Good suspense at times but as another review said it is very clinical description of his life. He obviously had an addiction to hacking but I was disappointed that there was little self analysis of the wasted opportunities the addiction caused.

Ranks among the best and most unbelievable true stories I've ever read

That this wasn't fiction dreamed up in an authors imagination and that this modern-day criminal is someone you (almost) never want to see get caught - that's what made this such a great read for me!

No.

Without a doubt

A little too much technical explanation from time to time, but is written so that if you want to ignore this stuff, you still won't miss a single beat

I got bored with it and didn't listen to the second half. I'm sure the story is interesting to hackers but I became boged down with all of the technical phone talk and lost interest.

Probably not

The performance was very good. I don't recall listening to his other work.

Not for me

The story is well performed and I enjoyed it. I just felt Mitnick might be glossing over some of his more evil deeds. A good listen for a computer techie

Computer hacker crime

True story. Honestly told. No-harm white-collar From hacker to security crime story.

Good reading. Story convincingly told.

From hacker to security specialist, the story of a computer pioneer

No.

Yes. There was so many stories that I cant remember half of them. Each one more outrageous than the last. I cant wait to read it again. It was almost like a bunch of sort stories in one book.

Catch me if you can, or any kind of police searching for fugitive on the run story.

As this was an autobiography it is really the main character Kevin Mitnick that's the focus. As excited as I was to hear his adventures, I really wasn't cheering for him. He seems like a bit of a sociopath and in some strange way I feel sorry for him. He seems to lack the ability to form close bonds with other human beings of any real substance. He must be quite lonely.

I did. I sometimes put on audiobooks before bed and set them to go to sleep after a chapter. So often I found myself resetting the sleep feature because the stories just kept me wanting more.

One complaint I have with this book (my only complaint really) is that I dont really hear about any social engineering that went wrong. The book always points to people becoming suspicious but that Kevins wit and brilliance managed to con all of these people in to giving up private information and data. I don't doubt that this worked most of the time, but I would have liked the author to humble himself a bit and maybe shine the light on some situations that went bad (other than the ones that obviously got him arrested). There is an awful lot of bravado, however the story is still so good that I would recommend it. Even the parts of the story that become a little slow because of technical jargon were bearable. It is a credit to the amazing narrator who kept me interested throughout.

Mitnick's story is quite amazing, but it took a little while until it became fascinating. I think it was about a third of the way in, around the point when the FBI steps into his life with undercover operatives, that the story becomes compelling. The writing and storytelling is done well. My biggest concern is about how much detail and how many facts are presented. There are so many occurrences of hacking and "social engineering", and they are all presented as though every detail and fact actually happened. It is hard to believe that someone can remember so many details of exactly what happened, even though Mitnick must have a significant intellect. I don't think he kept a journal along his crime spree path. I guess my concern goes hand-in-hand with the fact that Mitnick is very comfortable with lying in order to attain his own ends that one never really knows when he is telling the truth. I also thought that the "writer" should have come up with alternative terms for "social engineering", like lie, misrepresent, fabricate, impersonate, deceive...etc. I also got tired of hearing him say that "I felt as though someone was watching me" or "I felt that something was going wrong". I wonder what would have happened if the Gov't recognized such talent early on and worked with Mitnick instead of waiting until he became a criminal. What would Mitnick have done if early on the Gov't asked for his help in designing systems or in counter espionage? Let Mitnick loose on hacking our enemies rather than hassling corporations.

Being a bit of a computer geek myself, I really appreciated the insight into how hacking works, particularly from its early days. And it provides a clear view into the mind of an addict, as well as the fearful approach of a legal system that doesn't quite know how to handle a new phenomenon (a bit like how society handles ETs - major overkill). Yes Mitnick may have done 'wrong' in poking around into people's business, but it's a great shame that he was incarcerated for lots of things he didn't actually do. Perhaps this was because those who checked into what he actually DID do, didn't have the expertise to know the length and breadth of what he HAD done (only Mitnick, a pioneer in the field, could know this, thus the legal eagles would have to rely on HIS testimony for this information, which of course was dubious due to the incredible depth to which he had probed cyber technology... To believe that Kevin hadn't made $$$ out of the passwords etc in his possession would be an act of faith --> the legal system isn't exactly an upholder of that virtue :)

Mitnick's insights on Social Engineering are immensely interesting. I've always wondered about the ease with which one might pose as a genuine employee of a company. You'd only need to know the jargon/lingo specific to that company, and you're 'in', particularly if you're friendly and understanding when you deal with employees who are rushed, stressed and most of all, underpaid for the massive job they do. It happened to me back in 2000 - I worked in a secure environment and the receptionist put through a call to me from someone who was quite a dangerous character, but VERY charming.

Here's the thing: the level of security we now have in cyberspace probably wouldn't be as tight as it is without Mitnick's escapades. In many ways it's good that he was an addict - someone more focused on making big bucks would probably have done their damnedest to take the money and run!

This book was very interesting at times, but I found it difficult to work out the time frame spoken about at times. Giving some outside reference such as politics, how the internet was progressing etc would have been helpful. It would be good to lay a time frame as a scaffold to build the story on.

Kevin Mitnick's story told in full for the first time. An almost unbelievable story of high tech deception.

However, I wish they had had Kevin Mitnick read the book himself.