I'm enjoying the story, partly because I took copious abuse from some CPs for posting - before Mitnick hit the papers - that the Well was under surveillance. [Crypto relevance of (TLA contract?) surveillance of ISPs should be obvious.] Anyway, it's too bad Mitnick didn't read CP. I'm still angry about the Well's voluntary cooperation in this scam. Why should I pay money to an outfit that's in bed with the TLAs? bdolan@use.usit.net, formerly bdolan@well.com On Sat, 6 Jan 1996, John Young wrote:

Perry's askance leads me to propose stealing Littman's book. It's as techno-thrilling as cypherpunks in describing the melodrama of unexpected human/technology malfunctions.

True, only a bit of bare crypto in it, with Kevin advising Littman to use PGP so his Well mail could not be read -- as Kevin's e-mail to Littman was by Shimomura and Markoff. Littman says that was how Markoff learned of Kevin's and Littman's exchanges and why Markoff started hustling Littman for leads on Kevin to feed the trackers.

Also, crypto-related: The fact that Shimomura's supposedly secret files were not protected by encryption or other security is what causes Littman and others to think there was a sting (perhaps with TLA help) rather than foolish vanity of the security wizard.

Best, the book provides Clancy-like fun in deciphering the question of why humans abuse technology to mask their own frailty.