Rating: 
Summary: hilarious ..
Review: i liked this book. i enjoyed the people profiled in the book, kevin poulsen and his friends. one of the things that i enjoyed the most was their great sense of humor as was illustrated by the phone hacks of radio dj rick dees. the group won several sports cars by manipulating the radio show's phone lines.i found this book to be a nice companion piece to The Fugitive Game also by jon littman.
Rating: 
Summary: Hmmm... Perhaps Jonathan should have done more research.
Review: I think Littman is a good writer, however, the story is a bit one-sided. I think if perhaps a bit more research was done he would have have done Kevin quite a bit more justice, and the "hacker" community as a whole. I do not think the book gave Kevin a fair chance, and in a lot of ways made him out to be a monster. This, I highly doubt is the case. A good note in Jonathans court is the book is well written and flows fairly well. It is the complete lack of responibility that runs rampant in the media now. Perhaps, he (Littman) should have acted more responsible and presented a more documented tale of Mr. Poulsen. Direct conversations with Kevin, the investigators and Law Enforcement, as well as the other individuals involved would have made the book more enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy one copy of this book... buy two!
Review: In the title of this review, I suggest that you buy two copies of this book. One of those copies is for you. The other copy is for your boss. This true story can go a long way toward explaining to your management why you are requesting a large security budget.
While this book is a true story, it also reads like a novel. It is simply fascinating.
If you are involved in IT security in any way, this is a must read book!!! I cannot recommend it too strongly.
Keith Palmgren, CISSP
Rating: 
Summary: An unfocussed confusing read
Review: In The Watchman's concluding 'Author's Note', Littman, underlines that his book is a journalistic work This is an amusing comment considering his gross speculation and character judgments. While hardly a journalistic endeavor, The Watchman is not a work of fiction either. And this is what makes it so confusing to read. Littman's intentional blurring of fact and fiction was intended to produce a readable piece. But what is the result? By what standard is to be judged?
As work of fact, the book lacks references, instead relying on its subject's anecdotal incident accounts. As a work of fiction it misses the mark: the characters are largely explored superficially, and their many exploits described too rapidly, too vaguely. So, what is left? Tabloid. Worthless tabloid
Rating:
Summary: More Than A Computer Book
Review: John Littman does an excellent job of telling how the story came to be. I didn't know that much about "hackers" personal lives. This story breaks the hacker stereotype. This book was so good that I used it in a presentation. Try the book "The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick" another one of John Markoff's books.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Hacker Story!
Review: Kevin Poulsen typifies the avid computer thrill seeker! He was a very resourceful and ingenious individual who loved to get into computer systems for the challenge. The book goes into explicit detail as to how Poulsen gets into various systems. Many times he uses social enginering and "dumpster diving." He gets himself into trouble by feeling he does everything for the good of companies and the government. In some cases it is true and he exposes security weaknesses that are then corrected. However, he does not know where to draw the line and starts listening in on FBI wire taps and running escort services. In some cases the author takes liberty to assume that the reader understands specifics about the phone company and certain technologies and the book in those instances is hard to understand. Otherwise I would have given it 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Hacker Story!
Review: Kevin Poulsen typifies the avid computer thrill seeker! He was a very resourceful and ingenious individual who loved to get into computer systems for the challenge. The book goes into explicit detail as to how Poulsen gets into various systems. Many times he uses social enginering and "dumpster diving." He gets himself into trouble by feeling he does everything for the good of companies and the government. In some cases it is true and he exposes security weaknesses that are then corrected. However, he does not know where to draw the line and starts listening in on FBI wire taps and running escort services. In some cases the author takes liberty to assume that the reader understands specifics about the phone company and certain technologies and the book in those instances is hard to understand. Otherwise I would have given it 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Based loosely on a true story
Review: The book has an ok dialogue, thick in some places. It is based loosely on the events that transpired. It portrays agent steal in a too positive light, he is a real scoundral of a person, many leagues below Poulsen (note: Steal tried to do several of the things that Poulsen had accomplished, a Poulsen wannabe). It tries to portray the sleazy detectives of the LAPD in a positive role. If you remember the Rodney King spectacle, that was the LAPD. Most of the facts in this book are skewed, and half truths for the purpose of painting Poulsen in a negative light. ... The book has stripped many of the social and political things that Poulsen stands for away. Says nothing about the jobs being given away from american techs to Indians (dot) with visas that were suppossed to be to fill the demand for techies (funny how they didn't limit the number of visas to them after the tech recession). It portrays Poulsen not as the man he truly is. If you really want to see what he really is like, chat with him at a convention, like Defcon, he is really a pretty kewl fellow. The book is good for outdated technical data on the bell switching systems, and network operations. Since bell has gone more fiber optics and added many DSL multiplexors, ect, the technical aspects may not be the same for your area. This is from a decade ago, and Moore's law has forced advances by the baby bells, they are always slow to adopt any new technology though. The technical aspects ar the only good reason I would see in this book, which are outdated. There are better books on amazon though detailing the systems though. I haven't read the other books on Poulsen yet, but will write reviews for them for ya too. :)
Maybe they will be better then this one was.
Rating:
Summary: Based loosely on a true story
Review: The book has an ok dialogue, thick in some places. It is based loosely on the events that transpired. It portrays agent steal in a too positive light, he is a real scoundral of a person, many leagues below Poulsen (note: Steal tried to do several of the things that Poulsen had accomplished, a Poulsen wannabe). It tries to portray the sleazy detectives of the LAPD in a positive role. If you remember the Rodney King spectacle, that was the LAPD. Most of the facts in this book are skewed, and half truths for the purpose of painting Poulsen in a negative light. ... The book has stripped many of the social and political things that Poulsen stands for away. Says nothing about the jobs being given away from american techs to Indians (dot) with visas that were suppossed to be to fill the demand for techies (funny how they didn't limit the number of visas to them after the tech recession). It portrays Poulsen not as the man he truly is. If you really want to see what he really is like, chat with him at a convention, like Defcon, he is really a pretty kewl fellow. The book is good for outdated technical data on the bell switching systems, and network operations. Since bell has gone more fiber optics and added many DSL multiplexors, ect, the technical aspects may not be the same for your area. This is from a decade ago, and Moore's law has forced advances by the baby bells, they are always slow to adopt any new technology though. The technical aspects ar the only good reason I would see in this book, which are outdated. There are better books on amazon though detailing the systems though. I haven't read the other books on Poulsen yet, but will write reviews for them for ya too. :)
Maybe they will be better then this one was.
Rating:
Summary: Good read, that's why i gave it four stars. However.....
Review: The book was a great read.. However Kevin Poulsen claims that Littman never checked any of the facts with him, and that Littman is just trying to cash in. Read it but don't take it all at face value.
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