Kevin Mitnick looking for hacker war stories

January 7, 2004 D. H. McKee

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Famed hacker and master social engineer Kevin Mitnick has been commissioned to write a new book following the success of his first text The Art of Deception. The new book, tentatively titled The Art of Intrusion will tell the stories of real hacks, with the names of attackers obscured to protect them from the authorities and their victims. Mitnick has called on retired hackers to come forward with their stories, offering a $500 (�283) prize for the best story that makes it into the book, and a $200 payment for all stories that make the final draft. “I’m going to tell the true stories of some of the untold most salacious hacks in cyberspace. The sexy, the ingenious, the innovative and the clever,” he told ZDNet Australia by phone from the US “The stories are not going to be the same attack vector or the same class of vulnerability. I’m looking for stories that will include a variety of attack methods exploiting physical, operational, network host, and personnel security vulnerabilities.”

Conceding his notoriety is at least in part responsible for his “reversal of fortune” — he claimed he was worried that the initial conditions of his release would make it difficult for him to find a job — Mitnick says his well-known name is useful in getting his foot in the door. “My demand in the speaking arena — my name value or my branding — is really a product of the sensationalism that was attached to the ‘Kevin Mitnick’ case… if that never happened I might be a fantastic author, a fantastic consultant, and a world renowned security professional, but by name I might not be known,” Mitnick argued. “I do attribute the trials and tribulations that I experienced in the past to why my name is so well known, and… this notoriety — it does drive some business.”

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39118685,00.htm

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