Book Review: Art of Invisibility

The Art of Invisibility: The World's Most Famous Hacker Teaches You How to Be Safe in the Age of Big Brother and Big Data. ​By Kevin Mitnick with Robert Vamosi. Hachette Book Group; hachettebookgroup.com; 320 pages; $14.99.

Every student of forensic science knows about Locard’s exchange principle, which states that a criminal brings something into the crime scene and leaves with something from it—both can be valuable as forensic evidence. 

When it comes to cybercrime, digital forensics, and general computer usage, cyber experts debate whether Locard’s fully applies. Either way, the simple act of fetching a Web page can create thousands of log entries. In 1999, when software businessman Scott McNealy said “You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it,” little did he imagine a world where every click, search, and user preference is tracked and indefinitely stored. Anyone who uses a free Internet service becomes a piece of data. After a while, the data providers may know more about you than you do yourself. 

In The Art of Invisibility: The World's Most Famous Hacker Teaches You How to Be Safe in the Age of Big Brother and Big Data, author Kevin Mitnick shows readers what they can do to leave no digital trace. So, can a person become fully invisible on the Internet? Yes; but with a caveat. While Mitnick shows how one can do that in this most interesting book, it’s not practical for the vast majority of users. 

Notwithstanding that it’s quite difficult to be fully invisible, there are still countless strategies detailed in this book that readers can put into action to better protect their privacy, buying habits, lifestyle choices, and more. 

Being anonymous today requires a lot of work and constant vigilance. If you want to stay online while retaining your privacy, this book provides some guidance.

Reviewer: Ben Rothke, CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional), PCI QSA (Qualified Security Assessor), is a principal eGRC consultant with the Nettitude Group.