The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick

The Fugitive Game introduces Kevin Mitnick moments before the fugitive hacker surrenders himself to FBI agents who have located him with the help of the so-called cybersleuth, Tsutomu Shimomura. The prologue to Jonathan Littman's book kicks off with the epic climax that came to tantalize movie producers and video game designers and launch magazine covers worldwide. However, this is not another version of Takedown. The Fugitive Game is a compelling, journalistic look at the events that led up to the capture of Kevin Mitnick, and no portion of the folklore surrounding the case is left untouched by the book's critical eye. The real gold of this volume comes from the nearly 200 pages of conversations with Kevin Mitnick himself, most of which were transcribed while he was fleeing from the law.

Over the course of Mitnick's flight from justice, Littman documents and examines the public transformation of Mitnick into Public Enemy Number One, mostly through the efforts of the New York Times writer John Markoff. Markoff's involvement in the eventual capture of Mitnick by Shimomura is also scrutinized at length. Littman even questions the now-legendary Christmas Day break-in of Shimomura's computer, citing reports that the "IP spoofing technique," which Markoff claimed was so ingenious, was in fact a well-known method of gaining access to systems for years. This is a brilliant look at a compelling individual and also the manufacturing of media events and the inept efforts of law enforcement to prepare for the next wave of high-tech crime.