Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw - By the Man Who Did It

Fascinating story. Have read before. Great almost free price on Amazon! Of Course! Really enjoyed all the personal details Shimomura included - the romance, his work life, his academic qualifications, studies. Totally interesting and entertaining. LOVE TRUE LIFE STORIES - especially High Tech. Very entertaining comparing todays technology with his & Mitnicks at the time. Those differences AREN'T boring - only amusing and amazing realizing how far Tech has come and how FAST!

This book is interesting although it has some flaws. Generally a book that has co-authors means that the second author wrote the book but the story is about the first authors experience. So I don’t know who is more responsible for the flaws. Basically Shimomura has computer networks that he uses for research as a senior fellow at the San Diego Supercomputer center. An unknown hacker invades his network and Shimomura has to track down the culprit by using his knowledge of programming and network functionality, and finally cell phone tracking to find and arrest Kevin Mitnick. Along the twisting evolution of the chase he inserts seemingly unnecessary details like what he and his erstwhile girlfriend Julia ate at such and such a restaurant. Also what model of car she owns, and that a Ford Probe will do 130 k/h with chains on. Some of the story seems to be written like they intended it to be a good vehicle for Hollywood to make into a movie. The author is no doubt very talented and a genius at computers but Shimomura comes off as conceited with an overbearing ego. He is disparaging of all the other organizations he must enlist to track down Mitnick, like he is only one doing the job, everyone else is either a screwup or a bureaucratic hack. He doesn’t know much about getting search warrants or arrest warrants, but is quite willing to criticize the FBI for their actions. The technical details of finding the hacker are interesting although a lot of it is beyond what a ordinary user would understand. The whole story is interesting but I think it could be told in a book about half as long as this one.

I am sorry that I almost missed this out of print book (I finally managed to buy it from Amazon marketplace) because I took in regard the opinion of some reviewers.Christos Karayiannis

I think that the problem most people have with this book is they expect the bad guys to be bad and the good guys to be good. This book shows that even the so-called good guys are not what they appear to be. In the case of cops and robbers, this book would be crooked cops and somewhat decent robbers. That I say with a degree of sadness, but that is the world we live in.

After reading Fugitive Game, I decided to hear Shimomura's side of the tale. That was not a good move. He seems to want to write about some girl he is having an affair with. Has hardly anything to do with the main story. He also is an unlikeable fellow. A lot of the stories in here also feel like they lack credibility. Would not recommend this book.

It's a well written book albeit some chapters including unnecessary personal detail about the author which aren't really that relevant to the story. The author paints a picture of what must have transpired in the different agencies and most importantly in his mind fairly well. He could've done a better job of explaining some of the old-school technologies which aren't really used in today's world. Overall, I give this 4 stars for the well written language and no use of monotonous sentenced like the ones found in most books today.

In my top 5 of all time

i heard about this from ny times, so exciting and all...will it may be when it came out 15 years ago but now quaint, like watching jar head, the movie about the first iraq war.

Bel libro, storia chiara (anche se - forse - racconta gli accadimenti da un punto di vista parziale), lettura chiara, semplice, piacevole.Piacevole anche perche' riporta - ovviamente non in profondita' - una parte di dettagli tecnici dell'epoca che rievocano, almeno per me, dei bei ricordi di quegli anni.Consigliata la lettura agli appassionati di hacking degli anni 80/90 e ai curiosi di quell'epoca.

I read this book after reading Ghost in the Wires. Two sides to a very interesting story. Since the book was written around 1996 it captures a unique point in the internet's life - when it was starting to get traction; when the big players were still small and the communities around the silicon valley. Great read.

Il libro si legge molto bene, indipendentemente dal background informatico. L'ho comprato usato ma tramite un venditore che è una garanzia.