Even the title of this book is ostentatious, "TAKE-DOWN" as if Shimomura had literally tackled an opponent in a ring of battle and wrestled him to the ground. I think a more appropriate title might have been OVER-KILL. Here Mitnick is, ulcer riddled, mal-adjusted, and socially inept, finding a world he can survive in, a world people like Shimomura create but one that people like Mitnick inhabit, and here comes Shimomura (picture General George Patton riding in with tanks and troops) to personally boot him out of that world and put things right for the good of the rest of cyber-dom. Give me a break.
Shimomura does one thing very effectively with this book. He provides evidence that some people shouldn't be encouraged to write in the first person. Because we have a first person view of Shimomura's life we get an inane amount of detail about every meal he ate for several days, not only where but when, why, and how the quality of the food was, as well as comments made by the waitresses. We also learn a great deal about the condition of soda machines in places he inhabited, who paid for meals and drinks, how finances for projects were finagled, and spent.
In other words, we hear so many insignificant details that have nothing to do with what the story is supposedly about, the story of Mitnick and his capture. Shimomura exposes his narcissistic self to the world. By gaining glimpses of how he treats fellow workers and his girlfriend we get a picture of an impatient, demanding, self centered, bossy individual intent on manipulating the world to suit his time frame and his view of how things should be. God forbid that the Shimomuras of the world should ever find themselves in a position of power, which may provide a glimpse of insight into the reason why Mitnick decided to play pranks on Shimomura's computer system in the first place.
Reading Jonathan Littman's account of John Markoff in his book, The Fugitive Game, I got the impression that Markoff was a polished, professional, writer. It's hard to imagine how he could have allowed his name to be attached to a piece of obvious tripe like TAKE-DOWN.
Oddly enough, I was able to sense a shift of feeling between the start of the book and the end. In the beginning I got the impression that Shimomura considered Mitnick a danger to the world. The phrase: Just imagine what he might do? seems to be the theme and provide the motivation for Shimomura's pursuit and relentless aggression which leads to Mitnick's ultimate capture, but what, exactly, did Mitnick do?
Mitnick played around in Shimomura's and a lot of other people's computers. He read people's e-mail. He may have listened to people's phone calls. This is definitely evil stuff. This definitely puts the rest of the world in danger. Mitnick definitely needed to be "TAKE"-n"- DOWN." Shimomura definitely did a great service to the rest of us poor, defenseless, computer illiterates. That, at least, is what the writers of TAKE-DOWN would have us believe.
Reference:
TAKE-DOWN The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick,
America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw --
By the Man Who Did It
By Tsutomu Shimomura and John Markoff
New York: Hyperion, 1996.
© Copyright by Richard Peek. |
Republished by Ethercat, with the author's permission. |
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