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Book Review, © Copyright 2002, Jim Loy
Kevin Mitnick was a particularly famous (he was considered extremely dangerous) computer hacker (see The Fugitive Game - by Jonathan Littman). In another review, I called The Art of the Steal - by Frank W. Abagnale one of the best books ever written. It tells how you will be conned out of your money, in shocking detail. The Art of Deception - by Kevin D. Mitnick is more of the same (he talks about social engineering instead of cons and scams, but it is the same thing), with an emphasis on attacks by con artists on the place where you work. It goes, very slightly, into high tech crimes. But mostly this is simply how con artists get information out of people. For example, we find out how to get an unlisted number from the phone company. It is the same way you can get someone's account number from a bank. It is the same way that you can get someone's social security number from his/her employer. It is the same way that you can get computer passwords. How do these con artists get all of this secret information? They could attack computers with high tech tools. But instead, they probably just pretend to be someone who has the authority to have this information, and they know the correct lingo, and they just ask for the information. And time and time again, that is all it takes. This is the greatest security risk of them all. This book will make you more paranoid than you already are. And it will make businesses clean up their act. Training of employees will prevent most of these crimes.
To order this book, click Amazon.com (goes directly to this book).