I just finished reading The Art of Intrusion by everyone’s favorite hacker, Kevin Mitnick.. The book focuses mainly on ways people try to gain access to networks, buildings, and information in general.. And it does a pretty good job of telling the stories of the people involved..

If you are looking for a guide to hacking, or hoping to gain tips for your own efforts, don’t bother.. Much of the detail is intentionally left out in an effort to not encourage script kiddies to do something stupid that will set them up for a visit to a correctional facility.. But as a light read, and maybe even a primer for non technical people about the types of issues they could and will face, it shines an important light on just how unsecure so many places really are.. Story after story is told about the most basic security functions being ignored, improperly executed, or simply not being used at all..

We all have those stories, I have one local ISP here that is notorious for giving out login information if you know a name and email address.. TAoI goes into several different methods of gaining information of all sorts.. And Kevin does a good job of telling the stories in a way that makes them interesting without overloading them with technical jargon that will turn off non-technical people..

Would I recommend this book to a network security guy?? Not really, it’s filed with a lot of, I can’t believe they did that moments.. But for a casual read, or as a way to convince the ‘boss’ that he may want to take a closer look at security, it goes along way toward showing just how easy it is to gain access to just about anywhere..

Fey -