The first two hours of Friday's show featured reformed hacker and computer security expert Kevin Mitnick. He fielded calls from listeners and discussed this week's distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, which temporarily interrupted service to several popular web sites including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. He also mentioned the new cell phone virus Cabir, and related a story about hackers he knew who were able to steal address book and other data from a certain manufacturer's cell phone.
Mitnick is currently working on a new book tentatively titled The Art of Intrusion, which will reveal true, untold stories of successful hackers. One story being considered for inclusion is about two hackers who reverse engineered a video poker machine and wrote a program that could predict the exact moment a royal flush was due to hit. According to Mitnick, they took Vegas for several hundred thousand dollars. If you're a current or former hacker and want to help with this book, send your sexiest hacking story to hacks@defensivethinking.com.
Mitnick recommended security-conscious users protect their computers from hacker intrusion by installing Zone Alarm firewall software.
Strange Stories
George opened a Strange Stories Hotline during the last two hours of Friday's show. A caller from Massachusetts recounted a tale about seeing the Devil at a produce stand along the side of the road. Several years later he read a book that he believes described the town and the person he saw that day. Paul from Wisconsin told of the time he attended a concert of his favorite band, 311. The day after the show, he and his girlfriend dined at a restaurant that had a "311" street address. After paying their bill and receiving $3.11 in change, they left the restaurant and bumped into the lead singer of the band just down the street.
David from Tennessee described the time he saw a ghost train. He and a friend thought the train looked strange and followed it around a curve. The train had disappeared, and stranger still, they discovered the tracks were in complete disrepair and terminated in a nearby field. David concluded that there was no way a real train could have traveled on those tracks.