Ghost in the Wires_ My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker - Kevin Mitnick [197]
My dear friend Michael Morris has always been a true and loyal friend to my family and me. Thank you, Mike, for all your kind and generous support throughout the years. I know you’ll personally remember a lot of the stories written in these pages. I will always cherish your friendship.
I have had the extraordinary good fortune of being teamed up with bestselling author Bill Simon once again to write my memoir. Bill’s notable skills as a writer include his magical ability to take information provided by me and write it up in such a style and manner that anyone’s grandmother could understand it. Bill has become more than just a business partner in writing; he is also a close friend who has listened to my stories, sometimes several times over to ensure that the story is written with precision. Although we had several moments of frustration and disagreements regarding the inclusion of technical-based hacking stories during the development phase of this book, we always compromised to our mutual satisfaction. In the end, we decided to target a larger readership that didn’t require prerequisite knowledge such as advanced hacking or networking skills. Besides working with Bill Simon, I had the pleasure of teaming up with Donna Beech for some work at the end of the project. It was great working with her.
I’m eager to thank those people who represent my professional career and are dedicated in extraordinary ways. My literary agent, David Fugate of LaunchBooks, spent a great deal of time negotiating the book contract and acting as a liaison with the publisher, Little, Brown. My speaking agent, Amy Gray, with New Leaf Speakers, has represented me for almost a decade. She has thoughtfully and diligently worked with countless clients throughout the world who hired me to keynote at their events. She has done and continues to do an awesome job as my agent. Thank you, Amy. And always remember—Almost Famous ;-)
I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Little, Brown on developing this exciting project. I wish to thank my editor, John Parsley, for all his hard work and great advice on this project. Thank you, John. It was a pleasure meeting you while I was in New York.
I wish to thank my childhood hero Steve Wozniak for spending his valuable time in penning the foreword for my memoir. This is the second foreword that Steve has graciously written for me. The first one was published in The Art of Deception (Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2002). I’ll never forget that “getting off supervised release” gift you gave me on The Screen Savers show—a brand-new PowerBook G4. It was an amazing gift that left a smile on my face for months. I always look forward to hanging out with Steve during our travels. We both try to visit the Hard Rock Café in every foreign country we visit and collect the T-shirts. Thank you, Steve, for being such a great friend.
And of course, I have to thank my former girlfriend Darci Wood for all her love, support, and devotion in the time we were together. Unfortunately, sometimes relationships don’t work out for one reason or another. Regardless, it’s comforting to still have Darci as a loyal and trusted friend. Now I just need her to sign a backdated Non-Disclosure Agreement from the day we met and everything will be just fine! Just kidding, Darci. (Or maybe not.)
Jack Biello was a close friend and caring person who spoke out against the extraordinary mistreatment I endured at the hands of journalists and government prosecutors. He was a key voice in the “Free Kevin” movement and a writer who had an extraordinary talent for writing compelling articles exposing information that the government didn’t want people to know about the Kevin Mitnick case. Jack was always there to fearlessly speak out on my behalf and to work together with me preparing speeches and articles. At one point, he even represented me as a media liaison. Jack’s passing, while Bill