Kevin Mitnick, infamous for his hacking exploits, now runs Defensive Thinking, an internet security company

What’s the idea behind Defensive Thinking.com? The name was to encourage defensive thinking when people are working with information or computer systems. The human element is the most vulnerable, and if we could motivate and teach people how to think defensively, we’d create a better, more secure environment. Are more poachers becoming gamekeepers? They certainly are. Christopher Klaus, who founded ISS, the largest security company, had a background in hacking. A lot of people won’t admit they were hackers because they might scare off customers or compromise their public image. I’m not talking about the hacking that involves stealing credit cards. I’m talking about hacking for the knowledge and the challenge. Social engineering? I’m writing a second book, The Art of Intrusion, on social engineering, which is basically using manipulation or deception to influence a person to comply with a request – to release sensitive information or perform an action that creates a security hole, such as typing in commands, installing software or turning on a modem. The key to social engineering is influencing a person to do something that allows the hacker to gain access to information or your network. What security measures would you recommend? For the average home-user, anti-virus software is a must. A personal firewall such as Zone Alarm and running a program like HFNetcheck, which is a free download for personal users. It checks your system to see if anything needs to be patched. I’d also recommend a program such as SpyCop to periodically check for any Spyware on your system. Choosing a hard-to-guess, but easy-to-remember password is important! Full Story