The Watchman
by Jonathan Littman · first published 1997
3mentions
3recommended by
3HN commenters
2008–2018first – last mentioned
100% recommend
Written like a California noir thriller by way of William Gibson, The Watchman brings to life the wildest, most audacious crime spree in the history of cyberspace. Busted as a teenager for hacking into Pac Bell phone networks, Kevin Poulsen would find his punishment was a job with a Silicon Valley defense contractor. By day he seemed to have gone straight, toiling on systems for computer-aided war. But by night he burglarized telephone switching offices, adopting the. personae and aliases of his favorite comic-book anti heroes - the Watchmen. When authorities found a locker crammed with swipe
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
…Computer Espionage by Clifford Stoll is a fun read. Stoll is an astronomer by trade, and his analytical thinking can be an inspiration: http://www.amazon.com/The-Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Espionage/dp/... The Watchman is a true crime thriller you won't be able to put down. The author set out to write a book on Mitnick but wound up detouring to do a story on Kevin Poulsen, who is now an excellent infosec writer at Wired.…
on “Ask HN: How to learn about the history of computing?” ↗Like the other comment in this thread, I've read all three and think The Fugitive Game is my favorite. It was definitely an enthralling read. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend The Watchman, also by Littman, but about Kevin Poulsen.
on “Takedown (1995)” ↗The Kevin Poulsen story is incredible in Jonathan Littman's The Watchman.
on “Kevin Mitnick signs tell-all book deal” ↗