Former hacker Kevin Poulsen has, over the past decade, built a reputation as one of the top investigative reporters on the cybercrime beat. In Kingpin, he pours his unmatched access and expertise into book form for the first time, delivering a gripping cat-and-mouse narrative—and an unprecedented view into the twenty-first century’s signature form of organized crime. The word spread through the hacking underground like some unstoppable new virus: Someone—some brilliant, audacious crook—had just staged a hostile takeover of an online criminal network that siphoned billions of dollars from the US economy. The FBI rushed to launch an ambitious undercover operation aimed at tracking down this new kingpin; other agencies around the world deployed dozens of moles and double agents. Together, the cybercops lured numerous unsuspecting hackers into their clutches. . . . Yet at every turn, their main quarry displayed an uncanny ability to sniff

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‘Terse and snappy, it reads like Raymond Chandler and provides detailed insight into a time in computer history that already seems quaint. Kevin Mitnick was and is a true Internet pioneer’ John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation; known as the Thomas Jefferson of cyberspace ‘Intriguing, insightful and extremely educational into the mind of one who truly mastered the art of social engineering with the use of a computer and modern day technologies’ Frank W. Abagnale, author of Catch Me if You Can ‘At last, America’s most famous hacker tells his headline-making story from his own point of view. The result is more than just a meticulous chronicle of Kevin Mitnick’s hacks – it’s an expose of the invisible bureaucratic machinery underlying nearly every aspect of our lives, and how easily it’s subverted by a smooth-taking grifter who sees all the moving parts.

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