Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker by Kevin Mitnick, Steve Wozniak, and William L. Simon

Rating: 4.5/5

Genre: Non-fiction, Biography

Book Review

Kevin Mitnick was a notorious hacker. He was very good at what he did. He was able to get into a lot of secured placed without getting caught for several years. But then, in the end, like most hackers, he got caught, served his term, and came out clean. Now, he is one of the most skillful security professional.

This book is based on his story. It starts since he was young. So, I kindda understand why he becomes a hackers. In a way, he’s like Steve Jobs. Mitnick and Jobs are geniuses. They are not happy with what traditional education can give them. So, they need to find a way out to express themselves. Jobs went on founding Apple, while Kevin turned out to be a hacker.

This book is not only fun, but also informative. Before reading this book, I know quite a bit about security. But still, I learned a lot more from this book. But don’t be scared by the term “security”. The content of this book is not very technical. This book is meant for general public. For example, to get confidential information, you just need to use “social engineering”. You just have to pretend to be one of employees who are allowed to have the information. How? Well, you just need to know how the inside people talk to each other. Then, you search for the right telephone numbers. You call them. You pretend to be one of them. And, people will give you the information you want. Most people are just too trusting. The question is do you have the guts to pull this off. Well, Mitnick does.

Like most books, I read this book in audiobook version. It is narrated by Ray Porter. Like most professional narrator. Porter is very skillful. His voice and rhythm keep me engaged throughout the book. Overall, I enjoy it a lot. 

Takeaways

Human is the weakest link in any security system. You can decide security system to be super advanced. But if your people are not trained properly, your security system would be very weak. 

Table of Contents (and the chapter marks on the audiobook version)

• Foreword Steve Wozniak 
• Prologue 
• Part 1 The Making of a Hacker
• Chapter 1: Rough Start 
• Chapter 2: Just Visiting 
• Chapter 3: Original Sin 
• Chapter 4: Escape Artist 
• Chapter 5: All Your Phone Lines Belong to Me 
• Chapter 6: Will Hack for Love 
• Chapter 7: Hitched in Haste 
• Chapter 8: Lex Luthor 
• Chapter 9: The Kevin Mitnick Discount Plan 
• Chapter 10: Mystery Hacker 
• Part 2 Eric
• Chapter 11: Foul Play 
• Chapter 12: You Can Never Hide 
• Chapter 13: The Wiretapper 
• Chapter 14: You Tap Me, I Tap You 
• Chapter 15: "How the Fuck Did You Get That?" 
• Chapter 16: Crashing Eric's Private Party 
• Chapter 17: Pulling Back the Curtain 
• Chapter 18: Traffic Analysis 
• Chapter 19: Revelations 
• Chapter 20: Reverse Sting 
• Chapter 21: Cat and Mouse 
• Chapter 22: Detective Work 
• Chapter 23: Raided 
• Chapter 24: Vanishing Act 
• Part 3 On the Run
• Chapter 25: Harry Houdini 
• Chapter 26: Private Investigator 
• Chapter 27: Here Comes the Sun 
• Chapter 28: Trophy Hunter 
• Chapter 29: Departure 
• Chapter 30: Blindsided 
• Chapter 31: Eyes in the Sky 
• Chapter 32: Sleepless in Seattle Part 4 An End and a Beginning
• Chapter 33: Hacking the Samurai 
• Chapter 34: Hiding in the Bible Belt 
• Chapter 35: Game Over 
• Chapter 36: An FBI Valentine 
• Chapter 37: Winning the Scapegoat Sweepstakes 
• Chapter 38: Aftermath: A Reversal of Fortune 
• Acknowledgments 
• Index 

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Book or Audiobooks?

Personally, I prefer audiobooks. It's fun, and I can listen when I'm doing something else. It also makes other activities (e.g., jogging) a lot more fun. For more detail about audiobooks, please read [this post].

There is one more reason that may encourage you to go for the audiobook version. You can get it now for FREE. Audible offers you a free trial for 14 days. Even if you get the book and cancel the subscription right away (so that you don't have to pay), you can keep the book. And, don't worry if you lost the audiobook file. Just log into audible.com. You can keep downloading the over and over again.

About the summary: It takes time to finish up a book. And, when you do, sometimes, you want to review what you learn from the book. If you do not make  notes as you read, you might have to go through the book once again. This can be time-consuming when you are dealing with a book. But you can still flip through the book and locate what you are looking for.

However, when the material is an audiobook, it is extremely hard to locate a specific part of content. Most likely you will have to listen to the entire audiobook once again.

This book summary will help solve the pain of having to go through the book all over again.

I am leaving out the details of the books. Most books have interesting examples and case studies, not included here. Reading the original book would be much more entertaining and enlightening. If you like the summary, you may want to get the original from the source below.