But one day that summer I popped in on his line when he was in the middle of a conference call with several colleagues. If this were a scene in a movie, you’d probably groan because the chance of its really happening would seem so remote. It really did happen, though: my ears pricked up when one of the men mentioned "Mitnick." The conversation was fascinating, revealing... and encouraging. It turned out these guys had no idea how I was defeating all their systems and traps, and that really irritated them.