Random Access book review:
Jeff Goodell
Dell
328 Pages
U.S. $5.99
ISBN 0-440-22205-2
Reviewed by Chris Gulker
In The
Cyberthief and the Samurai, Rolling Stone writer Jeff Goodell presents
an interesting and well-researched report on the now-famous hack of Tsutomu
Shimomura's computers on Christmas Day 1994.
Unlike competing authors John Markoff and Jon Littman, Goodell was unable
to get either Mitnick or Shimimura to cooperate at length (Shimimura and
Markoff signed a 7-figure deal together, Mitnick was in jail). Deprived
of the main characters, he proceeds to dig more deeply into surrounding
events than either Markoff and Littman, who focus squarely on the main personnae.
And dig he does. Goodell reports particularly well on some of the really
awful aspects of Kevin Mitnick's painful life. Taken together with the other
two, this book fills in many gaps and thin patches in the celebrated tale.
Goodell's rich context sets Mitnick's obsessive hacking in sharp relief
to a tapestry woven from painful personal experience: a childhood haunted
by frequently-changing, sometime abusive stepfathers, the revelation that
a favorite uncle may have been involved in the overdose death of a half-brother
under mysterious circumstances, and more.
As the tail follows the tortuous track from San Diego to Raleigh, North
Carolina many more players come to light, and members of the main cast are
raised into multi-dimensional relief, thanks to Goodell.
The bit players, investigators, policemen, computer experts, the director
of a half-way house and a guy who rented Mitnick an old car in Raleigh all
come to life in interviews with Goodell. One senses that Goodell could have
done a very fine job if he'd been in Markoff or Littman's shoes, with access
to the main players (although this is not to say that Markoff and Littman
don't deliver).
But it wasn't so: Goodell must settle for a Dell paperback timed to take
advantage of the hype and publicity surrounding the Shimomura/Markoff and
Littman titles. Nevertheless, his good reporting and wealth of detail will
be interesting reading for those drawn to accounts of the world's most famous
hack.
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