch up on what’s happening, but after a while it’s a smooth interesting read- totally worth it!

Note that the story is told from the perspective of a journalist (the author).
The author often puts his intriguing point of view, which adds a lot of value to the reader.

[Stefano Mastella · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intruiging story about Mitnick's chase with a lot of insights.
It's also a clear statement about media's influence on public.
Full of hint about what internet security has to become and is nowadays.

[henrykofi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awesome

[Tom Kavanagh · Rating 2 out of 5]

drolled on

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yet another book about computer hacker / phone phreaker Kevin Mitnick. For a while, he was the #1 most wanted "cybercriminal", accused of costing companies millions and millions of dollars -- although he never stole money or items for resale.

One of the best things about his story is that it's been told from so many different angles. Shimomura, a security expert and adversary of Mitnick's, wrote a book about how he helped track down Kevin. Mitnick has had his story told by a New York Times reporter. From a different, less negative perspective, there is Mitnick's own autobiography -- and this book.

This book describes many of Mitnick's activities in an almost positive light. Not that he pretends that Mitnick was out to help people, but that the "hacking" was mostly done out of curiosity, or just for the challenge, or excitement of learning something new and being somewhere that you're not supposed to be. And there is a point: some other criminals used a much smaller amount of information to extort big dollars from companies, and Mitnick was never accused of doing anything like that. In the main part of the story, where Littman talks about Mitnick's final capture, the author begins to sound more impartial. He tells of questionable activities on the part of Shimomura and author Markoff, who were given special access by government agents, in what almost seems like the pursuit of a private grudge. But, instead of just telling the facts from a disinterested perspective, Littman uses a tone to make inject his personal opinion.

It's sort of interesting to get this book, but a similar perspective is given -- with much more detail -- in Mitnick's own autobiography.

[Joe White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Theatrical production of law in the US is exemplified here in its typical underhanded illegal form.
Mitnick was hung in effigy for the spineless and mindless idiots whose collective thoughts are managed by very persuasive political powers with a gestapo to back their actions. Now, 15 years after the case, this mass of idiots can't wait to have their most intimate information distributed by Facebook and stored for later use by Google.
Internet and phone security hasn't progressed in the last 20 years, and instead of addressing the problem, the government is still letting lawyers spread disinformation and pick off individuals who might know better.
I think John Littman wrote a fairly concise case book of events and exposed the fact that there were many anomalies in the high profile Mitnick case.

[Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hacker culture needs more books like this one. It disassembles the tropes and assumptions of the celebrities of Kevin Mitnick's case --lawfulo and criminal alike -- while giving all players involved a believable, fallible humanity.

The story is approachable for those who love mysteries, technology, crime dramas, or history. It is non-technical, detailed, and questioning of our basic assumptions regarding law and order without becoming preachy or revolutionary. All this, without being unkind, glossy, or polyannish.

A rare, bare spotlight into an intriguing, murky world.

[Joss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read. All I knew personally about Kevin Mitnick until reading this was the myth from the 80's/90's. I was almost surprised to see that the book does not feel dated, as one could expect when technology is involved. Of course there is mention of what cellular phones were like twenty years ago, but the real discourse is about points of view and conversations trying to figure who did what and when.

All in all, a good book.

[Scott Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to like this book. It should be the best accounting of Mitnick as a person and as a fugitive. I guess it is, but Littman's approach is not narrative enough for my tastes. It's almost as if he's writing it as a serial for some random periodical with no clear audience.

[Isabella · Rating 1 out of 5]

It might just be the way it's written but all I know is fictional hackers=the epitome of badass while real hackers=lowlifes who eat fast food 24/7

Apparently hacking is only interesting if you're a hacker (MIN,TGID,ESN??? Don't know don't care)

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting read for geeks like me. I do wish the book had gone beyond Kevin Mitnick's eventual arrest and covered his trial and beyond. I am going to have to see if anyone else went that far with his story.

[Cozmo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rating: [F]

I should have DNF'd this book but I was too stubborn. The cover for this book is a design nightmare. The whole thing is written like one big newspaper article. There is a good story here but this author was not the one to tell it.

[Dean Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't as fond of this book as I was the Kevin Poulsen book... however, it was worth a read.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was ok. Not as good as Takedown.

[Ian Raffaele · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. I had a hard time following the story at certain points. Also, because the story is from 1995 it appears very dated. Just my honest opinion.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read! I still prefer Ghost In the Wires better.

[Nigel · Rating 2 out of 5]

worst book on mitnick

[Cws]

364.168 Lit

[Sky Leach · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up and read this book back in 2000 and it had a huge impact on my life. I work in cyber security. Usually I'm just a senior developer making sure that things are secure. At the time when I read this book I was a senior engineer working in Telecommunications (long distance) with Sprint in large-scale customer billing by analyzing their call record data.

Of course much of what Kevin did was as much Phreaking as it was hacking. The use of blue phones and phone manuals to gain access to networks was technical, but also social. As soon as he gained access it was what he did with the access that qualifies as Phreaking.

I was just remembering I had a copy of this book while talking to a friend about the new threats caused by Neural Networks to social trust systems. Essentially little has changed about public trust in the past 20 years. Mitnick was (and given his current professional career still is) as much a trust exploiter as a hacker. I don't think I noticed a single time when he actually used cryptography for an exploit.

In today's society, with AI right around the corner and con artists running everything from the White House to the local coffee shop; this book should see a resurgence in popularity. I'll do what I can.

This book is very well written. It's a biography first and foremost. A lesson on how government institutions work when you make them look like fools. A reminder that we are only as free as we can make ourselves. A reminder that society isn't as smooth and polished on the underside as it seems to be from our glass bubbles.

It is engaging, raw, and a solid book worthy of any bookshelf.