Mitnick offers cash for hacking tales

[ttau]

Who but a skiddie would buy anything written buy this man anyway?

[Agent_Steal]

Just to answer your question I am pretty sure that script kiddies will not be the only ones who will purchase his book.

[xicepik]

I don't really know Kevin Mitnick or anything about his story except some little things.. So why are you all (almost) saying that he is this and that?

[Agent_Steal]

There probably saying things like that cause he has been convicted in the past for crimes that he has committed.

For some reason people tend to treat convicted criminals different. Have no idea why? He is human and does make mistakes just like everyone else.

Also cause maybe they haven't read much about him. But hey in my personal point of view he did his time for what he did.

Hey if he want's to write a book about cracker stories well if you dont like him dont read it. Simple as that.

[Tim_axe]

If he does manage to get a real and exciting story, it would be interesting to see what he says on what could have prevented the problems in the first place. Basically he is getting a chance to piece a hack together, and look at what made it so great. Provided that he can get the inside scoop on a really big and interesting hack, his book will probably be pretty big. I will probably never get a chance to see it though, but for the system admins who do, it could be important much like the Hacking Exposed series. Seeing real world scenearios and situations drafted up into a book could be some big stuff...

But Mitnick is well known as a social engineer. What will he do with the stories? Will the hacker's identity remain a secret? Will they be paid? Will they be blackmailed? What about the other submissions? There are all sorts of interesing questions to be answered, but fortunately for us (White Hats) Mitnick *might* have a reward for analyzing a hack or drafting up some sort of "data fortress." When considering law and potential for foul play by Mitnick, we are on a much better side of the coin.


Edit:
Well Mitnick has quite a history. Seeing that he was denied access to a telephone for fear that he would make a phone call that would launch a huge nuclear missle strike as claimed by the media and everyone else, everyone came to respect/fear him. Of course it was learned he was really good at social engineering, but the thing that sorta stuck to him since was the title "script kiddie" after many people realized that the media seriously blew everything way out of proportions. Sorta caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, but in a way he was the man for the job...

I never got a chance to look at his first book "Art of Deception" or really did any research on him, so my info was pretty much what I came across in random discussions and misc. other stuff around the time he decided to have his own website and shortly after it was hacked into...


Edit 2:
Mitnick was a phone "phreaker." Got in trouble for doing lots of weird stuff to phone systems, and other interesting stuff.

[Agent_Steal]

From what I have read he will keep the author's indentities a secret. But just like you have stated Tim_Axe who knows.

From reading the article it seems that he will be doing his best to make sure that the stories are valid.

Mitnick and a co-author will analyze the attacks and offer readers suggestions on how to avoid such attacks on their own networks, he said.

But of course he himself also says:

The biggest challenge will be verifying the truth of the stories, Mitnick said

Reading the article I also noticed that he is restricted about telling stories about his own hacks until 2010. He must have done some serious hacks to warrant that.