Hackers: Crime and the Digital Sublime

This is the first serious study I have seen of a generally media sensationalised area. Being straight from the hackers' mouths, the source material gives a more balanced view than those given by previous authors who tend to be overly moralistic and prejudiced in their approach to the subject. True impartiality is on display as well as meticulous research. Well done Dr. Taylor. I found the grammatically ludicrous, error strewn review of Mr. Yamane particularly unhelpful and inaccurate. People in grass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Taylor's Hackers is anextended and rigorous analyses of hacking as illicit computer intrusion (or cracking as some insist it should be called. Taylor explores in detail the nature of hacking from every angle. His book is based on over 60 in-depth interviews and is written sympathetically, treating hackers as human rather than as pathological teenagers. It is essential reading for anyone interested in Hackers. There are only two extended, academic pieces on hacking, this book and the complementary statistical analysis by John Howard (available at http://www.cert.org/research/JHThesis/index.html).Hackers also has the advantage of being accessible and well-written. Perhaps the best way to look at this book is as an encyclopaedia of hacking, because it provides extended quotes from hackers, computer security personnel and interested others (journalists, academics, etc.) on all relevant topics. An excellent piece of work.

Salem revisitedTwenty five years ago when I was starting out in my career as a computer barrister I ran into an elderly Queen's Counsel and got chatting. "I'll have none of your computery Kelman" he replied when I started talking about technology. 'Computery' was a word the QC made up on the spot which exactly matched his way of thinking - computers were magical and "computery" was like sorcery - a black art perpetrated by young dangerous wizards who did not know they place.Dr Taylor's book takes the reader into this world where the establishment were frightened and yet fascinated by the 'computery', where young immature men (for it was mainly men) sought to use hacking to raise their social prestige and where hysteria and hype created a modern day Salem with show trials on both sides of the Atlantic. But while some of the hackers deserve to be considered young investigative journalists a large number engaged in primitive tribal rituals using their technical abilities in arcane coding for the pursuit of power without responsibility.Dr Taylor documents this phenomenon and a revealing picture of the late twentieth century "new barbarian" culture (to use a phrase popularised by Professor Ian Angell of the London School of Academics). How society will embrace and extend its power over hackers with share options, main board directorships and new academic posts instead of punitive sanctions is the unwritten text of a latent follow-up volume. This book on hackers is the first major intellectually rigorous study of this social phenomenon. I can commend it as required reading for anyone who is interested in the way society approaches threats which undermine the pecking order of society. Filled with quotes from the hackers themselves and visionary authors it is a mind expanding piece of literature which teaches while it entertains. Buy it.Alistair Kelman Barrister and Visiting Research Fellow LSE Computer Security Research Centre The London School of Economics