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Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw - By the Man Who Did It Mass Market Paperback – December 1, 1996

by Tsutomo Shimomura (Author), John Markoff (Author)

64 customer reviews

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The dramatic true story of the capture of the world's most wanted cyberthief by brilliant computer expert Tsutomu Shimomura, describes Kevin Mitnick's long computer crime spree, which involved millions of dollars in credit card numbers and corporate trade secrets. Reprint. NYT.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

On Christmas Day 1995, a daring cybercriminal used a new, dangerous, and clever method to gain access to the home computer of the world's greatest computer security expert. The hero, as a matter of honor, set out to find the devious mastermind who violated his privacy and discovered that it was none other than cyberspace's Public Enemy Number One.

That's the classic version at least. Given all of the hype surrounding the capture of Kevin Mitnick (much of it created and sustained by the authors of this book), one would at least expect the version provided by "The Man Who Did It" to be entertaining. But Tsutomu Shimomura's writing (apparently not assisted enough by John Markoff) is somewhat dull. The details of Shimomura's personal life are probed in depth while technical, legal, and ethical questions are brushed over without commentary, such as the supposed proof of Mitnick's involvement in the break-in or Markoff's involvement in the capture. There may be some material of interest to the enthusiast, and those who read Jonathan Littman's The Fugitive Game should at least check out Takedown to see what all of the fuss is about.

From Publishers Weekly

Shimomura with John Markoff. Hyperion, $5.99 ISBN 0-7868-8913-6. A computer security expert tells how he hunted down a notorious hacker.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Voice; First Thus edition (December 1, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0786889136
ISBN-13: 978-0786889136
Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.1 x 6.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
Average Customer Review: 64 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,129,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #368 in Books > Computers & Technology > History & Culture > History
- #770 in Books > Business & Money > Industries > Computers & Technology
- #864 in Books > Computers & Technology > Internet & Social Media > Hacking

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Payton

GREAT VALUE!!

August 29, 2018

Verified Purchase

Very cheep and good condition

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tseng

out of date

May 21, 2011

Verified Purchase

i heard about this from ny times, so exciting and all...will it may be when it came out 15 years ago but now quaint, like watching jar head, the movie about the first iraq war.

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dead man walking

Agree with the other one-star reviews

March 19, 2015

Verified Purchase

The author is completely full of himself and makes you sick after you read the book for a while. He should have employed a ghost writer to tone down the name-dropping and self-praise that runs throughout the book. What was funny is that a lot of the gear and software he talks about is a joke compared with modern gear and software, so throwing these big technical words around is embarrassing in hindsight.

4 people found this helpful

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mrs p

Had this book before and lost it. I am a bit of a tomboy, techie, nerdie female.

July 9, 2013

Verified Purchase

Fascinating story. Have read before. Great almost free price on Amazon! Of Course! Really enjoyed all the personal details Shimomura included - the romance, his work life, his academic qualifications, studies. Totally interesting and entertaining. LOVE TRUE LIFE STORIES - especially High Tech. Very entertaining comparing todays technology with his & Mitnicks at the time. Those differences AREN'T boring - only amusing and amazing realizing how far Tech has come and how FAST!

4 people found this helpful

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C. V. Karayiannis

Great book!

April 12, 2011

Verified Purchase

I am sorry that I almost missed this out of print book (I finally managed to buy it from Amazon marketplace) because I took in regard the opinion of some reviewers.

Christos Karayiannis

3 people found this helpful

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A customer

Takedown was a Letdown.

December 7, 1998

Shimomura is undoubtably fairly bright, but his hypocritical inconsistencies are almost laughable.
For example, he rants judgementally about the Donner party going across the Sierra mountains unprepared in the winter, then can't resist telling the reader how "stylish" he is when he drives over the same pass in his Ford Probe wearing shorts, t-shirt, and Teva sandals in the middle of a snowstorm. He gripes about Jerry Pournelle anthropomorphizing his machines at Chaos Manor, then proceeds to tell us the names of each of his machines, including the complete life history of his beloved "Ariel," an old Sun-3. Then he brags about his hot-tub sexual conquest of one of his buddy's live-in girlfriends. Puh-leaze.
If you can take all this garbage in the begining, the story does get much better starting around chapter 3 or 4, though there's no real climax. He can't say anything good about anybody or anything other than himself. He does name-drop a *lot* and he seems to know quite a few people, so perhaps he's not as arrogant in real life.

4 people found this helpful

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A customer

Self Promotion and Misinformation

February 9, 1999

Now that Mitnick's judgment day approaches someone should publish a book showing how far from reality was this book. Mr Markoff used NYT to promote Mr Shimomura and to difamate, more than necessary, Mr Mitnick. It is clear from the self promotion drawn by Shimomura he was part of a gang of phone phreakers with special privileges. This shows again how many scales of justice US has used in computer crime. The book makes clear that JSZ was the real cracker and Mitnick just the script kid but in no moment it makes any attempt to go further on JSZ, even when you can find the guy posting on Bugtraq on a daily basis during Mitnick tracking. The book don't make any effort to explain the sniffing techniques used by Shimomura were common place in the security community by 1994/1195, even on FDDI, and that's no great value or talent on doing that. Ah, a detailed reading of Shimomura friend's names and the routine high night "let's go to Sun take some stuff" shows lots of coincidences with those described by Littman on The Watchman Mitnick

2 people found this helpful

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A customer

A horrendously trite work of lies and libel

August 22, 1999

I have read some truly horrific books, but this takes the cake. If you're a fan of twisted truths, egocentric dribble and out and out lies, then I recommend it immensely.
If, however, you are not of the opinion that all information fighters are mindless scum with nothing on their minds other than killing innocents in hospitals, and that so-called "security experts" working (or was it not working? It seems Shimomura has some confusion on this issue) for the Federal government are not in fact omniscient demi-gods who do their job so well they have no need for such trivialities as "truth" and "respect," then I suggest you steer clear of this book (and perhaps the movie, depending on how much influence freekevin.com ends up pulling with the scriptwriters).
We could only hope Kevin Mitnick would be allowed to write his own version of his story, however, due to the extremely biased rulings which have finally (after a mere four years of unconstitutional "holding") been made, this is not an option.
For God's sake, go out and find something better than this trash. It's a big bookstore, if you're going to buy fiction, as least make sure it's well written.

6 people found this helpful

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Pages with related products. See and discover other items: history of computing, americas most wanted

Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw - By the Man Who Did It Mass Market Paperback – December 1, 1996

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