The Art of Invisibility

The World's Most Famous Hacker Teaches You How to Be Safe in the Age of Big Brother and Big Data

By: Kevin Mitnick

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's Summary

Kevin Mitnick, the world's most famous hacker, teaches you easy cloaking and countermeasures for citizens and consumers in the age of Big Brother and Big Data.

Like it or not, your every move is being watched and analyzed. Consumers' identities are being stolen, and a person's every step is being tracked and stored. What once might have been dismissed as paranoia is now a hard truth, and privacy is a luxury few can afford or understand.

In this explosive yet practical book, Kevin Mitnick illustrates what is happening without your knowledge - and he teaches you "the art of invisibility". Mitnick is the world's most famous - and formerly the most wanted - computer hacker. He has hacked in to some of the country's most powerful and seemingly impenetrable agencies and companies, and at one point he was on a three-year run from the FBI. Now, though, Mitnick is reformed and is widely regarded as the expert on the subject of computer security. He knows exactly how vulnerabilities can be exploited and just what to do to prevent that from happening.

In The Art of Invisibility Mitnick provides both online and real-life tactics and inexpensive methods to protect you and your family, in easy step-by-step instructions. He even talks about more advanced "elite" techniques, which, if used properly, can maximize your privacy. Invisibility isn't just for superheroes - privacy is a power you deserve and need in this modern age.

©2017 Kevin Mitnick (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Limited value for the average person

Mitnik's book has a handful of decent ideas for how the average person can better protect their privacy, but this content isn't worth the 9 hour listen, much of which is just rambling about the countless ways in which our lives and activities can be monitored in the digital age. Mitnik comes across as a bit full of himself, which would be fine if the content was more worthwhile.

It's unclear at what demographic the book is targeted, as some of the stuff is applicable to everyone, but he also spends a lot of time on topics that would seem to only be of interest to criminals or the truly paranoid (hiring a homeless person to buy you a throw-away phone, which you then use to establish an anonymous identity, and so on).

Save yourself the read...below are the main ideas that seem relevant to most people, you can probably find better info on these elsewhere than this book:
- Your personal data (hometown, mother's maiden name, etc.) is probably compromised, so don't use it as your "Secure Questions" for accounts. Instead, develop a list of specific, fake answers to these questions.
- Use 12-20 digit passwords on your accounts, don't use the same password for different stuff
- Establish Two Factor Authentication on all your accounts/devices, using Google Authenticator if available
- Use a dedicated device for accessing your most sensitive (financial) acccounts
- Ensure your router has updated firmware and isn't configured to use outdated WPA encryption

Audio is Not the Right Format

After about an hour I've decide to return the book and buy a paper or Kindle copy instead.
A line in an audio book that says, "For more instructions... see page 117" is about as clear of an indicator as you can get that audio is the wrong format. It's a pity because I really like both the content and the performance, but to make practical use of the book, I need something I can read.

Maybe reading the book is better

-This book works a lot like a checklist and a guide as to how to be invisible online.

It obviously goes into details about what is what, and the reason to be invisible by citing different cases, such as the Snowden files, bitcoin ransoming, viruses etc, and then HOW you can avoid such things, or gain access to certain things with things that the author suggests.

-The author DOES actually suggest what to use, and how to use it, and at the end, a full step by step solution to be invisible online. In this, i think it would honestly be better to read it, and then you can come back to it later.

-In audio format, although many things were indeed interesting, its difficult to come back to easily as audio chapters are not marked.. or of course you have to take notes going all the way through.

-I'm happy to have listened to it, and i found many of the things worthwhile, but i probably wouldn't listen to it again.

Enough bits to be worth the read; overly focused on wrong threat models

If you're like me, you came to this book just wanting to protect your privacy. You'll get some good ideas from Mitnick. However, too much of the book was aimed at the unlikely reader: someone truly wanting to cover their tracks from government surveillance... and then only in the final chapter did he truly pull together a formula for establishing enough identity encryption to do so.

There are some entertaining stories you'd hope from an ex-Black Hat. He kept what could be a dry topic fun to read.

Ray Porter (narrator) did a great job of adding emphasis to enliven the book. However, it was disappointing when he fully mispronounced essential terms; it immediately drained creditability from the author's voice. Also, Porter's emphasis was a bit thick, so much so that he made Mitnick sound down right bratty and annoying.. I've seen Mitnick in interviews and he doesn't come across that way to me.

Technically, you will walk away with a couple of good tips and product recommendations as well as understanding why they are good choices.

Good overall.

Unfortunately, btc and other digital currencies now count as property and are therefore taxable. So, if you follow the advice given you will be guilty of tax evasion.

An uninteresting how-to of extreme measures

Any additional comments?

The interesting parts and the actionable advice that most people would find reasonable (like using a password manager) could be summed up in maybe 10 minutes. The rest was advice that most people would find absolutely unreasonable to incorporate into their lives (e.g., pay a stranger to purchase prepaid gift cards that you can use to buy a mobile hotspot, whose mac address you'll change every time you use it, or set up multiple email accounts to launder bitcoins,...). If you're a big time criminal, some of these things are worth you time, but for most of us they aren't.

Authors, PLEASE Hire Ray Porter to Read Your Books

This is the first nonfiction book I've listened to Ray Porter read. WOW! What an experience! Mitnick is a fantastic writer to begin with, not boring at all, but Porter takes his words to the next level. I never found myself drifting off, thinking about other things. I was 100% present in the book throughout. This is a rarity, as some readers are an absolute chore to stay tuned in to. Not Ray!

I encourage ALL nonfiction writers to start hiring Ray Porter to read their books. He adds an excitement to academic tomes that is welcome and refreshing.

As for the book itself, it's OUTSTANDING. The other reviews praising it are spot on. Mitnick is WAYYYYYYYYYY ahead of the techno-curve, and wants you to be as well. Buy this book for its practical advice. Enjoy the book because of RAY!

very good overall

Great information, good stories and examples as proof, and an enjoyable audiobook overall. there is a lot of great information in here both for the casual web surfer and rmailer, as well as for even the most experienced sys admin or sys eng.

Mitnick delivers yet again

I'm a 20 year IT admin, and know a lot about many of the technologies Kevin discusses in this book, but the real gold is how he explains the how's, whys, gotchas and more when it comes to online privacy. Unless your name is Edward Snowden, you should get this book. You will love it.

Excellent Book!

Mitnick does an excellent job balancing technical jargon and audience engagement. He masterfully simplifies complex subject matter and explains cyber security concepts in a way that the general populous can understand and learn from.
I highly recommend listening through once for an overview of the ideas, and then at least once more if you plan on putting his words into practice.

Bad book

This book is bad. I've read Mitnick's two previous books and they were interesting, exciting, and enjoyable. This book is not.

It provides a series of obvious tips such as the recommendation of using a password manager. Furthermore, it rambles endlessly in fearmongering in a manner that aims to scare without informing. One example is that the book implies that nation-states have the power to brute-force 25-character passwords consisting of lower case, upper case letters and numbers. To our current knowledge, this process would take more than the age of the universe to complete, even if all nation states combined their efforts and their best computers to break your own personal password.

As such, I found the book an attempt to spread fear, misinformation, and doubt. Lastly, Kevin comes off as completely full of himself, preaching unscientifically and often without explanation. The book goes on and on with boring clichés and pretentious emphases by the narrator which are quickly tiresome.

While some of the tools recommended are good (keepass and the IP masking techniques), overall you are better off searching for this information online in less sensational publications.

Interesting read

A must read for anyone who uses the internet old or young. A good insight into the negatives aspects of internet security or lack of. 10 out of 10

Eye opening !!!

Not even half way through this book yet, but I love it and highly recommend to everybody. Shows just how little the average person is informed on their own personal security. We become so complacent that we just trust everything and we are being exploited on every level! You will not regret purchasing this book.

absolutely brilliant

fantastic read that has some valuable points and I learned so much to do with security thanks to this and soon I might just give it all ago. 10/10 would recommend to a computer need like myself.

Practically perfect in every way.

If you have an interest in Annonimity or online and general security, You need this book.
The world is elvolving in potentially dangerous and sinister ways. The book delves into the insidious methods that are turning people and their data into global commodities among other serious issues.

amazing

love this book such a great insight to keeping you safe online and in which way to do it love it

Great listen

An good read if you're technically minded and have an interest in Internet security.

Might be a harder listen for a lay person.

Clear, stright message delivered fast and easy!

Wery good book, wery clear and understandible.
Delivered in fast and entertaining way!

Makes as to think how we continue to move around in the "space".

👍

It has covered more than i thought i knew

For me who is learning towards Pen Testing it has gave me more depth than i could ask the lecture. I give the credit to Kevin Mitnick and got to say Hands High to Ray Porter who i think there could have been no one better narrating this book. It was not boring and i have now more information gathered from here. A good book.

Utterly awesome

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in privacy
To anyone in cybersecurity this is a must for you whether you are a student or professional read this book listen to this book just get this book