Book Review - 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

Edward Snowden's revelations weren't really revelations to me, because I assumed the government and others were spying on me, but it still made me think about Internet privacy and what I could do to make it harder for others to see what I'm doing.

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 is a nonfiction reference guide to maintaining privacy in a world of technology. It's available in all formats: eBooks, Audiobooks, and those paper things your grandparents used to read.

The Good

Information. This book is chuck full of information both on how your privacy is in danger and steps you can take to protect your privacy.

Ray Porter. Ray Porter is a great narrator who is easy to understand and puts such emotion in his performance that you feel every emotion the author is trying to convey.

The Bad

Reads Like a Reference Manual. This isn't a story but a reference manual that has stories to illustrate the points. The stories are really interesting, and the information is really good, but to read it cover to cover is not the most interesting thing to read. Also, technology is always changing, so some of the information was out of date before the book was published.

Focuses ONLY on Perfect Invisibility. This book focuses on perfect invisibility and how to achieve it through very extreme measures. Most people don't need that nor could they maintain it. It would be helpful to have more practical tips for a moderate amount of privacy you can achieve.

What I Would Like to Have Seen

I wish this had been more interesting, but I'm not sure how to do that and still be a valuable reference manual. I also wish the author had given more levels of privacy and security. His point was absolute invisibility, which is impossible and requires extreme measures that are all for not if you make even one slip up.

Overall

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 is an interesting book with a lot of good information on privacy and how much others are really watching you. There are many good tips for improving privacy, but being a book it won't be as up to date as a website could be, and many of the steps are too extreme for most people and most situations. I give it 3.5 out of 5 eReaders.

   

Book Review - Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker

I love technology. I'm amazed at what it can do, but also a little terrified. For everything blessing that it can bring into one's life, there is a corresponding curse. As technology is able to do more, it is able to do more bad as well as good. And individual and societal reliance on technology makes it much easier to manipulate the facts and distort reality. Yet so few people understand how this actually happens or what can actually be done. This book pulls back the curtain on a real person manipulating actual technology and explaining how vulnerable the systems we rely on are. And technology isn't the most vulnerable area.

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker is an autobiography written by Kevin Mitnick covering the part of his life when he was one of the most famous and notorious hackers and how vulnerable systems were and continue to be. It's available in all formats: eBook, Audiobook, and those old-fashioned paper book things.

The Good

The Writing. The writing was excellent. It felt like the author sat down and told me a story. It was very conversational. He included a lot of specific details and technological information that I found fascinating, but there wasn't so much nor did he go so far into detail to turn off technophobes.

Social Engineering. One of the most fascinating--yet disturbing--parts of the book was how easy it is to manipulate human beings and how the human element tends to be the most vulnerable part of any system. The author cites numerous examples of how he was able to manipulate meaning individuals into helping him commit fraud and violate what should be iron-clad security.

Pacing and Entertainment. This is a long book, but you wouldn't know it from reading it or listening to it. I was completely absorbed in the story and couldn't wait to hear what happened next. The title makes it sound like it could be tedious or overly technical, but it isn't. There's enough technical detail that those who understand technology will learn something, but it's told in a way that even those who hate technology won't get bored.

Complete Story. This is a true story about a man who is still alive and functioning in society, which means his story isn't over. Yet the book feels complete with a beginning, middle, and satisfying ending. That's not to say there can't be a sequel with what's he's done since going legit, but that would be a separate story.

Ray Porter. I listened to this as an Audiobook narrated by Ray Porter. Ray Porter is one of my favorite narrators. I actually seek out and buy books he narrates even if I know nothing about the author or subject matter, because his reading is that good. 

The Bad

Ummm.....

What I Would Like to Have Seen

I've got nothing.

Overall

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker is an incredibly well-written autobiography about a fascinating character and era in history few know much about, at least not what actually happened. It is as entertaining as it is informative. I highly recommend it and give it a solid 5 out of 5 eReaders.