The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders & Deceivers

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Hacker extraordinaire Kevin Mitnick delivers the explosive encore to his bestselling The Art of Deception
Kevin Mitnick, the world's most celebrated hacker, now devotes his life to helping businesses and governments combat data thieves, cybervandals, and other malicious computer intruders. In his bestselling The Art of Deception, Mitnick presented fictionalized case studies that illustrated how savvy computer crackers use "social engineering" to compromise even the most technically secure computer systems. Now, in his new book, Mitnick goes one step further, offering hair-raising stories of real-life computer break-ins-and showing how the victims could have prevented them. Mitnick's reputation within the hacker community gave him unique credibility with the perpetrators of these crimes, who freely shared their stories with him-and whose exploits Mitnick now reveals in detail for the first time, including:

A group of friends who won nearly a million dollars in Las Vegas by reverse-engineering slot machines
Two teenagers who were persuaded by terrorists to hack into the Lockheed Martin computer systems
Two convicts who joined forces to become hackers inside a Texas prison
A "Robin Hood" hacker who penetrated the computer systems of many prominent companies-andthen told them how he gained access

With riveting "you are there" descriptions of real computer break-ins, indispensable tips on countermeasures security professionals need to implement now, and Mitnick's own acerbic commentary on the crimes he describes, this book is sure to reach a wide audience-and attract the attention of both law enforcement agencies and the media.

Customer Reviews: Read 34 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

How much would you pay to get inside the enemy's mind? March 23, 2005
48 out of 55 found this review helpful

Over two years ago I read and reviewed 'The Art of Deception,' also by Mitnick and Simon. I thought that book was 'original, entertaining, [and] scary.' Those same adjectives apply to 'The Art of Intrusion' (TAOI). While I also add 'disappointing' and 'disturbing' to the description of TAOI, sections of the new book make it an absolute must-read. If you want to understand the consequences of systematic, long-term compromise of your enterprise, you must read and heed the lessons of TAOI.

This book may provide the closest look inside an intruder's mind the security community has yet seen. There is simply no substitute for understanding the methodology, goals, and determination of a skilled intruder. Chapter 8 brings the world of the enemy to life, describing separate incidents where crackers stole intellectual property from enterprise networks. These intruders were patient and methodical, taking months to locate, acquire, and transfer their prey. I have encountered this sort of adversary as a real security consultant (explanation follows), but never read supposed first-hand accounts from the enemy's point of view. Chapter 8 alone makes the book worth purchasing.

Why is the book 'disappointing' and 'disturbing' then? I was repeatedly disgusted to read about so-called 'security consultants' who are 'published authors on security topics' (p. 168), who describe themselves as 'white-hats' but acknowledge defacing sites 'where security was so shoddy someone needed to be taught a lesson (p. 143), and who are 'respected security professionals by day and become a black-hat hacker by night, honing the skills that pay their mortgage by hacking into the most resilient software companies on the planet' (p. 166). Attaching the label 'security professional' to these criminals -- still active by some accounts -- is a crime itself. At least Mitnick perpetrated his crime and did his time. These people, however skilled, are a black mark on the security community -- they literally perform the crimes for which their 'skills' are then required. The mitigating factor for me is that these intruders shared their stories for the benefit of the community. For that I am grateful, but I'd also like to hear they've hung up their black hats!

In some places Mitnick seems to close to his subjects to render a fair opinion of their skills. Chapter 5 talks about Adrian Lamo, named by Mitnick 'The Robin Hood Hacker.' It begins with a story about rescuing a kitten from a 'dirty storm drain' that belongs in an after-school TV special, and smells of social engineering on Mr. Lamo's part. After reading about this 'purist... the thinking man's hacker,' we learn his only real skill was 'exploiting misconfigured proxy servers.' When asked what operating system the New York Times was running when he infiltrated it via proxy server, 'Adrian answered that he doesn't know. 'I don't analyze a network that way.' I doubt someone who 'secured' a proxy server at Excite@Home by cutting the cat 5 cable to the box knows anything more than how to use his 'favorite tool... ProxyHunter' and his 'intellectual gift of finding misconfigured proxy servers' (p. 112). This mischaracterization of Adrian Lamo hurts the authors' credibility, at least as far as chapter 5 goes. I felt the same sense of being too close to the characters when reading of 'two convicted murderers' in chapter 3, although their story should catch the eyes of prison wardens everywhere.

Besides the war stories in TAOI, I found many of the authors' insights appropriate and helpful. In places Mitnick and Simon describe how victims never believe they are compromised, and when they are shown proof, they 'figure they just dropped the ball on this one occasion' (p. 216). Repeatedly through the book, network security monitoring is offered as a means of incident detection and response. I wish those who advocate the supposed defender's advantage of knowing their network would read this gem on p. 164: 'I knew their network better than anyone there knew it. If they were having problems, I could probably have fixed them.' This is so true, because the intruder's interest goes so much deeper than an administrator who sees security as part of his over-stressed and under-resourced job.

Not all of the book was written from the perspective of black hats masquerading as 'security professionals' by day. Chapter 4 features a tale by former Boeing employee Don Boelling, a real security professional. Other chapters present the stories of unnamed penetration testers, all of which I found intriguing.

Despite my negative opinion of the ethics of some of this book's contributors, I still highly recommend reading TAOI. I suspect the validity of some of the earlier reviews, as three are posted by people whose only review is for TAOI and one is by TAOI co-author W.L. Simon! Does the social engineering never end?

4 out of 5 stars

A rare glimpse into the underbelly of the computer world March 24, 2005
19 out of 19 found this review helpful

Love him or hate him Kevin Mitnick is the most celebrated hacker of our time. The Art of Intrusion gives the public and security practitioners a rare glimpse into the minds of hackers and their dedication in accomplishing their work.

This book is highly entertaining for everyone, security practitioner or not. I've never hacked my way into a video poker machine, but Kevin Mitnick and William Simon made me feel as if I had been there with a wearable computer in my shoe tapping out the codes that would let me beat the casino. Mitnick and Simon do a great job of breaking down technology in terms everyone can understand.

Chapters 1-5 take you along with hackers as they beat the casinos in Vegas, hack for terrorists, create a network out of nothing in a Texas prison and break into the New York Times.

Chapter 6 takes a slight detour to discuss penetration testing, used to legitimately test vulnerabilities at companies. This was a very insightful chapter for me and some of the techniques will be helpful to me. Some companies will never know (and sometimes don't want to know) how vulnerable they are. It is always better to find out your vulnerabilities from the "white hats" instead of finding out about vulnerabilities from the "black hats". One is a fixed cost the other isn't.

Chapters 7 through 9 take you back into the world of the hackers as they hack into banks, steal intellectual property and hack a prison transport company.

Chapter 10 describes social engineering attacks and countermeasures. If you want to learn about social engineering, what better source the Kevin Mitnick, the world's most notorious social engineer.

Chapter 11 contains a few short takes on some hackers which, I guess, Mitnick and Simon didn't feel deserved a full chapter.

I was a little dismayed to read in Chapter 6 about Robert, the "respected security consultant", who plays hacker at night. I think the term, respected, must be only in this hackers mind. A better term would have been "deceptive security consultant". I was not satisfied with argument that this person hacked into computers out of curiosity and the need for a challenge. There are many legitimate (and paying) ways to satisfy your curiosity and challenge that are completely legal.

If you take anything from this book it must be the tenacity of the hackers. Some of the compromises took months or years to carry out. In the process of committing the compromise the hacker learned more about the systems than the people charged with taking care of them on a daily basis. The hackers went undetected for months and years, sometimes grabbing information from the CEO's computer. This is very disturbing.

I highly recommended reading Art Of Intrusion for everyone. The book immerses the reader into a world very few of us will ever see, one of the underbellies created by our reliance of technology. The problem of hackers will only get worse and the Art of Intrusion lets us know what we are up against.

4 out of 5 stars

Not to be ignored! February 10, 2006
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

The Art of Intrusion is an excellent book. It is entertaining, informative, and helps you in understanding your threat level as an IT manager of your company. Who else can be a better teacher than Kevin Mitnick? Kevin, was an excellent social engineer, and if you will read more about him, you will also know that most of his attacks were not so technical, but he pulled them out successfully because of his social engineering skills.

Don't expect this book to teach you some hacking skills. But, this one will sure make you aware of the situations when human beings turn weak and give an opportunity to social engineers who with their skills in computers can wipe or steal all the information stored on your company's IT systems. If you are managing a large IT Department, don't ignore this book.

3 out of 5 stars

entertaining but not groundbreaking April 18, 2005
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

Mitnick's followup to his excellent Art of Deception is a collection of hacker stories, mostly attributed to pseudonyms, each followed up with a description of how the successful exploitation of vulnerabilities could have been prevented.

The stories are mixed in quality and plausibility, but the defensive advice is generally quite good and on-target. The story from the l0pht is particularly amusing, the story of company that enters into negotiations to purchase them, only to make the mistake of agreeing to a no-holds-barred penetration test of their infrastructure as a preliminary.

The initial story in the book, about hacking slot machines, seems rather implausible, especially given the apparent necessity of a plus-or-minus 5 ms accuracy in response time (p. 8), since human beings take 10-20 times that amount of time to perceive and respond to a stimulus.

Particularly disappointing was that Mitnick gave so much space and sympathy to "Robert," a seriously ethically challenged hacker in chapter 8. "Robert" is a hacker who worked for porn spammers by breaking into porn websites to collect email addresses, yet allegedly works in security for a "very religious and upstanding company" (p. 168).

This book doesn't quite measure up to its predecessor, but it is an entertaining book. Most of the defensive advice is old hat for security professionals, but could prove useful to executives, small business owners, and novices interested in security.

4 out of 5 stars

Enlightening and Entertaining At The Same Time December 6, 2004
6 out of 8 found this review helpful

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found it as entertaining as I did enlightening. It boggles the mind sometimes to contemplate the tremendous brilliance that goes into these illegal deeds. Imagine how much could be accomplished if these geniuses would use their knowledge and skills for good.

Each of the stories in this book provides a look at a different sort of attack. They provide some insight into why the attackers did what they did, how they were able to accomplish it and what sort of damage was incurred. In some cases the story-teller was never actually detected or caught so the story is told anonymously to protect the attacker's identity.

Mitnick and Simon interlace some commentary within the stories where it seems warranted, but their main contribution is at the end of each story. The information provided in the Insights and Countermeasures section can help a network or security administrator put the story in context and determine proactive steps that might protect them from being victimized by a similar attack.

Whether for entertainment or education I recommend this book. I look forward to reading Mitnick's own personal hacking exploits once the gag order has expired.

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