Bläeckfisk is the Swedish translation for the word octopus. I am not Swedish, but I do own a lot of furniture from Sweden and I like octopuses while admiring their multi-tasking ability. I would like to travel to Sweden at some point, plus I think it is a pretty cool looking word. Anyhow, speaking of words, I guess you could say that is why we are here. Words are the foundation for way we try to wrap our thoughts around everything in the galaxy. The tendrils that lead to emotions and curiosity. I am not here to solve the mysteries of the universe, just to discuss words in general. Specifically words written by other people and have been printed off and slapped between two slices of thin card stock. Many of these sandwiches go on to bigger and better things, some bigger and better than others. So, I guess we will be talking about those as well. If you share an interest in words or enjoi seeing what they can look like in action....välkommen! (Swedish for welcome.)

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

B12: Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick

"sdkgnkiju n kdsmiwejfj23j232 3t49t94j9ejfjskvsd vsdvsgjsro ogorsgoj43j994j3j5809."

While this much talked about autobio may not be the most eloquently written book, the subject matter makes it worth reading. Kevin Mitnick is a legend. Just about everybody in the computer world knows and fears his name. Best known for his circumventing talents and auspicious ability to manipulate, Mitnick is an hacker extraordinaire. Using a primitive ham radio to intercept police information and to hijack the local McDonald's drive through frequency, Kevin began hacking in his early teens. His journey has been an entertaining one and still to this day he is able to seduce cyber security barriers, while making a comfortable living doing it.

When most people think of the term hacker, more times than not they associate identify theft, fraud and embezzlement with the subject in question. What I found to be piquing with Kevin Mitnick was how his passion for computer hacking was never for financial reasons. He was able to gain access to just about any blip of data he so choose, only to store and stash the intel on some unsuspecting out of state server. Even more interesting are the methods used to manipulate workers with in the targeted company and how Kevin was able master the art of "social engineering". Having done some research on a particular individual, he would contact them on site and pretend to be out in the field with some sort of emergency that required the download/upload of source code he wished to acquire. Often times speaking in a hurried tone that emulated a potential crisis, he was granted access for simply sounding believable. What follows is a true cat and mouse game of life on the run, stuffed with blank birth certificates, cloned cell phones and late night rendezvouses. Rendezvouses. That doesn't quite sound right, but I'm rolling with it. Sorry, I digress. Yes this book is a bit geeky, but I would certainly say that it is an adventure worth digesting. At the very least it will give you something to think about when setting your online passwords. Check it out.