book review: the art of intrusion

20 Mar 2019 - mrtn

One of the stories that got me interested in infosec a few years ago, was the story of kevin mitnick. out of curiosity - and lacking an idea what it takes to pull something of like that - i decided to jump in deeper in the world of cybers. so after browsing the bookstore a bit, i stumbled upon the art of intrusion - written by kevin mitnick and william l. simon. so i was already intrigued. but instead of only telling more stories from or about kevin, the book explores several fascinating, interesting or crazy hacks. in contrast to most of the hacks in his story that evolve around social engineering, the art of intrusion focusses on technical or physical exploits.

without going too much into details, a few thought’s on the book: - it was overall an interesting (and rather quick) read - the story-telling, especially regarding technologies or technical details was kinda inconsstent. sometimes it went into great depth of explaining something, and in other parts the book blasted through stacks (and heaps) of different technologies without any explanation - it from 2006. so some things appear almost antique - it’s a collection of hacker-stories. there is no coherent story from start to finish - at the end of each story, there is a summary of the attack and some possible counter-measures. i consider that to be the most valuable part of the book - some stories are anonymously told and not verified

With all that in mind, would i recommend the book? for sure. just don’t expect anything similar to ghost in the wires or a textbook with lessons and facts about information security.