The Watchman: The Twisted Life and Crimes of Serial Hacker Kevin Poulsen

Last year, The Fugitive Game exploded the myths about cybercriminal Kevin Mitnick—and established Jonathan Littman as the world's premier chronicler of the hacker underground. Now, in The Watchman, Littman returns with a riveting portrait of the most flamboyant and dangerous hacker of all—Kevin Poulsen.

Written like a California noir thriller by way of William Gibson, The Watchman brings to life the wildest, most audacious crime spree in the history of cyberspace. Busted as a teenager for hacking into Pac Bell phone networks, Kevin Poulsen would find his punishment was a job with a Silicon Valley defense contractor. By day he seemed to have gone straight, toiling on systems for computer-aided war. But by night he burglarized telephone switching offices, adopting the personae and aliases of his favorite comic-book anti heroes - the Watchmen.

When authorities found a locker crammed with swiped telecommunications equipment, Poulsen became a fugitive from the FBI, living the life of a cyberpunk in a neon Hollywood underground. Soon he made the front pages of the New York Times and became the first hacker charged with espionage.

Littman takes us behind the headlines and into the world of Poulsen and his rogues' gallery of cyberthieves. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews with Poulsen, his confederates, and the authorities, he spins a thrilling chase story on the electronic frontier.

The nation's phone network was Poulsen's playground. On Los Angeles's lucrative radio giveaways, Poulsen worked his magic, winning Porsches and tens of thousands of dollars. He secretly switched on the numbers of defunct Yellow Pages escort ads and took his cut of the profits. And he could wiretap or electronically stalk whomever he pleased, his childhood love or movie stars.

The FBI seemed no match for Poulsen. But as Unsolved Mysteries prepared a broadcast on the hacker's crimes, LAPD vice stumbled onto his trail, and an undercover operation began on Sunset Strip.

The fast-paced tale that emerges reads like a futuristic detective yarn. But this true story carries frightening implications about privacy and security in the Internet age. How vulnerable is our national security to hackers? Why did the government attempt to cover up Poulsen's discovery of FBI operations Poulsen's discovery of FBI operations and spy taps? And what can we expect in the future, as the FBI expands its eavesdropping online?

Jonathan Littman is the author of The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick and Once Upon a Time in Computerland. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.