The watchman : the twisted life and crimes of serial hacker Kevin Poulsen

312 Pages·1997·11.4 MB·English

by  Littman, Jonathan, 1958-

THE WATCHMAN
THE TWISTED lIFE
AND CRIMES OF
SERIAL HACKER
KEVIN POULSEN
JONATHAN LITTMAN
AUTHOR OF THE FUGITIVE GAME
.
CURRENT AFFAIRS/CRIME $24.95 FPT
$33.95 in Canada
The Fugitive Came exploded
the myths about cybe rc ri mi nal Kevin
Mitnick - and established Jonathan
Littman as the world's premier chron-
icler of the hacker underground. Now,
in The Watchman, Littman returns with a
riveting portrait of the most flamboy-
ant and dangerous hacker of all - Kevin
Poul sen
Written like a California noi r thriller
by way of William Gibson, The Watchman
brings to life the wildest, most auda-
cious crime spree in the history of
cyberspace. Busted as a teenager for
hacking into Pac Bell phone networks,
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
antiheroes - the Watchmen.
When authorities found a locker crammed
with swiped telecommunications equip-
ment, Poulsen became a fugitive from
the FBI, living the life of a cyberpunk
in a neon Hollywood underground. Soon
he made the front pages of the New York
Times and became the first hacker
charged with espionage.
Littman takes us behind the headlines
and into the world of Poulsen and his
rogues' gallery of cyberthi eves Draw-
.
ing on hundreds of hours of interviews
with Poulsen, his confederates, and the
authorities, he spins a thrilling chase
story on the electronic frontier.
The nation's phone network was
Poulsen's playground. On Los Angeles's
lucrative radio giveaways, Poulsen
worked his magic, winning Porsches and
tens of thousands of dollars. He
03972445

Digitized by the Internet Archive
2014
in
https://archive.org/details/watchinantwistedlOOjona
THE WATCHMAN
ALSO BY JONATHAN LITTMAN
TheFugitiveGame:Online withKevinMitnick
Once Upon a Time in Computerland:
TheAmazingBillion-DoUarTaleofBillMillard
WATCHMAN
THE
THE TWISTED LIFE AND CRIMES OF
SERIAL HACKER KEVIN POULSEN
JONATHAN LITTMANl
18 3 7
LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY
Boston NewYork Toronto London
——
Copyright© 1997 byJonathanLittman
Allrightsreserved. Nopartofthisbookmaybe reproducedin
anyform orbyanyelectronicormechanicalmeans, including
informationstorageandretrievalsystems,withoutpermission
inwritingfromthepublisher,exceptbyareviewerwhomay
quotebriefpassagesinareview.
FirstEdition
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-FublicationData
Littman,Jonathan.
Thewatchman thetwistedlifeandcrimesofserialhacker
: —
KevinPoulsen/JonathanLittman. isted.
p. cm.
Includesindex.
ISBN 0-316-52857-9
—
I.Poulsen,Kevin, 1965- 2.Computerhackers UnitedStates
—
Biography. 3.Com—puters andsociety UnitedStates.
4. Computercrimes UnitedStates. 5. Computersecurity
UnitedStates. I.Title.
HV6772.P68L57 1997
—
364.i6'8'092 dc2i
96-47168
10987654321
HAD
PublishedsimultaneouslyinCanadabyLittle,Brown
& Company(Canada)Limited
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
ForSherry hue andElizabeth Claire