Genius comes in many forms. Kevin Mitnick has at least two, neither particularly admirable.
As he portrays himself in his bookGhost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker, Mitnick possesses a rare ability to penetrate sophisticated computer systems. Even greater than his technical skills, it turns out, is his ability to manipulate people, particularly the corporate drones who held the door open for his invasions.
Time and again, armed with little more than the name of a legitimate employee and a few bits of company jargon, Mr Mitnick was able to con people into delivering astonishing rewards: software source codes; lists of passwords; access to supposedly hardened systems. His book is a fascinating and often appalling tour of the ways in which human stupidity can trump human ingenuity - as well as an absorbing account of the author's activities and eventual capture.
In the years since his 2000 release from federal prison, Mitnick has become a computer-security consultant and speaker. Still, he can't hide a whiff of - pride? nostalgia? - for the depredations that landed him in the clink.
He got started early, figuring out how to trick the Los Angeles bus system as an alienated 1970s teenager before graduating into phone hacking, manipulating the telephone system into serving up endless free long-distance minutes. The book's foreword is written by another former phone hacker whose life took a decidedly different course: Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple.
In time, Mitnick graduated to out-and-out hacking, and the rise of PCs, wireless phones and the internet opened enormous new vistas for his activities. He mastered the art of "tailgating", following a pack of employees into a supposedly secure building, and honed his talent for conning people.
In the end, Ghost in the Wires provides ample evidence that the line between genius and illness can be a thin one.
* Bloomberg News
Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.
Based: Riyadh
Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany
Founded: September, 2020
Number of employees: 70
Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions
Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds
Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices
It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
'The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window'
Director:Michael Lehmann
Stars:Kristen Bell
Rating: 1/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champioons League semi-final:
First leg: Liverpool 5 Roma 2
Second leg: Wednesday, May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
TV: BeIN Sports, 10.45pm (UAE)
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