Steal This Computer Book: What They Won't Tell You about the Internet

Wallace Wang's Steal This Computer 4.0: What They Won't Tell You About The Internet offers a completely revised fourth edition of a non- technical book showing what hackers do, why, and how users can protect themselves. Embedded in these tips are insights on how to avoid scams and problems, while a companion cd comes packed with hacking and security-related programs like keyloggers, spyware stoppers and spam filters. If you've used the computer, you need to know about common tricks and traps - and Steal This Computer's latest edition covers them all.

Network underground geeks are an arrogant bunch.Wally takes an exception to the rule here and offers an insider's survey of what these geeks do at night. He reveals enough material to get someone in trouble and offers a few opinions that are misinformed (e.g., Eastern block programmers wrote viruses as an outlet for being underpaid.) All in all, I was very excited when I read about this book and who had written it, having read many of Wally's articles in BoardWatch magazine. A lot of the stuff is old hat to geeks that have been lurking the underground themselves, but most people would have to search out this dark side for years to gain this kind of sweeping information of what goes on. Specific programs and sites are listed again and again that point to anything on the dark side that you care to find.I commend Mr. Wallace for being gutsy enough and kind enough to the general public to publish a book such as this while withholding just (barely) enough information to keep malicious newbies slightly at bay (e.g. most newbies aren't going to be writing their own encrytion algorythms in spite of Wally's "It's easy" approach.)I say, if this topic interests you or if you want a solid introduction into "How to be a Bad guy on the Web", then buy the book!

My friends loved it. Gave all of my computer geek friends a copy of this book and they drooled.

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!! But it sounds to me from reading a few other comments here that the computer geeks among us want to be sure that they keep this information out of the hands of people like me. Sure, you can find holes in any book. But Wallace Wang wanted to make sure that we got the information. Thanks Wallace. I now know a lot more about the computer underground than I ever did and it's a lot more interesting than what I've seen in the movies! So hands off guys!

This was a very interesting book. I especially enjoyed the chapter on encryption and anonymity. I have tested many of the methods mentioned in that chapter and found that they worked great.