Mitnick takes novel approach to hacking

Bad boy hacker Kevin Mitnick has written a novel entitled The Art of Deception which he hopes to have published by the end of the year.

Although the book is supposed to be fiction, it tells the story of a self-confessed super hacker, and describes more than a dozen scenarios where savvy hackers con network administrators into revealing passwords and encryption keys.

The book is apparently being carefully screened by his publishers for any hint of real-life security information that has occurred in hacking history.

Mitnick served five years in jail for stealing software and altering data on computer systems operated by a number of high profile companies, including Motorola, Novell, Nokia and Sun Microsystems.

He was released in January 2000, but is not allowed to use the internet until January of next year.