A Great Story for Even the Mildly Geeky
Ghost in the Wires is the true story of Kevin Mitnick, one of the most famous (or infamous) phone phreakers and computer hackers of all time. His biography makes for a fascinating read/listen. *** Mitnick recounts his boyhood in Los Angeles, scamming the bus system and learning his way around national and, eventually, international phone systems; his early marriage to a woman who would soon after marry his best friend and fellow hacker yet remain an important figure in his life; his first arrest, which led him to an eight-month stint in solitary confinement; and his three-year run from the FBI, using multiple false identities and cloned cell phones. *** I was taken by this story from the moment I read the description and downloaded it. Through technology, “social engineering”, and sheer persistence, he was able to access systems of information that made fellow hackers swoon, yet he never used that information toward any unethical end. He was simply obsessed with mastering the system and outsmarting anyone else playing the same game. To me, Mitnick is a prodigy, a likeable technogeek. And if you Google his name, you’ll find that his story has a great ending. It’s like a real-life version of the 1992 movie Sneakers, one of my favorite movies of all time. *** Mitnick’s voice comes through perfectly by way of narrator Ray Porter. Porter’s rhythm kept the thrills coming, and didn’t let the listener get lost in details that might be better seen on paper. The book gets rather technical at times, particularly when it came to Mitnick’s predilection for maneuvering and exploiting various phone systems; however, it was never so technical that I couldn’t get the jist of what he was recounting, and it only added to the author’s good-nerd persona. *** In short: Ghost in the Wires is an engaging, thrilling, and fun read, and this audiobook version is narrated almost perfectly. If you have even the slightest interest in infotech, you’ll love Mitnick’s story.