I don't like stories about spoiled American kids who squander opportunity after opportunity that is given to them. I'm trying to figure out if Mitnick hacked the reviews somehow. If you want to hear a story about a self-destructive brat that thinks he's the greatest, this one is for you.

Unfortunately, yes. I'm a bit of a techie, so I was drawn to this. Too bad.

Maybe, it was hard to separate his reading from the story.

It was interesting to hear about the early days of computerization and how naive security was. I guess in some regards things haven't changed.

Nope.

Kevin Mitnick presents himself as a hacker addict who was only doing black hat for the challenge. He goes into great detail about all the ways he duped and betrayed people, but only just for the challenge. He waxes appreciatively of the people who helped him while under the pretense that he was a fellow worker, or an authority figure. He seems quite indignant that law enforcement wanted to throw the book at him despite his repeated opportunities to put on a white hat. Now he is making the big bucks on this book, speaking engagements and consulting. Not much of any real excitement in the book but lots of details about how clever he was and is. I am not a hacker, but I have worked as a programmer and find it nice to create things. Mitnick enjoys penetrating other people's creations, and that is all well and good, but I don't see the point in reading a book about it. Now that I have done, all that's left for me to do is to write this silly review.

I thought the story was interesting, however the delivery was appalling. Too make it higher star rating the protagonist needed to learn something. He needed to learn a life lesson which was just in his reach but never quite got there. I found his explainations galling and flat!

No!

He's obviously able to read well

The reflections on how far technology has come is interesting. Social manipulation which has more to do with being a sociopath than computer whizz was interesting but over explained.

I really detested the authors lack of insight into his behaviour and his ability to redeem himself as a nice guy. He couldn't even be trusted to make a phone call. Stealing is stealing!

I think the print may be better here due to the amount of numbers listed again and again. While it is not important to remember these they due distract from the story when the reader is listing them off.

The twists and turns this story takes, what an amazing life to have lived!

Yes! I couldn't put this book down finished it in 3 days!

If you lived through the ages of fax machines and when computers were really just in their infancy this is a must read!

I always prefer the audio editions.

Kevin. He was smart, inquisitive and bold to prank what he had learned. A techie Dennis the Menace, learned how to beat the system, but not a criminal mind.

All of them. Kevin, the FBI, the friends, the co-workers. The more the cast of characters, the better the plot.

Yes! Fascinating!

As I was listening to this I was wondering, "Why hasn't this been made into a movie.?" Well it had. Just not a big hit. I will have to find it.

I don't usually listen to biographies but Mitnik was worth the exception. This was well crafted and insightful as well as humorous.

That Mitnik came across as a basically good guy with some exceptional skills and a wicked sense of humor.

a sense of timing that added to the irony and humor.

yes

An interesting and mostly entertaining story but like some other reviewers I was annoyed by Kevin's massive ego and protestations that he had never harmed anyone or hacked for his own personal gain and that he was unfairly pursued and punished. He conveniently ignores the impact of his deceipt and manipulation on the numerous unsuspecting decent human beings he "socially engineered" by taking advantage of their tendency to trust and help others for his own selfish purposes, or the cost to the various organisations he targeted (let alone the authorities), in terms of loss of data (which he happily admits he shares with other hackers) and of time and resources spent trying to stop him.
Towards the end of his time on the run his description of his various exploits did become very repetitive and I found myself hoping out loud the feds would catch him to avoid yet another description of how clever he was at outwitting another poor innocent to steal some more code for no more reason than the thrill of it.
Having said all that, most of the time I did enjoy this book, and the performance of the narrator was so good that I had to go back and check it wasn't Kevin narrating the story himself. As noted in the headline - anyone who feels sympathetic to Kevin after listening to this (and there are obviously plenty out there) shouldn't be embarrassed to join the throng of Kevin's dupes - this is probably his most successful piece of social engineering yet...

Yes. It was a well-written and well-narrated book.

Not sure.

No.

Adventures of a telephone geek!

I truly enjoyed the experience.

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