Straight Talk with Celebrity P. I. John J. Nazarian guest tonight is is best selling author Kevin Mitnick. Kevin’s book, Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the Worlds Most Wanted Hacker, is an autobiography of the onetime most wanted criminal of cyberspace. Kevin Metnick recounts his exploits; it is a hacker tells all as he was on the FBI most wanted list.
THIS WAS A GREAT SHOW AND A MUST LISTEN TO EVEN ARCHIVED, YOU WILL LAUGH UNTIL YOU CRY
While he excelled at infiltrating computer systems from a keyboard and had a sharp memory for numbers, Ghost in the Wires (written with William L. Simon) really showcases another of Mitnicks skills: social engineering, or what he describes as the casual or calculated manipulation of people to influence them to do things they would not ordinarily do. By doing his research and impersonating authority figures over the phone or by e-mail, Mitnick found he could persuade just about anybody programmers, technicians, even the nice lady at the Social Security Administration to give him the things he wanted, like passwords, computer chips and personal information about F.B.I. informants on his tail. People, as I had learned at a very young age, are just too trusting, he writes.
Its this element to his story that makes Ghost in the Wires read like a contemporary ber-geeky thriller. Many of todays computer viruses and identity-theft scams and even the recent phone-hacking scandals of certain newspapers depend on social engineering mixed with a misuse of technology to dupe the unsuspecting. In that regard, Mitnicks memoir also serves as a wake-up call for anyone trying to keep personal information private.
Metnick has been out of prison since 2000, Mitnick now works as a security consultant. Metnick is also booked around the world as a speaker.
You can buy Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the Worlds Most Wanted Hacker from all online book stores including Amazon.
Perhaps he can explain why Iran’s media is telling the world how they were able to take “control” of a U. S. Drone in the last two weeks and get it to land in their country where they are now studying the latest U. S. technology in “stealth” airplanes and drones.
The U. S. has been warning for years that the most serious attack the U. S. could suffer from is not a typical war like attack by military, but a cyber attack on our infrastructure. John will be asking Kevin what that means and what if anything the average citizen can do about protecting themselves or what they can do to attempt to survive such an attack.
This is going to prove to be one of Straight Talk’s best shows and a must listen to for anyone who own a computer, or works in a number of businesses today.
Telephone lines are always open to call in at 818-572-8030 long distance charges do apply, join in the discussion or ask questions of John and his guest, Kevin Mitnick questions. The show airs live at 7 PM PST and 10 PM EST for an hour tonight and then will be archived for future listeners.
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PR Release:
Straight Talk with John J. Nazarian
December 11, 2011
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