p2pnet - rss feed: Kevin Mitnick’s latest exploit:
You’ve no doubt seen the various stories informing us that quote famed hacker unquote and quotemaster social engineer unquote Kevin Mitnick is offering cash to exploit - OOOPS, sorry, we meant in exchange for - hacking stories for a book he’s been commissioned to write.
He’s already a legend in his own mind, not to say an industry unto himself, and the new book, tentatively titled The Art of Intrusion will tell the stories of real hacks, with the names of attackers obscured to protect them from the authorities and their victims," ZDNet Australia reported here. "Mitnick has called on retired hackers to come forward with their stories, offering a US$500 prize for the best story that makes it into the book, and a US$200 payment for all stories that make the final draft."
Thanks Kev.
And, "the lucky winner will also receive a copy of Mitnick’s first book The Art of Deception signed by no less than Mitnick himself," writes Ashlee Vance in The Register here. "What a treat!"
Right. Wow.
"So," Vance asks, "why doesn’t Mitnick just regale the hungry public with stories of his own fantastic exploits and then sign a book for himself?"
Good one. Answer?
"My plea agreement (with the Feds) restricts me from telling stories of my own hacks until January 2010, which is why I’m looking for stories from people like you," Mitnick writes on his Web site, says Vance, going on that he also promises to, "absolutely protect your identity (remember, I did NOT cooperate with law enforcement during their prosecution of me); if you prefer, you and I will arrange our conversation so that I don’t know who you are. Unless you ask that your real name be used, I’ll tell your story told under an alias name of your choice. Of course, I will have to somehow verify the accuracy of your story prior to publishing it in the book."
However, Vance wonders if $500 is enough to, "endure a painful verification process with Mitnick, especially considering a spot in his book may raise the interest of the Feds? Probably not. Some hackers, however, do have a strong lust for publicity and riding on Mitnick’s coattails would be the perfect way to satiate this need.
"But don’t think it will be easy to win this sexy hack contest. We’ll be sure to submit our own story about the time we used a bag of peanuts to coax an elephant to carry a Cobalt Qube into Intel’s Oregon chip design HQ. Once in the engineers’ good graces, the beast managed to give El Reg direct access to future Itanic designs. Strangely, the spec sheets were blank."
