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1. Kevin Mitnick connects with his candid and honest memoir.
   As of the time I am writing this review, there are 146 reviews, with most of them being overly positive (4-5 stars). The short summary is that this book is well worth the money and is a fascinating look into the world of arguably the most well known hacker. Just buy it, as it really is a no-brainer that there is very little risk.Now, I was on the skeptical side of the coin on whether I wanted to invest in what I anticipated would be a 400-page ego stroke of how good Kevin Mitnick was and/or is. I typically have a number of books in progress at a time, and it happened that when I purchased the Kindle version of Ghost in the Wires, I was trying to break a cycle of highly complex academic books. This has proved to be a fantastic decision on my part. From the first chapter, Kevin’s ability to connect with me as a reader nearly immediately made me challenge my own assumptions about Kevin. The book is a memoir of his life, told by Kevin himself. I was taken aback by the honesty and vulnerability that he shares with his readers. Rather than the anticipated ego stroke, I found that Kevin’s life has been littered with betrayal from misplaced trust and unfortunate circumstances fueled by the same curiosity that many security researchers innately have within themselves. Sure, there are accounts of his ability to infiltrate and social engineer others into getting information; however, these in my opinion were there to supplement and stay true to the story. In fact, in many cases the details were minimized in favor of keeping the story focused on his life, not his ‘conquests’.From a storytelling perspective, Kevin’s life and account has a very logical and symbolic flow to it. I loved how the storytelling of his youth with magic lays the foundation for the rest of the book. As you no doubt know by reading other reviews, each chapter contains a crypto code to solve. Maybe someday I will go back and figure the rest of them out, but I enjoyed the added personal touch to try to appease like-minded individuals and appeal to a wider audience. Yet another example of how Kevin is more like me than different.As I was reading the book, which took about 10 nights off and on, I began listening to his interviews in a different light. His interview with The Social Engineer dot org crew was phenomenal, and validated that Kevin is a very humble, thoughtful person. Kevin and his co-author deserve a tremendous amount of credit for staying true to the purpose of a memoir and providing an insightful look into this enigmatic person.

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2. Hacking Thrill Ride with Social Engineering Insight
   Surprisingly, for a memoir about a guy who spends most of his time sitting in front of a computer, Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker is a gripping thrill ride. And it’s a testament to Kevin Mitnick and his co-author, William Simon, that it works. In the wrong hands, the same material could easily be boring or overly technical. They found the right balance of action, technical detail, and non-hacking content to keep the story engaging. The book gives you a real sense of the hacking underworld, as well as how surprisingly easy it is to social engineer individuals, companies, and government agencies.The most surprising part of the story is how little of Mitnick’s exploits were due to what we traditionally think of as computer hacking, and how much was due to social engineering. Mitnick learned to be a master manipulator, and in this book he explains to you how he convinced cops to turn over records, trusted employees to send files to people they just met, and just about anyone to do anything over the phone. If you want to better protect yourself from social engineering, this book is a great primer. It really makes you think about how quick we are to trust someone with a bit of confidence when they know a couple details we assume they would only know if the confidence were warranted.Mitnick manages to make himself relatable. By including personal details, descriptions of family life, and imagery of his surroundings, he comes across as a regular guy. He compares his hacking activities to an addiction. I can almost buy that. He was getting notoriety, solving interesting puzzles, and probably feeling the same kind of rush that cleptomaniacs feel. It sounds like it could easily become a compulsion if you’re good at it and don’t have a certain moral wavelength turned on.And I say that last sentence carefully. Because Mitnick (as far as I know and he claims in the book) never did anything especially damaging compared to some of the other well known hackers. He says he wasn’t in it for money or to do harm, but instead to satiate his curiosity. A significant portion of the book concentrates on this fact, and how the media played up his story to make him sound a lot more evil than he deserved. And that apparently affected his prosecution by the government. John Markoff, a well known New York Times reporter at the time, is singled out for particularly incredulous stories.Yet, my biggest criticism with the book, would be Mitnick’s lack of sympathy for his victims. He spends a lot of time emphasizing how little damage he did, and almost no time apologizing for the damage that he did do. Sure, he may not have sold the source code he stole for a profit. And sure, the people he tricked mostly just had their time wasted. He didn’t actively try to ruin anybody’s life. Yet, mitigating his “work” inevitably cost companies and individual a lot of time. Employee time is money. It probably cost taxpayers millions of dollars investigating, trying him, and catching him. His exploits made people feel unsafe and caused them emotional distress. And he doesn’t seem very sorry. For that reason, I found him especially difficult to root for during the early chapters. Even his “pranks” as a teenager sometimes seemed mean spirited if I were to be on the receiving end of the frustration they caused.In the end, though, Mitnick won me over. I found his relationship with his mother and grandmother endearing. I think the way he turned his life around after getting out of prison the last time is remarkable. It seems he’s done a lot of good the last twenty years. He’s an example of why people deserve a second chance, and his book is an interesting examination of social engineering and the media-legal system complex.

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3. This is a great book I recommend it

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4. Que se puede decir de un libro que cuenta la vida y anécdotas del más grande y carismático Kevin M. Ampliamente recomendado para todos aquellos interesados en el arte del h4ck1ng

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5. Book came in good quality. Like it.

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6. I had to order this book for the 2nd time because the first one I bought has been stolen by my friend, lol. Pretty self-explanatory, right?

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7. I think this was a brilliant book. Well written, and if you’re into hacking and phone freaking, extremely interesting. This is the story of Kevin Mitnick from his perspective. Couldn’t stop reading.

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