Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker

The Art of Deception
(Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2002). I’ll never
forget that “getting off supervised release” gift you gave me on 
The Screen

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Savers
show—a brand-new PowerBook G4. It was an amazing gift that left
a smile on my face for months. I always look forward to hanging out with
Steve during our travels. We both try to visit the Hard Rock Café in every
foreign country we visit and collect the T-shirts. Thank you, Steve, for
being such a great friend.
And of course, I have to thank my former girlfriend Darci Wood for all
her love, support, and devotion in the time we were together. Unfortunately,
sometimes relationships don’t work out for one reason or another.
Regardless, it’s comforting to still have Darci as a loyal and trusted friend.
Now I just need her to sign a backdated Non-Disclosure Agreement from
the day we met and everything will be just fine! Just kidding, Darci. (Or
maybe not.)
Jack Biello was a close friend and caring person who spoke out against
the extraordinary mistreatment I endured at the hands of journalists and
government prosecutors. He was a key voice in the “Free Kevin” movement
and a writer who had an extraordinary talent for writing compelling articles
exposing information that the government didn’t want people to know about
the Kevin Mitnick case. Jack was always there to fearlessly speak out on
my behalf and to work together with me preparing speeches and articles. At
one point, he even represented me as a media liaison. Jack’s passing, while
Bill and I were finishing up the manuscript for 
The Art of Deception
, left
me feeling a great sense of loss and sadness. Although it’s been almost nine
years now, Jack is always in my thoughts.
Although my friend Alex Kasperavicius was never really a hack, he was
always willing to be brought into my hacking projects, usually to participate
in some exciting social-engineering project. Later we developed a social-
engineering workshop to help businesses identify and mitigate the risk of
social-engineering attacks, and delivered these workshops at businesses
around the globe. We even had the honor of training the FAA (Federal
Aviation Administration) in Oklahoma City. In late 2000, we hosted a
popular Internet talk radio show called 
The Darkside of the Internet
on KFI-
AM 640 in Los Angeles. Thank you, Alex. You have been a loyal and
trusted friend.
Eric Corley (aka Emmanuel Goldstein) has been a friend and supporter
for almost two decades. He launched the “Free Kevin” movement in early
1998 after I had been detained for over three years. Eric contributed
substantial effort, time, and money in getting the word out during my

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incarceration in Federal detention. He also created a documentary entitled
Freedom Downtime
, released in 2001, which documented the “Free Kevin”
movement and even won an award for best documentary at a New York
film festival. Eric, your kindness, generosity, and friendship mean more to
me than words can express. Thank you for everything and for being there
for me.
I want to acknowledge my ex-hacking partner Lewis De Payne for
taking the time to refresh my memory on several past hacking adventures
that we both participated in. Thank you, Lewis. It has been a long and crazy
adventure for both of us and I truly wish you the best.
My close friend Christine Marie assisted me with the initial rough draft
of the Afterword included at the end of the book. Thank you, Christine, for
your participation and effort.
I wish to thank my close friends Kat and Matt Wagenknecht for working
with me to develop the codes that appear at the beginning of each chapter.
Great work! Let’s see how many readers are able to solve the puzzles and
win some prizes.
I wish to thank Jari Tomminen for allowing me to use a photo he had
taken of me in Helsinki, Finland, for the 
Ghost in the Wires
book jacket.
I want to acknowledge my friend and security expert David Kennedy,
who was kind enough to review a section of this book and provide me with
good advice.
Thank you, Alan Luckow, for allowing me to include in my book a
picture of the drawing you made, which was on the gift wrapping that
covered the box that contained the Apple PowerBook G4 that Steve
Wozniak gave me on 
The Screen Savers
show.
Thanks to the social-networking site Twitter, I was able to find a few
volunteers willing to take some photographs for the book. I wish to thank
Nick Arnott, Shellee Hale, John Lester, aka Count Zero, Michelle
Tackabery, and several others for their kind contributions and for
volunteering their time. For those of you who wish to follow me on Twitter,
please visit 
twitter.com/kevinmitnick
.
I want to thank my former Federal prosecutor, David Schindler, who
was kind enough to take the time to allow me to interview him for my book.
I also wish to thank Justin Petersen, aka Eric Heinz, and Ronald Mark
Austin, who were kind enough to allow me to interview them for my book.
A short time after Bill Simon and I interviewed Justin Petersen, he was

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found deceased in his apartment in West Hollywood, possibly because of a
drug overdose. It’s a shame he suffered the same fate as my brother, who
had me initiate contact with Petersen when Justin was using the alias Eric
Heinz.
And as I write these acknowledgments, I realize I have so many people
to thank and to express appreciation to for offering their love, friendship,
and support. I cannot begin to remember the names of all the kind and
generous people I’ve met in recent years, but suffice it to say, I would need
a flash drive to store them all. There have been so many people from all
over the world who have written me words of encouragement, praise, and
support. These words have meant a great deal to me, especially during the
times I needed it most.
I’m especially thankful to 
2600
and all my supporters who stood by me
and spent their valuable time and energy getting the word out to anyone
who would listen, voicing their concern over and objections to my unfair
treatment and the hyperbole created by those who sought to profit from the
“Myth of Kevin Mitnick.”
I’ve had too many experiences with lawyers, but I am eager to express
my thanks to the lawyers who, during the years of my negative interactions
with the criminal justice system, stepped up and offered to help me when I
was in desperate need. I have come to respect, admire, and appreciate the
kindness and generosity of spirit given to me so freely by so many. I wish to
thank Greg Aclin, Fran Campbell, Robert Carmer, Debbie Drooz, John
Dusenbury, Sherman Ellison, Omar Figueroa, Jim French, Carolyn Hagin,
Rob Hale, Barry Langberg, David Mahler, Ralph Peretz, Michelle Carswell
Pritchard, Donald C. Randolph, Tony Serra, Skip Slates, Richard Steingard,
the Honorable Robert Talcott, Barry Tarlow, Gregory Vinson, and John
Yzurdiaga.