HWM (Singapore)

A FIELD GUIDE FOR THE AGE OF SURVEILLAN­CE

A former hacker tells you how you can stay safe in The Art of Invisibili­ty.

- by Alvin Soon

Y our online privacy and security are at risk and you need to know how to defend yourself. Who better to learn digital self-defense from than Kevin Mitnick, the man who was once the US government’s most-wanted hacker?

After serving time for his crimes, Mitnick has since turned to security consulting, and The Art of Invisibili­ty is his eld guide for the everyday person on how to stay secure online. The informatio­n ranges from basic to intermedia­te to hardcore; for example, you’ll learn why you should use a VPN, then how you can use a burner phone and two Bitcoin accounts to stay anonymous on the Internet.

Most of us won’t ever have to convince someone to buy a burner phone (never buy one yourself, Mitnick says, as security cameras at the store can ID you), but most of us can still understand the advice written in The Art of Invisibili­ty, even if we don’t have IT degrees.

However, you’ll need to be prepared to take notes while reading, as Mitnick’s advice is sprinkled throughout his stories and info dumps. The book would have been a better reference if Mitnick had summarized his techniques at the end of every chapter, or organized it into an itemized cheat sheet at the very end.

Even if you’re not the paranoid type, it’s still worth reading The Art of Invisibili­ty to understand just how easily your online privacy and security can be compromise­d these days, and the steps you can take to protect yourself.

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